Doug decided that Charity needed to stay with him. Since he had been staying at Carol's for the most part, he didn't think that it would hurt to have Charity staying at his apartment while he was at Carol's. He made sure that she was settled in before heading over to Carol's.

He wasn't sure how was going to explain all of this to her, but he knew that he needed to find a way to do it. And do it before word was out and she found out some way other than from him first.

Charity settled in to her father's apartment. Although she had came to Chicago with only the intention of finding her father, she couldn't take her mind off the young doctor that she had seen and talked to at County. She didn't know a whole lot about him other than he had been nice enough to sit and talk to her while she was pondering going inside the hospital.

She wanted, for some reason, to see and talk to him again. She thought about asking Doug, err her father, about him, yet she didn't think that this was something that she was willing to share with her newfound parent. She had a hard enough time just talking to her mother about new romances, let alone sharing this was a practically a total stranger. And yet even though he was her father, he still was a stranger to her. She didn't know him from Jack on the street. Hopefully that would all change, but he said that he needed some time to approach this with his girlfriend. Hopefully that didn't mean that this girlfriend, who she had never met was going to nip her newfound relationship in the bud with her father. She didn't know Carol, so she crossed her fingers and hoped and prayed for the best. But whatever the outcome was, at least she was able to see the man who helped to bring her into the world.

She settled back into the bed. She felt weird sleeping in her Dad's bed but Doug had told her that he was going over to Carol's and that is where he had been staying for several weeks now. She didn't think twice when he said that he would be back in the morning before he went to the hospital to check in on her. After all he was an adult and in a relationship, it wasn't like he needed to explain more than that to her. She had told him that she didn't need the details.

The next thing Charity knew that sun was up and she was rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She heard someone rumbling around in the apartment. She got up and headed into the living room. She had a feeling that it was Doug, but she wasn't sure.

"Good morning sleepy head." He said to her as she stumbled out of the bedroom.

"What time is it?" She asked still rubbing her eyes.

"About seven." He said, "Want some coffee?"

"Yeah sure, ugh it doesn't feel like seven. I must have stayed up to late last night. How do you do it?"

"Long resident hours." He told her.

"Oh yeah those 48 hour straight days." She said chuckling, "Bet you don't miss those anymore Dr. Ross."

"You could say that. How long do you plan on staying in Chicago?" Doug asked his daughter.

"I hadn't decided yet to be honest." She replied.

"I was thinking that I would see if I could find an opening at the hospital. If County doesn't have any I'm sure that one of the other hospitals in this town might have one. There are some higher paying private hospitals that I could ask around at for you. That is if you were thinking of maybe staying in Chicago." He said.

"Are you asking me if I am thinking about giving up my life in Denver?" She asked.

"Maybe, but I'm not going to force you to stay in Chicago." He told her.

"Really, I hadn't given it much thought. I wasn't even sure when I left Denver that you would even talk to me. I mean Mom did unfortunately paint you as a pretty predictable asshole." She told him.

"Yeah she did. But you know what I think that you are smart enough to figure out what kind of guy I am with out her help. You can make you're own opinions of me. I am who I am and I can't be what I'm not." He said.

"I know. I'm sure it's a shock for me to show up out of the blue where you work and drop that bomb on you." Charity said to him.

"Yeah, but it's not your fault at all Charity. I'm sure that once we get to know each other this won't be so awkward." He said continuing on, "I am on at the hospital at eight so I need to get going. If you want you can come with me stick around for awhile and then go snoop around Chicago until I get off."

"Sounds like a plan. Just give me a minute. I promise I don't take for ever in the bathroom." She said.

Not more than 2 minutes later she appeared from the bedroom dressed and ready to take on the world. She seemed to like the simple things. No make up and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She looked more like a high school kid than his adult daughter. She didn't look her age at all. Must have gotten that from her mother. But then the years of med school had aged Doug faster than he would have liked.

"I'm ready when you are." She said.

Doug picked up his keys, "Let's get out of here."

Doug let her in his jeep. She seemed surprised that her old man drove a jeep.

"What you don't like you're old man's ride?" He asked.

"Sorry, just from the picture mom painted and the faces that she made when I bought my car made me think that you drove more of a chick mobile." She said. She chuckled when she said it.

