A/N: I don't own ER or any of it's characters. This story takes place during season 6 during "All in the Family." Yes, this is a Cary fic because, yes, I believe it that episode should've ended up differently. I'm a Carcy lover and if you aren't, that's fine too. Anyhoo, this is my interpretation on what should've happened. (if Kellie Martin didn't leave to complete college.) Also, all of the opening quotes up to chapter 5 are from the song State of Mind by Merril Bainbridge.
Chapter 7: Return
"Confusion is raising its head
And I can't make a sound
I feel it tearing at my soul."
It was the middle of August and despite the heavy rainfall earlier in the month, the city was bustling. Cook County General had new students joining them, all showing promise. It was the second week of their ER rotation and it was obviously taking a toll on them. Some of them were falling asleep standing up, others would end up in Exam room beds only to be kicked out by Kerry when the room was needed. The students didn't seem to mind that much though, not until they got back to their dorms--if ever.
The doctors, all of them, ER or otherwise, were on their toes constantly with their students. Even Carter had a new student. A boy this time named Alex who reminded him a lot of Dave. Not just attitude and skill wise, but personality too. Alex seemed to hit on every female Med student that he saw in his class. This only led everyone to the suspicion that he spent his extra time with Dave. But Carter enjoyed teaching Alex everything he knew; it seemed to fill the void Lucy had made when she left. Carter wasn't the only one enjoying the students and the time they shared--everyone was. But not everyone was happy about the new school year. In fact, only one person completely loathed it. That one person was Lucy Knight.
Unbeknownst to her friends at Cook County General, she had finally returned after 4 ½ months. She stood across the street looking at the place she called home. Inhaling sharply, she stepped off the curb only to return to the sidewalk again hesitantly. With a heavy sigh, she reached into her jean jacket pocket and pulled out a bottle of pills. Pouring two into her palm and placing them into her mouth, she put the bottle away and swallowed the pills without water. Lucy was so nervous, scared and worried all rolled into one. Running a hand through her now short light brown hair and picking up her bag, she inhaled deeply and stepped off the curb again. You can do this, Lucy. It's not hard. Just remember what Dr. Peters said and you'll be fine. It's no big deal. You're just seeing your coworkers for the first time in…almost 5 months. Sighing she stopped finally reaching the other side of the road.
"Okay. You're here now. No turning back." She was about to take another step forward when a speeding car hit a large puddle and covered her back with dirty water. "Maybe just this once I'll turn back and go home." She did just that and stepped into the road quickly to cross again. "After all, tomorrow's another day." Lucy had just nearly been hit by another car but, luckily, was unharmed. The front of her, on the other hand, was now soaked as well. She wiped her face off agitated moving backwards toward Cook County General again to get out of the way of on coming traffic.
It was at that moment, she heard an ambulance coming toward her. She felt her pulse start to race and her heart jumped up into her throat as it finally came into sight. Lucy couldn't resist the urge to run toward it and the patient inside. A smile crept across her face as she ran back across the road again, dodging cars left and right, only to meet Kerry and Carter outside.
"What have we got?" Kerry shouted helping the paramedics bring the man down from the back of the ambulance. As the man started to explain he was a skydiver that hit the ground a little too hard, Lucy started to help them push the man inside. "Who are you?" Lucy opened her mouth to speak but Kerry cut her off. "Never mind. Frank!" She called as they started to pass the front desk.
"Got it, chief!" He said rushing around the front desk and grabbing Lucy. He pulled her off to the side as the others went on and out of sight. "Sorry, miss, but you're gonna have to wait here and let the doctors work." He finished giving her a strange look, realizing she was wet, and wiping his hands off.
"Fine, uh…Frank. I'll be in the Lounge." She walked toward the door and opened it. Just as she was about to go in whenFrank pulled her back to the front desk.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think you're going?"
"Who are you? Where's Jerry?" Lucy asked looking at the front desk.
"Jerry is no longer in this hospital's employ. I'm Frank, his replacement. You are?"
"Lucy Knight, I'm a former Med student here." She said with a kind smile only to hide her confusion. "Maybe you've heard of me?" He looked her over once before shaking his head.
"Sorry, but no. Should I?"
"Look, Frank, I know you don't know me and I don't know you but if you could talk to Dr. Weaver, she'll tell you who I am." Dave was picking up a chart and saw Frank hassling her. He squinted his eyes for a moment looking at her with the sense of déjà vu.
"Lucy?" He said walking around to get a closer look. She turned her attention away from Frank to Dave and she just smiled. "Hey!" He said hugging her tightly. "How have you been?"
"Good! Good. You're not blonde anymore?" She scolded herself rephrasing that. "I mean, how are you? How's everybody?"
"Good. Not the same since you left but we've made due."
"I appreciate that, Dave, but I doubt things were that different without me here."
"How little you know. I'll tell you everything, but first things first. You, uh…you want get a shower?" He said pointing her up and down. She looked at herself and laughed.
"Yeah! Yeah, a shower would be heaven right about now." He started to laugh to as she walked towards where the patient's showers were. Dave walked up the hall to an Exam room after telling Frank Lucy was okay to walk about freely. Still a little suspicious, Frank went back behind the desk to answer the phone. Dave headed into the Exam room and smiled widely seeing Lydia.
"What are you so happy about?" She asked taking a look at the chart he'd grabbed.
"You're never gonna guess who I just saw."
"You're right, Dave, I won't so why don't you just tell me." She said smiling.
"Ha, ha. Very funny." He said less than amused as Lydia walked to the door to leave. "Lucy."
"Lucy?" She repeated in shocked looking back at Dave from the doorway. "She's back?"
