You'll be in my heart, part 7, "THERE'S NO TROUBLE IN TWIN TOWN ANYMORE"
As the days went by the investigation continued. In Pontague, a couple of meters away from the police's area, a lot of people had visited and laid flowers, little teddy bears, candles, cards and drawings on the ground, in the memory of Kate and Tess Hathaway Ross.
Mark and Kerry were both present during the autopsy of the girls. After the shocking experience where a lot more than expected was discovered, Mark went to visit Doug and Carol.
"Hey, how are you?" Mark asked and entered the house. He could see the pain in their eyes.
"Ok", Carol said.
"As you know, the autopsy was today, and…" Mark began slowly. He knew what he now was going to say would break their hearts even more. "…and unfortunately something else happened before they got killed".
Doug took Carol's hand and held it even tighter. "What is it, Mark?"
"The autopsy showed that they were raped before they got killed. We could see a lot of bruises, which usually means they were fighting against. And everything happened Friday because the temperature was very low when they were found. The rapes and murders happened around 7.00am"
"Oh my God!! No! Please! Say it's not true. Please, Mark!" Carol cried and looked at her friend. When she saw the grave I'm-serious-look, she knew it was true. Her little girls weren't just stabbed to death but also raped. She let her head fall on Doug's shoulder, and he took his hand around her. Doug cried too while burying his face in Carol's hair.
It was very seldom Mark had seen his best friend cry. Even when his father had died and he and Doug went to get his things, he hadn't cried. Mark couldn't and didn't want to imagine what if it was Ella or Rachel that was raped and then killed. He wanted to help his two best friends but didn't know how.
He looked at the table where the newspapers from the last couple of days were lying. On one of the papers there were two pictures of the twins with the text "The girls were hidden in the bushes but the bloody clothes revealed the murders", and on another one was it written with big letters over the whole front page, also this had a picture of the girls: "The police is hunting two men" and in the left corner, next to the picture was it written: "The girls were stabbed and killed". The last paper was from today and had the headline "We've got the murderer in our files".
Mark couldn't believe this was true. He'd never imagined that there would be pictures of Tess and Kate all over the country next to headlines about one of the worse crimes in American history. Only a couple of days ago the twins were alive. It was the first time there was no noise or voices of two happy girls in Carol's house, the house was so quiet and empty that Mark got goose bumps. He looked at his friends. Poor people, he thought. They had now experienced every parent's worse nightmare.
"Is there anything I can do?" he finally asked.
Doug smiled at him through his tears. "Actually yes. Can you do me a favour?"
Mark nodded. "Absolutely. I'll do anything".
"There's nothing you can do here anyway. Go home to Elizabeth and Ella, and spend some time with them. Play tea party with Ella or tell her a story. I also want you to call Rachel. Ask Jennifer if you could have her this weekend or something. Be with your girls, Mark. You never know when it's over. We've lost our girls but you've still got yours".
This made Mark cry. Just by looking at Doug and Carol made him realise how lucky he was. When this was over he'd still have Ella and Rachel but they had lost their children, only after 9 ½ short years. He just hoped they would stay together, helping each other to move on. There was nothing that could get them the twins back but he knew as well as they that it would be easier to get on with their lives together than being on each side of the country. After saying goodbye to his friends, he left.
Carol was sitting quietly on the couch, not saying a word. Doug looked at her from the kitchen. She was so pale and out cried but it still continued streaming tears down her face. He leaned towards the door feeling nothing. His heart was aching and his eyes were filled with tears. When he looked at the kitchen table he saw a trey with an empty plate, a glass with some milk and an eggcup, and his heart started aching even more.
----------------------------Flashback-----------------------------
It was Saturday morning in Seattle. Tess and Kate were visiting him that weekend and had decided to make their father breakfast on his bed. By the age of 4 they thought they knew everything about making a meal.
Tess opened the refrigerator and grabbed an egg from the carton. "Kate, I've got an egg"
"Does Daddy like eggs?" Kate asked while pouring some milk in a glass that she found in the dishwasher. Checking if the glass was clean wasn't on her priority list.
"I don't know", Tess replied. "We pretend he does. Can you find an eggcup in the washer too?"
