The Lucky Ones

Chapter Seven

From behind these walls I hear your song
Oh, sweet words
The music that you play lights up my world
The sweetest that I've heard
Could it be that I've been touched and turned
Oh Lord, please finally...finally things are changing

The next morning, Lucy laid a plate of toast and eggs in front of Carter and then sat down to eat her plate. "So, I was wondering what your opinion would be about something."

"About what?" he asked.

"Well, you know that I have a close friendship with Dave, right?"

"Yeah. I'm still trying to figure that one out." He laughed. He had no idea why she was friends with someone like Dave. He was just so irresponsible.

"What would you say if I wanted to tell him about our relationship?" she asked with some hesitation.

"Are you serious?" he laughed, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Yeah." Lucy nodded. "And don't look at me like that!"

"It's not a good idea to tell him." He replied flatly.

"Why not?"

"Because the last thing we need is anyone at the hospital to know about us and that includes Dave." He explained. He failed to mention the fact that he didn't trust Dave.

"He's already figured out that something's going on. It's only a matter of time before he realizes that we're together." She protested.

"I still just don't think that it's a good idea." He shook his head. "We have to be careful. If you tell Dave, then he's one more person who knows and could get us in trouble. Besides that, he could get in trouble for withholding information. Do you really want that?"

She hadn't thought about what would happen to Dave if anyone knew that he was aware of her relationship with Carter. "No. But I really don't think that he would tell anyone."

"Luce, I love that you want to be a good friend to Dave, but I'm sorry. I don't think you should tell him. I mean, I think it's bad enough that you've told him that I love you."

"Ok." She relented. "Fine." Then she got to thinking about his last statement. "Wait. How did you know that I told him that you love me?"

Uh-oh. He shouldn't have said that. "I uh, might have overheard it somewhere..." he tried to sound casual.

"Were you eavesdropping on me?" she asked, getting angry.

"I didn't mean to." He apologized.

"That was a private conversation!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry. But I went up there to think. I found you talking with Dave and it was about me. So I listened for a while." He explained.

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you were really mad at me."

"I can't believe you eavesdropped on me!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry. I really am. Forgive me?" he asked, putting on a charming smile.

She sighed. She couldn't really stay mad at him when he flashed her that kind of a smile. "I should be really mad at you, but I guess I'm not."

"I won't do it again." He promised.

"Ok. Good. But for the record, I still think it would be a good idea to tell Dave about our relationship."

"And for the record, I don't." he replied. He could tell that she was a little upset that she couldn't tell Dave about their relationship. He got up and knelt down in front of her. "I'm sorry. But in order to be together, we have to keep secrets."

"I know. It's just easier said than done. He's been a good friend to me, and I don't want to lie to him." She replied, putting a smile on her face.

He stood up. "You know, I could always just leave and then you wouldn't have to keep a secret..."

She stood up and wrapped her arms around his waist protectively. "Oh no you don't! You are not going anywhere."

He laughed and gave her a kiss. "Just checking."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"How much time do we have before we have to go to work?"

She checked the clock. "About an hour. Why?" He picked her up off the ground. "What are you doing?" she squealed.

"You'll see." He kissed her before carrying her back to the bedroom.

Carter and Lucy rushed into the ER, hoping that no one noticed that they were almost a half-hour late. "You know, we wouldn't have been so late if you hadn't...you know." Lucy pointed out as they got their stuff out of their lockers.

"Well you were pretty vocal about it, but I didn't really hear you complaining." He smirked.

She smiled and felt her whole face turn red. "No, and I'm not complaining now. But we should be more careful and set an alarm if we do that again."

He laughed. "You want to set a time limit for that?"

"Yes, that way we won't be late again." She could tell that he didn't believe her. "You may think I'm joking, but I'm serious." She told him as they left the lounge.

"Whatever." He chuckled.

Dr. Weaver saw Carter and walked over. "Carter! Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure." Carter replied, turning to face her while Lucy decided to go on and get to work on a patient. He hoped that she wasn't going to yell at him for being late. "What's up?"

"You haven't been spending the night in your apartment for the past couple of nights. Is everything ok?" she was worried about him. It wasn't like him to be gone for that many nights without telling her he would be gone.

Carter wondered just how to explain this. He really couldn't tell the truth, so he was trying desperately to figure out a lie that would sound convincing.

"Do you have a new girlfriend that you're hiding or something?" Kerry laughed.

Carter laughed too. "No. No, I'm not dating anyone." He lied. "I've been staying with my grandparents. They've been having some health problems and I wanted to make sure that they were ok."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." Kerry sympathized. "It's nothing serious, is it?"

"No. Nothing life-threatening."

"Ok. I just wanted to make sure you were ok." Kerry smiled. She then turned around and saw Dave. "Dave! Get back to work!" she screamed.

"What did I do now?" Dave exclaimed, looking at Carter.

"Maybe you looked at her wrong." Carter laughed as he went back to work.

"Ok Mr. Burnside, you're free to go. But you might want to go see your regular doctor in a few days just to make sure that the infection is completely cleared." Lucy smiled.

"Thank you." Mr. Burnside smiled back.

Lucy left the exam room and walked up to the front desk. "Hey Jerry, have you seen Carter? I need to ask him something about a patient."

"Last time I saw him, he was in exam four." Jerry pointed.

"Thanks." She smiled, heading off to exam four. She found him sitting next to the bedside of a man who was unconscious. He was making notes in the guys' chart. "Hey." She greeted softly.

"Hey." He greeted back, turning to smile at her. He saw that she was hesitating to say anything else and looking at the patient. "Don't worry. He's completely out of it. We can talk freely."

