Surprisingly, no one noticed, or at least confronted her on the fact that
she had missed half her shift yesterday, hadn't come in with John attached
to her hip this morning like usual, neither talking to him, or even
acknowledging each other.

When they had both showed up at the admit desk at the same time, Lucy
stared at him for a few minutes before trying to speak.  When she did,
Carter walked past her, brushing shoulders along the way and headed into the
lounge.  Her instinct would of told her that she should go after him.  Now
was her chance, he was in the isolation of the empty doctors lounge, and she
could possibly get a few words in.  Looking around the room at her friends
and colleagues, she decided against it, not wanting anyone to have any proof
that they had had a fight.  If everyone else noticed, talked about it,
started rumours or gave her those stares that are just saying 'I know', it
would just make it more realistic.  Make it seem less like a nightmare and
make her face the fact that it actually happened.

A few seconds after he entered the room, Dr. Carter exited back out, this
time with a mug full of coffee in one hand and his chart in the other. 
Picking up her chart, Lucy ignored him this time, and went to her patient,
like he wasn't even there.

~~~~~~~~~~Friday, September 29, 9:00 PM (one week later)

Lucy was just about to head to the front desk to sign discharge orders for
her patient and sign out for lunch when she dropped one of her pictures from
her lab jacket pocket onto the floor.  As it curved back and forth while
falling to the floor, like a feather, it turned and landed just outside the
door of an exam room.  When she bent down to pick it up she heard Carter and
Chen chatting with one and other.  She knew that it wasn't the best idea to
listen in on their conversation again remembering what happened last time,
but she just couldn't help herself, it had became habit.

"Well, will you talk to her?  Please?  I mean, she thinks that we are
having some kind of illicit affair behind her back." begs Carter to his
close friend from medical school.

"Are you serious?  What gave her that idea?"

"Apparently, she overheard you and I talking last week on the roof and
misinterpreted the talk of you and your child as you and me." states Carter,
showing no emotions of him being happy.  No smiling or laughing.  He wasn't
glowing like he usually does.  He was different without her. "I am being
told by my instincts to be mad at her for what she did and believed, but I
just can't stay mad at her."  Carter states softly, looking at the floor. 
"I love her to much. I just have to forgive her, I just need her to
understand fully, that nothing is going on between us."

"Yeah, well, not only would it be totally weird and unusual for us to be
together, but how would you find the time?  If you aren't at work, you are
with Lucy all the time.  You are living together now, right?"

Not moving even one of the two hundred muscles it takes to smile, he leans
his head to the side looking at her.  "No Deb, we are not living together.  
We just... her place is nicer then mine."

"Sure, I bet that is the only reason you stay there, for the wallpaper." 
Jokes Jing Mei, trying to get him to laugh, unsucceedingly.

Getting annoyed by her continuous cheerfulness, Carter goes back to the
conversation he started, "So, will you talk to her?"

"Yeah.  Sure."

"Today?"

"Today."

Signing a breath of relief that everything might be okay, Carter gives her
a hug "Thanks Deb.  I owe you."

"You can be my lamoze coach."

"I'm touched Deb.  I really am... Have you decided... you know... yet?"

Getting tearful eyes, Dr. Chen, forced her tears back, trying to be strong.
"I can't keep this kid.  I'm not ready to be a mother..."

Standing outside the door, hearing their whole conversation, Lucy smiles
widely, for the first time since the last morning.  He still wanted them to
be together.  Even after what she had put him through.

Feeling that she had eavesdropped enough for a while, Lucy walked off and
into another empty exam room.  Placed in the front pocket of her white
jacket right underneath her picture of her and Carter, Lucy had the envelope
which she had kept un-opened all week.  Taking in a deep breath of air, she
ripped open the top with her well manicured nails, careful not to rip the
folded paper on the inside.  Unravelling the piece of looseleaf, Lucy
examined the results...

~~~~~~~~~~Friday, September 29, 9:10 AM

Ten minutes later, while in the cafeteria eating her lunch, Lucy is paged
by the Emergency Department.  Throwing away what she didn't eat into the
trash, Lucy walked to the newly renovated desk and asked Randi Fronczac who
had beeped her.

Looking up from her magazine for only a second, the clerk snapped her gum
and responded by saying that it was Dr. Chen, wanting her to meet her on the
roof ASAP.

On the ride up, Lucy smiled , knowing, hoping that everything would be
okay, that she could still fix what she had ruined with John.  She didn't
know what she would do without him. 'Probrely fall into a deep depression.'
thought Lucy, realising how lonely she was until she met John.  All of her
past boyfriends were just one fling after another.  No one that really stuck
out.  John, if she ever lost him, would be someone she could never stop
missing.

