Snarky Susan

INTRODUCTION:
It has been a year since Mark Greene passed away, and it has made a huge dent in everyone's lives, but most especially for two people: his wife, Elizabeth Corday, and his best friend, Susan Lewis. Things have been complicated for both of them, and this is their journey to a step they never expected to take.

NOTE:
This is a private RP. Right now, the focus is on these two characters. No other characters, at least not yet (there will be another ER RP with much more characters in the works). Feel free to read though.

CHARACTERS:

Dr. Elizabeth Corday, played by Emma93


Dr. Susan Lewis, played by Snarky Susan


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SUSAN LEWIS

She never really expected to come this far. It was only last year when they couldn't even stomach each other's faces. Maybe it was Mark's presence that did it. It could have been a mix of protectiveness on Elizabeth's end, and probably regret on hers.

And now, that very same person was introducing (well, re-introducing) her to Robert Romano, of all people as her girlfriend. She knew that to him, she was "Lizzie's blonde friend", though Susan preferred the name "Liz" for her. Lizzie was Romano's territory, and besides, it sounded better. But there is still one thing that's nagging on her mind. One thing that could possibly cost her job, but she'll take the risk.

"I wonder how Weaver would react?", she asked Elizabeth.

Emma93

Elizabeth felt strange, she had always liked Susan as more than a friend but had never acted on it before. Now the whole ER new and she knew Romano would still call Susan "Your Blonde Friend" except he'd substitute "friend" for "Lady friend" as if that meant girlfriend.

Nothing was private now and this worry her. For now though, everything was going the right way and she liked it.

Snarky Susan

Susan snapped her fingers in front of Elizabeth's face the moment she saw her still in that expression.

"Liz. You're still there?"

She really can't help but look at her new girlfriend all the time. Her endearing smile was really contagious and made her break out into her own distinctive grin. The whole time, they held their hands with fingers intertwined. For the first time, they can do that without the need to hide from anyone else. No need to keep everything a secret. They will still take that slow pace they took before, but now everyone knows.

Nothing could ruin that moment where she decided to just let everything out in the open. Before that, she had her doubts. This girlfriend thing was new territory for her and that made her shiver with both nervousness and euphoria. For all of her life she has always been alone. There was that brief thing with Little Susie, but for the most part it was just her and her work. With Elizabeth finally a concrete part of her life, she never felt so alone.

But now the entire ER knew, and it won't be long before it reaches the entire hospital. That mere thought of it made her heart pound. So many thoughts raced through her head that very moment.

What about my job? Will Weaver still let me work? What if this never works out? Well at least we don't have to hide

Susan then let out a wrapped package she conveniently hid behind the admit desk and showed it to Elizabeth. Words struggled to come out from her mouth when she showed the package with a tag, To: My Liz, From: Your Suz.

Emma93

Elizabeth unlocked her hands from Susan's to take the package. It was wrapped neatly in red paper and tied with a bow. Elizabeth felt special, for the first time since Mark's death, she felt wanted. She shivered, she didn't know why but the thought made her spine tingle, she supposed it was out of happiness, but she didn't know. It could've been nerves. Everything was out in the open, they had no where to hide. Liz reckoned that everyone in the hospital would know before the week was out. Today was Tuesday. She shook her head as if to shake away her thoughts, to clense her mind, to just think about here and now and about Susan, and the package that was being held infront of her by her beautiful, smiling girlfriend.

She took the package from Susan, smiling widely.

"You didn't have to, I mean, it's not my birthday or anything" she half giggled, hoping that Susan would do the same. She adored Susan laugh. Elizabeth look at the small red parcel again, trying to guess what was inside it before opening it. It felt a shame to open such a lovely parcel, she thought.

After looking at the present for what felt like hours, she thought Susan must've been getting rather bored, so she carefully unwrapped it. Inside was a small ring, glistening. It was diamond. She almost fell backward. A diamond ring off the woman she had always loved but had only officially been with for half an hour or so. Elizabeth felt sick, although not in a bad way. 'How can you feel sick in a good way?' she pondered. She didn't know but right now, she didn't really care.

She felt awful that she hadn't got Susan a present and made a mental note to go to the Jewellery shop during her next break. Liz was brought back from her thoughts by lots of cheering and she looked around to see lots of smiling faces...and Romano looking as he normally did, but with a kind of "well I never" look on his face. This made her giggle, she turned to look at Susan. Liz felt tears role down her cheeks. She felt really embarrassed but, to her surprise, everyone was quite endearing. She looked over to see Abby crying slightly, Abby wiped her tears away giggling and this made Liz giggle. The staff giggled, Susan giggled and looked lovingly at Liz waiting, Elizabeth thought, for her to say something.

