Chapter Three

"Here, just take it," Susan said as she threw all her cash to the front of the cab. She quickly opened the back door and grabbed her suitcase. She was finally back at County. She had to see Mark. She slammed the taxi cab door shut and rushed to the inside of the hospital. "Where's Mark?" she asked as she approached the front desk of the ER. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, but she did not care. She had to find him. "Jerry, where is he?"

Carol was fighting back the urge to yawn as she rounded the corner towards the main desk and lobby area. "I'm out of here," she announced. She took one look over at Susan and dropped her mouth open in shock. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "What happened to Phoenix?"

"What happened to Mark?" Susan demanded. "Why won't anyone tell me where he is?"

"Your guess is as good as ours," Carol said. "He left hours ago."

"He didn't say anything about where he was going?" Susan asked.

Carol shook her head sadly. "Sorry," she told her.

"Damn it," Susan muttered as she walked away from the desk. She blew it. She blew it, and she knew it. She had her chance right there in front of her only hours earlier. There was Mark saying the things she had been waiting forever to hear from him. Now he was gone, and she did not know where he was.

Susan walked through the ambulance bay. A part of her wished that one of the ambulances would just come rushing in there and run her over. It would be better than feeling like this. "I love you, too," she whispered. She had a strong feeling that she had tears in her eyes again. Damn it. She hated feeling like that. Why couldn't things be easier? Why couldn't she have realized this feeling when Mark said he loved her? Why couldn't Mark have made his feelings clear earlier?

She sighed again. She did not have the energy or money for another taxi. She sighed. She supposed she could take the El home. Wait, it was not her home anymore. Technically, she sold it. She sighed again. She supposed she could stay at a hotel. Wherever she ended up, she would need to take the El to get there.

She slowly walked up the stairs to the station in a gaze. She could not remember actually walking them, but she had gotten from the ambulance bay to the top. There he was. The person she had been looking for. The reason she had gotten off the train in the first place. Mark.

He was asleep, she instantly noted, but she was still excited. It was really him. She had known him to fall asleep at the El station before, and she would not put it past him to do it again. She rushed over to him and just looked at him. He was really there. She was not imagining it. He had a little bit of drool running from his mouth down his chin.

"Hey there," she whispered softly as she sat down next to him. She took her warm coat off her own body and leaned in closer to Mark. She rested her head against his shoulder and dripped her coat over both of them. "I really do love you," she whispered.