Charity went up to the surgical floor to find Carter. She couldn't believe everything that had gone on downstairs. That was one conversation that she didn't want to be having with either Doug or Carol. Oh dear lord, she didn't want to have it with her mother either. But she was going to have to talk to John about it. She needed to know where he stood if he did get her pregnant. After all it was a possibility that they might have to face, especially if they kept having sex and didn't do anything to prevent it. Carol had given her the pill but Charity wasn't going to take it with out talking to Carter first. Not that he had complete say in this. After all she wasn't ready to be a mother. That wasn't in her plans yet. And she couldn't imagine he life married to Carter. She found him going over charts in the lounge.

"Hey there handsome." She said to him.

"Hey." He said looking up at her. "Give me a few minutes, I'm not quite off yet."

"Okay I'll be outside the ER when you're done." Charity said. She watched him nod to her in response.

She headed back downstairs toward the outside of the hospital. Hopefully Doug and Carol had left by now and she could light up her cigarette with out fear of her father hovering over her telling her how bad they were for her. She was beginning to wonder if having a doctor for a father was going to be such a good thing. So far it had blown up in here face. He was a little more overpowering that she thought that he would be when she met him a couple of days ago. She sat down and saw Mark come out of the hospital. He sat down next to her.

"So how's the father-daughter bonding coming along?" He asked.

"It's there." Charity said to him.

"What's wrong?" Mark asked.

"He's wigging out over me and Carter." Charity said.

"You and Carter. What's that about? I didn't know that you were seeing each other." He said to her.

"Yeah we just started seeing each other yesterday really and Carter asked me to move in with him last night and I said that I would. Dad just started tripping out. Ugh he even made me talk to Carol about sex." She said to Mark.

"Wow, give your dad sometime though. Him and Carter have had some bad things happen between the two of them, and I am sure that it isn't easy for your dad to see you dating him. Well I am sure that it is hard for him to grab that you are old enough to be dating." Mark told her.

"I know." Charity lit her cigarette.

"And you know those things will kill you." He told her.

"You and everyone else I know keep telling me that." She said smiling. "I'll quit the day Dad and Carol get married."

"That's better than nothing." Mark said as they both saw Carter come walking out the ER.

"God Charity put that thing out. You're going to kill yourself and me in the process." Carter said to her.

She put the cigarette out and looked at Mark. "Maybe he just had a bad day."
Charity hurried off after Carter. She wasn't sure of what to make of him barking at her. But then everyone has bad days maybe he just had one too and was taking it out on the first person he saw.

"Are you okay?" She asked reaching out for his arm.

"Yeah I am." He barked at her.

"Then stop yelling." She said to him.

"I'm not yelling, if I was yelling you would sure as hell know it." He barked some more at her, "Get in the car, I'm tired and I want to go home. I stayed up to late last night with you."

Man he sure knew how to cut to the core when he was grumpy. She was wondering if he was like that more often then not with the late hours that he had to be working.

"Would you rather I go back to Doug's for the night." She said. "That way you can get some sleep with out having to worry about me keeping you up."

"I didn't mean it like that." He snapped.

"That's sure as hell how it sounded to me. Look, I'm not going to put up with being a door mat for you whenever you have a crappy day or get tired cause you stay up to late at night. If you want me around then Mr. you had better start acting like it." She said to him.

"Look I'm sorry. Let's start over again. How did Doug react when I dropped you off this morning? I hope that he took it well."

"Yeah he did. Well as good as a father could take it I guess. The results of the test came back and it proved that I really am that man's daughter. And all day today he has been acting like the parent of a teenager. Do you know he has tried all day to talk to me about sex? He even went as far as to have me go and talk to Carol." She said to him.

"He had to you talk to Carol about what?"

"You know we didn't use anything last night." She said getting quiet.

"Yeah I guess we didn't. It slipped my mind. Oh well what's the worst that can happen." He said.

"The worst thing that can happen is that I end up pregnant. Are you telling me that wouldn't bother you in the least." She asked him?

"No it wouldn't. I'm not the bastard that I know your father is trying to paint me as. I would do the right thing and support you and the baby. If you wanted and needed me to, I would even marry you." He said to her.

She was surprised at his answer. She didn't think that he would react that way. But he did.

"And what if that isn't what I want." She said looking at him.

"What do you mean if that isn't what you want?”

"What if I don't want to have a baby John?” She said looking at him.

He pulled the car into the parking space. He turned to her and took her face into his hands and kissed her passionately. "Then I guess we should be more careful. Cause I wouldn't want you to have to do something that you didn't want to do."

