Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone ER related. But, we all know that by now, don't we.

PG - For some mild language. Sorry, not much Cordano in this chapter, but you'll need this chapter to enjoy future Cordano chapters. Also, you'll really love chapter nine. So please hang in there with me. Plus, I updated a few little things in the previous chapters: fixed the typos, added a few sentences here and there, so things would make more sense and be more believable. Thirdly, I guess at first I had it set up so I couldn't get Anonymous reviews. That was an accident. I've fixed it now, so if you had tried to give a review and it didn't work, it'll work now. I'm so sorry. I really want to hear from everyone. Thanks.

Chapter 8 - The Better Man

Robert strolled into County General this morning a little different than he had yesterday. A great weight was lifted. He didn't have some big decision to make anymore. It had already been made and he was actually pleased with the results. Of course, he wouldn't tell anyone that.

As he walked in, some of the nurses were pleasantly saying "good morning" to him. He supposed it hadn't gotten around yet that he was staying.

He actually had some plans for today. These were plans he'd had for a while, but he never really wanted to do them before. He thought he was leaving. He never thought he would be staying in the ER for long. Originally, he figured once his arm healed up, he would be able to go back to surgery. Then once that wasn't a possibility, he thought he would be leaving County all together. But now it seemed he would be staying for a while. So he might as well put the little Romano touch on the place. He had some ideas; one idea in particular he thought necessary. In fact, he planned to see if he could speak to Anspaugh about it this morning. He was really supposed to suggest new ideas to Kerry, his now immediate supervisor. But, he wasn't dumb.

The first thing he did (which was the first thing he did everyday in the ER) was waltz into the lounge. He didn't stop for coffee today, though. He went straight to the phone to speak with Anspaugh. He was actually able to reach him and set up an appointment for 11:30 am. It seemed Anspaugh was quite pleased to hear Robert in a good mood and ready to settle down into his new role. He was so pleased, he didn't even ask Robert, "Well, why don't you go to Kerry about it?" Robert fooled Anspaugh well with his friendly demeanor that he put on whenever he wanted something and was glad Donald didn't ask a bunch of unnecessary questions.

Robert got off the phone and didn't even bother with coffee today. He was in good spirits and didn't need it. He had his meeting with Anspaugh today and yesterday Elizabeth told him she wanted him to stay. Oh, he didn't care what her reasoning was. He was just glad she didn't say, "Oh, thank God! Good riddance you little prick." That made for a good day. Hell, he'd be in a good mood for a month.

He sauntered on over to the front desk and started looking over charts. Jerry spotted him.

"Oh, Dr. Romano, there's someone on line two for you."

"Who?"

"I don't know. Some girl. She wouldn't give me her name."

Ah, what the hell. Maybe if he finally talked to this whoever she was, she would leave him alone. So, he picked up the phone.

"This is Romano," he spoke into the receiver.

He paused.

"Hello?" he spoke again, this time in a little annoyed singsong voice. He hung up the receiver and glared at Jerry.

"She was there a minute ago, I swear." Jerry retorted. Romano just grabbed a chart and was about to tend to the knee lac in three when a young man clamored in through the ambulance bay doors.

"Somebody help me," the boy stammered. He was barely able to speak and he was holding his arm. His head was bleeding and he was limping in. He couldn't have been more than 17. Romano whizzed around the desk and began to help him.

"I need a gurney," yelled Romano.

A nurse brought one immediately and the boy got on it and lied down. As they were wheeling him down the hall towards a trauma room, Luka came around and began to help.

"I rammed my car into a bridge," stuttered the boy.

"And you just left?" asked Luka.

"Yeah," said the boy.

"Why didn't you call 911?"

"I knew I was close to here. I just panicked and ran."

"Did you lose consciousness?"

"No. I don't think so. Are you gonna call my parents?"

"Yep."

"No. Please don't. My dad's gonna kill me."

"Let's just make sure you're alright."

Luka examined the boy's head, while Romano examined his chest and stomach.

"Somebody page Corday," snapped Romano.

"I believe Dorsett's on call," explained Yosh.

