Chapter 12

AN: Edit to update a grammatical typo that a kind review brought up. I am very dyslexic and much appreciated this.

AN: Thank you again for the reviews. Also, it was commented that I committed a grievous sin and forgot about Second Breakfast. One of my favorite inside jokes in the LotR movies is when Pippin asks about Second Breakfast and Merry tells him he doesn't think Aragorn knows about Second Breakfast. Its a Hobbit meal added for the movies and was never in the books. Season 5 of ER aired before Fellowship of the Ring came out so I left it out. I fully believe in Second Breakfast though.

Whispers and sly looks had been following her for a few days now. At first, Elizabeth thought it was out of pity for not getting the Trauma Fellowship, the most logical cause for gossip, and she had been avoiding the ER. Elizabeth knew she couldn't ignore the looks forever, though, and determined to find out if there was more to the gossip than she thought.

A well-placed bribe of Godiva got Elizabeth access to hear the Gospel of the Gossip known as Shirley. The topic making its way through the gossip mill was where she disappeared to the night of the Fellowship vote. Mark Greene had gone up to surgery to look for Elizabeth at the end of the shift and asked after her, claiming they had made plans. When they told Mark that Elizabeth had already left, he went back down to the ER to look for her and enlisted Carol Hathaway's help. Still no Elizabeth. And now that Elizabeth was avoiding the ER, Mark Greene was starting to complain that it was Romano's fault. According to Shirley, there were several things that Dr. Greene just couldn't understand. The list included: how Romano could fire Elizabeth so unceremoniously, make her professional life hell, vote against her for the Fellowship, prevent her from being on call to the ER this week, and yet somehow manage to be friends with Elizabeth after all of that. Shirley was grinning like a Cheshire Cat and placed particular emphasis on the friends part.

"American men really are thick," Elizabeth said while making a frantic show of rolling her eyes. "I made a New Year's resolution to butt heads with my colleagues less knowing full well that I haven't exactly endeared myself to all of them."

"They do like to call you Queen Elizabeth behind your back." The amusement was evident in Shirley's voice. "But New Year's resolutions doesn't explain why Dr. Greene thinks you're friends with Dr. Romano."

Elizabeth was not liking the Gospel, according to Shirley, at the moment. Her sacrifice at the altar of gossip was clearly not enough to keep the conversation going in the direction that she wanted, and Shirley knew it.

"I'll make a deal with you, Dr. Corday." The conversation was quickly transforming from listening to the Gospel of the Gossip known as Shirley to making a deal with the devil. "I won't let it slip to my counterparts in the ER that you've been the one setting the surgery schedule for weeks if you tell me why Dr. Greene thinks you and Dr. Romano are friends."

Deal with the Devil indeed. Shirley knew far more than she had let on, and it made Elizabeth uneasy. She had been under the impression that Anspaugh hadn't told anyone about Elizabeth handing the departed admin.

"It was after a Trauma conference I was supposed to be speaking at. Long story short, I missed it due to circumstances out of my control, and by the time I arrived, it was over. I was with Dr. Greene and decided that the hotel bar was an excellent solution to a horrible afternoon. It turns out Dr. Romano went to the conference and was drinking at the bar after. I saw him there, hugged him, and then promptly stole his glass of scotch while he was distracted. An emergency calls for alcohol. He wanted to know why I hadn't been at the conference and bought more scotch to get the story out of me. Dr. Greene was there and witnessed the age-old tradition of people bonding over a good dram while taking about their horrible day." Elizabeth tried her best to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible. It was the truth, but Elizabeth hoped that Shirley wouldn't read between the lines to realize that it wasn't the whole truth.

"So, this wasn't a meeting of the Bullet-Headed Committee then?" Shirley had the upper hand and knew it. Elizabeth felt as if she had gone to the crossroads at midnight by mistake. Shirley knew there was more to Elizabeth's story and was taking great delight in the look of dread that had settled onto Elizabeth's face.

