Baby Sitter
By: Carrie Verkman
carebear1025@juno.com

Reminder: I don't have ownership of ER characters. This is a little comedy (not a romance, I cannot stress this enough) about Carter and Susan I just whipped up one night. Enjoy!



Susan Lewis was anxiously awaiting a surgical consult to come down to the ER. It was no surprise to her when she saw John Carter coming towards the exam room she was in. John was known for being late and a little clumsy, but who could blame him? He just graduated from med school, give him time to learn from his mistakes.  

"You paged for a surgical consult?" asked John.  

"Yeah, about half an hour ago." Susan said irritated. "It's a good thing this wasn't a matter of life and death."  

"Sorry, Benton had me tied up with patients." John said. "I really am sorry."  

"Why John, that was so nice of you to apologize." Susan said. She began to give John details about the patient. However, John wasn't listening. He stared at Susan adoringly. For some time now John had this adolescent-type crush on Susan. It was dumb, he kept telling himself, but how could he not resist? Susan had a perfect body and the most beautiful blue eyes. Susan was self-assured and was an asset to the staff in the ER. John liked her very much.

"Carter, are you listening?" asked Susan. 

John looked up. "What?" 

"Mr. Johnson has abdominal pain and it may be a surgical case, which is why I called you." 

"Oh right sorry." John examined Susan's patient. "It looks like we have a case of appendicitis here. Book an OR as soon as possible." John turned to leave but Susan stopped him.

"John, I'm sorry I got so mad. I really shouldn't be giving you a hard time since you just graduated from med. school. Do you forgive me?" 

John looked at Susan amused. Is she trying to come on to me? John thought. Maybe his luck was turning good after all. "I do forgive you Susan, always. Thanks." John left the exam room. 



Later that day a massive trauma came into the ER. A five-victim vehicle crash. Susan and Kerry Weaver were working on a young woman in Trauma One. Carter came down to assist them, but he wasn't even paged. The only reason he bothered to come down was to see Susan.  

Carter entered the trauma room. "What have we got?" 

"I didn't page a surgeon!" Susan said. "Carter, what are you doing here?" 

"I thought you might need some help." 

Kerry spoke up. "You can stay Carter, get a chest tube in." 

Carter did as he was told. Things were going smoothly in the trauma, until Susan was about to give the patient some Saline. 

"Susan don't!"  Carter yelled. 

"What? This woman needs 10 cc's of Saline." Susan said. 

"Look on her wrist." Carter said. He pointed to a silver medical alert bracelet on her wrist. "She has an allergy to Saline. Don't give it to her. Try 10 cc's of Lasix instead." 

Susan administered the Lasix instead of the Saline. The patient finally became stable.  

"Great job Carter, you just saved this woman's life." Kerry said.

"Let's get her up to the OR." 

Carter left with Kerry to the OR. Susan just stood there, realizing that if Carter hadn't been there she could have given the woman the wrong medicine. 



Susan sat in the lounge sipping coffee while reading some charts. She looked up when John came in. He was still wearing his surgical scrubs. Susan thought he looked cute in his scrubs. 

"How is the young woman?" asked Susan. 

"Fine," John said. "I assisted on the surgery and she'll be fine. She's in the ICU now." 

"That's a relief. Thanks." Susan said. 

"Thanks for what?" asked John.   

"If you hadn't told me that woman was allergic to Saline I would have given it to her and possibly killed her." 

"Susan stop…" 

"John I'm serious, if Kerry hadn't let you stay that woman would have never made it. You saved her life." 

John ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, I can't take all the credit, you did give her the right medicine after I told you." 

"John you deserve all the credit." 

"No really I can't… well, okay, yeah I kicked ass today, didn't I?"  

John and Susan laughed. She loves me, thought John; she wouldn't be giving me all this praise if she didn't like me.

Susan moved closer to John. "Are you doing anything later tonight?" 

"Ummm, no. No I'm not busy." 

"Well, why don't you come over to my apartment at 7:00 tonight. Sound good?"  

John couldn't believe what he was hearing. Susan Lewis just asked him out! "Yeah, that's great. 7:00 tonight. Oh, but what will you do with little Suzi?" 

Suzi was Susan's niece. She had been taking care of her pretty much since she was born. Susan's older sister Chloe had abandoned her daughter, and Susan felt that she should take of her. 

