The Right Match
Part Six - Some Close and Not-So-Close Calls
By Lisa Brown
ERDrLewis@aol.com
I'm only borrowing the wonderful ER characters, I'll return them I promise. No money was made off this fanfic! :) Thanks to Kathy, Zelia, and Christina for editing. Feedback always welcome at ERDrLewis@aol.com
"So, Kerry knows?"
"Yep, but she's not going to tell anyone. She's a lot nicer than you would think! Are you cold?" Carter asked Lucy. It was later that night and the two were just lying in bed talking.
Lucy smiled. "A little."
"I'm going to get another blanket then." Carter walked over to the closet.
"Carter?"
"Hmm?" he said, getting the blanket out of the closet and walking back to the bed.
"What . . . what happens if we get caught?"
Carter settled back down on the bed. He paused for a moment. "Well, I'm not quite sure. Let's not worry about that now, all right?" He smiled at Lucy.
"Fine by me," Lucy said, returning the smile.
"Good morning, Carter. Sleep well?" Kerry asked as he came upstairs.
Carter shook his head as if to wake himself up a little more. "Mm-hmm. You?"
"Fine. I'll be out of your hair soon, let me just get my coffee. Are you on tonight?"
"Nope. I'm off at six. Why?"
"I'm just not going to be here tonight. I'm off today and going to see an old friend. So, I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"
"Yep. Have a nice time."
"Thanks!"
As Kerry walked out the door, Carter took two coffee mugs from the cabinet and filled them with coffee. He took them downstairs where he saw Lucy still asleep. "Sleeping Beauty, wake up!" Carter whispered in her ear. He kissed her cheek. "We're on in an hour!"
"Hmmm?" Lucy said. "Oh. Work. Hour."
"Coffee?"
"Coffee," Lucy said, grabbing a mug and taking a sip. "Mmm. It's good."
"Thanks. I poured it all by myself!"
Lucy hit him gently with a pillow. "I guess I'll have to tell Kerry she makes good coffee too. Is she here?"
"Nope. She went somewhere, had the day off. Something about meeting an old friend. She won't be home tonight which means we have the place all to ourselves. You busy tonight?"
"Nope. Why? What did you have in mind? Do I even want to know?" Lucy said, laughing a little.
"Well, first of all, I was going to make us a wonderful gourmet dinner-"
"John, you can't cook!" Lucy said, now laughing harder.
"I was going to make us gourmet pizza. It's quite simple. You just pick up the phone and call 411 and get the number for a pizza place-hey!" Carter looked over at Lucy, who was now laughing even harder. "You think I'm funny?" Carter said, pretending to look hurt.
"Aww, did I hurt your feelings? I suppose I'll have to try and get you to forgive me."
"How would you go about doing that?"
"I can think of a way," Lucy said, leaning over and giving him a kiss.
When they broke away, Carter whispered in Lucy's ear, "I suppose I'll forgive you. Do you have to run by your place before we go to work?"
"Nope. I have a change of clothes in my bag. Why do you ask?" Lucy asked, smiling.
"Just trying to figure out how much time we have before we're on."
"Oh, about fifty minutes."
"More than enough time. C'mere."
Carter was walking around the apartment tidying things up. Lucy had to go to a quick meeting after their shifts and was due there any minute. All of the sudden, there was a knock on the door. Carter walked over and found Lucy on the other side. "Hey," he said. "How was your meeting?" he asked, letting Lucy in.
"Hey. It was okay. Dr. Greene was just saying how I would be a good candidate for the ER sub-I next year. He wanted to know if I was thinking about a career in emergency medicine and I told him that I was thinking about it. He just went through a few things. So, are we still having gourmet pizza?" Lucy asked, smiling.
"Either that, or gourmet Chinese food. Which would you prefer?"
"Oh, Chinese sounds good. Where's the number?"
Carter figured that it would be quicker for him to pick the food up. He got out of his car and walked up the steps. He was trying to open the door with the big box of Chinese in his hand, when he heard a familiar voice call out, "John Carter?"
He turned and saw the man on the sidewalk. "Hello, Dr. Anspaugh. How are you?"
Don smiled. "Just fine. What are you doing at Kerry's place?"
"I'm renting her basement from her as a room. Are you looking for Dr. Weaver? She's not here tonight. She went out with an old friend. Can I give her a message for you?"
