Chapter 54:

Doug groaned when his alarm clock went off at 5:30. "Noooo" he rolled over slowly and rubbed his eyes. he had actually slept through the night. he reached over and smacked his alarm clock to get it to turn off.

Anna stirred, what the hell was that noise, she grumbled, "No one's home here...I'm not on call...I'm not your resident anymore...do your own scut work..." as she pulled the pillow up over her head. Still not all the way awake she sat up eyes closed, "yeah sure give 'em 5 of Haldol," falling back against the bed.

Doug looked over at her and smiled. He still didn't want to get up. Somehow he managed to pull himself out of bed and quietly make his way into the bathroom. he turned the hot water in the shower on and he started to brush his teeth. the water heater always took a minute to kick in and he wasn't in the mood to be a Doug-cicle. After he saw steam come out of the bottom of the glass he washed out his mouth and jumped in. he back hurt from being tackled by the cops and he stretched trying to work out his sore muscles. He turned on his shower radio and turned it down low enough that he thought Anna wouldn't hear. Slow jazz music poured out as he leaned against the wall to let the hot water wake him up.

Anna sat up. The room unfamiliar yet so familiar. There was soft music playing. Doug probably had to work today. She padded into the bathroom and leaned against the wall. She wondered if he had any idea she was in there. Ohhh, it was early in the morning and she was having such a good dream before that alarm woke her up. She grinned; nope she'd be nice just this one time..."hey in there, want some company?"

Doug jumped when he heard a voice. "Anna?" he asked into the steam. he knew who it was but it was just a reaction. "I didn't mean to wake you up. sorry I'm wasting all the hot water."

"No it's fine." She said as she rubbed her eyes, "don't worry about it." She said as she ran her hand down her shirt. "I'm still stapled together."

Doug turned off the water and grabbed the towel he had hanging. He wrapped it around his waist and stepped out of the shower. Doug winked at Anna and walked over to the sink. He slicked back his hair and looked into the mirror, started to shake up his shaving cream can and turned to look at her. "You like watching me shave dripping wet or are you just there to make me blush again?"

"Both," She said smiling, "what can I say there's something about a wet nearly naked man that," she could see the blush coming as she leaned over reaching like she was going to pull his towel away, "drives me wild."

Doug grabbed her hand and stood up straight. "Hey play nice." he teased letting go. he walked over to stand so close he was nearly touching her as he tilted his head to kiss her he brought up the bottle of shaving cream and squirted her on the face. "hehehe" he laughed. "no one pulls jokes better than me."

"Oh you little..." She said as she brought her body so that it was now almost completely up against his. "just for that I am not playing nice." With one flick of her wrist she was holding his towel up next to her head. "What are you going to do now?" She said as she trailed her free hand down his chest.

Doug grinned putting his hands on either side of her face. He was dripping wet but he didn't imagine Anna would care very much. He traced the outline of her jaw as he pulled her closer and into a kiss.

Anna couldn't help herself as she turned to putty under his kiss. She was able for that brief moment, when his lips were on hers to forget about the rest of the outside world. 'Its real, this is real,' ran thru her head, 'I'm not dreaming.' She reluctantly pulled away from him, "I hear the call of the ER." She said as she started to walk away from him, how she wanted to stay there, to remain in his arms, under the spell of his kisses, "can't have the great and talented new ER peds attending be late." She wouldn't deny that she wanted to go with him, even if he did just lock her in a dictation room with nothing but paperwork or made her glue her butt to a chair at the admit desk. At this point she would sit and stay put as long as she had something to do, "Ohhh what I wouldn't give for a pile of paperwork or a months worth of dictation. This is the first time in 5 years that I haven't held a job at more than 2 hospitals." She sighed as she leaned against the door frame. "Maybe while you are busy saving lives today I will go and find a new Porsche since mine is totaled now, then go shopping for some clothes, maybe try to find an apartment, and oh and I have to make time to have lunch with my favorite pediatrician if he'll have time for me." She paused for a minute jesting with him, "maybe I should swing by Northwestern and beg for my moonlighting job back. Since you'll be working what 12, 14 hours today?"

Doug slipped into his boxers and ruffed up his hair. "yeah the ER is always calling." he said squirting some shaving cream onto his face. "you better not forget about your PT...I'm sure you could squeeze it in, in the morning before you go off and have your day." Doug started to shave. he had some nice sideburns going and was trying to decide on the best style choice while holding a conversation with Anna. "You know I'm off this weekend if you want me to go car and apartment browsing with you. it usually helps to have a guy with ya...and you better stop by to have lunch with me. the last thing I want to do is sit in the lounge with weaver...speaking of food, once you get feeling a little better we really need to go on an official date...nice restaurant, romantic music, good food, that sort of thing."

Anna pouted, "of course I will come by for lunch. I wouldn't leave you alone with Weaver. But do I have to do the PT, my day would be so much better. I suppose I could hold off on getting the car, although I think I did pretty good with my last one." She stopped for a minute, "I'm assuming that you want me to stay here until you help me find an apartment, leave the sideburns baby, you're adorable with them. Besides I like you kind of scruffy." Hmm, she thought as she sat down on the end of the bed, "so how many hours you going to be working me at this new job of mine?"

