We Used To Be Friends
Chapter Eight
A/N: Sorry for the delay. Thanks for the reviews!I've includeda littlebit of medical dialogue in this chapter, but I'm not a doctor. Soif I'vemade a medical mistake, I'm sorry. Enjoy!
Lucy sat on the corner of her bed. It was 3:04. Since she didn't have to be at work until seven, she should have still been sleeping. But instead, she was sitting on the edge of her bed rattled by her latest dream about Carter. Sighing, she knew that she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. So she got up and went to take a cold shower, trying to get her latest dream out of her head.
Carter saw Lucy walk past the supply room and called out to her. "Lucy! Can you come here for a minute?"
Lucy turned and smiled when she saw him. Immediately, she made her way into the small supply room. "Sure Carter. What do you want?"
He looked at her for a moment. Her usual ponytail was a little disheveled from the hard days work they had gone through, but even though she had to have been tired, she still kept that energetic smile on her face. He leaned in closer to her, cupping her face in his hands. "I want you." He whispered before laying a passionate kiss on her lips. When he finally pulled away from her, he noticed that she was smiling seductively at him.
She smiled at him, trying to catch her breath from the long kiss that he initiated. "I want you too." She whispered, putting her hand on the back of his neck and bringing him back down for another kiss. This time, she pulled away from him and turned to close the door to the supply room.
When she turned back around to face him, he smiled and kissed her. While they were kissing, he started taking off her lab coat.
Once Carter had taken off her lab coat, she returned the favor and took his off for him. Then she backed him against the wall, deepening their kisses.
Carter's eyes jerked open and he sat up in his bed. "It was just a dream." He told the empty room, not sure who he was trying to convince. "It doesn't mean anything, right?" He looked over at the clock on his nightstand. 3:04 a.m. He didn't have to be at work until seven, but he knew that he might as well get up now because he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anyway.
Lucy emerged from her bedroom dressed for work. When she entered the kitchen, she saw that Shelby was sitting at the table drinking coffee. "Why are you up at this hour?" She asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee and reaching for the cereal.
Shelby looked over at Lucy. "Dave had to go to work early, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Plus I had a weird dream about spiders attacking my head."
Lucy sat down across from her. She poured the cereal into a bowl. Shelby had always been very afraid of spiders, so Lucy knew that she had to have been a little upset from her dream. "What kind of spiders were they?"
"They were big black spiders. It was a weird dream." Shelby replied, shaking her head as she tried to dispel the image of the spiders from her mind.
"Well I had a weird dream last night too."
"What about?" Shelby asked, wanting to get off the topic of spiders.
Lucy berated herself for bringing the subject up. Now she had to tell Shelby that she was dreaming about Carter. "Promise not to laugh or make more of it than it really is?"
"Oh, well if you're making me promise that, then it must be juicy. Do tell!" Shelby smiled.
Lucy's eyes narrowed. "Promise me?"
"Alright." She rolled her eyes. "I promise. Now will you tell me?"
"Ok. I was walking past the supply room at work, and Carter was in there. He asked me to come in, and I did. Then he kissed me, and I kissed him." Lucy explained.
"That's it?" Shelby asked, a little disappointed.
She paused for a moment. "Well, yeah. Why? What were you expecting?"
"I don't know. I just thought that maybe it would have been a little more scandalous than just a kiss." Shelby replied.
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint." Lucy laughed.
"Want to know my opinion on your dream?" She asked after a few moments of silence.
"I have a feeling that I'll be hearing your opinion even if I say no. So sure! What do you think my dream means?"
"I think you dream is acting out the unresolved issues from last night's 'date'." Shelby explained.
"It wasn't a date!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Ok, fine. Then it was acting out the unresolved issues from last night's dinner." She took a drink of her coffee, and then continued. "It makes perfect sense. Last night, you wanted to kiss him. You may or may not have been aware of it. That's why dreams are so interesting. They show you what's really on your mind."
