Chapter 11 is here. This might be the last chapter for a few weeks because I will be out of town starting this weekend and won't be back until New Years Day, but if I do happen to get a quick chapter done before I leave, I will post it for you all to enjoy.

Thank you so much for the reviews! I appreciate them so much!!! And I hope you all are liking the story.

Also I wanted to apologize for screwing up the last chapter, because at first I posted just an authors note, which turns out you aren't supposed to do (whoops! I didn't know!) Anyway then I replaced that with the actual chapter 10, but it didn't show up as updated, so some of you might not have seen it. It did then show up a few days later, anyway if you missed chapter 10 go back and read it now, or you will be confused, ok? Sorry about the babbling. Here is chapter 11.…….

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Elizabeth was getting restless. After almost two weeks of doctor ordered bed rest after the pre-term labor incident, she was sick of being in bed.

Robert, knowing that if Elizabeth were to stay home alone she would not stay in bed, smartly took those two weeks off as well.

Even after her frequent protests that she was feeling fine, and that there was nothing to worry about, Robert still insisted that she stay off her feet for most of the day, unless it was absolutely necessary that she get up. He waited on her hand and foot, doing anything he could for her, which was starting to get on Elizabeth's nerves. She didn't want to feel helpless. She was used to being independent and didn't really like being babied all the time. It was getting a little ridiculous.

Robert knew that she was bored and irritated, but he didn't want to take any chances of her going into labor again. He wanted to follow the doctors orders perfectly, to ensure that nothing would happen to Elizabeth or the baby. Even though the baby was not genetically his, he felt an overwhelming need to protect it, a feeling he had never experienced before.

Finally, the last day of Elizabeth's bed rest had ended, and it was time for both of them to go back to work. They both thought that they might go crazy if they had to spend one more day cooped up in that house.

After dropping off Ella at daycare, she headed to her office, a place she hadn't been in what seemed like forever. She was actually almost relieved to be back though. It would give her something to do after spending the last two weeks watching talk shows and soap operas. She was excited to get back into the grind of things, to get back to surgery.

She was scheduled for only a few minor outpatient cases today, since it was her first day back. When Shirley was doing the scheduling, she figured Elizabeth might want to take it a little easy on her first day back.

However that plan fell to the wayside when multiple GSW's came in, all of whom needed surgery. All of her elective surgeries were canceled and she was called into an ex-lap, which she was hoping would be a challenging case. She was craving a challenge, feeling a little useless in her pregnant state.

"Dr. Corday, back from your medical leave already?" Dr. Anspaugh asked as she entered the scrub room.

"Yes, two weeks it was," she told him.

"How are you feeling?"

"Quite well actually. I've had plenty of time to rest, and I'm ready to be back at work."

"Well good. But I'm sure you weren't expecting to be jumping right into a GSW your first day back."

"No. No, I wasn't," she said warily. "But I'm looking forward to it actually."

"Are you sure you're up for it?" Anspaugh asked cautiously.

"Absolutely, " she replied firmly, shooting him a look that promptly ended the conversation, and then began to scrub.

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Meanwhile, down in the ER, Robert was also glad to be back at work too. Not that he enjoyed the actual work part that much, but the tormenting people and bossing them around, that was the part he missed. Being chief of the ER did sometimes have it's perks.

While he had been gone, his whole new system of organization had gone to hell, and he was focused on getting it put back together. Well actually he was mostly just yelling at people for not doing what they were supposed to while he was gone, and making other people fix it.

He had talked to Elizabeth briefly when she had come down to bring up the GSW. He was a little worried that she would be doing such a complicated procedure right away, but he decided to keep his mouth shut, not wanting to make her angry.

He grabbed a few charts out of the rack and headed off in the direction of the exam rooms.

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Elizabeth was about two hours into the surgery and she was already regretting taking on the procedure. The patient had three bullet wounds, two of which had entered the ascending colon, so a whipple would have to be performed, which was a five hour procedure.

At least she knew Anspaugh would let her take a short break now and then, unlike during her first pregnancy, when Robert was so reluctant to let her even go to the bathroom during that one long procedure that Elizabeth had endured just to prove to him that she could. Thinking back to that made her laugh to herself. That seemed like a lifetime ago. They were both totally different people.

Snapping back into reality, she concentrated on the procedure and tried to forget about her aching feet and the ever present pressure on her bladder.

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Robert walked briskly down the hall, throwing three charts into their slots.

"Three down, forty million to go," he said to no one in particular, as he looked out into the crowd that had formed out in chairs.

"Dr. Romano, have you seen Dr. Corday?" Jerry asked, holding the phone in his left hand.

"She's in surgery, a GSW, why?"

"Daycare's on the phone, they can't get ahold of her, and someone needs to come pick Ella up from daycare."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"She's got a fever. They won't let her stay," Jerry told him.

"Ok, I'll go get her. Tell them I'm on my way."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jerry asked, apprehensively.

"Did anyone ask for your opinion?" Robert shouted. "Get back to work and stay out of my business!"

Jerry shrugged and picked up the phone to give daycare the message as Romano stormed down the hall and jumped on the elevator, punching the button for the third floor.

Stepping off the elevator, he broke into a jog, hurrying as fast as he could to get to Ella. She was probably upset, and wanted to see a familiar face.

