When Kerry left the hospital that evening she passed through the ER. While she was now in charge of every department, that particular one would always stood out. Everyone was busy doing something although Kerry got the distinct impression that they only seemed to be busy, worried about what she would say if she saw any of them standing around.

Abby came out of the staff room with her coat on and the two doctors exited the hospital at the same time. Kerry couldn’t help but think about her conversation with Kim earlier in the day. Abby had been a very good friend to her during so many difficult times, while Kerry had simply been her boss, understanding, supportive, but always her boss.

“Abby, are you in a big hurry?”

“Hmmm? No, just heading home to a hot bath and some leftover Chinese food.”

“I was hoping we could talk.”

In a matter of seconds a variety of possibilities past through Abby’s head. Had she done something wrong? No, Kerry couldn’t have heard about that. Kerry caught the look of worry as it flashed across Abby’s face.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to talk to you about something. We can keep walking if you’d prefer.”

“No,” Abby shrugged. “The bath will wait and the food wasn’t that good anyway.”

They sat down on the same bench they had that afternoon as Mrs. Lopez and her lawyer had walked off with Henry. That fact was not lost on either of them.

“Abby …” Now that they were sitting Kerry wasn’t really sure what to say. “I just wanted to say thank you.”

“For what?”

“God, where to start?”

“Kerry, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s … It was brought to my attention today that you have been a very good friend to me and I, well I …”

Abby could see that Kerry was struggling. Asking for help had always been a problem for her boss, but admitting later that she had accepted help was even harder. And then it hit Abby where this conversation was coming from.

“***** Legaspi.”

“Excuse me?”

“You had lunch with her today and she spent the whole time analyzing you, right?”