At County General, being a nurse is hard enough without John Carter making every shift worse. From the start, you clash. You think he’s impossible. He thinks you’re stubborn. Or that he has a smile that makes you go weak at the knees. Between late-night run-ins and long shifts, the line between rivalry and something more starts to blur.
TW - SMUT! Dom JC! Pining. Hair Pulling. Oral & Rough Sex.
Clashing with John Carter was part of your job at County General. Between patients, chasing charts, and keeping the ER from imploding, you somehow still found time to argue with him at every opportunity.
The rivalry started the day you met. Carter walked in with the confidence of a doctor who thought he already knew everything, and you corrected him on something minor just because you could. He insisted it didn’t matter. You insisted it did. Neither of you backed down, and the chemistry was instant, for better or, more accurately, worse.
Before long, your arguments became part of the ER routine. Carter had to have the last word. You made it your mission to make sure he didn’t get it.
He was smug in a way that made your teeth clench. He had an answer for everything, a comeback for everything else, and a smile that suggested he knew exactly how irritating he was. He was annoyingly perfect at his job. He noticed things quickly, learned fast, and had just enough heart under all that polished confidence to make hating him properly feel impossible. The only time ever you listen to what he tells you is when you’re both in a trama room together.
Worse, you hated the fact that his smug smile could make your knees go weak when you were trying to dislike him.
Carter seemed just as determined to treat you like the single greatest inconvenience in his life. He complained about your attitude, your stubbornness. But he always came back. Always found a reason to stop by the desk where you were charting. Always had some little remark ready, just waiting to make you roll your eyes.
And then there was the face you made. That tiny scrunch of your nose whenever he said something especially arrogant. Carter noticed it immediately. The first time it happened, he was halfway through correcting you when your nose wrinkled, your mouth twitched like you were trying not to laugh when a patient said something funny. Then every thought in his head simply disappeared. For a full three seconds, Dr John Carter, who usually had an answer for everything, stood there silently with a chart in his hand like he had forgotten his own name.
Seeing the new doctor on the floor, talking to you, seeing you laugh.
Benton glanced up from the desk, unimpressed. “Carter, are you planning on finishing that sentence?”
Carter blinked, looked down at the chart as if it might rescue him, and cleared his throat. “Right. Yes. The labs.”
“Did I make you stutter back there Carter? We don’t want another mishap like tasing yourself with the defibs.”
“And says the nurse who somehow punctured a saline bag and practically baptised herself in it.”
It would have been easier if the hospital was the only place you had to deal with him, but fate apparently had a cruel sense of humour. After twelve hours of arguing under fluorescent lights, you usually went home to the exact same apartment building he lived in.
The first time you saw him in the lobby, both of you stopped dead.
“You live here?” you asked, horrified.
Carter looked just as offended. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll try not to lower the property value.”
“With that attitude, I’m surprised the elevator still works.”
You stepped inside before him and pressed your floor button with a sweet smile. “Careful, Carter. If we get stuck in here together, one of us is leaving emotionally wounded.”
His smile was slow and unbearable. “Only one?”
That was the problem with him. He irritated you. He challenged you. He made every shift harder than it needed to be. But sometimes he smiled at you like that, and suddenly your knees forgot their purpose.
Carter had his own problem, though he hid it slightly better. He could handle your attitude when it was sharp. He could handle your eye rolls, your quick comebacks, your ability to challenge him in front of half the ER without blinking. But every now and then, your nose would scrunch or your mouth would twitch like you were fighting a smile, and he would lose whatever brilliant response he had been preparing.
So you kept clashing. At work, in the lobby, by the mailboxes, in the elevator at six in the morning when neither of you had slept enough to be civil. You told yourself it was irritation. He told himself the same thing.
Unfortunately, neither of you were very convincing liars.
The ER is a whirlwind of noise and motion, but next to the supply cart, your world narrows to just you and the student nurse. She’s anxious, gripping the glass IV bottle too tightly. You offer a gentle smile, guiding her hands. “Relax. Support the base—yeah, like that.”
She nods nervously, but her grip slips. The IV bottle tumbles. You move instinctively, catching it, just barely but it shatters in your palm, glass slicing deep. The pain is sharp, but you force yourself not to flinch in front of her.
