Title: Out of the Rain
By: Julexer
DISCLAIMER: "ER", the characters and situations depicted within are the property of Warner Bros. Television, Amblin Entertainment, Constant C Productions, NBC, etc. They are borrowed without permission but without the intent of infringement. The story presented here is written solely for entertainment purposes, and the author is not making a profit.
Please do not post or distribute without the disclaimer above, or without the permission of the author.
Feedback is welcome and appreciated. Write to julexer@hotmail.com
SUMMARY: Two families are reunited -- in a setting where ER has never been before.
RATING: PG
"Tess!" Carol called up the stairs for a third time.
". . .Just a second!"
Carol ran a hand through her curls and blew out air. "No, Tess, now! We're going to be late!"
Finally, thunderous footfalls preceded the small girl who appeared, clattering down the stairs. "Where's Kate?"
"She's already in the car," Carol replied, herding her daughter toward the door and outside. "What were you doing up there?"
"Getting Ella's room ready."
Carol nodded and smiled, glad to finally be on their way. She slid behind the wheel of the Volvo wagon, glancing in the mirror to make sure her girls were buckled into the back seat.
They drove to the hospital where Doug was a pediatric attending in the ER. Carol worked there too, although after today they both would be on vacation for a few weeks. She had been lucky to get a schedule with shifts mostly in the daytime while the girls were in school, although she often missed spending Saturday with them. She knew, though, that the time they spent with Doug was valuable for all of them.
Upon pulling up at the ER, both girls assailed Carol before the Volvo had even stopped completely.
"Can we go get Daddy?"
"Please? We'll be fast, we promise!"
"No, he's going to meet us out here." Carol knew that Tess and Kate, with their shiny dark curls, sparkling eyes, and million-dollar smiles, were the darlings of everyone their parents worked with in the ER. With only 25 minutes to get to the airport, she had no intention of letting the pair of them go in there and waste precious time charming every staff member they could find on the way to their dad.
Carol endured several rounds of dramatic "Awwww"'s from the backseat before, with relief, she spied her husband emerging from the ambulance bay. His amble turned into an easy lope when he saw the Volvo, and as he slid in next to Carol he reached over to touch her jaw with his fingertips as he kissed her hello and closed the door.
"Daddy!" came the high-pitched young squeals from the backseat. He turned around to grin at Tess and Kate.
"Hey, girls." He turned back to Carol with his eyebrows raised, as if to say Just a little bit excited, aren't they? She smiled quickly and cocked her head as she returned his glance. I'll say.
As they continued on toward the airport the twins continued to chatter. "Daddy, I helped get Ella's bed ready. I even put some stuffed animals next to her pillow," bragged Tess.
"And I helped Mom clean the house," piped up Kate, not about to be outdone. "The kitchen and the playroom were real dirty."
"Mom, how come Ella can come out to see us and we still have to go to school tomorrow?"
"Because school gets out earlier where Ella lives."
"Where does she live again?"
"In Chicago."
"Oh yeah, I remember now," Tess said, looking out the window.
Kate poked her sister. "Stupid, we were born in Chicago." Carol gave Kate a look of steel in the rearview mirror.
Tess did not need the parental protection. She rolled her eyes - Doug's eyes - at her sister and crossed her arms across her chest. "I know that, silly. So was Mom."
"No, she wasn't."
"Yes, she was," chimed Doug and Carol from the front seat, ending the budding argument.
By the time they arrived at the Oakland airport, both twins were practically twitching with excitement. Carol looked at her watch, then over at Doug. "They're due to land in less than ten minutes. I'll go park if you want to take them in now."
Doug nodded at the good idea and got out, heading for the sliding doors with a seven-year-old attached to each hand.
The plane was about ten minutes late, but Tess and Kate were both fascinated by the aircraft landing and taking off before their eyes as they pressed their foreheads to the glass of the enormous viewing window.
Doug looked back as Carol came up behind him, placing a light hand between his shoulderblades. He drew her toward him, his arm around her waist, and they stood together, watching their daughters.
They plane from Chicago finally pulled up and passengers began to emerge into the airport. Carol's shoulders were tense as she kept her eyes fixed on the small space between the plane and the tunnel until she saw a blur of the familiar red-gold curls, then she relaxed and smiled up at Doug. "You saw them?"
"Yep," she replied, just as Mark came through the doorway. His arms were full, with a laptop, a carry-on bag, and a sleepy six-year-old who nestled against him, her head on his shoulder.
Elizabeth was right behind him, and they both looked around for a moment, disoriented, then spied Doug and Carol at the same instant, their faces lighting up.
Carol could no longer stand still and rushed to greet them, hugging first Elizabeth, then Mark, but being careful not to wake Ella.
"Don't worry," said her mother, lifting her jaw to look at her daughter. "She'll sleep through anything."
Doug and Mark made eye contact and grinned, and Tess followed Carol, but Kate, usually so confident and gregarious, was suddenly overcome with shyness. She clung to her father, hiding her face against him. Doug lifted her into his arms to sit on his hip, telling her to be polite and say hello.
Elizabeth turned to her and said seriously, "Kate, how are you? It's so good to see you again." Kate had not seen Elizabeth or heard her accent since she was four, but she was clearly captivated.
After luggage had been retrieved and the difficulties of the flight had been thoroughly dissected, the two families trooped out to the parking lot, where Doug started to apologize. "My car's in the shop, so we're gonna be pretty crowded - especially you two." He pointed to Tess and Kate, who were relegated to the flip-up seat in the back with all the suitcases. Ella had woken up and the three little girls were so far getting along famously, but she had to sit between her parents instead of with the twins.
The evening went well, as Carol, Doug, and Mark tackled the barbecue in the backyard while Elizabeth called Chicago to tie up a few loose ends back at County. Tess and Kate were terrible show-offs, one moment turning cartwheels across the lawn, the next kicking a soccer ball back and forth while singing songs they had learned at school. Ella, who had been only three the last time she'd seen the Tess and Kate Show, was completely starstruck.
Before bed, the girls were happy to take a bath together under the direction of their fathers, although the tub was probably too crowded for any real cleaning to happen. Elizabeth and Carol curled up on the overstuffed chairs in the living room with glasses of dark after-dinner wine.
The friendship between the two women had always existed while they worked together years ago in Chicago, but both had assumed, with some regret, that it could only fade after Carol departed for Seattle. When Mark and Doug, two years later, had come up with the idea for summertime visits every couple of years, Carol and Elizabeth had been surprised at how very glad they were to see each other. This June the reunion was particularly welcome because the trip the summer before had had to be abandoned because Doug and Carol were in the middle of moving with their girls from Seattle to the Bay Area.
Elizabeth was looking around the room, which had lots of dark wood and enormous windows along one wall facing the bay. From their perch in the Berkeley hills the bridges to San Francisco were visible, and on a clear night like this the view was awash with lights. "Carol, the house and everything are beautiful."
Carol grinned, drawing her bare feet up underneath her. "We love the house, except Doug misses his boat and the water being so close. And we're finally starting to understand why the cost of living around here is so insane."
"Are the girls happy? They seem wonderful."
"Yeah, they're good. We found a great school and there's lots of stuff for them to do. Right now they're really into gymnastics and soccer - but last month it was piano. What about Ella?"
"Well, she had fun in kindergarten. Of course, the beginning was rough - she missed Rachel a lot."
"College?" Elizabeth nodded. Upstairs, peals of laughter and the sounds of little girls spraying their fathers with soapy water rang out of the bathroom. Their mothers looked up and, meeting each other's eyes, laughed.
"Doug says he likes the hospital down here." Elizabeth tucked a pillow behind her back. "Do you?"
