ER: Doug and Carol Series

Story #9 continued

Shadows and Light

by: Courtney

Charlie sits in the uncomfortable chair and stares blankly at the book. She is bored to tears with the American Revolution and isn’t sure how much more of this she can take. She looks around the library, self-consciously. All afternoon, she has felt as though someone has been watching her. But, every time she looks up, all of those around her seem preoccupied by their studies, oblivious to her. She tries to shrug off her discontentment and continue her report. A glance at her watch tells her it is 7:30pm. ‘I should call Doug,’ she thinks. But, she’s almost done. By the time she calls him, it would be time to leave. She’ll probably be home around the same time he is, so she turns back to her books.

Doug looks at the clock on his car dash. 8:55pm. The library closes at nine. Where is Charlie? She was supposed to be home at 8 o’clock and she never called. Doug wasn’t able to get through to the library, so he is on his way there. He has to make sure nothing has happened. He turns the corner and nears the library. He sees several students leaving, but there is no sign of Charlie. ‘Maybe I should just go in and check. She’s probably just running late and this way I can give her a ride home.’ He turns towards the parking lot.

The library lights flicker and Charlie looks up. She suddenly realizes she is one of the last remaining students here. She looks at her watch and sees that it is almost nine. ‘Doug’s going to kill me!’ she thinks. She quickly gathers her books and heads towards the door. She exits alone and the street is pretty dark. There are very few people left outside. She begins to walk towards the train station. She glances around the parking lot as she walks and spies what looks like Doug’s car. ‘Could he be here?’ she wonders. She feels a hand grip her shoulder and turns, expecting to see Doug there. Instead, though, she is meet by the angry face of the very last person she wants to see: Tommy. She tries to get away, but his grip is too tight.

“Hey Charlie. Long time no see, huh?” She smells vodka on his breath and she can tell he’s high on something. “Aren’t you glad to see your old friend? Or are you too good for me now, huh?”

“Hi Tommy,” she says, trying to calm him a little so she might have the opportunity to get away.

“That’s better. Do you have a kiss for me?” He lunges towards her and she dodges him. This makes him angry and he draws back and smacks her as hard as he can square in the face. The force knocks her to the snow covered ground in the between the library and a vacant coffee shop. Before she can recover her footing, Tommy is on top of her. He raises his fist and she squeezes her eyes shut, anticipating the blow. Suddenly, she feels his weight lift off of her. Opening her eyes, Charlie sees someone dragging Tommy off of her. It only takes a moment before she recognizes her protector. It’s Doug.

Charlie scrambles back and struggles to her feet. Doug has a hold of Tommy’s arms and is shaking him. “You stay the hell away from her you son of a bitch!” Doug yells, then he belts Tommy in the jaw. Tommy staggers back. He is stunned for a moment, then lunges at Doug. Because Tommy is drunk, as well as stoned, he is no match for someone his own size. Doug knocks him to the ground with one swift punch. Tommy rubs his jaw. He looks up with fire in his eyes at Doug, but stays on the ground. “Get the hell out of here before I really make you sorry!” Doug yells down at him.

Tommy gets to his feet and backs away. “I’ll get you for this!” he screams, pointing at Charlie. “You’d better watch yourself little girl!”

“Get out of here!” Doug hollers again and Tommy staggers away.

When he is out of sight, Doug turns to Charlie, who is balanced on the exterior wall of the library to keep herself up. He runs over and puts his arm around her. “Are you alright?” he asks.

She nods, still stunned. He puts his arms tightly around her, supporting her as they make their way to his car. Once they are safely inside, he quickly examines her injuries. The hit she took from Tommy has already caused a bluish-black bruise to rise to the whole left side of her face. “We should get you to the hospital,” he says.

“No, please, just take me home. I don’t want to go to the hospital, not tonight.”

Doug is reluctant, but finally agrees not to take her to the hospital just yet. However, instead of driving back to the apartment, he drives to Carol’s house. He helps Charlie to the door and Carol lets them inside. “What on earth happened to you?” she asks at the sight of Charlie’s face.

“Tommy met her outside the library for a little ‘chat,’” Doug says with disgust. He leads Charlie to the couch and sets her gently down.

“I’ll get some ice,” Carol says as Doug more thoroughly examines the bruise. He takes out a penlight and stares into her eyes.

“No sign of a concussion,” he says as Carol returns with the ice pack. She instructs Charlie to hold it to the bruise and sits down beside her on the sofa. “Is it alright if she stays here tonight? I’m leaving for work at 6am and I don’t want to leave her alone.”

“Sure,” Carol says as she reassuringly rubs Charlie’s shoulder.