Kate began to look and picked out one and put it on the trey. "Everything in the washer looks very much like the things we used during dinner. Look, there's my "Bob the Builder" cup and plate.
Not even realising that everything in the dishwasher was the opposite of clean they continued their breakfast preparations. When they finally were finished they tiptoed into Doug's bedroom. Doug, who'd seen everything jumped into his bed pretending to be sleeping.
"Wake up, Daddy!" Kate yelled.
Tess jumped onto Doug and smiled at her "sleeping" father. "It's morning, Daddy. Look alive!" Jumping up and down on his bed next to him made him sit up. "Hi, Daddy".
Kate laid the trey on the bed and jumped into the bed joining her sister and father. "It's breakfast time, Daddy".
"Yeah, I know", Doug said. He sat up and looked at the "food" Kate and Tess had prepared. Why hadn't he turned on the dishwasher last night? He thought. "I see you even have made me an egg?"
"Yeah", Tess nodded. "Eat it, Daddy".
A raw egg didn't tempter him. The girls must have found it in the refrigerator and put it right in the eggcup, thinking it was ready. Hopefully they hadn't eaten eggs themselves. "Great! Have you eaten eggs?"
Both girls shook their heads. "Of course not, Daddy", Kate said. "I don't like eggs".
"Me neither", Tess said smiling. "But you do, don't you, Daddy?"
Doug wasn't too excited to eat a raw egg but breaking his daughter's hearts was the last thing he wanted to do. "Usually", he said. Maybe he could talk him out of it. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah, but we only had time to make food for you", Kate said.
"Well", Doug began. "If you don't tell your mother I'll take you to McDonald's for breakfast. How does that sound?"
The girls' eyes shone of happiness and Doug was relieved to skip the egg. "Yippy! Can we go when you have finished eating your egg, Daddy?" Kate asked.
-------------------------End Flashback---------------------------
Doug smiled when he remembered that day. It ended with him eating the egg but he'd convinced the girls to let him boil it first and then they'd gone to McDonald's for breakfast. The next day the girls had flown home to Chicago and later that evening Carol had phoned him wandering why he'd given them hamburgers and fries for breakfast. He knew they couldn't keep a secret. Every time he saw an egg he remembered what Kate had said. "Can we go when you have finished eating your egg, Daddy?" "Can we go when you have finished eating your egg, Daddy?" The words of his youngest daughter stung him in his heart. He would never hear his daughters call him "Daddy" anymore. Then it suddenly hit him; he wasn't a Daddy anymore. He knew he had a son but he hadn't been a father to him in the way he had been to Kate and Tess.
He was surprised that he was able to laugh of the memory. "What are you laughing of, Doug?" Carol asked as she walked towards him. She looked at him with her red and grieving eyes. Doug took her in his arms and kissed her on her forehead. "I just remembered when Tess and Kate made me breakfast and I almost ate a raw egg".
"Yeah, and then you ended up at McDonald's", Carol smiled remembering how excited the twins was when they told her that they'd eaten hamburgers, fries and soda instead of bred and milk for breakfast.
"I said them not to say anything but I guess that was the first thing they told you when they got of the plane?" Doug said and hugged her even more while Carol nodded. "It was".
They stood there for a while not saying a word, just holding each other. Doug was leaning against the door while Carol leaned her head on his chest. "It's so awfully quiet", she suddenly said. "I still can't believe I'm never going to hear their voices again".
Doug pulled her away from her. "Didn't you bring the karaoke player down in the living room?" he asked. Carol nodded. "Come with me".
In the living room the player was standing on the floor by the couch. Carol sat down while Doug put on player:
"Hi and welcome to 'There's no Trouble in Twin Town'. I'm Tess and this is my twin sister Kate".
"Hello, people. How are you today? I can't hear you! Great"
"Well, Kate. What is on our show today?"
"A lot of music, an interview with Nurse Carol Hathaway, Dr. Abby Lockhart and Dr. Luka Kovac who all work at County General Hospital's ER, competitions…."
"Oh my God", Carol said and held her hand in front her face while she cried. Doug immediately pushed the stop button.
"I'm sorry. I'll turn it off".
