ER: Doug and Carol Series

Story #33 continued

Calm Before The Storm

by: Courtney

The next week goes by quickly and it is soon February 13th, the day before Valentine's Day. Doug and Carol are both working because they have the next two days off. They plan to spend the next day together, then Monday she has a doctor's appointment and Doug wanted to be sure they were both there.

It's Saturday night and most everyone else seems to be celebrating the holiday early. Mark is busy finishing charts so he can meet Nina at some fancy French restaurant she wants to try, Charlie is at home getting ready for a date with Josh, and Anna and Carter are both on all night, but they don't seem to mind. They've been in the lounge together all evening.

Doug laughs as he comes out of the lounge with a cup of coffee. "I thought you were on a break?" Carol says to him as he approaches the nurse's station.

"I was, but I think there's a party going on in there I am not invited to," he laughs.

"Oh, I see. Carter and Del Amico, right? Jeez . . ." Carol says and rolls her eyes.

"Hey, I don't think it sounds like such a bad idea. Maybe we should take a queue from them and go see how our storage room is looking these days," he says with a mischievous smile.

"Behave," Carol says.

"I'll try, but I make no promises," he tells her.

Just then, the radio goes off. "This is Cook County," Carol says into it. The dispatcher then informs her of a multiple car pile up on the Eisenhower.

"At least five coming your way," he says. Carol lets him know that she will have everyone ready.

Doug smiles at her then says, "So much for our slow night."

By 11pm, the commotion has died down. All of the accident victims have either been released or taken up to surgery. Mark is long gone for his date with Nina. And, Carter and Del Amico have returned to the lounge.

"So, how's everything going down here?" Kerry Weaver asks as she approaches the desk. Doug, Malik, and Lydia are gathered around playing cards and Carol is reading a magazine.

"Pretty slow," Carol replies.

"Yeah, I'll say," Kerry says. "Well, I have some paperwork to catch up on. I think I'll go work on that for a while. I'll be upstairs if you need me," and with that Kerry is gone. Carol turns back to her magazine and the rest go back to their card game.

A few minutes later, Doug turns and notices Carol has put down her magazine and is just sitting on her stool, leaning on the counter. She has an odd look on her face and this worries him. "Hey, guys, I think I'm gonna sit this hand out," he tells the others.

"Suit yourself," Malik says and begins to deal the cards again.

Doug gets up and walks over to Carol. Quietly, he says, "You okay?"

"Hmm?" she looks up at him. "Oh, yeah, fine," she replies.

"You sure? You don't look so good."

"I'm just tired I guess."

"Well, why don't you go get some sleep? You won't be missing anything, that's for sure."

"I don't know . . ."

"Oh come on, even Kerry found something better to do. Follow me," then he takes her by the arm and gently guides her off the stool. She follows reluctantly as he leads her away from the desk. They go into an empty exam room and Doug closes the door behind them. He then leads Carol over to the bed and pulls back the sheets. "Lay down," he tells her.

"Doug, I . . ." she starts to protest but he won't hear another word.

"Just listen to the professional, okay?" he grins.

She smiles and gets in the bed. He sits down beside her and leans over to kiss her. "Oh, this is very professional," she giggles.

"Special patients get the very best treatment," he tells her.

"Well, you better not be giving this kind of 'treatment' to anyone else," she says.

"I'd never dream of it," he says, then leans down to kiss her again. "Okay, I better go so you can get some rest," he says as he gets up.

"Oh, can't you stay a while?"

"Now, you know you won't get any sleep if I do," he grins.

"Who needs sleep?" she grins.

"It's a tempting offer, but you really do look like you could use some sleep. I'll wake you if we need you, okay?" he bends over and kisses her on the forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she smiles. She squeezes his hand as he turns to leave and slowly releases it as he walks away. When he's about halfway to the door, their fingers finally part. He smiles and winks at her then blows her a kiss and leaves. She smiles to herself then rolls over and within minutes she's asleep.

"Where's Carol?" Lydia asks when Doug returns to the front desk by himself.

"She's taking a nap," he replies.

"Is she sick?"

"No, I think she's just tired," he says. Suddenly, he gets a mischievous grin on his face and says, "So, who's up for some wheelchair racing?"