Stepping onto the warm cement of the roof, Lucy could feel the burning sun
against her face.  Shielding her eyes from its sharp glare, she studied the
premises for Jing Mei.  On the opposing side to hers, Lucy heard Debora call
her over.

Plopping her body down beside the other women, Lucy looked at her as she
started talking, "Now, to be completely honest, I did not volunteer to come
up here, John asked me.  He told me and I don't want to take sides or agree
or lecture either of you, I just wanted to say that John loves you as much
or more then you love him...  I know that he told you what we were talking
about up here the other day and I wanted you to know, nothing has ever
happened and never will happen between us."

"I know..."

"Now Lucy, although we don't have anything in common, I hope that we can
become friends.  I have always been John's, but I am hoping I can be yours
also too."

"I would like, that, but, you are wrong about one thing."

"And what is that?"

"We do have something in common."

"Besides being doctors?" jokes Jing Mei.

Lucy nods her head and pulls out the now, slightly crumpled sheet from her
pocket and hands it to Deborah to see.  As her mouth falls slightly, Lucy
just smiles and shrugs her shoulder, "We're both pregnant."

~~~~~~~~~~Friday, September 29, 11:00 AM

Luckily, Lucy's shift was nearly over, so as soon as the clock struck the
hour, she and Jing Mei Chen left the hospital together and went out to
lunch.  Jing Mei shared stories about Carter when he was a medical student
and Lucy told her about the times that Deb missed.

The two pregnant women were sitting in a restaurant, drinking sundaes and
laughing hysterically as Chen tells her tale, "So I turn around, and the
klutz that I am, stick the paddles forward while they are charged and as
they run into his chest, I jumped and pushed the buttons!" her face turns
dark red, "His eyes nearly pop out of their sockets and he goes flying
backwards!" he allows her giggling fit to fade as she slouches back in her
seat.

"I'm guessing you heard about the time that I kicked him in the chest and
he went flying through the door?"

"Yeah!  But only because Chunni has to remind us ever week of what you guys
did afterwards!" Dr. Chen sends her a suggestive grin, close to laughing
again.

"I know what you mean, and we weren't!  We were.... talking.  He was a
resident and I was a student.  We follow the rules."  Lucy tries to make her
new friend believe her.

"Yeah.  Sure.  When did you guys start dating?  April, May?  And when did
you graduate?"

"That is different.  We.... uh.... had an excuse."

"Really?  Like what?... No!  Let me guess.  You had both been horny for the
past year and a half?" Jokes Jing Mei, causing Lucy to start laughing again.

"No, we had just needed someone to lean on and the person that I wanted to
was him, vise versa."

Jing Mei nods her head, noting their conversation getting serious and
allowed her face to get more pensive.  She understood what Lucy meant,
referring to the stabbing.  "Lucy?"  Chen says, barely above a whisper.

"Yeah."

"I don't mean to sound forward or anything.... I mean, you don't have to
answer... but, have you ever wandered what would happen if one of you didn't
make it.... February?"

"I haven't really had  to put much thought into it.  If he were to have
died on the table that night, I would of died too."

Hearing those words, Jing Mei suddenly understands the great connection
that they had.  They cared so greatly for each other and had finally
realised it.  They were living out a dream.

For the rest of their meal, no one spoke afraid to say something wrong and
ruin the moment they had just created.  They both remained silent until they
had to fight over who was going to pay the bill.

Walking down the street a few minutes later, Jing Mei stopped at a food
cart and bought the two of them an ice cream, "So are you going to talk to
John today?"

"Does he want to talk to me?"  Lucy fiddled with her fingers, noticing the
diamond ring that still sat on her left hand.

"He does.  In case you haven't noticed, ever since you two had your fight,
he has been moping around like his dog died.  I'm just starting to wonder
what he was like before you."

"Well, if he never met me, then he had nothing to miss." Lucy confesses,
lowering her self-esteem every time Deb tries to lift it up.

"He was missing a lot because  he hadn't met you yet."

Lucy smiles and hales a taxi to the side of the road, "Thanks Jing Mei." 
stepping inside the cab, she is driven away without saying another word.

~~~~~~~~~~Friday, September 29, 2:00 PM

Knocking lightly with her knuckles on the heavy door, Lucy waits silently
for it to be answered.  After a second or two, the door is propelled open by
Carter.  Standing, staring at her for a few minutes, he does not say a
thing, he just moves aside, allowing her space to enter.

Passing him, she walks two feet infront of Carter before she turns on her
heals and smiles at him as he closes the front door.

"What are so happy about?" he had a small smile on his face, not really
wanting to show that he was happy in any way, but unable to contain himself.
  Just her presence made him beam.

Moving forward quickly, she kisses him slowly for a few seconds before
backing off to a short distance, "Nothing.  Just something I found out
today."

Standing just a few inches away from her, he asks her if it has anything to
do with him.

"You might say that it has a lot to do with you." Lucy implies, grinning
wildly back at him.

