FANDOM: ER
TITLE: The Call
GENRE: Gen
CATEGORY: Angst
RATING: PG
SEASON: Eight
WORD COUNT: 521
SUMMARY: A dialogue, a post-scene to Beyond Repair. Who did Carter call that night?
DISCLAIMER: ER, its characters, and situations, are copyright Warner Bros. Entertainment, Amblin Television, Michael Crichton, and Constant C Productions. No infringement of, or challenge to, their status is intended. This original piece of fan fiction is being written for entertainment purposes only, and I am gaining no monetary compensation for it.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and places discussed are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or actual places and locations, is purely coincidental.
NOTES: Ok... in my world, Carter does have a sister, her name is Barbara, and she lives somewhere else in Illinois.
WARNINGS: none
John Carter flopped down on the couch and watched his mother leave the room. He shook his head slowly as he looked down at the phone in his hand. The conversation definitely had not gone smoothly. He started dialing, sighing heavily as he did so.
"Hello?" a familiar and unexpected voice said after three rings. "Hello?"
"Barbara..."
"John! How are you?"
"Um... I don't know. I... um... I thought I was calling the nurse."
"Nurse? Is Gamma all right? Johnny?"
"No... I mean yes... Barb, Gamma's fine."
"Oh thank God. You had me worried there for a second."
"Sorry."
Silence fell over two rooms in two different parts of the state.
"Well, Johnny... you called me. Are you going to talk to me or not?"
"Huh? Oh, oh yeah. Sorry."
"Well?"
"Well... I just had a huge fight with Mom."
"With Mom? When did she get there?"
"Um... this morning, actually. Walked through the door with Gamma, and here she was."
"Oh... I bet Gams just loved that."
"Didn't make her too happy, no."
"Dad still there?"
"No. Mom thought he was though."
"Oh. Is that what you got in a fight about? The divorce?"
"No."
"Well what was it about then?"
"I don't really know."
"You don't know what you were fighting about?"
"No, I know what I was yelling at her about. I just don't remember what started it."
"You yelled at Mom? Good Lord, Johnny..."
"Yeah, I know."
"So what was it? That you were yelling about?"
"About them not coming back... you know, when I got hurt."
"Oh... wow. Mom say anything?"
"Yeah. 'We were stuck in Tokyo, and you said you were okay.' Like that made everything all right."
"That sounds like Mom."
"You didn't believe me, did you?"
"When? When you said you were okay? Of course I didn't. I came anyway, didn't I?"
"Yeah. Yeah, you did."
"What's wrong, Johnny? What's happened?"
"I saw him today."
"Who? Dad?"
"No. No, him. Paul Sobriki... the man that..."
"Oh. Him."
"Uh huh."
"He's out already?"
"Yeah. I guess some lawyer friends of his pulled some strings, got him out a couple of months ago. He's got a job, a wife, a kid... he's got his life back."
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay."
"Johnny?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't believe you."
"No, Barb, you wouldn't. You never do."
~ fin ~