So this started out as a group fan fiction and I don't know if I really want to write it on my own, but here's chapter one. Perhaps kind reviews will motivate me. wink

I don't own ER or any characters or anything. I'm not making any money off of this (.well actually I am since I am posting while at work, but you know what I mean.) Don't sue me. Blah blah blah.

Romano pulled his trench coat tighter around himself as he stepped from the airport and held up an arm to hail a cab. A taxi honked as it sped around him and stopped at the curb of a leggy blond. "Damn natives," he mumbled letting the irony set in. He blinked rapidly as the first signs of a mid-afternoon light shower began. Twenty minutes in London and he had already slipped into the bitter familiar role of hating everything that this pretentious city had to offer. Well almost everything. There was the one thing that brought him back in the first place.

Elizabeth was sitting in the medical records' basement reviewing some charts with her headphones on. While she was never one to back down from a confirmation, she knew she was hiding. It was safer here. Everything she had said in the past few weeks seemed to piss off somebody. "This is a man's world. And it would be nothing, nothing, nothing, without a woman," she mouthed along with James Brown. She read the nurse's op notes for the eighth time before resigning and closing the chart. She laid her head down gently on the pile of charts that was neither demanding nor beckoning of her attention. The door opened without her notice.

"Elizabeth?" a strong and familiar voice sounded.

Speedily she lifted her head and spun around in her chair, "I just I wasn't" and then as she processed the person standing before her, "Daddy. Hi."

"Hi Sweetheart..." Elizabeth turned down the volume and took her headphones off of her ears. "There is something rather difficult I have been meaning to talk with you about."

Elizabeth knew what was coming. She wasn't fitting in at her father's hospital. She felt like an outsider all over again. And being Daddy' little girl certainly wasn't helping to gain the respect she need to garner from her fellow surgeons and support staff. "Daddy. I have tried to put myself out there with Haver and Deveraux"

"Yes darling, I am sure you have. It's going to take some time to adjust, but I think time will solve all of your concerns. Actually, there is something else I need to talk with you about."

"Oh. Okay." Elizabeth answered surprised. She had expected a nice old-fashioned reaming. She rationalized whatever he had to say now would be water under the bridge.

"As you know there has been a vacancy in Cardio-thorasic for a few months now. Being as it's a specialized field there were really only so many options." The elder Corday sped up his delivery hoping, like a Band-Aid, it would hurt less if the news were delivered quickly. " We filled the position with your former associate Dr. Romano. Just thought I would let you know. Goodbye honey."

"What? No. Don't you try and side step out of here father. What are you talking about?"

"Dr. Romano. I know, I promise you honey, I loathe the man as much as you do. But he's a good surgeon, and the truth is, we need him."

"Yes, daddy. I understand." He smiled broadly and kissed her on the check before leaving her to complete her charts.

Hmm working with Dr. Romano again. She tossed the idea around in her head. There was an unmistakable comfort she felt at the idea of having someone on her side here. Her father's voice drifted into her thoughts; "we need him." She wondered how true those words would prove to be.

Elizabeth took a bit of extra time dressing herself that morning. The first surgery scheduled for the day would be not only the first she and Robert had been scheduled together on, but also the first time they would see one another since Chicago. She was nervous. So much had happened since then.

She looked at herself straight in the mirror. "Mark is dead. The love of my my husband. He's dead. And I'm alone." She looked down to the sink. She picked at a hangnail. "But I am not lonely." She repeated to the mirror, "I'm not." Bollocks what if that's what Robert thinks.

Her apprehension of seeing Robert grew exponentially as the morning wore on. What was he expecting moving to England? She had to let him know, that despite the fact that Mark was gone, she was not looking for anything romantic from Robert. Nothing.

Elizabeth paced about the admit desk wondering where Dr. Romano was. She thought back to the last time she had seen Robert...

"Pray for him?"

"It's not something, I usually do. But for you, I'll make the exception."

She realized despite his professed feelings for her, Robert had been nothing but gentlemanly when it came to Mark. The wedding. The nights Ella spent at Cook County. He had even shown up at the funeral, but knew better than to corner her. He had simply left a dozen white roses and a simple card.

A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Dr. Corday. When I said, you could have some time off to see Mark in Hawaii, I didn't realize I would have to travel around the world, to bring you back."

"Robert!" She spun around from the admin desk and embraced him in a warm hug.

The warmth of her strong, capable body in his arms was wonderful, but shocking none the less, "Lizzie, Okay then. Forgiven."

"Forgiven?" she questioned releasing from the hold. She tried to read his stoic facial expression through her much-too-eager smile.

"For abandoning me. You're forgiven."

"Robert. I didn't I don't I" she was flustered but as she saw the smile warm on his face she realized he was toying with her. "Robert, you arrogant bastard."

"Awe, with the pet names already... Really Elizabeth, we don't need the staff on this continent spreading rumors about us here, do we?"

"Robert. I've missed you." She admitted honestly before being able to hide her emotion in banter.

"Well we'll both be seeing each other in the unemployment line if don't get down to the scrub room."

"Agreed."