It barely clipped me

A/N This is my first ER fanfic so we'll see how it goes, it's going to be Carter whump basically because I always seem to pick a character to pick on and today it's John Carter, I'm setting this about season 2. I don't own ER or any of these characters and I'm getting nothing from doing this. This is now the re-written version of this fic after some pointers from NaomiP, hopefully improved upon from the last attempt at it, please read and review.

Carter's running late for his shift in the ER, he can't be late or Mark is going to give him a lecture, and he's really not in the mood for that. He jogs towards the el station across from his apartment building, pulling his coat tighter around him against the freezing wind of Chicago winters. He doesn't stop to check the road for cars which he knows is stupid but he is already 5 minutes late and it's at least 15 minutes on the el to get to the ER. Dashing across the street he hears the screech of tires and looks to the left realising it's too late for him to do anything, an SUV is only a metre away sliding on the ice as it tries to stop. He knows that he ran out too close to it and the driver has no way to avoid him, at least the car wasn't going that fast to start with.

He tries to brace himself for the impact but he only having a split second there's nothing he can do. He feels the car collide with his left leg and he is thrown up onto the hood rolling across the windshield, the car finally manages to come to a stop and as it does he is thrown forwards off of the car again. He hits the pavement on his right side and everything turns black before he even stops rolling.

Slowly Carter resurfaced from the inky blackness that he had been stuck in and opened his eyes, the first thing to come back to him was the feeling of how cold he is. He's lying on his side in a puddle and the water is so cold it feels as though it's burning. It's not until he rolls onto his back and attempts to sit up out of the water that he feels the pain, radiating up his left leg and most of the right side of his torso and arm, his forehead stings and he can feel blood running down his cheek.

He hears a man talking to him saying someone has gone to call for help, but he doesn't need that, the car wasn't going to fast and they were already braking when they hit him. He forces himself to sit up despite the pain, knowing if he stays much longer he's going to end up in the back of an ambulance. He manages to get to his feet testing his leg to see if it will hold his weight, which it does even though it feels like someone's stabbing into his hip with a white-hot poker.

"Don't worry I don't need an ambulance, I'm fine, I'm late for work already so I've got to go" he says to the man that must be the driver.

"Wait your head is bleeding, you should really go to the ER and get checked out, you could be seriously hurt" the man said, which Carter finds funny considering the ER is where he's heading anyway.

"It's fine I'll handle it, now I've really got to go, I'm already 10 minutes late to work. Thank you for stopping but really I'm fine" Carter says brushing off the man and managing to limp away and up the steps to the el. The guard at the gate gives him a weird look but accepts his money letting him onto the platform, once on the platform he sits down on a bench, he missed the train he was aiming for so now he's got to wait 10 minutes for the next one.

Again, he feels the blood that has slowly trickled down his face from the graze on his forehead, he can't turn up like this he needs to at least stop it bleeding. He looks through his pockets for something he can use but only finds his wallet and some random bits of paper, nothing of any use. As he's searching he senses someone coming to a stop in front of him, looking up he sees a woman stood in front of him holding out a packet of Kleenex to him.

"You look like you need these" she says. He takes them from her with a grim, slightly pained smile.

"Thanks" he says in reply as she walks on further up the platform. He pulls out a couple from the packet and presses them against the graze, wincing as the stinging worsens but he grits his teeth knowing he has to stop the bleeding. After a couple of minutes he pulls the tissues off and carefully feels the wound with his fingers to check if it has scabbed over, he knows it needs to be cleaned but he'll do that when he gets to the ER. Using the rest of the Kleenex he wipes as much of the blood from his face as he can and does his best to look presentable. He sees the el pulling into the station and throws the bloodied packet and it's contents in the trashcan next to the bench and slowly makes his way to his feet. His hip burns in protest and he limps again to make it onto the train before the doors close.

He allows himself to collapse heavily into the seat nearest to the door and breathes deeply, he begins to analyse the pains that he can feel throughout his body trying to look at them through the eyes of the doctor that he is. His left hip and thigh are definitely badly bruised but he'd have known immediately if he had a broken pelvis because he wouldn't have walked away from the scene otherwise. His right side is painful, he may have even cracked a rib when he hit the road but it's not unbearable so he decides they're most likely just bruised. His biggest problem for getting through work is going to be his right arm, he landed on his elbow which had been extremely painful initially but now that the initial intense pain has died away he still has a sharp radiating pain going up and down his arm every time he tries to move it. He tries moving it to see how bad it is and finds that though he does have full range of motion in it and his sensation is intact, the intensity of the pain means that he's going to have a hard time doing anything with his right arm, problematic when he works in the ER.

