~A/N – Thanks for opening this! I really appreciate it! Anyway, this is one of my pieces that I wrote for my Creative Writing class, and I would like feedback other than my teacher's or my friend's (not that I don't enjoy their imput =)) So it's about Carrie and Doug Heffernan, mostly Carrie. You may read it as you wish, and let me know what your honest opinion is! (ONE SHOT!!)

"Love, Doug"

It was ten o'clock at night. The sun had long ago gone down behind the huge buildings in Queens, New York and now the sky seemed misty gray. The stars are shining down on me and my red car as I drove past all the cars on the highway to make my way home. Normally I wouldn't have been out that late, but I needed some room from my husband for a little while. We had just gotten into a fight before I left. I sighed as I remembered us yelling at each other than me slamming the door shut behind me. Nothing was going right those days. There were no curves on the highway at all, just long roads that were just a straight shot. My mind began to wonder to earlier, to the fight between me and Doug:

I was sitting in the living room, doing taxes, when Doug came home from work. Money was tight, because I lost my job and Doug's paycheck was the only one we were getting. It was frustrating. Doug came into the living room, but I didn't look up.

"Hey." He said in a happy tone.

I said back, "Hey."

He walked up to me, sensing something, "What's wrong?" Sighing, I grabbed a bill and pointed to the print.

"Tell me what that says."

Squinting his eyes to see, he said, "What?"

"A Mets Jacket!," I threw it down on the table. "When did you by a Mets Jacket?!" Doug came around to my side of the couch.

"It… it was only two hundred bucks--."

"Doug!" I grabbed the slip of paper again and shoved it in his face. "Did you happen to see the extra two in front of the two?!"

His face flushed as he took the paper from my hand and looked at it. I was sending him a death stare as he looked from the paper to me and back again. "Oops."

"Yeah… oops!" I sat down and looked through the bills. "How are we going to pay that and the electric bill?!" My head was pounding, great time to get a headache.

"We'll get some loans--."

"No one else will loan us more money!" I looked at him, he looked really upset. "Did you get the jacket?"

"It'll be here in a week--."

"Cancel the order."

Doug appeared to be dumbfounded. "What?" I gave him a look and crossed my arms. "Carrie, I really want that jacket!"

"We'll it's either that or starve," I pushed past him on my way to the kitchen. "And since you can't go a few minutes without eating, cancel the order." My words replayed in my mind as I went to a cabinet. They were definitely the wrong choice of words. I took out a glass and filled it with water, at the sink.

Doug followed me in the kitchen, "Hey, enough with the fat jokes," he seemed more hurt than angry, which made me feel a little bad, but I put up a façade. "You know money is hard right now." I took a drink.

"Yeah, especially since you keep spending it on useless junk--."

"It's not useless junk! I like to think of it as memorabilia."

"I really don't care buddy, cancel the order."

"No."

"Doug." I set the glass down, almost pleading with him.

"Why can't I just have the jacket?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Because it's two-thousand, two- hundred and twenty dollars? We can't afford that!"

He crossed his arms and looked away from me. I rolled my eyes; he was going to lose the fight one way or another.

"We'd be able to afford it if…" He trailed off, not knowing if he should finish his sentence.

Clearing my throat, I said, "What? Tell me what you were going to say--."

"We'd be able to afford it if you still had a job!" My mouth fell open as he said those words. "Have you even tried… looking for a job?" Doug finished his sentence in a whisper. Those words cut deep.

Honestly, I couldn't believe he would have ever said that, "I'm… I'm going for a drive." Tears formed in my eyes, but I would not let them shed. The car keys were on the table. I grabbed them in a hurried pace and went out the door, slamming it behind me. As I left, I heard the sound of glass hitting the ground.

I slammed on my brakes as I hit into the grey Santa Fe in front of me. I cursed to myself for not paying attention to the road. The driver side door opened on the other car, the other driver ran out and looked at the sight. Slowly, I opened my door and got out. So far this night was turning out very badly… what else could happen today? I began to half jog; half walk over to the lady. The cars were zooming past me on the highway.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" I asked. She glanced at me, but looked back at her car. I noticed her hair was gray with a few blonde patches left; she appeared to be in her early to late fifties.

Clearing her throat, she said, "Yes, I'm alright… but my car," She sounded more sad than angry, which, in a way, was a good thing. She put her hands on her hips and looked at me again; her bluish-green eyes were full of confusion. "Um… what is the name of your insurance company?"

I gave her a nervous smile, "I'll give you the card," I went back to my car and started to look. The glove compartment is where it should have been, I looked through all the napkins and papers but I could not find the card. Sighing, I remembered my husband took it with him. I grabbed my cell phone to call him. Shutting the door behind me, I went over to her.

