ER/Stand Crossover




Carter looked up from the book he was reading, a sudden uneasy feeling passing trough him. Something was wrong, he thought, but what? After a moment he set down the book and got up. He didn't like the feeling he had. On the one hand, a big part of him felt a huge sense of relief, like a giant weight had been taken off his shoulders, but at the same time there was a niggling terror lurking inside him. I should check on everyone, he decided. Just to make sure everything is ok, he thought. There was a snowstorm going on, after all, so doing a check on the house just made good sense.

It wasn't exactly a raging snowstorm, he chided himself as he looked out the window. It was snowing hard, but there was very little wind so drifts weren't forming. Jeanie and Taris were out on the porch, doing something with the weather equipment. There was a lot more stuff out there, but Carter couldn't disapprove. Taris was interested in the weather and in science in general. The porch was littered with things like chemistry sets and paper mache projects. Most of the projects had been moved inside, but Taris was still fascinated with keeping track of the weather. He spotted the two dogs frisking about. So that's two down, he thought with a smile.

His next move was to head to the kitchen. People tended to congregate in the kitchen, possibly because cooking had become a fairly major past time. Killing time by making food was also a less potentially argument inducing than suggesting that a game be played. Card games were not exactly banned, but they were such argument inducers that no one tried.

Dave was in the kitchen, fooling around with the stove. Carter almost laughed as the other man pulled a tray of smoking cookies out of the oven. " What are you doing Dave? Trying to smoke us out?"

Dave frowned at him as he waved the smoke away from the burned cookies. " The chief wanted oatmeal chocolate chip cookies."

" So why didn't you make her some? Instead of burning them?" Carter couldn't resist. Dave, in many ways, was a big walking target for cheap shots. " I thought you were planning to win the war through appeasement, not direct confrontation."

" Very funny," Dave snarled. " Like you confront Randi. " He changed the pitch of his voice, and started a surprisingly good imitation of Randi. " Oh Carter, would you bring me a coke? Carter, the coke isn't cold enough, get me a new one. Carter I need another pillow. No, I want a fluffier pillow." He rolled his eyes. " That is appeasement my friend. And when is Randi going to call you by your first name? You know, for weeks I thought your first name was Carter."

" This coming from a man who calls the woman in his life "Chief"." Carter retorted.

" Its a nickname. You know, for our intimate moments."

Carter pondered that. " It implies, "he said, smirking," that you're submissive. Somehow I didn't see you as the sort to *like* that."

Dave eyed him. Carter sensed that the playfulness of the moment had gone. After a moment, Dave said softly, " Considering the situation, sometimes its better to be a little submissive."

Carter caught the double meaning and it made him feel bad. Dave wasn't in a great position. His woman was carrying a child by another man. Not only that, Kerry was making a real, if rather rigid attempt to allow Doug to be a part of the process. That had to be putting a strain on Dave. Especially since Dave hadn't struck Carter as a terribly patient or incredibly sensitive, so the fact that Dave had so far handled the situation with surprising tact was welcome. More importantly, Dave was behaving honorably, in a tough situation. Just by the way he doted on Kerry, Carter could see that he didn't care whose baby it was. Carter suspected that Dave would have been just fine with the idea of passing the baby off as his own. Instead, he was going along with a rather awkward situation. There was a certain amount of respect to be given, and instead he had needled Dave. " Look, " he said, " I didn't mean anything by it."

" S'ok," Dave said easily. He slid the smoking cookies onto the table and set the tray in the sink. " Tempers are short. I keep thinking something's going to happen. What are you doing anyway? Shouldn't you be fetching for Randi?"

" She's downstairs with Lucy. They are working out... or bonding. It's hard to tell. " The last time Carter had wandered down to the gym in the basement, Randi and Lucy had been sitting on the floor, laughing and pawing through catalogs. The words "make over" had been bandied about, and while Carter planned to check on them, they were last on his list. He loved Randi, but her fashion sense was not his own. He intended on checking on them, but it could wait. " Jeanie and Taris are outside. Where is everyone else?"

Dave shrugged. " I think Luka is still refereeing a baby meeting with Doug and Kerry." He made an exaggerated sigh. " I left when it got bogged down in the naming talks again. You know, they can't decide on a last name, let alone a first."

