Disclaimer: All characters
belong to NBC and the verses from 1 Cor. 13
If I Have Not Love
**********************************
Love
never fails. But where there are
prophecies,
they will cease; where there are tongues,
they will
be
stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
***********************************
“Did you hear about Chen and
Carter?” Chuny chuckled and raised her eyebrow suggestively.
“No what?” Haleh asked,
looking around for a pen. “What
happened?”
Chuny opened her mouth and
then closed it tight. She motioned with
her eyes towards the loud chatter coming in through the ER corridor.
» * »
“You called that
romantic? You are such a sap Carter!” Jing
Mei laughed. “’You had me at hello?’
You think that’s the most romantic moment in the movies?”
Jing Mei had savored the
evening with John. It had been a long
time since she’d gone out to a fancy restaurant like the Signature and with a
guy like John. Sometimes she wished…
‘It’s no
good to wish, Jing Mei,’ she chided herself.
“It is,” John said
incredulously. “It makes you want to
go, ‘Awwww!’”
Jing Mei shook her head.
Jing Mei and John had loved
the exquisite meal at The Signature Room, but at the end of the meal, they both
decided that they wanted to change out of their fancy duds and curl up on the
couch and watch a movie.
“John, please don’t tell me
the finer points of Jerry Maguire again.
Please,” she sighed.
John looked wide-eyed and in
disbelief that she, Jing Mei Chen did not love Jerry Maguire. He shook his head again, but to her relief
John relented on listing off the reasons why he loved that movie…for a romantic
comedy anyway.
“I gotta go. Patient in 3,” Jing Mei motioned down the
hall.
“’Kay. I’ll catch up with you later!” John called,
with his head immersed in his newest chart.
» * »
“I told you,” Haleh chuckled,
elbowing Jerry in the side.
He rolled his eyes and said
in a polite, but superior tone. “I
think we need to mind our own businesses and do our jobs?”
Haleh looked at Jerry then
glanced at Chuny, who was covering her mouth, trying not to laugh. Haleh burst out laughing. “You’re kidding right? Haaahaha!
We missed your sense of humor around here Jer!” Haleh pointed at him with her pen. She shook her head and walked away.
Jerry looked around at the
amused employees of County and shook his head.
“If you ask me, they’re just friends,” he spouted.
“Girlfriend, you’ve got to be
kidding me?” Chuny exclaimed. “If those
two get any tighter, they’ll be asking Romano for surgery!”
“I still put my money that
Carter’s got the hots for Abby,” Malik commented as he strolled by pushing a
gurney.
» * »
“So how’d your date with
Carter go?” Susan asked as she walked into the empty trauma room.
Jing Mei looked up from her
mile high pile of files that didn’t seem to want to end. “Huh?
What?” Jing Mei asked confused.
“Your date with Carter. It’s all over the gossip mill. It’s a race between you and Abby. Right now everyone’s bet is on Abby, but I
think I’d put my bet on you,” Susan deadpanned.
Jing Mei was horrified. “What do you mean? John and I went out for dinner.
We did not go on a date.”
“Oh, tut tut,” Susan
chided. “He picked you up at your
apartment didn’t he? In a tux I hear?”
Jing Mei’s gaze followed
Susan as she paced, stating her case.
“Plus, I hear he took you to the Signature Room. Pretty fancy for just dinner?”
Jing Mei’s stomach
lurched. And this was what was
running around the entire hospital?
She’d never really talked
with Dr. Lewis during her time as a med student, and since she’d been hired as
an attending, Jing Mei still hadn’t had more than two words to say to the
blonde inquisitor. “I…I,” Jing Mei stuttered,
not knowing what to say.
“Deb,” she laughed.
Jing Mei interrupted her
suddenly. “It’s Jing Mei,” she
corrected, a little uptight at the insinuations.
“Oooookay,” she drawled, a
little confused. “Jing Mei, you
should go for it. You know…for Carter.”
Jing Mei was dazed and
confused. Where had all this come
from? All from one date?
‘No, she meant dinner. It wasn’t a date,’ she corrected herself
mentally.
“Um, I have to go,” Jing Mei
said awkwardly. She gathered her charts
up in her arms and headed out the door.
“Don’t let Abby beat you
out!” Susan yelled.
Jing Mei left the room
hearing Susan’s chuckle echo behind her.
» * »
John felt like he’d had a grin
pasted on his face for hours. But it
wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. After last night’s movie and talk, John
couldn’t stop smiling.
His patients were even
getting irritated by the happy-go-lucky grin.
“What are
you smiling about?” one intoxicated homeless man asked gruffly. “I’m sick and you’re smiling! You’re one sick son of a gun, you know that? Delighting in the pain of others.”
