Close Call

AUTHOR: Alana Fick
EMAIL: Banana1501@aol.com
CATEGORY: JC/LKn
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: none
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters, they are property of Warner Bros., or something like that
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is my first time writing a fanfic, I'm an ER junkie so I just decided to take it to the next level, I'm not a pro, so bear with me.
SUMMARY: This takes place during Season 6, Valentine's Day, and what could have happened (maybe) if Lucy and Carter had not been stabbed.......



It was a typical day in the ER, yet unusually sluggish. Carol Hathaway was on the roof, taking a break, and daydreaming about Doug Ross, how her and the twins could be with him this very moment if only she would have taken him up on his offer to come to Seattle. But no, she had to be her usual, stubborn self.
"He always thinks of himself first, never me or the girls, even though I did get pregnant and try to persuade him to stay.......He'll come back, and if not, there's always Luka........"

Mark Greene and Elizabeth have just stepped out to have a fun Valentine's night out...with their parents, and karaoke.
"Your father is quite delightful, Mark", Corday comments.
"He's...tolerable, I suppose. Your mom's pretty nice"
"Yes, well, she's trying tonight."
They continue with their evening.

Over at County General, the staff is doing their own thing. Carter, still watching over Lucy, correcting her every tinsy winsy mistake, of the few she had. Lucy, trying to keep her emotions under control, first with the patients: "They come and go, just try to get your work done and don't get too involved or attached.", she said to herself. Lucy also had Dr. Carter on the brain. The attraction she had for him continued to grow. So far, she was just glad that they were friends, and she didn't want to push anything. Lucy again thought to herself, "We did have that little fling last year, and it was pretty great for the time-being....", She continued with her work. New guy in curtain three........

Meanwhile at the good ole admit desk, Dave Malucci was, once again, trying to score some points with Dr. Chen.

"So 'Deb', ya got any plans for tonight? Cause you know, I don't." he said as he flared his sexiest smirk of a smile. "Fortunately yes Dave, I'm on 'til midnight, and you know I'd never date you anyway." "Yeah, how much did you have to pay your last date again, Malucci??" Carter asks with a tone, overhearing them talking. "Oh yeah? Well at least I've been on a few dates this year! How do ya like that!" Malucci with a comeback. "Well. considering we're only half way through February....you know what, nevermind! I'm not having this conversation" Carter blows him off and goes to try and locate Lucy.

* * * * * *

"So, um, do you wanna go out sometime?"
"Peter, are you asking me on a date?" Cleo is somewhat impatient, but flattered.
"Well, um, yeah, kinda I guess. So, what about it?" Peter attempts to smile.
"Let's talk about it later, I got a patient in exam 1, see ya."

* * * * * *

Carol came back down, ready to work after "dreaming" about Doug.

"So what's going on down here, anything I need to take over for?"

"Nope, everything's under control right now, Carol, it's really slow right now." Chuney says sluggishly.

"Yeah, no freakin kidding. The chief isn't here to yell at me, and you think there'd be more 'accidents', it being V-day and all. My last girlfriend gave me food poisoning 'cause I apparently didn't give her the best gift." Dave shares with everyone

"Dave, a girl doesn't have to have a reason to poison you." Deb says, always willing to give her opinion.

Along comes Dr. Romano......

"Well hello everyone, happy Valentine's Day, you can just set all of your cards for me on my desk, I'll get around to them sooner or later. Is Lizzie around?"

"She's out with Dr. Greene." Chuney tells him.

"Oh that's too bad. Well I hope the love birds have a wonderful evening." Romano says sarcastically, then walks off.

"Wow, he's unusually bitter." Dave says.

"Nah," Carol shakes her head, " After today passes he'll be fine.....and like I care about that bullethead anyway."

Over in curtain three, Carter listens attentively while Lucy explains her patient to him: "Name's Paul Sobriki, complains of headaches, lasting from acouple of days, nauseated, also complains of eye pain...."

"Mmhm, so what do you think, Lucy?" Carter asks.

"Well," she lowers her voice, "he doesn't have a fever, and no history of migraines."

"Hm, he could have Encephalitis or Meningitis. We'll go ahead with a spinal tap."

As Carter was explaining to Lucy, he couldn't help becoming distracted by her.

"Dr. Carter, Dr. Carter.......John!!"

"Oh, um, sorry, I was um...."