"Oh." She nodded. "So what did Dr.Weaver want to talk to you about earlier?"

"She wanted to know why I haven't been at my apartment at all lately." Carter replied. "I guess that's what happens when you rent the basement of your boss's house."

"So what did you tell her?"

"I lied and told her that I was staying with my grandparents for a few days. I told her they had some kind of illness I wanted to monitor. She bought it, but I don't think that excuse will work for very much longer." He explained as he stood up and put his arms around her waist.

"So what are you going to do? She's gonna get suspicious if you don't spend the night there. There's no way I can spend the night there without getting caught, but I've really gotten used to waking up in your arms."

"Addicted to me already?" he grinned, jokingly.

She looked down to the ground, not wanting to answer the question because truthfully, she had. She was getting very addicted to him: his laugh, his smile, his voice, his touch. They had only been together romantically for a short time, but on some level of her conscious mind she knew that he was the one person that she was meant to spend the rest of her life with. "I bet your ego would love it if I said yes, wouldn't it?" she grinned, looking him in the eyes again.

"Absolutely."

"That's why I'll never say it." She teased. "But I'm still worried about this whole apartment mess."

"Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out." He kissed her forehead.

"Ok." She replied. But she couldn't help worrying. It was something that she had a lot of practice doing and was very good at.

That night, Lucy paced the floor as she waited for Carter to come home with their Chinese take-out order. She had been thinking about the whole apartment problem all day and might have figured out a way to solve the problem. Now she just had to run it by him.

"Food is here." Carter announced, walking through the door and setting the food on the table.

"Great. I'm hungry." She told him, starting to sort out all of the food.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. "So am I."

She knew what he meant by that statement, but it would have to wait until later. "We can do that later." She giggled. "Right now I want to eat and I have a proposition for you."

"Ooh, a proposition? About what?" he asked curiously.

She sat down on the floor in front of the couch, setting her food on the coffee table. She waited until he had sat next to her and done the same to continue. "Well, I've been thinking about what you should do about the whole apartment dilemma. I think I have a solution."

"Ok. Let's hear it then. What is it?"

"Move in with me." She told him casually, starting to eat her food.

He looked at her strangely. "You want me to move in?"

"Yeah. Sure. Why not? You spend almost all your time here anyway."

"Yeah, but moving in together is a big deal. We haven't been together very long..."

"So is that a no?" she interrupted. She was really hoping that he would say yes.

"It's not a no," he told her, "I just want to make sure that this is something that you really want."

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't want you to actually move in." She reminded him.

"Then I guess you just got yourself a roommate." He smiled, leaning over to kiss her.

By Sunday evening of the weekend, both Lucy and Carter were exhausted after moving all of his stuff into her apartment. "I honestly didn't think I'd have enough room for all of your stuff. I guess I was wrong." Lucy commented as they laid on the couch, intertwined in each other. Lucy had her head on his chest, while Carter was gently stroking her arm.

"Well it's amazing how much stuff you can fit in a closet before it will explode." He laughed.

"Yeah." She laughed. "I'm glad that Dr. Weaver didn't ask you too many questions about why you were moving out."

"After I lied and said they were having health problems, she seemed to believe that I wanted to live a little closer to them. I do feel a little guilty using them as part of my lie though." He explained.

"Well you're lying for a good cause." Suddenly the phone rang. She reached over to the table next to the couch and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Lucy." Dave greeted.

Lucy looked at Carter. "Dave! Hi. How are you?"

"Fine. My date for tonight cancelled. I was wondering if you wanted to go catch a movie with me." He was testing her. He had a feeling that she was going out with Carter, and was trying to trap her into admitting it.

"Oh, a movie?" she asked. "Well I'm not sure. I don't really feel like leaving the apartment tonight."

"Well I could go rent a movie and bring it by." He suggested.

"No!" she practically screamed, then lowered her voice. "Uh, I mean, I'm really tired. I think I'll pass. But maybe I could have a rain check?"

Dave smiled. He loved making her squirm. Sooner or later she would admit that she was dating Carter. "Ok. Then I'll see you at work. Goodnight."

Lucy hung up the phone and looked at Carter, who was looking at her suspiciously.

"What was that all about?" he asked, trying hard to contain his jealousy.

"He wanted to go to the movies with me. His date cancelled on him." She replied casually.

"Just how close of friends did you two become?" he asked, suspiciously.

"What? What exactly are you asking me?" she asked.

"I'm just curious."

"We're just good friends." She replied. "We've never kissed, and we've definitely never had sex. So are you happy now?"

"I didn't mean to upset you. I just wondered if I was going to have any competition." He apologized.

She leaned over and kissed him. "He's not competition. He's my friend. That's all. I don't think of him in that way. If anything, he's more like a big brother."

"Just checking." He smiled, pulling her back for another kiss.

Lucy pulled away. "I know you don't want to hear this, but I still think we should tell him about us. He's just gonna get more and more suspicious as time goes on."

"Luce, we've already had this conversation..."

"I know, I know, I know. We shouldn't tell him." She rolled her eyes and then grinned. "You know, you're cute when you're jealous."

"I am?" Carter asked, acting innocent.

"Oh yeah." She nodded.

"How cute?" he wondered.

She kissed him. "Very...very...cute." She kissed him again.

Song Lyrics: "This Land Is Mine" By: Dido

A/N: Thank you for all of the nice reviews! I may not be able to update this story again until sometime late Friday. But I'll try my hardest to get another chapter out tomorrow. I'm just not promising anything. Thanks!