She stares at you, mortified. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, are you okay? I didn’t mean to—”
You swallow the sting, managing a small smile. “It’s alright. Accidents happen.” You keep your voice light for her sake, though your hand is already slick with blood.
You excuse yourself and duck into the treatment room, heading straight for the sink. Cold water stings as you rinse your hand, pink-tinged droplets swirling down the drain. You wince, shoulders tensing as a couple of tiny glass shards glint in your skin.
You don’t hear Carter walk in, but you sense him behind you. He says your name softly, and you turn to find him watching, concern etched in every line of his face. “What happened?”
You lift your hand, sheepish. “Student dropped a glass bottle. I tried to catch it. Guess I forgot I was human for a minute.”
He steps closer, quietly shutting the door behind him. The ER’s chaos fades, replaced by a hush that feels fragile and private.
“Let me see,” he says, voice gentler than you expect. You hold out your hand, and he examines it, his touch careful and warm. “Did you get any glass in there?”
You nod. “Feels like hundreds.”
He glances toward the window—the student nurse is still out there, fumbling, guilt written all over her face. You look back at Carter, suddenly shy. “Could you…?”
“Of course.” He snaps on gloves, fetching the first aid kit.
You flinch as he teases out the last shard; Carter’s hand tightens around yours, his thumb brushing your skin. “It’s okay. I’ve got you,” he says softly. His face is closer than you expected, all focus and concern.
He finishes cleaning and bandaging your hand, but neither of you moves away. For a moment, the air between you crackles, months of irritation, banter, and everything left unsaid pressing closer and closer.
You can’t help it. You give a shaky laugh, voice almost a whisper. “You know, I don’t actually hate you.”
Carter looks up, eyes locked with yours—hungry, vulnerable, finally letting everything show. The silence is charged, both of you breathing a little faster.
Without warning, you both move at once colliding in a kiss that’s fierce, desperate, and hungry, all the longing you’ve buried finally breaking free. It’s not gentle; it’s urgent, months of tension spilling over in the press of mouths and his tight grip of hands one on your hip, other on the face, falling back on the hospital bed.
Carter made a low sound against your mouth, like that small movement had shattered whatever restraint he had left. His hand found your waist, firm and warm, while the midly hard hosital bed pressed cold against your back. The contrast made you gasp, and he paused just long enough to make sure you weren’t pulling away.
The kiss changed after that. It stopped being a mistake and became a confession neither of you were brave enough to say aloud. Every argument, every lingering glance, every smug smile he had ever thrown your way folded into the space between you. His mouth moved against yours with months of frustration behind it, and for once you had no clever answer. No cutting remark. No way to pretend this was just another fight you could win.
When he finally pulled back, it was barely enough to breathe. His forehead stayed close to yours, his hand still at your waist, his breathing no steadier than your own.
“This is a bad idea,” you whispered.
“Very bad idea,” he murmured back, kissing into your neck.
If anything, you pulled him closer, arms wrapping around his neck, pulling his tie off, unbuttoning his shirt. He slightly pulls you up, taking off the purple scrubs, thankfully, you decided to wear the lacey bra you bought.
For a moment, you just laid there, sharing the same breath, pretending those words had changed anything. Then his eyes dropped to yours again, and whatever fragile attempt at common sense either of you had managed shattered instantly.
It was better than the accidental dreams you would have of these exact situations, waking up in the middle of the night, cursing to yourself that your mind had let you had such dreams.
His hand tightened at your waist as he met you halfway, and the sound he made was somewhere between relief and surrender. There was only the warmth of his mouth, the pressure of his body, and the dizzy certainty that you were both making a terrible decision.
A terrible decision neither of you seemed interested in stopping.
His fingers slid up your side, careful and deliberate, while yours stayed tangled in the front of his coat. Every time the kiss softened, every time it seemed like one of you might pull away, the other closed the distance again. You should have let go of his coat. You should have reminded him you were at work, in a treatment room, that anyone could walk into. You immediately forgot everything when you felt his knee push you up slightly in between your legs, making you gasp in surprise, tightening around him.
Carter noticed, because of course he did, you could feel his smile. Pulling more into each other deepening the desperate feeling. Before anything else could happen, an annoying sound of a pager started going off.
