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All characters, names, and settings are property of Warner Bros. They are used here for fun and were not used in anyway to receive profit.
E.R.
Union Station: Coming Home
By: Emma Day
Susan Lewis smiled to herself as she sat on the train, staring
out at the passengers milling about on the platform. The sun
was hammering down, and she had gladly taken shelter in the
train's air-conditioning.
Leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes, she imagined
Mark's face as she walked into the ER, and her smile
broadened. He'd probably stare, get all tongue tied and look
embarrassed. And then, he'd probably smile. She grinned.
"Ladies and gentleman," the guard announced over the tannoy,
"we apologise for the late departure of this train, and we
thank you for your patience. We will be departing within the
next fifteen minutes. We hope you enjoy the trip!"
GREAT, Susan thought to herself. HALF AN HOUR LATE, AND WE
HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT YET! She'd travelled on enough trains in
her life not to be surprised, and, not for the first time, she
regretted her fear of flying.
An elderly couple made their way down the aisle of the train,
studying the seat numbers.
"Here we are, Will," the woman said, as they stopped next to
Susan. It took them a while to arrange all their belongings,
but eventually they manage to get themselves seated.
The lady looked over the aisle towards Susan, and smiled. She
had a kind face. "Hi, I'm Ruth-Ann Walker," she introduced
herself.
"Susan Lewis," Susan replied.
"Are you going far?
"Chicago."
"So are we," Ruth-Ann replied. "We've never travelled by
train before. My husband's a little nervous. He prefers to
fly."
"Really!" Susan laughed. "I'm terrified of flying. That's
why I take the train."
"You hear that, Will?" the woman said turning to her husband.
"This young lady thinks trains are safer than flying."
Will muttered a response that Susan couldn't hear. Still
smiling she closed her eyes again. In a couple of days she
would be there; she'd see Mark again. It had been a long time
since that day at Union Station. Her smile faded at the
memory. It had been rough, leaving him like that. She
remembered the hurt in his eyes as she boarded the train, the
emotion that had trembled in his voice. But that had been
nearly eight months ago now. Things had changed. She had
changed.
"Are you on vacation?" her elderly neighbour asked. Will, it
appeared, was not much of a conversationalist; his wife was
bored. Susan sighed slightly. BORED. WE HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT
THE STATION YET.
"Business," she told the woman. "I'm attending a medical
conference in Chicago."
"Oh, how nice," Ruth-Ann replied. "Are you a nurse? My
daughter's a nurse..."
"I'm a doctor," Susan interrupted.
"A doctor! How wonderful!"
"It can be," Susan told her. "But it has it's down sides."
"I think it's wonderful," Ruth-Ann insisted. "Just a slip of
a girl like you."
Susan laughed at that idea. A SLIP OF A GIRL! HARDLY THAT!
"Do you have family in Chicago?" Susan asked.
Ruth-Ann nodded. "My eldest son, Paul, lives there, and our
two grandchildren, Thomas and Anna."
"That's nice. How old are they?"
"Thomas is twelve, and Anna's nearly ten. I've got some
photo's, if you'd like to see them?"
"Sure," Susan replied, resigning herself to the conversation.
Just as Ruth-Ann stood to retrieve her purse from the overhead
rack, the train jolted into motion.
"Here, let me," Susan offered, catching the woman's arm to
steady her. She pulled out the purse and handed it down.
The photographs seemed to cover every stage of the children's
short lives, and Susan heartily wished they were a few years
younger. Still,she managed to make all the right cooing and
ahhing noises.
"So, how about you?" Ruth-Ann asked, eventually putting the
photo's away. "Do you have children?"
"No," Susan shook her head. "Not yet. But I have a niece.
Would you like to see a photo?"
Susan took out her wallet, and pulled out a picture of Susie.
"It's a little old now," she admitted. "It was taken a couple
of months ago."
"Lovely!" Ruth-Ann sighed. "They grow so fast at that age."
Susan chuckled. "She looks like she's grown every time I see
her!"
"Only one picture?" Ruth-Ann asked in surprise.
"Sorry."
"And who's that?" she asked, looking at Susan's open wallet.
Susan glanced down, and saw Mark looking back at her. A smile
crept over her face. It was the photo they had taken one
night in a photo booth,a couple of months before she left. He
had his arm around her, and was grinning kind of stupidly.
"He's a friend," Susan told Ruth-Ann. "He lives in Chicago.
I'm going to surprise him."
"He looks very nice. Is he a doctor too?"
She nodded. "The best."
The train crawled it's way out of Arizona. "It's the heat,"
the conductor told her when she asked why the pace was so
slow. "It expands the tracks, and sometimes they buckle. We
have to go slow, just in case we have to stop in a hurry."
She noticed Will's eyes go rather wide when he heard this.
"We'll be fine," she assured him. "I've done this a hundred
times."