Title: Nightmares
Author: Megan (eagle117@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG 15
Category: Mainly JC/PB
Authors Notes: I guess I should mention that this story takes place during season
five, shortly after Good Luck Ruth Johnson.  There is also a minor spoiler for
The Good Fight, but nothing too bad.  Anyways, I Love Feedback!  Please feel free
to email me with any comments on the story!

*********************

Carter’s shift was finally over and he was glad to be heading home.  A sixteen
hour shift of arguing with Lucy over whatever small thing they happened to
disagree about was more then he could take.  Just when he thought he and Lucy
were getting along something would happen that would send them into an argument.
Things had been better for awhile between them ever since they spent the day
scouring Chicago for Mr. Nelson so he could donate blood for his daughter.  They
had managed to resolve their differences, but things had recently started falling
apart.  Today she managed to write down a patients history on another patients
chart, who happened to be Kerry’s patient, resulting in a lecture from Kerry on
keeping a closer eye on his student.

 He headed into the lounge and saw the familiar blonde-headed figure bent over a
magazine, engrossed in her reading.  It was the end of the day and he didn’t want
to finish it with another argument, so he decided to be polite.

 “What are you reading?”  Carter casually asked, as he headed to his locker for
his jacket.

 “Oh, just an article on hyp...”  Lucy started, but was interrupted by Carter.

 “Thought your shift ended an hour ago,” he inquired.

 “It did,” she replied shortly.

 “Then why are you still here?”

 “Dr. Carter, it’s really none of your business,” Lucy snapped.  She had had a
long day and didn’t have the patience to put up with twenty questions.

 “Okay, whatever.  If you’re gonna be like that...”  Carter trailed off as he
started to leave the lounge.

 Lucy started to feel bad for snapping at him.  Sure he was being nosy, but he
was making an effort to be polite.  “If you really must know, a friend of mine
was gonna pick me up, but the can’t make it so I was going to finish reading this
and take the El.  Is that alright with you?”

 Carter tried not to groan out loud.  Why did she have to make everything so
difficult?  He turned around to say something to her, and as he did a flash of
lightning illuminated the night sky, followed by a huge crash of thunder.
Suddenly the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down.

 “Great,” Lucy muttered.  “Now I’m gonna have to walk to the El in that,” she
said more to herself than to Carter.

 Carter couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.  Her place was on the way to
his.  Why not?  On the other hand, is it really a good idea?  Oh, what the hell.
“You know, your place is on the way to mine.  Grab your coat, I’ll give you a
lift.”

 Lucy was a bit taken a back by the offer.  Carter offering to drive her home?

 “Come on Luce, haven’t got all day.”

 “I never said I’d go with you.”

 “Suit yourself.”  Carter turned to leave again.

 “Wait.”  Lucy decided Carter was making an effort to be polite, ever if he was a
little pushy.  Anyways, she wasn’t looking forward to having to walk to the El in
the storm.  “I guess I’ll go.  Let me get my stuff.”

 Together they made their way past the admit desk, headed for the ambulance bay
doors.  The sight of Carter and Lucy leaving together evoked some interest from
the nurses who were currently at the desk.

 “What do you think, Conni?  Something we don’t know about going on between our
favourite doctor and med student?” Chuny gossiped.

 “What’s this?”  Mask asked coming up to the desk after over hearing part of what
Chuny said.

 “Oh nothing.  Carter and Lucy just left together,”  Conni filled him in.

 “Really.  That’s interesting.”  Mark remembered the huge argument Lucy and
Carter had today, and wondered if things really had changed so fast.  He never
thought he’d see Carter and Lucy together without arguing, much less leaving
together.

 “Yeah, this could get interesting.  Better start keeping a closer eye on those
two.”  Chuny joked.

***************************

 “Wow, nice car Dr. Carter.”  Lucy tried not to laugh as she took in the rusty
old Toyota Corolla sitting infront of her.  “I guess since your jeep got
destroyed you’ve had to put up with this, huh?”  She couldn’t help the giggle
that escaped her.

 “Go ahead, laugh all you want,” Carter said.

 “Sorry it’s just...”

 “You can’t see someone with such a rich family driving a junk heap like this.
It’s just on loan until I can buy a new Jeep.”

