Sandy hopped off the ambulance and helped Doris yank out the stretcher. Doris shook her head, "You planning on joining your brother in the EMT ranks?"

Sandy gave a short laugh, "Nah, all that blood, no fire. I just need to ta..."

It was a cheap shot. She had taken punches in her life, but had always been ready for them. She was okay when she was ready for them, but this one was a cheap shot that she never saw coming. Sandy's head snapped to the side and she crashed to the ground. She wasn't there for long as she sprang to her feet and swung at whomever had hit her. She connected and the other person crumbled to the ground.

Sandy took a step back as her adrenaline rush subsided. "Guess my shoulder's okay." She stared down at Kim a the blonde moved her jaw one way, the the other. "Is your inner cave woman satisfied now?"

Kim got to her knees and slowly to her feet, "You outed her for... for... you had no right to do that."

"Yeah, and I was coming back to apologize to her. I go through life for myself, always have, so I outed her, it was stupid, and I should have thought first, but I didn't."

"You say that, like, like... it's no big deal."

Sandy bit back, "I said I wasn't thinking."

Kim took a step towards Sandy, "Do you ever think?"

"You gonna take another cheap shot? I'll even give you another free one, c'mon. I heard about the crazy girl, I may not be a high class doc like you, but I get transferring your anger to me, c'mon, I can take it. Take it out on me. Least that means you're not putting it on Ker."

Kim poked a finger at Sandy, "You know nothing of Kerry and me."

Sandy shrugged, "And you know nothing of Kerry and me. So we're even. She lied to both of us. You got pissed at her, probably went all silent and introspective, I outed her. Now what?"

Kim crossed her arms over her chest, "We move on."

Sandy's hands were on her hips, "Or we forgive her."

"Those are the choices."

"Kim." Kerry blinked as she got halfway to where Sandy and Kim stood, "Sandy."

Kim glanced between Sandy and Kerry and with a shake of her head turned, "I'll let you two talk. I have to get ready for my dismissal."

Kerry caught Kim's arm as the taller woman passed, "I'll be there."

Kim stared at Kerry for a long moment, then simply nodded and kept walking, disappearing into the ER.

That left Kerry in front of Sandy. Sandy took a step forward and when Kerry didn't run screaming a second step. They were only an arm's length away from each other. "I came her for two reasons. First, to apologize. Sometimes I think that my mother dropped me on my head when I was a baby, and every now and then I do something so insanely stupid it's a wonder that civilization doesn't just revoke my ID card."

Kerry was silent for a long moment and then mumbled something that Sandy couldn't hear, "What'd you say?"

Kerry cleared her throat, "You did me a favor. I can't say that I liked what you did, but... Anyway, I said that I forgive you."

"Oh."

"And the second reason?"

Sandy blinked, "What, oh, I... I thought it would take more convincing. I was..."

"You outed me without consulting me. I dated the two of you without telling either of you. Those two things are not quite even, but life's not generally even and so I forgive you, because what I did was..." She trailed off and shook her head, "I have to get back, the second thing?"

Sandy nodded and took another step forward so that they were in each other's personal space. "We should take a break, so you have space to think. Make a choice."

Kerry frowned, "A choice, you still..."

"I love you Red. I've never felt anything like this. I want to..." she raised an eyebrow a substitution for a word since they were at Kerry's workplace, "...you senseless until we wake the neighbors at our assisted living facility years from now. But I also want to sit through Carmen and Madam Butterfly and Mahler..."

A quick burst of laughter came from Kerry, "Sorry."

Sandy sighed, "What'd I say?"

"Mahler." Kerry shuddered.

This garnered a smile from Sandy, "Okay. No Mahler, and I want to teach you to love hockey and watch you bicker with my family about Cubs versus White Sox." A slight smirk came to Sandy's lips. "Watch my mother's head pop off her neck as I bring home a whiter than white red headed mostly atheist who roots for the Cubs."

Sandy took a step back and smiled a smile that tried to but didn't make it to her eyes, "But I want you to be with me because you want to, you and Kim, even though I don't want to see it, you fit together just right. Like Willow and Tara, like two perfect puzzle pieces. So I'm gonna give you space."

With that Sandy turned and walked out of the ambulance bay, leaving Kerry standing there, alone with her thoughts once again.

The red head nearly jumped as an arm went around her shoulder. She looked over, "Haleh?"

"It'll be okay."

Kerry took a breath in and slowly let it out, "I don't know if it will."

