Chapter Two:

Chicago:

"Hey there how was the flight?" Carter asked with a smile when I saw Anna coming down the ramp towards the baggage area at the airport.

"Short, horrible, didn't get my peanuts." She said as her eyes lit up when she saw Carter standing there waiting for her. "Where's Abby, I thought that you both were going to be here?"

"She got stuck at work." Carter said, "joys of being a medical student compared to an attending. She'll meet us back at the mansion." Carter took her bag from her being the gentleman that he was, "I'm so sorry to hear about your dad Anna."

"Thank Carter," She said, "I wish that I could stay longer here and catch up with you and Abby but I only have a couple of days of leave left."

"Make it sound like you are in the military there Anna." He said, "work that horrible?"

"Hell yeah." Anna said with a smile, "come on I work for Doug Ross now, you don't think that's not horrible punishment."

"I could think of worse. She's short, red haired…"

Anna cut him off before he could finish, "ah the Weaver Era." She had to laugh, "better you than me that's all I have to say about that. No it's all good in Seattle. I have a boss that I know, one that I can work with rather than against all the time, life up until a few days ago was pretty good, oh who am I kidding, everything else beside the point life is good."

"Glad to hear you say that." Carter replied back to her as they walked along towards his car. "It's good to see you again."

"Okay are you sick?" She asked jokingly. "I mean I know that you've been working hard but have you come down with some kind of brain attacking flu that I don't know about, please good to see me."

"You never lost that sense of humor of yours I see." Carter said, he could easily banter back and forth with Anna, she had a sense of humor and the jokes seem to at times just roll with ease between them, "you should check your Annals more often I think Abby wrote that case up last week to be published, Chicago doctor with deranged flu."

"Should make interesting reading especially if you are the star doctor."

Carter just shook his head, "you hungry or can you wait until Abby gets off work?"

"Okay I think I can wait until Abby gets off work, unless that's not until the wee hours of the morning and then I might just have to eat my own arm." Anna said as she poked Carter in the ribs.

"Okay I got you." He said smiling.

"How about we get some coffee and talk about old times while we wait for her, okay maybe not talk about old times, but we do have a little bit of catching up to do and I have new pictures of Tess and Kate." Anna smiled at that. "Boy I never thought that I would miss too little girls as much as I miss them."

"Grown rather attached to them?" Carter asked.

"How could I not." Anna said as she watched Carter open the jeep door for her, "they are just the most adorable kids that I have ever met and they call me Auntie Anna." She smiled at that one, "Doug and Carol are great and they have made the transition in Seattle so much easier, they are like family to me.

Carter got in before saying anything else to Anna, "I'm glad that you have Doug and Carol there for you."

"Yeah so am I." Anna said, "I spend a lot of time with them, well that and I help them out with the girls when Doug and I aren't working the same shift, which is not all that often. He took that new physician on the block thing a little far in assigning me nights but then found it weird when I didn't want to give them up, now I have to fight to get days."

"Ah you'll have seniority pretty soon there dear." Carter said joking with her, "vampire hours suit you though."

"Ha, ha." Anna laughed back. "I have just started to think that I need to start getting my life back on track."

"Oh," Carter's eyes lit up when she said that as he glanced over at her quickly before getting them out of the parking garage and back headed towards the heart of Chicago.

"Oh don't make that sound and don't light up those eyes of yours. Stop thinking that Carter, I know what you are thinking we are too good of friends for me not to know." She said back to him.

"And just what am I thinking there Anna."

She had to laugh before she answered him, "oh I think that you are thinking that you think…"

Carter cut her off this time, "oh enough with the double speak." He said concentrating on traffic while he talked with her. "you have no idea what I am thinking."

"That I found someone." She said with a smile.

"Well yeah that is what I was thinking." Carter said as he gave another quick glance her direction, "I'm wrong huh."

She was silent for a minute before she laughed nervously, "and if there is someone, what are you going to think? That I am rushing things, or that perhaps I have fallen off my rocker."

Carter pulled into the parking lot of Starbucks so that they could have coffee as they headed inside, "the answer to both those questions would be no." He said looking over at her as they got coffee and found a place to sit, "I wouldn't say rushing things, what it's been a year?"

"Something like that." Anna said as she sipped at the coffee that was in front of her. "It's been about a year since the car accident." She titled her head to the side, "since I came rolling back into the ER at County."

"Yeah and turned life upside down, turned me into some weird Bond type guy." He said to Anna with a small smile.

"Oh but you do that so well." Anna said, "you pulled that one off so well. The end was happy so I guess that is all that really matters right?"

"Always looking on the bright side." Carter said, "so tell me about this new man in your life."

"You were never the gossip kind." Anna said looking over at him, "why should I start feeding it to you now?"

"Because I'm your friend." He smiled at her, "that and inquiring minds want to know."

"Oh, well that changes everything then," she laughed, "what is it that you think that I am going to tell you about this guy."

"Well you know everything about Abby, so why can't I know everything about this mystery man?"

"There's not that much to know about him really." Anna said looking over at Carter again.

"Does this man have a name?" Carter asked poking Anna for information on this new mysterious man in her life.

"Yes he has a name." Anna said, "Keith." She said with a smile now, "Keith McNeal, he's a computer expert of sorts, does graphics design for web pages and the likes."

"How did you meet a computer geek?" Carter asked again hoping for more information out of her.

"Well I don't see him as a computer geek." Anna said looking at him with a weird look on her face. "He's really not a computer geek."

"He works with computer's Anna; therefore he's a computer geek."

"I work with a computer does that make me a computer geek?" She asked back.

"No well that doesn't make you a computer geek, but you don't technically make a living working with computers." Carter pointed out, "there is a difference, but how did you meet him?"

"Now you are getting personal," Anna said, "I met him at the hospital."

"A computer geek that works at the hospital."

"Would you stop calling him a computer geek please?" Anna said looking at him, "there is more to him than just his work with the computer. He's also a paramedic, and that is how I met him."

"Oh a man of multiple talents." Carter was having fun poking at her a little now.

"Yeah well what can I say, fixes web pages by day and saves lives by night," Anna said giving him that odd look once again. "You are nosey there dear Carter."

"Yeah well someone has to be, Doug hasn't mentioned anything about this man."

"Well I haven't seen a reason to take him home to meet the family yet." Anna said with a sarcastic laugh.

"Home to meet the family." Carter had to laugh back at her now. "that's one way to look at it, rather different I would say. What are you afraid that Doug won't like him?"

"Well you could say that he might not like him, but I mean why should I subject Keith to Doug." Anna said, "come on you are both like brother's to me and well I can't have you all scaring off potential boyfriends until I'm sure that it's going to work."

"Rather secretive of you." Carter said, "Abby will be off in about a half hour if you want to swing by County and pick her up."

"Only if you are sure that you are not going to get sucked into the ER vortex that lives there and have to work."

"Ahh, you know what they say, the longer you stay, the longer you stay." Carter shrugged his shoulders, "nope, you're in town and everyone knows it so there's no way that anyone is going to ask me to cover for them while you're here. I've done my time today I think it's safe."

"Famous last words." Anna said as she stood up from the table. "Yeah let's go and get her, rescue her from the despair that we call work."

"You're on." Carter said as they left the coffee house for County. It was nice to have her back in town even if the circumstances for her trip weren't the best; it was still good to see her face.