Chapter 3
AN: I own nothing except my love of Islay whisky.
To the lovely people reviewed, thank you.
Their eyes were locked and she'd be damned if she was the first to look away. Not this time.
Elizabeth was fuming. The past few months had been some of the hardest of her career, having to swallow her pride and, yet again, work twice as hard as anyone to stay at County. She should have been used to it though, coming from the old boys' club that was surgery in England. But having Romano, the man responsible for dragging her to American and then making her start over, ask her what her grandfather would think of it was the last straw. Maybe she had reached her breaking point or maybe it was the alcohol she had consumed, but at that moment she despised the man more than ever and couldn't care less if he knew it.
Romano blinked. He leaned back into his chair, a look on his face she couldn't decipher. He inhaled deeply and then let out a great sigh, it was as if he was deflating a little with it. She placed the look, he was chagrined.
And very slowly as if each word was painful he said, "Gee I don't know Elizabeth, maybe I didn't want to waste my time sponsoring a surgeon who had no desire to work with me or had such a complete lack of respect for me."
She felt as if she had been slapped. Her mouth hung open slightly as she tried to process his words.
"I, on the other hand, had a great deal of respect for you, to the point where I put my own reputation on the line and brought you to America. Got you away from that old boys' club that you were going so unnoticed in."
For once in her life, Elizabeth Corday was at a loss for words. No witty remark, no scathing reply ready on her lips. What kind of response could she even give to a man who saw the year of their lives working together, so differently from her. She looked away and tried to compose herself, now painfully aware of the other occupants of the table. This was not a conversation that should have ever taken place in such a public setting, and certainly not after the amount of alcohol she had consumed. In vino veritas. Perhaps she should say another prayer to St Bibiana. It couldn't hurt at this point.
Elizabeth knew he was still looking at her, waiting patiently for some kind of response when his pager went off. She held her breath as he checked it. It went off again.
He stood up and looked down at her, his guard was up. A mask of indifference.
"Well Elizabeth you seem to be in luck, I've been paged to the OR. No need to tax your mind by coming up with a response. You're free to continue painting me as the villain in this." And with that Romano walked off.
Elizabeth was frozen in place, trying to ignore the looks her dinner companions were giving her. She heard them muttering amongst themselves, wondering what she had done to earn Rocket Romano's ire. Well if they figured it out she'd love to know.
When she regained the use of her senses, she went into flight mode. Get out of the room, get air, and put this evening behind her. Propelling herself forward, she didn't stop until she was ensconced in the back of a cab.
The ride back to her flat had been a blur, her mind running a mile a minute attempting to process what Romano had said to her. She barely realized she had unlocked her flat and poured another scotch, in for a penny in for a pound after all. It was 9:30. Still so early. And an empty flat. She longed for the days in London where she could walk up to her god brother's flat and ask him to make it all make sense. Andrew. She could call Andrew. Sure it was 3:30 in the morning there, but she had no one else to call. Peter was no longer an option, her father's dislike of Romano made him unbiased at best, she had no desire to wake up her godparents least they suggest going to mass, and her mother was out of the question on principle. So she dialed a number she knew by heart.
Three rings. Four rings. And then-
"I. Am. Not. On. Call." A weary voice responded.
"It's Elizabeth, don't hang up. "
"Lizabeth? What, what time is it?" The voice on the phone was groggy, clearly, she had woken him up.
"Early for you, not so late for me. I'm sorry about the time, but I didn't know who else to call."
"You're clearly not alright to be calling at the wee hours of the morning. Your not, your not hurt are you? I mean-"
"I know. Upset, not actually hurt. Andrew I just. Everything is falling down around me. I didn't know where to turn to."
"Well, I'll put on the kettle, and you best start at the beginning."
And she did. Elizabeth broke down. About starting over, about her M M, about breaking up with Peter, and then about her evening with Romano. Letting it all out felt cathartic.
"So It sounds like Romano has legitimate issues with you, there's got to be a reason for that."
"Andrew he's just so difficult-"
He gave a loud snort at that.
"Elizabeth, I love you dearly, but God knows you're one of the most difficult people I know. Stubborn to a fault and a desire to prove yourself that will rub the best of men the wrong way. I'd have hated you with a passion in med school if you weren't my god sister. So maybe, just maybe, there's more to his side than you're letting on."
She was quiet for a while after that. Elizabeth knew she called Andrew for a reason, after a lifetime of friendship he had become very good at seeing the things she didn't want to admit about herself.
"Look, Lizabeth, you talked about having issues with Romano while he was your sponsor. So what really happened. Don't give me the abridged version, I've heard that already. You had a great deal of respect for the man when he was in London, enough to follow him to another country. Something changed in America and you've never said what. And he's difficult is not an answer. That's just the pot calling the kettle black."
