Title: "Clouds in My Coffee"

Author: Anna Rousseau <annadelamico@yahoo.co.uk>

Series: 'Two Years On - Part VI'

Genre: JC/AD

Rating: PG-13

Previous Parts: 'Someone Old, Something New'; 'I Won't Leave You Lonely'; 'Welcome Back, Dr Carters'; 'This Year's Love'; 'Hopelessly Addicted'

Song Used: 'Can't Fight the Moonlight' by LeAnn Rimes (Theme to 'Coyote Ugly'- in honour of Maria Bello)

Summary: A little short part for the few people who are getting restless. So Anna's come back, Carter gets hitched to her and they're having a baby...everything's just peachy, ain't it!

 

 

"CLOUDS IN MY COFFEE"

=====================

"Anna?"

Carter tapped on the door, then stepped back as it swung towards him. Anna's head turned towards him, her face was as pale as a sheet.

"Anna, are you OK?" Carter asked, wrapping an arm around her waist.

She smiled meekly, "Yeah." She took a slow breath before she continued. "Just morning sickness, I guess."

"Are you OK, ma'am?" Asked a air hostess with trademark peroxide blond hair.

Carter replied dismissively, "She's pregnant, morning sickness."

"I really wish people wouldn't fuss so much," Anna smiled tenatively. "I'm pregnant, you know, not totally incompetent at looking after myself."

The air hostess pursed her Marylin-red lips together, "Sorry, ma'am."

Carter watched as she rushed off to serve drinks to a man in a pin-stripe business suit, "Do you need anything to help with the nausea?"

Anna wagged her finger at him in a mock threat, "Leave me a lone for a second and go sit down. Maggie'll wonder where you got too."

"But-"

"No but's, I'm a doctor too you know, go on." Anna pushed him away with her index finger, "And compare lurid fantasies about me with Maggie's!"

She heard Carter let out a faint chuckle as she shut the melomine door. Turning toward the mirror she inspected her face which was now flushed red, with the slightest green tinge.

"Oh God."

 

*******

The rest of the trip to the hotel passed in a out of control daze for Anna. Every so often in the taxi, Carter put his hand to her head and offered a few words of advice, which she immediately refused and accused him of coddling her. Under control, don't worry...honestly. Her words repeated themselves at carefully timed intervals, as if Carter wasn't the only person she was trying to convince.

"We're here, Anna."

She woke suddenly with a start, not even realising that the last two hours had been slept away, slumped between Maggie and Carter.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Anna moaned, her head as heavy as lead, feeling as if she was inbetween Kerry's double shifts at the hospital.

She waved Carter's supporting arm away as she carefully placed a pair of dark rectangular glasses on her nose.

"God, it's bright!" As if by cue, Maggie shielded her eyes from the sun. "Come on, the sooner we get inside, the sooner I can get the beach and look at that sea."

A smile played on Anna's lips, "No other motives, Maggie."

"Nah," the curly haired resident said with the wave of a hand as their shoes tapped against the marble foyer floor of the hotel.

Anna walked over to the reception desk and smiled at the pretty brunette, "Hi, we have reservations- a room for two under the name Carter."

"County General, Chicago?"

"Right, and a room for one?" She turned and checked with Maggie whose smile was directed straight at the receptionist.

"Yeah, under Doyle - Mercy, Chicago," Maggie confirmed.

"So, that's 535 for Dr Doyle and you have the honeymoon suite, 536." The keys appeared on the desk along with a programme of events.

"Thanks," Anna turned around looking for Carter and was shocked to see who he was speaking with.

"Anna Del Amico?"

Anna pushed her sun glasses up onto her head, "Dr. Keaton, what a suprise! How are you?"

"Fine, fine." The surgeon smiled back at Anna, "I was just telling John how we all miss you at CHOP."

"Anyone else here from Philly?" A tone of dread crept into Anna's voice.

Abby sighed, "Unfortunatly it looks like I'm the only one who'll make it, I'm afraid."

"Oh," a wave of relief passed over Anna's face.

"So, are you and Dr. Carter working together at County?" Abby asked as the four of them trailed over to some deep leather sofas.

"Yeah, I'm working very closely with Dr. Carter," Carter replied, a look of amusement on his face.

Abby did a double take and looked at Anna, "I think this deserves champagne!" She laughed gently and shook her head.

"Not for me, I can't," Anna replied, suddenly feeling vibrant.

"A baby?" Abby asked, a grin spread across her mouth. "Even more to celebrate, how about you three join me for dinner at the banquet they're holding?"

There were no arguements on that matter, "How about we check out the room?" Carter asked Anna she got up from the sofa and stretched her legs.

"Do you newly weds have to be so blatant?" Abby moaned as she waved goodbye to greet some other guest across the room.

"And I'll now what you're getting up to, I'm just next door remember!" Maggie warned as she headed in the direction of the bar.

"We're not that obvious are we?" Carter asked as they wheeled their suitcases to the elevator.

"Certainly not," Anna stepped into the compartment, and grinned as she slapped his behind.

******

"Mind if I sit down?"

Maggie sneered at the man in question, "No, my invisible friend is there. Fuck off."

The man chuckled softly, it was only nine thirty and she had obviously drunk at least twice as much alcohol she really should have. The bar wasn't busy tonight as most of the rooms had been taken up by doctors on the emergency medicine conference.

"Shouldn't you be in the banquet?"

"Shouldn't you keep your nose out of other people's business?" Maggie replied tartly, her words not slurred in the slightist.

He was silent for a second, "So what's your room number?"

"Room 666, piss off you asshole," Maggie replied as hopped off her bar stool, rubbing her head. The man's brash attitude was strangely familiar. Or maybe everyone seemed that annoying after five shots of tequila.