"I don't care. Get Corday," he yelled again.

They paged Corday and in the end Luka gave the boy the final prognosis. The boy seemed very nervous and scared, so Luka tried to calm him down a little in his explanations. "It seems there's no major injuries that we can see right now. You'll just need a few sutures on your arm and your forehead. However, you did seem to hurt your stomach pretty bad, so we've called for a surgeon to come down and assess the damage to see if we need to do anything else. It's just a precaution."

"He'll need an ex-lap." Romano cut in quite matter-of-factly, as he was writing something on the boy's chart. Luka glared at him for saying that. Romano didn't raise his eyes off the chart.

"Ex-lap? What's that?" questioned the boy frantically to Luka.

Luka answered slowly trying to form his words carefully. "An Ex-lap stands for Experimental Laporatomy. It's a surgery done to rule out any major complications with your organs. It doesn't mean anything's wrong necessarily. But, we still need the surgeon to check you over to make sure that it's necessary." Luka finished.

Romano finally looked up from his chart to glare at Luka. Romano's arm might be gone, but his brain was still functioning. He still knew when an ex-lap was necessary or not. Romano didn't appreciate Luka's comment and Luka knew it. Romano put his hand in his pocket and they just stared at each other silently for a moment until they were interrupted.

"Did you page me, Robert?" Elizabeth burst in. She was practically panting like she had hurried or had just come in for the day.

"Yeah. 17-year-old male came in with lacerations to the head and arm from car accident as well as abdominal tenderness. I examined him and concluded he'll need an ex-lap." Robert was glaring at Luka the whole time he was talking to Elizabeth. She was just barely looking over the boy and felt his stomach for just a brief moment.

"Alright. Let's go," she said as she unlocked the boy's gurney so they could take him up to the OR. Luka was a little surprised.

"That's it?" asked Luka.

"Well, yes. What were you expecting?" asked Elizabeth in return.

"What? I'm going to surgery?!" the boy asked terrified.

"It's alright. It's a very simple procedure. You'll be just fine." Elizabeth reassured him.

Luka responded to her question. "Oh, I don't know. A little more thorough examination, perhaps." He was surprisingly sarcastic.

Elizabeth looked at him oddly. "Why would I do that? Robert already assessed him. I'm a mere technicality, really." She wheeled the boy away.

Romano hadn't taken his eyes off Luka this entire time. He stepped a few feet closer to him then whispered, "I would take some time to think about who I should respect around here if I were you, Dr. Kovac." Then Robert left.

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As Elizabeth walked into the scrub room to...well...scrub, she cursed in her mind as she saw Dorsett was in there scrubbing, as well. Funny, she used to respond the same way when she'd see Robert scrubbing...but for different reasons, of course.

"Dr. Corday," stated Dorsett cordially with a little smile.

"Dr. Dorsett," replied Elizabeth professionally with a straight face, as she grabbed the soap and began to scrub.

"And how are you this fine day?" he asked.

"Oh, can't complain, yet," she replied. There was a long silence.

"What've ya got?" asked Dorsett, pleasantly trying to make conversation.

"An emergency ex-lap," answered Corday, "You?"

"Colectomy." Again, there was silence. Dorsett turned the faucet on to rinse his hands and arms. He got done and was about to leave when he stopped and went over close to Elizabeth.

"Listen," he started. He was speaking seriously without any façade. "I'm sorry. I know you wanted me to leave you alone. But, I can't stop thinking about you. I really am very truly attracted to you, Elizabeth. And I just wish you'd give me a chance. Look, I'm sorry about last Monday night. I know it didn't go as well as I would have liked. I was nervous. Please..." He was practically begging. "...can we try again Friday? We can go wherever you want this time. I have a friend; a nurse in pediatrics. I'm sure she'd be able to baby-sit. She's very trustworthy." He closed his eyes and got very close to her, bending his head down. "Please, Elizabeth."

He looked up and looked into her eyes. She did the same. He was sincere, she thought. This little speech caught her off guard and it was very alluring. He grabbed for her heart and he got it. She gave in. "Alright," she answered. She wasn't too keen on leaving Ella with someone she didn't know, but she knew just about everyone in pediatrics, so she wasn't worried.

