Title: 'Welcome Back, Dr Carters'

Series: 'Two Years On' Part Three

Genre: JC/AD

Rating: PG-13

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

Notes: Third in the series, follows 1) Someone Old, Something New 2)I Won't Leave You Lonely

Summary: The Carter's return to the ER. Song used 'Only When I Sleep' by The Corrs.

Previously...

Anna thew open the door to the chapel and gasped at what she saw.

Carter was standing at the altar, in a smart tuxedo, the chapel was covered in flowers and everyone was there: Chuni, Haleh, Conni, Malik, Lydia, Jeanie Boulet, Dave, Jing-Mei, Anspaugh and Morgernstern, Kerry Weaver, Randi, Jerry, Yosh, Elizabeth, Cleo, Benton, Carol and the twins, Luka...wait, Doug and Carol!....god even Robert 'Rocket' Romano!

Anna gasped, realising how easily she had been fooled, "Hi everyone," she announced shyly, "I guess I'm the one who was going to code!"

Everyone laughed, Carter spoke up from the other end of the room, "Well you'll be the first bride to walk down the aisle with a portable defribbilator!"

Anna smiled, and placed the machine on the ground, Mark handed her a bouquet of mixed roses, "These'll be more useful, may I?"

Tears ran from Anna's eyes as she took Mark's arm and he led her down the aisle where she was 'given way' to Carter.

"Marry me?" Carter asked, drawing a ring from his pocket.

"If there's the right time and the right place, it's here and now," Anna replied tossing her veil to the side and kissing Carter on the lips as he placed the ring on her finger.

"Yes?"

"Yes, I want to be with you forever, Dr. Carter!" Anna exclaimed.

"Me too, with you and our baby."

Anna smiled, "How do you know?"

"Chuni isn't that good at keeping secrets!" Carter replied with a trusting and loving smile as they kissed again, to the approval of the gathered audience.

"Dearly beloved...."

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

Anna settled back into the seat of Carter's jeep, sighing contentedly. It was just a few minutes before their shift was due to start, and they had got caught up in a traffic jam.

"Great!" Carter moaned, "I knew we should have taken the El."

"For Heaven's sake!" Anna replied in a good mood, "Kerry can't shout at us that much, we've just got back from our honeymoon!"

It was ten to six on New Year's Eve, everyone else was rushing to parties, but Carter and Anna were trying to get to their six o'clock shifts in the ER.

Carter subdued slightly, as he flicked on the radio, some beautiful Rachmanioff was playing, acting as a sort of sedative for their nerves. Anna closed her eyes and thought back on the week's events.

If someone had told her a year ago that she'd go back to Chicago for her friend, then marry him three months later and have a baby, she would have probably ordered a them a pysch consult. But now that didn't sound so strange.

Anna had to admit that she was completely shocked by the wedding ceremony set up, but she couldn't believe how much she wanted to get married. Getting hitched was never very high on her agenda, but Anna couldn't think of a better person to spend eternity with than Carter, her friend, lover...soul mate, it sounded pretty corny, but it was true.

She smiled as she remembered the scene in the Chapel, how shocked she must have looked, and how Dave had panicked when he'd thought that he'd lost the rings- only for Dr. Benton to supply them from his pocket with a patronizing glance.

There had been a rather crowded and joyous reception at Doc Magoo's, not really the most romantic place, but everyone was there that they cared about. The day was finished off with a party in the lounge, which was abruptly been interupted when a pile-up was due to arrive in the ER. The newly wedded couple had tried to help with the prep work, that was until they had a call from the EMS saying that Mercy was taking in the patients. All that was left was a cheery goodbye as Anna and Carter left through the automatic doors of the ER, to a taxi waiting in the ambulance bay.

Later that day they caught a plane to Boston from Chicago O'Hare airport, with only a few minutes to spare before the plane took off.

And the honeymoon, well they had only been given a weekend (minus Sunday afternoon), because of staffing problems, but it was the most magical two days of her life...

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

You're only just a dreamboat,

Sailing in my head,

You swim my secret oceans of coral blue and red.

Your smell is incense burning,

Your touch is silken yet,

It reaches through my skin,

Moving from within and clutches at my breast.

But it's only when I sleep.

"Here we are," Carter announced, pulling up to a driveway and finally to the Carter's holiday prperty in Newport, Rhode Island.

"Geez, Carter," Anna said (not really used to calling him anything else), eyeing up the mansion, "are you secretly related to the Vanderbilts?"

