Chapter 1
"Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way..."
Dr John Carter sat on a stool at the admin desk, his feet up on another stool, wearing his classic suit and lab coat. Candy cane in his mouth, as he had a stack of charts on his lap, catching up on some work. The ER was fairly quiet at the moment. Likely because it had been snowing really heavily the past week, and Chicago was at risk of being snowed in.
He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the ever present Christmas music coming from the stereo not ten feet away from him.
Yes it was December 4th and he got the need to spread Christmas cheer. But after the music started playing in November, Carter was slowly being drove insane. He hated Christmas, and he hated Christmas songs. There were so many reasons why he hated Christmas, all of them he didn't like to dwell on but the holiday season tortured him with. He dreaded it when it got closer to Christmas and was so relieved when the holiday was over. This Christmas felt like it was going to be the worst yet...
The candy canes weren't bad though.
He just wished he could shift this damn cold.
"Achoo." As if on cue he started a sneezing and coughing fit. Luckily, he was pretty much alone in the admin section as everyone else was either tending to their two patients, or playing some games in the hall, or sleeping.
Man, Carter wished he could sleep right now. But he had really got behind on signing off on his patient charts. Until today, the ER had been totally hectic, and he'd been working double shifts constantly looking after patients. This was the first day he got a break. He really wished he could sleep right now. He was exhausted.
Ever since his family cut off his money, (or he cut off from them), he'd been struggling. He had an RA (Resident Assistant) job at a local medical student university helping out, but then after a Halloween Party got out of hand he got fired. Now he had no place to live.
It didn't help not having enough money to get another apartment. That was the whole point of having a second job as an RA that came with an apartment. And well whilst he loved his ER doctor job, it didn't pay great. Now that he was actually getting paid.
So he was forced to get another job. Not what he wanted to do, but he had no choice. So now along with his double shifts here in the ER, he was working on his days and nights off at another medical campus cleaning. It sucked, but he had no other choice. He needed the money.
Soon he would be able to afford an apartment.
It just meant for the moment he was kind of living out of the hospital. Sleeping where and when he could, eating and showering here. He still had his car, and he'd considered sleeping in it a few times. But one, sleeping in the hospital parking lot, someone was bound to see him and find out. Two, he couldn't sleep on the streets, he'd end up waking up with a squatter, or find someone's stolen the car with him in it.
No else knew, and he wanted to keep it that way. It was humiliating enough. They still thought he was a trust fund kid, who was spoilt rich. He didn't want them to know the truth. The pity, and sympathy they would give him he just couldn't deal with. He wasn't some spoilt trust fund brat like everyone probably thought, albeit he may have been spoilt before. Not anymore. And he wasn't going to complain about his situation, other people had it way worse. Anna had been living in a cockroach infected box room and she never complained. It's just what people did, they got on with it. He may have no money, no place to live, working two jobs, but so did hundreds of other people. It was just life. Sometimes you got dealt a crappy hand and you had to suck it up and deal with it.
John Carter was not a quitter either.
He'd be fine. It was just a rough period.
"Carter? Hey Carter?"
A hand waved over his face, and he blinked looking up. Dragged from his musings he saw Dr Mark Greene standing before him. Still in his green jacket, blue shirt and slacks, with a backpack slung over one shoulder, and small pieces of paper with his phone messages in his hand. And he was frowning at Carter.
"Oh hey Dr Greene." Carter said popping the candy cane from his mouth; "You on?"
"Yeah at 11." It was 10.50pm now; "How long you been on?" Mark said eyeing him assessngly as he moved to the board to see what patients they had.
Carter ran a tired hand over his face trying to think, but all the days and hours blurred together; "Erm 28 hrs I think. Just 8 hours to go. And then on again tonight."
Nodding with a sympathetic grimace, knowing how tough it was doing such long double shifts, Mark turned to the board frowning; "Only two patients?"
