Okay, it took me a while, I know. But, I'm happier now with this chapter, so I hope you like it. It's a little different in that it's broken into a handful of small scenes, which ER does sometimes. I warn you. It does have a different feeling and pace about it. I hope it makes sense and you'll still like it. Please let me know. Thanks with lots of Romano luv. Merrymime.

PG - Again, for language and a little bit of gross stuff.

Chapter 15 - Ma'am? Dr. Corday? Elizabeth?

Sway...sway...bump...bump. Elizabeth stood on the EL train the next morning on the way to work. It was packed full and there were no seats left. She was reduced to standing while holding onto the bar in the middle of the aisle. She'd sway as it turned and bounce as it would hit little bumps here and there. She was oblivious, though. She was oblivious to all her surroundings, actually. She was very deep in thought and had been the whole ride...well actually all morning.

Two businessmen were standing by her having a very heated discussion on the use of foreign oil. One man was very set on the opinion that our dependency on mid-east oil will destroy our country one day and that most of America will get blown to smithereens by a nuclear bomb merely because we were too selfish to stop driving our gas guzzling, air polluting vehicles. He bragged on the fact that he never drove a car and always took the EL; as well as used an old-fashioned push lawn mower. He was very proud of himself. The other man disagreed vehemently and explained he was only taking the EL because his new 2003 Ferrari Spider was in the shop getting a paint job and sub-woofers installed. They were both speaking very loudly right beside Elizabeth.

"What do you think?" asked Mr. Lawn-Mower Man to Elizabeth. She made no answer, but was staring into nothingness. "Ma'am?" he tried again.

Elizabeth looked up at the pair of them. "I'm sorry?" she said politely.

"What's your opinion of our dependency on foreign oil?" he asked again. He had presumed Elizabeth had to have heard their conversation seeing as they were standing right next to her.

She smiled at him weakly. "Uh, I'm sorry. I wasn't listening." Neither of the men seemed to mind this response. It gave them an excuse to start their conversation over again to include her.

"Oh, well..." began Lawn-Mower Man again, "...we were just discussing the affects of-"

Just then the EL train stopped and Elizabeth interrupted. "This is my stop," she said. She squeezed through them and left. She was relieved at the perfect timing. The two men barely even noticed her absence. They just continued their conversation as if it had never stopped.

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"Good Morning. Alderman Bright's office. This is Rowena.

Rowena heard no response. "Hello?" she said plainly.

"Yes. Is the Alderman in?" replied a hesitating voice.

"May I ask who's calling?"

"Kerry Weaver."

After that Rowena didn't say anything and just put Kerry on hold. She wasn't the friendliest of receptionists. But she did the extent of her job in a satisfactory and timely manner. Kerry was sitting stiffly at her desk in her nice, comfy office. Not a muscle was moving except her eyes as they nervously darted around the room periodically. Kerry would have wondered if she'd been disconnected from Rowena except for the elevator type music on the line. Although soft and soothing, she felt as if that music were blaring in her ears, killing brain cells with the tension it evoked on her. Each second felt like forever.

She heard the music on the line stop abruptly as if Rowena would come back on...but then the music returned again. Finally, after a few more agonizing moments, Rowena did come back.

"I'm sorry. He's in a meeting right now. Can I take a message?"

"Uh...no...no...I'll call back."

"Okay-oh, wait a second," stated the receptionist quickly and Kerry was immediately subjected to hold music, yet again. Kerry just sat there wanting to just hang up, but she didn't.

"Kerry!" proclaimed an energetic voice.

"Jonathan," said Kerry coolly.

"How's life treatin' ya?" He was making pleasant conversation, but Kerry wasn't very interested in having a pleasant conversation.

"Was there something you needed to talk with me about?" asked Kerry.

The Alderman got serious. "Actually there was." He took a deep breath and continued. "Listen. I realize I've been a pain in the ass, Kerry and I just wanted to apologize. I know I've put you in some very awkward situations and I've had no right to do that."

