NaomiP - Thank you for the advice about my ratings. I promise I will change the rating with the posting of this chapter. Anabel is rich, but a lot like John Carter, she wants to make her own way in this world. Her parents just gave her some starting out money, basically. And she doesn't work six hours a day. She works at least 8 hours, just like everyone else. She goes in around 7 every morning that she works, so that way she can get off by around 3. (The twins get up and go to their summer rec. program.) Thank you for your review. If you still have questions, don't be afraid to ask. I will gladly try answer them for you.
Jess - Thank you for your review. I promise to have the third chapter up by Tuesday, the 29th. I'm glad that you are proud to review my work, but you were not the first one. NaomiP was the first.
Katie -I will write more. The third chapter will by up by/on Tuesday, the 29th. Anabel Walker is my own fictional character from Baton Rogue, Louisiana, and has, obviously, never been in a single episode of ER. I'm sorry for the confusion. Thank you for the review.
ShastenRothe- I promise I will update soon. I'm glad that you find it interesting. Thank you for your review.
Charmed huni - I'm glad that you like my story. Thank you for the review.
MG - I'm glad that you think the story is great. I promise to update really soon.
CHAPTER 2: AUGUST
Summary:
Ray hopes for a first date, which then leads to a fight.
August 3, 2004
Anabel has been working at County General for about a week now, and each new day has been more exciting, yet confusing, than the previous one. But, despite the excitement, she is relieved when her shifts end, (they usually end around 3 or 4.) And when she gets home, Tobias and Logan always wanted to know about the trauma's that came in.
Today was no different. Anabel couldn't wait for her shift to end at 3:30, despite the excitement of 5 traumas. But, unfortunately, the clock seemed to be broken, because it said it was only 1:00. And on top of that, Ray Barnett kept trying to make conversation with her, (which, in her opinion, was not something he was very good at.)
She could hear the sirens in the distance and waited at the admit desk for her next trauma.
"18 year old male, gunshot wounds to the neck, shoulder and abdomen, BP's 90 over 60, pulse is thready," said the paramedic as they charged through the Ambulance Bay doors.
Anabel went over to the gurney to see that the bandages were soaked through with blood. She applied pressure to his neck wound as the gurney was wheeled into Trauma 1.
Pratt, Sam and Luka were in the trauma room a moment later, and Sam went to work helping Anabel getting the John Doe hooked up to the machines.
"Order 2 liters of O neg," Luka ordered Sam, but at that moment, they lost the sinus rhythm.
"Get the paddles," Luka ordered and Pratt wheeled them over.
"Charging 200, clear," Pratt said.
Still a flat line.
"Charging 250, clear," Pratt said.
Still a flat line.
"Last time. Charging 300, clear," Pratt ordered.
Still flat line.
"Anabel?" Luka asked, wanting her to check for a pulse.
She put her fingers up to his jugular, and shook her head.
"I'm calling it. Time of death 13:16," Luka said.
With that, Anabel left the room, leaving Sam, Pratt and Luka alone.
She walked over to the admit desk and wished that this day would hurry up and get over with.
The one thing that didn't make her feel better was the fact that Ray had strolled up to her again and was leaning on the admit desk.
"Lost a patient?" Ray guessed.
"Yeah," Anabel said quietly.
"It's always tough, but you can't save them all," Ray said, trying to be comforting.
Anabel smiled at his attempt to comfort her.
"Yeah, I know," she said.
"So do you wanna go out for that coffee yet? Or are you still going to tell me no?" Ray asked.
"No." Anabel replied.
"No…what? No to the coffee, or no to you turning me down?" Ray asked hopefully.
"No to the coffee. And a snowball will roll through Hell intact before I go out on a date with you."
"Ouch. Why do you keep trying to tell yourself that you're not attracted to me. It's not healthy." Ray asks.
"Yeah, neither are your delusions of grandeur." She states back as she picks up a chart and walks towards curtain 1.
The day is finally over for Anabel, even if it is 15 minutes late.
"I'm off!" she called to Kerry, who just waved at her.
Anabel walks out of the ER and past Ray, who is waiting on a trauma.
