Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. If I did, I'd be in my penthouse right now, writing an episode which brings Doug back ;)...I rated it PG-13, just in case...
What happened so far : Susan left from her own birthday party. Doug found her crying on the roof and wanted to take her home. She asks him in, they get drunk and end up sleeping together. When waking up together, they realize what they've done to Mark and Carol. They were both late for work, and Randi and Jerry already suspect something.
SECRETS AND LIES
Susan walked out of the trauma room and checked the board, but since there wasn't any work for her to do, she decided to go out and take a break. A breath of fresh air was just what she needed right now. She sat down on a bench in the ambulance bay and watched people going and coming from the ER.
"There you are," she heard a familiar voice calling from behind. She turned around and saw Carter standing there, smiling at her.
"Hey Carter," Susan said.
"I've been looking everywhere for you..." Carter walked over to Susan. "Happy belated birthday! I'm sorry but I couldn't make it to the party last night...my grandma wasn't feeling well and I had to stay with her," he explained.
"Oh, no problem. And thanks." Susan managed to smile. "I hope your grandma is ok?"
"Yeah. She's fine. It was just migraine. Anyway, how was the party?"
How would I know? I wasn't at the party myself....Doug and me..., Susan thought. She looked at Carter. She hated to lie, but this time she didn't really have a choice.
"It was great....Really great..."
They talked some more until Doug came out.
"Susan? Do you have a minute? I've got some questions about the boy you treated this morning," Doug lied. Susan got the message between the lines and nodded in Doug's direction. She stood up and looked at Carter. "Time for me to go back to work....Well, see you later." She slowly moved towards the entrance and followed Doug back in. She wasn't exactly looking forward to that conversation but they definitely had to talk about it. Doug led her into the on-call room and closed the door behind them.
"How's your hangover doing?" Susan asked as she sat down on the bed.
"OK. I'm on Ibuprofen. How about yours?"
"Aspirin."
But of course, they hadn't met to talk about their hangovers, so Susan brought the original subject back. "Look Doug...I'm not the kind of person who usually does things like that....but I was so drunk last night...."
"This should never have happened...we shouldn't have lost control... No offence, but I would never have slept with you if I had been sober...don't get me wrong...you're a beautiful woman...but...you're Carol's best friend." He sighed.
"I know what you mean. I would never have done this either if it weren't for the alcohol.... I would never do this to Carol...and to Mark... But last night...Tequila black-out.... I wish I hadn't lost control..."
"Me, too... I'm sorry... it's all my fault...but please keep in mind that I didn't sleep with you because I felt sorry for you or anything... I didn't want to make use of your situation...."
"I know, Doug...but it's not your fault...it's yours as well as mine...it takes two to tango... I knew it was wrong all along...but I don't know...something kept pushing Carol and Mark out of my head....and in that situation, it just felt right...but still...we should never have done this."
"Let's blame it on the tequila..."
For a few minutes, neither of them said a word. Susan pulled her legs close to her body and hugged her knees. She let her eyes wander across the room until they met Doug's eyes.
"Now what?"
Doug shrugged as he didn't really knew what to answer.
"I have never felt so miserable before...and it's not because of hangover... it's because I've betrayed my best friends... Carol and I had been best friends all along...and Mark...well...he's always been a very special person for me"
Doug nodded understandingly. "Mark and Carol would never understand it....I don't even understand it myself...."
"Me either. Do you think we should tell them?"
"I don't know... It didn't mean anything to us....but still... things will never be the same again once they know about it."
"Things will never be the same again anyway.....even though it was just a stupid thing two drunken people did.... it would still mean something to Carol...Mark would also be upset....but then again, we won't be on the safe side either if we keep this to ourselves....what if they would find out from someone else? After all, this is a hospital and you know as well as I know that you can't really have any secrets here.... what if someone has seen us leaving together and starts telling rumors about us...? It would be even worse if Carol found out from somebody else I guess... Mark probably wouldn't find out about it now that he lives in Milwaukee..."
"Whatever we will do....it'll be wrong..." Doug sighed. "I wish this had never happened....but we can't wash our hands clean of this anymore...it's to late," he added and made an unhappy face.
"Yeah...I wish we could simply forget about it...but you're right... it's too late...I regret this more than anything. I would make it undone if only I could," Susan said ruefully.
Doug nodded understandingly. He took Susan's hand and looked into her big green eyes that expressed nothing but remorse. "We should tell them, Susan... After all, they're our best friends...I wouldn't be able to look them in the eyes anymore if we'd keep this as a secret..."
Susan nodded in agreement. The thought of confessing her one-night-stand with Doug made her sick, but she knew that Doug was right. Her night with Doug was nothing that could be under rug swept easily, they simply had to tell Carol and Mark about it. Chances were that they would understand. But most likely, they wouldn't. Even though that night didn't mean anything to Doug and Susan, it would still hurt Carol, and probably even Mark.
"We've done enough damage. Lying to them would make things only worse..."
"Do you want me to tell Carol about it?"
"Would you?"
Susan nodded. "I'll try to get a hold of her when my shift's over tonight."
"What about Mark? Isn't he coming this weekend?"
"I don't think so. He left a voicemail on my cell, saying that he couldn't make it to my birthday party because he had to work. And since Jenn's on a business trip, he'll have to stay with Rachel.... I can tell him next time he's in Chicago," Susan suggested. She got up from the bed and walked towards the door. Having her hand already placed on the doorknob, she turned around again and looked at Doug "There's one more thing," she said.
"Yeah?"
"What about us?"
"What about us?"Doug stalled. He didn't really understand what Susan expected from him.
"Well, we agreed on it didn't mean anything and it will never happen again, right?"
"Right. Just one night. No strings attached."
"But will we still be friends?"
"I guess. Things won't be quite as they used to be...but everything will be fine after some time has passed...," Doug replied and hugged her.
"I hope so," she whispered into his ears.
"Good luck with Carol..." he whispered back.
"I'll need it.... but you will have to talk to her about this, too. " Susan said as she made her way to the doctor's lounge.
...TBC....
more to come soon :)
Thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate this. And I'm pleasantly surprised that not everybody is against this story just because it's an odd-couple thing ;) I know that there are many many people out there who are Mark/Susan and Doug/Carol fans who could never imagine this. LOL, I don't blame you.
And for the Mark and Carol fans : They will definitely appear in the next chapters!
Anyway, there are tons and tons and tons of D/C & M/S stories out here...and well... I'm trying something new :)