~*~ Chapter 9 ~*~
Chris sat at the table in the on-call room, staring at his food. He picked up his sandwich to take a bite but threw it back down again. It was obvious that something was weighing on his mind. He was worried that he was missing something with Shelby's case, although there was no indication of any other conditions.
"Of course, the last place that I look..." Eve said throwing up her arms as she bolted through the door. "Why aren't you eating? That's a perfectly good pastrami on rye."
"Eve, did you have a purpose for coming in here? Other than to bother me?" Chris snapped back. He really wasn't in the mood to hear any of her famous sarcastic comments.
Eve sat down next to him and tossed Shelby's chart on the table. "I checked on her while you where out. She seems like a good kid. Anyway, everything looks okay to me. She was alert, she had more energy, she wasn't complaining about any aches or pains, and her blood sugar level was perfect. She did indicate that she would rather test her blood sugar on her arm, though. She's a piano player."
Chris picked up the folder and read Eve's notes. "Thanks, Eve. Your opinion helps. I just can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something."
"Well, I don't think that you are missing anything. But just to be sure, maybe you should run a test for Leptospirosis."
"Leptospirosis? Why would I want to run a test for that?"
"Well while we were talking, she mentioned being hospitalized when she was younger. She said that her cat had a disease that she contracted when she cleaned out the litter box. Now, I don't want to tell you what to do, but I would contact her former pediatrician for her medical records and run the test for Leptospirosis. Just on the off chance that she may be relapsing or contracted it again. Although I don't see any sign of the symptoms."
Chris closed the folder and set it back on the table. "Thanks, Eve. I'll take it from here," he said as he took a bite from his sandwich. "I appreciate your help."
"Anytime," she replied as she got up turned toward the door, "I better get back out on the floor."
After Eve left, Chris read over the chart one more time. As he reached the end of the notes, he made another small note to call her parents to get the rest of her medical records.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Scott rang the doorbell to the lighthouse for a second time. After finally determining that no one was there, he turned to leave. Suddenly, he heard the door thrust open and he quickly turned around to see Lucy standing there.
"Hey pal...what's up? I didn't expect to see you here today..." she greeted.
"Oh, hey Luce. I was just in the neighborhood and I thought that I would stop by. Am I interrupting something?"
"No, not at all. I was on the phone with my advertising director and Kevin is in his office. He's working on some kind of boring article or something. Please come in. Can I get you some coffee? Where's Serena? Is she with you?"
Scott shook his head as he entered the living room, "same ol' Lucy" he thought to him self. "Sure, I'll have a cup of coffee. Serena is at Karen's tonight. They're spending the weekend together. I was on my way home from dropping her off, but then I decided I really didn't feel like going home and being alone tonight."
Lucy handed him his coffee and sat down next to him, "Alright, what is it?"
"What is what?"
"Come on, Scott. I know you better than you know yourself. What's bothering you? Is everything going okay with the wedding?"
"You know, you're just as bad as the girls...You always seem to think that you know what's going through my head."
"Okay, now I know some thing is bothering you. Just spill it, would ya?" Lucy prodded in the hopes of getting him to open up. "Did something happen to Serena?"
"No, no...Serena's fine."
"Ah...so then it's Karen."
"What makes you think it's Karen?" he asked thinking that he could hide his emotions.
"Because you only get that look on your face for two reasons...Serena or Karen," Kevin interjected as he entered the living room.
"Oh great, now, you're going to go through this psycho-babble with me?" Scott started.
"Let's face it, Scott. You didn't come over here just for a cup of coffee. You could've gotten that at Kelly's."
"I don't know why I'm letting it bother me," Scott finally admitted to Lucy and Kevin.
"What are you letting bother you?" Lucy asked confused. She didn't understand what he was trying to get at.
Scott looked at Kevin and then back to Lucy, "Jagger's back in town," he answered simply.
"So why is that bothering you?" Kevin asked trying to determine if there was really a problem or if it was just Scott's normal fatherly over-reaction.
"Why is it bothering me?" Scott repeated in a raised voice, "it's bothering me because she nearly threw her life away for this jerk once. And now that he's back in town, I'll be damned if I'm going to let her fall into his trap again."
"Ah, I see," Kevin said. "Does Karen know that he is back?"
