Author's Note: As promised, this is the second part of the conclusion, and the last chapter of the fic. For acknowledgments, etc., see the author's note at the end of the fic. Enjoy!

***

And all the roads that lead to you were winding

And all the lights that light the way are blinding

There are many things that I would like to say to you

But I don't know how

***

Elizabeth glanced down at her watch and was shocked to see that it was already 2:30. For the past two hours, she and Robert had been enjoying a very pleasant conversation about nothing and everything. They'd talked about the weather, the finer points of a bowel resection, current events, their favorite foods, why they hated Kerry Weaver…a little bit of everything. Elizabeth took a deep breath. She had to shift the conversation to what she came here for before she had to leave.

"Er, listen, Robert, there's something we need to talk about," she began, a bit nervously.

"Go on."

"Well, what exactly do you remember from the day of your surgery?"

Robert's heart jumped. 'I must have done something really stupid,' he thought, taking a deep breath to calm himself. 'Did I try to feel her up while I was groggy?'

"Well, not much, to tell you the truth. I remember our conversation before I went under, but after that, I can't remember much of anything until Wednesday night. I was on some pretty strong painkillers, you know that."

Elizabeth's face fell. "Yes, I know that."

"Elizabeth? What's going on? Did I do something stupid while I was drugged? Because that sounds like something I would do…"

"No," Elizabeth interrupted. "No, you didn't do anything stupid. Or, well, I don't think it was stupid, maybe it was. Maybe I'm stupid for thinking…"

"Elizabeth, you're babbling. What's going on?"

Elizabeth glanced up from the bed sheet that she was unconsciously fumbling with into the probing brown pools of his eyes. She had to tell him. There was absolutely no other way. His unknown confession shouldn't have affected their relationship this much. But she let it. She let herself hold onto what was increasingly becoming false hope.

Elizabeth let out a small laugh. "This is probably going to sound stupid when I say it, you know? It wasn't even that big a deal, really. I just built it up and now…" She stopped abruptly when she felt a hand rest gently on top of hers.

"Elizabeth, what is it? Whatever it is, you can tell me. You know that."

"Right," she said, biting her lip and trying to piece together a coherent sentence. Just his hand on hers was enough to send shivers up her spine. "Well, I came into recovery after your surgery, and I was taking care of your arm. Do you remember that?"

Robert shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't remember anything from immediately after the surgery."

Elizabeth quickly nodded and reluctantly continued. "Well, I did. And we had a conversation- I mean, you were out of it, of course, but you were still talking to me. You were just telling me to tie off some bleeders, and then…" Elizabeth paused for a moment, and clenched the blanket tighter in her hands. "And then you said…" She looked up at Robert, barely able to keep eye contact.

And Robert remembered.

All of a sudden, the blurred memory of a ward flashed in his mind. Elizabeth was sitting next to him, smiling sadly and humoring his disjointed ramblings.

I love you, Elizabeth.

"Oh, God," Robert said, quickly looking away. "Oh, God."

"Robert, what is it?"

"I remember," he said abruptly. "I didn't before, but now…I don't know, you must have jogged my memory by talking about it…I remember."

"You, you remember?"

Robert looked Elizabeth straight in the eye. "Well, if it was something as important as confessing my love for you, I should remember, right?"

Elizabeth swallowed hard. "You do remember…" she said, as her stomach did somersaults. If he remembered saying it, could he have meant it?

"And I'm sure that you came here wondering if I really meant it." Elizabeth meekly nodded. "Because I'm sure that if I told you I did mean it, you'd just run away, because why would you possibly want to be with me? I'm a one-armed, arrogant ass of a man who can't say much else for himself. So I'm tempted to say I didn't mean it, because that way, maybe we could keep this friendship that we have, by some act of God, managed to build up." Elizabeth tried to interrupt, but Robert put up his hand and she immediately stopped talking.

"But the truth is, since we've been spending more time together, I can't stop falling. Every time you laugh, or smile, or just catch my eye, I fall a little more in love with you. I've been in love with you for a long time, Elizabeth. And when you fell in love with someone else, it was impossible for me to watch. So I tried to let go, and for a while there, I thought I had. But with everything that's happened in the past year, I wanted to fall back on something familiar. So I fell back on you, and this time, you caught me, and I fell for you all over again." Robert paused for a moment. "I know you probably don't feel the same way. In fact, you're probably disgusted with me right now, but there you have it. I've fallen in love with you, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth sat there, shell-shocked, for several minutes. She fruitlessly tried to piece everything together. Here they were, she and him, both in the same place at the same time. Both wanting the same things from each other- comfort, companionship, and ultimately, love. Both willing to try to make it work. There had to be a glitch in the plan somewhere, she thought, because there's no such thing as a real-life fairytale.

