Disclaimer: I'm afraid I do not own any characters, real or fictitious, that are connected with NBC, ER or any other TV show that has two people completely prefect for each other, but completely oblivious and obstinate and totally unwilling to get over themselves and just fall into each other's arms and know what's good for them. How could they be so stupid as to not see that they need each other and can't live without each other? It's absolutely despicable and makes me want to just go over and slap them both silly...Sorry about that. Just lost my head there just for a minute.

G - Okay, I know it's long. It focuses a lot on Ella and Robert, though, so I think you'll like it. I don't know about you, but I can really see this happening on the show in the future. What do you think? Also, thanks Susan for your review. That is exactly what I'm going for. And thanks everybody else as well for your reviews. Keep 'em comin', please.

Chapter 11 - Ella

Everyone in the OR worked harder than ever before. A day turned into a week, then two weeks, then three, then a month, then two months. Everything at County General was running smoothly. The summer was passing quickly, as most summers did, especially when you're busier than ever. Dorsett was never caught. An investigation was brought into play, of course. But, he wasn't found and slowly other investigations took precedence over that one. And eventually, he became forgotten by the police detectives, the staff and doctors...even Elizabeth.

For some reason, finding a replacement for him did not come easily. Elizabeth wasn't really involved too much in the process. Anspaugh had asked her if she wanted to be, but she refused due to too much work pressured on her at the moment. She supposed it was taking a while because they were being extra cautious this time around.

Thankfully, the incident in the closet had been forgotten, as well. Although it was the good, juicy gossip for about a week, it died down after a while. Romano never said a word about it to Elizabeth or even acted differently around her than usual. And, of course, Elizabeth said nothing to him. They both went along their merry way pretending nothing had happened.

Elizabeth was just starting her fourth procedure today. She'd had a cardiopulmonary bypass, a hysterectomy, a mastectomy and now a bowel resection. She had just scrubbed in and began to start when the phone rang.

"Okay, I'm making my first incision at 3:08 pm. Note the time please." Elizabeth requested.

"Dr. Corday, it's you're nanny. She says she needs to talk to you," stated Shirley holding the phone with her left hand cupped over the mouthpiece.

"Alright. Put her on." She put aside the scalpel. "Eleven blade," she then requested.

Shirley put her on the speakerphone and a frantic voice spoke from the other end.

"Elizabeth?"

"Kris? What's wrong?"

"I got in a car accident." She was panting and talking kind of loud. She was obviously on her cell phone.

"What? Are you alright?"

"Yes. I'm fine. I'm on 11th and Madison. I was turning left and some guy just plowed into me. The police are here and filling out a report. But the guy who hit me is crazy. He's talking to the cops forever trying to tell them it's my fault. I don't think they're believing him, but I'm gonna be here forever." Kris' voice was shaky and she was rambling without thinking.

"Oh my God!" Elizabeth declared loudly all of a sudden. Everyone looked at her weird. "What is all this? He looks like he's corroding in here." She, of course was not responding to Kris, but referring to her patient. "I'm gonna be here forever trying to clean him up."

"Dr. Corday?" asked Kris.

"Okay, okay, just calm down." She wasn't sure if she was talking to Kris or herself. "Is Ella with you?"

"No. That's the thing. I'm not gonna be able to pick her up from preschool."

"Sponge stick." Elizabeth requested. She was still doing the operation and trying to focus on what Kris was saying at the same time. "Well, can't you just call them and tell them you'll be late? I'm sure they'll understand."

"Dr. Corday, my car is totaled. I don't even know right now how I'm going to get home. I just can't do it today. Isn't there any way you can get off?"

Elizabeth glanced at the clock. It read 3:16 pm. Ella was supposed to get picked up from preschool at 3:45. There was no way she was going to make it. She was going to be there for hours.

"No, actually, there isn't!" She was frustrated and being abrupt. She wasn't mad at Kris, but she was upset by the situation. She paused and thought for a second about what to do. "Shirley, is there anyone available to relieve me?" Elizabeth asked.

"No one. Everyone's either in surgery or out of town." Shirley replied.

"What about Anspaugh?" Elizabeth asked.

"He's in the middle of an embolism."