"Yeah..." he answered with a disgusted tone. "She ran into him the other day in my office. I called him into my office the other day to talk to him, but then my secretary had a question. When I stepped out for that minute, Karen came in. Neither one of them will admit what happened, but Karen ran out of my office in tears. It's everything that I could do to keep from ripping his head off."
Lucy looked at Scott with a puzzled look, "What do you mean by, neither one of them will admit what happened?"
"Well, Jagger says that he just tried to talk to her. And Karen won't tell me anything. She just says the she was shocked to see him and she let her emotions take over," he explained.
"Well, Scott, maybe that's all that it was. Maybe you're just so distrusting that you expected something else to happen. And Karen's reaction to the shock of seeing Jagger in your office just made your conclusion more concrete."
"Are you accusing me of not trusting my daughter?" Scott asked defensively.
"No, I'm saying that Jagger is the one that you don't trust. He hurt your daughter once, and now you've decided that, that is all he will ever do to Karen; is hurt her," Kevin explained.
Scott put his head down and listened to what Kevin was saying. "Scott, Karen is more in tune with her past than anybody. She remembers the pain and the anger. She's going to be more on the defensive than anyone. She knows what she had wanted and she knows what she had gotten. She knows what she had to work for and how hard she had to work. She won't just throw it away. She's too much like you."
"Scott, Doc is right. You don't see her hanging out with Sonny Corinthos, do you? And I know that they have run into one another on more than one occasion."
"Don't even got here, Lucy!" Scott grunted.
"Not helping, Lucy," Kevin said to get her to shut up. "Scott, just give Karen the benefit of the doubt, okay?"
"Maybe your right. Maybe I am just reading into this. Well thanks for the coffee. I think I'm going to go home and catch the rest of the bonanza marathon."
Scott left the lighthouse and stopped short on the doorstep. His thoughts of Karen running out of his office came flooding back to him as he remember what Kevin had said. He took a deep breath and sighed, "do you ever stop worrying about your kids?" he asked himself as he ran his fingers through his blonde hair and headed to his truck.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Serena jumped up to answer the door, when she heard the doorbell ring. She quickly looked around the room for Karen before she opened the door. "Hello..." she greeted to a man holding a bouquet of flowers in front of his face.
"For you, beautiful..." the man said holding out the flowers with his eyes closed.
"Thanks, but my dad told me to never accept things from strangers."
Hearing that remark, Jagger quickly opened his eyes and looked down at Serena. "Oh," he said looking at the number on the apartment door to make sure he had the right place.
"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong place. I was looking for Karen. Karen Wexler," he explained still in shock and a little embarrassed.
"No, you have the right place. Karen's my sister. And you are?"
"Your sister?" he questioned. "Oh, you must be Serena..."
"Great you know who I am, but who are you?" she asked again.
"Oh, right, I'm..."
"Serena, who was at the door?" Karen asked entering the living room.
"I don't know he hasn't given me a name yet," she answered.
Upon hearing Karen's voice, Jagger stepped around Serena and entered into the living room. Standing in front of him was Karen in long bathrobe and towel wrapped around her head. "Hey," he said as he held out the flowers.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Karen asked in a snip. Serena just looked at her sister then took a seat on the couch, she still didn't know who this guy was but by reception that he received from Karen, she wasn't about to miss the show.
"I thought that maybe we could go get a cup of coffee and a piece of pie at Kelly's. You know, just sit down and talk. We have a lot to talk about. Don't you think?" he asked.
"What I think is that I have nothing to say to you. You have no business being here. Now if you would please leave..." she said moving to open the door for him.
"Please, Karen," he begged. "We need to work this out."
"There is nothing to work out. And I'm not going to ask you again. Please leave." She demanded.
Jagger hung his head in defeat then looked over to Serena who was intently staring at them. "At least take the flowers." He said holding them out to her. Karen took the flowers out of his hands as he walk out of the door. Closing the door behind him, she walked over to the window and threw flowers out onto the sidewalk where they landed at Jaggers feet. He picked up the flowers and peeked in the window to see Serena talking to Karen. "Wow...that was brutal..." Serena said, "who was that, anyway?"
