A Time of Healing 3

Disclaimer: I own neither ER nor any of its characters and I'm not trying to make any profit by writing this story.

Author's note: This story takes place somewhere during the summer between seasons 9 and 10, about a month after the Evil Amputation. It's about Romano and Elizabeth and how they find themselves in each other's company during the time of Romano's medical leave. I've read no spoilers for season 10, so there won't be any of them in this story either. Whatever will be written, will be pure speculation of what might happen.

Rated PG-13 for now, but the rating may go up in later chapters.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update. What can I say? It's summer and I keep traveling in and out of town all the time so it hasn't been very easy to find the time to sit down in front of my computer and write. This is a rather short chapter and it's only about half of what I originally intended to put in this chapter, but I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and writing, so I decided to post the little stuff I have. :o)

Chapter 3 ~ Her Touch

The next morning Robert was up before the sun. Amazingly enough he had been able to catch sleep quite easily in the evening, as if his mind had suddenly found unexpected peace, but in the early hours of the morning the calmness had eventually given way to the butterflies that were beginning to flutter in his stomach. As he opened his eyes to the first rays of light in the morning, he knew he had no time to waste in dreaming. This was reality and he had a lot to do before the evening. Preparing the dinner itself was in fact, at the moment, one of the least of his worries.

The entire house was in serious need of a throughout cleaning and ventilation. Usually Robert always had someone else to do the cleaning for him, but lately he hadn't been willing to let anyone in, not even to do the housework, nor had he been bothered to do much by himself. He had been too busy being swallowed by his self pity to care much about his surroundings. It was not like he had been expecting anyone to come and see him anyway. But now it would have to change. He had to get a grip of himself and start caring again.

Without wasting any more time, Robert got up of his bed, quickly finished shaving and started his day by taking a tour around the house, trying to get some idea of how much he actually had to do. While striding from room to room, he kept opening doors and windows; anything to get the stuffy air moving. Gretel who had been up and about even before her master, chose to show her support by following him to every corner of the house. But when the time came to take out the vacuum cleaner - the noisy monster that Gretel had never dared to approach - she ran whimpering away, leaving Robert alone. He heaved a great sigh and then wordlessly begun the huge task of cleaning the floors that were littered with dust and dog hair.

After a while Robert switched the vacuum cleaner into a mop and as he got more and more wrapped up in the work, he soon began humming to himself, first silently and then a bit more loudly, until the humming eventually turned into singing and Robert began taking little dance moves while mopping the floor:

"You know what I'd like? I'd like to wake up miles from here,

A cabin in the woods somewhere,

With the rocking chair

You know what I'd like?

To drive form here to Santa Fe,

And leave my past along the way,

For yesterday

Robert  stopped and closed his eyes, imagining himself resting somewhere far away from the heat and noise of Chicago. He had lived in the city all his life, save the few years he had spent in Europe, and only during the last few months had he really began hoping he could start over somewhere else. Anywhere but here… Shaking his head, he continued singing and working:

You know what I'd like?

I'd like to write a symphony,

To play my life in every key,

In harmony

Harmony. When had his life ever been in harmony? Probably his daily routines during the days he  was still working could be called harmony by some, but in truth he had never felt in harmony with himself.

Take you away,

We can spend some time alone,

Build a house and call it home,

Oh baby I'm home

To be able to take her away with him, wherever he'd go. If only that were possible. He wouldn't care about his missing arm, at least not that much, if he could just hold her in the other one…

I'm tangled up in all the lives

Of all the books I know

I'd like to just let go

You know what I'd like?

I'd like the crazy days to end,

To close my eyes and count to ten,

And start again,

Start again

Start again…" *

Robert quietly trailed off. If only he could start again, undo a year of his life and go back to the day he had lost his arm. In his mind he had often done so, asking himself the question 'why'? Should he have let the chart go? Should he just have let Luka take the first helicopter? -Probably, but eventually his mind had gone further in the search of the answer: Carter had called him up earlier, begging him to come to the ER to save some kid. If he had gone, he would have been safely in the quarantine while the chopper was on the roof. Spending a couple of weeks locked up with the ER idiots would undoubtedly have been a torture, but now it certainly seemed like a small price to pay for two good arms.

Robert sighed, returning to the present again. At least the floor was now shining. He could almost see his own mirror on it. Perhaps he could still consider a second career as a housekeeper? Robert snorted. Well, at least there was one house he'd be only too happy to keep if the owner only would be willing to take him. Hell, he'd even take up babysitting for such a deal. Ella would probably make better company than the ER jerks anyway.

The thought brought a hint of a smile on Robert's face as he continued his cleaning task. Maybe he should write a job application for Elizabeth, just to see the look on her face. He had never hesitated to go to great lengths to make her pretty jaw drop, or just to get her irritated, as she was always so sexy when she got angry and heated. Although lately it had been refreshing just to see her smile.

Silently he decided that tonight he wouldn't save any trouble to lure that smile out of her again. And if everything went well he'd have plenty of time to shock and irritate her later.

