The Way It Is
Chapther Four
By Triggersaurus
triggersaurus@hotmail.com

Hey all, here’s the fourth instalment. I’m working like a demon on these at the moment; hopefully I’ll get another couple done this week, in between studying! Enjoy! Triggersaurus

Previously: A rumour that Carter and Kerry were together was found to be untrue, but only two people know it, and Doug gets a bed for Ben in Peds after finding he has malformation of both knees.

We see Carol’s house, where both her and Doug live now. It is night and it’s still snowing and they are inside watching TV with cups of hot chocolate. Carol is lying across the sofa, her head in Doug’s lap as he sits at one end. Doug is stroking Carol’s hair as they watch. The program ends, and they get up to go to bed.

"You’re on at 6, right?" Carol asked Doug, as she moves into the kitchen with the mugs.

"Yeah, but I was thinking about going in earlier, go and see how Ben’s doing."

"What’s going to happen with him?"

"I don’t know. The ortho consult saw him today and said he’d need to examine him more before they decide to do anything, take some more tests, try out some physio."

"Wow, that’s gonna take some time. Did DCFS sign him?"

"Yep. They’re sending someone in to come and see him tomorrow."

"When?"

"They said around four…I’ll stick around for that, then we can go to dinner."

"Where’re we going?"

"Ahh, wouldn’t you like to know…."

"Come on Doug, tell me! I won’t tell…"

Doug chuckles and grabs her from behind, wrapping his arms around her middle. He leans in and whispers in her ear, "You’ll find out tomorrow night…now, are we going to bed or what?"

It is morning now, and we see the ambulance bay with snowdrifts on all sides. It is still dark. Carol comes around the corner, hands buried deep in her pockets and her face barely visible under a woolly hat and her coat collar. She comes through the doors and stamps her feet to get rid of any snow. The ER is busy again, unaware of the time of day. She heads straight for the lounge before anyone can find her a task to do.

"Morning" she says to the heap in a chair that is Carter. Carter jolts awake and rubs his eyes.

"What’s the time?" he asks groggily.

"Nearly 6. Go home and sleep."

"No, I can’t. I’m on till 8. I agreed to swap two hours with Mark so he could see his daughter off."

"Rachel? I didn’t know she was here."

"Yeah, apparently it’s the last visit for a while, his ex-wife’s moving or something…"

"Of course, Jenn’s moving to St. Louis."

"Wow. That’s a long way."

"Yeah, Mark’s gonna miss Rach like crazy."

Carter gets up and stretches. "Ugh. Better get back out there, before Kerry finds me here."

He leaves and Carol looks alarmed. "Oh god. I have to tell everyone somehow…"

She leaves the room and looks around, then checks her watch. It is still a couple of minutes before 6. Carol goes to the main desk and leans over.

"Jerry! Hey, Jerry! If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be up in Peds, okay? I should be back for 6."

"Okay!"

In Peds, Doug and Ben can be seen nowhere. Carol wanders down the ward looking for them, but ends up heading for the nurses’ station. She sticks her head round the door, and sees three nurses in brightly coloured aprons drinking coffee.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt guys, I’m looking for Doug Ross?"

"Yeah, he’s in the playroom with that kid who came up yesterday…actually he said to come and remind him when it’s 6…"

"Don’t worry, I’ll do it! Thanks."

Carol shuts the door and heads off down the ward towards a large door, covered in pictures and paintings done by children who have stayed on the ward. In the nurses’ station, the nurses continue to talk

"Is she his girlfriend?"

"Yep. According to Lydia, they’re really close, almost got married a while ago, but she needed more time apparently…"

"MORE TIME? To marry him? Sorry girl, but I’d be in there straight away!"

Everyone laughs. "Now they’re meant to be trying for a baby…"

"Whoa! Damn, he really is off the market, isn’t he?"

More laughter. "I’m not surprised though. Have you seen him with the kids? He’s a natural!"

"I swear, he’s perfect!"

Carol peers through the glass windows of the playroom door. Doug is sitting on the floor with Ben playing with a car garage. We can see them talking, and Doug laughing. Carol smiles as well, and goes in quietly. Doug looks up. "Hey."

"Hey. Hey Ben…"

She crouches down on the floor next to the boy, who turns to look at her, and smiles in recognition. "Hi. We’re playing with the cars!"

"Yeah, I can see that! Are you having fun?"

"Yeh. Look, I’m in that red car, and Doug’s in that blue car. What car do you wanna be?"

"I’d love to be in a car Ben, but I really have to go, and I have to take Doug with me."

"Why?"

Doug answers, "I have to go back downstairs and work, Ben."

Ben looks down, disappointed.

"But, hey, I tell you what. How about I come back here later? Would that be okay?"

"Yeh. Then we play some more."

"Yeah. Okay buddy, gotta go"

Doug gets up and brushes himself down. Carol picks Ben up and says "Let’s take you to the nurses okay? You can play with them for a while."

They make their way out of the room.

