Kerry felt wary as she hobbled though the quiet dark streets with Romano by her side. She was braced for the usual barbed point-scoring of their interactions. So far, there was no sign of it. Romano had been equally silent for a few minutes, perhaps feeling the same shift in the ground rules outside the ER. She appreciated the temporary peace. The breakdown had shaken her and besides that, her thoughts kept retuning to the evening with her mother. Her mother wasn't well, and she knew she should spend more time with her. For tonight, it would be nice if Romano could be quiet together a little longer. Silence never lasted long around Romano, though.

'So, what do you think happened there?

'…Where?'

'The car?' He glanced at her in disbelief.

'Oh yes, sorry. The car.' She shook her head. 'Something…went in the engine.'

'Something went in the engine', he echoed scathingly. 'Are you sure you didn't take anything tonight?'

'No, of course I didn't!' She frowned and rubbed her forehead with her free hand. 'I'm sorry…I wasn't thinking about the car for a few minutes. I've had a lot on my mind tonight. My family… you know,' she waved a hand, vaguely, hoping he wouldn't not ask.

'Yeah, sure.' Romano was placated for the moment, but not supressed. 'Could be the drive belt if it went suddenly.'

'Oh, god, I hope not. That's expensive, isn't it?'

'New engine…new car time. Not good at all.' He pulled a mock-rueful look.

'Damn! Any chance it might be something else?'

'Sure, sure. Left here.' he indicated a side street. Evidently the other options were less catastrophic and hence less interesting, because he dropped the topic in favour of a new question. 'So, what brings you to this neck of the woods? I didn't think you lived around here.'

She read his sideways glance and was pretty sure he was hoping she didn't live in the same neighborhood.

'No, I live nearer the center. I like the atmosphere.' She cast around for a new topic before Romano could make a comment about the city center lifestyle. 'You get a lot more space out here, though. It's nice.'

'Yeah, it's not too bad.' The dog was pulling at her leash slightly. 'You know we're almost home, don't you, girl?' He led the way up a drive and round to the back. 'You don't mind coming in through this way? I got to dry off the dog.'

He let them in through a back door, holding the dog back for long enough for Kerry to step in first. She took in the room. Large utility, pretty tidy with an empty washer and dryer and most things closed away in cupboards. Still, there was enough to give her a first glimpse at Robert's life outside work. A bowl of water and a bowl of biscuits on a neat rubber mat for the dog. A basket with a couple of old towels on one counter and a half-open gym bag dumped on the other. A lone sweatshirt hanging from a row of pegs by the door and a pair of spare sneakers underneath.

Romano stepped in behind her, letting Gretel off her leash.

'Do you want to, ah, give me your coat?' he offered. 'I'll hang it here to dry off.'

She nodded and he helped her off with her coat.

He nodded towards a closed door. 'Go on through to the kitchen; it's warmer,' he directed shortly.

'Thank you, Robert.'

'Close the door or the dog'll try and get in,' he called after her. As she closed the door, she saw Romano scoop up an old towel for the dog.

An equally tidy kitchen, rather austere with blue-tiles and acres of shining countertops, and almost completely lacking in all signs that a person cooked and ate there. She wished like hell that she was back home now in her own warm and bright house, music on and sitting back on the couch with her shoes off. The sole evidence of habitation here was a mug on a draining rack and a pin-board and calendar by the phone. A couple of postcards on the pin-board were almost covered by invitations to surgeons' events and notices of conferences. The calendar was heavily marked with abbreviated notes in Romano's neat writing. Not much free space there. In the quietness, she could hear Romano talking in the other room, though and it amused her to hear the heartless boss baby-talking to his dog, telling her to give him each paw. Now this was almost worth coming here for. Perhaps the wait at Romano's might be bearable if she could keep any conversation away from her and on his dog.

The door opened and Gretel trotted in, a treat held carefully in her mouth. She passed straight through the kitchen without a glance and made for the room beyond as if she were expecting her owner to follow. When he stayed in the kitchen, she looked over her shoulder and retreated to him, lying down at his feet with a doggy sigh to crunch up her snack.

'She's very sweet', Kerry offered. She didn't like dogs at all, but she appreciated the way the dog had accepted a stranger in her house late at night.

