LATE THAT AFTERNOON
As they enter her apartment, she pulls off her jacket and throws it on the table, and tell Carter to do the same, which he does. “Be right back, I'm going to chance,” says Lucy as she heads toward the bedroom. Unknown to her, Carter watches her all the way, staring at her ass, and thinking to himself, how much he has missed her. As he waits, he looks around the apartment for some clues to the past few months of Lucy's life. There are the pictures, of family, some taken at graduation, and the Doctor of Emergency Medicine Degree. Over in the corner, he smiles as he sees and old IV teaching arm, a definite reminder of their past. Lucy comes out of her bedroom dressed in a tee-shirt and sweat pants, he'd never seen her look more desirable. She heads to the kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink?” “No, I'm fine. Lucy we really do need to talk.” “Shall I start dinner, or wait?” “You'd better wait.” She returns from the kitchen and sits next to Carter, who seems to be lost in thoughts of his own. They both sit there, not knowing what to say, when finally he asks, “How are you really?” “Better than the last time you saw me, what eight months ago?” He just nods. “Well, I was able to graduate, thanks to a program in Boston that gave me credit for my previous experience at County. Dr. Ramono okayed my work credits, all I had to do was take the written exam.” “And how was graduation?” “It was okay, mom and my grandparents made a big deal out of it, but I couldn't have cared less. Don't get me wrong, finally becoming a doctor was important , but I wish you could have been there. You're the reason I made it.” “No, I'm the reason, you almost didn't.” “John, we went over that earlier, things got busy, I misread symptoms, Psych didn't come right down, a lot of thing just didn't go right that night.” “You can tell yourself that, but I was your teacher and should have been there for you.” All of a sudden there was nothing left to say on the subject, “How are you doing?” she inquires. “Okay now, it was pretty rough going after you left, things would happen, that would remind me of the day of the attack, the pain I was in, and the guilt of knowing you almost died because of me-” “Stop It!” “No let me finish. I took you for granted, I didn't realize or didn't want to admit how much you meant to me until you weren't around.” “I wish I could have been there for you,” she says with tears in her eyes. “I know you do.” He takes Lucy in his arms and all the years of denying his feelings disappeared and they shared a passionate kiss. Carter carries her to the bedroom, where the years of feelings, exploded in a night full of love and passion. ABOUT 6:00 A.M. THE FOLLOWING MORNING
As the sun shone through the window, they lay asleep in each others arms, without a care in the world. Lucy moves slightly, which wakes up Carter. “Good morning,” he says as he gives her a kiss on the forehead. “Morning,” she replies with a smile. “How'd you sleep?” “Like a baby, once I finally got to sleep,” she says laying her head on his chest. “Do we need to talk about last night?” “John, we're both adults, we knew what we were doing.” “As long as there's no regrets.” “I couldn't be more sure. Are you hungry?” she asks “Yeah I am, what's for breakfast?” “Cereal, toast, coffee.” “Anything else?” “Me.” “I'll take that,” he says pulling her to him. AFTERWARDS
“Now, I am hungry.” “Give me time to take a fast shower, then I'll throw something together for breakfast.” She sits on the side of the bed with her back to Carter, to put on her tee-shirt. “Do you want me to help?” he asks. “Yeah, do you know how to make coffee?” “That's not exactly what I had in mind- the shower?” “No,” she answered without hesitation. “Why not? I've seen-” “You haven't seen the scars. They're a constant reminder of what happened.” “Come here, listen, yes, the scars are a reminder of what happened, but also a reminder that you're alive.” “Yeah, that's what my therapist said,” she replied with a sad smile. “You go ahead, take your shower and I'll start the coffee. I'm going to have to leave soon anyway.” “Why?” “I need to go home and change. But I'll be back don't worry.” “Good, because I think we need to talk about, where we go from here.” “Just talk, huh?” he asks with a little grin on his face. “Well-” she answered back with a mischievous look on her face. She gets out of bed, quickly with her back to Carter and finally slips on her tee-shirt and heads to the bathroom to start her shower. Carter stretches, puts on his clothes and heads to the kitchen to start the coffee-even though he doesn't know where anything is, “Lucy, where do you keep the coffee filters?” he yells through the bathroom door. “In the drawer next to the stove,” she yells back, loud enough to be heard over the running water. “Okay.” He goes back, finds the filter, puts one into the basket, but now he can't find the coffee, so back to the bathroom he goes, this time he notices the door slightly open and quietly peeks inside, there he sees Lucy drying off, as she turns, he couldn't miss the obvious scars on her body. He quietly retreats to the other side of the door and stands there thinking how he *is* responsible for what happened to her, and yet she wasn't blaming him. From his side of the door, he regains his composure and asks, “Where do you keep the coffee?” “In the fridge,” she says, coming out the door, “I'll show you.” IN THE KITCHEN
