The Lucky Ones
Chapter Sixteen
Lucy stood up and left the office, finding Mark and Carter sitting in the hallway. "He wants you two to come back inside now. He's made a decision." She reported.
Carter walked over to her. "How did it go?"
"Not sure yet." She replied. The three of them then entered the office. Lucy and Carter both sat in chairs across from Dr. Anspaugh's desk while Mark stood a few feet behind them.
Dr. Anspaugh took a deep breath before starting to speak. "I could start off by telling you both how unethical your behavior has been, or I could tell you how disappointed I am in the both of you. You should not have broken hospital policy. But instead I'd like to tell you congratulations on the engagement." He smiled.
Carter and Lucy exchanged glances of shock. "Um, thank you." Carter finally replied.
"After talking with you both, I am reminded of my past. You see I met my wife when she was a nurse at the hospital I worked at in Michigan. I was just out of med school, and new to Michigan. We started off as friends, and then we fell in love. The only problem was that, at least in that hospital, it was against policy for us doctors to date nurses. But we still dated, and even got married in secret." He paused. There had been a smile on his face as he relived those memories. But now the smile on his face was gone. "When the hospital found out that we had gotten married, we were both fired. It almost ruined my career, and hers too. I still, to this day, think that firing us was a little harsh. That's why I'm not going to fire anyone today."
Carter and Lucy smiled at each other. They could handle any punishment as long as they didn't lose their jobs.
"But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to punish you both. Just because I sympathize with your situation, it doesn't mean that I can just ignore the fact that you have broken hospital policy." Dr. Anspaugh explained.
"We understand." Lucy nodded.
"Now...as far as a punishment." Dr. Anspaugh paused. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to suspend both of you for a week without pay."
That's not too bad. Lucy nodded her head. "I think that's fair."
"Yes, it's definitely more than fair." Carter nodded. He was expecting more than just a week's suspension without pay.
"That's not all though. We still have to deal with the fact that you, Dr. Carter, have been acting as Ms. Knight's teacher. I think it's fairly obvious that Ms. Knight can not remain your student anymore." He looked over at Dr. Greene, who up until now had been merely observing the meeting. "Dr. Greene, you have volunteered to take over as Ms. Knight's teacher until graduation?"
"That's right." Mark agreed.
Dr. Anspaugh nodded. "I think that's a good idea. The last thing we need is another public scandal. That's why I think it would be best if you two still keep your relationship a secret until Ms. Knight's graduation. I think it would be best if you both worked as many separate shifts as possible. I don't want a repeat of what happened today in the elevator."
Lucy knew that Dr. Anspaugh was being very kind in their punishment, but she still didn't like the idea of working opposite shift with Carter. She'd hardly ever see him if they worked separate shifts!
Carter wasn't too thrilled about being forced to work shifts opposite to Lucy, but realized that it was a small price to pay for not getting fired. Besides, they had that one week suspension. Maybe they could go up to his grandparents' cabin and spend some quality time together before their opposite shifts started.
"Once Ms. Knight has graduated, you two can go back to working as many or as few shifts together as you want. But I think it would be best to limit the amount that you two work together right now." He paused for a moment. "That is all."
"Thank you very much." Carter told him, standing up.
Lucy stood up too. "Yes, thank you Dr. Anspaugh. We really appreciate this."
Dr. Anspaugh smiled again. "So do you appreciate it enough to invite me to the wedding? Because I love a good wedding!"
Carter and Lucy both chuckled. "You will definitely be invited to the wedding." Lucy smiled.
"Come on. Let's go and let Dr. Anspaugh get back to work." Mark commented, ushering Carter and Lucy out of the office. "You two were very lucky in there."
Carter exchanged a smile with Lucy. "Yeah. We are lucky."
"I should go and check on the ER and make sure that it's still there." Mark excused himself.
So Carter and Lucy were alone again. They started walking. "So I was thinking that tomorrow I would call my grandparents. Hopefully, their cabin won't be occupied." Carter told her.
Her eyes got bright. "You want to go away for the week?"
"Yeah. We're suspended, so they won't be calling us in unless something absolutely catastrophic happens." He explained. "So what do you think? The cabin's in the woods and is pretty isolated."
"We could be completely isolated and alone for a few days?" She looked at him wickedly. "Count me in!"
"Great. I'll call them tomorrow. I'm sure they won't mind."
"Sounds good." She smiled.
Since the whole hospital was on lock down because of the blizzard, it only took short time for the rumors about Lucy and Carter to circulate around. Everyone working in the ER had heard rumors about the alleged elevator incident and they were all speculating on what had actually happened. Lucy walked up to the front desk and stretched out her neck.
Chuni, Jerry, and Dave all looked at each other before looking at Lucy and laughing.
"What?" Lucy asked, not understanding why they were laughing at her. "Do I have something on my face?"
"What exactly were you and Carter doing while you were trapped in the elevator together? Playing a game of some sort?" Chuni asked.
Lucy took a deep breath. The last thing she wanted to deal with right now was gossip. "Oh come on! Honestly! I realize that you guys have nothing else better to do right now than gossip about a possible relationship between Carter and myself. But you have it all wrong."
