Hello again! After a long delay, I got inspired to write again, so here goes. If you're still reading – thanks for waiting for so long! I hope to update my other stories soon too. Thanks to all the other Cordano writers who are still out there writing too. I love all of your stories. You may want to read the first chapter again, just to remember what this story is all about. I know I had to!!

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Elizabeth stood in the lounge staring at the door after Robert had walked through it. She touched her hand to her mouth, wondering how she should be feeling about this.

On the one hand, she was pleased to have seen her friend in a better mood – it was nice to see him regain some of his previous temperament. But on the other hand, she was angry with him for putting her in this awkward position. They were friends despite everything that had happened, despite the many times he had asked her out, despite how he had reached out to her last year, despite him telling her he loved her as he came out of his anaesthesia.

Yes, she had feelings for Robert – she cared about him a great deal, but she had always stepped back when he had tried to cross the line to something more than just friends.

Now she was standing here, rather confused by what she was feeling. Much as she wanted to ignore it, she had felt a certain spark when his lips had touched hers – something that made her want to try it again. She blushed at the thought. I suppose it made sense really. She hadn't been with anyone since Mark died, so it was natural for her to feel "needs" after this long. The fact that it was for Robert Romano was just a disturbing coincidence, wasn't it?

Suddenly, the door to the lounge burst open, startling her out of her reverie.

"Dr Corday, lucky you're still here." She heard Sam's voice. "We've got an MVA 1 minute out and we're going to need you."

Elizabeth was glad of the distraction and found herself quickly absorbed with the two victims. She ended up taking one of them up to surgery for what turned in to a 5 hour operation. Luckily, Chris had been able to stay longer with Ella and had agreed to bring the toddler to the hospital on her way out.

When she got out of surgery, Elizabeth realised she only had a few minutes before Chris was going to get there. She ran downstairs to meet her nanny, grateful she had someone who was so reliable, and willing to delay her plans at the last minute.

Elizabeth wearily took her daughter – and then found as usual that this cheered her up immediately. Ella was always happy to see her mum, even when it was late and close to her bedtime. Elizabeth was glad to spend time with her daughter, and loved when she got to put her to bed. It was way too often that Ella was already asleep when she got home.

She carried Ella back upstairs to gather her things and leave for the day. As she walked back towards the lift, she heard a voice calling her. She found herself face to face with Robert Romano which caught her off guard. She hadn't had any time to process their earlier encounter, and she didn't know what he was now expecting of her. Truth be told, she wasn't sure what she was expecting of him. She couldn't help the colour rising to her cheeks again.

"Elizabeth - glad I caught you" he said, surprising her with the use of her full name, but then his next statement confused her even more "I – uh – wanted to thank you for earlier".

"Thank me?" she questioned as he momentarily busied himself with winking at Ella, making her giggle.

"Yeah, well, thank you, and apologise." He said – not the normal Romano she was used to dealing with.

"You were right earlier." He admitted simply, looking anywhere but in her eyes. "I was waiting for someone to come and fix things, but you helped me to realise I'm the only one who can make things better. I need to accept what's happened, and get on with my life and change things myself".

Elizabeth was taken aback. She didn't think she had ever heard Robert admit he was wrong before. Well, he hadn't exactly admitted he was wrong, but he had admitted she was right, and that was close to the same thing. Before she could consider this any further, she realised he was speaking again.

"And I'm sorry for – uh – when I - um – kissed you earlier" he said, clearly very uncomfortable with the whole thing. "It was inappropriate. You were trying to help me and I took advantage - it won't happen again".

She wondered if he remembered how he had given her a similar assurance in the past.

"I'm just glad to see you looking happier" she managed to say; terrified he was expecting her to say more, but luckily, he kept talking.

"I'm going to take your advice and think about where to go from here. I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier that there is something out there just begging for my talents." He spoke with a cockiness that would have irritated her in the past, but now just seemed familiar.

Ella chose that moment to start to fret in her arms, so Elizabeth said goodbye to Robert, and took her daughter home.

As she sat on the El, Elizabeth thought about her day. She found her thoughts returning to the way Robert had kissed her. It was hardly a passionate kiss – in fact, it wasn't much more than a peck. He clearly regretted it and had told her as much, but there was something about that kiss that she couldn't forget.

She sighed as she let herself in home, juggling Ella in her arms. How on earth did Robert get so under her skin in just one day? I didn't make any sense. She had never had these sorts of feelings for him before so why on earth was she suddenly thinking like this? She shook her head, and busied herself with getting Ella ready for bed.

The familiar task did nothing for her distraction and left her still thinking of that kiss. After Ella was finally tucked in to bed, Elizabeth sat down with a glass of wine, idly flicking through the TV channels, unable to focus on anything. She found her attention drawn to the phone. She could call him. She tried to come up with some plausible excuse for why she needed to talk to him. It wasn't completely unusual for her to talk to him at home – they had spoken in the past to discuss a patient, or a shift change. She picked up the phone and dialled the number, but then dropped it quickly before it started to ring.

A few minutes later, she dialled again. This time she waited until she heard the familiar tone of his voice "Robert Romano..."

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Thanks for reading. I hope to update sooner next time! Please drop me a review to let me know what you think.