At which point she finally responded "I don't know what to say" because she didn't, she really didn't. She thought about when Mark had proposed, she saw the ring just shut the fridge again. This was a bit like that, she thought, except without the fridge...or the proposal, so it wasn't really like it at all. She laughed, her mind was so muddled, all she could think of to do was to mutter "it's beautiful Susan, thank you" and stare at her, amazed.

Snarky Susan

"You're welcome.", Susan softly said, pausing for a while before lovingly looking at her new love and uttering, "Liz."

Susan felt the blood rushing towards her cheeks. Never in a million years had she had someone treat her like this. She has had several relationships with men before, even got engaged with one in Phoenix, and got married to another in Las Vegas. But in both cases, the relationship was nothing like the one she had with Elizabeth. Dix wanted to rush things, and Chuck? Never in a million years will I marry a guy like that!

What's with me and deserts? she thought to herself, then promptly shook her head quickly in an attempt to clear any unnecessary thoughts out of her head. It was a rather slow day on the ER, so the staff didn't really waste any time to celebrate. Susan even saw Weaver's name in that familiar paper she saw Jerry holding, stating that she indeed joined the pool.

Amidst the clamor and chaos, Susan sneaked into the lounge and walked to her locker. She struggled to remember the locker combination, but hit on the right one. She then took out a bottle and two wine glasses from the locker, put it in a canvas bag, and slammed the door shut to the locker. She let herself out of the lounge and looked for the mass of curls in the sea of ER and surgery staff members.

Susan took Elizabeth's hand and brought her to the elevator leading to the rooftop. She loved the company of her fellow staff, and so did Elizabeth, but she wanted to keep Elizabeth to herself for a bit longer. Her heart pounded really quickly when it suddenly stopped on the surgery floor, but quickly realized that everyone was downstairs. Eventually, they reached the rooftop and she led her to the pair of lounge chairs that has been around ever since she was a second year resident.

Emma93

Elizabeth almost tripped as she ran up to the rooftop with Susan, giggling. Upon reaching the rooftop she gazed, open-mouthed, she didn't understand why, it's not as if she hadn't been up there before. 'Maybe it's the quiet, the thought Susan had put into making her feel special, whatever it was she liked it, it worked.

Liz sat down opposite Susan as Susan placed the wine and glasses on the table. she looked at her and repeated what she had said downstairs, infront of everyone. "it's beautiful, thank you Suz" adding "everything, it's..it's perfect" She poured herself and Susan a glass of wine and sat smiling, looking out over the Chicago skyline.

She turned back to Susan and smiled. she said "Thank You" repeatedly. She still didn't think this was good enough but, until she could get to the Jewellery shop, it's all she could say. Sipping her wine, sitting with the woman she loved and listening to the cars on the streets below, she felt genuinely happy.

It was 9pm and Ella was still at Carols, Liz had promised to pick her up at 5. Suz? she said softly, not wanting her to sound ungrateful, "I have to go and get Ella from Carol's, you can come with me if you like, I'm sure Ella would love to see you" Elizabeth smiled warmly, hoping that Susan would say yes because she really didn't want to leave her.

They where finally alone and all Elizabeth could say was she needed to get back to Ella. 'stop stressing' she thought 'Carol won't mind' still, she'd said it now so it didn't matter.

Snarky Susan

"Of course. We can always finish this wine when we get there.", Susan said. "I'm glad we didn't take our cars. We know those two don't mix."

Susan went down to much calmer ER floor. It was business as usual after that brief party they had, with everyone doing their usual business. Susan's shift ended a couple of hours ago and it's time for her to go to Carol's with Elizabeth. She went back to the lounge, noticing the sleeping figure of John Carter, then retrieved her coat and bag from her locker.

She met Elizabeth outside the lounge and walked up the nearby El Station. They managed to get a skip train, judging from the amount of vacant seats scattered around. They took the spot closest to the door and sat themselves. Just as they went in, she heard the warning buzzer, signifying that the door was about to close and the train was about to leave.

Carol's stop was six stations away from the stop near County. That meant twenty minutes on the train, and a ten minute bus ride after that to get to Doug and Carol's house. Tired and worn out from her shift, she rested her head on Elizabeth's shoulder, letting some of her ringlets fall on her face, and dozed off to a slumber.

Emma93

Elizabeth sat happy and contented, softly stroking Susan's hair as she drifted off. She felt like falling asleep herself but she knew that if she did they would miss their stop, and besides, there was plenty of time for sleeping at home, since she was working the night shift tomorrow.

She felt at that moment that if the train journey lasted forever she wouldn't care. She wanted to be with Susan, to listen to her sleep and breath softly, all the time. She knew, in reality, if the train never stopped she would miss Ella deeply and that Ella, she hoped, would miss her too. Elizabeth quickly forgot this silly thought as the train ground to a holt, we had arrived at the station before the one we got off, which meant we where about 3 minutes away, not that she had ever timed it.