The swelling begins to subside from Charlie’s face and Doug and Carol help her up the stairs to her room to get some rest. “Just call if you need anything,” Carol tells her. She pats Charlie’s hand, smiles, and leaves, turning out the lights as she goes.

Doug and Carol proceed to her room across the hall and close the door. She turns to him, “What’s going on?” she asks. “What exactly happened?”

Doug is sitting on the edge of the bed and he has a bewildered look on his face. “I don’t know. It was getting late and she never called, so I drove over to the library to look for her. I was walking up to the door when I heard a scream from around the side of the building. I knew it was Charlie’s voice, so I ran around and found Tommy with his hand drawn back over her. I just went crazy,” he says somberly. “I could have killed that little asshole for touching her! I don’t even know how many times I hit him. I just couldn’t stop.” He looks up at Carol, his expression distraught.

She sits beside him and takes his hand. It is cut from the punches he delivered to Tommy. Carol brings his hand to her lips and kisses his swollen knuckles. She touches his cheek with her hand, her eyes offering a bit of solace. She leads him to the bathroom and cleans his scraped up hand and bandages it. “You okay?” she asks as they return to the bedroom.

“Yeah, fine.” He starts for the door.

“No, don’t go. Stay here tonight. You shouldn’t be alone and Charlie may need you.” Carol walks over to the door and puts her arms around Doug, hugging him tightly. He brings his arms up around her and returns the embrace. They cling to one another for a few more moments. Then, she leads him to the bed. He removes his shoes, pants, and oxford shirt and climbs under the covers with her in his T-shirt and boxers. She wraps her arms around him and strokes his hair and back, comforting him as he has comforted her so often in the past.

Doug wakes at 5am the next morning. His body is still intertwined with Carol’s. He gently slips out of bed, but can’t escape without waking her. Her eyes open as he pulls himself to his feet. “Good morning,” she says in a sleepy voice. Yawning, she sits up in bed.

“Good morning,” he replies in a gravelly voice. “Sorry to wake you. I’ll be out of here soon.”

“Oh, no problem,” she reaches for his hand as he comes around to her side of the bed. Taking it, she pulls him down to sit beside her on the bed and brings her lips to his for a slow kiss. “You on all day?” she asks as their lips part.

“Yep. I’m off tonight at 8 o’clock.”

“What should we do about Charlie? Are you going to send her to school?”

Doug shakes his head. “I don’t think so. I’ll call and talk to her teachers. Hopefully they’ll understand. What time are you on today?”

“Noon.”

Doug nods, thinking. “I’ll have to figure something to do for the eight hours we both work. I don’t think she should be alone. I’ll call you in a few hours from work, okay?”

“Sure,” Carol says. He kisses her once more, then heads for the shower.

Doug enters the lounge at five minutes till six. Mark is at the table, hunched over his weekly paperwork. “Morning,” Doug greets him.

“Hey, how’s it going this morning?” Mark replies, looking up.

“Not so hot,” Doug says, taking a seat on the nearby sofa. He proceeds to tell Mark about Charlie’s encounter with Tommy the previous night. Mark listens to his friend’s story attentively.

About halfway through it, Carter walks into the lounge to get a cup of coffee. Hearing that something has happened to Charlie, he turns around. Doug concludes his story as Carter approaches the two men. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard what you said about Charlie. Is she doing okay?”

Doug turns to his young colleague and smiles slightly. “Yeah, just shaken up mostly. We’re still keeping an eye on her, though. I want to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion or anything.” This thought prompts him to turn back to Mark. “Which reminds me, Carol’s on at noon and I’m on till eight. Any ideas on what I can do with Charlie during that time?”

“Sorry, I’m off to Milwaukee this afternoon. I’m spending Thanksgiving with Rachel tomorrow and my train leaves at two. I could swing by and check on her before I leave, though.”

Doug nods and begins to respond, when Carter breaks in. “I’m off at one this afternoon, Dr. Ross. I’d be glad to stay with her until you’re off tonight.”

Doug looks up, “You sure Carter? I mean, I’d be really grateful, but you don’t have any other plans or anything?”

Carter shrugs, “I have loads of paperwork to catch up. I can do it there as well as I can here.”

“Thanks, Carter. I’d really appreciate it.” Doug smiles at him.

“No problem. Is she at your place or Carol’s?”

“Carol’s. You know where it is, right?”

“Yep. I’ve been to a few of her parties. I’ll be there a little after one.”

Doug nods and thanks Carter again as he gets up to leave. “Okay, fellas, I’m off to work.” Doug grabs his coat and stethoscope and heads out of the lounge, leaving Mark to return to his paperwork and Carter to nurse his coffee.

