ER: Doug and Carol Series

Story # 24 continued

Sisters and Other Friends

by: Courtney

“Hey Mark, can I talk to you a minute?” Doug says as he enters the lounge and sees Mark hunched over a pile of paperwork at the table.

“Sure,” Mark looks up and gestures to the empty chair to his left. “Have a seat.”

Doug sits and looks at Mark, “Rachel’s not coming down this weekend is she?”

“No,” Mark replies, “she’s coming next weekend, why?”

“Well, I was hoping maybe I could crash at your place tonight,” he says.

“Sure, you and Carol have a fight or something?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s just that her sisters are in town and Helen wants them to talk to her, see if they can get her to open up. I thought I should give them all some time alone.”

“No problem, Hotel Greene at your service,” Mark smiles.

“Thanks bud,” Doug says, slapping Mark’s back. “I better get back,” he says as he gets up to exit the lounge.

The honking of a car horn draws Charlie’s attention to the front window in her room. She looks down at the street below and sees Michelle Williams’ red Cabriolet parked out front The convertible top is down and there are two other girls in the car with her. Charlie grabs her over night bag from the bed and heads down stairs. She walks out, locking the door behind her, and makes her way down the front walk to the awaiting car.

“Hey Charlie,” Michelle says. She gets out to unlock the trunk and allow Charlie to put her bag in. The other two girls get in the back seat and Michelle and Charlie sit up front. “Charlie Chimengo, I’d like you to meet Cassie Brooks and Emma Martin.” Charlie turns in her seat to smile at the girls who both smile back. She recognizes them from school. They are both cheerleaders and she doesn’t remember ever even speaking to either girl. As Michelle pulls her car away from the curb, Charlie is beginning to wonder how good of an idea this was after all.

Carol is in the kitchen when the doorbell rings. It is just after 8 o’clock. She knows something is going on because Doug had told her that he was going out with Mark after work and he’d call her later tonight. In the months since the accident, Doug hasn’t gone out once. He’s always so worried about her that he avoids all his other commitments and neglects all of his friends to be sure he is there when she needs him. She’s sure that what waits for her behind that front door will go a long way towards explaining Doug’s sudden change of heart. She’s not too surprised when she opens her front door to find both of her sister standing on the front porch. “Hey Care-bear,” smiles Lauren Roberts at her younger sister, using the name she has called Carol since they were kids.

“Hey guys, come on in,” Carol smiles and steps back to let her sisters enter.

“That’s it?” Lauren says as they enter. “I don’t see you in over a year and all I get is ‘Hey guys, come on in’?”

Carol looks at her. “Let’s just say I had a feeling you’d be coming,” she tells her.

“Yeah, we kind of figured you would,” Kate says.

Carol looks at her sisters and nods slowly, “You guys even got Doug in on this I see,” she says.

“Huh?” Lauren looks at Kate then back at Carol.

“Doug called Momma today,” Kate tells Lauren. “He didn’t know we were coming until today, Carol, I swear. He just kind of got the feeling something was up after I visited you at the hospital today.”

Carol nods. “Well, now that you’re here and we have the house to ourselves, we might as well sit down and talk. That’s why you both came all of this way, right?” Lauren and her husband Phil had been living in Montana for the last five years. She is the oldest of the sisters, 35, and, much to their mother’s disappointment, she and Phil have no children. Kate and Rick have two kids, Bonny, who is four and Marybeth, who is 7. They live in Georgia, where Rick is from. Kate is the middle sister. She’s 33, three years older than Carol.

“So,” Lauren says as they all sit together in the living room, “you know why we’re here so let’s get to it. Let’s talk, little sister.”

Carol looks at her sisters. The three of them are all so different, yet so much alike. They all have dark hair and green eyes, they got that from their mom. Carol and Kate both have curls, but somehow Lauren had ended up with straight hair. She had gotten in cut since Carol had seen her last. It is at her shoulders and turned under. Kate’s hair is long, much like Carol’s but not quite as curly. She has it pulled up in a pony tail tonight. Physically, it is easy to tell these women are sisters. But, as soon as the conversation begins, the similarities end.

Kate is a housewife. That’s what she always wanted to be. Her husband is an executive at Coca-Cola enterprises in Atlanta and she stays home with her two girls and does, as Lauren calls it, ‘the Donna Reed thing’.