"I do, yeah, I do," replied Carol. "It's not the same as County because I don't know as many people here, but it was good to get back to work after full-time twin-duty in Seattle." She smiled wryly. "How is County?"
"Oh, not much has changed since you were out last time, really. Peter's finally moved on, though; he took a position in Los Angeles, partly because there's a fabulous school down there for Reece. I miss working with him, especially when things get particularly stressful in the OR."
"Are they very stressful these days?"
She sighed a big sigh. "Yeah, they are. Mark keeps trying to convince me to cut back." She got a funny, wistful look on her face.
Carol waited for more. "What is it?"
Elizabeth looked up at Carol, then out again at the bay. "We've been trying to have another baby."
Carol sensed this was not completely happy news. "You've got to be patient. Remember before Kate and Tess, Doug and I tried. . ." She trailed off, seeing Elizabeth's face.
"Conceiving isn't the problem. But I've miscarried twice already."
Carol's eyes were large and deep when she looked into Elizabeth's. "I'm so sorry."
Elizabeth's brow was knit. "We've found nothing wrong, and Mark thinks it's due to the stress of my job. I didn't think anything was worse than what we went through before Ella was born. . . but I don't know. Maybe he's right."
Carol said nothing, but watched Elizabeth's face until she sighed again, looking over with a smile. "Well, if it's going to happen, I guess it'll happen. I don't want to get distracted from what's really important."
Both women looked up as Mark and Doug descended the stairs. "Everything okay?" asked Elizabeth.
"Yep," affirmed Mark, sliding in to sit behind his wife so he could rub her neck. "Everybody is bathed, storied, and bedded. Ella is thrilled to be sleeping between her two new idols."
Doug chuckled and leaned back. "They are a couple of little goddesses, aren't they?" he said.
Carol rolled her eyes with a grin. "And they know it, too."
Doug was at the stove, flipping pancakes with one hand and pouring juice with the other. Tess and Ella sat at the kitchen table, wolfing down pancakes, but Kate had not yet made her entrance. "Kate!" Doug bellowed up the stairs. "You have ten minutes to eat before we have to go!"
Tess looked quickly to the clock on the microwave. "Only seven minutes, Daddy. Do you want me to go get her?"
"No!" Doug knew that would be disastrous, as Tess was just as likely to get undressed as Kate was to hurry up and get ready if the two of them were in there distracting each other.
Ella was cracking up at how grumpy Doug was in the morning. Her giggles intensified as her dad came up behind her and started tickling, having returned from his run with Carol.
"Good run?" asked Elizabeth, coming down the stairs in Levi's and a cotton tank top, her hair wet.
"Yeah, it was great," he replied. "Lots of hills. You should come with us next time."
"I will, if you can wake me up," she said, laughing. She turned to her daughter. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yup," Ella said, offering her cheek for her mother to kiss good morning. "Can we go to the beach?" Ella knew there were beaches in California, having been completely educated about them by Rachel before leaving Chicago.
"The beach? I'm sure we can, but wouldn't you rather go when Tess and Kate can come? They still have to go to school today." Ella nodded reluctantly.
"Speaking of Kate," Doug said pointedly, spatula in the air.
"I'll go," said Carol, heading upstairs. She went to the twins' room, where she found Kate in front of the full-length mirror on the closet door. She was wearing jeans and a cotton tank top and was watching herself turn side to side. "Hey," said Carol. Kate looked up. "What's keeping you? You don't want to be late on the very last day of the first grade."
"Can't I stay home? You and Daddy are gonna do stuff with Elizabeth and Ella and Mark, and me and Tess are gonna miss it!"
"Don't worry, we won't have too much fun without you. But you can't miss the last day. Now scoot!" She pointed, and Kate obeyed.
Carol picked up a few dirty clothes and stuffed animals that were scattered around the room, which was pretty crowded with the futon spread out for Ella to sleep on. In Chicago and Seattle, Tess and Kate had shared a room, but the new house in Berkeley had four bedrooms and Carol had thought they each would like to have their own space. The girls had foiled that plan, however, insisting that they be allowed to share. Carol gave in but privately thought that they might change their minds in a few years.
When Doug returned from dropping the twins at school, everybody piled into the Volvo and they drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Mark had once been to the city as a kid; Elizabeth had never been. So they spent a few hours driving and naming some of the famous sites. Ella was bored, but a whole leisurely day with both of her busy parents was enough of a treat to keep her from whining, especially after they stopped for vegetarian burritos at a little place at Mission and 19th.
Some walking and shopping at Union Square filled up the rest of the afternoon and then they headed back to the East Bay to pick up the twins at school near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Ella had slept across the bridge but woke up when she heard Tess and Kate. Seeing her, Kate asked, "What did you do all day?"
Ella made a face. "Shopping and walking."
Tess and Kate looked at each other in relief as Doug helped them into the back. "Bo-o-o-oring!"
"I think graduating from the first grade is a pretty big deal," said Doug seriously. "What do you say we celebrate?"
"Fenton's!" squealed the twins. As they headed to their favorite ice cream place on Piedmont Avenue, Kate and Tess explained in detail the many different concoctions that could be consumed there.
Over predictably enormous and sticky sundaes in a bright pink booth, Tess and Kate said goodbye to the first grade and plans for the next week were discussed. Ella was set on the beach; Doug wanted to take Mark sailing on the bay. Elizabeth wanted to drive up and explore the Northern California wine country, and the twins were bubbling with ideas like baseball games, movies, and roller coasters.
That night the girls, after much pleading, were allowed to stay up late and watch a video. Their parents sat out in the backyard as the stars came out over the hills.
"Ella and I have discussed it," said Mark, lying on his back in the soft grass of the lawn. "And we've decided that it would be much better if we never went home."
Doug snorted. "So, you like California, do you?"
"It certainly suits me," replied Elizabeth, settling in the grass next to Mark with her head on his chest.
"Me, too. I never much liked San Diego when my parents were there, but this is great," agreed Mark. "And Ella's happy to be pretty much anywhere with sunshine."
"But she's never going to forgive us if we don't make it to the beach soon," Elizabeth reminded him.
Carol smiled back. "Don't worry, we'll make it. She was great today, so patient. She seems so confident and independent."
"Hmmm, I wonder where she gets that from?!" queried Mark, fingering a stray red curl.
Finally, realizing the video was probably long over, all of them crept back inside to find their daughters sprawled asleep in a heap in front of the flickering television, the room dark. They untangled them quietly and carried them up to bed, then bid each other a whispered goodnight and went their separate bedrooms.
In the morning Doug and Carol went downtown to pick up his repaired Jeep Cherokee, then returned to the house, where they found Elizabeth making sandwiches for Doug and Mark to take sailing.
Doug's boat at the house in Seattle had peaked his interest in boating in general, and he had eventually become quite a skilled sailor. Today he took Mark to the marina where the boat he had purchased last autumn was docked. On its gently bobbing pale side, just above the cloudy water, was the word Carol.
Once they got out on the gray water of the bay, Mark obeyed Doug's instructions and the two were soon working easily side by side.
"So," said Mark.
"So," replied Doug, and they laughed quickly.
"Carol and the twins seem good."
"Yeah, they're great. . .it's good to see Elizabeth and Ella again."
"This sailing thing, I might have to do this some more on my own, like at the lake."
"It's a nice break from everything that happens on land, that's for sure. Sometimes the girls come too and things can be a little crazy."
They were quiet for a little while, their clothes rippling with the cold, salty wind.
"So, how is everything back at County?"
"It's fine most of the time. It's still weird sometimes to remember that you and Carol are gone."
"I know what you mean; when I started at the hospitals here and in Seattle it was strange to see so many unfamiliar faces."
