Caught Unawares
Part One
By Cimerene
cimerene@gci.net
Spoilers - Not to my knowledge, but then you never know!
"Mommy, how did you meet Daddy?" The small redheaded cherub was lying on the
bed, clearly stalling for extra time. Kerry smiled at her young daughter, and pointedly
tucked her covers tighter to her young body. "Are you sure you want to hear about
that? What If I told you another story instead? One about Grandma?" The little girl
on the bed watched her mother with a solemn look on her face, then spoke seriously.
"Daddy said, 'if it wasn't for him, you'd have married a Noodlehead.' Cause that's
who you dated before him. Would you have really married him, Momma, and is Noodlehead a
for real name or a made up dad one?"
Kerry shook her head slightly, trying deliberately not to think about what she would do
when she got a hold of her husband. She ruffled her daughter's hair, then sank gracefully
down on a chair beside her.
"Well, Pumpkin, I could tell you about the moment I met him, but if you really want
to know what happened.. be prepared for a long story...."
Kerry helped Lydia and Carter push the gurney into Trauma One. Together they moved the
young gunshot victim onto the bed. Garbed in protective gear and a pair of dark green
scrubs, Kerry tore off a pair of disposable gloves and gratefully pulled on the new pair
Lydia held out for her.
A fight had broken out at the local sports arena, injuring over forty, 15 of the victims
were transferred to county, with the rest being transferred to Mercy. Kerry, fighting back
a wave of exhaustion, glanced though the glass partition to Mark just in time to see his
patient code. He'd lost his battle.
Kerry forced herself to return to her patient, and after a long and hectic twenty minutes
had passed, her small team was able to turn the patient over to the surgical team. Relief
warred briefly with exhaustion, and, fighting a yawn, Kerry glanced down at her blood
stained scrubs, then up to the wall clock. She knew she had little time in which to clean
up if she was to make her date for this evening on time. Glancing back at the clock, she
noticed Carter. He was nervously looking from chairs and back to the wall clock. After
watching him for several moments, she finally came to a decision.
"Carter, I thought you were off at seven?" She asked, knowing through the
grapevine that he had a date, one that he'd been looking forward to for quite some time
now. The least she could do was hurry him out the door. She purposely put aside all
thoughts of her own date
He meaningfully looked over to the patients still waiting. "I was supposed to be,
but." he paused. "Go, we got it." She pointedly turned her back on him,
knowing that he would be more likely to respond to her wishes if she ignored him. She knew
that if she gave him the least bit of encouragement he would stay, and it was better that
someone was able to enjoy them-self tonight. 'Besides,' she thought. 'The next shift
should be here shortly.'
At a quarter to nine, Kerry stumbled through the door of her house. She'd already
called and rescheduled her date, now all she had to do was shower, change and look
ravishing in 20 minutes. She knew if she hurried she would just barely make it.
One hour later, Kerry was bored, completely utterly and without a shadow of a doubt,
bored. The last time she'd been this bored was when she'd sat behind a semi with a blown
engine and was stuck in traffic for over an hour with nothing to read. Her date had to be
the most boring and self-centered person she'd ever met. For this she'd raced through her
last 2 patients?
She politely nodded to the gentleman who sat across from her as he made yet another boring
point in his monologue. She'd decided within the first five minutes of her date that
spending an evening at home reading medical journals was definitely preferable to this
fellow.
Kerry was dressed in a brand new, light green, strapless dress, wearing small diamond
earrings shaped like tiny teardrops. The color of her dress brought out the green in her
eyes and it's shape made her already curvaceous body look even curvier. It was also
totally wasted on her date. The gentleman sat before her, still droning on, totally
unaware of Kerry's beauty.
John's date had all the brain cells of a gnat. He watched as she twisted her napkin.
Still talking endlessly in a high pitched voice about how exciting the world of real
estate was. How she was able to sell real estate in the first place was a wonder to him.
This woman obviously sucked the brain cells out of the person nearest her and then forgot
to use them.
When the waitress brought their drinks, John looked up, relieved at the interruption. He
gratefully accepted the Perrier and sipped it to kill time. 'Just a few more hours,' he
thought. He placed the glass down and adjusted the dark blue tie that perfectly matched
his shirt. It was a new one, but now he wondered why he had bothered to buy it.
The woman who sat before him was so into herself and what she did for a living, that he
wondered if she even knew if he was in the room, or if she would notice if he left. The
only things keeping him here were the good manners that had been ingrained into him since
childhood. Leaving had never looked so good.
Kerry nodded again, boredom rapidly overcoming her. If the hospital didn't need that
pharmaceutical grant so much, she'd be at home, in her jammie's reading her latest medical
journal. 'Damn Robert for pressuring me into this.'
She sipped at her water, more to keep awake than for the actual need of liquid
consumption. She'd decided early on in the evening to switch from wine to water, knowing
that the more wine she drank, the more inclined she was to overdo it and tell this jerk
exactly what she thought of him.
She glanced around the restaurant, knowing from the quiet murmurrings that it was crowded.
However, the tall plants around their table obscured the other diners from her view. Too
bad, she thought, at least if there was someone nearby she could concentrate on them
instead of her date. She did spy the phone booths near the ladies room and an idea sprang
to mind. A quick phone call to Jeannie and her beeper would start pinging. It was an
arranged signal between them, something to be used only in her most desperate hour. She
decided that this date was rapidly becoming an emergency of overwhelming proportions.
"Bob," she sweetly told him. "I need to freshen up, I'll be back in a few
moments." She noticed his blank look, sighed, and then bluntly told him, "ladies
room," before stalking off. As she made her way towards the ladies room, she ignored
the admiring glances from her nearby waiter, her anger evident only in her flashing eyes..
John excused himself from his date and headed for the men's room. He was sure if he
promised to pay Randi well enough, that he could get her to page him, or he could just
fake a phone call and tell Sheila that he had checked in and there was an emergency.
As John neared the phone he noticed the backside of a very attractive redhead, realizing
he was staring at her, John quickly looked away to a nearby painting. He was admiring the
River view the artist had painted when he clearly heard a woman's shocked voice saying
"Carter?"
--
My Life is an open book, but finding the right page to turn to could be a bit difficult~
Atkins restart Sept. 17, 00 176/153/124
ERFANFICTIONZONE: http://www.egroups.com/group/ERFANFICTIONZONE
HOME PAGE: http://www.geocities.com/cimerene/
Quack, Quack, Quack!
