A Time for Redirection Part 2

The morning after Lucy had to drag herself out of bed. The conclusion she came to was that all doctors should have to be in there room by 11 if they have to wake up for a 10 o'clock seminar. Or at least she should have to be in. She hadn't drinken enough to have a hangover thank goodness, but she felt tired as hell. A shower did little to awaken her and by the time she headed downstairs everyone was alerady heading off to the first event of the day. Looking quickly in her book she searched for the seminar she was headed to for that morning. Once her discovery had been made she headed hurriedly in that direction.

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"Is this seat taken?"

Lucy looked upa nd frowned. "What do you want?"

"I thought I would go out of my way to bother you and not let you be alone since that is the way you like it." Carter smirked at her and took a seat next to her.

Lucy looked cautiously at him. It didn't sound like his normal attempt to be mean to her, it sounded more like a joke, and that was what had her confused. "Is there a reason you seem to be in such a good mood, or does it just give you pleaser to annoy me?"

"Well I am in a good mood I admit, but it does give me pleasure also to annoy you." Carter admitted to her and couldn't help a genuine smile that he knew would annoy her further.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. "Stop it."

"Stop what?" Carter asked her with feigned ignorance.

"Acting this way, smiling, it's weird. Why don't you go sit with one of your little blonds." Lucy said and shewed her hand in the direction of one of them.

Carter looked over to where Rene was sitting then truned back to Carter. "Well your a blond and you were closer to the entrance."

Lucy only let out a frustrated sigh and turned away from him to face the front.

"Like I said Lucy, you really need to work on your people skills." Carter could see she was fuming silently but for some reason he didn't feel like rising to her attitude this morning. He had actually woken up in a good mood.

"Why? I'm not trying to attract your attention." Lucy continued to stare strait ahead. She was hoping that at any moment some funny little man or women would walk up to the microphone and start talking so that she could get out of this weird conversation she was in with Carter.

"Well your a blond Lucy, that automatically attracts my attention." It was said to annoy her, but for some reason, it was true, Carter did have a thing for blonds. Now he wasn't always attracted to blonds, but for some reason the majority were.

Lucy's head turned sharply around and she looked at him almost as if he had grown another head. "What is wrong with you?" Before she could even expect a response form Carter a 'Good Morning' echoed thjrough the room and everyone quited down. Lucy gave Carter one more look before turning away and looking strait ahead at the speaker.

Carter staired at her a moment longer after she turned away form him. He was acting a little out of the ordinary he knew. In fact Carter wasn't to sure why. Maybe because last time was the actual real talk he had ever had with Lucy. To anyone else it would appear as a fight. Carter knew that wasn't a fight, he knew the difference. Last night was different. And since that talk out in the hallway he was begining to think of Lucy in the same light he had before that fateful incident five months ago.

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The seminar ended a couple of hours later and once everone began standing up Lucy immidiatly began scolding herself. She hadn't paid close attention throughout half of the talk. Instead she had been dwelling on the body sitting next to her and his weird behavior. Now she actually had to talk to him again, unless by luck he would leave her alone. But she refused to admit to herself that if he had just turned away from her without a word that her feeling would have been hurt. She tried to ignore all of those thoughts and worries as she stood up and prepared to make her exit.

"Well I'm guessing you disagree with everything he said and have a better way of doing it all?" Carter asked as he slouched and pushed his long legs out futher so that she coudln't pass.

"No, I never said I knew everything, you are the one implying that. Now if you would be so kind as to let me pass I would gratefully appreciate it."

"Here's what I concluded last night..." Carter began and at her sigh he stopped. Holding out his hand, Carter motinoed to the seat next to him that Lucy had been sitting in only seconds ago. "Take a seat."

Lucy let out another sigh but this one more impatient then the previous. "Fine." Lucy plopped down onto the chair and faced ahead.

"I believe that we have gotten everything out in the open, and if we haven't then it's all on your side because I really have nothing left to say concerning last night. So there really is no point of continuing this foolishness."

Lucy interrupted him quickly. "And by foolishness you mean.......?"

