Title: Thank You

Author: Crystal

Fandom: ER/Early Edition X-Over

Pairing: John Carter/Gary Hobson

Rating: PG-ish

Archive: If you feel the need.

Warnings: Not beta'd. It's just a drabble, and yes I love the comma, so they're everywhere. Please forgive me.

Thank You

By Crystal

Gary read and re-read the headline. Unfortunately for him, it didn't change. He read the first lines of the article that went into detail of how a Dr. John Carter was crushed by an unattended ambulatory vehicle that had been left in gear. He checked his watch. He still had time to make it to the accident, well, before there was an accident.

Gary hailed a taxi and asked the guy to drive across town to the hospital promising a huge tip if the driver could make it there in fifteen minutes. Pulling up in the emergency entrance, Gary saw the accident about to happen.
A young man, presumably Dr. Carter, had his back turned as the ambulance was slowly backing its way toward him. Gary sprinted across the lot after having thrown a large number of bills at the taxi driver who grinned delightedly at the tip he'd received.

John Carter didn't know what hit him. He had been standing in the ambulance bay, and the next thing he knew he was sprawled on the ground with some strange man lying flush over him. Just as he was forming the question of 'What the hell is going on,' he saw the ambulance that he'd been in front of crash through the doors of the emergency entrance. 'Oh my God,' he thought, 'I could have been killed.'

Gary took a few deep breaths, and heaved himself off of the man he'd just tackled to the ground. He winced at the pain in his knee, and looked down and saw the blood from a nasty scrape through the torn leg of his jeans.

John got up after the weight of the other man left him. "Hey, listen, I don't know what to say..." John trailed off as he noticed the other guy looking at the spreading blood stain on his jeans. He went into action. "Come on. I'll take care of that for you. I mean it's the least I can do, right?" He took the dark haired man by the arm and led him into the
emergency room, carefully stepping their ways through the glass of the now destroyed doors.

"Oh, Carter, you're all right! Was anybody hurt in that?" Keri Weaver made her way over to the young doctor who was towing another gentleman behind.

"This guy busted his knee when he tackled me. I'm going to examine him, make sure it's just a scrape and no other damage was done."

Keri nodded, "Use exam 2. It's free for the moment."

"Thanks, Dr. Weaver." John led the man by the arm into the exam room, and had him sit so that he could examine his knee.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," he finally addressed John.

"Yeah, it doesn't look too bad. Just needs cleaned up. Put some antiseptic on it. A bandage, and try not put any pressure on it." He looked up to see his patient grimace. "Any more pressure than necessary that is."

"Thanks."

"I'm John Carter by the way."

"Yeah, I know," Gary immediately realized his mistake as he saw the confusion descend on John's face. "I mean, um," looking into the soft brown eyes, Gary found that he couldn't focus as much as he needed to to get himself out of this situation. "I'm Gary Hobson. It's nice to meet you." Gary stuck his hand out.

"Yeah, you, too," John said softly, for the first time really noticing Gary Hobson. He didn't know what overtook his mind, but his immediate reaction was to brush his lips across Gary's. He hadn't actually realized that he done it until he heard the small gasp. John opened his eyes to find Gary's wide brown eyes staring back at him.

"What was that for?" Gary absent-mindedly brushed his thumb across his still tingling lips.

"Thank you," John said.

"Oh," more silence between them.

"Hey, would you like to get dinner with me? As a way of saying thank you...again."

Gary smiled brightly, "Yeah, that sounds good."

The End