“So, what's for breakfast?” “Let's see,” taking a look in the cupboard, "Captain Crunch or Frosted Flakes?” “Tell you what, if you can wait a couple of hours, how about I bring back a couple of bagels?” “Do I take it, that you don't care for my choice of breakfast food?” “It's not that, but I need something a little more substantial than cereal this morning after a night like last night,” he smiles, “Besides, you never did bake that pizza.” “I can fix it for lunch?” “How about I bring breakfast, you make lunch, and I'll treat us to dinner?” “Sounds great!” “I'll be back around nine.” “Are you sure you have to go?” she asks, hoping he'd change his mind. “Yeah, I really should, I need to check on Gamma, since she's letting me stay with her. Don't worry. I'll be right back,” he says giving her a hug. “I'm not,” sounding like she's tying to convince herself she wasn't disappointed. “Are you sure?” “Well, maybe a little bit,” she admits, but her mood lightens, as he gives her a kiss as he heads out the door. As soon as he leaves, she finally makes the pot of coffee and phones her mom, in Boston to let her know what happened yesterday-at work. True to his word, Carter arrived back at Lucy's apartment, carrying a bag of what was definitely clothes and another large bag that was definitely food. “I thought you said, a couple of bagels,” she says greeting him with a deep kiss. As he take her in his arms, he drops both bags and bagels fall all overthe floor. The sight is enough for them to pull away from each other and start throwing pieces of bagels at each other and laughing, only to stop when John playfully stuffs a piece in Lucy's mouth. “Mmm, blueberry, my favourite,” she laughs, and adds. “Why did you buy so many?” “I didn't know what kind you liked, so I bought one of each, that way you'd have one that you liked. Besides, I didn't have your phone number.” “Remind me to give it to you before you leave,” she says with a smile. “Which brings me to this, pointing to his gym bag. I told Gamma, I'd be staying with a *friend* for a few days, if you don't mind. Don't get me wrong, she's great to be around, but right now, I'd rather spend time with you, before we have to go back to work.” “I would love for you to. But that brings us to the subject of what's going to happen between us at work. I know we both need to concentrate on rebuilding our careers. I’m just so afraid, we'll go back to like we were before.” “After yesterday, I don't think that's going to be a problem,” he grins. “John, you know what I mean.” “Yeah, I do, Luce, but we've both been through hell and back to get to this point in our lives, and we pretty much know what's at stake, if we don't be careful.” “John, are you talking about a future together?” she quietly asks. “I guess I am. I realized you mean more to me then I ever thought possible. However, a relationship based entirely on sex is hardly grounds for a lasting one. Don't you think?” “But it doesn't hurt, does it?” she says seductively and with a sly smile. “Lucy?” he teases. “I know. We still have a few days to talk about it, right? Now, what do we do today?” “Since it's early and breakfast is more or less finished, pointing to the food on the floor, let's clean up and I'll take you out for breakfast.” “Sounds great!” Both of them working together, clean up the mess in no time flat, and were on their way to breakfast. Lucy walks to the Jeep, but is surprised when Carter indicates they'll walk. “I passed a little coffee shop on the way back, let's walk. He offers her his hand and they walk a couple of blocks to Dorothy's Kitchen, where they get a bite to eat. After a small breakfast, they decide to take a walk around the neighbourhood, where they end up in a small park. There, Lucy runs to one of the swings and starts to swing, Carter comes up behind her and begins to push her higher and higher until she's going a little too high for comfort. “John, come on, not so high,” she panics. “Can't take a little height, huh?” “John, please stop,” she yells. “Okay,okay, I'm sorry,” he says as he stops her. “Thanks, I thought I was going to be sick.” “Well, we can't have that, can we?” he replies. “What about that?” she says, pointing to a teeter-totter. “Aren't you afraid that's, a little too high for you?” he laughs. “Give me a break.” They play on the teeter-totter, until Lucy, all of a sudden, jumps off, causing Carter to hit the ground with a -THUD, and the chase began, only to stop after Carter "tackles" Lucy into a pile of fallen leaves and begins kissing her. “Are you okay?” he asks. “I'm fine, I think we'd better go home, before things start to get out of control,” she confesses. “That's probably a good idea,” he agrees. “What time's dinner?” “I made the reservations for six. Do you like Italian?” “You bet!” They walked back to Lucy's apartment, where they continue teasing each other about their day in the park. “You know, you would have never caught me, if I hadn't run into that pile of leaves,” she teases. “Maybe, but I would have eventually, knowing how clumsy you are,” he says with a smile. At that, she gave him a playful elbow to the ribs. When they get back to Lucy's place, they both enjoy a bottle of water to quench their thirst. “Better start getting cleaned up, if we have to be at the restaurant by six,” she finally says pulling herself off the sofa. “You go ahead, it won't take me long to shower and shave, I'll just stretch out her and wait until you're finished,” he comments, as he stretches out as soon as she stands up. “I won't be too long,” she smiles. “Sure, you won't.” “On her way to the bedroom, to get ready for her shower, she thinks about what Carter had told her about her scars, being *reminders*, that she "did" live through a terrible experience,one that they both shared. She almost had forgotten, he too bore scars, both physical and emotional. Returning to the sofa
