"Hey Carol!" Chuny said, bursting into the room. "I thought I saw you come in. What's going on?"

Chuny made her way over to Kerry and looked at the chart, "Aiy, do you want me to get her on fluids?"

Getting fed up with not having an answer from Kerry and worried by Chuny's reaction to Kate's chart Carol demanded an answer, "Kerry! I realize we've never been close, and that I've been away from Chicago for 6 years, but I am a medical professional and any other parent who asks what their child's temperature is would get a straight answer. Now what is it?"

"Her temp's 104 Carol, but I don't want you to worry, she'll be fine." Kerry said dismissively.

"Carol, do you want to hold her while I do this?" Chuny asked, not expecting such a big blowup out of her friend who was normally a consummate professional. Carol nodded and took Kate into her lap, holding her tightly so that it would be harder for her to wiggle out and make Chuny miss the vein that she already knew would be tough to find. Her cries could be heard all the way down the hall as she was stuck, and Carol didn't let go of her for a second, knowing it was important but also knowing how painful it could be. Twenty minutes later she was resting comfortably and Carol left her in the care of the nurses she'd once known so well. Sitting in the lounge as she entered was Mark, obviously worn out after the hectic day he'd had which started nearly 12 hours earlier.

"Hey Carol, I heard about Kate." He said; looking up as Carol moved towards the old coffee machine. "You know, that stuff will kill you if you're not used to it."

"I'll risk it." she smiled, pouring herself a cup and collapsing into a chair. "So what's on for tonight? Anything exciting?"

"Well, we were thinking about a night out, leaving Rachel to baby-sit the girls, but I'm not sure that's a good idea." He said.

"I think another night in would be best," Carol admitted slowly. "I think Doug was going to talk to Rachel about Tess sleeping over again."

"That should be okay, we could grab some Chinese or something." Mark suggested, and then added, "Does Tess like Chinese food?"

"What? Of course she does. She will eat basically anything you put in front of her as long as Doug or I eat it." Carol chuckled, "She's definitely an experimenter when it comes to food; if she's never heard of it she'll eat it if the main ingredients are something she's heard of. Kate is a little pickier, but she's still pretty open to new foods."

"Anything in particular she likes more?" Mark asked, trying to get some idea of what to order for dinner.

"Well, she's partial to all things noodle right now, so chow fun would be advisable; lemon chicken, she's on a mu shu chicken kick lately…" Carol trailed off, giving Mark time to process.

"So everything, huh?" he joked. Elizabeth walked in, pushing the door open and sitting next to Mark. He immediately put his arm around her as they continued talking. "Carol, maybe you should check in with Doug, let him know how she's doing."

"You want me gone, huh?" she laughed, getting up and dumping the rest of her coffee. Mark had been right, that stuff would kill you. She walked over to the desk and commandeered the phone once again much to the dismay of the temp. Dialing Doug's cell, she waited for him to pick up, trying to figure out what she wanted to do that night.

"Hello." Doug answered, he sounded out of breath.

"Hey Doug, what's going on over there?" she asked, hearing loud and excited voices in the background.

"Little game of DDR, I'm telling you Carol giving that child more sugar was not the best idea." He chuckled. "So what's going on with Kate?"

"She's okay, Chuny's monitoring the IV, she's got a pretty high fever but it was going down a while ago. I think we'll be home tonight, but I'm not sure when. I don't want to leave until she's had something to drink on her own." Carol said, thinking about Kate.

"Well if for any reason she can't come home tonight, I'm going to go over there and you're coming home." Doug said assertively, "Tess hasn't seen you all day, and I could really use a break from Twin A."

"Don't worry Doug, I could use a break from Twin B. Oh, listen, Mark and Elizabeth were about to head back… Chinese food. That okay with you?" she hoped he'd say yes.

"Sure, anything's fine with me as long as it comes to me and I don't have to go to it." he laughed. "Call me if you need anything."

"All right, I will." Carol smiled again, shyly. She hung up the phone and smiled to herself again, did she have the best husband or what?