Lucy looked at the Calendar in her kitchen. December 19th, 2 days until the wedding. 'I can't go, it'll bring back too many bad memories' She told herself. Although she longed to see him once more, her heart ached for him. Lucy was about to flick off the Kitchen Lights when she fell to the floor.
"Lu-Lucy!" He gasped. His face full of pain, suddenly Lucy was back in the kitchen but she could still see Carter bleeding to death on the floor. Pain ached along in her body. She could still see the blood, covering the hospital floor in scarlet pools. Lucy pulled herself to the sink and vomited. Yet the pain was still there. Her chest and stomach ached, she felt that knife striking and striking her. She screamed in pain until she found the bottle of pain killer that her mother kept in the cabinet. Flinging open the lid she let the pills spill into her mouth. Seconds passed and the pain slowed down, but Lucy realized she must have took too many. Because she felt herself become numb and tired as she fell to the floor dropping the rest of the pills. a teardripped down her face and she silently called out his name... "Carter" before she completely blacked out.
Carter fell onto his bed. He was sober yet he didn't feel it. He felt numb and lifeless. Nothing in his life meant anything to him at the moment. No one could fill this empty space inside of him. Today a young girl, about 20 something had come into the ER, a stab wound. She had died and it made him think of her. Well actually everything made him think about her. His final thoughts before drifting off into sleep were of how much he wished he could have told her this before she had left.
Carter fell into a deep sleep, for once his dreams weren't plagued by nightmares. Instead he was walking along the rocks on Lake Michigan, when he suddenly heard her voice.
"John Carter?" She called searching, mist prevented her from seeing him.
"I'm right here, by the rocks!" He replied. Nobody answered. He began to stumble around. Lucy herself could sense he was near by but she couldn't see him.
"Lucy?" He called.
"Carter?" She called back.
"Open you eyes Lucy."
Lucy opened her eyes and realized it must have been a dream. Yet it felt like a message to her. Lucy looked around she was in her mother's room and she could hear her mom on the telephone.
"Yes, I think she'll be better after the holidays. Yeah, I think it's the stress too. Thank-You Dr. Robbins, Bye, oh and Merry Christmas!" Her mother chirped.
"Mom, your home!" Lucy said softly.
"I came home last night and almost had a heart-attack, Are you okay?" She asked giving her a cup of tea.
"Mom, I'm fine but I need to go to that Wedding. I need to deal with my past and um, deal with the people who I left behind." Lucy informed her mother as she sat upright in bed. Barbara had to control herself from shouting out the hallelujah chorus, her daughter was finally pulling herself out of depression. She knew it was only a small step but she had faith in Lucy.
"You go take a shower and pack, I'll book you a flight." She smiled giving her a hug.
"Thank-you Mom," She whispered. Barbara felt a tear run down her cheek.
"Oh, get up and hurry." She replied, wiping away the tear of joy. She smiled as Lucy ran a shower for herself. Barbara crept down the stairs and quickly dialled a certain number, and in a hushed voice she said, "Millie, Lucy is on her way!"
Twenty minutes later, Lucy was dressed, packed and ready. But she couldn't find anything to wear to this Wedding. Everything just didn't seem right. She decided to ask her mother, who was always in style, if she had anything.
"Mom, you got anything I can wear to the Wedding?" She asked. Barbara smiled from downstairs and shouted back to her daughter.
"Uh, I think there's something in a white box upstairs, it's kind of old though..." Lucy thanked her and walked on down to her mother's closet. She found the large white box and carried it over to the bed. Lucy opened it and almost gasped.
"I'd thought you'd like it," Her mother stated from the doorway. Lucy ran over to her mother and gave her a hug.
"How'd you know?" She asked admiring the beautiful black dress.
"A very talkative teen-age sales clerk helped me..." She replied. Barbara pulled out another box from behind her. "But I picked out these, Merry Christmas sweetie," She said handing the box to Lucy, inside there was a pair of very sophisticated-yet-sexy, Calvin Klein heels.
"Thank-you Mom," She smiled giving her another hug.
"C'mon, I'll drive you to the airport," Barbara explained that in order to get to Chicago on time, she was going to have to take a flight to Richmond, then to Minneapolis and then finally landing in Chicago. Lucy didn't protest, which made Barbara think, "Man she must really be in love."
