Mike and Carrie Saga - Parts I and II

Carrie looked at the Elmo doll on her night stand. Austin had given it to her when they first started dating. Right next to it was the silver candlestick holder Mike had surprised her with last week. It was such an expensive gift. She couldn’t believe he actually bought it just because she had admired it. You gotta love when a guy buys you a present and it isn’t even your birthday. Carrie knew she was lucky to have both men in her life.

She felt bad for Mike, though. He was spending so much time comforting her that he was ignoring his own love life. Any woman would be glad to have him on her arm. Carrie really knew what it was like to be truly cared for when he was around. Yes, some girl was going to be really lucky to find him.

One look at the dress hanging in her closet, and she knew it was almost time to go to the engagement party. She really wasn’t looking forward to it at all. Oh, she was all for John and Marlena’s wedding. It was Sami and Austin that she didn’t want to see. Every time she saw him comfort her it made her skin crawl. Sami was her sister, but even she didn’t have as much compassion for her as Austin did. Carrie still believed that Sami was pretending to have no memory of the last four years, but Carrie knew better. She had seen many of Sami’s schemes and this was beginning to look like one of them. Mike and Marlena had both agreed that Austin should pretend to be a devoted husband to Sami. But the white lies they told Sami at the beginning had blossomed into big lies. That was Carrie’s life now, one big lie.

She forced herself off the bed, into her dress and out the door. As she drove to the party, she prepared herself for the moments to come. The only thing that really bothered her was that Mike wasn’t able to come. She liked when he was around. It gave her someone to talk to. Someone to share things with. Carrie just wished Austin was there for her as much as Mike was. Mike was the only thing that was keeping her head above water these days.

She prepared herself for the worst as she watched the elevator doors open to the Penthouse Grill. As she walked in she could see Lexie, Abe and Laura had already arrived. Laura came up to her and gave her a big hug.

“Carrie, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just not in the mood to see Sami and Austin together. Maybe I can make this quick and painless.” Before she could reply, Marlena called Laura over to her.

Carrie took the opportunity and walked out onto the balcony at the back of the grill. It was pretty chilly outside tonight, not unusual weather for Salem, but still surprising since it had been so humid lately. From the balcony, Carrie could see down into Salem Park. It was just about twilight, and the light was still brighter than the darkness. She could see Mike walk out of the hospital and into his new red sports car. It all looked like it was in slow motion. Carrie could see a man come up behind Mike. The man grabbed Mike from behind. Mike struggled, but the man was much bigger than he was. Carrie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. All the sudden a shot rang out and Mike fell to the ground. Carrie ran out of the Penthoue Grill and down to the parking lot of the hospital. It took her a little while but she found Mike lying in a pool of blood beside his car.

“Mike, Mike can you hear me?”

“Carrie?” It looked like he was having a tough time breathing. “What happened?”

“You’re going to be all right.” You have to be thought Carrie, I need you too much.

Blood was all over her new dress but it didn’t matter. All the mattered was she had to get Mike into the hospital. He was too heavy for her to lift but luckily a candystriper came out of the door. Carrie called out to her and sent her back inside for help.

Carrie brushed Mike’s blonde hair out of his eyes. “Oh, Mike, why did this have to happen?” She didn’t realize that she had said it out loud until Mike answered in a thick mumble.

“I’m sorry about Austin.”

“I know you are. There’s nothing you can do. There is nothing anyone can do. Austin has made up his own mind and I guess his future doesn’t include me.”

“Still sorry,” Mike managed to say.

“Where are those paramedics?” Carrie tried to look over the car to see if anyone was coming but Mike pulled her back.

Before he passed out Mike managed to utter two words as he clung to her dress. “Love you.”

Carrie, as if in a trance, watches the orderlies and nurses wheel Mike into the emergency room. What he had meant by "Love you" she didn't know. She felt so weird. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and all she could do was wait. It seemed an eternity had passed.

One of the nurses must have called Laura because a lot of people from the engagement party were wandering around. Abe looked like he was there on official police business and Lexie was comforting Laura. Carrie could feel a gust of cool night air. The emergency room doors had opened. Paramedics were rushing in someone else who had suffered injury. Behind them was Marlena and John. They had changed out of their fancy outfits she had seen them wearing earlier.

They both were concerned for her and checked for some sort of injury. They were more concerned with her than with what had happened to Mike.

"Stop fussing over me. Mike's the one who got shot." Marlena was taken aback by the harshness in Carrie's tone. "This is his blood," she pulled at the dress which clung to her body more noticeably with the sticky substance.

"Hey pumpkin, we care about Mike too. But look at you. We naturally thought you might have been with him when it happened." John put his arms around Carrie and she thankfully accepted his embrace. How could this have happened, she thought.

"I know, I'm sorry I snapped, but he.. he can't die. He just can't." A tear slid down Carrie's cheek.

Marlena came closer and brushed the tear away. "Oh, Carrie." Marlena felt for her daughter. She knew how much Mike had come to mean to Carrie since Sami's accident. "Mike is in great hands. He'll be fine. I just know it." Marlena joined in on the hug John was giving Carrie.

