Bedside Manor
Chapther Eight
By Triggersaurus
triggersaurus@hotmail.com

This took me ages to do, actually I just did half one week and then got writer’s block for about a fortnight and didn’t write for ages…anyway, it’s done now and this one really focuses on Doug and Carol, not how I planned it, but that’s where the keyboard took me! Anyway, the next one should be good, a Christmas one, I’m looking forward to writing it. Byeee for now! Triggersaurus

Previously: Jerry announces he’s getting married and after an eventful day, Doug and Carol ponder applying to foster Ben.

It has been a fortnight and the snow across Chicago has slowed. Doug is standing in the hall at Carol’s house in his coat and hat as Carol clumps around upstairs. Crashing noises filter down and Doug sighs.

"We’re gonna be late!"

A muffled shout comes from upstairs. "Just one minute Doug, I think I’ve got them…."

"One minute…I’m counting!"

Carol appears at the top of the stairs, hat to one side of her head and dust patches over her coat, scarf in one hand. She holds up a plastic bag in triumph, a big grin on her face.

"Found them!"

"Great. Can we get out of here already?"

As they leave the house, banging the door closed behind them, Carol digs into the bag.

"I can’t believe I found them! Look!"

She holds up a small blue Matchbox car. This was my favourite one! I always used to have to hide it from my sisters!"

"I still can’t believe that those were yours…didn’t you have Barbies or something?"

"Yes. But I happened to love playing cars, my uncle brought me a new one each time he came around, my mother didn’t like it, she thought I should be playing with dolls more…"

"Hmm. I don’t know what happened to all my old toys…maybe mom’s still got them around somewhere…I had this excellent cowboy set…"

"Cowboy set?!"

"Yeah, these cool pants with the leather fringe, and a holster…" Carol walks a bit further ahead of Doug, laughing, and then turns around to face him, continuing to walk backwards.

"Fringed pants??!!!!! Ha! Doug Ross, cowboy extraordinaire!"

Doug grins and lunges forward, but she moves out of the way and turns around, starting to run. Doug picks up and runs after her, shouting and laughing.

When they enter the ER half an hour later, Randi rushes up. "Dr. Ross, these are for you." She glances behind her then turns back and whispers low, "Dr. Weaver’s on the warpath, you might want to get started."

Doug looks down at the pile of charts he’s been handed and lets out a deep breath. He looks at Carol.

"Do you think I’ve got enough time to get my coat off?!"

They head into the staff lounge to the lockers. Doug hangs up his coat and pulls on a scrub top, hanging his stethoscope around his neck. He heads for the door.

"And so to work…"

Carol grins. "I’ll go up and see Ben quickly, take him these."

"Okay, tell him I’ll be up later."

"Will do."

He goes out of the door and looks at the first chart. He looks up at the ER, which is festooned with Christmas decorations. In the distance, manical laughing can be heard.

Haleh passes by and sees Doug.

"You hear that? They’re yours. This chart here. Go and do something now, the noise is driving me MAD."

Haleh hands him the chart and he sighs again and heads in the direction of the noise. He pushes the door to Exam 1 open and stops in the doorway. Two teenage girls sit on a bed, laughing so hard that they are propping each other up. Lydia stands next to the bed, trying to take vitals. She looks up at Doug and pulls a face. He looks at the chart again.

"Laughing gas…Do you know what I mean when I say this isn’t funny?"

Lydia smiles, nods and plugs her ears.

The ambulance bay doors open slowly and Rachel comes in, with a backpack and a small, brightly coloured suitcase on wheels behind her. She walks to the main desk and peers over the counter. Jerry is on the phone, facing away from her, Kerry is on the computer with her back to Rachel, and Carter is writing on the board. He finishes writing and turns around, seeing a pair of eyes staring over the top of the desk. He goes over to the desk.

"Hey Rachel. You looking for your dad?"

"Yeah. Have you seen him?"

"No, sorry, haven’t seen him yet…how come you’re here?"