She was puzzled by his comments. Was John Carter trying to get her pregnant? Did he want that for some reason? Maybe he was just anxious to start a family and she didn't know that. But she didn't want it to happen and she was going to take steps to make sure that it didn't happen as long as she could help it.

The days turned into weeks as Charity continued to see Carter. The two of them living together was working out okay. She had yet to find a job that didn't seem to bother Carter too much. Although it was really starting to bug her, she wasn’t the kind who was used to sitting at home all day watching soaps on the television. She kept looking in the want ads and finally found one. She landed a job as a surgical tech at County. Although she wasn't sure how working with Carter was going to work out but I guess she'd try it and see.

Carter came home later that evening. She had dinner fixed when he got home case she knew that he would probably be hungry and tired.

"Hey there." He said setting his stuff down and giving her a kiss. "I missed you today."

"I missed you too." She said, "I'm sure that you are ready for dinner."

"That sounds good to me. Whatever it is it smells good." He said to her, "how was you're day."

"I got a job." She said looking at him full of excitement.

"Really, you know you didn't have to go and do that." He said letting the air out of her balloon.

"Damn it John can't you just be happy for me. Whether you think I needed to get the job or not." Charity said putting dinner on the table.

"Sure I'm happy for you. I just figured that since you don't have to work that you wouldn't want to." He said to her.

"And do what sit around the house all day long. No thanks I need something to do rather than be a soap opera junkie." She said. "Enjoy you're dinner."

And she headed out of the room.

"Are you not going to eat?" He asked her.

"No thanks, I've lost my appetite." She said closing the door to the bedroom.

Charity laid on the bed thinking and slowly falling asleep she was so tired and she didn't know why. Maybe she was coming down with the flu. She heard the phone ring.

Carter softly knocked on the door. "Char, honey it's for you. It's your dad."

She got up off the bed, opened the door and took the phone from Carter. "Thanks." She said to him putting the phone up to her ear, "hi dad."

"What's up sweetie?”

"Nothing much I was just laying down. I think I am coming down with the flu, I really don't feel good tonight."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Doug said. He hadn't seen much of his daughter the last couple of weeks and was getting worried about her. "Why don't I come over and get you and you and I can spend some time together. Honestly I just want to talk."

"I don't know Dad, really I don't feel to good." She said. "I think that I really need to just get back into bed. I will talk to you later."

"Okay." Doug said to her, "I love you."

That was the first time that Doug had said that to her. "I love you too Dad."

Charity walked out and hung the phone back up. She just looked at Carter and headed back into the bedroom, she really wasn't feeling good at all right now.

"Char, honey what's wrong." Carter said walking into the bedroom. He looked down at her and she was white as a ghost.

"John I just don't feel good." She said looking at him. "My stomach hurts something awful and so does my head."

He put his hand to her forehead. She didn't have a fever, or at least she didn't feel warm. But she had lost all her color. "Where does it hurt?"

"Right here." She pointed to the right side of her abdomen.

"Just that one spot honey." He asked.

"Yeah just that one spot." She replied.

"Come on let's go." He said to her.

"I don't want to go anywhere. I just want to stay in bed and lay down." She protested.

"Nope it's time to go to the ER. That's your appendix my dear and I want to make sure that it doesn't need to come out." Carter lifted her out of bed. She was pretty light.

"I need to call Dad then." She said. "Can I do that before we go?"

"You can call him from either the car or the ER. We need to go." And with that John took her down to the car and straight to the ER.

Charity didn't call Doug from the car like she wanted to. She was pretty out of it asleep when they got to the ER. John didn't even wake her up enough for her to walk he. He carried her from the car into the ER. He got her into a room and grabbed the ultrasound machine. What he saw surprised him. The pain that she was feeling wasn't her appendix at all. She was pregnant. John couldn't believe what he was seeing. Here he was worried that she was going to have to have her appendix out but come to find out he was going to be a dad. He had managed to get her pregnant even with her every attempt to prevent it. He was happy and grinning from ear to ear.

Carter thought to himself. He knew that this was going to get Doug's fire lit. He was not going to be happy that his little girl was going to be having a baby. He knew that using Charity to get his revenge on Doug was wrong. But she presented the perfect opportunity for this. Yet in the time that he had spent with her, he was actually starting to feel something for her. He didn't know if he could just up and leave her like he had planned to do. But even if he didn't up and leave her, she was still pregnant and Doug was going to have to deal with it.

