Chapter 81:
Susan was bored sitting and saw Doug walk in. "Hey... you wanna come out for drinks at around seven tonight? The whole ER is going to be there...and you look like you could use a drink." She joked. He looked up and grinned. "Well i had a date but i guess i can stop by. Where are you all going?" "Lava lounge" Susan said handing him a chart. "Five hours and counting." she walked past him and headed into the bathroom. She heard someone crying and was shocked to see Anna. "What happened? Are you ok?" she asked walking over to her.
She looked up at Susan. "I can't do this anymore." She was sobbing, "He's got a girlfriend now. He doesn't need me, he wants to be friends but I can't right now, and as much as I want to tell him, the time is never going to be right."
How Susan wished she hadn't just invited Doug. She walked over to Anna and pulled her to sit down on the floor with her. She put a hand on her head and sat with her for a second. "There is a difference between a rebound and a girlfriend Anna...I see the way he looks at you. You make his eyes light up. And even if he is too dumb to know it, you're a great person and he'd be lucky to be your friend, just like i am lucky." Susan added trying to make her feel better. "You need to tell him...but you have time. You'll know when its right and the two of you will deal with it." she said rubbing her back. "You'll be ok"
"Look Chen will be here in a couple of hours, it's slow I am going to go home and go to sleep. I can't work with him right now. He's so damn lucky I am pregnant and he's recovering from that car accident or I would have had to whoop his butt big time." She said, "I just need some time to myself. I've been going non-stop since I got back from Kentucky. That ass is going to work me to death." She got up off the floor, "thank you for being my friend." She said as she walked out of the bathroom. She kept her eyes downcast towards the floor as she crossed the ER. She grabbed her stuff from her locker retrieving her purse from behind the admit desk. She didn't want to look at him; she didn't want him to see the tears that were in her eyes.
Doug clenched his mouth shut as she walked past him. He knew she was going home...and he knew better than to say anything at all. It was slow, he didn't need her here. Doug opened his bottle of pain meds and downed a few. What a crappy day. Once he was sure Anna was gone he picked up his cell phone and dialed Allison's number. "Hey its Doug...Ross. Yeah sorry about this morning, I got paged in on an emergency...yeah it's a doctor's life... anyway I wanted to know if you could go for a change of plans. A friend of mine invited me to go out for some drinks with a bunch of people so if we could stop by there for a little it might be fun. Ok great. I'll pick you up at seven." Doug hung up the phone. Thank god someone else would be there. If he had to make small talk for another dinner he would kill himself. He looked at the clock. Time was going by so slowly today. He still had over four hours to go before he was off. He felt bad for yelling at Anna but she needed to let go and get on with her life. She couldn't feel bad forever.
Anna walked up the stairs to her apartment. She walked in and saw her machine light flashing. She hit play and listened to it. She picked up the phone and dialed Matt's number. "You want to get drinks tonight?" She asked him, "there getting together at the lava lounge. Hey I know no alcohol you don't have to remind me, stop being such a big brother." She joked with him for a few more minutes before she hung up the phone and flopped down on her bed. "Looks like it's going to be just me and you baby." She said rubbing her tummy as she closed her eyes. She needed to go and pick out a car. Doug was supposed to take her, but that wasn't going to happen. She got back up and picked up her keys. She grabbed a cab and headed to the lot. She looked at a lot of different one. She test drove a couple of different ones. She wanted something sporty that would piss him off. She finally caved in and bought herself a brand new jet black BMW. She had seriously thought about getting the red one, but black looked much flashier. She signed the deal and drove her car over to the bar where Matt worked figuring she could kill the last hour hanging there before meeting Susan.
Doug filled his time with triage and paperwork. It was a slow day indeed. With a promise to Susan that he would show up later Doug went to his house to get changed. Since they were going to a bar he decided for casual but nice. He pulled out some grey slacks and a button shirt. After slicking his hair back and grabbing some cologne he went to call Allison. She wouldn't be ready for another half an hour. That's what he got for picking an ex cheerleader...but at least she would look nice. He sat down on his couch and looked harder at the picture Haleh had given him doubles of. Carter, Anna, Mark, Elizabeth, Him, Carol, and Weaver. They were all having such a good time that night. He wished he could have that again someday.