Karen shot a disgusted glare at her sister and walked back to the bathroom to get dressed. "Just nevermind," she said before closing the bathroom door.
Serena jumped at the sound of the door slamming. Just then she noticed Jagger standing outside of the window and finally turning away. She quickly got up and ran to the door to catch him. Once out on the sidewalk, she called to out him "Hey...hey you...come back here a minute."
Jagger turned around to see Serena waving to him. Reluctantly, he turned and walked back to her. "What?"
"Who are you?" she asked him for a third time.
"You really don't know me?" he asked Serena as she just shook her head. "I'm Jagger," he finally said.
"Jagger? As in my ex-Brother-in-law Jagger?"
"Yeah, that would be me."
"I've heard a lot about you. Most of it from my dad...and not good." She said.
"Gee, thanks for boosting my confidence," he said turning around and beginning to walk away.
"You know she's about to get married, don't you?" she called out to him again getting him to turn around.
"Yeah, so I've heard," he replied beginning to walk away again.
"So, what do you want from her?" Serena asked.
Jagger stopped and turned. He looked at Serena for a minute then walked up to her. "I just want to talk. I don't want us to be enemies."
"Well then, maybe you shouldn't give up so easy. Trust me. I know my sister and if you keep trying she'll give in," Serena said plucking the flowers out of his hand. "I'd better get back inside before she realizes that I came after you."
Serena went back into the apartment as Jagger stood on the doorstep right outside of the window. Just was he went to walk away, he heard Karen and Serena talking.
"Serena, did you just go outside?" Karen asked.
Serena looked at the window and saw Jagger standing there. She smiled to him for a second then turned to her sister. "Yeah, I went to get the flowers. No sense in wasting perfectly good flowers."
"Serena, I don't want those. Get rid of them."
"Oh, Karen, just shut up an put them in a vase. And no, he wasn't out there. He was gone."
Jagger shook his head as he walked down the sidewalk, away from the apartment. Serena set the flowers on the table behind the couch and picked up a magazine although paying more attention to Karen's reflection on the television. She intently watched Karen as she slowly walked over to the flowers and picked them up. Serena then smiled to herself when she heard Karen running water into the vase that her grandmother had given to her.
Chris sat at the table in the on-call room, staring at his food. He picked up his sandwich to take a bite but threw it back down again. It was obvious that something was weighing on his mind. He was worried that he was missing something with Shelby's case, although there was no indication of any other conditions.
"Of course, the last place that I look..." Eve said throwing up her arms as she bolted through the door. "Why aren't you eating? That's a perfectly good pastrami on rye."
"Eve, did you have a purpose for coming in here? Other than to bother me?" Chris snapped back. He really wasn't in the mood to hear any of her famous sarcastic comments.
Eve sat down next to him and tossed Shelby's chart on the table. "I checked on her while you where out. She seems like a good kid. Anyway, everything looks okay to me. She was alert, she had more energy, she wasn't complaining about any aches or pains, and her blood sugar level was perfect. She did indicate that she would rather test her blood sugar on her arm, though. She's a piano player."
Chris picked up the folder and read Eve's notes. "Thanks, Eve. Your opinion helps. I just can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something."
"Well, I don't think that you are missing anything. But just to be sure, maybe you should run a test for Leptospirosis."
"Leptospirosis? Why would I want to run a test for that?"
"Well while we were talking, she mentioned being hospitalized when she was younger. She said that her cat had a disease that she contracted when she cleaned out the litter box. Now, I don't want to tell you what to do, but I would contact her former pediatrician for her medical records and run the test for Leptospirosis. Just on the off chance that she may be relapsing or contracted it again. Although I don't see any sign of the symptoms."
Chris closed the folder and set it back on the table. "Thanks, Eve. I'll take it from here," he said as he took a bite from his sandwich. "I appreciate your help."
"Anytime," she replied as she got up turned toward the door, "I better get back out on the floor."
After Eve left, Chris read over the chart one more time. As he reached the end of the notes, he made another small note to call her parents to get the rest of her medical records.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Scott rang the doorbell to the lighthouse for a second time. After finally determining that no one was there, he turned to leave. Suddenly, he heard the door thrust open and he quickly turned around to see Lucy standing there.
"Hey pal...what's up? I didn't expect to see you here today..." she greeted.