"No," he chuckled, "this is all Carter, through and through!"

Anna smiled as he opened the door of the rental car for her, "You know, my favourite book in high school was The Great Gatsby. Carter, you are Jay Gatsby, but exactly opposite."

"What, I gave up my life of luxury for the woman I love?" Carter replied picking up their bags.

"Something like that!" Anna replied as they headed into the house.

Apparently the hired help was away, and they had the house to themselves. It was already dark out and the moon was full in the sky. Anna pressed her nose against the cool plate glass of the window and watched as delicate crystals fell as flakes on the pane. Carter was across the room, kneeling by the fire place. He cursed as yet another match broke.

Anna picked herself off the window seat and came up behind him, circling her arms around him as she joined him on the floor, "Trying to start a fire?" She asked lavaciously, running her cold fingers down his cheek.

Carter turned and his nose rubbed against hers, cooled by the frosted glass of the window. He gasped as a shiver ran down his back, "You're suffering from near hypothermia!" Carter joked as Anna pushed him to the floor, he dropped a lit match into the fireplace and the wood began to smoulder.

"Why don't you warm me up then, Dr. Carter," Anna replied in a low voice as she brushed Carter's hair off his face.

Carter looked as though he was thinking, "Hmm, Dr. Del Amico...I don't think we have any warm lavage..."

Anna pressed a finger to his lips, "Shut up and kiss me!"

Carter smiled up at her, rolling her over so she was on the rug, he leaned closer to her, his lips hovering above hers as their breathing became more erratic.

"What are you waiting for?" Anna gasped as Carter ran a finger down her face and to her neck, her back arching at his touch, "I'm getting cold."

"I love you, Anna," Carter said as he pressed his lips against hers in a kiss that made them feel just as estastic as the first time they had, three months previously.

Anna pulled away, "I love you too," she glanced around quickly before grinning at him. "So no one's going to turn up unexpectedly this weekend?"

"No, Gamma and my parents are off at some 3 day benefit in Dallas..." Carter replied in a husky tone, cut off by a kiss, "just you and me."

Anna smiled seductively back, "So we don't have to move this upstairs?"

"No, I wouldn't last that long," he replied kissing her neck as she ran her fingers through his hair, "anyway, the fire is pretty nice."

Anna replied through her gasps as she began to unbutton his blue shirt, "Well, we have plenty of time for the bedroom."

When I wake from slumber

Your shadow's disappeared

Your breath is just a sea mist

Surrounding my body.

I'm working through the day time

But when it's time to rest

I'm lying in my bed

Listening to my breath

Falling from the edge.

But it's only when I sleep.

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

A tapping startled Anna. That wasn't how she remembered her honeymoon. *Go away!* she cursed silently, she was just getting to the good part, well, more like one of the good parts. Anna prized her eyes open to find that they were parked outside the hospital and Carter was trying to wake her from her daydream.

"Anna?" Carter said softly. "We're here, and we're late."

Anna drew on some of her energy reserves and she opened the door pulling on her wool gloves as Carter locked up his Jeep, moving quickly as the snow fell about them.

Anna studied the snow thoughtfully as they made their way to the ambulance bay, trying to finish off that daydream- but not being as successful as she had hoped.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Cartre asked, drawing her close to his side.

"I should think that they're worth a lot more than that!" Anna replied cheekily, "I was thinking about Friday night, what about you?"

Carter grinned back, his hair already caked in large snowflakes, "I was thinking about tonight," he replied coyly.

Before Anna could persue this line of thought, a wailing siren caused them both to jump out of the way of a speeding ambulance as it stopped just outside the automatic doors of the Emergency Room.

"The fun never stops!" Anna sighed as she turned to Zadro and Doris who were unloading a badly wounded man.

Abby Lockhart, Anna's medical student during her paediatric rotation, rushed through the automatic doors, "The Carters, back so soon?"

Anna sighed a reply. "What have we got?" She asked the paramedics as she squinted through the darkness.

Doris Pickman replied quickly, firstly spewing out the man's vitals, "Intubated in the field, GSW to upper abdomen, left scalp lac, possible concussion...Happy New Year."

Carter felt the man's alertness before pressing his index and middle fingers to the patient's wrist, "Just lost the pulse."

Anna and Carter finished removing their jackets and handed them to Randi who had come out to go to Doc Magoo's for a coffee.

"I'll start compressions," Anna stated, "Give me a hand someone."