"This continous fighting that we have been involved in for over five months. I'm tired of it and I would hope you are also. I'm not going to sit here and try to be your best friend or even suspect that we can be friends at this point, but we can at least try to have enough respect for each other that we aren't yelling and arguing everyday." Carter looked at her intently as she seemed to think about the words he just spoke, and he almost found himself nervous throughout the whole silence.

Lucy thought about what he said silently, and surprisingly considered it. For some reason hearing that he no longer felt the need to argue with her any longer took away most of her need to. "You know it isn't that easy. We can't just say 'oh lets be nice to each other now' and then everythings all better."

"I never said that. But it isn't to late to try now is it? Unless you hate me so much that you don't want to." Carter really did hope that wasn't the case. He never really did hate her. Sure he had liked to think that but it never had been the truth. She just agrivated the hell out of them.

"There you go putting words in my mouth again." Lucy exclaimed in an exasperated tone. "I never said I hated you, I just-" Lucy winced and sighed as she tried to search for the words.

"What?" Carter asked.

Lucy coudln't help but notice the kind tone in his question and for the moment all the tension she felt when she was faced with him faded away and she felt more at ease to talk. She opened her mouth to speak but before she could get a word out they were interrupted.

"John?"

Both Carter and Lucy looked up at Rene who stood beside John and awaited his attention.

"Sorry to interrupt," Rene said apoligetically then looked straight at Carter, "Are we still going to have lunch?"

Carter nodded. "Sure just give me a minute."

Rene nodded and walked away.

When Carter turned back to face her Lucy was already collecting her things. "What are you doing?"

"Getting my stuff, what does it look like?" Lucy responded with a little more attitude then she had intended. With a sigh Lucy stood up and looked down at him, her face a little softer then it had been just a moment before. "Look I don't want to talk about this right now. I've never been uncomfortable around you because before I really couldn't have cared about what I said to you or what you thought of it, but right now you are making me uncomfortable. So I guess you could say I am running away form an inevitable discussion but so be it." Turning quickly Lucy walked in the oppisite direction down the isle.

Carter stood up and called after her. "We're going to finish this later Lucy!"

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Lucy made every attempt to make sure that later was later. In fact much later. For the most part of the day she had managed to avoid any sort of confrontation with Carter. She had been lucky enough not to have another seminar with him, but when she wasn't secluded in rooms for a two hours time she had managed to escape to her own hotel room or mingle in with a crowd. Only one time did she see Carter, but luckily he hadn't seen her and she had managed to move far enough away that if he did turn around he wouldn't spot her. Of course nothing stopped him from knocking at her hotel door when she was in there, which is what she discovered later that evening.

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Lucy had chosen on not going out that night. Her experience last night made her opt for a quite evening in front of the T.V by her lonesome which is the way she often preferred it. Her quite time was evenutally interrupted by a knock on her door. Groaning, Lucy pushed herself up from her position on the sofa and looked at the clock. "Who the hell would be knocking at my door at ten thirty?" Of course Lucy got no answer and she knew the only way to would be to get up and answer the door. After building up her resolve Lucy eventually forced herself up offof the couch and to the door. After unlocking the door Lucy preceded to open it only to stand there shocked and scolding herself for not believing his last words to her earlier.

"I told you we were going to finish this later."

Lucy frowned. "Alright fine." Releasing the doorknob Lucy turned around and walked back in. She didn't look at him until she had plopped down onto the couch and was looking up at him. "Talk."

"Hey, I wasn't the one that got cut off." Carter reminded her.

"So if I wanted to say what I had to say I would have come and found you."

"Okay, look this is way off of the earlier discusion, but what is your problem Lucy. I could understand if you had more reason to hate me but I don't see it here." Carter told her honestly. "So what is your problem?"

"I don't have a problem." Lucy stood up and moved away form the couch to stand in front of him. "But forgive me if your the one person in the world I don't feel free to talk to."

"I didn't tell you to tell me your whole life story. But if I can try to get over all the animosity I have towards you why can't you try? I mean do you even want to, because if you don't then-"

"That isn't it." Lucy sighed and looked at him solemnly.

"Then what is it?" What surprised Carter, once he thought about it, was how genuine the question was when he asked it.

