Elizabeth came back into County at ten to five with Ella and her night bag. Starting at five, she headed up to Robert's room thinking that Abby would have either been in already, or would be going in soon, in which case she could catch her and check with her that everything was all set for tonight. She poked her head round the door to find Robert alone, reading a newspaper.
"Where on Earth did you get that from?" Elizabeth asked, seeing the paper.
"Bribed a med student." He said simply, folding it over and closed with his one hand. She seized her opportunity and took it from him, ignoring the protests. "If you're going to take my paper away, you'd better be providing some entertainment." Elizabeth smiled,
"You wish." She said. "I was actually looking for Abby,"
"Oh well then-"
"As well as coming to see you." She added, "Just thought that I could kill two birds with one stone." Robert shrugged,
"Might be in later." He said, vaguely. "I think I pissed her off." Elizabeth rolled her eyes,
"What did you do?"
"Well, I might have touched a raw nerve." Elizabeth waited for more information patiently. "Well she was annoying me, so I shut her up by bringing up the subject of her ex."
"Oh you didn't bring up Carter."
"Like I said, she was annoying me." Elizabeth shook her head,
"Abby's trying her hardest for you Robert. She's putting up with you for one thing. She and Neela have been trying defending your name down in the ER. You're right when you say that a nurse should be changing your eye dressing, but for some reason she still does it."
"Why were you looking for her?" Robert changed the subject, like Elizabeth had been expecting. This time, seeing as she had to get to work pretty soon, she obliged.
"She's babysitting for me tonight, but she doesn't get off until five thirty. I was hoping she'd be here, so that we could arrange something. I'm supposed to be working, well, now actually. You haven't seen her at all?"
"Not since I pissed her off." Robert said, shaking his head, "Said she'd be back before the end of her shift though. Give her a few minutes."
"I don't have time," Elizabeth said, trying to work out in her head where she should be right now. "Maybe she's in the surgeons lounge…"
"Lizzie," Robert interrupted Elizabeth's thoughts, "Abby's coming here anyway, just leave Ella here until she gets here."
"What?" Robert gave her a scathing look,
"I'm not an invalid."
"Yes you are."
"Well, I'm not useless. I'll look after Ella until Abby gets here." Elizabeth seemed unsure,
"Are you positive?"
"In my days as OR Chief I was never late for a shift." He reminded her. She put the bag down on the end of his bed, nothing else to do.
"Alright." She said finally, "But if Abby doesn't turn up,"
"She will."
"Alright then. I'll be back as soon as I can." She kissed her daughter, "You be good darling."
"I'll try." Robert said, grinning. Elizabeth rolled her eyes,
"See you later." She said, hurrying off to her office.
Abby found Neela in the surgeons lounge near the end of their shift. Neela was reading through a procedure that she was due to observe the following night.
"Hey, have you seen Corday?" She asked her, sticking her head through the door. Neela thought,
"I saw her about ten minutes ago," She said, "She was down the hall, with her daughter."
"Any idea where she went?"
"No. Why?" Abby shook her head,
"Oh, I'm babysitting Ella in about twenty minutes," Abby said, "And I can't find her. All I have to do is change Romano's dressing, and then I can go. If I could just find her I could sweet talk one of my nurse buddies into doing it."
"I think it'd take a little more than sweet talking." Neela pointed out, "Anyway, I thought you were alright with Romano?"
"Ugh. He's such an ass." Abby grumbled, "Of course, I knew that already. Every one told me, every one warned me, and I still believed that he wasn't all that bad."
"So what did he do?"
"Oh, just pushed his luck." Abby said, vaguely. "Too far. You know the line between taking the piss and offending? Well he crossed it and just kept going." Neela still looked confused, "Look, I'll tell you about it another time okay? I've gotta go find Elizabeth." She glanced at her watch on her way down the hall and sighed. She needed to find Elizabeth, but it was five fifteen, and she would have to go to Romano soon or she would have to stay late.
When Abby knocked and entered the room however, she was met by something she would never have expected.
"Well this is new," She said, before she could stop herself. Robert looked at her, and then nodded to the television,
"Hate to burst your bubble but the care bears have been around for ages" He said. Abby raised an eyebrow, succeeding in hiding her amusement.
"Ha, ha. I thought I was the one doing the baby sitting tonight. Of course you can do it if you want…" She couldn't help grinning at the look of horror that flashed across Robert's face,
"Elizabeth was looking for you." He said, "Turns out Ella likes TV. My kinda kid."
