Chapter Five
AN: I own nothing.
Some quotes were taken from season 5, episodes 11 and 12.
Robert Romano and Elizabeth Corday had been involved in a very intricate dance since Christmas. Each was avoiding the other in a series of carefully planned steps, hoping the other wouldn't notice, hoping the rest of the staff wouldn't notice. Naturally, the nurses had picked up on something, but they tended to believe that Romano had been drunk at the Gala and offended Corday, considering the state he had arrived at the OR in on Christmas Eve.
Elizabeth was still reeling from her phone call with Andrew, desperately trying to come to terms with her behavior now that it had been presented in a new light. Elizabeth did not like what she found. A deep-seated belief that she was smarter and more talented than her peers, that she knew better. Elizabeth did not. Otherwise, she wouldn't be starting over, a healthy serving of humble pie if there ever was one. Elizabeth knew that if she wanted to alleviate herself of this feeling of disgust, she would have to work at making real changes in how she dealt with things. A daily dose of humility to balance out the long-internalized pride.
Romano would never accept an apology. Far too little, far too late. Her actions had spoken far louder than her words the past year, and she would have to work harder than ever show him that she had taken his words to heart. Most importantly, she would have to do it for herself. She couldn't just feel sorry that she had lost her meal ticket to an internship free visa. A bridge more than likely permanently burned. All she could do was work hard and do her best to acknowledge her defects and better herself.
Conveniently she had a topic she could write about, her MM and the defense of her actions. Taking up a New Year's resolution to improve herself lead her to the realization that her mistakes as an intern could open a forum of dialogue on how to improve the system overall. It also gave her a ready-made distraction from the fact that Romano was actively avoiding her, something she knew she deserved.
Andrew, bless, had done his best to be supportive. She had gone through with the promise of setting up internet and email and had spent her New Year's Eve corresponding with him. To her immense surprise, he had managed to contact a local liquor store, and at 12:01 on January first, a dark-haired delivery man stepped across her threshold with a bottle of Lagavulin and a handful of coal. They had a good laugh about being first footed, and she took it as a sign that this would be a better year. The Lagavulin got her through several late nights writing her paper, which was now thankfully finished. Now she just needed someone to read it. That's where Peter came in.
"You hated it." She was trying to keep the disdain from creeping into her voice.
"Well, no, I just... haven't had time to read it thoroughly yet." Peter was very clearly trying to weasel out of giving his actual opinion. She hated it when men couldn't be direct with her. Romano always had that ability, a quality she had admired in England.
"Do you think I have a shot at getting it published?" They were walking through the ER, weaving in and out of staff and patients. She was desperately trying to get an actual thought out of Peter.
"Well, it is controversial." He was hesitating again, a habit of Peter's that she was growing to detest. Elizabeth wished he could just spit the words out; she knew he had them waiting underneath the surface.
"And that's bad?" She felt like she was pulling teeth now.
"For you, right now, oh yeah." There was a slight smile on his face and a hint of amusement in his voice. Elizabeth shot him a peeved look as he turned his head, trying to hide his amusement at her predicament.
"We'll see if Anspaugh agrees." And she was off to find a second opinion.
Unfortunately for her, he did.
Elizabeth's conversation with Anspaugh had not gone the way she had intended. She could tell he was frustrated with her, and instead of listening to his advice, she had gone on the defense and suggested that he didn't like the paper because it painted County General in a poor light. Not her best move. Another work relationship she needed to invest some time on.
The day did not get any better; the ER had taken a significant hit. The Chief of the ER, Amanda Lee, had turned out to be a complete fraud. She had cracked when Dr. Greene had started asking questions about her past and locked him in a room with a hysterical patient. This naturally took place after Elizabeth had worked with Lee on a patient they had lost. The hits just keep on coming. Elizabeth needed to tell Anspaugh, and she could only hope he didn't hold their previous conversation against her. So, she took a deep breath and knocked on his office door.
He was on the phone trying to do damage control, and they had placed him on hold.
"I thought you should know, um, a, a patient died under hers and my care today." Elizabeth's voice was soft and almost deferential.
Anspaugh let out a great sigh at her statement.
"Well, that's just what I didn't need to hear." He sat down to take it all in, still listening for the person on the other end of the phone to pick up.
"However, I don't believe that either of us made any errors." Elizabeth looked down at this. Her track record recently left her feeling very humble, and she let it show. Her pride. Something she should serve up on a plate more often, something they all should. So, she pushed forward, knowing that this needed to be said.
