A Rude Awakening
Part Two
By Lisa Brown
ERDrLewis@aol.com

A Carter story rated PG. It's a Carter/Lucy romance, but the story is about a family struggle involving Carter. In the beginning, it wasn't a C/L story, but I've switched it around a bit to make it one. I wrote this soon after the season five finale and way before any spoilers for the sixth season had come out. So no spoilers at all. ;) Thanks to Elizabeth for editing and pointing out all of my stupid mistakes way back when.

"Hey, that smells really good," Carter said, walking into the kitchen.

"It's your favorite," Lucy replied. "Minestrone soup with spaghetti and meat sauce. Can you get the stuff out for the salad? I'm running late and your mom's going to be here soon."

"You're spoiling me," Carter said as he got the salad ingredients out of therefrigerator. He then walked over to get the large bowl next to Lucy.

"That's my intention," she said, pausing in her cooking to lean over andgive Carter a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for making the salad."

"Hey, that's the one thing I can make without totally screwing up," he said, slicing the head of lettuce. He was about halfway done when the doorbell rang.

"Shit!" Lucy whispered under her breath. "Your mom's not supposed to be here for fifteen more minutes!"

"I know. Hold on," he said, running out of the kitchen to get the door.

"Hi! We're raising money for our basketball team so we can go to the state finals. Could you donate any money?"

Carter stared dumbfoundedly at the two teenage girls in basketball uniforms for a moment. "Uh, yeah, sure," he said, frantically searching through his pockets for any money. He found a five dollar bill and gave it to them.

"Thanks so much, sir! Bye!" With that, the two perky girls walked backdown the steps.

Carter shut the door."Don't worry, it wasn't her. Kids who wanted money for ... something or other," Carter said, walking back to the kitchen to finish the salad.

"Good. Because this won't be done for another twenty minutes," Lucy said as she stirred the pot of soup.

After a few minutes, Carter proclaimed, "Salad's done. Do you want me toset the table?"

"Please," Lucy said, smiling at him.Carter got enough for three place settings and walked over to the table.

"Lucy, that was wonderful. I can't thank you enough for cooking for us," Katherine Carter said as her son cleared the plates off the table.

"Thanks for coming, Mrs. Carter. I'm glad that you enjoyed it," Lucy replied, smiling warmly.

"Do you need any help, John?" Katherine called from her seat.

"No, I've got it," Carter replied as he put the dishes in the sink. They could be washed later. He went back to the table and sat down.

"Well, I better be going. It's getting late. Thank you for having me, Lucy," Katherine said as she stood up. "John, will you walk me out to my car? I want to talk to you for a minute."

"Sure."

Lucy and Katherine exchanged 'good-bye's' and 'thank-you's' and then Katherine and Carter walked down to her car.

"So, what's your first day off again?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll get two plane tickets for that day and a room for you. I'll come by the hospital tomorrow to drop them off?"

"That'll be fine."

"Lucy's nice. I like her. How long have you two been going out?"

"Ten months," Carter replied, somewhat embarrassed.

They had quickly told Anspaugh and Mark because it was during Lucy's fourth year of med school. They had no objections, since Lucy was not working under him. Not soon after that the gossip had started to fly around the ER. Carter suspected that Chuni was one of the first to know, she was always so interested in his love life. But it had never come to mind to call his parents.

Katherine laughed at the expression on her son's face. "It's okay, John. Ididn't tell my parents about Roland until we were engaged. I guess it runs in the family," she joked. "Also, I suppose we don't talk much. I should call more."

"It's okay, Mom, I know you do your best," Carter said, not really in the mood to get into a heart-to-heart with her.

Katherine smiled back at her son. "I better let you get inside. See you tomorrow."

Carter waved to his mom as she got in the car. Then he walked up the steps to help Lucy clean up.

"Nurse Hathaway is going to give you some medicine to help your arm feel better, okay?" Carter said to the small boy with what appeared to be abroken arm.

Jerry popped in the room. "Carter, someone's here to see you."

Carter turned around to see him and replied, "Tell her I'll be right there." He turned back around to the boy and his mother. "I'll come back when weget the X-rays back and let you know what's going on, okay?" The mother smiled at Carter with relief. Carter walked out of the room with Carol. "Just give him some children's Tylenol for now, and if he still complains ofpain we'll get him something stronger," Carter said.

"Sure thing. Her?" Carol said.

"Pardon?" Carter asked, looking at Carol questioningly.

"When Jerry told you that someone was here to see you, you said to tell her that you'd be right there. You and Lucy break up?" Carol asked as they walked to the admit desk.

"No! My mom's supposed to be coming over to drop something off, and I was assuming it was her. And I was right," Carter said as he saw his momwaiting by the desk.

He walked over to her. "Hi."

"Hey," Katherine replied. "Here's the stuff for San Francisco. Your plane leaves tonight at five, is that alright?"