John Carter stops his car in front of Carol Hathaway’s home. He gets out and walks to the front door. The key Carol gave him slides easily into the lock and he enters the house. “Charlie?” he calls into the silence. No answer. ‘She must be sleeping,’ he thinks. He has an armload of papers and large briefcase with him. Making his way into the kitchen, he sets his things onto the table and sits down to begin working on some charts.

About twenty minutes later, at around 1:30pm, Charlie walks into the kitchen. Her hair is hanging in wet strands around her face. Carter looks up to see her enter. “Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” she replies. Her face is not as swollen as it was last night, but, if anything, the bruise has gotten worse. One whole side of her face is a dark, bluish-black color.

“That still hurt?” Carter asks as she sits beside him at the kitchen table.

She nods. “My arm’s better though,” she says with a wry smile.

Carter smiles slightly, then looks more serious. “That guy is pretty bad news.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. I’m just glad Doug showed up when he did. Otherwise . . .,” she trails off, looking down at her hands.

“I’m just glad he was there,” Carter says.

Charlie looks up at him, “So, why did you volunteer to come over here today, anyway?” she asks. “I mean, babysitting me can’t be the best thing you had planned for the afternoon.”

He looks at her in mock astonishment. “Are you kidding? This was the best offer I’ve had all week!” She smirks and he gives a short laugh. “Seriously, I don’t think of it as ‘babysitting’. I just thought you might like some company. And, besides, I have work to do anyway,” he points towards the charts and folders spread across the table, “I might as well have someone to talk to when this stuff starts driving me nuts, right?”

She turns to him. “Well, thanks. I really didn’t want to stay by myself.”

Carter nods and smiles. He looks at his watch. “Man, it’s almost two o’clock. You eat yet?” She shakes her head to indicate that she has not. “You want to go grab some lunch? I’m starving. My treat.”

Charlie says, “I don’t know. I don’t feel much like going anywhere.”

“No problem. We’ll order Chinese and bring it back here. Sound good?”

“Okay, that’s fine,” she replies.

“Great. I’ll call and order it.” Charlie nods and heads upstairs to dry her hair.

She reappears a few minutes later, ready to go. Carter walks to the door and picks up her coat to hold it out for her. She thanks him and slips her arms into it. They walk out and Carter, checking first to be sure he has the key Carol gave him, locks the door behind them.

The ride to the ‘China Palace’ only takes a few minutes. They pull up out front and Carter runs in and picks up their food while Charlie waits in the car. He comes back out carrying a huge brown sack. “Just how much food did you order?” she asks with a grin when she sees the size of the sack.

“I didn’t know what you liked so I got a little of everything. We can leave the leftovers for Dr. Ross and Carol to eat later tonight.” He climbs into the car and hands her the bag, then pulls away from the take out place and heads back to Carol’s house.

They arrive at Carol’s and Charlie takes the bag of food while John walks just ahead of her and unlocks the door. He steps back, allowing her to enter in front of him. She takes the bag into the kitchen and Carter joins her. He begins cleaning his mess of paperwork off of the table, but Charlie stops him. “Don’t bother with that,” she says. “We’ll just eat in the living room.” He nods and they grab some plates and two cans of soda, then head off to the living room with their lunch.

“I’ve never eaten with chop sticks before,” Charlie says as John tries to explain the basics of the utensils to her. He watches as she makes an attempt, and laughs as more food makes it to her lap than her mouth. “Maybe I should get a fork,” she says.

“No way, you have to eat Chinese food with chop sticks. It’s a rule,” he proclaims.

“Who’s rule is that?” she smirks.

“The illustrious Dr. John Carter,” he smiles. “Come on, you’ll get the hang of it. You just need practice.” They continue eating and Carter has quite a time stifling his giggles at Charlie’s failed first attempts at art of chopstick use. Finally, she manages to get used to them and actually begins to have some food make it to her mouth.

“So,” Carter says, “how’s school going?”

“Not bad, I guess. I had a paper due today, but I’ll have to turn it in late. Doug called my teacher and explained everything. She said I could hand it in when I got back. I wasn’t in school long enough this quarter to get any real credit anyway. Doug just wanted me to get used to it.”

“How do you like it so far?”

She shrugs. “It’s alright. Just seems kind of pointless to me.”

“Why is that?” he asks curiously.

“I don’t know, I just don’t feel like knowing about the American Revolution is going to help me out later in life.”

John nods. “I remember wondering what I’d ever use some of the stuff I learned in high school for, too. But, it’s worth it. You have to do it to make something of yourself. You have any plans for your future yet?”

