eyebrows. "Then I'll drive you in and come get you when you're done tonight."

Riley laughed her eyes regaining their sparkle. She was so happy Sam wasn't

angry. "You don't have to do that. I don't have in-house call but I'll still be on call."

She warned. "It could be late."

"Get in the shower Riley!"

Riley glanced at the clock. "Shit." She exclaimed when she realized ten minutes

had already passed. She jumped off the bed, grabbed some clothes, and

headed for the shower. She was back in less than ten minutes her short hair still

wet. Sam was already dressed and waiting.

"You really don't have to drive me in." Riley told Sam as she stopped to put on

her shoes.

"Riley I'm driving...let's go." Sam said turning and walking out of the room. Riley grinned and happily followed her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a quick drive to the hospital. Sam pulled up outside the ER to drop Riley

off. "I'll call you as soon as I can." She leaned over the console giving Sam a

sweet kiss on the lips.

"I'll be waiting," Sam promised.

Riley headed for the ER at a fast jog, a silly grin plastered on her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Riley spotted Denny as soon as she stepped into the ER. "Hey Denny, what've

we got?"

The tall lanky blond turned at the sound of his friend's voice. "Oh my God Riley

what happened to you?" He asked in shock.

Riley was confused for a second wondering what he was talking about then her

hand went to her bruised cheek. She glanced around and noticed several people

listening intently to the conversation. She didn't want her personal life bandied

about the hospital. At times, it was like living in a fish bowl with everyone

knowing everyone else's business.

"Oh don't remind me," she laughed. "I tripped over my own feet and bashed into an open kitchen cabinet."

Denny narrowed his eyes looking at Riley suspiciously. Something wasn't right

here but seeing their audience, he decided to let it go. He'd get the truth out of

her later.

"What've we got?" Riley repeated.

They headed off together to take care of all the injured construction workers.

Chapter Ten

Denny finished his last surgery and headed to the lounge hoping to catch Riley

before she left. She'd headed into the OR just before he took in his last patient.

He found her in the surgical lounge her feet propped up on the table asleep. He

smiled fondly, he'd always felt like the big brother Riley never had.

"Hey Riley. How'd that last case go?"

Riley jerked awake, grumbling when she realized she'd dozed off. "Hi Denny."

Riley's face took on a pained expression. "There was nothing I could do; his arm

was too badly injured. I had to amputate. I was just waiting for them to get him

settled in recovery. I wanted to check him one more time before I head out."

"I'm sorry Kiddo, sometimes there's just nothing more we can do. He lost his arm

but you saved his life." Denny assured her.

"I know, but I'd be willing to bet he won't feel the same way." Riley said with a sigh.

"Maybe not at first but eventually he'll realize just how lucky he was. Enough

about patients, want to tell me what really happened to your face?"

Riley squirmed in her chair and refused to make eye contact. "I don't know what

you mean, I told you what happened."

Denny reached over and tilted Riley's head up until their eyes met. "Come on,

we've known each other since medical school. You know I can always tell when

you're not telling the truth."

Riley sighed dramatically. "It's nothing really. It's over and done with."

Denny reached out and stroked Riley's injured cheek. He could just make out a

hint of fingerprints in the bruises on her cheek. A thought suddenly occurred to

him and his eyes widened.

"It wasn't that woman was it? The one who's been hanging around looking for

you. Did she hurt you?" Denny asked in concern.

"Oh God No Denny, it wasn't Sam." Riley gasped in shock.

"Sam... who's Sam."

"She's my friend; well she's more than a friend." Riley said blushing. "Which leads us back to this." She said pointing to her bruised cheek.

"You remember my Uncle Rielly?"

"How could I forget that asshole," Denny muttered.

Riley chuckled, remembering several run-ins Denny had with her uncle when

they were in medical school. Denny had hated the way her uncle treated her and

had made his displeasure well known.

"Well I umm... I umm..."

"Spit it out Riley." Denny encouraged.

"I recently started dating her... Sam I mean. Stevens saw us kissing in the

parking lot."

Riley glanced up waiting for Denny's reaction. Denny snickered and Riley glared

at him.

"Sorry, go ahead."

"Stevens confronted me about it last week. I told him my personal life was none

of his business. Well he saw us again when Sam brought me lunch. Guess the

SOB took it upon himself to call my uncle. Anyway, my uncle was waiting for me

yesterday when I got home from lunch with Sam. He was less than happy about

me seeing a woman. I think his exact words were, 'No niece of mine is going to

be a queer'. Things escalated from there and he smacked me in the face...

twice." Riley blinked trying to keep the tears from falling.

Denny leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Riley. "I am so sorry Kiddo.

I always knew the guy was a real bastard but I never thought he'd hit you." Riley

couldn't help it, the tears started to leak out. "I'm so proud of you for finally being true to who you really are."

Riley pulled away from Denny and looked at him in shock. "What do you mean?"

Denny just smiled at her knowingly. "You knew? You knew I was gay! But how I

never..."