"Kerry's finally chilled out a little," said Mark.
Doug raised his eyebrows. "I'll believe that when I see it."
"No, really. She's in a good relationship. And don't forget that your departure did remove one of the biggest sources of stress in her life."
He laughed ruefully. "I guess you're right. She'd probably be happy to know that I'm busy torturing the fearless leaders of the emergency and pediatrics departments here in Berkeley."
Back at the house, Carol and Elizabeth drank coffee at the kitchen table while Carol read the paper and Elizabeth went over some paperwork she had brought from Chicago. They waited for a while for the girls to come downstairs, then finally realized they were going to have to go wake them up.
Carol grimaced. "I hate waking them up in the summertime when they'd rather sleep in. Tess isn't bad, she always wakes up first and she's mostly happy from the beginning. Kate, though, in the morning she is grumpy."
"Daddy's girl, hmmm?" said Elizabeth, her eyes twinkling greenly over the rim of the coffee mug.
Carol just laughed.
"Ella's more like Kate in the morning," said Elizabeth as she rinsed out the cups in the sink. "She's got to be coaxed." She headed toward the stairs. "Shall we?"
Upon pushing open the door to the bedroom, they found all three girls still dead to the world. The room had that heavy, warm, sleeping child scent, and both women noticed it as they looked for a moment at their daughters, beautiful in their attempt to sleep away the summertime.
Carol went to the east-facing window and opened the blinds. This was enough to wake Tess, who opened her dark eyes and stretched the whole length of her body with a big sigh. Kate and Ella, however, did not stir.
Carol crossed to the bed of her younger daughter and placed a hand upon her damp forehead, saying her name, but Kate only curled tighter into the fetal position and burrowed deeper under her quilts. "Kate, come on. It's late. We're gonna do fun stuff today."
"Nnnnnnoo," mumbled Kate, turning her back.
By this time Elizabeth was sitting cross-legged on the floor and Ella had made it out of the futon and into her lap to curl up with her face against her mother's chest. Her pajamas were wrinkled and wispy strawberry-blonde curls stuck out from her head, nearly obscuring green eyes whose lashes were crusty with sleep.
Carol looked down at the resistant form of her daughter in the bed and realized she was going to have to try something else. She went to Tess, who yawned and smiled up at her. "What do you think, Tess? Pancakes?"
"No. . .we had pancakes yesterday. Let's have eggs."
The foursome trooped down to the kitchen and sure enough, Kate soon appeared. Her curls were tangled and her brow furrowed, but she was ready to eat.
Late that afternoon, the girls lay draped across the living room furniture in front of a Disney movie, tired from a day of hard playing and duck feeding at Montclair park in Oakland. Mark and Doug returned from sailing to find their wives hunched together at the open door of the refrigerator. They had been surveying its contents, trying to decide about dinner. They both turned at the sound and smiled at their wind-blown, ruddy-cheeked husbands.
"What do you guys feel like eating?" asked Elizabeth, just as the phone rang.
Carol answered it. "Hello?. . .Who is this?. . . I thought so, hi . . . yeah, he's here . . . no, we're on vacation, no . . ." She rolled her eyes and exhaled. "Yeah, here he is."
Doug got on and Carol turned to Mark and Elizabeth. "It's the hospital. They need him for a big trauma with a day camp bus accident. So much for dinner at home, I guess."
Mark looked sympathetic, but Elizabeth perked up, turning to Doug as he got off the phone. "Mind if I come along? I'd love to see the hospital."
"Sure, sure. We'd love to have you." He kissed Carol and the two doctors headed out to the Cherokee.
Mark and Carol sighed in unison, then looked at each other with a short laugh. "Bummer," said Mark.
"Yeah," she agreed. "Oh, well. We're going to have a better dinner than they are, anyway." She pulled pasta out of the pantry, and Mark started to make a salad at the island in the middle of the kitchen.
They were quiet until Mark was halfway through chopping a cucumber. "You guys have such great produce out here."
"I know. It's all year round, too, not just in the summer."
Mark looked up at her. "You seem like you're happy here, Carol."
She looked back at him but said nothing.
"Happier than in Seattle."
She was still quiet for a moment, then finally spoke. "You're right. It feels like this is really our place to be happy." She stirred something bubbling red on the stove. "In Seattle, when I first got there, we were happy, almost giddy about being together. Doug was so glad to have the girls, and I was glad to be able to give them to him. There was joy in being with him again and not being alone with two babies."
Mark had stopped chopping and was watching her quietly, letting her speak. "I missed home, though, and Seattle always felt like a place that he chose, and that we had no choice but to follow him to. He worked and I was at home with the girls. I didn't feel very much like myself, although it was nice to give them so much time. But California we decided on together." She looked up and Mark could tell from her easy smile that the serious moment, like the difficult times, had passed. Her eyes were on the summer sky, which harbored only a hint of fog in its blue. "I'm glad to be out of all that rain, too." She laughed, and he laughed with her.
Carol drained the pasta, then put it in a glass bowl on the kitchen table. She set places while Mark put out the salad and cut good, crusty San Francisco sourdough bread. They called in the girls and sat down to eat.
Doug and Elizabeth did not come home from the hospital until after two in the morning, at which time all the other occupants of the house were long asleep. They tiptoed in and said goodnight on their way up the stairs to bed.
Both were accustomed to long shifts and difficult, emotional work and had long ago learned the value of deep, uninterrupted sleep. Neither woke until very late Sunday morning.
Mark and Ella had borrowed the Volvo to explore on their own for a while, and Carol sat out in the backyard, her legs and feet bare and a big straw hat upon her head. The twins were in bathing suits and, lacking a pool to swim in, were industriously spraying each other with the garden hose. Carol looked up from her book as Doug settled into the lawn chair next to hers. He'd slept well, she could see. His eyes were clear and when the girls ran shrieking over to him he welcomed them into his lap despite their wet suits and dripping curls.
When the girls had finished saying good morning and had returned to drenching each other on the lawn, Carol reached a hand out to Doug's thigh. "How was the hospital last night?"
He tipped his head back and smiled into the sun. "It was pretty crazy. At least fifteen kids with injuries, more than half of them serious. Elizabeth jumped right in; they were so busy they hardly noticed her."
Carol shifted her chair so she could rest her legs across Doug's knees. He reached down to rub her calves. "Did you and Mark run this morning?"
"Yep. That's us: Early Morning Conquerors of the Berkeley Hills."
Mark and Ella returned mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day was spent quietly, soaking up the sunshine and reading while trying to avoid stray drops from Tess and Kate's weapon of choice.
On Monday morning Ella was the first to wake up. She lay for a moment in the futon, looking up at the twins on either side of her. They were clearly still in dreamland and soon Ella got up and crept across the hall to the guestroom, where her parents slept.
Mark slept stretched out in the pre-dawn grayness, only half under the quilt, one arm around Elizabeth, who was curled securely against him. Ella crawled onto the bed and in between them, waiting until they were both awake.
"Ellie, what are you - oh, the beach." Elizabeth sighed and stretched her arms toward the headboard.
Ella nodded, her head filled with visions of sand and ocean and seaweed, but it was warm and soft between her parents in the bed, and soon she snuggled down and all three of them went back to sleep.
By contrast, a few hours later the house was buzzing with activity. Mark and Elizabeth made baskets of beach food while Doug rounded up necessary items like towels, Frisbees and sunscreen. Carol was upstairs, the lucky owner of the most challenging task: supervising the dressing of the girls.
Kate and Ella were both ready, stretched out on the futon in their suits, shorts, and flip-flops, waiting impatiently for Tess. Her favorite bathing suit was still wet from yesterday's adventures with the garden hose and she refused to wear the wet one or select another.
