Hide and Seek
Part 6
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season 6
Disclaimer: ER and all its characters belong to Warner Bros., NBC etc and no
infringement of their copyright is intended.
----------------------------------------------
When the van hit the water Carter again felt himself being flung hard against the metal backing of the van's seats and cursed loudly as his injured side started to throb twice as much. He didn't know which was worse, the pain from his shoulder and chest or the pain radiating from his previous back injury; they both seemed to be fighting for his attention.
As the doctor slowly eased himself upwards he got his first horrifying glimpse of the water gushing in from underneath the dashboard. The speed with which it was flooding in terrified him and he helplessly struggled hard against his bonds in response.
Out of the corner of his eye Carter vaguely observed Smith fighting to open his door, powerfully slamming his body into it time and time again until it finally gave in and opened. He could only watch enviously at the ease with which his captor was able to escape, and only wished it could be that simple for him.
The doctor grimly smiled as he witnessed the terrible situation he was ironically now in: he had got what he wanted – Smith had finally left him alone and in every sense of the word as there was no-one to hear or help him.
He somehow struggled forward and positioned his body next to the side of the seat. The only way out available to him was Smith's exit route as the van's side and back doors were locked tight.
After some considerable wriggling the doctor was able to force his right leg through the space between the seats and tried desperately to stretch the rest of his body through as well. He noticed that the pain in his chest had begun to increase but he tried hard to ignore it, focusing on getting out of the damn van instead. He didn't have time to worry about what injuries he had sustained because the icy water was pouring in at a considerable rate and was beginning to creep up his legs and soak through his thin layer of clothing.
The young doctor slowly edged himself through, fighting to overcome the sudden onset of shivering. As he took deep breaths to curb his pain he noticed that he could see his breath in front of him and it increased his fear; he needed to get out of the van before hypothermia prevented him from doing so. However as he leaned forward, his left foot got caught on something underneath the seat, and after a moment he was horrified to realise that it was stuck fast.
Carter attempted to pull his leg out but felt immense dismay when it wouldn't budge. He couldn't even see what was trapping him, as the darkness had become as impenetrable as the silence. The water was now climbing past his neck and the doctor started to flail his body round helplessly as panic took over. He could feel a vague sense of numbness starting to climb up from his legs and the edge of his vision was beginning to get a little woozy.
*I'm dead….Oh God I'm dead……..This is it…….I don't want to die!*
He opened his mouth to cry out but before he had any chance the freezing water gushed over his head, silencing his screams.
----------------------------------------------------
On the busy highway Peter Benton again changed lanes in a frantic attempt to locate the blue van. He could not understand it; one minute it was a few cars in front of him rounding a corner and then the next minute it had vanished. The surgeon hit the steering wheel in frustration as he glanced through his side window. It was baffling; there were no exit points, no service stations, nothing. There was absolutely nowhere they could have gone.
Benton carefully edged his car to the side of his lane and craned his neck hard to the left in an attempt to see round the lorry in front of him, hoping against hope that the van was in front of it and that was the only reason why he couldn't see it. He was scared now, utterly scared. He was Carter's only way out of this horrifying situation and if he blew it then quite possibly his only friend would die. He had seen the look on the guy's face when he had tackled Carter in the car park and knew that the man had lost it. For some reason the guy had gone over the edge and wanted to hurt Carter. Now the surgeon was involved too and the pressure on him was astronomical. He wasn't sure if he was more scared of Carter's situation or the fact that his friend's life was in his hands.
"Where the hell are you man?" Benton muttered as he stared at the empty lane in front of the lorry. However as he switched his car back to the far lane the truth suddenly hit him hard. Benton felt his body go cold when his searching eyes suddenly stopped on the twisted remains of what was once a section of the safety barrier; a barrier separating the road from the river.
"Oh God no, please no!"
The surgeon frantically pulled the car up on the side of the road, angrily ignoring the irate blast of horns from the drivers speeding past him. He didn't care what they thought of him; his mind was firmly focused on only one thing.
