AN: Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter! It means a lot to me. This chapter ended up a lot longer than I intended but I hope you enjoy it!

Constructive criticism would be much appreciated as I want to improve this story so please R&R.

Disclaimer: I don't own ER or the characters only Dr Paige Staker.

There She Goes

Chapter 2 - Trauma One

"How's the first day going?" Morris asked casually as he dropped down on the sofa next to Paige.

"Slowly." She replied monotonously closing her eyes and massaging her temples with her fingertips.

It had been a particularly slow morning in the ER with the Residents snapping up all the interesting cases before the students could get a look in. Which was why Paige had retreated to the Doctor's Lounge to consume yet another cup of coffee.

"You know coffee kills you're brain cells with excessive consumption?" Morris raised an eyebrow as he saw the cup on the table in front of her.

"Doesn't stop you from drinking it does it?" She replied off-handed, eyes still closed.

He shook his head, surprised she had answered him back. Usually they didn't have the guts.

"So . . . Where's Carter?" He grinned, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

"I don't know he told me he'd come and get me if a good case came in. And why did you say it like that?" She said suspiciously, her eyes flying open and setting her stern glare on Morris.

"Like what?" He asked innocently, as if she were accusing him of a crime.

"Like you're making out there's more to the situation than there is." She stated simply, still glaring at him.

"So, there isn't?" He retorted cheekily, with a glint in his eye.

"Of course not he's my teacher!" She hissed angrily looking appalled.

"I saw you flirting with him in curtains earlier." Morris wouldn't let it go.

"I was NOT flirting. Besides, it's against the rules." She frowned.

"Since when was flirting against the rules?!" He effortlessly twisted her words, keeping up the game he was playing.

"Student - Teacher relationships!" Paige yelled angrily, jumping to her feet.

"God Paige! You're one of those cases that gives proof to the theory that interns are east to wind up." Morris laughed softly.

"That's not funny. I barely know Carter, I'm not that kind of girl." She said softly, turning away to avoid his gaze.

"Paige." He whispered her name softly.

She turned around slowly and saw that Morris now stood next to her. She looked up to him with her gentle green eyes, waiting expectantly.

"I didn't mean to upset you, it was just a laugh. I'm sorry." He offered his apology carefully.

"Apology accepted. And, I'm sorry if I was cheeky to you earlier . . . About the coffee." She offered a gentle smile.

"Why don't we forget about the whole thing, eh?" He gently bumped his shoulder against hers as he spoke.

"What thing?" She played dumb.

"Do you know, I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship." Morris said.

"Provided you don't tease me about sordid affairs with colleagues." She replied cockily with a raised eyebrow.

"Who's having a sordid affair with who?" Came a voice from the door. Paige and Morris turned to the door and saw Carter. "No-one!" They yelled in unison, sharing a shifty glance.

"Okay," Carter began hesitantly as he picked up on the tension present in the room, "There's a GSW incident coming in any minute, one major, one minor. You coming?" He asked her.

"Sure." She replied and made to follow Carter out of the room as another doctor rushed into the room.

"Morris your cardiac patient is crashing again. Julia Wise." She introduced herself quickly as she noticed Paige.

"Paige Staker." She gushed as she sidled round the slightly older girl then rushing to catch up with Carter.

"Nice of you to join me Dr Staker." He threw sarcastically as she reached his side. "Now the major is a good chance for you to practice intubation, you intubated before?" He asked as they walked to the ambulance bay.

"I've only trained in speciality areas it had always been done for me. I've extubated though." She added, not wanting to sound completely incompetent.

"Really?" Carter asked surprised and was met by Paige's enthusiastic nod as they snapped on the gloves Chuny handed them.

"Have you done sutures before?" He fired another question at the young doctor.

"Yes, a few times." She answered quickly, pulling on the disposable gown.

"Good if the minor needs any sutures you can deal with that. Don't worry I'll supervise." He added as he saw the look of alarm on her face.

"Thank-God." She muttered, quickly becoming overwhelmed before the trauma had even arrived.

"I'm not always going to be there to hold your hand." Carter gave her a quick reality check, evidently having overheard her comment.

"I know." She replied almost in a whisper as she glanced over to Carter. Her gentle green eyes met his soft brown ones and he had a reassuring smile present on his face. Paige managed a small smile back.