"Okay." Elizabeth sighed. "Kris, I'm going to call Tracy and see if she can pick up Ella. You just take care of yourself, alright?" Tracy was a good friend of Kris' and had baby-sat for Mark and Elizabeth a few times in the past. Tracy was their emergency contact. Elizabeth said what she was supposed to under the circumstances, but she wasn't happy, even if it wasn't Kris' fault.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Corday." And with that, Kris hung up.

"Shirley, I need you to call a number for me." Shirley picked the phone back up and then looked at Elizabeth. Elizabeth continued, "555-4682."

The phone range once, then twice, then again and then the answering machine picked up. "This is Tracy Lenehan. I'm not available to take your call right now, but if you will leave your name and number, I will get back to you as soon as I can. Bye now." Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

"Tracy, it's Elizabeth. If your there, pick up." Elizabeth paused. "Kris can't pick up Ella. I needed you to...Ah damn!" The 'ah damn' was in reference to her patient. Elizabeth had stopped talking and became completely focused on the infectious tissue below her hands.

After a while, Shirley raised her eyebrows. "Do you want me to hang up?" she asked.

"Yes! Yes!" She took deep breaths. "Alright, call her cell phone for me. 555-3994." Shirley dialed and after about 2 rings everyone heard, "Welcome to Southwestern Bell. The person at this number is unavailable to take your call..." Shirley just hung up and Elizabeth breathed out loudly. She was frantically working on the man unconscious before her. Shirley waited for Dr. Corday to give her someone else to call.

"Is there someone else you'd like me to call, Dr. Corday?" asked Shirley calmly.

Elizabeth was panting and couldn't think. "Um...um...Shirley, could you...?"

"I can't. I have to assist in another OR at 4:00. I'm sorry."

Elizabeth frantically looked around at everyone there. They were all working just as hard as her and quite needed where they were. Shirley kept looking at her waiting for her next direction.

"Okay...uh...alright...just um...call um..." She then just shouted out the first thing that came to mind, "...page...page Dr. Romano."

Shirley looked at her quizzically, "Dr. Corday, he can't do surgery." She felt weird stating the obvious.

"Just do it, Shirley!!!" Elizabeth yelled.

Shirley was a little upset, but always controlled her anger well...unlike Elizabeth, she thought. "Alright."

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"Okay, hold on." Frank pushed the hold button and place the phone receiver back in its cradle. "Have you seen Dr. Romano?" Frank asked Abby who happened to be beside him.

"No, it's been a good day," she replied casually not looking up from what she was reading and then leaving. Frank looked around and then spotted him a long way off. He shouted for him.

"Dr. Romano! There's a phone call for you!"

Robert walked up to the desk looking at Frank disgustedly. "Yeah, I've been getting that a lot, lately. If you and Jerry have nothing better to do, but pull phone pranks on me, I can take care of that in a jiffy."

"This one's Dr. Corday."

"What does she want? Rub it in my face about how wonderful her job is?"

"I don't know. She sounded upset. She's on line 2. I've passed the message and I don't care what you do." With that, Frank left to the other side of the desk to work on the computer and not have to talk to Dr. Romano anymore. Robert scrunched up his face irritated, reached over and picked up the phone.

"Yo."

"Robert?!" Elizabeth shouted from the other line.

"Lizzie! Hadn't seen ya around. Didn't know if you still worked here anymore or had gone back home to have tea and biscuits with mummy." At 'mummy' he put on a fake British accent.

"Robert," she continued yelling into the speakerphone, not paying attention to his little remarks. "I need a favor." She had a hard time spitting it out, but she was desperate.

He responded in exaggerated surprise non-verbally, so she couldn't see him, "Well, I hate to break it to ya, Lizzie. I know you've made yourself scarce lately, but I'm sort of unqualified as is to perform surgery anymore, if you hadn't noticed."

Again, she ignored him and kept yelling in the phone. "My nanny got in a car accident. She was supposed to pick up Ella at 3:45, but she can't and I can't get a hold of the emergency contact. My bowel resection went septic."

"Ew, how wonderful to be you."

"Robert!?" Elizabeth was finally getting frustrated with his comments. "I'm desperate!"

At that, Robert decided to stop. "Alright, alright. What do you need from me?"

Elizabeth paused before answering, but then just said it. "I need you to go pick up Ella for me."

Robert furrowed his brow on his end and said nothing. Elizabeth continued, "Please Robert. I can call and tell them you're coming. You can just bring her here. Please."