"I just have to give her these charts," he said, holding up a pile of charts.
"Here, I'll take them and put them inside for you," Carter said. *Please don't come in, please don't come in.*
"Nonsense! You've got your hands full. I'll carry them in."
"All right," Carter said slowly. "Hold on one sec." He opened the door and said somewhat loudly, "Come on in Dr. Anspaugh. You can put them right here," hoping Lucy would hear and disappear from sight.
"Thanks, Carter."
"Is there anything you want me to tell her?"
"Nope, she'll know what they're for. That's an awful lot of food for one person. Are you having company?"
"Yes, my girlfriend is coming over in a little bit."
"I won't hold you up then. Have a nice night!"
"You too, Dr. Anspaugh!" Carter said closing the door behind him. "Okay, Lucy. He's gone."
"Thank goodness," Lucy said, peeking out from under the table.
"That's where you hid?"
"Yeah! What was that all about?"
"He just showed up when I was coming in. Left some charts. Is it nice under that table?"
"Yeah. Want to join me?"
"Sure."
Two and a half months had passed and Carter and Lucy had kept their secret a secret. Lucy was sitting in the lounge. Suddenly, when their luck was going so well, it had taken a turn for the worst. What was she going to do?
Kerry burst in the lounge, smiling. "G'morning, Lucy! Beautiful day, isn't it?"
"I suppose," Lucy said in her melancholy tone.
"Something wrong?"
"Everything."
"You and Carter get in a fight?"
"Not yet."
Kerry sat down next to Lucy on the sofa. "Hon, what's wrong? Why do you think you and Carter are going to get in a fight?"
Lucy shrugged.
"Well, it must be something to get you all upset like this."
She shrugged again.
"Well, if you ever want to talk, just let me know." Kerry got up and went about making her coffee.
Lucy had learned to like and trust Kerry Weaver in the last few weeks. She really needed to talk to someone, someone besides Carter first. "I'm pregnant," she whispered.
"What, hon?" Kerry said, sitting down next to Lucy again.
Lucy cleared her throat. "I think I'm pregnant."
"Oh, dear. Have you told Carter yet?"
"Nope."
"You should, you know?"
"I'm going to. We're both on break soon, so I will then."
"Any ideas on what you're going to do with the situation?"
"Talk to Carter."
"Hi, Lucy," Carter said, reading over a chart.
"Hi. Um, Carter? Are you on a break soon?"
"Yep. Why?"
"We need to talk."
Carter looked up from the chart for a moment and smiled at Lucy. He then saw her serious face. "Um, yeah. Everything okay?"
"Um, can we meet up on the roof in ten minutes?" Lucy said, avoiding eye contact with him by looking at the floor.
Carter gave Lucy a puzzled look. "Yeah. Let me just get this guy some Tylenol and discharge him, and I'll be right up, okay?"
Lucy just nodded and walked off.
"Hey Carter, have you seen that chart for the patient in four?" Kerry asked.
"Yeah, it's over here," Carter said pointing to the chart on the desk. When Kerry walked over, he asked, "Kerry, do you know what's up with Lucy? She's acting kind of weird."
"Why don't you ask Lucy that?"
"I'm meeting with her to talk as soon as I get this guy some meds and discharge him."
"I'll do that for you."
"So, are you sure?" Carter asked.
"Pretty sure. I haven't gotten tested yet, but I'm a week late and I'm never late," Lucy replied.
"But we've been really careful . . . when . . ."
"The table," Lucy said, smiling mischievously.
"Oh yeah," he said, returning the smile.
"Oh, John, what are we going to do?" Lucy said, exasperated.
"I don't know, Luc. Come here," he said, giving her a hug. "We'll figure something out."
"I know," Lucy whispered as she placed a kiss on Carter's lips.
A few minutes had passed, Lucy and Carter still kissing, when they heard a voice say, "Ahem."
The two of them broke away and turned around, startled. They found Dr. Greene standing there.
"Uh, Dr. Greene, um-" Lucy stuttered.
"There's a trauma coming from a nearby hospital by helicopter, but I want to talk to the two of you when I get done with it. I'll meet you two in the lounge, okay? Why don't you two go down there now?"
"Don't you need help with the trauma?" Carter asked.
"We've got this one," Mark said as Carol and Haleh came out to help with the trauma. Carter and Lucy walked inside, wondering what would happen now that they were finally caught.