Doug was worried about Charity. She just didn't seem herself on the phone. He called the house again, but this time all he got was the machine, Carter didn't even pick up the phone. He tried calling Charity's cell phone but all it did was ring. She usually answered that. So he broke down and called Carter's cell phone. Surely they hadn't gone out if she was feeling that bad. Maybe Carter had taken her to the ER.

"Carter." Carter said answering the phone.

"Carter where's Charity." Doug demanded.

"She's sleeping Doug. Why don't you just leave her alone for a little bit and let the woman rest." Carter said to him.

"Where are you two at?" He asked.

Carter debated for a minute if he should tell him where they were. What the place for him to find out that he was going to be a grandfather. "We're in the ER."

"Is Char okay?" Doug asked.

"She's going to be just fine. She was having abdominal pain on the right side so I brought her in to make sure that it wasn't her appendix." He said coolly.

"Then she just has the flu?" Doug was trying to get to the bottom of what was going on.

"She's fine Doug there's nothing to worry about." Carter said and with that he hung up the phone. If Doug was so damned worried about his daughter he could come down to the ER and see her for himself. As far as he was concerned his days of spending so much time with her were over. Carter had other plans. He was going to rub this into Doug's face as hard as he could and then sweep her off so that she didn't have anymore contract with him. Or very least, he would make sure that there was a confrontation between the two of them and take the only thing that Doug had in his life that was his away.

Doug showed up in the ER about ten minutes later with Carol in tote. She came along because she had a feeling that something was going on and she didn't want Doug to have to deal with it himself. He had been getting along so well with Charity even though she was dating Carter. He had stood back and let her make the mistakes herself, if she was making a mistake. Carol was pretty sure that Carter was up to something. He took up as much of Charity's time as he could. She did manage to see Doug while Carter was working. It seemed like that was the only time that Carter let her go and do anything was while he was at work.

"Randy, where are Carter and Charity." Doug asked walking into the ER.

"Exam 2 I think." She said. "Look at the board. He signed her in."

Doug and Carol headed down to exam 2. Doug was anxious to make sure that Charity was all right. Carol had noticed tonight for the first time he had told her that he loved her. For Doug that was a really big step. He was accepting her into his life. Carol was more than willing to let her in. It wasn't Doug's fault that he hadn't been there when she was little and now he felt that he needed to make up for the time that he missed while she was little. Doug got quiet when he walked in the room. Charity was awake and sitting on the bed in tears. Carter was nowhere to be found.

"Charity, honey what’s wrong.” Doug said sitting down on the bed next to her.

"Everything." She said.

"Are you not feeling any better." He said to her, "Carter wouldn't tell me what was wrong with you other than you didn't have appendicitis or the flu."

"I'll be fine." She said.

"What's wrong? Why are you sitting here crying, and where is Carter?" Doug asked.

"Nothing is wrong! I don't know where Carter is and right now I don't care." She snapped.

"Did the two of you have a fight?" Doug was asking her a million questions.

"No we didn't! And would you please stop grilling me. What is this twenty questions?” Charity was tired and worn out and the news that she got when she woke up wasn't what she wanted to hear. She was hoping that at any time now she would wake up and it would all be a dream.

Carter walked back into the room. He was smiling. He noticed that Charity had tearstains on her face.

"Oh honey." He said setting the flowers down next to her bed, "are you okay?"

"You damn well know that I am not all right." She snapped at him.

"It will be okay. I promise." Carter looked at her, "I went and got you something while you were sleeping. I didn't think that you would mind."

"What did you go and get." She looked at him with an evil eye, "don't tell me you went out and got me a preacher."

"Now are you not being a little sarcastic love." Carter said to her.

Carol couldn't help but notice that Carter was laying things on a little thick and keeping her from openly talking with her Dad. There was something wrong but with Carter around no one was going to find out what was eating at her.

Before Carol could say anything, Carter had bent down on one knee and was proposing to Charity. Doug looked like he was going to have a heart attack and Charity looked like she was going to strangle Carter.
"No Carter, not now." Charity said turning him down. No one saw that one coming, neither the proposal of marriage to make her an honest woman nor her turning his to marry her down. What was going on between the two of them?

"Carter, give Charity and I a minute along together would you." Carol said to him.

"Yeah sure. Maybe you can talk some sense into her." He said, he turned and walked out of the room. She turned and said to Doug, "you too. Give me a minute alone with her."

Doug walked out of the room. He wasn't sure why Carol wanted him to leave too, but he could understand why she wanted Carter out of there. Charity wasn't going to talk if he was standing there hovering over her. She didn't talk to her Dad as openly when he was around.

"Charity please tell me what's going on." Carol asked her.

"Carol I really don't want to talk right now." She said coldly.