“Shit...” He stood back up, quickly buttoning up his shirt and bothering to put his tye back on. “Stay here, I’ll be back soon”
“Oh, I am actually off in 10 minutes, forgot to tell you”
“You’re impossible” he rolled his eyes smiling, he gave you a quick kiss moving swiftly out of the room, closing the door quickly so no one would be able to see you.
40 minutes have passed since that heated, stolen moment behind the closed door. The ER’s chaos has ebbed into the background, and Carter is finally shrugging on his coat, ready to disappear for his two days off. He’s halfway to the exit when Haleh intercepts him at the nurse’s station.
“Carter, your keys,” she calls, dangling them in front of him.
He blinks, startled. “Keys?”
Haleh smirks knowingly. “Y/L/N said you dropped them.”
He takes the keys, confusion flickering across his face. They’re familiar, but the keychain isn’t—plain, with a number stamped on it: Apt: 104.
Carter frowns. His apartment number is 207.
He turns the keys over in his hand, realization dawning. They’re not his. They’re hers.
A smile tugs at his lips, slow and secret. He knows exactly what she’s done—and what she wants.
Pocketing the keys, Carter glances over his shoulder, already thinking about the next move, heartbeat quickening with anticipation. The game between them isn’t over. In fact, it’s only just begun.
The key feels impossibly heavy in Carter’s hand as he stands outside your apartment, staring at the door like it might somehow answer all the questions tangled in his head. You’d handed it off earlier that day—using a nurse as the perfect cover, slipping it into his palm like it was nothing. But it wasn’t nothing. It meant you trusted him with more than just a lock, and that knowledge had nearly undone him.
He’d told himself not to overthink it. Naturally, because he’s Carter, he’s done nothing but overthink it. He could still leave, climb the stairs to his own place on the floor above, pretend he hadn’t spent every spare minute replaying the moment in the supply room, the way your smile had lingered, the silent invitation behind it.
His fingers tighten around the key. He exhales through his nose, jaw flexing. “Fuck it,” he mutters under his breath.
Before he can change his mind, he slides the key into the lock. The click echoes in the quiet hallway, loud enough to make his heart stutter, and for a second he stands frozen. Then he pushes the door open.
You’re there, waiting—not startled, not confused, just waiting for him, like you knew this was exactly how the night would end. Whatever clever excuse or apology he had vanished the moment he saw you. Nerves and doubts collapse into certainty under the quiet intensity in your gaze. You knew he’d come. Maybe you had known before he did.
The door closes behind him with a decisive sound. Neither of you flinches. He keeps his eyes on you as he crosses the room, each step heavy with everything unsaid. When he reaches you, there’s no room left for hesitation.
His hands find your waist, pulling you in, not rough, but desperate, needing. He gives you space, just enough to pull away if you want. You don’t. Instead, your fingers clutch the front of his shirt, grounding yourself in the solid heat of him.
He kisses you again, restraint left, nothing held back. It’s hungry, raw, and real. It’s the kind of kiss that says all the things he’s never managed to say and all the things you’ve both been aching to hear.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me?” he breathes, voice so low it vibrates against your skin. “For months, you’re all I think about.”
Your heart stumbles. “Months?” The question comes out as a whisper. You search his face, wondering how many moments you’ve missed, how many lingering looks you’ve dismissed, how many signs slipped quietly by while neither of you was brave enough to name what was happening.
“Every day,” Carter admits. He pulls you in again, kissing you harder, hands gripping your waist, anchoring you against him.
You gasp into his mouth, and he breaks the kiss only to rest his forehead against yours again, his breath coming fast. “God, you have no idea,” he says, and there’s something almost vulnerable in the way he looks at you
. His hands find your waist again, and when you flinch as he touches the spot where the glass cut you earlier, he immediately softens.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, voice thick with genuine care. He lifts your bandaged hand, kisses your knuckles, and waits for you to steady yourself.
You relax, heart pounding, and his thumb gently strokes your cheek. “Good girl,” he whispers, and the way he says it makes your pulse trip.
The months of tension and want come spilling out in fast, hungry kisses. You tug him closer, fingers curling in his shirt, and he laughs into your mouth, the sound vibrating between you before it dissolves into another desperate kiss.
