Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters... I wish I did, though.
A/N: Time for an update....here's chapter 14 at last.
Helen (girlintheyankeeshat) – Thanks for being my beta-reader. I really appreciate your support more than you know ;) And of course, credits for coming up with the title of the chapter & the summary... Thanks a million for all your help :)
Thank sooo much for all the feedback, it's highly appreciated. Thanks a lot, Cat, verity-mac, Flick, Hallie, Michelle (britgirl2003), Anna, Helen (girlintheyankeeshat), and most of all thank you, Kate (peachykeane). Kate, it's really great to meet another Doug/Susan shipper :)
Special thanks also to Kara for listening to all my freaky ideas ;)
Last
time on THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN:
Susan
has to do overtime and finds out that she has to work with Carol....Doug
is going out with Linda Farrell. She asks him if he would mind to
skip dinner...
CONFLICTING EMOTIONS
Shortly after Chuny had left, Carol arrived for her shift. "Hey Jerry...Randi," she said, completely ignoring Susan who was standing right next to the admittance clerks. Susan sighed.
"Carol?" But Carol just looked away and pretended to examine the whiteboard.
Susan knew Carol wouldn't be pleased to see her, but she hadn't expected her to make it this obvious.
"Carol, I've got a man with arrhythmia, I could use your help." Susan spoke up, more or less forcing Carol to reply.
"Ask someone else. I'm busy," Carol hissed without looking at Susan. She grabbed a chart and walked away from her. Randi and Jerry looked questiongly at Susan.
"Don't ask," she said, and before Randi and Jerry could ask any further questions, Susan turned to Lily who had just appeared and asked her to help her with the patients.
Outside, underneath a sky full of glaring stars, Doug looked at Linda, who had just asked him if he would mind skipping dinner.
"Not at all," he said, his hands still on her hips.
"I thought so," Linda replied contently. "We could always order some food."
Doug nodded. "My place or yours?"
"Yours. You live closer."
After Susan had treated her patients, and was making her way back to admittance, she spotted Carol in one of the exam rooms. Although Susan could think of more enjoyable things than talking to Carol right now, she knew she had to talk to her.
She took a deep breath and opened the door. "Carol, do you have a minute?" Susan asked, poking her head in.
Carol narrowed her eyes. "No," she replied sternly.
Susan entered the room anyway. "Please, Carol. I really need to talk to you. It's important."
Carol rolled her eyes. "Alright. Go ahead."
"I won't discuss that with you in front of patients." Susan said, looking at the old man Carol was attending to.
"As you might have noticed, he's unconscious, so just go ahead."
Now it was Susan's turn to roll her eyes. "That's not the point."
Carol nodded but didn't reply. Eventually, she followed Susan to the doctors' lounge.
"Carol, I know you're mad at me. I can't really blame you..." "But can we please keep it out of work?" Susan asked, looking down at her hands.
"Well...I didn't choose to work with you tonight."
Blame Weaver, Susan thought. At first, she just felt bad about what she'd done to Carol, but Carol's behaviour gradually changed her emotions. She was getting a little bit annoyed with Carol.
"Look, I'm sorry for what happened." "I never meant to hurt you." "I regret what I've done...but I can't make it undone again."
"No, you can't," Carol said, walking towards the door, not wanting to discuss things any further.
"If you decide to ignore me in your private life, that's one thing. But you can't ignore me here. You're a nurse and I'm a doctor. We have to work together."
"You should have thought about that before you screwed him!" "I don't want to work with you anymore," Carol shouted, slamming the door shut.
Susan sat back in her chair, trying hard to fight back the tears that were about to fall from her eyes as she was realizing the damage that was done. Throughout all the years she had known Carol, they had had several arguments. Some of them had been quite serious, and put their friendship to a hard test, but none had been severe enough to tear them apart. Until now. The strong bond between the two women had been disrupted, and Susan knew that the road to rebuilding their friendship would be a long and winding one.
She picked up the the phone. She needed someone to talk to. Instinctively, she dialled Doug's number.
As the answering machine picked up, Susan just wanted to hang up again, but then she thought better of it and decided to leave a message for him.
"Hey....it's me," she said. "It's Susan," she added, considering that he might not even recognize her voice on the account of probably getting a lot of calls from different women.
