Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long – and if I accidentally left some HTML tags in there, try to ignore them – they're from putting this story on my website. I'm sorry for two more things: the way Elizabeth Corday was portrayed, I wasn't sure how to go about doing that since I don't really like her character and all I know is that she strongly dislikes Dave. And secondly, I know it seems like Dave has near to no trouble getting his job back – I just wanted to jump right into the storyline and not waste any time. And the summary has changed a little – don't worry though, the scene from the preview will still be in this story, even if it's slightly modified. But here's the new summary:

Asher Bailee, a 2 year med student, is assigned to resident Dave Malucci, who has just returned to Cook County General in desperate need of money to support his 6-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. Yet no one – including Dave, who has quickly gained a new friend in Ash- could even begin to suspect what truly threatens her future as a doctor. A horrible monster from her past is about to catch up with her and when it does it just may be a matter of life and death…

I know that seems totally different from what originally was, but the story hasn't changed except for the fact that I gave Dave two kids now instead of one – just the summary's different.

   *Fallen

Prologue: Your Second Chance

            Dave Malucci shuffled his feet, nervously, as he went over his speech once more in his head.

He licked his lips, running his fingers through short, spiked black hair that was as pitch black as the color of the night sky.

He had already dyed his hair twice since he left Cook County General and now he was close to unrecognizable.

Dave frowned. I'm going to have to get down on my hands and knees and beg!

"Excuse me, can I help you?" A familiar voice asked from behind him.

Dave turned around and grinned. "Hey, Dr. Corday."

Elizabeth Corday drew her eyebrows together in confusion. After a moment, her eyes went wide. "Malucci?"

He nodded, his kindly smile spreading. "Haven't talked to you in a while. How have you been?"

Elizabeth, still slightly stunned, answered, "I'm fine. And you?"

Dave laughed. "Oh, I could be better. What about the Dr. Greene?"

She stiffened. "Dave, while you were gone, Mark's brain tumor returned."

Dave looked away, quickly, his smile fading. "I-I'm sorry, Dr. Corday, I didn't…"

"Don't be silly, there was no way you could've known." Elizabeth turned away, her eyes averted to the floor. "What are you doing here?" She started toward admin, motioning for Dave to follow.

Dave jogged to catch up with her. "Hopefully getting a job."

"You? You never took anything seriously in this hospital, Malucci." Elizabeth scoffed.

"Oh no, I've reformed." Dave nodded, his tone reassuring.

"Reformed? You? There's something I never thought I'd hear." Elizabeth stopped in front of Exam 2. "Well, I've got patients to attend to, so I leave you here."

"Wait, one more thing – do you know where Weaver is?"

"I haven't a clue, Malucci, check one of the Trauma rooms." She instructed.

"Thanks." He turned, crashing into a nurse.

The young woman stumbled, dropping a pile of green and blue scrubs. "Christ! Watch where you're going!"

Dave rolled his eyes and bent down to help pick up the mess they had made. "Sor-…" His voice trailed off when he realized whom he was talking to. "Abby?"

Abby Lockhart glanced up at him, brushing blonde tendrils of hair that had gotten loose from her ponytail out of her face. She did a double take. "Malucci?"

He studied her for a moment. "What the hell'd you do to your hair?"

Abby frowned. "What the hell did you do to yours?"

Dave opened his mouth to answer, but Dr. John Carter had already made his way over to the pair. "Hey Dave, what are you doing here?"

"I'm, uh…looking for Weaver." Dave shifted uncomfortably, picking up the last set of scrubs and handing them over to Abby. "I gotta find her before she finds me – and publicly humiliates me in front of the rest of my former co-workers."

"Trauma 2." Carter juggled three charts in his hand, no longer paying attention.

"What?" Dave raised an eyebrow.

"Weaver's in Trauma 2, Malucci." Abby finished, shaking her head at him.

"Oh, okay, thanks guys." He took off down the hallway, remembering every room and its location. He skidded to a stop outside the double doors of Trauma 2, looking through the windows at Dr. Kerry Weaver, who was just about to call the time of death for the young woman lying on the table in the middle of the room. A long, incessant whine could be heard echoing from the heart monitor.

It still saddened Dave to see the sort of scene displayed before him; the woman couldn't have been more than 20 years old. She had so much more left to live in her life and yet she would never make it further than the cemetery.

Weaver sighed, taking a few steps back, and a bald-headed African American man glanced at her, holding the defibrillators.

She shook her head, crutching out of Trauma 2 with her head low.

"Hey Chief." Dave greeted, his voice quiet and slightly affectionate.

Weaver stopped in front of the recognizable figure. "Dr. Malucci." She frowned as the African American man curiously wandered closer to the open double doors of Trauma 2, scribbling something on a chart and glancing in their direction. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, uh..." The speech that Dave had come up with earlier was now forgotten and he was left to start from scratch. "Uh, I'm gonna get straight to the point."

"That's not a bad idea, Dr. Malucci. Because if you don't hurry this along, I'm going to call security. You have sixty seconds to explain yourself." Weaver demanded, coldly.

"Okay, here goes: I know you don't like me and you think I'm a terrible doctor for mistakes I made in the past and all the other shit I've pulled but I've changed, I'm a different person now." Dave took a breath and continued, "So you're going to have to try and understand me and trust me for at least sixty seconds here, please. I'm sorry for everything done and said. I realize it's way too late for an apology but I…I was moonlighting at Mercy and I quit because I wasn't making enough money to…" Dave's voice faded for a moment, then strengthened, causing Weaver to raise her eyebrows. "To support my son, Caleb, and my daughter, Charisma. But I-I quit the moonlighting job in hopes that if I came here and begged and pleaded with you for my job back…you may consider re-hiring me?" Dave waited with bated breath, self-satisfied with the brilliant speech he had come up with at the last moment.

Weaver was silent for a while, making Dave edgy and unable to sit still. "I take it my sixty seconds were up a long way back?"

She nodded, studying him. "If I decided not to rehire you, where would this leave you and your kids?"

He sighed. "Close to without food, without shelter, without clothes – I don't think I can get my job back at Mercy and every other hospital is too far away for me to ride my bike to. There's not enough money for me to move us closer to any of them, even if that was a possibility. And Caleb and Charisma wouldn't want to switch schools or anything." Dave said, flatly.

"Would it bruise your ego any if I didn't rehire you?"

 His eyes flickered, darkly. When he spoke, his voice was hard and final. "This has absolutely nothing to do with my ego. This is about my kids."

Weaver, taken aback by his words, tried not to show her surprise. "I suppose you've changed, Dr. Malucci. But would you continue to disrespect this ER, the staff members, and its patients as you've done previously?"

Dave shook his head. "I've been to hell and back, Dr. Weaver. I'm not sure what you'll make that out to mean, but the answer to your question is 'no', I would not continue to disrespect this hospital and the people within its walls."

Weaver let out her breath, not realizing that she'd been holding it. "Then you're hired. You start tomorrow morning, seven o'clock sharp. You're lucky you're even getting a second chance, Malucci."