Chapter 1
Summary: Set in season 9. Abby and Carter are together, but this isn't based around them. A new med-student starts in the ER and wreaks havoc. She causes something to happen to Abby and Susan.
AN: This is my first ER fanfic. Yay! Please read and let me know what you think. The next chapter should be us ASAP.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Good morning," Abby said, brightly to Susan as she walked into the lounge, Carter close behind her. "I thought you were off today?"
Susan offered a half-smile, "I'm not, supposed to be, that is. Weaver called this morning. Apparently Chen called in sick. She had better be on her death bed, or she's gonna die when I see her." Susan yawned and winced slightly, holding a hand up to her head.
Abby laughed. "Well, you knew she was sick, or she would have come out with us last night. It shouldn't surprise you that she's still sick this morning."
Susan simply sighed and then rolled her eyes, but grimaced as pain shot through her head.
"Do you want me to get you an aspirin?" Abby asked.
Susan shook her head. "I've already had four this morning."
"It's only 7 o'clock," Carter said. "Isn't that a little to much?"
Susan rolled her eyes. "Thank-you for your concern, doctor," she said, sarcastically. She paused. "Actually I took the first two with a glass of water and threw up. I had to take the second two dry."
Carter laughed. "Yeah, Abby said you had a little too much fun last night."
Susan blushed slightly. "I can't remember half of the night. I remember arriving, and I remember Chuni and her friend showing up, and the next thing I remember is waking up to the phone ringing this morning."
Abby laughed. "Yeah, you were totally gone last night. You started singing with the music and we had to stop you from climbing up on the table to dance."
Susan blushed a deeper shade of crimson red. "I can't believe I got that drunk," she said, shaking her head. "One question," she said.
"What?" Abby asked.
"Did you, uh, did you change my clothes last night?"
Abby laughed. "No, you were still conscious enough to do that by yourself, although I have to say, interesting choice in PJ's. I sent you into your bedroom to get changed and that's what you came out in."
Susan blushed bright red at this. "Oh, God. So you actually saw me in that?"
"What were you wearing?" Carter asked. Abby had left this part of the story out.
Abby nodded, ignoring Carter's question, as did Susan. "You looked good, Sus, but I have to say, you're really not my type."
Susan laughed. "I woke up in it this morning and was like, what the hell? A boyfriend bought it for me years ago. I almost killed him when I opened it, but I could never get rid of it. I've been keeping it in the back of my closet for years."
"What was it?" Carter repeated, intrigued.
"Never mind, Carter," Susan said. "Just girl stuff."
"But…"
"We should get to work before Weaver kills us." Susan said, cutting him off. She quickly walked out the door, leaving Carter and Abby alone.
"She looks like hell," Carter said.
Abby nodded, yawning. "You try coming to work with 4 hours sleep and a killer hangover."
Carter laughed as he stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Abby's waist. "Well, you should be tired. You didn't get home until after three last night."
Abby nodded, wrapping her arms lightly around Carter's neck. She yawned. "I am tired, but I had to make sure she got in okay."
Carter nodded. "From what you told me, she definitely needed help. Oh, and one question."
"Hmm?" Abby asked, her head resting against his chest.
"What was Susan wearing this morning?"
Abby smiled against his chest. She leaned up on her tiptoes, as if to whisper a secret in his ear. Carter leaned down and tilted his head so that she had access to his ear. Abby opened her mouth, "It's a secret," she whispered.
"Hey," Carter said. "That was-" He was cut off as Abby pecked him on the lips, slipped out of his arms and headed out the door.
"I'll get you back for this," Carter called out, as the door swung shut behind her. He rolled his eyes and laughed slightly. "I should have seen that coming," he muttered to himself, before pulling his stethoscope around his neck and closing his locker.
He headed out the door and joined the usual gang at the admin desk. "Why are we all hanging out here?" He asked.
"Slow day," Hallie answered. "No patients in triage and no trauma's have been called in yet. Got a couple patients waiting for labs to come back, but nothing serious."
"And we're sitting here, doing nothing because..?"
"Because, Weaver got off an hour ago."
"Oh, okay," Carter said, claiming a seat along the desk beside Abby. "Where's Susan?"
"She crashed in the on call room. Told us to wake her if it picked up."
Carter opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the hasty approach of a young woman. She half-walked, half-ran towards the desk. When she was only feet away, she opened her mouth as if to say something, but that something never left her mouth. She tripped, seemingly over her own feet, and fell flat on her face.
