Chapter 15

Kerry turned and headed out of the lounge, there was something in the air in there that made her feel extremely uncomfortable. Besides she had a board meeting that she needed to get to upstairs.

"Yea her names Abby, That would be great Anna" He said to her. "Yes, Abby's she's the head nurse in the ER "he told her

Susan saw Kerry leave. she felt the tension too so she got up without a word and left the lounge. she hoped that nothing happened. Carol didn't deserve anymore hurt today. as her shift started she grabbed the next trauma that came in the door.

Anna could see the twinkle in Carter's eye when he said her name. She couldn't help but smile but she could see how much he had changed since she left. She was glad that they were talking about him and not her that was the last thing that she wanted. "Abby, she sounds perfect for you John."

Doug watched Susan get up and walk past him to the door. He never moved his eyes off of Carol. She looked so beautiful. Nervously he played with the chart he held. After he swallowed hard he opened his mouth to speak. "Hey." he said, just barely above a whisper.

"Oh Susan," Kerry said turning to the other doctor. "I want you to keep an eye on Doug please. I put some conditions of him getting his job back and one of them is he has to have another attending sign off on all his narcotic prescriptions. Sorry to dump more on you, but that's the price you pay for being a senior attending."

Susan screwed on a fake smile. "No problem" looking around she could see the waiting room was filling quickly. "Kerry, where is everyone?"

Kerry looked around "I have no idea, pull Doug out of the lounge with Carol, I'll page Carter, and he's supposed to be here too." Kerry turned away to Jerry, "If a doctor is supposed to be here, page them and tell them to get there butt's in here or they are fired." She walked over to the elevator, "I've got a staff meeting I will be done when it's done."

"Thank you, I hope she is, its hard I mean I never been in a long term relationship" he said to Anna. He heard his pager going off. "Dang got to get back to work, I wonder when am I ever going to sleep again" he said to her. "Want to come back with me" he asked her

"Hey" She said to Doug silently, "Um I got to find Kerry, I talk to you um later," She said leaving the lounge. For now she felt uncomfortable with Doug. "Has anyone Seen Kerry, I need to see about having my job back, well just as a nurse, I don't want to be Nurse Manager," She said

"Why don't I cover for you Carter?" Anna said, "that way you can get some sleep."

"Are you sure, I know Kerry will fire me if I'm sleeping on the job" He told her

"Yeah John, I'm fine with covering for you." Anna said heading towards the door, "I don't have anything to go home to, and we can't have Kerry firing you now can we."

Susan turned to Carol. "you just missed her. she went up to a staff meeting. they usually only last about an hour or so." she said brushing past her. Susan opened the door to call out to Doug. "Hey we're getting swamped we need you!"

Doug rolled his eyes when Carol walked past him. he knew they wouldn't end up talking later. it hurt him to see how uncomfortable she was when he was near her. after he heard Susan call his name it snapped him back into reality and he shot out of the lounge bumping into carol's back. "sorry." he said with a wince. "Alright everyone let's get going. I'll get started on the waiting room, let me know if any traumas come in, and page some more doctors!"

With out waiting for an answer from Carter, Anna went back to the ER. She made a quick trip into the lounge to throw her things into her locker pull on her lab coat and practically ran out to admit. "All right what do we have?" Anna said as she literally ran into Doug.

Doug took a step back from the impact. looking to see who it was he was shocked to recognize a face from the past. "Anna?"

"Sorry Doug." Anna said picking up a chart, "let's get busy shall we, seems that we have a board piling up behind us. You take the puking twins in three; I've got the LOL in 2."

Carter followed Anna in. "All right lets get these patients out of here" he said to them. "I know the ER and the halls are crowded, I learned this from one of my mentors here, Lets take three charts, call there name and talk to them and lets get them out , home or admit, etc." he said to the staff.

Anna turned to Carter, "Hey Carter, Doug and I have this why don't you let us handle this and you got get some sleep before I change my mind about covering for you."