 “I see”.  Lucy pushed down the urge to laugh as she climbed in and the seat
groaned beneath her. *Wonder if it’ safe to be driving this car in this weather.
At night.*

 The ride was fairly quiet; they couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t
start an argument.  The rain showed no signs of relenting which made it
impossible to see much of anything.  Lucy could barely make out the flashing red
and blue lights up ahead.

 “What’s that up ahead,”  Lucy asked.

 “What?”

 “Those flashing lights...there!” Lucy pointed at them in hopes that would make
Carter see
them.

 “Oh, now I see them.  Looks like there was an accident.  Lets take a look, maybe
they could use some help.”  Carter drove up to the policeman who was directing
traffic and rolled down the window.  “We’re doctors.  Need any help?”

 “The paramedics are taking care of things, you’ll have to turn around.  The
road’s closed.”

 “Right.  Okay, thanks.”  Carter rolled up the window and backed up until he was
able to make a left turn onto a deserted back road.

 “What are you doing Dr. Carter?  Wouldn’t it of been faster to of turned right?”

 “Probably not.  That road had quite a bit if traffic on it and it’s somewhat
distracting to drive in a rainstorm with other cars and headlights shining in
your face.  Anyways, a little scenery never hurt anyone.”

 “What scenery?  It’s raining,” Lucy muttered to herself.  She wasn’t going to
argue with him.  She knew it’d be futile.  That’s what happens when you have two
stubborn people working together; neither one will back down.  That’s why she
figured they had so many problems when they worked in the ER together.  They
always thought they were both right.

 “Thanks, Dr. Carter.”

 “For what?”

 “Well, for the ride, and for being so patient with me.  I know I haven’t been
the easiest person to work with.”

 “You got that right.  You’re welcome.”

 Lucy didn’t know what else to say so she turned her attention back to the road.
They were coming upon a four-way stop.  Lucy focused her attention onto the road
that crossed the one they were on, looking for cars.  A flash of light caught her
eye and her senses perked up.  Sure enough, there was a car.  Barely visible in
the rain, headed straight for the intersection and showing no signs of slowing
down. *Strange,* she thought. *It’s headlights aren’t on.  Carter has the right
of way, why isn’t it stopping?*   She looked over at Carter.  He didn’t seem to
see it.

 “Uh, Dr. Carter?”

 “What is it?”

 “That car...it’s going too fast.”

 “What car?!”

 “That one!”  Lucy yelled and pointed at it; anything to make him see it.

 “I don’t see it!” he yelled back,  getting impatient.  Again Carter craned his
neck over the wheel to get a better view, and was barely able to make out the
shape of a car that was fast approaching the intersection.

 “Son of a....hang on Luce!”

 Carter slammed on the brakes, but the car was already too close to the
intersection to stop in time.  Things seemed to happen in slow motion.  Lucy’s
scream was cut off by the loud scraping of metal on metal as the car broadsided
them on the driver’s side, sending the car into a spin.  Lucy’s head connected
with the window, and the last thing she heard were the screeching of tires before
blackness consumed her.

End 1************************


Slowly Lucy drifted back to consciousness .  The first thing she noticed was the
cold breeze blowing through the smashed window. *Did I leave my bedroom window
open again?* she wondered.  The next thing she noticed was the pounding in her
head.  Lucy couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a headache this bad.  Not
even after that Halloween party at the dorms. Visions of a black car speeding
straight at her flashed before her eyes. *Where the hell did that come from?*
Suddenly everything came rushing back to her.  A policeman, a car with no
headlights, a terrible screeching, Carter’s junk heap.  Carter!

 Lucy bolted upright, and tried to stay conscious as once again the blackness
threatened to consume her.  Moving carefully this time, she looked to her left
and saw Carter slumped over the wheel, blood dripping from the side of his face.

 Carefully she reached over and took his pulse.  Slow, but steady.

 “Dr. Carter?  Carter, can you hear me?” she asked.

 There was no response.  Lucy glanced back at her watch.  She had been
unconscious for only half an hour.  Besides the pounding in her head, she didn’t
hurt anywhere else. *I’d better see how bad Carter’s hurt.*

 Undoing her seatbelt, she carefully crawled over to him fighting the nausea that
was building up inside of her.  She wanted to look at his face to see how badly
he was hurt, but she couldn’t move him incase he had a neck injury.