“God you’re beautiful” staring every inch of you before pulling into you again, kissing every inch of your neck.
He grabbed the hem of your shirt and yanked it upward, nearly tearing it in his haste. You raised your arms, breathless, letting him pull it clean off. Before you could even catch your breath, his hands were already at your back, fumbling with your bra, tugging at the straps until they slipped away and hit the floor.
You tore at his clothes in return, your fingers clumsy with need as you fought the buttons of his shirt, popping a few in your urgency. You shoved it off his shoulders, hardly caring where it landed, hungry for the heat of his bare chest.
He groaned, grabbing the waistband of your underwear and pulling hard, the seam snapping as he dragged them down your legs, tossing them aside without a second thought.
You reached for his belt, ripping it open, yanking the zipper down. His pants dropped, and you shoved his boxers off, his hard cock springing out. both of you too far gone to be gentle. He kicked them away, your bodies finally, blissfully, bare.
You met each other with a force that spoke of every night spent wanting, every day spent pretending. There was nothing tentative left—just hot, reckless hands and mouths, and a hunger that left you both shaking as you finally, finally touched without barriers.
You stand up, he turns you around, his hard cock on your ass. His hands are everywhere, trailing up and down. One massaging your tit, and the other one your neck, pressing kisses up and down.
“Where's your bedroom?”” he growls picking you up, legs wrapped around his waist.
He stood at the edge of your bed, naked and feral-eyed, watching you crawl backward until your shoulders hit the headboard. The air between you crackled, thick with months of denied hunger.
He stroked himself, slow at first, gripping his cock tight, eyes glued to your every movement. The room filled with the sound of your uneven breaths, the wet sounds of your fingers, the low thrum of his restraint unravelling. You matched each other, feeding off the sight, both of you drawing it out, refusing to break the delicious, torturous tension.
“Touch yourself for me, but don’t you dare come,” he growled, voice like gravel, the command making your pulse race. “I want to see you fall apart, but not without me.”
You whimpered, hips rocking, your fingers moving faster, desperate. He watched, jaw clenched, his strokes growing rougher, the muscles in his arm flexing, every inch of him flushed and hard.
When it finally became too much, he moved, limbing onto the bed, grabbing your wrist and pulling your fingers from yourself.
You let your gaze trail slowly down his body, a wicked smile on your lips. “You look even better than I thought” you tease, dragging your fingers across his chest, down his stomach, deliberately brushing over the places that make him shudder.
He laughs, low and strained. “You’ve been thinking about me like this?”
You lean in, lips ghosting over his jaw, breath hot. “Every damn night. Sometimes in the shower. Sometimes in bed. Always wishing it was your hands instead of mine.”
You slid down, taking him into your mouth, slow and deep, tongue swirling, hands gripping his thighs. He groaned, head falling back, lost in you. You set a punishing rhythm, loving the way he struggled to keep control, the way he praised you with every curse, every ragged gasp.
He pulls out, breathless, eyes wild, and flips you onto your back, settling himself between your legs. “Now you’re going to see what happens when you tease me like that,” he promises, his tone dark and full of heat.
He pulled you up, mouth crashing onto yours, tasting himself on your lips. Then he flipped you onto your back, spreading your thighs wide, settling between them with a wicked glint in his eyes.
“Your turn,” he murmured, voice dark and greedy.
He dove in, tongue hot and relentless, licking and sucking your clit. The sensation was overwhelming—your back arched, breath catching in your throat as a sharp gasp escaped.
“Oh—fuck, John—” you choked out, clutching at the sheets, every muscle wound tight.
He slid two fingers inside you, slow at first, then deeper, curling perfectly as his mouth worked you mercilessly. You tensed around him, caught between pleasure and surprise.
He paused for a heartbeat, his voice low and soothing against your skin. “Relax, baby—these are just my fingers,” he murmured, tone gentle even as his touch stayed firm. “Let me make you feel good.”
You let out a shaky breath, trying to melt into the sensation. “God—John, I—” You couldn’t find the words, every nerve ending lighting up as he thrust his fingers deeper, his tongue swirling.