The el pulls into the stop for County General and he forces himself up again and out onto the platform, pausing for a minute he realises that if he walks into the ER like this he's going to be on a gurney in seconds. He needs to come up with something if he wants to avoid becoming a patient. His only hope is to make it inside and to the restrooms to clean himself up and then he'll say he slipped on his apartment steps if anyone asks about his head, which they inevitably will. It may not be the best cover but it's all he's got to go with. He pauses at the top of the el stairs and shuffles across to the left hand-side grabbing the hand rail like his life depends on it and carefully lowers himself down each step until he is on the ground and less than 100m from the ER entrance.

Pushing off the hand rail he tries to walk without limping but the pain in his hip is far worse than before. If he grits his teeth and keeps his head down to avoid anyone seeing his face he should make it through without anyone noticing, but he's going to have to be quick if he wants this too work. Allowing himself to limp for as long as possible he makes his way into the ambulance bay carefully staying behind the ambulances to avoid being in sight of anyone inside. Once he reaches the doors to inside he pauses taking one final deep breath and walks in.

He's hit by the normal wave of sound that comes when entering the ER and pushes forwards ducking past the admit desk using a group of loud teenagers passing to distract attention from himself and keeps striding on with his head down as low as possible so he can still see where he's going. He sees the door of the men's restroom and blessedly makes it in without hearing anyone calling to him. The pain in his hip now rivals his arm and he staggers over to a stall. He pulls out a long stream of toilet paper and goes back to the sink and stands carefully putting as much of his weight on his right leg as possible waiting for the pain to settle itself back to a more manageable level. Once it has he takes his first look in the mirror and is shocked, the right side of his face has blood in little streaks from where he'd tried to clean it earlier. The graze looks deep and is still giving off a slight trickle of blood which has gone down his forehead again, and is made very obvious because of the complete lack of colour in his face. He wets some of the toilet paper and carefully cleans it out as well as he can and then uses some more wet toilet paper to get the streaks of blood of his face.

Looking at the rest of him he notices that his jacket and pants are wet down his right side, though there's not much he can do about that until he goes across to the lounge and changes into his lab coat. Now that he sees how wet his clothes are it finally occurs to him just how cold he is, without even thinking about it he's been walking around outside in the freezing winter temperatures in wet clothes and he realises that he's shivering and probably has been the entire time. Pulling his jacket tighter around him he collects up the toilet paper and shuffles over to flush it down the toilet, stopping to check his appearance in the mirror one last time he decides he's done all he can and pulls open the door back into the ER and forces himself to stride back out.

As he's walking he keeps his head higher this time knowing that he is technically now over half an hour late to start his shift so he really should make himself known, seeing Mark at the admit desk he catches the older doctor's eye while continuing back towards the lounge. Once he's inside the lounge and the door shuts he allows himself to slow down and stumble slightly over to his locker, he barely has time to get it open though before he hears the door slam open and 2 people come in.

"Do you mind telling me where you've been Carter, you were due here over half an hour ago, this isn't a mini-mart you know you can't just turn up when you want to people are relying on you to be here and ready to treat them." Mark gets straight into the lecture that Carter was expecting and he stays facing his locker allowing him to get to the end of what is no doubt only the beginning of it.

"Why is your jacket wet Carter, you know it's freezing outside right?" he hears Doug's voice coming from behind him as well so he guesses that Doug must be the one who came in with Mark, not surprising really since those two seem to do so much together.

"I'm sorry, I missed the el because I slipped and landed in a puddle outside my apartment building and had to wait for the next one, it won't happen again Dr. Greene" he says turning to face the two of them, doing his best to look healthy and apologetic, a combination he doesn't think he's ever thought of before. He instantly knows it hasn't worked though because both of their expressions go from angry to concerned.

"I thought I saw you dashing for the restroom a little while ago, why didn't you say something when you first got here? Your head is bleeding, come on sit down" Mark says gesturing to the couch over by the door, but he knows that he won't be able to make that distance without them noticing his limp. He's pretty sure his grip on the locker is the only thing keeping him up right now so he instead opts to shake his head.

"No… I'm ok… I just caught it on the step when I fell… I already took care of it." He says turning to face them and leaning fully against the lockers. Neither of them look convinced by his mumbling, and Mark has quickly stepped forward and is looking closer at his forehead reaching up to push his hair out of the way. He tries and fails to hide the pain in his face.