"I'm sorry; the card is with my husband. I'll have him drop it off, it will only take a few minutes."

She looked shocked, "Oh… well while you're calling your husband, I better give mine a call." She walked over to her car, the cell phone to her ear as she got to the door. I sighed, and began to dial my home number, stalling for a few seconds before I hit the call button. I sighed; I didn't know how I was going to tell him I pretty much just totaled our car. I swallowed as I heard him pick up.

"You do know its ten o'clock at night right? Why don't you try back in the morning?" I heard a click as if the phone was hung up… then I heard the buzzing in my ear. I growled as I shut my phone then ripped it open and dialed again. I put the phone to my ear and waited for him to pick up.

"What part of its too late to call don't you people understand?!"

I rolled my eyes, "It's me." He was silent; I could hear him hold his breath as I continued. "Um… I got into a car accident."

He gasped on the other end, "What?! Are you alright?!"

"It wasn't a bad one, but they will be taking it out of our insurance--."

"You hit someone with our car?!" I hugged myself, trying to keep warm as the wind picked up. I glanced at the lady; she was sitting her Santa Fe talking to her husband with a frown on her face. Another wind came by and I shuddered.

"Yeah… it was just a little fender-bender. I think our car got the worse of it tough."

"Well… that's just great!" He sighed.

"By the way, you have to come out here--."

"Why?"

"Maybe if you let me finish I would tell you," I cleared my throat. "You have the insurance card in your car; you took it with you on the way to the Jets Game last weekend." He didn't say anything for a minute. The wind picked up, again, as I stood there. A car door slammed shut, I looked to the right to see the lady coming towards me.

"Oh, now I remember. Well… where are you located? I'll be there in a few minutes."

Looking around, I didn't see any signs. All I saw were cars. "On the Interstate Highway going toward our house, you'll be able to see the cars parked at the side of the road."

"Okay, I'll be there." We hung up without another word. The lady was standing next to me with her arms crossed, rubbing her arms up and down.

I said, "He'll be here in a few seconds, we don't live that far away," She nodded and told me her husband was very disappointed. It was his brand new car that he got last week for his birthday. "Oh… I'm going to go wait in my car until he gets here--."

"I'll do the same," With that, she walked away from me and into her car, slamming the door behind her. I rolled my eyes, and then I noticed her bumper. It had a huge dent in it, I winced at the sight. I then walked over to the front of my car; it looked like someone hit it with a sludge hammer.

"Shit." This was going to cost too much to get it repaired, but I suppose that's what I deserved.

I walked over to my front door with my head hung low. Opening the door, I sat down and sighed; now the only thing I could do was wait for him to come. I sighed again and relaxed as the warm air hit me and warmed my freezing body.

A knocking on the window woke me up from my sleep. I looked up and saw Doug standing there, rubbing his hands together, he had gloves on. My heart leapt when I saw him. I opened the door and got out.

"Do you have the card?" The door shut behind me and I began to rub my arms, getting use to the cold.

He showed it to me, "Yeah, where's the lady?" With my head, I pointed in the direction of the Santa Fe. He nodded, and then looked back at me; his green eyes starring into mine. We walked over to it together, both wanting this night to end.

He gave a small wave to the lady in the car, who unrolled her window to talk to us. He smiled warmly, "Hi, here's our insurance car--."

She took it, "Thank you." She rolled up her window and dialed the number, then put the phone to her ear, without looking at us. I rolled my eyes again, as Doug continued to look at the lady, as if wondering what had just happened.

Doug gave me a look, "She seems nice."

"Yeah…" Silence filled the air as we stood there, very cold, waiting for the lady to get off the phone. It was an awkward moment between us because we were still mad at each other. The lady was still talking to our Insurance Guy with a small smile on her face, the first smile I ever saw on her face. Doug was breathing out through his mouth, and I could see his breath. He kept doing that, enjoying himself. When he saw me looking at him, he stopped, we were still in the fight after all. We couldn't be happy with each other now.

"Everything is settled," We looked at the lady; she had her window rolled down. "The cost is yet to be determined, but it will be taking out of your account. Here is you card, goodbye." With that, she handed Doug the card and drove off, leaving me and my husband standing there, shivering in the cold.

He looked at me, "Well, that was interesting."

"At least I didn't total her car, seriously," I hugged myself tighter and walked back to my car, followed by Doug. "I doubt the car will start..."