"All right" he said to her. "I owe you one Anna" He said handing her a few charts he had taken, and went and found a nice exam room to fall asleep

Doug grabbed some charts. "glad you came back." he said with a grin. "ok...here we go" he said calling out some names, most cases were fairly simple and Doug liked it that way since he had other things on his mind. he hoped Kerry would get back down her soon to help out as well.

Kerry finished up the board meeting with Romano and then went back down to the ER. The chaos that she had left them with an hour ago seemed to be settling down. Maybe hiring Doug back wasn't such a bad idea. He seemed to have jumped back into the flow of things fairly well. She glanced at the board as she took a sip from the coffee she was holding.

Carol walked up to the admit desk and finally saw Kerry. "I been looking for you all over, can we talk," She said to her. She was having a hard time with the situation with her and Doug, and working with him at the moment was hard. She wanted to forgive him, but him hitting her was the worse thing ever.

Doug had intentionally walked past Carol and number of times, he had hoped she would say something else to him, but she hadn't. currently he was just finishing up casting a man with a compound fracture. "before I let you go let me give you something for the pain." he said before walking to the drug cabinet. before he walked back he remembered Kerry's ultimatum. seeing her and Carol at the desk he decided to interrupt their conversation to get the ok from Kerry, but mostly to get Carol to notice him. walking in between them both he faced Kerry. "hey could you sign off on this?" normally he wouldn't have even asked but he didn't want to piss her off on his first day back. "I just want to give the guy some percocets."

"Yeah we can talk in a minute Carol," Kerry turned to Doug, "yeah not a problem." Kerry signed off on the percocets before turning back to Carol again. "What is it you want to talk about?"

Doug stood there for a moment. he was getting pissed the Carol was acting like he wasn't even there. he wanted to fix their problem, or at least talk about it. He didn't want to have to stay at Carter's much longer. he didn't like being a burden to him and he knew Carter had problems of his own. seeing Carol wanted to talk to Kerry Doug went back and gave the script to his patient. Anna and him had finally cleared most of the patients so he walked over to her. "hey there. good job, I think we put a good dent in it."

I would like to know if its possible if I can work here again, just as nurse, and for now not assign me on Doug's shift , were having mutual differences and I would be best helpful if I'm not around him at the moment," She said sadly, cause deep in her heart she loved him so much

"Talk to Abby about that. She's the nurse manager. If she can use another nurse then of course Carol I would love to have you on the staff." Kerry said to her, "scheduling you'll have to talk to Abby about that too."

"Yeah, so what brought you back here?" Anna asked. "Never thought that I would see you at County again."

"yeah I know." Doug started with a laugh. it was good to see Anna again. she looked good, happy, and pretty as always did. "Carol brought me back. she missed Chicago I guess." Doug had to stop after mentioning her; he wished she would talk to him. everything bad had seemed to happen all at once to him and he couldn't take much more, he needed something to take the edge off. "hey Anna, do me a favor? I hurt my knee a month or so ago, will you write me a script for something? I got a big basketball game coming up at the YMCA and I want to be able to play." he knew it was a bad excuse but he hoped she wouldn't see through his lie.

"Who are you seeing for it Doug?" Anna asked as she pulled out her script pad and scribbled on it. "This should get you a couple of days."

"All right, I talk to Abby when I see her," She said to her

"Oh I was seeing my old orthopedists in Seattle." he said as he watched her write the script. "thanks Anna." Doug looked around, there really wasn't anyone left to see. "hey I'm going to run to docs to get something to eat, want to come?"

"Sure, I might as well take the break while I can get it." Anna said to him. "Carol coming with us?"

Doug had to let out a tiny grin at the question. "Uhh probably not." he said walking out the door.

Anna followed Doug. "Don't worry Doug I promise I won't ask anymore questions." She kicked the ground as she walked. The tiny fake grin on Doug's face was enough to let her know that all wasn't well.

Doug grinned and put his arm around Anna as they walked. "I'll tell you about it some other time." he didn't want her to feel she had hit a nerve with him so he tried to change the subject. "I'm glad you're back though! you're classy enough to work uptown at northwestern why are you back here?" he asked as they crossed the street and entered the restaurant.

Anna couldn't help but laugh, "classy enough maybe." Her smile faded, "Max is working at Northwestern and well County is home."