Deep inside, Lucy knew that Shelby was right. She had wanted to kiss him last night. But the more she thought about it, the more she thought it would be a bad idea. It could totally ruin their friendship—the exact same friendship that they just recently got back. They had already wasted twelve years of their lives not being friends. What if she kissed him and he wasn't interested? She'd be humiliated again. Or what if she kissed him and he was interested? What if they started dating and then broke up? She wasn't sure that the kind of friendship they have right now could survive a breakup.
"So am I right? Do you want to kiss him?" Shelby asked, already knowing that the answer was yes. She was just trying to get Lucy to admit to it.
Lucy looked over at Shelby and decided to lie. "No, I don't." She picked up her cereal and coffee cup before leaving the kitchen.
"I know you're lying!" Shelby yelled after her. She sighed, wondering if Lucy and Carter would ever admit to their feelings.
Later that day, Carter walked into an exam room holding a patients' chart. "Hello Miss Sanders. How are you feeling?"
"Horrible." The woman replied breathlessly.
He nodded and took a look at the chart. "It says that you are experiencing abdominal pain."
"Uh-huh. I can't eat and the pain keeps getting worse." She grabbed her abdomen and closed her eyes, wishing away the pain.
"How long had this pain been going on?"
"About ten hours." She replied. "I thought it would eventually pass, but it hasn't. That's why I came in."
He walked over to her bed. "Ok. I'm going to lightly press on your abdomen and I want you to tell me if it hurts. If it does hurt, I want you to tell me how much on a scale from 1 to 10. Ok?"
"Ok." She nodded. "That's definitely a nine."
He started to lightly press on her and she screamed out. "Ok, so it hurts right here?"
"Yes!"
"Ok. Is there any way that you could be pregnant?"
She looked at him strangely. "No."
He thought about it for a moment. "Have you ever had your appendix out?" Carter asked.
"Nope." She replied.
"Ok. I will be back in one minute." He took her chart and left to go find Dr. Greene. "Hey Dr. Greene? Do you have a moment to come check on my patient?"
Mark finished writing something down in a chart and then looked up. "Sure. Where is she and what's wrong with her?"
"She's in exam three. She is experiencing severe abdominal pain. I asked if she could be pregnant, but she denies it. So I was thinking appendicitis." Carter explained as they entered the room.
Mark nodded and then turned his attention to Miss Sanders. "Miss Sanders, I'm Dr. Greene. I'm going to press on your abdomen for a moment, ok?"
"But that doctor already did that!" She exclaimed, pointing to Carter.
"He is my med student. I need to double check his diagnosis." Mark explained.
"You mean I wasn't even being seen by a real doctor?" She asked.
"He is perfectly qualified to treat you." Mark explained, starting to press on her abdomen.
"Ouch! Like I told him, that hurts!" Miss Sanders yelled.
"So Carter, what do you want to do?" Mark asked, looking at his student.
"Full chem. panel and an ultrasound." Carter replied.
"I agree." Mark nodded. Then he turned back to Miss Sanders. "We're going to send in a nurse to take some blood for a few tests. Then we're going to do an ultrasound to see what's causing the pain. Ok?"
"Anything to stop the pain." She replied.
"Ok." Mark nodded, ushering Carter out of the room. "I'm pretty sure that it's her appendix also. But we'll need to get an ultrasound to confirm it. If the ultrasound does confirm it like I think it will, find me and I'll sign the order for an appendectomy."
"Sure." Carter replied. He walked over to the admit desk. "Chuni, can you please take some blood from Miss Sanders in exam three for me and get an ultrasound set up?"
"Yeah, sure." Chuni nodded, taking the chart from him.
He looked to his left and saw Lucy standing next to him. She was busy writing notes in a patients' chart. He was feeling a little nervous around her because of the dream he had. "Hello."
Lucy looked up and smiled. She was a little nervous around him because of the dream she had. "Hi."
"How's your day going?" He asked.
