Chapter 8

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

Karen Beecher - ER Nurse/Victor's Fiancé

Tara Markov - ER Nurse

Rachael Roth - ER doctor

Gar Logan - ER Nurse

Wally West - Paramedic

Katrina "Kitten" Moth - Registration Clerk

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Dick's shoulders slumped. The spell had been broken. In the parking lot of Denny's Kori was gone and Kitten was there.

Even if the universe had not been as kind as it could have been, he had at least connected with Kori and had gotten her phone number. No, things hadn't gone smoothly, especially by Dick Grayson's standards. First, there was Gar asking Kori to Denny's. This ended up being a preemptive strike, not allowing Dick to ask her out to do for something more private after their shift was over. Then there was the attack of the socialites, women trying to gain Dick's attention under the guise needing his help, knowing his dedication to fund raising and philanthropy.

Now this. Dick slipped his sunglasses on.

"Kitten" he hissed.

She had been so horrible to Kori the day before and the last thing he wanted was to talk to her. Was Kori even out of the parking lot? Could she have seen Kitten coming up to Dick?

Dick didn't look up to find out, nor did he turn around to look at Kitten. Maybe this was all a sleep deprivation-induced hallucination.

"Dickie-poo I just knew you wanted to have breakfast with me! You're here in the parking lot waiting for me!" Kitten said loudly enough to be heard in Delaware as she walked around Dick getting into his face.

"No Kitten, I'm not here to have breakfast with you. Its Saturday morning, I am here having breakfast with my friends after the night shift, like I always do."

"What, no kiss this morning?"

"No. No interest."

"Really, not too long ago, you seemed plenty interested."

Dick shuddered, feeling his skin starting to crawl. "Look Kitten, I'm not interested anymore. We've gone over this."

Kitten leaned in, "I've always been able to change your mind before," she placed her hands flat on his chest and started sliding them up toward his neck.

Dick grabbed her wrists. He had to consciously try not to hurt her. He would never hurt a woman, but he was angry and frustrated, with the situation and even more so with himself.

"No Kitten."

He held onto her wrists longer than he should have as the brief fear that had crossed her face was replaced with lust and a disturbing grin, "Oh, Dick, feel free to restrain me anytime."

Dick dropped her wrists like they were on fire. "Kitten, enough. Just go."

Dick turned to go back inside. He really had not wanted an altercation and this was getting out of hand.

Kitten stood there, stunned. She balled her hands into fists. "This isn't over Dickie-poo, you hear me, this isn't over!"

Dick continued to walk toward the front door of the restaurant, and Kitten finally turned back and marched toward her car.

Unfortunately for Dick, everything from the sweet exchange with Kori and then to the blow up with Kitten had occurred directly in front of Denny's front plate glass windows.

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Kori entered her car. She was excited and thrilled and a little scared. She had just met Dick and here she was giving him her phone number! Sure he was gorgeous and bright and had been very nice to her, but it was not her style. However, Kori was also almost 30 and Galfore was getting restless about her being single. She enjoyed her independence but she was lonely.

When Kori did date - which was not often due to her busy schedule at times and her (and Galfore's) high standards - she would bring her own car. She needed the control, she needed an escape root, and she was just plain cautious.

She was very fit and strong and kept her wits about her, but bad things happen sometimes to women, and she was not going to allow herself to get in the position to get hurt again, physically or emotionally.

But she felt she could trust to Dick. Maybe because she knew that Tara thought he was a great guy, even though she had only known Tara for a day as well. Maybe because he had spent time in her homeland of Tamaran. Dick had spent some time there, he knew the language, and she hoped would respect her and her culture.

She pondered all this sitting in the front seat of her car without really focusing on anything. She placed the key in the ignition and turned over the Mercedes' engine and adjusted the stereo's volume. She then leaned forward, checking how she looked in the rear view mirror, giving herself a happy smile.

Finally she looked and focused forward, taking off the parking brake and placing the car in drive. Just then she saw Dick and Kitten across the parking lot, Kitten's hands splayed across Dick's chest.

Kori froze for one second and then peeled out of the parking lot, heading south toward the embassy.

She was a mix of emotions. She was jealous, she was angry, she was confused, she was embarrassed, she was disappointed, and she was even a bit love sick.

Dick had said he and Kitten were not an item any longer and she saw him push Kitten away the evening before. He also told her Kitten was persistent.

For the drive home she worked hard on concentrating on the Saturday morning traffic. She tried to push Dick out of her mind and couldn't.

By the time she made it to Massachusetts Avenue, she had concluded that she would hear Dick's side of things. She wanted to give Dick a chance. Not being the queen of self-esteem, and to protect her own feelings, she rationalized that maybe he had just wanted to be friends.

She resigned herself to wait and find out when Dick called her, that is, when he called, if he called.

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