These Questions
Carter's eyes opened slowly in the bed he rested in alone. He threw the covers away from his legs, immediately feeling the odd cold strike him with force. The cries flowed from the room next to his in one song, straight from the infant's mouth. The wails would subside to shuddering whimpers one minute, full blasts the next. So, generously crawling from bed, he stumbled over his clothes. They'd been scattered about the floor when he'd lazily made his late night entrance four hours before.
He reached the room as quickly as he could, despite sagging feet, and reached over the side of the crib. The baby was squirming, frustrated on the mattress fitted below him as he looked on consciously. When the baby was in his arms, Carter gathered him close to his chest, shushing him calmly. The baby's cries almost instantly quieted down, his brown eyes cast on the father above him.
Carter, his groggy smile catching fast picked up the blanket that had been thrown from the infant's side and placed it over him in his arms. He walked to the kitchen, the baby's cries starting up again.
"Jonathan," he hushed sweetly, picking into the refrigerator and removing a bottle from one of the shelves. The child in his arms closed his eyes with instinct at the light from the device in front of him and began to shrieks again. They grew in volume until he pressed the bottle to his lips, to which he gladly accepted and silenced once again.
"Need some help?"
He turned around slightly, almost jumping from the voice. Abby stood in the living room, a sleepy smile painted on her face. Her hair was hanging around in loose, unruly curls which she had already begun to pull back from her face. He took his eyes away from her and back to Jonathan.
"No," he said. "I'm okay. You should get back to bed."
She shook her head and walked over to them, standing close to Carter. "You've been doing this for a month now. I think you deserve a break."
"You've done it, too."
"You're faster at it," she grinned. "And I'm his mother. I should have to wake up to this each night, too."
He shook his head, shifting his arms to find a comfortable position for the baby to sit. "You start work tomorrow. I think you should get some sleep."
"I'll be fine," she said, her voice lessening to a whisper at the sight of the baby starting to wriggle under the blanket. She tugged on it carefully, taking it away from covering parts of his face. "After tomorrow I won't get to see him as much."
He nodded, the whole idea coming back to him. With their jobs, Abby and Carter wouldn't be seeing the baby as much as they'd seen him before. Especially on Abby's behalf. For the last month, she'd been at home with him and she had clearly enjoyed it. In fact, nearly everyday in the last month, she had brought Jonathan up to the hospital. Partially because it was close enough to travel to and Carter would get to see his son.
"You're great with him," Abby said, covering Jonathan's feet up with the blanket. She played with his little feet for an instant before looking back up at Carter.
Carter didn't know how to respond, so he resumed with feeding the baby. She looked back up at him, seeing that he wouldn't answer her, and started to walk away. She frowned at the ground, whispering, "I'll see you in the morning."
He felt awful when he heard the door shut behind him. He could have shuddered, had he not been so tired, but felt worse than he had ever felt, in a long while. His hands were growing clammy with the bottle in his hands. His heart sank an extra inch at the thought of Abby in bed alone.
She's trying to help, he told himself as he removed the baby's bottle from his mouth. Jonathan's eyes eased to a close as he set the remainder of the bottle in the refrigerator and closed his eyes in sudden pain. He cautiously, sleepily guided himself back to his own room, setting the baby down close to him. He placed a gentle hand on his stomach while the baby fell asleep, and he blinked a solemn tear onto the pillow.
--
"They can't bring any more doctors down?" Carter asked loudly over the chaos in front of him, moving toward the desk. He pushed past an angry patient to the counter, throwing charts down recklessly. "We're down three as it is."
"Three?" Haleh asked, raising an eyebrow. "We're down two; Lewis and Weaver - "
"And Chen," he said, hardly looking up from a chart in front of him.
"No," Haleh said. "We've got enough. Kovac's replacement arrived today."
"In a cardboard box from the UPS man," Chuny said, smirking. "He's over there. His name is Darryl."
"Dr. Darryl?" Carter asked, turning his head to see a blonde-haired man stooping down to a three-year-old's level, examining her ankle.
"No," Chuny laughed, admiring the doctor from afar. "Dr. Darryl Henson." Lily came by, sighed, and the two nurses laughed.
"Good God," Carter chuckled. "Darryl Henson? That's... so..."
"Completely and totally rehearsed?" Haleh suggested, handing him another thing to take a look at.
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Carter said with a smile as he turned away, heading off toward exam one. He walked through the door and grinned at the toddler happily playing with his shoelaces.
"Are you Dr. Henson?" His mother reached over to save her son, close to falling off of the bed as he tried to peer over the edge.
Carter sighed and laughed a little. "No, he's busy. I'm Dr. Carter."
She nodded. "We've been here for a while, it's a wonder anyone got to us anyway." She reached over once again, hushing he little boy and taking him from the side. "He has a cold. His name is J.C."
"J.C.?" Carter questioned kindly, pulling on some plastic gloves from a box next to the bed. "What's that short for?" He looked toward J.C., who only pulled away at the sight of a doctor. He folded his hands for a second in his lap and smiled at the boy. "I won't bite. I promise."
"John Charles," she stated firmly, holding him now on the surface.
"Hey," Carter smiled, taking a look into the boy's ears. Pulling back the device, he said with another smile, "my little boy's name is Jonathan, John for short." He looked up to J.C. "Can I look in your mouth for a little?"
He nodded, giving in slightly.
"You married then?" she asked.
Carter frowned, but caught himself before he let her see it. "Actually... no."
His mother straightened up in her chair. "Me, either. Just me and J.C. at home. Right?" She ruffled the little boy's hair while he sat now obediently, the tongue depressor in its position.
Carter laughed.
"How old is he?"
"What?"
"How old is he?" she repeated, smirking a little. "Your son?"
"One month two days ago," Carter said, smiling.
The mother bit back her lip. "One month?"
"Yes."
"So you're probably not interested in, you know..." She bent her head, looking back up to her son. She rubbed across his little knees with tender hands and switched her glance back to his.
Carter shook his head slowly. "Probably not."
She nodded.
"It's just, you know - "
"Not the right time, I know." She smiled up at him with another nod and bit her lip once more.
He nodded again, pulling away from the bed and scratching something onto a paper pad. "He's got a little ear infection. Definitely a cold, too, but I wanna let him do this without antibiotics."
"You sure?"
"Positive," he said. "However the ear infection looks bad, so I'm gonna give you a prescription for that, and a number for an ear, nose and throat specialist."
"That's necessary?"
"Looks like he's had a few too many earaches in the past," Carter concluded. "He might need tubes in his ears. Surgery that helps drain the fluids that causes him all this sickness." He patted the little boy's legs who happily grinned. Carter grinned in reply and stood up.
"Vanessa."
He turned around. "What?"
"My name is Vanessa," she said flirtatiously.
He nodded, oddly. "John," he said, extending a hand. Where was this going?
She handed him her number, something she'd written with the bottom of the prescription's paper. "Just in case you feel differently."
She smiled again, in the same way and left Carter staring dumbfounded at the paper in front of him. The door pushed open and Abby rushed in to grab some gloves from the box. He stared at her as she did so.
"Carter," she said, putting on the gloves and pulling him from another atmosphere.
"What?" he asked, acting startled.
"There's a teenager in labor in the ambulance bay. She's crowning." She pulled her hair off of her shoulder and looked up. "Want me to get Dr. Henson?"
He shook his head. "No, I'm coming." He still stared at her as she looked at him, questioning him. She smiled and left the room, as Carter still left his inquiries to the paper in his hand.
[Part 35]