"Anabel!" Ray calls out to her.
She keeps walking, as if she doesn't even hear him.
Anabel sighed as she opened the door to her apartment 30 minutes laterand let Logan and Tobias in first. The twins immediately started with their normal routine that they had settled into since the move.
They dropped their bags that they took to summer rec. by the closet and ran towards the living room. After they got to the living room, Anabel would go in tell them to go to their room and change out of their clothes and get in the bath. They would whine and complain about not needing a bath, but they would do it once they saw the look in their mother's eye. Once their bath was over, which would only take about 10 minutes total, they would rush out to the living room again and watch their favorite TV shows, (which was a tie between X-Men, Spiderman, Batman and Superman.) Today was no different.
Logan and Tobias ran to the living room, turned on the TV, and then sat down. Luckily, X-Men wasn't on yet, so now was a perfect time to get them to get a bath and wash all the chlorine off from the pool.
Anabel locked the door to the apartment and went into the living room and stood in front of the TV.
"All right, you two. Bath, now. And then you can watch TV," she said.
"Aww, mom! We don't need a bath, we just got out of a pool!" Logan cried.
"Yeah!" Tobias agreed.
She gave them the look that said, Don't argue with me, just do what I tell you to do, and with that they got up and went to their room to get clothes for the shower.
As soon as they left, the telephone rang, she went to the kitchen to get the portable phone.
"Hello?" she asked into the phone.
"Hey, how's my favorite little sister doin'?" the voice on the other side of the line said.
"Oh my god! Joey?" she asked as she sat down on the couch.
"Yeah, it's me! How you doin'?" he asked.
"Doin' great! I finally got into a steady work pattern here in Chicago, and Logan and Tobias seemed to have adjusted well. So, all in all, it's ok. What about you? How's your dig goin' in Arizona?" Anabel asked. Joey's a paleontologist.
"It's good. Right now, we are digging up a veloco-raptor. And I'm writing a paper on them for the people who are sponsoring this dig. I hope they like it, because, as you know, English and essay's was never my strong point," Joey said.
"You're right. That was always Eric's thing," Anabel laughed. Eric is their brother, and is a linguist, and worked for the government in Washington DC.
"That's true," he laughed too. "So what are you doing in Chicago of all places?"
"Well, I graduated from med-school, and I need 5 years of residency. County General in Chicago was the only people that would let me off around 3 without an explanation as to why. So I put in for a position in the ER at County and here I am." Anabel said with a smile.
"That's great. I'm happy that you graduated from med-school. Now we got 6 doctors in the family, but only two that actually treat sick people," Joey joked.
Joey was right, though. Out of their family of 8 children, Anabel was the youngest and Joey was 3rd oldest. Their brother Chris was the oldest. He's 40 and a Marine, currently stationed in Iraq. Then came Mary, whom everybody called Mary Jane because her middle name was Jane. She's 38 and a lawyer with her own law firm in Boston. Then Joey, the 35 year-old paleontologist. Joey was the first one out the siblings to get a PhD in his chosen profession. Then came Matt. He's 31 and a pediatrician. Matt got his MD almost 5 years ago, and just started his own practice. Then there's the twins, Savannah and Georgia. Savannah, whom everybody called "Savvy," was 29, with a PhD in Languages. She's an Oriental Diplomat, currently on assignment in Japan. Georgia got her MD in dentistry, who is currently on her 3rd year of residency in San Antonio. Finally came Eric, whose 27, barely 14 months older than she is. Eric also got his PhD in languages, but he's a linguist who lives in Washington DC.
As Anabel thought about Joey's last comment, she picked up a picture of her and her siblings off of the end table and looked over it. It was taken last Christmas, when Chris got leave from the Marines for a week. That was before he was shipped out on February 5 for Iraq. They all looked happy together, standing in a line, with wide smiles on each of their faces. Anabel smiled as she touched the picture and remembered.
"Yeah, well I had to make the family look good, you know." Anabel laughed.
"What are you doing? You sound kinda distracted," Joey said.
"I'm just looking at the picture of us at Christmas. Do you remember?" Anabel asked.
