Chapter 5

Disclaimer - I do not own the Teen Titans

Italics for emphasis but also mean thoughts

Plot Summary - AU - Dick Grayson, MD falls hard for Kori Anders, RN when she comes to work temporarily at the ER where he is an attending physician. Has the notorious playboy finally met someone he could be happy with? Will Kori want to have anything to do with him?

Richard Grayson - ER doc/playboy

Kori Anders - Nurse practitioner/working temporarily as an ER nurse

Victor Stone - ER doctor/Chief of Emergency Medicine

Karen Beecher - ER Nurse/Victor's Fiancé

Tara Markov - ER Nurse

Rachael Roth - ER doctor

Gar Logan - ER Nurse

Wally West - Paramedic/ER Nurse

Roy Harper - ER Nurse

Katrina "Kitten" Moth - Registration Clerk

Jennifer McAllen - Nursing Student

Xavier Red - Plastic Surgeon

Dick, Wally and Gar were amazing to watch as they worked together in the emergency room. Kori was impressed with the teamwork she saw and when patients arrived, they fell into an easy rhythm much of time not needing to speak to get things done.

After starting off the 11 PM - 7 AM shift with and empty ER, five patients arrived within 45 minutes of each other right after midnight. They had varying complaints from lacerations to an ankle sprain to an chest pain. They were all quickly and efficiently evaluated and treated. With the exception of the gentleman with chest pain who was admitted to ICU, all were dispatched to home by 4:00 AM.

With another lull upon them, Dick had disappeared into the back office and the three nurses worked together to straighten up all the treatment rooms and recheck equipment. When those tasks along with completed paperwork and documentation were complete, Gar told Kori to take a break.

"That would be wonderful Gar, I would like to find the vending machines and get something to snack on. I will just take a few minutes."

"Kori, go ahead and take 30 minutes. You're working a double and if things get hairy, I'll page you. Wally and I can hold down the fort."

"Are you sure its okay?"

"It's fine, trust me. You've been here for over 12 hours. Take your time. I'd hate for you to not want to come back cause you think I'm a slave driver."

"Do not worry, I will not abandon my fellow Musketeers!"

"Good. Do you know where the vending machines are?"

"I saw them on the way to the cafeteria."

"There are those and the ones in the waiting room past registration."

Kori almost shuddered. Even thought Kitten wasn't currently at her post in registration, Kori decided she'd head toward the cafeteria. As an afterthought, she asked Gar, "Is there 24 hour access to the roof? I'd like to see the stars if I could."

Gar checked his watch, it was after 5 AM. "Yup, you can go up to the roof anytime, but its gonna be first light soon if its not already, hope you aren't disappointed."

"Thank you Gar, I will see you shortly. Oh, if you do need me, why don't you call my cell phone. I would hate to disturb the rest of the hospital if I were to be paged overhead at this hour."

"Sure, good idea Kori." Wally said.

Kori grabbed an index card out of her pocket. "Here you go."

Kori had meant to be considerate, she was not one to just hand out her cell phone number. However, having a card with her number on it in her writing was something that Wally decided to use to poke fun at his friend Dick, and Gar took less than a millisecond to know what was about to happen. Between to exchange at the beginning of the shift and the way Dick looked at Kori, it was obvious that Kori and Dick had an attraction to each other. Kori had said she was single, and Dick, well Dick, was looking at her in a way Wally and Gar had not seen before. Sure Dick liked to look at the ladies, but more often than not it was the ladies taking long looks at him. Maybe it was the way he looked, carried himself, interacted with people or even the fact that he was a doctor. Gar and Wally were Dick's friends and tried not to begrudge him that, but it was a bit annoying, although most of the time they just found it amusing.

Gar and Wally, without further word, decided to find Dick and see how he reacted to the 3" x 5" card in Wally's hands. It had to be Wally's hands because Gar was dating Rachael seriously and while Wally had started dating a nursing student Jennifer McAllen, he was a notorious if harmless flirt.

They found Dick in the dark back office, typing into the computer. "Dark enough for you Dick?" Gar asked.

Looking up, Dick saw Gar and Wally. He immediately wondered where Kori was before he realized what it might sound like to his friends he asked the question that gave Gar and Wally an opening. "Hey guys, where's Kori?"

"Oh, on a break." Gar responded. "

"Yeah, she said she wanted to go to the roof for a bit. Why are you so interested Dick, you like her or something?" Wally asked not to subtly with a big smile on his face.

Dick suppressed a smile. The roof. Then, wanting to respond to the "like her or something" question, Dick found himself uncharacteristically tongue-tied. Then he noticed Wally obviously putting whatever was in his hand behind his back.

"What do you have there Wally?"

"Oh, nothing. Just Kori's number in case we need her."

"She gave you her number?" Dick said with either anger or jealousy and apparently missing the 'in case we need her' part.

