Chapter 44

Doug walked back down to the ER slower than he had gone up. He was looking around for some of his friends unsure if they knew the news about Anna. He saw Abby and Susan by the phone at admit. they both looked unusually worried so he forced himself to stay. after all if it was nothing he could at least tell them about Anna. "Abby what's going on?"

Abby hung the phone up. "Carter is missing. We found his pager in the supply closet broken up." She held back her tears, "they are sending some detectives over to check it out now." She paused looking at him, oh god Anna, "how are you holding up?"

Doug was stunned. "Oh...god Abby I'm sorry. I'll do what I can to help." he didn't know who would have taken Carter. Seeing Abby it was clear she didn't really want to think about it much more. "As for me holding up, I guess Romano hasn't told you guys his resurrection story huh?"

"Resurrection, what Romano," She said looking at him oddly, "what are you talking about?"

Doug ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. It was still hard for him not to choke up thinking about it. "Anna's...she's fine...well not fine but alive. We thought she had dies but her heart started again. Romano went in and cleared out the clot in her brain. She still had a long way to go but i just came from the SICU and...she's Anna." he said with an awkward smile. "What a crazy few days huh? so how are you doing? you need anything?"

"Yeah, crazy days." Abby said taking a deep breath, "no I just need Carter back in one piece." She started to get choked up, "but I'm glad that Anna's okay. I just don't understand how this could happen. I can't be here. I just can't do this right now."

Doug took her by the arm. "Come on" he said softly. "I want to get out of here too. let me buy you some lunch."

"Okay." She said, "I don't think that plan B would have been that great anyway."

Doug smiled at her as he grabbed their coats. "I would take you some where fancy but I'm only a minor peds doc. having said that i am doc magooed out so how about we walk down the street and you stop me when you see something that looks good to you." Doug said trying hard to make her feel better. Carter had done him a lot of favors; the least he could do was help out his girlfriend. they walked down the street quietly for a little until the Doug couldn't stand the silence. "you know I'm sure he is fine." he said looking at her as they walked. "he's a pretty tough guy."

"I keep telling myself that." Abby said, "but I'm finding it harder and harder to believe the more time goes on. I haven't had the urge to drink in a long time, but the more worried I get the better and better it sounds." She said as they walked, "hey this place looks good."

"Yeah sure" Doug said opening the door for her. "Trust me. i know how it feels wanting to drink." he said with a laugh. "it just doesn't ever make you feel any better." he took her coat as they were seated. "well in my opinion." Doug said, leaning forward to whisper to her. "carter picked a pretty great woman to be with." Doug smiled and gave her a wink. he knew how it felt to be helpless in situations like this and he was just trying to make her not worry so much.

Abby smiled as shook her head, "your crazy Doug, but hey I'm used to that." Abby was happy to have her mind not worrying so much, "thanks, I needed out of there. But enough of me, how are you doing really? I know you've been on a pretty rough ride the last couple of days, and if you tell me then I won't be left to think about Carter."

Doug laughed. "Well you know me...I am forever and always screwed up..." he joked. but looking at her face decided to switch to be a little more serious. "No...I always just seem to make the wrong choices. I ruin my relationship with carol, make horrible first impressions on you all, make a relationship with Anna, and get a kind of 'dear Doug' letter from her, she dies..." Doug paused for a second. "she dies, then i got the letter, carol decides to try and forgive me, and now Anna is back and I'm not quite sure how to deal with all of it." Doug looked up at Abby, she seemed to be a good listener but he was embarrassed to have spilt his heart to her. "Wow, I cant believe I just said all of that."

Abby leaned back in the chair. "Your not forever and always screwed up. And don't worry about your first impressions. A "dear Doug" after she died, yikes how almost cruel. I don't know Doug maybe she felt like she was competing against a force that couldn't be moved, But I am sure that some where's there a light at the end of the tunnel. But I'm not the best person to give relationship advice, after all I'm divorced. You must have not messed up you relationship with Carol as bad as you thought you had if she's willing to try to make amends. Anna's some sort of miracle though. Dying and coming back, like that, she must have had something on earth to do that wasn't done. I'm curious, how did she send you letter after she died?"

Doug smiled. "Something on earth that wasn't finished? that's what I'm afraid of. she asked me to clear out her locker and when i did i saw the letter with my name on it. it said she was moving to Houston...i guess she never planned on telling me...but i don't blame her. i wouldn't have wanted to deal with it either...it was weird though, some of the things she said. it was like she knew something might happen to her and she didn't want me to blame myself for it."

