"Carol," Kerry said, surprised. Carol stood in shock, nearly dropping her hot coffee. He stood right next to the redhead, a few feet away from where she herself stood. "Doug's come back to fill our ER pediatrics position."
"Oh," Carol said numbly, unable to say much.
"I'm...going to see how Jing-Mei is...." Kerry said, walking out, leaving the two alone.
"Hi, Carol." Doug said quietly, looking at her, his head tilted in that way he always had.
"Doug, what are you doing here?" she asked, breaking the silence.
"I got a job." He announced.
"That's obvious." She muttered.
"Seattle wasn't much after a while, I decided to come back when the position opened up." He explained, and she didn't say anything. "Listen, Carol, I know we haven't kept in touch and I know that I left you, but...."
"But what, Doug?"
"I don't want any hard feelings. We're going to be working together and...it'd be best if we weren't at each other's throats."
"Who says I'm at your throat?"
"Ok...am I forgiven then? For all I did?"
"Why would I need to forgive you? You did what you thought was right and you were busy...it's not like I didn't expect you to call every day...or drop a line, or something."
"Carol, I-"
"Doug, I just came to get some coffee." She showed him her thermos. "Everything's fine. I promise."
"Alright." Doug smiled and walked out. Carol sighed and leaned back against the countertop, wondering how the hell her life had changed so fast.
~*~
"Hey, Mom!" Kate came running up to Carol's side as she clicked away on the computer.
"Kate, what are you doing here?" Carol asked, worried. "It's only six o'clock."
"Cori brought us, remember?" Kate said, slightly annoyed. "She has a daaaaaaaaate!"
"Did you two have dinner?"
"Uh-huh, macaroni and cheese."
"Where is Cori?" Carol looked to the door.
"Tess had another asthma attack, they had to go slow." She replied nonchalantly.
"Is she alright?" Carol tensed up slightly. Tess had been to the hospital three times since being diagnosed with severe asthma two years ago.
"Uh-huh, she's just a little dizzy." Kate pointed to Tess walking in with Cori, a high school senior who took care of the girls after school.
"Tess, sweetie, are you ok?" Carol leaned down to her oldest daughter's height.
"I'm *fine*, Mom," Tess said, exasperated.
"The girls were playing in the backyard after dinner and they climbed the tree." Cori explained.
"Tess, you're allergic to Oak. What have I told you about climbing that tree?" Carol reprimanded.
"Never to do it." She murmured. Kate laughed at her.
"Katherine...." Carol gave her a look.
"Sorry." She apologized.
"Hey, Kate, Tess." Randi said, noticing them.
"Hi, Randi!" the two chorused.
"Randi, can you watch them for a second?" Carol asked.
"Sure." Randi replied. "Come on, girls."
"Can we look at your magazines?" Tess asked.
"I *need* to find out my horoscope." Kate added. Cori smiled at the adorable twins.
"Thanks for letting me go early." Cori said gratefully.
"Yeah, I know your dates are very important." Carol grinned. "Is today payday?"
"First of the month," She replied.
"Two hundred?" Carol clarified and Cori nodded. "Here you go." She handed her the money. "And Cori, I don't think I'll need you tomorrow. I'm going to try and take the day off, bring the girls to the park or something instead of going to work."
"Sure, I'll get more time to work on that report for Art History." Cori smiled. "I'll see you on Tuesday, then."
"Bye, Cori." Carol said.
"Bye." Cori waved to the girls and left. Carol walked to where Tess and Kate sat on the desk, looking at Randi's latest issue of Vogue.
"See? If you have blue eyes, you go for the blue shadow and if you have brown, then you go for the mauve. But since you girls have hazel, then you try the pink and silver." Randi was explaining to them.
"What about you, Randi?" Tess asked.
"Depends on what colour eyes I have that day." she answered.
"You can change your eye colour?" Kate said astounded. She nodded. "How?"
"Magic." She said matter-of-factly, leaving the two girls astounded.
"Hey, cheeseheads." Carol said, kissing her girls' heads.
"Mo-om!" Tess cried.
"Come on, let's get you in the lounge." She helped them off the desk. "Thanks, Randi."
"No problem." She replied.
"Let's go, Mom!" Kate prompted.
"I'm coming!" Carol smiled and walked to the lounge door, holding the girls' hands.
"Hey, Carol...." Doug sat on the couch, going over a pile of charts.