'Should I wake her?' she thought, looking at Susan sleeping. She looked so happy, if you could look happy when you slept, then she definately did now, it would be a shame to wake her. Eventually Elizabeth made the decision to wake her before the jolt of the train stopping did, which would certainly be more of a shock, since she was in such a deep sleep.

"Susan" she said softly into Susan's ear as she gently nudged her "we'll be there in a minute". She wasn't waking up, in fact, she wasn't even moving from what looked, to Liz, to be a remarkably uncomfortable posistions. 'Who sleeps half sitting up, with their neck cricked against someone's shoulder' she thought. Before she could attempt to wake Susan again the train did it for her.

The train's horn made a loud noise as it signalled for oncoming trains and, Liz presumed, for people to get off the track if they where there. The noise startled Susan, who almost fell off the seat entirely but managed to catch herself. "I did try and wake you" Elizabeth said. Bursting into a fit of giggles, Liz and Susan arrived at the station in time to get the bus to Carol's.

Snarky Susan

Unfortunately, the bus they managed to catch sped off of the last minute, delaying them by at least thirty minutes. The euphoria was starting to wear off and Susan was quickly becoming cranky. It didn't help that she lives twenty minutes away from Carol's place, which means she would get to go home even later than she wanted to.

Deep inside, Susan wishes that Elizabeth would offer her to go to her place, which is much closer to the Hathaway-Ross residence than her apartment was. Besides, that meant going home to an empty house yet again. Elizabeth would most likely want to be with Ella at home so offering her place was out of the question.

"This blows.", Susan mouthed. "This. blows."

Susan crossed her arms and started tapping her foot impatiently, not really liking to wait for transportation especially when she's not in a good mood. That bus stop was one of the older ones that have not been renovated yet, which meant that the two of them have to stand until the bus arrived since the two seats were both occupied before they got there.

Susan then took out her pager and started playing around with it, like she always did when she was bored. After what seemed like countless minutes of playing with it, she looked at her watch and found her face falling after she discovered that that only took three minutes away.

She looked to her left and found Elizabeth standing patiently. She wondered how Elizabeth, who was really the one who should be complaining that the bus sped off, can perfectly regain composure after missing her stop. Years ago, Susan would have went for a smoke if things took this long, but she has not touched a cigarette for the past five years, not even after a drink or a stressful day.

"Liz, how to you manage to be able to wait this long?", Susan asked.

Emma93

Well, you know about Mark's issues with timing" Elizabeth laughed. She was annoyed that they missed the bus but she knew that getting worked up about it wouldnt help it come faster, so she tool deep breaths and stood still and waited.

She thought it best to ring Carol and apologise to her, she didn't want to just turn up 5 hours late with no explaination. She would explain about her and Susan over the phone, expressing that she only told Doug when we got there. Purely because she wanted to see his reaction.

Elizabeth rang up Carol and explained everything that was possible over the phone, the ER that afternoon, the train and missing the bus. Carol, of course, was fine and said Ella, Tess and Kate had enjoyed playing together and that she had fallen asleep on the sofa.

Realising just how late it was, Elizabeth wanted to go to bed. She wanted to go to bed with Susan, but that was never going to happen. Susan probably didn't want to come back to hers, she thought, after all, her shift started at 7am. It was getting cold and Liz buried her hands in her pockets to warm them. She could see her breath escaping when she exhaled.

The bus arrived about 10 minutes later and Elizabeth and Susan sat next to eachother, shoulder to shoulder, as if to shield in warmth. The warmth would, of course, escape through the door whenever they opened but the idea was good.

Snarky Susan

Eventually, they reached their destination. Susan went down the bus, regretting that she didn't bring a thicker jacket. Doug and Carol's home was right around the corner, so she walked there along with Elizabeth. Less than a minute later, they finally reached their house.

Susan scrubbed her shoes on the welcome mat and rang the doorbell. She noticed a bright light flicker from one side of the room and felt the lock click from the inside. Greeting them was a sleepy Carol carrying an even more worn out Ella. Susan sees Carol give Ella to Elizabeth and let them in the house.

Susan felt an aura of familiarity when she walked in their house, but she couldn't really pinpoint exactly what. She found toys strewn around the living room with a few walls filled with crayon doodles. The last time Susan encountered this was when she took care of Little Susie at her old apartment. Somehow, their house reminded her of her niece.

Susan sat herself on the empty spot on the couch beside Elizabeth and Ella, who sat on her mother's lap. She then heard a sudden clanging of metal from the kitchen, along with the scream of a male voice, which could only come from Doug as he was the only male in the house with a wife and twin daughters.

Susan instinctively placed her right hand on top of Elizabeth's left and started to gently caress it. She then leaned her head on Elizabeth's shoulder and whispered to her, "You're lovely today".

A few minutes later, Susan saw two figures emerge from the arch leading to the kitchen, which turned out to be Doug and Carol. The former, she noticed, had a huge band-aid on his hand.