"Oh, hey Luce. I was just in the neighborhood and I thought that I would stop by. Am I interrupting something?"
"No, not at all. I was on the phone with my advertising director and Kevin is in his office. He's working on some kind of boring article or something. Please come in. Can I get you some coffee? Where's Serena? Is she with you?"
Scott shook his head as he entered the living room, "same ol' Lucy" he thought to him self. "Sure, I'll have a cup of coffee. Serena is at Karen's tonight. They're spending the weekend together. I was on my way home from dropping her off, but then I decided I really didn't feel like going home and being alone tonight."
Lucy handed him his coffee and sat down next to him, "Alright, what is it?"
"What is what?"
"Come on, Scott. I know you better than you know yourself. What's bothering you? Is everything going okay with the wedding?"
"You know, you're just as bad as the girls...You always seem to think that you know what's going through my head."
"Okay, now I know some thing is bothering you. Just spill it, would ya?" Lucy prodded in the hopes of getting him to open up. "Did something happen to Serena?"
"No, no...Serena's fine."
"Ah...so then it's Karen."
"What makes you think it's Karen?" he asked thinking that he could hide his emotions.
"Because you only get that look on your face for two reasons...Serena or Karen," Kevin interjected as he entered the living room.
"Oh great, now, you're going to go through this psycho-babble with me?" Scott started.
"Let's face it, Scott. You didn't come over here just for a cup of coffee. You could've gotten that at Kelly's."
"I don't know why I'm letting it bother me," Scott finally admitted to Lucy and Kevin.
"What are you letting bother you?" Lucy asked confused. She didn't understand what he was trying to get at.
Scott looked at Kevin and then back to Lucy, "Jagger's back in town," he answered simply.
"So why is that bothering you?" Kevin asked trying to determine if there was really a problem or if it was just Scott's normal fatherly over-reaction.
"Why is it bothering me?" Scott repeated in a raised voice, "it's bothering me because she nearly threw her life away for this jerk once. And now that he's back in town, I'll be damned if I'm going to let her fall into his trap again."
"Ah, I see," Kevin said. "Does Karen know that he is back?"
"Yeah..." he answered with a disgusted tone. "She ran into him the other day in my office. I called him into my office the other day to talk to him, but then my secretary had a question. When I stepped out for that minute, Karen came in. Neither one of them will admit what happened, but Karen ran out of my office in tears. It's everything that I could do to keep from ripping his head off."
Lucy looked at Scott with a puzzled look, "What do you mean by, neither one of them will admit what happened?"
"Well, Jagger says that he just tried to talk to her. And Karen won't tell me anything. She just says the she was shocked to see him and she let her emotions take over," he explained.
"Well, Scott, maybe that's all that it was. Maybe you're just so distrusting that you expected something else to happen. And Karen's reaction to the shock of seeing Jagger in your office just made your conclusion more concrete."
"Are you accusing me of not trusting my daughter?" Scott asked defensively.
"No, I'm saying that Jagger is the one that you don't trust. He hurt your daughter once, and now you've decided that, that is all he will ever do to Karen; is hurt her," Kevin explained.
Scott put his head down and listened to what Kevin was saying. "Scott, Karen is more in tune with her past than anybody. She remembers the pain and the anger. She's going to be more on the defensive than anyone. She knows what she had wanted and she knows what she had gotten. She knows what she had to work for and how hard she had to work. She won't just throw it away. She's too much like you."
"Scott, Doc is right. You don't see her hanging out with Sonny Corinthos, do you? And I know that they have run into one another on more than one occasion."
"Don't even got here, Lucy!" Scott grunted.
"Not helping, Lucy," Kevin said to get her to shut up. "Scott, just give Karen the benefit of the doubt, okay?"
"Maybe your right. Maybe I am just reading into this. Well thanks for the coffee. I think I'm going to go home and catch the rest of the bonanza marathon."
Scott left the lighthouse and stopped short on the doorstep. His thoughts of Karen running out of his office came flooding back to him as he remember what Kevin had said. He took a deep breath and sighed, "do you ever stop worrying about your kids?" he asked himself as he ran his fingers through his blonde hair and headed to his truck.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Serena jumped up to answer the door, when she heard the doorbell ring. She quickly looked around the room for Karen before she opened the door. "Hello..." she greeted to a man holding a bouquet of flowers in front of his face.