"Tess, this is not complicated," said her mother, arms crossed across her chest. "Make a decision."
She wavered and whined and soon Kate was whining too about how long she was taking. Carol rolled her eyes and commanded silence. She dug a blue suit out of a dresser drawer and handed it to Tess, then directed Kate and Ella down the stairs, saying over her shoulder, "Five minutes."
They took both cars for the long drive to Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. The plan had been to space everybody out, but the girls had insisted on being together and so were squashed into the backseat of the Cherokee while Carol and Elizabeth had the Volvo to themselves.
They turned up the radio and sang for the first half of the trip until the scenery started to improve. Elizabeth was craning her neck to see as much as she could of the misty green hills. "Carol, this is lovely," she said. Carol only smiled, her eyes on the winding road. "Ella must be loving this. I wish we got out of the city more when we're home."
"She liked England at Christmas, right?"
"Yeah, we all had a good time, even Mark. Of course, my parents adore both of them. I doubt Ella even noticed we were in London for all the ridiculous piles of presents."
Carol laughed. "I know, you should see my mom with the girls when she visits. They grew out of matching outfits about five years ago, but does she know that? Not a clue."
Elizabeth laughed too. "I never thought I'd say this, but I wish we saw more of my mother. Somehow, she and my daughter get on so well. It all goes back to when she came out and helped with Ella right after she was born, I guess. I hardly saw either of them the first week."
"Oh, but that must have been a relief! My first week with Tess and Kate, what a blur that was."
"My God, I can't imagine doing that alone. When Ella was tiny, every moment that I wasn't thinking about her I was thanking God that the surgery in New York was successful." She paused. "I still think that."
Carol looked at her, sideways. "We all do."
At the beach, the girls stood still long enough to be slathered with sunscreen, then made a beeline for the water. Their parents saw that although the often foggy beach was sunny and hot, the water was still enough to turn lips and other parts of the anatomy blue. Doug and Mark tossed a Frisbee back and forth while the women bedded down in the sand.
Elizabeth watched in amusement as Carol covered herself in sunscreen, donned a hat and sunglasses, then carefully lay down on her towel in the shade of the umbrella she had erected. Elizabeth then stretched out just past the shadow, ready to further bronze her already golden olive skin.
The girls soon emerged from the waves, their teeth chattering. Their mothers watched as Kate caught sight of Doug and Mark's game, then quickly conferred with the others. They made a sudden mad dash for Doug, where Tess and Ella clung to his legs as Kate easily stole the Frisbee Mark had just let fly. Elizabeth and Carol cracked up as Doug stumbled and the three of them flopped together onto the ground, sand spraying everywhere.
This game evolved into sand castles until it was time to eat their picnic lunch. In the afternoon, Carol and Doug stayed on the beach with the girls while Mark and Elizabeth took the short walk into the little town of Half Moon Bay.
"Ella adores it here," remarked Elizabeth as they window-shopped along the sidewalk, hand in hand.
"Yeah, she does," agreed Mark. "Especially the twins."
"They're such vibrant little girls, aren't they? She's so quiet sometimes, I think they do her good."
"She's not that quiet," he protested.
"I know, I know. Don't worry, I was quiet at her age too."
He grinned. "Oh, well, we'd better watch out in a few years, then."
That evening, Mark and Carol made dinner together downstairs while Doug and Elizabeth tried to corral the girls into the bathtub to hose off the percentage of the beach they had worn home. Carol was slicing tomatoes and avocados for the salad when the phone rang. She propped it between her shoulder and her ear. "Hello?"
She turned to stir the beans and rice on the stove. "Oh, hi, yeah. . .uh huh, they're good. How's Hannah?. . .yeah, they did have fun at the park. . .oh? really? That would be great. Are you sure?. . .and her too? Great. . . uh huh. Six. Ella's her name. . .tomorrow at nine? All right. . .okay, thanks so much! See you then. Bye."
She slid diced onions into the pan on the stove. "So, Mark, how do you feel about having an adults-only day?"
The next morning, they dropped the girls off at Tess and Kate's friend Hannah's house. They had run into her at the park on Saturday, and all four of the little girls had hit it off. Today they were invited to a baseball game and to spend the night.
Grateful for their unexpected stroke of luck, their parents headed north to Sonoma County. The wine country was stunning, the hills dusty golden and the fertile lowlands a deep green. The beauty of the region only cemented Mark and Elizabeth's conviction that Doug and Carol's new home was somewhere they intended to visit a lot in the future.
They stopped at a few wineries, although Doug and Carol let the others do most of the tasting. They bought cheese and bread and apples and sausage to eat with one of their new bottles of good wine on the grass and spent an hour or so lying there in the sun. They then got up and walked through one of the old orchards, then finally piled back into the Cherokee to go back to the East Bay.
Doug had made reservations at Chez Panisse on Shattuck in Berkeley for eight o'clock, and they just made it. The restaurant was renowned for its always-fresh ingredients and creative dishes, and Mark and Elizabeth found it just as good as Doug and Carol had assured them it would be.
Between the appetizer and the entrée, Carol sat back in her chair. "I can't believe we've only got one more day with you guys."
"I know," said Mark. "By now, I've almost forgotten about certain small details, like. . . Chicago. Work. Midwestern humidity."
Elizabeth laughed in agreement. "In all seriousness, though," she said. "We've had a lovely time."
"It's been great to have you," replied Doug, surrendering his glass to the waiter who had appeared to refill it with water. "It's nice to know we've still got friends in Chicago."
Carol smiled at the thought, just as their dinner arrived. Afterwards, Doug and Mark fought over the check while Elizabeth quietly signaled the waiter and paid it. They then headed back up into the hills to home, then retired early to their own bedrooms.
In the morning Doug went to pick up the girls at Hannah's house. The slumber party had raged until hours long past their bedtime, and all three of them were groggy and cranky. Their mothers wisely let them go back to sleep at home, although the twins tried mightily to convince them that they were not at all sleepy.
Later in the morning, Mark and Doug drove down to College Avenue to buy bagels, lox and schmear at Noah's for lunch.
Carol and Elizabeth were in the living room with their bagels when Kate, for once the first awake, bumped down the stairs, rubbing her eyes. She went over to curl next to her mother on the couch. Elizabeth knelt on the floor, sorting clothes and putting them into their suitcases. She looked up. "Good morning. How was the baseball game?"
Kate stole a bite of Carol's bagel. "It was good. Hannah's little brother threw up, though."
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose in sympathy. "That does happen."
Kate looked up at Carol, suddenly anxious. "Are they leaving soon?"
"Yep, tomorrow. We're going to miss them though, aren't we?" She smoothed her daughter's dark curls against her temple.
Kate nodded, her brow furrowed as she watched Elizabeth with visible disappointment.
The flight out of Oakland the next morning departed very early, so only Carol rose to drive Mark, Elizabeth, and Ella there, while Doug and the twins, who had said their goodbyes the night before, slept in.
The morning was damp and cool, and Carol needed her headlights as they drove south on the freeway, which was clogged with commuters despite the early hour.
Mark checked the luggage while Elizabeth struggled to keep her sleepy daughter on her feet. They made it through the metal detectors and X-ray machines, then waited for another twenty minutes at their gate.
When their row was called, Mark picked up Ella while Carol and Elizabeth hugged goodbye, each hoping they would see the other again sometime within the next few years. When they had finished, Carol reached for Mark. "Take care of yourself, Carol," he said.
She nodded as they headed off to board.
Carol stood watching at the big glass window, cold against her forehead. It had been a good week, but she wished Doug and the girls were there as she watched the big plane disappear into the gray.