Abby was silent for a minute, "Maybe she just wanted to get a clean break. Max did a pretty good number on her, who knows maybe he threatened her and she felt that she needed to get away before he carried out that threat, and she knew that it would be easier to run that to drag you into it. Would it have been easier for you if she had told you or if she just left? Its never easy to love two people, and you're in that position, no matter how hard you try someone is going to get hurt, be it Anna, or it be it Carol." She said, "but it sounds to me, that she was trying to let you have your space to work it out."

Doug gave a half nod. He had listened to her but his mind was somewhere else. "Tell me why woman say that." I need space'. Space never seems to solve anything. It just gets people hurt." Doug trailed off for a second. His thoughts were killing him. "You ever been fishing on the ocean?" his voice was calm and quiet. He looked past Abby, and looked into his memories. "We use to go all the time when I was a kid. Up to New England, on the Atlantic. I use to pretend I was a pirate...or a captain. or something stupid. My friends and I...we'd sit out on that deck all day pretending we were working hard, making up our girlfriends that were waiting for us to come back to...that was always the place I was happiest, on the water. you're in charge, no one there but the fish and the spray." Doug took a breath, he didn't know why he was telling Abby all this, she probably didn't care. "I don't even know why I came back. Maybe it's because medicine is the only thing I've been ok at, but I haven't loved it in a long time. My heart use to speed up when I walked into the hospital...ready for work, it was the same feeling when I was with Carol. It's like you're electric...But i don't feel that anymore." Doug tapped his fingers on the table. their drinks should have been there by now. he felt stupid for going on a tangent. it meant something to him but Abby probably wouldn't pick up on it. "i guess that's why routine kills ya huh? stuck in the vortex."

"Yeah routine has the tendency to do that to you. We try and find the one thing that we are best at and then think that we can do it for the rest of our lives, but no matter what we get burnt out on it, no matter how hard we love it, after time it becomes dull and repetitive. You spent your days on the ocean, I spent mine wondering if Maggie was going to be coming home, if she'd be home. Hiding in the closet from her so she didn't kill me with a butcher knife. Never knowing what we were going to eat, or how long we would have a roof over our heads. We think that we love people, and we try to spend our lives with them, but sometimes it just doesn't work right and we have to go and try to find that one special love that we lost." She leaned forward, "it's not ever easy. You'll get it all figured out. Doug, if things aren't right with Carol, then try it with Anna. Whatever you decide in the end to do, is up to you, but know I won't judge you either way."

Doug smiled. Abby had actually been the first person to make him feel better. "wow..." he said with a smile."we need to hang out more." he grinned at her and smacked the table. "i don't think our foods coming anytime soon. must be the crunch." he said as he looked at his watch. "come on...its getting crowded anyway, I'll buy you a snap dog and a coke if you walk with me."

Abby laughed, "you have a deal." She said as she started to stand up, "a walk would be nice."

Doug walked down the street a ways looking for a hot dog vendor. "Michigan avenue is towards the lake right?" he asked turning around. he stuff his hands in his pockets to protect them from the cold. "so id Maggie your sister...if you don't mind me asking that is."

"Yeah it is." She said, "No it doesn't bother me that you are asking. I wish Maggie was my sister, but no she's my mother."

"Ahh" Doug said seeing a vendor a few blocks down. "i can sympathize with you on bad parents then...mine were kind of the authority on it. don't let my ocean story fool you." he said with a smile. "most of the time i lived in Kentucky with my mom. it was only whenever my father showed up and was half sober that we did fun things like go up to the coast. that's probably why it took me an extra year to finish high school; since i was gone all the time...it was an extra year of playing basketball though. what about you? where you from?"

"I'm from Minnesota." She said, "my dad left us with Maggie when I was 6, he just upped and left my brother and I with our bi-polar mother. I haven't seen him since then." She put her hand in her pocket, "I left home as soon as I could, married Richard and we moved to Chicago so that he could finish medical school, and then he was supposed to help put me through. That didn't happen as you can see. I'm 2 years out from finishing, but I don't know if I ever will."

They finally stopped in front of the hot dog stand. "wow...we're really sad aren't we?" he asked with a laugh. Dug pulled out his wallet. "so Abby, how do you like your hot dogs?"