Carter helped her get up onto the gurney, "Certainly, Dr. Carter."

"I'll bag," Abby said as she grabbed the necessary equipment from Zadro, keeping in syncronisation with Anna's compressions.

"Hey, did we miss something," Doris asked as they wheeled the gurney through the doors, "Two Dr. Carters?"

"You guys got hitched?" Zadro asked as Carter grabbed the packs of saline that the patient was hooked up to.

"And we're having a delightful honeymoon!" Carter replied, bringing up the rear.

Dave looked up from surfing the Victoria's Secret homepage as the ER doors swung open, "Which Trauma's open?" Anna asked from her position on top of the gurney.

"Trauma One's free." Malucci asked as he rushed over and caught up with them, "This the GSW?"

"10 out of 10 for observation and identification," barked Kerry Weaver as she headed up the corridor.

Carter pushed open the door to the trauma room, calling over to Chuni, Lily and Haleh who were taking inventory at the opposite end, "Some help please."

Carter started inserting an IV whilst the others busied themselves with hemocues, blood gases, pulse ox cables and heart monitors.

"Abby keep bagging," Weaver instructed, "Malucci, give Dr. Carter a hand."

"With an IV?" Dave asked, puzzled.

"No, help Anna off the gurney, you ignoramus!" Kerry barked, looking at him like he was the most unitelligent being she had ever had the chance of meeting in her life.

"OK, OK!" Dave replied as he helped Anna hop off the patient, "This could get confusing, what shall I call you, Mrs. Carter?"

"Dr. Del Amico will do Malucci," Anna said, hoping that he still wasn't trying to make her life a living hell. Knowing Malucci it was probably just another one of his oh so amusing jokes.

"Want to swap those gloves for something in latex?" Carter asked Anna, wondering why Malucci had found what he just said so funny.

"Please," Anna replied tossing the gloves off and donning a pair of the medical kind with a familiar snap.

"Paddles!" Carter ordered, as Anna resumed compressions from on top of a stool.

"50 of lidocaine," Weaver added.

"90, clear."

A flat line appeared on the monitor.

"120, clear." Carter ordered before shocking the patient.

"Thorocotomy tray," Weaver and Anna called at the same time. Malcucci powered up the sternal saw and Carter picked up a scalpel.

"Haleh, you bag, Abby come round and make the incision," Carter asked, seizing the oppertunity for Abby to try something new, as he wished Benton had done when he was a medical student.

After a quick string of instructions, the incision was made and Weaver sawed through the sternum, as Dave grasped the rib spreader, ready to prize apart the ribs. As he did, blood spurted out of the thoracic cavity, spraying across Carter's suit and shirt, running down to his trousers.

"Aggh," he spluttered struggling to see past his blood splattered goggles, "140, clear."

"Sinus tach." Lily annouced.

"Haleh, call the OR, we've got a bullet penetrating the pericardial sac and the left venticle," Carter said, pressing his finger against the point from which the blood was coming from.

"Let's go," Weaver said, as they unhooked cables and moved IV poles for transport.

They wheeled the gurney to the elevator, where Carter, Chuni and Weaver boarded, leaving Anna and Dave behind.

"The doors closed behing them with a ding, "Fun honeymoon, eh?" Chuni asked with a grin.

Carter nodded, still applying pressure with his finger and trying not to let his mind slip back to what he was thinking about earlier.

The doors to the elevator opened just as Anna pressed the button, and she boarded without hesitation, still half in her reverie. She was sure that the nurses in the PICU had noticed that she was only half there.

She turned to press the button for the ER, "Hi."

Anna whirled around to see Carter there, dressed in surgical blue scrubs. She gulped, "Do not wear those scrubs again, I'm warning you!"

"Why?" Carter asked as he drew her to his chest.

"Because," Anna replied, as she pushed him towards the wall of the elevator, "When I look at you, all I want to do is take them off."

"Hmm," he replied as he kissed her on the lips, turning them around so that her back was pressed against the smooth metal of the lift, "Now you know how it is to be me every hour of the day."

A mutal groan esacped their lips as the kisses became deeper, more urgent and undeniably passionate.

Anna ran her fingers up his back to Carter's head, running her fingers through his hair, stroking his scrub-clad thigh with her stocking clad leg, eating up the distance between them.

"Please kids!" Romano boomed as he boarded the elevator without them realising it, "The honeymoon is over and there will be not love in my elevators thank you very much."

THE END

annadelamico@yahoo.co.uk

Anna Rousseau

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