The End
By: Julexer
DISCLAIMER: "ER", the characters and situations depicted within are the property of Warner Bros. Television, Amblin Entertainment, Constant C Productions, NBC, etc. They are borrowed without permission but without the intent of infringement. The story presented here is written solely for entertainment purposes, and the author is not making a profit.
Please do not post or distribute without the disclaimer above, or without the permission of the author.
Feedback is welcome and appreciated. Write to julexer@hotmail.com
SUMMARY: Two families are reunited -- in a setting where ER has never been before.
RATING: PG
"Tess!" Carol called up the stairs for a third time.
". . .Just a second!"
Carol ran a hand through her curls and blew out air. "No, Tess, now! We're going to be late!"
Finally, thunderous footfalls preceded the small girl who appeared, clattering down the stairs. "Where's Kate?"
"She's already in the car," Carol replied, herding her daughter toward the door and outside. "What were you doing up there?"
"Getting Ella's room ready."
Carol nodded and smiled, glad to finally be on their way. She slid behind the wheel of the Volvo wagon, glancing in the mirror to make sure her girls were buckled into the back seat.
They drove to the hospital where Doug was a pediatric attending in the ER. Carol worked there too, although after today they both would be on vacation for a few weeks. She had been lucky to get a schedule with shifts mostly in the daytime while the girls were in school, although she often missed spending Saturday with them. She knew, though, that the time they spent with Doug was valuable for all of them.
Upon pulling up at the ER, both girls assailed Carol before the Volvo had even stopped completely.
"Can we go get Daddy?"
"Please? We'll be fast, we promise!"
"No, he's going to meet us out here." Carol knew that Tess and Kate, with their shiny dark curls, sparkling eyes, and million-dollar smiles, were the darlings of everyone their parents worked with in the ER. With only 25 minutes to get to the airport, she had no intention of letting the pair of them go in there and waste precious time charming every staff member they could find on the way to their dad.
Carol endured several rounds of dramatic "Awwww"'s from the backseat before, with relief, she spied her husband emerging from the ambulance bay. His amble turned into an easy lope when he saw the Volvo, and as he slid in next to Carol he reached over to touch her jaw with his fingertips as he kissed her hello and closed the door.
"Daddy!" came the high-pitched young squeals from the backseat. He turned around to grin at Tess and Kate.
"Hey, girls." He turned back to Carol with his eyebrows raised, as if to say Just a little bit excited, aren't they? She smiled quickly and cocked her head as she returned his glance. I'll say.
As they continued on toward the airport the twins continued to chatter. "Daddy, I helped get Ella's bed ready. I even put some stuffed animals next to her pillow," bragged Tess.
"And I helped Mom clean the house," piped up Kate, not about to be outdone. "The kitchen and the playroom were real dirty."
"Mom, how come Ella can come out to see us and we still have to go to school tomorrow?"
"Because school gets out earlier where Ella lives."
"Where does she live again?"
"In Chicago."
"Oh yeah, I remember now," Tess said, looking out the window.
Kate poked her sister. "Stupid, we were born in Chicago." Carol gave Kate a look of steel in the rearview mirror.
Tess did not need the parental protection. She rolled her eyes - Doug's eyes - at her sister and crossed her arms across her chest. "I know that, silly. So was Mom."
"No, she wasn't."
"Yes, she was," chimed Doug and Carol from the front seat, ending the budding argument.
By the time they arrived at the Oakland airport, both twins were practically twitching with excitement. Carol looked at her watch, then over at Doug. "They're due to land in less than ten minutes. I'll go park if you want to take them in now."
Doug nodded at the good idea and got out, heading for the sliding doors with a seven-year-old attached to each hand.
The plane was about ten minutes late, but Tess and Kate were both fascinated by the aircraft landing and taking off before their eyes as they pressed their foreheads to the glass of the enormous viewing window.
Doug looked back as Carol came up behind him, placing a light hand between his shoulderblades. He drew her toward him, his arm around her waist, and they stood together, watching their daughters.
They plane from Chicago finally pulled up and passengers began to emerge into the airport. Carol's shoulders were tense as she kept her eyes fixed on the small space between the plane and the tunnel until she saw a blur of the familiar red-gold curls, then she relaxed and smiled up at Doug. "You saw them?"
"Yep," she replied, just as Mark came through the doorway. His arms were full, with a laptop, a carry-on bag, and a sleepy six-year-old who nestled against him, her head on his shoulder.
Elizabeth was right behind him, and they both looked around for a moment, disoriented, then spied Doug and Carol at the same instant, their faces lighting up.
Carol could no longer stand still and rushed to greet them, hugging first Elizabeth, then Mark, but being careful not to wake Ella.
"Don't worry," said her mother, lifting her jaw to look at her daughter. "She'll sleep through anything."
Doug and Mark made eye contact and grinned, and Tess followed Carol, but Kate, usually so confident and gregarious, was suddenly overcome with shyness. She clung to her father, hiding her face against him. Doug lifted her into his arms to sit on his hip, telling her to be polite and say hello.
Elizabeth turned to her and said seriously, "Kate, how are you? It's so good to see you again." Kate had not seen Elizabeth or heard her accent since she was four, but she was clearly captivated.
After luggage had been retrieved and the difficulties of the flight had been thoroughly dissected, the two families trooped out to the parking lot, where Doug started to apologize. "My car's in the shop, so we're gonna be pretty crowded - especially you two." He pointed to Tess and Kate, who were relegated to the flip-up seat in the back with all the suitcases. Ella had woken up and the three little girls were so far getting along famously, but she had to sit between her parents instead of with the twins.
The evening went well, as Carol, Doug, and Mark tackled the barbecue in the backyard while Elizabeth called Chicago to tie up a few loose ends back at County. Tess and Kate were terrible show-offs, one moment turning cartwheels across the lawn, the next kicking a soccer ball back and forth while singing songs they had learned at school. Ella, who had been only three the last time she'd seen the Tess and Kate Show, was completely starstruck.
Before bed, the girls were happy to take a bath together under the direction of their fathers, although the tub was probably too crowded for any real cleaning to happen. Elizabeth and Carol curled up on the overstuffed chairs in the living room with glasses of dark after-dinner wine.
The friendship between the two women had always existed while they worked together years ago in Chicago, but both had assumed, with some regret, that it could only fade after Carol departed for Seattle. When Mark and Doug, two years later, had come up with the idea for summertime visits every couple of years, Carol and Elizabeth had been surprised at how very glad they were to see each other. This June the reunion was particularly welcome because the trip the summer before had had to be abandoned because Doug and Carol were in the middle of moving with their girls from Seattle to the Bay Area.
Elizabeth was looking around the room, which had lots of dark wood and enormous windows along one wall facing the bay. From their perch in the Berkeley hills the bridges to San Francisco were visible, and on a clear night like this the view was awash with lights. "Carol, the house and everything are beautiful."
Carol grinned, drawing her bare feet up underneath her. "We love the house, except Doug misses his boat and the water being so close. And we're finally starting to understand why the cost of living around here is so insane."
"Are the girls happy? They seem wonderful."
"Yeah, they're good. We found a great school and there's lots of stuff for them to do. Right now they're really into gymnastics and soccer - but last month it was piano. What about Ella?"
"Well, she had fun in kindergarten. Of course, the beginning was rough - she missed Rachel a lot."
"College?" Elizabeth nodded. Upstairs, peals of laughter and the sounds of little girls spraying their fathers with soapy water rang out of the bathroom. Their mothers looked up and, meeting each other's eyes, laughed.
"Doug says he likes the hospital down here." Elizabeth tucked a pillow behind her back. "Do you?"