"Starting early, Doug?" Carol asked.
"I'm a changed man." He smiled and his smile dropped as he saw the two twins. "Who are these little things?"
"I'm Tess!" Tess cried.
"I'm Kate!" Kate added loudly.
"And I'm Doug." Doug said, grinning. "These your kids, Carol?"
"Yep." She answered, nodding.
"No one told me you were married." He stated.
"I'm not." Carol looked down at her little girls, who still held cautiously to her hands. "Their dad...well, that's a long story."
"I'm sorry." He apologized.
"You don't need to be, it's not-" She stopped herself from saying it wasn't his fault, because, technically, it was. "It's okay."
"Mom never talks about you. How come we've never seen you here before?" Kate asked, being bold and walking up to him, Tess following suit.
"Because I just moved back here." He explained.
"Like a new kid?" Tess asked. "We have a new kid at our school."
"Kind of, but I've lived here before. Your mom and I were friends a long time ago." He replied.
"You were?" Kate repeated, astounded.
"Yes, *very* good friends." Doug grinned cockily.
"Come on, girls, let's get you situated so Mom can go back to work." Carol said.
"Is Doug gonna stay and play with us, Mom?" Kate asked.
"You'll have to ask him." Carol replied.
"Will you play with us, Doug?" Kate leaned on his knee.
"Sure, I'm not that busy." He replied, placing his charts on the table.
"Yay!" The two cheered.
"I'll come get you in a few hours when my shift is over, OK, girls?" Carol kissed their cheeks.
"OK, Mom." Kate replied.
"We'll behave." Tess added.
"I know you will." Carol grinned. "Watch them, Doug."
"I will." He smiled and she left. "So, you're Kate and Tess."
"*I* come first," Tess cried.
"Nu-uh, I do!" retorted Kate.
"I'm oldest!"
"I'm smartest!"
"I'm prettiest!"
"We look exactly the same." Kate stuck her hands on her hips and gave her a reprimanding look.
"Hush, you." Tess said and sat her backpack down on the table, beginning to remove some things.
"Who's that on your backpack?" Doug asked curiously.
"That's Spongebob!" she cried.
"Spongebob?" Doug repeated.
"Spongebob Squarepants!" Kate giggled.
"Oh, of course. Spongebob Squarepants. Why didn't I guess?" Doug smiled. "And who is on your backpack, Kate?"
"Rugrats!"
"What a...wonderful name." Doug mumbled.
"They're TV shows, Doug." Tess explained.
"Of course." He said, picking up a chart.
"What are you doing?" Kate asked, leaning into his lap as Tess settled down with her homework.
"I'm writing up patient reviews." He replied, showing her. "See, this was a little boy who had a bad rash on his arms. So I gave him a shot and some pills and skin cream and he's going to get all better."
"And you have to write about them?"
"Yep." Doug nodded. "What are you doing, Tess?"
"Homework." She said, not looking up from her paper.
"Do you have homework to do, Kate?" he asked.
"Nope, I finished at home. *Tess* played around instead." She reprimanded and Tess responded by sticking out her tongue. "Can I watch you work?"
"Sure, but it'll probably be boring." Doug answered.
"I don't mind," Kate said, snuggling against him and resting her curly head on his shoulder. Doug smiled and resumed his work.
~*~
Carol looked at the clock. Nine on the dot. She smiled when she realized her shift had finally finished.
"Carol, can you-" Mari began.
"Not now, my shift's over and I have two sleepy little girls to take home." She said, putting on her coat and opening the door of the lounge. "Time to g-"
"Shh...." Doug placed a finger to his lips, pointing to the two sleeping girls flanking his sides.
"You got them to sleep?" Carol raised her eyebrows. "How'd you manage that?"
"Entertained them with my chart reviews." Doug grinned. "They went out about an hour ago. Tess finished her homework and I finished mine. Getting it done here was better than at my cheap apartment."
"Can you help me get them to my car?" she asked.
"Sure." He replied.
"Just let me get their things." Carol picked up their Spongebob and Rugrats backpacks.
"We should put those on them, it'll be easier to carry them that way." Doug advised.
"Alright." Carol carefully slid the backpacks onto the twins with Doug's help. "Will you take Tess?"
"Sure." He carefully picked up Tess while Carol took Kate and they walked to the parking lot.
"There's my car." Carol pointed to the tan piece of junk parked in a small space.
