Cordano twist on 'The Crossing, 'Witch Hunt' and 'Survival of the Fittest.'

Chapter - sixteen

Robert strode into the ER still dressed in his keikogi, having high tailed it across town from his karate session. He spotted Carter by the elevator, standing over a loaded gurney, with a paramedic who's name escaped him.

"Yo, Carter is this my page?"

"I don't think so," John said doing a little double-take at his attire. "I think Doctor Anspaugh is taking him."

"Oh? Must be good if Donald's nabbing it. What is it?"

"Post-op amputation," John said proudly.

"Really?!" He lifted the blanket on the patient and cringed at the butchery job he saw. "Oh, for the love of Christ, what did they use, a chain saw?"

"Doctor Benton talked me through..."

"What?!" he spluttered. "You did this?!"

"There was nobody else!"

"Oh, well, if no-one else could do it, by all means, let's get whoever's available!" He looked at the paramedic. "Maybe, you ought to try it next time?"

"Robert, at last! I've been paging you for well over an hour!" Kerry shouted.

He spun around at the sound of her voice and watched her hobbling towards him, and made a sweeping gesture at his clothing. "I can't wear my pager in the dojo, Kerry! Brenda knew where I was...you should have called her or you could have just asked Elizabeth."

"Robert," she said quietly and placed her hand on his forearm taking him by surprise and he looked down at the unusual contact. "I paged you because of Elizabeth. You need to come with me."

Her touch, her tone and her words unsettled him and he felt fear creeping into his voice. "Why? Kerry, where's Elizabeth?"

"She's with Abby in exam three," she said softly.

"On a consult?"

"As a patient."

He knew it before she said it and closed his eyes, suddenly nauseous as fear gripped and froze him to the spot and stripped him of of his voice.

Kerry slid her hand down his arm to his hand and squeezed it. "Robert," she nudged gently. "Come with me."

She pulled on his hand, and without thinking he let her lead him. After a few steps he managed to find his voice, and choked out. "What's wrong with her? Why is Elizabeth a patient?"

"There was an altercation earlier...a fight between two patients and Elizabeth took a tumble. She said she was fine, but then later she started having contractions..."

He was off and running before she could finish.

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He burst into the room, and felt relief flood through him when he saw Elizabeth lying on the bed alert and awake. Then his eyes were drawn to the baby monitor, as Elizabeth attempted to raise herself up.

"Robert," she cried, and he reached for her wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm sorry, I came as soon as I picked up the page." Pulling back he cupped her face in his hands. "Kerry said that you fell and are you're having contractions?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry," she said with tears in her eyes. "I thought it was just backache, but then," she tried to explain but starting sobbing and he pulled her tightly to him again.

He kissed her head and said gently. "No, no, no...don't be. It's going to be okay." He glanced at Abby for the first time since entering the room. "Did you give her Terbutaline?"

"Ten minutes ago."

He nodded. "Fetal heart tones?"

"On fifty-five. No decels."

"Well, that's good," he said more confidently, rubbing his hand up and down her back.

"But they haven't stopped, Robert," Elizabeth cried.

"Not yet, but you have to give it some time to work," he said soothingly.

"Or maybe we should try magnesium?"

"We will if we have to, okay? But, let's just wait and see. I promise you Lizzie, it's going to be okay."

She didn't look convinced and he touched his forehead to hers. "You know us Romano's are not exactly known for our patience. This is juniors way of telling you he's going to take after his old man."

She relaxed a little against him. "I think you mean she."

"Looked like a boy to me," he said and kissed her. "But whatever the bun is, I love you and I love heshe."

She nodded and started crying and he pulled her into his arms again. "It's okay, its okay," he repeated, trying to convince her and himself.

Abby busied herself with readings and tried not to intrude any further on the intimate scene she had no choice but to bear witness to.

Some time later Kerry knocked quietly on the door and slipped into the room, surprised to see Robert sat on the bed with Elizabeth sandwiched between his legs, leaning against him. Her head rested on his shoulder, and his hands lay protectively over her belly. Both of their eyes were closed and he was humming a calming tune she couldn't quite place, his voice soft and melodic. She raised an impressed eyebrow and looked across at Abby who smiled at her as she replaced the handset on the phone.

"How's she doing?"

"Better. No contractions since the third round. Fetal heart rate looks good."

"So its over."

"Aside from lots of bed rest," Robert's voice rang out, his tone taking no prisoners.

"How long do you think?" Elizabeth said, too tired to even pretend to fight him on it.