"Shirley, I don't-"

"Save it, Dr. Corday," Shirley interrupted. "I know you set the schedule for Surgery these days, and that includes the nurses' schedules as well, so I'm not here to ask questions that could get me on the graveyard shift. But perhaps instead of avoiding the ER, you should make it known to Dr. Greene that his advances are unwelcome." Shirley had officially made it on Elizabeth's list of people to keep happy at all costs. Far too much dangerous knowledge in one person, whom at least for now was promising to keep quiet.

It dawned on Elizabeth that Shirley's dangerous knowledge was a double-edged sword. If careful, she could take the gossip Shirley had about her and wield it in her favor. A treacherous smile appeared on Elizabeth's face, and it was now Shirley's turn to be nervous.

The ER was alright with the sound of his name. Unfortunately, not in any way that Robert liked. His phone code system was not going over well with the masses, and there were whispers of gossip as well, something about how he was actively sabotaging Lizzy's career. And they wondered why they got a phone code system installed in the first place. Technically it was his way of taking out his anger towards Greene, but the gossip about him took away any regret that Robert had for installing the system.

To his delight, Elizabeth had been giving serious consideration to Cardiothoracic, and Robert had managed to pull her into some of the surgeries that week. Not that she needed an introduction to the specialty, but to give the other surgeons a chance to see her shine. That and forget that Robert had pushed Peter Benton as a candidate in the first place. Benton, who had joined them in the OR and irritated Robert enough to bring up the Cardiothoracic Fellowship with Elizabeth, who was now very much not pleased with him.

Elizabeth and Anspaugh seemed to be on the same page today and tag-teamed him in the scrub room. Elizabeth, over her issue with him bringing up the Fellowship in front of Peter and Anspaugh over the phone code system. Robert got to experience a form of the Anspaugh Ambush firsthand with that one. He didn't like it, especially since his girlfriend was smirking at him like a cat who caught the canary. Boo Lizzy. Two could play at the petulant children game. Thankfully his day was almost over, and that meant dinner and drinks with Max and his girlfriend. The first official double date and Robert just hoped that Elizabeth would be done acting superior by then.

Robert was making his final rounds of the day through the ER and noticed something was...off. The staff, at least the nurses, were looking at him with something similar to respect. Maybe the code system had been fixed quicker than he hoped, and they were just grateful. They were looking at Elizabeth as well, who was downstairs for a "surprise" congratulations for Carol Hathaway, whom he had discovered was pregnant. Elizabeth had known for a while and hadn't mentioned it claiming it wasn't her place to talk about it. Robert could easily respect that while still being grumpy about being out of the loop.

What was Robert was surprised to find in the ER was an ever so slight hostility from the nursing staff towards Mark Greene. There was nothing obvious, no outright glaring or rude remarks, but a hint of curtness in their interactions with Greene that stood out. Just enough that Greene could tell something was off and be confused about. An interesting tidbit for Robert to file away for another time.

"Hey, are you ready?" Lizzy had managed to sneak up behind him as he was sorting through the last of his paperwork.

"That depends on if you're still grumpy with me." He gave her his best pouty voice while refusing to look at her.

"I won't be grumpy with you if you're ready to leave." Her voice was teasing, more so than if the majority of the staff were in the ER rather than outside talking to Carol Hathaway.

Robert turned to face Elizabeth and momentarily forgot how to put a sentence together. She was dressed for dinner, something on the more formal side to celebrate Max winning another case, and she was stunning. A long black dress hugged every part of her, and Elizabeth had worn her hair down as he had asked. Her coat was draped over her arm, and her red lips turned upwards in a smug smile. Elizabeth knew very clearly that Robert was momentarily speechless.

"Uh. Wow. Um. You. You look, you look beautiful."

"Thank you." Elizabeth had taken Robert's temporary loss of speech to take a good look at him. "You look very handsome yourself." And he was. Elizabeth often felt as if she wanted to kiss Robert's tailor, whomever he was; he did an impeccable job. Elizabeth often caught herself openly starting at Robert's ass in his finely tailored trousers when she hoped no one was looking.

Tonight was no exemption. A well-fitted navy dinner jack with black satin lapels adorned Robert with matching blue trousers. Elizabeth couldn't help but lick her lips ever so slightly at the sight of him. It was his turn to smirk at her actions.