" Well, that's a problem I understand, actually." Carter considered it for a moment. " They're not married. They were never a couple. Technically, it shouldn't get Doug's last name. I mean legally, Doug isn't even required to put his name on a certificate. There's a possibility that he's not the father." He had his doubts. Doug and Kerry seemed pretty positive, but there were a lot of factors involved. Sure, Kerry didn't look four months along, but showing was hardly a good tool to judge. The other tell tale symptom, her menstrual cycle, wasn't fool proof. Many women didn't stop menstruating in a pregnancy. More importantly, Kerry had looked drained and tired all summer, like something was sucking the life from her.

Dave frowned at him. " I wouldn't say that to either of them, Carter." His tone edged towards the angry zone. " They're pretty damn sure Doug is the father, but I think we *all* have enough medical training to know that we won't know until she has baby. I'm hoping that's six and a half months from now, not four and a half. Besides, I'd be a little worried about the kid if it wasn't Doug's. She's not showing yet....if it's by the guy that raped her, then there's probably something seriously wrong. Besides, Luka gave her a pretty thorough exam. He thought she was two and a half months along."

Carter considered himself chastised. Even with his doubts, he knew it was a long shot. He hoped for Kerry's sake that she was right, and the kid looked like Doug. " So they're debating whether the kid's last name will be Weaver or Ross?"

Dave nodded. " At last check, they were debating whose name got to be first if they hyphenated it. Weaver-Ross or Ross- Weaver. I suggested just using Malucci but they didn't like that."

" I can imagine." Carter decided to get back to his search. He still had a vaguely uneasy feeling about everything and he knew he wouldn't feel better until he had found every person in the house. " I think I'll go check on them. Make sure they haven't killed Kovacs."

" Ok," Dave said as he returned his attention to the cookie dough that remained, " but they were having a pretty serious talk so they might not want an interruption."

A serious talk over baby names, Carter thought with a touch of derision, was hardly the worst decision Doug and Kerry faced. He walked back out into the living room and headed for the stairs, all the while pondering. He was lucky. Randi wanted to be with him. They got along well enough that, even if she didn't want to marry him, they could work out a custodial arrangement without needing a mediator. With the world in such a depopulated mess, he wondered if Kerry and Doug had seen the long term implications. They would need to essentially live next door to each other for the rest of their lives, if they were going to take joint custody seriously.

Then again, he also thought that they were getting way ahead of themselves anyway. He had his doubts about whether Kerry would carry the child to term. Randi had a healthy look, a glow radiating from her. Kerry simply looked pale and ill. She was older and not physically strong. He hated to be so cynical, but he wondered if there would be a baby to argue about. Certainly, Luka, who Kerry had picked as her official doctor would know more, but to Carter's eye, she looked like a woman that might not successfully carry a child.

That would be unfortunate, he decided after a moment of thought. Despite the arguing, he could see where both Kerry and Doug had becomes happier people. He trotted up the stairs, trying to shake off his mood. People had definitely been happier lately, even with being stuck in the valley for the winter.

He came up on the library. Seeing the almost closed door, he decided to listen in to the conversation for a moment before he just walked in. Since discovering that Kerry was pregnant, he had already caught some of the discussions between her and Doug, and he didn't want to get mixed up into it when all he really wanted to do was make sure that everyone was ok.

" You both need to be realistic." Luka's voiced was filled with concern. " Everything looks ok, right now, but I don't think I need to tell you that this is a very high risk pregnancy. Without even getting into the possible ramifications of the superflu, we're looking at some serious problems. Kerry, you're an older woman who hasn't been in the best of health. You also have a petite frame and with the damage to your hip, you may need a c-section. "

" I'm aware of that." Carter could tell by her tone that Kerry was more than aware of that. He had to admit, it had crossed his mind too.

" Then you're also aware that we'd have to do it here. We've all delivered babies, but I certainly haven't done a c-section. What about you, Doug?"

" Well, I helped once. With Mark. You remember, Kerry? The one that he was sued over?"

" I remember hearing about the lawsuit. Didn't that woman die? I know Coburn wasn't real taken with Mark because of it. Look, Luka, I understand your concerns, especially considering the possible problems that the flu might cause, but this might be the only child I have. I think it's worth the risk. Besides, I feel fine. I think that with four doctors, a medical student, and a physician's assistant, if it came down to a c-section, at least we'd be staffed for it. I think the flu issues concern me a lot more."

" Well, we won't have an idea about those until Randi delivers." That was Luka, and as soon as the words registered on Carter, he felt a cold sweat break out over his body. He opened the door and walked into the room. All three people looked surprised to see him, but at the same time relieved.