"Yep, it's fine. We're both off at two, so it works out great."

"John? Thanks again for doing this. It means a lot to me," Katherine said.

"I know. Listen, I have to get back to work, but I'll call you when we get in, okay?"

"That's fine. I know you're busy. Have a safe trip."

"Thanks, Mom," he replied. He gave her a hug and walked into the lounge. Conni, Chuni, and Mark were in there.

"Hey, Dr. Carter, I hear that you and Lucy have a few days off. A little vacation time for you, eh?" Chuni said when she saw him.

"It's not like that," Carter said, walking to his locker and putting the papers and tickets in.

"Oh really? Why else would you be taking a four whole days off?" Conni said.

"Listen, I don't want to talk about it, okay? It's a whole bunch of family bullshit and it's driving me crazy!" Carter retorted back somewhat loudly.

Conni, Chuni, and Mark exchanged a look and the two nurses left. "Hey, Carter, you okay?" Mark asked.

"Yes, I'm okay!" Carter said. He paused for a moment when he noticed he wasstill yelling. "Sorry."

"Hey, it's okay. If you ever want to talk or anything ..."

"That would be nice, but I can't. I'm not supposed to talk to anyone about it. And even if I could, it's so crazy you probably wouldn't believe me!" Carter said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, families usually are crazy," Mark replied.

All of the sudden, Carol ran in. "Trauma, GSW to the chest, drive-by shooting. ETA five minutes."

"I'll take this one," Mark said, running out of the room after Carol.

Carter just sat down on the couch to try to make some sense out of his insane life.

"I think my ears have finally stopped popping," Carter said to Lucy. They were on the plane to San Francisco and had finally reached the altitude they would be flying at. The flight attendants were starting to come around with drinks. Carter let Lucy sit next to the window. "Interesting magazine?"he asked.

"Not really," she said, looking up. "The person before me left it in the seat pouch." She shut it and put it back in the pocket. The flight attendant finally got to them. Lucy saw her look Carter up and down before asking him if he wanted anything to drink. She suddenly felt very possessive of him.

"Hon, you want anything?" Carter asked her.

He winked at her. So, he had noticed too. "Just a Sprite, thanks." When the flight attendant was out of their hearingrange, Lucy said, "You're too sweet." Carter just smiled at her. She added, "You look tired."

"A little bit. I was at work at six, you got to sleep in and come at ten."

"Try and get some sleep."

"I think I will." He reached for her hand before settling down and shuttinghis eyes.

Lucy decided that she could use some sleep too and closed her eyes to try to sleep.

"This room is so nice," Lucy said. They had just got in and were in their hotel room.

"Yeah, well, it helps to be a Carter. Even if I'm not legit."

Lucy turned around to see a goofy grin on his face. At least he was joking about it now.

"Let's see, it's only seven thirty here and we haven't eaten dinner. Do you want to go somewhere or order room service in here?"

"Carter, it doesn't matter to me. Either will be fine. You know it doesn't make a difference."

"Let's go out then. I don't know if we're going to get to go out too much this week. There looked like there were a few restaurants on this street, so we'll just go check it all out. I just want to call my mom and then the hospital to see when visiting hours are and then we'll go."

"Okay, I'm just going to go to the bathroom and freshen up a bit. Be right out," Lucy said.

Carter watched her go into the bathroom and sighed. He sat down and pulled out the phone book to find out the number for the hospital. It could be a long week. He was glad Lucy was with him.

"So, what time are visiting hours?" Lucy asked. There were three restaurants on the street, not including the ones at the hotel. They had picked the Chinese one and were sitting in a small booth in the back of the restaurant.

"Ten to four. I guess I'll go over there sometime tomorrow. I hate to leave you though," Carter said.

"Oh no you don't, don't try and use me as an excuse not to go. I don't mind being alone for a while. I could use some time to chill anyway. I haven't just laid in bed and watched TV and done nothing for a long time."

"Okay, okay, I'll go tomorrow. It's just... I mean, it's still kind of a shock to me. I don't know. It's like I've lived my whole life a lie."

"Carter ..."

"I know, my life is not a lie, but it feels that way. I'm sorry, it's just ..."

"You're still in that state of denial?"

"Yeah. Something like that. I mean, what am I going to say to him? He's dying right?"

"Carter, I'm sure you'll figure out something."

"Yeah, I guess. I always do."

Carter rolled over and looked at the clock. Ten o'clock. That meant twelveat home. He had slept late. Of course, traveling was easy for him,because at home he had such crazy work schedules, he never had any sense of time anyway. He quietly got out of bed, trying not to disturb Lucy. She neededto sleep. He knew he had to go to the hospital now, or he'd keep puttingit off. So he got dressed and left a note for Lucy saying where he was. He quietly left the room and took the elevator downstairs. He hailed a cab andtold the driver where to go. No turning back now.