 “Dr. Carter?  Please, wake up,” she pleaded.  She didn’t know what to do.  She
was after all only a student.  “Please.”

 “.....hurts....” he breathed.

 “Yes!  Please say something else!”  She didn’t want him falling unconscious
again because of the obvious head injury.

 “...who.....you....?...” he mumbled.

 “What?  Carter stay with me!”  It was too late, he’d already lost consciousness
again.  “Great,” Lucy said to herself.  “He’s altered.”

 After a couple minutes of contemplating what to do Lucy carefully climbed out of
the car and walked over to the driver’s side.  She gasped when she saw Carter’s
face.  Glass from the window had cut a huge gash on his cheek, and whatever
wasn’t covered in blood was badly bruised.

 Lucy took off her jacket and covered him with it, then took a couple seconds to
assess the situation.  She noticed for the first time it had stopped raining, and
for that she was grateful.  The thought quickly entered her mind that she could
drive them to help, but that thought disappeared as fast is it had come when she
actually looked at the car.  There was no way it was going anywhere.  The
driver’s side was smashed inwards, and the tire was almost ripped off the axle.
Plus there was no way she was going to move Carter.

 Again a vision of a policeman entered her mind.  Where had she seen him before.
If only she could remember.  Flashing lights, paramedics, the accident!  There
were paramedics there!  She looked down at her watch.  Unconscious for half an
hour, five minutes from the accident to the intersection, it had been about
thirty five minutes.  Someone should still be there!

***************************

 “Come on, Pete, I think we have enough for our report.  This accident was
obviously caused by the storm,” Officer Deadrick said.

 Together they headed for their squad car to let the tow truck remove the cars.
Apparently the driver of one car had hydroplaned over a puddle, lost control and
struck an oncoming car.  Luckily no one had been killed.

 “Ya know, Jack,” Pete said.  “This does get kind of boring; writing reports on
traffic accidents.  Why can’t I be doing real police work.  Like investigating a
murder or tracking a serial killer.”

 “Well maybe you shouldn’t of pulled that stunt with the Captains’ daughter,”
Jack Deadrick snickered.  “Or right now you could be doing ‘real police work.’”

 “I just mean that there is no excitement with this.”

 “Well just get used to it, it could be a while until the Captain forgives you.”

 Pete Dalton bit back a rude retort and started walking to the passenger side of
the car.  It would do him no good if he ended up a desk Sergeant.  He started to
climb in when a lone figure walking up the road caught his eye.  It was unusual
for someone to be walking down this road at three in the morning unless they had
car trouble, or their cheese has slipped off their cracker.

 “Hey, Jack, check this out.  There’s someone coming up the road.”

 “What?  Where?”  He looked behind him and sure enough there was someone coming
up the road, but they looked...off.  They walked like they were about to
collapse.  As they got closer he could see long blonde hair and realized it was a
young woman. “Come on Pete, let’s check it out.”

 As they got nearer, Jack could see blood running down the side of her face from
a cut on her forehead.

 “Please....help me.  My friend is badly hurt, we have to help him.”

 “Whoa, slow down,” Pete said.  “Let’s start from the beginning. Who are you, and
what happened?”

 “My name’s Lucy Knight.  There was a car accident.  My friend is badly hurt.”
As she said this she collapsed to her knees from exhaustion.  Jack moved to her
side and helped her to sit down.

 “Where is your friend?”

 “He’s still in the car, at the intersection.”

 “Pete, run back to the car and get on the radio.  Tell an ambulance to meet us
at the intersection.  Then drive the car over here so we can drive to the
intersection,” Jack ordered.

 “Finally, something exciting,” Pete muttered to himself as he ran to the squad
car.

 “Are you hurt anywhere else, Miss Knight?”  Jack asked.

 “Huh?  No.  We have to get back to my friend.”

*****************************

 Carter could not name one part of his body that wasn’t sore.  Of course it would
help if he could feel his feet.  It had gotten pretty cold since the rain storm,
and every cold breeze seemed to blow right through his clothes; chilling him to
the bone.  Every time he shivered it amplified the pain in his head and chest.
He was vaguely aware of sirens in the distance, and the sound of a car driving
up.  Someone was calling the name “Carter,” but since it wasn’t him he ignored
them.

