Somewhere along the way
CATEGORY: DR, CH (although Doug ain't there yet)
PART: 1 of a bunch if there's interest.
FEATURED CHARACTERS: DR, CH
TIMEFRAME: Summer 2002.
SPOILERS? None at all.
FEEDBACK? Yes, please. :)
NOTES: Thanks a bunch to all who commented on/reviewed my previous works, be it on alt.tv.er.creative or at fanfiction.net, it truly meant a lot.
DISCLAIMER: I do not have the pleasure to own these characters or the realm they evolve within. I do not make millions off of them. I do not have my name in ER's credits. I do not demand people write up ridiculous disclaimers. Because I was too damn stupid to think of it first! g
Anyway... the story does belong to me, please do not redistribute without my permission. And no, I ain't gettin' a cent from this. Not unless readers start sending money (which would be just fine...
Okay, on with the story...
* * *
He eagerly got off the plane and strode briskly to the baggage claim to get his one bag. So this was it. In just a few hours if he was lucky, he'd be getting the answers to all the questions raised by sixteen years of wondering.
"May I help you, sir?" the soft voice of a young hostess asked politely.
"I'm okay, thanks"
Yeah, he was okay. It's his girlfriend he was more worried about. He hadn't told her about his little trip and she would certainly wonder where the hell he was. Well, so far the place looked nothing like Hell, but then he was still at the start of his journey. He couldn't really call her, as the foster home people would undoubtedly ask her questions. And much as he adored her, she had never been able to speak a lie. The last thing he needed right now was to have people chasing after him, though. He'd call her when a few things would be settled.
Besides, it's not like he planned on staying here forever. It was his intention to hitch-hike his way back to Colorado in about a week's time, depending on how well things would go. After all, it weren't small potatoes he was here for.
He felt his wallet in his inside pocket again and hailed a taxi. The drive was longer than he had imagined. That'll teach him to imagine things about places he's never been! But how not to picture that city, home of his only living parent left? The only one he'd never met. He'd searched many a day, many a night to find out where he was to find, collecting the smallest and most insignificant clues one by one. His mother hadn't been very talkative when alive. The only thing she had made a point of telling him was that the man whose
life they were sharing was not his "real dad". As if to hurt or confuse him more, he thought. Then she died from her cancer and his stepfather sent him to a foster home in Denver, abandoning him "for his own good" at the age of eight. Ended up shooting himself six months later... But albeit trying, and most of the time painful emotionally, his search had been fruitful. It was now up to him to act on it. And boy, was he gonna!
"Excuse me," he asked the cab driver, "would you know of any motels not too far from the address I gave you?"
"Sure," the man in his late forties replied, "there's one half-a-mile up the road. Keep walking straight and you can't miss it."
So he was gonna walk. No problem. His plan was to first see if anyone was home at his father's and then get to the motel. He figured he had about enough cash for five, six nights maybe. Gosh, he was going to meet his father! It only hit him now that it was really going to happen, that it wasn't some sort of wicked dream. He was boiling with excitement inside, and he felt his heartbeat pounding faster and harder by the minute. He'd just waited for so long...
* * *
When the car pulled up, he got his bag and paid the driver, thanking him again. As it drove away, he looked around and took in the house and its surroundings, the beautiful lake view. That house he'd searched for so long, and had eventually found. He stayed there mesmerized for a few minutes, and only blinked back to reality when a gentle, yet chilly, breeze blew past his face.
Brushing off the thousand of second thoughts he might have had, he nervously walked up to the front porch and rang the doorbell. Within moments, the door was answered by a dark-haired woman of medium height, holding a baby that seemed to be about a year old to him, and the feeling of unease forming in the back of his mind started to increase at the
sight of them. If his father had lived there once, he'd obviously moved. Or worse, started a new family and forgotten all about him. For a moment there he thought about just running away, but he was too proud to move. He hadn't come such a long way to back out now. So instead he composed himself and decided to explain to this woman the reason he was there.
"Hi," he smiled awkwardly, slightly tilting his head to one side, as he always did whenever he was ill-at-ease. "I'm looking f—"
"Oh, my God" Carol interrupted him as soon as his lips parted. There was no mistaking that nervous smile, and the oh-so-familiar dimples that came with it. She roughly guessed the boy's age and quickly did the math. "My God," she repeated, not quite believing what she was thinking, but knowing at the same time that it was as real as the hard hair-pulling little Tess was now practicing on her thick curls.
He just looked on as that woman he had never seen before had seemed to recognize him instantly, causing her much shock and surprise, and causing him to lose his speech. This atmosphere of silent confusion was soon broken by a feeble wail coming from inside the house. Carol instinctively hurried to the source of the cry, leaving the door open for him to enter. He did not.
A few minutes later, she was back, with another baby in the arms. Probably the other's twin. Another awkward pause occurred between them as neither knew what to say, until he remembered he hadn't introduced himself yet.
"By the way, my name's Daniel," He extended a hand which Carol shifted Kate to her left arm to shake. "Daniel Thomson".
"Carol Hathaway Ross" she smiled, not knowing how to handle him, as he noticed the wedding band on her finger.
"Ross, huh?" he bitterly stated. "Might as well have been my name..."
* * *
~Adeline.