"For you, beautiful..." the man said holding out the flowers with his eyes closed.
"Thanks, but my dad told me to never accept things from strangers."
Hearing that remark, Jagger quickly opened his eyes and looked down at Serena. "Oh," he said looking at the number on the apartment door to make sure he had the right place.
"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong place. I was looking for Karen. Karen Wexler," he explained still in shock and a little embarrassed.
"No, you have the right place. Karen's my sister. And you are?"
"Your sister?" he questioned. "Oh, you must be Serena..."
"Great you know who I am, but who are you?" she asked again.
"Oh, right, I'm..."
"Serena, who was at the door?" Karen asked entering the living room.
"I don't know he hasn't given me a name yet," she answered.
Upon hearing Karen's voice, Jagger stepped around Serena and entered into the living room. Standing in front of him was Karen in long bathrobe and towel wrapped around her head. "Hey," he said as he held out the flowers.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Karen asked in a snip. Serena just looked at her sister then took a seat on the couch, she still didn't know who this guy was but by reception that he received from Karen, she wasn't about to miss the show.
"I thought that maybe we could go get a cup of coffee and a piece of pie at Kelly's. You know, just sit down and talk. We have a lot to talk about. Don't you think?" he asked.
"What I think is that I have nothing to say to you. You have no business being here. Now if you would please leave..." she said moving to open the door for him.
"Please, Karen," he begged. "We need to work this out."
"There is nothing to work out. And I'm not going to ask you again. Please leave." She demanded.
Jagger hung his head in defeat then looked over to Serena who was intently staring at them. "At least take the flowers." He said holding them out to her. Karen took the flowers out of his hands as he walk out of the door. Closing the door behind him, she walked over to the window and threw flowers out onto the sidewalk where they landed at Jaggers feet. He picked up the flowers and peeked in the window to see Serena talking to Karen. "Wow...that was brutal..." Serena said, "who was that, anyway?"
Karen shot a disgusted glare at her sister and walked back to the bathroom to get dressed. "Just nevermind," she said before closing the bathroom door.
Serena jumped at the sound of the door slamming. Just then she noticed Jagger standing outside of the window and finally turning away. She quickly got up and ran to the door to catch him. Once out on the sidewalk, she called to out him "Hey...hey you...come back here a minute."
Jagger turned around to see Serena waving to him. Reluctantly, he turned and walked back to her. "What?"
"Who are you?" she asked him for a third time.
"You really don't know me?" he asked Serena as she just shook her head. "I'm Jagger," he finally said.
"Jagger? As in my ex-Brother-in-law Jagger?"
"Yeah, that would be me."
"I've heard a lot about you. Most of it from my dad...and not good." She said.
"Gee, thanks for boosting my confidence," he said turning around and beginning to walk away.
"You know she's about to get married, don't you?" she called out to him again getting him to turn around.
"Yeah, so I've heard," he replied beginning to walk away again.
"So, what do you want from her?" Serena asked.
Jagger stopped and turned. He looked at Serena for a minute then walked up to her. "I just want to talk. I don't want us to be enemies."
"Well then, maybe you shouldn't give up so easy. Trust me. I know my sister and if you keep trying she'll give in," Serena said plucking the flowers out of his hand. "I'd better get back inside before she realizes that I came after you."
Serena went back into the apartment as Jagger stood on the doorstep right outside of the window. Just was he went to walk away, he heard Karen and Serena talking.
"Serena, did you just go outside?" Karen asked.
Serena looked at the window and saw Jagger standing there. She smiled to him for a second then turned to her sister. "Yeah, I went to get the flowers. No sense in wasting perfectly good flowers."
"Serena, I don't want those. Get rid of them."
"Oh, Karen, just shut up an put them in a vase. And no, he wasn't out there. He was gone."
Jagger shook his head as he walked down the sidewalk, away from the apartment. Serena set the flowers on the table behind the couch and picked up a magazine although paying more attention to Karen's reflection on the television. She intently watched Karen as she slowly walked over to the flowers and picked them up. Serena then smiled to herself when she heard Karen running water into the vase that her grandmother had given to her.