 “Carter?!  Carter, can you hear me?”  he heard some girl calling.

 Lucy could see Carter was awake and mumbling something but she couldn’t make it
out.  His pulse was still slow, and he was freezing.  His body was shaking
uncontrollably.  The ambulance, sirens blaring, pulled up beside them and the
paramedics jumped out bringing the gurney and C-collar.

 “Be careful,” Lucy warned.  “He may have a serious head...”

 “Come on, Miss Knight.  Let the paramedics do their job,” Jack said as he pulled
her just far enough away from the car so she wasn’t in the way, but could still
watch the proceedings.

 The paramedics carefully placed the C-collar around his neck, and leaned him
back in the seat.  From there they were able to listen to his breathing and make
a more thorough exam.  The drivers side door was badly dented inwards and was
impossible to open, so the medics had to go through the passengers side to
extricate him.

 Lucy thanked the officers and climbed into the ambulance with Carter.  They
wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and made sure the cut on her head was her
only injury before they started working on Carter.  They started an IV and
wrapped him tightly in a blanket.  It was all they could do until he was at the
hospital.

 “What did you say this guy’s name was?  He looks a little familiar,” one of the
paramedics asked, trying to start a conversation to assess how lucid she was.

 “John Carter.  He’s a doctor at County General.”

 “Really?  That’s where we’re taking him.  Do you work there too?  We should
probably radio ahead and tell them who we’re bringing in.”

 “Yeah, I’m a med student.  He’s my teacher.”

*****************************

 “Would somebody answer the MICN?  I’m kind of busy here,” Mark Greene said.

 “I’ll get it,” Carol said while she reached to answer it.  “County General, what
do you got?”

 “This is Unit 23.  We’re bringing in two victims of an MVA.  Both are stable.  A
Lucy Knight and John Carter.”

 Carol’s mouth literally dropped open and she was speechless.  Did he just say
Lucy and Carter were the victims?  Everyone in range of the admit desk heard this
and crowded around Carol.

 “Could you repeat the names?”  Carol asked, still not sure if she had heard
right or not.

 “Lucy Knight and John Carter.  Miss Knight just has a laceration on her
forehead, but Dr. Carter is not doing well.  We’re coming into the ambulance bay
now.” Just then the sound of sirens could be heard.  Everyone dropped what they
had been doing and gathered around the gurney as it was wheeled in, Lucy walking
behind.  A series of “Oh my Gods” were heard as people saw the condition their
friends were in.

 “Alright, give me the bullet,” Mark said, taking charge.

 “John Carter, 28 years old, MVA.  It appears they were broadsided while crossing
the intersection.  BP 90/50, resps 11, multiple lacerations to the head and arms,
ALOC, probable concussion and broken ribs.  Two IV’s started in the field,” one
of the paramedics reported.

 “Alright we’ll take it from here.  On my count.  1...2...3!”  On 3, Carter was
quickly transferred and the paramedics quickly packed their gear and left.

 “Lucy, come with me,” Kerry gently prodded while escorting Lucy to the trauma
room next door.

 “Is he gonna be okay?”

 “He’ll be fine.  Let me examine you while the other doctors work on him.”

 A warm IV and a unit of O-neg were quickly administered while Mark examined
Carter.

 “Carter, can you hear me?”  Mark asked while shining a pen light in his eyes.
“Pupils are slow but reactive.  He’s got a concussion and will need a CT.  Chuny,
I want you to page Benton, and Carol, cut his shirt off.”

 While Chuny went to page Benton, Carters’ shirt was removed exposing his chest.
Carol felt tears come to her eyes and everyone else in the room seemed to stand
still.  His whole left side was black and blue, and the bruise seemed to
disappear beneath the waist of his pants.  There was an indentation in his chest
were he obviously had broken ribs.

 “Alright everyone, focus.”

**************************

 “Dr. Benton, you’ve got an appendectomy in 3 hours,” Shirley said as she handed
him the chart.

 “Man, how come Romano gets all the interesting cases?” Peter complained, as he
eyed the board.

 “Well, if you were chief of surgery you would too.”