"I know." Doug nodded. He pushed Tess higher on his shoulder and opened the back door, sitting her in and buckling her up then helping Carol to do the same with Kate.
"Thanks, Doug." Carol said.
"No problem." He replied, closing the doors. "You want me to come and help you get them home?"
"No, I'm fine." She shook her head.
"Really, it's no big deal. You know you don't want to wake them and you'll have to to get them inside." He said wryly.
"You sure it's not a problem?" She asked once more.
"I promise." He replied, grinning.
"Alright, get in."
~*~
"Here we are." Carol said when they pulled up to the old homestead. All in all, the house looked the same, except for the bikes on the front porch and a new coat of paint that had made it brighter, thanks to Carol's brother-in-law and oldest nephews, but the stupid 8 in the 1815 on the porch still titled slightly to the right and refused to go back to it's normal spot.
"Looks the same." Doug chuckled.
"The inside looks much better." She replied.
"Do you actually have walls?" he joked. Carol ignored his comment and opened the door, shielding herself from the now-falling rain and picking up Kate while Doug got Tess. She opened the door and hurried inside, not in a rush to get soaking wet.
"Very nice." Doug commented, noticing the replaced furniture and fixed walls, along with the toys scattered about and children's videos stacked by the VCR. Ringo ran into the room, barking up a storm equal to the one outside and jumping onto Doug's legs.
"Ringo the basset hound Starr!" Carol stage-whispered, nudging the hound aside with her foot. Ringo sulked and scampered away.
"Ringo Starr?" Doug repeated quietly.
"It was either that or Davey the dog Jones." She replied, then, dropping her tone to a whisper, said, "Their room's upstairs.", leading the way to the yellow room where the girls spent their sleeping hours and some of their waking ones.
"Which one's Tess's?" he asked.
"The one on the right." Carol nodded to it with her head.
"Alright." Doug said.
"Wait, Doug." Carol stopped him as he pulled back Tess's blankets.
"What?" he stopped suddenly.
"Get them into their undershirts. They can sleep in those." She explained.
"Oh." Doug nodded and removed Tess's coveralls and shirt before placing her in her bed.
"Mommy?" Tess murmured sleepily.
"Right here, baby." Carol finished tucking Kate into bed before coming over to the other one.
"Hi, Doug." The little girl smiled at him.
"Hi, Tess." He responded.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I helped your mom get you two home." Doug explained.
"Oh...ok." Tess yawned.
"Go back to sleep sweetheart." Carol said, kissing her daughter's forehead and pulling the covers over her, turning on the Elmo nightlight. "G'night."
"'Night, Mommy."
"Thanks, Doug." She said after they had gone downstairs.
"No problem, they're sweet girls." He replied. "I'm gonna go now, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Doug, why don't you stay, have something to drink?" Frankly, Carol had no idea what the hell she was doing, but she continued. "That rain is coming down pretty hard."
"I've driven in rain before." Protested Doug.
"I know, and you've also saved hypothermic boys in the rain before." Doug smiled at Carol's joke.
"Fine, I'll stay and have some coffee." He gave in.
"Let me go put it on. Come into the kitchen." Carol led him to the cheery yellow-checked room and started the coffee maker. Doug sat at the table, toying with the wax fruit in front of him. Carol watched, smiling, as he touched an apple and accidentally let it bounce to the floor, splitting neatly in half.
"I'm sorry, I'll fix it." Doug picked up the two halves and tried to press them together.
"Don't worry, it does that all the time. When I first bought them, the girls didn't know they were wax and Kate tried to have a snack." Carol grinned and Doug laughed heartily.
"Precocious little things." Doug said. He began to fidget with the yellow gingham tablecloth, not looking her in the eye as he asked, "Do you remember when we were trying to have a kid?"
"Yes." Carol replied quietly, placing the cup of coffee in front of him and taking a seat across the table.
"Makes you wonder...if it would've turned out as sweet and pretty as Tess and Kate." He thought aloud.
"Perhaps." Carol said after a long pause. "Guess we'll never know."
"Carol, I had this pipe dream...." His voice trailed off. "That doesn't matter. The rain's stopped." He stood up and got his coat. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."
"No, I'm taking the day off." She replied. "A Carol-Tess-and-Kate day."
"Oh." Doug nodded. "Then I'll see you around."
"It was good to see you, Doug." Carol said truthfully. Doug hugged her gently.