As he burst into the room, he immediately noticed one of the workers sitting with Ella in the corner of the room. Ella was curled up into a ball on the floor, her cheeks streaked with tears and sniffling.

"Ella, what's wrong sweetie?" he asked, approaching her quickly and kneeling down on the floor next to her.

"I don't feel good," she told him, pulling herself up from the floor and thrusting herself into his arms.

"It's ok. I'm here now. I'll make you feel better," he said, rubbing her back and standing up.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Romano. We didn't want to have to call you, but we aren't allowed to let her stay if she's got a fever."

"What was her temperature?" he asked.

"100.9. We just took it about fifteen minutes ago."

"Ok, well I'll make sure she's taken care of," Robert told her as she handed him Ella's bag and coat.

Robert wasn't really sure what he was going to do with Ella now. He knew he couldn't ask for anymore time off. There's no way Kerry would allow that.

He decided his best option was to take Ella down to the ER.

Entering exam 2, he placed Ella on the bed.

"Can you tell me what's wrong, Ella?" he asked, taking a seat next to her.

She lifted her arm a little to point at her throat.

"Does your throat hurt?" he asked.

Ella nodded.

"Anything else?"

Ella pointed to her head.

"Your head hurts too?"

She nodded her head again. Her nose was running and she sniffled. Robert reached over on the table next to the bed to grab a tissue, and wiped her nose.

"Sounds to me like you have a cold Ella. Would you like to rest here for a little while? I'll get one of the nurses to bring you some ice cream in a little bit."

"Ok," she said quietly, leaning back against the pillows and curling up a little. Robert tossed a blanket over her.

"I'll be back in a minute," he said.

Stepping out into the hall, he found Haleh walking past. "Hey, Ella is in there," he said pointing to the room behind him. "She's got a cold, and Elizabeth's stuck in surgery, can you recheck her temp in twenty minutes and get her some ice cream?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Thank you," Robert replied, without thinking. Haleh was shocked. That was the first time she had ever heard those two words come out of Dr. Romano's mouth ever.

"Your welcome," she said, walking away in amazement.

Robert tried to get back to work, grabbing another chart and starting to examine another patient, but he just kept thinking of Ella, sick and alone in that empty, scary hospital room. He finally decided he couldn't just leave her alone in there, so he quickly snuck into the room and pulled up a chair next to the bed where Ella lay dozing.

A few minutes later, Haleh came in with the ice cream and some juice, setting it on a tray on the other side of the bed.

Then she grabbed the thermometer and gently stuck the probe in the child's ear to take her temperature. When it was finished it beeped, the numbers glowing red.

"101.1," Haleh said to Robert, who had been looking at her for the result.

"Ok, let's get her some Children's Tylenol," Robert said to her.

"Sure thing," Haleh said, stepping outside to get the medicine.

Robert gently shook Ella's shoulder. "Hey sweetie, I need to give you some medicine," he said.

She rubbed her eyes and looked up at him tiredly.

Haleh came back into the room and handed her a small cup of the liquid which she quickly swallowed.

"Drink," the child cried, reaching out her hands for the juice she saw on the tray.

Robert jumped up from his seat and brought her the juice. She took a few sips and handed the bottle back to Robert, lying back down.

Haleh quickly slipped out of the room to leave the two of them alone.

Eventually, Ella fell back asleep, but Robert never left her side, except for a brief confrontation he had with Kerry. She had asked him to step out into the hall, and then berated him for not seeing any patients.

But after he explained about Elizabeth being stuck in surgery and Ella being sick and having nowhere to go, she reluctantly agreed to let him stay with her, but let him know that she wouldn't tolerate anymore nonsense from him.

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Finally after seven long hours of surgery, the procedure was nearly over, and Elizabeth was more than willing to accept Anspaugh's offer to close.

Exiting the OR, she went to change and grab her stuff and then headed down to the ER to find Robert. She was ready to go home.

As she got off the elevator in the ER, she began looking for Robert, but after a few minutes, she still hadn't spotted him.

Stopping at the admit desk, she picked up the phone and paged him to the front desk. A few seconds later he appeared.

"Did someone page me?" he asked as he approached the desk, not seeing Elizabeth.

"I did." Elizabeth turned to face him and smiled.

"Hey, you're out of surgery. I didn't think you were ever going to get out," he told her.

"Neither did I. If you're almost ready to go, I'll go get Ella."

"Actually, Ella is down here," he said. "While you were in surgery, they called down here looking for you. Ella had a fever, so I had to go get her."

"Is she ok? What's wrong?"

"She's going to be fine. She just has a cold. She's resting in exam 2. I gave her some Children's Tylenol and she fell asleep for a few hours. Come on, I'll take you to her."

They made their way down to the exam room where Ella was. Hearing the door open, Ella rolled over and sat up.

"Momma!" she called, glad to finally see her mother.

"Hi sweetheart. How are you feeling?"

The little girl just shrugged her shoulders. Elizabeth felt her forehead which was still a little warm.

"She's a little congested. We can stop at the drugstore on the way home and pick up some children's cold medicine," Robert told Elizabeth.

Elizabeth took Ella in her arms, picking her up from the bed.

"Ok, let's go home. I'm absolutely exhausted," she said, handing Ella over to Robert

They exited the room together, Robert carrying Ella and holding Elizabeth's hand. They made their way through the doors of County, glad to finally be going home.