Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with ER and don't own the characters so please don't sue!

A bit of angst in the last chapter - hope you don't mind but we can't have everything being all lovey-dovey can we??

Thanks for the reviews ML!! I'm so happy someone's enjoying the story!!

Chapter 10 – Alone again

It had been several weeks since Robert and Andrea had stopped seeing each other. They found it reasonably easy to avoid one another at work, seeing as they didn't operate together anyway and Andrea would often send Neela in her place at committee meetings. Really though it was Andrea avoiding Robert. She was polite and professional but nothing more. He, on the other hand would often make any excuse to be near her, requesting her for meetings that didn't require her presence and paging her to the ER for cases that weren't really neurosurgical. This did not go unnoticed by Susan.

She was dealing with a trauma in the ER and had called Robert down for a surgical consult. During his assessment he noticed the patient had some bruising and a laceration on the back of their head and immediately requested Andrea be called down.

"Are you sure Dr Romano? It's not really a neuro case..." She knew he was paging her unnecessarily.

"That's my decision Dr Lewis" he shot back.

Susan decided to stay quiet. She had wondered several times whether she and Andrea had misread the situation with Robert and Elizabeth that night. She was loyal to her friend, but the past few weeks had shown her that they may have jumped to conclusions. Susan knew why Andrea broke up with him though – she had had her run of bad relationships and at the slightest sign of trouble she was out of there. Susan respected that. They both assumed that he and Elizabeth would hook up, or that they would at least notice them spending more time together, but it had come out that Elizabeth was seeing another surgeon at the hospital, and was quite open about it. Elizabeth had even spoken to Susan, wanting to clear things up. She assured her that nothing had happened and Susan believed her. She didn't really like Elizabeth but she knew her well enough to know she wouldn't lie about that sort of thing; she wasn't one to be apologetic for her actions.

Andrea walked into the trauma room, her face sinking when she saw Robert there. "My, my, not another neuro consult, surely?" She said sarcastically.

"Good morning Dr Garrity" he said gently, looking at her hopefully.

"Morning Dr Romano" Andrea replied professionally, moving to assess the patient. It made Susan's heart break a little. She knew by the way he was looking at her that he still loved her – a great deal. And she knew Andrea still loved him, otherwise she wouldn't still be so cut up about everything. She knew in that moment she had to fix things, but not before she spoke to Romano. She wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily.

"Can you just irrigate and suture this wound? There's no neurosurgical indications here" Andrea said, signing the chart and handing it to Susan. "Are we still on for tonight?"

"Yep, see you at 8 chickadee" Susan smiled at her friend.

"See you then." She gave a barely perceptible nod to Robert and made her way out. Susan watched Romano watch her, before dragging his attention back to the patient.

"Belly is fine, no bleeding. Just admit overnight for observation" he said to Susan.

"Sure" she replied. He started to make his way out. "Dr Romano?" He turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"Do you have a few minutes? I need to talk to you about something....personal."

"I hope it's not about maternity leave or 'women's problems'" he smirked.

"Very funny. Your office in 10 minutes?" He simply nodded his response and strode out the door.

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The elevator doors to the surgical floor opened and Susan stuck her head out comically and looked either way to make sure Andrea wasn't in sight.

"Can I help you Dr Lewis?" Susan jumped in fright and looked up to see Shirley standing there looking at her very bemused.

"Um, I was just looking to see if Andrea was around?" Susan asked, holding the doors open.

"She's still in surgery, and will be for awhile."

"Great, thanks Shirley" she said walking out of the elevator and sneaking down to Romano's office. She noticed his secretary wasn't at her desk, so just walked through and knocked on his door.

"What!?" He boomed, startling her. She opened the door and quickly walked in, looking behind her to make sure no one saw her.

"Ah Dr Lewis...come in and take a seat" he said gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. "So what can I do for Dr Garrity's partner in crime? Or should I just leave so you can snoop around my office too?" He said looking unimpressed.