"I do, yeah, I do," replied Carol. "It's not the same as County because I don't know as many people here, but it was good to get back to work after full-time twin-duty in Seattle." She smiled wryly. "How is County?"
"Oh, not much has changed since you were out last time, really. Peter's finally moved on, though; he took a position in Los Angeles, partly because there's a fabulous school down there for Reece. I miss working with him, especially when things get particularly stressful in the OR."
"Are they very stressful these days?"
She sighed a big sigh. "Yeah, they are. Mark keeps trying to convince me to cut back." She got a funny, wistful look on her face.
Carol waited for more. "What is it?"
Elizabeth looked up at Carol, then out again at the bay. "We've been trying to have another baby."
Carol sensed this was not completely happy news. "You've got to be patient. Remember before Kate and Tess, Doug and I tried. . ." She trailed off, seeing Elizabeth's face.
"Conceiving isn't the problem. But I've miscarried twice already."
Carol's eyes were large and deep when she looked into Elizabeth's. "I'm so sorry."
Elizabeth's brow was knit. "We've found nothing wrong, and Mark thinks it's due to the stress of my job. I didn't think anything was worse than what we went through before Ella was born. . . but I don't know. Maybe he's right."
Carol said nothing, but watched Elizabeth's face until she sighed again, looking over with a smile. "Well, if it's going to happen, I guess it'll happen. I don't want to get distracted from what's really important."
Both women looked up as Mark and Doug descended the stairs. "Everything okay?" asked Elizabeth.
"Yep," affirmed Mark, sliding in to sit behind his wife so he could rub her neck. "Everybody is bathed, storied, and bedded. Ella is thrilled to be sleeping between her two new idols."
Doug chuckled and leaned back. "They are a couple of little goddesses, aren't they?" he said.
Carol rolled her eyes with a grin. "And they know it, too."
Doug was at the stove, flipping pancakes with one hand and pouring juice with the other. Tess and Ella sat at the kitchen table, wolfing down pancakes, but Kate had not yet made her entrance. "Kate!" Doug bellowed up the stairs. "You have ten minutes to eat before we have to go!"
Tess looked quickly to the clock on the microwave. "Only seven minutes, Daddy. Do you want me to go get her?"
"No!" Doug knew that would be disastrous, as Tess was just as likely to get undressed as Kate was to hurry up and get ready if the two of them were in there distracting each other.
Ella was cracking up at how grumpy Doug was in the morning. Her giggles intensified as her dad came up behind her and started tickling, having returned from his run with Carol.
"Good run?" asked Elizabeth, coming down the stairs in Levi's and a cotton tank top, her hair wet.
"Yeah, it was great," he replied. "Lots of hills. You should come with us next time."
"I will, if you can wake me up," she said, laughing. She turned to her daughter. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yup," Ella said, offering her cheek for her mother to kiss good morning. "Can we go to the beach?" Ella knew there were beaches in California, having been completely educated about them by Rachel before leaving Chicago.
"The beach? I'm sure we can, but wouldn't you rather go when Tess and Kate can come? They still have to go to school today." Ella nodded reluctantly.
"Speaking of Kate," Doug said pointedly, spatula in the air.
"I'll go," said Carol, heading upstairs. She went to the twins' room, where she found Kate in front of the full-length mirror on the closet door. She was wearing jeans and a cotton tank top and was watching herself turn side to side. "Hey," said Carol. Kate looked up. "What's keeping you? You don't want to be late on the very last day of the first grade."
"Can't I stay home? You and Daddy are gonna do stuff with Elizabeth and Ella and Mark, and me and Tess are gonna miss it!"
"Don't worry, we won't have too much fun without you. But you can't miss the last day. Now scoot!" She pointed, and Kate obeyed.
Carol picked up a few dirty clothes and stuffed animals that were scattered around the room, which was pretty crowded with the futon spread out for Ella to sleep on. In Chicago and Seattle, Tess and Kate had shared a room, but the new house in Berkeley had four bedrooms and Carol had thought they each would like to have their own space. The girls had foiled that plan, however, insisting that they be allowed to share. Carol gave in but privately thought that they might change their minds in a few years.
When Doug returned from dropping the twins at school, everybody piled into the Volvo and they drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Mark had once been to the city as a kid; Elizabeth had never been. So they spent a few hours driving and naming some of the famous sites. Ella was bored, but a whole leisurely day with both of her busy parents was enough of a treat to keep her from whining, especially after they stopped for vegetarian burritos at a little place at Mission and 19th.
Some walking and shopping at Union Square filled up the rest of the afternoon and then they headed back to the East Bay to pick up the twins at school near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Ella had slept across the bridge but woke up when she heard Tess and Kate. Seeing her, Kate asked, "What did you do all day?"
Ella made a face. "Shopping and walking."
Tess and Kate looked at each other in relief as Doug helped them into the back. "Bo-o-o-oring!"
"I think graduating from the first grade is a pretty big deal," said Doug seriously. "What do you say we celebrate?"
"Fenton's!" squealed the twins. As they headed to their favorite ice cream place on Piedmont Avenue, Kate and Tess explained in detail the many different concoctions that could be consumed there.
Over predictably enormous and sticky sundaes in a bright pink booth, Tess and Kate said goodbye to the first grade and plans for the next week were discussed. Ella was set on the beach; Doug wanted to take Mark sailing on the bay. Elizabeth wanted to drive up and explore the Northern California wine country, and the twins were bubbling with ideas like baseball games, movies, and roller coasters.
That night the girls, after much pleading, were allowed to stay up late and watch a video. Their parents sat out in the backyard as the stars came out over the hills.
"Ella and I have discussed it," said Mark, lying on his back in the soft grass of the lawn. "And we've decided that it would be much better if we never went home."
Doug snorted. "So, you like California, do you?"
"It certainly suits me," replied Elizabeth, settling in the grass next to Mark with her head on his chest.
"Me, too. I never much liked San Diego when my parents were there, but this is great," agreed Mark. "And Ella's happy to be pretty much anywhere with sunshine."
"But she's never going to forgive us if we don't make it to the beach soon," Elizabeth reminded him.
Carol smiled back. "Don't worry, we'll make it. She was great today, so patient. She seems so confident and independent."
"Hmmm, I wonder where she gets that from?!" queried Mark, fingering a stray red curl.
Finally, realizing the video was probably long over, all of them crept back inside to find their daughters sprawled asleep in a heap in front of the flickering television, the room dark. They untangled them quietly and carried them up to bed, then bid each other a whispered goodnight and went their separate bedrooms.
In the morning Doug and Carol went downtown to pick up his repaired Jeep Cherokee, then returned to the house, where they found Elizabeth making sandwiches for Doug and Mark to take sailing.
Doug's boat at the house in Seattle had peaked his interest in boating in general, and he had eventually become quite a skilled sailor. Today he took Mark to the marina where the boat he had purchased last autumn was docked. On its gently bobbing pale side, just above the cloudy water, was the word Carol.
Once they got out on the gray water of the bay, Mark obeyed Doug's instructions and the two were soon working easily side by side.
"So," said Mark.
"So," replied Doug, and they laughed quickly.
"Carol and the twins seem good."
"Yeah, they're great. . .it's good to see Elizabeth and Ella again."
"This sailing thing, I might have to do this some more on my own, like at the lake."
"It's a nice break from everything that happens on land, that's for sure. Sometimes the girls come too and things can be a little crazy."
They were quiet for a little while, their clothes rippling with the cold, salty wind.
"So, how is everything back at County?"
"It's fine most of the time. It's still weird sometimes to remember that you and Carol are gone."
"I know what you mean; when I started at the hospitals here and in Seattle it was strange to see so many unfamiliar faces."
