Breaking The Fall:

Breaking The Fall: Chapter 2

"Doug. Doug. DOUG!"
"Huh?"
Carol grinned broadly. "I'm home!"
"Ugh. I never would have guessed." He sat up in the bed and sleepily patted the space next to him. "Why are you so chirpy, you just did the night shift."
"I know. But I met the most amazing family. 3 sisters, and they were...Doug?"
Doug wiped at the coffee he had coughed over the bedsheets.
"I'm okay. I just got some news last night that I just remembered about."
"What was it? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's great. But remember that woman who called me at work yesterday?"
"Yeah?"
"Turns out she was another of Ray's conquests-"
"Is she in trouble?"
"Nope. But she has a daughter."
Carol waited for him to finish his point.
"And the father is Ray."
Carol looked at him. "You mean...?"
"Yeah."
"She's sure it's-"
"Yup, no other guys involved, he was at the birth..."
"Oh my God. You have a sister."
"Half sister."
"Wow. How old is she?"
"Only 12. I'm going around today to meet her, and her mother."
"Do you want me to come?" She laid a hand on his arm.
"No, it's okay. You need to sleep."
"Doug, I will cme if you want me to. I can sleep whenever."
"Carol, really. I just think...I don't mean this in a bad way or anything, but I think this is something I have to do by myself."
"Okay. If you're sure."
"I am."
"Alright." She leant over and kissed him.

Carol crawled into bed about half an hour later, just as Doug decided to get up.
"I hope that wasn't personal, Doug."
"'Course not, nothing to do with you, I stink so I'm gonna have a shower."
"In that case, go, gte outta here! I don't want you smelling up the bed!"
"Gee, thanks."
He disappeared into the bathroom, emerging 30 minutes later rubbing his hair with a towel. Seeing that Carol was asleep, he grabbed clean clothes from a drawer and went back into the bathroom. Once dressed, he ate some breakfast, and after making absolutely sure that the Bulls game highlights weren't on, he sat down with some hospital paperwork.
At one o'clock, Carol came down the stairs, awake and looking for lunch. By that point Doug had stopped working on the papers and had found a baseball highlights show instead.
"Ah, you're up. You wanna do something this afternoon?"
Carol raised an eyebrow.
"Don't give me that look, I just wanted to know if we could hang out together. You know, like couples are meant to."
"Where's the pasta?" Carol called from inside the fridge.
"It was my dinner last night. And stop avoiding the question."
"Okay, Doug. We can do something. But you and I both know you're just trying to get your mind off your meeting later."
"Yeah, yeah, so? I've got a couple of hours, you got a couple of hours...I can think of some things that could fill those hours."
He crept up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist.
"Uh huh. Yeah, I can think of some too. Like...we could go jogging. Or maybe watch Steel Magnolias. Or write a novel."
She picked at a box of crackers she was holding, turning to put one in Doug's mouth.
"What kind of novel? One of those women's ones, Mills and Boon?"
"I was thinking more Jackie Collins."
"Suits me..."

Later that afternoon, Doug pulled up outside a row of shops and switched of the ignition. A small gang hung out at the far end of the parade, and a stray page of newpaper blew past. There were 7 shops on the parade but two were boarded up and the others were greasy diners, tacky newsagents and a video store that still advertised 'Lethal Weapon' as a recent release. Doug looked closely at the doors in between the shop facades, following the numbers until he saw one labelled 130-132. He buzzed at number 131a until he realised that the door was already open, and climbed the narrow staircase stained with coffee spills, littered with wrappers, graffiti marking the walls. He reached 131a and knocked politely on the door, taking a few steps back and looking at his feet.
"Who is it?"
"It's Doug Ross."
"Hi Doug. Hold on a moment, let me get the door."
It opened to reveal a small, neatly kept apartment and Wendy Sanders. She was pale and thin, but tall with long brown hair tied back, and bright blue eyes. She stretched out a hand for Doug to shake, and he did as he stepped inside.
"It's nice to meet you. I know this must all be so sudden, but I didn't know how else to tell you. It's not the sort of thing you can just drop into conversation. Please, have a seat." She gestured to a small brown couch.
"Thanks. Nice place you have."
She laughed, glancing around. "Well, it's nice unless you look out of the window or step out of the door. But thank you. We did what we could with it."
Doug smiled.
"You know, I don't know if this is the right thing to say, or a good thing, but you do look a lot like your father."
Doug continued to smile. "I'll choose to accept it as a compliment, but let's not get into any other similarities!"
Wendy smiled too, and glanced behind her briefly.
"Casey will be out in a moment, she's just getting changed after her racketball practice."
"Racketball?"
"She loves sports, racketball is the current-"
"Hey."
A girl entered the room from a door on the opposite side of the apartment. She wore jeans and a Bulls t-shirt, and had obviously inherited her mother's eyes and hair. But her eyes were closer together than Wendy's, and her jawline was squarer. Right now it was also clenched, and her eyebrows rested low over her eyes.
Wendy nodded at her. "Casey. This is Doug Ross. Doug, this is Casey."