Sorry again for the delay guys. Starr has gone MIA again. JK, I know she's busy and that's OK. Well I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Dru619

Chapter 16

What a First Day

Waking up with Lucy in his arms was a new experience for Carter. Her hand rested on his chest and her hair, which smelled like strawberries, tickled his nose. Her light breathing was soothing to his ears. He sighed and looked over at the clock on the bedside table. It read 6:30. His shift started in 2 hours.

"Lucy," he whispered stroking her hair. He kissed the bridge of her nose and her eyes fluttered open.

"Is it time to wake up?" she whispered, stretching. He nodded his head and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"I better go get the kids up," he said, wincing slightly at the harsh cold of the floor on his bare feet. Paige was already awake and in the study, on the computer typing away.

"Morning," he murmured kissing her head.

"Hey dad. Are you ready to get back to work?" she asked.

"Hardly," he said. "I better go get Ruthie up."

"You won't find her in her bed, you'll find her in mine," Paige tipped.

"Thanks," he said heading over to Paige's room. Sure enough, Ruthie was curled up in a ball in the corner of Paige's bed.

"Wake up Ruthie. It's time to get ready to go to school," he said flicking the light off and on. She sat up and looked at him.

"Are you excited about going back to work Daddy?" she asked, still half asleep. He nodded.

"Very much so Ruthie," he smiled and headed back to his bedroom.

Lucy was sitting at the edge of the bed putting her shoes on.

"So. You excited?" she asked getting up and putting her arms around his neck. He shrugged.

"As excited as I'll probably ever get over work," he said.

"You'll like coming back to the ER," she whispered resting her head on his chest.

"It'll be even better having you there," he said giving her a kiss on the lips and going over to the bedside table where his watch lay.

"So you're a flirt now?" Lucy teased beginning to head out of the bedroom door.

"Haven't I always been?" he laughed as they headed to the nursery to get the little ones ready to go.

"Good point," she smiled and pushed the door open. Julia and Adrian were awake and babbling to each other on the floor.

"Jailbreak!" Carter cried looking at the two toddlers who waddled up to him.

"Daddy we need big bed!" Julia exclaimed.

"Yeah can get out of the crib now," Adrian said.

"Very intellectual arguments Dad," Lucy said pushing him a little. He sighed and lifted Julia and Adrian off of the floor. Gabriel was still sound asleep in his crib, still sucking on his bunny's ear. He looked so peaceful Lucy hated to wake him up.

"Baby Gabey," she whispered in a soft singsong voice. "Time to wake up." She lightly tickled his ear and his eyes opened.

"Morning sunshine," she said lifting him and his rabbit out of the crib.

"Sleepy Mommy," he argued his eyes getting droopy again as Lucy sat him down on the changing table to get him ready for the day. He fell asleep as Lucy brought his arms into his long sleeve shirt.

"Play! Play! Go see Nana, Baba, Boo-Boo!" Adrian exclaimed jumping up and down fully bundled up for the snowy morning.

"Ready?" Carter turned to Lucy who lifted an asleep Gabriel into her arms.

"Ready," she agreed.

After making sure Ruthie and Paige got to the bus stop okay Carter and Lucy headed to County with the kids.

"Nervous?" Lucy asked grabbing John's hand.

"Kitty!" Julia cried and pointed out the window at the same cat they say every morning.

"Airpwane," Adrian said observing things outside the same cat. Gabe was still asleep. As soon as they pulled into the busy parking lot Julia and Adrian started getting antsy.

"Okay guys. Wait for us," Carter said setting Julia and Adrian on to the street.

"DAVEY!" Julia cried spotting Dave as her and Adrian took off towards him.

"Mini's!" Dave answered their cry promptly as they ran up into his arms.

Carter sighed and took Gabriel out of the car.

"Thanks for waiting guys."

"Hey Dave," Lucy greeted as they headed towards the front door.

"Jerry!" Adrian and Julia cried running at Jerry, falling back into their same routine.

"Hey guys," Jerry greeted the two picking them up. "Where's Gabe?"

"Totally zonked from the looks of it." Everyone turned around and spotted Peter coming into the door.

"No Weese?" Julia asked.

"No Reese today," Peter agreed lifting the little girl up. "How does it feel to be back?"

"I just walked in the door," Carter laughed.

"And I would say his day is going magnificently. Where's Abby?" Dave stated in a rush.

"In curtain area 3 I think," Jerry said. "But if she's not try trauma one!"

Dave was already headed down the hallway.

"What's up with him?" Carter asked.

"Abby started him on basic football terms last night," Chunni said shaking her head as she handed Carter a chart. "Kerry might need you in trauma 2 so you better check in with her before you get to this."

"Would you help Luce take the kids over to the daycare?" he asked Chunni.

She nodded. "Sure."