I opened the car door and sat down. Doug came to stand in front of the door with his arms crossed. The car made a stutter sound, and I thought I would hear the roaring hum of the car starting, I never did. I sighed, now I have another thing on my conscience.

Doug said, "Well, we can just leave it here for tonight and, in the morning, a tow truck can tow it to back to the house." Nodding, I got out the car, coming face to face with Doug, but not looking him in the eyes. He tried to touch my arm, but I went straight to the car.

I got into Doug's messy black avalanche and sighed as I shut the door. He was shortly behind me, with a mixed expression on his face. I looked out the window at my car, not wanting to talk to Doug. As we drove away, the car got farther and farther behind until it was nothing but a dot in the distance. A tear rolled down my face as I thought of what had happened that day. I quickly wiped it away, so he wouldn't notice, but I could tell he did.

We got home a little after that. Doug eased the car into the garage and brought it to a stop. He took the keys out of the ignition, and I got out, in a quick pace. The backyard had a single picnic table and a grill, for Doug of course. A brown fence kept us from seeing our neighbor's lawn, and the path I was walking on was only grass. I turned the door knob to the house and opened it, Doug called my name. Sighing, I kept walking into the house, leaving the door open for him. He came shortly after me, a little tired from jogging to the door.

Taking a few breaths, he said, "Carrie, we should talk," I took off my coat and set it on the table, glancing at Doug once. "I didn't mean what I said earlier, I'm really sorry--."

I turned to him, "All I want to do right now is sleep. I don't want to talk." I began to walk out the door to the living room, but Doug went in front of me. "Doug, come on, this is childish."

He shook his head, "Carr, talk to me," I was feeling overwhelmed again, and panicked. "Please, I want you to know how sorry I am. It's not your fault you lost your job!"

"My God, let it go." I walked past him, turned to the right and went up the stairs to our bedroom. He followed me, of course, being persistent.

"It's not just the fight from before is it?" Undoing my side of the bed, I glanced at him, for a few minutes. "It's everything that has been happening this week, isn't it?" I had a feeling that he wouldn't understand, and that was bothering me. My eyes watered, but I looked away from him and wiped them fast. I wanted to tell him… but I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

I looked him in the eyes, and what I saw was concern and confusion, "I don't have anything to say," I sat down on the bed. "Just leave me alone."

"No," Doug said sitting right next to me. "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

"I'm telling you, there is nothing to tell."

He sighed, "Why are you fighting me on this?"

"Why?! You are getting on my nerves!" Now I was starting to yell, not because I was mad, but because I didn't want to tell him.

"I'm trying to help you!"

"I don't need help!"

"Carrie!"

"Doug!" We continued to argue for a few minutes. I was also being persistent and not telling him. My facade was beginning to break through, and he could tell. My heart was beginning to race and my palm was becoming sweaty.

"It's everything!" I took a few deep breaths, and sat down on the bed, fidgeting. My heart, again, was racing, this time on an uneven note. "I lost my job, which makes me feel unimportant; I got into a fender-bender, which makes me feel stupid. We have to get our car fixed after the same fender-bender, and that makes me feel even more stupid. And after what you said earlier… I still feel hurt about that." Tears were falling freely from my face. Doug stood there, silent. I didn't want to look at him; I didn't want him to see my tears.

He sat down next to me on the bed and gently put his arm around me, "Please, don't cry." I leaned against his shoulder.

"I can't help it Doug," My arms went around his neck as I continued to cry. He held me there, not making a sound. Slowly there was complete silence in the room as I cried myself to sleep in Doug's arms.

The next morning I woke up under the covers of my bed, barely remembering what happened the night before. I sat up, looking to my left, expecting to see my husband's face. His face was not there as he had gotten up before me; his side of the bed was made. That puzzled me. He normally wouldn't have gotten up until I was fully dressed. I had just about retreated under the covers again, when something yellow caught my eye. On Doug's pillow there was a small note. Reaching for it with my right hand, I noticed it had my name on it. As I read it, a tear filled my eye. It was the sweetest thing he could have written for me:

Carrie,

Whenever you don't feel important, when you feel like the world it crumbling beneath you, think of me. Whenever you are hurt or scared, come to me. Whenever you need someone to love you, I'm always right next to you. To me you're the smartest person in the world, and you're the most important thing in my life. You are my everything!

Love,

Doug

~A/N – I don't know how to feel about his piece. I liked it when I wrote it, and I still love it (as well as everything else that I have written) But I haven't gotten great feedback on the ending. In fact, I didn't know how to write the ending, like it was in my head. So let me know what you guys think – I'll take anything you have to throw at me, just don't state the obvious. Thanks!~