The rest of the day went by quicker than any which Robert could remember from his recent past. After finishing the huge job that was cleaning his house, he had to hurry to the nearest grocery store to find the best ingredients for the dinner he had planned, and as soon as he was back, he had to start the preparations for the meal. Before he even knew it was half past five, the food was simmering in the oven, and he hadn't yet even decided what to wear.

Robert stopped on his heels in the middle of the room as the thought hit him. What would he wear? Jeans, trousers, shorts? A T-shirt or something a bit more fancy? Finally he came to the conclusion that it would have to be something casual enough so that it wouldn't look like he was expecting a big date, yet it couldn't be anything too shabby either, just in case she had decided to dress up.

Fifteen minutes later, when Robert was only halfway through buttoning the shirt he had, after great deliberation, chosen for himself, the bell rang. Robert froze. She was there, behind his door. It was still early, but as Robert peeked through the curtains that were covering his window, he could see her car parked on the street. It was definitely her.

Downstairs Gretel had started barking excitedly the moment the bell had rang and Robert knew she was already preparing to jump on the visitor as soon as he would come and open the door.

But Robert found himself in trouble with the buttons of his shirt. Half of his chest was still bare and buttoning the shirt with only one hand had been hard enough even before his remaining hand had started trembling at the sound of the door bell. He soon realized he only had two options; either to go and open the door half dressed or stay to button up the shirt and run the risk of missing Elizabeth entirely. If she was as nervous as she had sounded on the phone yesterday, she probably would not wait for long behind his door. She'd be only too happy of the excuse to get away, and after that it would be almost impossible to get another chance – No, in fact, getting the first chance had been almost impossible. If he screwed this one up there wouldn't be another opportunity.

Having cleared that up for himself, Robert didn't have to consider the options for long; he hurried downstairs, his shirt unbuttoned over the chest, and went to open the door, all the while trying to block Gretel from rushing from behind him to tackle Elizabeth.

As Robert opened the door Elizabeth opened her mouth as if to begin a speech she had been practicing for a while:

"Hi, Robert I…" she began, but didn't get far before she suddenly came a halt. Robert watched quietly as her eyes, which at first had been focused on Gretel's attempts to get through the doorway, suddenly darted from the dog to the owner and his unusual attire. For a while she was quite explicitly gaping at his bare chest.

Then Elizabeth obviously caught herself from staring and she quickly averted her eyes, blushing. She muttered something about being early and seemed completely to have forgotten whatever it was that she had been intending to say at first. This unusual sight of Elizabeth being completely out of balance gave Robert a boost of confidence he hadn't been expecting.

"Eh…yeah," he began working on his buttons again, flashing a grin at Elizabeth as he did so. "You see, I didn't have the time to dismiss the other girl yet, but if you will wait in the kitchen I'm sure…"

Elizabeth blinked and seemed to get a hold of herself again.

"Very funny, Robert," she cut in dryly. "I see you haven't lost your impeccable sense of humor yet." But in spite of the somewhat cold tone of her words she seemed be having some difficulties keeping a straight face. Robert only winked at her, not expecting the exchange to go any further, but just as he was going to invite Elizabeth in, she stepped closer to him and, to his great surprise and delight, hesitantly lifted her hands to where his hand was still struggling with the remaining buttons.

Robert held his breath as she gently took over the task and began buttoning up the shirt, slowly, one by one, her fingers lingering on each button slightly longer than would have been necessary.  She kept her eyes strictly fixed on her task, but Robert wasn't sure whether she was only studiously avoiding his eyes or if she was, as he secretly hoped, keeping her eyes on his chest for other reasons; taking in the scent of his after shave like he always tried to take in her perfume whenever he had the opportunity. But it didn't seem very likely.

When Elizabeth finally stepped back, giving a fleeting glance at Robert as she did so, he silently let out the breath he had been holding. Her face was so unreadable. Part of him was wishing for the courage to pull her back to him, to make her show some affection, but in the end the sensible part of his brain won. He wasn't going to screw up this one opportunity by moving too fast. Whatever it was that had drawn Elizabeth to help him with his shirt was probably nothing from her part. What may have felt like a seductive touch to him had probably been nothing but a surgeon's carefulness from her.

Yet, he couldn't let her get away without at least trying to make her blush again. Heck, if he was too subdued and considerate she'd soon start thinking she had entered the wrong house and that the real Robert Romano was residing somewhere else:

"Couldn't bear the raw temptation of my bare chest any longer?" Robert attempted to reach the usual snarkiness of his tone, but he knew he was doing rather pathetic job out of it as he was still quite off balance after her closeness. He could almost still feel her breath on his body.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, seemed to have managed to collect herself much more successfully:

"No, just couldn't bear the sight of your bare chest." she retorted as she strode past Robert. The response might have been enough to bring Robert down for the rest of the evening had he not almost certainly seen her blush as she delivered the punch. He opened his mouth to try and get more out of her, but then, deciding not to push it, he only closed the door behind them and wordlessly followed Elizabeth into the house. He would have an entire evening together with her and it would be pointless to spoil the promising beginning.

To be continued

* "Miles From Here", from the new edition of the "Fame" soundtrack. Song performed by Paul McCrane