When Your Past Comes For A Visit
Part 19
By Cari
cxcarleo@naz.edu

Wow, Part 19 has arrived.

This piece starts on Monday evening, the same day in which the last piece ended.

Thanks go to Rachel for allowing me to bounce ideas off her and the great group at ERFFCC for their help with editing. Please e-mail me with any feedback that you may have.

As always, I do not own any of the characters except for Alicia Lewiston and make no money from their use.

Elizabeth got home around 9:45 PM, and was exhausted. She had been at the hospital since 7 AM and had barely had time for any breaks. She walked into the living room, where Mark was so busy looking at the résumés, he hadn't even heard her come in. "Hey honey," she said.

"Hi," he said rising to give her a hug and kiss. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make it home at all tonight."

"I'm sorry. It was just one thing after another, and then a multiple trauma came in just after you left so I worked in the ER to get all those patients cared for. Then three of them had to go up for surgery. This was one hell of a day. How was your day?"

"A little better then yours, I think. I got home around 7 and have been looking over this stuff since then for the most part. There are some really good candidates in the batch of resumes that I received, I will have a hard time choosing only one to present to the Board."

"That is always a hard choice, especially when they are all good and you would like to have any of them."

"It seemed to me when you first looked at the list of candidates that you recognized one of the names. Did you work with one of them before?"

"Not exactly," Elizabeth said.

"But you do know one of them?"

"Yes, I do. Alicia Lewiston, a pediatrician."

"How do you know her? Did you go to medical school with her? I don't think you would have heard her speak if she is a pediatrician."

"No, that's not it. So did you have any plans for the rest of the night or will those keep you busy?"

"I can stop at any time, but I get the feeling there is something that you're not telling me about this person that you know. Are you hiding something from me?" Mark asked, trying his best not to show his frustration because he didn't want Elizabeth to get defensive.

His strategy did not work, however, and Elizabeth snapped, "Do you not trust me?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, I just don't like the idea that you're hiding something from me. I wonder if I should have to worry."

Elizabeth was deeply hurt by that comment, although she didn't want to let Mark see that. "If you feel that you have to worry, then that means you don't trust me," Elizabeth said angrily as she walked toward the front door. "And if you don't trust me, I'd rather not be here right now."

"Elizabeth, wait!" Mark said, but it was too late as she was already out the door. "Damn it," he said, throwing the stack of papers down on the table and sinking back into the couch.

At Doug and Carol's, Doug was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. Susan was working the night shift, and Rosemarie had put the girls to bed and was now in her room. Doug and Carol had sat down to watch a movie, but Carol had fallen asleep, so he put her in bed and had just started cleaning the kitchen when the phone rang. The screen splits as he answers it.

"Hello"

"Hi, it's Elizabeth. Did I wake you?"

"No, not at all. I'm doing some work in the kitchen. Are you ok? You sound upset."

"Mark and I had a fight. I'm in the car now, would it be ok if I came over?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

About 5 minutes later, Doug heard the doorbell and went to let Elizabeth in. He could see immediately that she was crying. They walked to the couch and at first she just rested her elbows on her knees and put her head in her hands.

Doug didn't know exactly what to do, so he went to the kitchen and got her a glass of cold water. When he brought it back, he put an arm around her shoulder and said, "Carol is asleep, but I can wake her if you want me to."

"No, that's not necessary. She needs her sleep. I feel bad for coming here so late I-I just didn't know where else to go."

"I'm glad you came here. You know you can always come here if you need to, the time of day doesn't matter."

"I just got home from one hell of a day at work about a half hour ago, and we got in a fight about 10 minutes after I walked in the door. I just didn't know what to do."

"It's OK. Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Yes, no, I don't know. Mark doesn't trust me, and is worried about something that he says I'm hiding from him. He's right that there is something I didn't tell him, but it isn't anything that he has to worry about. I just know one of the candidates for the ER Chief position and haven't told him where I know her from."

"Well if it was a male I could understand his worry, but since it's a female…"

"I probably should just have told him why I know her, but that's beside the point. I just hate the fact that he doesn't trust me."

Just then, Carol woke up, and she wasn't sure why. She then heard voices coming from the living room and looked at the clock. "10:30," she thought to herself. "Who would be here now." She then listened more closely, realizing the second voice belonged to Elizabeth and she sounded upset.

Carol got out of bed as quickly as possible and walked to the living room. Doug was sitting on the couch next to Elizabeth with an arm around her shoulders. Carol walked over to them and sat on the other side of Elizabeth, "Hey, are you ok?"

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said through the tears. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's ok. I don't think you did.I just woke up on my own. But it wouldn't have mattered if you had. What's wrong?"

"Mark and I had a fight and I didn't want to stay in the house if he didn't trust me, so I came here."

Camera pans out on them talking-we assume Elizabeth is telling Carol the same story she told Doug. When the camera pans back in, we see that Doug is on the phone. Elizabeth's eyes are all red, but she has stopped crying for the moment.

Doug says to Elizabeth, "It's Mark." The screen splits as Elizabeth takes the phone

"Hello," she says, tentatively.

