Part 1

Luka was tired. He wasn't ashamed to admit it. He was on hour ten of a twelve-hour shift and it was one of those days where everyone was angry. Romano, the little toad that he was, had already been wandering around, harping about the budget. Luka didn't like the man, but at least it was a reasonable problem, not some petty issue. Petty was Mark Greene's carping, bitching, and moaning about how late Kerry Weaver was. So the woman was late, Luka mused, it happened to everyone at least. It was winter. It wasn't unrealistic for the woman to have been caught in bad traffic. Granted, Kerry brought a lot of nasty attitude from the staff upon herself with her rather stiff behavior and less than winning personality, but Mark was being a bit unreasonable just the same. Luka knew, and he knew that Mark knew, that if Kerry was late, there was probably a reason.

Mark had a tendency to froth at the mouth anyway. Luka had heard from many, Carol included that Mark was a pretty nice guy but in the two years that he had worked at County, he had yet to see it. Mark always seemed upset about something, and that made Elizabeth Corday upset. Coupled with Kerry's ability to snap over anything, and the all around dour feeling pervading the place, he was starting to dislike the place. Of course, it was hard having Abby there too. He felt terrible about what he had said, although he hadn't apologized. So he was less than comfortable in the work place. Maybe I should look for another job, he thought as he watched Mark take up a spot near the door; this place is starting to get to me.

A patient took his attention for a few moments and by the time he returned to the admit desk, he saw Kerry walk in. Or rather, she had walked through the doors and Mark had corralled her. Mark was in rare form, ranting and actually shaking his jacket in her face. He had backed her up into the wall. It was moments like this, Luka thought tiredly, that make me think they did cut too much out of Mark's brain. Certainly, if the man had such a problem with lateness, it could be addressed without the ugly scene. If he didn't know both of them, he would think that Mark was about to hit her. She was certainly flinching away and looking panicked. So what to do? He didn't want a problem with Mark. There was a loyalty surrounding the man that was hard to get through. Most of the staff had known Mark for years and forgave almost everything. It went unsaid that everyone thought Mark had killed Fossen in the elevator. Mark was everyone's friend, not something that Luka really understood and getting in his way would bring down the wrath of others. Corday would certainly launch one of her vicious verbal assaults. He'd seen that a few times and didn't want it, if only because he wouldn't put up with it.

On the other hand, Mark was out of line. It had been ice cold and raining and sleeting all morning and in the few minutes that Luka had watched, Kerry hadn't gotten a word in edgewise to explain why she was late. That in itself was odd, but then, so was Mark's anger. The tirade was starting to attract attention from the people in chairs too, and Randi and the nurses gathered at the desk were watching and starting to look worried, so Luka decided it was time to step in. He strode over, just in time to see Mark crank it up a notch.

" If you * ever * do this again, I'll just leave! I have a family!" Mark was shaking his hand in Kerry's face. He then put his hands on her shoulders and shook her, hard enough that Luka saw her head rock and knock into the wall." I am so sick of your self-righteous crap. If this happens again, I'm going to Romano."

He spotted Luka, and backed off a bit. Luka could see that he realized finally that he'd gone too far. It was definetely getting some attention too. Chuni was almost running over and Randi had gotten out from behind the desk. Backing your boss into a corner and yelling at her was stupid and unprofessional, but not exactly against the rules. Shaking your boss was against the rules, and more importantly, it was something Luka wasn't going to tolerate. Late or not, it was out of line, and Luka wondered if Mark understood just how he was risking his job.

" Mark! That's enough!" he called out as he walked over.

" I'm leaving now. I have a babysitter that's waiting on me." Mark stomped off before either Luka or Kerry could get a word in edgewise. Probably a good thing, Luka thought as Mark retreated out of the ER

" I didn't mean to be late..." Kerry said shakily. " I don't..." She visibly shook. Warning bells started going off in Luka's head. She was as white as a ghost, almost gray, and her hair and coat were wet. She was dripping water onto the floor and she was leaning onto the wall for support. She wasn't just upset, Luka realized there was something wrong. She blinked rapidly, obviously trying to focus. " I'm sorry..."

Luka grabbed her by her shoulders just before she started sliding to the floor. " I need a gurney!" he shouted. Kerry was limp in his arms, and she was not only soaking, she was freezing cold. " Kerry, what happened to you?"

" I didn't mean to be late, " she said again. " I am sorry... Do I know you? You're new, aren't you?" He could see that she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

" Don't worry, I'm not angry," he said gently as he scooped her up and set her on the gurney that a surprised and worried looking Chuni had brought. " Do we have a room free?"

" Trauma one is, " Chuni said quickly. " What happened, Dr. Weaver? I saw what happened but..." She looked at Luka worriedly. " She didn't hit the wall that hard."

" I'm late... I need to get my lab coat." Kerry started to sit up but both Luka and Chuni held her down.

" She had to have come in this way, " he said as they entered Trauma One. " She's altered and hypothermic. Kerry, before you came in, can you tell us what happened?" He shined a penlight into her eyes as he spoke. He wasn't surprised to see that her pupil response was sluggish at best. He'd already noticed blood dotting the pillow beneath her head. " Kerry?"

" It was raining," she said after a long moment. " Someone parked in my spot. I had to park far way. Chuni, has Carol gotten the supplies I asked her about?" Her eyes flickered shut after her question.

" She's definitely altered." Chuni said quickly. " And she is hypothermic. I've got a temp of ninety-three degrees. Pulse ox is good but her blood pressure is low, 95 over 60. Mark didn't hit her that hard."

" He shook her...It couldn't have done this. I've got a head injury here. I want a head CT." Luka said worriedly. Several more nurses came in, and the new doctor, Susan Lewis.

" What do we have?" she asked. She took a look at the patient and gasped in surprise. " Kerry... what happened?"

" We don't know, " Luka said sharply as he and Chuni cut through Kerry's coat. " She came in like this." There was a lot of blood and it was coming from two small holes on the left side of her chest, high up towards her shoulder. " I've got entry wounds. Looks like a .22. Let's roll her."

" Good breath sounds, " Susan said intently, " They missed her lung. This didn't just happen. The blood's coagulated. Chuni, get some O negative going on the rapid infuser." She and Luka quickly rolled her over. " No exit wounds."

" Chest x-ray, " Luka ordered, " And page a surgical consult." He looked intently at Susan. " We need to get her temperature up before surgery. And page neuro too. I thought this was just a cut." He gestured to the back of Kerry's head. " If we're dealing with a small caliber..."

" Could be a bullet wound." Susan agreed. They rolled Kerry back. " Let's get a central line going, and some warm saline. There's a lot of bruising on her arms and chest but it looks superficial. Chuni, have one of the nurses check her clothes for ID when you get a chance."

" Why?" Luka asked as they continued to work on her.

Susan didn't even look up from doing the central line. " She normally wears jewelry. Nice stuff. I don't see any of it, not even her wedding ring. If her wallet's gone, then it's a pretty good guess that she was robbed. She was wearing those clothes yesterday. I wonder if she ever got home last night."

Chuni was checking even as Susan spoke. " No wallet and no car keys. We should call the cops or check her car or something. I can't believe Mark shook her like that."

That was an understatement, Luka thought. It had been obvious that something was wrong with Kerry. It hadn't been obvious that she'd been shot, that was true, but she had been pale and shaking. If Mark hadn't been so angry about her being late, he would have noticed it.

Susan seemed surprised by Chuni's remark but held off commenting. " BP is up and so is temperature." A nurse came in with the x-rays and Susan quickly put them up for viewing. " You're right. Look at this."

Luka did. He was not surprised to see a bullet on the skull x-ray. It had skimmed around her skull. " It had to have been an underpowered gun. She was lucky."

" Not that lucky." Susan said. She pointed to a dark line on the x-ray, and then another. " That's a hairline skull fracture." She paused, and then in a quieter voice said, " What did Mark do?"

Luka responded without thinking. " She walked in like this, soaking wet and with altered consciousness, and all he did was yell at her. He complained that she was late. Then he shook her and the back of her head hit the wall. I thought..." He stopped himself. He thought Mark was going to hit her, that there was a possibility that Mark was going to go nuts. Questioning Mark's rationality was not going to get him anywhere, not with someone that he figured was staunchly in Mark's camp. " I thought she looked ill. I didn't realize how bad it was until I got close."

Susan seemed to catch his hesitance. She looked back at the x-rays. " Mark should have seen that something was wrong. I heard him yelling at her, but he's been pretty snappish." She sounded concerned, which was a lot more than Luka expected. He had suspected, from seeing her interact with Kerry, that Susan was more in the "Mark does no wrong" camp. She sensed his surprise. " You said he shook her? That isn't going to help if she already had a head injury. Especially if her head hit the wall. What the hell was he thinking?"

The trauma doors swung open. Luka almost groaned at the sight of Robert Romano. The man was an excellent surgeon, but he had the personality of steel wool. He also wasn't one of the people that Luka had wished to overhear that particular conversation. Romano was the kind of guy that stored up such situations for future reprisals. The bald man strode right over to the x-ray display. " Was our patient beaten, shot, or beaten and shot?" He smirked, clearly finding his own remark funny. " Where is your intrepid leader and why isn't she handling this? I thought she learned her lesson about being here for her shifts."

" The patient is our intrepid leader, and I'm guessing she was beaten and shot, judging by the bruises and bullet holes." Susan said, her words rolling with irritated sarcasm. Luka almost laughed as Susan spoke. It was a rare few people who chose to speak to Romano that way, and Susan did it with a certain flair that Luka suspected even Romano found amusing.

Romano, after his initial surprise, managed to look concerned. Luka wasn't surprised. He suspected that Romano had more than a little curmudgeonly affection for Kerry. He looked at the x-rays much more intently. " Shouldn't be too hard taking care of this. Who brought her in?"

" She walked in. We have to call the police. There's a very good chance that this happened someplace close by." Susan said.

Romano walked over to the table and started checking over the wounds. " These aren't fresh. Have you done a neurological assessment? And why do we think it happened close by?"

" She was wearing the same clothes she had on last night." Luka said. " She was soaked and hypothermic, and missing her car keys. I doubt she walked from her house. The neuro consult hasn't been down. She was altered. She didn't recognize me and she was very confused."

Romano perused the chart. " As soon as her temperature is a little closer to normal, I'll take her. I'll get the OR booked. You might suggest to the police that they check the roof of the parking garage. That's where she normally parks. So who shook her?" He eyed the both of them. " I'm not deaf. Who shook her?"

" Mark Greene did. He was upset that she was late relieving him. I saw him yelling at her and then he shook her. Her head hit the wall. He lost his temper but I didn't think he was going to touch her." Luka said. It still made him angry. If Kerry had been perfectly fine, and just late because of the weather, it was still wrong.

" Wonderful. Did anyone witness this other than you?" Romano asked.

" I heard the shouting." Susan said. Again, Luka was surprised. Susan seemed as angry as he was. " I didn't see it though. I think Randi was at the desk. She might have seen it. Chuni definitely saw it."

" Well, that's really wonderful. " Romano muttered. " We've got a possible assault with a deadly weapon in our parking garage. The victim, our chief of emergency, is a disabled woman, which will get great play in the media. To top it off, one of our doctors, a doctor who recently squeaked by a competency hearing slammed her head into a wall. I assume that's not the standard practice."

" He didn't slam her head into the wall, " Luka said. " He shook her and she knocked her head. She wasn't steady on her feet."

" Are you defending him?" Romano asked. Luka could see the smaller man puff up as if expecting a real fight not just words. Romano, to use a term he picked up from Abby, was pissed.

" I'm trying to be fair," Luka said patiently. " He didn't slam her head intentionally. I don't approve of what he did. I didn't say he slammed her head, he shook her because he was angry. He wasn't trying to beat her up."

Romano stepped over and tapped the skull x-ray. " Do we have any way of proving that this skull fracture didn't take place in this ER? Do we have any idea how many people witnessed this that don't work here? Was it obvious that something was wrong with her?"

" The gun shots weren't obvious. Her jacket was wet, and it's dark so any bleeding was hidden." Luka hesitated. He saw where Romano was going. " She did look ill at close range."

" Well, it looks like I'll be having another conference with risk management." Romano said tiredly. " Let's hope we can keep this quiet." He looked at the bank of lit equipment, frowning. Yes, Luka thought, very pissed. He was beginning to think that the chief of staff actually had a heart. Romano leaned over Kerry and checked her pupil reactions again. " I want a head CT done as soon as possible. I also want the police called as soon as possible."

" I already have." Luka said.

" Good." Romano said. " I think she's coming around. Kerry? Dr. Weaver? I thought we talked about coming in on time."

Kerry opened her eyes. A good sign, Luka thought, but she didn't look good
otherwise." I couldn't find my car... I didn't mean to be late." Luka was struck by how apologetic she was when she was when she was nearly unconscious.

" I think we can let it go, this time." Romano said gently. " Where did you park your car?"

" On the roof...But..." She blinked. " I think someone hit me. He looked like you, Robert. Only taller.... I think Mark was upset. I really should get to work... Weren't you on sabbatical in England?" Her eyes closed, and Luka could see that she was either asleep or unconscious.

" Well that's really great." Romano said angrily. He set the chart down. " Get the cops up to the parking garage, get her up to the OR, and call Mark Greene and tell him to get his ass in here."

He stomped out. Luka turned to Susan. " Did I miss something? "

Susan nodded. She smirked at him. " I think you missed the fact that she basically just described Mark as her attacker. God, it's days like this that make me wish I was still in the hellhole of the Southwest."

I'm starting to really like her, Luka thought after a moment.

Part 2

" Mark! I'm leaving with or without you!" Elizabeth shouted. Why is my life such a nightmare, she thought as she waited in the cold van. The baby was crying in her car seat, the van was chugging like it desperately needed a tune up, and her husband was going to make her late. " Dammit Mark, are you coming or not?"

Mark stomped out into the garage and got into the passenger seat. " I can't believe she's paging me. This is just payback because I called her on being late."

" Well, maybe that wasn't the wisest choice. Now we've got the baby spending god knows how long at the hospital." Elizabeth sniped back. She pulled the van out of the driveway.

" Well, should I just be Kerry Weaver's doormat? I should just let her do whatever the hell she wants, and not say a thing? Is that what you want?" He wasn't quite shouting but he was angry.

She stopped the van. " Dammit, Mark, don't put words in my mouth. Kerry Weaver is a mean spirited troll who delights in pressing your buttons. Screaming at her for being late just gives her ammunition. If you want her put in her place, tell Robert what's going on, instead of playing her game." Robert was decidedly unhappy about the situation in the ER, although a big part of his unhappiness was the Fossen incident. However, she knew, if she asked, that Robert would take complaints about Kerry being late very seriously. Mark was just playing into Kerry's hands by yelling at her, and while Elizabeth knew that Mark didn't have a bad enough history to be summarily fired, he didn't need to add fuel to the fire. He was up for tenure soon. As scary as it was to contemplate, he needed Kerry on his side, and pissing off his boss was not the way to get into her good graces.

" Romano won't do a damn thing." Mark muttered. " And the baby doesn't have to stay in day care. Rachel could have watched her."

Elizabeth didn't respond to that. Rachel wasn't that irresponsible. Elizabeth did trust her with the baby for short periods of time but it was possible that both she and Mark would be out all day. The last thing she wanted was to give Rachel an excuse to skip school. Mark, of course, assumed that she didn't want Rachel watching the baby at all. Let's not have a fight, she told herself as they drove along. It's not worth it and if he's angry when he gets in, it'll be that much worse. She drove the van through the sleet and rain.

" What the bloody hell?" she muttered as she drove up to the parking garage. There was a police barricade up.

" I can park the car." Mark offered. " There's no reason for you to be late. I can drop you off and take Ella to day care." He smiled at her, and she let her irritation fall away.

" I love you," she said, as she put the van in park. She kissed him.

" I know. I love you too. Go on. One of us needs to make a good impression." Mark chuckled.

She waved as she trotted away from the van. Mark was a wonderful man, she thought. Sometimes, especially on rainy cold days that started out badly, it was hard to remember. It'll get better, she told herself.

She had several surgeries scheduled, but they were all minor. That gave her a few minutes to find Romano and talk to him. She didn't like stepping into Mark's business, but when it came to his job, he was very passive-aggressive. Yes, Mark was on call but her brisk walk through the ER suggested that it wasn't terribly busy. Mark would just do whatever asked and then whine incessantly. Robert needed to take things into hand.

