One Summer Night
Part 5
By Lisa
ERDrLewis@aol.com

Lucy took a deep breath before walking into the ER. "Hey, guys," she said as she walked up to the admit desk.

"Hey Lucy! Welcome back!" Jerry said.

"Yeah, we were beginning to miss ya," Chuni said.

"Good morning Lucy. Long time, no see," Carter said, not looking up from a chart he was examining.

"Good morning to all of you too. I'm just going to put my stuff away. Dr. Greene said I was working with you again, Carter?"

"Yep. Hurry up though, there's an incoming trauma. Some guy fell down a whole flight of stairs and the EMTs should be pulling up any second now."

"'Kay, be right there."

"Lily, are Ms. Jacobs' labs back yet?" Carter asked about the woman who had fallen down the flight of stairs.

"Nope. She's still up having his CAT scan done anyway."

"Okay, thanks."

All of the sudden, the phone rang. Randi picked up the phone. "ER. Yeah, hold on." She turned around and looked at Carter. "Phone for ya."

"Yeah? Oh, hi. Yep, fine, you? Good. Well, little miss jet-setter, I'd imagine. Yeah, I've got it hold on one sec." Carter pulled out his wallet and looked on a small piece of paper. "689-1464. Yeah. Miss you too. Okay. Love ya, bye," Carter said, hanging up the phone.

"Who was that?" Lucy asked. She could already tell from the conversation that it was his sister.

"Oh, just a friend."

"A friend or a *friend*?" Jerry asked.

"Jerry, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean," Carter said, smiling sweetly.

"He wants to know if it was L.K.," Randi said.

"Oh, maybe," Carter said. This would definitely throw them off, since Lucy was in the room. He couldn't believe that they were still hooked on that.

"Who's L.K.?" Lucy asked.

"Last week, Carter got a love letter and it was signed 'L.K.'" Jerry said.

"Carter got a love letter? This Carter? You gotta be kidding me," Lucy said.

"No, Malik and I read it. See what you've been missing?" Jerry said.

They were all so busy talking about 'L.K.' that no one had noticed Kerry, who was sitting at the last computer.

"As fascinating as all of this 'L.K.' business is, can we all get back to work?" she said.

"Dr. Carter, Ms. Jacobs is back from her CAT scan and here are her labs," Lily said.

"Okay then. Lucy, let's get back to work."

She sat in the lounge wondering why it had happened. Lucy wasn't quite sure how it had happened. Nevertheless, she and Carter had managed to get into another fight. Although this time it was different. They were more than just work colleagues now.

*** "How could you do that, Lucy?" Carter said, his voice raised.

"I don't know!" she yelped back.

"Oh, fighting already?" Jerry commented.

Carter grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled her into the lounge. Luckily, they were the only ones in there. "What were you thinking?" he screamed.

"I told you, I don't know! I already said I was sorry!"

"Yeah, well you gave Mrs. Goldstein quite a scare when you mixed her file up with Mrs. Goldberg's! She couldn't figure out how we concluded that she needed immediate surgery for her ruptured appendix when she came in with a head cold!"

"I apologized to both of you, what more you want from me?" Lucy screamed back.

In the midst of their fighting, Carol walked in. She saw them and quickly said, "Oh, sorry!" and ran out.

Carter stepped closer to Lucy. "See, this is why I didn't want us to get involved! When we fight, we're just going to bring it home with us!"

"Well, we don't fight that often," Lucy said back.

"Lucy, it's your first day back and we're already fighting!" Carter said, exasperated. "I gotta get some fresh air." ***

Now Lucy sat, trying to figure out what had just happened. What was she going to do? *Well, sitting here crying isn't going to help much,* she thought, wiping the tears from her eyes and getting up to walk out. She did so and scanned the ER for Carter. *Still getting fresh air, I assume,* she thought.

"Hey, Lucy, where's Carter?" Jerry called out.

"I don't know and I don't care," Lucy shot back. Seeing the urgent look on his face, she said, "Outside, I guess. Why?"

"Will you go get him and tell him his mom's on the phone?"

"Sure, me of all people," Lucy mumbled as she walked out the door. She saw him leaning up against the wall of the building. "Your mom's on the phone," she called out to him. Seeing that, he stood up and began to walk in, she also went back in. She wanted to avoid him as much as possible right now. When she got in, she walked up to the admit desk and sat down. There were only a few patients and none of them needed her help right now.

Carter came in and picked up the phone. "Hi Mom," he said, with an irritated look on his face. That look soon turned to worry. "Are you alright? That's all, a broken wrist, you're sure? Yeah. Okay, I'll be right there."

"Everything okay?" Kerry asked.

"Uh, my mom was in a car accident and needs someone to take her home. My dad's out of town and . . ."

"Get out of here, Carter," Kerry said. "Hope everything's okay."

"Yeah . . . yeah, thanks. Talk to you all later," he said, running out the door.

With Carter gone, Lucy stuck around with Maggie Doyle for the rest of the day. *For the best, I suppose,* Lucy thought. She was sitting and stitching up Ms. Jacobs head. "So, how'd this happen again?" Lucy asked.

"I fell down the stairs."

"Oh, right. Well, we're all a little bit clumsy."

"Yeah," the man replied with a sad look on his face.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah . . . it's just that . . . oh, never mind."

"No, what?"

"Well, when I fell down the steps I was chasing after my husband. We had gotten in a fight and he had stormed out. I was just wondering where he was."

"Oh," Lucy said. That made her think of Carter.

"You fancied that doctor who you were with earlier, didn't you?"

Lucy could feel her cheeks getting pink. "No. What made you think that?"

"Oh, I don't know. Body language and such. Ya know," she said. "You shouldn't let him get away from you. Get him when you've got the chance."

Lucy pretended to ignore the comment, although it did make her think. She would go over to Carter's when her shift was over. Get him while she had the chance.

To be continued . . .:)