ER ➸ John Carter

⋆Part 7: lunch⋆

"I messed up a lot the first few weeks."

I finished up my last patient and I walked up to the coat rack. I already saw John standing at the front desk. 'Let's go.' I said as I quickly put on my coat.

'So how's your day going?' I asked as we walked outside. 'Great! I'm going to help with an open heart surgery later.' he said excited.

'That's exciting.' I said smiling.

'How's yours?' he asked as we crossed the street to go to the diner, it was raining so I lifted my jacked above my head.

'It's going okay, I kind of messed up with a patient. I answered a few of Benton's questions wrong about the kidney.' I said as I looked at him.

'Don't worry about it, I messed up a lot the first few weeks.' He laughed and so did I.

'You wouldn't say-' I giggled and he gave me a shocked look.

'I'm kidding!' I said smiling and I gave him a friendly push.

'I knew that material but I blacked out. There going to think I don't try hard enough.' I told him kind of nervous.

'You're a good student and I'm sure they know that, you try the best you can.' He said and that made me feel a bit better.

We walked in the door and sat at a booth, it wasn't too busy at the diner. You could hear the rain ticking against the window and you could smell the fresh coffee. A blond girl walked up to us with an apron and an note pad.

'What will it be?' She asked sounding uninterested. 'For me an sandwich with eggs and extra bacon and an cup of coffee, please.' John said and he looked at me.

'The same for me.' I said as she wrote it down. 'Great, I will bring you you're drinks and food in a minute.' She said and she walked away.

'I heard that you had an older brother.' He said.

'Yeah, I do.' I said, my brother was still in law school which I'm very proud of. He's very protective over me but he's very sweet.

'Who told you?' I asked.

'Carol.' He replied and I chuckled and looked down at my hands. 'Of course.' I mumbled smiling. I looked up to see John smirking. I got locked into his brown eyes again and it was silent for a moment.

'Look val-' he said. That's when the waitress came back with our drinks and food. 'Thanks.' We said at the same time and we laughed. The waitress put down the food on the table and groaned but John and I didn't mind and continued the conversation.

'What were you going to say?' I asked and took a bite from my sandwich.

'Never mind.' He told me and I shrugged it off.

'Do you have any siblings?' I asked.

'Well, I have a sister, Florence and I had a brother, Bobby but he passed away a couple of years ago.' He said. I was shocked. I didn't expect that.

'John, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked.' I said.

'It's okay, you didn't know. He had cancer and he was sick for a long time. We had enough time to say goodbye and I'm glad he has some peace now.' He said.

'Do you want to talk about it?' I asked and he thought for a second. 'No, not really.' He replied.

'That's fine.' I said softly.

'My turn.' John said all of the sudden. 'What?' I asked. 'To ask a question.' He said dead serious.

'How long have you lived in Chicago?' He asked.

'For six months now. I moved when I was almost done with med school.' I answered and he nodded. 

'My turn. Who's the first patient you've ever treated?' I asked.

'Well, It's a long story. Let's just say it involves Benton leaving me while I had no idea what I was doing.' he said. 'I'm suddenly very interested.' I said and he laughed. 

'Well, it started like this, I walked into the ER and filled in my forms and everything. No idea what I was in for.' She smiled. 'I meet Benton and he shows me around, because he still did the tour back then, and Benton started to give a woman stitches.' He continued and he quickly took a sip of his coffee. 

'Then he suddenly needs to leave and asks me to finish up!' He said. 'No what?' I asked. 

'I had no idea where everything was, or what I was doing even.' He said and I laughed. 

'Did he notice?' I asked. 'No I faked my confidence al day long.' He smiled. 

'He really left you hanging. Didn't he?' I told him and he nodded. 

'He's not that bad.' He told me and I frowned. 'But only sometimes.' He finished his sentence. He made me laugh again. I really liked John, he was nice and funny. And to be honest, I couldn't stop staring at his brown eyes. 

𝗖𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿❜𝘀 𝗣𝗢𝗩

She laughed and put a piece of hair behind her ear. I had no idea that she might like me, I thought that she hated me actually. But I guess that she was shy. Val is really sweet, and kind. Also a little innocent but I kind of liked that about her. 

'What do you like to do outside of work?' I asked her trying to figure her out a little more. 

'I like listing to music and, if I have the time, explore the city.' She said. 'Cool!' 

'Yeah, I take my car and see what's happening in town. Back in Boston I liked to go to the Harvard campus and hang around.' She said to me. 

'You grew up in Boston?' I quickly asked. 

'Yeah, I did.' She smiled. 'I loved it there but I wanted to go Chicago as soon as I knew I wanted to be a doctor.' 

'Why?' I asked. 'I don't know, it's like moving to Europe. You have this unrealistic idea about what it would be like. Always nice weather, riding boats, driniking lots and lots of wine.' She chuckled. ' I really did go to my own idea of Europe.' She said. 

'And is it like you thought it would be?' 

'Sometimes, but right now is not so bad.' She smirked. I don't know if she means working in the ER or sitting here with me. But something inside me hoped that it was the latter. 

________________________________________________________________________________

(29 - 08 - 2020) A quick addition to this chapter. I watched some episode of ER lately and I got inspired to write something. I love all the support on my story lately. We've already hit 5K, I'm so flattered and moved. All I can say is, thank you.  

Stay safe and wear a mask! X