Romano was already in scrubs. He was talking intently with one of the recovery nurses and holding a chart. " As soon as she wakes up, I want you to call me. It's very important." He looked up and spotted her. Maybe its not such a great time, Elizabeth thought as she took in his grim countenance. " Elizabeth, where is your husband? I need to talk to him."

" He's either at the day care or down in the ER. Dr. Weaver paged him." She paused, trying to gauge his mood. Something had him angry, that was obvious.

" Dr. Weaver most certainly didn't page him, I did." Romano said tersely. " Dr. Weaver is currently still under anesthesia from her emergency surgery." He handed her the chart.

" She was shot? But Mark said he saw her this morning..." A shooting in the ER was bad enough, but judging by the chart, Kerry was lucky to be alive. There were several gunshot wounds but they had either missed vital areas like the two in her upper chest or not done as much damage as it could have, like the one removed from her head. She read the notes carefully. " What happened?"

" We don't know, really." Romano said. " The police suspect she was attacked last night by her parking spot. There's evidently some bloodstains by her spot and in her car. Judging by her condition, there's a good chance she spent the night lying in her car. At least she wasn't lying in the wet all night. Hopefully she won't develop pneumonia. God knows if she does, we're looking at another couple million in the lawsuit she's going to slap us with." He took the chart back. " If you are heading down to the ER, tell your husband I need to see him pronto. Dr. Kovac too."

" Why?" She understood why Mark had been paged. Obviously they would be short handed in the ER but as shocking as the news was, she didn't think Romano had to deliver it in person.

" Come with me and I will be happy to show you." His words were almost snarled. He pulled her into the nearest room with an x-ray display and put up an MRI scan. " What do you see on this?'

It was obviously Kerry's. She looked it over, again deciding that Kerry was lucky beyond belief. " I see a bullet that didn't penetrate the skull over her left ear and a hairline fracture at the site and then there's another, smaller fracture at the base of her skull. She probably hit her head when she fell."

" That's one possibility." Romano said. " The other possibility is that it happened when Dr. Mark Greene grabbed her and shook her until her head hit the wall. There's one positive witness and two more that I haven't spoken with. I hope he's got a good lawyer, Lizzie. At the very least I have to suspend him. Once the police find out, he might be arrested." He took down the scan. She was almost too shook up to notice the fact that he was looking at her with more than a little sympathy. " Elizabeth, " he said softly, " has he been acting normal? No moments of rage? Rational all of the time? He's still undergoing treatment for the tumor isn't he?" He paused. " If there's extenuating circumstances, we can work it out but I have to act on this."

" He didn't attack her in the parking lot," Elizabeth fumed.

" Probably not, " Romano agreed, " but he did put his hands on her and shook her until her head hit the wall in the ER. There are witnesses, witnesses who say that she was obviously ill and that Mark should have seen it. She was obviously injured, Elizabeth, and the first doctor that saw her did nothing but yell at her. There are more than three witnesses to that. I know where your loyalties lie, but you need to be prepared for a fight. We can control the people who work here, but we can't stop bystanders from going public. That means it's very likely that within days, we're going to be known as the hospital with the homicidal doctors that attack patients. The board's really going to like that." He looked at the x-ray. " Dammit. Of all the people in this hospital, it had to be the one filling our handicap quota. "

Elizabeth gave him credit. Despite his words, she could see that he was worried. As worried and concerned as he had been when Lucy had been stabbed, and it was plain on his face. The problem with that, she realized, was that he was going to take it out on Mark. " I'm sure Mark didn't intend to hurt her."

" I'm not sure of that, Elizabeth." Romano turned to face her. " He's been acting oddly. I've had complaints, complaints that didn't come from Kerry. And regardless of what either of us think, we have a problem that's not going to get brushed under the rugged the way the Fossen case did. We'll be lucky if that doesn't get brought up. If you want to sit in on the meeting you can. It won't change the fact that he's going to be suspended."

" I appreciate the warning, Robert." She supposed that there was one plus at least. Mark would be able to spend more time with the baby.

~*~

Mark found himself growing more and more tense as he waited for Romano to get done with Kovac. It was a mess. He felt terrible, of course. He despised Kerry Weaver, but he certainly didn't think she deserved to be shot. Evidently the whole ER was pretty shook up about it. No one would discuss it, not even Luka. In fact, there had been a definite bad feeling in the ER. He wasn't exactly sure why. He felt bad about loosing his temper with Kerry, but he was realistic enough to understand that he hadn't brought a wild gunman down upon her with a curse. I did lose my temper, he told himself. As much as people don't like the woman, yelling at her in public probably hadn't gone over well.

The door opened, and Luka stepped out. Luka glared at him, and Mark tried to look upset. Luka was the sort that didn't like men yelling at women even if they deserved it. He understood why the big man was upset, he didn't agree but he understood. " You're next," Luka growled.

Mark rose to his feet and strode into the office. Romano was sitting at his desk, perusing a stack of papers. " Dr. Greene, have a seat. We need to have a talk."

" I understand that it may not have been appropriate for me to yell at Kerry, but I was upset. Did they catch the person that shot her? Will she be all right?" Mark asked. He was worried. Kerry was, as Elizabeth put it, a mean spirited troll, but she had her moments of decency. " Where did it happen, anyway?" He had seen the police talking to people, but hadn't had a chance to find out where the incident happened.

Romano looked at him in surprise. Slowly, a satyr like smile crossed the man's face. " You really don't know, do you? "

" Know what?" Mark felt a twinge of fear.

" Did you even speak to Dr. Weaver when she came in? Did you notice that she was altered? How about the fact that she was soaking wet? Hypothermic? Bleeding from three gunshot wounds?" Romano's voice was cold with anger. " For that matter, did you notice all the people who heard your screaming fit? Or watched as you shook her? I understand that there's blood on the wall where her head hit."

" I didn't shake her." Mark protested. He was certain of that. " I put my hands on her shoulders.... She looked fine. A little wet from the rain.... Are you saying she walked in with gunshot wounds?"

" The police think she was mugged in the parking garage. And putting your hands on her, even if you didn't shake her, is considered inappropriate contact." Romano handed him a piece of paper. Mark looked at it and recognized one of the many anti-violence in the work place papers that Kerry had handed out in the aftermath of Lucy's death. His signature was at the bottom.

" I didn't shake her," he insisted. The memory was still quite distinct. He had yelled at her, he had placed his hands on her shoulders... and then he had left. Luka had told him to leave her alone. She had been pale, but she was always a little white. " Her head never hit the wall because I didn't shake her."

" There's three witnesses who say you did." Romano frowned darkly. " You know what, Mark? I'm not going to debate this with you. I have a doctor with two skull fractures, one from a bullet and one possibly from you. You're suspended until further notice. There will be an investigation here, and I am recommending that your competency be assessed again."

" What?" Mark rose to his feet." I didn't shake her." He felt almost overwhelmed with anger.

Romano also stood. " And maybe some rage management would help, Dr. Greene. You're damn lucky I don't just fire you."

" Well why don't you?" Mark shouted.

" I don't think you want me to answer that." Romano warned.

" Oh yes I do!" Mark knew it wasn't a good idea but he just didn't care anymore. " Why don't you just say what you think?"

" I think you're ill. I think you shook Kerry Weaver in a fit of rage. I think you're destabilizing, and to be blunt I'm not the only one but I will be the one to keep you from butchering a patient because they looked at you wrong. Go home. Get out of my office. " Romano stood his ground and the small man looked as vicious as Mark had ever seen him.

" Don't think I won't be calling a lawyer." Mark shouted.

" Don't think I haven't already." Romano warned. " I am doing everything I can to make sure that this hospital doesn't end up sued into bankruptcy. I am also trying to save your sorry ass from being arrested for assault. That's a fact, Mark. Now go home. Call a lawyer if you want. Don't talk to the press, unless you really want to get crucified. Don't come back to work until I call you."

" I never shook her," Mark said one last time. He knew it was pointless to argue. Romano had his mind made up. He stomped out of the office. The ER was going to be sadly understaffed for the next few days, and for the first time in his professional life as a doctor, Mark didn't really care.

Part 3

The second Elizabeth walked off the elevator, she could feel the tension in the ER. People were angry. People were also a little tense from all the police attention. She had seen that before. Generally there was a friendly relationship between the staff and the police officers but when the latter started investigating the former, things always got tense. When Lucy was killed, people had grown resentful rather quickly and she could see it building again.

She hoped it was just angry resent over the questioning. She had her doubts. God knows that Kerry wasn't popular with the staff, but only the nastiest, most hateful person would delight in her being shot. That Mark had been stupid enough to shake her made it worse. Robert was right, she thought darkly, it was going to be a media frenzy. A disabled woman robbed and shot in the parking garage, drags herself in to the emergency room, only to be attacked by a coworker. It looked bad. It sounded like a bad soap opera, right down to Mark having a brain tumor. She could see a few media vultures loitering in chairs already.

The police were talking with Randi in one of the exam rooms. She watched as Randi demonstrated Mark's shaking technique. Elizabeth winced at the sight. She was realistic enough to know that Randi was relatively honest. So was Chuni Marquez, and while she did think that Luka Kovac was probably the only doctor in the ER left that supported and liked Kerry, she didn't think he'd lie about what happened. As much as Elizabeth didn't want to admit it, she was positive that Mark had shaken Kerry and missed seeing her injuries because he was mad. That didn't justify a witch hunt though.

Kovac was at the desk, and he looked a bit overwhelmed. With Kerry injured and Mark suspended, Luka was the acting chief. She wanted to talk to him, but she knew it wasn't a great time even though the place was slow. Besides, she always had gotten the sense that Kovac didn't like her much. If I talk to him, she thought, I need to be calm about it. She was well aware of her own temper, and Kovac wasn't the coolest head in the ER.

He spotted her and waved at her to come over to the desk. " The police want to talk to you. And don't go near the caution tape by the door. The detectives are waiting for a photographer to take pictures of the blood spatter on the wall." He said it so nonchalantly, she suspected that he'd been stuck delivering that message to everyone that walked in. She looked at the taped area. Sure enough, there was a dark dot on the wall.

" I wouldn't call that blood spatter, " she said after a moment. If she didn't know what happened, she would have assumed it was simply a wall stain. " Do you really think Mark shook her hard enough to draw blood?" As soon as she said it, she regretted it. It didn't come out right.

Luka frowned at her. " She was already bleeding when her head hit the wall, Dr. Corday. I never said she hit her head hard enough to leave a dent." His voice fairly growled with anger.

" I didn't think you had," she said quietly. He was ready to fight with her. She didn't want that. She didn't know Luka that well, but she did have some respect for him as a person and a doctor. She doubted that he had exaggerated the tale, and in a way, that worried her even more. Luka was angry, and that meant whatever Mark had done had caused it. " I'm just trying to find out what happened."

Luka didn't answer. It was not a good sign at all. She waited. She didn't consider herself a grand manipulator of men, but she knew a few tricks. Waiting was one of them. She wasn't sure it would work on Luka. Finally he looked at her, still frowning. " What?"

" Is it a secret? Am I not allowed to know?" She wanted to know, she thought anyway. There was a huge part of her that wanted to believe that Mark was just being persecuted. The problem was that the one person that would pull that sort of nonsense was lying upstairs in recovery.

" Fine. Let's go to the lounge." Luka walked off briskly and Elizabeth followed him into the lounge. As soon as she closed the door, Luka stepped in close to her. She stepped back, and found herself up against the door. He put his hands on her shoulders, not doing anything more than resting his hands but she sensed that if she made any attempt to move, he would use the strength he had to hold her there. Despite the fact that she knew exactly what point he was trying to make, she still felt a flash of fear. Luka was an imposing man and if he wanted to, she knew he could hurt someone.

" How do you feel?" he said. " Do you like it? I'm about Mark's size." He increased the pressure on her shoulders to where she would have to struggle to get away. " I'm not even shaking you, Elizabeth. I'm not yelling. You're not bleeding. You're not ice cold and wet, you're not so confused that you can't identify your coworkers. You're also bigger than Kerry Weaver, and you're not disabled, but you know what? I can tell you were scared when I put my hands on you." He let her go, and stepped back. " Mark was losing control, Elizabeth. If he had been alone with Kerry, he would have hit her. Over her being late. That's the first problem. The second is that she was hurt already and he should have seen that. The third problem is that he had no right to touch her." Luka's anger grew and he started to pace around the small room. You know what? I'm sick of Mark getting away with shit like this. First he killed Fossen, now he does this. Does he have to kill someone in public in order for anyone to do something?"

" Mark did not kill that man!" Elizabeth snapped. She had read the charts, and heard the evidence. There was no proof that Mark had done anything to Fossen. Of course, there was no proof that he'd tried to help the man either, but she forced that thought away. She was tired of hearing the rumors even after Mark had been cleared by the hospital.

Luka shook his head. " Are you going to ignore what he did to Kerry too? Or convince yourself that she deserved it. Grow up, Elizabeth. There's something wrong with Mark. He's dangerous to others. He might be dangerous to you. Open your eyes, before you or your daughter get hurt." He stepped around her and left the lounge.

It's going to get bad, Elizabeth realized. Mark needed a lawyer and it needed to be a good one. If Luka Kovac, someone that wasn't prone to overreacting or taking sides, was seeing a possible connection between Mark's behavior and the Fossen incident, then others were sure to draw that conclusion too.

~*~

Robert Romano hated how he felt. Sure, he felt angry, and that was nothing new. Currently he was so angry, he wanted to explode. Focus, he told himself as he stepped into the recovery room, its time to be a doctor, not an administrator. Feeling angry was nothing new, anyway. He had been angry before, and even though the intensity had never quite reached the fever pitch he felt at the moment, it was not that different.

What was different was how concerned he felt. He was concerned. He was concerned about the hospital and just how awful everything looked. There were already reporters sniffing around. It hurt. He had taken the job of chief of staff with the noble idea of making the hospital reflect his own excellent abilities. He was an excellent doctor, and he wanted the hospital he worked in to be as excellent. Now he had a situation that had the potential to blow up into a full blown media frenzy. The incident of Lucy Knight's death had been bad enough. This was worse, this involved staff attacking staff. It also involved robbery, beating, and shooting, all on hospital grounds. He hated it.

He was concerned for Elizabeth. He had a pretty good feeling that she was in denial over Mark's behavior. It worried him. He liked Elizabeth. As much as he had been disappointed in how she spurned his affection, he was happy that she had found someone to love. He was starting to worry that she might be in danger.

He was concerned about Kerry. He worried that the MRI scans weren't going to improve. She was still unconscious and it had been a few hours since her surgery had finished. Despite what many people thought, including Kerry herself, he rather liked her. He was smart enough to know that far too many people gave her credit for being more manipulative than she actually was. Kerry was one of those people that blustered through life never quite figuring out what it was that they did to make things so hard for themselves. He didn't think Kerry knew how to let herself be happy. So instead of trying to be happy, she tried to satisfy herself with her job, and he had a feeling that it wasn't working. It was too bad, really. He thought she was fairly interesting, and her lesbian revelations only made her more interesting but he had a feeling she'd take any interest the wrong way. She'd probably think I was blackmailing her, he thought.

And besides, he thought darkly as he examined her sleeping form, thinking about dating her probably isn't very realistic at the moment. She had been almost too lucky. The bullet had not entered her skull, but a subdural bleed developed during surgery, forcing him to call in a neurosurgeon to do a burr hole. The shoulder wounds, by themselves, weren't even worrisome, but adding in the head injuries and the fact that she spent the night in her car, and he knew that she'd be lucky to escape without a serious infection. " Anything interesting to report?' he asked the nurse on duty.

" She's starting to come around. There's been some eye movement, and I heard her mumbling a few minutes ago," the nurse said as she handed Romano the chart.

" Well, that's something," Romano said as he pulled a stool over to her beside. The nurse was right. He could see her head move slightly and her eyelids flutter. Her face looked puffy and he could the shadowy color of bruising start to spread from underneath the dressing. " Kerry, I need you to open your eyes."

After a long moment, she did, looking at him through barely opened eyes. " Why?" she asked thickly.

" Because I need to surprise you with my wonderful bedside manner. Can you tell me where you are?" Based on what Luka had said, he had some concerns.

" The hospital..." She was starting to become more aware, he could see it happening. " Oh god... I was just getting into my car.... I heard someone..." She closed her eyes and then opened them. " I don't.... I don't remember what happened after that."