"I'm here for you now. Make the most of it." He told her sincerely, not once taking his eyes from hers. Carter had not noticed her simple beauty until now as she stood before him clad in latex gloves and a disposable gown. His gaze locked with hers.

She was small and slim, her stomach protruding slightly most likely due to rubbishy foods. Students could never afford healthy food. Her tousled blondey-brown hair brushed off her shoulders and her long side fringe fell over her right eye, those lovely green eyes. And her lips formed a gentle smile. She was far from the media image of 'perfect' but to Carter she was pretty.

"ETA?" Paige asked softly breaking Carter from his thoughts.

"Um . . ." He frowned as he realised he had no idea.

"One minute." Chuny quickly supplied for him as she gowned up.

"I don't think all that coffee has helped your nerves." Carter remarked as he saw her draw a shaky breath.

"I feel sick." She replied looking visibly paler.

"Calm down." He murmured softly. "Take a deep breath and take things as they come."

She took a long deep breath and exhaled slowly as the first ambulance pulled up.

"Gunshot wound to the shoulder and abdomen, in a critical condition. Massive blood loss, two units of O neg. administered in the field. Internal bleeding highly likely." The EMT called out clearly as they wheeled the patient from the vehicle.

"Our next moves Dr Staker?" Carter asked as they helped Chuny and the EMT transfer the patient to the trauma room.

"If the airway is clear I'd say intubate, get an EKG and BP, an ultrasound to determine if there's any internal bleeding and I think order four units of O neg. with the amount of blood loss the patient has sustained there won't be sufficient time to run a cross match." She finished looking at Carter expectantly.

"Good. Anything else?" He prompted.

"Um." She screwed her face up in concentration, wracking her brain for something she could have missed. "I don't know." She sighed in defeat.

In cases like this, gang bangers I mean, it's always wise to run a tox screen. You'll see with experience that drugs are usually involved in these cases and we'll want to make sure to give them medicines that combat the effects of the drugs, not react with them and make their condition worse." He informed her.

"Okay." She replied gloomily.

"Don't beat yourself up you did great for a first try. Come and stand close we need to intubate, now!" Carter told her, pulling her with him.

"Our policy on intubation is see one, do one, teach one. I show you how to do it this time, you do the next one and the next available opportunity you show someone else how to do one. Got it?" He fired quickly.

"Got it." She nodded with a small smile.

"Stay close okay." Carter beckoned her closer and they both bent over the patients head. "You have to visualise the vocal chords, making sure you don't actually end up in the oesophagus. Take a deep breath and hold it in while you do it. If you run out of air, then you're taking too long. I'm in bag him and hyperventilate him." He said as he gently pulled out the laryngoscope, leaving the tube in the patients throat.

"You made that look easy." Paige gushed, blushing the minute the words had escaped her mouth.

"Well I've got fifteen years experience on you, I've intubated thousands of times." He smiled widely, showing his perfect teeth.

Paige grinned back and managed to smile even wider as Carter helped her start the IV. After a few attempts she managed to get the IV in.

"Carter, we got internal bleeding." Sam said calmly.

"Damn! Someone call for a surgical consult?" He asked, a frown visible on his features.

"On the way." Sam confirmed. "And the O neg. is here."

"Lets get that blood going, he cant afford to lose any more if we've got any chance of saving him."

"BP's dropping." Paige sounded worried.

"We gotta get him up to an OR. Sam call up, tell them we've got a GSW to the abdomen and shoulder, no exit wounds and massive blood loss." He called as they proceeded to wheel him to the elevator.

"Paige when I come back you're gonna suture the minor and then see if you can ID this one." He nodded to the man in the bed.

They bumped into Anspaugh as they pushed the bed into the elevator. "I take it this was the patient that needed the surgical consult?" He asked.

"Yeah, he needs to go to the OR now if he's gonna live. We just called up the OR should be getting prepped." Carter informed him.

Anspaugh nodded in agreement. "I'll take it from here Dr Carter." He took the IV from Paige and the elevator doors pinged shut.

"You handled that very well, never got too overwhelmed. I must admit I was concerned about how anxious you were before the trauma arrived. You did well getting the IV in too. I remember my first IV, I treated the patient like a pincushion." He laughed gently as he finished her feedback.