"Busy." She replied. "I haven't had a break in hours. I haven't even gotten lunch yet."
"Neither have I." He sighed, realizing that it was almost two in the afternoon. "I am getting hungry. Wanna join me for lunch? I need to take care of a patient first, but after that?"
"Sure. I guess I can wait a little longer for lunch." She nodded.
"Great. Then I'll come find you when I'm done." He smiled at her and then left to go do the ultrasound in exam three.
As he looked at the ultrasound he was doing on Miss Sanders, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Her appendix was nearly triple the size it should be. She needed surgery immediately. He quickly turned off the ultrasound and looked up at Chuni, who was in the room. "Can you go get Dr. Greene for me?"
Chuni nodded and left the room.
"So what's wrong with me?"
"It looks like you have a bad case of appendicitis. You're going to need immediate surgery to remove your appendix." Carter replied.
"Surgery?" She exclaimed.
Mark came into the room. "Were the results what we thought they would be?"
"Yes. It is definitely appendicitis." Carter nodded.
"Ok." Mark signed the chart and then handed it back to Carter. "Call up and book an OR, and good job Carter." He then left the room.
"Thanks." Carter replied, walking over to the phone to call for an OR.
Twenty minutes later, he was sitting at Doc Magoo's with Lucy. He was telling her about his appendicitis case. "So she's up in surgery right now."
"Good job." She smiled. "Given the fact that her appendix was so swollen, you've probably saved her life."
He shook his head, not wanting to brag about that kind of thing. He was just trying to do his job. "It feels good to help people, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. It does." She laughed. "Helping just one person a day makes it worthwhile to go med school for years and spend way too much money on college."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." She nodded.
"Why did you become a doctor? I mean you know why I became a doctor."
"Yeah. It was because of Bobby."
"Exactly. But you always laughed at me when I said I would be a doctor." He chuckled, recalling the past. "I never expected you to be interested in medicine. So what changed your mind about it?"
"I bet you'd love for me to say that it was all because of you," she smiled, "but it wasn't. My aunt died of lung cancer when I was thirteen. There was no way that she was really going to survive. The cancer had spread to the rest of her body. But the doctors never gave up on her. I would watch them try to different treatments and be encouraging. I guess it just made me want to be able to help others."
"I'm sorry about your aunt. She was a nice lady."
"Yeah, she was." Lucy replied, wanting to talk about something more pleasant than death.
He could see that she didn't want to talk about it anymore, so he decided to change the subject. He took a good look at her. She looked worn out, like she hadn't been getting enough sleep. "You look tired. Not sleeping well?"
She looked up at him. It was odd how well he knew her. "I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately." She explained, hoping that he didn't ask her what they were about. She didn't really want to tell him that she was dreaming about him.
"Nightmares?" He asked.
"No, not nightmares." Lucy shook her head.
"What are they about?" He asked out of curiosity.
Oh no. What am I going to tell him? "I don't remember the whole dream—just bits and pieces. But they are definitely weird dreams."
"Well I know the feeling." He nodded. "I've been having some pretty weird dreams lately too."
"So what are your dreams about?" she asked out of curiosity.
What am I going to tell her? I definitely can't tell her that they are all about her. That would probably freak her out. "I don't remember the dreams either." He lied.
She looked at her watch. "We should get back to work."
"Yeah." He nodded as they got up and walked out of Doc Magoos. Suddenly, Lucy started laughing. He looked over at her. "What's so funny?"
Lucy looked over at him. "Wouldn't it be funny if we were having the same weird dreams?"
He laughed at her comment. "Yeah it would be. But I doubt it. My dreams are quite strange." The dreams were good, but they were strange. He had never thought about Lucy in a romantic kind of way until these dreams started.
She nodded. Her dreams about him were odd too. "You're probably right. There's no way we're dreaming the same thing." Although it would be wonderful if we were sharing dreams. As they walked back into the hospital together neither knew that they were, indeed, sharing the same dreams.