"Yup. And not in a wheelchair, I might add." He said smiling telling her what tests to order. "She just headed down the showers if you want to see her. She looks…different."
"Thanks, Dave. I'll go do that. I'm on break if anyone asks." He nodded turning back to the teenager on the bed in front of him.
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Lucy was in the shower only for a minute and she felt refreshed. Getting that dirty water off of her felt so good that all she could do was just stand there holing the faucet above her head and just stand there. Okay, this feels good. No, better than good. This is like first trauma good. Oh!
"Hey, Lucy, you in here?" Lydia said looking around. "Oh! There you are!" She said moving over to where she saw some clothes on a chair.
"Oh, hey, Lydia!" She said peeking through the curtain. "Dave tell you I was here?"
"Who else?" She chuckled as she picked up Lucy's clothes and examined them with a cringe. "Wow. What happened to you?"
"TVP." She joked going back to her shower starting to scrub herself with some soap.
"TVP? Don't think I know that one."
"Truck vs. puddle. That was the end result." She said referring to her clothes. Lydia couldn't help but laugh as she gathered up the rest of Lucy's leaving only her boots.
"How 'bout I get you some new clothes? I think we've got some lying around from when our homeless patients come in."
"That would great. Thanks, Lydia."
"No problem. I'll let Weaver know you're here too if you want."
"Sure! But don't tell anyone else, alright?" All she heard was silence. "Lydia? Lydia?" She turned around and looked out from the curtain find an empty room. Lydia was gone and probably was already telling Chuny she was here. Lucy could already see it. Everyone would know she was back by lunch. "Oh, boy." She sighed.
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Lucy walked up to the front desk with her new clothes on. Lydia had found her a long, button down plaid shirt, a black tank top and another pair of blue jeans, under garments and socks. The shirt was the only thing on her that didn't fit properly; Lucy thought it was obviously meant for a man since it went mid thigh on her. She looked around the area a little lost.
"Dave!" She called him as he was heading into the Lounge. "Have you seen Lydia? She has my clothes and bag."
"Yeah, she came in here a minute ago. I was just about to grab her to ask if some test results came back."
"Thank god." She said with a sigh as she walked toward the Lounge. "I really have to get out of here before--"
"Surprise!" Shouted a few of the doctors and nurses with giant smiles. Among them were Lydia, Chuny, Haleh, Luka, Abby, Mark, Elizabeth and even Chen. Lucy gasped and put her hands to her mouth and couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh, my god! Dave, did you--"
"Guilty as charged." He interrupted her with a cocky smile putting his hands up in the air as if surrendering. "But, Lydia helped me though." He said pointing to Lydia and still smiling, he gave her a hug. She hit on his chest before hugging him a smile still on her face.
"Welcome back, Lucy." Luka said coming up to hug her and the others soon followed. She was so happy that the others had missed her. They didn't react to her like she thought they would. She thought for sure they would be mad or act awkward around her, but they were happy to see her again.
"Like the hair, Lucy!" She heard Haleh shout from the window. Lucy put on a smile and rubbed her head.
"Hey, Lucy, wanna cut the cake?" Chuny said pointing the table and holding out a knife for her. Lucy looked at the knife and inhaled deeply. She was hesitant about taking it and the only people who seemed to notice were Mark and Elizabeth.
"Actually, Chuny, why don't I do that?" He said leaving Elizabeth's side and grabbing the knife. Lucy gave him a look that said "thank you" and he smiled at her nodding at her. "Here you go." He said handing her the first slice.
"Where on earth did you guys find a cake in such short notice?" Lucy asked taking a bite.
"We have our ways." Abby said smiling and throwing a wink her waytaking a piece too.
"Where the hell is everybody?" Kerry said storming into the Lounge. "What are you people doing? We have traumas coming in. GSW, ETA 2 minutes. Why are all of you eating cake?"
"Didn't you hear, chief?" Dave said finishing his slice and moving up to Lucy and placing his arm around her. "Lucy's back!" He smiled again and Kerry looked at Lucy a little confused.
"Lucy? My god. Look at you!" She said noting her hair change like Haleh had, and Lucy just shrugged with a small smile. "Well, welcome back. Come to my office in about 30 minutes and we'll talk about why you're back, okay?"
"You got it, but actually I got to get going." Dave groaned and before he could ask why, she answered. "I need to go to my old apartment and steal it back from the person I sublet to. I'll be back then." She threw away her plate and walked over to Lydia who handed her the bag and dirty clothes, all the while a sweet smile playing on her face. Lucy hugged Lydia and the others, thanked them and after Kerry left, the others piled out too.
"Hey, Lucy!" Mark called after her when the trauma came in, but before he ran with it he ran up to her still at the Lounge door. "Why don't you stick around? We'll only be about 30 minutes, like Kerry said and your apartment hunt could take longer." She nodded her head understanding.
"Uh, hey, Dr. Greene." She called after him this time as he went after the trauma upon hearing Kerry shout at him. "I was wondering, uh…" He was standing in front of her now with his hands on his waist. "…Could you do anything about these?" She asked pointing to the stitches on her neck.
"You didn't get those taken out?" He asked observing the stitches with his fingers.
"No, my doctor said they weren't ready to come out."
"Well, when I'm done with this trauma and you finish with Kerry, I'll see what I can do." He smiled and she returned it as he ran to the trauma. With a heavy sigh, Lucy went back into the Lounge but not after noticing Frank giving her a funny look.
"Wonder what else has changed." She muttered grabbing a cup of coffee.
Chapter 8: Changes Anyone?
Preview: Lucy and Carter talk again after 5 months.