Lauren, on the other hand, is the most business oriented of the sisters. She owns a computer firm and seems to get more and more successful by the day. Her husband, Phil, is a writer who currently has two books on the New York Times bestsellers list. They both agreed when they got married that they didn’t want kids. This was fine with them both, but Helen was less than thrilled. She had gotten over it though and, now, she loved Phil like a son.

Carol has never been totally work oriented like Lauren or totally family oriented like Kate. She’s spent her life being sort of a mix between her tow sisters. Sometimes, she feels like she’s trying so hard to get what each of them have, that she’ll never be happy because she’ll never be able to have both worlds. It’s just that the thought of choosing one over the other has always meant she would lose too much either way. Until July, she felt like she’d finally found that middle ground she’d always searched for. Now, she’s not sure it even exists.

“Who’s this?” Lauren asks, picking up a picture from the coffee table. It’s a picture of Charlie, Doug and Carol at last year’s hospital Christmas party. Carol points out Doug and Charlie for both of her sisters. “He’s very handsome,” Lauren comments. “And Charlie is a cute girl. When will we get to meet them?”

“Kate met Doug today. I guess I’ll have to bring him and Charlie over to Momma’s tomorrow so everyone can meet in person while you’re all in town,” Carol says.

Lauren nods and returns the picture to it’s place on the coffee table. “Momma couldn’t say enough about Charlie. She really likes her.”

“They get along pretty well,” Carol says.

“So, Care-bear, when are you going to stop dancing around and talk to us?” Lauren asks. She always was the abrupt one.

“I’m not, I just . . . I really don’t know what you two want me to say. You know, I’ve been through this a million times with Momma and Doug. There’s really nothing left to talk about,” she rises from her seat on the couch and goes over to look out the window at the dark Chicago streets. Fall is approaching and the dark is beginning to descend earlier. “I just want to move on.”

Lauren and Kate get up and go to stand beside their sister at the window. “We know that. But, you can’t move on by just ignoring how you feel, by pushing everyone away. You’re not getting over anything, Carol. You’re just shoving it aside to deal with later. Well, it’s time to start dealing,” Lauren looks into Carol’s eyes and Carol turns away towards the window.

“Please talk to us, sweetie. We want to help you,” Kate says.

Carol breathes deeply and bites her lower lip. She’s trying very hard to keep it together. She’s knows how hard it will be to stop once she relinquishes her control. But, her sisters know exactly which buttons to push. Before she can stop it, a tear escapes her eye, then another. Within moments, she is sobbing. Lauren and Kate wrap their arms around her and hug her tightly as she cries. They lead her to the couch and all three of them sit silently while Carol releases all of the anguish that has been building in her for so long.

“There he is,” Michelle hisses. Charlie looks in the direction her friend has indicated and sees Josh Moreland. He’s standing by the concession stand with Riley Phelps and several other basketball players. When he sees Charlie and Michelle, he begins to walk towards them. “I better go find Cassie and Emma,” Michelle says and before Charlie can stop her, her friend has bolted away. She’s left all alone as Josh approaches.

“Hi,” he says to her.

“Hi,” she replies.

“So, you don’t come to many of these,” he says, indicating the football game. “I’m glad you decided to give it a chance,” he flashes her a grin and Charlie is not sure what to say.

“Yeah, me too,” is all she can come up with.

“Would you like to take a walk?” Josh asks,

“Um, sure,” Charlie responds. The football field is in the center of the track that is used by the school track team. During games, a lot of people walk around the track. Charlie and Josh begin to walk and their conversation is awkward, at first. By the time they’ve made it halfway around the track, though, Charlie is beginning to grow more comfortable with Josh. He asks her questions about her art classes and her volunteer work and he tells her about his job at the movie theatre and about the new car he just got.

“So, maybe you’d like to see a movie with me sometime. I get into all the shows free and I can bring a guest,” he smiles at her.

“Sure, Josh, I’d like that,” she replies, returning the smile. Her night at the football game goes better than she had planned. By the time it’s over, she’s sorry to have to leave. She’s spent most of the evening talking to Josh and they have had a lot of fun together. He’s nothing like she expected him to be. He’s not just some dumb jock, he really is a nice guy.

“How about next Friday night?” he asks as they say good-bye while Michelle and the others go to get the car.

“For what?” Charlie asks.

“The movies. Would you like to go next Friday?”

“Oh, sure,” Charlie smiles.

Josh leans forward and she’s sure he’s going to kiss her. But, instead, he leans even closer and puts his lips close to her ear. “I had a great time tonight. Until Friday.”

She can still feel his breath on her neck as she turns to leave. Josh watches her go with a grin on his face.

