Lovers Reuinited
Part One
By Lisa Brown,
ERDrLewis@aol.com
"Hey, Mark. Is it true that you have to go to some conference in Florida this week? Lucky, getting to go to warm, sunny Florida while I’m stuck in Chicago." Carol asked.
"You make it sound like I want to go! I wish I had another option. I wasn’t going to go, but Anspaugh wants me to give some talk about that study I did. It’s only from Thursday to Monday, though."
"Aww man."
"What?"
"It’s just that Doug comes in on Friday and was hoping that he could spend some time with you."
"He’s coming in? So, you finally told him?"
"Yeah. We decided that it would be better for him to come and talk. He’ll be here until next Tuesday." Carol sighed.
"You miss him don’t you?" Carol just nodded her head. "When does his plane get in?"
"Nine PM Friday. I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait two days, though."
"Maybe I’ll be able to see him when I get back."
"That’ll be good. He misses you, you know?"
"Yeah, well, it seems that all of my good friends leave the state!" They laughed.
"Hey, I’m still here!"
"Sorry, I forgot."
"Where are you going anyway?"
"St. Petersburg."
"Oh, now you get to go to the beach too! Aren’t you staying at a nice hotel too?"
"The Don Cesar. I’m glad I’m not paying."
"Dr. Greene? Anspaugh wants you up in his office to discuss your trip," Jerry said.
"Okay, tell him I’ll be right up. Carol, we can talk later, okay?"
"Sure."
Carter sat on the couch, flipping the channels on the TV. Suddenly, the telephone rang. He picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Carter? It’s Kerry. I’ll be home late, okay? So can you take the dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away?"
"No problem. Talk to you later."
Carter hung up the phone and walked over to the dishwasher. As he was drying the dishes, the phone rang again. Who could it be this time?
"Hello?"
"Carter? Is that you?"
Carter thought for a minute and then said, "Anna?"
She laughed. "Hi. I wasn’t sure I had the right number."
"How’d you get it?"
"I called Carol at the hospital and she looked it up for me. I bet you’re wondering why I called, right?"
"Yeah . . ."
Susan Lewis walked to one of the monitors hanging from the ceiling. Flight 1147, 1147 . . . there it was, gate C-32. She was in the A terminal, so now she had to figure out how to get to the C one. She asked a flight attendant, who told her to take some subway. She followed the signs and took the subway to terminal C. As she took the escalator up, she saw a tall, balding man who looked very familiar. <Oh my god,> she though. <Is that Mark Greene ahead of me?> Susan shook her head, telling herself that she was hallucinating. Mark is in Chicago. When she got off the escalator, she went into a gift shop to buy a magazine to read on the short flight. She paid and walked to gate C-32. When she got there, she heard a voice say, "And last call for Flight number 1147, service from Atlanta to St. Petersburg, now boarding all seats."
Susan ran to man taking the tickets and handed him hers. "Have a nice flight," he said.
As she walked to the plane, she looked to see what her seat was. 6-A. Good, a window seat. She was still a little uneasy about flying. She couldn’t believe that she made it to Atlanta. Luckily, it was a short flight. She boarded the plane, smiling at the stewards as she walked by. She walked to row 6 and saw a man bent over in his seat, putting his carry-on bag under the seat in front of him. "Excuse me," she said. He sat up and they saw each other. "Mark?"
"Susan? Wow, you’re going to the conference too?"
"Yep. Can you believe I’m flying?" she said as he made room for her to get into her seat.
"No! How are you?"
"Good! How are you?"
"Wonderful. It’s been a long time!"
"Almost three years. I’ve missed you. How is everyone?"
"I missed you too. Everyone’s great. Carol and Doug are engaged."
"Oh my gosh, really? I can’t believe it."
"Yeah. He moved away though."
"Why?" Susan asked, shocked.
"It’s a really long story involving some kid with ALD that he treated. It was questionable if he helped the kid die and so he decided it would be best to just leave gracefully. Moved to Portland a few months ago. He wanted Carol to come with him. She didn’t though. He’s coming back tomorrow to see Carol."