"The nurses are behind you if you need us Doctor Weaver." Kerry looked over again and Haleh elaborated, "You've always treated us with respect and try to teach your students to do the same. That's what matters to most of the people in your ER, not who you sleep with."

Kerry patted Haleh's hand and the nurse let go. "Thank you Haleh."

She started to go back inside and Haleh spoke to her back, "Go with Kim. I have twenty bucks on her in the pool."

Kerry grumbled under her breath, "Randi..."

Kerry entered the conference room and was greeted by Romano. "Doctor Weaver, better late than never. Let's cut to the chase, shall we, so we can all get out of here and go home." Kerry met Kim's gaze and a million things popped into her head that she wanted to say. She stuffed them all down and turned to face the two men at the table.

"Okay. Doctor Legaspi recently, for whatever reasons, had what I hope was a momentary lapse in judgment."

Kim wasn't going down without a fight, "I take offense to that."

"Really? I take offense to you having come out to a patient, which was grossly inappropriate."

Donald Anspaugh sat forward, interrupting Romano's flow, "Doctor Legaspi is a valuable asset to the Psychiatry department as well as this hospital as a whole, I think that her instincts were correct and her intentions very honorable considering the situation."

"Honorable perhaps."

"C'mon Robert." Don's voice rang with the tone of a father disciplining his son.

Romano, of course, didn't listen, "Stupid definitely."

Kim took advantage of the fact that the two men were entirely focused on one another and glanced over at Kerry. After a moment Kerry looked up and met Kim's eyes, although it was only briefly.

Kim realized that she had no idea what, if anything Kerry would say, to help or to hurt her case.

Don wasn't done with Romano, "Patients with psychological problems falsely accuse their doctors of all sorts of things. I had a guy today who blamed me for hypnotizing him in order to drink his blood."

Romano was nothing if not single minded in his pursuit of a goal, "Well, we'll have to look into that another day Donald, but the fact is to the best of my knowledge you are not actually a Vampire. Doctor Legaspi, however, is a lesbian, am I right?"

Kim focused mostly on Donal, her apparent ally, "I've never hidden that fact from this administration, or from my colleagues."

Romano inclined his head, "Or from your patients, therein lies the problem."

Kim was starting to get hot under the collar, "There's a difference between being gay and being a child molester."

Kerry bit the inside of her lip at that and realized that the meeting was going to get ugly before it ended.

Romano winced, "Okay. My recommendation is administrative leave, pending the criminal hearing."

Don jumped in, "I think that premature."

"No, it's preemptive. If we get really lucky there won't be charges and you can come right back to work having learned a lesson. Albeit the hard way."

Kerry gave a quick glance at Kim and blinked in surprise, she'd never seen the blonde so riled, her hands on her hips, staring daggers through Romano's head. And her eyes, they seemed to be brighter than ever, as if her anger was being channeled through them. Kerry swallowed and turned back to stare at the nothing in front of her.

Romano turned to Kerry, "You have anything to add Doctor Weaver?"

A million things flew through her brain, how she hated it when he called her that because he seemed to say her title with so much disdain. How he was a pompous asshole who should kiss Kim's ass for putting up with him, "I... No.. yes, uh, I..."

Romano rolled his eyes, "Are you sure now Kerry?"

Kim sighed and let her head drop to stare at the floor. She idly wondered where the take charge and take names kick ass doctor she'd met months ago had gone, and if it was partially her fault that that doctor was gone.

But Kerry wasn't done. She met Romano's eyes and took a step forward. she nearly laughed as she saw Romano flinch just a tiny bit. "This isn't about Kim. This is about a confused and disturbed young woman who would rather kill herself than deal with being gay. I think what Kim did was slightly stupid, yes, but for the briefest second in my ER after Sandy..." Kerry paused, "After she kissed me I had one stray thought that popped into my brain out of nowhere. That I wished I could simply cease to exist. The difference is that I'm an adult and I know that killing myself wouldn't solve anything, that ceasing to exist wouldn't solve anything. That my life won't end if other people know that I've fallen in love with a woman, with two women. If I lose friends, my job, almost anything, life may suck for awhile, but it's not the end of the world. Shannon Wallace hasn't been through the shit I've been through, she hasn't lived through my four years of hell that masqueraded as high school and come out scratched but relatively whole on the other side. She needed to know that after people come out, after they got through anything that changes the world's view of them so much, that it may not be easy, but that they survive, and can even thrive. What Kim didn't wasn't perfect, but you, I... and every damn doctor has had a case like Wallace. We share just a bit too much of ourselves because we find we care, maybe we can relate, we see ourselves in the patient."