"Ahh Max is it!" Doug laughed as they sat down. "Ohhh God it must be right what they say. once you go county you never go back!" he laughed for real. it had been a long time since he had without pretending. "so what you want for..." Doug looked at his watch. "well I guess it's lunch." after briefly looking over the menu Doug looked back at Anna. "so I'm sure you've told everyone else already but you can do it one more time...what's new with you?"

"There is something addicting about County." Anna said seeing Doug smile. "I don't think we have enough time for me to tell you everything that's new with me. Other than being miserably married. "

Doug's smile faded when he heard Anna say that. Everything made him think of Carol, even Anna's problems. "I'm sorry Anna I didn't mean to bring up a sore topic." he said. He set his head on his hand and looked out the window. "At least I'm not the only one with problems" he thought to himself.

Anna reached across the table and took Doug's hand, "whatever is going on between you and Carol, just have faith that it will work out." She said added softly, "be honest and open with her, don't let what has happened in the past happen again in the future."

Doug turned to look at her while she was talking. "That's good advice; I just hope it's not too late." Looking around the restaurant was starting to fill. "Why don't we get something to go, the last thing I need today is for Kerry to think I'm not working." he said standing up.

"That's cool with me Doug," Anna said, "caffeine is all I really need anyway. It's never to late; you have to fight for what you want. I didn't realize how much I missed working these long shifts. Another 12 hours to go."

"I don't think fight is the right word for what I need to do" he joked as he paid for their coffee. "missed working the long shifts? wow Philly must have made you crazy, although I am on for awhile too." he made his way through the crowd of people and outside. it was nice talking to someone like Anna. she was always truthful and funny. "hey Anna, since we both get off so late we should catch dinner tonight. then we would have more time for you to tell me your sob story."

"I'd love to have dinner with you Doug." Anna said, "as for telling you my sob story that I don't know about." She said as they walked back into the ER. A smile crossed her lips, "you know Carter is still a resident and he's crashed in an exam room, we ought to play one more good practical joke on him before he becomes an attending."

This made Doug smile. there weren't any patients waiting so he couldn't think of any reason not to. "oh...I like you so much." he said joking. "ok let's think of a game plan...how mean do we want to be?"

Anna laughed, "something that he will always remember us for. I don't want to hurt him, but a good laugh would be great. Didn't someone already cast him?"

"Yeah, Mark and Susan...too bad to. That was a great idea. You should have seen him skid across the floor! It was a great moment, I don't know if we can top it." Doug thought for a moment. "Carter deserves something good, any ideas?"

Anna pondered for a minute. She wanted to think of something good to do to Carter, but didn't want it to be over the top or to unprofessional of them. "I think I have one Doug and since it's slow now we might be able to pull it off. We tell Carter that we need to take a patient down to the morgue, but it's one of us that's on the gurney. When we are in the elevator who ever is on the gurney can reach out and grab him."

"Ha-Ha" Doug laughed. "Ohhh it'll be good." he said grabbing a gurney. "come here first." he said grabbing her arm and taking her in the lounge. "I use to have some fake blood lying around...cause you never know" he took a vile out of a cabinet "I don't believe that's still here." and poured some fake blood on the sheet. "I'll be on the gurney. you start to tell Carter how it creeps you out to go down to the morgue especially with what happened to this guy." he said looking back up at her. "make some freak accident up. play it good. once he goes into the elevator you take the stairs. since you'll get down there before him turn the lights off and I'll do the rest."

A smile a mile wide crept across Anna's face. "Oh this is going to be good." She said. "Don't go anywhere." She went off to get Carter from his nap. "John," Anna said as she walked into the room where Carter was napping. She didn't feel guilty waking him up since he had been in there sleeping for hours now. "John, wake up I need your help please."

Doug got on the gurney and put the sheet over him. He noticed Susan looking at him so he motioned for her to be quiet as he laid down. If felt good to have fun, he was glad he had come to work today. He was glad Anna came back. But mostly he was glad he still had people that cared for him even if it wasn't Carol, but he would have to fix that later. So he laid down silently and waited for Carter and Anna to come back.