'Yeah, she's pretty good.' His voice was warmer than his words. Evidently, she was Romano's weak spot. They looked down at the dog who was making short work of her treat and then back up at each other. Romano had shed his jacket and sneakers and was unfamiliar in a dark t-shirt, jeans and socks. Outwardly unfamiliar, at least. He launched in on a new line of conversation without warning.

'Just cruising the streets tonight then, Kerry?'

'What? Cruising what?'

He sighed. 'Are we gonna have this kind of conversation where I say something, and you say "what" like it's all new to you? I'm wounded, truly I am. I thought you were paying attention.' He stared at her with familiar intensity, inviting a stinging reply.

Oh god, here it is. The Robert Romano show. I really can't put up with this tonight. She debated getting a cab straight away. The lack of an immediate reaction seemed to be disconcerting Romano slightly, though. He was watching her as if trying to work out what was wrong. She decided to try him with the truth.

'I'm sorry; I thought we were talking about your dog.' She took a deep breath. 'If you really want to know, I was visiting my mother tonight. She lives just outside the city. The traffic on the freeway was terrible so I ended up coming in through the suburbs.'

'Ah.' He accepted that and gave it a moment of consideration. 'Let's hope it wasn't an accident on the freeway or we'll both be paged in by the morons at County.'

She sighed. She couldn't help deploring the complete absence of care for others there. On the other hand, it had been a very long day and she honestly didn't want to get paged to the ER either. It happened too often. 'Yes, let's hope it wasn't an accident.'

'In the meantime,' he switched to a new tack, 'you'd better call AAA or whoever you're with; get them to come take a look at your car.' He ran a thumb over his jaw, rasping over the stubble. 'You want tea?' he asked offhandedly.

'Tea?'

He gave her a let's not do this again look.

'Tea…coffee….'

'Oh tea, yes. If you're sure it's no trouble, tea would be nice, thank you.'

Kerry phoned while Robert made two mugs of tea. The AAA were apologetic. The number of incidents around the city were high. No, they couldn't give an exact estimate on time. Yes, it might be more than hour. Yes, they would do their best. Yes, they would call back on her cell, not this landline. She hung up with an exasperated sigh.

'Well, I think you heard most of that.'

He handed her a mug of tea. 'Yeah, yeah, light rain and morons in cars go into meltdown. I'd say it's just Chicago, but it isn't. So, whatcha want to do?'

'I could wait in the car if it's less than an hour,' she reasoned. 'If it's longer, I can get a cab home and try and get another one back when they call.'

'Uh-uh, wrong answer. You're not going to sit in that car on your own at -' he glanced down at his watch '-half ten at night. Stay here, see if they can get their asses over here in an hour and make a plan after that.'

Kerry hesitated for words. 'Are you sure? Look…I don't want to get in the way of your night off. Thanks for the tea, by the way.'

'Di nada.' He waved her thanks away and ran a hand over his eyes, wearily. 'No, luckily for you my extensive plans for the rest of the night are nothing more ambitious than hanging out on the couch with the dog and catching the baseball re-runs.'

'That sounds good.' Her phone went off unexpectedly. 'Damn! Sorry; excuse me.' She dug into her purse, hoping it was the AAA already on their way. It was her mother's number on screen. 'I'd better take this.'

He nodded, picking up his own mug and retreating to another room with the dog at his heels, probably to put the baseball on.

'Hi mom…are you OK?'

Kerry leaned against the counter, listening with half her attention. She was fine, she promised; she wasn't back home because of a problem with her car, but she was OK and would get home safely. She'd call at the weekend and check her schedule to come and visit again soon. Her gaze wandered to the calendar again. Looking at it more closely, there were a few hints of a life outside work. She picked out karate 8pm a few times, Sarah birthday on the 15th, whoever Sarah was,and a mysterious meet M/J at Adler one weekend, even while she idly told herself not to be so nosy. She resisted the urge to read the back of the post cards on the pin-board. At last, her mother let her go.

'Robert?' She called.

'Here!'

She followed his voice to the living room. Robert was sprawled comfortably on the couch, feet up on the coffee table with a baseball game playing quietly on TV.

'Oh, this is nice!' she said genuinely. There was a personality here not visible in the other two rooms. This room was wood-panelled and warmly lit, lined with bookcases filled with books and CDs. Framed black and white Italian film posters gave it an understated sophistication. A dog basket, dog-haired blanket slung over the back of the couch and a couple of scattered doggy chew toys completed the room.