"I. I might have," could she say it, the full story. The going behind Romano's back, multiple times now that she really thought about it. If she couldn't be honest with Andrew though, then who was left. "I might have bollocked it up."
"Go on."
And she did. All the things she left out of the rushed phone calls, the letters home. Things she felt she shouldn't tell her family. Circumventing Romano on the Beaumont case, the poor performance review, taking his HemoAid drugs and starting her own study, willingly butting heads with the man. And then the day at Doc Magoo's. She had only told Peter about that.
Andrew let out a low whistle. It was quite a bit to take in.
"So, I know I'm supposed to hate the man on principle, but do you think maybe you earned a wee bit of his ire?"
Elizabeth tried to interrupt but he was ready for her.
"Think of it this way, if you pulled any of that while working for your father, what would have happened? I can't imagine Uncle Charles being thrilled with you. I know you've said Romano let those issues go, but it sounds like he didn't. And frankly, I'm not surprised. I wouldn't hire you after that year."
"Excuse me? How is this my fault?" This was not the way Elizabeth had envisioned the call going. She had wanted reassurances, and instead, she was being poked with the proverbial stick.
"Ugh. You've gotten thick living amongst the Americans, haven't you? The Beaumont case. You went behind his back to work with another surgeon, in a different specialty, on Romano's patient. You knew he was mad at you for that."
"He apologized! Told me I did the right thing, focusing on the patient." She was indignant.
"And did you apologize for circumventing him?"
Her silence was all the answer he needed to continue. Andrew picked apart everything she had told him and presented to her how he saw everything, how Romano had probably seen things. How she had foolishly put her life in danger on the paramedic ride-along, lucky to have made it out alive after jacking up a building that was falling down around her. Attempting to figure out how she had taken Romano's invite to work on his HemoAid study as permission to take the HemoAid and do her own study with a different doctor. Without asking him. Quite the slap in the face. He told her she had lost her mind by not taking the promotion Romano had offered in his study. It had been a professional olive branch when she had been in the wrong.
They finally came to the elephant in the room of Romano asking her out. The only part where Andrew was more cross with Romano than with her.
"Honestly Andrew I was blindsided. I thought he wanted to talk about the HemoAid study or my fellowship, I didn't know he was going to proposition me." Elizabeth was exhausted at this point. She's lost track of time and didn't know how long she'd been on the phone with Andrew, who bless, hadn't complained about the call once.
"What was the man thinking, surely there are easier ways to find someone to sleep with you than hitting on someone who relies on you for a visa. I mean I can't fault the man for finding you attractive, he is intelligent after all, but I thought he was intelligent enough to realize that acting on that attraction would be a mistake." Men asking Elizabeth out had always been a touchy subject with Andrew. A consequence of having grown up together was a protective streak and he never thought anyone was quite good enough for Elizabeth, and he often took great joy in taking the mick out of her past boyfriends. So her boss and visa sponsor making a pass at her got his hackles up.
"It made me miss working for my father, to be honest. No one at St Thomas's would have dared ask me out with him as their boss." They both had a laugh at this. Elizabeth had snuck out of the house on more than one occasion to avoid her father meeting a boyfriend and often had Andrew cover for her.
"The way he asked me out made me feel a little mortified, it was so close to what I said to Peter the first time, only far more sincere. "
"Oh I'm sure the man sincerely wanted you to get on your knees, but what does that have to do with you asking out Benton?"
"I uh, didn't necessarily ask Peter out on a date and I might have been more lascivious than called for. I uh, I flat out propositioned him. Basically, everything I said to Peter, Romano said to me, only Romano said it in a way that made it clear he was interested in actually dating me whereas I was only interested in sleeping with Peter."
Andrew went quiet at this, so quiet that Elizabeth was sure she could have heard a pin drop.
"You said he propositioned you, not that he asked you out on a proper date. Although I suppose anytime your visa sponsor asks you on a date be considered a proposition. So you think he was genuinely interested?"
"Based on how poorly he reacted to finding out that Peter and I were dating, I'd say so. It didn't help that I lied about dating colleagues, I just panicked and didn't know what to say."
This elicited an audible groan from Andrew along several choice words muttered a little too quietly for her to hear.
"I really should have poured something stronger than tea for this tale of yours and I'd do it now if I didn't have to be at my parents for breakfast soon. My mother can smell alcohol a mile away and I'm sure you don't want me explaining why I'd need a drink this early in the morning." Andrew was laughing now, a low chuckle of frustration and sleep deprivation. "Corday," the laughter took on a hysteric tone, "you lied about dating colleagues, to a colleague, while dating a colleague. Shall I just call up the BBC and tell them I've found their next storyline for Casualty?"
Elizabeth was laughing now as well. She had been hit with how ridiculous it all sounded. Unfortunately, she couldn't take back her actions. It was far too late for that and she didn't imagine that Romano would ever trust her again.