The comment had even made him
smile even more. It struck him as
funny, someone thinking that his smile had to do with their pain. The more he denied it to the homeless man,
the more irritated the man got. Finally
John gave up.
“Fine, Charlie,” John
replied, looking at his chart. “I’m
happy because you’re in pain.” John
rolled his eyes and told Lydia to give him fluids and let him go.
***
As the shift wore on, John
had heard whisperings of a new couple springing up in the ER. He didn’t hear any names, but it was the
talk of the nurse’s rumor mill. As he
erased Charlie off the patient board, John spotted Deb and as he grabbed a new
chart and made his way over to his late night movie partner. “Hey Deb,” John quipped. “You look a little worse for wear there.”
Deb seemed startled as John
greeted her. She looked up at John with
some sort of anxiety. “Oh, yeah, hi
John,” she replied shortly and went back to her charts.
“What’s the matter?” he
asked.
John hadn’t expected this
kind of warm greeting.
As Deb looked up the
paramedics burst in with a gurney. She
turned her head and headed towards the trauma.
“Excuse me John,” Deb called.
John watched her walk away
towards OR 1. As he pondered the
situation he tilted his head to one side and bit his lip. ‘What was that?’ he thought to himself.
John opened his new patient
chart and walked off. His grin had
disappeared somewhere.
» * »
“Mm, mm,” Chuny shook her
head. “Did you see that? Chen’s blowing off Carter already!”
Wendy came down from the
corridor and put away a chart that was in her hand. “What’s going on?”
Chuny looked around for signs
of the two doctors. Satisfied that they
wouldn’t hear her, she replied. “Dr.
Chen’s blowing off Dr. Carter.”
Wendy opened her mouth in
disbelief. “Already? Did they only go on one date?”
Chuny shrugged and walked off
to check on a patient in exam 3. “You
know how Carter goes through women!”
Haleh walked in behind the
admin desk. “Are you guys still talking
about Carter and Chen?” she chided.
“Still?” Wendy pouted. “I just started. I’m out of the loop.”
Wendy sat down on the stool behind
the admin desk and began typing at the computer.
“Well, I heard that Carter’s
had that stupid grin of his on all day!” Lydia piped in as she walked by with a
bedpan.
“Hey guys!” Abby popped in behind the admin desk. “What’s the rumor mill pumping out today?”
“Uh,” Wendy’s eyes darted
between Abby and Haleh. “I gotta go!”
Abby watched in confusion as
Wendy slipped off the stool and walked, almost ran down the hall. “What’s up with her?” she smirked.
“Nothing,” Haleh replied
evasively, turned around and walked out from behind the counter.
“Where’s everyone going?”
Abby asked, looking up at a solemn Jerry.
“Jerry?”
He looked around desperately
and leaped when the phone rang. “County
General. Jerry speaking!” he smiled at
her and looked apologetically at Abby.
“Whatever!” Abby sighed, and
left.
» * »
“Hey Deb, what’s the matter?”
John asked, catching up with her, as she was about to leave for another exam.
“John,” she exclaimed,
turning to greet John.
“Hey,” he smiled
crookedly. “So what was with that
earlier?”
She looked at him
confused. “What do you mean?”
“You brushed me off,”
he replied.
Deb opened her mouth to reply
and then closed it. She looked down at
her next patient chart. “I don’t know
what you’re talking about.”
John shook his head. He grabbed her upper arm and turned her
around so that she was looking at him. “At
the admin desk. You were sitting there
doing charts.” John waited for some nod
of recognition. There was none. “I came over and joked with you. You blew me off.”
Deb once again opened her
mouth and again, shut it. She ran her
hand threw her hair and something seemed to catch her eye. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. John looked behind him and saw Susan, Chuny
and Wendy smiling at them. He shook his
head and pointed to them. “What’s with
them?” he laughed half-heartedly.
“You don’t want to know!” Deb
smirked.
John studied her furrowed
eyebrows. “What’s the matter? Did something happen today? Did Weaver say something?” John asked.
Deb seemed at a loss for
words. Then something unusual happened,
she laughed. “John,” she replied. “Do you want to hear something funny?”
» * »
Jing Mei had been eerily unsettled by Susan’s inference at her and John’s relationship. She’d told herself time and time again, ‘We’re just friends’. But the idea of John and her continued to run through her mind and it made her uncomfortable around John.
Now as she stood before a questioning John she finally had to laugh. Jing Mei could hear Susan’s voice echo through her mind. “Jing Mei you should go for it. You know…for Carter.”
Boy was he going to laugh at this
one!
What do
you guys think? I am hoping I am
getting the characters right. Pls R&R.