He ran as fast as he could to the edge of the embankment and was annoyed when he saw that he would have make his way down gingerly at a pace not suited to an adrenaline pumped surgeon.
Once at the bottom though he wildly started searching for any signs of his friend. There were deep tire tracks right up to the edge of the river and Benton swallowed hard not wanting to believe the truth in front of him. He furiously yelled out Carter's name over and over but all that greeted him was a deadly silence.
"C'mon man don't do this to me!!"
As Benton desperately paced along the riverbank he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and his breath was coming out much too rapidly. He knew that if the van had gone under Carter would not have much time, especially with the freezing cold temperature of the water.
Realising what he had to do he raced back to his car and grabbed his torch and penknife from the glove compartment, putting them securely in his trouser pocket. The surgeon then ran back to the river and, after removing his coat and shoes, started to wade in, forcing himself to ignore the coldness seeping through his clothes. When he reached the spot where he thought the van had gone down he switched on his torch, took three deep breaths and then dived under water, mentally telling his friend to hang on.
Although the water was quite murky the torch greatly improved his range of vision. As he swept it from side to side. Benton furiously searched in any direction he could for the van and, after a few minutes, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief when he spotted the front section a few metres ahead of him. He quickly swam back to the surface, took another deep breath and then dived back down again to the van.
The older doctor felt along the side panel until he reached the driver's door and felt little surprise when he found it open. He didn't care where Carter's captor had gone he just wanted to get his friend out. As he headed inside and peered around to the rear section he was absolutely stunned to see Carter's lifeless form at the head of the van and almost dropped his torch. He could feel his body go numb as he took in the horrible sight of his friend.
*Oh God no!* The surgeon mentally screamed, trying to force his limbs out of their paralysis.
After a moments hesitation he hastily grabbed his former student's shirt and tried to pull him out, however he was enraged to find that Carter's leg seemed to be stuck in some way underneath the driver's seat.
Benton quickly bent down and grabbed Carter's foot, twisting it to the right to free it from the entangled seatbelt. He then grabbed Carter again and pulled him out. The surgeon was running out of oxygen fast and was desperate to take a long, cool breath of air. He folded his arm around his friend's neck and swiftly swam back to the surface where he forced air into his begging lungs. He then frantically swam to shore pulling Carter with him.
When the two doctors reached the shoreline Benton immediately cut the rope from around his former student's hands with his penknife and then checked his friend's prone form, feeling relief when he found a very faint pulse.
*He's alive, he's gonna be ok. *
Panic took him over however when he discovered that his friend wasn't breathing.
"Oh no, you're not gonna to do this to me man!"
Benton positioned Carter on his side so that his tongue fell forward and any water was drained from his mouth. His airway seemed to be clear so the surgeon carefully placed his friend onto his back and started mouth to mouth. As he gave Carter breath after shuddering breath he willed life into his friend's cold still body.
*You are not gonna die on me man, do you hear me? You are not gonna die!!*
As the surgeon continued to breathe for his friend he heard sirens approaching from the highway and was ecstatic to see the familiar form of a policeman come running down the embankment towards him. He hadn't even thought about how he was going to contact the emergency services. His whole body had just screamed to save his friend.
"Hey are you ok? We got a report of a……………oh man……..I'll radio for an ambulance stat."
The cop took another worried glance at Carter and then hastily turned back to the embankment.
"Hurry! He doesn't have much time!" Benton yelled as the man fleeted back to his patrol car.
As the surgeon repeatedly forced air into his former student's lungs, he felt so much anguish in his chest. Why do bad things always happen to good people? Carter was one of the best and yet in the space of a year his life had been put into jeopardy twice.
*And I've almost lost my friend twice*
A flood of emotions engulfed Benton as he thought of his friend dying, and he latched onto the most familiar of them: anger. If he ever laid eyes on that bastard who did this to Carter he would seriously make him pay for what he had done. It wasn't right that Carter was lying here injured, possibly dying while his tormentor was running free.
A sudden fit of coughing brought Benton back to reality and he sighed with relief when he saw his friend spluttering up the remains of the water that he had swallowed.