At once, most of the gang behind the desk were on their feet, but the strange woman was immediately back on her feet. "Ohmygosh," she stuttered. "I'm so embarrassed. You see, I was late and was hurrying…"
Carter raised a hand to cease her talking and glanced down. He smirked. "Let me guess, you were in too much of a hurry to tie your shoelaces?"
The woman blushed and nodded.
"So, what was it you were late for?"
"I'm supposed to be starting here today. I'm a doctor, well I not a doctor, but I'm gonna be. I mean, I'm planning to be one, I'm still a student. A med-student, my shifts start today, at 8, but I was late and …"
Carter raised his hand again, becoming increasingly scared by this woman. A med-student? "Are you Julie Smart?"
She nodded.
"And you're here for your first ER rotation?"
Again, she nodded.
"Well, I assure you that you are not late."
"But I was told to be here by eight O'clock."
Carter nodded. "Yes, eight O'clock tomorrow morning."
"T-tomorrow?"
Carter nodded.
"Oh, now I'm even more embarrassed. How could I have come on the wrong day? Oh gosh, you must think I'm a complete idiot. Oh, gosh! How could I be so stupid. Can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure," Carter said.
"Can you not tell doctor…" she trailed off as she glanced down at the piece of paper in her hand, "Carter, Can you not tell Dr. Carter about this. I was told to report to him, cause he's the chief resident and I really don't want to start on a note like this."
Carter laughed. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but I'm Dr. Carter."
Julie Smart went a brighter shade of red than Carter thought was humanly possible. She looked like she was going to die. He took a quick glance behind him, his expression asking for help with dealing with the woman, but all he got were smirks. He glared at them and turned back to his new med-student.
"You know what, since you're here, why don't you stay and get an idea for what life's like around here. It'll give you a head start."
"Really! That would be awesome. Thank-you so much."
"Follow me and I'll show you where you can keep your stuff for the day."
* * * *
Two hours later, it hadn't picked up too much. They hadn't had a trauma yet, and only a handful of patients waiting in triage. Abby sat next to Jerry at the admin desk. They watched the future Dr. Smart push an empty gurney down the hall, and crash it into a shelf of gowns.
"Oh my Gosh!" Julie yelled out. She turned to Abby and Jerry. "It's okay. I have everything under control. Don't worry." She crouched down, and began picking up gowns and blankets that had fallen. She stuffed them back onto the shelf and continued down the hallway, before running back to the gurney she had forgotten and taking it with her.
Abby shook her head. "That woman is a menace."
Jerry laughed. "And to think, that is the future of medicine."
Abby joined his laughing.
Carter walked by. "What's so funny?"
"Your new med-student."
Carter sighed. "What has she done now? I only left her alone for 5 minutes. I've been following her all day, afraid to let her out of my sight."
Abby laughed. "She crashed a gurney." Then at Carter's look, "don't worry, it was empty."
"Oh, good. I've afraid to leave alone with a patient all morning." He was cut off by a crashing sound down the hall. "I better go see what happened."
For the next hour, Julie Smart continued her day under Dr. Carter's very watchful eye. She was aware that she was coming off as a klutz, but she couldn't help it. She got clumsy when she was nervous. A trauma had come in, and Dr. Carter had been called away to help. He had told her to check up on the patients she had worked on so far; a boy with a possible broken arm, an allergic reaction and a woman with a sore stomach waiting for a surgical consult. Despite her making an ass out of herself that morning, Julie was having a good time. It was her first time on rotation and working with any patients. She had been allowed to administer a shot of benadryl to the allergy woman and do an ultrasound on the other. She was on a high off of helping and wasn't sure what to do. All of her patients were doing fine, and she knew Dr. Carter was still in the trauma room. She didn't want to interrupt. After getting turned around only once she found her way to the admin desk.
"Um, Hallie, I was wondering what to do. My patients are fine and Dr. Carter's still working on the trauma."
The women at the desk looked up. "Uh, it's Abby, actually."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm really bad with names."
"That's fine, it happens a lot." Abby hesitated, usually she would send the student into the trauma to observe, but was worried to send this particular student in. If she could wreak that much havoc in an empty hallway, imagine what she could cause in a trauma room? "Uh, why don't you go check this patient," Abby said, handing over a chart. "Patient fell down the stairs. May have fractured her ankle. If you think it could be broken, call x-ray."
"Okay," Julie said, taking the chart. "Thank-you." She headed off to her right.
"The patient's in exam 3," Abby shouted. "It's the other way."
