A/N: Sorry that it has taken me so long to update this story, I got swamped under life again. But here's another chapter please read and review, love the reviews! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to review so far.

Chapter 8: Cross County, Road trip

There was something about the way that this woman was listening so intently to me that I had this feeling that she might have been more than just an ordinary patient, but I didn't recognize her. She could have been in before and I that's where the feeling was coming from. I pulled the blanket up around her a little more making sure that she was still as comfortable as I could make her. Knowing that her time left here with us was limited at best. After I did that I continued on with the story, not wanting to keep her hanging anymore.

The trip from Spokane to Chicago would take about 27 hours so a little over a day if I drove straight thru which was not in my plans. I'd drive as long as I could and sleep. I told Susan a day or two longer, which gave me a little over three days to get home, four if I took her up on the two days longer.

Almost 575 miles and 8 hours later I pulled into Billings Montana for the night. I was in desperate need of some sleep and a chance to eat. I found something to eat and checked into a motel. Granted it appeared that I was going to be eating greasy truck stop food at the rate that I was going the entire time from Spokane to Chicago, but I was sure that in the end it would be worth it. Somehow in the back of my mind I honestly thought about calling Carter but changed mind before I was able to pick up the phone and make that mistake. I'd be in Chicago soon enough and I could talk to him then. There wasn't must that could be said with me so far from home that couldn't be said when I got there in two days.

The next morning I hit the road again. It took me a little over 12 hours to get to Saint Paul. I had stopped in Bismarck for lunch which was about half way to Saint Paul. I was tired when I finally stretched out in yet another motel room for the night. Right now I was thinking that this was indeed a bad idea, that pushing to get thru so many miles in as few of days possible was not one of my brighter ideas. The country side wasn't really being seen by me as I had to focus on making sure that I didn't get lost. Not that I would have gotten lost there weren't that many places that I could go, but yet I didn't want to end up on the wrong road and end up in the middle of Nowhere USA.

Now here I found myself on my third day on the road and it took me from Saint Paul down along I-94 towards Madison. From Madison I drove down I-39 to Rockford where she found herself back on I-90 again headed for Chicago. I'm still wondering why the hell I didn't take 1-90 straight across but these were the directions that I had been given to get from Spokane to Chicago and since they were written and it's not like I had a map that I could follow I decided that I had better stick to what was written. For all I knew there was a black hole on I-90 that would have sucked me up and that would have been the end of it. 1800 miles later I was back home in Chicago, in an odd way it felt good to be home again. I had missed my small apartment and now had some of my mother's belongings to have to remember her by. Granted it wasn't much but I wanted to keep the photographs.

I still had no idea if I was Carter's sister or not but the outcome of that wasn't going to change my wanting the photographs. They were my childhood, the childhood I had lived, they were my memories, truth or not these pictures held the childhood in my heart that I held true. She was my mother and I would probably never think of her as anything else. If Eleanor Carter was my mother I would eventually learn to call her that, but for now, the woman that she called mother was gone and that had broken her heart.

I parked the car in the apartment complex lot and grabbed what I could carry heading up the stairs. I unlocked her front door and set the boxes down on the kitchen table. I grabbed the mail and locked the door again before settling down in my favorite chair to sort thru it, yikes I found that there was more junk than anything else, and this was about as good as checking the email. Ahh junk mail it was the spam that you could hold in your hand. I would decide what to do with those things in a little bit. There didn't seem to be a rush or deep seated need to take care of it right this second in time, it's not like it would grow legs and run off on me. I looked over to see the light on the answering machine blinking. I reached over and hit play on it to see who all had left messages while I was away. It's not like I had a lot of friends in Chicago who would have been missing me.

I had to laugh when she heard Susan's voice telling her not to forget to call her when I got in. I was reaching for the phone when I heard John's message.

"It's John, would you please call me when you get this. Susan said you had a family emergency and had to leave, but please just call me."

I dialed Susan's number first with out any hesitation. There was something about the urgency in the message from John that put me off to calling him first. I wasn't the kind of person who would blow people off but his tone was almost scary in a way and I thought the shorter phone call to Susan would be the better of the two to take first. Besides I promised her that I would call when I got home and happy I was that I was home sitting in my chair and not cramped in that damn car anymore.

"Hello." I heard the voice on the other end of the line say.

"I'm back." I said, "it was a long drive but I am back in Chicago now. Do you want me to work tomorrow because I can?"

"Call Carter and yes god do I want you to work tomorrow, can you handle a 12? 5 to 5 if you feel up to it." Susan said.

"Five am that sounds joyous. You can count on me I'll be there with bells on." She said smiling.

"Ha, ha, comedy is your strong suit, but if I were you I wouldn't give up your day job just yet." Susan said with a faked laughed, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Night Susan," I hung up the phone and then slowly dialed the number that John had left for me.

"Hello," his voice came across the line.

"Hey it's me." I said, "did you managed to go completely nuts with out me being in your head for a few days?"

"You should be a comedian not a doctor." He said into the phone.

"Yeah I know, you are the second person to tell me that today, I am seriously beginning to think that I missed my calling, so what's urgent need that I needed to call you as soon as I got home."

"I'll come by and get you we need to talk." He said.

"That's ominous John, has something happened that I should be aware of?" I asked the seriousness in his voice was almost too much for me to take right now.

"We just need to talk." He said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes."

"Okay, but you do know that I just spent 3 days in a car, I am cranky and probably not going to be the greatest of company right now. Really I am looking forward to climbing into my own bed with my head on my own pillow, are you absolutely one hundred percent sure that this can not wait until the morning. I mean seriously is this something that can not wait another 12 hours. I will be at County at 5 am if you want to catch me before my shift?" I said.

"15 minutes, I will be there in 15 minutes." His voice was stronger this time. I was getting the strong impression that this was something that definitely was not going to wait until the morning and that it was going to be awhile before I found my bed and was able to rest my very weary head against my own pillow.

"Okay, I will see you in 15 minutes." I said now hanging up the phone wondering what could be so important that he wanted to rush right over there. He had me intrigued but also worried and confused. Why didn't he just tell me over the phone what he needed to say? Something must have happened and he needed to see me to tell me the news. After the last few days I was just being paranoid there was probably nothing wrong and I was worried about nothing. Only time would tell at least I wasn't going to have to wait long to find out. After being in a car for three days, 15 minutes seemed like nothing.