 Suddenly Bentons’ beeper went off.  “911 to the ER. Gotta go.”  Benton took off
at full speed down the hall to the staircase and jogged down them as fast as he
could.  As soon as he entered the ER he noticed something was wrong.  It was too
quiet.  Where was everyone?  That question was answered when he went into the
trauma room and saw a lot of the people in there.  “What’s going on?”  he
demanded.  His heart almost stopped when he saw who was on the table.
 “Carter!?  What the hell happened?” Peter asked as he pulled out his stethoscope
and started listening to Carter’s breathing; careful of the many bruises marring
his left side.

 “He and Lucy were involved in a car accident.  He’s got a concussion, multiple
lacerations and contusions, possible orbital fracture, broken nose,  and broken
ribs on the left side.  He may have internal bleeding,” Mark reported, knowing
Benton would want nothing left out.

 Mark ordered tests to rule out spinal damage and to see how badly his ribs were
broken while Benton gently felt around his abdomen and hips, looking for definite
signs of internal bleeding.

 “Has he been unconscious the whole time?” Benton inquired.

 “Yeah, but Lucy said he was awake for a moment, but he was confused.”

 “We need a peritoneal lavage, he may have internal bleeding,” Peter ordered.

 “Carter?  Carter, can you hear me?” Peter gently asked.  He held Carter’s
smaller hand in his larger one, and gave a gentle squeeze.  He couldn’t believe
he was seeing Carter laid out on the table infront of him.  Why did things like
this always happen to him?

 The young man groaned and tried to move his head.

 “Carter?  Can you hear me?”

 “Who... Carter?”  Carter breathed.

 “What?  Carter, what do you mean?”  A thought suddenly dawned on Peter.  “What’s
your name?”

 “...don’t....know.”

 “Do you know who I am?”

 “...no...”    Carter barely managed to get out before he passed out again.

 “Memory loss?”  Mark asked Peter.

 “Looks like it.  It may be a result of the concussion, but I don’t want to take
any chances.    When are we getting that CT?”  Benton yelled.  A nurse had gotten
the lavage set up, so Peter quickly performed it, and was relieved to find no
internal bleeding.  Just really bad bruising.  “Someone cut off his pants, I need
to examine him more thoroughly.”

 Carol quickly cut off his pants and there was a collective feeling of sympathy
in the trauma room as the rest of the bruising was exposed.  The bruise that had
formed on his left side continued down his hip, and ended at his knee.  After a
quick exam Benton ruled out a broken leg.  A few minutes later the possibility of
spinal injury was ruled out and the C-collar was removed.  After Mark and Peter
examined the results of the CT, it  was determined that he only had a concussion,
and could find no other cause for the memory loss.

End 2************************


Dr. Weaver worked at stitching up Lucy’s head wound while the cops who had found
Lucy questioned her about what had happened.

 “So as you approached the intersection, you said it was raining so hard the car
was barely visible, right?  So Dr. Carter was unable to see the car,” Jack
confirmed.

 “Yeah.  It was strange because we had the right of way.   I don’t think the
driver was drunk; he wasn’t swerving or anything.  I guess it’s possible he
didn’t see us either.”

 “Can you tell us anything about the car?  Colour, model, you know.  Anything
would be helpful.”

 Lucy thought back, but was unable to remember much about the car.  She could
only see  it’s outline.  “I don’t remember much.  It was a sedan.  That’s all I
can tell you.”

 “Not it’s colour?” Pete prodded.

 “Pete, some of it’s paint was probably left on Dr. Carter’s car.  We’ll take a
look when we’re finished here,”  Jack answered.  “So what happened after it hit
you?”

 “I heard it speed away.  That’s all I can tell you.”

 “Thank you Miss Knight, you’ve been very helpful.  We’ll let you know as soon as
we find anything.”  Both officers left to continue their investigation.
 “Okay Lucy, I want you to lie down in an exam room.  I’ll go check on Carter and
tell you how he’s doing.”  With that Kerry headed next door to the trauma room
while Lucy went to lie down in an exam room.

 While Mark updated Kerry on Carter’s condition, Peter worked on setting his nose
and cleaning up the blood.  He had already stitched up the cut on Carter’s face,
and still had to wrap up his ribs.  Peter kept looking at Carter’s face, hoping
that one of times he’d find his brown eyes looking back.  Of course each time he
looked he was disappointed to find not only his eyes closed, but bruises and cuts
surrounding them.