" Don't worry," he said gently. " I'm just checking your awareness. I'm not the police. They'll probably want to talk to you later, but I don't think you're up to that right now. Can you tell me your full name?" He doubted that she would be up to a police chat in a few days, let alone six hours after surgery but that wasn't his concern.

" Full name? Kerry Lynn Weaver..." Her burst of awareness was starting to fade. He doubted he'd be able to get too many more questions in.

" Where do you work?' He figured that was an easy one.

" Mount Sinai... no, that's wrong. Cook County... You know that, Robert..." Her tone was both tired and annoyed. It made him smile, despite the fact that she was clearly struggling for answers. There wasn't much point to pressing on. She was fading.

" Listen, I'm going to let you rest. If you need anything, just threaten one of the nurses." Robert was surprised to see her frown.

" They all hate me..." she muttered. " Mark especially... He said so... He kept saying it...." Her eyes closed again, but it was what she said that made him take her hand and hold it for a long moment. He would have to check with Luka Kovac again, but he was pretty sure the argument in the ER had not included remarks about Mark hating Kerry. That meant she had heard it somewhere else, and he was starting to wonder where.

Part 4

There was a police car in the driveway. Elizabeth wasn't surprised. She hoped it wouldn't take too long. She was tired. More importantly, the baby would probably be crying and having strange people in would make it worse. She had already spoken to the police but the questions had been rather bland. What time did Mark leave the house? Had his behavior been odd in the last few weeks? Did he have any personal grudge against Dr. Weaver?

That had been a hard one. She had answered as honestly as she could, that Mark didn't like her and it revolved around how she had stabbed him in the back over Romano's appointment. She hadn't gotten into the whole competency hearing. She didn't think it was relevant. Mark had disliked Kerry long before that had happened.

The most interesting question that they asked was one that still had her thinking. Who did she think had reason to attack Kerry? It was a damn good question. Kerry was a bitch, no doubt there, but in truth, her tactics tended to fuel low-lying anger and tension, not explosions of rage. In fact, it was usually Kerry that exploded in rage. Elizabeth had done her best to answer the question, and her best bet was Dave Malucci. Dave had been lucky, in her opinion, to walk away without more disciplinary action than what he'd gotten. Hell, Kerry had been lucky to walk out of the Marfan patient incident without serious damage, though Elizabeth was pretty certain that Chen had taken the brunt of the issue head on.

Regardless, Dave was her first thought as the attacker. He had a temper. He was pretty well screwed out of his chosen specialty, not that she thought that was a bad thing. He had been a damn sloppy doctor. They had all tried to help him. She was surprised that he had lasted as long as he had. The irony, especially if he had been the one to shoot Kerry, was that it had probably been Kerry's soft spot for him that had kept him from getting fired years earlier. Three disciplinary letters was usually enough to boot a resident, and Elizabeth wasn't afraid to admit she had advocated it.

Her second guess was Chen, but she thought it was pretty unlikely. She hadn't even mentioned Chen to the police. The woman just didn't seem that vindictive. After her, Elizabeth doubted that she even knew enough about Weaver's personal life to guess who might want her dead. In all honesty, she thought as she walked up to the front door, it looks like a vicious mugging. It probably was a vicious mugging, and Kerry had been the unfortunate victim. It seemed like the police were making more out of it than there really was.

Of course, the fact that Mark had been less than gentlemanly when she arrived in the ER had probably twisted the police viewpoint a bit. Elizabeth bit back her anger. Mark shouldn't have touched her, that was a fact. As much as she wanted to believe that he hadn't caused Kerry any injury, there was a chance he had, and what he had done was cruel.

The house was brightly lit and Mark and two police officers were sitting in the living room. It didn't look hostile. She could feel the tension but it wasn't at a fever pitch. Mark looked more annoyed than upset, which was good. Robert had warned her that he had blown up in his office. Doing that with the police probably wouldn't be a good idea. Mark smiled at her when he saw her, and gestured for her to come in. " This is my wife Elizabeth."

The two policemen rose to their feet. " We're pretty much set here. We'll let you get back to your evening plans." They started to make their way to the door. Then, the older officer turned back. " I just have one more question, Dr. Greene." He smiled sheepishly. " Do you have any idea who might want to attack Dr. Weaver? You know, any enemies?"

" The only one I can think of is Dave Malucci. She fired him recently. It was not a pretty situation." Mark said quickly.

" Great. We appreciate your time tonight, Dr. Greene. We'll let you know how this will go as soon as we get more information." The two cops tipped their hats to her as they left. She didn't like how the last bit sounded.

" What's going on?" she asked cheerily. There was no point in assuming it was bad news.

Mark frowned. " The hospital is choosing to not press charges at this point. Since they haven't gotten a statement from Kerry Weaver, they aren't going to arrest me. However, if she does decide to press charges, that's a whole new ball game." He sighed." I don't believe this. How was your day?"

" It was probably better than yours. Is the baby sleeping?" Elizabeth was struck by how quiet the house was. Not only was the baby sleeping, but also Rachel was evidently pursuing some form of quiet juvenile delinquency.

" Ella is enjoying an after dinner nap. I ordered pizza for dinner. I was going to cook, but the police came by and wrecked that plan, and Rachel was hungry." Mark leaned back on the couch. " What a rotten day. I think Rachel is upset with you for some reason. She wouldn't tell me what was up, but she's been pretty quiet since she got back from school."

Lovely, Elizabeth thought darkly, the little hellion is troubled yet again. She choked back that thought too. She felt pretty badly for Rachel. The poor kid's mother had no time for her and the girl was acting out. It didn't make it any easier to deal with. " I think I'll have some pizza then. Have you eaten?"

" No...my stomach's been too upset." Mark sighed again. " How is Kerry doing? Is she going to be all right?"

" Robert said that she woke up but she was still pretty altered. I'm not surprised. Two hairline skull fractures and a burr hole in one's head usually doesn't make for great conversation." She paused. " He said she should make a full recovery. He isn't sure that she'll be able to tell the police very much."

" I think she was just unlucky." He leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. " What a mess. I never shook her, Elizabeth. I just put my hands on her shoulders."

" You shouldn't have done that," she said softly. " Even if you didn't shake her, that wasn't right. Robert has to reprimand you for that." Robert wanted to have him drawn and quartered, but she saw no point in going there. Robert viewed the whole incident as an attack on the hospital's integrity and his integrity, and she had a feeling that Mark would pay the price.

" I don't want to argue with you," Mark said tiredly. " Can we call a cease fire on this for tonight? I know we have to talk about the fallout but this has been the only thing I've talked about all day."

She did want to discuss it, especially how he had neglected to mention putting his hands on Kerry, but she was tired too. She was hungry and there was still the troubling issue of Rachel hiding in her room. I should at least let him get some rest before I interrogate him. " All right. We can talk about this tomorrow."

She went into the kitchen, again marveling at the quiet. It's either one or the other, she decided as she made a plate of pizza for herself. Either its hell at work, and fine here or the house is a zoo and work is fine. I can never win, she thought tiredly. After a moment's thought, she dished up a bowl of ice cream for Rachel. A peace offering would help, she thought.

Rachel was being very quiet in her room. Elizabeth wondered if that was just self-defense. Loud rock music made Ella cry and Rachel wasn't fond of screaming baby cries. She walked down the hallway and knocked on the door. " Rachel? Can we talk?"

" Whatever," was the response.

Elizabeth opened the door. Rachel was sitting at her desk, looking over a textbook. " I thought you'd like some ice cream. Are you studying?"

" Yes," Rachel said, her tone one of irritation. " I do study, you know. I'm not some failure." She took the ice cream willingly enough, though. " Are the cops still here? It's too bad about Dr. Weaver. She's not gonna die is she?" Rachel toyed with the spoon in her ice cream. " I mean, I know she's kind of a bitch... but she used to give me candy and soda and tell me not to tell Dad it was her."

And that was in keeping with the general awkward theme of the day. Why doesn't it shock me, Elizabeth thought, that Rachel likes Kerry Weaver. " She should be all right, and you know, you really shouldn't be using the word bitch."

Rachel narrowed her eyes. " Why not? Mom and Dad use it all the time. You called Dr. Weaver a bitch this morning."

" Because it's not very nice, and I was wrong to use that type of language." This is practice for when Ella is a teenager, she told herself. " Look, your father said you were little upset with me. I wanted to make sure everything was all right."

Rachel frowned. She turned back to her book. " Nothing's wrong." Her tone suggested that something was most definitely wrong.

" Are you sure?" Elizabeth pressed. If the kid didn't spill soon, she wasn't sure what she'd do.

The girl glared at her for a moment. " I don't steal."

" Who said you did?" That was not where she expected the problem to be. Somehow she expected another complaint about baby-sitting.

" You're hiding your good jewelry in the glove compartment of the van." Rachel opened her desk and withdrew a ziploc baggy. There was an assortment jewelry in it, jewelry she didn't recognize. Rachel handed it to her. " It's all there. I'm not a thief. It's not like I even want to borrow your stuff."

Elizabeth looked at the contents of the bad. There was a woman's watch, a few rings, a bracelet, and a necklace. Very nice jewelry and completely not her style at all. " This was in the glove compartment?"

" Isn't it yours?" Rachel asked, her surliness gone, replaced with curiosity.

" No... Was there anything else in the glove compartment?" Elizabeth tried not to think the thoughts that she was thinking.

Rachel shook her head." Just, you know, the car insurance stuff. It's really not yours? Oh man... maybe Dad was hiding it, like as a birthday present for you. He can do corny stuff like that."

" Why don't..." Elizabeth tried not to choke up. " Why don't you put this back where you found it. We won't tell your father." She put aside the complete panic she was feeling to continue on with, " Rachel, I don't think you would steal. I hope that you and I can talk about things, things like this, without getting angry with each other. If I thought you were stealing, I would talk to you about it. OK?"

" OK." Rachel took the bag back. " I'll put this back in the van. I guess I overreacted." She gestured to the book. " I really do have to study. Thanks for the ice cream, Elizabeth."

" Your welcome." Elizabeth left the bedroom. She went into the baby's room. Ella was still sleeping. Looking at her, Elizabeth couldn't help but start to cry. I can't turn him in, she thought, I just can't.

Part 5

Susan didn't like the new Cook County ER. People were paranoid and negative. She hadn't expected special treatment, but she also hadn't expected to walk in to such a nightmarish mess. She knew about Mark's brain tumor and she wasn't surprised to see him acting a little less than normal. His phone calls to her had been a bit weird, even before the tumor had been diagnosed. She had expected a little bit of odd behavior from him.

His wife, who she had mentally nicknamed the harping shrew, was a different story. Elizabeth Corday had taken one look at her and decided that she was the enemy. It was understandable, but it made for tension. Susan didn't know how to say " I just want to be friends with your husband" without getting into a hairpulling fight with the woman.

Then there was Carter who seemed older, wiser, and sadder. She had heard about the medical student that had been killed, and Carter's subsequent descent into drug abuse. It felt awkward. He was happy to see her, she could still see a touch of the crush she knew he had, but they ad grown apart. Carter wasn't the worried medical student she had known. He was a mature, skilled doctor who she didn't know that well any more. Still pretty cute though.

Kerry hadn't changed, not much anyway. She seemed to make more of her looks, but her abrasive, grating personality was still there. Like Corday, she had been less than thrilled to see her hired but had no real way argue it. Susan suspected something was troubling her but she had no intention of raising the issue. Kerry was a little too private and far too snarly to try something like that. The gay rumors were interesting, but Susan had heard them before, and she didn't think that was what had the woman so hot and bothered all the time anyway.

Peter seemed the same at first glance, but he was different. He was a father and it showed. He was warmer, deep inside. His face lit up when he talked about his son. She was happy for him, and felt his pain over the ongoing custody suit he was in with Reese's stepfather. Still, they had never had much in common.

The new people weren't much better. Luka Kovac seemed like a nice enough guy, but a bit intense. He had been dating one of the nurses, Abby. She'd met Abby but hadn't had a lot of contact. Haleh, ever the fountain of interesting information, had told her that Luka had come very close to making the Doug/Carol relationship a triangle. Carol always liked them pretty, she thought ruefully.

Still, she suspected that Carol was the lucky one. Living out in Seattle with Doug and her children, now that was living. Especially considering how unpleasant it had gotten in the ER. Not to mention dangerous. The desk clerks had a pool going on who would be killed or attacked next. It wasn't very nice. She sighed as she looked over her next patient's chart. Maybe I should find a better job, she mused, at a hospital that hires competent security guards.

" Excuse me." She looked up, and saw a young man in exercise clothes standing in front of her. He looked like he might be Italian, though she had never been very good at guessing nationalities. He also looked surprisingly awkward, and Susan hadn't missed the glare that Randi was giving him.

" Can I help you?" she asked pleasantly.

" I uh... you're new aren't you?" She could almost see him turning on the charm. It was like watching Doug Ross in his wild fling days, though she sensed the young fellow before her didn't get the same results. He smiled at her, though she could see an underlying concern in his eyes. " I needed to pick up my last paycheck. I heard about the chief. How's she doing?" The last question was more directed to Randi, who frowned darkly.

" What do you care, Dave?" Randi sniped. She tossed an envelope at him. " There's your damn check."

This was the infamous Dave Malucci, Susan realized. He seemed nice enough, but then there reason to think that he was Kerry's attacker. She had fired him, after all. Dave managed to glare back at Randi, but there was a shamed quality to it. Susan had heard that there had been a pretty big blowout. A bad enough blow out that made everyone think that he was the prime candidate for attacking Kerry, and Susan could see why. In a matter of seconds, he'd managed to irritate the hell out of her." Dr. Weaver should be fine. You know, I think the police had some questions they wanted to ask you."

He shook his head. " Been there, done that, and spent most of today in an interrogation room with two cops who accused me of hate crimes every time I opened my mouth." He glared at Randi again. " I'm not your man."

" Yeah sure." Randi snorted. " And just where were you when Dr. Weaver took a bullet? Visiting your new child?"

Dave winced. Susan didn't get the joke, but she could see it scored a direct hit. Still, judging by Randi's hostility, it probably wasn't a good idea to let the guy hang around. " Listen, is there anything else you need? I'm sure Dr. Weaver appreciates your concern, but I don't think she's allowed any visitors right now." At least, she doubted that the prime suspect would be allowed in.

" Are you sure? Because she just walked out of the elevator." Dave pointed. Susan turned around. Sure enough, there was Kerry Weaver, wearing a set of ill-fitting scrubs and looking like death warmed over. There was a pretty large bandage on the side of her head and she looked more than a little unsteady on her feet. She limped over to the desk.

" Is my jacket here?" Kerry asked. " I was going to leave and it's cold out."

" Should you even be out of bed?" Susan asked with concern. The shorter woman looked like she could keel over at any moment, and she looked more than a little spaced out.

" I've already signed AMA papers. Is my jacket here?" Kerry said.

" The one with the blood and bullet holes? We sent it to be cleaned." Randi said quickly. She held out her leather jacket. " You can borrow mine if you want."

" Thank you." Kerry struggled with the jacket for a few moments, her coordination not up to par. It was also obvious that she was in pain.

" Kerry, I don't think you should do this." Susan was willing to humor someone up to a point. If Kerry wanted to pretend she was fine, Susan didn't mind, but letting the woman walk out the door was an entirely different story. Forty-eight hours of bedrest was not going to make a skull fracture go away. " I think you should stay. You really don't look well enough to be up and around."

" Like you really give a damn. You hated me since the day I started working here. I'm not an idiot." Kerry turned and finally spotted Malucci. " You don't work here any more, Malucci. Go home." She started to limp off towards the door.

" Chief, where do think you're going?" Dave asked. The concern in his voice couldn't be faked. In that instant, Susan knew he hadn't attacked the woman. There was anger there, but not enough to make an assault possible. " Chief?"

She stopped, and turned around. " What the hell do you care? Maybe I just want to go home. Maybe I want to go lick clit with my Gestapo buddies. It's none of your goddamn business. It never was. So just leave me alone and stop pretending to care." With that, she limped out the door.

" Are we going to just let her walk out?" Dave asked.

" If she signed out against medical advice, we really can't stop her." Susan turned to Randi. " Why did you give her the jacket? We could have found a reason for her to stay if we had more time."

" Yeah right." Randi rolled her eyes. " If she even makes it to Doc Magoo's, I'll be stunned. I gave her the jacket so she doesn't freeze to death. Why don't you call Dr. Romano and get him to chase after her. You guys have nothing to work with. He can threaten her job."