Down in the ER a couple of hours later, Carol and the nursing staff are having a meeting in the lounge. The department has quietened down a bit to its normal flow of patients. Mark is signing off on charts at the main desk, Kerry is treating a woman with suspected lung cancer; Doug is with a pregnant 15 year old. In the lounge, the nurses sit around talking amongst themselves.

"If this is about another pay cut, I am just gonna walk straight outta here and get me a job at Wal Mart, coz they’d probably pay better."

"I’m not switching shifts either this week, my sister’s getting married and we have a lot of preparations to make."

Carol comes in and shouts over the noise. "OKAY OKAY! This is nothing to do with anyone’s pay, or shifts, or anything like that."

"Well, what is it about then?!" hollers Malik from the back of the room.

Carol glances around her, then comes in closer and whispers, "It’s about the Carter and Kerry thing" There are whoops and catcalls from around the room.

"No, listen guys, I was wrong. There is nothing going, no dates, no relationships, nothing. Carter is not seeing Kerry!"

The staff look around, bemused and as if this is still all a joke.

"They are not together. And now we have to do something about the huge rumour that is running around County, before Kerry finds out!"

Everyone looks at each other.

Doug is just leaving an exam room when his pager goes off. He checks the number and goes to the nearest phone at the main desk, next to Mark.

"Hey." Mark says as he signs the last few charts.

"Hey."

"Who’s paging you?"

"Peds, I hope everything’s okay."

"Is it that street kid? Ben?"

"Think so, I haven’t sent anyone else up there today…. Hi, this is Dr. Ross, you paged me…uh huh…okay, I’ll be up there in a moment…yeah…"

He hangs up and heads off to the lifts, Mark following on his way to his next patient.

"Is it Ben?"

"Yeah, ortho have done some more tests, a couple of scans, they want to talk to me about what they’ve found and how to treat him."

"Sounds pretty serious."

"Mmm."

"Haven’t they got a peds doc assigned to him up there?"

"Yeah, but I’m trying to change it so that I’ll be his doctor."

"Doug, you’re an ER Paediatrician. You’re not meant to take admitted patients!"

"I know that Mark. But I think the kid needs me, he’s alone in the world and I’m the only one he knows. The more docs he goes through, the worse off he’ll be, especially if he’s in for a while."

The lift arrives and Doug goes in.

"Okay Doug, whatever you say. But I don’t want you neglecting your work here, okay?"

Doug gives him a look that says it all as the lift doors close.

Upstairs in Peds, Ben is asleep in his bed despite the crowd of doctors and nurses standing around it. Doug walks up to them as one doctor turns around.

"Ah, Dr. Ross. We understand that Ben here is in the care of social services?"

"Yes. Uuh, have you found the problem?"

"Yes. If you want to come with us over here," he gesticulates to the end of the ward and the whole crowd moves there, to a screen covered in scan results and x rays.

"Now, we have taken some MRI’s of the boy’s legs this morning, and what we have is a truly unusual formation of the knee caps. They have been pushed back into the joint and are sticking in between the lower half of the knee joint and the femur when he stands and tries to walk."

Doug looks at the films, blows a deep breath out and nods.

"Now what we have is a situation because we haven’t treated this before and we’re trying to think of the best way to go about it. There are basically three options for him, one; that we just leave him as he is and he’ll be in a wheelchair the rest of his life, two; we put him on a course of intensive physiotherapy, which may do the trick, but may not and will also be quite painful and hard to do, especially since he’s so young, or three; we operate and try to repair the knees as best we can so that he will be able to walk. We know that you’ve been quite close to him while he’s been here, and we want to know what your take on the situation is, but, of course, any final decision will have to be made by DCFS if they have care of him."

There is a short silence as Doug looks at the films and his feet in thought, rubbing his chin.

"I think that surgery is the best option. We’re talking about a three year old; he’s got the rest of his life ahead of him. Doing physio isn’t so invasive, but a three year old is hardly going to want to do painful exercises three times a day, and we can’t just write him off to a wheelchair. Let’s go with the surgery."

The team nod and murmur. "Okay Dr. Ross, thank you for your input. I think we all agree on that, now we just have to hope that DCFS are also of the same opinion and that their insurance can cover it."

Hours later we see a busy restaurant. It is dark and warm, with deep red and oak furnishing. A jazz band plays on the small stage in the background and Doug and Carol sit at a table, drinking wine with empty meal plates in front of them.

"Doug, this place is great! Why haven’t we been here before?"

"Ah, well I thought we should save it for a special occasion."

"Doug…. what is this all about?"

Doug leans across the table grinning and whispers in Carol’s ear,

"It’s our anniversary."

Carol’s mouth drops open and she covers it with one hand as she breaks into mild laughter.

"I can’t believe I forgot! How long is it now?"

"Precisely four years and," Doug looks at his watch, "fifty three minutes!"

"Wow. That long. Who would’ve thought?"

"Yeah, who would’ve thought you, YOU would forget, and I would remember!"

They both laugh and look towards the band, playing an upbeat version of "This Guy’s In Love With You."

Well, there it is! As usual, feedback to triggersaurus@hotmail.com please!