Disclaimer: I don't own ER or any of these characters.
I can only hope this chapter is tolerable. It wasn't easy to write, but I hope it came out ok. Please R&R.
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Chapter 9 -MisapprehensionsThe following night proved to be a sleepless one for Elizabeth. She constantly found herself thinking, and consequently trying not to think, about Robert together with the blonde. The reasonable part of her kept saying that she was being utterly ridiculous. She didn't care about Robert and it certainly wasn't the first time he was disregarding the rules, so why should she be so upset now that he had chosen to go out with a patient's sister while waiting for the patient's test results? He had done worse things in the past. Irritable man. Why couldn't he just behave like everyone else and save her the trouble of spending sleepless nights on his account.
Elizabeth acknowledged she was being unreasonable as she once again tossed over in her bed, but she also excused herself, stating it wasn't easy to stay reasonable in the middle of the night and think fairly of the person that was causing the sleeplessness. This was exactly why she could never be with Robert: if he was driving her crazy even when he wasn't present, what would his constant presence do to her? A whispering thought suggested that it might the fact he was not present and that he might indeed be spending the night with someone else that was driving her mad, but Elizabeth silenced it by covering her head in her pillows.
She. Did. Not. Have. Any. Feelings. For. Robert. Period. –or did she?
Elizabeth exasperatedly tossed one of her pillows towards the wall as if it was the origin of her unsettling thoughts and feelings. Then she sighed deeply and tried to fantasize about Edward Dorsett just to get her mind better occupied, but it proved to be a fruitless attempt, because her thoughts would always return to Robert as soon as the imagined kissing and making out would turn really heated.
Finally, when the clock beside her bed hit 4 am, Elizabeth decided to give up the idle attempts to sleep and just start preparing for the next day already. She'd probably need to drink the whole pot of coffee to get enough energy, so she might just as well get started with it. Wrapping herself up in her bathrobe, she tiptoed from her room to downstairs, trying not to wake up Ella. She didn't bother to turn on the lights as she had already prepared the coffee for the morning so that she only needed to press the button and let the machine do the rest.
Waiting for the coffee to drop, Elizabeth wandered off to the living room and settled down on the couch. She only meant to sit down until the coffee was ready, but the plan soon went awry as she began to doze off and was asleep before she even realized.
Four hours later Elizabeth woke up with a start. Someone was ringing the doorbell. She quickly stumbled up from the couch and, taking a look at the clock on the wall, saw that it was nearly 8 am and she was supposed to be at work in ten minutes. The doorbell rang again.
"I'm coming" Elizabeth yawned as she went to open the door.
It was Kris, the babysitter.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, I…" the girl began, but was cut short as she noticed that Elizabeth had obviously just woken up and was still wearing her bathrobe, her hair being more of a mess than usually.
"Did you call in sick?" she asked, sounding worried. "You don't look too good."
"I'm fine" Elizabeth sighed. "I just didn't get much sleep at night so I overslept."
"Are you still going to work?"
"I guess I must." Elizabeth replied, trying to repress a yawn. Then she got a grip of herself and invited Kris in, all the while trying to shake herself awake. She would have to start doing something if she was ever going to make it to work:
"Would you go and get Ella – she's still in her crib – while I get dressed", she started giving instructions. "And if you'd then drive me…"
"Of course I will, " the girl cut in reassuringly. "I'll be ready as soon as you are."
"Thanks" Elizabeth smiled. She went on to throw away the old coffee and to prepare a fresh pot before going back upstairs to get dressed.
Half an hour later Elizabeth was ready and on her way to the County. It was almost 9 o'clock when Kris finally dropped her off in front of Doc Magoo's and Elizabeth could step out to say her good-byes to Ella. She was nearly a full hour late.
As she entered the hospital, Elizabeth hoped to be able to make a quick exit to her office and pretend she had been there all morning since, luckily enough, nobody had yet paged her, but the plan came to nothing when she heard Romano's voice calling after her as soon as she had passed the reception desk.
"Lizzie. How gracious of you to finally join us!"
Elizabeth stopped and sighed, but did not turn around.
"I'm sorry, but I overslept." She muttered, hoping to get away without any further questioning. But she had no such luck. Robert was, if possible, even worse than usually:
"Really? Is that some new ailment that has suddenly befallen all surgeons?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and swirled around.
"Oh, come on Robert," she snapped. "It's only an hour for God's sake. I can do it in later." She knew she deserved the reproach, but the tone in which Robert was speaking was not making her morning any better.
"Indeed." Romano snorted. "Now, normally I wouldn't mind, but if every surgeon decides to sleep late one morning…"
Elizabeth blinked.
"Excuse me, but I'm afraid you just lost me. As far as I know, I'm not the only surgeon here, so even if I…"
"Oh please" Romano interjected, directing Elizabeth from the hall to the privacy of the lounge. "I think you know perfectly well what I'm talking about."
"No, quite frankly I have no idea what you mean." Elizabeth retorted, getting impatient.
"You can stop pretending, Elizabeth. You know I'm talking about Mr. Lipstick."
Elizabeth sighed exasperatedly. Robert was getting way out of line.
"What the hell has he got to do with this?" she insisted, no longer bothering to keep a level voice. "Besides", she growled. "The name is Dorsett. Do you want me to spell it out for you? D-O-R…"
"Look, I don't care what his name is." Robert cut in, raising his voice to go above Elizabeth's. "But if you like it so much, then why don't you just run off to Las Vegas and marry him." He was nearly yelling out the last part.