"You too, Carol." He smiled at her and left. Carol silently finished the last of her coffee, not noticing the tears sliding off her nose into the mug.
~*~
"Oh," Carol said numbly, unable to say much.
"I'm...going to see how Jing-Mei is...." Kerry said, walking out, leaving the two alone.
"Hi, Carol." Doug said quietly, looking at her, his head tilted in that way he always had.
"Doug, what are you doing here?" she asked, breaking the silence.
"I got a job." He announced.
"That's obvious." She muttered.
"Seattle wasn't much after a while, I decided to come back when the position opened up." He explained, and she didn't say anything. "Listen, Carol, I know we haven't kept in touch and I know that I left you, but...."
"But what, Doug?"
"I don't want any hard feelings. We're going to be working together and...it'd be best if we weren't at each other's throats."
"Who says I'm at your throat?"
"Ok...am I forgiven then? For all I did?"
"Why would I need to forgive you? You did what you thought was right and you were busy...it's not like I didn't expect you to call every day...or drop a line, or something."
"Carol, I-"
"Doug, I just came to get some coffee." She showed him her thermos. "Everything's fine. I promise."
"Alright." Doug smiled and walked out. Carol sighed and leaned back against the countertop, wondering how the hell her life had changed so fast.
~*~
"Hey, Mom!" Kate came running up to Carol's side as she clicked away on the computer.
"Kate, what are you doing here?" Carol asked, worried. "It's only six o'clock."
"Cori brought us, remember?" Kate said, slightly annoyed. "She has a daaaaaaaaate!"
"Did you two have dinner?"
"Uh-huh, macaroni and cheese."
"Where is Cori?" Carol looked to the door.
"Tess had another asthma attack, they had to go slow." She replied nonchalantly.
"Is she alright?" Carol tensed up slightly. Tess had been to the hospital three times since being diagnosed with severe asthma two years ago.
"Uh-huh, she's just a little dizzy." Kate pointed to Tess walking in with Cori, a high school senior who took care of the girls after school.
"Tess, sweetie, are you ok?" Carol leaned down to her oldest daughter's height.
"I'm *fine*, Mom," Tess said, exasperated.
"The girls were playing in the backyard after dinner and they climbed the tree." Cori explained.
"Tess, you're allergic to Oak. What have I told you about climbing that tree?" Carol reprimanded.
"Never to do it." She murmured. Kate laughed at her.
"Katherine...." Carol gave her a look.
"Sorry." She apologized.
"Hey, Kate, Tess." Randi said, noticing them.
"Hi, Randi!" the two chorused.
"Randi, can you watch them for a second?" Carol asked.
"Sure." Randi replied. "Come on, girls."
"Can we look at your magazines?" Tess asked.
"I *need* to find out my horoscope." Kate added. Cori smiled at the adorable twins.
"Thanks for letting me go early." Cori said gratefully.
"Yeah, I know your dates are very important." Carol grinned. "Is today payday?"
"First of the month," She replied.
"Two hundred?" Carol clarified and Cori nodded. "Here you go." She handed her the money. "And Cori, I don't think I'll need you tomorrow. I'm going to try and take the day off, bring the girls to the park or something instead of going to work."
"Sure, I'll get more time to work on that report for Art History." Cori smiled. "I'll see you on Tuesday, then."
"Bye, Cori." Carol said.
"Bye." Cori waved to the girls and left. Carol walked to where Tess and Kate sat on the desk, looking at Randi's latest issue of Vogue.
"See? If you have blue eyes, you go for the blue shadow and if you have brown, then you go for the mauve. But since you girls have hazel, then you try the pink and silver." Randi was explaining to them.
"What about you, Randi?" Tess asked.
"Depends on what colour eyes I have that day." she answered.
"You can change your eye colour?" Kate said astounded. She nodded. "How?"
"Magic." She said matter-of-factly, leaving the two girls astounded.
"Hey, cheeseheads." Carol said, kissing her girls' heads.
"Mo-om!" Tess cried.
"Come on, let's get you in the lounge." She helped them off the desk. "Thanks, Randi."
"No problem." She replied.
"Let's go, Mom!" Kate prompted.
"I'm coming!" Carol smiled and walked to the lounge door, holding the girls' hands.
"Hey, Carol...." Doug sat on the couch, going over a pile of charts.
"Starting early, Doug?" Carol asked.
"I'm a changed man." He smiled and his smile dropped as he saw the two twins. "Who are these little things?"