He smiled and kissed her cheek. "For as long as necessary. How about you do my paperwork this time?"

She smiled and closed her eyes remembering his days of frustration when she would bring him paperwork while he recuperated. "You know, whenever I felt the bun move before, obviously I knew heshe was in there, but suddenly this feels so much more real...you know?"

He hugged her to him even tighter. "Let's not do this again until its actually time."

"Sorry," Abby said. "OB's waiting, and Transpo promises they'll be down soon to take you up."

"Thanks, Abby."

"The monitor stays on for at least twenty-four hours."

"I'll keep it on until I give birth," Elizabeth joked.

"You just have to slow down...and no more breaking up fights," Abby said.

"Right."

"Oh, she'll be slowing down alright," he said.

There was a knock at the door and Chuny stuck her head in. "Doctor Romano, I'm really sorry but they're screaming for you upstairs."

"Why are they screaming for me upstairs?"

"That's what I came in to tell you Robert. We've had more traumas in from from the crash site and surgery is swamped. Donald called down..he said he hates to ask, but could you lend a hand."

Elizabeth could feel his body stiffening and knew he was about to dig his heels in. "It's okay, I'm fine Robert. Go," Elizabeth said.

"I'm not leaving you."

"Yes, you are...you're the Chief of Surgery, and I'm fine now, we both are. I promise. You need to go."

He looked at her torn and she wriggled round reaching up to touch his face. "Abby will stay with me until they get me, right Abby?"

Abby nodded. "And I promise I'll come and get you if anything changes, but honestly Doctor Romano, they're both going to be fine."

Elizabeth nodded at him again. "I need to sleep anyhow. Please sweetie?"

"Okay, but as soon as I'm done, I'll come find you," he said, carefully extracting himself from her.

"I know you will. Now go...save the day. I love you!"

He pulled his sneakers back on, then leaned down and kissed her lips softly, before lowering his head and kissed her growing belly that cocooned his unborn child. "Love you both," he said. He kissed her again and touched her face, struggling with himself once again. Her eyes gave him the strength to turn and he looked to Abby. "You'll stay with her?"

Abby nodded. "I promise."

He dipped his head to her briefly, his eyes saying 'thank you,' and turned to leave. Kerry followed him out.

"Never pictured you as a sweetie," Kerry chuckled.

"Can it, Kerry" he said sprinting back towards the elevator.

She watched him go with a new grudging appreciation of the complex man.

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Robert put his key in the front door and as he let himself in was alarmed by two things. The first thing was the two suitcases he saw sitting at the bottom of the stairs, the second was the shrill laughter coming from the lounge indicating the owner of the cases. He groaned and considered backing out off the house until Gretel betrayed his presence, and he heard Elizabeth call out.

"Robert is that you?"

Painting on a smile he walked into the lounge. "Hi."

"Look, mother's come to stay," she said smiling through gritted teeth, and he tried not laugh.

"Great," he said and Isabelle stood presenting her cheeks to him. "Robert, darling. How are you?" He dutifully gave her a kiss on each before leaning down to kiss Elizabeth, then sat down next to her and took her hand in his.

"I'm good. So is this a flying visit?"

"Good heavens no! I've come to take care of Elizabeth. I was simply terrified when she called about the baby scare. That ER sounds positively lethal...first you get shot there and then Elizabeth gets caught up in the middle of a fight! In fact, you really shouldn't be working at all Elizabeth. Don't you agree Robert?"

He felt two sets of eyes on him. "Err, I think what's important right now is that Lizzie rests and does not get stressed."

"Agreed." She smiled sensing she had an ally and clapped her hands together. "Right, well then. Shall I make tea?"

"Sounds good," he said.

"Oh, Robert, could you be a love and take my cases up for me?" she said as she left for the kitchen.

"She's been force feeding me bloody cups of tea all day! I don't want any more tea, Robert!"

"Okay, okay...calm down. No more tea...I will drink the tea. When did she get here, anyhow?"

"First thing this morning, right after you left."

"Really? Oh well, thanks for the heads up."

"Yeah, right, if I'd done that you'd still be in surgery for the foreseeable future."

His lips formed into a smirk and gave him away.

"Knew it," she said.

He looked back at the door and lowered his voice. "How long is she staying? There's two suitcases….that's bad, right?"

"It's not a good omen. Can you take some more time off work?"

"Not really, and that would kind of defeat the purpose of her being here."

"My point exactly. If you're here, she doesn't need to be."

"I'd love to, but I can't."

"Liar!"