“Here you go,” Mark says as he hands Doug a bottle of cold beer and sits down on his living room sofa. Doug is in a nearby chair and thanks his friend as he opens the bottle. “So, what did she say when you told her you were staying over here?”

“Nothing. I mean, I didn’t tell her. I just said I was going out with you after work and that I’d call her later.”

“She was suspicious I’ll bet,” Mark says, taking a swig of beer.

“I’ll say. You should have seen the look she gave me. She knew something was going on. I think she knew as soon as she saw Kate today,” Doug tells him.

“Probably. If not, she definitely knows by now,” Mark glances at his watch and sees that it is almost 11 o’clock at night.

“I wonder if I should call her,” Doug says.

“I don’t know. Her sisters might need some time. Why don’t you just wait until morning. You told them where you’d be, right?”

“I told Helen. I’m sure she told Kate and Lauren. I guess if she needs me, they’ll call,” his voice is not as convincing as his words. He’s so worried about Carol, he can concentrate on nothing else.

“She’ll be fine, buddy, don’t worry,” Mark pats Doug’s shoulder reassuringly. Doug nods but his clouded expression doesn’t clear. He can see that he has a long night ahead of him.

Carol takes the tissue that Kate offers her and wipes her nose with it. Lauren rubs her arm gently. “You want to talk?” Kate asks quietly.

Carol takes a deep breath and sits silently for a moment. Then, finally, she begins to speak. She tells her sisters about the accident, what little she remembers. She recounts the events that followed, when Doug told her about Sarah, when she began to realize that her daughter was gone, that awful trip to the morgue. She tells them of the only time she got to hold her little girl, of the sweet, angelic little face that she would never forget. And she tells them about the funeral, about seeing her little girl laid to rest. Both Lauren and Kate have tears running down their cheeks as Carol relays all of this. They each hold one of Carol’s hands and urge her to continue. She tells them of all the time she’s thought of Sarah. There have been so many dreams she’s had of her, so many times she’s seen little girls on the streets and imagined Sarah at their age. “It’s been so hard,” Carol tells them, “just to get up some mornings. I’m always afraid that something terrible is going to happen again,” she buries her head in her hands and cries harder.

“I know it’s hard, sweetie,” Lauren says, rubbing Carol’s shoulder gently, “but you can’t keep bottling things up like this. Now, I haven’t met this Doug Ross fellow, but from what I’ve heard, he’s a pretty terrific guy.”

Carol looks at her sister. She still has tears streaming down her cheeks but she manages a small smile. “You definitely didn’t talk to Momma!” she says.

“Actually, that’s exactly who told me that,” Lauren says matter-of-factly. “Momma never thought much of your Dr. Ross before, she used to tell me about how wrong he was for you. But, since the accident, I think she’s finally come to see how much he loves you. She told me he was the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“She did?” Carol is more than a little surprised.

“Yep. She wants you to be happy, Care-bear, we all do. She sees how happy you are with Doug. He’s a good man. Don’t shut him out.”

Carol listens to Lauren’s words. Her sister has always been able to get through to her when no one else could. She had forgotten how much just talking to Lauren and Kate had always helped her. They stay up for the rest of the night talking. At first, the accident and the baby are still the main topic. There is a lot that Carol needs to get off of her chest. But, by dawn, they have discussed everything from Doug, to Charlie, to their mother, and even their futures. Carol tells her sisters that she really does love Doug and that he’s definitely the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with.

“So, when’s the wedding?” Kate asks.

Carol rolls her eyes, “Bite your tongue, Katy!” she laughs. “Doug and I aren’t ready to get married.”

“What’s the difference? You live with him, you guys are practically married as it is. What difference does a ceremony make?” Kate asks.

“That’s right, what difference does it make?” Lauren says. “Carol and Doug will know when they’re ready. Until then, I just hope you two are happy. That’s all that matters,” she smiles.

“We are, I think. I mean, we used to be very happy. It’s just that lately . . . well, things have been very different since the accident. We’ve both changed so much. Sometimes I wonder if we’re still the same people anymore,” Carol says sadly.

“You are,” Lauren assures her. “You’re still the woman he loves and he’s still the man you love. I can see it on your face when you talk about him. This guy’s the one,” she smiles. “Things will just take time, that’s all.”

Carol nods, “I guess you’re right,” she says.

“Of course I am, I’m always right, little sister. Haven’t I taught you anything over the years?” All of the women laugh and continue to talk about their lives.

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