"Thank you," was all he said with a relieved sigh and then left. Elizabeth wasn't sure what she was doing, but she sure liked his speech. She felt the next thought that popped into her mind was odd. She remembered how she told Robert she wasn't planning to go out with Dorsett again. Oh well. Who cares if she went back on her word to Romano? Hopefully, he would never find out. If he did, she knew he'd be in a bad mood for days and probably take it out on her...and everyone else. She finished scrubbing and then headed to work.

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Kerry bolted out of the elevator on the 1st floor. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. She was tired, hungry and very upset. She looked around frantically. Suddenly she spotted Jing-Mei and grabbed her attention.

"Jing-Mei?"

Deb turned around, "Hello, Dr. Weaver." She hadn't been on the friendliest of terms with Kerry in a while. But that didn't really matter now.

"Have you seen Dr. Romano?" Kerry asked politely.

"Um, no, he was here a minute ago." Just then Robert was walking their way. "Oh, there he is," Deb concluded, then went her own way.

"Kerry!" Robert proclaimed. "We seem to be seeing a lot of each other lately. Is there something you're trying to tell me?" He was in a good mood after his meeting this morning, which was a complete success; great time to pester Kerry.

"I need to talk to you, Robert," she stated plainly.

"Of course you do."

They stood in the hall as Kerry began to question him. "I hear you're setting up cameras at the desk and medicine storage?"

"Yes. Pretty ingenious idea if I do say so myself. We need to keep a closer track on the medicines that go in and out of here. Right now any Joe Schmo can walk in here, grab some Fentanyl and be on his way. As well as staff and what not could do the same."

"I see," she replied more confused than before, but she was still civil. "Uh, Donald was a bit hazy on the details. How exactly is that supposed to work?"

"Wellll, I'm so glad you asked, Kerry. Basically, no one should be getting into this ER if they do not sign-in at that desk." He pointed to the front desk. "The camera will catch it if somebody does. Also, the nurses will inventory all our medicines at the end of every shift and yours truly will be checking each chart to make sure they match with what went out. If something doesn't match, the camera would have picked up the perpetrator," he stated quite proudly. After his speech, they started to quip back and forth at each other very quickly.

"That's a lot of work for you and the nurses, Robert."

"No pain, no gain."

"The nurses are already over worked as it is."

"They already take inventory once a month."

"Yeah, and it takes them over an hour each time."

"Well, if they do it everyday, they'll get faster won't they."

"You know, as well as I do, we just don't have it in the budget to put in two more video cameras, Robert." She was trying to show him reason.

"Well, you also know as well as I do, it's not much more. We already have cameras around the hospital for security purposes. These would just feed into that system."

"It's still-"

"You know, I thought you'd be a bit more supportive, Kerry. Donald thought it was a great idea."

"Yeah, you should have come to me first." She was getting testy.

"Oh, you're absolutely right, Kerry. It was a complete misjudgment on my part. I guess old habits are hard to break. You have my word it will never happen again." He was obviously being sarcastic and patronizing and Kerry knew it.

"Donald doesn't know all the little financial details of this hospital where he is."

"Well, you should tell him that. Maybe he'll give you his job next."

"Watch it, Robert."

"Oh come on, take it like a man, Kerry."

She was becoming practically sick with anger. She stared him down as long as she could, then turned away and stomped off. Robert then turned and strode away in the opposite direction, quite pleased with himself. Kerry hobbled into the Ladies Room and just stared down into the sink for a moment. She was scared. She had gotten herself in a pretty big mess and didn't know what to do. She knew now that Jonathan probably wouldn't stop needing "favors" and she was up a creek. What would Jonathan say once she told him she couldn't help him anymore? What would he do? Would he stop the extra funding? Would he ruin her career? Ruin the hospital? She wasn't really sure what he was capable of. She looked up at her image in the mirror. "How did this happen?" she spoke out loud to herself. Just then a wave of sickness fell over her. She dashed into the nearest stall and threw up.