It was a good point. And it made Susan feel bad.

Part 6

I don't believe these idiots, Romano thought as he pulled his jacket on. Any normal, reasonable human being would have stopped a barely conscious, injured woman from leaving the hospital. He was rapidly growing tired of the antics of the ER staff. Susan Lewis had called, at least, but he didn't agree with her theory that tackling Weaver was a bad idea. It would have worked quite well. Just taking the woman's crutch would have worked. He intended to crucify the idiot that let her sign out AMA.

It was cold out. He scanned the street, looking for a heap covered in a leather jacket. Fortunately, there were no collapsed crippled women lying around. Doc Magoo's had already been checked by the surly desk clerk. So, he thought, where would Kerry Weaver go? She can't walk very far. He didn't think she had money. Her car keys had never turned up and her car was impounded anyway.
 

He trotted up the steps to the El station. It was the only place she could have gone that didn't involve a lot of money. He was surprised to find Dave Malucci skulking at the top of the stairs. He didn't trust the man. It was obvious who the primary suspect was, regardless of Mark Greene's temper tantrums, and Romano didn't like seeing him there.

Malucci clearly sensed that. He quickly pointed to the benches, where Romano could see Kerry. " I was just keeping an eye on her. Dr. Lewis said you were going to come and get her. I didn't want anything to happen." He put his hands in his jacket pockets. " I'm not... you know... jumping for joy over having my career go down the crapper, but that doesn't mean I want the woman dead." He glared at Romano. " I'm not some animal. I don't own a gun. And I was at my mother's the other night. So you can stop looking at me like I'm a psycho."

" Get out of my way, jackass." It was not heartening to know that Malucci had an alibi. Romano knew what that meant. It put Mark back on the top and Mark already had a questionable history. The Fossen case was going to come to light. That made everything worse. Stop it, he told himself, that's not the problem right now. Right now I have to talk the most stubborn idiot in the world into coming back to the hospital.

Kerry was sitting on one of the benches, holding her crutch in her lap and crossing her arms around her. She was shivering, and looked like one of the walking wounded. " Kerry, " he said brightly, " what do you think you're doing?"

" I'm going home," she said softly." I signed the papers. You're not liable. I'm not going to sue the hospital either. You can stop worrying." She hugged her arms around herself.

Damn, Robert thought, she's reasonably rational. " Are you insane? You have a hole in your head. I usually applaud your ability to pretend you're fine, but this is crazy. You need to be in a hospital."

" I don't want to stay, " she said quietly. " I was rational. I have the right to leave. Whathisname, Dale Edson tested my competence."

He took a seat next to her, mentally assigning blame for the whole situation to Dale, the biggest clod in the surgical department. Dale was a prick and his judgment was questionable on a good day. " You're not well, Kerry. You may have faked it pretty well for a numbnut like Edson, but I'm smarter than that. I know you haven't been orientated. How do you expect to get into your house without your keys? You live alone. What if something happens?"

" There's a key under the welcome mat." Again she spoke softly. Robert wondered if it just that she was ill or if there was something else going on. " What do you care if something happens? I already told you I won't sue."

He was starting to see a little of what was consuming her. " Kerry, people care about what happens to you. I was worried. I came up here to get you, didn't I? I don't know what the ER would do without you."

For some reason, that provoked a harsh look from her. " Everyone would be happier in the ER without me. You don't have to lie. I'm not altered."

He had his doubts about that. And he supposed she had a point about the ER.

He heartily approved of the firing of Malucci. Chen's resignation was too bad, but from his perspective, it was the best resolution to the problem. He wasn't a fool, and Kerry was certainly not a good enough liar to trick him. There had been a screw up that night. His concern had been with the hospital. He hadn't wanted to know what Kerry's culpability had been, he had just wanted the problem to end. It was easier to deal with if the attending wasn't involved. So he encouraged her to find a scapegoat and it had gotten ugly. And now he had a department head that was on the trembling edge of a guilt induced breakdown. She probably thinks she deserves to get beat down, he realized.

Much to his surprise, he felt guilty. He had encouraged her to throw the blame on others. It went against her nature, and she was paying the price. " You know, I could have you suspended if you don't do what I say." It wasn't true but Kerry tended to respond better to threats.

" Go ahead. Why don't you just fire me and make everyone happy? I'll make it easy. I quit." She said it without feeling, in a monotone. It was like hearing a dead person speak. It made him shiver.

" You don't mean that." He had no intention of taking a resignation from her in her condition, but it worried him just the same.

" I hate my job. I hate my life." She hesitated. " Everyone would be better off if I just quit. They have parties when I'm not in. I never do anything right. I try to help people and it always goes bad. No one ever even tries to throw a rope out to save me, and when I save myself...." She sighed. " They all hate me... Mark hates me... Mark can kill someone in the elevator and no one cares... I lose my pager and I'm the worst person in the world. Why don't you just go back to the hospital? Let everyone know I quit. You can be the herald of joy."

Not when you're clearly depressed, Robert thought. Depressed, possibly self destructive and let's not forget possibly altered. " Kerry, I can't let you go home like this."

" You don't really get a choice, Robert." Some of the normal flash returned to her eyes. " I've already passed the competency test. The papers are signed. And I quit. You don't have any power over me."

It's always about power, he thought. Faced with being powerless, she does everything to get the upper hand. " OK, I don't have any power over you." And admitting that made him feel nervous. He didn't like working without the upperhand either. " So hear me out. You don't have to go back to the hospital. No one can force you. I'm not going to force you. I don't think that you should be home alone."

" Yeah, what do you care?" Again with the monotone voice.

" I care because I happen to like you and you are a lot sicker than you
realize. Look, you can stay at my house." Robert surprised himself with the offer. Still, it felt right. He did like Kerry, and she was in trouble, more than she realized. And he was a doctor and he was sitting beside someone who was in more pain than he thought possible. " I have a nice house, and I have a live in housekeeper. It's a big place and she'll leave you alone but just in case you need someone, she'll be there. You would be doing me a favor, really. I don't think she vacuums everyday."

" And what if I say no?"

Robert smiled. " I will carry you back to the hospital. I will lie about your mental state and then I'll administer a competency test. And I know the right questions to ask to make you fail. You still can't tell me what year it is, can you?"

" It's... 2001, Robert." That got a smile from her at least.

" Sure, but what day is it?" He let her think on it for just long enough to make his point. " Kerry, I am not only throwing a rope out to you, I am trying to tie it on you and you're not seeing that. I want to help you, and you're not letting me, which might be part of your problem. Let me do this for you. I'll call a cab."

She sighed again, almost seeming to collapse under the weight of her thoughts. " You aren't giving me a choice."

" No, I'm not. I'll get the cab and get you settled in. It's just for a few days, until I'm sure you won't fall and hit your head on the toilet or something else like that."

" You know, if that happened, I could sue you." She smiled slightly.

" True. Would you mind watching all of adult films and critiquing the lesbian performances?" He grinned evilly. " I've always wanted someone with first hand knowledge to verify whether women actually like strapping on."

" Oh Robert..."

Part 7

Dave Malucci was pissed off. Royally pissed off. Something was getting covered up at Cook County and he had a pretty good idea why. He had peeked at the schedule. A certain, possibly acting strange, doctor had been due to come in at the same time Weaver was supposed to leave. Sure, Dave was a damn good suspect and he wasn't offended at all at being questioned. Fact was, he had been pretty ticked off with Kerry Weaver. No doubt about that. It had taken every ounce of self control he had ever possessed to not slap her across the face when she had fired him.

He could have handled it better. A good friend, his childhood doctor, had explained the facts of medical life to him. Rule one was "don't call your boss a nazi dyke and expect her to not fire you." Rule two was " don't lie about having kids when any half wit can check it out." And rule three, the older gentleman had said with a smile of his face, is " Don't have sex on duty." Dave was willing to admit that he had made his fair share of mistakes, enough mistakes that he hadn't expected the rather fair and positive reference Kerry had written for him. He was still looking for a new residency and he was realistic enough to know it was going to be hard, but that final nail could have been driven in and Weaver chose not to do it. As he explained to the police, yes he was angry but he had no reason to hurt the woman.

And Mark Greene, doctor freaky extraordinare, should have been in the parking garage. The guy always took his van. He hadn't known the man to take the El unless the weather was incredibly bad and since moving to the suburbs, taking the El wasn't really an option. Greene usually parked near Weaver. He had heard the man comment on the good parking. So why hadn't Mark seen anything? Why hadn't he noticed Kerry lying in her car, bleeding? There had been pictures in the paper. The reporters were already castigating the security guards for not noticing someone being in their car for almost ten hours, with the car door open. Their schedules didn't coincide exactly...but it was odd. So Dave was wondering what was up with that.

Greene had been suspended, for slamming Weaver into a wall after her assault. What worried Dave was the fact that no one really seemed to see the link. Why would Mark Greene be that upset with Weaver, if there wasn't some underlying cause? It stank.

This is what I get for reading all of those Hardy Boys books as a kid, he thought as he walked into the ER. What would Frank and Joe do, he asked himself. Why, they would run around, spying and finding clues in the least likely of places. Then their dad would rescue them from the pirate smugglers. So that might not be the best way to help the chief out, he decided. So he went to the one person he thought would help him out with his amateur investigation.

" Randi, " he said cheerily as he approached the desk, " how would you like to do me a big favor?"

" I don't baby-sit imaginary children." Randi said sharply. She went back to reading Cosmo.

He leaned over the desk. Quietly, he said, " Would you do the chief a favor?" That got her attention, just like he knew it would. If Weaver had a supporter, a loyal henchman, it was Randi. He could have gone to Kovac, another one that would've helped, but Kovac was pretty angry with him, whereas Randi was someone that wouldn't beat the crap out of him. At least not in public. " I want you to make copies of a few things." He explained what he needed. Her eyes lit up. She nodded her understanding.

" Go over to Magoo's. I'll be over in a few minutes."

~*~

The restaurant was as smoky as ever. Dave had never understood the attraction the place held with everyone. The coffee wasn't even that good. He also wasn't sure it was that great of a place to look over the information he'd asked for. Still, it was better than chatting with Randi in the lounge.

Randi walked in and spotted him at the booth he'd chosen. She was holding a large sheaf of papers, more than he expected. " I brought the sign in sheets and the schedule," she said, " I brought a file, too. The Fossen case. I wanted to ask you something about it."

" Sure..." Dave didn't see the point but Randi was doing him a favor. He could do the same. He picked up the schedule. " Dr. Weaver was scheduled to leave at seven when Luka came in. Dr. Greene was due in at nine...."

" Weaver left at 7:50." Randi tapped the paper. " There was a trauma that came in and she stayed until it was done. But..." She pointed to the schedule.

" Dr. Greene signed in at 8:15pm. He came in forty five minutes early." That was suspicious, Dave thought. Very suspicious. " You would know more than I would. Does he usually come in early?"

" Never." Randi said it emphatically. " Ever since he married Dr. Corday, he's been a stickler for the schedule. He might stay late, but he doesn't come in early. He's never been in that habit. It's weird."

" He could have attacked her." Dave said. " But why? I mean... I had a motive. Mark always seemed to get along with her." It didn't really make sense. Yes, Mark had been acting oddly, but not that oddly and Dave wouldn't have thought that Kerry would have been his first target.

Randi rolled her eyes. " I can think of sooo many reasons why Dr. Greene would hurt Dr. Weaver. She screwed him over for the chief job. He hired her, and now she's his boss. She's kind of a bitch to work with, in case you missed it, and considering how you've been acting, I think you caught on to that. She also turned him in to the sanity police. The woman does not engender good will, you know. Hell, you heard Dr. Corday bitch her out. I'm surprised the police aren't looking at her as a suspect."

" I guess I just don't understand why no one seems to care." Dave was perplexed. Based on the schedule, it seemed obvious that Mark was as much of a suspect as he was, yet the police didn't seem to be pursuing it at all.

" You didn't exactly win the congeniality award when you left, you know." Randi's eyes narrowed. " That shit wasn't cool."

Don't forget, Dave reminded himself, you're talking to Randi because she likes Weaver. The desk clerk's take on the situation was probably much different than his. " I'm not saying I'm not an obvious suspect, just that Dr. Greene is as obvious of a suspect. I mean, do you know anyone else that would want to do something like this?"

Randi shrugged. " I wondered about Legaspi, maybe. She always seemed to have a touch of psycho freak in her personality. She's in San Francisco though."

" What did Legaspi have against Weaver?" Dave always had thought that the shrink was pretty in that untouchable, lesbian way, but he'd never seen any real hostility towards Kerry from the woman. Just the opposite. Legaspi had always been friendly. " I thought they were, you know, friends."

Randi rolled her eyes again. " Dave, " she said slowly, " you must be the world's biggest idiot. Not only that, you don't even understand how you screwed yourself out of a job. Legaspi was dating Weaver and they broke up because Legaspi wanted her to come out and she wasn't ready."

" But... Legaspi's a lesbian...." A femme lesbian, but definitely a lesbian. She had been discrete, up until the sexual harassment charge, but it had been obvious.

" Yes, " Randi said, a smile coming to her face, " Legaspi is a lesbian. Do I need to draw you a picture, Dave?"

" But... I thought the Chief liked guys." Dave said. " She always seemed be... I don't know...shyly pleased when anyone flirted with her."

" She probably does like guys." Randi said softly. " Her problem is that her first time out was with a gay rights queen who wanted her to leap out of the closet. Legaspi would not have been my first choice for anyone just starting out. People need to come out at their own pace. Legaspi wanted a lesbian, and refused to see all the signs that screamed "bi"." Randi sniffed derisively. " Weaver's bisexual and hasn't figured it out yet, because she's still trying to be a full fledged lesbian, and she's still not sure that people won't treat her like crap if she peeks out of the closet. Your little comments when you quit didn't help at all. You made her cry."

" I made her cry?" Dave suddenly felt awful. Yes, he had meant to hurt Kerry, but not like that.

" You laid some hard truth on her. Aside from calling her a dyke, I mean." Randi glared at him. " It's one thing to know, deep down, that you aren't the most popular person around. It's another to have someone shout it in your face. Calling her a nazi dyke was just the icing on the cake, because not only does everyone hate her, but now they know her secret. It was like watching someone be raped. Real classy, Dave."

" I didn't mean it that way. I was just mad." He considered everything she had said. " How do you know so much about this Randi?"

She looked at her nails nonchalantly. " I have had my share of experience with women. It has its pluses."

" Ever do it with the Chief?" Dave asked with a laugh.

Again she rolled her eyes. " No, you asswipe. First off, she's my boss. Second, she's not my type. Third, I don't fuck where I work... something you might consider at your next job."

" Very cute..." Dave decided it was time to get back on topic. " So what did you want to know about the Fossen case? I wasn't involved in it you know."

She opened the file. " The photocopies don't show everything but.... " She hesitated. " I'm not a doctor, but you pick stuff up working here. So, I was wondering, Dr. Greene said that he tried to bring the guy back by using the paddles, right?"

" Yeah. I heard the guy was probably conscious when Mark shocked him." Dave shuddered. That just didn't seem like a great way to go.

Randi nodded her agreement. " I heard that too. Now, he was all by himself and it was an emergency so he wouldn't have had any time to put that goo that you guys use on the guy's chest, right? The notes say that there wasn't any conductive jelly on Fossen's chest."

" Well, you can use the paddles without the jelly. It's not recommended but it's also not the worst mistake you could make. If it was an emergency, I could see why he skipped it." Dave doubted that he would have bothered in the same situation. " Its better to get the guy's heart pumping right than worry about burning his chest."

" Right." Randi gestured to the report. " So why aren't there any burns on Fossen's chest?"

" But..." Dave looked at the report. " The EKG shows the shocks.... But he could have just fired off the paddles.... " He paused, feeling stricken. " If he did that, then he let the guy die."

" And that means he's violent." Randi shook her head. " I always thought Dr. Greene was a nice guy. I even understand why he might have let Fossen die, but I don't know why he'd intentionally jump Dr. Weaver. Yeah, she's a bitch but she hasn't done anything to him lately."

" Well, all we have is the fact that he came in early." Dave said after a moment's thought. " The fact that he slammed her into a wall the next day might be coincidental."

" And it might not be coincidence." Randi said. " So what do we do next?"

What would Frank and Joe do, Dave thought? " We find a motive." And it won't be easy, he thought. I don't work there and Randi doesn't have huge access to information. And everyone likes Dr. Greene.

