Disclaimer: I don't own ER or any of the characters

This is my first ER story, it will probably be 3 or 4 chapters. Thank you for reading!

County Hospital - October 1999

Mark was sitting in the lounge, questioning all his life decisions up until that point. "Last time I listen to Kerry" he thought. She had asked him to present a paper on a recent complicated case, and on top of that, she mentioned that it was due in a couple days. Before he realized, he found himself under a mountain of paperwork and charts he had to review. That was really the last thing he needed.

These last few weeks had been awful. Too much work, stress, Rachel didn't show much interest on spending time with him anymore and his relationship with Elizabeth had officially ended. He really thought she would be the one. After the whole thing with Susan, all of his relationships had been meaningless and weird. With Elizabeth he thought he could actually build something, however, after a few months and a good summer together, things had just…fallen apart. The worst thing about it was that he couldn't pin point exactly what had happened. There was no big fight, nobody cheated, nobody was mean, it all just didn't work out. By the time he decided to talk to her about what was going on between them, or rather wasn't, she had already made up her mind. And that was it. She broke up with him, he didn't fight it and surprisingly to himself, he felt nothing. He wasn't happy or sad, he just accepted it and moved on. They just weren't feeling what you're supposed to feel anymore. More than the break up itself, he was sad that it hadn't moved him at all. He was scared he felt nothing. "Maybe I'm just destined to be alone. What kind of guy breaks up with his girlfriend of months and doesn't feel anything the next day?" he thought. "I must be losing it".

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't heard Carol come in.

"Mark?"

"Huh" he said, lifting his head to look at the pregnant woman standing in front of him.

"Are you okay?" She asked "You seemed a little lost "

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Just tired I think. I just want to get this over with" he said, with a hand rubbing his eyes. "Last time I let Kerry give me a paper to do on such short notice".

"Sorry" she said. "But she was looking for you actually".

"Oh great, probably to add something on top of this" he said getting up.

"I think she's at the admins desk"

"Thanks"

Mark walked out of the lounge and went to the admins desk where Kerry was working on some charts.

"Mark"

Mark lifted his head in Kerry's direction and waited for what she was going to say.

"I've been looking for you" she said, putting away some charts and approaching him so they were face to face. "I need to ask you something".

"Kerry, I'm barely finishing the paper you asked me to write, I…"

"I know I know, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about" she said cutting him off.

He gave her a confused look and let her continue.

"Anspaugh and I were talking about the most recent papers and cases we could present to this conference and…"

"No, no" Mark said, starting to shake his head. "I'm not going to a conference".

"It's one of the most interesting cases we had in a while and honestly, it would be a good opportunity to teach other people about it. This could even lead to an interesting investigation"

"Then why can't you present it?

"Because you happened to be the doctor on this" she said, starting to get annoyed. "And it's best if people hear it from the one who actually treated the patient"

Mark took a deep breath, still not convinced.

"Listen, it will be good for the hospital. ER cases aren't always talked about, that's why we are always asking for money, people don't care. And when a case like this appears, it deserves to be presented"

Mark sighed. He looked away for a moment and then back at Kerry. "When is the conference?"

"This weekend" she said, beginning to move towards the door.

"What? As in two days?" He said surprised, following her. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"It was all last minute, you travel thursday night, I'll send you an email with all the information, thank you" she said exiting the hospital.

Mark just stood there and took a deep breath. He then looked at Carol who had been standing there the whole time looking at him with pity.

"Sorry"

Friday morning – Denver, Colorado

At 9.00 in the morning Mark went down to the lobby of the hotel to look for the event room where the first conference would be held. All of the conferences and seminars would be at the hotel, so most of the doctors would be staying there.

"God, I hate this so much" he thought while walking. "Two and a half days filled with arrogant doctors and fake smiles, I can't take it anymore and it hasnt even started". As Mark went on to check a big poster panel by the main desk, he spotted a familiar face. Mark tried to look again, but someone was blocking him. Mark blinked and shook his head and as he was about to turn around the person who was blocking him moved away. It was at that moment that he saw her.

She was talking to the receptionist. He couldn't believe it, it was her. It was really her. She looked around briefly and suddenly saw him and smiled.

"Susan?"

She said something to the receptionist and then went straight to Mark, smiling.

"Oh my god! Mark!" she exclaimed happily, lifting both arms to hug him.

The hugged and Mark could swear he could feel life coming back to his body.

"What are you doing here?" she asked surprised after a long hug.

"I'm here for all the conferences, I'm presenting a paper" he said, still smiling at her.

"You're presenting?"

Mark nodded.

"That's great! I'm just here to attend" she said.

At that moment people started entering one of the event rooms on the other side of the reception.

"Well, shall we go?" she said as she touched his arm briefly, motioning him to go with her.

He followed her, still dumbfounded by this whole encounter. He looked at her while they were walking. "God she is so beautiful" he thought "Wait, no, don't go there Mark, it's dangerous territory, keep it together, don't let your old feelings come back".

They sat side by side. She turned to him and smiled.

"I'm so glad you're here" she said.

"Me too" he said smiling, looking at her. "Wanna have lunch later? Catch up?"

"I'd love to" she said, softly grabbing his arm and then letting it go. He felt his heart skip a beat "Yep, I'm screwed" he thought.