ER: Doug and Carol Series
Story #24
by: Courtney
Doug walks into the kitchen at just after 6am on Saturday morning. He is surprised to find Charlie sitting at the kitchen table. The room is dark and she is sitting alone in the silence of the early morning. “What are you doing up so early?” Doug asks her when he turns on the light and sees her there.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Charlie replies.
“Something on your mind?” Doug sits with her at the table. She shrugs. “You want to talk?”
“I’m fine,” she tells him. He can see that’s not true.
“You can talk to me, you know,” Doug looks at her, but Charlie casts her eyes down into the coffee cup she is clutching in her hands. Doug sighs and gets up to fix himself some coffee.
Charlie does have something on her mind, but she doesn’t want to trouble Doug with her problems. That’s part of what’s worrying her, her being a burden on he and Carol right now. She’s not sure she belongs here anymore. Even though there is no place she’d rather be, she has a feeling that maybe Doug and Carol don’t need the aggravation right now. She’s been considering this for quite some time.
Doug takes his coffee and sits back down at the table. “How’s Carol?” Charlie asks him.
“She’s okay. She’s still asleep.” Yesterday was Carol’s first day back to work since the accident and Doug and Charlie had both spent most of the day worrying about her. Carol seemed fine, but looks could be deceiving.
“You think she’s really okay?” Charlie asks Doug.
“I don’t know,” he responds. “I hope she is, but I can’t say for sure. She just won’t talk about it.” Charlie knows what he means. Carol didn’t want to open up to anyone these days. She was so closed off, even to Doug and Charlie.
“So, how was your first week of school?” Doug asks. “We really haven’t had much time to talk this week and you haven’t told me how you like eleventh grade.”
“What’s to like?” Charlie replies. “It’s basically the same as last year, only with different classes.”
“Well, what are you taking?” Doug is determined to get her to talk to him, at least about school.
“Biology, gym, algebra II,” she makes a face, “French, art, and US history.”
Doug nods. “So, do you like your teachers? Do you have any friends in class from last year?”
“My teachers are okay,” she says. “My friend Michelle is in a few of my classes. You remember her, right? She’s been over to study a few times.” Doug nods that he does remember Michelle. “Well,” Charlie continues, “she wants me to go with her and some other people to the school football game tonight. I’m not sure I want to, though.”
“Why not? I think that sounds like fun. You need to meet some new people, make some friends. You’ve been at McKinley for quite a while and Michelle is the only person you’ve ever even mentioned. Why don’t you go to the game. You might surprise yourself and, God forbid, have a good time,” Doug’s sarcastic expression makes Charlie smirk.
“I’m still thinking about it,” she tells him.
“Yeah, well, don’t think so long you talk yourself out of it.” He gets up from his chair. “I better go get ready for work, I’m on at seven this morning. Listen, Carol’s on at nine so if you decide to go to the game just either let her know before she leaves or call one of us at the hospital today, okay?”
“Sure,” Charlie says. Doug nods, smiles at Charlie and turns towards the stairs to get ready for his day.
Carol wakes up as Doug is coming out of the bathroom after his shower. It is 6:30am. “Good morning,” she says as she sits up in bed and stretches.
“Morning beautiful,” Doug comes over and kisses her lips lightly, then goes to the closet to find some clothes. “You still working today?” he asks as he pulls a pair of tan Dockers from a hanger.
“Yep, 9am,” Carol replies.
“Well, maybe we can take our lunch together,” he says as he slips into the pants he’s holding.
“Yeah maybe,” she replies absently.
Doug notices her distant tone of voice and goes over to sit with her on the bed. He takes her hand in his and looks into her eyes. “Do you want to talk? Mark will understand if I’m a little late this morning . . .”
“No, I’m fine, everything is fine,” she manages a small smile, but Doug maintains the frown that furrows his brow.
“Carol . . . I thought we talked about this yesterday. I thought we were going to try to stop shutting each other out.”
“I’m not trying to shut you out, Doug. I just . . . there just isn’t anything to talk about.” She sighs, “I’d better get in the shower.” With that, she gets up and enters the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Doug is left sitting on the bed, alone.
At 2 o’clock that afternoon, Charlie is downstairs in the basement working on a painting. She’s wearing one of Doug’s old T-shirts that is covered in paint. The ringing of the cordless phone startles her. “Hello?” she says as she picks it up.
“Hey Charlie, it’s Michelle,” comes the reply.
“Oh, hey Michelle.”
“So, you’re still going tonight, right? Doug and Carol agreed?”
“Well, yeah, they agreed but . . .”
