TITLE: Somebody Came After All
RATING: T
PAIRING: Susan/Elizabeth, some implied Romano/Elizabeth
SUMMARY: What if other people showed up for Romano's Memorial?
DISCLAIMER: Nothing is mine, okay?
Elizabeth couldn't help but feel the eerie silence surrounding Robert Romano's memorial site around her. With only the sound of the falling snow and the occasional ambulance siren to keep her company, Elizabeth couldn't help but feel the feeling of losing who she considers her only remaining friend intensify.
She really had no idea with the details surrounding his death. All she knew that day was that a helicopter crashed on the ambulance bay, causing multiple casualties that kept their hands full the entire day. It was only the next day when she found out that Robert on the ambulance bay during the crash when Anspaugh informed her, in a general Chief assembly, that rescuers discovered his signature gold stethoscope while rummaging through the rubble.
Deep down, she knew that he was headed down physically and emotionally. His career and skill as a surgeon was practically the only thing he had, and the loss of his arm took that away from him. He has no family in close contact with, no friends, with only his dog Gretel to keep him company on his off days.
But she never expected him to go this soon. He was doing really well with his new arm, and maybe with a few more months of therapy, he could be back to doing surgery in a year or two. However, fate had its own plans for him.
"Better die like this than him killing himself because he couldn't take it anymore, I suppose.", Elizabeth sadly sighed at the thought.
A tear started trickling down her cheek when she saw the photo of her and Robert - the rare times she saw him smile a genuine smile. Beside it was the plaque for the new wing given in his honor.
"Elizabeth?", called a deep, feminine voice from behind her.
Elizabeth looked behind to identify the source of the voice, given that no one else has showed up for the memorial. She kenw Robert was not a popular guy, but deep inside, she wished at least one person showed up.
"Susan?", Elizabeth stammered at the sight of the blonde, not really expecting her to show up for the memorial.
"Just want to...you know, come and visit. Keep you company for a while." , Susan told her, putting her hands inside her coat pockets to protect herself from the cold. "I switched shifts with Luka so I could visit Chuck upstairs."
"How is he?"
"Well, he's definitely going to live. The only thing different about him is that he has no spleen. Apart from that, he's still pretty much the same guy I married in Vegas to. Or at least, I used to be married to."
Elizabeth couldn't help but chuckle at Susan's comments. Somehow it cuts through the generally somber mood funerals and memorials tend to have, more so because she and Susan are the only ones standing in front of the memorial site, or at least, they thought they were.
"Hey, who ever guessed little Stumpy knew how to smile?", Susan droned upon noticing the smiling faces of Robert and Elizabeth on the photo. "It's not all the time you capture something like that on camera."
"Robert was not really that much of a smiley person, to be quite honest.", Elizabeth admitted.
The two blondes quietly stared at the memorial site for a few minutes. Taking note of the various objects scattered around the site, like his gold stethoscope, or that toy rocket that used to be displayed in his office, and even his distinctive surgical cap.
"I can just imagine the lengths you have gone through to make sure he's at least gets a decent memorial.", Susan softly told her, breaking the silence between the two of them.
"It's the least I can do for him. I know he's an annoying little turd. most of the time, but he still deserves some respect. To be quite honest, I never expected anyone from the ER to come down here, but It hurts me even more when no one from Surgery even bothered to come."
The thought of not having anyone from surgery come down for Romano's memorial deeply hurt Elizabeth. Combined with the stress of work and other issues, her bottle of emotions shattered the minute she said those words. A fit of heaving sobs wracked Elizabeth's weary body as the thoughts and emotions all came together.
Noticing Elizabeth's obvious distress, Susan wrapped one arm around the surgeon and guided her head to her own shoulders, letting her cry her heart out for the loss of her friend, wanting to say to her, "It's okay. Everything will be fine.", but she simply kept silent and let Elizabeth release her emotions.
Once Elizabeth's sobs have calmed down, Susan admitted to her, "You know, Elizabeth, for someone with no family and friends to speak of, he seemed to have held himself up pretty well." After pausing for a moment, she looked on her left shoulder and continued, "Wait, did he ever say anything about his family?"
"Robert doesn't really talk about his family much. Come to think of it, he didn't talk about them at all, except that he has a dog. I know because he asked me to operate on Gretel with him."
"Are you serious? Well, I mean, he asked you to operate on his dog?", Susan guffawed, attempting to control her laughter.
"Operating on Gretel was still mild compared to his little experiment with a pig just a year ago.", Elizabeth said. Upon seeing Susan's eyes widen even more than they already are, she continued, "He was trying to prove that he could still do surgery with one arm, so he decided to take out a gallbladder. I don't know if he was taking it so long or he put too little anesthesia, but the aftermath was not a pretty sight."
Susan and Elizabeth were so busy sharing stories and anecdotes about Robert, that neither of them noticed Kerry slip behind them to pay her respects for her former superior. Things were pretty shaky between them all throughout the years, culminating with that moment where she called him her "bitch".