"Hi. Um, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I've calmed down a little."

"Are you coming home?"

"I don't think so, I need to be at the hospital at seven, and I need to get some sleep. I'm afraid that if I come home, we'll spend the night fighting. We do need to talk though. When are you on or off tomorrow?"

We can see the sadness in Mark's eyes. "I'm on until 4."

"OK, I am on until 5. Why don't we meet home after our shifts and plan going out to eat or something so we can talk. Is that ok with you?"

"I guess."

"Do you not want to do that?"

"No, I do. I just...It's just that I wish you were coming home. We need to talk."

"I know we do. But I think we're still too upset to get much resolved tonight. I've already had the day from hell and need some sleep before another one tomorrow. Please try to understand?"

"I guess," Mark said. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Elizabeth could hear the pain in his voice, "Please don't be mad. I think this is for the best. I'll see you tomorrow at work. I love you." She realized, as she got to the end of her sentence, that she was talking to the dial tone. Mark had hung up. This was all it took to have her start crying again.

Carol put her arms around her and pulled her head to her shoulder. "I think giving each other some cooling off time was a very good idea. You can get together tomorrow and talk it out when you are both a little calmer."

"I hope so. I really think I screwed up this time though. He hung up without saying goodbye or anything."

Neither Doug nor Carol knew how to respond, so they stayed how they were; trying to comfort her with their actions.

A few minutes later Elizabeth wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and said, "I guess I should get going."

Doug said, "I thought you had decided not to go home."

"I'm not. I was going to sleep at the hospital since I have to be there so early."

"No way," Carol said. "Those beds aren't good for any decent sleep. Stay here."

"I couldn't impose."

"You're not. We invited you."

As if to back up Carol's point, Doug went to the closet and came back with sheets, pillows, and a blanket for the couch. Carol said, "Let me go find you something to sleep in." Before Elizabeth could protest, she was off to her bedroom. Elizabeth stood up and helped Doug to put the sheets on the couch.

"Thank you very much. I really appreciate this."

"You're welcome. I know Mark can be stubborn at times, but I think this will work out."

"I hope so."

After Elizabeth changed into a pair of Carol's pajamas, she came back to the living room and asked Carol, "What are you doing Wednesday?"

"I'm trying to schedule a doctor's appointment, but Doug's working a double shift, so I don't know. Why?"

"I wanted to know if you wanted to go out to lunch and the mall. I need a new dress for a conference I have to attend. I'm off all day. Doug, why don't I cover the part of your shift that you need to go to the doctor's appointment and then when you're done we can go out. That is, Carol, if you're up to it."

"I like that idea. Doug, is that ok with you?"

"Sure, it allows me to go to the doctor's with you and not go out of my mind trying to find someone to cover."

Elizabeth lay down on the couch, and Carol sat on the edge. "Are you going to be ok"

Elizabeth said, "I think so. Thank you both for helping me out tonight. I won't see you in the morning because I'm on at 7. If I don't catch up with you during the day, Ill see you Wednesday morning at the hospital?"

"Yes. My appointment was tentatively scheduled for 10 AM. Is that too early? I can try to change it."

"No, that's fine. I'll see you then if not before."

"OK, if you decide you need to talk anymore, just come wake me up."

"OK, thanks."

Tuesday was another crazy day for Elizabeth, with four scheduled surgeries and various other things going on. She saw Mark from time to time, but not long enough to get to talk. When she went to her locker to change before leaving, she saw a card flutter to the ground. It had a cat and a dog lying together in the sun on the front and on the inside, Mark had written:

Elizabeth:

I'm sorry for acting the way I did. I was being selfish, and that wasn't right.
Please meet me at home after your shift so we can talk. I'm sorry, and I love you.

Love,
Mark

The card brought tears to her eyes, but these were happy tears. She got home, and was surprised to see the dining room table set beautifully with candles. She smiled, and went into the kitchen looking for Mark. She caught him, emptying delivery tins onto plates. She came up behind him and put her arm around his waist. Putting her chin over his shoulder she kissed the side of his face and said, "Thank you."

He smiled, returned the kiss, and said, "I didn't have time to cook."

"That's ok. I like the decorations. Do you mind if I shower quickly or will the food get cold?"

"That's fine. I need another ten minutes or so to get ready anyway."

About twenty minutes later, they sat down to eat. Mark was the first to speak and he said, "I'm really sorry about the way I acted. I should never have said what I did. I do trust you, you need to know that."

"I'm sorry too. I had a horrible day and definitely overreacted. I should have just told you why I knew the person. I wasn't fair to you." Elizabeth was silent for a few moments, trying to decide how to tell Mark the rest of the story.

As if sensing her apprehension Mark said, "You don't have to tell me if you really don't want to."

"It's not that, it's just hard to talk about which is why I usually don't. I never worked with Alicia Lewiston so I don't know much about her capabilities as a doctor. I knew her more on a personal level and mainly before she even enrolled in medical school."

"Ahh, is she an old school friend?"

"No, she's my older sister."