The surgeon placed his hand on Carter's shoulder trying to comfort him.
"Hey man how you doing? It's gonna be ok, you hear me? You're safe now, no one's gonna hurt you."
Carter slowly opened his eyes and, after shaking his head to try and get rid of his wooziness, was surprised to find himself on the riverbank with an extremely happy looking Dr Benton hovering over him.
"Arrre… you acc..tttua..lly sssss….miling DDDr Ben….ton?!" He managed to stutter out.
"Yeah well don't get used to it Carter, and don't you tell anyone about it either, alright?" The surgeon muttered, unsuccessfully trying to turn his relieved smile into his trademark frown.
Carter managed a faint grimace. "I'm sssssoooooo…. colddddd." He slurred as he attempted to wrap his arms around himself in an effort to get warm.
"Carter man stay still ok, I'll get my coat." Benton quickly ran and picked up his coat from where he had left it earlier. He hastily raced back to his friend's side and wrapped the article of clothing around him tightly in an effort to keep his friend warm and prevent him from moving.
"Carter stop shifting around ok, your core temperature is extremely low and muscular activity will only pump cold peripheral blood into your central circulation making it even lower, now stop the hell wriggling or I'll tie you back up myself!"
Seeing the look on his mentor's face made Carter freeze even more than the cold. One never disobeyed Peter Benton.
"Are you hurt anywhere Carter? Any pain at all?"
"NNNah……fffine."
"Don't lie to me man, that head injury alone must sting a bit."
"FFFeeeel …..fffffine."
"Carter……."
But before Benton could check his friend over the sound of ambulance sirens distracted him and he looked up to see two paramedics unloading a backboard and blankets and then start rushing down the embankment with them to meet the pair.
The surgeon stood up and introduced himself and his patient and rattled off Carter's condition.
"I'm Doctor Benton, this is Dr Carter. He was underwater for about five minutes, loss of consciousness and respiration. I started mouth to mouth and he responded after about another five minutes. He hadn't complained of any pain or injuries however I think that is because he is hypothermic. He does appear to have sustained a head injury though."
The surgeon took his coat off Carter and replaced it with the thicker blankets. He then wrapped his coat firmly around his own cold body.
"Thank you Dr Benton, we've got it from here. Are you ok?" The paramedic queried as they carefully loaded Carter onto the backboard and began slowly making their way up the embankment.
Benton looked at the man for a moment baffled before answering.
"Yeah I'm fine. Look you need to stabilise his core temperature and prevent further heat loss!" Benton yelled at them gruffly, not wanting to give full control over to the paramedics. After all this was "his" friend.
"Don't worry, he's in good hands."
"He will be if I stay with him." The surgeon glared at the paramedic as they finally reached the ambulance. He quickly jumped into the back and help them load Carter in.
"Fine." The younger man wearily replied as he closed the doors. It had been along night and he wasn't up to arguing. He made sure Carter was secure then warned his friend to take it easy driving.
"No sudden jolts ok?"
--------------------------------------------------
As Benton watched the paramedic start to administer an I.V and attach a pulse ox clip to Carter's finger, he clasped his hands together in order to stop them shaking. Worry was coursing through him as he took in Carter's extremely pale features. He knew from his own experience that the water had been practically freezing, and with Carter's thin layer of clothing and whatever injuries he had sustained (his friend's chest alone looked sore and tender), they needed to have been at hospital ten minutes ago.
The surgeon angrily viewed the heart monitor above his friend's head and sighed when he took in the low heart rate and blood pressure. He reached down and grasped Carter's hand into his own, wincing slightly at how cold it was.
"Carter man you hang on, do you hear me? Don't give up, you stay with me ok?!"
He was about to go on when he suddenly felt the ambulance slam forward and fearfully saw Carter's gurney shudder hard from the movement.
The paramedic sitting next to him angrily yelled at the front compartment and, as the driver responded with something about an idiot driver and a Porsche, Benton observed the heart monitor suddenly start to beep, and not in a good way.