Just then Paul, the patient flinched and became rather violent. Carter rapidly holds him down while Lucy keeps on with the spinal tap.

"Wow," Lucy exclaims, "That was fun."

"Yeah, woke me up." Carter was taken alittle my surprise.

"Well anyway, I have to go check on another patient, then I'll be back around again, come and get me if anything changes." Carter exits.

* * * * * *

Dr. Kerry Weaver has just arrived in the ER, only to find everyone getting ready to party instead of tending to patients.

"My god people, I leave you alone for one day and this is what I get!" she says in a harsh, but somewhat carefree manner.

"Just clean the after-party mess up, alright people?!"

"Sure thing, chief !" Dave says enthusiastically as he turns the corner.

"Malucci, don't you have a patient, or someone to harass around here?" Weaver remarks.

"Hey! I heard that! Keep that thing away from me." and unpleasant Deb exclaims to whoever is listening.

In the meantime, Lucy's patient managed to sneak away from her after she obtained some info and went looking for Carter.

"Dr. Carter, Dr. Carter!" Lucy's trying to catch him.

"Oh hey Lucy, how's everything going?"

Wow, why is he being so nice? Dr. Carter is usually always telling me what I'm doing wrong, and never likes me opinions.---Lucy says to herself.

"Well, I called in a Psych consult awhile ago. One of his friends or someone came by and said Paul had been acting very strangely, picking fights for no reason, or being paranoid more often. Psych should me on their way."

"Well, you shouldn't let him wander off like that, so go try and find him and then I'll check on him later, ok?" Carter walks away again. Lucy was having second thoughts on him being nice to her.

Why can't I just find a time to talk to Lucy?! She's really doing a great job. Why am I so nervous around her? She's the med student, for god's sake, not me! Oh god, I couldn't possibly have feelings for her. I mean there was that one time in an empty exam room. I wonder what would have happened if.....no! I'm not thinking about this now, she's my student, she's my student....." Carter kept repeating this inside his head. He had been distracted my her all day. He thought to himself it might me because of Valentine's Day and all, that gets people worked up, right?

"Hey, where's that huge knife I had to cut this butt ugly blue cake with?"

"Great, we lost a knife. Just cut it with a scalpel or something, the knife is bound to show up somewhere..."

Just as Carter is going to check on Lucy, he opens the door to find her patient with a huge butcher knife, and this odd glare in his eyes, seconds from stabbing her...

"LUCY!!!!" Carter yells, grabs her out of the path of the knife as they both fall onto the floor. The patient, realizing what had just occurred, rushed out of the room. Carter gets up and runs after him, screaming for Security as he's chasing Paul through the ER. He pins Paul to the ground, then Security takes over.

"What's going on here??" Dr. Kovac races in.

"One of Lucy's patients tried to stab her....he was nuts." Dave replys, sounding kind of shaky himself.

"Don't worry, Lucy." Carol comforts her, "They caught the guy, it's a good thing Carter ran after him, otherwise he might had gotten out of the hospital" Lucy is having a difficult time getting all this in still not exactly sure what just happened.

"Uh, where's Dr.Carter?? Is he ok??" she asks timidly.

Carter just so happened to rush in where Lucy is, as well as some other doctors.

"Lucy! Oh god, are, are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so, I think I'll be ok, I'm ok." she was trying to hold back any tears, she doesn't want Carter to think she isn't doctor material.

"Hey, hey, it's ok now, it was close though, you'll be fine, you're as tough as a nail." Carter was trying to encourage her the best he could.

"Here, we can talk in here," he led her an empty exam room.

"I, I just, froze, I don't know what I would have done if you wouldn't have come in when you did."

Carter just looked into her big eyes and lost all train of thought. Lucy couldn't help herself either, she was staring at him with a sexy look that came unknowingly. And suddenly Carter couldn't help himself.

"Oh, what the hell," he says shruggishly, pulls her close to him, and kisses her very passionately, for a really long time, because that's how Carter's kisses are. Very long, and very soft.

When the kiss was over, Carter wasn't sure what to say.

"Oh wow, that was great, oh, um, I mean I'm sorry about that! I shouldn't be taking advantage of y--" he was cut off by her grabbing him back and returning he kiss.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time." Lucy says unexpectedly.

"Yeah, me too." Carter flashes a smile at her.

"Does this break some kind of student-teacher code or something??"

"Lucy," Carter says, "rules are made to be broken."




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