"Would you talk to Mark if I went and got him. There's something bugging you and I don't know what it is but unless you get it off you're chest it's going to keep eating at you." Carol told her.

"If you want me to talk then the only person I'll talk to is Mark. I will not talk to Dad right now, and I will honestly kill Carter if I see him in the next ten minutes." Charity said to her.

Carol walked out of the room. The two men were standing outside they both started to head inside when Carol spoke up, "I would warn you two not to go in there right now. She wants to talk to Mark for a minute before she sees either one of you. She doesn't want her Dad right now Doug, and Carter she said that if she sees you in the next ten minutes she will kill you."

The both stopped dead in there tracks neither one waiting to go anywhere near her. Carter was pretty sure that it was just her hormones running wild. Pregnant women were like that. Doug decided he was going to confront Carter right there and then. He wanted some answers and if Charity wasn't going to give them to him then he would get them out of Carter one way or another.

"Carter what the hell have you done to my daughter." Doug demanded to know.

"Nothing Doug. I didn't do anything to her that she didn't want done." He said.

"You little SOB." Doug was about to hit Carter when Carol came around the corner with Mark. He just happened to be on tonight. Lucky for Carol if he hadn't been she wasn't sure what she would have done.

"Doug come on let's go get some coffee." Carol said to him pulling him away from Carter. She was sure that Doug was just about to come unglued on him.

"Carter I suggest you go find someplace to wait until Mark is done talking to Charity. I am sure that she still doesn't want you in there with her." Carol said to Carter.

Carter turned and headed off toward the doctor's lounge. He really didn't want to be anywhere near Doug right now anyway. But he did want to know what Charity wanted to talk to Mark about. Why would she turn to Mark and not to him? That really hurt that she would do that to him. But then he thought, look what I have done to her. She probably isn't thrilled to be pregnant. He knew that isn't what she wanted. Carter never thought to ask her what she would do if she did get pregnant. Hopefully it wasn't anything drastic.

Mark walked into Charity's room. She was sitting on the exam table cross-legged with her head in her hands crying hysterically again. Mark walked over to her and put his arm around her.

"Charity, honey what’s wrong.” He asked.

She looked up at him. "Please tell me what Carter told me is wrong."

"What did Carter tell you?” Mark asked.

"He told me that he brought me cause he was afraid I had appendicitis but he said that it wasn't that I'm just pregnant. He told me that there was nothing to worry about." She said sobbing even harder.

"Let me go look at your chart." Mark said at he looked up. The portable ultrasound was in the room, "hold that thought here. Let me take a look at you myself. I know you trust me Charity."

Mark tried to keep her calm. He knew that what he might find could upset her even more than she was upset now. He slowly ran the ultrasound across her belly. What he saw only confirmed what Carter had told her. She was indeed pregnant. "Charity, you are pregnant sweetie."

She burst into tears again. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. She didn't want this. She didn't want to be a mom yet, and here it was happening. She trusted Carter to help her make sure that this didn't happen and he had let her down.

"I take it then this isn't what you want." Mark said to her.

"What I want isn't relevant now. I have to face the music of what has happened. Carter told me that he would help me prevent this from happening and the SOB let me down. I should have known that is what he wanted all along from the time we met.” She said. “I am going to kick his ass when I see him.”

“Honey that isn’t going to help. Does Doug know what has happened?” Mark asked.

“No he doesn’t. How do I tell him that I didn’t listen to him and now I have to pay the piper? Damn it Mark why did this of all things have to happen.” She looked at him.

“Talk to your Dad. I am sure that he will be more understanding than you think. It’s not going to be easy but from what Doug has told me he has really come to love you over the past months.” Mark told her.

“I know he has but then I go and do something stupid like this. Something that even he can’t fix.” She said looking at the floor. “There’s no easy way out now.”

“Charity there isn’t.” Mark said.

“Would you tell Doug that I am ready to talk to him now that I have calmed down a little. And I really would like to leave if I could, with Dad not Carter.” She said.

“Sure Charity I will go and get him. He has Carol with him do you want her to come in too.” He asked.

“If he wants her to.” Was all Charity could say.

Mark left the room. Doug wasn’t far off pacing the hall. Mark could tell that his friend was truly worried about his child. She might have been an adult but Doug still cared. He saw Carter down the hall a little further. He’d let Doug know that Charity wanted to see him and then he’d tell Carter that she was going to leave with Doug not him.

“Hey buddy.” Mark said to Doug.

“Is she okay now?” Doug asked.