"Mom had to drop me here then go straight on to Milwaukee…she had some work or something to get."

Carter comes round the desk and propels Rachel in the direction of the lounge. They go in and Rachel drops onto the sofa. Carter moves her case out of the way and stands in front of her, brushing a hand through his hair and looking at his watch.

"Okay, Rachel, I am really sorry, but I have to go back out there for a while…are you going to be okay in here?"

"Sure. I’ll put the TV on."

Carter nods. "Okay, well, I’ll tell your dad you’re here if I see him. Nice to see you again."

"You too. Thank you," she calls as he leaves the room. She reaches over and flicks the TV on, sitting back to a re-run of "I Love Lucy". The door opens again and this time Doug comes in, looking down at his scrub top, which is covered with what appears to be the remains of some kid’s breakfast from the morning. Rachel looks up at him at then at the top.

"Ewwww!"

Doug looks up in surprise. "Hey Rach! What are you doing here?" He goes over to his locker to get a new top out.

"I’m waiting for Dad. I’ve come to visit for Christmas."

"Yeah? How’s St. Louis then?"

"It’s okay."

"You made lots of new friends?"

"Some. I miss my old friends, but Dad said I could invite some of them to our party on Friday."

"Ahh. So am I invited?" He pulls off the top and chucks it in the bottom of the locker, grinning at Rachel.

Rachel watches him throw the top down and gets up. She goes up to him and bends down to the bottom of the locker. She picks up the scrub top between two fingers, then moves off to the corner of the room, holding it at a distance from her, then drops it into a basket marked "staff scrubs". She brushes her hands down and looks back at Doug who watched the whole performance in astonishment.

"You shouldn’t just leave it in your locker. It’ll smell."

Doug bows. "My sincere apologies, Miss Rachel. I hope you will forgive me for my sins and let me come to your Christmas party on Friday."

Rachel is laughing and nods her head. She goes back to the sofa and sits down as Doug puts on a new scrub shirt. "It starts at 7 o’clock and finishes at 10, but Dad said maybe I can have it till 11 if we’re good and I don’t tell Mom."

"Well, I promise I’ll be good - no throwing food around or anything."

Rachel grins and Doug heads for the door, ruffling her hair on the way out.

"It’s a date then. I’ll see you Friday!"

"Bye Doug!"

She turns back to the TV.

Upstairs, Carol wanders into Peds with her bag of toy cars. She nods at a nurse, who is making his rounds with a tray of meds. She goes over to Ben’s bed and sees that he is asleep, on his front. She goes to put down the bag on the table next to the bed, and strokes his hair before turning to leave. She comes face to face with the nurse she saw earlier, who is at the foot of the bed. He smiles at her, and nods over to Ben. "You might as well wake him up, he has to take this now," he said, indicating a bright pink mixture on the trolley. Carol checks her watch.

"Well, okay then." She turns back to the bed and leans over, shaking Ben lightly by the shoulder. "Ben…hey, Ben, time to wake up…" she whispers to him. He stirs and pushes himself on his arms, rubbing his eyes with one fist. He looks up and sees her. "Hi Carol"

"Hey Ben…it’s time to take your medicine, okay?"

He screws his face up. "I don’t like it. It tastes yucky."

The nurse leans over. "It’s meant to taste like strawberry…"

"I don’t think I like storeberry then"

Carol laughs, and then says, "Well, if you take it real quick you may not be able to taste it…you wanna try it?"

"Okay…quickly."

The nurse fills a plastic beaker with the pink fluid while Carol turns Ben over and sits him upright against the bed so he can drink. He takes the cup and looks at the contents, screwing his face up again, and looks at Carol. She nods at him, and he picks the cup up and pours it into his mouth at speed. His face wrinkles up as he swallows, then coughs.

"Didn’t work, it’s hobbololl"

"Never mind Ben, it’s over with now…shall I show you why I came up to see you?"

"Why did you? Did you come to play?"