"Settle down Dick, she gave it to us in case she was needed. She said she didn't want to have to be paged overhead because she didn't want to disturb anyone considering the time." Gar explained.

"She's awfully considerate. And funny. And beautiful..." Wally started'

Gar interrupted, "What do you think of her, Dick?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, she seems okay."

"Okay? Come on Dick, its us. I've seen you tonight Dick, you have it bad. Actually, if you were anyone else, it would be considered having it bad, for you I think we should call the press or something."

Wally added, "Yeah, you think she's way more than okay."

Gar wasn't sure because of the low lights, but he was pretty sure there was some red on Dick's face

"Maybe, whatever. Just go. I've got work here."

Definitely, Dick was blushing. Gar and Wally had retreated back to the nurses station. Within 30 seconds, Dick was signed off the computer and stealthily left the back office, heading toward the stairs to the roof.

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Kori had easily found her way to the vending machines. She was disappointed by the selection and for probably the fifth time since starting work at 3 PM the previous afternoon she wished she had packed something to eat. She chose honey mustard pretzels (the only item with mustard in any of the three stocked snack machines) and spicy Cheetos. She also grabbed a container of cranberry juice. She always enjoyed its sweet yet sour taste.

When Kori arrived onto the roof it was indeed already first light and the stars were fading. She heard birds singing in the distance, heralding the new day. She sat on top of the picnic table rather than the bench, wriggling her bottom to get comfortable facing east. The sun wouldn't arrive within her allotted break time of 30 minutes, but she at least got a chance to enjoy the early morning sky.

Kori thought of the handsome doctor with unbelievable blue eyes who she was fairly certain was attracted to her. She marveled at not only how well he worked with Gar and Wally but how Dick worked with her. He seemed in synch with her, even anticipating questions she might have seeing that she had only been working at Lincoln for a few hours. He also did a lot of teaching as he was making his diagnosis and treatment decisions. Kori agreed with all of diagnoses and medical decision.

She had not mentioned that she was actually an advance practice nurse. The fact that she was a Nurse Practitioner or that she had taught nursing had no effect on her role as a staff nurse in the ER. Getting acquainted with a new city, not sure the next step in her life, she had chosen to work through the nursing agency and was pleased with her assignment. She also knew there were no strings attached, and that if she wanted to or needed to leave for any reason, it was not only easy to do, it was acceptable. Such was the life working through an agency.

Back to the personal level, Kori was fairly certain that on her end there was beyond an attraction that there was a connection with Dick. But what about his past and perhaps current relationship with Kitten? What was that about? And what had Tara meant with all she had said about him. At least Tara liked him.

Kori heard the door open to the roof and turned to see Dick there. She gave a smile and small wave and he gave her a huge smile as he approached.

"Hi, Kori"

"Hi, Dick." She was disappointed he was not speaking Tamaranian this time.

"Look, about before, I'm sorry that Kitten was so rude and mean to you."

"May I ask why you are apologizing for her?"

Dick was taken aback at Kori's question and his smile faded. "I'm not apologizing for her, Kori, I am just sorry anyone said such mean things to you."

"Thank you." She stopped herself short of saying something like I can take care of myself. "I know its none of my business, but are you going out with her?"

"No, Kori, no, no, no. I took her out a few times, she sort of treats me like she has some disturbing form of 'eminent domain'. I can't seem to shake her."

"I doubt she even knows what 'eminent domain' is."

Dick's smile returned and he chuckled. "Good point."

Kori smiled back. Dick wanted to say something else, but just couldn't, he found himself marveling in Kori's beauty in the low light. He started to think about how she would look in his bed and blushed a bit. He found himself scolding his evil mind, he was realizing she was very special and deserved his respect.

Was that lust in his eyes?Kori blushed but did not look away. Kori was relieved that even though for some reason he "took her out", he was not going out with Kitten. She did have a question for him though, and although Tara explained he had been to Tamaran as a child, it would not explain his apparent fluency in the obscure language.

"Dick, how do you know Tamaranian so well?"

"Oh, I don't know how well I know it, but I did speak it quite a bit as a child when I was there."

"May I ask why you were in Tamaran?"

"Well, actually my father is a diplomat and was in Tamaran for a bit . So when I was home from boarding school, for a while home was Tamaran." Dick explained without revealing that his father was not only a diplomat but actually the United State's ambassador to Tamaran for four years.

"Huh. that's very interesting." Kori managed, a bit shocked at the small world-ness considering that her Uncle Galfore was a diplomat. Well inactuality that he was currently the Tamaranian ambassador to the US.

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The pace will pick up soon I promise!

I do know what eminent domain is - it is referred to as "some sort of" in the story!

Ambassador Bruce??? Ambassador Galfore??? Thank you lovely readers and a special thanks to my reviewers!!!