A/N: as to the question about the board, the administrator is temporarly away. If you have any questions email me and I'll try and answer them. Here's the next chapter hope that you enjoy it. There's much more to come.


Chapter 76:

Anna was fishing a jelly bean from a 4 yr olds nose when her pager went off. She was smiling again as she walked out. As she walked over she ruffled the kid's hair, "okay sport nothing bigger than you're elbow in your nose. Jelly beans go in here." She poked at his stomach. She walked over to admit, she was starting to feel nauseated, standing next to Doug as she signed her name on the chart for discharge, "sorry I didn't come right away but I almost had the jelly bean when you paged. What can I do for you Dr. Ross?" She had been on emotional rollercoaster all morning and was now feeling really green around the edges. She could feel her stomach start to protest as she looked up at Doug. She closed her eyes hoping to keep her stomach quiet for a couple minutes longer as she leaned heavily on the desk.

Doug looked up at her noticing that she didn't look very well. "Anna, is everything alright? Besides looking a little sick...i just got an earful from Weaver about your behavior." he spoke calmly and quietly but he wanted her to get the point. ""Look, I'm just saying whatever it is you need to control it... fix it...but do something because I'm your boss and Weaver's mine. I don't need any extra stress right now." Doug already had to fix the budget, finish his research grant and find a way to get more supplies, the last thing he wanted was his doctors getting in fights with him.

"Oh god," She squeaked as she threw up hand up over her mouth she turned and got almost to the bathroom before she lost it in one of the biowaste containers.

Doug rolled his eyes back in his head. "Great" he said gathering his stuff. "Anna...go home"

She just walked into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. She was run down and tired. She was going to finish this shift if it killed her, if Doug could be here working after everything he had been thru, she was going to let a stomach bug stop her. She looked in the mirror. Yikes, she rinsed her mouth out before heading back towards admit. "I owe you an apology for my behavior earlier...it won't happen again. I can finish my shift." Anna picked up a chart from the rack.

"Why don't you just go home? You look like you could use a little rest anyway...it's not a big deal. I'll call someone down." he said slipping on his jacket and stuffing the files into his bag. "Thanks for your apology though."

"I'll be okay. I'm a doctor, I'm always tired." She said walking down the hallway. Where had she heard that line before?

"Boy that sounds like me." Doug said to himself before finishing packing his things. As much as he liked to pretend that Anna going out with another guy didn't bother him, it really did. He drummed his fingers on the desk thinking for a moment. After a second he straightened up his tie and slowly made his way over to docs on his crutches. He would be glad when he was done with them. Doug went in and sat down at the front counter. He only noticed later a very pretty looking blonde sitting three seats down. He smiled at her while he took a menu. 'don't even think about it Doug' he told himself...as much as he knew it was wrong, something in him wanted to get back at Anna.

Anna stood at the admit desk for a minute, before she went and chased down Susan, "do you have a minute to help me with a blood draw?"

Susan looked up surprised at the question. Blood draws weren't very hard unless it was on a drug user or something. "Yeah of course" she said walking with her. "Deep veins or something?"

"No mine." She said to her as she walked into an empty exam room, "I'm feeling really run down and more tired than normal and well I'm sorry about this morning."

Susan nodded. "Hey don't even worry about it..." she was a little hesitant to ask but thought as her doctor and her friend she should."Are you thinking anything in particular? I mean... what tests should I send off for?" she asked nonchalantly as she prepped Anna's arm and stuck in the needle. Susan hoped there wasn't something seriously wrong. She couldn't loose another friend, and she and Anna had been getting along so well.

"Just a CBC make sure that I'm not coming down with something," Anna said to her as she lowered her voice, "pretty run a pregnancy test on it too."

Doug picked at his food and looked over at the woman smiling again. "Quick lunch break?" he asked. She just smiled back at him and nodded. Doug, not being one to give up so easily tried for another question. "Man doc's has been here forever...its close to work." he said pointing over to the hospital. "Do you work around here." the woman just nodded again and rolled her eyes. Doug sighed and went back to his food. 'Strike two' he told himself. After a few minutes the woman got up to leave but surprised him when she walked over and handed him her card. "My name's Allison...call me sometime." Doug took it and smiled. 'Homerun' he thought

Susan nodded and she signed the chart. It was none of her business. "Ill get these back to you soon ok?"

"Thanks Susan." Anna said getting up, "page me would you. I think I will feel better once I know."

Susan sent the blood up to the lab on a rush order. She knew her friend would like to know ASAP. She started to get back to work and was picking through the charts to find something interesting when she grabbed up a fairly interesting case of object lodging...well more or less. Susan smiled as she looked at the chart. "Who gets a bucket stuck on their head?" she asked out loud as she went into exam one

Anna picked up a chart. She had overheard Susan and was laughing as she walked into another room. Which she almost instantly regretted. She would have rather had the bucket. What was today foreign object day? She had already retrieved a jelly bean from the nose and now she was standing there listening to a man explain why he was beeping. She spent about 15 minutes trying to rectify the situation before walking out of the exam room, beeper in a baggie. She laughed as she wondered out loud, "do I send this down to medical records or put it in Carter's retrieval bin?"

Susan walked out with the bucket and found Anna with her baggy. "Wow wha...I change my mind I don't want to know." she said joking. "I'm glad I found you anyway, I got a page from the lab...they said the tests are back so you can go pick them up." she said with a small smile before going to put the bucket away. "Hey Anna?" she said turning around. "I'm here if you need to talk." saying that Susan kept walking a grabbed for another chart, hopefully one without some strange object attached to it.

Anna smiled, "thanks." She said as she headed for the lab. She walked inside, "I need the results for the blood work for Anna Del Amico." She said to the tech as she waited for him to hand them to her. She took them and walked out of the lab. She took a deep breath as she read them as she walked. When she got back to admit she tossed them into the trash can, it was not news that she needed right now. How was she going to tell him, this wasn't something that would come up, and she surely couldn't just walk up to him and announce it like it was something they were hoping for? She sat down to finish up the pager boy's chart.