Lucy opened her mouth then closed it. The words she wanted to speak wouldn't come out. This new attitude that she was getting from him made it difficult for her to speak to him. "I'm having trouble talking to you now. Now that I am not trying to be mean I don't really know what to say. I mean this whole trying to be nice thing is making me nervous. You're making me nervous."

Carter could tell to. The way she kept biting her bottom lip and looking around at everything but him made it very obvious. "You don't have to be."

"Well I'm glad you think so." Lucy smiled quickly then looked down and sighed.

"Although my doctorial degree isn't in psychology I think I would be safe in guessing that you have a problem with opening up and pushing people away."

"Whatever." Lucy turned away from him and walked towards the t.v. to turn it off.

"Lucy be honest just this one time to me and to yourself. Do you actually believe you could be happy on your own with no one for you to care about and no one to care about you?" Carter waited patiently for a response, that's if he was even to receive one from her.

"I've gotten by just fine without anyone." Lucy responded to him as she truend to face him.

"That's not what I mean Lucy. Sure you can get by, but can you actually be happy?" Carter did not intend on letting up, no matter how much she tried to avoid the question.

"I don't know okay. I have no clue. You know sure I want what everyone wants. I nice man to marry and love, a couple of kids, and a pretty house. But I have no time for that." Her whole life she had wanted to be a doctor, and even though often she was stressed out over it and tired she wouldn't give up her profession for anything, even to have a social life.

"Lucy that is just an excuse. You aren't the only doctor that works hard. Look I'm not trying to compare here and decide who works the hardest and has the least time to spare. But I work hard too." At least he thought so. Carter had never met anyone that believed the there work was the be all and end all of things. That's what led him to believe that it was partially just in excuse in her case. Sure he knew being a doctor was stressful, and took up a lot of your time. But it didn't take up your whole life.

Lucy jumped in. "I know that, I'm not trying to say you don't. You know maybe if I decided to I could make time in my life for nice things like that. But I don't want to."

Carter walked towards her as he began to talk. "So if someone admitted to you that they cared for you and wanted to get to know you better you would tell them that you don't have time for them at the moment and well that their just out of luck."

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know." Her reply was a pitch louder then she had intended but she continued. "But it doesn't matter does it? Because nobody really cares about me like that do they?" Lucy voice lowered as she asked the question.

"How would you know Lucy? You don't give anyone the time of day." Carter replied to her question with his own. He was doing his best to get her to think, and maybe even change her mind that she did need other people. "Or at least you never give me the time of day."

"Oh give me a break." Lucy scoffed. But then she frowned almost sadly. "Like you really even wanted to spend more then a few seconds in my company before or after our little incident."

"How would you know?" Carter asked and as he did his heart seemed to beat a little faster because it revealed more to what the whole into conversation had been aimed at. And at this point he was scared that she was going to kick him out.

"How would I know what?" Lucy asked cautiously. At this point she was very unsure of where this conversation was headed and almost scared.

"That I didn't want to spend any time around you." Carter explained to her and cursed her silently for making him explain himself.

"Because I got on your nerves, because we fought all the time. Why else would I think that?" Lucy asked him.

"Before any of that started Lucy I had no problem with you, but after we were both to stubborn to even give an inch and forgive the other. It took a huge fight and both of us getting drunk after before we could even overcome the whole thing. Like I said earlier, I don't hate you." Carter tried to look at her face both at that point she was looking down and considering her height compared to his it made it quite difficult to make out any feature on her face.

"I'm confused." Lucy admited.

"What? About what I said?" Carter asked confused himself.

"No, about what I am feeling." Lucy admitted and it scared her to do so. "About you I mean."

Carter made a bold judgement and spoke up. "Looking I'm going to try something, and well if you don't agree then just say so, just don't yell okay?"

Lucy looked at him even more confused then she was seconds before. "Um I guess so."

"Okay." Taking a deep breath Carter brought his hand up gently to cup the side of her face and brought his head down to kiss her lips softly. After a short moment he pulled away but only slightly.