The man looked at Carter... "Why don't you call your sweetheart" he shouted at him. "Give me here cell number, and then i dial it and you can talk to her. Carter nodded. He gave him Abby's number and dialed it quickly. He heard her phone ringing ..." hope she picked it up.

"No, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." She said with a smile, "hum, let's see no boyfriend right now, so the works. Since I don't have to worry about the onion breath."

"ha-ha, my kind of woman." Doug said; hold up two finger to the vendor. "and two cokes please." he handed the man some money and handed Abby her food. Doug took a bite of his hot dog as they started to walk back. "that's what i hated about Seattle...not street dogs." he joked wiping the ketchup from his mouth.

"yeah its my personal belief that everyone had sad stories... but i think ours take the cake." he said clicking his coke can against hers. "you're pretty easy to talk to you know that?"

"Hey thanks." She said, "I try to be a good listener, sounding boards are always good to have." She said as she felt her phone vibrate. "Can you hold this for me?" Abby said handing Doug her dog as she flipped open her cell phone, "Abby Lockhart."

The man held it up to carter. "Abb...y"he said to her. "I don't ...have time to talk...but the guy called to tell you where I am"he said to her. He didn't want to sound scared, but he was really scared

Abby looked at Doug, with fear in her eyes, "Carter, where are you? What's going on?" She said at are near panic, "are you okay?"

I'm at some ware house, I don't recognize it, but its...in Chicago" he told her. The man took the phone. "If you want your boyfriend back bring me about as much money you have "He told her. He flung the phone at john. "I'm tied up..."he said to her.

"We'll get you out of this. Just hold on okay." She said into the phone. "But I need to know where to go."

"Ok..."John said to her. I'm near the last place called Mexican dining, I remember that restaurant" he told her. "Ok now say by sweet thing" the man said. John didn't want to show that he was scared at all. The man hung up on Abby, "Ah so your sweet things coming to get you. The man took his gun and shot him in the shoulder. "Now you be sore for a while" he told him. Carter couldn't believe how cold this man was.

"Heh" Doug grinned. he grabbed her hot dog as she answered her phone. he got nervous as her expression changed along with the tone in her voice. "everything ok?"

"John...John..." The line was dead. She stood there just staring at her phone.

Doug shook her arm. "Abby!" he said before snapping in front of her face. "what's going on?"

Carter hoped Abby recognized the restaurant that he was talking about near the ware house. He was tied up to the ability that he couldn't hold pressure on his bleeding shoulder. He was worried cause the bullet could go to his heart. "I hope your sweetheart gets here soon' " the words were repeating in his head. All he could think of was Abby, how much he loved her.

"Carter." She stammered, "someone kidnapped him, they want money, I'm supposed to go down to the Mexican place down by the warehouses."

Doug's mouth fell open. "you cant go Abby, we have to call the police."

Her face was as white as a sheet. "Someone has to go, and soon." She said looking at him, tears in her eyes, "I heard," she was choking back everything, "a gunshot, what if he's hurt or dying?"

Doug closed his eyes; he knew the police would take forever. "you said you know where this place is? lets go then..." Doug knew they shouldn't but he had to help his friend.

"A Mexican restaurant down by the warehouses." She said her hands shaking now. "I'll go, there's an ATM on the way. I can't ask you to go with me. You have the girls to think about."

"Hey if you're going I am too, and we're not bringing any money." Doug stuck his hand out to call a taxi. he looked back over at her and could tell she was in shock. "Hey, we both maybe stupid but we're in it together. Nothing is going to happen to him ok? i promise."

Abby walked over to the curb next to him, "Yeah," She put her fingers in her mouth whistled putting her leg into the street, getting the cab, "I know you won't let anything happen to him." she said sliding inside the cab, 2nd and Crawford." She told the driver.

Carter was trying to stay awake; he wanted to, he needed to, so he could see Abby one more time. He loved her with all her heart

Anna awoke to an empty room. She slowly pulled herself up in the bed. She was supposed to catch a flight to Huston tomorrow and it wasn't going to happen. She reached over and picked up the phone. Punching in her calling card number she dialed. The phone conversation was short, but at least she had managed to be able to keep the job offer open. She figured from the shape that she was in and how she felt right now that it would be stuck at County for at least another week. Her job would be waiting for her until the end of the month. She had gone to school with the head of the pediatric department at a hospital in Huston, and he was more than happy it seemed that she was interested in joining his staff. She put the phone back down and nestled back under the blanket to sleep. She knew the more she slept the faster her body would recover.