Chapter 16

Two Days later….

"John, I really want to get out of here." There was almost a whiney tone to Anna's voice as she had been begging and pleading with everyone who would take two seconds to listen to her today. "I'm fine. Sore, tired, but really I'm tying up a bed that could be used by a sick person."

"Anna it's just a couple more…" John got cut of by her.

"Days that I don't need to be here for," she said finishing his sentence for him knowing where he was going with it. She was restless and really wanting nothing more than to go home right now.

"It won't kill you to stay here for two more days." He said giving her that look that told her she was pushing it with him right now. His patience seemed to be a little shorter today, not because of her but because he'd just gotten off a long shift with very little sleep.

Anna really thought about dropping it with John but she'd been doing nothing but lying in that bed driving her insane. He was almost in a way her last ditch effort to try and get out of there, not an escape but just her really wanting the comforts of home. "You try laying up here for…"

It was John's turn to cut her off, "you might not like it but I did it and you can do it too young lady." Nothing like being able to speak from personal experience but he did know just how much she wanted to be in her own bed with her own things, more than anyone in that hospital knew. He knew his tone was rather firm with her, but sometimes with the hardheaded you had to be hardheaded right back.

"There's no reason to keep me here anymore." She didn't see herself as the invalid that everyone else seemed to see when they looked at her, that was just frustrating her more and more with every passing day. She didn't mean to take it out on John, "I'm eating, drinking, walking and doing everything else that I am supposed to be doing. I'm not even complaining when I have to do PT anymore. John, I'm not asking to go back to work." She knew she was pushing her luck with all of her protesting but she really was. "Even Neela said that I was good enough to go home." She figured throwing that in there wasn't going to hurt her cause and perhaps might help it.

"Home with someone to help you," John ever so lovingly pointed out and reminded her. "I do believe that Neela added conditions to that release when she told you about it. And that person would be?"

"Me of course," she replied rather quickly. Anna didn't have all that many friends in Chicago and certainly none that she could convince to come and live with her for a few days. Well she hadn't tried to convince John yet, but the thought was there in her mind. She just didn't think that he'd be all that open to the thought of having to stay with her. She wasn't sure how open she was with that. Having to be dependent upon someone was not something that she was good with.

"You can't stay alone, you know that." He pointed out once again, beginning to feel as if he was a broken record. "You can barely walk; you've got to have someone help with just about everything still. Is there anything else that I should be pointing out to you that you can't do right now, to prove my point."

"Do you think you could stop reminding me of that? And for the record, I can too walk. Just not very far very fast," Anna pointed right back at him.

"And what if there was an emergency, a fire or something and you needed to get out?"

She scowled at him now, "I could do it. I'd find a way." She could be stubborn at times and right now she knew that was what she was, no she was more obstinate right now than anything else. "John, please." She looked at him, "I want to be able to sleep in my own bed. Not to mention I'd be a lot more comfortable there."

John knew why she wanted out of there so badly, and he honestly couldn't say that he blamed her one little bit. If he had been in that position he probably would have felt the same way. "I know that you miss Isabelle." John said, "But right now you can't be home alone, and even if you could be there with Isabelle and Mia, Mia wouldn't be able to take care of both of you. You know that Anna."

Now it wasn't that John didn't want her to be able to go home. He just didn't want to have to worry about all the things that could go wrong. Her bringing Isabelle back from Seattle would add even more stress to her. At least right now she didn't have to necessarily worry about Max finding Mia and Isabelle and with them in Seattle there was no way for him to tie the two to Anna in all reality. Not that some no-good sob like Max couldn't find the way to do it. Carter would never fully be able to hide the fact that there was no love loss between him and Max. He didn't like him when he first met him and now he just really flat out hated the guy.

"Well just because I know it, doesn't mean I like it." She stuttered out now trying to break that gap of silence that had seemed to fill the room for a moment. It seemed as if she had found someone who was just as stubborn as she was if not more so. "Abby and Luka are right upstairs if I need something."

She was trying to save something, just what she wasn't sure anymore. The battle with him almost seemed to be a lost cause but yet it was a cause that she didn't want to give up. Chalk it up to foolish pride on some level but she just really wanted to go home and was reaching a near state of desperation.

"Anna you are aware that you are fighting a losing battle with me right?" John asked. Reading her face was a little harder to do, not that he'd ever managed to actually get to the point where he could. There however were some emotions that Anna wore rather up front and other's she could hide with the best of them. Unlike Carter who knew he was easy to read for the most part not the type of person to hide any emotion, it just wasn't in him to be like that.