Paige grinned. "I had the advantage that my patient was unconscious. Had my patient been conscious I would have probably caused a lot of discomfort."

"Maybe that would have been the case but this is something you learn by experience, you wont improve any from studying. Don't get me wrong though studying is crucial for a lot of cases and you won't get to where I am without hours of hard studying. Anyway you did really well today it was a really bloody trauma and many interns in your position would either have felt sick or been sick." He informed her matter-of-fact as they headed towards chairs to find the minor GSW victim.

"Thanks." She said gratefully before scanning chairs for their patient. "Are you the other gunshot wound victim?" She asked softly as she saw a man clutching a wade of gauze to his arm.

"Yes. How is Paul?" He asked concerned.

"You know him? What's his name?" She asked.

"His name is Paul Hastings, he's my brother. I'm David Hastings." He told them.

"I'm Dr Staker and this is Dr Carter." She gestured to Carter with her hand. "Can you come with us and show us your injuries so we can assess the damage?"

"Please, how is my brother?" He asked looking extremely upset.

She looked helplessly at Carter, pleading silently for him to help her.

"Mr Hastings your brother has sustained very serious injuries and he's lost a lot of blood. Dr Staker and I have done all we can to help Paul, he's up in the OR now where they'll remove the bullets and try to repair the internal damage, but it's touch and go I'm afraid." He chose his words carefully and was sensitive to David's feelings, something Paige still had to learn.

"Thank-you Doctor. He's just gone off the rails it's getting harder and harder to keep him on a good path." David sighed. "Is that how you got caught up in the gunfire, trying to protect your brother?" She asked, her facial expression gentle.

David nodded, a solitary tear rolling down his cheek.

"Why don't you come with us and we'll patch you up?" Carter asked sympathetically.

He nodded again allowing the two Doctor's to lead him to the suture room to assess his condition.

"Thank you." She murmured to Carter as they cleaned and sterilised the wound on David's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. Today is your first day you'll soon be able to deal with situations like this easily and be empathetic to the patients feelings. It's something else that you'll only pick up from experience." He whispered softly.

"Any other wounds Mr Hastings?" She asked gently.

"No, this was the only one." He said quietly.

"Then you've been very lucky you're only going to need a few stitches." She said gravely.

"I know. But everything is not going to be okay unless Paul is alright." He said miserably.

"Mr Hastings Paul has the best surgeons in the area working on him and as soon as I've got Dr Staker started here I'm gonna check on his progress for you." Carter told him with a small smile.

"Thank you. You're both so kind." David said sincerely to them.

"We just want everything to work out okay for you Mr Hastings." Paige said sadly.

"Please, call me David." He said quietly.

"In that case, I'm Paige and this is John." She introduced them by their first names and the three of them managed a small smile.

David fell silent as Carter gave his young intern instructions.

"You irrigate the wound by injecting it at either side." He demonstrated on one side of the wound. "Now you try." He instructed her. She copied him exactly, only on the other side of the wound.

"Good. Now the wound is clean, no risk of infection you can start stitching it up, I'd say between three and four stitches would do the trick. I'm gonna check on Paul." He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze which she returned with a smile and he left.

"You a student?" David asked as she began to pull the wound together with surgical thread.

"Yes. This is my first day on the ER internship. Two years and I graduate and become a proper doctor." She said as she concentrated on completing the stitches neatly.

"You're obviously a good student then, otherwise Dr Carter wouldn't have left you here alone." He reasoned.

"I guess so." She contemplated. Had Carter really seen enough of her ability to leave her unsupervised? She finished the sutures silently and when Carter returned five minutes later he fund her waiting outside the suture room.

"Hey." She said softly.

"Hey yourself." He said light-heartedly with a small smile.

"How is he?" Her voice cracked unintentionally as she asked.

"They got the bullets out, but he's unconscious. He's in a stable but critical condition but maybe this will be the wake up call he needs to pull his life together. He said honestly.

Paige sighed heavily and slumped against the wall, running a hand through her tousled hair. "Is life always this screwed up?" She asked, her big green eyes staring innocently into Carter's.

"Honestly you see a lot of this kind of thing down here and I'd be lying if I said you get used to it. But you do have to learn to deal with it. You've just got to have a bit of faith in yourself." He told her genuinely.