"Hmm?" Carter turned on the stool and nodded; "Oh yeah. Weaver's got one, a head lac. She's currently waiting on labs, and the other just needed a few sutures which I've done and Carol's discharging, so...now I'm catching up on my charts."
"You've been on a lot of double shifts lately." Mark murmured walking back over to stand in front of him, glancing briefly at the stack of charts and then Carter's face. Spotting the dark circles under his eyes, and pale complexion, and instantly becoming concerned.
"Yeah." Carter replied half heartedly ruffling a hand through his hair and yawning; "Just the joys of being a resident." He smiled and shrugged at Mark; "You know..." He hoped Dr Greene didn't push anymore than that. He quickly looked down at the charts.
"You doing ok Carter?"
"Yeah fine." He said quickly looking up startled before smiling; "Are you ok?"
Mark smiled; "I'm good. I just mean I hope you know you can come and talk to me if you need to." His face became serious. He had been watching Carter for the last few days, getting a little worried, noticing how tired and distracted he seemed to be. He was worried Carter was getting overworked.
Carter looked at him blankly for a moment before nodding slowly; "Sure. Ok." And he looked back down trying to carry on with his charts.
"I'll tell you what, why don't you go take a nap?" Mark suggested casually; "The charts can wait, and we're not busy at the moment. I'll come wake you if we need you."
Carter hesitated, instinctively going to object because he didn't need special treatment. But then was overcome with another wave of exhaustion. There was a yelp and shout from behind them as Jerry came into view spinning on a swivel chair, wielding a crunch, and putting a cup across the floor against Malik. And Carter relented. Other people were taking a break, so could he. And boy did he need one.
Nodding, Carter set his charts down; "Thanks Dr Greene."
"Sure thing Carter."
Jumping down off the stool, Carter stood and swayed as the room spun briefly. He tried to cover it up by the raising his arms, and turning his body like he was stretching. And then quickly made his escape.
But Mark did notice. Frowning as he watched Carter walk off. Determined to get to the bottom of what was going on with their favourite resident.
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"Hey Kerry." Mark said, now wearing his lab coat and scrubs, rushed to catch up with Weaver as she left curtain area 3.
"Oh Mark good. Did you get that memo I left for you about the new staff policy on breaks?"
Mark resisted a groan; "Um yeah sure. I'll get back to you on it. Listen I wanted to ask you, Carter's been working a lot of double shifts. Is there any particular reason for this?"
"Yeah he asked to do them."
"He did?" Mark paused alarm bells going off in his head; "Did he say why?"
Kerry faltered as they walked for a moment, and Mark caught it; "Um just that he wanted more hours. Why are you interested?"
"He's looking a little tired. I just wanted to make sure he was ok. Maybe we could give him a break over the holiday season."
"I'll see what I can do." Kerry said stopping and nodded at him.
"Thanks Kerry I appreciate it."
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It was some time later, with a few more patients, that Dr Doug Ross came on shift. And Mark caught up with him as he entered the doctor's lounge for some coffee, and spotted Doug getting into his scrubs.
"Hey Mark." Doug said smiling at him; "Snowing like crazy out there."
"Tell me about it."
"So anything interesting?"
"Well we got a guy who got electrocuted for trying to plug in ten different sets of Christmas lights for his tree, and three woman with cuts and scrapes after they got into a fight in the middle of a mall over some present."
Chuckling Doug shook his head as he slipped the scrub top over his head; "Why does everyone go crazy around Christmas? It's just a mad house out there. Especially with all this snow."
"Mmm." Mark agreed sipping his coffee; "So what have you got Carol?"
"Oh yeah check this out." Doug looked around to make sure no one was coming in and then pulled something out his locker. Revealing two plane tickets. For a two week trip.
"Tickets to Paris? Wow Doug going all out."
"Yeah well I told her I'm in this, and I'm in no rush to get married. And I mean that. I just want to be with her. So I'm hoping we can just get away from this place for a while and be together just us."
"Sounds great. I'm sure she'll love it."
