Chapter 47

Abby walked into the room, "hey Doug, Anna." She said as she crossed over to Carter's side. "Hey there handsome."

Carter looked at them. "Hi… Doug, Anna, Abby." He said laying his head back.

Doug looked at Abby. He knew that they should probably have some time alone. "See you later Champ." He said before standing back up. Doug grabbed his coat and looked over at Anna. She looked pissed and hurt. "I'll try and come back later." He said before walking out. "What a mess." He said to himself. As Doug walked down the stairs he looked at his watch. It was almost time to pick his girls up from school. Doug walked through the ER until he found Carol. "Hey," he said from behind her, "sorry to have kept ya, something came up." He said with a sigh. "I think I'm going to pick up Kate and Tess… if that's alright that is." He hoped Carol would let him see his little girls. He missed them more than anything and they always had a funny way of making him forget his problems.

Abby took his hand into hers and laid her head down on the pillow. She just wanted to be next to him right now.

Anna sat back after having watched Doug leave. There was nothing she could do that was going to make this right. She really wanted that pizza now, so she picked up the phone and dialed Romano's pager number. The privies of being what he called her, his golden beauty. If he thought it was a date so be it, it's not like she had anything left to lose. She left a simple message, beauty wants pizza. She watched Abby with Carter; even in this trying time you could see how much they loved each other. She couldn't figure out where she had gone from, but obviously she wasn't on the best of terms with the love gods. She moved slowly and carefully back into the bed. It took a lot of effort getting around and she hated it, she hated feeling so helpless, so out of control, so split in two. She laid back down on the bed, her back to Carter and Abby and closed her eyes to await her pizza.

Carol looked up at Doug, "yeah sure, I'm filling in for Abby anyway. I'm sure that they would love to see you."

Doug gave his usual half grin. "Good… I'll have them at your house no later than... well call me when you get off. I'm not on until tomorrow." Doug left quickly the daycare closed soon and he knew he'd have to run to catch them. After going half way across town he checked in just in time. "There are my girls." Doug bend down and picked them both up. "Arrr, you're huge." He jokes as they all laughed. "Okay girls… I hope you thought of like 300 fun things to do because tonight's all ours. So what will it be?" Doug asked setting them both down. "I'm hungry Daddy," Tess complained. "Can we have dinner?" Doug looked at his watch, it was only five. "Well it's a little early for dinner darlin'. If I feed ya now you'll be hungry later." At that Kate and Tess put on their best pout faces. Doug rolled his eyes and sighed. "Ok, ok, what do you girls want?" They both looked at each other, "PIZZA!" They yelled. Doug laughed at them both. "We can't have pizza, your mother would kill me… think of something healthy. How bout a salad or something. We could go rent a movie?" Again they looked sad and crossed their arms. "Boy you are your mother's daughters." Doug sighed looked at them he had a thought. "Hey… how about I buy us a big cheesy pizza, but we have to go and say hi to a friend of mine. She's not feeling too well but I think we would all make her smile. What do you say… will you help me make her smile?" Both girls nodded happily. "Okay," Doug said catching his breath. "Don't tell your mother."

Anna stretched the best that she could. Her chest was still sore but that would pass eventually and her stitches itched. She looked at the clock on the wall it was a little after 5 now. She saw Abby curled up sleeping next to Carter, it was so cute. She noticed a note stuck beside her bed. She recognized the handwriting - - Can't tonight beauty, 4:30 Whipple surgery, tell you about it tomorrow. Man she was going to have to eat that hospital food again. She flipped on the television, nothing good was on. So she moved and curled up in the chair near her bed to stare out the window to pass the time. Her eye lids were still heavy and it didn't take long for the falling snow to put her back to sleep.

Doug stuck to coke bottles in his pockets while he balanced a pizza in one hand, Kate on his shoulders, and Tess stuck holding his other hand. The snow was falling pretty hard now and his girls were getting restless. "Come on Daddy your slow." Tess called from his neck. "I want to be on your shoulders too," said Tess. Doug was about to go nuts. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." He said to himself. Shortly after that they reached County. Doug walked in with his girls. He put Kate down and looked at both of them. "Okay, we're going to have a lot of fun ok? But you two need to be kind of quiet and stay near. We are going to visit someone very special and make her happy so get ready… you're gunna love her." Doug gathered them both again and headed for the elevator. One he reached the SICU he was warmed by the head nurse that visiting hours were almost over. Doug just nodded and looked into the room. He could see Abby and Carter sleeping and Anna by the window. "Ok... let's be quiet girls." He said opening the door. Doug pointed to a spot on the floor. "You two just sit here for a second." He said before walking over to Anna. He held out the box of pizza in front of her nose hoping the smell would wake her up. "Rise and shine." He whispered.

Anna thought that he senses were deceiving her "is that pizza?" She asked opening her eyes, "I thought that I wasn't getting any today?"

"Yeah well," Doug said kneeling down beside her, "you weren't but I can't say no to three women in one day." He said looking over at Kate and Tess who were playing on the ground. "Hope you don't mind… I had to pick them up from school since Carol is working, but hey!" Doug said pulling out a coke bottle from his pocket. "I'm never out of contraband."