"To be honest, I think I actually feel a lot better knowing that she's going to be here and you're not home alone."

"You bloody turncoat!

"Look, she's here...and she's trying.."

"She's very trying!"

"She's trying to make an effort, and she's here because she cares. It'll be fine." He put on his best British accent. "We're all going to get along famously."

She laughed. "I give you two days before you're begging her to let you take her to the airport. There's no Jess here to distract her now."

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Two weeks later, Isabelle was still there and much to Elizabeth's dismay, Robert was not only hanging in there, he was actually getting along very well with her, united as they were in fussing over her.

After another mind-numbingly boring and particularly tetchy day with her mother, both women were relieved when Gretel announced Robert's return, then hugged his side sniffing the air as he walked into the lounge carrying a basket.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," he said smiling. "I do come bearing gifts though."

Isabelle lowered her book. "Sounds intriguing."

He placed the basket in front of Elizabeth and she leaned forward to peek inside. She smiled seeing it stuffed full of her favourite treats, but also a myriad of items that she'd been craving. Most of them were genuine cravings like the pickled onions in balsamic vinegar she now held in her hands. However, she'd also been having some fun at his expense of late, by sending him out at all hours on impossible missions just for the hell of it. He'd done it all with minimal complaint and not failed a single task. She looked up into his face, touched by the sweetness of the gesture and his thoughtfulness and burst into guilty tears.

He looked confused and turned to Isabelle for help. "What did I do?"

Elizabeth reached up for his hand. "Nothing, its lovely! Sorry...it's my hormones," she managed between sobs and pulled him down to her wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you, it's really very thoughtful of you."

"You're very lucky to have such an attentive husband Elizabeth. Your father was totally useless when I was carrying you," Isabelle said and it set her off crying again.

"Well, I think I shall retire for the night and leave her in your very capable hands, Robert. Goodnight."

"G'night." he said. Once she'd gone he took Elizabeth's face in his hands and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. "Hey you, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry."

"Rough day?"

She switched from crying to laughing and he shook his head in amazement, trying to keep up with her changing emotions.

"Here," he said passing her a handkerchief and gazed lovingly at her wild hair and swollen red eyes as she blew her nose.

"What?" she asked catching him staring.

He smiled. "You really have no idea, do you?"

"Of what?"

"Just how beautiful you look right now."

She started crying again and he laughed. "Okay, so I am going to stop speaking now, but before I do...c'mon, let's go to bed."

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Robert escorted his interviewee to the elevator still pushing the hard sell. "County is hard core blood and guts, but I guarantee you'll rack up more surgical hours here than anywhere in the country."

"I must admit I'm intrigued Doctor Romano. I'll be in touch."

"I look forward to that," he said smoothly shaking her hand.

He turned around to find a very annoyed and unimpressed Elizabeth staring at him.

"Is she another one of my replacements?" she said nudging her head at the closed elevator doors.

"Lizzie! Love and light of my life you could never be replaced. Now, what are you talking about and why are you here?"

"Why is Peter conducting my interviews and doing my paperwork?"

"Because I asked him to while you're off resting. So why aren't you off resting?"

"Because Robert, I am as rested as rested can be. I am bloody well sick of resting...I'm bored and I'm stir-crazy. I took a little time off to recoup some energy, but now I'm fine."

"So why is there a baby monitor strapped to your belly, or are you just pleased to see me?"

"I'm simply doing some monitoring, but I can assure you, I'm ready, willing and more than able to return to work."

They reached the front desk. "Hi Doctor Corday," Shirley said, smiling. "How are doing?"

"I'm very well, thank you. Very happy to be back."

Robert narrowed his eyes at her. "How did you get past your mother?"

"You mean my jailer? She's at home packing. Apparently I'm an ungrateful child and will miss her when I need a cup of tea making."

"Lizzie, go home and rest….please...for me, the little one, and for the love of God!"

"No! I want to work, and you have no right to stop me! Would you like me to reacquaint you with the section of maternity leave in the hospitals policy on sexual harassment and discrimination?"

He signed the file he was holding and handed it over to Shirley. "No, I'd rather do a bowel resection."

Elizabeth slapped her hand down hard on the counter making the pair of them jump briefly and stare at her.

"You know, I read somewhere about a pregnant woman who killed her husband and got off on a temporary-insanity defence because of hormone imbalance!"

Shirley snickered drawing a glare from the pair of them and quickly turned making herself scarce as Elizabeth continued. "Now, I'm here, I'm staying here and I want to work."

He threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, fine you want to work? We're presenting three cases for M and M tomorrow. You can pull the charts from records, track down the x-rays in Radiology and get the slides from Pathology."

"No!" she said shaking her head. "No, I want back in surgery."

"Nah-aha-ah...first things first. Then you can set up the projection microscope and make thirty-five millimetre slides of the gross pathology specimens."

"I know what you're doing, Robert...it won't work."

"Oh, and make sure there's coffee and doughnuts for one hundred. Especially ones with the little sprinkles on top...they're my favourite!" he said smiling. "Or….you can go home and rest!"

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Robert entered the scrub room and shook his head in exasperation as he saw Elizabeth stood at the sink scrubbing.

"Anything else?" Shirley asked.

"Yes, some number-one chromic on a liver needle."

"You got it."

He stepped up to the sink. "Lizzie, why am I hearing you're doing an ex-lap on a GSW?"

"Because I am," she said, steeling herself for a battle.

"And the M and M prep?"

She smiled sweetly. "Is being taken care off by Dale."

He recognised the signs of her digging her heals in. Fine, he thought. If she wants to work, he'd humour her. He walked past her to the adjacent sink and let his hand slide across her back tenderly as he did.

He reached across for a soap and started to scrub, grinning as he caught her watching him, clearly waiting for his next move. He nudged his head at her belly. "Are you sure you can still reach the table?"

She smirked. "At least I can see the table, sweetie."

"Ho-ho-ho!" he laughed. "Well, I was gonna offer to assist after my AV shunt, but not if you're going prenatal on me."

"Actually, if you really want to help, you can have my dinner and slippers waiting for me when I've finished. I'm in the mood for pizza...and ice-cream."

He looked lovingly at her swollen stomach and smirked. "Think you need it?"

Shirley couldn't help herself and giggled drawing an evil look from Elizabeth.

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"Another 4.0 proline," Elizabeth said rolling her head to the side. "Shirley, can you rub my back for me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, just above the waist on the right. It's driving me mad."

Shirley shrugged and obliged. "How's that?"

"Oh, yes. Yeah, that's it."

Robert poked his head into OR4 once he'd finished his surgery. As he'd expected, Elizabeth was still at it. What he didn't expect to see though, was Shirley massaging his wife's lower back.

"Okay. Release the vessel loop. Oh yeah. That's it!"

"I'm sorry, is this the day spa? I was looking for the OR," he said grinning behind his mask as they both whipped their heads round.

"Everything's under control, Robert."

"I hope so, you've been in here long enough," he said stepping up to the table.

"I've repaired the liver, the diaphragm and now the IVC."

"Uh-huh. What about the defect to the ascending colon?"

She looked up at him surprised. "Where?" She asked and started looking further.

"A liiiittle lower. Yeah...right there," he crowed.

She breathed in and silently cursed. "I hadn't fully run the bowel yet."

"Or maybe, this is just too big a case, given your delicate condition?"

"We were doing perfectly well until you came in, thank you!" she snapped, her playful tone gone.

"Elizabeth?" he said, his voice soft conveying his concern. "Are you okay?"

She looked up at him and saw his eyes pleading with hers and softened her voice. "I'm fine."

"Well, you won't mind if I scrub in...wouldn't want you to be late for dinner."

"Perish the thought." She smiled behind her mask and let her eyes say thank you.

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"Okay. Help me immobilize the small intestine," he said.

"Pancreas is fine."

"Uh-ohh. Take a look at this."

"Its a haematoma of the duodenum," she sighed.

"Yeah. The bullet went through the medial aspect of the second portion."

"You're kidding!"

"Have you known me to kid?" He rolled his stiff neck. "Hey Shirley, can I get a neck massage?"

Shirley raised an amused eyebrow at him. "Is that a no? Okay, well then you can open up a pancreaticoduodenectomy tray. He needs a whipple."

"That's a five-hour procedure, Robert!"

"I know. I'll call in Benton," he said gently offering her the out.

"No, you won't. It's my patient, and I'll finish it," she said stubbornly.

"Lizzie, please. There's no need to torture yourself."

"I just need a bathroom break."

"A bathroom break?" he said, mocking her accent.

"Well, I am seven months pregnant!"

"Should have considered that before you started."

She sighed. "I'll be back in five minutes."

"Fine. Shirley, call in another scrub tech. I need an extra pair of hands."

Elizabeth looked up at him annoyed. "Okay, forget it. I won't go!"

"Go!"

