Chris looked up at his doctor and nurse in horror.

"You can't find anything?" He asked them.

"The CAT scan hasn't shown up anything yet and neither have the blood tests, although we're still waiting for all of the results" Lee confirmed.

"So what does this mean?" Asked Chris.

"We're going to try again" Carly explained.

"Really?"

"Absolutely" Lee added, "I know we're supposed to discharge you if there's nothing but there is clearly something going on, considering this keeps happening to you. So while we've got the space, time and resources, I want to stick with it. I never leave a man behind, alright?"

"Thanks" Chris smiled.

They both left him to it and walked together down the bare corridors.

"You ok?" Carly asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I know you like to be quiet but I'm getting a vibe off of you"

"A vibe?"

"Yeah. Is everything ok? You know you can talk to me, right?"

Lee sighed, but finally confided in his wife. "I just forget how tough this job can be sometimes".

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look at Chris. He's terrified of what's happening to him. At his age he should be out there, going to parties and chasing girls. Not sitting in a hospital bed, shitting himself over how long it's going to be before he comes back again" Lee said sounding defeated.

"Aw I know honey, but that's what the job is unfortunately. Just keep telling yourself how amazing it's going to feel once we figure out what's wrong with him and we can send him away and never see him again" Carly laughed, as did Lee. It was a running joke at the hospital where as much as they liked some of their patients, they really hoped they never had to see them again.

"The nature of the beast" Lee quoted every other doctor that worked there.

"Doctor Dawson, there's a phone call for you at reception" A nurse, seemingly coming from nowhere, interrupted their conversation.

"I'll be right there" He smiled happily, not letting her know how he was truly feeling at that moment.

The nurse left them and so Carly continued by saying "Exactly. If anyone can figure out what's wrong with Chris, it's you".

"Thanks. Where are you off to now?"

"I think I'll go see how Mr. Parks is going" She answered. "Last I saw him he'd improved so much that they're thinking of sending him home!"

"That's awesome!" Lee cried.

"It really is! He's been here for what feels like forever so it's good to see him finally looking good. So I'll go see to him while you go get that phone call and then we can meet in the cafeteria for lunch?"

"Sounds good to me, see you soon!" Lee smiled before turning into the opposite direction of his wife.

Carly was worried about him, but knew he'd pull himself together shortly. Lee loved a challenge, even if it involved someone else's health. He'd never admit to it, but she knew it to be true.

She walked for a few minutes before arriving at the bed of sixty-six year old Arthur Parks.

"How are we today Arthur?" She asked the man.

Mr. Parks had been taken in after suffering from a stroke but had shown remarkable signs of improvement in the last few weeks and he was likely to be discharged within the next twenty-four hours. Although Carly hadn't seen much of him, she really liked the old man and despite being happy he was better, she felt like she was going to miss him.

"I'm feeling great Nurse Oliver, or is it Dawson now?" He spoke back softly.

"I'm a Dawson now alright" She replied as she sat down in a chair by the window.

"Nurse Dawson. That's going to take some getting used to" Arthur laughed.

"You're telling me!" Carly replied. "Is your daughter coming to visit today?"

"She said she'll be in later. The doctor called her and said I'd be getting out so I'm assuming she's pretty excited"

"I'm sure she is. You know that you've to stay with her for a while when you get out though? Just to be safe" Nurse Dawson reminded him.

"Yes, yes I know, the good doctor told me all this this morning. Speaking of your husband, here he is now!" Arthur nodded towards the entrance to his room. Carly looked over to see that he was right, Lee was standing there.

"What's up? I thought we were meeting in the cafeteria?" She asked, but received no answer.

"What's wrong, doctor? You look worse than I do" Arthur laughed. Normally Carly would have laughed along with him, but she didn't this time because he was right. Lee was paler than the hospital hallways and didn't look like his regular self at all.

"Lee?" She asked, her voice filled with concern.

Her worry was completely justified seconds later when Lee finally answered in a hoarse, monotone voice.