"Kerry's finally chilled out a little," said Mark.
Doug raised his eyebrows. "I'll believe that when I see it."
"No, really. She's in a good relationship. And don't forget that your departure did remove one of the biggest sources of stress in her life."
He laughed ruefully. "I guess you're right. She'd probably be happy to know that I'm busy torturing the fearless leaders of the emergency and pediatrics departments here in Berkeley."
Back at the house, Carol and Elizabeth drank coffee at the kitchen table while Carol read the paper and Elizabeth went over some paperwork she had brought from Chicago. They waited for a while for the girls to come downstairs, then finally realized they were going to have to go wake them up.
Carol grimaced. "I hate waking them up in the summertime when they'd rather sleep in. Tess isn't bad, she always wakes up first and she's mostly happy from the beginning. Kate, though, in the morning she is grumpy."
"Daddy's girl, hmmm?" said Elizabeth, her eyes twinkling greenly over the rim of the coffee mug.
Carol just laughed.
"Ella's more like Kate in the morning," said Elizabeth as she rinsed out the cups in the sink. "She's got to be coaxed." She headed toward the stairs. "Shall we?"
Upon pushing open the door to the bedroom, they found all three girls still dead to the world. The room had that heavy, warm, sleeping child scent, and both women noticed it as they looked for a moment at their daughters, beautiful in their attempt to sleep away the summertime.
Carol went to the east-facing window and opened the blinds. This was enough to wake Tess, who opened her dark eyes and stretched the whole length of her body with a big sigh. Kate and Ella, however, did not stir.
Carol crossed to the bed of her younger daughter and placed a hand upon her damp forehead, saying her name, but Kate only curled tighter into the fetal position and burrowed deeper under her quilts. "Kate, come on. It's late. We're gonna do fun stuff today."
"Nnnnnnoo," mumbled Kate, turning her back.
By this time Elizabeth was sitting cross-legged on the floor and Ella had made it out of the futon and into her lap to curl up with her face against her mother's chest. Her pajamas were wrinkled and wispy strawberry-blonde curls stuck out from her head, nearly obscuring green eyes whose lashes were crusty with sleep.
Carol looked down at the resistant form of her daughter in the bed and realized she was going to have to try something else. She went to Tess, who yawned and smiled up at her. "What do you think, Tess? Pancakes?"
"No. . .we had pancakes yesterday. Let's have eggs."
The foursome trooped down to the kitchen and sure enough, Kate soon appeared. Her curls were tangled and her brow furrowed, but she was ready to eat.
Late that afternoon, the girls lay draped across the living room furniture in front of a Disney movie, tired from a day of hard playing and duck feeding at Montclair park in Oakland. Mark and Doug returned from sailing to find their wives hunched together at the open door of the refrigerator. They had been surveying its contents, trying to decide about dinner. They both turned at the sound and smiled at their wind-blown, ruddy-cheeked husbands.
"What do you guys feel like eating?" asked Elizabeth, just as the phone rang.
Carol answered it. "Hello?. . .Who is this?. . . I thought so, hi . . . yeah, he's here . . . no, we're on vacation, no . . ." She rolled her eyes and exhaled. "Yeah, here he is."
Doug got on and Carol turned to Mark and Elizabeth. "It's the hospital. They need him for a big trauma with a day camp bus accident. So much for dinner at home, I guess."
Mark looked sympathetic, but Elizabeth perked up, turning to Doug as he got off the phone. "Mind if I come along? I'd love to see the hospital."
"Sure, sure. We'd love to have you." He kissed Carol and the two doctors headed out to the Cherokee.
Mark and Carol sighed in unison, then looked at each other with a short laugh. "Bummer," said Mark.
"Yeah," she agreed. "Oh, well. We're going to have a better dinner than they are, anyway." She pulled pasta out of the pantry, and Mark started to make a salad at the island in the middle of the kitchen.
They were quiet until Mark was halfway through chopping a cucumber. "You guys have such great produce out here."
"I know. It's all year round, too, not just in the summer."
Mark looked up at her. "You seem like you're happy here, Carol."
She looked back at him but said nothing.
"Happier than in Seattle."
She was still quiet for a moment, then finally spoke. "You're right. It feels like this is really our place to be happy." She stirred something bubbling red on the stove. "In Seattle, when I first got there, we were happy, almost giddy about being together. Doug was so glad to have the girls, and I was glad to be able to give them to him. There was joy in being with him again and not being alone with two babies."
Mark had stopped chopping and was watching her quietly, letting her speak. "I missed home, though, and Seattle always felt like a place that he chose, and that we had no choice but to follow him to. He worked and I was at home with the girls. I didn't feel very much like myself, although it was nice to give them so much time. But California we decided on together." She looked up and Mark could tell from her easy smile that the serious moment, like the difficult times, had passed. Her eyes were on the summer sky, which harbored only a hint of fog in its blue. "I'm glad to be out of all that rain, too." She laughed, and he laughed with her.
Carol drained the pasta, then put it in a glass bowl on the kitchen table. She set places while Mark put out the salad and cut good, crusty San Francisco sourdough bread. They called in the girls and sat down to eat.
Doug and Elizabeth did not come home from the hospital until after two in the morning, at which time all the other occupants of the house were long asleep. They tiptoed in and said goodnight on their way up the stairs to bed.
Both were accustomed to long shifts and difficult, emotional work and had long ago learned the value of deep, uninterrupted sleep. Neither woke until very late Sunday morning.
Mark and Ella had borrowed the Volvo to explore on their own for a while, and Carol sat out in the backyard, her legs and feet bare and a big straw hat upon her head. The twins were in bathing suits and, lacking a pool to swim in, were industriously spraying each other with the garden hose. Carol looked up from her book as Doug settled into the lawn chair next to hers. He'd slept well, she could see. His eyes were clear and when the girls ran shrieking over to him he welcomed them into his lap despite their wet suits and dripping curls.
When the girls had finished saying good morning and had returned to drenching each other on the lawn, Carol reached a hand out to Doug's thigh. "How was the hospital last night?"
He tipped his head back and smiled into the sun. "It was pretty crazy. At least fifteen kids with injuries, more than half of them serious. Elizabeth jumped right in; they were so busy they hardly noticed her."
Carol shifted her chair so she could rest her legs across Doug's knees. He reached down to rub her calves. "Did you and Mark run this morning?"
"Yep. That's us: Early Morning Conquerors of the Berkeley Hills."
Mark and Ella returned mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day was spent quietly, soaking up the sunshine and reading while trying to avoid stray drops from Tess and Kate's weapon of choice.
On Monday morning Ella was the first to wake up. She lay for a moment in the futon, looking up at the twins on either side of her. They were clearly still in dreamland and soon Ella got up and crept across the hall to the guestroom, where her parents slept.
Mark slept stretched out in the pre-dawn grayness, only half under the quilt, one arm around Elizabeth, who was curled securely against him. Ella crawled onto the bed and in between them, waiting until they were both awake.
"Ellie, what are you - oh, the beach." Elizabeth sighed and stretched her arms toward the headboard.
Ella nodded, her head filled with visions of sand and ocean and seaweed, but it was warm and soft between her parents in the bed, and soon she snuggled down and all three of them went back to sleep.
By contrast, a few hours later the house was buzzing with activity. Mark and Elizabeth made baskets of beach food while Doug rounded up necessary items like towels, Frisbees and sunscreen. Carol was upstairs, the lucky owner of the most challenging task: supervising the dressing of the girls.
Kate and Ella were both ready, stretched out on the futon in their suits, shorts, and flip-flops, waiting impatiently for Tess. Her favorite bathing suit was still wet from yesterday's adventures with the garden hose and she refused to wear the wet one or select another.