"I've also been thinking about what you said earlier, and eh, um, I intend to pursue the publication of my paper." Anspaugh took a long look at her before she continued. "In the light of the Amanda Lee debacle, it's obvious none of us are above reproach." She had his full attention now, and he was considering what she had to say.
"I admire your directness. Alright, give me a list of the journals you'd like to submit to, and I'll attach a cover letter. "
Elizabeth didn't know which saint oversaw fixing workplace fuck ups, but she said a silent prayer of thanks hoping there was one.
"Thank you, Donald." She left his office to deal with the maelstrom brewing with legal.
If only she knew this would be the calm before the storm. She had submitted her paper to several medical journals and was feeling good about how her year was starting. Elizabeth had been trying to maintain deference to her colleagues that she had lacked before. Quietly doing her work, going out of her way to not butt heads with anyone, even Edison, who was universally disliked, could tell he was being treated differently. There had been a bright side to all of this, help in the form of an egger med student. Bless Lucy Knight and her drive to succeed; it meant less scut work for herself. No more drains to pull.
The doors opened behind Elizabeth and Ms. Knight. Romano came strolling in.
"Ah, Ms. Knight, I see you've found your way to Dr. Corday." Robert stopped beside Elizabeth as she was going over a chart, trying not to look at him.
"Absolutely. All the pre-op labs were in the charts when I arrived; I nearly kissed her." Elizabeth thought for sure he'd have a Romano-esk remark to that. But he didn't. He merely walked around the bed to check the IV. Odd. She wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though.
"I uh, insisted that you get a decent student, I knew you could use some back up with the scut." Robert was looking at her now, and she felt like a deer in the headlights.
"Well, I live for scut." Lucy was making a face as she pulled another drain. Bless. But Robert hasn't taken his eyes off Elizabeth, and it was making her nervous. This conversation was the most prolonged interaction outside of an OR since Christmas, and Elizabeth was unsure what to expect.
"If Ms. Knight actually helps you get finished early, I'd like you to assist this afternoon on a Choledochojejunostomy." Robert was observing her face, waiting for her reply. A slight twinkle in his eyes as he dangled the procedure in front of her.
"Choledochojejunostomy?" Elizabeth perked up. A chance to get back in the OR. Robert smirked the excitement she was trying to hide in her voice, and it grew more pronounced as he moved around the foot of the bed to stand next to her.
"Well, you can say it. Would you like to do it?" For once, Elizabeth could detect no double entendres in his voice, the turn of phrase merely a habit for him at this point. She was stunned and aware that it showed on her face.
"I'm waiting on the other shoe to drop."
"No, no catch. You've suffered enough. I started the groundwork today to see if we can't get your fellowship reinstated, you deserve it."
Elizabeth was floored. Frozen in place, she couldn't even manage to turn and look at Robert as he walked out of the room. He had taken her breath away with another offering of an olive branch. Her brain felt like a skipping record; his words forever being scratched into her mind.
"I'll be damned."
Elizabeth walked out in a haze, almost forgetting that she had a mead student following her. She needed to collect herself and find another task for her student, Ms. Knight. A page to the ER gave her something to focus on, and it was a simple enough teaching case for Lucy. Present it to Peter, and then she could zone out long enough for Robert's words to sink in properly. Their patient wasn't a likely surgical candidate, though; the man claimed to be 140.
Stepping off the elevator, she heard Kerry Weaver calling after her. Elizabeth hadn't been as fond of Weaver since Christmas Eve and had an uneasy feeling about being singled out by her. She didn't know what Weaver wanted to talk about, but she followed her down the hall anyways. Kerry opened the door to exam room one and sat down.
"Elizabeth, this is an uncomfortable topic, but it's been brought to my attention by someone on staff that there has been sexual harassment going on and that you might be able to corroborate it."
"I beg your pardon." Elizabeth's mouth fell open. Again, stunned by the words of a colleague, it took a moment to regain the use of her brain.
"Someone has made a complaint against Dr. Romano, and considering you worked closely with him last year as your sponsor, it was thought that maybe you had witnessed or experienced sexual harassment yourself." Weaver calmly delivered the news, giving Elizabeth a few minutes to digest what she had said.
Sexual harassment. Elizabeth's father had done a fair job of protecting her from it in London. It was usually not worth the risk to harass the boss's daughter. Occasionally there had been lewd remarks about her, but her father had made examples of the worst offenders. Like Mr. Jordan, who had slapped her arse in the hallway one day. In front of her father. Sure, it was her first week, and Jordan had been on holiday for most of it and didn't know who she was, but he was suspended for a month none the less. He ended up quitting on his own rather than risk the word getting out. But sexual harassment from Robert Romano?
