ER: Doug and Carol Series

Story #29 part 1

Shelter

by: Courtney

Carol opens her eyes and looks at Doug. He’s still sleeping. It’s early, only 7am, this Sunday morning. Carol has the day off and Doug is working the night shift so they had planned to sleep in today. Somehow, though, Carol just can’t keep her eyes closed. Mostly, she’s worried about Doug. She can’t get that look, the one that he had last night when he came from his meeting with Ray, out of her head.

What had that whole thing been about anyway? Doug had put her off when she asked because her family was there. They had gone in and finished dinner with everyone, but Doug had been unusually quiet all evening. There were so many people there, though, that no one but Carol seemed to notice.

After everyone had gone home, Carol had asked him again what Ray had wanted to tell him. Doug had replied that it was nothing much, just more of Ray’s old stuff. He had never given her a straight answer. She could tell there was more to it. Doug was hiding something from her. What was it?

She looks down at him again. His sleep hardly seems peaceful. Even snuggled up in bed beside her, he seems troubled. His brow is furrowed and his jaw is set in a frown. ‘I wish you’d tell me what’s bothering you,’ she thinks as she watches him in his fitful sleep. She strokes his chest gently and wraps her arms tighter around him.

“No!” Doug screams, bolting up in bed. He’s sweating bullets and his breathing is unsteady. Carol sits up quickly beside him. It’s a little after 8am.

“Doug? What is it sweetie?” she asks, her voice filled with concern.

“Huh?” Doug is still a bit disoriented from his sleep. He looks at Carol and the anguish in his eyes scares her.

“What’s wrong, what happened?” she questions as she strokes his hair gently, trying to calm him.

“Nothing, it’s fine, everything’s fine,” he assures her. He puts his arms around her and hugs her tightly to him. Something in his embrace makes Carol think all is not as well as Doug claims. She puts her arms around him and holds him tightly as he begins to calm down. Something is definitely not right. She just wonders how long it’ll be before Doug lets her in on the secret.

It’s ten o’clock on Sunday morning when Charlie finally appears from her room. Doug and Carol are already finished with their breakfast and sitting together in the living room. Charlie says good morning to them as she passes on her way to the kitchen. She reappears a few moments later with a cup of coffee and a bagel.

“Why are you guys up so early? I thought you’d be sleeping late,” she comments between bites of her bagel.

“I don’t know,” Carol shrugs. “We just weren’t as tired as we thought, I guess. We both woke up pretty early.” She definitely isn’t about to mention the nightmare that had pulled Doug from his sleep this morning.

Charlie nods. “Well, I’m headed for the shower,” she says. “I have to meet John and Maggie at noon.”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, have fun. Do you need a ride?” Carol asks.

“No, I’ll take the train,” she says.

“Are you sure? I can take you, it’s no problem,” Doug offers.

“No, it’s not necessary. Enjoy your day off. I’ll be fine,” with that, she turns to head upstairs and get ready.

The day begins much later at Nina Pomerantz’s place. At 11am, she and Mark are still snuggled together under the warmth of the comforter. Despite the dinner reservations they had the previous evening, they had never made it out of her apartment. They’d gotten up for dinner around 10pm, but instead of getting dressed to go back out, they had decided they’d rather just make sandwiches. As Mark sat across from Nina at her kitchen table, both wearing only their robes, he couldn’t remember the last peanut butter sandwich that he’d enjoyed so much.

Now, as he opens his eyes and looks at Nina, he can’t believe how happy he is. ‘When did things start to go from so bad to so good?’ he wonders. It hadn’t been long since he was at Doug’s apartment, lamenting over Susan. When she left, he thought nothing could ever be the same. He didn’t expect to find happiness again. He was even seeing Nina then, but things had been different. Somehow, over the last few weeks, things with he and Nina had changed. He couldn’t explain it. There was just something else now, something they’d been missing before. Things finally felt right. He could easily be falling in love with Nina Pomerantz. And the most amazing thing was that this thought didn’t scare him at all. On the contrary, it made him happier than he had been in ages.

Nina opens her eyes and smiles at Mark. “Hi,” she says sleepily.

“Hi,” he says back.

“What time is it?” she asks.

“About eleven,” he replies.

“That late? We better get up. I have to pick Emma up at 2.”

