Author's Note: Apologies for the delay. I wrote the first four chapters all together and now needed to reassemble my thoughts. This installment is sort of a bridge to get into the next act of the story. A longer chapter with far more activity is coming on Thursday.

Daily Show on DVD Countdown: 35 days

Moment of Zen

Jon Stewart: Stephen, I have to ask you, what did you make of this speech?
Stephen Colbert: Jon, Zell Miller's bitter, angry tirade showed the Democratic Attack Machine at its worst. He revealed the face of a Democratic Party that consists of ideological radicals far, FAR outside the mainstream. And if you ask me, the American people are sick of the Democrats' outrageous politics of personal destruction.
Jon Stewart: But..uh, he's a Democrat in name only, he was on the floor of the Republican National Convention, and his attacks were directed AT the Democrats.
Stephen Colbert: Jon, if you're just gonna parrot liberal media 'talking points'…"Polly don't want that cracker".
Mark sat on the bench at the El stop, alone with his thoughts and exposed to the cold. He knew he should be getting home, at least get back on the train as it rolled through every nine minutes, but he was too worn-down by life to care.

An hour went by, nearly two; the sun was slowly creeping its way over the horizon when he heard his name being called.

"Mark!"

He turned and looked over, a little surprised and hardly in the mood to talk to this person.

"What are you doing here, Doug?"

"Came back to see you. You know your house is about 5 miles in the other direction, right?"

"You want to give me directions, I think you also need to point out street signs," Mark said as he resumed staring off into the distance.

Doug frowned. He'd only gotten to spend a little more time with Diane before being shooed out of the apartment, and his first instinct was to get some sleep, but something told him Mark was not going to bother getting back on the El. He hated watching his best friend circle the drain like this.

"How long you think you can do this to yourself?" Doug asked as he took a seat on the bench.

"I dunno…I was wondering why I ever bothered to become a doctor. What I was thinking I would prove. And here I am, alone on an El platform with a broken family and a dead career."

Doug tried to measure out a response to this. "It might be an old cliché, but you can't carry the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Mark stifled a laugh and then confessed, "Jen came to see me the other day, told me she's leaving."

"Keeping that job in Milwaukee for another year?"

Mark rolled his head towards Doug and cast a look of disbelief. "Me. She's leaving me. Hell of a thing, how this works, right? When it rains…"

Doug sighed and looked at his breath evaporate in a chilly Sunday morning. He was contemplating telling Mark the truth, telling him all the things he'd kept to himself.

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. Remember, things like this, nobody's fault." The words came out of Mark's mouth tainted with anger, and Doug knew what needed to be said next.

"You talk about Jennifer, I was just thinking about your first day as a med student," and as the little soliloquy began, Doug realized how long it had actually been - six years. It had begun to seem like a very long time, decades, a time when they were both very different people.

Mark seemed to be getting nostalgic too, commenting, "When I dropped a tray full of cultures in the lap of one of the lab techs and then had to bring him coffee every day for a month?" They laughed, but Doug kept going.

"No, I was thinking about how the day ended. We had just met, I was single, I was unattached, and you said, 'Hey, come have dinner with me and my wife.' Seemed very odd for a third-year med student to be married. So we go over to Doc Magoo's and Jen is waiting in one of the booths, you say you have to go to the bathroom. And as we are waiting, I very innocently ask your wife what she does."

"Is there a point to this story?" Mark asked impatiently.

"Yeah, because she answers, 'Oh, I'm just letting Mark finish med school, then I'm getting a law degree. He doesn't really know what he wants to do, but I hope he figures it out.'"

Doug glanced over to try for a read on Mark's reaction. "She never loved you, Mark. I'm not sure she ever even liked you. She thinks your desire to be an ER doctor is like driving a cab, something you do to pay bills until a "real" job comes along."

Mark sat, both the air and his heart feeling very cold, mad because of what Doug had said and madder because it was true.

Doug looked at him quickly, then back to the horizon, before speaking again. "You've got lots of friends Mark, people who want to help you get past this and get back to being the best doctor in that ER. But you have to let us help you, and right now all you want to do is turn your back on us…Whatever you do, it's your decision."

Mark exhaled, watching his breath evaporate into the air after what seemed like a long stretch of being breathless.

"I don't know Doug…for the first time in my life, I feel lost." Mark stared at his lap, fidgeting with his thumbs.

Doug rose from the bench and stomped his feet, a vain attempt to pump some warmth through himself.

"Well, just keep one thing in mind: it's still your choice. The next time Jen tries to make you hate yourself for loving what you do and the people you do it with, remember that. It will always be your choice."

Mark smiled, still staring down his jacket, and playfully asked, "When did you become such a fountain of insight?"

Doug smirked as he began to walk towards the exit. "Dunno. It's like a nervous tick, comes and goes without warning or explanation."

"Where you going now?"

"I dunno, go back to the hospital, find some kids who can kick my ass at Scrabble," Doug joked as he trudged off the platform. Mark heard the rusty gate creak as his friend left.

Now he sat there, alone on the bench, contemplating the choices of his past and the possibilities of his future.

To Be Continued...