"Does he come to see her a lot?"
"Not really. They haven’t seen each other since he left. He only came back because . . . never mind."
"Why? I won’t tell!"
"Carol’s pregnant."
"Oh my god, really? How wonderful! She always wanted kids. How far along?"
"Two and a half or three months. She just told Doug."
"Wow. How’s everyone else? Kerry still there?"
"Yep. She’s better now though."
"Really?"
"Yep. Let’s see whom else. Carter’s still in the ER and fine. Peter’s up in surgery still. He’s got a son now though, Reese. All of the nurses are still there. I think that just about covers everyone. So, how about you? Everything good in Phoenix?"
"Yeah. I’m staying with Chloe, Joe, and Susie. I have a great attending job at a Phoenix General. Not as fun as County, but it’ll do. Susie’s great. So adorable. She’s almost four now, and getting into everything. She wanted to come, but I told her it would be a bunch of boring doctors talking."
"So, am I boring?"
"You’re one of the speakers? I never read the thing they sent us. Are you staying at the hotel where the conference is?"
"Yep."
"Me too. Do you have that schedule they sent us? I think I threw mine out," Susan said sheepishly.
Mark reached down and got it out of his bag. "Here you go."
Susan looked it over. "Arrgh. I didn’t think that there would be anything tonight. We have to go to some party, which I am not looking forward to. It sounds like it’s supposed to be fancy. Good thing I brought a nice dress!"
"I hate those things. At least I’ll know someone there!"
"Yeah, me too. At least there’s only one other dinner thing, and that’s on Sunday night. It looks like some casual thing though. And then three days of boring lectures. Well, there might be one interesting one," Susan said, smiling.
"Which one would that be?" Mark asked, also smiling.
Suddenly, the pilot announced that they were landing. "See? Not that bad," Mark said
"I should always fly with you."
Carol was looking in the supply closet for some medicine. <Tylenol, where are you?> she asked herself. She had the biggest headache. She finally found some behind some bags of saline. She sure couldn’t wait until tomorrow night when Doug came. Twenty-eight hours and . . . check of the watch . . . fifteen minutes. She sure did need a break. She walked out to the admit desk. She saw some nurses whispering with Jerry, who suddenly stopped when she walked up. She just ignored them. "Jerry, I’m going to take a break. If anyone needs me, I’ll be right back."
"Sure thing. And Carol? There’s someone in chairs to see you," Jerry said smiling.
Carol gave Jerry and odd look and walked over to the near-empty waiting area. There was only one person in it. She saw the man standing, looking out the window. <It couldn’t be, could it?> "Doug?" she whispered.
He turned around and looked at her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she ran over and threw her arms around him. She didn’t care if the whole ER was watching, she knew that they were. She was just happy to see him.
Mark and Susan were waiting at baggage claim for their bags. They had decided to share a cab to the hotel. They were just talking, catching up on old times.
"So . . . you have a girlfriend?" Susan asked. She wanted to know. Maybe it would help those odd dreams she’d been having about him. And her . . .
"No. There was this one lady who we hired for the chief position, but she turned out to be a psychopath."
"That bad, huh?"
"No, literally a psycho. She had worked her way through many hospitals under a bunch of fake names. She locked me in a MRI room with a patient, told me she loved me and I didn’t understand, and ran off. Then there was this surgeon, but that went nowhere. How about you?"
"Nope. There was one guy . . . but I don’t really want to talk about it. Here’s mine," she said, grabbing a bag. <Should I tell him? No, I’ll wait until later.>
"Okay, all set?" Mark asked.
"Yep."
"Anna, it’s been really great talking to you again," Carter said.
"You too. I guess I should probably tell you why I called. I’m moving back."
"Really?"
"Yeah. About two weeks ago, Don Anspaugh called me, told me about an opening in the ER for a peades doctor due to the whole Doug Ross thing, and asked if I was available. I said sure and I start back in four days."
