A/N: Hey, there! So glad to be back! here it is, the sequel to State of Mind. This picks up right where that left off so you should definately read that first. I started to write this as just a 2 part series and it's develpoed into a 3 part! So, look out for that too. When it's more develpoed, I'll let you know. Ass you know, I don't own anyone. I wish I did, but I don't. Also, all of the opening quotes are Peace of Mind by Nonpoint.

Chapter 6: Secrets, Lies and Mischeif Pt. 3

"You shouldve been satisfied
You should have been full inside
You could have been happy
Simply with your peace of mind"

Later that morning...

Carter, Susan, Abby, Luka, Lucy and Gallant were still waiting for the Sexual Harassment Seminar to begin. Bored out of their minds, they drank their coffee, read and stared into space and at everything in the room. Tons of books, desks, a large chalkboard and a table at the front, the door they came in, a door to the side and snow covered windows. Susan studied the writing on the chalkboard at the front of the room and got up to get a closer look. Lucy's eyes followed her for lack of anything better to do. Abby had her head laying on the back of the chair, catching some shut eye while Lucy had had her head in her hand which was resting on the desk. Every now and then she'd nod off and come back to reality abruptly. She hadn't done that since she went through withdrawal when she uit Ritalin-Luka noted that she looked a bit like a bobble head. Susan was looking at the writing on the chalkboard, getting that closer look. Upon reading it, she started to talk to Abby again.

"I think that's Whitman..." She pointed to a section of the writing on the board before continuing. "...That's "I Sing the Body Electric.""

"I know that one." Abby replied perking up at the information.

"You know Whitman?" Susan asked surprised looking back at Abby. Lucy put her arms in her lap and crossed her legs as she listened to Abby, wondering what the hell they were talking about.

"What's so odd about me knowing Whitman?" She asked with a small laugh.

"Not many people know his work." She simply replied shortly but apologetically.

"It's in "Fame," you know." Abby told her pointing to the board at the lyrics.

"Please. I love "Fame."" Susan told her and sang part of "I Sing the Body Electric." Carter disgustedly tossed his coffee cup into the trashcan, missing, and stopping their fun. Susan rolled her eyes and made her way back to sit next to Abby. Lucy, on the other hand, got up and picked up Carter's empty coffee cup and threw it away.

"How long are we going to wait?" He asked annoyed giving Lucy an odd look as she moved toward the windows to look outside, arms crossed.

"The instructor probably got held up by the snow." Luka said looking at the window and Lucy. She looked at him and though they said nothing, Lucy cleared her throat lowering her head and the moment passed as Luka back to his paper quickly.

"We all got here." Carter pointed out staring from Luka to Lucy suspiciously. "I say we go." He added standing up. Abby and Lucy just shook their heads at how impatient Carter was.

"I say we wait." Gallant said from behind him at the top of the room causing Carter to him a stern look as he continued. "I was told to report at zero eight-hundred and I'm going to wait. Everyone else should wait, too." He suggested forcefully.

"This ain't the Marines, Gallant." Carter told him. "At ease." He added sitting back down with a mock salute. Carter treats him worse than he treated me. Must be his new Med student. Lucky him.

"I'm in the Army, not the Marines." Gallant corrected him as Carter turned to face front again.

"Well, I don't think anybody is going to court-martial you because a guy didn't show up for a lecture." Carter responded rudely.

"Gallant's right." Luka interjected suddenly making everyone give him a look as he folded his paper. "We should wait. I don't have to waste another Saturday here if we leave and he shows up."

"Maybe this is the punishment." Susan offered back at her seat suspiciously. "Maybe there are hidden cameras watching how we handle the stress, seeing how alliances grow-"

"Like on "Survivor."" Abby added with a laugh at the thought that Kerry was using them as lab rats in an on-going experiment. I wouldn't put it past her.

"You watch Survivor?" Susan asked shocked and Abby said she did with a smile. Carter scoffed but Abby ignored him and listed the reasons why she loved the show. Lucy just rolled her eyes.

"Reality television." Carter said derisively. "It's one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Lucy looked at Carter in shock that she actually agreed with him on something.

"Have you ever watched it?" Susan asked turning around to look at him, sounding like an officer performing an interogation.

"No." Carter admitted quickly with disgust at the thought.

"Then shut up." Abby told him as rudely as possible. Though Lucy wanted to come to Carter's defense and agree with him, she wasn't about to. She wasn't ready to reconcile with Carter, not yet anyway. Susan confessed to Abby, after they both turned from Carter, that she watched "Fear Factor," then she and Abby shared a laugh over the last episode.

"Television is a vast wasteland." Carter said derisively yet again. "What's next? The torture channel?" He asked rhetorically.

"What is your problem today?" Susan asked annoyed turning to face him again. "What are you so pissy about?"

"You know what." He responded shortly crossing his arms.

"I can't believe you're still mad about that." She said shocked. When Abby asked what he was mad about, Susan proceded to explain that she spent the other night at Mark's, on the couch. "Several years ago..." Susan told Abby. "...Mark had a crush on me. Now we're friends. Just friends."

"You spent the night at a recently single man's apartment who's still desperately in love with you." He pointed out angrily.

"Mark is not in love with me." Susan insisted. "When you find out why I was over there, you're going to feel very very small."

"So tell me!" Carter insisted but Susan wouldn't betray Mark's trust.

"Abby's been sleeping on my couch." Luka interjected quietly making everyone look at him, including Gallant. He was learning more about his superiors every minute, and he was learning more than he wanted to. "Nothing's happened." He finished nonchalantly as if it was nothign big when, in fact, it was. Everyone was quiet for a minute as Abby cleared her throat.