Chunni took Gabriel from John and Lucy took Julia and Adrian.

"So how did things go last night after the crew left?" Chunni asked. Lucy sighed. Typical Chunni already wanting to spread the gossip around the hospital. She couldn't help but smile though at the thoughts of Carter whispering into her ear and holding her close to him.

"Fine," Lucy answered shortly as they arrived at the daycare.

"Come on Gabe. Wake up," Chunni said shaking him a little. He woke up and started to cry. "It's okay Gabe. Luce he's burning up."

Chunni handed the little boy over to Lucy after feeling his forehead.

"Gabey sick?" Julia asked at Chunni's feet.

"You two be good okay? We're going to take Gabe to see Daddy," Chunni said squatting down to their height and giving them a hug.

"Bye-Bye," Julia exclaimed and ran off to go play with the other members of the daycare.

"I wanna see Daddy too Chunni," Adrian whined.

"Gabey's sick Adrian. He's probably going to give him a shot," Chunni ruffled Adrian's hair.

"Okay momma Chunni I don't want a shot," Adrian agreed using his sometimes name for Chunni. He kissed her on the nose and ran after his sister.

"First and ten, first and ten, I know this one don't tell me!" Dave cried. He was sitting with Abby in the empty lounge trying to study.

"Come on Dave! We practiced this one like 50 times last night. First and ten refers to a situation where a team has a first down with ten yards to go to get another first down." Abby sighed heavily. "Why don't we try later on?"

"Oh come on Abby! You promised you wouldn't give up on me!" Dave whined.

"David Malucci! We do have to work you know," Abby said getting up.

"Abby wait! A sack is any tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage!" Dave cried.

"Very good Dave. But that was too easy. Meet me at Doc's...," Abby checked her watch "In about 2 hours and we'll work some more."

They left the lounge and Dave sighed.

"So how's the studying been going Dave?" Deb teased her and Carter coming into the lounge for some coffee.

"You just wait and see. On Sunday I'll prove you wrong Jing-Mei Chen and you will wish you were never sarcastic with David Malucci!" Dave said strictly and headed out into the hospital. Carter and Deb laughed.

"That guys such a character," Deb shook her head and poured herself some coffee into a Styrofoam cup.

"Let's just thank god there's not two of him," Carter said.

"Carter Gabriel's sick," Chunni popped her head into the lounge quickly to tell him.

"Where is he?" Carter asked immediately jumping to attention.

"Lucy and Abby have him in curtain area 1. They took his temperature and its 103," she said. Without any further explanations Deb and Carter hurriedly followed Chunni to curtain area 1 where Abby, Lucy, and Doug were with little Gabriel. He was sitting on one of the beds yelping and crying, trying to fight Doug off. One elderly woman also occupied the room in her bed directly next to Gabe's. She looked on with a shocked look on her face.

"It's okay Gabey. Daddy's here," Carter assured him. Doug had already removed his jacket and shirt trying to let his tiny body cool down. He was wheezing and having some trouble breathing.

"You have to calm him down John. He's having enough trouble breathing as it is," Abby said softly. As Carter went to reassure his son he started seizing. Out of instinct, John went to pick him up.

"No John! Just leave him," Doug warned. "He's only having a febrile convulsion. It should only last a little while." Sure enough only 2 minutes later Gabe broke out of the convulsion and started crying again.

"We better take him up to Peds," Doug said using the slang term for his department of work in pediatrics. John nodded his head and followed Doug.

"Carter, Abby, Deb we need you all in trauma," Kerry said her clutch clicking against the tiled floor.

"Kerry, Gabe's sick and I need to be with him right now," John said bouncing his screaming son slightly trying to stop his flow of tears.

"Keep us posted," Abby said as her and Deb followed after Doctor Weaver. Doug, Lucy, Carter, and little Gabe took the elevator up to pediatrics.

"I'll be right there guys. For right now just put this on his head and try to calm him down," Doug instructed handing Carter a bag of ice.

"It's okay Gabe," Carter's coaxing voice was lost on his screaming toddler.

"Let me try," Lucy whispered taking him from John. Gently she started to sing to him.

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the mighty jungle. The lion sleeps tonight."

Carter's Flashback

(3 days after the accident)

I stumbled onto the sofa at around 8:30. The sun had long since gone down. The living room was blanketed in darkness, the only light coming in through the window from a street lamp posted on the corner of our cul-de-sac. Today had been the hardest.

Today was the first day that nobody from County came to help out or visit. They were all busy down in the ER. The last 2 days I had put on my bravest face for my children and my ER family. Every time my shoulder seared in pain I would think of my little girl. Of Bella. Of the part of my life that was killed two days ago. Lucy was here.