"Wow, I can’t believe it. I’ve missed you."
"I’ve missed you too." (short pause) "Anyway, I’m flying in on Friday so I can find a place and so forth."
"Do you want me to pick you up?"
"Really? That would be great. Let me just get the flight info."
"So. How are you doing?" Doug asked with a look of concern. They were sitting at a booth in Doc Magoo’s.
"Fine. I have an OB appointment tomorrow. I’m really glad that you came early," Carol said.
"Anything for you. Where was Mark? Not on?"
"He had to go down to Florida for a conference. He’ll be back Monday though."
"Good. I was hoping to see him before I left. I can’t believe that Kerry let you leave early."
"It was only half an hour and it was dead in there anyway."
"You shouldn’t say ‘dead’ in reference to the ER," Doug said, laughing.
Carol smiled. "Kerry’s not that bad."
"What, now that I’m gone, she’s nice?"
"She’s always nice, just in her own way."
Doug just smiled. He leaned across the table and kissed Carol. "I’ve really missed you."
"Same here. You know what I want to do?"
"Hmm?"
"Go home and take a nice, warm bath."
"Can I join you?"
Carol smiled. "Be my guest."
They had both checked in. Mark was on the third floor, Susan on the tenth. Mark had told Susan that he would pick her up at seven so they could go down to the party together. Susan was franticly trying to get ready. She was zipping up her dress, when she realized she hadn’t called Chloe. She put the phone on speakerphone so she could get ready and talk at the same time.
"Hello?"
"Hi Chloe!"
"Sus! Did you get in okay?"
"Yep. You’ll never guess who I saw."
"Mark Greene?"
"How’d you guess?" Susan asked, astonished.
"I read your little brochure thing and saw his name under the speakers. What do you have to do tonight?"
"Ugh, I have to go to some fancy dinner party."
"Are you wearing your blue dress?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, take care and call me before you leave. Susie wants to talk to you."
"Hi Aunt Susan!"
"Hi Susie! How are you?"
"Good! Guess what we did in school today?"
All of the sudden, there was a knock at the door. "Tell me in one minute Susie! Hold on."
She got the door. It was Mark. "Hi! I’m almost ready, let me just say good-bye to Susie." She closed the door behind him. "Okay, Susie, what did you do in school?"
"We had to tell what we wanted to be when we grew up!"
"Wow, Susie. What did you pick?"
"An actress."
"They make a lot of money, Susie. What would you do with it all?"
"I’d buy a refrigerator full of cherry popsicles."
Mark and Susan laughed. "Okay, Susie. I have to go, but I’ll call you later, okay? Be good."
"I will! Bye-bye Big Susie."
"Bye, Little Susie." Susan hung up the phone. "Ready?"
They walked out of Susan’s room and to the elevator. While they were walking through the lobby to the room where the party was, Mark noticed how beautiful Susan looked. She had half of her hair pulled back with a barrette. She was wearing a long, navy blue dress that showed off her gorgeous figure. It was tight at the top and had spaghetti straps. Mark couldn’t remember a time when she looked more beautiful.
"Mark?" He shook his head, as if to rid his head from his thoughts. "We’re here."
Carol lay on the couch with her feet on Doug’s lap. She sighed with delight. "Doug, when you’re done rubbing my feet, you can start on my back," she joked.
"Gladly. Anything for you," he replied, kissing the bottom of her right foot.
"Sorry to put you through this. It’s just that I’ve been on twelve hours and my feet are killing me! I’m glad that you came in early."
"Me too. I realized how much I missed you. So, who else knows?"
"Mark, Elizabeth Corday, and my OB."
"You didn’t tell your mom?"
She looked at him like he was crazy. "Doug, she doesn’t even know you left yet."
"Hmm," he mused. "What did Mark say?"
"He was happy for us. Yelled at me for not telling you yet."
"Is that why you told me?" he asked, still rubbing her feet.
