Chapter 50:

Romano stretched and glanced at the clock, almost 7... He had spent the night sleeping next to Anna. Whatever Dr. Ross did he sure upset his patient. He noticed that she was still sleeping so he slipped out of the hospital and bought the poor woman flowers and a latte, to try to cheer her up. He went back upstairs and set them by her bed as she started to wake up.

Anna smiled when she saw the flowers, "Oh Robert you shouldn't have thank you."

Robert looked at her, "think nothing of it beauty." He said to her holding out her cup of coffee.

Annawas happy to have it. "Hey I have a favor to ask you, I have a job opening up for me in Huston and I really need to get down there, what about springing me from here." She said smiling at him.

"You haven't had any complications, everything seems to be going well, tell you what, you give me a good day of pt, behave yourself and I will clear you to fly tomorrow." He said to her.

Anna smiled back at him and nodded, "you have yourself a deal Robert." She was going to get out of Chicago as fast as her legs would carry her.

Robert looked at her, "hey I have some things that I have to do, but I'll check in with you in a little bit." He got up and left her room.

As soon as her door shut Anna was on the phone with the travel agent, getting her one-way ticket to Huston.

Robert walked down to the ER, what the hell was Doug thinking. He spotted him as he walked into the hospital and Robert followed him into the lounge. He was hell bent of giving him an earful for upsetting Anna after all she had been through. "Dr. Ross you have one hell of a nerve, what the hell we're you thinking?"

Doug had woken up late and had a hard time getting his girls ready to go to school. He had missed breakfast, barely slept the night before and spilled coffee on himself walking in. he walked into the lounge and opened his locker to throw his stuff in. as he worked on his combination he saw Romano come in behind him out of the corner of his eye. Doug thought nothing of it until Romano started to give him grief. this was the last thing Doug needed right now. "not right now Robert." he said in a low tone hoping Romano would get out but seriously doubted it.

"Not right now, I'm sure that on any other day that would get you off but not today. I could care less if you're head was on fire." Robert said getting angry, "do you realize that I spent the entire night sitting in the SICU because you had the balls to upset one of my patients? I don't appreciate going to such lengths to have some doctor come in and undo it all. That kind of stress could have set her back weeks." Robert was livid with him.

As Doug listened to him he couldn't control his temper anymore. who was this guy to get into his life; he didn't know what was going on. in a second Doug turned around and grabbed Romano by the shirt and slammed him into the lockers. he lifted him off his feet to bring him up to eye level. "Don't you dare tell me what to do with my life?" Doug yelled slamming him back again. The muscles in his arms flexed as he grabbed Romano's shirt as hard as he could. "You have no idea what I've been through and so help me god if you ever get in my face again I'll tear you a new one, now leave me the hell alone!" Doug yelled at the top of his lungs tossing Romano to the floor.

"You're on thin ice Dr. Ross." He hissed back, as he headed for the door, "consider yourself suspended, and yes I have every right to do that as your chief of staff. Be thankful that I didn't fire you on the spot for that." He said walking out the door.

Doug banged his head into the locker after Romano left. "Ahh Doug, how stupid can you get?" Things were shaping up to be another miserable day. He walked out to see if he could talk things over with Weaver. After little searching he found her by admit. Maybe Romano hadn't spoken with her yet. If she was short doctors she wouldn't suspend him. "Hey Kerry." he managed to croak out.

Kerry looked up at him, "I don't want to know about it, but whatever you did, I just had a screaming Romano come flying by here mumbling something about suspending doctors and doctors upsetting his SICU patients..." She said rubbing her eyes. "You have got to smooth whatever it is over and do it fast. I am running out of staff. And the last thing that any of us need me included as an irate Romano."

Doug sighed "Kerry the guy friggin deserved much worse. what do you want me to do? go and apologize to him?"

Kerry threw her hands up into the air, "Doug I want you to do everything short of kissing his ass." She said looking at him seriously, "I don't care if he deserved to have a helicopter fall out of the sky onto him, but fix it. He's my boss to and whether or not I like it I have to respect his management decisions."