"Jonathan-" Kerry tried to interject, but he interrupted her.

"Now, just let me finish. I want you to know that you have my word it won't happen again. No more favors. No more requests. I promise."

"Thank you," was all she could think of to say.

"Ah, damn! I'm sorry, Kerry, I gotta let ya go. I got this lawyer hounding me. The damn bitch won't leave me alone. Anyway, you remember what I said. I am legitimately sorry and it won't happen again, okay? I want you to enjoy your new position up there; not be worried every time the phone rings, thinking it might be me. I'm really a good guy, Kerry, I promise."

"Alright."

"Great. I'll talk to you soon."

"Bye."

And that was that.

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It was hot outside. Occasionally there'd be a slight breeze, but they weren't coming very often. Elizabeth just stood with arms folded, coffee in hand, looking out over the whole of Chicago from atop the roof of the hospital. Her first surgery wasn't until 11:00 am. She had come to do some paperwork in her office, but once she got there, she realized it just wasn't in the cards. She noticed the cars buzzing to and fro, the buses honking and the people scurrying to get to wherever in a hurry. She wasn't thinking about any of them, though. She had only one thing on her mind.

She took a sip of her coffee, but then made a face and threw it out. It had gotten cold. How long had she been up there? She glanced at her watch. She'd been up there for 30 minutes. She had no idea it'd been so long.

She decided she needed to think about something else...her next operation...it didn't work. He hadn't called her last night. She was thankful for that. She hadn't decided what she wanted to do yet. She had told him she'd have dinner with him, but now she wasn't so sure. She knew she was making too big a deal out of it. 'Good Lord, it was just Robert,' she thought to herself.

She wasn't going to think about it anymore. She had to just focus her mind on something else. She left the roof and went to prepare for surgery.

---------------

"Dr Corday?...Dr. Corday?"

"Yes?" Elizabeth responded finally.

"Can you see the blockage?" asked Shirley in a way as if she had already asked this question once.

Elizabeth took a closer look. "Yes, Shirley, thank you," she said almost defensively.

Dr. Corday was performing a Carotid Endarterectomy, a simple procedure that involved making a small incision in the carotid artery and removing any plaque that might be blocking blood flow to the brain. Elizabeth could do it in her sleep. And she practically was.

"Are you feeling alright, Dr. Corday?" Shirley asked.

"Yes, Shirley, I'm fine." She was being a little short.

"Have you heard if Dr. Romano has had any luck finding a new position?"

Nothing could get by Shirley. Shirley knew both Elizabeth and Dr. Romano just a little too well for the liking.

"I wouldn't know. He was just fired two days ago." Elizabeth was being abrupt. She threw some gauze or something into a basin and kept working.

"Oh well, I just thought-"

"Four By Fours."

Shirley gave her what she requested and clamed up. She knew it was upsetting to Elizabeth and supposed she didn't want to talk about it.

Elizabeth completed the procedure, closed, proceeded out the door and got cleaned up. All very routine.

---------------

Elizabeth just stood in the hallway for a while, leaning up against the wall next to the surgical lounge. Her eyes were fixed on some spot on the floor 8 or so feet away. People passed by her, but she made no movement to look up or acknowledge them. Other people were talking at the front desk, but she didn't hear them. Shirley frequently was answering the phone, "OR. This is Shirley," but it never annoyed Dr. Corday no matter how many times Shirley said it. As she stood, Elizabeth was unconsciously playing with her wedding ring that she still wore on her finger.

Her pager started going off. She didn't respond. It kept going off. Elizabeth didn't budge.

"Dr. Corday?" said Shirley finally from a little ways away at the desk.

"Yes." Finally, Elizabeth looked up, startled at the sound of her name. Once she was awakened from her trance, she immediately realized her pager was going off and looked down at it.

Shirley was cradling the front desk telephone in her hand. "There's a phone call for you. It's from the ER."