Doug threw some water on his face, after Anna's comment he had to keep the style. He walked into the bedroom and started going through his clothes. "Of course i want you to stay here. I wouldn't kick ya out on your butt." Doug finally found some black slacks that he laid on the bed next to Anna. he wanted to look nice today. "As for your hours, you just let me know what you can handle. I don't want to overwork you when you're not ready and get you sick." Doug smiled as he found the shirt he was looking for. He slid on his favorite cream colored silk button up and walked over to her to grab his pants. "And you will do your therapy." he said touching her face. "I want my girl back at top performance."

"How could I not do it, if you put it that way?" She said looking up at him from the bed. "Sorry I'm just antsy to get back to work. But you have a point and it's taken. I'll just have to be a big girl and well I guess be something other than a doc for a while longer."

Doug smiled as he put on his slacks, tucked in his shirt, and tightened his belt. he looked into the mirror. "So what do you think?" He asked turning around. "Do I look like attending material?"

"Of course you do." Anna said to him, "but then I think I am a little biased. It's what's inside that counts and you care about kids, more than any other peds I know. You'll knock them dead today, or rather back to life."

Doug smiled at her. "Well thanks...you know last night on the couch you didn't make me upset or anything. I got all soft hearted because it was the first time in awhile that someone has been really proud of me." He said walking over to her and holding her hand. "So thank you for that too." Doug gave her a quick kiss, "now come on and get dressed. I'll drive you to therapy...you can hit the weights and I can hit the books."

Anna just looked at him, "have you seen me with any bags?" She asked cocking her head to one side, "I have to go shopping because the majority of my clothes are somewhere between here and Texas. I'll ride with you to the hospital and then run over to the apartment and grab some."

Doug sighed. "You make my life complicated." Doug walked into the living room and put all of his folders into his bag. he looked at his watch and realized he was running behind. "Ahh a little too late for breakfast but i will still catch lunch with you. do you want me to drop you off at your apartment or saks fifth avenue?' he joked putting on his jacket.

"Saks isn't open yet silly." She said, "at the apartment would be fine. I promise therapy before I exercise my credit cards." She pulled on her jacket, "and I don't complicate your life, I add spice to it."

"Ahh that must be it." he said opening the door. the wind blew and caught him just right. "Damn its cold." he said looking up. the sky was grey, even though the sun had just come up Doug could already tell it looked like a storm was heading their way. "You didn't catch the weather channel did ya?" Doug made his way through the wind and into the car. After Anna was in he made the drive to her apartment. "You sure you don't need any help with anything? I can be a little late if I need to."

She took a deep breath in, "no I think I'll be okay. I don't think that I have much left." She said she was saying this more for her own benefit than his, "don't worry I'll be fine. I won't pack much, and I'll make sure that the bags are light enough that I can carry them. Besides I am not going to have you be late on your first day as boss."

"Well I'm at least opening the door for you." he said setting the car in park and getting out. it seemed colder than when he left. he hoped people would be smart enough to stay home. Doug opened the car door for Anna and helped her out. He walked her to the front door of her apartment building and stopped to take her hands and he brought one of her hands up and kissed it, setting it on his smooth cheek. "be careful ok?" he said to her before leaning in to give her a goodbye kiss.

"I will." She said pulling away from him and putting her key into the door. "I'll swing thru the ER on my way up to get PT so that you know I'm okay." She said her hand shaking as she pushed the door open.

Doug noticed her hand but also realized she was tired of him making sure she was ok. "Alright" he said turning and walking back to his car. Doug watched her go in before he pulled away toward the hospital. After running inside from the cold Doug quickly threw his things in the lounge and grabbed all the charts he had reviewed and signed to put them away. He walked past Weaver at admit. "So we got anything yet? It looks pretty quiet here."

Kerry glanced up at him, "nope been dead for awhile now." She said tossing a chart in the rack. "Hopefully it will stay that way for awhile. Well at least for us. Word gets out about us having a peds ER and I am sure that you will eventually be swamped but as for right now all is quiet on the home front."

"Good to know." Doug said setting his charts down, "do I need to let you know who I decide to hire since you are the chief or what? Also, as far as nurses go is it alright if I ask some of the ER nurses if they would like to work in peds on their extra time?" Doug asked pulling out the paper he had written the budget information on. he really wanted to show weaver that he was more then capable of handling this.

"Nope Doug, you don't have to run it by me." She said looking at him, "you will be required to attend all the department head meetings, and of course you have your budget that was set, but the only one you have to answer to now is Romano. As of yesterday, I am not longer your boss, I am Chief of Emergency Medicine, and you're the department head for the Ped's ER."

Doug sighed. "Romano...that sucks." he joked winking at Kerry. "If he knew I had my attending job hell would probably freeze over for him, which would leave the tiny guy one cold little imp." He hated Romano and was really glad that he was a surgeon and rarely down in the ER. but on the occasions he was...life was miserable.

"Yeah I know I've been dealing with him a lot longer." Kerry said, "he can be a real pain sometimes, but you have to admit he does have his good points too...wait did I just say that. Think I need some more coffee. But you should have seen Abby laying into him yesterday. I actually thought that she was," Kerry started to laugh, "going to punt him across the ambulance bay."