"Well, you could say something, Lizzie. Here I've put my heart on my sleeve, and all you can do is sit there gaping like an idiot."

Elizabeth frantically tried to find the right words to say, but they weren't there. No words could explain how she felt right now. So she dropped the bed sheet, gently cupped Robert's face in her hands, leaned in and kissed him.

And he kissed her back.

From the moment their lips met, everything seemed right. There was passion, chemistry; an electrical bond between them that they had only imagined was there before. Elizabeth pulled away for a moment to catch her breath. She looked into Robert's eyes, and kissed him again, hungrily, passionately. When she finally pulled away and sat back down, a smile crept across her face.

"So, uh, what was that?" Robert asked, reeling with giddiness.

"I guess that was my way of telling you that I do feel the same way," Elizabeth said.

"Could you say that again? I don't think it quite registered the first time."

Elizabeth laughed. "I'm falling for you, Robert."

It was Robert's turn to be speechless. Elizabeth picked up his hand and gently caressed it while he sat there, at a loss for words.

Suddenly, Elizabeth's pager went off. "Damn," she muttered, as she let go of Robert's hand and reached for the beeper at her hip. "It's the ER. It's 3:00, I'm on now."

"Count on them to ruin a moment," Robert muttered.

Elizabeth leaned in and quickly kissed Robert again. "I have to go, but I'll be back when my shift's over, okay?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Robert said. Elizabeth laughed.

"No, I mean it. I've been waiting so long for this, and I'm not going anywhere. We can go as slow as you need to, whatever. I just want this to work out."

"Me too," Elizabeth said, smiling. "Me too." She reached for the doorknob and opened the door. "I'm covering Anspaugh's shift, so I'm not off until seven tomorrow, but I'll be back. I promise."

"I can't wait," Robert said. Elizabeth gave a little wave and left the room.

Robert lay back against his pillow and smiled. Maybe all of this pain and suffering would be worth it if he got Elizabeth out of the bargain. Moments later, a nurse walked into the room with his three-o'clock meds. "What are you so happy about?" she asked as she offered Robert the cup of pills and a glass of water.

"Well, it's really none of your business," Robert said between gulps of water, "but something I've been wanting for a very long time just happened." The nurse opened her mouth, but Robert would have none of it. "Don't push your luck. You're paid to take care of your patients, not to pry into their personal lives." He threw his head back and swallowed the last pill. "Thank you, you can leave now."

The nurse rolled her eyes and left the room. Robert smiled and closed his eyes. He knew what he'd be dreaming about this afternoon.

***

Elizabeth walked into trauma 2, still smiling. "What have we got?" she asked Susan, who was running the trauma.

"47-year-old man, passenger in an auto versus pedestrian crash, complaining of shortness of breath and intermittent right side pain…" Susan trailed off as Elizabeth began to examine the man's abdomen. "What are you so happy about?"

"Let's just say my future got a little brighter this afternoon," Elizabeth said. "Someone get me the portable ultrasound, I think we have a ruptured spleen here." Susan was smiling, still wanting more information. "I'll tell you about it later," she said as she was handed the ultrasound.

"Okay, because I want details. This sounds interesting."

"Yeah, I think it will be interesting," Elizabeth said. "But the good kind of interesting, you know?" She put the ultrasound away. "This isn't telling me anything. Send him up for a CT."

Elizabeth pulled off her gloves and followed Susan out of the trauma room. She could feel him falling, alright. Right into her open arms.

***

Song Info: Opening lyrics are from the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis.

Disclaimer: I don't own ER, Elizabeth Corday, Robert Romano, or any of the characters used in this story. I'm just borrowing them from Warner Brothers, NBC, etc., because they obviously don't know what the fans want to see. I also don't know anything about emergency medicine, only what I see on TV. 

A/N: Well, if you're reading this right now, thank you for sticking with this fic. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Special thanks goes out to Melissa, for always encouraging me and telling me how great the story was- you have no idea how much I appreciate it. And thanks for all those cyber-coffees ;) Special thanks also goes out to Justine, my co-worshipper of all things Cordano, who has given me so much advice and encouragement about this fic (shameless plug- check out her Cordano fic "Just Visiting"- it's awesome). Thanks to everyone over at the AOL ER boards, who are always a blast to talk to, and who put up with my endless Cordano banter. And to all my faithful reviewers, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have some ideas for a sequel fic, but I'm not sure if it will actually get written. I've got some other ideas as well, and not enough time to develop them all. So, until then, keep your fingers crossed for some season 10 Cordano lovin'!

-Katie