Elizabeth walked over to the phone and took the call. "This is Dr. Corday." As she was listening, she looked at the message on her pager. She saw that the call was in regard to the same thing as the page. After a while Elizabeth answered, "I'll be right there." She hung up the phone and went down the elevator to the ER.

---------------

Dr. Corday suddenly burst the doors wide open to Trauma 2 and bounded in. Alarms were going off loudly from different machines and monitors all around the patient. Tools were scattered here and there. Blood was everywhere: on the floor, on the patient, on Carter, on Pratt. The patient's chest had been cracked open and tubes were sticking out of his mouth.

"Whata we got?" she asked automatically as she stormed in.

"Time of death: 16:52," said Carter right as she got there. He just looked at Elizabeth and ripped off his gloves. "He never had a chance. Stupid." Carter was looking agitated. He was frustrated with the situation and just walked out.

"Why didn't you call me sooner?" asked Elizabeth unemotionally.

"It wouldn't have made a difference," replied Pratt. "He was gone from the get go. That's what you get when you're dealin' drugs to bangers."

Pratt also took off his gloves, threw them on the floor and walked out the door. Elizabeth was left there, staring at the body of some man around 30, whom she didn't know from Adam. The alarms had been turned off, so all was quiet. Haleh was writing things down, but she paid Corday no mind. Elizabeth suddenly felt a pang of guilt rise up in her quite uninvited as she stood there watching this dead man. She knew she would forget all about this man within the hour. She wasn't quite sure why, but she felt selfish. She simply turned away and slowly walked out of the trauma room with a very grim look upon her face.

---------------

She was glad to finally be out of there. She couldn't stay at the hospital another minute. She had grabbed her purse, her keys and a pile of paperwork to try and finish up this evening. She headed out the ambulance bay doors at a very brisk pace. It was cloudy and the sun was just beginning to set, so it wasn't very bright outside. She concluded it must have rained earlier in the day, because there were puddles scattered here and there along the pavement. An ambulance was parked a little ways away where some paramedic was cleaning it out. He looked tired. Some doctor she didn't know was shooting hoops, trying to escape from the monotony of the day. He had probably had a bad day and needed to unwind.

She quickly kept her pace as she strolled on, but she didn't get very far past the ambulance bay.

"Elizabeth?"

The voice was soft and not very loud, but Elizabeth still jerked around at the sound of it. As she saw his face, she turned back around so that her back was to him. She had stopped walking, though.

"Robert...what are you doing here?" She was trying to keep her tone professional and unemotional in order to hide any nervousness. "I thought you were going to call." The only solace Elizabeth had taken since yesterday afternoon's outburst at the EL station was the fact that she could always just not answer her phone until she was ready to talk to him. She had wanted to think things through before talking to him again. She had wanted to form some type of conclusion in her mind of the appropriate action to take in regards to Robert. However, even after thinking about it all day, she still had no clue what to say and yet there he was, standing behind her, boring holes into her neck.

Robert wouldn't say anything until she turned around to face him, which she finally did. He glanced over at the man shooting hoops, which made Elizabeth glance at him, as well. The man was just dribbling his ball and looked briefly at the two of them, because they had looked at him. Robert just walked closer to Elizabeth, so that what he said wouldn't be heard by annoying basketball player want'a'bees and paramedics cussing loudly about stains in his rig. He didn't stop until he was standing right in front of her, face to face.

"I just wanted to apologize for yesterday," he said. Elizabeth noticed he wasn't being nervous or flustered or even putting on a tough exterior. He was being completely honest and sincere. "I put you in an awkward situation which wasn't fair to you. I was only thinking of myself and..." he looked directly into her eyes, "...I'm sorry." He smiled slightly and continued, "You can return the necklace anytime you want. I shouldn't have given it to you in the first place."