Part 8

There weren't many lights on in the house. More than normal though. He figured Rebecca was still fussing in the kitchen. One of the perks of having a live-in housekeeper was that he always had a house filled with the scent of warm cooked food. He had hired Rebecca ten years earlier and had never regretted it. His house was always spotless, he never had to cook, and the dogs loved Rebecca. That was proof that Rebecca was a gem.

Sure enough, she was in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove. Gretl was waiting on the floor, focused on retrieving any scraps that fell. As soon as she spotted Robert though, she was right at his side, licking his hand and whining with joy." Good evening Rebecca," he said as he petted the dog, " How was your day? My guest hasn't been taxing you, has she?" He suspected it would be the opposite. The elderly woman was the sort to make cocoa and chicken soup at the drop of a hat.

" Oh she was no trouble, Robert," Rebecca said briskly, her voice still carrying a trace of an Irish accent. " I think she spent most of the day sleeping. Poor little thing... you know, she should be in a hospital. She hasn't eaten all day so I thought I'd make her some soup. A little soup would do you some good too. Or did you eat at that awful restaurant at the hospital?"

" Soup would be lovely, Rebecca." Robert said easily. " Where's Hansel?" The dogs usually kept very close to Rebecca and came running as soon as he got home. Granted, he had a large house but Hansel was not an old dog and should have heard him come in.

" He's watching your friend. You know how he can be when someone's sick. Remember the last time Gretl was sick? He wouldn't leave her side until you took her to the vet. Now go on and let me finish this, and maybe I'll make you some of those pastries you like."

" Well, I better leave then, " Robert said with a smile. Rebecca made excellent pastries and he had no wish to upset the person who did his laundry and cooked his meals. Besides, Rebecca was very territorial with the kitchen.

He walked through the house, heading towards the guest bedroom where Kerry had been staying since the day before. He agreed with Rebecca's assessment. Kerry needed to be in a hospital. The only reason he hadn't forced the issue was that he knew the only care the hospital could provide beyond a bed for her to sleep in was a nurse to check on her every half-hour. The only real treatment for head injuries, once the initial crisis passed was rest. If there was something seriously wrong, like mental impairment or neurological damage, the hospital stay involved identifying the damage. Either way the fact was that as long as someone was there to keep an eye on her, she could get by without a hospital stay. Even then she would probably have been fine in her own home. He simply had concerns about her mobility.

He had put Kerry in the guestroom that was just off the living room. It was a convenient arrangement. The guest bedroom had a private bath, and there were no stairs to climb. More importantly, it wasn't far from Rebecca's room. Rebecca certainly didn't mind seeing to an extra person but he tried to make such requests as easy as possible on the elderly woman.

The guestroom had the shades pulled but there was still enough ambient light that he could see. Kerry was curled up on her side, covered with blankets. The room itself wasn't cold so that worried him, as did the dots of perspiration on her forehead. A fever meant an infection, and an infection meant a trip back to the hospital regardless of how much somebody protested. Hansel was lying at the foot of the bed. The dog got up, to be petted, and Robert obliged him with a few pats. The dog went back to its post by the bed. He whined and put his head on the bed. Robert gave the dog another pat. The housekeeper was right about Hansel. Whenever anyone was sick, the dog was right there. Gretl on the other hand had already trotted back to the kitchen for more scraps.

" You're a good boy, " he said to the dog. Then, he flicked on the light on the nightstand by the bed. There were a few house rules that he had gone over with Kerry, and one of them was eating. His house was a home, not a hospital, and his housekeeper wasn't a nurse. Missing one meal wouldn't kill Kerry but she couldn't keep skipping. It wasn't healthy. He gently touched her shoulder. " Kerry, we need to talk. I need to check on you."

" Mmmmm later," Kerry muttered. She pulled the pillow she was lying on closer to her.

" No, no, we have to talk now." Rotten patient, he thought suddenly. " You need to answer some questions, have some dinner, and maybe engage in meaningful political discussion."

Slowly, she opened her eyes. " I'm not really hungry."

" Well, you have to eat. Are you feeling nauseous?" He had brought some supplies for just that eventuality.

She nodded slightly. " My stomach's been a little upset. I've been drinking water though. A few glasses this morning, a few this afternoon... I checked my temperature too. It's been normal all day. I just feel like there's a giant jackhammer going off in my head." She slowly pulled herself up into a seated position on the bed, " Your dog has been staring at me all day. "

Hansel thumped his tail appreciatively and whined again. " He just likes you. " Robert said. "Usually he bites. You know, you're allowed some painkillers. I did prescribe them." He wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't taken them.

She shook her head. " I took some this morning. It didn't help the headache and it just made me feel more dizzy and nauseous." She pulled the covers up around herself. " I've felt cold all day. I think it's just me. I know the heat's on."

" For what its worth, you sound more coherent tonight." Robert said cheerily. " Why don't we run through a neuro test and see if you can score higher than a chimpanzee?" She glared at him, but didn't protest any of his questions. It was another rule he had insisted on. The last thing he wanted was to have a house guest fall into a coma or worse. Plus, if she wasn't showing any improvement in short term memory or cognitive skills, it was something that would require hospitalization again. He wasn't playing games on that point. Fortunately, she did fairly well, getting everything correct even though it did take her some thought to answer the time related questions. " So at least you know where you are and what day it is. Here's how the rest of the evening is going to go. I'm going to give you some compazine in an IV. Then you're going to eat the wonderful chicken soup Rebecca is making for you. If you're good, maybe you can have some ice cream."

" What about the meaningful political discussion? Or are we going to combine that with the ice cream?" There was a touch of pique in her voice. She was clearly trying to not be annoyed with him. " You did wake me up for that."

" After the compazine, and dinner." Since the drug would likely make her drowsy, it was a safe agreement." He left and then returned with the medical supplies. " You know, the police are going to come by tomorrow to get your statement." He prepped her arm for the IV as he spoke.

Kerry sighed. " Great. I look like hell. Was it really necessary to shave a third of my head?"

" Well, we could have just let you die," Robert said as he set the IV into place. " Besides, you look better with short hair. I thought you looked very attractive with that short cut you had a few years back."

" That's about the only type of cut I can get to look decent now. That's two years of hair growth out the window. When are the police coming?"

" They said around noon. Kerry, do you remember what happened to you?" He didn't want to screw with her memory, but Robert had to admit he was honestly curious as to what had happened. The whole hospital was filled to the brim with rumors about the multiple attacks. Everyone knew that Mark Greene had smacked her around in the ER, but there was much discussion over what exactly had happened in the parking garage. He knew it hadn't been Malucci, the police had cleared the young man, but as far as the staff was concerned, Malucci was still public enemy number one. Robert had his own suspicions about what had happened, but he knew enough to not lead her on

After a long moment, she shook her head. " Everything I remember seems... out of sequence." She looked down at her hands nervously.

Robert eyed her carefully. Up until that point, their entire conversation had been calm, if somewhat detached on Kerry's part. He made allowances for her being a little logy from sleep, and a head injury, and the compazine probably wasn't helping, but she had gotten tense. Tense and nervous. It meant something. He just didn't know what. " What do you remember?"

" I don't remember being shot...." Her voice grew soft and hesitant. " I remember I was sitting in my car, looking at some blood on my hand, and I just couldn't figure why it was there.... I remember that Mark was yelling at me... Something about hating me, wishing he'd never hired me... Somebody pulled my rings off and I tried to stop him..." She was starting to grow pale. " Then I remember it was raining and I was so cold, all I could think was getting inside.... And I was looking at Luka and I knew I knew who he was but I couldn't remember who he was... Mark was almost screaming at me over being late...." She shook it off after a moment. " I don't think I saw who hit me."

" Maybe you didn't." Robert said. He had his doubts. However he didn't want to push it. He'd dealt with enough assault cases to know that the police generally got upset when ideas were given to victims. He knew, from Kovac, Chuny and Randi, that Mark's fit of anger had been entirely about how late Kerry had been. There had been nothing about Mark's general dislike of Kerry. She could have hallucinated some of it, but he wanted the police to judge her story before he jumped to the obvious conclusion. " So, how do we have a political discussion involving ice cream?"

" Republicans are vanilla. Democrats are chocolate. I think you can identify any major political group by ice cream type," Kerry said seriously.

" Libertarians?"

" French vanilla."

" Left wing extremists?"

" Fudge ripple." She smiled. " Any more?"

" Environmentalists?"

" Pistachio...its green you know."

" Gay rights activists?"

She rolled her eyes. " Rainbow sherbet. "

Part 9

Carter took a deep breath as he approached the desk. Elizabeth was there, and Luka, and Susan, and he was tired of the rampant hostility in the ER. Yes, he was angry about what had happened to Kerry Weaver. He wasn't ashamed to say that he liked the woman. She had been good to him, and more forgiving than he had any right to expect. At the same time, he thought people were jumping to some pretty big conclusions about what had happened. The rumor mill had declared Malucci innocent, and people were starting to point fingers at Mark Greene. He wasn't really sure how he felt about that.

Mark had been increasingly temperamental since his brain surgery. Temperamental and quick to make life-altering decisions about the patients, and Carter had been worried about the man. He knew Susan had been worried. Certainly Mark shouldn't have put his hands on Kerry. Carter had made a point of seeing the x-rays. It was possible that Mark had fractured her skull and Carter suspected that regardless of what Kerry told the police, Mark was probably out of a job.

He hadn't seen it happen, so he could only form opinions based on what others had seen. Luka had been angry beyond belief. Granted, Luka had one hell of a temper and wasn't afraid to let everyone know it, but Luka also generally made it a point to not get involved in Mark and Kerry's power struggle. Elizabeth, after some initial protest, had gotten very quiet on the matter. It concerned him. Elizabeth had always been quick to defend Mark. And Susan had been upset. That was where Carter really started to worry. Yes, Susan was a close friend with Mark, but Susan was also pretty level headed. Susan also had almost no affection at all for Kerry. That Susan was coming down on Kerry's side was bad.

Now wait a minute, he told himself as he took up position at the desk, you don't know if there's a side to be on. Mark was wrong to shake Kerry but in reality, there was no way to prove that Mark had injured her. Everything that physically hurt Kerry could have happened in the parking garage. That there was probably more than just physical damage seemed obvious to Carter. He knew Kerry well enough to know that her signing herself out AMA two days earlier was a sign of something wrong. He had, at Luka's request, gone over to Kerry's house but there was no one there. She had friends outside the hospital, he had met a few, but he didn't know how to contact them. He had called Jeanie, but she hadn't known where Kerry was. She hadn't even known that Kerry had been hurt and she had promised to call if she heard anything. He had considered calling the police at that point, but Robert Romano had put a stop to that, declaring that he knew exactly where Kerry was and that there was no need to worry. Carter wasn't sure why, but he believed the man.

Regardless, there was really nothing to suggest that Mark had done anything more than miss injuries and shake Kerry too hard. He wanted to be fair. He also wanted to believe that Mark hadn't done something as awful as attack Kerry in the parking garage. He still had his doubts. Mark was very anti-gun and didn't own any weapons. On the other hand, Mark had been raised on military bases and probably had some knowledge of weaponry.

He put it aside. " Hey guys, " he said pleasantly. " It's slow today... That's been nice." It had been nice. Without Mark or Kerry the ER was constantly busy even with just normal patient load. A light day meant that they could breathe a little.

" I know, " Susan said brightly. " It's a slow day. I was thinking of going out for coffee after my shift. Do you want to come with me?" She smiled at him. Carter smiled back. Since Susan had returned, their relationship had been different. He liked it.

The phone rang as he started to answer and Elizabeth picked it up. He suspected that she was waiting for a call, and as he watched her react to the call, he could see that it was bad news. " All right, " she said briskly, " I'll be right down. Do I need to bring cash or will a check be fine? Don't shout at me, Mark. I'm not the one who got into this mess. Now what's your lawyer's number? I'll call him and make an appointment... Yes, I will be right down." She hung the phone up and looked at them. " I need to leave. Mark needs me to pick him up at the 45th Precinct."

" Has he been arrested?" Luka asked casually. Carter found it almost funny that Luka seemed to expect an arrest.

Elizabeth glared at him. " Yes, " she snapped. " For what happened here the other day. The police have decided that his shaking Kerry constitutes assault. I have to go post bail for him." She stomped away. Carter was struck by how worried she looked. Elizabeth had the look of someone who had seen everything go to hell in a matter of seconds. She also looked like she expected things to get a lot worse.

" Well, " Carter said awkwardly, " I guess they cleared him on the garage assault, if they aren't arresting him for it."

" Or they don't have enough evidence." Luka muttered. Carter thought that was a little low. He didn't say anything though. Luka hadn't exactly said he thought Mark was guilty but Carter knew the man wasn't happy about what had happened. Susan clearly didn't have any restraint on discussing it. Her eyes were flashing with anger.

" That's not fair. Why on earth would Mark want to intentionally hurt Kerry? She's not that bad. And he's not crazy or violent. " Susan paused. " I think he lost his temper the other day. That's not OK to me, but that doesn't mean he tried to kill her in the parking garage."

" That doesn't mean he didn't either," Luka said easily. The tall doctor continued thumbing through his stack of paperwork.

" What would his motive be? I mean really, what good does it do him?" Susan pressed.

" Maybe he snapped," Luka said casually. " I don't know." He frowned at his papers. " I don't know how Kerry does this job without an office."

" She has an office," Carter said helpfully. He never understood why no one knew that. " She doesn't hang out there all day but she has a real office. It even has her name on the door. It's on the second floor. I can show you if you want."

Luka looked at him wearily. " Really, I just need a quiet place to spread this stuff out. You don't think she'd mind?"

" No. I think that's why she uses it. Come on. I'll show you." Carter stepped away from the desk.

Susan followed him, as did Luka. " I just want to see this office, " she said, her eyes sparkling. " You know, delve into the twisted psyche of Kerry Weaver."

" It's just an office, Susan." Carter said as the three of them got into the elevator.

" Oh come on, haven't you ever wondered what she is like when she's not here?" Susan pressed. " I've always pictured her having an apartment filled with glass knickknacks that she dusts as a hobby."

Carter felt his jaw tighten. " Susan, that's not fair. I lived at her house. It's a very warm, inviting place. The woman has hobbies, and if she chose not to share them with you, its because you two never got along. "

Susan jumped to the most interesting tidbit. " When did you live with Kerry Weaver?" She said it in the same tone that she might ask him where he found all the porn on the Internet.

" I lived there for about a year when I was being disowned by my family." Carter let the irritation he was feeling show in her voice. " She didn't charge me rent. It was very nice of her, and she's normally a pretty nice person when she's not at work."

" But were you, you know..." Susan grinned to let him know that she was joking, " intimate?"

" I lived in the basement. She lived on the first floor. We didn't meet." Carter tried not to sound too annoyed. Susan was teasing after all, and he didn't sense any real malice.

" You mean you didn't meet except in the sadomasochistic love dungeon, right?" Susan smirked as she spoke.

" The sadomasochistic tendencies were mine not hers. Maybe later I'll introduce you to my pet whips." That managed to get a chuckle out of both Susan and Luka and seemed to divert the subject as well. Carter was glad. He wasn't that private about his life, but he knew Kerry was, and she wouldn't appreciate Susan knowing anything about how she lived. Besides, they were about to ransack her office. He didn't think it was necessary to go any further.

The three doctors left the elevator and strode down the hallway. Carter had only been in Kerry's office a few times but he remembered exactly where it was. It was David Morganstern's old office, and deep down, he thought it was funny that Susan didn't realize it. Susan had, from what he heard spent her fair share of time there, being counseled and encouraged. He gestured to the door. " See, it even has her name on it."

Luka tried the knob. " It's locked." He sighed. Then he handed his pile of papers to Susan. " For the record, I'm doing this because if I don't get some quiet, I will go crazy." He withdrew a credit card from his jacket pocket. With a practiced slide, he unlocked the door. He then tried the knob again and opened the door.

The office was pretty much just like it always was. Kerry had a neat fetish, he had learned that from living with her, but it was more of a " everything must be exactly where I want it" thing, not an issue of needing everything polished and shiny. Aside from that it looked no different than anyone else's office. There was a file on top of her desk that seemed out of place at first, but then Carter remembered her habit of leaving the first thing she wanted to handle in the morning out on the desk so she could get started on it. A little anal, maybe, but he'd always gotten the impression that Kerry had to work for every ounce of organization she had. It was like a Jenga puzzle. Pull just one piece out and the whole thing collapsed.