“John, can we talk about something?” “Sure, what about?” he asks, still resting his eyes. “How did you deal, emotionally with what happened?” Keeping his eye closed, it seems to Lucy, he is remembering those months after the attack. He begins, slowly, “At first, it was more physically challenging then anything, but after the wounds healed, it was the memories. Kovac and I had to do a LP on this kid, and all I could do was relive the time you performed the one on Sobricki. The sleepless nights, I even talked to Dr. Draad, once, but the thing that really sent me over the edge, is when your letter saying you matched here at the hospital arrived.” “You knew?” “Yeah, we had no idea where to forward the letter, so I opened it. Sorry.” “That's okay, I wasn't in any shape to do anything about it at the time anyway.” “You'd better shower, before we loose our reservation.” She gives him a little kiss and starts back to the bedroom, “John?” “Yeah?” With a deep breath, she begins, “It would save time, if we both shower together.” Carter sits up and looks directly into her inviting eyes, “Are you sure?” he questions. All she does is nod her head and smiles. He rises slowly from the sofa and walks to where Lucy was standing and carries her to the bedroom, where he gently lays her on the bed. He slowly takes off her sweat shirt, and unhooks her bra. She automatically covers her chest with he hand. “If you're not ready, I'll understand.” She removes her hands, and finishes undressing, “I'll go ahead and start, you can join me when you're-you know ready,” she smiles at him. It didn't take long for Carter to join her, when he did, she was somewhat startled to see his scars from the wounds inflicted upon him in the attack. After a long shower, Lucy notices something, “Guess what?” “Yes?” “It's past six o'clock, I take it we don't have to get dressed for dinner, do we?” “Thanks to you,” replies with a look of amusement. “You like Chinese, don't you?” “Yeah, I do.” “Why don't we order from a place down the street. They deliver. We can watch a video, I'll even let you pick it out.” She hurries and dresses, goes to the phone and dials the number. From the kitchen, she yells, “John, what do you want?” “You don't have to yell, I'm right here,” he says, sneaking up behind her. “You scared me, what do you want?” “Szechwan Chicken, Moo Goo Gei Pan, shrimp egg rolls.” “Is that all?” she asks sarcastically. “Don't forget the fried rice.” “Anything else?” “No,” he replies with a typical Carter smile. “Don't forget the chopsticks.” “You use chopsticks?” “Don't you?” “Remember, I'm not the one who first chose surgery,” she reminds him. “I'll teach you.” “And you're a good teacher, right?” With that she orders their dinner, then turning to Carter, “Have you picked out a video?” “You've got quite a selection, I think Rush Hour.” “Sounds good. What can I get you to drink? I've got-” “I know, water, diet soda, and tea. Tea please,” he says with a smile. Within the hour, dinner arrives and Lucy pays the delivery man, and puts the food on the table in front of the sofa where Carter is already sitting. “Did they bring the chopsticks?” “Yeah, here they are, as she throws them at him.” “Now, for your lesson,” he laughs. No matter how hard she tried Lucy just couldn't master the technique of using them, she finally throws them on the floor and goes to the kitchen and comes back with a fork. Much to Carter's amusement, “It's a good thing you didn't choose surgery,” he remarks. “Like I said, you're the one with surgeon's hands,” she says smiling. After dinner, they put the movie in and get comfortable, Carter sitting and Lucy laying her head on his lap. “By the way, what did your fortune cookie say?” he asks, gently stroking her hair. “Nothing important,” she replies closing her eyes and resting, “Besides, those sayings are probably written by some guy in a plant somewhere in Kansas.” “Come on, what did it say?” he persists. “I can't remember, I think I threw it on the table somewhere. Just forget about it, okay?” “Okay,let's just watch the movie.” During the movie, Carter could tell Lucy had fallen asleep. “Lucy? Lucy, you awake?” he whispers. There was no answer. He looks on the table and spies a small crumpled piece of paper. Very carefully he reaches for it, trying not to disturb Lucy. As he unravels the paper, Lucy stirs momentarily, he strokes her hair, until she once again settles down. He continues to open the paper, and reads it, and smiles as he does. On the paper were written the word, "True love is closer than you think." No truer words were ever written.