"Alright," he answered slowly. He wasn't so sure about this. "Where is she?" he asked, while cradling the phone on his shoulder and getting out a pen and paper.

"She's at Careful Care Preschool on 18th and Boulder. You'll need to go now. Are you sure you can do this?"

Robert thought the name of this place sounded really stupid. "Yeah, I can do it."

Elizabeth exhaled a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Robert."

"No problem." At that, he hung up the phone and walked toward the lounge to get his wallet and keys and get rid of his lab coat. When he came back out, Frank noticed he was leaving.

"Going somewhere, Dr. Romano?"

"None of your bees-wax." And he stomped out the door.

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Shirley pressed the speaker button on the phone to hang up with Romano. No one said anything. They just looked around at each other with bemused looks. Elizabeth noted the silence and looked up at them all.

"Oh, don't give me that." Elizabeth said. "I was desperate. Shirley, find the number for the preschool and get me in touch with Regina Angleton."

Shirley did so and a moment later we heard, "Careful Care Preschool. This is Regina. Can I help you?"

"Regina, it's Elizabeth. Listen, Kris got in a car accident and I'm in the middle of surgery. I'm sending a frie...er...colleague of mine over to pick up Ella for me. His name's Dr. Robert Romano."

"Oh, okay. That's fine. What does he look like?"

Elizabeth laughed inside to herself. "He's short, bald and only has one arm. I don't think you could miss him."

Regina chuckled a little. "Alright, we'll wait for him."

"Thank you, Regina." She hung up.

Everyone in the OR was staring at Elizabeth a little shocked. Elizabeth responded to this nervously, pretending not to notice. "Well, good, that's done. Taken care of. Don't have to worry now."

But, just then, she did worry. What had she done? She had just asked the most reprehensible man she'd ever met to go pick up her sweet, innocent daughter from preschool. Was she crazy? Not to mention, he only had one arm. She just remembered when she had thought once how it would be to only have one arm and had decided taking care of a child would be impossible. She wondered then if she would ever see her precious child again. How on earth was he going to manage this? She was scared to death the whole rest of the surgery.

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Romano got on the El and headed toward 18th and Boulder. The nearest stop was 3 blocks away, so he had to walk that distance. When he got there he was greeted with a big smile.

"Hi. I'm Regina. You must be Dr. Romano." Regina was one of those chipper people who were always happy and always wore a big smile. Robert didn't like those kinds of people. Regina held out her hand for Romano to shake, but he didn't.

"Yeah, " he answered half-heartedly. He wasn't looking at Regina, but around the room at all the kids, looking for that one special one. Regina caught on to this.

"Oh, Ella's over there in the corner." She pointed and Robert went straight over without ever acknowledging Regina.

Ella was playing happily alone on the floor with blocks. She was very focused on them. She had one thumb in her mouth and played using the other hand. Robert just looked down at her a little unsure what to do next. He squatted down to her level.

"Hey, you wanna go see your mom?" He spoke to her in a normal tone. He didn't like to talk to children in a baby tone of voice.

Ella didn't answer or look at him. She just kept playing with thumb in mouth. Robert raised his eyebrows, sighed and cleared his throat. "Okay." He realized this would take a while and sat down beside her Indian style. He just looked at her with a little smile. He then felt eyes boring at the back of his neck. He turned around and glared at Regina who was just standing there with her arms folded, smiling at Ella. Regina looked at him and then slowly her smile faded. She just awkwardly turned around and went to do something else. Robert then turned back to Ella.

"My name's Robert. I'm a friend of your mom's. She told me to come pick you up and take you to her. So, so you want to go see your mom?"

He was being nice, but she still didn't respond and just kept playing. He figured he needed a new tactic. He saw the blocks had letters on them so he took four and spelled out her name for her on the carpet.

"See. Ella. Are you Ella?" He was trying for anything. She just looked at what he did, then grabbed one of those blocks and put it on her little tower. He then just started to make his own tower, but come about the 7th or 8th block, it fell over. As soon as that happened, Ella made a little gasp and the thumb popped out of the mouth. She held her mouth wide open, looking at the fallen blocks. Robert imitated her little gasp and held his mouth open too, in playing with her. She just looked at him and giggled.

She crawled over to his blocks and set one on top of another. She then shoved a block in his hand. He just held it looking at her to see what she would do.

"You, you put it on that one," Ella said.

