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Carter wakes up slow, warm, but missing something. He blinks out the sleep from his eyes as he stretches out a hand to the left side of the bed, finding it empty but still warm. He flips himself over from where he was sleeping on his stomach, and he squints at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It reads: 5:12 AM. His brain takes a second to catch up, still trying to resist the pull back to sleep, but he eventually remembers that Peter has an early shift— something about a meeting with Dr. Hicks that couldn't be pushed back any. Now that Carter's brain is working again he can faintly hear the sound of the shower going just down the hall in the otherwise silent apartment. Carter doesn't have to go in for his shift in the ER until eight, but he figures he might as well wait around to say goodbye to Peter.
He swings his legs to the edge of the bed and rubs his eyes. It's been cold in Peter's apartment lately, the heater struggling to fight against the harsh Chicago winter. He shivers and wraps the blanket around his shoulders. Suddenly, the noise from the bathroom stutters to a stop, and Carter immediately perks up. He can hear as Peter quietly pads down the hallway, Carter thinks he's probably trying to be as quiet as possible, which makes him smile. He's still sitting there grinning at himself when he door opens—as silently as Peter can open it, with how old the building is.
Peter, clearly not expecting him to be right there, practically jumps out of his skin. He almost drops the towel around wrapped around his waist, which Carter would not have been opposed to at all. Carter, to his credit, really does try to keep it together, but he has never seen Peter so genuinely afraid before. He's still cracking up as Peter takes a deep breath which immediately jumps into him scolding Carter.
"Jesus, man, you can't just do that." Peter is holding one hand over his eyes, the other holding up his towel. Carter can tell the adrenaline rush is still falling, so he manages to pull it together enough to immediately make fun of Peter.
"Can't what? Sit on the bed?" Despite his best efforts, Carter is still giggling, and he can see a smile tug at Peter's mouth too. Peter drops the hand covering his face and walks over to the dresser, rummaging through the drawers to find the clothes he needs. Carter is absolutely delighted to see him finally drop the towel, and he shamelessly watches as Peter gets dressed. Peter finally turns to him as he ties his tie, and he walks to stand directly in front of him. Carter takes the opportunity to grasp at Peter's waist, smiling up at him.
Peter huffs, "you should go back to sleep. You can at least get a couple extra hours in." He finishes off his tie and Carter runs a hand down it to flatten it against Peter's chest.
"You got it, boss." Carter gives a mock salute and Peter rolls his eyes at him, but he leans down to kiss him quickly anyway. Peter says a quick see you later and then he's out the door. Carter gets comfortable in bed, on Peter's side this time, and he falls asleep fairly quickly.
Carter wakes up much quicker this time, to the blaring of his alarm. He groans and buries his head in the pillow, which still smells like Peter. He forces himself to get out of bed, wincing at the cold hardwood under his feet. He takes a quick glance at the alarm clock seeing it reading 7:02 AM. He sighs and goes through his basic morning routine. He manages to get to the L by 7:20. The commute to the hospital isn't terribly long from Peter's apartment, and he makes it to work with a few minutes before his shift officially starts. He shivers as he walks in, immediately walking up to Jerry.
"Hey, Jerry." Jerry turns to him and immediately responds "I know the heat isn't working but I'm not maintenance, I'm sorry." Carter winces, recognizing that Jerry has repeated this for every single person who has walked in so far. He mutters an apology and goes to the lounge where he takes a once over on his hair and tie before grabbing his stethoscope and coat. He mentally prepares himself for the shift ahead of him, thinking happy thoughts and trying to ignore the fact that he won't be seeing Peter practically all day. They both agreed to keep their relationship a secret at work, both not willing to take the potential blow to their careers if the wrong person overheard. Plus, Peter was technically his boss until recently when he decided to change back over to an ER internship. Though, it had been a few months since the switch when they officially started dating. Carter quickly checks his watch and sighs as he walks out to officially start his shift.
