What if… according to one in a million cordano narratives where Elizabeth and Romano get their act, amongst other things, together, pre season 8… Mark was single when Susan came back to Chicago?

(Thanks to rocketlover for the idea…)

Mark looked up from the patient to see Susan knocking on the window.

"You with me?" Elizabeth demanded of the suddenly grinning and distracted doctor with his hands in her patient.

"Oh, ah, yeah." He looked back to the somewhat gory mess before "Pericardium's tense with blood" He tried to focus on the patient but looked back up to see if Susan was still there, or if he'd just been imagining things, or if she'd run away again no matter how real she was…

She was smiling at him and pointed toward admittance.

He nodded and forced himself to ignore his own heartbeat and focus on keeping the one in front of him going, "That's a big bleeder underneath."

Elizabeth knew he wasn't paying attention. And why. "Your date might be waiting a while."

"Susan knows what this place is like. Can you feel the defect?"

"Got it."

"Good femoral with compressions." Chuny said.

"Stop CPR." Elizabeth commanded. There was no pulse.

Susan rapped at the window.

Elizabeth ignored her while Mark smiled apologetically, "What do you think?"

"I hope you're not asking my opinion on your date. Probably entry wound through the left ventricle." She said calmly, sounding more like Romano every day, "He's ragged through the mitral valve."

They worked for a few more minutes.

"He's gone." Mark sighed eventually. "You want to call it?"

Elizabeth shook her head and kept going.

Mark rolled his eyes and backed out of the room, holding bloody fists at his shoulders, charmingly, "You look great."

"You look great too."

"Hey Mark I need you to take a look at six year old boy, dehydration and vomiting." Haleh interrupted.

"Can Cleo do it?"

"He's got a genetic disorder."

"You better go." Susan smiled, "And I should too, I have an interview at Northwestern."

"Oh." He didn't manage to sound like he wasn't disappointed.

"You want to have coffee later?"

He was backing towards Haleh, "Ah, yeah. Elizabeth can you spare me?"

"Forget it. Go."

"Good to see things never change." Susan grinned at the chaos ensuing.

"Knock 'em dead." He smiled at her, referring to her interview.

"You too." She replied, watching him disappear into a room.

"He asked me out half way through the meeting." Susan said, still a little incredulous.

"Was he good looking?" He tried to keep it light

"He spits when he talks." She clearly couldn't care less. "I'm not worried, I've got three more interviews, I'll find something."

"Well, you could stop the search and just return to County?" he didn't want to sound too hopeful but failed miserably.

"Yeah, right." She scoffed.

"We're looking for an attending. You saw what it was like down there thismorning." He sat down and she saw the scar on his head.

"You could've at least called me, you know." She didn't quite scold him.

"I wouldn't have known what to say." His voice almost faltered.

"Or written a letter."

"Oh, like the one you wrote me, telling me you were engaged?" he tried to sound unaffected and light.

"It wasn't an engagement, and its over." She said seriously.

"Is that why you left?" he asked sensitively.

"Chloe moved and that was my only real tie to Arizona. I can't track her all over the world so I thought I'd come home. I've just missed it here." She smiled, "The city, the weather… you." Moment of truth, she thought to herself bravely.

He grinned like he'd been waiting to hear that for the past five years… actually longer considering how long he'd been pining for her before she ever left. "I've missed you." He wasn't so brave. Last time he'd thrown caution to the wind for her she'd left him standing in her dust beside the train tracks. But now she was sitting just two feet away, looking at him totally unsure of herself and more vulnerable than he was expecting.

She tried to cover herself, smiling confidently, but he wasn't convinced. Then he got a well timed page and cringed. "Walk me back?"

She nodded and got up to walk with him. Outside she got up the courage to speak, knowing he'd be pulled into the ER and might not come up for air for longer than she was willing to leave this unsaid. "I know I can't ask much – it's been almost five years, I can't just come back and pick up where we left off." Probably not the best idea to bring up just where you left off, she thought.

She was right there. He didn't want to leave her like this but he had to go.

"You better go." She smiled wryly. He nodded and went inside.

"What are you doing?" Susan laughed at him. He'd been in the cupboard for a while now.

He found what stepped out of the closet holding a box and pulled the lid off. "I was going to send it to you but I never got around to it. Someone found it a couple of years ago when they moved the laundry."

She laughed and pulled it out of the box. It wasn't really white anymore. But it was her old lab coat, name stitched on the lapel and all. She shook her head. County wasn't that good. She wasn't going to come back for a coat and nostalgia.

"I already told Kerry it was a done deal, so if you pull out now, it'll make me look really stupid,"

"Are you serious?" she was shocked. Then she laughed.

"I put you down for next Tuesday." He grinned mischievously.

She shook her head grinning. "I don't remember you being this impossible."

He just raised his eyebrows, praying she'd take the job, and not just because he hated to give Kerry any reason to speak to him.

"I do hate interviews." She'd agree so she figured she may as well make him work for it.

"Yess."

She laughed. "I didn't sign anything yet."

"Have dinner with me; let me talk you into it." He shut the cupboard and walked with her back toward the ER. She was still holding her lab coat.

She cocked her head to one side, "Yeah."

"I'm off at six."

She nodded still smiling.

He stopped walking before they reached the inevitable swarm of people in the ER. "It's good to see you again."

She swallowed and nodded, reaching into his embrace. "I'll see you later." She pulled away and watched him back away, grinning quirkily. She took a deep breath, tried not to be that affected and failed miserably.