“Oh my god… fuck—” you whined, hips jerking, your body arching up to meet every movement. He edged you again and again, each time you got close, slowing down just enough to make you whimper his name.
“Please, John—don’t stop, please, I need—” you sobbed, your voice unraveling as he worked you higher.
“Not yet. I want to feel you shake for me,” he growled, mouth pressed to your most sensitive spot.
You moaned, desperate, “John—please, oh god, I’m so close—please—”
Finally, he sucked your clit hard and drove his fingers deep, sending you over the edge. You shattered, crying out his name, body shaking as he coaxed wave after wave of pleasure from you, not letting up until you were limp and breathless, mind spinning.
“Holy shit,” you whispered, still panting, your voice raw and full of awe.
He came up, face slick with you, eyes wild and ravenous. For a heartbeat, you just stared—drinking in the sight of him: the muscles in his chest and arms tight with tension, skin flushed and shining with sweat, his hair a messy halo from your hands. Your eyes dropped lower, and you took in the impressive length and thickness of his cock, flushed deep and glistening, heavy between his thighs, the head slick with need.
It made your mouth go dry, the reality of him somehow more perfect than anything you’d imagined in all those months of wanting. He caught you in a messy, desperate kiss, tasting every moan that slipped from your lips. Then, with a rough grip at your waist, he flipped you onto your stomach, pulling your hips up until you were on all fours, your knees pressed into the mattress and your back arched for him." You're not done,”
he growled, lining himself up behind you. The blunt head of his cock slid through your slick heat, teasing, making you shiver with anticipation. You barely had time to breathe before he thrust inside, deep and hard, filling you so completely you gasped and clawed at the sheets. He set a punishing rhythm, his hips slamming into yours, his hands gripping your waist so tight it bordered on painful. Every thrust sent you forward, your body rocking with his every movement, the sheer size and stretch of him driving you wild.
"God, you feel perfect,” he panted, voice breaking. “All those nights I imagined this—nothing compares.” His hand slid up your spine, tangling in your hair and yanking your head back so your arch deepened, your back flush against his chest.
He shifted, rising onto his knees, pulling you up so you were upright, your spine pressed to his front. One hand snaked around your throat, gentle but possessive, the other massaging your breast, pinching your nipple until you cried out. His cock drove up into you, thick and unyielding, rubbing all the right places. His mouth was at your ear, breath hot.
“Look at us,” he whispered, turning your chin so you saw yourselves in the mirror—the wild, desperate way you clung to each other. You whimpered, grinding your hips back, his cock hitting deeper from this angle, every nerve ending alight. “Please, John—harder—don’t stop—”He groaned, guiding you to lift your knees and turn, pulling you into his lap until you straddled him, facing the mirror. You sank down onto him, the fullness making you shudder. He filled you completely, stretching you until you could barely breathe, every ridge and vein dragging against your walls as you rode him. He grabbed your hips, helping you set a frantic pace, your hands braced on his shoulders.
You rode him hard, his eyes on your reflection, watching every tremor, every bounce of your breasts, every time you threw your head back and sobbed his name. “Fuck, you look incredible like this,” he rasped, thumb finding your clit, circling in tight, punishing strokes. “Come on, baby. Let go for me. I want to feel you fall apart.
"You buried your nails in his shoulders, grinding down, your cries getting louder. “John—I’m so close—please.” He grabbed your waist, slamming up into you, his own control slipping. “Come for me. Now,” he commanded, voice rough and hungry.
You broke with a strangled moan, your body convulsing in his arms, clenching around him as pleasure tore through you. He lost it right after, holding you tight as he spilled inside, his guttural grunt vibrating against your neck.
You collapsed together, tangled in the sheets, sweat-slicked and trembling, his arms locked around you. For a moment, you both watched your reflection—wild-eyed, spent, and utterly, beautifully wrecked.
You fell back into the sheets together, laughter mixing with the aftershocks. John propped himself on one elbow, grinning down at you. “So, was it everything you imagined?”
You reached up, tracing the line of his jaw with your finger. “Better. But I’m going to need a lot more research to be sure.”
He laughed, pulling you close. “That can be arranged.”
You sighed, utterly content, the world outside fading away as you let yourself be held, knowing this was only the beginning.