Chapter 10 – Getting to Know You

With Christmas over, it was back to work as usual. This included Romano's glimpse of humanity retreating back into the dark hole from which it had made a brief, but heartfelt appearance.

He and Weaver seemed to be butting heads on everything, from staffing to budgets to you name it and everyone thought it best to keep a low profile to avoid being the recipient of his ill temper.

Grace hadn't seen him for days. She thought he was deliberately avoiding her, either because of the post-op waiting period, or because she had reminded him about Elizabeth. She decided to back off and give him some space and figured when he was ready to talk he would, or not. You never really knew with Romano. She decided against booking her follow up appointment with him, and asked Carter to do it while they were on a shift.

"Romano should be doing this, Grace."

"Please, John? I don't want to go up there. Everyone knows he's been in a foul mood this week."

"And how is that different from any other?"

"Come on, Carter. I'm know everything's healing fine, but I'd like you to take a quick look. I trust you."

"Okay fine, but don't let Romano know. I don't need to go looking for ways to piss him off."

The pair were just coming out of an exam room as Romano walked by. They both had a guilty look on their faces as they walked away in separate directions. Romano pulled Grace aside after Carter walked away.

"You want to tell me what that was all about?"

"Not really."

"Consultation about a patient?"

"No. Never mind, it was nothing. So, you must have been busy this week? I haven't seen you around."

"We've been inundated with surgical patients. You'd never know it was Christmas with all the stabbings and GSWs, and I'm still up to my ass in charts.

"Well at least it's not a very tall pile." She joked.

"Enough to keep a nurse busy for a week." He countered.

"Well, just think. In a few days you'll have a fresh batch of young, over anxious students who'll be more than happy to do your bidding." She said.

"Actually, Weaver has a new intern who seems desperate to help with research."

"Poor bastard. I'm sure you'll find a way to keep him occupied. God knows it was the most exciting night of my life, up in your office, compiling surgical data." She said embellishing. "By the way, you have cookies in your desk that expired over a year ago."

"You went through my things? That's an invasion of privacy, Grace."

"Hey, you left me up there all night and I got bored. Don't worry, I didn't touch your rocket and besides, there wasn't anything very exciting in your desk."

"So you didn't find the blindfold and handcuffs?"

"Well if you'd stayed to help me with the charts, maybe we could've had some fun with those."

"If I'd stayed, you would have slapped me."

"I almost did anyway. Oh, and by the way. The condoms in the middle drawer expired two years ago." As soon as she said it, she regretted it, seeing the look on his face. "I'm sorry. I couldn't resist." She looked at her watch, "Well, my break's over. I'd better go."

"So you were on a break? With Carter, in the exam room?"

"Let it go, Robert. Carter's just a friend. It's nothing salacious I can assure you, but if you must know, I asked him to do my post-surgical follow-up."

"You were supposed to book that with me."

"Well, like you said, you've been busy. Besides, everything's fine, it's no big deal. Look, you've been unavailable for days, ever since I mentioned Elizabeth…"

He turned away.

"See? Exactly. It's okay for you to question me about Luka or Carter, or my ex."

Susan yelled from down the hall, "Dr. Romano, Grace, we need you. There's a trauma coming in, two minutes out. Multiple GSWs."

"I'll be right there, Susan. Look if you're expecting anything to happen between us, you can't just shut down whenever you it suits you." He looked at her but remained silent. "Or, on second thought, do whatever you want. You usually do anyway. Talk to me, don't talk to me. I don't need this to be so complicated that I need a crystal ball to figure out what mood you're in from moment to moment."

The paramedics brought in multiple GSW victims involving a young woman and her six year old daughter. From what the paramedics had told them, the father had tried to pull off a double murder suicide, except his neighbor had intercepted before he could finish the job. The staff raced to stabilize the mother and daughter, and both were rushed up to the OR.

A couple of hours later, Grace went upstairs to check on their status. It was tearing her up inside to think of the little girl, the same age as her niece, fighting for her life at the hands of her own father.

She was standing over the little girl, watching her in recovery after checking with the nurse on duty about her status. Suddenly overcome with emotion, Grace began to weep and she had to sit down to try to compose herself. After a few minutes, she felt hands around her shoulders.

"Hey. What's all this? She's going to be fine. The bullet missed her heart completely and there was very little damage. She was lucky." Romano whispered.

"Lucky? Her father just tried to murder her and her mother!" Grace said angrily.

"You know what I mean, Grace. Where is all this coming from?" He said softly, as he sat down beside her.

"My niece is six. It just makes me so angry to see something like this happen to an innocent child."

"And our job is to treat them as best we can. We did a good thing here, we saved them both."

"Doesn't it make you wonder? I mean, what's it all for if little girls can be shot by their parents or get leukemia or…"

"Or a brain tumor." He said.

"What?"

"A brain tumor. That's what killed Mark Greene. He was one of our best ER physicians and, now he's gone."

"I've heard some of the staff talk about him. I'm so sorry I never got the chance to meet him."

"He was 38. With a teenage daughter, a baby daughter, and a wife. Elizabeth was his wife." Now it was Grace's turn to be quiet and just listen. "She loved him, so much, but it didn't matter, because he just died anyway. He walked the halls here for years, doing his job, helping people, never knowing he was slowly dying. And with all the wonders of modern medicine, there was nothing they could do for him in the end."

"How devastating. I can't imagine how she found the strength to go on after that."

"Ella, their daughter. She was the light Lizzie needed to keep her going, day after day. But they moved back to England. It was too hard for her to work here, and live here. Too many memories."

Grace took hold of his hands. "Robert, I'm so, so sorry."

"Grace, Lizzie and I were never really anything, by her choice. Not that I didn't try, but she never returned my feelings."

"But you were in love with her?"

He nodded.

"Just because you weren't intimate doesn't mean it hurts any less to have your heart broken."

He turned and kissed Grace, softly on the lips. "I don't think about her anymore, Grace. I've moved on, I had to."

"I have too. Well, I'm trying, although sometimes it's harder than I thought. When you trust someone, so implicitly, with everything down to the very depths of your soul and they betray you, it's hard to take that chance again."

They stood up and Grace stroked the little girl's hand. As they walked out into the hallway, Romano asked, "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

"I know it's been a crazy week around here, but I've been meaning to ask you…"

"Yes?"

"There's a New Year's Eve benefit for the hospital tomorrow night. Are you interested in going?"

"Free drinks?"

"Of course."

"Then I guess you've got yourself a date."

"I'll pick you up after work. You off at 7?"

Grace nodded. "Yeah, but I'll have to go home and change first."

"Fine, I'll pick you up at 8, Gracie."