"That's what you were going to try?" Lucy asked nervously. Her heart was beating wildly. It certainly hadn't been something exciting or lustful. But the fact that he had done it all together made her excited and nervous at the same time.

"Yea." Carter resonded softly. Maybe she was waiting a moment and then was going to beat the crap out of him, but at the moment she seemed rather calm about it.

"You didn't try it very long." Lucy told him.

"I wasn't sure if it was okay. Is it okay?" Carter asked her hopefully.

Lucy licked her lips then pressed them together as she nodded. At that response Carter's lips were once again on hers but this time he didn't pull away after one kiss. Instead he sucked gently on her lip and as he did so his hand fell away from her face and wrapped around her waste, pulling her closer. Taking the initiative, Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled herself up against him and opened mouth to him to deepen the kiss. That's all it remained though, a kiss, and it lasted a while longer before eventually ending and they were left there staring at each other with only about an inch between their faces.

Although the kiss had been broken Carter still hadn't released Lucy. He still held her tightly against him, because if he didn't she would be standing back on her own two feet and well below his own height. At least holding her up against she was closer to his height and he could be closer to her. So close that he could feel her warm breath against his face.

"We progressed rather quickly from fighting to this within onle a couple of days." Lucy whispered softly considering how close he was to her.

"No we're just being honest now." Carter told her and finally relaxed his arms around her so that she lowered back to the floor slowly.

Lucy swallowed and began to feel uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Now what?"

Carter studied her face quietly and decided on a course of action to take. "Sleep on it Lucy, you still look confused."

"What?" Lucy opened her mouth again then closed it. Then eventually she opened it again. "Don't tell me I'm confused, I know damn well when I am confused I don't need you-"

Carter placed a finger of her mouth to shush her and surprisingly it worked. "I said you look confused."

Lucy grabbed his arm and pulled it down. "And your not?"

Carter shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I knew what I was going to do the moment I came in here." Lucy remained silent though and still seemed a little tiffed over his assumption of her being confused. "Look I just want you to think on it, that's all. In the morning then you tell me how you feel and we'll take it from there okay?"

Lucy sighed as she relented. "Okay."

"Okay, good, then I'll see you in the morning." Carter turned halfway around before he realized he forgot something. Turning back to her he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. Pulling only slightly away he whispered. "Goodnight." And with that he turned away form her and was out the door.

Lucy looked after him as he went out the door. At this point she felt helpless to any rational thought or movement and instead just stood there playing over what just happened in her mind.

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Instead of meeting Carter early in the morning as she should have, she instead put it off till the last minute. She would have skipped breakfest just to avoid him at this point but she was hungry and figured that she would have had to face him sooner or later. So she waited till the last minute before heading down to eat. As she made the short trip in the elevator from the fourth floor to the first floor she contemplated what she would say if she did run into him. Nothing came to mind though and as she stepped out of the elevator and asheaded for the main hall she was still at a loss.

Through some luck, as soon as Lucy walked through the doorway she spotted Michael and Josh sitting at a table with some people she was familiar with and there just happened to be a seat left. Turning her head to the other side slowly, unable to resist the temptation, she looked for Carter. After only a moment she spotted him. He sat at another table almost at the other side of the room with the same people he had been in the company of over the passed few days. At his table there were two empty seats. One happened to be right next to him. Of course his other favorite blond was sitting on the other side of him. Quickly, Lucy turned away and headed in the direction of Josh and Michael.

"Is this seat taken?" Lucy asked with a smile.

Josh looked up at the familiar voice. "Never for you."

Lucy took a seat next to him and grabbed the napkin off of the table and placed it on her lap as she awaited her breakfest which the waiters were coming around with at that moment.

"I was begining to think you were going to miss breakfest again." Josh said to her.

"No, I was just waiting till the last minute before coming down." Lucy explained to him. It was the truth, or at least half the truth.

"Well your doctor friend from Chicago was over here a few minutes ago asking if you had come down, so I figured maybe you were avoiding him." Josh explained but did venture into questioning her on the subject.

Lucy nodded. "I guess you could say so." Of course she realized that she wasn't avoiding Carter for the reason that Josh was thinking of.