"No I didn’t come to play…I’ll come and play later, okay? But I brought you something to play with while you’re waiting for me and Doug to come and see you." She hands him the bag from the table.

"What’s this?"

"Open it…"

He pulls the bag open and peers inside.

"Cars!"

He tips the bag upside down and toy cars fall out all over the bed and some drop onto the floor. Carol grins and bends down to collect the cars on the floor. The nurse, who is still there, watching the situation with a smile, leans over to Ben and whispers something in his ear. Ben looks at him, then at Carol.

"Thank you Carol."

She looks at the nurse, then back at Ben. "That’s okay Ben, I thought you’d like them."

To her surprise, Ben opens his arms and wraps them as far as they will go around her waist. Carol hugs him back in surprise, and looks at the nurse at the same time, who is grinning broadly on the other side of the bed. He turns around, and pushes his trolley on to the next bed, still grinning. Ben pulls back and picks up some of the cars and starts to arrange them in a big traffic line on the bed. Carol looks at her watch again, and then pulls up a seat next to the bed and leans on it, watching Ben play.

Some hours later, Carol is back in the ER, working on a trauma case with Kerry and Carter. Night has begun to descend on Chicago, but a steady stream of patients continue to flow in. Doug closes the door to exam three and walks out to the main desk, clunking a chart into a free slot and sighing deeply. "Seen Carol, Jerry?"

"Uhh, not for a while Dr.Ross…I think she might be with that trauma that came in."

"Okay, tell her I’ll be in the lounge when she gets out. Oh, and Jerry, make sure you get the address right for the invitation, it’s..."

"It’s okay Dr.Ross, I know what your address is. They’ll be out soon, if only I get a break about the whole thing…"

"Okay, okay! See you later, Jerry"

He walks off to the lounge and pushes the door open. He stops in the doorway as he sees a sleeping heap on the couch and the same brightly coloured suitcase from earlier. He creeps in and looks over the back of the sofa to see Rachel, asleep, all curled up. He checks his watch, and, looking concerned, goes round to the front of the sofa and crouches down by Rachel’s head. He shakes her by the shoulder softly, whispering "Rach, hey, Rach…"

She moves a little and opens her eyes.

"Rach, hey. Hasn’t your dad come in yet?"

"No…I haven’t seen him yet…is he here? I want to go home…"

"Yeah, okay. You stay here darlin’ and I’ll go and call him, okay? I’ll be back in a moment."

"Okay."

She stays lying down as Doug goes back out to the desk. He picks up a phone and dials Mark’s home number. There is a long delay as Doug gazes around the ER at the drunk who is walking round and round the desk mumbling.

"Mark? Hey buddy, your daughter’s here waiting for you…yeah, since early this afternoon…I don’t know…no, she’s fine, she’s sleeping in the lounge…yeah, I’ll watch her…okay, see you in a bit…bye." He hangs the phone up.

"Problem, Doug?"

"It’s okay Kerry, not a problem."

"Aren’t you off now?"

"Yeah, I’m just waiting for Carol…I’ll be in the lounge."

He goes back to the lounge, where Rachel is half awake, sitting up watching Hill Street Blues.

"Hey, your dad’s on the way, give him about half an hour."

"Okay…where was he?"

"He was at home, he thought your mum was going to drop you off there." He sits down next to her on the sofa and looks at the TV. "Isn’t your dad going to yell at me when he sees you watching this?!"

Rachel smiles sleepily. "Yeah, maybe."

"Great! I’ll turn some channels and see what else’s on." He leans to the TV and flicks until he finds some old Simpsons episodes. "You like the Simpsons?" he asks Rachel as he starts to sit back. She doesn’t reply and he turns around. She is dozing again, leaning to one side, on the verge of toppling over. Doug sits back and moves up, holding her up gently until he has moved enough so she can lie with his left leg as a pillow. He turns back to the TV and watches it.