Malik grins too and says, "Let's get the chairs."

It's nearly 7am when Doug and Carol finally enter the house that Sunday morning. Despite her nap, Carol is still very tired. And Doug spent most of the night goofing off with Lydia and Malik so he's pretty tired, too.

"You hungry?" Carol asks as they hang up their coats.

"Nope, all I want right now is a pair of sweatpants and a nice warm bed."

"Sounds good to me," Carol replies as she wraps her arm around his waist and lays her head on his shoulder. Doug puts his arm around her, too, and they start together up the stairs.

It's several hours later when they finally get up. Doug is surprised when he wakes up at noon and Carol is still sleeping. It's not like her to sleep so late, especially after she slept most of the night, too. He figures she must be getting the flu or something. He reaches over and feels her head but she's not warm. This does, however, wake her up.

"What are you doing?" she asks sleepily as she opens her eyes.

"Just checking to see if you had a fever. You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, don't be such a doctor."

He grins and lies back down beside her. "So, what are we going to do today?"

"I don't know, what do you want to do?"

"Well, I thought maybe . . ." he is cut short by a knock at the door.

"Everybody decent?" Charlie asks from the hallway.

"Yeah, come on in," Carol calls back.

"Good morning," Charlie says as she enters. She's already dressed and carrying two cups of coffee. "Here you go," she hands the coffees to them.

"Thank you," they both reply.

"You sure are cheerful this morning. I guess this means the date went well?" Carol says as she sips her coffee.

"Yeah, it was okay."

"Just okay?" Doug says curiously.

"Yeah . . . well, you know," Charlie replies. Doug raises an eyebrow and starts to say something but Carol nudges him and he stops.

"Well, I guess I'll go work on my homework. I just heard you two talking and figured I'd say good morning," Charlie sets up to leave.

As soon as she's gone, Carol gets out of bed. "Where are you going?" Doug asks.

"To check on her."

"Check on her doing homework?" he asks.

"No, to see what's bugging her," she says as she pulls on her robe.

"What makes you think something's bugging her?"

Carol shakes her head and smiles with the look of someone who knows a secret between only a select few. "Trust me, I know."

Doug shakes his head and falls back into the pillows. "Women," he mumbles.

"Charlie?" Carol calls through the door as she knocks softly.

"Yeah?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure, it's open."

Carol opens the door and walks in to find Charlie sitting on the windowsill looking out. "Hey . . . feel like talking about it?"

Charlie continues to look out the window as Carol closes the door and walks over to stand beside her. "I don't know . . . it's just . . . Well, I'm really confused about Josh."

"What do you mean?"

"Well . . . I'm just not sure what to tell him. I mean, he knows I haven't been completely honest with him about my past . . . but how do I tell him that stuff? How can I be sure he'll feel the same about me when he knows exactly who I am?"

"Charlie . . ." Carol moves closer and puts her hand on Charlie's shoulder. "You are not the same girl any more. That part of your past isn't part of who you are now."

"Sure it is. I mean, I'm different because of all of that aren't I?"

Carol thinks a minute. "Yeah, I guess you are. But, we all have things in our past that are hard for us to tell people . . . even the people closest to us."

"Was it this hard for you? Telling Doug about the rape?" Charlie turns to look at her.

Carol nods. "Yeah, yeah, it was pretty hard. I felt the same way you do right now. I was scared of what Doug would think of me after that. I was afraid I'd lose him. But, in the end, I knew if I was going to spend the rest of my life with him I had to be completely honest."

"Did you always know? That you wanted to be with him forever, I mean?"

Carol smiles softly. "Yeah, I guess somewhere deep down I knew from the first time I saw him. He came into the ER with his 'I'm a stud' attitude . . ." she and Charlie giggle at this. "But, then he asked me where he could find Dr. Morgenstern and I looked up to see who was talking to me. When I saw him, two thoughts crossed my mind: Who does this guy think he is? And is he single?" Carol laughs. "I guess I should have known then that I was never going to be able to get away from him."

"Not exactly love at first sight then, huh?" Charlie comments.

"Oh, but it was, in it's own way," Carol replies.