"Look, Robert...I don't know what to say, but I'm fairly certain that Andrea and I may have jumped to conclusions about what we saw...."

"When you were snooping around my house?"

"Yeah. Anyway...I want to help fix it" she said slowly.

"What makes you so sure that I want it fixed Susan" he said.

"Come on Robert...all the requests for her to come down to consults, the looks. I can tell you love her and I want to help."

"So you believe me then? That nothing happened between Elizabeth and me?"

"Yes I do. I don't approve of you lying to her - you should have just been honest, but I believe nothing happened, and I'm sorry. Elizabeth actually spoke to me about it the other week. Look, Andrea has been really badly hurt in past relationships, and I don't want her to get hurt again, so if you're intentions aren't pure, you should just tell me now and we will leave things as they are." Robert leaned back in his seat and rubbed his chin, considering what she had said.

"I would never hurt Andrea, Susan" he said seriously. "I love her and have no intentions other than loving her. So, how do you propose we go about this?"

Susan was relieved. "She's coming to my house for dinner tonight, and you are going to be there too – and I will leave, and you two can actually talk it out" she said, looking quite pleased with herself.

"She'll just walk out Susan..."

"She won't. Give her some credit."

"OK, OK. So if she's getting there at 8, I'll be there at 8:15. What's your address?" He wrote it and the time down. "I'll see you then."

"Good. I'll see you tonight." She got up and peeked out the office door to check who was there, and when the coast was clear, raced out. Robert found this quite amusing.

Robert had butterflies in his stomach. He so wanted this to work...all he needed was the time alone with her, and Susan was giving him the opportunity. He thought about Andrea constantly and did everything he could to have an excuse to be near her, but to no avail. He pulled open the second draw of his desk where a turquoise Tiffany's box sat. He had seen the most exquisite pearl earrings as he walked past the store last week and he had to buy them for Andrea, even though he probably wouldn't ever get to give them to her. It was crazy, but they were so perfect for her he couldn't resist. He pulled the box out and put it in his coat pocket. He would give them to her tonight, even if she rejected him.

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Andrea rang Susan's doorbell bang on 8 o'clock, holding a huge bag of Chinese food and a bottle of wine.

"Hi!" Susan said enthusiastically, opening the door. "Come in, come in."

"You sure sound happy tonight" Andrea said suspiciously.

"What? No, I'm just happy to see you, it feels like ages."

"I saw you this morning...."

"Anyway, so what's up?" Susan asked while dishing out the Chinese and taking a secretive glance at her watch. 8:07.

"Nothing much – just work" Andrea said, tucking into a spring roll. "What's with Romano calling me to all these bogus consults?"

"As if you don't know" Susan started. "He wants to see you. Maybe you should think about forgiving him – he's not seeing Elizabeth and you know she spoke to me about it all and I believe her that nothing happened. He loves you."

"Which side are you on?" Andrea said crankily, glaring at Susan.

"You KNOW I'm on your side – that's why I'm talking to you about this. I love you and I don't want to see you pass up someone who really cares about you because of a silly misunderstanding."

"I don't know...." Andrea stopped on hearing the doorbell. "Are the other girls coming round?" She asked. Susan looked at her with a look that said 'this is for your own good' and answered the door...to Romano. Andrea stood there shocked. Romano looked at her shyly and made his way inside.

"Right" Susan said, grabbing her coat. "I'm outta here. You guys need to talk. Robert, there's plenty of food – tuck in." And she was gone.

Andrea stood there looking around – at anything but him. She had her arms crossed and was tapping one of her feet. He looked disturbingly good. He was wearing jeans and a black chunky zip-up sweater, the sleeves pushed casually up to the elbows.

Robert decided to just go for it. "Andrea.....please listen to me" he walked closer to her and grabbed her hands – it was like a bolt of electricity going through both of them. "I'm so sorry I lied to you, I shouldn't have done that, but nothing happened between Elizabeth and me. Nothing. I love you and I want to be with you and only you. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met." Her resolve broke immediately and she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her hair.