"You want me to put it on there?" he asked her.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"You're really sure?"

"Yeeeeeessssss," she drawled out at him irritated.

"Okay." He still didn't do it, though. He put it on top of his knee instead and waited.

"No."

"No?"

"No. There." She pointed to the small tower that consisted so far of only two blocks. He grabbed the block in his hand again. She then grabbed his hand to just do it for him. She placed his hand that had the block on top of the tower. Finally Robert gave in and set the block down where she wanted. She shoved another block into his hand and so the game went on. Come the 7th block, he non-chalantly knocked it down. Ella screeched with laughter. The way she acted, this was the most exciting thing she'd ever done. Again, she gave him a block and this cycle went on for a while. She never got tired. Finally, Robert broke in.

"Okay, one more." He pointed his index finger up at her indicating just one more tower. After that one fell, he said, "Okay, you ready to go now?" She nodded. "Okay," he said. He then stood up off the floor and squatted to her level fully on his feet. "You're gonna need to hold onto my neck." She did so and he lifted her up in his arm. On his way out, Regina stopped him.

"Oh, Dr. Romano?"

He turned around.

"I need you to sign this," she said as she pulled out a clipboard and pen. She wasn't smiling anymore. He must have scared the smileys out of her. He made an angry face. Why hadn't she told him this earlier? He just looked around awkwardly for someplace to set Ella down while he signed the stupid form. He couldn't hold her and sign it at the same time. Regina noticed the problem and took Ella from him while he signed his name. She then handed Ella back to him. Ella wrapped her arms around his neck willingly and they were gone.

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Robert walked 3 blocks back to the EL, holding the little girl in his arm. He passed by a little store on the way and bought a box of crayons, 2 coloring books and a little puzzle that she wanted. On the EL ride back she sat on the seat to his right playing with the little puzzle he bought her.

As he walked through the emergency bay doors, Frank and others around who saw Dr. Romano enter, stared at him open mouthed. This included Haleh, Malik, Lydia, Chuny, Carter, Abby, Susan and Pratt. This was definitely a sight they had never seen before. Romano holding a child; and not just any child. A sweet, beautiful, adorable little girl.

"Uh, Dr. Romano-" Frank started, but Romano interrupted him as he was heading for the lounge.

"If anyone calls, I'm not here. If anyone needs me, I'm not here. If there is an emergency, I'm not here. If the hospital catches on fire and a bomb blows up in the cafeteria I'm still not here. Call 911. Do not page me for any reason at all whatsoever. Do I make myself clear?"

"What if Dr. Corday comes down?"

"I'll be in the lounge. And call her upstairs. Let her know I'm here."

He stepped through the door and it closed behind him. Everyone just stared at each other for a minute not knowing what to say. They were in shock. Suddenly, Romano popped out of the lounge and taped a piece a paper to the outside of the door. It read:

You come in here, you die. Then you will be fired. RR

After that, everyone just slowly went back to work.

During the next 2 hours Romano never left the lounge except for two times. Both times consisted of him bounding out with the girl in tow, heading into the men's room, then going back into the lounge immediately. Nobody dared to say a word to him either time for fear of their lives.

-----------

About 2 hours later, Elizabeth finally got done with her septic bowel resection. She went down to the ER scared to death of what she might find. She envisioned her poor little baby, sitting all by herself in a corner of the hallway somewhere crying her eyes out being neglected by everyone around. Then she envisioned that Ella might not be there at all. Robert could have picked up the wrong kid. She shook those thoughts away. That was ridiculous. He wouldn't have picked up the wrong kid...Regina wouldn't have aloud it.

She turned to Frank about to speak, but before she did, he just pointed to the lounge. She went over to the lounge and read the note before going in. She made a face and went inside. She stopped and stared dumbfounded at the strange sight before her. Robert Romano and Ella were both sitting on the floor coloring.

"Okay, which one?" he asked Ella, indicating which crayon did she want him to use next.

"This one," she answered and gave him a light blue crayon.

Robert turned around with a stern frown on his face when he realized someone had come in. He presumed some idiot had ignored his note. When he saw it was Elizabeth, he released the frown and just looked up at her awkwardly. She glanced over at the table and spotted little pieces of grapes and bread and butter left over from where she presumed he had fed her a snack. She also presumed he had stolen that food from the refrigerator. He, of course, had.