'Glad you approve.' Romano indicated the other end of the couch with a slight gesture.

She set her mug on the coffee table and joined him on the couch. 'It's lovely. I didn't know you spoke Italian.'

'Huh? Oh yeah.' He broke off to watch a run in the game and rolled his eyes in dismay at the gameplay. 'Will you that at that?' he invited rhetorically. 'Amateurs.' He returned to the conversation. 'Yeah, conversationally. I worked a while in Rome before London. Private hospital so everyone spoke English officially, but y'know, you speak it socially. Was that your mother calling to make sure you got home?' He raised an eyebrow.

Romano could run on from one topic to another without as much as a breath between sentences. She realised she was staring at him like a deer in the headlights and it annoyed the hell out of her.

'Your mother?' he prompted.

'No, no she, she just wanted to fix when I'm coming to see her next – that sort of thing,' she deflected. She leaned her head on her hands, wishing she could get some rest. 'Sorry Robert…it's been a very long day. Yours too?'

'Yeah', he admitted with a long exhale. 'Shoulda been 8-7 but I got paged in at 5 for an aortic bypass going septic.'

'Who'd be a doctor, huh?' she said with understanding.

'Yeah, see, what's what my niece says,' he agreed. 'Every time someone asks if she wants to be a doctor, she says she's gonna be a veterinarian because she's seen the hours doctors work.' He ran a hand over his face. 'She's uh, mad about animals so I guess she might actually do that.'

'That sounds a good job if she likes animals so much. I guess she likes…' her nodded towards the dog '…Gretel; it's Gretel, isn't it?'

'Yeah, Gretel. Sure, 'course she does.' He rubbed the dog's ears. 'They've got Gretel's brother.' The dog looked up at her name, stretched luxuriously and wandered over to examine her toys. Selecting something which squeaked, she trotted back over to her owner and deposited the toy in his lap. He tossed the toy for her to fetch back, keeping one eye on the game.

Kerry watched, transfixed by the sight of Robert Romano playing with a squeaky toy duck. No-one is going to believe me, even if I tell them about this. 'You bought your dogs together?

'Adopted,' he corrected. He made the toy squeak until Gretel was watching eagerly and tossed it again. She bounded across the room after it. 'Rescue litter,' he added briefly. 'She's my clever girl…yes you are, aren't you?' The dog dropped the toy at his feet again and stood wagging her tail as he stroked the shining black fur. He scooped up the toy again and sent it skidding across the floor. Gretel hurried off in pursuit. 'You got anything? Cat? Snake? Something small and screechy?'

The question threw her for a moment. 'I've got a lodger,' she said without thinking.

Romano threw his head back and laughed genuinely. He swung round to face her, eyes alight with gleeful curiosity, and gave her his full attention. 'Oh, reaaaly? Do you keep him in the basement?'

She was unguarded with tiredness and his mood infected her. She choked on a laugh, blushed against her will and buried her head in her hands in exasperation. When she stole a sideways look up at him, she could see he was leaning against the back of the couch, laughing almost soundlessly. She dropped her head back into her hands, almost laughing herself. At last, she sat back, getting her expression under control again. Romano remembered Gretel's toy again and skimmed it across the floor for her.

'No seriously,' she said. 'I rent out part of my house which I don't use. It works out very well. Haven't you ever thought about doing the same with yours?

'Oh hell no.' He pulled an exaggerated expression of disgust.

'You could get someone to help you look after Gretel while you work,' she argued. The whole idea of keeping a big dog and working surgeon's hours was beyond her. 'How do you manage that anyway? If you don't mind me asking.'

'I do the morning and night walks and she has a dogwalker twice a day. If I get paged early and sucked into a shift like today, it's only three big walks. It's not perfect, but she's uh, very patient with it. That's what I like about dogs.'

She nodded and let the conversation lapse as she fought back a sudden yawn. Why was the AAA taking so long? She hoped she was going to make it home before midnight. Gretel abandoned the toy at last and returned to her owner for some good ear rubs. Romano must have been similarly tired because he didn't immediately return to the topic of her lodger. Instead, he leaned back on the couch, rubbing Gretel's ears, and watching the baseball with half an eye. Kerry pulled over yesterday's newspaper which sat on the coffee table and paged through, not thinking about anything. The silence between them settled into something vaguely companiable.