Anna smiled, "no I don't mind, oh thank god for contraband. You don't know how badly I have wanted this." She said trying not to laugh cause she knew it would hurt, "and just who are you two?" Anna asked seeing the girls her face lit up.

Doug looked over at his two daughters as well. "Hey come here." He said waving them over. The two girls walked over to their father. "There are my two kiddos… this is Kate." He said giving her a kiss, "and this one over here…" Doug reached for Tess as she walked away. He grabbed her just in time and pulled her into a hug, "this one is Tess." Doug's face lit up when he looked at his daughters; they really were the best part of him. "Girls, this is my friend Anna. Can you two say hi?" Both girls shyly looked up at her. "Hi Anna." They said at the same time. After a moment Kate looked at Doug. "Daddy can we have pizza now?" Doug put on a fake serious face. "Now? You little… arrrr," he picked her up and spun her around. "Arrr." He yelled as he played with her. He held her in his arms and looked back at Anna. "Well if Anna gets back into her bed then maybe we can sneak in some pizza before we have to go ok?" Kate looked up at her father. "Ok daddy." Hearing that Tess pulled on Anna's arm, "come on Anna, lets have pizza." Doug set Kate down, "now hold on darlin, and don't pull on he." He said as he walked over to help Anna up. Doug couldn't help but smile. This was the best way he could think of to spend time with Anna and cheer her up. "Sorry about that, need some help?"

Anna couldn't help but smile even though it hurt. "It's really okay." She shifted to get back into the bed, "yeah a hand might be nice. Besides I think that two little girls really want me back in that bed so that we can have pizza." Doug was so cute with his girls she had to smile watching him interact with them. She could tell instantly what they meant to him and how important they were in his life. She was really going to have to think long and hard about what she was going to do now.

Doug took her hand and helped Anna to her bed. After he pulled up a chair, Kate and Tess ran to sit in his lap. Doug set the box on the bed and opened it up. After handing each girl a piece he took one for himself. After stuffing some pizza in her mouth Kate looked up at him. "Hey Daddy, are you staying with us tonight?" She was so cute Doug had to grin. He knew what she meant though so he sighed before answering, "Yeah baby I am." "Will you read to us when we get home?" Tess asked. "Well after we tuck Anna in here we'll go and I'll get you guys cleaned up and you can pick out a book as long as it's short ok?" Doug winked at Anna as he took another bite of pizza. "Will you sing to Anna like you sing to us when we get tucked in?" Kate asked innocently. Doug blushed as he kept his eyes locked on Anna. "I don't think Anna wants me to sign to her." He said wiping Tess's mouth.

Anna just looked at Doug as she shoved the much wanted pizza into her mouth. They were so cute as a family. But hearing that Doug was staying with the girls tonight, probably meant that he was staying with Carol too, her heart was both happy, happy that he was going to be with his children and broken because even though she wanted it, it hurt knowing that he was once again Carol's. "Oh no don't say that." She smiled at him, "I do want you to sing to me. I want the whole kit and caboodle here. And if that's part of getting tucked in well who am I to say no."

Doug smiled at her as he shook his head. "Thanks a lot." He joked. "Okay girls it's time to go." Doug set them both down. "Put your coats on okay?" He shifted his attention from them to Anna. "I think that they had fun, I know I did." He said with a grin. "Thanks for putting up with them. You have to pay like 50 bucks extra for even second you're late at the daycare and I didn't have anyone else to watch them but…" Doug looked at the head nurse who was now giving him dirty looks. "Don't tell that Nazi nurse out there that I gave you pizza ok?" He closed the box and brought Anna's blanket up around her arms. "Me singing is a scary thing." He teased with a smile. "I think that they like it just cause I lay down with them." It was getting back to the awkward situation they had before. "You have my cell number right? Call me tonight… I mean if you need to. I'm all alone with the munchkins and they're usually out by eight or nine so…" Doug ran out of words to say. "get better okay?" He said kissing her forehead. Doug stood up straight and looked at his girls. "Alright kiddos…" Doug said grabbing them both up into his arms. "Here we go." Doug said as they walked to the door. He turned and stopped in the doorway and shot Anna a wink. He didn't have the right words but he hoped his look gave away what he was trying to say. That he was glad she was okay and now he had to work on himself and his family. "Okay." He said walking out.

"Night," She said snuggling down under the blanket. It had been a long day, and she wasn't sure now what to make of any of this. If anything she was more confused. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off to sleep. She hoped that with Carter's snoring that she would be able to get some rest. Worse case she would page Romano and have them give her something. Or she'd call Doug later after the kids were in bed, even though she had no idea what she would say to him.

Doug walked out of the ER with his girls and hailed a taxi. after a short ride the three of them were at home. it looked as if Kate and Tess were more tired then normal. already they wanted to get into their PJ's. after the three of them changed Doug tucked them in and read, 'the cat in the hat'. that was his favorite part of most days, reading to his girls. by seven thirty they were asleep and Doug went into his bedroom and turned on the basketball game. he tried to relax but it was still bugging him that he had left things the way he did with Anna. he went over a thousand things he would say to her in his head if she called him. most of it sounded cheesy, even to him. he looked out the window and watched the snow fall. something had to give in his life and he knew it...he knew he couldn't have both Anna and carol, and he knew Anna would never be happy being just his friend.