I'll Be Your Lover, Too
I'll be a man...I'll understand
Do my best to take...good care of you
Yes I will
You'll be my queen...I'll be your king
Yes I'll be your...lover too
Van Morrison was crooning quietly in the apartment, heavy with the early morning humidity of a late Chicago summer. Mark stood leaning against the refrigerator, watching Susan sleep. This had to be one of the best things about her coming back to Chicago, coming back to him – the peace and the simple joy she brought to the most basic aspects of his life.
He stood there, his eyes fixed on her, and couldn't remember a time when he felt happier. The whole thing seemed so right, a natural extension of a closeness the two of them had formed. Morrison kept playing softly from the radio. Mark's peacefulness was then broken up by Nick, barking for his morning meal.
"You're killing me, Nick", Mark smirked as he grabbed a can opener.
> > > >The rustling of metal on metal and the sound of dog paws clawing on the cabinet made her stir. This was always the hardest part – every day seemed like it would be better than the next, and she'd go to sleep every night full of joy, but dreading waking up. She felt she'd open her eyes to find the whole thing to be fantasy, that she and Mark were not in fact happy together but still miserable apart.
Every morning she woke up to see Mark next to her, or looking at her, or making breakfast for her, or having left a note for her, she became more fulfilled that it all actually was happening.
On this morning, thick with the August heat, she saw Mark in the kitchen attempting to get Nick to sit still before he received breakfast. He was so earnest, trying to get the hyperactive mutt to obey a simple command; it made her smile. Being together with him, sharing moments both profound and benign seemed so right. Nothing had ever felt more so.
Mark turned to see her beautiful eyes looking over to him.
"Morning, sleepy head." He walked over and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"What time is it?" She asked, even thought she didn't care. "7:52", Mark replied, and then Susan began to realize her problem. She was about to bolt past Mark, throw on a new shirt and head for work to avoid being insanely late for the start of her shift in eight minutes, but she saw Mark eye's gleaming through his glasses straight at her.
"I already called Kerry to tell her you'll be late." A smile curled on his lips and Susan's face relaxed again as she looked at him. He was right proud of himself.
"Well, we'll have to find some way to occupy that time." The two of them enjoyed foreplay. She pulled the collar of his shirt in close, capturing him in a kiss, and they fell back into bed.
> > > >Carol stirred a cup of coffee in the lounge, pondering life and the strange curves it throws your way. Why had what Corday said bothered her? This was a truly, genuinely different time around for her and Doug. Women were going to flirt with him. They had always flirted with him. In fact, if she wanted to maintain her cover, she probably should be encouraging him to flirt back. The whole thing made no sense.
Out in the hall, Lydia and Conni were peering through the window, taking precaution to stay just out of Carol's sight line. Jerry walked by, "What's going on?"
Lydia started: "Dr. Corday tried to hit on Ross."
Conni finished: "And Carol thinks she succeeded."
Chuni peered over from the admit desk: "Corday the spunky British women?" Malik didn't look up from his chart as he replied in the affirmative.
From the other side of the desk, Haleh reached for her purse, "Jerry, I'll ante up: 20 bucks on Thanksgiving Dinner."
Chuni chuckled: "I'll take that action. New Year's Eve."
Lydia protested, "I'm still holding out for Valentine's Day."
Jerry shook his head, "She'll never hold out that long."
Malik shrugged his shoulders as he pointed out, "She's still naïve enough to think nobody knows." Conni slammed 30 dollars on the table. "Christmas Eve."
Jerry pooled together the cash, "Carol might not know it, but she's gonna make one of us a very happy, wealthy person."
"I hope you win Jerry," Lydia said, and Jerry smiled at the seemingly genuine sentiment. Lydia quickly snarked, "You're gonna need cash for the disguise and transport over the border."
Chuni, chimed in: "Customs can be a real bitch."
Jerry grimaced as he once again rose to defend himself: "She told me it wasn't loaded!"
> > > >Just then Susan pushed her way through the ambulance doors, around the fire and sanitation crew pooling in the ambulance bay.
"What happened? It's a damn mess out there", she griped, dusting off her coat.
"Jerry tried to blow up the hospital", Haleh offered cheerfully as she left the admit desk.
"Which idiot stopped him?" Susan asked as she rummaged through the mountain of charts on the desk.
A thick British accent called out for help behind her, "Excuse me, does anybody here know how to work the bloody coffee machine?"
Susan snatched a pair of charts and backpedaled to the lounge.
"Coffee sounds brilliant. You just got to get lucky and find a filter."
Corday lingered in the doorway to hold it open. "It certainly seems temperamental. I don't think we've met – Elizabeth Corday."
Susan stuck out her hand: "Susan Lewis. I've been warned about you."
Corday blushed, "That would be by Mr. Benton, I assume?" Susan laughed at how predictable it all seemed.
"I wouldn't be too concerned – Peter only gets defensive around people who are better than he is," Susan said as she moved toward the coffee machine. Corday smirked and said nothing, and Susan suspected that she felt comforted by hearing what she already thought on her own.
"Morning Carol," Susan said as she flipped open a filter box. Carol kept staring, but her non-response went past Susan who had to listen to Elizabeth.
"Liking your new home. You are the attending brought in with Weaver moving up?" Susan smiled and nodded as she set out to for a correction, "Yeah, but it's not new. I did most of my residency here."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Most?"
Susan blushed as she flipped Mr. Coffee red switch and started brewing. "Long story. I was in Phoenix for about a year, but I had to come back."
Elizabeth nodded and smiled, "That tall man with the bald head and glasses?" Susan furrowed her brow while Corday held up a hand as if to say, "Don't think I'm stepping on your man".
