Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters, so please don't sue!
This is my first fanfic so please read and review! I don't know if this story is going anywhere, but I thought it was time for some fresh Romano love!
Chapter One - Meetings
"Hey Andrea – wait up!" Susan called down the corridor and quickened her pace to catch up with her friend. "How's your first day going?"
"Hi Susan!" Andrea beamed. "I'm just doing my orientation and trying to get the layout of the place, it's such a large hospital. The last thing I need is to get lost on my way to an emergency consult!"
"It must be really different to your hospital back in Sydney?" Susan asked.
"Well....there's no beach across the road and it's freezing outside so...yeah," Andrea laughed, suddenly getting a pang of homesickness.
"Well I'm thrilled to finally have you here in the States; Australia is just too far away for my liking! So have you had a chance to meet our new Chief of Staff yet?" Susan asked carefully. She wondered how well Andrea would cope with Romano on a daily basis. She was so nice and Romano, well, he wasn't.
"No – I thought Dr Anspaugh was the Chief?" Andrea said, confused. "I mean, he interviewed me and everything."
"It only happened the other day. Dr Anspaugh lost his son recently and decided to leave the job to spend more time with his family" Susan said as they walked towards the elevator.
"Oh, that's awful – I had no idea!" Andrea wished she had known so she could send flowers or something.
"So now Dr Romano is the Chief. He's an excellent surgeon...he just needs a personality transplant" Susan laughed.
"Thanks for the heads up. Anyway, I need to head back upstairs and meet the scrub nurses I'll be working with. I've got to get on their good side from day one otherwise I'm screwed" she joked.
"Sure, don't forget drinks tonight at Cru bar. I'll meet you here at 7?"
"Yeah that sounds great! I could use a night away from looking at all my unpacked boxes!" They hugged quickly and Andrea got into the elevator and pressed the button for the surgical floor.
She had a feeling Susan was holding back on just how unpleasant Dr Romano was. 'Another bastard boss is the last thing I need' she thought. She had dealt with a lot of difficult colleagues at her hospital back in Sydney, and working with the pricks every day influenced her decision to take this job and move to the other side of the planet. As she exited the lift she spotted Dr Anspaugh in the surgeon's lounge and thought it would be best if he introduced her to the new boss.
"Dr Anspaugh...." Andrea stopped when she saw he was speaking to someone who she didn't see from the corridor. "Oh...I'm sorry, I didn't see you were talking to someone....I'll catch up with you later" she said as she turned to exit the lounge.
"Andrea! We were just talking about you! I've got someone for you to meet" Anspaugh said, gesturing towards the person he was with. "This is Dr Robert Romano, who will be taking over from me as Chief of Staff. Dr Romano this is Dr Andrea Garrity, our new attending neurosurgeon" Donald smiled seeming very pleased with himself.
Andrea reached out and shook hands with Romano, who smiled briefly at her before turning back to Anspaugh.
"Donald - you didn't think it was necessary for me to know until right now that you hired a new attending? Seeing as I'm taking over from you I would have thought you would consult me about it."
"Andrea is an excellent surgeon, she has relocated from Sydney specifically for this job and you really have no reason to doubt her abilities" Anspaugh said, defending her.
"It's not her skill I doubt Donald, it's your decision making abilities" Romano said, briefly looking Andrea up and down appreciatively.
'Oh great – a jerk and a pervert, what a great mix' Andrea thought.
"One might include my decision to make you Chief as one of my poorer decisions Robert."
"Point taken Donald, I guess I could just fire her if she pisses me off" Romano said. "Well, I shall see you around Dr Garrity" he said before storming out and letting the door slam, making the two of them jump.
"So that's Dr Romano" Andrea said, turning to pour both of them a cup of coffee. "Dr Lewis said he needed a personality transplant – clearly she was being conservative."
They both burst out laughing.
"I hope you're up to the challenge Andrea?" Donald questioned.
"Oh you bet" she replied.