“Yeah she is. She really wants to talk to you, but please try not to lose your temper with her. She’s an emotional mess right now.” Mark said to his friend, “she said if you wanted to bring Carol in that’s fine too.”

“No, Carol is down getting coffee let her know I went in there.” He said and headed off to Charity’s room.

Mark walked down the hall toward Carter. He didn’t want to be the one to give him the news that she didn’t want anything to do with him right now, but what else could he do. “Carter.”

“What Mark?” Carter asked.

“Its about Charity.” He said.

“Does she want to talk to me now?” He asked.

“Actually she is in with Doug right now. She asked to talk to her Dad for a little bit and that she is going to go home with him tonight not you.” Mark told him.

“What she is going home with Doug. No I need to talk to her before she leaves. She belongs with me right now. I need to help her thru this.” Carter said.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you right now Carter. Maybe that is for the best.” Mark told him.

Carter stormed off. He was mad at everything that was happening right now. She should be turning to him for support not to her Dad.

Doug walked into Charity’s room. He wasn’t sure what she had that was so bad. He had an idea of what could be going on. But that was just an idea. Nothing concrete. He wouldn’t jump to conclusions until he talked to her.

“Hey there sweetheart.” Doug said to her.

“Hey Dad.” She said, “I really need to talk to you. There’s something that you need to know.”

“Before you start, I just want you to know that I love you. No matter what you tell me, I am always going to love you.” He said feeling better getting that off his chest.

“I know that you do, you might not feel the same way after I tell you. I know you warned me and I really should have listened, but you know that kids need to make their own mistakes. Well, I have made a pretty big one. Dad I’m pregnant.” She said.

Doug was silent for a minute. He had a feeling that this was the news that she was going to have to tell him.

“Carter?” He asked.

“Yeah Carter. I didn’t mean for this to happen. And he told me that he would help me keep it from happening, but it happened. He let me down and now I have to pay for it.” She said looking at the floor, “I just hope that you can find it in your heart to still love me and to forgive me.”

“Oh honey of course I still love you and I forgive you. Just because you make a mistake doesn’t mean that I am going to stop loving you. You’re my daughter and you always will be.” He said.

“Dad can I come home with you.” She asked?

“Of course you can.” Doug figured that she needed some time away from Carter and to think about what was going on.

Mark popped his head in the doorway. “Charity you are free to go. I finished you dispo, all you need to do is find an ob/gyn to follow up with in a few days.”

“Thank you Mark.” Doug said, “Come on Charity let’s go home.”

Doug went to get Carol and Charity started to put her clothes back on and gather up what she had been brought in with. She didn’t have much since Carter had grabbed her and carried her out the door. She heard the door open and close.

“Char sweetie.” She heard Carters voice say.

“Get out.” She hissed.

“Talk to me please.” He begged.

“No get out.” She hissed even louder.

“Please come on we need to talk about this.” He said walking towards her.

“Carter get away from me right now. I don’t want to talk to you right now. I need some space and time to think about what I am going to do.” She said.

“What do you mean what you are going to do. We are having a baby. I am going to be there for you and the baby every step of the way. I meant it when I told you I would do anything for you if you got pregnant.” He said to her.

“I also said that I didn’t want to get pregnant right now. And look what has happened I am pregnant. What parts of I don’t want a baby do you not understand?” She said to him.

“What do you honestly think that I got you pregnant on purpose. What that I went in there and told the sperm to swim around your pill.” He said snapping at her.

“Okay okay you got me there, but I still want some down time Carter. This is a lot that I have to try to absorb and I don’t need you telling me every five minutes that everything is going to be okay because right now it isn’t.” She said to him.

Doug came in the room. “Charity is everything okay.”

“Yeah Dad everything is fine. Carter was just leaving. He wanted to make sure that I was okay.” She said lying to him. “Give me just a minute and I will be right out. I’m almost ready to go home I just have to say a couple more things to him before I leave.”

“Okay.” Doug said leaving the room. She was sure that wasn’t the easiest thing that he father had ever done, but she also knew that he did it for her. He would do just about anything that he could do for her. She loved him for it. He was giving her unconditional love. And that it what she needed right now. None of this everything is going to be okay love that Carter was giving to her. She didn’t want a marriage proposal right now either.

“Carter please just give me a little bit of time. I will come back to you I promise. It’s just that right now I am about ready to explode. I don’t whom I am angrier with right now. I don’t want to say something that either of us is going to regret. You mean a lot to me, but right now I think we need a few days apart. It will work out for the best I promise.” She said to him.

Charity turned and walked out the door. She wanted to turn back around and run to him but only for a brief moment before her sanity hit her again full board.