Two weeks later Weaver was released into Carter’s care, she had moved into his place so he could sort of supervise her. After the first week it became clear to him that she was going to be fine and he started to go into work for short periods of time leaving her alone just to see how that would work out. He had also gotten her a dog, one that was trained to follow her around the house and also trained to attack on command. The dog was an Irish Wolf Hound, the biggest breed of dog there was, when he stood on his hind legs he was taller then Carter and his name was Lucky. Weaver didn’t really like dogs before but when she saw Lucky her eyes just lit up and she knew that he was the right dog for her.

At the present time Carter had gone into work but only for a little while and she was sitting in one of the many extravagantly decorated rooms watching TV with Lucky on the couch next to her. In a few days she would be able to return to work for just a partial shift and she was definitely looking forward to it because it was boring just sitting around all day. She wondered how everyone was going to treat her, she knew that all of them knew about her little stay in the psych ward. She had over come their stares the first time she had started work there and she was sure she could prove to them that she was back to normal even if it took a few times. Suddenly Lucky lifted his head from her lap and his ears went up signaling that he heard something. Even though Weaver knew she was completely safe in the house it worried her, especially because Lucky was only trained to react to noises outside of animals or other things that went on outside.

“Hey there Kerry…” Carter poked his head into the room and she jumped slightly, Lucky barked once and then jumped off of the couch and ran over to greet Carter, “Didn’t I tell you not to get on the couch.” He said to Lucky but not at all in a scolding voice, the truth was he didn’t really care and both Kerry and Lucky knew that.

“He’s bigger then me he can do what he wants.” Weaver smiled at Carter and walked over to him slowly, “Thank you for doing all of this for me, I know how hard it must have been for you over the past few weeks.”

“Don’t worry about it, I know you would do the same thing for me right?” He started to head for the kitchen he was holding a bag of take out food in his arms and Lucky was trying to sniff it as he followed, “And tomorrow you can go into work. I talked to Amber and she said it would be okay but only for a few hours.”

“Really?” Weaver said trying to mask her delight, “Thanks that’s going to be great.” She followed behind him slowly wondering what he got to eat. He set the bag on the table and took out a few boxes of Chinese food. The past few weeks she had fallen in love with him, he was so accepting of her, he was the only one that didn’t treat her like she was insane or unstable. Every time one of the staff members called over to the house and she answered they started to talk like anything they said might send her back off the deep end and it was getting on her nerves.

“Yeah.” He smiled at her and sat down pulling out a pair of chopsticks, he opened one of the boxes and started to eat out of it. Weaver hadn’t even noticed how hungry she was until Carter had come home with dinner. She joined him at the table and started to eat too, Lucky sat down next to her and looked up at the food hoping that something might spill so he could eat it. They ate in silence but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, it was just them enjoying the company of each other with out actually having to have a conversation. Weaver smiled slightly thinking of how cute he looked in his scrubs, wishing that he would someday return the feeling, little did she know he already did.

Later that night they were watching a movie together, and Weaver was half asleep with her head on his lap. He was stroking her hair gently and Lucky was laying on the floor by the couch, every so often he would yawn and roll over but he was tired too. When the movie ended Carter sighed wondering if he should just stay there and sleep or if he should carry her up to her bed. When he moved and she didn’t wake up he decided to carry her upstairs, it wouldn’t be a lot of trouble.

He entered her bedroom with Lucky behind him and laid her down on the bed carefully resting her head on the pillow before pulling the blankets up over her. He leaned in looking at her sleeping face, she looked so peaceful, it had been a very long time since she had any nightmares about Romano. He reached up and brushed some hair out of her face but as he did her eyes fluttered and then opened slightly. She smiled up at him, but instead of startling him and scaring him off he remained in position with his face close to hers. They looked at each other for a moment before joining in a passionate kiss, one that released all of the sexual tension they had between them for the past several years. He then pulled away gently wondering if she was awake enough to be aware of what she was actually doing, he patted the bed next to him to call Lucky up there to keep her company when she grabbed his wrist gently and stopped him.

