LIGHTNING STRIKE 1
A SUDDEN SHOCK
Note: This is all Cathy's fault for putting the idea in my head
Spoilers for 'All in the family'
Because I don't want to turn this in to a Carter angst fic
I'm asserting that the only after-effects Carter suffered from
the incident in 'All in the Family' are chronic back pain and a
slight limp.
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It was a dark and stormy night in the ER. Surprisingly there were
very few patients.
"They're probably all tucked up in their beds at home,"
said John. "Which is where we should be on a night like this."
"Why Carter, this is so sudden," said Dave with a big
grin. "But I'm afraid we have to stay on duty. Still I'm
sure we could always sneak off to the suture room for a few
minutes."
"Yeah, I'm sure a few minutes is all it would take you,
Malucci," said Randi. She was sitting at the far end of the
reception desk painting her nails. This shift, she had decided to
paint each nail with a different color. So far she had, purple,
white, pink, orange, and blue on her right hand, and was working
on lime green on her left thumb.
John and Dave were propping up the reception desk, pretending to
complete their charts. It had been so slow, that even Dave had
managed to get all his paperwork up to date, but they knew that
if Dr Weaver saw them idling, she was sure to find something for
them to do. Outside there was a flash of lightning. Dave started
counting silently to himself. A few seconds later there was a
roll of thunder.
"Hey, it's getting closer," said Dave eagerly. "Wouldn't
it be cool it the hospital got struck, and the lights went out?"
"Not if you happened to be stuck on a ventilator,"
replied John.
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Still apart from that, it
could be fun."
"Been there, done that, a couple of years ago."
"Man, why do I always miss out on the interesting stuff,"
moaned Dave. "Nothing interesting ever happens around here."
At that moment the phone rang.
"Somebody get that," ordered Randi as she applied
another coat of 'scarlet surprise' to her index finger. "I
don't want to smudge this."
"You get it Carter," said Dave.
"I'm senior," replied John. "You get it."
"You're closer."
"No, you are."
"Will somebody answer that blasted phone," yelled Kerry.
Dave and John looked at each other for a moment. Then
simultaneously they both lunged for the phone. John being
marginally closer got his hand to it first, but Dave slammed his
hand down on top of John's only a fraction of a second later.
Before either of them could pick up the handset, a bolt of
lightning struck the hospital, traveled down the phone lines and
into both of them. The resulting shock sent them both flying
backwards. The last thing either of them heard as they lost
consciousness was Kerry's scream of horror.
----------------------
"Oh man, that was some buzz," groaned Dave as his eyes
flickered open. Someone was shining a light in his eyes. The
light was removed abruptly and he heard Jing-Mei's voice saying,
"Dr Weaver, he's coming round."
From what seemed like a long way away, he heard the chief's voice
saying, "Get him into trauma one, and page Kovac. I'll take
care of Malucci."
"Huh?" thought Dave. That didn't make any sense. He
shook his head, to try and clear it. That was a mistake. He
groaned again and closed his eyes as the world started spinning
around him.
"Easy John," said Jing-Mei. "Do you know where you
are?"
"Don't call me John," muttered Dave, wondering what the
hell was going on. His head was aching, his back was aching, and
it felt like someone had stuck a red-hot poker through his hand.
He appeared to be slumped against a wall in reception. Looking
around him, he saw Dr Weaver a few feet away, with her back to
him. She appeared to be kneeling beside a prostrate figure. Dave
blinked in surprise as he realized that the figure was wearing
the same jeans and scrub top, as he was. He was about to comment
on it to Jing-Mei, when he glanced down at himself. His eyes
widened in shock, as he realized that he was wearing a white lab-coat.
Dave let out a strangled gasp as he looked back to the other
figure on the floor. The chief had moved out of the way, and Dave
could see the face of the person she was working on. It was his
own.
"This is not happening, this is not happening,"
repeated Dave to himself.
"John, do you know where you are?" repeated Jing-Mei.
"County General ER," replied Dave. He could see the
look of relief on Jing-Mei's face, and breathed a sigh of relief
of his own. At least he wasn't totally crazy, he thought to
himself. "No you're just trapped inside someone else's body,"
a little voice in his head told him. He groaned. This was not
happening, this was not happening.
"It's okay John, we'll get you something for the pain, as
soon as we've checked you out."
"Car...Malucci?" asked Dave, hoping that his body
wasn't too badly damaged.
Jing-Mei glanced over to where Dave's body lay. Kerry was just
supervising his movement onto a backboard. "Dave's still
unconscious. Dr Weaver's taking care of him. He'll be fine."
She patted Dave's or rather John's arm reassuringly. "Now
you just lie still, and we'll get you into Trauma one.
---------------------
John didn't regain consciousness until he was in Trauma two.
Looking at the light above him, he groaned, "Oh no, not
again."
"Ah, I see you've decided to rejoin us Malucci," he
heard Kerry say with a smile as she breathed a sigh of relief.
"You needn't think that getting an electric shock is going
to get you out of doing your charts."