"Well, I'm not sure how I feel about Josh . . . I want to tell him everything, to be completely honest and open. But then . . . then I start thinking what if he can't see past all this? What if I'm misjudging things and I should just keep my mouth shut."

"Yeah, it's a tough situation. Sometimes we all have to make hard decisions. Sometimes they end up being the best ones of your life . . . and other times they don't. I think you should follow your heart."

"But, what if my heart does the wrong thing?"

"It won't," Carol says. She sits down on the windowsill alongside Charlie so that they are facing one another. "You know something? All my life I've made all my decisions with my head. I've done the logical thing, what I thought was the best thing. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. It was never a surefire method. But, the only decision I've ever made in my whole life where I followed my heart . . . well, that one was the best decision I ever made."

"And what was that?"

Carol smiles softly, "Taking Doug back."

"Yeah, I guess that did turn out to be a pretty good decision," she says.

"So, what are you going to tell Josh?"

"Nothing yet. I think I still need sometime to think things over . . . and my heart is telling me to wait," she smiles softly at Carol.

Carol nods and pulls her close for a hug.

Doug and Carol finally get up and go about their plans for the day. They go to dinner at a nice restaurant. Doug offers to dance with Carol, but she's not feeling up to it. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asks, knowing this is very unlike her.

"Yeah, fine, just kind of tired."

"Well, maybe we should go then," he offers.

"Yeah, maybe so," she says. He gets their coats and they head home.

It's about 9 o'clock when they come in the house. Charlie peeks her head out to ask if they had a good time. They tell her yes and she kisses them both good night before going back to finish her homework before bed.

Doug leads Carol into their bedroom and they both dress for bed. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asks as they get in bed.

"I'm fine." She takes his hand and places it on her forehead, "See, not even warm. Besides, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. You can tell her all about how worried you are then," she smiles.

"And don't think I won't either," he assures her.

She rolls her eyes and snuggles in beside him under the blanket. "Good night, Doug."

"Goodnight," he says, planting a kiss on top of her head. Carol falls asleep almost immediately, but Doug stays up for a while. He can't help but worry about her. He knows she's probably fine. And she right, they are going to the doctor tomorrow but . . . something just won't stop telling him there is something else wrong. He finally decides he's just being overprotective and he, too, falls asleep.

4:30am. Doug wakes up suddenly. He's not sure why or what has brought him from his sleep. He looks around the room, wondering if it was a noise that woke him. There's no one there and he hears nothing. Then, his arm brushes Carol's. She's burning up. His face goes white and he feels the fear start to climb in his throat.

"Carol?" she whispers. No answer. "Carol?" louder this time. Still, no answer. He reaches over to shake her. "Carol, wake up!" he's beginning to panic. He doesn't know why, but something is telling him this is not the flu. Something is very seriously wrong with her. He has to get her up.

She finally begins to stir. "Hmm? What?" she says groggily.

"Carol," relief permeates his voice.

"What?" she is still half-asleep. "What's wrong?"

"I . . . I . . . we have to get you to the hospital.'

"Why? What's going on?"

"You have a fever," he explains.

"So? Maybe I'm getting the flu after all. Get the thermometer." Doug does as she says and goes to the medicine cabinet but he still has that strange feeling. He's not satisfied that this is just your average cough and cold. This feeling, it's almost scary, but it's very real.

He comes back with the thermometer and Carol puts it in her mouth. He waits, fidgeting, unable to sit still as she holds it under her tongue. This minute seems to drag on for hours. Finally, she removes it and tries to squint at the reading. Doug takes the thermometer from her and holds it up to the light. "104!?" he says. "Come on, we're going to the hospital!" He pulls on his jeans and goes to the closet to get her clothes.

"Doug, calm down," Carol says. She starts to get up from the bed. "I've just got a little . . ."

Doug turns around just in time to see her pass out on the floor. "Carol!" he yells. He rushes to her and tries to wake her but she's out cold.

Charlie hears all the commotion and comes into the room. "What's going on?" she asks. Then, she sees Doug sitting by the bed with Carol in his arms. "Oh my God! What happened?"

"I . . . I don't know. I just . . . she woke up and . . . she had a fever . . . she tried to get up and then . . ." he trails off, looking helplessly from Carol to Charlie and back again.

"Well, come on, let's go!" Charlie says.