Luka went straight to the desk and set down his papers. He picked up the file that was on the desk and started thumbing through it. Susan looked around the office, at the small, impersonal institutional couch up against the wall that was obviously meant for conferences that Kerry didn't have the diplomas on the wall, the few pictures. Susan stopped at one, obviously amused. " If those are her parents, I have got to assume that she was adopted. Look at them."

Carter grinned." She is adopted, Susan." He had seen pictures of Kerry's parents before, and Susan had a point. It was amusing to think that two brown eyed, black haired, tall, heavyset people had a petite, fair child, but it wasn't really very likely. He turned his attention back to Luka who was puzzling over the files. " Find anything good?"

" Give me a moment..." Luka muttered. He read for a few more moments and then looked up at Carter, obviously worried. " Does Kerry have an appointment book?"

" Do you think she could exist without one?" Susan asked with a laugh.

" It's in the top drawer...." Carter felt a sudden concern as Luka started opening the drawers. " You know, it wasn't my intent to just let you guys ransack her office. Susan, what are you doing?"

Susan closed the filing cabinet she was pawing through. " You know, she keeps bags of peanut butter cups in here. They're underneath a file marked "Doug Ross". Do you think that's some sort of weird attempt at deterrent?"

Carter had to smile at that. His smile turned into a frown as he took in Luka's concerned look. " What is it, Luka?"

Luka gestured to the file on the desk, and the black leather appointment book he had discovered. " Kerry had an appointment with Mark the morning after she was hurt. She made a note that she had called him and confirmed the meeting. She also put "discuss Fossen" in the note. And this is the Fossen file. She's made notes in the margin. I think she wanted to ask him about it."

" Fossen... the guy that shot up all those kids, and Adele," Susan said softly. " He told me that the guy had planned on killing Elizabeth and Ella."

" Mark was alone with him in that elevator, and the file suggests his role in helping the man was less than..." Luka stopped. " I'm not sure what the right word is. Less than good?"

" Less than helpful." Carter said. He didn't like it. He had thought the same thing himself, but something had stopped him from pushing it, In truth, he didn't want to know what Mark did. Deep down, he doubted Kerry wanted to know either. Given a choice between a hard ugly truth, and a reasonable lie, he knew what Kerry would choose. She would ask Mark a few questions that he could easily avoid. She could then put it with all the other ugly things that she ignored. Like how Elizabeth wished death upon her, or the humiliating crap that Dave had put her through. She didn't want to deal with the notion that Mark killed someone.

But Mark might not have understood that. The idea that Kerry would call him and ask to talk about the Fossen case, without trying to nail him for murder would never occur to Mark. He would assume that she was after him. Carter could see the same thoughts come to Luka and Susan. They had a problem.

The problem was that not only did Mark have a history of violence towards Kerry, now he had a motive.

Part 10

" I didn't want him arrested." Kerry said. She toyed with her plate of pasta. Even though she was feeling much better, her appetite hadn't returned in force and Robert's news made her stomach flip flop with tension. " I told the police I didn't intend to press charges. Why would they arrest him if I wasn't going to press charges?" It bothered her.

Robert smirked at her, which also bothered her. He rested his elbows on the heavy oak dining room table and leaned in. " They don't need your permission, Kerry. They have enough evidence to prosecute him without your testimony. They've got three witnesses who saw him hit your head into the wall, and medical evidence. And besides..." His voice trailed off. " Never mind."

" What?" Kerry's eyes narrowed. Robert Romano was an excellent liar and concealer of the truth, but he had said too much. " What do you mean?"

He shook his head, and picked up his wineglass. " It's nothing. You know, your hair does look much better now that you've cut it. In a few weeks it'll be hard to tell that I shaved your head."

That only made her more suspicious. " I'm not a five year old, Robert. You're not going to distract me with compliments. Next you'll be offering me candy."

" Rebecca made chocolate cake. It's quite good. It's one of the reasons that I keep her around." Robert smiled as he spoke.

For a moment, she was disarmed. Robert could be very charming in his way, and she had to admit that he had been surprisingly courteous. He was trying to weasel away from what he said, but it was from concern and that made her feel good. It had been a while since anyone had shown much concern for her. On the other hand, she had been out of the loop for a few days. It felt good to not worry about what was going on, but she was starting to feel well enough to also feel anxious. " What's going on?"

He sipped his wine. " You know, there's certain things that the police asked me not to discuss with you. You don't remember what happened clearly. I don't want to taint your memory of what happened."

" Is this something that I'm going to find out when I go back to work tomorrow?" she asked pleasantly.

" Of course. I suspect a minimum of at least five people will delight in asking you about it. However there's no way in hell you're going to work tomorrow. Five days isn't going to cut it. You feel fine now, when you're sitting around reading my heavy tomes of literature, and basking in my saintly presence, but running around in that zoo you call a workplace is out. You're not going to work for at least two weeks. Unless, of course, you've found employment elsewhere, and you haven't been up for job interviews have you?"

He was diverting her, she knew that, but she couldn't let it pass." I'll go back to work when I want."

" You'll go back when you're cleared by your physician and that's me." He smirked again." You're not going back to work until I am positive that you're not going to collapse during a trauma. Besides Kerry, it does everyone some good. You haven't taken time off in ages. It does the underlings good to work on their own occasionally. You hold everything too close. You could load some of the drudgework onto Kovac. He won't bitch. Not only does he like you and appreciate you, he's the sort that likes to be busy. It wouldn't hurt to abuse your chief resident either. Get the two of them trained as your substitute. That's what I do with Elizabeth. Why else do you think I keep her around?"

" You want to have sex with her, Robert. It's obvious that's why you keep her around." She considered what he had said. " It's not a bad idea. Kovac does like to work. I used to depend on Mark for that sort of thing but ever since his diagnosis, I've tried to not put too much pressure on him. And what about Mark? You're going to have to tell me what you mean." She didn't plan on letting him get off the hook. Yes, she still had a throbbing headache, and deep down she knew that she wasn't ready to go back to work, but she was well enough to hear whatever it was that he was hiding.

Robert leaned back in his chair and pushed his plate away. " The police think Mark might be the one that shot you. Based on what you've told me, I think they're on the right track. "

" What?" Somehow that was the last thing that had ever occurred to her. " Why would Mark do that? Why would anyone think that?"

" I don't know why he would shoot you, aside from your abrasive personality problems, but I know why I think he did shoot you." Robert said it so matter of factly, she was stunned into silence. He gestured expansively around the dining room. " Kerry, you told me that Mark yelled at you about how much he hated you. Knowing what a prick Greene can be, I didn't think anything of it until I talked to Luka Kovac."

" You talked to Luka? About me?" She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

" He asked about you actually." He hesitated, as if he was not quite sure what to say. " I asked him what happened that day, what Mark said to you. According to him, all Mark did was yell about how late you were." He waited for her to respond.

" But... I remember what he said..." Because it had hurt. She had always liked Mark, respected him. When they had first met, he had taken a chance in hiring her. She wasn't deaf, she knew there had been an excellent in-house candidate. Mark hadn't made himself very popular, but she had appreciated getting a chance. There weren't many people that would take a chance on hiring an emergency room doctor that couldn't walk without a crutch. Fewer that would put a handicapped doctor in the position of chief resident. She was grateful to him. They had their differences, she understood his anger over the competency hearing even if she didn't agree, but when push came to shove, she liked Mark. To hear him say such things, it had stung her to the very core of her soul. It had hurt even worse than the gunshot wounds. He had been shouting at her, she had been bleeding, and his words had hurt worse. " Oh god... oh my god, it was Mark..." She felt like she couldn't breathe. " What did I do?"

In seconds, Robert was at her side. " Don't hold your breath. You'll get dizzy. Take a few short breaths, and try to relax. " He put his arms around her and held her against the violent tremors that had suddenly come over her. " Listen to me, Kerry. You didn't do anything to Mark. You've treated him the way any competent administrator would, with respect and dignity but not with disregard to his illness. He has no right to be angry with you. He had no right to put his hands on you. He had no right to shoot you. It doesn't matter what you think you did to him. The only thing I can think is that he's had some sort of relapse." His words were soft and gentle, and he said them with the same sort of intensity that he did when in an argument.

" You don't understand..." Her voice trailed off. It was hard to think between the headache and the tears she was struggling against. " I know... I know what he was thinking. I was looking through the Fossen file. It worried me... I just wanted to ask him about it. It didn't look right. I've seen him pull people through with fewer injuries before. I just wanted to know what happened... because it didn't look right. I thought maybe... maybe he hadn't done as much as he should have." She stopped, taking comfort in his strong hold. " I just needed to know if I had to watch him. There's no way to prove anything... and god knows no one would back me if I went after him. No one was upset when that man died. I wasn't. I knew there wasn't really anything I could do... I just wanted to warn him. It couldn't happen again. We've already had too many dead patients this year because of error and angels of death." She wiped her eyes. " I screwed up."

" Why? Because you were concerned? " He looked at her, his face filled with concern. " So you asked him to talk, and he shot in the parking garage and left you for dead. When you dragged yourself in to the hospital, he slammed your head into a wall." He smiled at her, obviously trying to reassure her. " I think that proves that you were right to be concerned. He's obviously flipped."

" You don't understand." Kerry said. There was no way Robert could understand, to her way of thinking. Robert lived in a world that revolved around him and woe to whoever got in his way. He could yank Mark out of the ER and publicly defame the man, and nothing would happen. Sure, people would grumble, but there would be no real backlash for him to face. She was already dreading her return to work. It had been bad when she had recommended Mark's competency testing. Bad was a coworker shrieking her hate at the admit desk. Kerry couldn't imagine the anger she would have to field and from more than just Elizabeth Corday. The snickers and glares from everyone after Malucci outed her had been awful. She wasn't stupid. She knew who the villain would be and it wouldn't be Mark.

Robert eyed her carefully. " Kerry, do you even understand that you're not the bad guy here? Mark tried to kill you. Whether his brain tumor has exploded or what, you're not the bitch here. No one thinks that. People have been concerned about you. Do you know Susan Lewis called me when you signed out AMA? Your desk clerk Randi searched Doc Magoo's for you. That nitwit Malucci not only chased after you, but he's nosing around trying to figure out what happened, and you were the one that fired him. Kovac and Carter have been pestering me on the hour to know where you are. Even the nurses in your department are concerned. That Hispanic nurse, Chuny whatever, even made it a point of talking to the police over what she had witnessed, and I heard she used to screw Mark. If you think you're going to be treated like a piece of shit out of misplaced loyalty, guess again. No one that you work with thinks that you had it coming. Everyone thinks it was wrong for Mark to hit you."

" You know what, Robert? I just don't believe you." It was a struggle not to cry. She couldn't imagine what he was describing. It had been ages since she even felt welcome at her job, let alone felt like anyone gave a damn.

" OK... How about this? I don't think it was right, what Mark did. You did not deserve it. If I could get away with it, I would beat him senseless." He spoke softly, but the vehemence in his voice made her flinch. He straightened himself up from the awkward position he had been in, and pulled her up into his arms. " Kerry, listen to me very carefully. You are a good person. You do not deserve to be hurt. You're a decent human being who makes mistakes just like everyone else. Sometimes you do rotten things. Sometimes you do good things. Welcome to the club. Its called being human. Some of us are better at it than others. Considering that you must've been raised in some dark closet as part of some twisted psychological experiment, you're not doing too badly. Not as well as I, but I am as near as perfection as a human being can get."

She couldn't help but laugh, as she disentangled herself from him. " Somehow I never pictured you as perfection, Robert."

" And you probably never pictured yourself that way either, and that's part of your problem. You think the worst of yourself all the time, and you assume everyone else does too. I normally don't care since its not my problem. However, since I have a ringside seat to your disintegration, I get to comment. If you take nothing else away from this, please take these thoughts. Number one, you are an attractive, intelligent woman and you are ten times better than what you ever give yourself credit for. I would not have brought here, to my house, if I did not think of you in a positive way." He pulled her back into an embrace and held her close. " Number two, there's always going to be people who look down on you. Screw them. They don't know you. They don't know what kind of person you are."

" And what kind of person am I?" For the first time in a long time, she didn't think she was inviting abuse. There was something very safe about how she felt, being held by Robert.

He chuckled slightly. " You obviously haven't been listening. You are a good person, Kerry. You do stupid things and you take every insult and barb and nasty comment to heart, even if you don't show it, and that's where your little downward spiral of depression starts. You don't let things go. That can be good, because it makes you determined, but it can be bad because it makes you hold grudges and take revenge long after everyone else has let whatever happened go. I mean really Kerry, what did Doug Ross ever do to you? It have to have been good, to have pissed you off as much as it did."

" He said I was lucky because I could fill the cripple quota at any hospital and that it must be nice to never need to work to get a job." The truth was that Robert was right. That rude, ignorant comment and the hurt it had caused had stayed with her for years and had never really left her.

" What is especially nice is that not only do you fill the quota, but you're actually good at the job." Robert snickered. " With you covering the homo angle too, and Peter Benton being black, I've got all the required bases covered."

She pushed him away and started to pace around the dining room. " Robert, do you know how hard it is to be taken seriously?"

" Do you know that you worry too much?" he countered. " If people think something, does that make it true? What if everyone knew you slept with women? What do you honestly think would happen? The city would tremble with earthquakes? Honestly, I think getting some might improve your temperament. You're getting away from my point any way."

" And that was?"

" You have shitty self esteem and deep down you don't think you're good at anything or good enough for anyone to love. If nothing else, you should see a therapist after this." He smirked at her.

It made her suddenly angry. " I need a therapist? Who the hell do you think you are, saying that to me? You're a forty-five year old man with a British nanny taking care of you."

" For starters, she's Irish, not British." Robert grinned. " And the difference between you and I is that it wouldn't bother me if everyone knew. You on the other hand are probably cringing at the fact that people might find out you've been staying here."

" You're wrong, " she said, returning the grin." No one would believe you."

" Well, what they wouldn't believe is that we didn't screw," he said. " We are a rumored couple, you know. Its evidently part of our combined machievellian scheme to rule the world." He paused, his expression growing thoughtful. " Its too bad you're into girls. I can't blame you, it's my preference too, but it's too bad. I always thought you'd be an interesting partner."
" Interesting how?" That was interesting. She had never sensed that from him, but she was willing to admit that she could have missed it. And, a voice inside chimed, you do find him attractive. Not in the same way as Kim, or Ellis, or even her late husband, but there was... something. As much as she didn't want to, she could feel a blush rising on her cheeks.

" You like to cover up the fact that you're passionate. I bet you're hot in bed." His eyes glittered. " And I like the chick thing. It means I could bring someone extra home, and we'd both have a good time." He shook his head suddenly, as if realizing he had said too much. " Think about it. You ever want to test out the bisexual thing, you let me know. Right now we have to call the police."

" What?" She was too startled to follow his train of thought. She was still hearing what he had said first. It was startling... and yet intriguing. Somehow, the possibility of liking both men and women never crossed her mind. That and the notion that Robert found her attractive. Robert, the man that only dated models, was baldly stating his interest. It shocked her.

" We have to call the police. Mark shot you. He might be dangerous to others. If he went crazy on you, he might act out on Elizabeth. She's been less than pleasant to be around lately."

" And Mark's kids... Rachel and Ella." Kerry felt cold inside.

" Exactly." Robert picked up the phone. " I'll call the cops. Why don't you look through the phone book? Once I'm done we'll get you an appointment with a nice shrink. A guy shrink. I don't want you to sleep with this one."

Part 11

She had to know. She couldn't ignore it. As much as she wanted to think that everything was all right, Elizabeth knew it wasn't. Mark had been more than just a little moody and it had only gotten worse in the last few months. There was something wrong. Her only hope was that she was badly misinterpreting everything that she had seen and heard. The problem was that in order to be wrong, she had to find out if she was right.

The ER was slow. That made it easier to find the person she was looking for. Carter could have helped her. That went without saying and in some ways he was the better choice, but she couldn't risk it. If she was right, then she wanted to get Mark some help, not have him locked up in some mental hospital for the rest of his life. Carter had a lot of loyalty to both Mark and Kerry. She couldn't risk talking to him when she didn't know what side he would fall on.

" Susan," she said as she approached the admit desk, " I need your help with something. Do you have a few minutes?"

