TITLE: Homecoming

AUTHOR: Misty Kid

EMAIL: [email protected]

CATEGORY: Cast

RATING: PG

SPOILERS: Occurs after Cleo and Peter leave

ARCHIVE: Yes please

DISCLAIMER: The people in this story don't belong to me (apart from Maria, Jamie, Leo and Vin) they belong to NBC, and Warner Brothers, and all of the other people who own the rights to ER.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is my first fan fiction EVER so please be kind, any feedback would be very much appreciated. Also I would just like to add that I am Scottish so several spellings and terms may be different for any American etc readers.

SUMMARY: A triumphant return for a past character.

Part 1 He was a changed man, he had grown and matured.

Returning to County was just what he needed to complete his life, to prove to the people who doubted him in the past that he was a good doctor, no not just a good doctor, a good person as well.

He dropped Maria and the boys off at his mother's then started the familiar journey to work. He loved Chicago, here he didn't need to explain himself to anyone for once he had found a place he could call home.

He couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when they see who the new doctor is.

Since he had left County, he had taken several specialist courses so he could become a peds doctor; he loved kids they were the only people who didn't judge him on first appearances.

It had been during one of theses courses that he had met Maria, her pre- school had set her up with a place to 'enhance her capabilities' as a teacher. She saw it more as an on site first aider and she wasn't happy about it. That was what had attracted him, her sarcasm and sharp wit had made an immediate impression.

He had worked upstate for a while in children's wards, but he craved the rush of ER medicine, waiting a long time for a post such as this to come up.

It had been, for him at least, a happy coincidence that it was at County; he had the feeling that the other staff wouldn't feel the same.

********************************************************************* It was a typical winter's morning in Chicago, snow everywhere, the frost biting at his fingers.

He turned the corner, catching a whiff of the coffee from Doc Maggoos, and entered the ambulance bay.

The department had a new addition he was not expecting. the metal detector which reacted, incredibly stridently, to the keys in his pocket.

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Kerry had gathered the staff in the lounge for a quick informal meeting before the shift began.

"Today we are getting a new addition to our team. As most of you know Cleo left us to be with Peter and Reese so that left an opening for a new peds slash ER doctor. They will specialise in any child patients who are brought in but also be on hand to help with any other patients..."

"So who is this new doctor then?" Pratt interrupted before Kerry could finish.

"As doctor Romano set this up, I have no idea who the new doctor will be."

"Come on you must have some idea; I mean you wouldn't just let some strange doctor into your department..."

"I'm just as in the dark as you are." Kerry was suddenly interrupted by the high pitched wailing of the detector in the entrance.

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"Gerroff. I said gerroff. I work here.hey get out of my bag" he protested at the sudden onslaught of security officers who descended upon him from nowhere.

"Are you carrying any weapons sir?" a bulky security guard probed.

"I told you, don't you listen, I work here," he replied sharply, not in the mood for questions.

Then he heard it the familiar sound of the crutch and following leg.

"MALUCCI..."

"Hey chief" Dave Malucci replied.