Split Second

A/N: This is as of right now a stand alone single chapter story, can't decide if I want to add more to it or not. It's been hanging out on my computer for awhile as I couldn't decide what to do with it, but give a read and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: The usual don't own them, don't claim to own them, and really I don't want to own them. Just borrowing them for a little bit of personal pleasure and flexing my imagination.

The squeal of tires on the pavement fills the late Chicago air is followed by the sound of metal being crushed. Then all is quiet as silence fills the air as a life is instantly snuffed out, the flame of life that once flickered in the body is gone. Quick, painless, not realized, no human suffering, that's how we all hope that it will be. The silence is quickly broken by the hospital staff being alerted now to the accident that has taken place just outside the safety of its ambulance bay. A quiet night shift in the ER has been shattered now as a seasoned doctor and young resident run for the mangled and twisted wreckage of what had once been a car. Horror fills the face of the young resident when she realizes that it is one of their own in the car. An old friend, trusted confidant, and mentor lays broken not fully resembling the person that they once were. How could yet another tragedy befall them? Surely they had all had their fair share of hurt and anguish over the past few months, but now as she looks upon the body, she realizes that loss is something that strikes when you least expect it, that life begins and ends in the blink of an eye.

"Carter!" She shouts from the side of the car that she is standing on.

"What?" Is the response that she gets as he doesn't have the precious luxury of time to look away from his patient. Afraid that if he does in that blink of an eye the patient will bleed to death.

Abby realizes that there is nothing that she can do for the patient that is on her side of the car. She frantically now runs to the other side to see if she can help him, to prevent another loss from happening right under their noses.

"Oh god," She said getting around to the other side of the car. It's another familiar face, how could this be happening to them. She leans in to help Carter in an attempt to save another life, to keep a family together, a family that is broken and now missing a member but the death that has happened that they couldn't prevent was going to be the only one that happened tonight if Abby could help it.

They worked and got the patient free from the car. Running now as fast as they could safely go they headed inside the ER and into a trauma room. Neither doctor taking the time to actually put on trauma gowns. They didn't think that they had the time to spare right now; stabilizing their patient was their priority.

Twenty minutes later they had their patient on the elevator and headed up to surgery. They looked at each other. Carter looked at Abby remember something the patient had said to him several years ago when he had first switched from his surgical residency to his ER residency. "Abby we got our patient onto the elevator alive we have done our jobs as ER physicians."

Abby looked at him now, "and I am supposed to feel good about that?"

"That's all we can do right now. There are some things that we can't control." Carter said softly to her putting his arm around Abby as they headed outside for a breath of air.

Carter held onto Abby now as his tears started to fall. The realization of the situation hit him full on. That was an old friend that he had sent up to the OR. That was a friend that was no longer with them. It seemed to hit home harder when it was someone that you knew rather than a total stranger. You got used to seeing people come in, broken and battered being the only ones that could help but when it was a friend it was not something that you could forget.

"Dr. Lockhart, you are needed in the ER." Susan called from the Ambulance bay doors, "your patient in exam 2 is crashing."

Abby let go of Carter. "I'm sorry I have to go." She said looking at him. From deep inside of her what few words of wisdom she had came out, "we save those that we can Carter, but we can't save the world."

She slowly backed away from him now and headed inside. Carter watched not sure what to do. He had known Carol since he first started at County. They had become friends over the six years that she was working their, watching her relationship with Doug blossom and grow, being yelled at to get out of the room when she came in, in labor with the twins.

Carter walked back inside now. Morris and a medical student that he didn't recognize were standing at the desk.

"Enie menie minie moe, stick that tag upon the toe." Morris laughed a little now.

Carter's face went white when he heard that. He looked at Morris now with a look of horror and distaste on his face. "That is so uncalled for." He snapped now. "What if I had been that patient's family?"

"You're not Carter." he said no tone of indifference in his voice.

"God Morris that's not the point." He said looking at him now; there was almost a small glint of hatred in his eyes.

"Chill out Carter." he told him.

"That happens to be Carol Hathaway Ross." Carter said snapping now, "and she is family, a part of the ER family and if you can't respect that maybe you shouldn't be working in medicine anymore."

Morris eyes went wide as Carter said that to him, unsure of how to respond some of his cockiness fading a little, "I'm sorry Carter, I didn't know."

"That's right you didn't know, keep it up Morris and you will no longer be working here, you're a resident now act like it." Carter turned and headed up towards the SICU, he wanted to know if Doug was out of surgery, doubting it, but he felt this need to be the one to tell him about Carol. He didn't want it to come from a stranger but rather from a friend. Someone who could feel something, know the loss that he was going through right now.

..Earlier that evening…

"Doug come on we're going to be late."

"I'm moving, hold your horses Carol, we're not that far from County. We have plenty of time," was the response that she received back.

"I don't want to be late." She called throwing on her scrubs for work.

"You're not going to be late. If you're late then I am late." He said straightening his tie for the third time. "And I am not late."

"You're late." She said walking up behind him wrapping her arms around his waist. Carol softly kissed Doug's cheek, "so let's get a move on it, you look fine Doug."

"Mmm," Doug said kissing the top of her head, "you make wanting to go to work difficult now."

"Move it Ross." She said pulling away from him heading for the kitchen table where she picked up her car keys tossing them in her hand slightly, "I don't want to be later than we already are."

"I'm driving dearest." He said picking up his coat from the back of their couch.

"No you are not there speed racer." She said smiling at him, "I'm driving and there will be no if and's or but's about it either." She turned for the door as she pulled her coat on, "you drive to fast."

They headed out into the coldness of the Chicago night, both working tonight, being the low men on the totem pole once again at a hospital that in the past they had both worked at, meant a lot of night shifts, but the two of them didn't seem to mind. Neither of them seemed to think much about the so far uneventful night time commute. Bantering casually back and forth between themselves and their daughters were safely tucked in and sleeping at their grandmothers. Carol liked being back in Chicago, close to her family and with friends again.

Seattle had its plus's. Doug had a good job there and they had a house where the girls had a back yard to play in, but Carol had missed her family. It had given them the chance to start over again with out burnt bridges. She was impressed with how Doug had managed to smooth things over somewhat with Kerry Weaver and obtain a job once again with County, but then, he had changed over the 4 years that they had spent in Seattle.

They had been married now for a little over 2 years, something that neither one of them thought would ever happen. But their desire, the everlasting love, that they had for each other finally managed to overcome all the obstacles that had been put in their paths. They had always known that they were meant to be together, soul-mates with a connection that ran deeper than love itself. If there were ever two people who were meant to be together it were Doug and Carol.

Yet how fragile human life truly is, for the two people who were destined to be together, were separated in the blink of an eye, the split second that no one thinks that the will encounter. The car came out of nowhere when she turned to head into the parking garage, almost to the safety of their home away from home. Yet in that second two lives were forever altered, and many more touched, wounded, hurt by the loss of a friend, a mother, lover and wife.