Still, she was thankful that things weren't as bad as she thought them to be between the two of them, like how surprised she was at the way he handled the situation when she came out to him in the men's bathroom after the whole Kim Legaspi debacle, for one. Kerry still could not decide whether or not she should get Elizabeth's attention for going to the memorial. She lingered on for a few more minutes, then slipped a tiny note in between some of the flowers before limping towards the direction of the El tracks.
"I really don't know how he does it..."
"How he does what?", Elizabeth interjected at Susan's spoken thought, feeling a little out of the loop.
"How he's able to swim in cold water in the dead of winter."
This time, it was Elizabeth's turn to look at her wide-eyed. "He was a member of the Polar Bear Club.", she continued.
"Oh, right. I remember him mentioning something about that. No wonder he had such a high tolerance for quite a lot of things."
"I wish I got to know him more.", Susan sighed with a twinge of regret. "I have to admit, the man's really does have quite a personality. How did you two meet?"
Elizabeth felt tears glaze her eyes when confronted with that question.
"It all started when I was still doing my residency as a trauma surgeon back in England. We have this program called the Been to America fellowship which all doctors who wish to pursue a consultancy position in a teaching hospital have to go through.", narrated Elizabeth. "I was what was considered a fourth year resident here back then, and at that point, it was time for me to do my stint there."
"What you just told me is why you were came here. The question now is what's he got to do with this?"
"Robert was my fellowship sponsor. In other words, he's the one who shoulders a lot of my expenses during my stay as a fellow. Most stay in America for two, three years, then go back to England, which was my original plan. Then I met Peter."
"Peter, as in Peter Benton?", Susan gasped in surprise. "How come no one's telling me all these? What happened?"
"Peter and I hit it off and we dated for a while. We did Halloween, played darts, got him drunk.", Elizabeth smiled as she said those words. "Things people in a relationship do. At the same time, I was doing my fellowship work, which means dealing with both him and Robert in the same place at the same time."
"If you were in the ER, and you were on something like that while seeing someone from the department on the side, pretty sure that by day one, the cat's already out of the bag. The rumor mill have hawk eyes and bat ears built in."
"I can imagine. Sometimes when I go down for a consult, I see either Jerry or Frank holding this sack and some of the nurses just dump money in it. "
Susan grinned at Elizabeth's, in her opinion, rather accurate outsider's depiction of how the ER rumor mill is like. Their shared laughter echo around the radius of Robert's memorial. Amidst their lengthy conversation, they didn't really notice several staff members pass by the memorial. Some stopped for a while to give their respects for the departed. Others simply passed by as if it was never there in the first place.
"Wait, did he ever find out about you and Peter?", Susan asked.
"He did catch us making out in the locker room one day, but I didn't really know at that time if he actually saw us...you know. Needless to day things became awkward between the three of us. Don't get me wrong, that was not the reason why Peter and I broke up, but that would be for another story. And can I tell you a secret?"
"Um... sure. What do you want to tell me?"
Elizabeth leaned towards Susan as if she was about to whisper to her, and said, "I have not told this to anyone, especially not to Peter or Mark, but I really suspected that all this time, Robert had a pretty, you know, big crush on me. He thinks I do not know, but I actually do."
Susan just shook her head expectantly and said, "And I thought that all this time that you were blind to how he's been acting around you."
"Why? You knew that he had a crush on me? Did he tell you?"
"Romano doesn't know and trust me enough to talk about those kinds of information, but come on, the man looks at you like some lovesick puppy when you go down the ER during his last days. How can you not see that?"
"I do! It's just that... I don't know. Maybe I kept ignoring it, thinking that I do not really seeing a future with him, my pride getting in the way..."
Elizabeth reflected back to a few months ago where Robert submitted himself to the inevitable amputation of his chopped arm. She fondly remembered how his normally somber mood elevated after seeing her walk in on him before his pre-op, and how he wanted her to write, "Notthisone, idiot" with special emphasis on the very last word on his good arm.
Her thoughts then shifted way back in her timeline: how he and Robert first met when she arrived in America, or the time where he (awkwardly) asked her out. Remembering those time, to be quite honest, made her smile right then and there. Susan noticed the surgeon grinning from ear to ear and asked, "What's funny?"
"Just, you know, some memories I just find myself remembering."
"Like what?"
"Way too many to tell in one go. I'll tell you when we go back to work.", Elizabeth mentioned. She looked at her wrist watch, noticing that it was half past eight, and she should really be getting home as Ella's nanny is probably waiting for her by now.
"I was about to go back to Chuck upstairs, but seeing that's it's already past visiting hours, I should really get home."
The two doctors slowly went back to County's ambulance bay entrance, their chatter continuing on as they entered. As they entered County's doors, the candle flames surrounding the memorial swiftly blew off, Kerry's note she slipped in blowing away with them. Soon, it ended up right on top of some wet snow, eventually revealing Kerry's message.
"Dear Robert, no matter where you are, you will always be my bitch, and I will always be yours.. Sincerely, Kerry Weaver."