15 minutes later, Carol comes into the room and stretches, yawning. She looks down and sees Doug watching the Simpsons, laughing, oblivious to her presence. She creeps up to the back of him and makes a dive for his neck, kissing it. He jumps about a foot in the air and turns around.

"Hey!" he whispers, pointing at Rachel, still asleep, but smiling at Carol as well.

"Oh, sorry! How come she’s still here? I thought Mark was meant to be picking her up this afternoon?"

"Yeah, turns out he thought she was being dropped at his apartment…he’s on his way now, I said I’d watch Rach until then."

"Wow, look at her, poor girl, spent the afternoon here…she must be really tired, travelling all that way and now being stuck here."

"Yeah…how was Ben earlier? I haven’t had the chance to see him yet today."

"He was great. I think one of the nurses has been teaching him some things…"

"Like what?"

"Well, when I gave him the cars, he said thank you and gave me a big hug."

"Wow. Kinda cute, huh?"

"Yeah, it was so sweet."

"Well, when Mark gets here, I’ll run up there and see him, then we can go."

"Wait a sec Doug, we need to talk some more." She goes and sits down in an armchair and looks straight at him.

"I know you think that trying to foster Ben is a big leap, and I agree, it is a big jump from what we’re used to. But we’ve been trying for a child, so we’ve made that decision already…what I’m saying is, well, how about we put that on hold for a while. We’ve got this kid here who needs us, and I don’t know about you, but I think we could really give him the life that he deserves. I’ve thought about it seriously from all perspectives these last two weeks, and it would be hard - we’d have to consider things like childcare and make sure someone’s always home for him, but I think we could sort that out, we can work together on it…. Doug, he’s so happy when either of us are there, why should we spoil it? We’re just going to be like all those women who dumped him on someone else before; it’s not fair on him, or me. I don’t know about you, Doug, but I don’t want him to forget me, I love him like a son already and I think he belongs with us now."

Doug, who has been stroking Rachel’s hair throughout, looks into Carol’s eyes as she looks straight back at him. They hold the gaze, and the door crashes open as Mark thunders in. He sees Doug and Carol looking at each other, and then Rachel. "Oh god, sorry, have I interrupted something? Let me just grab Rach and we’ll get out of here, thanks for watching her Doug..."

"Hey it’s okay, you didn’t interrupt. She’s been fine, she’s tired from the journey I think…"

Mark has bent over by the couch at Rachel’s head. "Hey, Rach, I’m here now, come on, let’s go home…"

"Dad?"

"Yeah, c’mon Rach, I’m here now…"

"Where were you?"

"At home waiting for you there…don’t worry about that now, let’s go…"

He picks her up off the sofa and grabs her rucksack. "Thanks again Doug, I am so sorry that all this happened. Have you seen her case?"

"Yeah, just over there. Bye Rach - I’ll see you Friday, okay?"

"Okay…"

"What do you say, Rach?"

"Thank you for watching me Doug."

"That’s okay sweetheart, it was a pleasure."

"Alright guys, I’ll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Mark."

"See you buddy"

The room turns quiet again. Doug gets up.

"I’m gonna go and see Ben…"

"Doug…" Carol looks straight at him again. He looks at the floor and goes to his locker. He gets his coat out, takes off the scrub top and puts on a shirt. He puts his stethoscope on the shelf. Then he closes the locker door and turns around to look at Carol.

"Okay. We’ll put in a plea. I agree with you really, he doesn’t deserve to be moved on. But I’m not sure that we’re really ready, I mean, we were trying for a baby, but that’s different, y’know, you get nine months to get used to that idea!"

He smiles apologetically, and grabs her hand, pulling her up.

"But let’s just go for it anyway…"

He kisses her on the lips and the puts his arm around her.

"Come on. We’ll go and see him. I haven’t played cars all day, I need a fix!"

"Ha ha", but she smiles as she grabs her coat and goes with him out of the door.

I am desperate for really detailed feedback; please mail it to triggersaurus@hotmail.com

Ta peeps!