Once she caught herself staring, she woke up. "Hello, my darling," she said to Ella. She was so relieved to see her.

Ella just looked up. "Hi, Mommy," she said and then returned to her coloring. Romano had just kept staring at Elizabeth. Elizabeth then turned to Robert.

"Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," he answered, getting up off the floor.

"I'm sorry to have put you through this. I panicked. I ran out of options. I didn't know who to call. I just..." She didn't know how to finish.

"It's fine."

"Mommy, look," Ella said as she held up her picture. Elizabeth didn't look, though.

"You're sure it wasn't too much trouble?" she asked. She was actually kind of wondering how he took care of Ella with just his one arm. She couldn't imagine. She had hoped he might hint at something that would help her see how he did it.

"No, no trouble at all," was all he answered.

Ella tried again. "Mommy, look." Elizabeth still ignored her.

"Well...did you drive?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, I took the EL."

"But, the nearest stop's like 4 blocks away."

"Three."

"You walked?

"Yeah."

Elizabeth then looked briefly down at Ella. Robert knew what she was thinking. "She didn't walk. I carried her," he said to relieve her mind.

She stood shocked for a minute staring at him. She thought it unbelievable that he did all this for her. It was so...so...so...nice. She couldn't believe what she just thought. She didn't find Ella bruised or battered. She wasn't crying, sick or dirty. She was happy, playing and well fed. Elizabeth just kept staring at Robert and Robert just looked at her a little confused. She felt a little, soft pressure in her chest as if her heart had skipped a beat.

Ella's patience had left. "Mommmmmmy. Looooook!"

Elizabeth turned to Ella exasperated. "Alright! I see it! Wow! That's beautiful!" She was faking enthusiasm. She sighed and she spotted the other coloring book lying on the floor. She couldn't help but snicker and raise her eyebrows. She bent down and picked up the little coloring book looking at the colored picture it was opened to. Robert just sighed loudly, stuck his hand in his pocket and clenched his jaw.

"Wow, Robert, yours is very beautiful, too." She tried not to laugh, but she couldn't help snorting and smiling.

"Lizzie," he said warningly.

She was turning red from trying not to laugh. She cleared her throat trying to compose herself. "Tell me, Robert, is this dinosaur pink?" She laughed out loud this time. She couldn't contain it. It was just too much.

"Elizabeth," he warned again within clenched teeth.

She cleared her throat again. "You know, this is so nice, I think I'm just going to have to stick it on my refrigerator at home." She then ripped it out of the coloring book. This made Ella look up. After all, her mother was doing damage to a new toy. Robert breathed out loudly, smiling at Elizabeth a little, just waiting for her to get it all out.

"In fact..." Elizabeth started slowly moving toward the door of the lounge, pretending to admire the picture, "...I think this would look even better out on the bulletin board." As she said bulletin board, she ran out of the lounge. Robert ran out after her. Elizabeth made a screeching laugh like a teenage girl being chased by a boy in school. She stopped in the hall just a few feet away from the door of the lounge and tried to hold the crumpled picture against her away from Robert. Robert was standing right behind her, his body practically up against hers reaching around her body for the picture. Elizabeth had a big smile on her face. No one had seen her smile that big in a long time.

Suddenly they both stopped and froze in this position of him close behind and reaching around her. Elizabeth's smile faded slowly. Both Elizabeth and Robert saw that everyone had stopped and was staring at them with wide eyes and dropped jaws. They slowly stood up straight, cleared their throats and composed themselves. Elizabeth slowly folded and creased the little crumpled picture she held in her hand.

"Well," Elizabeth squealed, "it's getting late. Ella!" She yelled for her daughter and went back into the lounge to grab her things. Robert just stood there and then saw everyone was still staring at him.

"What!?" he yelled. "Get back to work!!!" he yelled again. He then started muttering to himself, "You lazy bums. Never do any work around here. Just sit around gossiping-"

Just then Elizabeth practically ran out of the lounge, almost running into Robert as he was mumbling. He backed away and she backed away simultaneously. She was a little flustered. She was breathing fast and her face was a little flushed.

"Uh...right...um...okay," she said. And that was the entirety of her good-byes to Robert. Then she left. Robert followed her with his eyes a little confused himself.

Once she left, he just glared at the people who were still staring at him and they immediately turned away and got back to work.