Carol shook her head sobbing. "No, I want to hear the rest. It's just that they made that show on Wednesday".
"Last week?"
"Yeah. Today is it exactly a week since they recorded it. I remember how much they wanted to interview everyone in the ER but they just ended up with Abby, Luka and me".
Doug put it on play and sat next to Carol on the couch holding her in his arms while they listen to their daughters' show.
"Here it comes", Carol said when the interviews began.
"Can you tell us a little about yourselves?" Kate asked
"Well, my name is Carol Hathaway and I'm a nurse here at County".
"I've heard you're the head nurse. Is that correct?" Tess interrupted her.
Carol continued. "Yes, that's right. Anyway, I have two beautiful daughters who I love more than anything".
"We love you too, Mummy", Kate whispered trying not to get it on the tape, of course unsuccessfully.
"What about your daughters' father?" Kate asked.
"He lives in Seattle. It's really not more to say about that"
"Really?" Tess said ironically. "Why does he live in Seattle and not here with you and your children, Nurse Hathaway?"
"He…I…This is not something I will tell everyone about so I'm not answering that question".
"Come on, Mummy..uh..Carol, I mean" Tess sighed before whispering. "Have you forgotten you're not on the real radio, Mummy?"
"Okay. Their father, dr. Doug Ross, didn't have a job here in Chicago so he moved to Seattle where he got one".
"Thank you. Now was that so hard?" Tess asked and Carol laughed.
"No".
"Why don't you live with him?" Kate continued the interview.
"We…I..he...", Carol began but was interrupted by Chuny. "Hey, Carol. Double MVA is coming in. ETA: 1 minute". "Thank you, Chuny. You just saved me from these
interviewers. I have to go" Carol said.
"Hey! We're not finished with you yet!!" Kate yelled after Carol who was on her way out the door.
"I'm sorry, guys. We'll finish it later, ok?"
"You bet!" both girls exclaimed in unison.
Carol looked over at Doug and she could see he was crying. After all these years she'd known him she had never seen him cry as he did now. As she had done since Friday night, Carol felt tears coming down her cheeks. Just hearing the girls' voices made her entire body ache, longing to hug and kiss them.
As the days went by the investigation continued. In Pontague, a couple of meters away from the police's area, a lot of people had visited and laid flowers, little teddy bears, candles, cards and drawings on the ground, in the memory of Kate and Tess Hathaway Ross.
Mark and Kerry were both present during the autopsy of the girls. After the shocking experience where a lot more than expected was discovered, Mark went to visit Doug and Carol.
"Hey, how are you?" Mark asked and entered the house. He could see the pain in their eyes.
"Ok", Carol said.
"As you know, the autopsy was today, and…" Mark began slowly. He knew what he now was going to say would break their hearts even more. "…and unfortunately something else happened before they got killed".
Doug took Carol's hand and held it even tighter. "What is it, Mark?"
"The autopsy showed that they were raped before they got killed. We could see a lot of bruises, which usually means they were fighting against. And everything happened Friday because the temperature was very low when they were found. The rapes and murders happened around 7.00am"
"Oh my God!! No! Please! Say it's not true. Please, Mark!" Carol cried and looked at her friend. When she saw the grave I'm-serious-look, she knew it was true. Her little girls weren't just stabbed to death but also raped. She let her head fall on Doug's shoulder, and he took his hand around her. Doug cried too while burying his face in Carol's hair.
It was very seldom Mark had seen his best friend cry. Even when his father had died and he and Doug went to get his things, he hadn't cried. Mark couldn't and didn't want to imagine what if it was Ella or Rachel that was raped and then killed. He wanted to help his two best friends but didn't know how.
He looked at the table where the newspapers from the last couple of days were lying. On one of the papers there were two pictures of the twins with the text "The girls were hidden in the bushes but the bloody clothes revealed the murders", and on another one was it written with big letters over the whole front page, also this had a picture of the girls: "The police is hunting two men" and in the left corner, next to the picture was it written: "The girls were stabbed and killed". The last paper was from today and had the headline "We've got the murderer in our files".