"What is your problem?" Elizabeth snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why would I want to marry him?"
"Why indeed?" Robert snapped back. "I guess it suits you better then, to just spend some wet nights with Dr. Dork and come to work when you feel like it."
Elizabeth stared at Romano in disbelief. He had been grumpy all week, but this was going way beyond his previous moodiness.
"Robert, are you sure you're alright?" she asked, forgetting her irritation for a while as worry suddenly took over in her mind. Had all the trials in his life finally affected his mental health?
At first Robert did not reply, but then his expression hardened as he opened his mouth to speak:
"You know what?" he retorted . "I'm not alright; I'm sick – sick of your games."
"My games?" Elizabeth repeated in disbelief. She wondered if Robert was serious or if he had hit the drug store on his way to work. But he seemed to be perfectly sober and, at the moment, very much pissed off with her. Was it still because of yesterday? At first Elizabeth felt guilty at the thought, but then she remembered what Robert himself had done, and her anger slowly began to return. What right did he have to come and berate her when he himself was hitting on his patients' sisters.
"My games?" she repeated again, this time with more force. "What about your games?"
"Excuse me?" It was Robert's turn to stare in disbelief.
"You heard me." Elizabeth smirked. She was pleased to see Robert silenced so easily. She took a deep breath and began to list her accusations:
"So, tell me, Robert, what exactly did you think you were doing yesterday, when you left your patient, Mr. Anthony Hewitt, to survive by himself while you chose to take his sister out for coffee?" Elizabeth paused to gather more breath and Romano opened his mouth to reply, but she silenced him with a wave of her hand as she went on: "You are the Chief of ER, for crying out loud! Have you any idea what kind of example you are setting?"
There was a short, heavy silence. Then Robert spoke:
"What about you?" he snapped irately without responding to the charges made. "You are as good as the Chief of Surgery and you just sleep with your employees and come to work when it suits you! Now doesn't that just give a whole new meaning to the people who work under you? Or was he working on top?"
Elizabeth could only stare at Romano in utter shock before she found her voice again.
"I beg you pardon!" she gaped. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"There's no need to play innocent, Elizabeth. I saw him."
"Saw who?"
"Dorsett - who else? Or have you moved on to Edson by now?"
Elizabeth shuddered at the thought, but didn't get a chance to say anything before Robert continued:
"He came in just before you did, this Dorsett guy, bragging to Luka about some hot chick he had last night. Seemed very pleased."
Finally it all began to make sense to Elizabeth and she let out a half amused chuckle as the truth dawned to her. Robert looked at her in surprise. Apparently, of all the responses he had expected, this was not on the top of his list.
"What's so amusing?" he asked, seemingly unsure of whether he should get more angry or not.
"You thought it was me?" Elizabeth only asked, repressing another chuckle. "Fast Eddie indeed", she added to herself, thinking of how only yesterday he had been making his moves on her.
"What? Are you trying to tell me it wasn't you?" Robert seemed to be completely taken by surprise and unsure of how to react.
"I'm not trying - I'm telling you it certainly wasn't me."
Romano looked at her searchingly, obviously trying to decide whether he should take her word for it.
"Then who was it?" he finally asked, still in disbelief, although it seemed to Elizabeth that he was also beginning to feel slightly embarrassed of his earlier accusations.
"How should I know", she shrugged. "I don't care where he spends his nights – as long as he stays away from my house."
"So…there's nothing going on between you two?"
"No." Elizabeth replied honestly. It was about the time this mess was cleared. Maybe she and Robert could now return to their normal situation – whatever that was. At least they could stop fighting.
Romano didn't reply. Instead, he quietly sat down and then bounced back up again, going to pour himself a cup of coffee. He didn't seem to know what to do or say next. Finally he turned to look at Elizabeth again.
"Uh…I'm sorry." He muttered, speaking to his coffee cup. "I shouldn't have lashed out on you like that…It's not like it was any of my business anyway."
Elizabeth looked at him quizzically, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Are you apologizing?"
Romano instantly pulled himself together and straightened his back as he returned to his normal demeanor:
"Yeah", he spoke lightly. "Take it or leave it. But I'd say you better take it, because it won't happen again."
"In that case I'll take it." Elizabeth replied with a smile. Then she remembered there was still one thing that was unsettled and she couldn't just let it pass or else she'd be in for another sleepless night:
"Robert" she began. "About what happened yesterday between you and Ms. Hewitt…You…You do realize it was wrong?"
Romano shrugged.
"Who cares, the girl was an idiot anyway", he replied, taking a sip of his coffee. "Besides - What's the fun of being a Chief if you can't do what you want?"
"You have a point." Elizabeth retorted, trying to hide her own satisfaction. She didn't even know why she should feel so satisfied of his response. Or – to hell with it – actually she did know, had known all along, but she had been too stubborn to admit it to herself: she didn't like the thought of Robert paying his attentions to anyone but herself.
There he was, obliviously sipping his coffee as the realization Elizabeth had been trying to escape for so long finally hit her - and it almost scared her to death: Not the fact that Robert was sipping his coffee, but the fact that she suddenly knew she wanted to be the cup.
TBC