"Is *why* why I told you?"
"Because Mark wanted you to," he said. He immediately realized it was the wrong thing to say. "Wait, Carol, I don’t mean it like that."
But he could already see that she was getting angry. "You think that that’s the only reason why I told you? Because *Mark* wanted me to? Doug, I can make decisions on my own! I just wanted to wait a while, make sure everything was all right, didn’t want to trouble you."
Well, two could play this game. "Didn’t want to trouble me? Is that what you think you’re doing, troubling me? What happened if something went wrong? Hmm? Would you have told me? Or just act like it didn’t happen?"
Carol was silent for a moment. "I, I don’t know Doug. I would have. I would have told you. I, I mean, I didn’t mean," she stuttered. Doug could see that she was tearing up. He gently placed her feet on a pillow and went to comfort her. He held her in his arms until her tears subsided.
"I’m sorry," he whispered in her ear.
"Me too," she responded.
The two sat there in silence until Doug said, "Carol?" No answer. She was fast asleep. Before long, he was too.
"I’m leaving in one hour, tops. These things are so boring," Susan said as they walked in the room. "Well, looks nice." There were tables set up, some seating six, some four, some only two, a dance floor in the middle with quite a few people dancing, a buffet on one side, and a bar on the other. "Want to get something to drink?"
"Sure. Let’s go," Mark said.
They walked over to the bar and ordered their drinks. They looked around to see if they saw anyone, but didn’t. They sat down at a table and sipped their drinks. "Oh, god," Susan said suddenly.
"What?" Mark asked. He turned around and saw a man waving at Susan. "Who’s he?"
"Scott Hudson, the biggest jerk of the ER. He worked in Phoenix until two months ago. He finally got transferred to Maine or something. He asked me out about five times, never quite getting the word ‘no’. Mad at me because of it. We ended up competing with each other all the time. Don’t leave, and in about five minutes, make up an excuse to get us out of here!" Susan whispered to Mark as Scott readliy approached.
"Hi Susan, what a delight to see you here," the man said with a smile.
Susan smiled a fake smile, and said, "Hi, Scott. Scott Hudson, this is Mark Greene, one of my old friends from Chicago."
They shook hands. "Well, the Mark Greene. Heard so much about you." Mark just smiled, but Susan looked confused. She never really mentioned Mark, and expecially not to him. Seeing her confused look, Scott said, "Susan, you’d be surprised what you say when you’re asleep in the ER. Nice meeting you, Dr. Greene. See you around, Susan." He left with a smug grin on his face.
Mark gave Susan a questioning look. Susan tried to ingore the fact that her face was bright red. She wasn’t quite sure what she would have said in her sleep, but due to the nature of those dreams she had been having the past three years, she could figure out it was something she wouldn’t want Scott hearing. "Just ignore him. Scott is and always will be an egotistical, conceited jerk. He’s just trying to cause touble."
They stood around, finishing their drinks, getting another one. They stood around for a while, chatting and such, when they saw Scott coming back towards them. Mark heard Susan groan. He grabbed their drinks, set them on the table, and said, "Come on." She followed.
He led her out to the dance floor. "Better?"
She smiled. "Much. He really does know how to annoy people." They had been dancing for a while when a middle-aged man got up to address them. He said a bunch of thank-you’s and went over the schedual. He finally sat down, and everyone clapped.
Mark said to Susan, "Want to get out of here now?"
"Definitely!"
They ran out of the party. "Where to now?" Susan asked.
"You hungry?"
"A little."
"Hungry for ice cream? There’s a little ice cream shop downstairs."
"Let’s go."
Carter laughed. He had been talking with Anna for almost four hours, catching up on what had happened in the past year they’d been apart. "Anna, it’s been really great talking to you. I can’t wait until I see you tomorrow."
"Me either."
All of the sudden, Kerry walked in, surprised to see Carter still up an don the phone. She waves and hangs her coat up.
"Okay, well I have to go. Talk to you tomorrow, all right?"