She laugher gently. "I'm being so stupid already you're going to be sick of me by the end of this week, never mind two more years."

"Don't be stupid that's what I'm here for, to help you grow as a doctor. You've still got a long way to go. Besides if I get too sick of you I'll pawn you off on Morris." He joked as he leaned on the wall next to her, studying her expression.

"You better tell David how his brother is." She mumbled, nodding towards the door.

He nodded. "Meet me in Curtain Three, there's a six year old with a dislocated shoulder."

Wordlessly she tuned to leave when Carter caught her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. They smiled at each other.

"Curtain Three." She confirmed softly as her hand slid out of Carter's.

Before going to Curtain Three she went to the Doctor's Lounge.

"You're not going to get more coffee are you?!" She heard Morris call as she pushed open the door of the lounge.

"No." She shook her head amused. Over excessive coffee consumption would forever be the subject of jokes between them. She grabbed a full bottle of water from the fridge, took a long sip and before replacing it in the fridge she pulled a pen from her lab coat scrawling 'Paige' on the label. She then headed to curtains.

"Hello I'm Dr Staker, Dr Carter will be joining us in a moment" She shook hands with the young girls mother.

"May Whitmore." She will be okay won't she?" She gazed at her daughter nervously.

"Of course she will. I'm just going to get her some Tylenol for the pain and we'll have her fixed up in no time." Paige told the girls mother confidently before turning to the girl. "Hi angel, what's your name?"

"Bella." She sniffed, having only recently stopped crying.

"Hi Bella I'm Paige. I'm going to get you something for the pain do you think you could be a big brave girl for me for a little while longer?" She asked gently bending down level with Bella.

The little girl nodded, trying to look brave.

"Great I'll be right back." She stroked the girls long blonde hair softly before departing.

"Hey Morris, where do we keep the Tylenol?" She asked as she reached the desk, where he was sat.

"C'mon I'll show you." He jumped up from his chair, grabbing her hand an pulling her towards the store cupboard.

"We keep most things in here." He told her as he yanked the door open. "Kid or adult?" Morris asked, hand hovering between two boxes.

"Kid." Paige confirmed and he threw her the box, which she caught.

"Good catch." He observed. "You having a better day now?" He asked as they walked back.

"From a medical point of view, yeah. I got to help in a really bloody trauma and suture the minor but there was a really sad story behind it all." She frowned.

"There nearly always is down here." He matched her frown as they stopped at the desk.

"I better get on. Carter's waiting for me." She held up the Tylenol in her hand.

"See you." He mumbled, taking his seat behind the desk to wait for the next trauma.

"I thought I should get some Tylenol." She explained as she joined Carter beside the bed.

"You thought right." He smiled taking the box from Paige and administering some to the little girl.

"Bella," Paige began, crouching down so she was on eye level with the girl. "We're going to wait for the medicine to sink in and then John and I are going to make your arm all better, okay?" She asked, using language the small girl would understand.

Bella nodded and managed a nervous smile.

"We'll be back in five or ten minutes." Carter told her mother as Paige stood up beside him.

"Thank-you so much Doctor's." May smiled, much more at ease now she saw the pain medication admitted to her daughter was beginning to take effect.

Carter led his student away with a hand on the small of her back. "You're good with children. It doesn't come naturally with all doctors." He commented as they walked.

"Thanks. My parents wanted me to be a teacher but medicine was my passion so I moved to Chicago so they couldn't influence my decisions anymore." She explained, crossing her arms over her body.

"It must have been hard moving here when you didn't know anyone."

She smiled. "I won't lie to you it was hard. I was eighteen years old and I had to work part time to pay rent as well as working to get into college. I did manage to put myself through college but I owe an absolute fortune in loans. But I got to where I am now all on my own which gives me a certain level of satisfaction and I've been in Chicago for a while now so I have close friends here."

"Do you have a boyfriend?" He found himself asking.

"No, not anymore. He was at college with me, a few years above me but he moved to New York because he got a really great job. He did ask me to go with him but I had to finish my training. It was one of he hardest decisions I've ever had to make but we parted on good terms which made things easier." She shrugged.

"I was just curious." He said quickly.

"I've never had the impression that Attendings and Interns were so well acquainted." She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow as they walked slowly out to the ambulance bay.

Carter smiled. "I like to get well acquainted with my students. I was good friends with my mentors when I was an intern."