"Yeah." As Doug was putting the tickets back he turned to smirk at Mark; "So what'd you get Rachel?"
"Well considering how well the dog went last year, I'm going a different route this time."
"A cat?" Doug said laughing at his own joke.
"Well that was my first thought." Mark said chuckling; "I'd love to see Jen's reaction to that. But no, she was talking about these skates that she wanted so I got her those. Supposed to be really good ones. Who knows though, knowing Jen she'll probably have got the same ones."
"Tough break. But hey it's the thought that counts. And I'm sure Rach will love whatever you get her."
"Yeah thanks man." Mark murmured as he followed Doug out the room.
They walked down the hallway, and Doug looked at Mark as he slung his stethoscope over his neck; "You ok Mark? You look like you got a lot on your mind? Is it the Christmas Party? I thought Jerry was organising it this year?"
Chuckling Mark shook his head; "I wish. No." He looked around as they entered the admin area. Hopping up on the desk seeing there was no one around, he frowned looking at Doug; "You were working with Carter yesterday right?"
Pausing as he perused the charts, Doug paused thinking and nodded; "Sure yeah. We worked on that kid with the broken leg."
"Was he ok?"
"The kid? Sure."
"No Carter."
That gave Doug pause, and he walked over to Mark tilting his head; "Why? Is something going on?"
"I don't know." Mark hesitated looking around to make sure no one was listening; "It's just...He's been looking tired lately and distracted. I'm worried something's going on."
"Now that you mention it, he was yawning a lot yesterday, and he was sneezing and coughing a bit too. I sent him out the room at one point to get some water. He might have a cold. You tried talking to him?"
"Yeah earlier. He said he was fine."
"You don't believe him?"
"Well I spoke to Kerry about the double shifts he's been working, and apparently he asked for them. Something about wanting the hours."
"Maybe he wants to try to improve his skills." Doug offered.
"I don't know. Even Kerry seemed off when I pushed as to why. I think she might know what's going on."
"Problem is she's not exactly going to forward with the information." Doug murmured making a face, equally becoming concerned. They all felt a certain responsibility to look after Carter, even though he was a resident, because he was the youngest doctor on staff; "Where is he now?"
"Taking a nap in the on call room. I practically had to order him to. He looked like he really needed it. We were quiet, and he has another 7 hours before his shift ends. I thought I'd give him a break."
"Do you want me to keep an eye on him?" Doug offered seriously, because although he wasn't as close to Carter as he was to Mark, they were like a family here. They looked out for each other.
"That would be great. I just want to make sure he's ok. Especially with the holidays coming up."
"Sure thing. I'll keep an eye on him. Just let me know when he's up, or if you hear anything." Doug said backing away as he picked up a chart and turned to leave.
"Thanks Doug. I'll catch you later."
Then both doctors set off to work and treat patients.
Meanwhile, Carter was in the on call room, face down on the bed, one arm flopped over the edge fast asleep. Having the first good nights sleep he had in a long time.
So of course he had to be abruptly woken up by his phone ringing...
Carter groaned, turning his head away from the noise, and pushing his head against his pillow. The ringing like a drill to the head.
He felt utterly exhausted, his whole body all aches and pains. And being woken up so suddenly, a wave of nausea rose up from his stomach, as sharp pains erupted in his head. His body instantly turning on him, not liking being woken up.
The ringing didn't stop, and it just made his head and nausea worse.
Eyes still closed, Carter's hand scrambled out searching for his phone. His hand hit the nearby lab table, sending items clattering to the floor making the pain in his head worse. Finally, he got hold of his phone and flipped it open thankfully stopping the ringing.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Carter left his phone back on the tray and turned over to go back to sleep.
Immediately, the phone rang again.
This time he groaned loudly; "For god's sake..." He flipped over grabbing his phone and answered it shouting; "What?!"
He rubbed his face angrily, and then pause dropping his hand; "Dad?"
