Chapter 12

Slowly over the next twenty-four hours Carter watched Anna's condition improve. His head rested against his hand now his eyes not leaving from watching her. There was more color in her cheeks but Anna was still pale. She looked more like herself but they had her still medicated so she would rest more comfortably.

"How is she doing?" Carter heard a voice from the doorway. He looked up to see Max standing there.

"She's doing fine Max." Carter's tone was rather flat with him. "She wouldn't want you here."

"They called so I assumed that she asked them." Max's arms were crossed over his chest as he came more into the room. He looked at Anna lying there. "What happened?"

"She was in an accident." Carter said the tone in his voice not changing. "You should go back to Philadelphia." Carter tried to keep the contempt out of his voice as he spoke. "She really didn't ask for you to be here. You'll just stress her out and that's not what she needs."

"Then she'll tell me to leave when she wakes up."

Carter didn't think that Max had it in him to be defiant like that towards anyone. His outward appearance while confident also was rather mild mannered yet snakes did tend to frequently shed their skins and be historically known as being defiant and deceptive both traits that Anna seemed to have been blinded from.

"Max," Carter rose from where he had been sitting, standing he was taller than the other doctor and hoped to have some kind of intimidation factor. "As a physician and a friend I am asking, no I am telling you to leave."

There was this almost awkward silence between the two men now as they nearly stared each other down into the ground. Carter having no idea why Max felt the need not to move, to stand his ground over his ex-wife and perhaps it was nothing more than guilt that had brought him back here.

"Carter," Max didn't raise his voice, he didn't gain any form of a defensive posture with Carter. "John, I'm here and I am staying until Anna says otherwise."

Carter wanted to throw him out of the hospital again. Feelings that he hadn't had since Max had sown up out of the blue and tore Anna from his life then. Carter quietly crossed the room standing mere inches from the other man now. "I didn't like you the first time that I met you and I still don't like you." Carter paused a moment, "but you were listed as her emergency contact and I have no ground to argue with you. When she wakes up and says for you to get out, believe me I will be more than happy to throw your ass out."

Now Carter couldn't believe that he was having this argument right here so he decided that due to them being in the hospital as well as on the SICU floor that this was not the best place to have a knock down. So rather than upset anyone further, Carter figured the best thing he could do would be to go and get some coffee even some air. He wouldn't go very far so that he could easily return when she woke up again to keep that promise. But he couldn't sit in that room with the desire to strangle Max growing too strong. While he was rather reluctant to leave Anna, he realized was a grown adult and for some reason Anna had decided to marry Max. Blind devotion and love was more than enough to make Carter sick to his stomach. He exited the room full well knowing when Anna was awake again; she would give the snake what he deserved. She deserved better than that and Carter knew it. He just hoped that the one person who needed to know it the most saw the same thing that he did.

From outside the closed door Carter kept peering inside. He didn't know why but he didn't think that Anna was safe in there with Max. If it had been anyone else Carter knew his emotions wouldn't feel as they did right now. Max most definitely had Carter riled up. Special, Anna was and always would be special to him. Their relationship might not have, the first time, been given the chance to bloom. Here and now things had an extreme chance to change. Carter could sense that someone was coming up behind him now.

"She's sleeping," he said without turning around, "Max," sarcasm filled his voice, hate and distaste, "is in there with her now."

"I see." The voice was soft and most definitely female as well as one that Carter knew.

"Abby called." The voice held concern as well as it probably should have. "I promised her that I would make sure you were okay."

"Very Abby-like," simple response but then he was still focused on Anna. "I'm fine really she doesn't need to worry." That was colder than Carter had intended it to be. But he just couldn't help himself.

"I can see that."

Carter just shook his head. "Neela," he was frustrated, "for all our sakes and Abby's best interest, tell her you saw me, talked to me, and I appeared to be just fine."

"We both know that's not true."

"But it will be as soon as that son of a bitch gets away from her." Carter knew that was probably as close to the truth right now as anyone was going to get with him. More importantly he didn't want to appear vulnerable to anyone. That could be traced to the number Abby followed by Kem had done to his heart not to mention his pride.

All the mistakes he felt he had made in those two relationships were still very fresh and very close to the surface. Some wounds left deep scars that one had to wonder if even time itself could heal. But Anna inflicting wounds like those never entered his thoughts. For now could something as fragile as she was hurt him? His friend appeared to him to need someone helping her out. Watching Anna through the window it appeared that she was starting to wake up now. He could see her eyes begin to flutter open. Instantly he could see the stress upon her face. Clearly she didn't appear happy that Max was in there with her. It took everything that Carter had not to burst into the room and drag Max out of there to ease some of Anna's anxiety.

Standing there time almost stopped or that was sure as hell how it felt. That line between being an insane friend and just a friend closer to being crossed unintentionally. Carter had never really gotten into a fight over a girlfriend, well that one time but she really wasn't a girlfriend. Anna's face showed she was certainly in distress.

From Carter's viewpoint he couldn't tell if she was in pain or not. Perhaps it could provide cover as for which to slip back into the room and at least to her not appear as if he was being an overbearing ass.

You could cut the tension in the room with a knife from the moment he opened the door. Anna's arms lay crossed over her chest. There were creases on her forehead from the stress that she was under. Her lips were pursed tight in a frown. It was almost enough to stop Carter in his tracks right there.

"Anna please."

Anna's eyes came up to lock with John's right as he walked in and then they went back down again. "It's too late." Her eye showed how tired and just how much pain she was really in both physically and emotionally. "I appreciate you showing up. Would you please just leave now?"

Max turned, "it's never too late."

"No you told me once before that it was too late and really we are too late. Please, just go. I'm tired and in pain." She really was both of those things, more pain that she would let anyone know.

"I'll leave." Max said moving towards the door, "but I promise you that it is never too late."

The two men exchanged icy glances. Each of them thinking that what was on their mind was what was best for Anna. Yet neither of them had taken the time to consider what Anna wanted or even what she might have needed.