“No,” She whispered and then blinked slowly, “I want you to stay here tonight…please?” He thought about it for a moment, but her voice was clear and it seemed like she knew what she wanted. They were both adults and there was nothing wrong with sharing a bed with some one he cared for, or at least that’s what he was thinking. He shrugged slightly and then crawled into the bed next to her and took her into his arms. He called Lucky up onto the bed anyway because it was big enough for the three of them. Lucky curled up at the foot of the bed where he could keep a watchful eye on the both of them. Weaver snuggled into his arms and he sighed contentedly, for the first time in a long time he wasn’t going to have to sleep alone.

A week had past and Weaver was now back on her regular rotation, it was a slow day and so she was sitting in the lounge going over some paperwork that she needed to finish. The new psych consoler, Amber McKay, walked into the lounge with a smile on her face and lipstick on her cheek. Weaver smiled up at her and decided to ignore the lip prints on the side of Amber’s mouth.

“God, don’t you just love being in love?” Amber sighed before walking over to the pot of coffee and refilling her drink, “Elizabeth…Lizzie…my woman.”

“Wow you certainly do seem to be in love.” Weaver muttered hating it when people flaunted their relationship status in her face. Amber took a sip of her coffee and sat down across from Weaver, it appeared that they were going to have a conversation weather Kerry wanted to or not.

“She’s so perfect…her eyes, her curly wild caramel colored hair, her sophisticated English accent…” That’s when Weaver nearly swallowed her own tongue, she dropped her pen and looked up at Amber.

“What did you say her name was again?”

“Elizabeth, Elizabeth Corday.” Amber replied with a smile and then took another sip of her coffee, Weaver drew in a sharp breath. She knew that there was no way in hell it could be the same woman, Corday was straight, very straight, how could she possibly be dating Amber and why the hell was she back in the states. Weaver forced a smile before nodding and walking out of the room to find Carter, she had some questions for him, wondering if he knew about this too.

“Carter…” She called her voice shaking just slightly he turned and walked over to her quickly when he saw the almost frightened expression on her face, “Corday is back.”

“What?”

“Amber just told me…she’s…I guess they are dating or something…” Weaver tried to explain already close to tears, she didn’t know why but she was terribly afraid of the idea of coming into contact with Elizabeth again.

“Look it has to be a coincidence, Elizabeth told me she’d call me if she ever came back.” Carter put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her but she brushed it off in annoyance.

“Yeah well what if she lied?” Weaver snapped back in a rather hushed voice before turning to go into the lounge. Carter sighed softly and followed her into the lounge and over to her locker where she was now getting her stuff out. “I have to go.”

“Look just calm down.” Carter tried to stop her but he knew that it probably wouldn’t be very good for Kerry to go back to work if she was panicked. She looked at him for a moment before pulling her bag over her shoulder and taking out her car keys.

“I will calm down, after I get home, curl up with Lucky, and turn on a movie that had nothing to do with my life.” She slammed the door to her locker shut before heading out brushing past Carter in an almost rude manner. There was really nothing else he could do or say to her, he knew that things like this would probably happen in her first week of work she just needed time to calm down and feel safe and he respected that. He waved goodbye to her half heartedly and watched her hurry off towards her car before getting back to work.

Kerry had made herself comfortable on the couch back at Carter’s place with Lucky’s head on her lap like always. She stroked the fur on the top of his head softly and tried to convince herself to stop thinking about Elizabeth Corday. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that it was just a coincidence, she told herself that if Elizabeth had been in the states for a while she hadn’t contacted her, so maybe things would be okay. She yawned slightly and moved so her head was laying on the arm of the couch and she let her eyes flutter shut.

She was soon startled awake when some one tapped her on the shoulder, her eyes flew open only to see Romano standing there looking quite pleased with himself. She cried out in surprise and shook her head hoping that this was no more then one of her illusions brought on by the stress of her returning to work for the first time in a few months.

“Yeah it’s me, I’m not dead…” he then laughed slightly, “Not that you believe that, I mean going through bran washing…oh wait, I mean therapy to convince you that I’m just a boogey man would have that effect on some one now wouldn’t it?” He sat down on the coffee table across from her but Lucky didn’t even stir and she knew that there had to be something wrong if Lucky didn’t wake up.