 Peter got Carol to help move Carter to a room where he could rest undisturbed.
They kept the heart monitor and pulse-ox attached to be safe.  Lucy had a brief
visit with him to see for herself that he would be okay. Later in the morning she
would be sent home to rest for a few days.

 He headed for the admit desk to find Mark.  “Hey, I have to go back up for
rounds, but if anything changes you page me.  Understand?”

 “Don’t worry Peter,” Mark assured him.  “We’ll take good care of him, and let
you know of any changes.”  Mark watched Peter walk away with a slightly puzzled
look on his face.  Peter was such a hard person to figure out.  He does seem
uncaring sometimes.  Especially to Carter.  He could remember when Carter had
been Benton’s student.  Peter seemed to ignore him, and ride him pretty hard
about the smallest things.  Now that Carter was hurt, Peter seemed almost
protective of him.  Like a father protecting a son, Mark thought with a grin.
There was an interesting thought.

***********************


 He was alone in a car; driving somewhere.  It was dark, and completely silent.
Not even the car’s engine could be heard.  He looked in the rear view mirror and
saw the headlights of a car looking at him like eyes.  Accusing him.  He had to
get away, but there was no where to go.  The harder he pushed on the gas, the
slower the car went.  The car behind him was catching up.  Something was wrong
with it.  The headlights died out.   The car looked like it had been in an
accident.  There was a huge indentation on the passenger side, paint was missing,
the tires were shredded, the glass where the windows should of been was gone, and
there was blood on the cracked windshield.  There was an eerie glow coming from
somewhere that allowed him to see the interior of the car.  He gasped.

 Sitting in the passenger seat was a young woman about Lucy’s age.  Her skin was
deathly pale and blotchy.  Dried blood covered her hair, clothing, and part of
her face.  She looked...dead. The driver of the car looked to be about the same
age.  Slowly he turned his head and looked at him.  An accusing stare.

 “You did this,” the man said in a calm voice.  “You did this, and you are going
to pay.”

 “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he whispered, too afraid to speak
out loud.

 “Look what you did!” he screamed.  “Look!”

 Slowly he glanced at the young woman to see she had ‘awakened’ and was staring
at him. The colour had drained from her eyes, leaving a grey circle where the
pupil should have been.  She didn’t say a word.  Just stared.

 “Look what you did!” the man continued to shout, over and over.

 “No!!” he yelled. “Get away!  I didn’t do anything.”  Hysteria was starting to
take over him.  He had to get away.  Clawing at the doors, the windows, he was
trapped.  “Noooooo!!!”

***********************

 It was extremely early in the morning, and there were no patients except Carter,
Lucy, and a few drunks sleeping it off.  Most of the staff were either catching
up on some lost sleep or at Doc Magoo’s grabbing some breakfast.  Carol and Mark
were at the desk catching up on paperwork.  Loud, terrified screams pierced the
silence.  Mark and Carol exchanged worried glances before taking off towards
Carter’s room.  When they entered the room, they were greeted by the sight of
Carter, covered in sweat, thrashing and yelling at something in his nightmare.

 “Carol, get me 2 mg’s Ativan!”  Mark ordered.  He gently put one hand on
Carter’s shoulder, and the other over his legs in an attempt to hold him down so
he didn’t hurt himself.  His IV had been ripped out of the back of his hand, and
blood now flowed freely from it.  Carol came back with the syringe and quickly
injected the drug into his hip.  Moments later Carter began to calm down.

 Mark leaned over so he was close to Carter’s ear, and started to whisper
soothing words.  “Sshhh...it’s okay Carter.  You’re safe, it was just a dream.
It’s okay.”  He could feel the young mans body trembling beneath his touch.
Whether it was from fright or pain, he didn’t know.  Just to be safe he ordered
Carol to administer a little more morphine.

 Carter’s breathing and heart rate slowed down, and he looked at Mark with
glassy, frightened eyes.  “Who are you?” he whispered.

 “Carter?  Do you know where you are?”

 “No.  I don’t remember anything!  I...” he started to panic again.

 “Calm down.  It’s okay.  Your in the hospital.  You were in a car accident.
Your name is John Carter.  I’m Dr. Mark Greene, and this is Carol Hathaway,” he
said looking briefly in Carols direction.