******

You can try to resist

Turn away from my kiss

But you know

But you know that you

Can't fight the moonlight

******

"Oh god," Anna sighed. The water was beautiful.

The moonlight highlighted the soft ripples and played on the waves that softly carressed the sand.

The delicate starlight was enchanting, as light as her her heart felt at that moment.

She turned to Carter who was laid on his back next to his dinner jacket and discarded bow-tie, his head resting on a slight raise in the sand dunes. "I couldn't think of a more perfect conference."

Anna made a quick decision not to worry that her burgandy velvet dress would probably be devilishly hard to clean afterwards, but the sight of her husband there made her do something on impulse. She sank backwards with a sigh and fell limply onto the sand, finding it less soft than she would've expected.

Carter's shoulder cushioned her head as they looked up at the stars through the palms, one hand letting sand collect then fall through her finger tips.

For a few minutes they just lay in each others arms. Not a word was spoken. Until Anna's hand strayed from Carter's chest...

"Anna!" He looked mildly shocked as she raised her eyebrows, her mahogany eyes innocent.

"Yes?"

He gazed at her, his hand tickling up her the inside of her leg. She sucumbed to a fit of giggles as he continued, her body trapped mercilessly under his. His hand inched higher and higher, until...

"Car-" her rebuke cut short as he kissed her passionately. She would have been a fool to protest, but her head moved slowly away, unwillingly interupting their kiss.

He sensed her thoughts in a second, "It isn't at all comfortable, is it?"

"Not at all," she laughed lightly. "You know those movies were couples make love on the sand?"

"Yeah," Carter replied.

"I couldn't think of anything more awkward...sand *everywhere*...ugh!" She made a face, which made him laugh.

"Thanks, I don't really want to think about that!" Carter managed to say as he dropped onto his back by her side.

"Shouldn't we get a photo of the ocean?" Anna breathed, sitting up, fingers caressing his hair, "So we can boast about it to the people stuck in Chicago?"

Carter smiled, "I'll go get the camera. You stay here, exactly where you are!"

"Don't be too long, it looks like those clouds might ruin the evening."

Anna fell back onto the sand, a contented smile played upon her mouth as she reluctantly let Carter walk back to the hotel with his jacket slung over his shoulder.

"I'll be waiting!"

*********

Under the starlight, star bright

There's a magical feeling

So right

It'll steal your heart tonight

*********

Maggie rapped quickly on the door of Room 536, relieved to hear footsteps approaching. She had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She brushed her unruly hair our of her eyes as the door opened.

"Carter!"

His brow creased as he saw her flushed expression noticed the slight swaying of her body as she gripped onto a table by the door. "What's the matter, Maggie?"

She looked behind him into the room to see it empty, the only thing he was holding was a camera and keys.

Panic rushed across her face, "Where's Anna?"

*******

The heady sea breeze played on Anna's face, billowing her hair against the tree. The feel of the palm's rough bark massaged her back through the material of her dress. Anna let her eyes close and the anticipation of the feel of Carter's lips on her own, washed over her as if she were the sand of the beach. She was so wrapped up in her fantasy, that she was sure that he was kissing her.

Slowly she opened her eyes and recoiled in fright. Pinned under his arms against the palm tree, her heart scattered with palpitations and her skin rubbed painfully against the bark.

His mouth smiled, but his eyes were cold and unwelcoming, "Hello, Anna."

Anna broke out in a cold sweat, repulsed at the feel of his arms which were resting uncomfortably on her shoulders. Slight drops of rain started to drum down on the canopy of leaves, some reaching her face.

"Get away from me, Max!"

Max Rosher gazed at Anna, his face not revealing a single emotion. But his eyes, they told of her greatest fears.

"What the hell are you playing at?" He hissed, each breath hitting her squarely on her nose.

She squirmed and turned her head away, not daring to meet his gaze. Her tears were now mingled with the cold drops of rain which ran from her head. Unbelievingly she caught glimpse of a knife, shining evilly in his hand.

"What are you trying to achieve?" A nervous laugh was emitted through her teeth, "I really don't know you anymore, Max!"

Max smirked, "You don't know *me*? What happened to you Anna, why did you leave me at the altar, and get married to some...drug addict that you barely knew a year?"

Anna couldn't take this torture.

"You and John may have a lot of things in common," she admitted her voice loud and tense. "But there is one simple difference between you. I may have loved you once- a long time ago...but not anymore."

Max's tone softened and he jerked her head up with a harsh finger. "What changed, Anna? We were perfect, we belong to-"

She cut him short, "Yes we were, we were perfect...just keep telling yourself that. Make it true."

"It could all change, come back to Philidelphia," Max pleaded.

Her answer was short.

"No."

He lifted up the knife, "Well, so help me God if I make the rest of your life hell."

"Max." Anna replied, her words short and clear in the night air. "It couldn't change because I love John...I loved him even when I came back to Philly with you. I was a coward then, but I learned a *lot* from those two years."

He pushed her head against the tree, "Bitch!"

Anna cried out in agony, "I can't ignore my feelings just for you. For heaven's sake Max, I love John, not you!"

He waved the knife closer to her face, "Well your married 'bliss' will be rather short, I'm afraid."

Her voice shook, "One day with John is worth more to me than 60 year's miserable marriage to you, Max!"

Max's eyes grew fiercer as he moved his face so close to Anna's that their noses met.

"What does he think of me, Anna?" Max asked, his breath misting her wet face. "Did you tell him why I took Perocet all those years?"

Anna stayed silent.

Max's face fell.

"You didn't tell him about Bosnia, you just let him believe I was a useless junkie, didn't you?"

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

annadelamico@yahoo.co.uk

www.fanfiction.net Author ID: Anna Rousseau