"Riley, Carol and I have always known. I know you and Linda thought it was this

great secret but it was pretty obvious to people who know you. You know I never

liked Linda but I just never understood why you insisted on dating guys. Now I

understand," he said softly stroking her injured cheek with his fingertips.

Riley just stared at him in shock. He'd known all this time and never said a word.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted to but Carol convinced me it wasn't my place. You needed to accept

who you are. It wasn't for me to tell you. So are you happy with Sam? Is she

good to you?"

"Oh Denny, she's incredible. She makes me feel things I never thought were

possible." Riley enthused blushing lightly.

Denny hugged her. "I'm so happy for you. So when are you going to bring her

over? Carol and I want to meet her."

Riley's eyes went wide in panic and she started to stutter. She could just imagine

the grilling Carol would give Sam. Denny laughed at the look of total panic on

Riley's face.

"Relax Riley, I promise we won't give her the third degree. We're your friends;

we want you to be happy. Besides, you haven't met the newest member of our

family yet. He should get to come home in two weeks."

"That's wonderful. I'm so thrilled for you guys. And I did get to see Jeremy. I

snuck up to the PICU. He's adorable." Riley told him. She yawned and rubbed

her eyes trying to say alert.

"Get out of here and get some rest. I'll take care of the post-op orders on your

patient."

"Thanks Denny. I'll do it while I wait for Sam. She drove me in this morning. So I

need to call her to pick me up."

"Okay, I really am happy for you. Bring your girl by to meet us." Denny

encouraged.

Riley assured him she would and headed out to call Sam and finish up her

patients post-op orders so she could get out of there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam prowled her apartment restlessly. She had talked to Riley earlier in the day

and she'd told her it would probably be late when she finished up. They had

ended up taking even more critical patients than expected. It was almost 11pm

and Riley hadn't called yet say to come get her. She worried about the long

hours she was working and knew Riley had probably not bothered to stop to

eat.

She had called Kim and Jess as soon as she'd gotten in that morning. Jess was

furious when she told her about the confrontation with Riley's uncle. Kim wasn't

surprised by the reaction, though it saddened her. It didn't make Sam feel any

better when Kim told her it was an all too common reaction to a parent or parent

surrogate to finding out their child was gay. Sam and Jess realized how lucky

they were that their parents and family had been so accepting. It wasn't like

there was just one gay child in their family to accept; two sisters being gay

wasn't that common in their experience.

Sam flopped down on the couch her thoughts going back to that morning at

Riley's condo. She had gone over it in her head all day. She still couldn't believe

she'd just lain there and let Riley take her. That just wasn't how things were

supposed to happen. She had never even touched her. Her experience with

Riley was so outside what she was used to she just wasn't sure how to react.

Sam enjoyed all the different ways two women could make love but always from

the position of being the one in control. Being passive just didn't fit her image of

herself. She couldn't even remember a time she'd lain on her back and allowed

someone to just take her. Even with the men she'd been with she had insisted

on being on top. The thing that scared her most was the fact of how much she'd

liked it. She wasn't sure if they were together again it wouldn't happen again.

Sam had never felt so out of control around anyone in her life. The ringing of the

phone interrupted her thoughts.

"Hello"

"Hey Sam, it's me," said a very tired sounding Riley.

"Hey Babe, you finally done?"

Riley was exhausted but felt better just hearing Sam's voice.

"Yes, please come get me."

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

Sam made a quick run into the kitchen. She'd picked up Chinese takeout earlier

and had it on warm in the oven. She knew it was unlikely Riley had eaten.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Riley leaned against the wall outside the ER trying to stay awake. She sighed in

relief when Sam's T-bird pulled up into the small parking lot next to the ER. She

hurried over to get in.

"Hi." She greeted Sam, suddenly shy. During one of her breaks she had

replayed the events of the morning. She still couldn't believe she'd been quite so

aggressive with Sam. In her previous relationship Linda had always been the

one to initiate sex and call the shots so to speak. To just have taken over like

that was very foreign to her. Now face to face with Sam she was embarrassed

that she'd let her libido get the better of her. She didn't like feeling out of control.

Sam immediately sensed Riley's uneasiness and wondered what was wrong.

With anyone else she would've just let it go figuring they'd tell her when they

were ready. But, she found she couldn't do that with Riley, if something was

wrong she needed to know what it was.

"What's wrong?" She asked softly as she tilted Riley's chin up to make eye

contact.

Riley blushed as she met Sam's warm blue eyes. Sam couldn't resist and leaned

over brushing a soft kiss across Riley's lips.

"Nothing." Riley said looking down again, hoping Sam couldn't see her blush.

"I'm just tired."

Sam didn't believe her. "Riley..." she said with a question in her voice.

"We should get going."

"We will as soon as you tell me what's wrong." Sam insisted.

"I just um... I'm a little embarrassed."

"About what?" Sam asked curiously.

"Umm...about this morning... I'm not like that... I mean I usually don't do that...