Lost

Carter woke up three hours after he had fallen asleep in the chair. He looked around the room, Abby was sitting flipping through a magazine not that far from where he was sitting.

"Did you have a nice nap?" She asks him looking up over the top of the magazine.

"Yeah," Carter replied back stretching as he tried to get the kinks out from sleeping awkwardly in the chair.

"That's good." Abby replies back, "you needed it."

"Says you." Carter bantered back trying to keep the conversation between them light for a few seconds.

"Yeah says me." Abby gives him a small smile, "you were pretty tired there and I knew a nap wasn't going to hurt you."

"Any news?" Carter had to ask.

Abby solemnly shook her head, "sorry nothing yet." She gave him a soft look now feeling for him, "he's still in a coma."

Carter looked down now, "has Helen come up with the girls?"

"The stopped by for a few minutes. She thought that it might be good for the girls to see that their dad was, well not okay but still alive." Abby paused for a minute, "they didn't' stay long they were all pretty tired. I told Helen that I would call them if he woke up and wanted to see the girls."

"I'm sure he will want to see them when he wakes up." Carter said now standing up from the chair.

Abby looked at him for a minute, "I'm sure that he will too, but there was no need for them all to be sitting around here sleeping in chairs. As much as I hate to say it or even think it, we don't' know how long he's going to be out. The girls should be at home in their own beds after the shock of today."

"Yeah you're right." Carter said as he started to walk down the hallway, "I'm just going to go check on him again."

Abby stood up and followed him. She knew that he was going to go back into his vigil again. Not wanting for Doug to get the bad news alone.

Carter pushed the door to the room open and crossed over. His eyes falling onto the monitors that were connected to Doug. He was holding his own and doing okay. He just hadn't woken up yet. It should just be a matter of time and that would happen, but the waiting game was starting to wear on Carter even though he had taken a nap.

Then there it was a flutter of movement from Doug's eye lids. As if they were trying to open but someone was holding them shut. Carter went over to the side of the bed and picked Doug's hand up into his.

"Doug," Carter said, "if you can hear me squeeze my hand." Carter waited and watched there was no moment in the hand that he was holding onto. "Doug, come on squeeze my hand." Carter waited surely he would do it, but there was no response from Doug. The hand remained motionless.

Carter was nervous surely he had seen Doug's eyes move. He tried to keep his mind from going to that point where Doug was seriously injured worse than what they had originally thought. The x-rays didn't show any spinal damage that he knew about, but then there might have been more to this than that. Maybe Doug just wasn't all the way awake enough to hear him or he was on the wrong side, he moved around to the other side of the bed where Abby was standing. "Doug," he said as he picked up the right hand. "Squeeze my hand." He commanded.

There it was, a small movement, but it was enough to encourage Carter, Doug was still in there and he was waking up heading for the land of the living. Carter looked over at Abby now with a hint of a smile on his face, yet sadness in his eyes. "He moved."

"That's good." Abby said looking down at the battered body on the bed. It was a miracle that he hadn't been killed in the accident. But the brunt of the damage had been to the other side of the car. However Abby was thrilled that he had moved, it was a good sign that he was indeed still with them.

They stood there watching and waiting now, it would probably take Doug awhile to wake up all the way and Carter was still concerned about the lack of moment on the left side of Doug's body. There were a few things that it could have been and time was the only thing that would let them know what was wrong with him.

Carter just sat there waiting in the room now, Abby had gone. She said that he needed to eat and that she was going to go and get him something so that he didn't have to leave. She wouldn't have been able to get him to leave if she had tried to physically pull him out of the room, and that was something that she knew.

The hands on the clock seemed to have stopped moving now as time passed ever so slowly, ten minutes finally became fifteen, turning into thirty and finally an hour. He had never seen time pass so slowly before. Part of it was because he desperately wanted to make sure that Doug was alright and that they hadn't lost two friends because of some idiot.

Carter looked over at Doug now, his eyes were fluttering. Doug was either trying to wake up or he was having a dream. The monitors didn't show any signs of distress so he had to have been trying to wake up.

Doug's eyes finally make it all the way open and he's lying there looking over at Carter with an almost blank expression on his face as if he's not fully sure of where he is at. He looks almost as if he is lost in a way.

"Hey Doug," Carter says looking down at his friend, "you are in the SICU at County." He starts to tell him a little more about the situation hoping that it would put Doug a little more at ease. "You were in a car accident on your way in tonight down in the bay."

Doug looks at Carter his eyes changing from the look of being lost to a look of hurt and sadness as if with out Carter telling him about the events of earlier he already knew where this conversation was going. Doug looked up at Carter with wide eyes, eyes that held sadness, hurt, confusion and a grief that could not be described with words. "Carol."