"Yeah. C'mon guys. There's also that rumor about Carter and Anna." Jerry replied.
"No way they're both true! There's no way that a guy like Carter could have two women and poor old Dave over here doesn't even have one." Dave laughed. Even though he knew the truth about Lucy and Carter's relationship, he always enjoyed pretending like he didn't know anything.
"I don't know. I don't believe the Carter and Anna one as much as I believe the Carter and Lucy one." Chuni replied.
"Well, wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Jerry asked.
"Yeah, I do. I'll bet you that Carter and Lucy have gotten together. And if they haven't gotten together yet, I bet that they will get together soon." Chuni replied.
Lucy watched the scene play out in front of her. "Hello? Did you all forget that I'm standing right here?" She yelled over them.
"Oh, I'm sorry Lucy. Would you like to place a bet too?" Jerry laughed.
"Agh! You all are impossible!" Lucy grunted, walking away from the desk.
"Anyway," Jerry continued, "I bet that Carter and Anna get together."
"I want in on this bet too." Dave replied. Since he knew the truth about Lucy and Carter's relationship, this was easy money. "Put me down for Carter with Lucy."
Lucy entered exam room six and saw Carter doing paperwork. "There's a new pool forming right now." She told him.
"What's it about now?" Carter asked, looking up from his paperwork.
"You."
"Me? What are you talking about?" he asked.
"It's a new pool about who you're going to hook up with. Jerry thinks that you're going to hook up with Anna, while Chuni is saying that we're together."
"Well, for once, Chuni is actually smart about where she puts his money on these pools." He smiled and pulled her down so that she was sitting on his lap. He started kissing her neck.
"We really shouldn't be doing this. For one, we're in exam six. We don't have a very good track record in this room. Two, the doors aren't locked. And three, we don't want to tempt fate. Dr. Greene already found us earlier. I don't think he'll be too happy to see us together again." Lucy reminded him.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Carter sighed.
Lucy got up from sitting on his lap and yawned.
"Tired?"
"Yes. Between our little elevator ride and everything else, I am tired. You wore me out in the elevator!" she playfully hit his arm. "You have a tendency to exhaust me."
"Sorry." He said sarcastically.
"Don't be. I'm not." She leaned in for a quick kiss. "I better go, but I'll see you later." She left the exam room and saw Chuni eying her suspiciously from the front desk. "It's nothing Chuni!" she yelled.
About seven hours later, the snowstorm still hadn't let up and there was nothing to do in the ER. So Chuni, Jerry, Dave, Lucy, Carter, and Anna were all playing poker in the lounge. They had been playing for about three hours. "You know what? I'm out. I can't play anymore. Especially with you, Dave." Carter sighed, throwing his cards into the middle of the table.
"What? What did I do?" Dave asked, playing innocent.
Lucy, who was sitting across from Carter, spoke up. "You've been cheating this whole time."
"I have not!" Dave protested, even though he had been trying to cheat.
"Yes you have!" Carter and Lucy said at the same time. This caused Chuni to look at Lucy suspiciously again.
Anna stood up. She couldn't stand playing any more poker. "This has been fun, but I'm gonna go catch some sleep in an empty exam room. Wake me if the storm breaks and we can leave."
Carter saw Lucy yawn again. "Luce, you really should go get some sleep too. You've been yawning throughout the whole game." He advised.
"Yeah, maybe you're right." Lucy agreed. She saw Chuni looking at her suspiciously again and rolled her eyes.
Once she was gone, Carter turned to remaining people at the table. "I know that you have another pool going about me."
"What pool?" Jerry asked, trying to sound like he was innocent.
"The pool about whether I'm going to hook up with Lucy or Anna." Carter explained.
"Who told you about this supposed pool?" Chuni asked, now looking at Carter suspiciously. She figured it must have been Lucy.
"I have my ways of finding out." Carter replied. "Look, my point is this. My personal life is none of your business."
"But you and Lucy are always together. You come in together, you take your breaks together, you leave together, and you're practically joined at the hip." Chuni pointed out.
"We're just good friends." Carter lied.
"Well we heard that you and Lucy got a little physical in the elevator today." Chuni mentioned.
"Nothing happened in the elevator." Carter lied.
"And what about the rumor that you and Anna are going to get back together?" Jerry asked.
"Nothing's happening with me and Anna either." Carter explained.
"So we're supposed to believe that both rumors are false?" Jerry asked.
"You can believe whatever you want. That's the great thing about being in America. But the truth is that nothing happened." Carter replied, standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a nap."
"Will you be joining Lucy or Anna?" Chuni called out.
"Ha ha! You're really funny Chuni!" Carter cried out as he left the lounge.
Once he was gone, Chuni looked over at Dave and Jerry. "He's definitely hiding something."
A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. It's been a very busy week. But thank you for all of the kind reviews. Please check out my new story, We Used To Be Friends. It's another Carcy story. I'm still going to be writing this story though, so don't worry. I just had another story idea that I needed to explore.