"Well don't worry about it." Josh said bringing an end to the conversation. "Breakfest is served and he has more then enough blonds to keep him company."

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It didn't take long for Carter to spot Lucy. All he had to do was look in the direction of her couple of friends and he spotted her. He didn't move to go speak with her. Carter instead waited at his table until Lucy decided to get up. Once she did, he stood up and followed her out of the main hall. Once he caught up with her just outside the door he caught her arm gently. "Hey."

Lucy turned around knowing what would be behind her. "Hey."

"I'm guessing your avoiding me." Carter stated in order to get to the point.

"Yea," Lucy nodded, "you could say that."

"Why?"

"Look I'm really not sure what to say at this point and we have only a few minutes before we have to be to our seminar. So that's hardly enough time for me to stumble over my words." Lucy sighed. "Soooo, can this wait till later?"

Carter frowned at her. He knew this was going to bother him the whole day. "Alright, but later today, not later tomorrow or the next day."

"Okay." Lucy told him softly. "I'm gonna go now."

Carter watched her walk away. Then he hurriedly moved forward and grabbed her arm. "Wait."

Lucy turned around to face him, a little surprised that he had come after her. "What?"

"What about at lunch? We can talk then?" Carter offered to her as a solution.

Lucy winced. "Well I told Michael and Josh I would have lunch with them."

Carter frowned. He had to admit he was a little dissapointed that she had chosento have lunch with them before she had even decided to talk with him. "Alright, I guess we'll talk later then."

"Okay." Lucy said and then turned and left.

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Lucy went on the rest of the day without seeing Carter. When she didn't see him at all during lunch time she began to fear that maybe her unwillingness to speak to him had caused him to give up on her. So by the time 6:30 came around and she was dressed and ready for the closing dinner, Lucy decided on sucking it up and going to talk to him. Luckily she found him on her first attempt, which was his room.

"Hey." Lucy said a little unsurely. She didn't opt for being uncomfortable but she had forced herself to face him because of her fear that if she did not he would give up on her.

Carter had to admit that he was surprised to see her at his door. "Hey." After a moment of staring at her Carter shook his head out of the haze he jad fallen in and silently beratted himself. "Do you want to come in?"

"Sure." Once Carter stepped to the side Lucy walked into the room and looked around silently while he shut the door. Once she heard it close she turned around to face him. "I, um." Lucy sighed. "I don't really know what to say. I mean I know how I feel. I just don't know what to say."

"Are you not sure about last night?" Carter asked her. He wanted to get strait to the point. Even if that was finding out she thought the previous night was just a big mistake. He just wanted to know.

"No that isn't it. It's just weird. Not bad, just weird." Lucy noticed the confused look she was getting from him and tried her best to explain. "I mean we've been at each others throats for over five months. But last night was different. You're like a totally new person now."

"Well under the circumstances I think it's better that we think of each other differently now considering how we had treated each other previously." Carter paused for a moment and wrinkled his brow as he recalled something she said. "Was last night different bad or different good?"

"Different good." Lucy told him.

"Then what's the problem?"

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. I mean there really isn't one. Like I said, it just feels weird. I mean to the point where it's uncomfortable to be around you. Cause I'm not used to you being," Lucy shrugged and scrunched her face as she sought for the right word. "nice."

Carter let out a small laugh and she smiled as he did.

"I mean I don't want you to be mean to make me comfortable or anything." Lucy said to him with humor in her voice.

"Okay well here is my question then." Carter told her. "Is this making you so uncomfortable that you don't even want to try to see if it would work?" That was the question that he had been wondering all day. She admitted to not wanting anyone in her life. Even if she maybe did have some sort of feelings for him she may have come to the decision of not even acting on them.

"No I'm not saying that. I think it will just take a little getting used to." Actually a lot of getting used to Lucy knew. He was like a whole new person to her now. She was up to it though. She wanted to get used to him and see if there was any chance of something in-between them.

"Okay." Carter nodded. "I can live with that answer." Glancing behind Lucy Carter checked the time on the clock then looked back at her. "How about for a start I escort you to dinner?"

Lucy gave him a small smile. "I think that would be a good start."

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