Susan flinched at her words. She must think I'm going to yell at her, Elizabeth thought. They had gotten off on the wrong foot, and it was due to her, not Susan. She had viewed Susan as competition, not seeing anything but a rumored girlfriend returning. Susan had done nothing to deserve her suspicion. She had even kept Mark at arms length in an obvious attempt to show that she wasn't interested. And, Elizabeth thought, I was too jealous to see that they're just close friends.

Susan looked at her, her expression intent. " Do you have a patient? I thought we'd covered everything down here for the last few hours."

" No, it's personal. Why don't we go into the lounge?" What Elizabeth had in mind was not something that she wanted to do at the desk, underneath the prying eyes of Randi. Susan followed her into the lounge and they both sat down at the small, rickety table.

" So what is it?" Susan asked. Worry and concern suddenly leapt into her eyes. " Is this about Mark? How is he doing?"

" He's all right, but this is about Mark." Elizabeth reached into her purse and withdrew the ziploc bag of jewelry that she had retrieved from the van earlier in the day. " I found this in Mark's car. I was wondering if you recognized this jewelry?"

Susan opened the bag hesitantly and withdrew the small items. She examined them carefully, and Elizabeth could see the dawning understanding come to her face. The woman finished her exam, carefully setting down the last piece, a watch, onto the table. " Elizabeth, " she said softly, " I don't know how to tell you this..."

" Just say it, " Elizabeth said quickly.

Susan picked up the watch and held it in her hand. " This is Kerry Weaver's jewelry. I don't recognize some of it, but this watch... yes. I remember when she got it. I saw her wearing it one day, and I liked it so I asked her about it. I was thinking of getting one myself, but this... " She turned it over and showed the back of the watchcase to Elizabeth. " It was her mother's watch. See the date engraved? That's the date of her parent's first wedding anniversary. Her father gave it to her mother. Her mother gave it to her when she became an attending. She even said she felt a little awkward accepting it, but her mom insisted so wearing it was the least she could do." Susan grinned. " It was a rare pleasant moment with Kerry. That's why I remember it so well. Elizabeth, why do you think Mark had it in his car?"

" I don't know..." Elizabeth felt cold inside. Susan knew the answer to her own question, Elizabeth was sure of that. She gave the other woman credit for not saying it out loud. She took the jewelry back and returned it to the plastic bag. " Well, I need to talk to Mark." She stood up. She had to do it soon, or else she wouldn't do it at all, she knew that. She was already dreading it. Why couldn't I have been wrong, she thought?

Susan also rose. She looked worried. " Elizabeth, are you doing this tonight? Talking to Mark, I mean?"

" I don't see why I should wait. We need to talk about this."

" Well, call me after you do. In fact, just call me tonight. It's seven o'clock now. I'd really appreciate if you called me at ten." Susan looked at her with concern. Elizabeth was strangely touched.

" Sure. Don't worry if I miss the time though. This might take some time." Elizabeth sighed. Somehow she had a feeling it was going to take the whole night and then some.

" Elizabeth, be careful." Susan gestured to the bag of jewelry. " You know what that has to mean."

" There has to be a reasonable explanation," Elizabeth said. The problem was that she couldn't think of any reasonable explanation for it.

~*~

The gun stank of powder. He knew the smell of burnt gunpowder, its bitter metallic stink, like a roll of caps banged on the sidewalk at once, only somehow more real. The scent of gunpowder was a memory from his childhood. His father hadn't been the type of sailor that rolled around in the mud with a gun, but he could remember the days when his father would come home from a day of qualifying with a rifle. His work jacket and hands would reek of gunpowder, and he'd generally be in a bad mood, muttering about all the young kids that didn't know their rifle from their ass.

The problem, Mark thought slowly, was that the gun smelled like it had been fired. He hadn't even remembered the gun existed until he had started cleaning out the boxes that had sat in the garage since they had moved in. The garage had been filled with things that hadn't found their way into the home for one reason or another. He had decided that if he had to be home all day, that he would finally get the garage cleared out. He had started early that afternoon but hadn't made much headway, between the baby crying and his own lack of enthusiasm. He had a pounding headache for starters. He tried to not place that much importance on it. People got headaches, even people with brain tumors, and they didn't mean anything other than perhaps a bad day or too much stress. He'd been under a lot of stress lately. Yet, he couldn't shake the notion that the brain tumor had come back. Then he had found a number of the boxes disturbed, as though someone had gone through them. He was planning on talking to Rachel about it once she got home from doing her homework at a friend's house. If she wanted some of her grandfather's things, of course she could have them, but all she had to do was ask.

The gun worried him. It had been sitting on top of a pile of old uniforms in one of the boxes. He remembered the gun, of course. For a brief time in his early adolescence, he had entertained the idea of becoming some sort of military man. It had pleased his father, and they had spent many Saturday mornings target shooting. It wasn't exactly his gun, it was his father's but he had used it often enough to know it. He'd become a fair shot after all the practice, but he'd never gotten the hang of a higher caliber and his interest in it waned after a few months. He hadn't seen the old .22 pistol since he was fourteen and he had assumed that his father had sold it. It was strange that it was even there. It wasn't something his father had mentioned having or bringing with him. It was even stranger to find it out in the garage, in a state that suggested it had been fired recently. There were loaded clips in the box. He pulled out the clip from the gun, noting that it was only half full. He replaced the used clip with one of the full ones. Then he twirled the gun casually.

The garage door started to rise and he instinctively shoved the gun into his belt and covered it with his shirt. Elizabeth didn't like guns. She didn't like anything to do with guns and he didn't want an argument. He had already put her through enough in the last week. He felt bad enough. Elizabeth catching him holding a gun would probably give her a stroke from anger.

Elizabeth honked the horn at him and he quickly stepped out of the way so she could park. She looked worried, but he thought that was par for the course. Elizabeth had been looking worried for a while. She got out of the car, an unreadable expression on her face. " Mark, what are you doing out here?"

" I was just cleaning the garage. There's still a lot of stuff out here
from the move." Mark said. " Don't worry. Rachel is watching Ella and I have checked on both of them every half hour." He hoped she wasn't going to be upset. A quiet evening would be nice for a change.

" That's fine," she said after a moment. " Listen, are you almost done? I thought that we should talk. You know, about the legal hearings. And... maybe a few other things."

Her words made him nervous. " Sure. I'll get everything taken care of here and join you." He waited until she walked into the house to let out the breath he was holding. She was worried, he could see that, but she was also angry. He was worried too. He was worried that she was thinking about divorce. Getting arrested for assault was a great way to ruin a marriage. Elizabeth would put up with a lot, she had stayed with him through a brain tumor, but a part of him worried that she wouldn't stay with him through the latest crisis. Nothing would convince him that he had done more than touch Kerry, that he was certain of. Kerry hadn't even wanted to press charges. He didn't know what more Elizabeth wanted. It made him angry, really.

He forced the thoughts away as he grabbed the doorknob. It didn't help, he realized with surprise. The anger rolled over him and it was though red lightning bolts of rage blotted out his vision.

Part 12

Something was wrong. Elizabeth could see it in his eyes. Mark was angry. He was covering it well, but he was mad. It had happened between the time she had spoken to him in the garage and now, a period of about five minutes. He'd been acting oddly in the garage, like she had caught him looking at pornagraphy. She wished that he had been looking at porn. That was much more normal than shooting someone.

" What did you want, Elizabeth?" he asked as he took a seat at the kitchen table. He looked concerned but she could still see the tension surrounding him.

" I wanted to talk about this whole business." She wanted to give him a chance. A chance to explain, maybe a chance to come clean. He'd done it, she accepted that, but she wasn't sure if he really understood that he'd done something wrong. Mark had denied everything, even shaking Kerry, and had only backed away from his declaration of complete innocence when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He had backed down from his innocence, but his story was that he hadn't shaken her hard enough to hurt her. Elizabeth didn't believe him. Luka was a biased witness, and to a certain Randi was also, but Chuny liked Mark, and Elizabeth had overheard Chuny telling several of the other nurses that she had been shocked by what Mark did. With the evidence that she had, the jewelry in particular, she was positive that Mark had shot Kerry. He had shot her, and then he had left her for dead. Yet... except for just then, she had never seen enough anger in his eyes to warrant the level of violence he had committed. She had a feeling that he might have attacked Kerry while in some sort of altered state. He might even truly believe that he hadn't done it. He could have done it all and not even know it. The tumor had come back, she decided. Or else the brain surgery and the chemo wafers were causing him to act irrationally. He needed help. He also needed to listen to her, because she sensed that sooner or later someone was going to figure it out. She had a feeling Mark's time had grown short, and now the only real question was where he was going to spend the rest of his life. She didn't want that time to be in jail. She wanted him to get help. She pulled the ziploc bag of jewelry out of her purse and set it on the table.

" Mark, Racheal found this in the van, in thye glove compartment. I want to know how it got there." She pushed it over to him.

He picked up the bag and peered at it. " Where did Racheal get this? The van? I don't know what it is."

Part 13

Elizabeth felt frozen in place. " Mark, you don't need to point a gun at me. I'm not against you. I just don't want you to go to jail. Shooting Malucci won't help at all." She waited a long, trembling moment. Mark didn't lower the gun, but after a moment he turned his attention back to the young man on the floor.

" What are you doing here?" He asked Malucci. " Why are you spying on me?"

She could almost see the witty, smart ass remark rise up in Dave's thoughts and she gave him a quick warning glance. Mark wasn't likely to appreciate any comments. Finally Dave said, " You know why, Dr. Greene. You're not acting right. I was worried about you and I was worried about Elizabeth." He carefully avoided mentioning the girls, Elizabeth realized. She mentally said thanks. There was no telling what Mark would do if Rachel wandered back into the kitchen. There was also no telling what would happen if Mark remembered that the girls were in the house. She was positive that Malucci had gotten them out, so at least Rachel and the baby were safe.

" I'm fine," Mark said after a moment.

" Sure, " Dave agreed cheerily. Somehow that seemed to set Mark off. She could see the anger flash in his eyes.

" You're lying. You're here snooping around." Mark pointed the gun at him. " You're against me. You're trying to destroy Elizabeth and me. Kerry Weaver put you up to this, didn't she? You always were her little stooge."

Dave looked at him quizzically. " Are you even listening to yourself, Mark? If anyone is winning the prize for getting fucked over by Kerry Weaver, I think its me. I'm the one who got fired, remember? After being called incompetent in front of everyone? I'm the one who can't find a job in his chosen field because of her."

That made Mark think, she could tell, but she suspected that it wouldn't hold him for long. She could see that he wasn't going to accept Dave's words as an answer. Deep down she didn't really buy it either. By nothing other than failed rotations, Dave should have been booted out of his residency years ago. He was sloppy and irresponsible and the only reason he had been kept had been Weaver's adamant insistence that underneath that, he was a good doctor. Elizabeth had often thought that Kerry kept him around in an attempt to teach him the error of his "Doug Ross"-like ways and had finally given up when the Marfans incident occurred. Elizabeth didn't blame her. The firing could have been handled better, and certainly a lot more professionally on both Dave and Kerry's part, but it was a lot longer in coming than it should have been, and that was because of Kerry. Kerry liked Dave, and when Elizabeth really thought about it, she suspected Mark had a point, or at least reason to be suspicious.

Of course, that didn't make it acceptable for Mark to execute Dave on their kitchen floor. As he started to take aim, she put her hand on his shoulder. " Mark, you don't want to do that."

He looked at her, his eyes cold. " Why not? He's going to go to the police. He must have heard what I said. We can make it look like a burglary or something."

" Um..." Think quickly, Corday, she told herself. " Because it will look even more suspicious. Killing him here, I mean, really Mark, you're under suspicion for attacking Kerry. What will the police think when they find out that you shot and killed a burglar in your home with the same type of gun that was used on Kerry? They'll wonder. They'll confiscate the gun and then they'll match it to the bullets that Romano pulled out of Kerry." That was impossible actually, the three bullets were so deformed that the police had admitted to Romano that they wouldn't of any help, but Mark didn't know that. " It would look really bad."

" OK, you've got a point." Mark thought for a moment. " We could put him in the van, take him to some field outside of the city and kill him there. That way it just looks like a random slaying. I'll go get the van ready." He strode out of the kitchen, stopping only to yank the phone cord out of the phone. " Just in case he tries overpowering you, I don't want him to call the cops."

She waited until she heard the door to the garage shut. Then she dropped to her knees and started to check Dave over. " Are you OK? This doesn't look too bad..." She looked him in the eye but he seemed to be gaping at her. " Dave?"

" I'm sorry, " he said after a moment, " I was just contemplating what empty field you were going to dump my corpse in."

" I'm not going to kill you. I said that to get him out of here so I could call the police. You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone?" She didn't know what she would do if she couldn't call for help. She already felt guilty about not confronting Mark sooner. If she had mentioned the jewelry the day Rachel had shown it to her, it was possible that Dave Malucci might not be lying on her kitchen floor bleeding.

" No cell phone, but don't worry, Randi's calling the cops. She's taking the kids over to a neighbor's house. Think we can stall him for a few minutes?" Dave winced as she applied pressure to his leg.

" I don't know... I think he'll listen to me... but I also think any wrong move on my part will make him think that I'm against him." In fact, she was pretty sure anything other than complete agreement on her part would turn Mark against her. Whatever his problem was, it seemed to have flung itself into high gear over the last few minutes. " Do you think the police will be here soon?"

"After Rachel tells them about her psycho crazy father holding a gun on her, we'll have Child Protection here, at least. It really shouldn't be long." Dave said. " Listen, just in case...." He pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket. " I didn't get a chance to pull it out. Take it...He'll watch me like a hawk but you might be able to get a shot in."

She didn't take the gun." I'm not going to kill my husband."

" Did I say "Elizabeth, you need to kill Mark?" No, I didn't. " Dave's voice took on a note of desperation. " As soon as he hears a siren, Elizabeth, he's going to flip out. You need to be prepared. And you need to be able to defend yourself."

" I'm not going to shoot Mark," she said again.

" And what if he shoots you?" Dave hissed. " Face facts, Elizabeth. Mark's brain tumor has come back, and that surgery wasn't a cure all to begin with. If he flips out and kills you, what's going to happen to your daughter? You know he's going to die...You don't want your child to be an orphan do you?"

That was the problem, she realized with a start. Mark was going to die. If they got through the night, she knew it would be a few months at best. If it was just her, she could take the risk. Rachel had a mother, but Ella wouldn't. She took the gun from Dave's hands and carefully concealed it in her waistband. " Just in case, " she said.

" Hey, I really don't want to see anyone get killed either," Dave said. He grimaced as he spoke. " I'm not bleeding too much but this hurts like hell."

" You'll live." She wasn't lying to make him feel better. It was a superficial wound. At worst, he was going to be limping for a few weeks. Almost as soon as she spoke, the faint wailing of a siren came to her ears. She rose to her feet. " I hear the police."

" Maybe you should go back to being Mark's ally." Dave said softly. " Don't worry, this going to work out. Just try not to get me killed."

Before she could respond, Mark came stomping in. If anything, he was even more wild eyed than before. She didn't think he would regain any semblance of control without medical assistance. " Dammit!" Mark shouted. " Someone called the cops! I can guess who!" He kicked Dave again.

" Mark, stop it! Just stop it!" She pushed him away from Dave. " This isn't going to help. Mark, you are ill. Everyone understands that. I understand that. If you do this, it'll just make it worse. Malucci isn't just a random victim. If he's found dead, people will suspect you no matter what. This has to stop."

" She's right, " Dave added. " You're sick, Dr. Greene. No one wants you to go to jail. You need a doctor. The best thing you can do is just calm down and wait for the police to get here."

" And maybe we can talk this out," Elizabeth said helpfully. For a moment, she saw the light go back on in Mark's eyes. For a moment, she thought it would work, that he would take a seat at the kitchen table and they would calmly wait to talk to the police. Then the sirens got louder, and the sudden spark she saw faded, replaced by a cold dead look. She wasn't looking at her husband, she knew that. She was looking at an irrational stranger, a stranger who could kill her without even feeling bad about it.

" There's no talking about this!" Mark shouted. She jumped back as he flung aside one of the kitchen chairs. " You're in this with him, aren't you?" He pointed to Dave with the pistol. " You told him to come, didn't you?" He kicked Dave again, in the leg that was already bleeding. Dave curled up in a ball. He was hurt, that was clear. And the sirens were so close, it seemed to rile Mark even more.