Kerry took another step towards the table, "That is not sexual harassment and you damn well know it Robert." She trailed off.

Romano raised his eyebrows, "That was quite a speech, are you done?"

There was a glint in Kerry's eyes, "Honestly Robert, would you like me to keep going? Who knows where we'll end up."

For the first time since Kerry had entered Romano seemed thrown off for a second, "She's under investigation."

Kerry put her hands on her hips, "An investigation that will find nothing and the charges will be dropped. This isn't a doctor playing doctor death or someone skimming funds Robert. No suspension. Period."

The room went quiet. After nearly a minute Romano stood, "I guess that's it then." He glanced at Kim. "Don't come out to any other patients, at least until the cops clear you." He left without another word. Leaving a relieved Kim, a worn out Kerry and a happy Don in the room.

Don also stood from his seat and approached the two women, "That was, eloquent Kerry." Kerry inclined her head and Don addressed Kim, "Pay no attention to him. This too will pass." He patted her on the arm and left the two women alone in the conference room.

"Shall."

Kim looked over at Kerry, "What?"

Kerry shook her head, "It's shall, not will. From a Jewish folktale about King Solomon. The Hebrew letters gimel, zayin, and yud, which stand for the words Gam zeh ya'avor, which, I guess, since I don't actually know Hebrew, just the story, translate to 'This too shall pass'." Kerry trailed off, "It doesn't matter." She turned and had her hand on the door.

Kerry frowned as Kim's hand stopped her from opening it. Their eyes met. "I'm not her, I can't just forgive and forget. I'm not... I can't. That doesn't mean that we can't move past it, in the future, maybe, but..." Kim stared down at the floor.

"I'm sorry."

Kim looked up, "That's not, it doesn't..."

Kerry shook her head, cutting Kim off, "I didn't say it before. I tried to explain, excuse, but I didn't apologize for not telling you about Sandy, for omitting the truth," Kerry paused, "for lying."

Kim opened the door and let Kerry leave first, "Thank you for that, but..." Kerry nodded as they stepped in front of the elevator. "Up or down?"

Kerry shook her head, "I'll get the next one."

Kim nodded, her clipboard firmly hugged to her chest. "Thank you for what you said in there to Romano."

The elevator arrived and Kim got on. Kerry shook her head in response to Kim's thanks, "I only did what I should have done this morning."

The elevator door closed and Kerry leaned against the wall by it. After a moment she pushed off and punched the up button. She needed time alone.

"Oh, sorry Chie... Doctor Weaver. I'll leave."

Kerry stared out into the night. "Has your day sucked as much as mine?"

"Got strangled and told not to come into work the rest of the week."

Kerry turned, "Excuse me?"

Dave came to a stop next to Kerry at the ledge by the edge of the roof. "Doctor Greene didn't tell you. I got into a scuffle with an asshole father of a patient." Before Kerry could comment Dave continued, "He attacked me."

Kerry hid a smile, "After you baited him with words?"

Dave was silent, then sighed, "Yeah."

Kerry let him dangle for a moment, then shrugged, "Good thing Mark's not in charge. You work your shifts as usual. Have Mark find me if he gives you crap about it."

"Can do Chief... sorry."

Kerry shook her head, and chuckled, "Dave. You calling me Chief is the least of my problems today."

"Sandy said I call you it 'cause I respect you as well as want to annoy you."

Kerry laughed, it felt good to laugh, "Do you?"

Dave shrugged, "You rag on me a lot. More than the rest of them. But, shit rolls down hill right?"

Kerry turned to face Dave, "I come down hard on you because you're not using your ability."

Dave snorted a laugh, "I screwed around in high school, went to a no name college, and med school I have no idea why I was accepted into the Residency program at County."

Kerry's jaw worked, "Because I accepted you David. You have two choices for how your life will turn out. You screw up so many times, you let your anger lead, let you stubbornness about asking for help, asking to be taught, screw over your career and you wind up a bitter EMT who 'could have been' a great doctor. Or, you step up, let someone teach you and get a hold of your anger. Maybe you'll be lucky and turn into a great ER doctor, the likes of David Morgenstern or Mark Greene."

"Or you."

Kerry shook her head and looked back out at the night, "Now, that's just sucking up."

Dave smirked, "Hey, gotta get on your good side, be a fly on the wall for a make out session. Either with the doc or the firefighter, doesn't really matter to Dave the fly."

"David."

Dave smiled, "Hey, a guy can dream, right Chief?"

Kerry sighed, "Why did I even get up this morning?"