"Weaver put me down for the night shift...Carol's here... things are not going so great..." she said. The she cut herself off, not wanting to complain about her situation any further. "Maybe you could call me back.." she said, before swiftly hanging up.
In the meantime, Doug and Linda had made it back to Doug's place.
"I'll get the champagne," Doug said, as he was helping Linda out of her coat.
"Sure. But don't make me wait long." Linda flicked him a flirty smile before she disappeared into Doug's bedroom.
"I won't," Doug promised, heading for the kitchen.
He took the champagne out of the fridge and grabbed two glasses. He was about to go back to Linda, he saw the light on his answering machine flashing red. He reached over and pressed the play button.
"Hey....it's me," He heard a familiar voice say. Susan, he thought, immediately recognizing her voice. "It's Susan....Weaver put me down for the nightshift...Carol's here...and things are not going so great... Maybe you could call me back..."
Doug hit the play button once again. All the guilty feelings came flooding back at once, in an instant. He should never have left her alone. She hadn't really complained, because she wasn't the kind of person who would do that, but from the sound of her voice, he could tell that calling her back probably wasn't enough. He looked at the champagne. Then he looked back at the answering machine. He could have fun with Linda for a couple of hours, or he could go and help Susan...
He knew that Linda was waiting for him. But he also knew that Susan was having a terrible time at work, and would need him so much more than Linda did. Linda was sex. Susan was...well...she was his friend. She had never let him down, and he knew she never would. The events of the past days had brought them so much closer, and the more he thought about it, the more he saw that Susan was his best...and probably only true friend.
"Maybe you could call me back.." He listened to Susan's message once more.
"Dougie?" He heard Linda call from the bedroom. He thought for a moment, then put the champagne back into the fridge. "Coming," he called back and went into his bedroom. Linda was sprawled on the bed, the sheets tangled around her legs.
"Where's the champagne? She demanded.
"In the fridge. Listen, Linda... I just got a call from County, I'm afraid. I have to go back there," he affirmed.
Linda sighed. "Can't that wait? She asked, a little disappointed.
"No... I'm sorry."
"I guess that's what you get when you go out with ER doctors," Linda said, frowning. "Will you be back?"
Doug shrugged. "I don't know..."
"Oh well..." Linda buttoned up her blouse again. "I just can't believe you chose work over me."
Doug didn't reply. He would prefer Linda to work at anytime. But this wasn't about work right now. He chose friendship over sex.
"I'm taking a nap now." "I'm not feeling good, so please don't page me unless it's really important," Susan had said to Jerry before she'd left for the on-call room. She had immediately laid down, but despite her tiredness, there was no way she could sleep right now. There were way too many things on her mind, so she was just lying on the bed, with her eyes closed, being trying to get some rest. She hadn't snoozed much longer than half an hour, when the door opened and woke her up again. "I said don't wake me unless it's important." She growled sleepily.
"It's just me," she heard a familar voice say.
Doug?! Susan immediately opened her eyes. He was really there. Standing with a box of pizza right in front of her.
She said up on the bed and rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised.
"I got your message and I thought you could use some company," he explained and sat down next to her.
"Wow..." was all she could say. "You didn't have to...I mean...you could have just called me back."
"Not a problem. That's what friends are for," Doug said, for the second time that day.
"By the way, I brought you supper." He said, opening the box of pizza.
Susan smiled and brought her arms around him. "Thank you so much," she whispered.
"You're welcome."
She grabbed a slice of pizza and smiled at him.
"Why don't you tell me what happened?" Doug sat down next to her.
Susan told him about the incident with Carol. Doug didn't know what to reply, he just wanted to make her feel better, to let her know that he was there for her.
He just moved a little closer and placed his hand on her shoulder and gently stroked her upper arms. Susan shivered a little as she felt his warm skin on hers. Memories of the night of her birthday flashed through her head. His hand on her shoulder. This was how it all began two nights ago. For one thing, Susan was really glad that Doug was with her again, but another part of her wished that he'd just go away and leave her on her own, because all the mess was partly his fault, too.
...TBC...
New chapter is coming as soon as possible :)
I love reviews, just like everybody else does. So please do me a little favour and tell me what you think about this chapter... I'll appreciate that more than you know :)