"Thank you, Luka." She said sarcastically before explaining. "I needed a place to stay until I found a new apartment and Luka said I could stay with him."

"Dave's living with me." Lucy said from the window not looking at them.The two had decided that until they found work, they'd live together somoney would be less of a problem. After they were hired at Mercy, they were going to seperate, but their arrangement seemed tobe good.Dave and Lucy's hours became a pattern where if onewasn't working, the other one was leaving the non-worker to take care of Matt.The newscaused everyone to face her in shock, Abby gasping with a smile and a small laugh at the thought of Dave living with a girl. Must hell, torture or a constant party of Dave hitting on her. "Nothing's happened with us either." She got off the windowsill where she'd been sitting silently and walked around the front streching her arms above her head.

"You're probably more upset about that than my staying at Mark's." Susan commented dryly to Carter. "Carter's still stuck on you." She told Lucy causing Carter slam his hand on the desk, stand up and walk away angrily. Lucy shook her head and continued to strech but stopped to give Carter a questioning look as he walked away.

"Can we change the subject, please?" Carter then picked up Luka's newspaper and asked Luka about the Bears. Luka said he didn't watch American football so he suggested they talk about the Bulls, but Carter sneered that the Bulls stunk. Abby turned to Gallant and asked him about being in the Army. Gallant explained that he's still in the Reserves and although he doubts that he'll be called to active duty, it's always a possibility and he's ready to go if they ask him. Abby pointed out that Luka was in the Army and that her brother was in the Air Force, stationed in Saudi Arabia as an Air Traffic Controller. Gallant listed off his brothers and sisters, who were all in various branches of the service, except for his 14-year-old brother and twin sister, Steve and Susan.

"She's the black sheep of the family." He said with a smile shaking his head. "Teaches Head Start in DC."

"How'd she manage to stay out of the military?" Carter asked. "Sounds like a prerequisite in your family."

"She has Cerebral Palsy." Gallant explained matter-of-factly. Abby gave Carter a look for putting his foot in his mouth again and Carter looked away uncomfortably.

"What does your father do, Dr. Lewis?" Gallant asked.

"He's a test pilot for Barcalounger." She said sardonically. "He's trying to get his Cholesterol level above 400." When he asked her if he ws succeeding she gave a dry, "Yes."

"What about your father, Dr. Kovac?" Gallant asked turning to him.

"My father's a painter." Luka replied. "Not houses-Art. Abstracts mostly. He's good."

"Really?" Carter asked surprised.

"Not that he's ever made a living at it." Luka admitted. "He's a train conductor in Zagreb so that pays the bills."

"I didn't know that." Abby said.

"You never asked." Luka pointed out quietly. Gallant turned his attention to Abby who told him she had absolutely no idea what her father was doing.

"What about your father, Dr. Knight? What's he do?" Gallant asked Lucy who was now sitting on the edge of the table at the front, her legs swinging slowly over the edge.

"My father...uh..." Carter turned to look at her as Lucy hesitated to anwser. "...He, uh...oh, hell." She cursed before anwsering quickly. "I don't who my father is." Everyone looked at her with a little pity, all of them, even Carter, gave her that same look from when she was in a wheelchair. "My mom got pregnant with me and he ditched her, and thank you for bringing up the subject." She said rudely hopping off the table and going to her bag. As Lucy rumaged through it, Abby lowered her head and played with her fingers. She didn't know what her father did but at least she knew who he was. Lucy groaned as she pulled out her last cigarette and as she was about to light up, Gallant stopped her as he'd done Abby earlier. "Doesn't matter." She said flipping it around her fingers. "I'm trying to quit anyway. Cold turkey. Lots of fun." She added sarcastically, sitting down again. After she finished, Gallant moved on to Carter who told him that his dad managed several of his family's investment funds.

"Carter's loaded." Susan told Gallant. "Think Bill Gates."

"Not that rich." Carter said uncomfortably shaking his head. Abby tried to guess how much Carter's family was worth, but Carter claimed he didn't know. Abby continued to make guesses, going higher and higher, but Carter wouldn't, or couldn't, say.

"How'd you get to be 31 without some girl marrying you?" Abby asked causing Carter to laugh.

"We come with a built-in gold digger alarm. My grandmother installs them at birth." He joked about Gamma.

"And I haven't set it off?" Susan asks sardonically with shock. Carter just shook his head.

"Everybody assumes that when you grow up with money everything's great."

"It must have been hard growing up in the mansion." Susan teased. "Was Gamma too cheap to heat the pool?" Carter looks at her steadily.

"Money isn't everything, Susan." He said almost sounding honorable.

"That's easy for you to say." She replied rudely causing Susan and Abby to laugh, followed by them acting like snotty rich people making snide remarks.

"Hey, I didn't ask to be born into this." Carter said defensively.

"We never had much." Luka put in quietly. "We always struggled, but we were happy." Susan said it was the same for her.

"I always had everything I needed-presents at Christmas, clothing, food." She added.

"It was harder for me." Lucy said quietly like Luka had, looking at the gorund and playing with her hands. "My mom didn't really have a steady job since she didn't go to college." When Abby asked her why she didn't go Abby gave her a knowing look. "I came into her life and screwed it up, that's why. The only reason I was able to have a roof over my head, clothes on my back and school was because my grandparents helped us out. They didn't have a lot of money, but it was certainly more than my mother and I had." Just then a woman came in to tell them Dr. Taylor, who would be running the Seminar, was having car trouble because of the snow but he asked them to wait for him.

"Great." Carter said as he settled back into his chair.

Chapter 7: Secrets, Lies and Mischeif Pt. 4

Preview: Still later that morning...