"We need to go back to Pittsburgh"

*

Once Lee had explained the nature of the phone call he'd received, Carly agreed that they had to leave straight away. After a quick conversation with Doctor Kent, they headed home to quickly pack a bag each and headed straight for the airport.

Hours later, they arrived at Allegheny General Hospital in the heart of Pittsburgh.

Carly hadn't been here since she'd thought she'd been fired from her job but she wasn't thinking about that right now.

"I'm so glad that you guys could make it so quickly. He doesn't have much time" A woman with large grey eyes and hair to match said almost as soon as they set foot in the door.

"It's so good to see you Susan" Carly whispered, running up to her former colleague and hugging her tightly.

"Where is he?" Lee asked, not wanting to waste any time.

"Same place he was last time you were here" Susan replied, knowing better than most not to annoy Mr. Dawson.

"I'll be in in a second" Carly told him. Firstly, she wanted to quickly catch up with Susan but mostly because she wanted Lee to have a moment alone with the man they were here to see.

Lee nodded at her before charging down the hall. Luckily, he knew these halls like the back of his hand and found himself where he wanted to be in no time at all.

He took a deep breath before quietly opening the door to the room and closing it behind him.

Inside, lying on the bed, Robert Alexander looked like a completely different man to the one Lee had known.

Robert had been a resident patient at Allegheny General when Lee had worked there and Doctor Dawson considered Robert to be the main reason, besides Carly, that he had changed his life and taken a more positive outlook on everything. Unfortunately, because Lee knew him from the hospital, it meant that Robert was unwell and before Lee had left for Burlington, Robert had been diagnosed with terminal leukaemia. Now before Lee, laid a pale, balding man who looked like he was already dead.

And soon he would be.

Lee had received a phone call telling him that Robert wasn't expected to last the next twenty-four hours.

The doctor sat down next to his bed and took in the sleeping man in front of him. It felt alien to him, being a visitor instead of a carer.

He was just about to get up and check Robert's charts to see how bad the diagnosis was when the old man suddenly flung his eyes open.

"Who's there?" The man croaked fearfully.

"It's ok Robert, it's me" Lee assured him, leaning in closer. "Doctor Dawson. Do you remember me?"

"Doctor Dawson? Where am I?" Robert asked, just as scared sounding as he had before.

"You're in the hospital remember? You're feeling a little bit unwell. Do you remember?"

"You're my doctor?"

"I used to be. Now I just came to see you. Is there anything I can do?" Lee asked, feeling helpless for the first time in his life. He'd lost patients before but he'd never been as emotionally attached to them as he'd been to this one. He also knew that there was nothing he could do for Mr. Alexander. Barring a scientific miracle, Robert was going to die soon.

"Water" Robert croaked. Lee grabbed the plastic cup that lay beside the bed and handed it to Robert after he'd struggled to sit up.

"Anything else?" Lee winced.

"Whiskey"

"What?"

"Just tell me one thing, doctor"

"Anything"

"How the fuck did you fall for that crap? I mean seriously! If I knew I was that good I would have started acting sixty fucking years ago" Robert smiled widely.

"You're an asshole" Lee laughed. This  was the Robert he knew.

"I'm an asshole? You're the one that bailed! Why would leave this house of joy?" Robert raised his arms, gesturing to the hospital they were sitting in.

"You know why I left" Lee reminded him.

"You were supposed to get her and bring her back! Not stay in that shithole with her! Do you have any idea how hard it is to sit here and put up with that jackass every day?"

"Phil?"

"Fucking Phil" Robert confirmed.

The door to the room opened then and Carly walked in, tip-toeing in case she was interrupting them.

"Hi" She whispered for the same reason.

"There she is. How are you, sweetheart?" The patient asked his latest visitor.

"I'm good, Robert. Thank you" She replied.

"Hey don't worry about asking how I'm doing" He laughed, "I know I'm about to pop it"

"You can't think like that" Carly smiled sympathetically even though they all knew it was true.