"No! I won't! Bovie, pickups," she said holding out her hands for the instruments. "Shirley, can you crawl between my legs and insert a Foley?"

"Oh, for the love of God! Go on, get out. Get out of here!"

She dropped the instruments and left, but was back within five minutes as promised and hours later proudly said, "I'm happy to close."

"Be my guest!"

"Skin stapler," she said. "Couple of ABD's."

Robert tore off his gown and goggles by the door, and they both looked up and smiled into each others eyes above their masks.

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"Jerry, where's my wife?"

"Oh, hey Doctor Romano. Yeah she's on a consult in three."

"Thanks," he threw out over his shoulder, already heading off in search of her. He hadn't got far when she rounded the corner and he nearly bumped into her.

"Hey gorgeous," he said. "You can't possibly be scoping out new patients."

"Not through choice," she sighed tiredly. "Fortunatly not a surgical problem, thank God!"

"How are you feeling?" he asked in all seriousness.

"If I don't get off my feet, my ankles are going to explode," she admitted. "But Robert, just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I can't work!"

"Yeah, trust me Lizzie, I got the message...loud and clear!"

"What have you got there?"

"Haven't got the slippers I'm afraid, but I have brought dinner. I believe you ordered pizza and ice-cream," he said holding the items up in his hands.

She looked at him and wanted to be annoyed, but the idea of pizza and ice-cream, plus the adorable look he was giving her made her cave, and she smiled.

Robert nodded his head at the empty gurney, next to them. "Hop up," he said putting down the boxes and then helped her climb up. She leaned backwards, and he lifted her feet up, propping them up on a blanket. "Oh God, thank you, that's wonderful." She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "I'm so hungry!"

"So then my crazy lady, what do you want first? Pepperoni pizza or cherry garcia ice-cream."

"Ohh, let's go with the ice-cream first! God, that was the most difficult case today, but I got through it, Robert. Admittedly, with your help."

He spooned some ice cream into her mouth and she closed her eyes in delight. "Ohhh, that's good. Have some."

He took a spoon himself and agreed. "Not bad."

"Now that it's over, I'm thinking, why do I have to prove that a pregnant surgeon can be competent?"

"Err, you don't," he said and fed her another spoonful. "And you never did!"

"I can operate until the day I deliver. But what the hell for?"

"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone Lizzie, especially me. You can do anything you want, and let's face it, you normally do."

She giggled and he loaded the spoon with more ice-cream. "You were amazing today. I mean you're pretty much amazing any day of the week, but today? Wow...you are an amazing woman...open wide." He fed her another spoon. "And you are an amazing wife and very soon….you are going to be an amazing mom."

"Thank you, sweetie. Which is why, as of now, I'm officially on maternity leave."

Robert looked up from loading the spoon with more ice-cream, smiling, and actually offered up a silent prayer of thanks. "Really?"

She nodded. "I'm going to rest, I'm going to take care of myself and our baby."

He fed her another spoonful of ice-cream, and followed it in with a kiss. "Good. You have no idea how happy that makes me! So, you take care of the bun and let me take care of you."

She leaned forward for another kiss which he obliged her with. "If you really want to take care of me at this very moment in time, you can give me a foot rub."

He pulled back and made a show of looking around at the busy E.R department.

"I'm not joking Robert, my feet are killing me!"

He rolled his eyes and sighed, but put the spoon in the tub and handed her the ice-cream. "Up," he said, indicating her feet, and he helped her lift them higher as he jumped up onto the gurney. Settling himself opposite her, he sat cross-legged and laid her feet back down in his lap, and removed her shoes and socks. He started on the left foot first, and smiled when she let out a rather large moan of pleasure and watched in wonder, as she tucked into the remainder of her dinner, while he rubbed her tired feet, completely oblivious to the envious looks they were drawing.

"Ohhh, that is sooo good. I'm so tired I could fall asleep right here. I don't think I have the strength to move."

"Well, fortunately, for you Lizzie, I will always have the strength to carry you, wherever you may want to go," he said and lifted her foot and kissed her toes.

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"Ohhh, now would you look at that," Haleh said softly. "I can't even get my man to give me a foot rub, never mind give me one in public."

"Same here," Chuny sighed.

"Hell, have you seen the way he looks at her too? Just once, I'd kill for someone to look at me like that, you know?"

"What kind of a messed up world is it when we're sat round bigging up Romano for being more romantic than our own men?"

"A whacked up one for sure!"

"And am I the only one who thinks he looks juuust a little bit cute right now?"

"No you're not, and not so little, either."

TBC