Barbie Carter pranced around the mansion. She knew he was moping around here somewhere and she had an idea where to find him. After climbing what seemed like a million steps she finally found the old nursery. It was now a storage room but after shoving several paintings out of the way, Barb finally found the little door which blended in with the faint wall paper.
"He better be in here," She muttered as she crawled into the dark tunnel. She chucked off her expensive heals and ducked her head as she scrambled through the hidden passage way. They had come up here a lot as kids. Especially when Bobby died. They had mourned together and throughout the rest of there childhood they had become very close. It wasn't until John started med. school and she ran off to Germany that they grew apart. But now her brother needed help and Gamma had persuaded her with this master plan.
She finally found her brother smoking and staring out into the midnight sky.
"Oooh, your smoking, I'm telling Mom," Barb joked. Carter attempted a week smile but both of them knew it was fake.
"Want one?" He offered. Barb quickly grabbed a cigarette and muttered.
"Light me up." After taking a few puffs she began conversation. "So, I've heard you've been down lately."
"Yep," He replied, his eyes still looking at the starry night.
"Johnny, I think you could pull yourself out of this if you tried," She lied, she knew it was wrong to give false hope, but he could use the optimism.
"Life screwed me over," He said finally looking over at his sister. There was silence between the two after a few minutes Barb leaned on her brother's shoulder.
"You know that song you sang to me, the one, right after Bobby passed." She paused and began to sing. "What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?" Silence continued after barb's sweet voice ended. 'This is it' she thought, 'I've lost him.' A tear ran down her cheek seeing her brother's pain. But then something wonderful happened.
"It's all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago." He sang back, his voice not as stable as Barbs'. Barb smiled up at her brother, finding new found hope for him.
"So you wanna take me to this wedding?" She asked looking up at him.
"Yeah, it starts in an hour," He replied. "Here stamp out the cigarette." Barb gave a small quick laugh.
"Gamma will kill us if she found us smoking." Something inside her told her that her brother John had just begun recovery. But she also knew, that John and this "Lucy Knight" she had been hearing about from her grandmother were in for a surprise this evening, hopefully for the best. A half an hour later they were driving to St. Paul's Orthodox Church. Barb admired the small church in the city. The outside was decorated in simple Christmas decorations. Finally they parked the car and started up towards the church. Barb began to put her plan into action.
"Um, John, I left my purse in the car," She lied.
"But your holding your purse," Carter replied giving his sister a weird look.
"Um, did I say purse I meant, uh, what I meant to say was I forgot my um Gum! Yeah, I gotta have that icy cool flavor that lasts and lasts," She replied. Carter gave her another weird look, wondering why she was acting like this and then tossed her the car keys. Carter watched as his sister ran into the car, started it up and put the petal to the metal and got out of there before he realized what happened to him.
Chicago Airport- December 21st
"But I need to get into the city tonight!" Lucy yelled, she was all ready late for the Wedding.
"Sorry ma'am but we can't rent you a car and there are shortage on taxis tonight." The man at the counter replied. Lucy protested for a few minutes before realizing it was a lost cause and slumped down in the plastic airport chair. She felt confused and overwhelmed and few tears fell down her cheeks and she began to cry.
"Excuse me miss," A voice said down to her. Lucy looked up to see a man dressed as Santa Clause. "We heard that you can't get a ride and well me and the guys thought we could give you a lift," He offered. Lucy looked over behind him stood a crowd of people dressed up like Mrs. Clause, Elves and Reindeer. Lucy instantly smiled and hugged the huge Santa.
20 minutes later she sat with a group of Elves singing Jingle bells on the bus. She knew she missed the wedding but she could still make the reception. Lucy felt happy, happier then she had in a long time. After waving good-bye to the bus load of Santa and the elves she ran into the plaza hotel lugging the bag which held the magnificent dress and shoes. Lucy checked in and ran to her room. Within 5 minutes she took a shower and blow dried her hair. Slipping on the dress felt wonderful. It wrapped around her every curve and she smiled when she saw herself in the mirror. But then frowned when she saw the scar. Lucy hated it, not because it was a scar. But because it was a constant reminder what had happened. She took a few deep breaths and calmed herself down. She spent a few more minutes applying make-up and primping. Lucy finally slipped on her shoes, spritzed on some perfume, put on her mother's diamond earrings and grabbed the gift. "This is it," She thought as she pushed the elevator down. "I can do this."