"We should get going. Don't want to be late to meet your friends." She said, trying to act if she hadn't been caught staring.

Robert and Elizabeth snuck out of the ER and exited the hospital just as the staff returned from the ambulance bay. Another close call that Elizabeth knew to be pushing their luck. Sooner or later, the truth would come out, and Elizabeth just hoped to have as much privacy as possible until that moment.

Dinner with Max and his girlfriend Jo was an enjoyable affair. With very few female friends, Elizabeth had been thrilled to meet any woman she didn't work with. Jo was a historic preservationist with a specialty in architecture and worked in the office of a successful Chicago Architect. An intelligent woman with a sharp sense of humor, Jo and Elizabeth hit it off instantly to the point where they ignored the men entirely for the first round of drinks.

"Rob, I'm regretting introducing those two. I win a big case, and my girlfriend isn't even paying attention to me." Max said the last part loudly enough for Elizabeth and Jo to take notice.

"Max, my dear, we've been living and breathing this case for months now. I'd like to celebrate the fact that it's over by talking about something that's not law-related." Jo rolled her eyes at law-related, hoping to drive home her exasperation.

"Fair enough," Max responded good-naturedly now that he had everyone's attention. "How about something we all can talk about then?"

"Sure." Jo turned away from Max to face Robert. "Rob, what's it like to work with your girlfriend? Please tell me the two of you manage conversations that revolve around topics other than surgery?"

"Well, thankfully, Elizabeth doesn't wear anything like her current attire, or no one would think I was intelligent enough to pass mead school, let alone college." Elizabeth blushed at his words and took a sip of her wine to hide it.

"Elizabeth, please tell me he isn't this" Max paused as he searched for the right word, "sappy at work?"

"No," she said, laughing, "light sarcasm is his baseline, and if you can't keep up, best keep out of his way."

"Speaking of work, Lizzy, did you notice any weird vibe in the ER today?"

"Ah. That." A guilty look adorned her face at Robert's question. Shirley worked much more quickly than she had anticipated, and the newest gossip had spread like wildfire.

"That sounds intriguing. Workplace gossip?" Jo leaned in, wanting to know more about the daily drama of working in a hospital.

"We're going to need more drinks for this." Elizabeth's wine glass was empty, and this was not a story to be told sober.

At Elizabeth's suggestion, Max caught the attention of the waiter and ordered a bottle of Caymus for the table. Their food and wine arrived soon after, and as they ate, Elizabeth filled them in on what gossip their favorite OR Nurse had been spreading on Elizabeth's behalf.

"So let me get this straight, you told the biggest gossip you work with that you've been avoiding working in the ER because Dr. Greene has been hitting on you, and took it a step too far when he told you he voted for you in a fellowship because he was biased and 'was looking forward to working with you'?" Max had stopped eating and had been staring opened mouth at Elizabeth as she told her tale.

"Yes."

"And then, to throw suspicion off of your new relationship with Rob, you told the Gossip known as Shirley, that you were so upset you spilled it all to Rob when he ran into you after the vote and asked how you were doing. And that he took you for a very well deserved drink when you told him." More disbelief from Max, who was now shaking his head.

"Yes." Elizabeth looked to Robert as she answered Max and could see he was still angry with Mark Greene. Robert was leaned back in his chair, sipping on his wine, and wore a stony expression on his face. Elizabeth reached out and took his free hand, caressing it with her, and he rewarded her efforts with a smile.

"Lizzy, I'm still confused about why the ER staff was treating me all nice and respectful though after I installed the phone system."

"That's just it, Robert, it's because of the phone code system that they were acting that way. I told Shirley that you wanted to get back at Greene and when I shot down reporting him or you hitting him, you decided to be a little more...shall we say underhanded."

Robert just stared at her. "Lizzy. That's exactly why I put in that stupid phone system."

"Oh, I know." She took a sip of her wine. "And now Shirley knows. And she let it slip to the ER nurses who they really had to blame, and more importantly, why they should blame him. We're they peeved at suffering for Greene's attempts at hitting on me? Absolutely. Did they understand why something had to be done against him? Oh yes. And apparently, they offered to ah, take over for you. They didn't take kindly to finding out that Mark Greene would use a fellowship vote to get me to go out with him."

