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DISCLAIMER: These characters are not mine, and I don’t
profit from their use. Please send any feedback (which I really need) to erfanbev@yahoo.com. As always, thanks to Elizabeth
for all her help!
This story is #6 in a series. Previous stories:
1. Streets of Philadelphia
2. Lost and Found
3. A New Day
4. Feels Like Home
5. Piecing Things Together
Previously on this series…
Carol was lying on an exam table while Dr. Coburn performed the sonogram. Doug stood next
to her, squinting at the scene, looking for anything.
“Well. Everything looks great here. Would you like to know the sex?”
Carol and Doug looked at each other. It wasn’t something they had talked about
before.
“Sure,” they said in unison.
“Congratulations. In six months you two will be the proud parents of twin boys.”
Doug and Carol were stunned. “Twins?”
Max was bored. The last thing he wanted to do was wait around in some hospital. He then
saw something so horrible, he had to rub his eyes to make sure it was real. There was
Anna. And she wasn’t alone. She was with that creep John Carter, and it was clear
they were together. He watched them leave the ER. He was furious, and he knew that as soon
as he was released he would find Anna, and get his revenge.
“You know that Craig has been moving up in his firm a lot lately. He was just
appointed to head up a new program there.”
“That’s great. Except for the fact that it means we have to move to
London.”
“And you’re taking Rach away? Well that’s just great Jen,” said Mark,
clearly angry.
“Let me finish. You know that when we got divorced, one of the agreements was that
Rachel remain in the area. There’s also the fact that she’s settled here, and
moving to a new country would be very traumatic for her.”
“What are you saying?”
“Rachel wants to move in with you. Permanently.”
“Remember that phone call I made at the airport? I was calling Carol.”
“What about?”
“She took some blood before we left, and I was calling her about it.”
Carter looked concerned. “You aren’t sick, are you?”
“No, not at all.”
“So everything’s ok.”
“Well, there was something. But it should clear up in about nine months.”
“Oh my god!”
“Yep.”
“We’re gonna have a baby?!” Carter leaped up.
And now, here’s Eye of the Storm!!
Anna carefully walked up the stairs to her apartment, balancing her three grocery bags in
her arms. As she began to put her key in the keyhole, her hand was shaking in fear.
Please, she thought to herself, don’t be here. Please please please be far away from
here.
She turned the key in the door and walked in. She quickly looked around the room. No one
was there. Breathing a sigh of relief, she put the bags down on the counter.
Everything’s gonna be OK, she whispered to herself. She knew she needed to do
something about this, change her locks, move across town, or better yet, move far away.
“What took you so long?”
Anna jumped at the sound of that voice. She began to tremble again, afraid to turn around
and afraid not to react. She finally turned around.
“I said, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?”
She resumed what she was doing. “I was shopping.”
“You said you’d be back by 11.”
“I thought I would. The traffic was really bad.” She gazed into his face,
noticing the rage in his eyes, and how his face twitched when he talked. He continued to
face her as he walked to the door and opened it. He walked out the door, then extended his
hand into the room. Anna ignored him, and then he reached in and grabbed her wrist.
“I said, WHAT TOOK YOU SO DAMN LONG??”
He pulled her out into the hall, jerking her body so hard that she slammed into the wall
on the other side of the hallway. He held her shoulders to the wall as she kicked her legs
to try to struggle. Pulling heroff the wall, he maintained his grip as he led her to the
top of the stairs. Anna was beginning to cry. He looked at her, then released his grip.
Anna felt as though she wasn’t in her body as she tumbled down the stairs. She felt
her arm bang the bannister while her head was bounced about. She felt herself land at the
bottom of the stairs, watching him follow her down the stairs, jump over her, and walk out
of the building.
Anna held up her arm. It was beginning to bruise already. She touched her forehead, only
to feel blood there. Everything in front of her looked blurry, and she felt as though she
would black out. She heard a voice in the distnce, which she recognized to be that of
Elaine, her neighbor. Elaine stood over her.
“Anna, wake up. Come on Anna, wake up!”
“Wake up!”
Anna woke up in darkness, sweating and shaking. She turned around in bed to find John
looking at her, concerned.
“What’s the matter?”
“Bad dream I guess.” Suddenly Anna felt sick and she ran to the bathroom. A few
minutes later, she came back into the bedroom.
“I feel awful.”
Carter smiled. “It’s called morning sickness, remember doc?”
“No,” she said as she turned off the light, ”This isn’t morning
sickness.”
*************************************
“C’mon Rach, you gotta get up now,” said Mark as he turned on the light in
her room.
Rachel rolled over in bed. “I don’t want to.”