"He's outrageous, he can be tasteless, he ah certainly likes to throw his weight around. But ah..." Elizabeth trailed off, shaking her head.
"So, you can't corroborate any instances of sexual harassment?" Kerry was trying to keep a neutral tone and almost failing.
"It's a, very um, American thing if I may say this penchant for turning personal issues into lawsuits." Elizabeth didn't know what Weaver wanted her to say, Robert could be rude, but that was no reason to run for a lawyer.
"The hospital's hope, of course, is for me as alms person to address problems and avoid lawsuits."
"Look, one has to be thick-skinned working around Dr. Romano, but ah, you roll with the punches, don't you. Whoever is complaining may be too fragile to practice medicine at all." Wrong words. Weaver did not like Elizabeth's last remark and took an icy tone.
"Her identity is confidential until I can assess if any action is warranted. It's a delicate business, rarely do I hear the kind of slam dunk where Dr. So and So made overtures sexual advances, she declined, and then he either fired her or cut her funds." Weaver was looking at her intently. She had come to her real point and was looking to see if she had made a chink in Elizabeth's armor. Kerry Weaver was hoping that Elizabeth had dirt on Robert, enough of it to substantiate a sexual harassment claim.
"Right. Uh, Kerry. Is Robert aware of this complaint?" Elizabeth could only hope that Robert didn't think this was her complaint.
"He doesn't know who came to me, although he could figure it out since my first response is to prevent the parties from working together."
"I see." At least Robert wouldn't think it was her complaining, which was not what she needed. Not when he had offered her an olive branch only just this morning.
Elizabeth was quick to leave the ER, the excuse of surgery on her lips as she fled to the elevator. Her Choledochojejunostomy was waiting for her, as was Robert.
The scrub room was full when she arrived, with Anspaugh and Romano in conversation about the surgery. It had been rescheduled once already because of a resident from the ER. Maggie Doyle. Elizabeth knew Maggie must have been the one to make the complaint with the snide remarks Robert was making about allowing the patient a cheeseburger before the surgery. Robert moved on quickly, back to the topic of their exciting surgery. It was sure to be a lengthy procedure.
It had been a long day, and Elizabeth was almost done. As enjoyable as it was to be back in an OR, she wished her conversation with Weaver hadn't been dominating her thoughts. Thankfully no one seemed to notice. Now it was just one last page to the ER, and she was free. Luck would have it; Maggie Doyle was the one who paged her.
A patient with slash marks to the abdomen and in need of an abdominal exam and sutures. While examining the patient, Doyle brought up the elephant in the room. Romano. She had been having issues with him.
"Kerry spoke to me this morning without actually saying it was you. I uh, don't think I can be of any help." They continued the exam with the ultrasound. Elizabeth was trying to avoid Doyle's eyes; she wanted nothing to do with the complaint.
"You know I was hoping that Romano would cool it if I confronted him, but then he threatened to blast me on my evaluation." Elizabeth was shocked. Robert Romano loved to push buttons but never before had she seen him not back down when someone grew a spine and stood up for themselves. It was why he often pushed people in the first place.
"Dr. Romano can be volatile." Elizabeth was trying to keep her comments at the minimum, not wanting to give Doyle an inch fearing she would take a mile.
"You mean a mean-spirited little power monger." Doyle got her laughing with that one. Robert could very easily be those things, intentionally too.
The patient chose this moment to try and break free from their grasp. And thankfully, he broke the tension in the air.
"Look Um, Romano, he likes to push things to the limit; it's his way of testing people." Elizabeth could tell that Doyle wasn't buying the party line. She was out for blood.
"Guess he thought anything goes with the gay chick."
"Well, I just hope you're not, ah, going out on a limb, he's a star." Elizabeth was ready for this conversation to be over.
"Self-respect is a bitch."
Another dig at Elizabeth. Perhaps she should have worn the tartan today to scare off the nosy Americans. Self-respect is a bitch, indeed. Elizabeth had been thinking a lot about her self-respect recently and just how tangled it was with her pride. It had been cathartic laying herself bare to Andrew, to have her faults and weaknesses brought to light. She had a much better understanding of where exactly was her self-respect started and where her pride ended.
Elizabeth knew what she needed to do.
"Kerry, Kerry, do you have a moment." Elizabeth was chasing Weaver down.
"Uh Mark needed to talk to me, are you on your way out?" Weaver looked impatient, something more important pressing on her.
"How about I buy you breakfast tomorrow?" That got her attention.
"That sounds like more than a minute."
"Well, I've been thinking about your inquiry, and I may have some things to add."