"Elizabeth, out of curiosity, have you always caused this much trouble, or is this a newly acquired habit? I'm trying to determine what level of friendship we'll have." Jo was looking at her with interest, intrigued by the prospect of a new friend.

"Oh Jo, I've always been this much trouble."

"Cheers to that." As Jo and Elizabeth raised their glasses to each other, Max and Robert shared a look of concern. They pitied the poor unsuspecting people that would come across the two women together.

"Are the two of you sure you work in a hospital and not tabloid, Rob? I feel like you deal with more drama than surgery there." Max looked at Robert as he spoke, shaking his as he thought of all the workplace drama stories he had heard since Robert returned from London.

"Honestly, I feel like it's gotten worse since I've become acting Chief of the ER. It seemed like a good idea at the time, just the right kind of ass-kissing when Anspaugh was overworked and in a bad mood."

"Just keep it up, Robert, I think he's going to step down from admin soon, and you'll be in the perfect position to pick up Chief of Surgery at the very least." Robert looked over at Elizabeth in surprise at her words.

At this point, dinner had been cleared away, and a round of sambuca had been brought out for the table. Elizabeth explained how Anspaugh had been passing off more and more of his Chief of Surgery duties to her, to the point where she was essentially doing half of the workload. The more she took on, the more talkative Anspaugh became about how he was using his newly found free time and how much his daughter loved having him home. It had gotten to the point where Anspaugh had let it slip that his daughter Evette had asked if he really needed to be Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff.

Elizabeth frequently found herself talking to Anspaugh more about being the child of an ambitious surgeon than actual surgery, and that Anspaugh greatly admired her father for refusing to take on promotions while Elizabeth was still young. She felt confident that Anspaugh wouldn't be able to make it through the summer without stepping down from at least one position to have more time with Evette.

"Robert, you're the most likely candidate to take over the department whenever that happens, and Anspaugh has as a whole been pleased with how you've run the ER." Elizabeth finished.

"So to recap the evening, I won a significant case, Elizabeth used the gossip mill at work for good instead of evil, Elizabeth you'll have your long-overdue medical license soon, and Robert is being secretly evaluated for an end of summer promotion."

"You've left out that I've found a new partner in crime." Jo added.

"Yeah, well, we were hoping you ladies would forget about that. I'm not sure if Chicago is going to survive the two of you becoming friends." The over the top sarcasm in Robert's voice made the table laugh.

After dinner, drinks continued on for some time, the conversations strayed away from workplace dramas and turned towards summer plans. Promises of trips to the beach and weekend get-togethers were made, and Jo had even convinced Elizabeth to join her for weekend Pilates classes.

At the end of the night, Robert and Elizabeth found themselves walking along the Chicago Riverwalk, the evening having been to lovely to call it a night.

"So, where exactly are we walking to?" Elizabeth had her hand in Robert's, strolling along the river aimlessly.

"Where ever you want, Lizzy, I'm happy to let you lead the way." She stopped at his words, and Robert was observing her. He thought she was asking more than just about their walk on the river.

"And...and if I'm still not ready for more than this?" Elizabeth looked nervous, and her grip on his hand tightened. While Robert had hoped that after a few weeks of dating, Elizabeth might be ready for more to their relationship, he wasn't willing to jeopardize how far they had come.

"I'm happy to let you lead Elizabeth." He stepped closer and wrapped an arm around her waist and brought his free hand up to caress her cheek. To his delight, she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. When Elizabeth finally opened her eyes, there was nothing but adoration in them.

"You mean a great deal to me, Robert, and I don't want to make the same mistakes I've always made of rushing in headfirst." Elizabeth leaned in, resting her forehead against his and ever so quietly said, "I want this to be something that lasts far beyond how dishy you look tonight, something that...is defining in my life. You mean so much to me, I can't afford to screw this up."

"Elizabeth," Robert was so overcome he could barely speak. "We are absolutely in agreement on what this means. You've had me for quite some time now, and I will happily wait for you, as long as it takes."

"Well then, I promise no to take too long."

They strolled the river until the wee hours of the morning, hand in hand the entire time.