“We have a little time,” he says as he leans over to kiss her.

She smiles as she wraps her arms around his neck and holds him close. She replies, “Yeah, maybe just a little . . .”

“Well, look who it is,” Maggie says as Charlie enters the restaurant and approaches the table where she and John are waiting.

“Hey,” Charlie smiles.

“Gosh, it’s been so long, I’m surprised I still recognize you,” Maggie teases as Charlie sits.

“Oh come on, it hasn’t been that long,” Charlie laughs.

“How’s it been going?” Maggie asks.

“Not bad. You?”

“Okay. So, John here tells me you had a hot date Friday night. Spill it.”

Charlie laughs at this then proceeds to tell Maggie about her date with Josh. “We’re going out again next weekend,” she says.

“That’s great. So, you really like this guy huh?” Maggie asks.

“Yeah, he’s nice. You two will have to meet him sometime. As long,” she says, directing this next comment particularly to John, “as you promise to behave.”

“What are you looking at me for?” he asks, feigning innocence.

“I wonder,” Maggie rolls her eyes playfully at him.

“You should have heard him and Doug yesterday at lunch. It was like an inquisition or something,” Charlie smirks.

“Alright, alright, I won’t even ask next time,” John says with a grin. “I’ll keep my mouth shut. Doug does enough digging anyway. I’m sure nothing will get past him.”

“Count on that,” Charlie smiles.

“Oh, I almost forgot, congratulations on the adoption. John was just telling me about it this morning,” Maggie says.

“Yeah, well hold your congratulations until it’s final,” Charlie says.

“It’ll work out. Don’t worry,” John tells her. She nods. “So, what’s everyone having for lunch?” he asks.

They pick up their menus and begin debating what looks best. Charlie has really missed her friends and has a nice lunch catching up on the last two weeks.

Doug sighs as he sits down on the sofa. It’s just after lunch time and Carol is down in the basement doing laundry. He offered to help her but she told him no, she’d be fine. Actually, he wishes she would let him help. It would be good to think about something so trivial as the laundry. Since his meeting with Ray last night, he’s been unable to get his mind off of everything his father told him. He can’t decide if he should tell Carol though. He trusts her, that’s not the problem. It’s just, ever since the accident, Doug knows Carol’s been thinking about children. They’ve talked a few times about it, but they’ve never made any definite decisions. The only thing they are both sure of is that they want to have more kids, they just don’t know when.

His thoughts go back to Matthew. Matthew . . . finally he has a name to link with the pictures in his mind of the little boy. Well, he’s hardly little anymore. He’s about 13 now. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. The time seems to have flown by since those days. It seems like he just saw Gwyn, how could it have been so long?

Gwyn, there’s another story. ‘I wonder where she is now?’ Doug thinks. He would have never guessed she’d have given their son up. Doug wonders if Gwyn knows where Matthew is. Has she seen him? Do they have any sort of relationship? Suddenly there are a million questions to ask and Doug doesn’t have any of the answers.

He rubs his face and groans in frustration at the mess his life has turned into in just a few hours. He gets up from the bed and walks over to the living room window. Looking outside, Doug wonders about his son. What does he look like? Does he know he’s adopted? Is he good at sports? Does he get good grades? It’s so frustrating for him to not know the simplest things about this boy. How can he not go see him?

‘But how can I do that to a 13 year old?’ Doug thinks. ‘I’ve never been there for him his whole entire life, now I’m just going to waltz in and except him to want to know me? I can’t do that.’ He sighs and turns away from the window. Why is everything so confusing? He really needs someone to talk to, but who? Is it fair for him to lay all of this on Carol? She has enough to worry about. But who else is he going to tell?

Carol pours detergent into the washing machine as the water begins soaking the clothes within. She closes the lid and turns to lean against the wall behind her as she folds the clothes she just removed from the dryer. As she’s folding, she’s thinking about Doug. Something is wrong with him, she’s almost sure of it. But what could it be? He’s obviously trying to act normal, but she knows him too well to be completely fooled. At least, she thinks she does. Could she be wrong? Is she jumping to conclusions?