“No buts Charlie. You have to go! I told Jeremy to tell Josh you’d be there. Come on, don’t back out on me now, we’ll have fun . . .”
“Alright,” Charlie laments. “What time?”
“The game starts at seven. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty,” Michelle says. “Oh, and bring your things to spend the night. A few other girls are staying over, too, and I want you to meet them.”
“Okay,” Charlie replies, not happy with the prospect of a high school football game and a sleep over as a way to spend her Saturday night. “I better call and let Doug and Carol know.” She and Michelle say good-bye and Charlie dials the familiar number to the ER.
“ER, Jerry speaking.”
“Jerry, it’s Charlie. Is Doug around?”
“He’s with a patient, Charlie. You want to leave him a message?”
Carol is standing nearby and hears this. “I’ll talk to her, Jer.” She takes the phone from him and says, “Hey Charlie, what’s up?”
“Carol, um I just told Doug I’d call . . . he wanted to know . . . um, well, I’m going to the football game tonight and I told him I’d let him know for sure.” Carol listens, realizing Charlie doesn’t want to talk to her about this. She frowns. Even Charlie has been walking on eggshells around her lately.
“You can tell me your plans, Charlie. I’ll be sure and tell Doug.”
“Okay,” Charlie hesitates then continues, “my friend Michelle wants me to go with her to the game then she asked me to sleep over tonight. Is that okay? Because if it’s not, I completely understand . . .”
No such luck, “Sure Charlie, that’s fine. Have a good time and be careful, okay?”
“Yeah, Carol, I will, thanks,” she says a little less than enthusiastically. She hangs up the phone and begins putting away her art supplies. She trudges back upstairs to take a shower.
“Charlie called,” Carol says as Doug approaches the nurses station, carrying the chart from his last patient in his hand.
“What’d she say?” he inquires as he looks over the chart and makes a few final notes.
“That she’s decided to go to the game and that she’s spending the night at Michelle’s.”
“Really? That’s a new one. Well, I’m glad to see she’s making friends,” he says as he puts the chart down.
“Yeah, me too. Listen, Doug, can I talk to you?”
“Sure,” he ushers Carol into an empty exam room and closes the door behind them. “What’s on your mind?” he asks when they are alone.
“It’s about Charlie. I’ve noticed she doesn’t talk to me about anything anymore. She acts like she thinks she’d be bothering me by talking about everyday things.”
“Well, she’s just worried about you, Carol. Don’t take it personally,” he places his hand on her shoulder.
“Well, I don’t want her to feel like she can’t talk to me, like I’m not there for her,” Carol responds.
“She doesn’t. She’s just . . . well, we all just wanted to give you some time.” Doug sighs, “I think maybe the three of us need to have a talk. Maybe it will help if we all understand where the others are coming from.”
Carol nods, “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
He places his arm around her shoulder and leads her back out into the busy ER.
“Dr. Ross, fancy meeting you here,” Mark Greene says as he steps onto the roof of Cook County General. Doug is leaning on the railing, looking out over the windy city.
“How’d you know I was up here?” Doug asks without turning to look at Mark.
“Lucky guess,” Mark replies.
Doug smirks, “You know, this was a pretty good hiding place until I told you about it,” he laughs.
Mark smiles and walks over to lean on the railing beside Doug. He turns to his friend, his tone turning serious, “You want to talk?”
Doug sighs and wrings his hands. “I don’t know, Mark. Things are just . . . just so different lately.”
Mark nods, “Yeah, that’s understandable. A lot has happened.”
“I know. It’s just, well, I feel like I’m losing everything, you know? Carol doesn’t talk to me, Charlie avoids both of us usually, and I feel like I’m a totally different person now. I don’t see things like I used to. Does any of this make sense?” he looks at his friend with a distressed look.
“Yeah buddy, perfect sense. Carol doesn’t talk to you because she isn’t really talking to anyone. Even Nina says Carol is really closed off. She just needs some time. Eventually, she’ll be ready to face things and you’ll be there for her when that time comes. As for Charlie, well, I think she’s just scared. She sees how things are with you and Carol. She doesn’t want to cause you any trouble, make you worry any more than you already are. Maybe you should have a talk with her, get things out in the open. You all have a lot to work through, Doug.”
Doug nods, “How do you always know what to say?”
“I don’t,” Mark laughs. “If I did, I’d still be married.” He and Doug both laugh at this. “It’s just a good thing I’m better at friendship than I am at other relationships, huh?”
Doug smiles. It’s comforting to know he always has someone to turn to, someone to understand.