Mark couldn't believe this was true. He'd never imagined that there would be pictures of Tess and Kate all over the country next to headlines about one of the worse crimes in American history. Only a couple of days ago the twins were alive. It was the first time there was no noise or voices of two happy girls in Carol's house, the house was so quiet and empty that Mark got goose bumps. He looked at his friends. Poor people, he thought. They had now experienced every parent's worse nightmare.
"Is there anything I can do?" he finally asked.
Doug smiled at him through his tears. "Actually yes. Can you do me a favour?"
Mark nodded. "Absolutely. I'll do anything".
"There's nothing you can do here anyway. Go home to Elizabeth and Ella, and spend some time with them. Play tea party with Ella or tell her a story. I also want you to call Rachel. Ask Jennifer if you could have her this weekend or something. Be with your girls, Mark. You never know when it's over. We've lost our girls but you've still got yours".
This made Mark cry. Just by looking at Doug and Carol made him realise how lucky he was. When this was over he'd still have Ella and Rachel but they had lost their children, only after 9 ½ short years. He just hoped they would stay together, helping each other to move on. There was nothing that could get them the twins back but he knew as well as they that it would be easier to get on with their lives together than being on each side of the country. After saying goodbye to his friends, he left.
Carol was sitting quietly on the couch, not saying a word. Doug looked at her from the kitchen. She was so pale and out cried but it still continued streaming tears down her face. He leaned towards the door feeling nothing. His heart was aching and his eyes were filled with tears. When he looked at the kitchen table he saw a trey with an empty plate, a glass with some milk and an eggcup, and his heart started aching even more.
----------------------------Flashback-----------------------------
It was Saturday morning in Seattle. Tess and Kate were visiting him that weekend and had decided to make their father breakfast on his bed. By the age of 4 they thought they knew everything about making a meal.
Tess opened the refrigerator and grabbed an egg from the carton. "Kate, I've got an egg"
"Does Daddy like eggs?" Kate asked while pouring some milk in a glass that she found in the dishwasher. Checking if the glass was clean wasn't on her priority list.
"I don't know", Tess replied. "We pretend he does. Can you find an eggcup in the washer too?"
Kate began to look and picked out one and put it on the trey. "Everything in the washer looks very much like the things we used during dinner. Look, there's my "Bob the Builder" cup and plate.
Not even realising that everything in the dishwasher was the opposite of clean they continued their breakfast preparations. When they finally were finished they tiptoed into Doug's bedroom. Doug, who'd seen everything jumped into his bed pretending to be sleeping.
"Wake up, Daddy!" Kate yelled.
Tess jumped onto Doug and smiled at her "sleeping" father. "It's morning, Daddy. Look alive!" Jumping up and down on his bed next to him made him sit up. "Hi, Daddy".
Kate laid the trey on the bed and jumped into the bed joining her sister and father. "It's breakfast time, Daddy".
"Yeah, I know", Doug said. He sat up and looked at the "food" Kate and Tess had prepared. Why hadn't he turned on the dishwasher last night? He thought. "I see you even have made me an egg?"
"Yeah", Tess nodded. "Eat it, Daddy".
A raw egg didn't tempter him. The girls must have found it in the refrigerator and put it right in the eggcup, thinking it was ready. Hopefully they hadn't eaten eggs themselves. "Great! Have you eaten eggs?"
Both girls shook their heads. "Of course not, Daddy", Kate said. "I don't like eggs".
"Me neither", Tess said smiling. "But you do, don't you, Daddy?"
Doug wasn't too excited to eat a raw egg but breaking his daughter's hearts was the last thing he wanted to do. "Usually", he said. Maybe he could talk him out of it. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah, but we only had time to make food for you", Kate said.
"Well", Doug began. "If you don't tell your mother I'll take you to McDonald's for breakfast. How does that sound?"
The girls' eyes shone of happiness and Doug was relieved to skip the egg. "Yippy! Can we go when you have finished eating your egg, Daddy?" Kate asked.