Still, she’s fairly certain she’s not off base on this. And, if something is wrong, what could it be? There is one thought that has crossed her mind. She and Doug have been talking a little lately about having more children. So far they haven’t really had any discussions where they actually made a decision, but they have been talking about it. He knows she wants more kids and from what he says he wants the same thing. Maybe, with their decision to adopt Charlie and all, he’s started thinking about it and he’s having second thoughts.

She hopes that isn’t the case. More than anything in the world, Carol wants to have more children. She sees children and families coming into the ER and she can’t help but wonder if she and Doug will ever have that. She’d love to come home everyday to a house full of kids. But, right now, it’s just a dream. She just hopes that dream isn’t starting to slip away.

“I really have to go,” Nina says as she pulls her lips reluctantly from Mark’s. They are in the garage of her apartment building, standing by her car. She’s about to leave to go and pick up Emma from her dad’s house. Unfortunately, the time for she and Mark to leave each other has come all too soon for them both.

“You work tomorrow?” Mark asks, still clutching her waist and holding her to him.

“Yep, 8-5,” Nina replies.

“Well, how about I meet you for lunch? I’m off tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but you’re on tonight till 7 o’clock in the morning. You’ll be beat by tomorrow. Why don’t you just sleep and I’ll call you when I get home?”

“I have a better idea. How about I stay in bed and you use your lunch break to come over and join me?” Mark smiles wickedly and meets Nina’s lips in yet another passionate kiss.

She giggles as they part. “You might just have yourself a date Dr. Greene.”

“I’m counting on it Dr. Pomerantz,” he smiles and kisses he once more.

“Okay, now I’ve really got to go. Paul will be wondering where I am.” Nina pulls gently away and opens her car door then climbs inside. She closes the door and rolls down the window so Mark can give her one last kiss before she pulls out of the garage. He watches her pull away and smiles to himself. So far, it’s been a really good day.

Carol walks into the bathroom at about 2pm. Doug is standing in front of the mirror, shaving. She sets her armload of towels onto the counter and looks at him. “I thought you weren’t on tonight until seven,” she comments.

“I’m not. I just thought I’d go ahead and get ready. I have a few things to catch up on so I thought I’d leave a little early,” he tells her as he rinses his face and, wincing, slaps after shave onto his cheeks.

“Well, it’s still a little early, don’t you think?” she asks. She was hoping they’d have time to talk before he left. Even though he’s seemed fine since this morning, Carol still can’t shake this feeling she has that there’s something Doug isn’t telling her.

“I won’t leave just yet,” he says, smiling. “I just thought I’d get ready while you finished the laundry so we could spend as much time as possible together before I leave.” He turns and wraps Carol in his bare arms. He’s wearing only his boxer shorts.

Doug leans in and his lips find Carol’s. They share a long kiss. Carol pulls away after a moment. “Hold that thought,” she tells him. “Let me put these towels away and then we’ll pick this back up,” she grins. Doug returns the smile and releases her from his arms.

She picks up the stack of towels and bends down to place them in the cabinet below the sink. “Ow!” she says as she gets back up, clutching her back.

“What’s wrong?” Doug asks, instantly by her side.

“Nothing,” she tells him. “We rearranged a lot of the supplies yesterday at work and I guess I did a little too much lifting. My back is killing me!”

Doug takes her hand and leads her out of the master bathroom and into the bedroom. He reaches down and takes hold of her shirt, then pulls it up over her head. Carol turns and kisses him, rubbing her hands on his chest. “Lie down,” Doug instructs her. She does so, lying on her back. “Turn over on your stomach,” he tells her. She again follows his instructions and he sits beside her on the bed. Doug then unfastens Carol’s bra and begins giving her a back massage.

“Oh, that feels so good,” Carol moans. He continues rubbing her back for at least half an hour. Finally, his hands are tired so he stops. Carol turns over, “If I didn’t already love you, that would have definitely made me fall for you,” she tells him with a smile.

Doug grins and bends down to lay beside her. Their lips meet in a passionate kiss. As their kisses grow more demanding, Doug slips off the unfastened bra that hangs on Carol’s shoulders. He looks into her eyes. “I love you so much,” he tells her.

“I know. I love you, too,” she says as she pulls him to her for another kiss. They make love, Doug just needing to be close to her. It’s strange, how safe and secure just being near her makes him feel. Maybe it’s because, when he’s with Carol, he knows he is with someone who truly loves him, no matter what. That makes all the difference in the world.

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