 She gave Carter a brief smile as he glanced at her.  It was so strange seeing
someone you’d worked with closely, and gotten to know over the past 5 years, look
at you with blank eyes.   She searched his brown eyes for any signs of
recognition, but saw none.

 “I know you guys?”

 “Yes.  You’re a doctor here, too.  I’m just going to go make a phone call.
Carol will stay here with you and start another IV.  Okay?”  Mark asked.

 “Okay,” Carter tentatively replied.  This man seemed nice enough.  Even though
he was still trembling from the nightmare, and didn’t remember anyone or
anything, he got the feeling that he could trust these people.

 Carol sat down and started cleaning his hand while Mark strode out to the admit
desk.  He picked up the phone and phoned the surgical floor, hoping to get a hold
of Peter Benton.  A nurse answered, and once Peter was on the phone, Mark
explained what had happened.

 “I’ll be right there,” Peter said and hung up the phone before Mark could
reply.  He shrugged and headed back to Carter’s room in time to see Carol heading
out.

 “Is he asleep again?” he asked Carol.

 “No.  He said he’d like to be alone for awhile.  I think it has to do with that
nightmare he had.  Whatever was in it really seems to be bothering him.”

 “Yeah well the memory loss is probably bothering him too.  Anyways, he’s not
gonna be alone for long.  Peter Benton insisted on coming down.”

 They turned in time to see Peter jog into Carter’s room.

 Carter didn’t know whether to be afraid or just surprised.  He’d been trying to
remember anything about himself when this strange man burst into his room like he
was expecting to find someone being murdered.  At that thought Carter felt his
stomach clench in fear.

 “Who are you?  Is something wrong?” he asked, shocked.  This man was looking at
him like he too had been a close friend.

 “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you Carter.   I’m Peter Benton.”

 “Are you a doctor?”

 “Yeah.  I used to be your teacher,” Peter started, hoping to jog Carter’s
memory.  It scared him that Carter couldn’t remember anything.  He knew it was
normal with concussions, but when it happened to someone you knew, it made it
seem worse.  The thought briefly entered his mind that Carter might have
permanent damage and never get his memory back, but Peter promised he’d get
Carter’s memory back..  Even though he’d never admit it out loud, he cared about
Carter.***************************

 Half an hour later, Kerry limped through the ambulance bay doors.  “How are they
doing?” she asked Mark.

 “Lucy’s still resting, but we had a small problem with Carter.  He woke up
screaming from a nightmare.  It seems he’s lost all his memory.  Peter’s in
talking to him now.”

 “Really.  I wonder...” she started, but was interrupted when those two cops came
through the ambulance bay doors.

 “Morning Dr. Weaver,” Jack greeted her.  He then turned to Mark.  “I don’t think
we’ve met. I’m Officer Jack Deadrick, and this is my partner Pete Dalton.  We’re
investigating that hit and run Dr. Carter was involved in.

 “I’m Dr. Greene.  Have you guys found the guy who did this yet?” he asked.
Praying that they’d caught him.

 “Nope haven’t found the sucker yet,” Pete answered, but after a glare from Jack
decided he’d better be a little more polite.  “We did find red paint on Dr.
Carter’s car, so we’ve told everyone to be on the lookout for a red sedan that’s
been in an accident recently.”

 “How likely is it that you’ll find him with such a vague description of the
car?”

 “That depends on many things.  One, how smart the guy is.  He could hide the
car, or may drive around in it.  He might repaint it, repair it himself, you get
the idea,” Pete answered for him.

 “As soon as we find anything else we’ll let you know,” Jack said when he saw the
somewhat disappointed look on Mark’s face.  “We’ve gotta get going.”

 Mark watched them leave and felt his hope of catching the guy leave with them.
Everything seemed to be going wrong.  At least he could be grateful for the fact
that Carter and Lucy were still alive. *It could be a lot worse,* he thought.
Mark tried to think more pleasant thoughts as he prepared himself for the last 6
hours of his shift.  Hopefully before then Carter will regain his memory, the guy
will be caught, and he could go home without having to worry.  As he focused
again on his paperwork he didn’t notice the mysterious man who had been looking
into Carter’s room, as he quickly left the hospital.

End 3************************