"Don't worry, Suzi will be fine." said Susan. 

John nodded. Then his pager beeped. "I got to go, see you tonight!"

John left the lounge. 

Susan watched him leave. Then she chuckled to herself. "Oh John Carter, you are so gullible! You have no idea what you're in for." 



That night, promptly at 7:00, John arrived at Susan's apartment. He was dressed in khaki pants and a light blue button down shirt. John also carried with him a bottle of wine. He knocked on Susan's apartment door. Susan answered wearing a sleeveless black dress.   

"John thank you so much for coming." Susan said. "Come in." 

John walked in. "Susan you look great." 

"You don't think it's too much?" 

"No, of course not." 

John saw Suzi playing on a blanket on the floor. "Suzi is getting so big."  

"I know, isn't it amazing?" Susan said. "Well I better hurry up or I'm going to be late." 

"What? Late for what?" John asked. Susan didn't answer him. 

"The emergency phone numbers are on the fridge." Susan explained.

"Suzi goes to bed at 8:30 and she likes to be read to. Oh and make sure she has a bottle before bed and that she's changed too." 

"Susan what's going on?" John asked again. 

Susan ignored him. By the way, could you drink your wine after Suzi is asleep?"  

"You have another date?" 

"Yeah, I've been trying to go out with this guy for weeks and finding a baby sitter was impossible. I really appreciate you doing this John. Thanks." 

"But I don't know how to take care of a baby!" John whined.

"You've seen enough pedes patients to know enough." Susan said. "Oh my date's here now." Susan answered the door. A tall muscular man walked in. His clothes were tight around his muscles. He had blue eyes and sandy blond hair. 

"John I want you to meet Michael. Michael, this is my daughter's baby sitter John Carter." 

The two of them shook hands. "We better get going Susie. Nice meeting you Jack."

"It's John." 

Susan kissed little Suzi good-bye. "Be good for John. Bye Bye!" Susan and her date left the apartment. 

John picked up Suzi into his arms. "We better get going Susie." John mocked the way Michael talked. "How could I have been so stupid?" John said out loud. "All she wanted me for was to be her baby sitter!"

Suzi laughed at his remark. 

"You think that's funny don't you?" John said. 

Suzi giggled again and grabbed John's nose. "Beep!" Suzi said happily.

John sat on the couch with Suzi in his lap. "Your Aunt is a real mystery sometimes, you know that?" Suzi didn't care that John had said anything. All she did was reach up and grab a fist full of John's hair. "Ow! Suzi, are you going to be a trouble maker all night?" Suzi laughed again. 

John had no idea how much work babies could be. Suzi kept him on his toes all night long. He fed her, changed her, played with her, and even gave her a bath. Finally Suzi settled down and went to sleep. John was more than ready for that wine he had brought. John was falling asleep on the couch around midnight, when Susan came home.

"John are you awake?" asked Susan. 

John woke up. "Yeah, I'm here." 

"How was Suzi?"

John yawned. "She kept me busy, but other than that she was fine." 

"Great." 

"How was your date with Michael?" John asked sarcastically. 

"It was a lot of fun. Oh by the way, here is twenty dollars for watching Suzi and a ten dollar tip from Michael." Susan handed him the cash. 

"Thanks a lot." John grabbed his coat and Susan walked him to the door.

"Thanks John, good night!" Susan said. 

"Good night." John said and he went home. 

The next day at work John Carter and Mark Greene were drinking coffee in the lounge.  

"So how was your date with Susan?" Mark asked. He had a romantic interest in Susan also and he was jealous. 

"There was no date."  John said. "She invited me to her apartment so I could watch Suzi while she went out with some guy named Michael. I got my hopes up for nothing." 

Mark chuckled. "Wow, I can't believe she did that! I bet you were pissed."  

"I was at first but I made thirty dollars!" John said laughing. 

Susan walked in to the lounge. "Hey Mark, Hey John." She poured herself a cup of coffee. "Oh, John I was going to ask you, are you busy Friday night?" 

John knew what Susan wanted to get him into. More diaper duty, more bottle-feeding and more of bathing Suzi. 

John was smart this time and simply said, "Sorry, but I have a date." 

The End