"So are we okay now?"

"Yeah, I think we are okay." She hugs him tightly around the chest as she
was just the right height for him to place his jaw on top of her head, both
standing comfortably without slouching.

"Is this what you meant when you said that we weren't compatible?" he
laughs. "I mean by having nonsense disagreements."

"I think 'Uncompatible' was just an excuse for us not to be together while
I was a medical student."

"Yeah, and the whole thing about me not being in touch with my feelings was
just an excuse to, right?"

"Nope.  That, I was and still am completely serious about."

"Really?  You think?"

"Not one bit."  Lucy jokes with him.

"Even if I tell you I love you, which I believe is a feeling, you still
wouldn't believe  I was in touch with my feelings.

"You might have to convince me."

~~~~~~~~~~

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon when John and Lucy got the call
that they weren't exactly anticipating.  When the phone rang they both
expected it to be either County or Deb, wanting to know how things went, but
as it turned out, it was neither.

Out of the blue and really unexpectedly, Carter and Lucy were both
approached with the suggestion of meeting Roland, Lillian, Millicent,
Jonathan Senior, John's sister Barbera and Lucy's mother Barbera for a
weekend at John's grandparents beach house at a lake, a few hours drive out
of Chicago.

Deciding they needed time to think about it, Lucy and John told them that
they would call back in am hour or two.

"So, do you want to go?" Carter asks.

"Well...Your parents haven't met my mom yet and it would be nice to get
away for a few days..."

"So you want to go."

"There is a difference between have to and want to.  They have to meet
sometime."

"Fine then.  I'll call and say that we are going." he makes no move for the
phone or leaving his seat.

"John, when you say beach house, what do you mean?"

"Picture an average sized city home and times it by three, then take it and
place it beside a lake."

"So, in other words, it is very much 'Your family'."

"You might say that."

Leaning in close to John, Lucy nuzzled her head onto his shoulder and
looked up into his eyes.  Struggling for the right words over a matter of
minutes, Lucy looks up at him once more, dragging her eyes off the ground to
meet his, "Do you want to start a family of your own?"

"As in have kids and all that?" John asks, looking at his fiance.

"Yeah.  Do you want kids?"

"When we are both ready to have and raise a child, sure."

"Well,"  Lucy starts to play with her ring once again, "I'm giving you your
eight month warning."

Speechless, John turns to her, not knowing what to say or feel.

"I'm not expecting you to jump into song or anything, take your time and
think about it."  Still not moving a lip, John just looks forward as Lucy
continues to talk.  "I just found out myself and at first I didn't know what
to think.  Whether to be happy, or sad, or grateful, or worried, or
distraught or psyched.  My mind was just upside down with this mixture of
emotions, rotating over and over again.  But eventually I came to the
conclusion where I was telling myself that the only thing I could really
feel was joy because I was having your child and my child.  I was having our
  child."

Turning his head towards hers, he smiles and stands up, pulling her with
him.  Picking her off her feet, lifting her up into the air by hugging her,
laughing, smiling and kissing her at the same time, sharing his joy with
her.

~~~~~~~~~~Wednesday, October 4, 6:30 AM

Yesterday had been her first OB visit and it had all been good news. 
Carter and came with her and they got an ultrasound, some pre-natal vitamins
and found out that she was nearly at two months.

Popping a pill into her mouth, Lucy used a glass of water to help work its
way down.  Clapping the cap back on the bottle, Lucy exited her bathroom and
into her room were John lay sleeping on the bed.  Taking a moment to look at
him and watch him sleep, she smiled at how peaceful he looked as the early
morning light shone in through the window, silhouetting onto his face.  Not
wanting to move, but instead stay and watch him rest, Lucy knew that she had
no choice.  He had the day off and if she didn't leave quickly, she was
going to be late for work.  Dr. Weaver had not been in the mood for putting
up with slackers, especially lately.

Exiting the room, picking her jacket up from its place of the sofa and
slipping into her shoes by the door, Lucy left her apartment and headed to
the El station.  Finding an empty seat, Lucy sat through the all the stops
along the way patiently, going over the past few days.  Her life had changed
dramatically in only a small time, but it seemed it was for the best.  Not
only did she find out that she was carrying the child of the man she loved,
but he wanted it just as much as her.

So much for 'When things are bad, they can always get worse'.  For Lucy,
whenever something happened it made everything else look hopeless, things
just got better and brighter.  If all her and John's obstacles were this
hard to over come and made things better then they were before, they
relationship and love for one another was going to last forever, shining
radiantly.

~Sunday, May 13 2001

Oh my!  My first real story with a plot and everything!  Another thing, it
took me longer to write but I already have my second story half finished, so
everything is starting to move a lot quicker.  Lizzy Knight,
lizzyknightlight@hotmail.com