"I'm Tess!" Tess cried.
"I'm Kate!" Kate added loudly.
"And I'm Doug." Doug said, grinning. "These your kids, Carol?"
"Yep." She answered, nodding.
"No one told me you were married." He stated.
"I'm not." Carol looked down at her little girls, who still held cautiously to her hands. "Their dad...well, that's a long story."
"I'm sorry." He apologized.
"You don't need to be, it's not-" She stopped herself from saying it wasn't his fault, because, technically, it was. "It's okay."
"Mom never talks about you. How come we've never seen you here before?" Kate asked, being bold and walking up to him, Tess following suit.
"Because I just moved back here." He explained.
"Like a new kid?" Tess asked. "We have a new kid at our school."
"Kind of, but I've lived here before. Your mom and I were friends a long time ago." He replied.
"You were?" Kate repeated, astounded.
"Yes, *very* good friends." Doug grinned cockily.
"Come on, girls, let's get you situated so Mom can go back to work." Carol said.
"Is Doug gonna stay and play with us, Mom?" Kate asked.
"You'll have to ask him." Carol replied.
"Will you play with us, Doug?" Kate leaned on his knee.
"Sure, I'm not that busy." He replied, placing his charts on the table.
"Yay!" The two cheered.
"I'll come get you in a few hours when my shift is over, OK, girls?" Carol kissed their cheeks.
"OK, Mom." Kate replied.
"We'll behave." Tess added.
"I know you will." Carol grinned. "Watch them, Doug."
"I will." He smiled and she left. "So, you're Kate and Tess."
"*I* come first," Tess cried.
"Nu-uh, I do!" retorted Kate.
"I'm oldest!"
"I'm smartest!"
"I'm prettiest!"
"We look exactly the same." Kate stuck her hands on her hips and gave her a reprimanding look.
"Hush, you." Tess said and sat her backpack down on the table, beginning to remove some things.
"Who's that on your backpack?" Doug asked curiously.
"That's Spongebob!" she cried.
"Spongebob?" Doug repeated.
"Spongebob Squarepants!" Kate giggled.
"Oh, of course. Spongebob Squarepants. Why didn't I guess?" Doug smiled. "And who is on your backpack, Kate?"
"Rugrats!"
"What a...wonderful name." Doug mumbled.
"They're TV shows, Doug." Tess explained.
"Of course." He said, picking up a chart.
"What are you doing?" Kate asked, leaning into his lap as Tess settled down with her homework.
"I'm writing up patient reviews." He replied, showing her. "See, this was a little boy who had a bad rash on his arms. So I gave him a shot and some pills and skin cream and he's going to get all better."
"And you have to write about them?"
"Yep." Doug nodded. "What are you doing, Tess?"
"Homework." She said, not looking up from her paper.
"Do you have homework to do, Kate?" he asked.
"Nope, I finished at home. *Tess* played around instead." She reprimanded and Tess responded by sticking out her tongue. "Can I watch you work?"
"Sure, but it'll probably be boring." Doug answered.
"I don't mind," Kate said, snuggling against him and resting her curly head on his shoulder. Doug smiled and resumed his work.
~*~
Carol looked at the clock. Nine on the dot. She smiled when she realized her shift had finally finished.
"Carol, can you-" Mari began.
"Not now, my shift's over and I have two sleepy little girls to take home." She said, putting on her coat and opening the door of the lounge. "Time to g-"
"Shh...." Doug placed a finger to his lips, pointing to the two sleeping girls flanking his sides.
"You got them to sleep?" Carol raised her eyebrows. "How'd you manage that?"
"Entertained them with my chart reviews." Doug grinned. "They went out about an hour ago. Tess finished her homework and I finished mine. Getting it done here was better than at my cheap apartment."
"Can you help me get them to my car?" she asked.
"Sure." He replied.
"Just let me get their things." Carol picked up their Spongebob and Rugrats backpacks.
"We should put those on them, it'll be easier to carry them that way." Doug advised.
"Alright." Carol carefully slid the backpacks onto the twins with Doug's help. "Will you take Tess?"
"Sure." He carefully picked up Tess while Carol took Kate and they walked to the parking lot.
"There's my car." Carol pointed to the tan piece of junk parked in a small space.
"I know." Doug nodded. He pushed Tess higher on his shoulder and opened the back door, sitting her in and buckling her up then helping Carol to do the same with Kate.