"That must have been one heck of a step it's pretty deep for just a simple slip on ice and it looks as though it's starting to bruise already" Mark says suspiciously.

"Well I was running because I didn't want to miss the el" which is true he thought but he had made it down the steps fine, it was after that the problem came but he didn't want them to know.

"Well why don't you sit down Carter and I'll clean it up a bit for you before you go out because we can't have patients thinking we don't take care of our own." Mark says with a soft smile, Doug and Mark both step back leaving him with a clear path to the couch. He knows that he's going to have to at least try otherwise they'll know he's hiding something. Pushing carefully off the lockers he keeps his expression neutral despite the pain from his hip and side, and turns around to shut his locker. He makes a critical mistake though because he had briefly forgotten about his arm and tries to use his right hand to shut his locker. The pain of trying to lift it catches him off guard and he groans leaning forwards to rest his forehead on the cool metal mindful of his graze. It takes a few seconds before he's able to hear anything other than his own heartbeat thrumming loudly away in his head.

"Carter what is it? Are you dizzy? Just sit down that head injury could be serious" Mark says insistently.

Taking another breath and this time reaching up with his left hand he closes his locker and manages to take a step confidently but the pain in his hip spikes and he's forced back to hobbling. They're definitely going to notice now. Knowing it's too late now he continues to the sofa and carefully lowers himself down hiding a grimace as best he can.

"Is there something you're not telling us here Carter? Cause I've never seen a head injury cause a limp?" Doug says with a laugh, but Carter just glares at him.

"No I landed on my hip and it's a bit sore that's all, it'll be fine in a minute" he says hoping they buy it.

Doug sits next to Carter on the sofa sitting back looking relaxed and Mark kneels down in front of Carter getting close to look at the wound.

"Well it's not too bad but this still seems a hard hit if you just slipped" Mark says glancing up into Carters eyes for a second before looking away and getting out a penlight which he quickly puts up to Carters eyes watching the pupils react to the light which they do perfectly. "Pupils equal and reactive so it looks like you've avoided a concussion at least, you stay here and I'm going to get some stuff to take care of that for you" walking out he gives Doug a look which clearly says that Carter isn't getting away yet.

"So, slipped on the steps hmm, why don't you take off your jacket, it looks soaked from that puddle and I can see that you're cold" Doug says. He's still in his reclined position on the sofa, looking across at Carter who is sitting perfectly straight and not moving an inch other than the shallow shaky breaths he's taking.

Carter panics knowing that he's only got a scrub top on underneath his jacket and his arm will almost definitely be swollen or at least bruised based on how it's feeling. "No" he says a bit more harshly than he intended and he subconsciously pulls the jacket tighter still, but he immediately regrets it when he pulls it with his left hand putting pressure on his ribs on the right-hand side. Suddenly his already shallow breaths become even more painful and he realises that he's going to have to give up because he can't take this much longer. There's no way he can get through a full shift like this. It's at this moment Mark returns with a tray of equipment which he set on the table and then crouches to open it.

"Umm" he says causing both of them to look up at him knowing something is coming "I didn't… actually slip on… the steps" he says breathlessly.

"Ok?" Doug says, obviously looking for a little more than that, Carter can see now that neither of them had believed him in the first place.

"Can one of you help me with my jacket I don't think I can get it off and it'll be easier to explain then?" he says moving forward slightly and starting to pull his left arm out of the sleeve, suddenly he feels Doug's warm hands against his freezing skin pulling his arm the rest of the way from the sleeve. Doug leans around his back and starts pulling the coat down his other arm, once it's pulled clear Carter uses his left hand to pull his right arm onto his lap wincing as he does so, it's worse than he thought the elbow is already dark red with purple bruises starting to come up on his forearm.

"Jeez Carter, what did you do, this looks like it could be broken?" Mark says instantly leaning forward to look at his arm.

"What actually happened then it you didn't slip?" Doug says concern and confusion colouring his voice.

"I was running for the el because I was late… but I didn't stop to check the road and ran out in front of a Jeep... they tried to brake but I was stupid and they had no time so I may have… ended up smashing his windscreen and then when he finally braked I flew off onto the road which is how I got this" he says gesturing to his forehead "I woke up to the driver panicking, wanting to call 911 but I insisted I'd be fine" he finishes off not daring too look up at their faces.