“You’ve got to get ready for school.”
Rachel rolled over, looking very frazzeled as she walked over to her duffel bag. Since
Mark began house-hunting early, Rachel had decided not to unpack.
A few minutes later, Rachel entered the kitchen where Mark was making panckes.
“Your mom called this morning.”
“Why?”
“She wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Why should she care?”
Mark sat down next to Rachel. “Look, your mom loves you very much. We both do. She
wanted to know if you wanted to go to London and visit them over spring break.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You don’t have to decide right now. I know you miss your mom a lot right
now.’
“I don’t miss her. I’m glad I’m here and not with her.”
“Look Rach-”
“I don’t really want to talk about it. I gotta go to school.”
Rachel grabbed her backpack, and Mark had to run to catch up with her as she sped out the
door.
*************************************
At Phildelphia Memorial Hospital, the ER was buzzing. No one noticed when Max Rosher had
snuck into a storage room, took a surgical mask and a lab coat, and put them on. The desk
had been left unttended, so he went behind it, searching for any information of
Anna’s whereabouts. He searched through a pile of papers, pulling out a small, yellow
piece of paper. He read it and smiled.
“Surprise party! Come say goodbye to Anna Del Amico before she leaves for Chicago.
This Thursday, 4:30, in the Doctor’s Lounge.
So she was in Chicago. Probably back at County General with Carter. It was all clear to
Max now. He knew he had to catch the first flight to Chicago.
*************************************
“I swear, I don’t know what to do with her,” said Mark as he slammed shut
his locker. “Suddenly her mom is her worst enemy.”
“Well she’s bound to feel a little resentment at first,” said Carter. The
two men walked out of the lounge and to the front desk, where Anna looked very pale and
was staring off into space. Carter ran over to her.
“Anna, are you ok?”
She snapped back to reality. “Yeah, I’ll be fine really.”
“Listen, I thought since we had some down time, we could start planning the
wedding.”
“On what budget? Your family doesn’t speak to you, mine would be struggling even
if it didn’t have to pay college tuition for three kids, and Lord knows we don’t
make much here.”
“Come on, we can do this. First, let’s think of a place.”
‘I hate to interrrupt, but I’m about to put a contract in on a house, it has a
big yard,you could have the wedding there.”
“Really Mark? Thanks!” said Carter, “See, one thing has been accomplished.
Now we need someone to marry us.”
“I could do that,” said Jerry, “I am a justice of the peace.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” asked Mark.
*************************************
Rachel paced back and forth on the steps outside her school, looking at her watch. She
heard the honk of a horn, and looked up. There was her dad’s car, but there was a
woman driving it. She knew the face, and tried to remember who she was. She then
remembered that it was Susan Lewis, a woman her Dad worked with. “But didn’t she
move away?” thought Rachel.
She didn’t remember this woman very well, but she knew that Mom disliked her. Mom
always referred to her as “That doctor your father keeps flirting with.” Rachel
was confused. When did she come back? Was she going out with her dad? Rachel walked to the
car.
“Where’s my Dad?”
“He’s stuck at the ER. Hop in.” Rachel got in the car and tossed her
backpack into the back.
“Wow, you’ve grown so much since I last saw you! You probably don’t
remember me.”
“You’re Susan, right?”
“Yes. Wow, you have a good memory.”
“When did you come back?”
“A couple months ago. I live across the hall from Anna, who I’m sure you
know.”
“She’s back too!” Rachel had always liked Anna. She fell off her horse a
few months ago, and Anna took care of her.
“A lot has been going on around here,” said Susan.
“How’s your baby?”
“She’s good. She’s three now.”
They then sat in an awkward silence. Rachel wasn’t sure if she should ask about
whether Susan was going out with her dad, and Susan wasn’t sure if she should tell
Rachel.
They pulled up outside the ER.
“You head on in, I’ll park.”
Rachel walked through the doors into the ER. She had missed this place. She saw her dad
and ran to him.
“Hi Dad!”
“Hey Rach! How was school?”
“Pretty good.”
“Did you and Susan get along ok?”
Rachel knew. He wouldn’t have asked that if they weren’t going out.
“Susan’s your girlfriend, isn’t she?”
“Rach, we should talk...”
*************************************
Max walked into the County General ER in some of his old scrubs. He knew he had to get
Anna’s address, but how? He then found the answer, in the form of a ten year old
seated at the reception desk.
“Hello there, young lady.”
The girl turned around. “Hi.”
“I’m Dr McGrath, I’m from Neurology. I need to look up a file on one of the
patients. Can I use the computer?”
“Sure.”