Doug snaps quickly back to reality. "Yeah, we have to get her to the hospital." He picks her up and walks quickly for the stairs. Charlie follows, grabbing both of their coats on her way out the door.

"Doug?" Mark says when his friend bursts through the ER doors. It takes only seconds for him to realize the woman in Doug's arms is Carol. "Oh my God . . . What happened?"

"She's sick . . . I don't know. She was tired and then she got this fever all of the sudden . . . then she just passed out," Doug is obviously very frantic by now.

Carter appears with a gurney and urges Doug to let Carol go. He finally does and they all head for the trauma room. "Doug, wait here," Mark commands.

"But I . . ." he starts to protest.

"No, wait here! We need to help her. We'll take good care of her, I promise," he assures his friend.

Doug watches helplessly as Carol is hooked up to numerous machines and doctors and nurses swarm around her. He hugs Charlie and watches, not sure what to do.

It's after 6am when Mark finally comes out of the trauma room. It's been over an hour and Doug and Charlie are sitting together in chairs, waiting for any news. Doug sees Mark approaching and stands up. The look on Mark's is solemn and Doug fears the worst. "How is she?" he asks. "She's not . . ." he can barely breath as he waits for a reply.

"No," Mark says quickly, "She's stable." A look of relief washes over Doug. "She's not out of the woods yet though," Mark warns.

"What is it? What happened to her?" he asks.

"That's the problem, I'm afraid. We have no idea."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly that. We don't know. She's stable now, but she crashed three times in the trauma room. Her breathing is so repressed we had to put her on a ventilator. We've tried everything we can think of and still no response. Frankly, I have never seen anything like this," Mark hangs his head sadly, knowing this is not the news Doug and Charlie were hoping for.

"Well, what now?" Doug asks.

"We wait. We've run every test out there to try and narrow down the cause for this. All we can do now is monitor her condition and wait for the results."

Doug nods sadly, a look of shock and confusion on his face. "Mark, can I talk to you a minute?" he asks.

"Sure," Mark says.

"I'll be right back," Doug assures Charlie. He follows Mark into the lounge, which is empty. Mark sits on the couch and Doug takes a chair directly across from him. "Tell me the truth Mark . . . could she die?"

"Doug . . . I'm going to do everything in my power to prevent that," Mark says quickly. He looks at Doug and knows instantly that he has to be straight with his friend just like Doug would be straight with him if the situation were reversed. "Yes, she could," he admits.

Doug nods, clenching his fists and biting his lip, trying very hard to hold himself together.

"I'm sorry," Mark offers.

"Me too," Doug says quietly, "Me too."

The day goes by slower than anyone could have imagined. The test results trickle in one at a time, but Carol's condition remains the same. And none of the tests seem to reveal anything. By the end of the day, Carol is moved to the ICU and a specialist, Dr. Hoffman, is called in. He, too, is unable to determine exactly what is wrong with Carol. He does, however, have a theory.

"Probably a virus of some sort," he tells Dr. Michael Phillips, the ICU physician on call. "It's apparent something is attacking her systems. She's probably been fending it off for a few days and it finally won out." Doug, who's sitting at Carol's bedside, holding her hand and listening, recalls how tired she's been for the last few days. "Unfortunately, it's not a virus I've ever seen. There are similarities to several but just enough differences to rule out each possibility."

"So, how did she get this?" Doug asks.

Dr. Hoffman replies, "That we may never know, I'm afraid. It's not an airborne virus so she may have contracted it here at the hospital. Then again, she could have gotten it anywhere, the subway, the grocery store. Maybe she cut her finger and then, later, picked up a soda can and got it that way. We can never be sure about these things."

"Okay, so what's the bottom line here? What can you do for her?" Doug asks.

"At this point, we wait. We can't cure something if we don't know what it is. Sometimes these things pass as quickly as they came. Other times . . ." he gives Doug a look that tells him all too clearly what the alternative may be. "I'm sorry," Dr. Hoffman says.

Doug nods but doesn't reply. Everyone is sorry, everyone feels awful, but no one can change any of this. Nobody can help Carol. All anyone can tell him is that they have to wait and see what happens. So, he'll wait.

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Created by Courtney Stovall © 1998

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