She's like my guardian angel. She is always trying to make sure that I'm not uncomfortable and always looking out for the kids like they were her own. She crept into the living room just as tears had begun to stream down my face. I tried to hide my tears from Lucy but my left arm couldn't come up as fast anymore. I failed to wipe them away. She saw my mishap and I saw the obvious pain in her face. Without saying anything she sat down next to me on the sofa and took me into her arms. I let my emotions go and cried into her shoulder. And then she started to gently sing to me.

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the mighty jungle. The lion sleeps tonight."

I immediately recognized the song from 'The Lion King'. Jessica used to put the Disney tape on for the triplets when they were just little babies.

After singing the last few verses of the song she ran her fingers through the side of my hair and whispered "Everything's going to be okay."

And after that I realized that everything would in fact be okay.

End of Flashback

"I think that with antibiotics and some rest he should be okay," Doug said handing Carter a prescription for his son who was sleeping peacefully in Lucy's arms.

"I can't believe it took two hours just for you to figure that out," Carter said, giving Doug a bad time.

"Well you know how the testing around her goes. We need to rule out all possibilities," Doug said stroking the little boys head. "You could drop him off with Carol if you want. She's off today and I'm sure she won't mind having a little one around with ours coming."

Doug and Carol had decided to wait until the baby was born to know the sex. John looked apprehensive but after awhile he decided it was the best thing.

"Do you think she'd mind if Julia and Adrian were their too?" he asked as they began heading towards the elevator.

Doug shook his head.

"Nah. With Amanda and Jamie in kindergarten she'll be happy to have someone to play with."

Once the elevator opened to the ER Chunni, Abby, and Deb ran at them.

"Is he okay?" Chunni asked.

"Yeah he'll be okay. Just needs some antibiotics and he'll be able to go and get some rest," Carter said as he followed Lucy into curtain area 1 to retrieve Gabe's shirt and jacket. The lady who was there in the morning was still there and she looked on at the 5 members of the ER staff with suspicion.

"Is he going to be alright?" she asked.

"Yeah. He'll be fine," Abby smiled gently at the elderly woman.

"So this febrile convulsion was what?" John asked as they headed back out to the admit desk.

"Think back to med school John. They taught all of us this even if we weren't going into the line of pediatrics. The convulsion is just something that accompanies fever in infants and small children. It doesn't last long enough to cause any damage to the child. It's just like a warning signal for first time parents," Doug explained picking up the phone to call Carol.

"You scared us little guy," Lucy whispered giving Gabriel a kiss on the head. John looked on at her with admiration. She had a certain magic with the little ones he had never seen before.

"Carol's on her way," Doug said. "Do you want me to go get the babies from daycare?"

"Thanks Doug," Carter said as Malik came down the hallway.

"Auto versus pedestrian. ETA 5 minutes," he said. "Carter Kerry needs you on this one."

"I'm on it," he said turning to Lucy.

"Don't worry about it. I'll make sure they get to Carol alright," she assured him. He was able to snag a quick kiss without anybody noticing before heading towards the trauma room.

"Clear!"

Everyone moved away from the gurney as Mark shocked the little girl. She was around 8-years-old and was the pedestrian in the accident.

"A systole," Chunni said.

"How long?" Kerry asked coming into the trauma room.

"20 minutes," John replied quietly.

"Call it. We need the trauma room," she said.

"Time of death...10:30," John called it disappointedly taking off his gloves and heading out of the trauma room. A gurney flashed by him followed by Peter and a few ambulance attendants. It was the driver of the car. He looked to be around 25 or so.

"Carter we need you still," Benton said rolling the gurney into the just cleared trauma room. He reluctantly followed. As he bent over to bag him he could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe how things turn out," Carter mumbled to himself.

It was 3:30 in the afternoon. So far today Carter had to tend to his sick toddler, call the time of death for an 8-year-old, save her drunken killer, and failed to resuscitate an 80-year-old heart-attack patient. He was happy to see Lucy was alone in the lounge. He sat down next to her on the couch.

"How was your day?" she whispered reaching up to gently scratch his scalp.

"Getting better," he murmured enjoying the attention he was getting from Lucy.

"Carter, phone for you," Lydia said poking her head in to the lounge. Both quickly got up from the couch hoping the gossipy nurse hadn't seen anything.

"I'm in trauma," he said.

"It's Carol. It sounds serious," she said before leaving.

"I wonder if it's about Gabe," Carter thought out loud.

"It has to be pretty serious. Carol's a nurse don't forget," Lucy said worriedly following Carter to the admit desk where he took the phone from Jerry.

"What's wrong Carol?" John asked. Silence met him on the other end.

"Carol?"

"John, I don't want you to panic," Carole seemed hesitant. 'Of all the things a conversation could have started with it had to start with these words,' John thought.

"What's the matter Carol?"

"Well Amanda and Jaime came home from school today and...," she paused.

"Come on Carol," he urged.

"Ruthie wasn't with them."