Rachel resumed her homework, and Max went to the computer. He got a pen and paper, and
looked up Anna’s information. Within seconds, he had Anna’s address and was on
his way.
*************************************
Carter walked into the lounge to see an all-too-familiar sight -- Anna, slumped in a
chair, looking very worried. He pulled up a chair.
“Anna, sweetie, are you OK?”
The image of being flung against the wall, the image from her nightmare, flashed in front
of her.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You’re sure this isn’t anything you want to talk about?”
“No.”
“You haven’t been yourself lately. I’m really worried about you.”
“Look John, I’ll be fine. I’m just tired, that’s all. I’m off in
a couple hours, and I promise I’ll take a nap. What time are you off?”
“11:00 tonight. I’ll be over as soon as my shift’s over.”
Anna smiled. “Why do you even bother to pay the rent on your apartment? You should
just move in.”
“Really? You mean that?”
“Well, you pretty much live there already. Why not make it official?”
“This is great.”
Both of their beepers went off. “Well,” said Anna, “Duty calls.”
*************************************
Mark and Rachel worked in silence as they set the table for dinner. Rachel couldn’t
take it any longer. Dad said they were going to talk about him and Susan. Why weren’t
they? Rachel felt as thought she had a right to know what was going on.
“Hey Dad?”
“Yes?”
“So how long have you been going out with Susan?”
Mark stopped what he was doing. “Not very long. Two weeks.”
“Mom said you were together before she moved away.”
“We weren’t together. We were just friends.”
“Are she and the baby going to live with us? Is that why you’re buying that
house?”
“I’m buying the house for you and me.”
“Do you think you would marry her?”
Mark laughed. “It’s a little early to think about that, isn’t it?”
“Not really. Mom andd Craig weren’t going out long before they got
married.”
“Mom and I are very different people.”
“I know. That’s why you got a divorce.”
The phone rang, and Rachel ran to answer it.
“Hello? Oh. What do you want?”
Mark winced. It must be Jen.
“Look, Rachel, I know you’re angry...”
“Yeah I am!”
“Look. Craig and I are leaving tomorrow. Aren’t you at least going to come to
the airport to say goodbye?”
“NO! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!!”
“Rach, we’ve talked about this. You didn’t even want to move to London,
remember?”
“Don’t call me Rach! You can’t call me that anymore.”
“Rachel-”
“Look. You may HAVE to move to London, but you didn’t HAVE to leave me so
quickly! You didn’t HAVE to rush me over right away, and you didn’t HAVE to seem
so happy about it!” Rachel slammed down the phone, ran into her father’s arms,
and burst into tears.
*************************************
It had been a long day, and all Anna wanted to do was crawl into bed. She walked to the
elevator, only to see an OUT OF ORDER sign on it. She groaned and began to walk up the
stairs. The elevator picked the wrong day to malfunction. She looked her watch. John
wasn’t off for another two hours. Just as well, she needed her rest. She
couldn’t get to sleep after that nightmare. She had been in a haze all day. She still
was, actually. Everything around her seemed fuzzy, and she felt disconnected from the
world around her. John tried to make her feel better by saying it was a part of early
pregnancy. She knew he had to know the truth, and soon. She needed to tell him that it was
all because of the nightmare, and that it in fact was not exactly a nightmare. She turned
the key in the door, then turned around, knowig and dreading what was behind her.
“Max?”
*************************************
Carter was tired. He wanted to go home. He thought he would fall asleep right there at the
desk. He heard the familiar sound of the paramedics push a gurney through the door. Susan
ran to it.
“What’ve we got?”
“27 year old female, attack victim-”
Susan was within sight of the patient now, and what she saw shocked her.
“OH MY GOD!!! ANNA!!!”
She got up, shaking. She knew she had to treat her, but it was hard.
At the sound of Anna’s name, John came running. He was already on the verge of tears.
How could this had happened?
“Carter, I think it would be better if you sat this one out,” said Susan.
“No. I need to stay and take care of her. And the baby.”
“She’s pregnant?”
“Two weeks. Is the baby OK?”
“Too early to say.”
John couldn’t believe it. Anna’s beautiful face was battered beyond recognition.
Her arms were covered with bruises. He stood outside the doors to trauma 1 as Susan and
Weaver worked on her. After what seemed like hours, Susan walked out to him.
“She’s waking up.”
He walked into the room. All the doctors and nurses had cleared out, but a small crowd was
already gathered outside. Carter walked over to Anna slowly. One of her eyes was swollen
shut, and it looked like it took her a great deal of effot to keep the other open. He
squeezed her bruised hand as he cried.
“Anna, what happened?”