"She's asleep." Abby pointed out,
"Yeah, well, the remotes over there," He indicated it with a nod of his head, "I'm over here, and there's a three year old on my arm. So, I've been learning about the value of friendship." Abby was still stood in the doorway, "You going to stand there all day? Because my arm's starting to go numb. She weighs a lot for some one so small." Abby gently picked Ella up, and moved her, still sleeping, to the recently well used chair beside the bed. She then proceeded to remove the old dressings like she did every day.
"Here's to hoping she stays like this tonight." Abby said thoughtfully, "I don't think care bears runs twenty four seven." She paused for a moment, and then decided that after much deliberation, she would be the bigger person and say what she had been thinking about all afternoon. "I'm sorry for sticking my nose into your personal life." She said, quickly. "You were right, I've been a nurse too long. I get too involved."
"Probably wouldn't have happened if I wasn't so pissed off with this whole situation." Robert said, "Well, maybe it would have, because it's quite rare that I'm not pissed off about something." Abby couldn't help agreeing. "Then again, looking back I think I gave as good as I got."
"So we're even?"
"Abby, we will never be even, because I have natural superiority to you." Robert said seriously. Abby laughed, and had to wait for her laughter to subside before tightening up the bandages.
"I'll just have to live with that then." She said, standing up straight, "Well, that's me done. Tomorrow when I'm in I'm going to have a surgeon take another look at your eye, I don't think it needs constant observation any more. After all, in a week, maybe a bit more, you should start getting visibility back. I guess you'll be glad to get out of this place huh?" Robert seemed unusually edgy when he answered,
"Yeah." He suddenly seemed to catch up with the conversation, "Anything beats hospital food." Abby nodded slowly, clearly aware that something was not right about his sudden change in tone.
"Okay, I'd better get going." She said, "Any idea where Elizabeth went?"
"Office." Robert said, stretching out his arm, as Abby picked up Ella, who woke up and looked around sleepily. As Abby was walking out, Ella in one arm and her night bag slung over the other, Ella reached out her arm and gave Robert a clumsy wave. He gave half a smile and waved back once, before the door swung shut and the room was silent except for the ringing sound that was the end of a commercial.
"Doctor Corday?" Abby knocked on the door to Elizabeth's office and opened it when she heard her cue from behind it.
"Abby, I'm sorry, I was looking for you." Elizabeth said, looking up from her computer screen. "Oh I hoped you'd find Ella," She picked up her bag and took out her purse. "Here," She said, handing Abby the money, "She eats anything." She said smiling, "My shift finishes at two," Abby whistled, "I know. I can pick Ella up afterwards, but you'd probably be asleep."
"Oh don't worry," Abby said, "I'm at home tomorrow morning, I think Neela might come round to study. Just call me when you're awake." She said, glancing at her watch. "Anything else?"
"Um…" Elizabeth thought for a moment, "I don't think so… If there are any problems, anything at all, just call me. Look, Abby, thank you so much for doing this. You really are a life saver." Abby flushed,
"It's okay." She was about to leave, but with an after thought she added, "I think Doctor Romano should be able to go home soon. I mean, I'd have to get a surgeon to give the final word, so I was thinking about you."
"What about Clarke?"
"Well, I think Clarke would say that he no longer needs monitoring, and as long as he comes in everyday, or some one goes out to change his eye dressing until his sight returns fully, he should be okay to leave." Elizabeth looked confused,
"Then what's the problem?"
"Um, I'm not entirely sure." Abby said slowly, "It's just… it's probably nothing… but…"
"Abby, what is it?" Abby shook her head,
"Like I said, it's probably nothing. I just get the feeling that maybe there's something Doctor Romano might need to talk about. And the only person he talks to is you. I could be wrong. But there's no harm in checking… is there?" Elizabeth was silent, and nodded. She had herself been worried about Robert's state of mind after the accident. The first one had had a profound effect on him, and she had seen in his eyes something she had never seen before. There was a fear in there, and she knew that with everything that had happened, he had at times debated whether he had anything to live for any more. She couldn't even think the word suicide.
"Thank you Abby," She said again, "I'll call you tomorrow morning."
"No problem. Have a good night."
"I will try."
I am soooooooooooooooooooooo sorry about how late this is. My computer has just allowed me to access my email after two weeks! I'm reading reviews now so bare with me.
Sheliaroo
Britgirl2003
If there are any more and I've missed you then thanks to you too!
I'll try and update again soon, but I hope this was enough to be getting on with.