“Lucky…” She whispered and shook him softly trying to get him to wake from his dream world but it was now clear to her that he had been sedated, “What did you do to him?”

“Calm down he’s fine…I just knocked him out for a few minutes I would never hurt a dog.” He reached forward to pet the sleeping Irish wolf hound when Weaver smacked his hand away. “I’ll be leaving then…I did what I came to do.”

“And what was that Robert?”

“Scare the crap out of you.” He laughed again and then walked out of the room, she didn’t think to get up to look for him and she reached for the phone but just for a moment before she talked herself into believing that it was just a dream. She got up from the couch and went into the kitchen where she took out a bottle of medication, she had already taken it today but she decided to take it again. She knew it wouldn’t hurt her or anything, it would probably just cause her to zone out or get very tired. Either way she would be relaxed and the haunting voice of Romano wouldn’t be resounding in her head. She poured herself a glass of water and took the pills, downing everything in the glass before heading back to the couch. When she got there Lucky was awake and wagging his tail, like he always did when he was waiting for her to come back to the couch. This just convinced her even more that what happened was a dream and so she sat back down on the couch and turned on the TV. She watched the news but for no longer then 15 minutes before the medication took effect and she fell into a deep sleep.

“KERRY!” John called frantically, it had been two hours and then he decided to come home to make sure she was okay after figuring out that the Corday Amber was talking about was actually the Corday that he knew. When he first entered the house she didn’t answer him because she was passed out on the couch, so he began to yell more frantically. He finally found her in the living room, she was asleep with Lucky’s head still on her lap. The dog looked up and barked once waking Weaver from her sleep and then he hopped off of the couch and ran over to Carter wagging his tail.

“Huh?” She groaned and lifted her head and then rubbed her eyes slightly, “What time is it?” She looked around the room before her eyes rested on John, her body felt tired and her eye lids were still heavy but she didn’t dream when she was out, well nothing she could remember, so everything was fine for the moment.

“Sorry, I got a little worried about you.” He walked over to the couch and sat down next to her and kissed her on the cheek softly, “Corday is back.”

“Oh?” She blinked a few times and then it sunk in and she sat straight up, “Oh no this can’t be good.”

“Kerry,” He leaned forward and put his hand on hers gently, “She’s been here for almost six months and she hasn’t come in contact with either of us I don’t think there should be any cause for concern.” He really didn’t think there was a reason to be worried, in fact he never did, but considering the psychosis that Weaver had suffered over the past few months he totally understood how she was feeling. She yawned and stretched out slightly before resting back against the couch once more.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have over reacted like that.” She whispered and patted the couch to get Lucky to come over to them. Lucky looked over at the sound Weaver’s hand made on the couch and bounded over to her and started to lick her hand.

“It’s okay, this was the first incident in months. I would say you are making quite a bit of progress, hell I would have freaked out too if I was in your shoes.” He replied with a slight smile on his face, “You are going to pull through this but not over night.”

“Thank you for understanding John…” She lifted her head and looked at him deciding not to mention her little dream about Romano, thinking that it was just that, a dream, “How about we get a pizza tonight…my treat.”

“Sounds good.” He smiled at her, “I’m going to go take a shower can you order it?” He stood up and then helped her to her feet.

“Yeah,” She nodded, “Still thank you for putting up with all of this…”

“Anything for the woman I love…” He said and she made a face, not one of disgust she was just surprised that he had actually said that and for the moment she froze up not sure how she was supposed to respond to that, “Okay I’m uh…going to…uh…shower then.” He took off towards the stairs and Weaver shook her head slightly feeling stupid that she was unable to answer him, she should have told him that she loved him too, she should have told him how much he meant to her but instead she just stood there like an idiot. She looked over to Lucky and motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen where she was going to order the pizza. As she sat at the table on hold she thought of everything she could say to him, to reassure him that what he had told her wasn’t out of line but for once she had absolutely no idea what to say.

End Part V

Weaver had the next day off, and for once she was glad for that. Carter had gone into work again but he promised her that he would be back as soon as he possibly could , but in an ER that wasn’t going to be a short period of time.