"I'm so sorry Robert" she said through tears. "I just couldn't stand the thought of losing you and the thought of the two of you was just too much to bear, so I ditched you before you could ditch me."

"I was never going to do anything of the sort" he said and sought out her lips, kissing her passionately. He lifted his hands to stroke her face and neck. She moaned into his mouth and he kissed her with more hunger than ever before. He reached down and grabbed her ass, pushing himself against her. He was harder than he could ever remember being in his life. "Let's get outta here" he said hoarsely. They stumbled to the front door and managed to get through it, slamming it shut and nearly falling down the stairs. They got into his car and drove to his house, kissing at all the red lights, the cars behind beeping because they kept on kissing well into the green lights. They pulled up in front of his house, Andrea laughing internally thinking of her and Susan crawling around on all fours in the garden – her in a designer dress and coat. He struggled to get the front door open, in between kisses. They finally made it inside and Andrea gasped as she looked around. His house was palatial.

"Robert – this house is amazing! It's like a castle." It was pretty impressive on the outside, but inside was incredible.

"It's OK I guess" he said vaguely. "It's too big just for me. I always thought I'd have a family and dog by now, so I bought the biggest house I could to accommodate that. Silly, I know."

"No, it's not silly – it's sensible" she said stroking his face. They made their way to the kitchen.

"Do you want a glass of wine?" He asked, walking towards his wine fridge.

"Wait a second – you teased me about having one of these and now you have one?"

"Well, I have a big collection...." She playfully slapped his arm. "So, do you want me to open a bottle?"

"No." He looked at her questioningly. "I want you to show me the bedroom" she said flatly, yet seductively. He walked forward and took her hand, leading her out of the kitchen, through the dining room and the lounge room, up a huge staircase and down the hallway to a room at the end. His bedroom was massive and had a huge en-suite with a double walk-in shower and a spa. He also had a huge bed – like the size of two double beds put together. "Is that a bed or a gymnastics mat?" She laughed.

"Well, that depends on what you're doing in the bed, so it's both really" he joked.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm very flexible" she said, rubbing her hands on his firm chest. He leant down to kiss her and pushed her gently towards the bed. They didn't even bother with foreplay – they just wanted to be connected. Afterward, they collapsed, exhausted. "That really was as good as I remembered" she said, catching her breath.

"I'll make it up to you next time – I just wanted to be inside you" he said, kissing her neck.

"I suppose I'll allow you to" she laughed.

"You have no idea how happy I am that you're here" he said, stroking her bare arm. He then remembered his gift for her in his coat. "I'll be back in a second" he said, kissing her quickly. He got up and covered himself with his robe. She got a quick glimpse of his perfect butt before it was covered. She smiled to herself. He ran downstairs to the coat rack to retrieve the iconic box and raced back upstairs. He held it behind his back and climbed back into bed with her.

"I saw these the other day and had to get them for you – I hope you like them" he said shyly before offering her the box.

"Oh, Robert! Tiffany's?" He smiled at her excitement. She opened the box to find the South Sea pearl earrings. Each one had three pearls suspended in sequence with platinum chain. They were fabulous. "Robert – they're beautiful, but you didn't have to...."

"I know I didn't have to. I wanted to. I wasn't sure I would ever get the chance to give them to you." He kissed her forehead.

"Thankyou" she said quietly, putting her gift on the bedside table and snuggled up into his nook – that bit just under his underarm and along his side. She breathed in his scent – a mixture of his sweat and cologne, and promptly fell asleep. He looked down at her and saw she was out for the count. He smiled to himself and pulled the covers up over her and fell asleep more content than he had ever been.

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Susan came back to her apartment after midnight. As she came in she hoped she wouldn't walk in on them having sex on her couch or anything. But as she walked in she saw the Chinese untouched and the place empty. 'Shit – what if they killed each other?' She thought. She felt her mobile vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out to see who was messaging her so late at night. It was Andrea. All the message entailed was a smiley face.