Carter is having a terrible shift. He has gotten smacked and hit and splattered by more things in this single shift then he has in his entire life. The pinnacle of it was when an old lady smacked him over the top of his head with her purse when he tried to listen to her lungs. She then promptly yelled at him for over 5 minutes while he slowly got a worse and worse headache. He apologized to her and then dumped her onto Dr. Lewis, who, in turn, dumped an aggravated six year old boy onto him. An aggravated six year old boy who had a stomachache with seemingly no cause. Until he projectile vomited all over Carter's tie, and he magically felt much better. His mom was horrified but Carter told her it was "no big deal, really." So, he's been nursing a headache for over an hour in itchy scrubs. He feels great.
Carter is taking a quick break in the ambulance bay while he waits for a stab wound patient. He takes multiple deep breaths, the cold air making his lungs ache, but he fresh air is doing wonders for his headache. He sees the ambulance pull up and he is quickly throws himself into the trauma. He goes through all the steps that are muscle memory to him by now. The patient is angry and still clearly running on a huge adrenaline high, the stab wound is mostly shallow, but he wants to rule out any potential internal injuries. However, it gets tiring pretty quickly trying to yell over a screaming, angry, man who just wants to "find the bastard that did this to him and rip his goddamn head off!" Carter's headache is throbbing again. He can feel his patience waning as he attempts to hold down the patient long enough for Malik to get some Ativan. But, before Carter has the chance to snap at anybody, the patient slams an elbow directly into Carter's face.
Normally, this would just mean a bloody nose and some frustration, but today Carter hasn't exactly been very steady on his feet ever since he got smacked over the head with a purse he assumed was filled with rocks. So, instead of being able to flinch backwards in time and only stumble a bit, he doesn't flinch at all and he flies backwards. Directly into the heart monitor behind him. He lands hard and the pain in his head blooms to wrap around his skull and he feels blood rush from his nose. He groans as Lydia and Carol help him up. He can tell they're worried, but he winces as they try and ask him various questions, the pain not quite subsiding just yet. He allows himself to be walked to the lounge, barely hearing Lydia's comforting words in his ear. He's sat down and within minutes as he sits in the cool, dark, and quiet area of the lounge he feels much better. He thinks he heard Lydia say something about getting him somebody, but he decides to wipe most of the blood off of his nose while he can. He gets most of it but eventually gives up after awhile because he still can't exactly see straight, let alone properly clean his own face.
He hears the lounge door open quietly and hopes for a split second that Peter is going to walk through the door, but instead as he turns away from the sink he's greeted by Dr. Greene and Dr. Ross. Which, of course Peter can't just rush down to the ER at any sign that Carter could be hurt. He only has a mild concussion at worst and the staff don't even think Peter likes him more than the average colleague. While Carter is moping, having moved from the sink to the couch, Dr. Ross grabs a chair from the table in the center of the lounge and sits down in front of him while Greene crouches to check Carter's eyes with his penlight. Carter winces away but Dr. Greene manages to clear his eyes as equal and reactive. They both still have weird looks on their faces, which Carter can't understand why, it is just a mild concussion at the worst.
Dr. Ross clears his throat, "Okay, you know the drill, What day is it?"
Carter sighs. "It's Tuesday, March 2nd, 1998. My name is John Carter and an aggravated patient knocked me over into a heart monitor. I'm fine. My nose isn't even bleeding anymore." Ross and Greene shoot looks at each other before focusing back on Carter. It's Greene who speaks next, "well as long as you can convince Dr. Benton you're okay, than you should be free to come back to work." Carter's heart lurches into his throat.
Carter stumbles over a few words, trying to disguise them as a cough, before he finally gets the words out. "Uh, why does it matter what Dr. Benton thinks? It's probably isn't even a concussion." He tries to aim for confused and genuine, but lands somewhere in the realm of guilty and scared. Dr. Ross' smile turns softer and more placating, but before he can get the words he wants to say out, the door to the lounge is pushed open.
"Carter?" It's Peter, he sounds worried and Carter sees him quickly scan the room, and when his eyes land on Carter and his company, he tries to cool his expression into something less concerned. "Um, I heard he hit his head," is what Peter manages to come up with, so Carter can rest easy knowing he's a better liar than Peter.
Carter sees Dr. Greene and Dr. Ross smirk at each other, and he suddenly feels a little nauseous, knowing that nothing is a secret for long once it spills in the ER.
