Disclaimer: The standard stuff… I don't own ER, the TPTB do.

Author's note: I hope that you all have enjoyed this so far…a slight change of pace in this chapter, tell me what you think please! This just one idea of how Carter might be when he's in his fifties.

The plane landed at gate twenty-two at 7:42 PM Chicago time, making it 5:42 PM Seattle time. Up until that time Doug Ross had been sitting in the waiting room for the past half hour looking out at the tarmac, watching the planes come and go. When the passengers started to depart, he got up and started to scan the passengers.

"Carter!" Doug yelled, causing both Arianne and bring their heads up

Once they had made it out of the herd of passengers that departed from the jumbo jet, the trio made it over to their host.

"Hey Pop."

"Hello, Dr. Ross."

"Call me Doug, Arianne. Hey Carter."

"Hi, Doug. How are ya?"

"Pretty good. Do you want to head over to baggage claim, and get your bags?"

"Sure, but I want to get one of those carts for the bags."

"I'll get it." Shane volunteered

"I'll go with you." Arianne quickly added

They started off toward gate 18, which is where the carts where stored. A few yards away from their fathers, Arianne grabbed Shane's hand. Pretty soon after that, they were swallowed up by the masses at the terminal.

"They remind me so much of you and Carol, Doug."

"Shane has charm, but he is absolutely nothing like we were."

"Yeah, nothing like us. Arianne hasn't been this serious about a guy since med school. I think is name was Gregg. One day he was there and the next he wasn't, and Arianne never told me about it, and I didn't want to push it."

"Shane had this girlfriend, they were really serious. She moved to New York to become some journalism professor. After she moved, Shane gave her an ultimatum. She didn't comply and he hasn't heard from her since."

" She's really happy though. She practily glows when she talks about him or his near her."

"You know, Carter, he's gonna ask her to marry him soon."

"Yeah, he even asked for my blessing on the plane when Arianne went to the washroom."

"I think Carol's mom would have killed me if I even came within a hundred feet of her apartment."

"Didn't even occur to me to ask Cookie about marrying Susan."

"Weird to think that we'll be related. I mean I still think of you as the med student who came to County aspiring to be a surgeon. Wanting to defy the Carter family business and what it stood for."

"Well then I can tell our grandchildren about how their Grandpa Ross played tricks on Grandpa Carter."

"What tricks?" Doug asked innocently

"Let's see. The casting of my leg, giving me all the bizarre cases that whole thing."

"You always had it coming. I mean, you challenging me and Mark to a game b-ball?"

"That was so long ago. Everything from those days seems so long ago."

"It was, I mean almost thirty years is a very long time."

"Yeah, I mean I still wonder about what would have happen if I had listened to Lucy. My life could have been totally different."

"Listen to me. Life isn't always how you plan it out."

"I lost the three women that I love the most, and three of them should still be here. Susan died giving birth to our baby, Lucy died because I didn't listen to her. Their deaths were my fault.  I've killed two of the women that I loved more than anything else. Every single day I deal with that. Gamma, she was the only steady force in my life. She was brought in while I was on shift and I couldn't save her."

"Carter, you can't change the past. Arianne is a wonderful person and she is in love, just like you loved Susan. All of us have your demons. There isn't a day that goes by that I regret not going back to Carol when she told me she was having Tess and Kate. She deserved so much better than I gave her."

Arianne and Shane returned to their fathers a few minutes later. The four of them made it to the baggage claim with no major incidents. After grabbing their luggage and loading it on to the cart that Shane and Arianne got, they all headed out to where Doug's sports car was parked. The walk was a good twenty minutes, but the conversation kept the pace from becoming too tedious.

 Arianne mainly listened to everyone, because she herself comprehended what could happen to her and Shane. She loved him and she was positive that he loved her. That in of itself made the future look a whole lot brighter than the dreary Seattle skies above.