"Oh, right, thanks."
"Your welcome," Abby called after her, rolling eyes.
Julie wandered the halls, looking for exam 3. She didn't want to go back to the desk to ask for help, so she continued searching for it. She passed a room she hadn't seen yet and looked through the window. Inside she saw a stark white sheet on a gurney, covering a body. Julie went to leave, but paused. She had never seen a dead body, and was curious. Plus, she didn't know how she would react to seeing one the first time. She wanted to be prepared for anything. She really didn't want to make a fool of herself again.
Julie looked around and when she saw no one watching her, slipped quietly in the door. She placed her chart down on the small table at the side of the room, not pausing the wonder why it was there. She stood beside the figure for a few moments, preparing herself. She then carefully slid the cover back, revealing the patients face.
Julie tilted her head slightly. It wasn't what she had expected at all. The woman on the table, with medium length blonde hair and a pretty face, didn't look like anything she would have thought a dead person would look like. She looked…asleep. She wasn't pale and she wasn't blue.
After brief hesitation, Julie reached out to touch the women's face. Her brow furrowed. Dead bodies were supposed to be cold, but this one was warm. "I wonder," Julie, muttered quietly to herself as she reached her hand over to feel for a pulse. She couldn't find one, but she kept moving her fingers around, feeling harder. Suddenly the woman's eyes shot open and she sat up quickly.
"What they hell are you doing?" Susan asked, incredulously at the figure in front of her.
"I-I-I I'm sooo sorry. I-I thought you were dead. And I've never seen a dead body before and I thought it would be okay…I'm so sorry," with that, the woman took off, leaving Susan alone.
"What the hell was that?" Susan asked out loud, her hand on her chest. Waking up to hands around your neck was not on her list of most fun things to do.
Susan glanced at her watch; it was almost noon. She groaned and swung her legs over the side of the gurney. She got up and staggered the first few steps towards the door. Abby met her coming the other way.
"What happened?" Abby asked.
"Someone woke me up." Susan said. "She had her hands on my neck, said she thought I was dead. Scared the crap out of me."
Abby sighed. "Let me guess, curly brown hair, tall?"
Susan nodded.
"That's Julie Smart, Carter's new med-student. Started this morning. Actually, she was supposed to start tomorrow morning, but got mixed up and came early. She's quite the klutz. I saw her run by the admin desk and into the bathroom, but I wanted to make sure she didn't kill anyone before I went to see if she was okay."
"She's Carter's student?"
Abby nodded.
"And where is Carter?"
"Trauma 2."
Susan smiled. "Thank-you, I have to go have a little chat with him."
Abby laughed. "Be gentle. It's not his fault. He's been following her all day, but got called to another trauma."
"I'll keep that in mind," Susan said, as she headed down the hall towards trauma 2.
Carter stepped out of the trauma room, a smile on his face. They had gotten the patient stabilized. This was why he was a doctor, to help people. His smile slid off his face as he spotted Susan heading down the hall towards him. She didn't look happy.
"Susan," he said.
"Carter," she said. "I have a bone to pick with you."
* * * *
It took Abby the better part of half an hour to get Julie to stop crying and calmed down. She apologized to Susan and soon went on as if nothing had happened.
They were quickly getting busier, and Susan went from patient to patient, Julie Smart flanking her the whole time. After much begging, she had agreed to take Julie off of Carter's hands for one hour. She was about to have Julie present her a patient when she heard her name called.
"Dr. Lewis!" She looked over to see Chuni in the doorway of one of the rooms. "We need you in here!"
Susan quickly took off towards the door, Julie behind her.
"We lost his pulse," Abby said, she and Chuni were preparing the patient for shocking.
"O-kay," Susan said. She turned to Julie. "You ever shock a patient before?"
Julie shook her head.
"Charge to 300," Susan called to Abby, on the other side of the gurney. She turned back to Julie. "Well, there's no time like the present."
"Oh, no, that's okay…" Julie tried to say.
"Don't worry," Susan assured. "I'll walk you through it." She positioned Julie, with the paddles in her hand. "Hold the paddles firmly in place."
Julie was shaking slightly and Abby leaned over to adjust the angle of the paddle on the patient's chest. Susan did the same for the other hand. "Now, you're going to press firmly on the buttons, but before you do, always say clear-" Julie didn't wait for the rest of Susan's sentence. She instinctively pressed the buttons, sending electricity into the patients chest, but also into both Abby and Susan, who still touching the patient. Both of them were sent flying backwards onto the floor.