"Tess, this is not complicated," said her mother, arms crossed across her chest. "Make a decision."
She wavered and whined and soon Kate was whining too about how long she was taking. Carol rolled her eyes and commanded silence. She dug a blue suit out of a dresser drawer and handed it to Tess, then directed Kate and Ella down the stairs, saying over her shoulder, "Five minutes."
They took both cars for the long drive to Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. The plan had been to space everybody out, but the girls had insisted on being together and so were squashed into the backseat of the Cherokee while Carol and Elizabeth had the Volvo to themselves.
They turned up the radio and sang for the first half of the trip until the scenery started to improve. Elizabeth was craning her neck to see as much as she could of the misty green hills. "Carol, this is lovely," she said. Carol only smiled, her eyes on the winding road. "Ella must be loving this. I wish we got out of the city more when we're home."
"She liked England at Christmas, right?"
"Yeah, we all had a good time, even Mark. Of course, my parents adore both of them. I doubt Ella even noticed we were in London for all the ridiculous piles of presents."
Carol laughed. "I know, you should see my mom with the girls when she visits. They grew out of matching outfits about five years ago, but does she know that? Not a clue."
Elizabeth laughed too. "I never thought I'd say this, but I wish we saw more of my mother. Somehow, she and my daughter get on so well. It all goes back to when she came out and helped with Ella right after she was born, I guess. I hardly saw either of them the first week."
"Oh, but that must have been a relief! My first week with Tess and Kate, what a blur that was."
"My God, I can't imagine doing that alone. When Ella was tiny, every moment that I wasn't thinking about her I was thanking God that the surgery in New York was successful." She paused. "I still think that."
Carol looked at her, sideways. "We all do."
At the beach, the girls stood still long enough to be slathered with sunscreen, then made a beeline for the water. Their parents saw that although the often foggy beach was sunny and hot, the water was still enough to turn lips and other parts of the anatomy blue. Doug and Mark tossed a Frisbee back and forth while the women bedded down in the sand.
Elizabeth watched in amusement as Carol covered herself in sunscreen, donned a hat and sunglasses, then carefully lay down on her towel in the shade of the umbrella she had erected. Elizabeth then stretched out just past the shadow, ready to further bronze her already golden olive skin.
The girls soon emerged from the waves, their teeth chattering. Their mothers watched as Kate caught sight of Doug and Mark's game, then quickly conferred with the others. They made a sudden mad dash for Doug, where Tess and Ella clung to his legs as Kate easily stole the Frisbee Mark had just let fly. Elizabeth and Carol cracked up as Doug stumbled and the three of them flopped together onto the ground, sand spraying everywhere.
This game evolved into sand castles until it was time to eat their picnic lunch. In the afternoon, Carol and Doug stayed on the beach with the girls while Mark and Elizabeth took the short walk into the little town of Half Moon Bay.
"Ella adores it here," remarked Elizabeth as they window-shopped along the sidewalk, hand in hand.
"Yeah, she does," agreed Mark. "Especially the twins."
"They're such vibrant little girls, aren't they? She's so quiet sometimes, I think they do her good."
"She's not that quiet," he protested.
"I know, I know. Don't worry, I was quiet at her age too."
He grinned. "Oh, well, we'd better watch out in a few years, then."
That evening, Mark and Carol made dinner together downstairs while Doug and Elizabeth tried to corral the girls into the bathtub to hose off the percentage of the beach they had worn home. Carol was slicing tomatoes and avocados for the salad when the phone rang. She propped it between her shoulder and her ear. "Hello?"
She turned to stir the beans and rice on the stove. "Oh, hi, yeah. . .uh huh, they're good. How's Hannah?. . .yeah, they did have fun at the park. . .oh? really? That would be great. Are you sure?. . .and her too? Great. . . uh huh. Six. Ella's her name. . .tomorrow at nine? All right. . .okay, thanks so much! See you then. Bye."
She slid diced onions into the pan on the stove. "So, Mark, how do you feel about having an adults-only day?"
The next morning, they dropped the girls off at Tess and Kate's friend Hannah's house. They had run into her at the park on Saturday, and all four of the little girls had hit it off. Today they were invited to a baseball game and to spend the night.
Grateful for their unexpected stroke of luck, their parents headed north to Sonoma County. The wine country was stunning, the hills dusty golden and the fertile lowlands a deep green. The beauty of the region only cemented Mark and Elizabeth's conviction that Doug and Carol's new home was somewhere they intended to visit a lot in the future.
They stopped at a few wineries, although Doug and Carol let the others do most of the tasting. They bought cheese and bread and apples and sausage to eat with one of their new bottles of good wine on the grass and spent an hour or so lying there in the sun. They then got up and walked through one of the old orchards, then finally piled back into the Cherokee to go back to the East Bay.
Doug had made reservations at Chez Panisse on Shattuck in Berkeley for eight o'clock, and they just made it. The restaurant was renowned for its always-fresh ingredients and creative dishes, and Mark and Elizabeth found it just as good as Doug and Carol had assured them it would be.
Between the appetizer and the entrée, Carol sat back in her chair. "I can't believe we've only got one more day with you guys."
"I know," said Mark. "By now, I've almost forgotten about certain small details, like. . . Chicago. Work. Midwestern humidity."
Elizabeth laughed in agreement. "In all seriousness, though," she said. "We've had a lovely time."
"It's been great to have you," replied Doug, surrendering his glass to the waiter who had appeared to refill it with water. "It's nice to know we've still got friends in Chicago."
Carol smiled at the thought, just as their dinner arrived. Afterwards, Doug and Mark fought over the check while Elizabeth quietly signaled the waiter and paid it. They then headed back up into the hills to home, then retired early to their own bedrooms.
In the morning Doug went to pick up the girls at Hannah's house. The slumber party had raged until hours long past their bedtime, and all three of them were groggy and cranky. Their mothers wisely let them go back to sleep at home, although the twins tried mightily to convince them that they were not at all sleepy.
Later in the morning, Mark and Doug drove down to College Avenue to buy bagels, lox and schmear at Noah's for lunch.
Carol and Elizabeth were in the living room with their bagels when Kate, for once the first awake, bumped down the stairs, rubbing her eyes. She went over to curl next to her mother on the couch. Elizabeth knelt on the floor, sorting clothes and putting them into their suitcases. She looked up. "Good morning. How was the baseball game?"
Kate stole a bite of Carol's bagel. "It was good. Hannah's little brother threw up, though."
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose in sympathy. "That does happen."
Kate looked up at Carol, suddenly anxious. "Are they leaving soon?"
"Yep, tomorrow. We're going to miss them though, aren't we?" She smoothed her daughter's dark curls against her temple.
Kate nodded, her brow furrowed as she watched Elizabeth with visible disappointment.
The flight out of Oakland the next morning departed very early, so only Carol rose to drive Mark, Elizabeth, and Ella there, while Doug and the twins, who had said their goodbyes the night before, slept in.
The morning was damp and cool, and Carol needed her headlights as they drove south on the freeway, which was clogged with commuters despite the early hour.
Mark checked the luggage while Elizabeth struggled to keep her sleepy daughter on her feet. They made it through the metal detectors and X-ray machines, then waited for another twenty minutes at their gate.
When their row was called, Mark picked up Ella while Carol and Elizabeth hugged goodbye, each hoping they would see the other again sometime within the next few years. When they had finished, Carol reached for Mark. "Take care of yourself, Carol," he said.
She nodded as they headed off to board.
Carol stood watching at the big glass window, cold against her forehead. It had been a good week, but she wished Doug and the girls were there as she watched the big plane disappear into the gray.
The End