" Mark, stop it!" she shouted.

He spun around, aiming the gun at her. " Why? So you two can plot against me some more? You're sleeping with him, aren't you? You whore! Why couldn't you at least pick somebody decent? Is Ella even mine? Or is she Malucci's? Who else are you sleeping with? I'm going to kill you!" His eyes narrowed. He turned back toward Dave, taking aim. " But first I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch!"

Elizabeth knew what had to be done. " I'm sorry, Mark, "she whispered as she pulled the hidden pistol of her waistband and fired it at Mark's back.

Part 14

It seemed quiet to him. The beeps of the various monitors were there, the ICU was never truly quiet, but it felt like a vigil. And, Luka thought suddenly, it was a vigil. Despite the bustling of nurses, there was a somber pall at Mark Greene's bedside.

There wasn't any hope. He knew it, Robert Romano knew it despite his cheerful words to Elizabeth Corday, and Elizabeth knew it. Elizabeth was taking it hard. He didn't know if there was any way that she could take it well. Mark was her husband. Even though he had never understood just what had brought the two of them together, he knew they were in love. They were the sort of couple that one never talked about or heard rumors, simply because they were such a stereotype of a happily married couple. But for Mark's illness, Luka had no doubt that Elizabeth and Mark would have grown old together.

The reality, of course, was that it was simply a matter of time before Mark died. Luka supposed that it would have been a kindness if Mark had just died from the gunshot wound. He knew Romano had used every trick the man knew to pull Mark through the difficult surgery, but it seemed pretty pointless. Luka had seen the same MRI that Romano had. The brain tumor was back and in such a position that no surgery could get it out. Mark was going to survive a gunshot to the back just to survive for a few miserable weeks. If he even regained consciousness, it would be a surprise and there was almost no chance of lucidity. Luka doubted that Mark would regain consciousness. It would be a blessing if he didn't, he supposed, and he suspected that even Elizabeth thought that.

That was best left unsaid, he thought as he stepped over to her. She was sitting at Mark's side. Romano was checking the charts. Romano had been acting more than a little protective of Elizabeth. To the man's credit, he had also been very hands off, being a friend not a disgusting pervert to Elizabeth. It was a pleasant surprise. Luka had always seen Robert as the type to proposition a woman while she was sitting at her dying husband's side. " Elizabeth, " he said softly, " I thought you might like a break. You know, to get something to eat? Maybe see Ella?"

" No, I'm all right." She spoke softly, as if she was afraid to wake Mark. Luka knew that wasn't true, but he wasn't sure how hard he wanted to push. Elizabeth had a nasty streak when she was upset. Considering the situation, he understood but at the same time he didn't want to provoke her.

Romano didn't seem to have any compunctions on that point at all. " Have you got the ER in some semblance of order? Dr. Weaver's coming in later today. It would be nice if she didn't have a fit."

The last thing Luka wanted to discuss in front of Elizabeth was one of Mark's victims but there was no way around it without running out of the room, and that would certainly call more attention to Romano's question. " It's fine... Everything's stocked up and I've got the coverage problem worked out. I didn't know Kerry was coming in." He didn't know where Kerry had gone, either. He had been worried, to be honest.

" She's coming in for four hours. Discreetly make sure she takes breaks and if she so much as winces, call me." Romano spoke authoritatively but softly. It was as if he had realized too late that he just might be offending Elizabeth.

" How is she, anyway?" Elizabeth asked. " And Dave... I checked on him a little while ago, but he was asleep." She had to be going through hell, Luka thought. He knew she didn't like either Dave or Kerry, but she also knew that neither of them had deserved to be hurt.

" Well, Kerry's usual abrasive and nasty nature has only been enhanced by shaving her head and drilling holes into her brain. As for Malucci, he was feeling well enough to proposition his nurse. They'll be fine, or as fine as they ever are. Listen, Elizabeth, you need to get out of here for a few minutes. Go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Kovac can stay here with Mark, right?" Romano gave him a look that clearly ordered him to stay with Mark. He didn't mind. It was a nice break, especially since he doubted he would have to do much more than watch Mark breathe. And he wasn't blind. Elizabeth needed a break, in Abby's terms, a sanity break.

" Go ahead, Elizabeth," he said as he took a seat near the bed. " I'll page you if anything changes." He doubted anything would change but it was what Elizabeth needed to hear. With a little prodding from Romano, she left, promising to be back in just a half-hour. When Romano set down the chart, Luka eagerly picked it up. He thumbed through it and looked up at the surgeon. " He's dying."

" He's a DNR. You should see the MRI. I'm amazed that he's been able to walk and talk for so long. We're just waiting." Romano spoke offhandedly.

" It's too bad he didn't..." Luka stopped himself before he said everything that he thought. It was too bad that Mark hadn't died on the table. For someone that didn't use guns, Elizabeth had effectively taken Mark out. The bullet had gone through his spine, not that it mattered much since the tumor had effectively shut down most of his brain.

Romano stepped towards the door. " I have to work with her. I don't want to be the one she blames for his death. Besides, she needs the time. We all know what's going to happen."

That was true enough, Luka thought. As Romano walked away, he suddenly realized another reason Romano had made certain that Mark had survived the surgery. If Mark had died, then Elizabeth would have been his killer, and he had no doubt that she was already feeling guilty.

~*~

Of course everyone is looking at you, she told herself, your hair is almost a buzz cut and there's a big red scar for everyone to look at. Kerry estimated that it would be a few more weeks before the burr hole scar would be completely hidden, but until then, she looked like someone with battered doctor syndrome. She hadn't been there very long, and she could already see that she needed to take Robert's advice. She needed to have one person capable of filling in and preferably two or three. Luka had done a capable job, but only because he was naturally conscientious. She hadn't bothered to ever show him what to do so the fact that the place wasn't collapsing in chaos was a definite bonus. I need to thank him, she decided. I also need to find out who the hell ransacked my office.

Carter had let slip that he had been in on the office break in. It was obvious that Luka had also been in her office, but Carter had indicated that one of the people had been female. Her first suspicion had been Randi. Randi had been in cahoots with Dave on their juvenile investigation. Randi also had the ability to break into her office. Somehow though, she didn't see it. At least she didn't think Randi would let everyone else into her office. Randi was more the type to break in and secretly gloat about it as she snickered and glared her way through the day. It also didn't seem likely that Carter would associate with Randi for such a task, despite her obvious skill. No, Carter would have gone with someone a little closer to his own socio-economic level.

As she walked towards the desk, shed decided to put it out of her mind for the time being. She was tired. It was the middle of hour three of her four hour shift and she felt like it was hour ten. Truthfully she could have stayed home for a few more days, but she figured it would be just as awkward even if she did feel better, and looking like hell meant that none of them approached her with awkward questions. Elizabeth's shooting of Mark had evidently had turned the gossip towards that, and she was grateful. She didn't feel like answering questions. She was still fuzzy on the details, and despite Mark's obvious slip into psychosis, it still hurt.

" Hi Kerry," Susan said pleasantly. Susan was behind the desk, perusing the board. " You look tired. Maybe you should take it easy for the rest of your shift."

" It's hard to take it any more easy," she muttered. " I'm only doing the light cases. I'm only here for four hours. How much lighter can this get?"

Susan considered that. " You could just sit hear and yell at us all with a megaphone. I could get you a chair." She smirked.

" Hmm... do I get to throw things at the people who aren't working?" That was tempting. Considering all the concerned looks and worried whispers, she could probably get away with it. Of course, ensconcing herself behind the desk and behaving like a loon was going to prod at least one coworker into calling for her competency to be tested. That was if it hadn't already been done.

" I suppose... as long as you're not throwing sharp objects. I think the nurses union has a rule." Susan said. " By the way, where were you for the last two weeks? We were worried."

Kerry could hear the real concern in her voice. She was touched. Susan wasn't a friend, not someone she could call a friend but she had been concerned, something Kerry hadn't expected. " I was at Robert's house. He invited me to stay with him."

" Robert Romano? You were at Robert Romano's house?" Susan's eyes widened. " That's pretty odd."

" Yes well, once you win the head freak of the department award, you really have to work to maintain the top spot." Kerry picked up a chart.

Susan laughed. " Trust me, I think you get the prize for this year. What did you do there?"

" I mostly slept, Susan. I wasn't feeling well. Occasionally I would read a book. " She paused. " I also alphabetized his pornography collection. Pretty tame stuff really. Robert likes his women naked in a photo shoot, for the most part."

That quieted Susan for a moment. " Oddly, that doesn't shock me. Seriously, you should take it easy. You really don't look that well."

" Is that the nice way of saying I look like hell?" she asked.

" You would need to look about three times better to look like hell. " Susan said brightly." It's good to have you back to work, but you don't look so great. We've got a lot of temps in. No one would be upset if you left early."

" No, I've just got an hour left." She stopped herself. It was as good a time as any, she thought, and Susan was a good place to start. " I have to apologize to you, Susan. I said some hateful things when I left. It wasn't fair of me, we got off on the wrong foot when we first met, and I never let it go. I didn't give you a chance, and I'm sorry." She had decided, after much troubled thought to start letting things go. Susan had her moments but she had never really given the woman a chance.

Susan took in what she said. " Maybe you're not the only one who didn't let it go. I didn't roll out a welcome mat when you started. I was mad at Mark and ready to dislike whoever he hired." She sighed." I was under so much stress, what with the baby and my residency, and let's be honest, we don't mesh well, but you weren't the only one to blame for the problems between us. Besides, things are changing here. It's a good time to put some of our differences aside."

" I can live with that." She was surprised at Susan's words, and surprised at how well her own had been received.

" Now that we both feel awkward and uncomfortable, why don't you sit down before you fall down?" Susan said briskly, a smile returning to her face. " You're in my way here."

" So deal with it," Kerry snapped. " I'm not leaving until my shift is done, and you're certainly not my mother."

" What's with the peanut butter cups in your office, anyway? I mean, why hide them in your file cabinet?" Susan asked. " You know, I can understand how you haven't decorated. A lot of people don't do much with their offices, but hiding the candy is just odd."

" OK, first off, I'm going to try and ignore how angry that you broke into my office. Second, it's really not your business. Third, I hope you didn't eat any because I think they've been there since 1999." It made perfect sense, she realized. Carter and Susan had been playing at dating for sometime. She glared at Susan.

" Well, I see everything is going well down here." Both Susan and Kerry turned to see Romano standing there, watching them. " And to think I thought there would be an argument in process. Kerry, you look like hell."

" You really know how to make a woman feel pretty," she retorted.

" I can buy pretty," Robert said easily. " Listen I'm off soon. I thought I would drive you to your shrink appointment, just to make sure you actually went. Then I thought I 'd take you to a very nice French restaurant that I just happen to have reservations at. Then back to my place for an amazing night of passion. What do you say?"

She blushed. What he said was embarrassing on so many levels, yet tempting." Um..."

" Yes? Good. I'll be back in an hour. By the way, I'm keeping Kovac until Elizabeth comes back. She needed a break and fell asleep in the surgeons' lounge. You've got plenty of temps so it shouldn't be a problem." With that, he wandered off back to the elevator.

" I didn't agree to anything," she said under her breath. She looked up, to see Susan gaping at her. " What?"

" I was just watching the four horsemen of the apocalypse ride by." Susan said. " You never fail to surprise me."

" Why? Because I'm seeing a psychiatrist?"

" No... I just always thought you were gay."

~*~

So now what, Elizabeth asked herself. She had only meant to be gone for a few minutes but had fallen asleep. Of course, she had hardly slept all week, and had left Mark's side for at best maybe five hours. He was going to die, she accepted that. She suspected, after seeing his MRI scans, that he had kept the knowledge that the tumor had returned to himself. If he hadn't been lying in a coma when she had discovered that, she would have torn into him like a banshee. As it was, all she really felt was relief that both Kerry and Dave would make full recoveries. As for Dale Fossen... she couldn't dredge up any sympathy for the man.

And of course, she felt guilty. She had, after all, shot her own husband in the back. There was no denying what she had done and she couldn't help but be aware of it. Mark was only alive because Romano had dragged him through surgery. The tumor was already affecting his autonomic functions. He wasn't going to wake up. He would never be able to say good bye, and it hurt.

She had no doubt that Romano had commandeered Luka until she returned. She wasn't ready to go back though. She needed to be away for a few more minutes, just to regain some sense of normalcy.

Ella was in the hospital nursery. Rachel was back at the house, with her mother. Jennifer had flown two days before. She had only met the woman once before, and she wasn't taken with Jennifer's cold personality. Rachel was going to go back to St. Louis, though Elizabeth had convinced her mother to wait for a few days. Rachel clearly didn't want to leave, and Elizabeth knew that it would just be a matter of time before the girl had to be brought back to Chicago. Robert could whisper behind her back all he wanted, but she was still well aware how little time Mark had left. Taking Rachel to St. Louis only to bring her back in a few days seemed pointless.

I should get his things, she decided as she stepped onto the elevator. His things were still in his locker, and she didn't want some intern pawing over his personal items while clearing out his locker. She didn't want that. His things weren't for everyone to play with.

The ER was quiet. That was good. She didn't want questions, she didn't want any expressions of sympathy from the people. She didn't want to listen to Susan Lewis or John Carter tell her how worried they were for her and how she could call them whenever she needed anything. She was tired of hearing it, especially from people who couldn't possibly understand how she felt. As she stalked her way towards the lounge, she hoped her expression kept the well wishers at bay.

She stomped into the lounge, only to find that her plan had gone array through no fault of her own. Standing by the locker bay, putting on a coat, was Kerry Weaver, probably the last person Elizabeth wanted to see. She felt guilty about what had happened to Kerry. She had ignored all the signs that Mark was slipping, and Kerry, mean spirited troll that she was, had paid the price. " Kerry."

" Elizabeth." Kerry continued getting on her coat. " I was just leaving." She limped towards the door.

" I'm sorry." Elizabeth said suddenly. " About what happened. You were right. He wasn't acting right. It got better for a while and then it got worse. I should have done something."

Kerry stopped and turned. " It wasn't your fault. Mark is ill. He can't help what he did and if he were well, he'd be horrified by what's happened. Besides I could have approached you about his competency in a better way. I'm sorry for that." She started towards the door. " I'm sorry about Mark, but you know, he was lucky to have someone like you in his corner." With that, she walked out.

Elizabeth hadn't expected an apology in return, but it felt right. At least Kerry hadn't made her feel worse, and she had expected the older woman to be resentful. It was odd that Kerry hadn't torn into her, but she accepted it just the same. And, she told herself, its not getting the job done.

She grabbed a card board box and went to Mark's locker. She knew the combination and in seconds was looking at the odds and ends of his life. There were pictures of her, and Ella, school pictures of Rachel, even a few pictures of Doug and Carol. She took them down, and placed them in the box, followed by Mark's extra clothes and his lab coat that he generally didn't wear. She was clearing off the top shelf when her hand brushed against some envelopes. She pulled them down, and was surprised to see her name on one. It was clearly Mark' handwriting and the other two letters were addressed to Ella and Rachel.

She opened her letter. It was dated from almost a year earlier, right around the time Mark had been diagnosed. " Dear Elizabeth, " she read out loud, " It's my last day of work for a while. We're going to New York, for a consult. I don't think it'll help. I might die. We all die, but I think I am going to die a lot sooner than I planned, than we planned. I don't want to, not without knowing that you'll be all right. I love you. Whatever may happen, always remember that." There was more, almost three pages. She read it all, amazed to see the man that she knew, that she loved, represented in the words he had left her. It warmed her. It was the goodbye she had thought she would never receive.

Her pager went off. She didn't have to look, she knew who it was. She fairly flew back up to the surgical floor, and to Mark's room. Luka was there, and most of the monitors were beeping in a frantic fashion. " He's going into respiratory arrest." Luka said calmly. " I haven't intubated..." She knew what he was saying. He would ignore Mark's DNR order if she wanted.

" No." She said it softly but forcefully. " He didn't want to live like that. It's time to let him go." She turned off the alarms on the equipment. " Could you call my house, Luka? Jennifer and Rachel are there. They should know." She took a seat by Mark's side and held his hand. " I'd like to be alone with him, Luka."

" I'll be right outside," he said. She barely heard him as he left. She was watching the heart monitor as it started to show an unnatural rhythm.

" Mark, " she said as she leaned over his bed, " I love you. I'll always love you." She kissed his forehead and then held his hand, until it was time to finally let go.

The End