" What, " he said slowly, trying hard not to let his worry and fear overwhelm him, " are you people talking about? What flu concerns? Why would there be flu concerns?"

They all looked taken back. Finally, Luka said, " Carter, you know that immunity isn't always heredity based. Although it seems unlikely, it's possible we all ran across some environmental factor that makes us immune. If the superflu virus is lingering, or if we're asymptomatic carriers, then any children we have may get it."

" You mean Randi's baby will die." Carter felt his blood boiling. Something should have been said long before.

" There's a chance," Luka conceded, " if the immunity isn't heredity based."

" And its not just Randi's baby, Carter." Kerry's voice snapped with anger. " All the babies will die, if the immunity isn't heredity based. Every single one."

" And then there's the prospect of genetic damage *because* of the superflu." They all turned to look at Doug. " What, " he asked, rather indignantly, " I did attend some classes in medical school. I am a pediatrician. A lot of diseases cause gene damage."

Carter let that sink in for a moment. His mind was rolling with thousands of new concerns. " Why didn't you guys say anything?"

" Randi's under a lot of stress, John." Kerry said gently. " Luka and I have been worried about this from the start, but her family has a history of miscarriage and she's already worried about that. Telling her this would make it worse. And... we planned on talking to you but the time just hasn't been right."

" But..." Carter stopped himself and let the news sink in. It was obvious, as soon as he really thought about it. You're supposed to be a doctor, he chided himself. This shouldn't be pointed out by other doctors. You took the same classes they did. The possible problems reared up to him. " The human race could become extinct."

Luka nodded. " That's a possibility. I think its not likely, but there is a chance that we're it."

" I'm glad you didn't say anything to Randi." Carter knew instinctively that was the best thing. Randi *was* worried, and though he knew some of it was just jitters, some of it was the more tangible concern about how she was going to deliver and what sort of world they were bringing a child into. " I didn't mean to overreact."

They all heard the sound of someone running up the stairs and in seconds, Jeanie appeared at the doorway, looking breathless, frightened, and holding one of the scientific instruments. " Carter, is there a nuclear facility in the area?"

He blinked. " No... I thought the closest was that one in Rocky Springs."

Jeanie gestured to the box she was holding." Ok, I don't want to start a panic but.... This is a Geiger counter. Its just been sitting down with all the other science stuff. Usually it never changes.. but a few minutes ago, it went from one or two clicks every minute to fifty. You can tell something happened."

Carter looked at the box. It didn't appear to be doing anything out of the ordinary . " Are you sure?"

Jeanie rolled her eyes. " It stopped when I made Taris come inside. I imagine the house might be blocking some of the radiation. We might be in danger."

Luka took the box from her. " How high did the reading go?" She pointed to it on the gauge. " And the house is remaining at normal levels.... We'll know better tomorrow, but I don't think this is a radiation leak. I think this was caused by a bomb."

" And someone setting off a bomb is better because?" That was Doug, and he leaned back in his chair, looking surprisingly serious and grim. Carter could understand why. He wasn't really taken with the news either.

" A radiation leak is fairly localized and causes much higher ambient levels of radiation. If there's no nuclear plant nearby, then we would be protected by the valley walls. A bomb throws millions of tons of debris into the atmosphere and would be detected by a geiger counter like this, even in a protected valley. If the radiation starts dropping back to normal in a few days, then it was a bomb. If it's a leak, it'll maintain." He stopped. " Don't look at me that way. I was raised in a Warsaw Pact country. We learn this in elementary school."

" So what do we do?" Carter asked. He couldn't shake the eerie bad feeling he had. Somehow, he knew it was related to the news.

" For starters, " Luka said, " we make sure all the windows are closed and we close the fireplace flue. No one goes outside until the radiation drops. Kerry, you and Randi should probably sleep in the basement and honestly I think we all should join them. If there's food that's been sitting out, it has to be thrown out. We should avoid the upper floors for a few days."

Doug rose to his feet. " Then let's get started." He started walking towards the door and then stopped. Turning around he said, " You know, I'm not one to have feelings or anything... but am I the only one who thinks this is directly related to our friends out west?"

It was Jeanie that spoke. " I think some people paid a pretty big price for the choices they made."

Carter agreed, but he couldn't shake the feeling that things were going to get bad despite the evident defeat of the dark man's forces.



Part 54
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