"Kerry come home?"
"Yep."
Anna laughed. "Okay, see you at nine. Bye Carter."
"Bye." Carter hung up the phone.
"So, who was that?" Kerry asked with a smile.
"No one," Carter said, blushing.
"No one, eh? You’re getting a pretty red face over no one," Kerry replied, still smiling. "Are you sure it’s not a woman named, well, I don’t know, maybe-"
"Yes, it was Anna, all right? How long have you known she was coming back?" he inquired.
"Oh, a week or so . . ."
"Thanks for telling me!"
"Sorry, it somewhat slipped my mind . . ."
"You’re not funny, Kerry."
"Alas, but I can try. You picking her up?"
"Tomorrow at nine."
"Would it be a problem if you’re on at eight tomorrow?"
"What? I’m not on tomorrow! It’s the next day I’m on at eight. Did the schedule change? I’m in *so* much trouble . . ." Carter stopped when he saw Kerry smiling.
"Ya know, you’re really gullible Carter."
"Oh, you’re in for it now!"
"What are you going to do?" Kerry asked skeptically.
"Well . . . I don’t know, but when I think of something, you better watch out."
"Sure, Carter . . ."
Susan laughed. She couldn’t remember when she had had this much fun. She was walking on the beach with Mark and their ice cream cones. They had both had some to drink, not quite drunk, but definitely a little tipsy. She thought Mark looked so funny. He had the legs of his pants rolled up to just below his knees. In one hand was his ice cream, the other his shoes. His shirt sleeves were rolled up too. She wasn’t quite sure of where his jacket was. She finally saw it over by her shoes, lying in the sand. She lauged again.
Markk looked at her. "What’s so funny?" he said, pretending to look hurt.
"Nothing. What kind of ice cream did you get?"
"Coffee."
"Oh, you trying to sober up with the ice cream?" she asked, laughing again.
"Something like that. What kind did you get?"
"Plain, old vanilla."
"I see you’re very original. You’re going to get your dress wet," Mark said, pointing to her feet.
"Oh well. It’s just water. The dress needed to be dry cleaned anyway." She smiled as they finished their ice cream.
When he was done, Mark walked over and stood next to Susan. "It’s beautiful," he said as they looked out on the ocean.
"Yeah. You were the smart one who wore pants," she said, smiling as the water splashed up on her bare feet.
"Yeah?" Mark asked. "Come here," he said picking Susan up.
"Mark!" Susan exclaimed laughing. "Guess that ice cream didn’t sober you up?"
"Not really. Enough to know what I’m doing though," he said. Their faces were just inches from each other and Mark leaned his closer to kiss her. She smiled and leaned forward too, to kiss him passionately, just like in her dreams.
As their lips met, Susan could feel her stomach getting queasy. She assumed that it was just nervousness over kissing Mark, and pushed it to the back of her mind. She wanted to focus on that kiss. When it didn’t go away, she pulled away and said, "Um, Mark? I think I’m going to be sick . . ."
He put her down on the cool sand. She lay down and closed her eyes. Mark sat down beside her and rubbed her shoulders, saying "It’s all right. You’ll be okay," over and over again.
Thoughts raced through her mind. Why did this have to happen now? What was wrong with her? She suddenly felt sick again, but she knew the reason this time. Her worst nightmare was happening. She needed to talk to someone. Really bad. "Mark?"
"Yeah? You okay?"
"Yeah, I think so. Umm . . . can we go somewhere and talk?"
"Sure," Mark said. "Want to go back to your room?"
"That would be great."
Doug awoke, thinking for a moment of where he was. Then he realized that he was on their couch with Carol in his arms. He smiled. He looked over at the clock and realized that it was almost eleven o’clock. He picked Carol’s head off of his lap carefully and placed it on the pillow. He then picked her up, trying not to wake her, and took her up to her room. He tucked her in and sat there. He loved watching her sleep. He remembered Carol telling him that whenever you wanted to sit and watch someone sleep, it showed you love them. She said an old boyfriend had said it to her. Whoever did, it was true. He loved Carol with all his heart and certainly didn’t want to loose her.
