Part One - A Sudden Shock
By Céindreadh
ceindreadh@eircom.net
Note: This is all Cathy's fault for putting the idea in my head
Spoilers for 'All in the family'
Because I don't want to turn this in to a Carter angst fic. I'm asserting that the only after-effects Carter suffered from the incident in 'All in the Family' are chronic back pain and a slight limp.
It was a dark and stormy night in the ER. Surprisingly there were very few patients.
"They're probably all tucked up in their beds at home," said John. "Which is where we should be on a night like this."
"Why Carter, this is so sudden," said Dave with a big grin. "But I'm afraid we have to stay on duty. Still I'm sure we could always sneak off to the suture room for a few minutes."
"Yeah, I'm sure a few minutes is all it would take you, Malucci," said Randi. She was sitting at the far end of the reception desk painting her nails. This shift, she had decided to paint each nail with a different color. So far she had, purple, white, pink, orange, and blue on her right hand, and was working on lime green on her left thumb.
John and Dave were propping up the reception desk, pretending to complete their charts. It had been so slow, that even Dave had managed to get all his paperwork up to date, but they knew that if Dr. Weaver saw them idling, she was sure to find something for them to do. Outside there was a flash of lightning. Dave started counting silently to himself. A few seconds later there was a roll of thunder.
"Hey, it's getting closer," said Dave eagerly. "Wouldn't it be cool it the hospital got struck, and the lights went out?"
"Not if you happened to be stuck on a ventilator," replied John.
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Still apart from that, it could be fun."
"Been there, done that, a couple of years ago."
"Man, why do I always miss out on the interesting stuff," moaned Dave. "Nothing interesting ever happens around here."
At that moment the phone rang.
"Somebody get that," ordered Randi as she applied another coat of 'scarlet surprise' to her index finger. "I don't want to smudge this."
"You get it Carter," said Dave.
"I'm senior," replied John. "You get it."
"You're closer."
"No, you are."
"Will somebody answer that blasted phone," yelled Kerry.
Dave and John looked at each other for a moment. Then simultaneously they both lunged for the phone. John being marginally closer got his hand to it first, but Dave slammed his hand down on top of John's only a fraction of a second later. Before either of them could pick up the handset, a bolt of lightning struck the hospital, traveled down the phone lines and into both of them. The resulting shock sent them both flying backwards. The last thing either of them heard as they lost consciousness was Kerry's scream of horror.
"Oh man, that was some buzz," groaned Dave as his eyes flickered open. Someone was shining a light in his eyes. The light was removed abruptly and he heard Jing-Mei's voice saying, "Dr. Weaver, he's coming round." From what seemed like a long way away, he heard the chief's voice saying, "Get him into trauma one, and page Kovac. I'll take care of Malucci."
"Huh?" thought Dave. That didn't make any sense. He shook his head, to try and clear it. That was a mistake. He groaned again and closed his eyes as the world started spinning around him.
"Easy John," said Jing-Mei. "Do you know where you are?"
"Don't call me John," muttered Dave, wondering what the hell was going on. His head was aching, his back was aching, and it felt like someone had stuck a red-hot poker through his hand. He appeared to be slumped against a wall in reception. Looking around him, he saw Dr. Weaver a few feet away, with her back to him. She appeared to be kneeling beside a prostrate figure. Dave blinked in surprise as he realized that the figure was wearing the same jeans and scrub top, as he was. He was about to comment on it to Jing-Mei, when he glanced down at himself. His eyes widened in shock, as he realized that he was wearing a white lab-coat. Dave let out a strangled gasp as he looked back to the other figure on the floor. The chief had moved out of the way, and Dave could see the face of the person she was working on. It was his own.
"This is not happening, this is not happening," repeated Dave to himself.
"John, do you know where you are?" repeated Jing-Mei.
"County General ER," replied Dave. He could see the look of relief on Jing-Mei's face, and breathed a sigh of relief of his own. At least he wasn't totally crazy, he thought to himself. "No you're just trapped inside someone else's body," a little voice in his head told him. He groaned. This was not happening, this was not happening.
"It's okay John, we'll get you something for the pain, as soon as we've checked you out."
"Car...Malucci?" asked Dave, hoping that his body wasn't too badly damaged.
Jing-Mei glanced over to where Dave's body lay. Kerry was just supervising his movement onto a backboard. "Dave's still unconscious. Dr. Weaver's taking care of him. He'll be fine." She patted Dave's or rather John's arm reassuringly. "Now you just lie still, and we'll get you into Trauma one.
John didn't regain consciousness until he was in Trauma two. Looking at the light above him, he groaned, "Oh no, not again."
"Ah, I see you've decided to rejoin us Malucci," he heard Kerry say with a smile as she breathed a sigh of relief. "You needn't think that getting an electric shock is going to get you out of doing your charts."
"What? What?" said John, totally confused. He put his hand up to his head, to find out what was hurting so much. "I'm not..." his voice trailed off as he looked at the arm he was moving. That was not his watch.... and he was sure his arm hadn't been quite so muscular the last time he had looked at it, and where was his lab-coat, and why was he wearing scrubs? He closed his eyes and groaned. "This is not happening, this is not happening," he repeated to himself. Maybe if he kept his eyes closed, he'd wake up and find that this was all a dream.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and opened his eyes to see Kerry smiling down at him. "Dave," she said reassuringly. "It's not as bad as it looks. You have a mild concussion, a second-degree burn on you right hand, and a few bruised ribs. You're going to be sore for a while, but you are going to be fine."
John listened to what she was saying, and suddenly realized that while he was in pain from his ribs, head and hand, his back was hardly bothering him. True it did feel a bit sore, but the nagging pains that had been his constant companion since the incident on Valentine's night were gone. What the hell was going on?
"How's Mal....Carter?" asked John.
"He's doing fine. He's concussed and has a burn on his hand like you, but he'll be all right," replied Kerry with a glance towards Trauma One.
"What about his back? He didn't aggravate his old injury did he?"
"It's good of you to be so concerned Dave, but as far as we can tell there's no serious damage, just some bruising."
"Concerned, yeah," thought John. "I just don't want anything bad happening to my body before I get back into it." That is assuming that there is a way to get back into it," said a little voice at the back of his mind. John closed his eyes again. "This is not happening, this is not happening," he repeated to himself.
Meanwhile back in Carter's body, Dave had decided to go with the flow, at least until he could figure out exactly what was going on.
"C-spine, and head films look clear," said Jing-Mei putting them up on the light box for Luka to examine them.
"How do you feel now Carter?" asked Luka.
"Well, my hand is stinging a bit, but my back hurts like hell. You sure those x-rays are clear?" replied Dave.
Luka looked concerned, "Was it troubling you before the accident?"
"Of course not," Dave was about to say, before he remembered that he was supposed to be Carter. He tried to think back to before the lightning strike. True Carter had seemed to be moving a little stiffly. But of course Dave had been too wrapped up in his own plans to pay much attention. "A little, I guess," he said out loud.
"Well, we will give you something for the pain, and now I think we can move you somewhere a bit quieter."
"Exam two is free," said Chuny.
Back with Dave's body, John was busy admiring his newly acquired muscles. "Definitely," he told himself as he flexed Dave's muscles. "Once I get back to my own body, I am going to start using those weight I got last year." A few minutes later, Kerry had him moved to exam two as well.
"We're going to keep you here for a few hours observation," she said, smiling warmly at the two of them. "Try to get some rest and I'll be back to check on you both later."