"What? What?" said John, totally confused. He put his
hand up to his head, to find out what was hurting so much. "I'm
not..." his voice trailed off as he looked at the arm he was
moving. That was not his watch....and he was sure his arm hadn't
been quite so muscular the last time he had looked at it, and
where was his lab-coat, and why was he wearing scrubs? He closed
his eyes and groaned. "This is not happening, this is not
happening," he repeated to himself. Maybe if he kept his
eyes closed, he'd wake up and find that this was all a dream.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and opened his eyes to see Kerry
smiling down at him. "Dave," she said reassuringly.
"It's not as bad as it looks. You have a mild concussion, a
second-degree burn on you right hand, and a few bruised ribs.
You're going to be sore for a while, but you <are> going to
be fine."
John listened to what she was saying, and suddenly realized that
while he was in pain from his ribs, head and hand, his back was
hardly bothering him. True it did feel a bit sore, but the
nagging pains that had been his constant companion since the
incident on Valentine's night were gone. What the hell was going
on?
"How's Mal....Carter?" asked John.
"He's doing fine. He's concussed and has a burn on his hand
like you, but he'll be all right," replied Kerry with a
glance towards Trauma One.
"What about his back? He didn't aggravate his old injury did
he?"
"It's good of you to be so concerned Dave, but as far as we
can tell there's no serious damage, just some bruising."
"Concerned, yeah," thought John. "I just don't
want anything bad happening to my body before I get back into it."
"That is assuming that there is a way to <get> back
into it," said a little voice at the back of his mind.
John closed his eyes again. "This is not happening, this is
not happening," he repeated to himself.
--------------------------
Meanwhile back in Carter's body, Dave had decided to go with the
flow, at least until he could figure out exactly what was going
on.
"C-spine, and head films look clear," said Jing-Mei
putting them up on the light box for Luka to examine them.
"How do you feel now Carter?" asked Luka.
"Well, my hand is stinging a bit, but my back hurts like
hell. You sure those x-rays are clear?" replied Dave.
Luka looked concerned, "Was it troubling you before the
accident?"
"Of course not," Dave was about to say, before he
remembered that he was supposed to be Carter. He tried to think
back to before the lightning strike. True Carter <had>
seemed to be moving a little stiffly. But of course Dave had been
too wrapped up in his own plans to pay much attention. "A
little, I guess," he said out loud.
"Well, we will give you something for the pain, and now I
think we can move you somewhere a bit quieter."
"Exam two is free," said Chuny.
------------------------
Back with Dave's body, John was busy admiring his newly acquired
muscles. "Definitely," he told himself as he flexed
Dave's muscles. "Once I get back to my own body, I am going
to start using those weight I got last year." A few minutes
later, Kerry had him moved to exam two as well.
---------------------
"We're going to keep you here for a few hours observation,"
she said, smiling warmly at the two of them. "Try to get
some rest and I'll be back to check on you both later."
"Thanks chief." "Thanks Kerry," said Dave and
John simultaneously.
"You're welcome," replied Kerry with a smile, as she
left the room. It wasn't until she got outside, that she stopped
puzzled. She could have sworn that John had called her chief, and
that Dave had called her Kerry. Shaking her head in puzzlement,
she continued on her way.
-----------------
Left alone at last, John and Dave looked at each other. Both were
slightly unnerved to see their own faces staring back at them.
John was thinking, "Do I really look so pale. I never
realized that I'd lost so much weight since the stabbing."
Dave was thinking, "Looking good Malucci. Hmm, maybe I
should get some larger scrub tops to wear. Nahh, chicks dig tight
tops on a well muscled body."
Dave was the first one to speak, "You okay, Carter?" he
asked.
"You mean apart from being in your body?" replied John
sarcastically. "Oh I'm fine, or rather you're fine."
"Hey don't get aggressive with me, this wasn't <my>
idea. Hell if I was going to swap bodies, I certainly wouldn't
have picked <this> one."
"And just what the hell is wrong with my body?" asked
John indignantly.
"You mean apart from being all lanky and scrawny?"
replied Dave sarcastically. "Not to mention the bloody awful
back pain."
"Yeah, well that's not <my> fault," replied John
angrily.
Dave realized what he'd said, "Hey man, I'm sorry. I just
never realized you were in so much pain." He fell silent for
a minute. "Has it been like this all the time?"
"Pretty much. Some days worse than others."
"So why didn't you say something? I mean I've seen you lift
heavy patients, and do tricky reductions, and you never
complained. You should have asked for help."
John shrugged, "I guess I just wanted things to get back to
normal."
Dave looked down at his or rather Carter's body and grinned,
"Well, I guess this is about as far from normal as it gets.
What d'you think happened us anyway?"
John shrugged. Dave continued, "Hey, maybe we're supposed to
change something in each other's lives, and then we'll get
swapped back."
"I've news for you Dave. I don't see 'Al' anywhere."
"Well we've got to think of some way of getting back."
"Yeah sure we do, but can it wait a bit, I just want to rest
for a while," replied John. At the back of his mind he was
thinking, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad. After all, he
wasn't in pain anymore, well except for the injuries he'd just
received, and Malucci's body, he had to admit was in great shape.
"I could get used to this," he said to himself.
On the other side of the room, Dave was thinking. "Ok, so
this body isn't in great shape, but Jing-Mei and a lot of other
women seems to think it's all right. "This could be
interesting," he thought to himself.
To be continued
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