A bit bleary-eyed from an early morning with Ella, Elizabeth was stumbling toward the lounge and coffee when Kerry Weaver literally smashed into her.
"You coulda told me! You know, hey Kerry, just between us, you'd better start looking for a new ER chief," she yelled.
Elizabeth shook her head in blurrred surprise. 'Robert?' she thought. 'Well, there was that letter...'
"Look, Kerry, Robert never told me he was going to leave..." 'Robert gone?' she thought, 'Really?'
"Oh you can stop covering for him now, Elizabeth," Kerry spat with disdain. "And since we don't have anyone else to do it today, you can cover the ER for him!" she shouted over her shoulder as she crutched off in a huff.
After a bloody day in the ER Elizabeth understood Robert's frustration with Emergency Medicine all the more. Why hadn't he talked to her about it? The frustration of having to delegate all of the real patients to other departments. ER doctors seemed a lot like triage nurses to Elizabeth after her day of diagnosing MIs and GSWs. She sighed as she ripped off her last pair of gloves.
She heard Neela and Michael coming into the lounge as she opened her cell phone to call home. "So he took it?" Neela was asking. "Yep! And there are going to be a lot of grateful guys at the V.A.." Michael responded. "And not so grateful nurses, and interns, and residents..." Neela teased.
Elizabeth eavesdropped discreetly at first but then gave up and asked, "Are you talking about Robert?"
"Yes ma'am," Michael responded a bit ashamedly, remembering Neela's jibe.
"He's going to the VA then?" Elizabeth asked.
"He didn't tell you?" Neela piped.
"Not exactly," Elizabeth admitted, her lips tightening. "Very well then. I have to get home. For my daughter," she added brusquely and left the lounge.
Well at least he'll be across town and not in another city, she thought remembering the Chicago area V.A. where she'd done a consult. As dilapidated as County. He should feel right at home, she smiled.
But then she wondered, tensing, maybe he would be moving farther away. Michael's injuries had been treated in Washington, she recalled. What if...
Instead of driving straight home, Elizabeth called her nanny and then detoured by Robert's house. There was a moving truck in the drive, and she saw Tess from a distance with a bandana around her hair orchestrating the moving efforts. Elizabeth froze in shock. He was going. And without a goodbye it would seem.
Dave was there, Ella and Katie asleep upstairs, but Elizabeth was having a hard time relaxing and enjoying the bottle of wine he had brought or his usually companionable presence. A light knock on the front door jarred her from her half-doze as she listened to Dave talk about his fifth-grade students' science projects.
Robert. There he was. A little shamefacedly looking down at the ground, but there he was all the same. Elizabeth's heart leapt with hope. Maybe...
"Robert!" she smiled. "Would you like to come in for a minute?"
"Nah..." he shrugged. "There's a car in the driveway. You have company. I just wanted to..."
She cut him off. Grabbed his hand to underscore her need for him not to go. "Just wait here a minute, then. I'll be right back." She hurried back to the kitchen, made a quick explanation to Dave, then returned to the front steps where Robert had taken a seat. She sat down beside him. Close. Then turned and looked at him. Smiled again, soft encouragement.
He cleared his throat, readying his little speech, then flexed his shoulder muscles, extended a cramped arm out before him, shook his head and stood again. He walked the two steps down so that he was looking up at Elizabeth, still seated expectantly in front of him.
"You know why I'm here..." he began slowly. Then, feeling much too far away from her to say what he had to say, he knelt so that their eyes were level and took her right hand in his.
"I've got to go," he explained quietly, almost sure of himself. He looked into her eyes steadily, convincing her, convincing himself of this necessity.
"But I wanted to thank you," he choked a little. 'For being..." he couldn't quite continue for a moment...
Elizabeth started to interrupt, but he dropped her hand shook his head to stop her from pulling him back towards her, from giving him any reason to stay.
With a slightly ironic smile, he continued. "You want to know why I gave you preferential treatment all those years?"
She nodded, smiling, curious but careful.
"Because," he stopped then started again, "I preferred you." He stood, smoothed his trousers. Then waved once, a quick parting gesture accompanied by a quickly fading smile. Turned his back on her. And he was gone.
Just before heading to Elizabeth's that night Robert had rifled through the few remaining boxes he hadn't sealed, then through his closet and a few drawers. He couldn't find those combs he had bought for her in Italy. Then he gave up. It didn't matter anymore.