No More Mrs Nice Nurse (Doctor Happy 2)

Chapter 12

Lee's emergency, as he sort of expected, wasn't really one at all. One of his patients was refusing to eat anything and Lee had to remind him of the importance of keeping his strength up.

By the time this was dealt with and every other patient was seen to, Carly's wish for them to discuss her mood at home looked as if it was getting fulfilled. They had a silent drive home from the hospital and Carly chose to start making dinner as soon as she was through the front door. Lee knew that she was trying to avoid the conversation by any means necessary but the thing was, so was he.

He'd never been good at talking about feelings, particularly someone else's. If someone had an issue to do with their health, then Lee could almost guarantee them he'd fix it. But when it came to things like this, he was probably the least qualified person in the world.

Dinner was as silent as the car journey, their chewing and cutlery banging together the only sounds penetrating the cloud of uncertainty that was hovering over them.

"This tastes great" Lee said the only thing that he could think of to break the silence.

"Thanks" Carly replied with a fake smile, returning them to the still atmosphere instantly.

The rest of their evening remained in the same way, almost amusing Lee. He managed to stifle a laugh whilst they were (still silently) watching TV. He found it funny that two people as smart as him and his wife, despite knowing that the only way to fix a problem was to talk about it outright, as they'd done so many times, here they were ignoring it. Eventually though, Lee figured that they couldn't ignore it forever and just as Carly announced that she was going to bed, he asked her to wait.

"What?" She grunted, probably just annoyed that she wasn't getting away with running away.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about earlier on?" He asked.

"I told you just needed air" She lied.

"I know that you're pissed at Hunter for what he did to Chris, and so am I. But that wasn't like you" Lee chose to ignore her denial.

"Jack just really bugs me" She told him.

"There's more to this than you're telling me. I'm not an idiot"

"You're not a detective either" Carly pointed out.

"Have I done something wrong?" Lee asked, beginning to sense that perhaps her problem wasn't with Jack after all.

Carly sighed but answered him anyway.

"You haven't done anything" She began. "I've just been thinking a lot today"

"What about?"

"Us"

"What about us? I can't fix anything if I don't know what the problem is in the first place"

Once again, Carly sighed as she stepped closer to Lee and began to explain herself. Lee gulped, knowing that her body language meant that this was serious.

"Do you ever wonder if it wasn't for our circumstances that we wouldn't have ever gotten together at all?" She asked.

"I'm not sure what you mean"

"Well when you think about it, we didn't really get together in the conventional way. If we didn't know each other the way we did, we probably wouldn't have gone out. You'd never have asked me out"

"Carly, you're not making any sense" Lee laughed nervously.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure if we really fell in love with each other as such, but more just fell in love with . . . our story, you know? We don't really have anything in common" She shrugged.

"Does that really matter? You're happy right? Or is that something else you're keeping from me?" Lee knew he sounded as though he was getting angry but he couldn't help it. He just wanted some answers from Carly.

"I am happy. I've just been thinking today if we could be happier"

"Do you want to break up? Do you want a divorce? Is that what you're saying?" Lee's voice grew louder and louder with each pressing question, his frustration and paranoia finally reaching boiling point.

"No Lee! That's not what I'm saying! Why do you always have you jump to conclusions like that?" Carly snapped back, her own annoyance rising up now.

"Because you aren't telling me a damn thing! Why can't you just talk to me straight? What happened to make you start thinking about all this garbage?"

"So my feelings are garbage?" Carly spat the last word out.

"You know what I mean! What happened today?" Lee hounded.

"It's nothing"

"It's obviously something!"

"It's just something Jack said" Carly finally blurted out.

"Jack? What's he been saying now?" Lee sighed, his anger now substituted with confusion.

"I don't know. He's just filling my head with all this stuff and I don't know what to make of it"

"Did he ask you out again, or try anything? Did he come on to you?"

"No of course he didn't. If he had, then I'd have told you that! I promised that, remember?" Carly bit back.

"Yeah but when you come away with all these stupid ideas of us not really being in love with each other, how can I believe any of what you're saying?" Lee hissed.

Carly screamed in frustration, threw her arms in the air and headed back towards the stairs.

"That's not what I meant! I can't deal with you when you're like this. I'm going to bed" She groaned.

"Well isn't that ironic? You're always the one that used to tell me that I couldn't run from my problems and now look at you! Running away, pretending that nothing's happening"

"Yeah? Well you can sleep on the couch tonight. Does that look like I'm pretending nothing's happening, huh?" Carly yelled before storming up the stairs, taking two at a time so that she could get further away from her husband faster.

"Fine! I don't want to sleep next to someone who doesn't know if they love me or not anyway!" Lee shouted back, knowing that she probably hadn't heard him, and that she would have heard the obvious lie in his voice anyway.

He turned to face his new sleeping area and found that it was covered in unwashed clothes and various stray sheets of paperwork from both their respective patients. He knew it wouldn't take long to clear it up but it was Carly who had made most of this mess. Why should he be the one to clean up her stuff when she didn't have the decency to talk through her problems with him? He'd always been there for her and she'd always reciprocated it. He had no idea what had changed now but he made a promise to himself that he'd find out for sure tomorrow.

First though, he needed to sleep, and his defiance meant that he wouldn't be napping here tonight. That left him just one option.

It was time to find out if his car really was as comfortable as he'd always thought.

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Uh oh! Looks like there's trouble in paradise!

I know this chapter was pretty short but I thought that would make the argument a lot more effective. Was I right, or not really? Haha any opinions are good!

As is quickly becoming the case, I hope it doesn't take me too long to get the next chapter out, but until then any and all reads, votes and comments are hugely appreciated! :)