Mark had dropped Susan off at her room and said he would be right back. She suspected he went down to his room to change into something more comfortable. She decided to do the same thing. She had just pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of drawstring pants when she heard a knock at the door. Mark. She went to open it, and sure enough, he was standing at the door. "Hey," she said.
"Hey. So, what did you want to talk about?" Mark asked as they sat down on the couch.
"Oh, god, where do I start?" she asked out loud. She paused a moment before going on. "Well, I guess at the beginning, eh? When I got to Phoenix, I worked with this doctor. A lot like you, actually. Except he had more hair."
"Hey!"
"I’m just saying. His name was Christopher Crawford. When I got to Phoenix, he was depressed because his longtime girlfriend had just broken up with him. Well, about a month after I got there, he asked me out and I didn’t want to say no, since he had been through a lot, I thought, you know, I’ll go out with him once, whatever. Well, we kept on dating for a while, and you know. Anyway, three months ago he asked me to marry him."
"You’re engaged?"
"Let me finish! You shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that," Susan replied, seeing his distraught facial expression. Maybe she shouldn’t have brought this up. "Anyway, about two months ago, he was driving home and this guy was drunk and rammed into the back of his car. Died instantly."
"Which one?"
"Both of ‘em."
"Oh my god, Susan. I’m . . . I’m sorry. I thought I had had a rough time after you left, but . . . I’m sorry."
"It’s all right. He wasn’t the right guy for me. I can think of other people who are better for me," she said, looking at Mark. Then she shook her head, as if to put her mind back on the right track. "Anyway, to make a long story short, I think I’m pregnant."
"Wow. You sure?"
"Yeah. I skipped my last period, but I thought that was just stress, but now I’m not so sure."
"Have you told anyone else?"
"No. Just you. You *are* still the best friend I can think of," she said, smiling.
"I’ll take that as a complement," Mark said, smiling.
"Thanks for, um, listening to all of my bull shit. I just kinda needed someone to do that tonight."
"No problem. If I ever need someone to listen to mine, I’ll call you." They both laughed. "Tomorrow after the meetings we can go buy you one of those home pregnancy things if you want. I saw a grocery store down the street."
"Thanks, Mark. You know, you still are my best friend."
"You’re still mine."
"Why haven’t we kept in touch all of these years?"
"I think I made our good-bye awkward."
"Not really. You were just telling the truth." She scooted across the couch, closer to Mark. She wasn’t quite sure if it was the alcohol, the hormones, or something else that was making her brave enough to ask this, but she was going to do it. "Mark? About what you said that day . . ."
"Yeah? We don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to. Sorry for brining it up."
"Just one question? Well, I was wondering . . . tell me the truth . . . do you still feel that way?"
"Susan, why?"
<Come on, Susan, tell him> "Because ever since I left you, I’ve felt empty. I left a part of me in Chicago, Mark, and that was you. I would cry myself to sleep every night I missed you so much. Then I met Christopher, who helped a little, but he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t *you* Mark. I would pick up the phone to call you, but I would put it down again, too chicken to call, thinking you would be so mad at me for leaving you standing there. I would have dreams about seeing you again Mark, and then I would wake up and be so sad, so dissapointed, that it was just a dream." She paused for a second, and realized that she was crying. He leaned over and wiped her eyes. "I love you, Mark."
"I love you too, Susan. Ever since the first moment I saw you, I loved you, and I still love you."
They kissed and when they broke away, Susan said, "Good. Because I have something else to tell you."
"What?"
"I might be coming back to County. I missed you so much, I called Anspaugh to see if there were any openings. He told me that there was, and I have to tell him when I get back if I want the job or not."
"Of course you want it!" Mark exclaimed.
"I know." Susan lay her head on Mark’s chest. They sat there for a while in silence and eventually the two of them drifted off to sleep.
