Tossed into the nightmare. Carter slid the tube into place. This was not happening. His friend was not laying on a trauma gurney with her life in his hands. "I'm in bag her." Carter said as he moved to listen to make sure the tube was in place. His heart was beating fast now as the adrenaline started to fill his body. "You are not going to die Anna so don't you even think that about doing that in my trauma room Anna, not today and not on my shift." Carter said to her almost lifeless and broken body. Carter quickly pulled himself together, "CBC, chem. 7, type and cross, trauma panel, get me a c-spine and chest films." Carter started to bark orders, as he pushed down on her abdomen. Damn it was hard and he could see it starting to expand. She probably nicked her liver or her spleen, which would explain why her blood pressure was slowly starting to fall. "Hang a unit of O, and keep that saline wide open. We're going to have to take her upstairs." Carter kicked the breaks off the gurney as the packed up to move. The trip upstairs to the OR was one of the longest ones that he had ever taken. He had made many of those rides from the ER to the OR but never with a friend as the patient laying on the gurney. Carter put her in the capable hands of Dr. Corday before heading back down to the ER leaving instructions that he wanted to be paged when she came out of surgery. He knew that it was probably Max that had been brought in on the other gurney. He stopped in to check on him, for being in an accident that left Anna in that kind of shape, he sure looked good. "Hi there Max, long time no see." Carter said trying to be friendly. "Ah Dr. Carter, if I remember right, it has been a long time." Max said looking at him, "my wife how is she?" Carter tried not to act surprised hearing that they were married. "Anna is up in surgery right now. She is in bad shape, but as soon as word comes down, I will let you know. You look like your doing pretty good." "Considering everything that has happened today yeah I would say that I am." He said not looking happy, but then Carter probably would not look very happy if someone had just told him that Abby was up in surgery and could very well die. "If she had just been watching where the hell she was going none of this would have happened." "The accident wasn't her fault." Carter found himself feeling like he needed to defend Anna right now. "Yeah whatever, how long am I going to be stuck here?" Max asked Carter, "Because I have a very important meeting that I need to be at in the morning." Carter looked at him, picking up his chart. "It looks like they are getting ready to discharge you." He could not believe that Max wanted to get up and leave when Anna was upstairs. "Don't you want to be with your wife, when she gets into recovery?" Max just gave Carter this look of that clearly said go to hell. "I will be back to check on her after my meeting is done. I think that since this is a hospital that she will be okay while I am gone for a few hours. It's not like she needs me to sit there and hold her hand." Carter wondered how his friend could have married someone who seemed so cold and indifferent towards her. Love made you do things that you normally would not do, he knew that, but he could not help but wonder now if there was not more to this than what their appeared to be. "Yeah sure," Carter turned to walk away from him, "I'm sure that she will be well taken care of while you are at your meeting." With that he walked out the door and sat down at the admit desk to work on his charts. It did not take him long to finish them as he sat there now waiting for a page from surgery to let him know how Anna was doing. Max had been released and said that he would be back later to check on her. Carter looked up to see Abby walking into the ER. He followed her into the lounge and as she put her stuff in their locker, Carter wrapped his arms around her waist hugging onto her tightly. "I didn't get the chance to tell you how much I love you." Abby looked up at him and could see that there was something wrong in his deep brown eyes, "I love you too John, what is it? What is wrong?" "They brought Anna in today." Carter said, "The dream that I've been telling you about that I have been having over and over again. She's the one who's in it." "Is she going to be okay?" Abby was worried about him. She had told him that dreams did not mean anything and here this one was actually starting to unfold in his awake state. "I am waiting for surgery to page me when she gets out." Carter said looking at her, "she was hurt pretty bad, but I'm sure that Dr. Corday can fix the damage that the accident caused." "I'm sure she can too baby." Abby said holding onto him. She knew that Anna was a friend to him and that he had ever right to be concerned about her. "Hey you're off why don't you go upstairs and see if there's any news. I am on and I think that I can keep the ER under control. Besides I know you and you are going to worry yourself sick until you know for sure." "Yeah that might not be a bad idea." Carter said as his pager started to beep. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. "That's Dr. Corday. She must be out." He leaned in and kissed Abby. "I'll be back down in a little bit, I want to make sure that's she's okay with my own two eyes." "Yeah, I understand." Abby said as she pulled away from him, "besides you are going to make me late for work if I stand here with you much longer. I will talk to you after bit. Why don't you find me before you leave for home?" "I'll do that." Carter said kissing her cheek as they walked out into the ER again from the lounge. He let go of her as she headed to the admit desk and he headed for the elevator. He took that ride back up to the SICU now, impatient to see an old friend. Well, a friend that he had not seen in a long time. He stopped at the desk to find out where she was before heading down to the room where she was. He stood in the doorway looking at her. That was not the Anna that he remembered. She was black and blue, her eye was almost swollen shut, and her hair was a tangled matted mess. He crossed over to the bed and sat down on the edge. She looked like she was sleeping. He sat there for a minute wondering how so much could change in such a short period. "Carter?" Anna almost asked she was not sure who was sitting there on the edge of the bed, but it sure did look like him. "Hey there," Carter said looking down not at her, peaking at him thru the one eye that she could open. "How are you feeling?" "I suppose that I could feel worse." She said softly. Carter tried to smile at her. "Yeah I suppose you could. You gave me quite the scare when they brought you into my trauma room. Next time you wan to visit you can walk in on your own you know." "I'll try to remember that. But you know that would mean that I would have to do something the easy way." She tried not to laugh because she was sore, but Carter always could make her smile. "What's it been now, five or six years since I saw you last. I didn't think that you would even still be in Chicago, let alone at County." "Well this place grows on you. I could not leave now if I wanted too. I've been here to long, I'm a fixture." Carter said to her. "Max okay?" Anna asked, "I haven't seen him and this is the first chance that I have had to ask." "Yeah he's fine Anna." Carter said, "He'll be back after bit, he said he had some meeting that he needed to attend to, but knew that you were in good hands while you were here. He said that you guys are married now, I guess then congrats are in order huh." "Yeah," she said trying to shift a little in the bed. Carter reached back and instinctively rearranged the pillows so that she was sitting up a little more. "How long have you two been married now?" "Uh three years now," Anna said to him, "we're in Chicago for a pediatrics conference. Max is the guest speaker." "That's great." He said, but that was still no excuse for him to leave her here all alone. "I'm happy for you Anna. I really am. I was worried about you when you left Chicago so suddenly, but it seems that things have worked out for you just fine." "Yeah everything is just fine." She said trying to hide the pain. She closed her eyes so that he could not see the hurt in them. "Sorry I'm just really tired right now. That damn anesthesia does it too you every time." "Yeah," Carter said patting her hand gently. "How about if I let you get some sleep and I will come by and see you tomorrow. We can talk and catch up then." "I'd like that Carter." Anna said with a small, forced smile upon her face. "Sleep well Anna, don't give the nurses up here too much trouble there doctor, I know that doctor's make the worst patients." She kept her eyes closed as she started to drift back into a drug- induced sleep, "I think I can manage to behave myself and do what I am told." Carter got up and headed out of the room. That was not the Anna that he remembered. Something was off with her and it had more to do than with just being knocked for a loop in a car accident. He would talk more with her tomorrow and see if he could figure out what it was.