"Fair enough, but this is only the first day of my internship. We have plenty of time to get to know each other." She smiled softly.

"You and Morris were getting on well." He observed with a slightly accusing tone to his voice.

"It just happened to be he was the first person I met here and we shared a few jokes but we're far from best friends. Everyone her seems really close though and I hope in time we'll have that same closeness." She finished pulling her lab coat tightly around her body.

"Are you cold?" He asked as he saw her actions.

"A little. I should have lifted my cardigan from the lounge." She shrugged.

"We'll be going in, in a moment anyway to fix the little girls arm. I'll pop it back into place this time, you'll have to hold her still." He explained their course of action.

"I can do that." Paige replied confidently.

"Hold her firmly but gently I don't want to have to pull at the poor girls arm for the whole afternoon. Ideally it should only take a few tries. Remind me what specialties you've done." He asked curiously.

"Mostly Pedes. Also I've done basic surgery as an elective like tracheotomies and cut downs." She told him as they leaned against the wall simultaneously.

"Well the basic surgery you've done is mostly what an ER Doc needs for emergencies so unless you're planning on being a surgeon you won't have much more to learn in that field. You enjoy pedes?" He enquired curiously.

"I loved it, I really did. I'm very fond of children so it did come quite naturally to me. I wanted to work in the ER though, so I couldn't continue with pedes. It wouldn't have been practical." Carter noticed her avoidance of eye contact as she finished.

"You know you could still do pedes within the ER. Years ago I had a friend in here, Doug Ross, he was a pedes ER Doc so it is possible to combine the two."

"Really?" She looked up, sounding hopeful.

"We can look into it for next year if it's still what you want but for now I think we should wait and see how you get on." He told her honestly.

"Sounds good to me." She agreed, nodding her head.

"Good. Lets go and fix little Bella's arm." He pushed himself of the wall and headed inside. She followed.

"Hey Bella. How do you feel now?" Paige asked as she felt the girls forehead.

"Better." She smiled.

"Temp's. normal. We should be able to pull the bone back into place now." She removed her hand from the girls forehead.

"Good. You hold onto her for me, firm but gentle around her waist. Mom you can hold her other hand." He smiled at the girls mother and she moved closer to take her daughters hand.

"Paige you HAVE to keep a firm hold. I'm going to hold Bella's upper arm in both hands and pull as hard as I can to get it back into place. Hopefully I can get it in first try to minimise her pain."

She nodded in agreement, wrapping her arms around the little girls waist and hugging her close to her body. Carter gave an almighty pull and Bella screamed bloody murder.

"Got it!" He grinned triumphantly.

She let go of Bella and allowed her to hug her mother, he held up a hand and they high-fived. "Well done." She grinned.

"Come on." He slung an arm around her shoulder leading her away from Curtains.

"Do you trust me?" He asked gently as he ushered her along the corridor and into the Doctor's Lounge.

They stopped and stared each other in the eyes, green meeting brown.

"Yes." She whispered.

"Then ditch your lab coat, close your eyes and take my hand." He whispered back.

Paige opened her mouth to protest before shaking her head with a smile and threw her lab coat and stethoscope onto the sofa, held out her hand to Carter and closed her eyes.

Moments later she felt Carter's soft, warm hand slide into hers and they started walking.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Shhh!" Came his reply and they continued walking until they were outside. Carter let go of her hand and pushed something into her hands.

"Basketball! Are you kidding me Carter it's freaking freezing?!" Paige yelled angrily, a sour look present on her face.

"No I'm not." He replied calmly. "Keep your eyes closed and follow the sound of my voice. Now throw!" He exclaimed.

She immediately threw it upwards in the direction of Carter's voice, praying the ball didn't smack him in the face.

"Open you eyes." He said softly.

She opened her eyes and sighed with relief. Carter had caught the ball. "It went in the basket?" She asked stunned.

"No you missed by miles. I just managed to catch the ball, try again." He threw the ball back to her with a smirk.

Paige caught the ball and immediately threw it back to Carter, catching him off guard and winding him.

"That's what you get for mocking my attempt at basketball." She added grinning triumphantly as he held his hand up in surrender.

"I'll get you back for that later!" Carter muttered under his breath, clutching his stomach as he watched her strut back inside.