Dr. Barnes came rushing out of the double doors leading to the emergency room. Carrie felt a flood of hope. The doctor looked relieved. Laura looked up. She had been sitting in a chair far in the corner with Lexie beside her. When she saw the doctor, she quickly made her way to him.

"How is he? How's my son." Laura held onto Marlena for support just in case the news wasn't good. Carrie could tell that Laura had been crying by her tear stained face and the catch in her voice.

The doctor held up a silver medical chart and opened it. His finger brushed down the scribbles until it came to a stop somewhere in the middle.

"He's lost a lot of blood, but Carrie found him in time. We were lucky. Another few minutes and he would have bled to death. Another good thing is amazingly the bullet missed all the important organs. He's basically got a pretty bad flesh wound, but he's going to be just fine." Just then Dr. Barnes heard his name over the intercom. They were paging him to be somewhere stat. "If you'll excuse me, it seems I have another patient to attend to." The doctor walked up to the nurses station handed over the silver medical file to a worker there and disappeared as he walked around the corner.

Laura was so relieved. She had to hug Carrie. "You saved my son's life. I don't know how I can ever thank you." Laura couldn't stop hugging Carrie. In the back of her mind, Laura had a strange thought that maybe this had happened for a reason. Maybe it was suppose to happen this way. Maybe it would draw Carrie and Mike closer together. With that and the fact that Mike was going to be fine, put a big smile on her face.

Carrie recognized one of the nurses and called her over to the group. "Can we see him? Can we see Mike?"

The nurse looked hesitant, but she knew how important it was for a patient's family and friends to see for themselves the condition of a loved one. "Well, ok, but only for a few minutes." Laura ran off to see Mike but the nurse grabbed Carrie's arm before she could follow. " I just wanted to say thank you. Dr. Horton is one of the best doctors in this hospital not to mention one of the nicest. We are all very grateful to you." Carrie smiled. "You better go in now. He's been asking for you ever since they wheeled him in." With that the nurse disappeared into another patient's room.

Suddenly Mike's words hit her like a lightening bolt. "Love you." What did he mean by that? He probably didn't know what he was saying. Carrie walked through the emergency room doors and passed Abe in the hall who was talking on his police walkie talkie. Abe nodded in her direction as if to say hello and walked on out of the hospital. Laura met Carrie at the door for one more hug and headed toward her office.

"Hey, slugger." Carrie softly punched Mike in the arm careful not to come near his wound.

"Hey, yourself." Mike pointed to a chair next to the bed. Carrie walked up and sat down next to him. "It seems I owe my life to you. How did you know what happened? How did you get there so quickly?" Carrie stood and sat on the edge of the bed. Her sudden motion must have caused him pain because he winced a bit, but Carrie pretended not to notice.

I saw it. I saw it all. From the balcony of the Penthouse Grill. Everything felt like it was in slow motion. It seemed to take me twice as long to run the distance from the grill to your car." Carrie paused to take a breath. "I saw him. Oh, Mike, I saw him shoot you. And the blood, there was so much blood." Carrie took his hand and squeezed it.

"Most of it is on you I see." Mike was smiling at her. He looked weak with tubes running everywhere and he was smiling.

"I can't believe you. Not twenty minutes ago you were gunned down in the parking lot of this hospital and about to die. How can you be happy about that?"

Mike reached over and pulled something out of the drawer in the night stand. It was his wallet. He slowly opened it to reveal everything was still intact. Credit cards, driver's license, and insurance card were all there. "Before mom came in, I was looking in here. The guy took my money but left my credit cards? He shot me but not seriously enough to kill me? Someone was watching over me tonight. How can I be anything but happy and grateful to be alive?" Mike leaned over to kiss her cheek and lingered a bit longer than necessary. "You're my guardian angel."

For some reason, Carrie felt a knot in her stomach. She leaned forward to catch herself. Her head was swimming. Her hand was now on Mike's shoulder. Mike winced again and the movement only caused the two to draw closer. They were so close now that their foreheads were almost touching. Mike looked deep into Carrie's eyes. He wanted her to feel about him the way he felt about her. And he wasn't going to push himself on her even though this felt so good. Carrie laid her forehead against his. He felt cool compared to her. She was burning up. Carrie returned Mike's gaze. They must have been that way a long time.

"What's happening Mike?"

"I don't know Carrie. What do you want to happen?"

Laura had finished her business and was returning to see Mike one more time before going home. She watched through the window as they leaned close together. It was all starting to work out. Carrie was falling for him. Just then Austin and Sami walked through the door and came upon Laura.

"How's Mike?" Austin was asking the question but he didn't seem to want to really know the answer.

"See for yourself." Laura pointed toward the window. Austin and Sami looked in just as Mike and Carrie were touching foreheads. Austin couldn't believe this was happening. He'd just found out from Mickey that he could get an annulment from Sami and now he'd lost Carrie to Mike.

"Sami, why don't I take you home. It looks like they want to be alone."