By four o’clock the ER is slow. Carol is sitting on a stool with her legs crossed, flipping through a magazine that Randi had stashed under the counter. “Don’t you do any work around here?” she hears a familiar voice say. Carol looks up at the sound and smiles at the face she sees before her.
“Oh my God! What are you doing here?” she asks as she goes around the counter and hugs the woman before her. Doug is nearby and sees this. He walks over as Carol and the woman are talking. “Doug!” Carol calls as he approaches. “Come over here, I want you to meet someone.”
Doug walks around the counter and stands beside Carol. There is something familiar about the dark haired woman before him but he’s not sure that they have ever met. She just reminds him of someone. Carol’s next comment explains everything. “Doug Ross, I’d like you to meet my sister, Kate Morris.”
Doug smiles at Kate and reaches out his hand. “Oh, we finally meet. Carol has told me a lot about her sisters. I was beginning to wonder if she’d made you two up,” he smiles.
“Same here,” Kate smiles. “It’s very nice to finally meet you Dr. Ross.”
“Doug, please,” he replies.
“Doug,” she corrects herself.
“So, Katy, what are you doing in town?” Carol asks.
“Why else? I came to see my baby sister. I haven’t seen you in ages and Rick had a week off so we decided to fly out.”
“Rick’s here too? Are the kids with you?”
“Yep, they’re at mom’s house. I just couldn’t wait to see you so I decided to come into the city alone.”
Doug excuses himself from the conversation, since he can see that Carol and her sister have a lot of catching up to do. He suggests that they go into the lounge and talk for a while. Kate tells him again how happy she is to finally meet him and she and Carol go into the empty lounge.
“So,” Kate says as they sit together on the couch, “Doug is everything you said he was. He’s a very nice looking man. And he seems like a great guy.”
“Obviously you and Momma haven’t talked about him yet,” Carol smirks.
“No, Momma told me all about him. I just know how over protective she is of you. Her opinions of the men in your life have always been slightly biased,” Kate grins. “She seems to like him though. Today when I left she said, ‘Tell Doug and Carol I said hello’.”
“She’s getting better,” Carol agrees.
“Well, how have you been?” Kate asks, her voice tinged with concern. She can’t hide the worry in her voice and Carol picks it up immediately.
“Don’t worry Katy, I’m fine.”
“Fine, huh? Well, I wouldn’t be fine. If it were me, I’d be a wreck. You don’t have to be so brave, you know. Nobody will blame you for being upset.”
“You have been talking to Momma,” Carol replies.
“She’s worried about you, Carol. She says you hardly talk to her at all anymore.”
“I’m sorry, Katy, it’s just not my favorite subject, okay?” her tone is abrupt and it’s easy to see she wants this conversation to end, but Kate will hear none of that.
“You may be able to shut out Momma and Doug like that, but it won’t work with me. I’m not letting this go, little sister.”
Carol sighs. She knows her sister and she knows that the conversation is far from finished. “Listen, I need to get back to work. Why don’t you come over tonight and we’ll talk, okay?”
Kate nods. “I’ll be there.”
“Okay,” Carol and Kate get up and exit the lounge together. Carol hugs her sister and Kate waves good-bye to Doug than turns to leave.
“That was quick,” Doug says as Carol walks back over to the nurses station.
“It’s not over. She’s coming over to the house tonight. I have a feeling I’m about to be ambushed.” She sighs and goes back to her work. Doug looks curiously at her, wondering what this last comment means. He decides he’d better find out.
“Hello?”
“Helen, it’s Doug.”
“Douglas? Is something wrong?” Helen Hathaway is not used to getting calls from Doug Ross. Usually, when she does, it means something bad has happened.
“No, nothing’s wrong. I just wondered if maybe you could tell me what you and Kate are up to.”
“Me and Kate? What do you mean?”
“Come on Helen. Kate came by to see Carol today. She hasn’t been to Chicago in two years and suddenly she decides to pop in for a visit right when you and I are at our wits end with your daughter. I know there is more to this than a lucky coincidence.”
“Alright Douglas. I called her. She and Lauren are both in town. I thought they could talk some sense into Carol. I’m really worried about her. Are you going to tell her?”
“No, but I think she already suspects something. She’ll know for sure when she finds out Lauren is here, too.” Lauren is Carol’s other sister. “Are both of them coming to the house tonight?” he asks.
“Yes,” Helen responds.
“Alright, I’ll make myself scarce then, give them some time alone.”
“Thank you Douglas,” Helen says.
“I just hope they have better luck than we have,” he replies.
“Me too, Douglas, me too.”
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Created by Courtney Stovall © 1998
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