Title: Progress (Part 1/?)

Author: Marme

Summary: Post Lock-down

Rating: PG-13

Author’s Note: I don’t own any of these characters, they belong to NBC, and this is my first piece, so go easy on me!

Spoilers: Lock-down

Susan slumped over the admit desk, her position fully representing her spirits. Her lab coat had finally been discarded, her shirtsleeves had been pushed up, and her hair had begun to ramble out of its hasty ponytail. Her eyes remained half-open, half-closed, as she stared into space and pure exhaustion. Luka and Jerry, both stripped down to their stained undershirts, leaned against the desk, as their tired bodies used the floor to the advantage of catching a few hours rest. The staff symbolized the eye of the storm as the CBC members worked diligently behind computer screens in some hidden corner of an exam room.

The ER looked like chaos had come to pay a visit and left its wrath behind. Papers and odd pieces of trash littered the floor as well as a few scattered patients trying to wedge themselves into uncomfortable slumber. Crushed soda cans and crinkled snack bags decorated the tiles, and the remnants of the desperate struggle to “break out” lay stashed in a corner in a glassy heap of shards. The two lawyers slept in their make-shift prison while the security guard sat nearby snoring. No one had energy left to fight the situation.

Carter tossed and turned on the tiny and cement-like ironing board of a cot. He was hot, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, dirty, and unbelievably uncomfortable…and he couldn’t sleep. Sighing, he craned his neck toward Abby who lay on the trauma room’s gurney adjacent to his ridiculous cot. Her back was to him, yet he wasn’t sure if sleep had been unkind to her as well.

“I can’t sleep either,” she murmured quietly. Her voice sounded defeated.

“I’m tired…yet wired to the point where my body won’t let me rest…at all,” Carter replied. “I’ve never been so frustrated in my life.”

Twisting herself around, Abby smiled at him. “And we can’t even take a cigarette break. I’m in hell. Wait…I work in hell…everyday of the year. Silly me to think there was a difference between the two places.”

Carter snorted. “You know, my day has actually not been too great either. First of all, I didn’t sleep well last night. Why? Because I drank a cup of coffee after dinner, thinking it was decaf. So when I woke up feeling like shit, I saw that my alarm had not gone off, and I was running half an hour behind. And so while I was rushing, I stepped in my grandmother’s dog’s piss, which mysteriously was on the floor in front of my bedroom door. And then would you believe it? My first case of the day was a trauma where we lost a patient, and my second case was regarding two lawyers. Oh and then smallpox walked into my life.”

“But that wasn’t a big deal considering the dog piss, right?”

“Oh no. But did I mention that some cracked-up nurse hosed me down with a fire extinguisher as well?” Carter started laughing as Abby swatted at his face.

“You should feel honored. Not everybody gets hosed by Abby Lockhart. Oh and I think that same nurse voluntarily subjected herself to quarantine with a highly unstable male doctor as well as the highly unstable disease of smallpox. So when I die from a deadly rash later today, think of me fondly.” Carter and Abby were both laughing by now. Carter sat up as his laughter subsided.

“So what are you doing after this?”

Abby stared at him. “You’re kidding, right? What do you think I’m doing? Smoking a cigarette, taking a long, hot shower, and sleeping through my next four shifts.”

“You gotta eat though, right?”

“Well, yeah, but I just don’t have the energy to get dressed and go to a nice place and sit down…”

Carter interrupted. “Whoa, who said I was taking you out to a nice restaurant! I’m talking pizza…steaming pizza in a cardboard box with lots of cheese and grease…filled with fatty calories galore…delivered right to the couch and TV in your apartment…by a deliciously sweaty man in scrubs.”

“You are so showering before coming over, Carter, there is just no way you would even be let inside the door.”

Carter faked a stab in the heart. “Ouch.”

After an awkward silence, he asked quietly, looking up underneath the few strands of hair that hung listlessly over his forehead, “So is it a date?”

Abby looked down at the floor and grinned. “A real date with John Carter?”

“It’s not like I’m nervous enough, Abby, give me a break,” Carter chuckled as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Are you paying?”

Carter looked confused. “That’s what I generally do, yeah, I’m paying.”

She looked up, giving that famous Abby-smile. “Then I guess it is a date.” She laid back down on the gurney. “I’m going on a date with Carter.”

“Are you nervous?” Carter grinned.

“If you try anything sketchy, you know I can kick your ass.”

Carter laid down also. “For some reason, I believe that.”