Lucy could already hear the music when the elevator opened to the floor. Walking down the hallway she felt confident and as she opened the door she smiled. Familiar faces were everywhere. She could see Doug and Carol happily gazing into each others eyes as they danced among the crowds of people. Lucy placed her gift down on the table and tried to look threw the crowd. She bumped into somebody and turned around to see who it was. It turned out to be Chunni dancing with Jerry.
"Hey it's Lucy!" Jerry smiled as he gave her a hug.
"Long time no see." Chunni added. They chatted for a few minutes. It felt so good to be back, she thought. She made her way around the huge room, everyone from County seemed to say hello. Yet she couldn't find him, Lucy was beginning to believe he hadn't come. 'Oh well, it's no biggie', she lied to herself. She didn't want to make a scene so she made her way to the dance floor.
"I can't do this, I'm going to break down any moment," She said to herself. Lucy tried to make her way out of the crowd and found that she couldn't.
On the other side of the room, Carter decided he needed to go home. This was too painful for him. But as he left his table, he made the mistake of trying to cut threw the dance floor.
They were both heading for the center when both of them felt smack into the backs of each other. Slowly, they both turned around. Lucy nearly fainted when she saw him standing there. Carter felt his heart beat come erratic. Her golden blonde hair fell against her shoulders. That dress made him shudder when he saw how beautiful it looked on her. Her face, with those big blue eyes looking up at him.
"Lucy,"
"Carter," There was a silence that they both held as they looked in each others eyes.
"Can we take a walk?" Lucy asked. She felt herself week at the knees with him standing there.
"Yeah sure," He replied. They both pushed threw the crowds until finally making it into the hallway. Even in the elevator they were silent. It wasn't until they were walking around the Plaza court-yard Lucy began conversation.
"Carter there's something I need to tell you," Just as she said this, the first few flakes of snow began to fall.
"And there's something I need to tell you Lucy," He said taking off his jacket and slipping it over her bare arms.
"No, let me go first, I'm sorry Carter...John, for him hurting us like that. I feel like it's my-"
"Oh my God, Lucy, it is not your fault. I should have listened. It's my fault Lucy, mine." He said looking into her eyes.
"It's nobodies fault," She whispered taking a step forward she gave Carter a hug. "Does it still hurt," She asked him looking into his deep brown eyes.
"Hurts like hell," He murmured. Wrapping his arms around her. They just stood there, hugging for several minutes.
"Why don't we go back in?" She asked leading him with her hand. "There probably worried about us." She smiled. For the first time in a long time, both of them had there peace.
Moments later they opened the doors to see that most of the guests had left. Yet most of the ER remained. Carter looked over at his former med. student.
"Want to dance?" He asked as the song In Demand by Texas played over the speakers.
"I'd love too," She smiled back. It wasn't a fast song but it wasn't slow either. Yet they began to dance stylishly amongst the other couples.
"Your a good dancer," Lucy commented.
"My Parent's made me and my sister take dance when we were little, I guess it stuck," He said twirling her. "Your not to bad yourself."
"Thank-you." She replied. They talked easily about little things until a slow song came on.
"You wanna sit down," he asked.
"No let's keep dancing," She whispered. He put out his arms and held her close. Carter touched the smooth bare area of her back, her perfume was a gentle elegant scent that drove him crazy inside. They danced in silence for awhile, both of them enjoying being in each others arms.
"Carter what did you want to tell me out in the court-yard?" Lucy finally asked looking up at him.
"Lucy, I don't know how to say this but, I've uh missed you. I've had feelings for you ever since and before the day you left me. All I wanted to do was be with you and now that I'm here I never want to let you go." He finished. He looked into her eyes, awaiting a reaction. When none came he became worried.
"Luce, it's okay if you don't feel the same way." He said reluctantly and his heart beginning to feel broken again. Lucy was now looking at the floor. "Luce?" He asked, she looked up at him and smiled, she leaned up and placed a passionate kiss on his lips. Carter held onto her and kissed her back. after several minutes they took a breath. Everyone seemed to be looking at them.
"Take me elsewhere," She whispered. Immediately they exited the room, wanting to be back in each others arms as soon as possible...