"Sorry. Cank travels fast around here, one thing I've learned."
Susan was completely confused, "Cank?"
Elizabeth blushed at her casual use of homeland slang. "Sorry – news. Gossip."
Now Susan understood. She giggled. Carol drummed her fingers in the background, and if Corday had an knowledge of her surroundings, she didn't show it or she would've seen the nurse's icy stare.
"So you speak Cockney?" Susan asked, Elizabeth laughed, "Heavens no. I'm what you'd call a British blue-blood. Picked up most of the jargon from this boy I met at age 16."
"First boyfriend?" Susan kept up conversation because she had seen in the corner of her eye how malicious Carol's thoughts seemed to be.
Elizabeth crossed her shoulders, "Sort of. Main interests were football and sex." Susan giggled again, "Sounds familiar."
Corday looks to her, "He plays football?" Susan shook her head, "No, Mark's more of a baseball man. We're going to the game tonight."
Corday nodded. "I see. Yanks seem more focused on this baseball. What is is you all talk about – the Koobies?"
Susan threw back her head in a laugh, "The...sorry, the Cubbies." Elizabeth nodded, as if to say, I understand, but I somehow I don't.
"I'm more of a White Sox fan. Me and Mark are going to the game tonight." Just then Elizabeth's pager went off.
"Upstairs. Gotta run. Save me a cup, will you?" She pushed her way out the door. Susan turned to face Carol, who smirked.
"Looks like you're making new friends." Susan turned and grabbed the coffee pot as it had now pooled to a stop.
"What?"
Carol continued talking, not so much to Susan as to herself. "Why should I care? I mean, she seems nice. Perfectly nice. Just trying to be friendly, make some new peers in a strange land."
Susan was beginning to feel a tad uncomfortable but just nodded.
"Why does it bother me if Pippi Longstocking wants Doug to show her a good time? I mean, this is all about trust, right?"
Susan had pulled the coffee up to her lips and now spit it back out in a laugh.
"Come on, Carol. She...she was trying to pick up Doug?"
Carol tried to defend herself, "It sure as heck seemed like it."
"Things are different this time, right? I don't know why you two insist on being so secretive."
"I dunno", Carol mused, "Part of me thinks it was specifically for this reason – if we could add in this...this other stuff without having it alter everything else in our lives."
"And is it working?"
Carol stopped, unsure of the answer. Then the answer came to her, and she and Susan exchanged a smile. "The Koobies?" Carol said. They both laughed heartily.
> > > >A few hours later, Mark came in to cover an afternoon swing shift, still needing to be off by 6:30 for the 7:05 start. How had Susan talked him into going to Comiskey? It seemed sacrilege for him, noted Cub fan, to be watching the Sox. But he wouldn't really be watching them, he'd be watchng Susan, like he was right now with her back to him across the desk.
"Hello!" he cooed and she instantly turned and light up when she saw him.
"You're here to tell me you won the Lottery and we can quit?" She guessed as she met him in the hallway.
He pulled her in for a smooth, energetic kiss, lifting her slightly off the floor. "Will that do?"
Susan blushed, "Well, you won a different kind of lottery." Mark smiled at her but just then Carter walked by and playfully shouted, "Hey hey, get a room!" He and another doctor, short and blond, continued talking past them down the hallway.
Susan pulled herself together and began moving down hall as well. "So we're still on for tonight?"
Just then a silky sounding voice called out from behind the two of them, "Mark?"
They veered around to see a ridiculously fit women in workout sweats, hair still wet, wearing a splint on her wrist.
Mark was shocked and launched into immediate damage control, "Heather."
Heather Morgan sauntered up next to him, seemingly oblivious to Susan and certainly not having seen their little show moments earlier.
"You get my message?" Heather asked. Who the hell is she? Susan thought. Her jealousy instincts kicked in immediately.
Mark felt queasy. "Yeah, uh...sounds nice Heather. But I'm gonna have to decline. Other plans. I left you a message."
Heather nodded as Susan felt like breaking the chart she was holding in half. Then Heather smiled flirtatiously at Mark, "I haven't been home yet. I was up at physical therapy." She held up her splint, "Racquetball this time, not water polo. We're twins. How'd it happen to you – handball?"
Susan flinched. Don't bring that up, you little...she tried to control her emotions. Mark grimaced.
"I wish." If Leon Spinks and Jethro Tull had waltzed off the elevator drunk and signing "Locomotive Breath", Mark would've felt more comfortable than he did right now. And why the hell is she flirting with me?
"Maybe some other time. How's your busy social calendar these days?" The sass she put into made Mark flinch and Susan's eyebrows rise.
"It's...not as busy. I gotta go, there's a, uh, a very dangerous otitis media in the next room."
Heather waved and sauntered back down the hallway. Mark hung his head and Susan let an inquisitive smile cross her face. "Got something you wanna share with the class, Mark?"
Mark's thoughts immediately turned mischievous. "As a matter of fact –"and he tugged her into a dark Exam Three, closing the door behind them.
Susan looked around in the dimly lit area, the bustle of the ER still audible behind them. "Mark, we're working."
"We can do two things at once." He smiled at her, and she giggled.
"You're still gonna have some explaining to do, you know that right?" Now she was trying a little tough love. Mark smirked at her but moved on ahead.
"You're gonna laugh at how stupid I was", he said as he tried to get her mind onto something else.
"Well, that won't be anything new," she said through a glowing smile as Mark turned the door's lock over.
> > > > >Don't miss next week's exciting episode...Ok, so the update may be sooner than a week, but you get the idea...