"Sorry. This is as chick mobile as I get. Why what did you buy that had you're mom's panties in a knot?" He asked.

"Oh she wasn't to thrilled when I bought a cherry red Chevy convertible.” She told him.

“I can see why she wouldn’t be to happy about that, but then I can’t say that I would have stopped you either.” He said to her.

“Oh she didn’t stop me, I bought it and then unfortunately she got lucky and I wrecked it a few weeks later. You know how teens are with their cars.” She said shrugging her shoulders as she watched him roll his eyes.

“Yeah I do. Shame you had to go and ruin such a good car.” He told her as they pulled up to the hospital. “Well guess it’s time for me to get my nose to the grind.”

“Like you put your nose to the grind, good grief you are an oldie but goodie aren’t you dad.” She said laughing as they walked up to the hospital.

Charity saw Dr. Greene shooting hoops outside the ER entrance. He missed the hoop and she scooped it up.

“Going long.” She said as it swished in, all net.

Mark and Doug's mouth's hung open.

"Didn't know you played basketball." Doug said.

"Why because I'm a girl." She said snickering.

"Oh that’s not it. Just um, I think that you're mom wasn't much of a sport person." He said.

"I'm not Mother! I'm really different from her." She told them.

"Yeah I know." Doug said, "every time I see you, you prove to me you're nothing like her."

"Gee thanks dad." She said laughing. "It's freezing out here can we go inside you think."

"Yeah sure." Doug said as Charity followed him inside the hospital entrance.

"So Dad," Charity said as they walked into the doctor's lounge, "you're an ER doctor. Must be pretty insane at times."

"Actually, I'm a pediatrician." He said, "I take the pediatric cases that come into the ER."

"Uh oh gee wow getting puked on all the time sure sounds like fun. Please tell me that you do occasionally take an adult case that come in when there aren't kids. I am really glad I didn't full follow in your footsteps."

"Yeah at times, what is it you do again." He asked?

"I'm a surgical tech." She replied. "I really don't do anything that exciting other than prep OR's and make sure that surgeries go smoothly for the surgeons."

"Can't be all that bad." He said chuckling.

"It's not. I'd better let you get to work. I'm going to wander around for a while. If I'm lucky I might even get lost." She said grinning.

"Not that lucky." Doug replied.

Charity walked off. Mark looked at Doug for a minute before saying anything.

"So what do you really think of all of this?" He said when she was out of earshot.

"Elaine has some balls is what I think. I don't know if I can fully believe that she kept this from me. But it's had to have been hard on Charity. And I have to admit, I don't know if I would have been willing to travel to find someone like she has."

"How's Carol taking all of this?”

"From what I can tell she's taking it okay. Well have to wait and see. But I don't think she's going to have a hard time with accepting it." Doug said, "I'll talk to you later, I have to get some of these patients seen."

"Yeah buddy." Mark said. They both walked off in their separate directions.

Charity scoured the hospital hoping to find any signs of Dr. Carter. He had to be hiding around here somewhere. Med-students lived at the hospitals for the first couple of years. She couldn't understand what he was about him that drew her to him. It had to be something other than the fact that he was handsome in his own way. Finding a boyfriend in Chicago might really piss her mom off and that is where she was headed. She was so mad at that woman for what she had done to her; she'd date a bum right now. Okay so maybe she wouldn't go quite that far. Her finding Doug had gotten under her skin pretty badly. She was truly tempted not to go back to Denver now at all. It would serve her mother right.

She bumped into Dr. Carter as he was going into the surgeon's lounge. Or what looked like the surgeons lounge.

"It's nice to see you again Dr. Carter." Charity said, "I'm sorry for walking right into you."

He smiled at her. "It's okay. How are things going with Dr. Ross?"

"They are going okay. But for some reason I couldn't get my mind off of our meeting yesterday." She said to him smiling.

"Would you like to get some coffee? I just finished rounds and I'm dying to get out of here." He asked her?

"That sounds like a plan. I came here with Doug this morning and he said that I was free to see Chicago. That is if you don't mind hanging out with me?" She said.

"Not at all. I think the company of a beautiful young lady would be great."

"Why thank you Dr. Carter." She replied.

"John, you can call me John."

She smiled as she took his arm and headed off with him.