"Before Chris got shipped out. Yeah, that was a great Christmas," Joey said.
"Do you ever worry that he won't make it home?" Anabel asked.
"All the time," Joey answered truthfully.
Before Anabel could respond, Tobias and Logan ran out of their room and back into the living room.
"Oh, no! The gruesome twosome just came in!" Anabel laughed.
"I want to talk to them," Joey said with a smile.
"Logan, Tobias, come say hi to Uncle Joey," she said to them.
Tobias was the first one to Anabel and took the phone from her.
"Hi, Uncle Joey!" he said excitedly.
Anabel just smiled as Logan pouted. She picked up the non-portable phone and handed it to him.
"Uncle Joey!" Logan said happily.
The conversation went on for a while between the three of them until finally Tobias said, "Uncle Joey wants to talk to you, again," as he handed her the phone.
Anabel took both phones from the twins and hung up the non-portable phone. She put the portable phone to her ear and turned on "X-Men" for Logan and Tobias. They eagerly sat down to watch it.
Anabel, meanwhile, had gotten up and went into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
"So how's your music going?" Joey asked.
"Good, so far. I got a few new songs since last Christmas. I haven't really had a chance to work on them that much, just ideas really," she said.
"Well, I'm sure that they're great. You write from your heart, which is what a lot of people want to hear," Joey encouraged.
"Yeah, that's true. Or at least I hope it is," she said unsurely.
"Of course it is," he said.
There was a moment of silence.
"So, is there a guy in your life, yet?" he asked casually.
"JOEY! No! I mean, how many guys do you know that aren't going to run when he finds out that a woman has kids?" Anabel asked impatiently.
"That's true."
"Well, there is one guy that has asked me out for coffee a couple of times," Anabel admitted slowly.
"And what did you tell him?" he wanted to know.
"No."
"Just like that? A plain 'no?'"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because, I just don't like him that way," Anabel said.
"Yeah, right. I believe you, Pinocchio." Joey said.
"I'm not lying!" she said defensively.
"Yeah, you are," he said calmly.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah."
"And how would you know if I were?"
"By the sound of your voice just now. And plus, you only get really shy and quite when you talk about guys that you like."
At that moment, there was the sound of a crash and Tobias crying, so Anabel ran into the living room to see what was happening.
Anabel looked down to see her picture of her and her siblings laying on the ground broken and Tobias sitting on the floor holding his elbow.
"Joey, I gotta go," Anabel said with a sigh.
"Yeah, me too. Love you," Joey said.
"Love you. Bye," Anabel said.
"All right, what happened?"
August 15, 2004
Anabel was standing outside the ER looking through her bag. She had gotten off 10 minutes ago, and was ready to go home. But first she had to find her keys to her apartment.
At that moment, the Ambulance Bay doors opened and Ray Barnett walked outside.
"Hey," he said casually.
She looked up and said, just as casually, "Hi."
"Whatcha doin'?" Ray asked curiously.
"Looking for my keys," Anabel answered as she resumed her dig.
"Oh," Ray said uncertainly.
"Success!" she said triumphantly as she held her keys in her hand.
"I still wanna take you out for that coffee," Ray said from out-of-nowhere.
"I'm still going to tell you no." Anabel said as she looked him in the eyes.
"Why won't you go out with me?" Ray practically yelled.
"Because, I'm not some whore who just puts out for or goes out with anyone who tells her to. And that's precisely what you have made me feel like." Anabel yelled back.
"One date is not going to hurt anybody!" Ray said to her.
"Yes, it would." she replied. Ray looks confused by her remark for a second, but shrugs it off.
"Look, it's just coffee. That's it."
"Yeah, and you're hoping that coffee turns into sex at your place. I'm not stupid you know."
At that moment, Ray silenced Anabel by pulling her in tight to him and kissing her full on the lips. At first she struggled against him, but then stopped and wrapped her arms around his neck. After a few more moments of the hot kiss, Anabel pulled back easily.
"I have to go Ray," was all she said before she started towards her apartment, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Hope you liked it. R&R