“Not really. I’ve never given it much thought.”

“You should try some different classes, see what interests you,” he suggests.

“Yeah, I guess I will,” she replies.

She and Carter finish eating and put away the remaining food. He goes back to his paperwork and she watches television for a while. Every little bit, he leaves the kitchen and comes in to talk to her. By 8:30pm, his paperwork is finished and he is sitting in the living room with her. She's on the couch and he's sitting in one of the chairs. Doug walks in and turns to the two of them. “Hey guys, what are you doing?”

“Hey Doug, watching ‘I Love Lucy’,” Charlie replies as he enters.

“Hey Carter,” he says to John.

“Hi, Dr. Ross.”

“Everything go okay here today?”

“Yeah, fine,” Charlie replies.

“I guess I’ll be going,” Carter says, rising from his chair.

“You don’t have to go on my account,” Doug says. “We’re staying here tonight anyway, if that’s okay with you, that is,” he directs this last statement to Charlie. She nods her approval.

Carter shakes his head, “No, thanks, but I really have to be going. I’ve got to get this paperwork back to the hospital for Dr. Benton before he leaves.”

Doug nods and follows Carter into the kitchen. “Thanks for doing this, John. I really appreciate it.”

“It was no trouble at all. Charlie is a great kid. We had a nice afternoon.” He collects his papers from the table, then turns back to Doug. “We ordered Chinese for lunch. There’s plenty of leftovers in the refrigerator if you and Carol want them.”

“Thanks,” Doug says.

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll go before Benton starts trying to track me down,” he smirks. “Bye Charlie,” he calls into the living room as he approaches the door.

She gets up and walks into the foyer to say good-bye. “Thanks for coming over, John. Oh, and thanks for lunch, too.”

“You’re welcome,” he says, then smiles, “I’ll have to give you another lesson sometime, though, to keep you in practice.” They both laugh and Doug looks a little lost. “Chopsticks,” John says to him, still laughing. Doug nods, eyebrows raised and a grin on his face. Charlie and Carter silently decide they are the only ones who can see the humor of this situation and do not explain any further. “I had fun, see you later, Charlie.”

“Me, too. Bye John,” she says as he steps onto the front porch.

“Bye Dr. Ross. Oh, and you guys have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow,” he says over his shoulder.

“You, too. Bye,” Doug and Charlie wave and he closes the door as Carter gets into his car and pulls away.

“So, you two had a good time today?” Doug asks.

Charlie shrugs, “It was okay. John’s pretty nice.”

“John huh?” Doug chuckles and Charlie ignores him. She turns back to the living room to catch the last of ‘I Love Lucy’ as Doug heads for the kitchen to fix himself some dinner.

Carol walks in the house shortly after midnight. She hears only silence as she walks into the kitchen. A note on the table directs her to the Chinese food in the refrigerator. She reheats a little of it and has a quick snack before making her way upstairs.

She enters her bedroom and finds Doug is already sleeping. Quietly, she undresses and slips on her night gown. She pulls back the covers and climbs into bed along side of him. Doug opens his eyes as he feels her next to him. “Hey there,” he says sleepily.

“Go back to sleep,” Carol whispers, kissing his cheek.

Doug ignores this command and turns onto his side to face her. “I tried to wait up, but I must have dozed off.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Carol says.

He reaches up to brush her hair from her eyes, asking, “How was work?”

“It was work,” she says. “Oh, there is something I should tell you though. I got an unexpected phone call today.”

“From whom?” Doug asks, curious.

“My mother,” Carol grimaces. “She can come tomorrow for dinner after all.”

Doug’s face blanches. “What did you tell her?”

“What could I tell her? I said okay.”

“What are you *going* to tell her?”

“I guess the truth. She’s knows I’ve been seeing you. She knows about Charlie. The only thing she doesn’t know is how serious we actually are. She thinks we’re just dating casually. I told her there would be other guests here tomorrow, I just didn’t say who.”

“She’ll be surprised, that’s for sure,” Doug grins. Carol’s mother, Helen, has never cared for Doug. When Carol mentioned they had begun dating again, Helen told her she was crazy. The main reason Carol had not told her mother that Charlie and Doug were joining them at tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner was to avoid another fight.

“Please be nice to her,” Carol says.

“I’m always nice,” Doug grins. “She’s still going to be pissed, though. I hope you know that.”

“I know,” Carol replies miserably, “I know.”

Doug pulls her to him, “Don’t worry, it’ll work out. Things always do.” With that, he pulls her close for a long kiss.

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Created by Courtney Stovall © 1998

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