Rats in a Maze




Mark stared at the drab décor of the office; he supposed that the beige walls and little plants were meant to evoke calm. All it really did was bore him, and sitting in silence with Peter Benton was very weird to him. He remembered during the intervention in May, how Peter was silent during his "presentation" of the truth, the surgeon never did mention whether he had supported the actions of the confrontation. When Carter had stormed off, it dawned on Mark how ill conceived the plan had been, and that there were no other courses of actions discussed. It surprised them all when Peter had gone after Carter and even more shocking that he boarded the plane with the younger man.

Peter's actions and Carter's downward spiral really proved that it is rare if you truly ever get to know anyone in this life. Mark fiddled with his fingers and decided to speak up, "I wonder what's taking them so long?"

The surgeon looked at him, "Malucci has probably gotten them in trouble with the security guards and they are probably being kicked out of the building."

Mark's eyes widened, "Really? You think so?" The attending got up and glanced at the keypad.

"No, I don't. Who knows where the Hell they are." Peter responded.

Mark looked up, confused, then he realized that the surgeon was making a joke. "Oh," was all he managed to say. Not wanting to appear any dumber then he felt, Mark decided to venture on a topic that he was curious about, "Why did you come here, Peter?"

Peter placed his thumb to the side of his face and flipped the rest of his fingers in a nervous gesture. "I have my reasons. I'm sure they are along with your own."

Mark sat back down and contemplated Peter's words. There were some definite hidden innuendos, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hash over any of them now. He glanced at his watch and tried the intercom once again. He resigned himself to the fact that coming to the Hope Center was a bad idea. Mark mentally slapped himself, if he was feeling this anxious about the situation, then John Carter must be going nuts, especially in the company of Dave Malucci.

"I should have gone with him instead of Dave." Mark wasn't aware he had spoken his thoughts out loud, when Peter turned to him.

"What makes you think that he would have gone with either of us?" Peter asked.

"I don't know, perhaps because we have known him longer, that we want what's best for him, that..."

"Exactly. We know Carter so well to the point that we didn't notice that anything was wrong with him." Peter stood up and stretched his back. "Malucci may be the only guy here that came for all the right reasons, even if he is a jackass."

Mark didn't need Peter to tell him why he chose to come here, "I felt that as his supervisor, and more importantly as his friend, that he should be with someone during this session. I'm not even sure why he agreed to such a crazy thing." Mark marched over to one of the bookshelves and scanned all the volumes.

"He came here to look for some kind of reckoning. Carter will face his demons today, and I think we came here to share in that closure." Peter simply said.

Before Mark could reply he heard someone desperately trying to open the door to the room.

xxxxxxxxx

Dave knelt by Carter, who was cradling his hand against his chest. "Carter,...Carter!" Dave yelled looking back at the still unconscious guard on the floor.

"Just...give me a ...second," Carter said through clenched teeth. He wouldn't move his fingers as they collectively were screaming at him. Carter got to his knees, and kept his left hand around his damaged right one. The bones in his fingers were pinching the muscles and causing spasms around the breaks.

Dave watched his friend try to collect himself, Carter's body was shaking, but Dave felt they needed to leave this room. "We need to get the Hell out of here. I'll help you up." Dave wasn't being heartless and he hoped Carter knew that. He placed a steadying grip on Carter's shoulder and the hurt man got to his feet.

"I'll get the asshole's gun," Dave said as he reached for the weapon.

"No!" Carter shouted as his friend picked up the automatic.

Dave held the gun and looked at Carter in surprise, "What?"

"Just take the clip out and leave the gun here, we don't need it." Carter replied as he leaned against the wall.

"No way man! Who knows how many more bad guys are running around or what the Hell is going on in this building!" Dave explained.

"What are you going to do, Dave? If someone else comes at us, are you going to shoot him? Can you?" Carter asked, wiping the sweat off his brow with his left hand.

"Dude, this isn't about the Hippocratic Oath, we need to defend ourselves." Dave challenged.

Carter walked over to Dave, his face inches away, "Could you live with yourself if you killed somebody today?"

"But, you were reaching for it...." Dave whined.

Carter shook his head, and bit his lip as his hand sent more waves of pain over him. "I was...just going to scare him."

Dave decided that arguing over the situation was wasting time. "Okay, whatever." He removed the clip and stuck it in his pocket. "But, let's see if he has anything else useful on him and then we'll get your hand looked at."

Carter wasn't about to protest, all of his energy was being used on staying focused.

Dave patted Mr. Unfriendly down, but he didn't seem to own a wallet or I.D of any kind. He went through his jacket and found a two-way radio and some kind of car alarm on his key chain.

"We'll just take these and get going." Dave made his way to the door, but Carter placed his left hand on the doorknob.

"Dave, there are cameras out there and I'll bet that one of his friends is watching to see who exits this door."

"What do you suggest, hoss?" Dave asked looking back and fourth between the door and the guard who lay motionless on the floor.

Carter leaned his head against the wall to try to concentrate, "Crack the door open and see where the camera is pointing. Then when it makes its way past the door, we can run back to the room as it scans this part of the hallway."

Dave nodded, "Sounds good. You can run, right?"

Carter smiled, "My hand has been crushed, not my legs."

Dave cracked the door and squeezed his face so his eyes could see through the small opening. He saw the camera as it focused at the end of the hall where both doctors wanted to go. "It should scan where Mark and Peter are and then it will make its way back here."

Carter and Dave mentally counted the time it would take for the camera to sweep past the door, and after counting the seconds both doctors entered the hallway cautiously. The corridor was empty and Cater and Dave made a dash for the office. They ran to the reception room and Dave tried to enter the pass code. He hit four buttons and the keypad buzzed in response.

"Come on, Dave." Carter encouraged as he watched the camera start its sweep back towards their position.

"I'm trying. This thing is tricky," Dave testily replied.

Carter kept track of the camera as it turned towards them, "Dave!"

The camera wound its way closer, "Its four buttons, Dave!" Carter yelled, his voice, panicked.

Finally the keypad chimed positively, and both doctors ran in and slammed the door closed to the shocked expressions of Mark Greene and Peter Benton.

"We are in so much trouble!" Dave said breathlessly as he turned to Carter.

"Yes, you are," came a cold voice.

Carter and Dave looked up...



Part 5
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