"It's beginning to appear that way." She said as she sank down into the bed a little bit more. There was no convincing him that she'd be better at home than she was here.

He seemed to be worried and concerned about her. She couldn't blame him there; after all it seemed as if they were still friends like they had been before she rather suddenly took off. But then when she first came to Chicago, it was only temporary, everyone knew that. Or so Anna thought that everyone knew she had plans to sometime return to Philadelphia to work at CHOP as a physician.

When she left though it was almost as if she'd caught Carter completely off guard with her plans. While she had no plans on returning with Max, those were rather spur of the moment and in hindsight pretty bad when she looked back on it. "You could come and stay with me." Her voice was very soft as she said it. Hell no was the words that were reverberating in her head now.

"What?" Carter said not fully hearing what she had whispered there at the end. It sounded like she wanted him to stay with her. Now granted he'd be more than willing to help her out, thinking too it would give him and her chance to talk about everything a little more and try to come to a solution that would get her out of hiding.

Anna sighed. "Would you come and stay at the apartment with me?" She asked again, this time a little louder but the same fear was stuck in her head. They had started to grow close to one anther when she first was in Chicago, but the Max reappeared and Anna was sucked into that vortex again and their relationship was cut short by an old lover. Sad thing was that John had warned her and she'd failed to listen and hadn't seen the signs until it were all too late. "Please."

"Don't look so worried." John said seeing that look on her face, "are you that afraid that I am going to tell you no."

"Not no," Anna said looking up at him from where she was, "more of a hell no."

Hearing her say that made Carter laugh. "Well I'm not going to tell you that. I volunteered to do it awhile ago when I was talking with Luka." And he was surprised when he got a small smile from Anna.

"I see. So you two were making plans and just not letting me in on them?" She was shocked that he'd volunteered to be the one to come and stay with her. She thought he'd be the last person on earth who would be willing to give up his time like that. But then other the other hand, that was the same Carter she remembered, the one who would go that extra mile for someone just because he could.

"I wouldn't say that, I just brought it up and we talked about it for about two seconds and that was the end of it. I wouldn't mind helping you out."

"I'm glad to hear that…" she paused for just a moment there, "I think."

"What do you mean you think? There should be no thinking involved in that." Carter crossed his arms over his chest.

She looked at him, "no not like that." She had this feeling that she was going to have to explain this one now whether she wanted to or not. There was a little between them history wise, but to her it wasn't much. "I just didn't know if that was something that you'd want to do and well the I think part, it's more of one of those I don't know for sure if staying with another doctor is going to be such a good idea."

"Even if staying with another doctor is your only ticket out of here sooner rather than later? I know that if you are by yourself they are going to want you to stay for at least another two maybe three days."

"No if staying with you is my other option rather than staying here…" she paused for a minute thinking before she actually spoke for she really didn't want something to come out the wrong way "then I'd rather take that option and be with a friend at home than here. Although lately I have been surrounded by friends here too."

"You have a few more than you thought you did." He smiled for her. "Tell you what, don't pack your bags just yet, but I'll see what I can do about getting you released here in a little bit. I might have some clout here but even getting you discharged is going to take a few minutes."

"Ah, here I thought you were superman and could blink your eyes and set me free." She joked with him. She had to do something that would ease some of the tension that she was feeling in the room.

"Oh I am far from that." He said as he moved to head towards the door now to go and see about getting those much wanted papers of hers. "But I can probably safely promise that you will be home on your own couch by dinner time."

"Ah you know that is seven hours." She said with a softer smile. "I hope it doesn't take that long to get me set free from here."

"You never can tell with this place." He said as his hand reached for the door to make his exit. "But considering you are taking up a bed that could be occupied by the many that flood the ER on a daily basis it might not take me that long."

"I won't pack my bags completely." She said smiling as she saw him moving through the door now to leave, "but I'm going to start packing them knowing that eventually I am going to be able to leave."

"I'll be back as soon as I can." As he said that Anna watched John slip completely out the door.

What she really wanted was to be able to have Isabelle and Mia come back to Chicago, but it didn't seem that it was all that feasible with the way that she was feeling. That and she was still afraid that Max might be lurking around somewhere and her not know it. She wanted to protect her daughter from everything that she had gone through with Max. She never thought that Max was capable of hurting a child, but she didn't want to give him the chance.