That morning Elizabeth hadn't hurried to get out of bed. She laid back on the pillows smiling to herself. After a mental inventory of her wardrobe, she decided that tailored black trousers and a new green silk blouse would make the right statement. Casual elegance. Maybe with the emerald earrings her dad had given her for her last birthday. And heels. Definitely. Just high enough to look over his head. As for the menu, she would go all English. Roast beef, yorkshire pudding, and what the hell even trifle for dessert. After all, she wasn't sure who could be cooking for Robert. He probably needed a good meal.

After shopping for the food and buying some fresh flowers, Elizabeth headed home with Ella. She hadn't had a guest for some time. At least not in the dining room. She was looking forward to ironing the table cloth, setting out china, choosing some music when her pager went off....

At 5pm, still resectioning a bowel in the OR, Elizabeth began to panic. She couldn't step out to make a phone call, nor could she ask the nurse to dial for her on the speakerphone. After all, Dorsett was there and she'd told him that she was having an evening out with some girlfriends. Not that she should lie. Not that he would care. She shook her head and concentrated on the procedure. She'd just have to call Robert when she got out.

At 6:47 pm, leaving the OR, Elizabeth tried his office and then his home number. She thought about paging him, but she would have to wait by a phone to answer. And Ella was waiting for her in daycare. Maybe the best idea would be to go home, page him, and then wait for his call there. She wouldn't get back until almost 7:30, and he would surely have given up waiting by then.

But when she turned into her street it was only 7:15, and there he was. Standing by his car. She could have turned down the block so that he would leave and they could avoid the awkward explanation. But something in the disappointed slouch of his shoulders caught at her heart, and she pushed forward, parked and got out of her car. "Robert," she called.

He turned to look at her. Several long curls had escaped from the knotted scarf that held back her hair, and they were blowing in the breeze around her face. She was so beautiful it hurt, he thought. Then he noticed that she was wearing scrubs.

"I'm so sorry," she was saying, trying to free a clamoring Ella from the car seat. Robert waited for her to finish the task and turn to him before he spoke, "Called in on your day off, I see. Ah, County! Understaffed and underpaid, isn't that Kerry's motto for the new regime?" Elizabeth laughed a little and took a step toward him with Ella toddling by her side. "The invitation still stands," she perservered, "although I'm afraid the menu will have to be modified."

Robert shook his head. "You should go in and try to take some of today off," he said, stepping back and toward his car. "You're tired. Maybe another time," he was saying. And although during the whole drive home Elizabeth had been practicing these same lines -- "I'm tired. Maybe another time." -- she was suddenly insisting that he stay. "Please stay," she implored. "Really, Robert." And hearing the pleading tone in her mother's voice, Ella repeated, "Really!"

Robert looked down at the little girl's big, blue eyes and sighed. She was truly her mother's daughter. Irresistible. He nodded, and without thinking he reached out to take the child's free hand. Unfortunately, the arm he extended had a steel claw on the end.

But instead of recoiling as did the pedes patients he saw in his research, Ella's eyes widened and she reached out carefully to touch the metal. Elizabeth eyed her daughter warily, afraid she might scare and start to scream. And as worried as she was about Ella's reaction, she was equally concerned with how Robert might take it.

Touching the cold metal, Ella looked up at Robert's warm eyes. "Tin man," she murmured gently. Elizabeth grinned in relief. "Too much Wizard of Oz," she explained, propelling the fascinated child away from Robert and toward the door. Then over her shoulder, "Not the movie. We have this picture book....," she trailed . She was struck suddenly by the thought that the tin man was the one who had a heart all along. She wondered if Robert would recognize the reference.

He didn't seem bothered and just followed her inside, wine bottle still in hand. When they got to the kitchen where bowls and bags and recipes were still apparent from the afternoon of preparations, Elizabeth turned to him with an apologetic smile. "I had high hopes," she explained, "but now I think we'll just have to order in." She looked through a drawer in the kitchen until she found a menu. "Pizza okay?" she asked, sheepishly. "Pepperoni goes perfectly with thirty-year old burgundy," Robert joked. But he was grinning, and she knew it was okay. "Pizza!" cheered Ella somewhere from the living room where she was already rooting through her box looking for the Wizard of Oz book.

Elizabeth called and ordered and Robert leaned against the counter and listened. "Twenty minutes," she reassured him, hanging up the phone with a little sigh and then a big stretch of her tired back muscles. "I could watch her if you wanted to go upstairs and change," he remarked casually, nodding toward the living room and Ella. Elizabeth looked a bit stunned but then glancing down at her scrubs she had to agree that a shower and change of clothes sounded good. "Alright," she assented, "but if you open the wine, she only gets one glass," Elizabeth ended teasingly and before Robert could quip back that burgundy did not belong in a sippy cup, Elizabeth dashed up the stairs.