"Thanks, Doug." Carol said.
"No problem." He replied, closing the doors. "You want me to come and help you get them home?"
"No, I'm fine." She shook her head.
"Really, it's no big deal. You know you don't want to wake them and you'll have to to get them inside." He said wryly.
"You sure it's not a problem?" She asked once more.
"I promise." He replied, grinning.
"Alright, get in."
~*~
"Here we are." Carol said when they pulled up to the old homestead. All in all, the house looked the same, except for the bikes on the front porch and a new coat of paint that had made it brighter, thanks to Carol's brother-in-law and oldest nephews, but the stupid 8 in the 1815 on the porch still titled slightly to the right and refused to go back to it's normal spot.
"Looks the same." Doug chuckled.
"The inside looks much better." She replied.
"Do you actually have walls?" he joked. Carol ignored his comment and opened the door, shielding herself from the now-falling rain and picking up Kate while Doug got Tess. She opened the door and hurried inside, not in a rush to get soaking wet.
"Very nice." Doug commented, noticing the replaced furniture and fixed walls, along with the toys scattered about and children's videos stacked by the VCR. Ringo ran into the room, barking up a storm equal to the one outside and jumping onto Doug's legs.
"Ringo the basset hound Starr!" Carol stage-whispered, nudging the hound aside with her foot. Ringo sulked and scampered away.
"Ringo Starr?" Doug repeated quietly.
"It was either that or Davey the dog Jones." She replied, then, dropping her tone to a whisper, said, "Their room's upstairs.", leading the way to the yellow room where the girls spent their sleeping hours and some of their waking ones.
"Which one's Tess's?" he asked.
"The one on the right." Carol nodded to it with her head.
"Alright." Doug said.
"Wait, Doug." Carol stopped him as he pulled back Tess's blankets.
"What?" he stopped suddenly.
"Get them into their undershirts. They can sleep in those." She explained.
"Oh." Doug nodded and removed Tess's coveralls and shirt before placing her in her bed.
"Mommy?" Tess murmured sleepily.
"Right here, baby." Carol finished tucking Kate into bed before coming over to the other one.
"Hi, Doug." The little girl smiled at him.
"Hi, Tess." He responded.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I helped your mom get you two home." Doug explained.
"Oh...ok." Tess yawned.
"Go back to sleep sweetheart." Carol said, kissing her daughter's forehead and pulling the covers over her, turning on the Elmo nightlight. "G'night."
"'Night, Mommy."
"Thanks, Doug." She said after they had gone downstairs.
"No problem, they're sweet girls." He replied. "I'm gonna go now, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Doug, why don't you stay, have something to drink?" Frankly, Carol had no idea what the hell she was doing, but she continued. "That rain is coming down pretty hard."
"I've driven in rain before." Protested Doug.
"I know, and you've also saved hypothermic boys in the rain before." Doug smiled at Carol's joke.
"Fine, I'll stay and have some coffee." He gave in.
"Let me go put it on. Come into the kitchen." Carol led him to the cheery yellow-checked room and started the coffee maker. Doug sat at the table, toying with the wax fruit in front of him. Carol watched, smiling, as he touched an apple and accidentally let it bounce to the floor, splitting neatly in half.
"I'm sorry, I'll fix it." Doug picked up the two halves and tried to press them together.
"Don't worry, it does that all the time. When I first bought them, the girls didn't know they were wax and Kate tried to have a snack." Carol grinned and Doug laughed heartily.
"Precocious little things." Doug said. He began to fidget with the yellow gingham tablecloth, not looking her in the eye as he asked, "Do you remember when we were trying to have a kid?"
"Yes." Carol replied quietly, placing the cup of coffee in front of him and taking a seat across the table.
"Makes you wonder...if it would've turned out as sweet and pretty as Tess and Kate." He thought aloud.
"Perhaps." Carol said after a long pause. "Guess we'll never know."
"Carol, I had this pipe dream...." His voice trailed off. "That doesn't matter. The rain's stopped." He stood up and got his coat. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."
"No, I'm taking the day off." She replied. "A Carol-Tess-and-Kate day."
"Oh." Doug nodded. "Then I'll see you around."
"It was good to see you, Doug." Carol said truthfully. Doug hugged her gently.
"You too, Carol." He smiled at her and left. Carol silently finished the last of her coffee, not noticing the tears sliding off her nose into the mug.
~*~