AN: From here on out, it starts to follow the events of season 9. Where necessary, I have lifted quotes from the show and altered them only slightly, if at all. This is not intended as plagiarism, but rather an attempt at synchronicity.

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**Two days later**

Elizabeth sighed happily as she pushed the button for the elevator. She had been paged in on her day off for a grueling surgery and she was exhausted. She readjusted Ella on her hip and asked, "Are you ready to go home, love?"

The toddler nodded and as the doors opened, she squealed and threw her arms out at the elevator. Puzzled as to the cause of her daughter's delight, Elizabeth turned back and saw Robert smiling back at her. He pushed the hold button as he stepped off the elevator and greeted Ella, "Hey, squirt!"

Ella squealed again and launched herself at him. Robert caught her and ruffled her hair affectionately. "And hello to you too, Lizzie," he said as Ella began a sing-song chant of his name, "I thought this was your day off."

Elizabeth nodded ruefully, "It was. They needed me for a surgery, so I had to come in. I just want to go home and go to sleep."

Robert handed Ella back and kissed Elizabeth, "I'll see you later then."

As she stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button to close the doors, Elizabeth was struck by a sudden overwhelming feeling that something terrible was going to happen. It sent goosebumps up her arms and neck and she shook her head sharply. 'Ridiculous,' she thought, 'What could possibly happen?'

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Robert paced his office nervously. Word had come up from the ER about a possible smallpox case. There had been a small riot in the ER, and the hospital had been ordered into lockdown mode to prevent the spread of the disease. All patients were being transferred to other facilities, save those who had been in direct contact with the infected children. Reporters were clamoring for information and the CDC was swarming the building.

In short, it was a madhouse, and Robert was grateful for the oasis of calm his office provided. The one saving grace about the whole affair was that Weaver had been shut out of the ER when the lockdown had been put in place. He allowed himself a grin at the thought of how much it must be rankling her to have to stand idly by in such a situation.

Robert paused by the desk, his hand hovering over the phone for a moment before he snatched it back. As much as he was tempted to call Elizabeth, he knew it would be better if she didn't worry. He knew she'd probably be furious at not being told, but better that she was angry with him than that she somehow found her way into the hospital and was exposed to the disease.

There was a knock at the door and it opened to reveal a nurse. "Dr. Romano," she said, "the diabetic sepsis is ready to be moved. ETA for the chopper is five minutes." Robert grabbed his scrub coat and threw it on as he followed her out the door. Yes, better that Elizabeth didn't know about all of this until it was over.

When they reached the roof with the patient, they found Kovac and Lewis already there with a patient of their own. Robert yelled over the noise of the landing chopper, "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

Kovac yelled back that his patient was more critical and Robert fired back his own patients stats, their voices barely audible over the thumping of the helicopter blades. Robert started forward to the chopper when he heard Kovac's voice, "He's about to lose his airway!"

Damn the man, but he was persistent! Robert shouted back, "So intubate him and take him in your Viper!"

"Arguing like this isn't going to help anything!" Susan yelled.

"You know, you're right!" Robert said, in a tone that declared the end of the conversation, "You can use the chopper after I'm done with it!"

The nurse called out that the patient's temp was rising, and Robert barked an order for more meds as the wind from the chopper blades blew the clipboard off the bed and he bent down to pick it up.

He grabbed up the chart and straightened, the sound of the rotor next to his ear registering a moment too late. He felt the sudden impact on his bicep, and a curious weightless sensation as his upper arm was thrown up into the air by the force of the blow.

He looked bemusedly down at his left arm . . . unable to fathom why it suddenly was no longer there.

His knees gave out and he went down, collapsing onto the roof. As if from a great distance, he heard Kovac and Lewis shouting and their running steps. He knew he should be at least concerned about what was happening, but he found he couldn't bring himself to care very much.

Everything seemed to slow down and he felt as if he was floating. It was a singularly appealing sensation, and Robert wished it could last. A detached, clinical part of his mind blithely observed that he was in shock.

Robert, just as blithely, informed that detached part of his mind just exactly what it could go do with itself.

As Lewis and Kovac reached him, an odd prickling heat began in what felt like, impossibly, the fingers of his left hand, and suddenly, the pain roared in full-force, coursing through his veins like molten fire. Robert tried to scream, but all he could manage was a muffled whimper.

He could blearily make out Kovac and Lewis bending over him. They were shouting and he tried to listen, but it was too difficult to hear over the noise of the chopper, the pulse roaring in his ears, and the searing, agonizing pain.

His stomach revolted, as much from the smell of the blood spattered all over his body as from the shock of the injury. Robert felt Kovac rolling him onto his right side and he vomited. A curious tightening sensation on what was left of his arm told him that they were improvising a tourniquet as an icy wave swept over him, leaving him drained and shaking. "Cold . . ." he whispered, "So cold . . ." He watched dispassionately as a spray of his blood hit Susan in the chest. 'I'm bleeding to death,' Robert realized with a frightening lack of reaction.

'Elizabeth, I'm sorry . . .'

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