Breaking The Fall:

Breaking The Fall: Chapter 1


7 months later

Mark bounced the ball defensively from side to side before faking right, bolting left and hooking in a foul shot.
"You're down by 7, Doug"
"You don't have to keep saying it, Mark, I know the score. I'm just waiting for you to exhaust yourself, I reckon you got another, oh, I dunno...2 minutes?"
"Yeah yeah yeah, heard it all before."
Just as Doug jumped for a long distance shot at the basket, someone hollered from the ambulance bay doors.
"Dr. Ross! Call for you."
Doug sunk the shot and smiled at Mark. "Tired yet?" Then he turned to the doors. "Who is it, Jerry?"
"No name, a woman."
"Okay, I'll be right in, as soon as..." Catching Mark off guard, he shot a lay-up. "I call a draw." He grinned, threw the ball back to Mark and retreated to the ER and the phone at the admit desk.
"Hello? Yeah, I'm Doug Ross. No, that's okay. No. Um. Uh." His voice faded into the background as a trauma was rushed through, accompanied by the shouting of two gangbangers that followed the gurney.
"Randi, can you pass me some paper? Uh huh, okay, yup..." He wrote something down, balancing the phone between his shoulder and his chin. "Okay, sure. I got it. I'll see you later then. Bye."
Haleh bustled past with a stack of charts, dumping them on the counter.
"Should I not mention this to Carol?" She raised an eyebrow knowingly.
"Actually, thank you Haleh, but I was just going to go and tell her myself. I have an appointment for tonight. I know what you nurses are like - before long the whole hospital would think that I have phone sex at work."
Haleh swanned off, smiling surrepticiously. Mark narrowly missed colliding with her on his way in from the basketball 'court'. He looked at Doug, who was adding something else to the piece of paper.
"Who was it?" They started towards the lounge.
"A woman, and no, not what you're thinking. Said she had to discuss something with me, involving Ray."
"Uh oh."
"Yeah." He hung his coat in his locker then closed the door, draping a stethescope around his neck. "Obviously it didn't end with his death. Sounds like he's left a trail of disaster behind him and someone has to clear it up." He reached for the door to leave, but accidentally kicked the wastepaper bin with his left foot, knocking it over. He bent to pick it up and was nearly sent flying as the door opened inwards and hit him.
"Four victim MVA, ETA 2 minutes!" Yosh called as the door swung closed again and Doug picked himself up, rubbing his head.
"I'm sorry Doug, what was that about a trail of disaster?" Mark grinned as they left the room.


Sometime that evening, Doug sat in the room he liked to call his study, even if it was just a spare room with a desk in it. Carol, who was covering Malik's shift, was not home. In a way, Doug was quite glad because it meant he could get whatever mess Ray had left him out of the way by himself without burdening her. Ray was an embarrassment, and if he had somehow left this woman in the lurch then Doug did not want to lumber Carol with problems that were his only.
He sat at the desk, eating lukewarm pasta from the microwave and picked up the phone, carefully dialling the number on the piece of paper in front of him. It rang for some while before the voice he recognised from earlier picked up.
"Hello?" The woman sounded like she'd just gotten up.
"Hi, I'm Doug, we spoke earlier. Did I wake you?"
"Don't worry about it, I tend to sleep quite a lot right now. I'm Wendy, Wendy Sanders. Thanks for getting back to me."
"That's no problem, Wendy."
There was a short silence. Doug spoke first.
"Uh, you wanted to talk about Ray?"
"Yes, but I really do want to apologise for the call today, I know it must be a bit out of the blue."
"Don't worry about it."
"Thanks. Er, Ray. He is your father, right?"
"Yeah. Was my father. He, uhm, he died about a year ago."
"Oh yes, I'm sorry. I heard that, a car accident or something."
"He was drink-driving. Ran a stop sign, killed two other people as well."
"Oh, I didn't know that. That's terrible."
"Yeah, well."
"Anyway. I don't really think there's an easy way to say this. About 12 years ago I was in a relationship with Ray."
"Okay." A series of possibilities rushed through Doug's mind as he concentrated on listening.
"And, well...you have a sister."
Doug blinked.
"Uh. I'm sorry?"
"I had a daughter during the time I was with Ray. She's his, I wasn't seeing anyone else at the time."
Doug sat back in his seat a little, his eyes wide, and took a breath.
"Are you okay?" She was concerned.
"Yeah." Doug let the smile filter into his voice a little. "I'm just a little surprised. Obviously, I knew Ray, well, I knew he was involved with other women, but I didn't know anything about other kids...did he know?"
"Sure he knew, he was at the birth! Of course, when I say that, I mean he was doing the old fashioned thing, hanging around in the hallway with a fat cigar and a bottle of Jack Daniels."
"Sounds like Dad."
"Yeah, that was Ray all over. He hung around for a while after Casey wa sborn, but took off when she was 4 months old. He came back once in a while with presents for her, needless to say she loved him when he was here, ahted him when he was gone. Me too, actually."
"Sounds familiar."
"Really? I'm sorry to hear that. I had hoped that he didn't do the same thing to you. Still."
"Hm."
"Look, anyway Dr. Ross-"
"Doug."
"Okay, Doug. This is just part of what I have to tell you. I feel so bad for just springing it on you, you have no idea. But I really can't tell you the rest over the telephone. I was wondering if you could drop by sometime?"
"Um, yeah, sure. Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"No, not exactly."
"Okay...well, I'm working tomorrow night but I have the day free until about 8pm."
"That's great, just drop round anytime you can make it. The address is...do you have some paper?"
"Yup, go ahead."
"Okay, it's 131a, Walker's Parade in South Central."
"Alright...got it."
"Is about 3.30 okay? Then you can meet Casey as well."
"Yup, sounds fine."
"Okay, well I have to be going now, but thank you so much, Doug."
"No Wendy, thank you. Take care."
"You too. Goodbye."
"Bye."


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