" I really have bollocked it up, haven't I? I never meant to act as if I was just looking for a meal ticket out of London, but somewhere along the line that apparently was what I projected. "
" I'm curious, call it sleep deprivation if you must, but I'm curious if you'd ever have given Romano a chance." He paused long enough for her to think about the question. If Peter wasn't in the equation what would she have done?
There was no denying it Romano was an intelligent man, easily her equal. And he took great pleasure in giving as good as she got. He'd never been one to shy away from a verbal challenge with her. Few men were willing to take that risk, lest they be proven lacking. But Romano had always demanded more from her. And that was the greatest difference. But would she have gone out with him?
" Andrew, I don't know. He's not exactly my normal type-" A loud snort came through the phone.
"If by normal type you mean men that you can bully and look good on your arm-"
"Hey! I don't comment on that cow of a girlfriend you've got."
"She's not a cow Elizabeth!" His protests could not be heard though, over the mooing noises Elizabeth was making at him. Their conversation has devolved into good-natured ribbing, an easy back and forth honed by years of practice.
Elizabeth glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight for her which meant 6 am for Andrew. Christmas Day in London. Christmas Day with the Cameron's started with morning mass, determined by if her godfather Malcolm managed to get him and Andrew Christmas Day off at the hospital. The life of surgeons.
"Do you and Uncle Malcolm have to go into work at all? Or does Auntie Helena get her wish for Christmas Mass?"
"Da has the day off, I'm on call tonight though. I should probably make coffee at this rate, can't fall asleep in the middle of Mass or it will be my head."
"Your mother does take it all very seriously. I shall be worshiping in the church of surgery tomorrow. I've got a prostatectomy first thing in the morning, a happy Christmas indeed. I should probably get off the phone and try to get some sleep so I'm not nodding off during the procedure, no need to give Romano a reason to have a go at me. If I'm lucky I'll manage to catch my father on the phone before I leave for work. " Elizabeth was tired now that she had laid herself bare. Trying to shut her brain off for a few hours of sleep was going to be a Herculean task, but there was no other option.
"That sounds like a horrible Christmas. Look, before you go why don't you open what I sent for Christmas? You did get your gifts right?"
What were another five minutes? Elizabeth got up from the couch and walked over to the small pile of boxes that had arrived from London. She pulled out the one that she knew to be from Andrew's family.
"Fine, but only if you open what I sent you."
For a few minutes, the only sounds that could be heard were boxes being opened and paper being shredded. Elizabeth's godparents had sent two things; a beautiful sweater that her godmother had knit and a skirt from Kinlock Anderson in the Cameron tartan. There was also a note that said "Give the Americans hell". She missed them dearly and knew what she would wear Christmas Day. And then there was Andrew's present.
"What the bloody hell have you done!" Laughter was the response. Sitting In front of her was a laptop. She knew where this was going and groaned.
"Now all you have to do is sign up for the internet and get a bloody email. So much easier than waiting on the post or even calling at all hours of the night. In fact, you can sign up for instant messenger, and then we can talk even more. I expect you to have gotten internet set up in time for Hogmanay. "
Elizabeth had resisted getting a computer for a while. Home so rarely and preferring to handwrite letters, a habit leftover from her days in boarding school, she had put off any serious thoughts about email. Clearly, her family had not. Even her father had an email at this point. She caved.
"If I must. I can't promise it will be in time for Hogmanay though. Now hurry up and open your own present."
She had bought him an airline voucher with enough money on it for a round trip between London and Chicago.
" I won't have any real vacation time for the foreseeable future, but I know you're due for time off this summer and thought you could take a holiday in Chicago. Help me give the Americans hell and all that."
Silence had fallen. Both keenly aware of the vast distance that separated them on a day that was meant to be taken in with family.
"I miss you too, Elizabeth. And I'll see what I can do about a week off this summer. I'll start laying the groundwork with the Chief now for the time off, Williamson likes to know well in advance or he won't give it too you. It might have to be fall since half the surgeons have kids who will want a summer holiday somewhere. Chicago won't know what hit it."
"It's one of the few times where I wished you worked for my father, he'd be easier to harass for the leave."
"I think your grandfather would turn over in his grave if a Corday and a Cameron ever worked in the same hospital. Something about the hospital would be burnt to the ground within a week."
"This is very true. I guess it's time to end the call now. Give everyone my love. "
"I shall. Naturally, I'll leave out your reason for calling. Love you Elizabeth."
"Love you too Andrew." She did not want the call to end. It was harder than she thought to say goodbye on what was now Christmas Day.
"Hey." He could tell she was becoming melancholy, "You've got this. It's been a tough time lately, but you've never let that stop you before. So give the Americans hell Corday."
And with that, the call was over and Elizabethan alone with her thoughts.