-------------------------End Flashback---------------------------
Doug smiled when he remembered that day. It ended with him eating the egg but he'd convinced the girls to let him boil it first and then they'd gone to McDonald's for breakfast. The next day the girls had flown home to Chicago and later that evening Carol had phoned him wandering why he'd given them hamburgers and fries for breakfast. He knew they couldn't keep a secret. Every time he saw an egg he remembered what Kate had said. "Can we go when you have finished eating your egg, Daddy?" "Can we go when you have finished eating your egg, Daddy?" The words of his youngest daughter stung him in his heart. He would never hear his daughters call him "Daddy" anymore. Then it suddenly hit him; he wasn't a Daddy anymore. He knew he had a son but he hadn't been a father to him in the way he had been to Kate and Tess.
He was surprised that he was able to laugh of the memory. "What are you laughing of, Doug?" Carol asked as she walked towards him. She looked at him with her red and grieving eyes. Doug took her in his arms and kissed her on her forehead. "I just remembered when Tess and Kate made me breakfast and I almost ate a raw egg".
"Yeah, and then you ended up at McDonald's", Carol smiled remembering how excited the twins was when they told her that they'd eaten hamburgers, fries and soda instead of bred and milk for breakfast.
"I said them not to say anything but I guess that was the first thing they told you when they got of the plane?" Doug said and hugged her even more while Carol nodded. "It was".
They stood there for a while not saying a word, just holding each other. Doug was leaning against the door while Carol leaned her head on his chest. "It's so awfully quiet", she suddenly said. "I still can't believe I'm never going to hear their voices again".
Doug pulled her away from her. "Didn't you bring the karaoke player down in the living room?" he asked. Carol nodded. "Come with me".
In the living room the player was standing on the floor by the couch. Carol sat down while Doug put on player:
"Hi and welcome to 'There's no Trouble in Twin Town'. I'm Tess and this is my twin sister Kate".
"Hello, people. How are you today? I can't hear you! Great"
"Well, Kate. What is on our show today?"
"A lot of music, an interview with Nurse Carol Hathaway, Dr. Abby Lockhart and Dr. Luka Kovac who all work at County General Hospital's ER, competitions…."
"Oh my God", Carol said and held her hand in front her face while she cried. Doug immediately pushed the stop button.
"I'm sorry. I'll turn it off".
Carol shook her head sobbing. "No, I want to hear the rest. It's just that they made that show on Wednesday".
"Last week?"
"Yeah. Today is it exactly a week since they recorded it. I remember how much they wanted to interview everyone in the ER but they just ended up with Abby, Luka and me".
Doug put it on play and sat next to Carol on the couch holding her in his arms while they listen to their daughters' show.
"Here it comes", Carol said when the interviews began.
"Can you tell us a little about yourselves?" Kate asked
"Well, my name is Carol Hathaway and I'm a nurse here at County".
"I've heard you're the head nurse. Is that correct?" Tess interrupted her.
Carol continued. "Yes, that's right. Anyway, I have two beautiful daughters who I love more than anything".
"We love you too, Mummy", Kate whispered trying not to get it on the tape, of course unsuccessfully.
"What about your daughters' father?" Kate asked.
"He lives in Seattle. It's really not more to say about that"
"Really?" Tess said ironically. "Why does he live in Seattle and not here with you and your children, Nurse Hathaway?"
"He…I…This is not something I will tell everyone about so I'm not answering that question".
"Come on, Mummy..uh..Carol, I mean" Tess sighed before whispering. "Have you forgotten you're not on the real radio, Mummy?"
"Okay. Their father, dr. Doug Ross, didn't have a job here in Chicago so he moved to Seattle where he got one".
"Thank you. Now was that so hard?" Tess asked and Carol laughed.
"No".
"Why don't you live with him?" Kate continued the interview.
"We…I..he...", Carol began but was interrupted by Chuny. "Hey, Carol. Double MVA is coming in. ETA: 1 minute". "Thank you, Chuny. You just saved me from these
interviewers. I have to go" Carol said.
"Hey! We're not finished with you yet!!" Kate yelled after Carol who was on her way out the door.
"I'm sorry, guys. We'll finish it later, ok?"
"You bet!" both girls exclaimed in unison.
Carol looked over at Doug and she could see he was crying. After all these years she'd known him she had never seen him cry as he did now. As she had done since Friday night, Carol felt tears coming down her cheeks. Just hearing the girls' voices made her entire body ache, longing to hug and kiss them.