"Damn Carter you should have let him get an ambulance you could have a spinal injury, you should know how dangerous it is to refuse treatment after an accident like that, I'm gonna go get a gurney and you will agree to whatever we deem necessary" Mark says both angry and concerned at the same time. Mark jumps to his feet and jogs out of the room quickly returns pushing a gurney in followed by Carol. Doug is already on feet and before Carter has time to protest they've all got hold of a bit of him and he is lifted onto the gurney. As he's moved he feels something in his chest shifting and breathing suddenly becomes near impossible and he can hear himself gasping. The gurney is propelled forwards into the corridor and he tries to avoid being seen not wanting to become the spectacle of the day, but he realises that he's being pushed towards trauma 1. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid, but the fact he can't breathe seems to override his pride and he ignores that particular line of thought in favour of focussing on getting air in.

"Carter, can you hear me?" he can't focus enough to figure out who else has entered the trauma room but he can feel at least 4 pairs of hands on him lifting him onto the bed so he knows more people have joined them. He lays on the gurney gasping helplessly knowing he's starting to panic but he can't help it. He feels the cool metal of scissors running up his legs cutting his trousers, and suddenly Mark is leaning over him with scissors in his hand which he uses to cut a slit in the top of his scrub top before he grabs both halves and rips it open.

"Damn Carter you couldn't have kept this simple could you, ok get 10 litres of O2 by mask going and I need a chest tube kit" Mark says, pulling the stethoscope from round his neck and Carter feels the cool metal against his chest. Carol appears in his line of sight again with a mask which she puts over Carter's nose and mouth stretching the elastic round his head smiling down at him comfortingly but it does little to calm Carter's panicked gasps. Carter starts to drift in and out of consciousness because of the lack of oxygen getting into him, he feels hands pulling his right arm up and he can't hold in his cries of pain but they must be pitiful because he can't get any air. Just as he's starting to drift out completely he feels pressure against his chest but nothing could brace him for what came next when he felt the tube being forced between his ribs and penetrating his pleural cavity. He tries to scream but can't get enough air in, when all at once the pressure in his chest disappears and he gasps in air finally able to breathe. He slumps completely against the gurney just revelling in the feeling of being able to breathe again.

"Ok, you back with us now Carter? Just breathe for a minute you're ok now" Doug says leaning in close again and Carter feels his hand running through his hair which is weirdly comforting. He feels fingers poking at his hip which is making the pain worse, but he's distracted by Carol who is inserting an IV into his left arm. Watching her face, he sees the careful focus as the IV goes in before she turns accepting a needle that Haleh passes to him which she puts into the IV port and carefully pushes the plunger down.

"Morphine on board" Carol says answering Carter's silent question of what was in the needle. Carter instantly feels the effect, as the pain in his body becomes a distant memory and he feels like he's floating in cotton wool, he feels his eyes rolling back and is happy to just drift away, but he feels a hand on his face and opens his eyes to Doug again. "Come on stay with us, I know the morphine's good but you can't sleep yet, there we go just stay awake for a bit longer Carter" Doug says looking closely at Carter to make sure he stays awake.

Carter sees the x-ray machine being wheeled in and it's lined up several times to x-ray his chest, arm, and hip. Once that is done he feels himself drifting again and after a quick glance at Doug who he sees is watching him still he lets go and succumbs to the morphine.

He's not sure how much time has passed when he next opens his eyes but he finds himself still on the gurney in trauma 1 but the head of the bed has been pulled up so he can see the rest of the room now not just the ceiling, he's alone in the room but he can see Doug and Mark talking outside the doors. He is still blissfully pain free so he guesses that he can't have been out long because the morphine hasn't begun to wear off. Mark glances in his direction again and sees him awake, he walks in and over to the bed with Doug walking up to the opposite side of the bed.

Carter reaches up to pull down the Oxygen mask "I'm sorry, I should have said something, I was just so focussed on not being late…" he cuts off having to take a deep breath before he can continue but he doesn't get the chance because Mark pushes his hand down and places the mask back over his face.

"Don't worry about it, you're committed to your work and that's a good thing, but you have to know the cut-off point. You have to put yourself first sometimes, if we hadn't been in the lounge you could have died in there and none of us would have known that anything was wrong" Mark says.

"I know, I was stupid" Carter mumbles from behind his mask.

"Nah, you are not stupid Carter, just got your priorities a bit messed up" Doug says running his fingers through his hair again, Carter can't help but lean ever so slightly into the comforting touch.

"Thank you" Carter says honestly, looking between the two older doctors.

"No problem it's in the job description" Doug says winking "Now you get some more sleep, you'll probably be discharged later…" Carter loses the rest of the sentence as he drifts back to sleep allowing the morphine to carry him away.