Doug threw his head back and sighed. "fine...but only cause i need to work." he took off for the surgical floor where he asked around for Romano only to find he had gone to see Anna. "Ahh damn" he thought to himself. Doug walked into the SICU with his head down. This was the last place he wanted to be. He kept his head down and back to the door. He opened the door a crack and stuck the back of his head inside the room. "Dr. Romano may I please speak with you?" His voice now controlled but firm. He hoped Anna was sleeping and wouldn't notice him.

Anna laughed and smiled at Romano, "go on go talk, I'm going to go down and raid the lounge's coffee." She said pushing by Doug. She had just finished her pt and convinced Romano to bring her scrubs so she could meander around. She just glared at Doug as she slowly made her way down the hall on her own power.

Romano stepped out in the hall and watched Anna walk away. "What do you want Ross."

Doug glued his mouth shut as Anna walked by. He knew better than to say anything to her. He took in a deep breath and turned to look Romano in the eye. "Look, I'm sorry about pushing you earlier. I had no right after everything you've done. I didn't mean to upset Anna last night, and you're right. That's the last thing she needed." He took another breath; it was hard for him to pretend to be so nice to a scumbag like Romano. "Look, I'll do ER scut work if you want but Kerry really needs docs today and I'm the only peds one on call so I know everyone would appreciate it if you let this situation slide...it'll never happen again." Doug tried his best to look sincere; it was hard sucking up to anyone, much less Romano. "Look if you won't do it for me think of the patients. It's snowing today and it's going to be busy."

Romano took a deep breath in. "I don't want to see you up here; you need to send a patient up here, have someone else do it." Romano said as he watched Anna slide into the surgeon's lounge. "At least until she is discharged tomorrow. You're walking a thin line with me, but because we are down doctors I will let this incident slide for now. I'll keep her up here, but you stay down there."

"Yes mother." Doug smirked as he turned around. he couldn't stand being ordered around. he walked past the surgeons lounge and looked in the small window at Anna. he was surprised she was getting out so soon. maybe it would be good for her to get back to work. once they worked together he would make things right. looking at her made him stop in front of the door. it hurt him to see her so upset and know without a doubt that he was the one who had done it. he wanted to keep moving but his feet wouldn't let him. "god I'm sorry" he whispered to himself forgetting Romano was behind him.

"Your loss my gain." Romano said pushing the door open to the lounge and letting the door shut behind him as he crossed over and sat down next to Anna. "Hey beauty find what you were after?" He asked her.

Anna smiled, "yeah, hot coffee that isn't watered down." She might not have been happy at that moment, but she was going to butter him up to get out of there. "Thanks for everything Robert." She said leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.

Doug clenched his jaw. he hated Romano and he hated Anna equally as much for being next to him. he punched the door hoping to disturb them and walked back down to the ER. "Got my job back." he said roughly to Weaver. Right now he could care less about being disrespectful. he slammed the doors open to the lounge and picked the first thing he found and threw it across the room.

Kerry heard the familiar bang of something being thrown. She wasn't sure what had gone on but something wasn't right. She figured it was probably best to let him vent as long as he wasn't hurting anyone. She would go upstairs and talk to Robert later. She put her hand on the door, "hey Doug you okay in here?"

Doug put his hands behind his head and almost laughed. He must have been louder then he thought for Kerry to hear him "oh yeah" he said turning around. he grabbed his stethoscope and pushed open the door to be face to face with Kerry. "excuse me dr. weaver." he said trying to get past her.

"Yeah sure Doug." She said letting him by. She wasn't going to pry or push, that wasn't her place. She watched him go, wondering how her ER could fall apart so fast. She headed upstairs while it was slow to talk to Robert. When she got upstairs she found him sitting talking to Anna who was sitting in scrubs in the surgeon's lounge. She walked in, "do either one of you care to tell me what's going on?" She said asking them.

"Not really." Anna said as her smile faded. "I have some phone calls that I need to make. But really Robert I do thank you for everything that you've done for me." She then turned to Kerry, "I'm sorry that I can't give you a formal two weeks, but I think that my death spoke for me." She continued, "But I will not be coming back to work at County. I'm sorry Kerry but working here isn't going to work. There's too much going on but I appreciate everything that you have done as well." She looked at Robert, "you'll have me out to catch that 10 am flight right?" She just watched as he nodded and she left the room. Leaving Kerry to talk to Robert.