Elizabeth just eyed him suspiciously for a moment wondering if this might be some sort of ploy. But then after looking him in the eye, she dropped her shoulders and sighed. She looked over at the Basketball Guy and watched him for a minute. He had returned all his focus on his ball playing and paid no attention to Elizabeth. He dribbled and shot and didn't even hit the backboard. He ran for his ball, dribbled again, shot again and still didn't even hit the backboard. But, he did make himself look good as he ran to and fro, dodging invisible players and trying to look all cool and athletic.

Elizabeth crinkled her forehead at this spectacle and whispered, "He's not very good."

Robert just turned his gaze away from Elizabeth and watched the guy just long enough to realize she was right. He turned back to Elizabeth and said plainly, "Hmm, yeah, you want me to take him?" She just gave him a sly look. "'Cause I could, I'm sure." He was talking as if he was completely serious. That's what made it funny. Elizabeth stared at him, trying not to smile, but she failed. She broke into a big grin and just sighed looking down. He smiled back at her gently, never letting his eyes off of her for a second.

She kept her face down, not looking at him. She couldn't look at him right now, although she knew he was staring at her. Her smile slowly broke away and she closed her eyes, straining her face. She was exhausted. It wasn't as if she had done much that day, but it had still been a very exhausting day. She could feel herself at that moment becoming very attracted to the man standing so closely in front of her. She assessed the attraction was due to the fact she was so tired and the fact she hadn't really thought of anything else that day besides him.

In that moment, she didn't want him to leave. She didn't want him to drop his gaze off of her face. She finally looked up to find he hadn't looked away. He was still staring at her seriously. She took a deep breath in and let it out loudly.

"Listen," Robert spoke up softly, "I only wanted to say what I did. I didn't have any other intentions in mind. So..." he trailed off.

She just nodded at him. She knew he was telling the truth. He then moved away from her and walked past her. He accidentally brushed against her arm as he went by and she just closed her eyes again as this happened. She opened them back up and turned around.

"Robert," she said quietly. He stopped and looked her way again.

"DAMN IT!!! THAT ASSHOLE!!! How can anyone hold that much piss?" yelled the paramedic all of a sudden from inside his rig. He was obviously having trouble cleaning up all the urine from inside his ambulance.

Both Robert and Elizabeth had jerked their heads towards him, but both looked away annoyed and shook their heads. Elizabeth returned all her focus back on Robert. She just slumped her shoulders and looked at him with a half smile that spoke, 'Fine, you win.'

She said to him, "Alright. When?" He just looked at her a little confused. "Don't be stupid, Robert."

He just responded with tight lips, "Elizabeth, I didn't come here to trick you into having dinner with me." He was slightly offended.

"I know," she said in complete earnest.

He licked his lips and looked her straight in the eye before answering, "Okay...Saturday too soon?"

She thought for a second. Today was Thursday. She could get a babysitter by Saturday night she figured. If not, she could just call him and call it off.

"Fine," she said. "Where?"

He didn't answer right away. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"

"Damn it, Robert!" She glared at him.

He just chuckled a little. "Alright, alright. Um...there's an Italian restaurant by your house. That's close. Relaxed. You just wanna go there?" He was talking quickly and whispering so others around wouldn't hear, but he still wasn't sounding nervous in the slightest. Elizabeth suddenly remembered the last time he asked her out and how uptight he had been. He had definitely changed since then.

"Right. Okay. Sure."

"Okay. I'll meet you there at 7?" asked Robert.

She thought. She had to work that day. "7:30?"

"Okay." There was a long pause as she looked down at her reflection in a puddle in front of her feet. As she did this, he couldn't help but just stare at her with a great longing in his eyes. He took a deep breath. "Well, good-night," he said before turning away and heading home.

"Good-night, Robert," she replied back. She watched him go and just focused on the back of his neck and shoulders. She felt a lump form in her throat and realized that all the thinking in the world couldn't have achieved the intense feelings she had right now.

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Next Week on ER - The Date: Take Two