Carol stood there just watching him struggle to get comfortable. How could she simply walk in and tell him that she, after all the times that he had cheated on her, had kissed another man?

‘Maybe I should wait until he’s out of the hospital to tell him’ she thought.  But as she played that idea through her head she knew she couldn’t go in there and lie to him, because of course he would ask her where she was.  ‘At least if he’s laid up he won’t be able to walk out on the conversation’ she thought.  Maybe telling him now won’t turn out to be such a bad idea.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Pushing through the door, she bit her lip trying to find the confidence she knew she didn’t have.  He had his eye’s closed trying to ward off the pain he was having so he did not see her entrance.

She reached out and touched his shoulder. “Hey baby”, she murmured, “How are you feeling?”

As soon as he spotted her he smiled.  “Hey there. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” he replied, “I missed you at Deerbourne and Clark.”

“I know and I can’t help feeling guilty about all of this.  Maybe if I had been there you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“It’s okay Carol, it doesn’t matter.  All I care about is that you’re here now.”

His words brought her back to the Greg Powell issue. “Ah…but Doug it does matter.”  She started to stumble over her words, “You see, I owe you an explanation, and I’ve got one, but you’re not going to like it.”

“C’mon Carol, it can’t be that bad.  I can’t imagine anything that would make me upset with you.”

“Well, I’m not so sure…you know how I was doing my paramedic ride along with Greg Powell today?” he nodded so she continued rambling. “We were waiting for this stupid cat on the rape victim’s roof and we got to talking and things started to get intense and I…we kissed--”

“Why that no good stupid fucking bastard!  What’s his name? ** Powell? ** I’m going to tear him a new one.”

“Doug no…it wasn’t his fault, I didn’t tell him that I was attached.  The truth is I’m not so sure we’re ready to get married”, Carol said rather calmly comparing to the hot situation.

Doug lay there dumfounded, “What?  You mean you don’t want to marry me and YOU kissed him?” thoughts of the two of them getting it on in HIS bed while he was waiting for Carol on the street ran through his head.

Reading his mind Carol said, “It didn’t go any further than the kiss.”

Doug’s face became red and contorted as he was clenching and unclenching his fists trying to control his anger.  “Hmm…I see”, he growled.

 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments but it was broken by Doug’s cell phone ringing from his pants.

He started to reach for the belonging bag from underneath the bed but Carol reached out to get it for him, “Let me do that” she said.

Doug grunted in response and continued to grasp for the bag, trying to get to it before Carol.  But to no avail, she reached into his pants’ pocket to pull out the phone but her attention was drawn to a little black box.  Popping it open she stared at the object that was held within.

By then, the phone had stopped ringing and they were, once again, left in the heavy silence.

“Doug…” she whispered.

“I’d like you to leave now, please.”