Doug went to sit in the cafeteria until he got paged down. he felt like he had no friends in the whole hospital. Abby, maybe Susan were the exceptions. he knew Susan was probably home and he didn't knew where Abby was. he didn't see her when he went to the SICU but he figured she would be there all day. he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. after thinking on it a little he came to one clear conclusion. "my life sucks." he said out loud

Abby had come down to get something to eat after spending the night next to Carter. He was sleeping when she left and Anna was on the phone with the airlines. She had no idea what was up with that but from the look on Anna's face she didn't want to ask, she sat down next to Doug, "oh now come on your life doesn't suck any more than the rest of us."

Doug smiled with his eyes shut. he could tell from the voice that it was. "I wouldn't be so sure" he said leaning forward to look at her. "ill buy you breakfast for some nonjudgmental company and an update on carter." he said standing up.

Abby looked at him, "ah thanks but no thanks I have it sitting in front of me already." She said, "no judging and an update on Carter I can do. He's sleeping but seems to be doing better. I'm thinking that might let him out of here soon. I snuck down here to get something to eat and a cup of coffee."

"Good to know. I snuck up here to be alone." Doug said and winced as soon as he did. "that was an ass thing to say I'm sorry Abby." he said dropping his head on the table. "run away Abby...run as fast as you can." he looked up at her and saw the way she looked. he didn't want to trouble her with any of his problems. "wow i need some coffee." he said rubbing has face. "so you doing ok? all this must be hard on you..."

"Where have I heard that line before," She said, "oh yeah I said it to Carter up on the roof. I have no intentions of running anywhere. Besides everyone knows that the roof is where you go when you truly want to be alone, but even there in this place you never really are alone." She said sliding a cup of coffee across the table, "I can get Carter a hot one before I head back up there, it would probably be cold before I get up there anyway. I'm fine Doug, I know that Carter's going to be fine, and it's given us some quiet time together, which we badly needed. But you, you look worse than I do. What's going on, need to vent a little?"

"i forgot about the roof." Doug said as he picked up the coffee. "thanks for this" he said taking a sip. after a second he set the cup down and let out a sigh. "i think you'd hate me if i told you." reading the reaction on Abby's face he knew he wasn't getting out that easy. "well for starters i threw Romano through the lounge today." he said, laughing thinking back on it. "who would have that the little guy was so aerodynamic?"

Abby laughed, "Dr. Romano aerodynamic, that I so would have loved to have seen. Sorry but it creates a well rather amusing mental picture." Abby glanced around the room and leaned in closer to Doug whispering, "I'm so sure the little sob deserved too. Anyone who does that gets them a get off Abby shoot list for free card. Hate you, oh come Doug who else could I wallow in my self pity, chase and rescue my boyfriend from a deranged gunman with, I might not agree with you all the time, but heck I can't even agree with myself all the time. I've been told that I make a good sounding board, if there's something you want to talk about great, that's what friends are for; if not hey I understand that too. It's not like I haven't been in that boat too."

Anna sat in Romano's office. Hiding from the PT people. She picked up his phone and called one of her older brothers. She convinced him to go down and pick up her belongings from her car. Which hopefully would still have enough clothes in it to get her a couple of days, until she could do some shopping in Huston. He seemed worried about her and it took everything she had in her to convince him that she had simply gotten a better job opportunity dropped in her lap, but she only had a short time to act on it or they would give it to someone else. He seemed to finally buy her story after a long conversation with him. When she called to let Chris know that she would be coming on rather short notice, he said that she could stay with him until she was able to find an apartment on her own. She really didn't feel like seeing anyone right now and since Carter was in her room, Romano's office while he was in surgery was the perfect place to hide from everyone. Kerry was the only one who knew that she was catching that flight to Huston tomorrow, but she hoped that she wouldn't say anything to anyone until she was gone. It would be one less thing she would have to deal with. Doug's words still stung. She could hear him saying them over and over. She found them almost hard to believe. She didn't think he could be so cold, but people change, maybe it was for the best right now. She picked at lunch not wanting them to keep her cause she wouldn't eat, but she really wasn't hungry. She stared at the clock, by this time tomorrow she would be off and on her way safe in Huston fresh city, fresh start. She moved over and curled up on the couch that was in Romano's office and as she watched the snowflakes tumbling to the ground once again drifted off to sleep.