Ten minutes later, standing in a towel, Elizabeth looked into her closet. Emerald earrings didn't seem right for pizza, so she shrugged and slipped on old jeans and a pink sweater. Pink wasn't her color, but Ella loved her to wear it. She brushed her hair before gathering it in a blue elastic and put on some pink lipstick to match the sweater. To complete the look, she shuffled into her bedroom slippers shaped like wooly white sheep, another favorite of Ella's. She laughed, wondering what Robert would say.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs she heard his voice. She could see him from the back curled up in a corner of the couch with Ella, reading from her new favorite book. The little girl was snuggled against his side, her head resting against his right shoulder. When he got to the munchkin page, he rose his voice a pitch higher to read the munchkin mayor's part, and Elizabeth couldn't stifle a giggle. Robert turned and met her smile with his own. "It looks like Glenda the good witch has arrived to save me," he laughed as Ella scrambled down to run to her mother. "Mommy, mommy," Ella exclaimed. "He does all of the animals!" Elizabeth's smile grew broader. "Even Toto?" she asked with feigned innocence. Before Robert could reply that he had risen to the challenge of Auntie Em's barnyard with aplomb, the pizza arrived.

Instead of the dining room, Elizabeth brought paper plates and napkins to the coffee table so that they could stay on the sofa. She made a concession for the wine, though, and carried in two crystal goblets. "Shall we toast?" she asked, as she poured each of them a glassful. Robert took his glass from her hand, leaned back into the sofa cushion with Ella leaning against him as she drank juice from her sippy cup. He looked down at Ella and then up at Elizabeth then raised his glass to her. "There's no place like home," he said and reached out to clink his glass against hers.

Just then the phone rang and Elizabeth put her glass down and reached for the cordless. When she heard the voice on the other end she stood up and moved to the kitchen, mouthing to Robert, "I'll be right back." When the door swung shut, she moved to the far end of the room, as far out of Robert's hearing as possible so that she could reply, "Look, I'm just so tired." When Edward kept insisting, she interrupted and almost shouted, "I said not tonight. I mean it. I'll see you tomorrow," and she hung up.

When she put down the phone on the counter she stopped for a moment, surprised at the tone she had just used. Why had she been so annoyed with him? Why had she hung up without a goodbye? Well, she did have company. And at that thought, she composed herself and returned to the living room to find Ella sleeping with her head in Robert's lap, his fingers absently stroking her soft, blond curls as he stared into space. His eyes met Elizabeth's but his hand continued its gentle motion, and Elizabeth could see that Ella was smiling a little in her dream. Her heart knocked hard in her chest as she looked at the two of them. Edward had never shown the least bit of affection to her daughter.

She looked back up at Robert and whispered, "Sorry," and moved to pick up the sleepy bundle and carry her upstairs. A few minutes later, she was back, and Robert was sipping his wine leaving the pizza to congeal on his plate. "I can heat it up," apologized Elizabeth. "No," he replied quicky and quietly, "I can just go." Again she found herself protesting, "Robert, come on now! I know it's not the finest fare, but please don't leave. Not before dessert." Hearing what she'd just offered, Elizabeth blushed pinker than her sweater. Robert waited for her to recover before he smiled at her with just the tiniest hint of malice. "It had better be chocolate," he responded. With that Elizabeth bounded to the kitchen, wondering what she would serve him. She hadn't made the trifle (which wasn't chocolatey anyway), and she was almost out of ice cream (which was some sort of peanut butter flavor). She heard the door swing open behind her and Robert come in with her wine glass in his hand. "If you drink my French wine, I'll eat your Chicago pizza," he bargained with a wink. Then he looked down sorrowfully and murmured, "I'm sorry I'm such a bad guest."

Elizabeth laughed. "You're a perfect guest Robert. You've overlooked the cold food and refrained from commenting on my fluffy slippers. You will definitely be invited back," she promised as they returned to the living room together.

After sharing the observation that certain types of deep-dish pizza could be eaten cold if accompanied by just the right wine, the conversation began to come more easily. They talked about food and favorite restaurants and favorite cities and favorite countries. They disagreed on most things but in such an agreeable way that three hours past without a pause. As Robert reached for the wine bottle, he noticed it was empty just as Elizabeth realized that the pizza was gone. "Dessert?" she asked. "Hmmm," Robert agreed. "But I have a confession to make," Elizabeth continued. I don't have chocolate. Just sponge cake, whipping cream and strawberries." "Were you going to make me trifle?" Robert asked with mock awe. Elizabeth grinned and added, "I had even planned a yorkshire pudding." Robert didn't say anything for a moment, but when he began to speak again his voice was low and choked, as if he were truly moved by her elaborate dinner plans. "I'm touched, really," he began, "I haven't..." But before he could finish they were both startled by the sound of a key in the door.