"I'm not retarded. I know my time is up. Look at me, I can't even tell the difference between my kneecap and my cock these days!"

"How are the rest of the guys?" Lee asked, changing the subject. Before Robert had been diagnosed with cancer, he'd shared a room with three other men. One of them had died whilst Lee and Carly were looking after them but the others were as fine as they could be.

"Dead. Both of them" Robert answered bluntly.

"Oh my god" Lee gasped as Carly threw her hands over her mouth in horror.

"That's what I said. It's typical isn't it? I'm the one that gets a terminal illness and I still live longer than those poor bastards. Life's a bitch huh? But listen, enough of this depressing shit. What's new with you guys anyway? Tell me something exciting".

"There's not much to tell really" Lee muttered.

"We got married!" Carly squealed, drowning out her husband.

"Seriously? To this guy?" Robert cried. "You are one dumb little lady, you know that?"

"Hey!" Lee complained, but laughed nonetheless.

"I don't know what you're bitching about. You're the luckiest son of a bitch I've ever met to be married to this girl" Robert said before turning his attention back to Carly and saying "I hope he's treating you right?"

"He's wonderful" Carly replied, smiling at Lee.

"Well there's a first" Robert sniggered.

"I should have stopped treating you when I had the chance" Lee said sarcastically.

"Lee!" Carly hissed, punching him on the arm.

"Can't you get fired for saying that?" Mr. Alexander asked.

"I don't work here anymore"

"With an attitude like that, I'm not surprised!"

Lee was about to respond to Robert again but was interrupted when the door to the room was opened for a third time, this time being followed by a nurse that neither Lee nor Carly recognised.

"Hey, doc. What do you think of my new sexy nurse? Don't think I've ever seen an ugly one. Have you?" Robert joked.

"Very funny, Mr. Alexander" The red haired nurse giggled. "I'm afraid it's time for your medication"

"Oh god, what's the point? I'm going to die anyway!"

"You know you have to take them" Carly sighed.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. We'll come back and see you tomorrow" Lee told him.

"Please. I'll be as stiff as your dick when you see Nurse Oliver naked by then" Robert sulked.

"Robert!" Carly yelled, similarly to what she'd done to Lee a few minutes before.

"What? I had to leave you guys something to remember me by" The old man shrugged.

"Well mission accomplished! Goodbye Robert" Carly smiled, despite her obvious shock at his last statement.

"Goodbye sweetheart" He smiled back before receiving a hug from his former nurse.

"I hope you're not expecting the same from me?" Lee asked with his eyebrows raised, "Because I'm not much of a hugger"

"Don't worry Doctor D. I wouldn't expect anything less" Robert answered, extending his hand to Lee, which he accepted and shook straight away.

"Thank you, Robert" Lee said in the most sincere tone that he could without giving in to the tears that were threatening to burst from their ducts. "If it wasn't for you –"

"I know kid. I know. Don't worry about it alright? All that matters is that things are good now" Robert replied just as honestly as Lee had.

Lee nodded at him before he and Carly headed for the exit. They were just about to leave when Robert called out to them again.

"Yeah?" Lee asked after they'd both stopped and turned to look at him again.

"See you guys tomorrow" Robert nodded, looking as if he too was fighting back the tears.

"See you tomorrow" Lee and Carly answered together before leaving for real.

That was the last time that either of them saw Robert Alexander.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Man that was hard to write! How was it to read?

 This was actually one of the first scenes I'd thought of when I began planning this story. Robert was one of my favourite characters in the first book and he was always going to appear in this one. What did you guys think of his final scene, or just the character in general? Originally I planned on extending the chapter and having a funeral scene too, but I decided against it, thinking that we don't want to remember Robert being in a box in the ground, but by his offensive sense of humour. Do we agree?

Anyway, as with pretty much every scene of these Doctor Happy stories, music was a huge influence in writing it and this song helped me a lot and tapped into how Lee and Carly are feeling now that he's gone. Are you guys tearing up too? 😭

P.S. Don't worry, the next chapter will definitely be a happy one!