"Yeah, Peter, he took quite a tumble. A nice elbow to the face, too. But, nothing serious, so you can go back to the surgical floor." Dr. Greene has a shit-eating grin on his face, and Carter wants to curl up in a ball and disappear. He sees Peter hesitate before he finally decides to speak.
"Well, I was down here for a consult anyway so I'll come back in a little bit, okay Carter?" Carter feels himself nod and then he watches as Peter shuts the door quietly. He sees as the two of them practically snap their necks to look at him again. Carter is suddenly very nauseous.
Dr. Greene is still smiling and Dr. Ross breaks the small silence.
"So, Carter, you and Peter, huh?" Carter shoots up, feeling faintly dizzy with the motion as he rushes over to the sink, where he proceeds to throw up the very little he's eaten over the last few hours.
"Whoa! Hey, the concussion isn't that bad, is it?" Carter just groans into the sink at Dr. Ross' words, he feels embarrassed, like he's just been flayed open for the whole world to see. He feels someone start rubbing his back and, assuming it's Dr. Greene, he shrinks away from the touch that feels like humiliation. But, instead he hears a comforting and familiar voice.
"Hey, Carter, it's okay, man," it's soft and quiet, and because Carter is so jumbled and confused he starts crying, just a little, but enough that he feels his face get, somehow, even warmer. He turns, and through blurry vision, sinks into Peter's chest. He feels like he is somehow the cause for them being found out—he always held his emotions on his sleeve and feels the familiar knot of guilt tangle itself in his chest.
Through gasps he manages to get out a pathetic, "I'm so sorry Peter," He drags the ending of sorry out with a long gasp that mixes itself with a stuttered sob, "I 'unno how they find out, 'm sorry." He muffles his words against the material of Peter's scrub top. He started really crying at some point, devolving into a sniffling, sobbing mess in Peter's hands. He feels Peter's hands lightly grab his shoulders and move him away from his chest, and Carter almost starts panicking thinking that he really did mess up this whole thing, that Peter is going to hate him, but then he sees Peter's stricken expression.
"What? What are you apologizing for?" He sounds genuinely confused, and Carter feels so much worse because not only did he somehow out their relationship, Peter doesn't even know yet. He immediately starts running through what happened, what Dr. Ross said, and Peter has a look of realization cross his face. But, then he smiles, a small smile, but still a smile. This confused Carter to no end, is he laughing at him?
"Carter, the second I heard you got hit by a patient I practically ran down here. I didn't even take the elevator. If anything, I was the one who made it obvious." Carter starts calming down, his addled brain finally starting to catch up. "I didn't even have a consult, I just walking around admit until I couldn't wait anymore." Peter is smiling, a bashful smile, which makes Carter smile. He rubs the tears off his face and starts laughing.
"Okay, I'm just going to blame all of that on the concussion. Don't bring it up every again or I'm never gonna offer to shower with you again." Carter hears someone snort a laugh and realizes that Dr. Ross and Dr. Greene never left. He feels himself get warm in the face again. Ross finally speaks up once he realizes Carter has noticed them.
"Hey, if you hadn't gotten that concussion I wouldn't have won a bet, so no harm no foul." He sticks his hand out towards Dr. Greene and he unwillingly pulls a twenty out of his wallet.
"Couldn't he have waited just one more week to get seriously injured?" Dr. Greene mutters, Ross laughs at him before they finally seem to realize they should leave. Once the door finally shuts, Carter sinks back into Peter's chest groaning from embarrassment. He feels it more than he hears it when Peter starts talking.
"How about we go home so you can finally get some sleep?" It suddenly hits him just how exhausted he is. He feels scraped out, having gone through practically every emotion possible in less than an hour. He silently nods against Peter, and they slowly rid their stuff to their lockers and then walk out to Peter's car. Carter is too tired to bother caring if anybody stares on their way out, which people definitely do considering he's leaning almost all of weight into Peter's side. Once they actually get into the car, Carter knocks out almost immediately. He comes to once they reach Peter's apartment, which isn't a long drive from the hospital. Everything after that sort of blurs together, he knows Peter forces him to stay awake long enough to brush his teeth before sending him to bed. Carter doesn't complain (much), especially once Peter climbs into bed right behind him. Carter falls asleep warm and comfortable, without a worry in the world.