It was a week later. Agatha had tried to avoid Merrick whenever possible, and so far, they had only had a few run-ins with each other.

Today they were treating a particularly bad patient who had been in a car crash, and they had to stabilize him together due to a staffing shortage, and it was as if they were back on base again. They worked as a team, with words spoken between them only when it was necessary. A student nurse had made a minor mistake at one point, and Agatha noticed that Merrick was about to go off on her, so she sent her away as quickly as possible.

"It's a teaching hospital. Remember that, Dr. Merrick!" Agatha softly warned as they worked the patient without stopping. They eventually had him stable enough to go to the operating room, and it was the last she saw of Merrick that morning.

"You should have seen Aggie telling him off!" Mickey was telling Debby towards the end of the shift. "I swear she's the only one who can handle him."

Agatha felt Merrick come up behind her. She didn't need to turn around to know that it was him. She could feel the change in the air whenever he approached.

"I told you I could handle you better than you could handle me." Agatha looked over her shoulder and grinned at him. Unable to resist the barb.

Merrick's only response was to stare at her as if he had never seen her before. It was odd, and she frowned at him with concern. Perhaps the surgery hadn't gone well.

"How is the patient," she asked in a slightly raised voice, causing Debby and Mickey to turn around, their ponytails whipping out behind them before they turned red in the face for having been caught talking about him.

"He'll recover," Merrick grunted.

"Of course, he will, Dr. Merrick, because you're one of the best surgeons I've ever seen!" Maggy said, joining them.

Agatha looked between Debby and Maggy, noting how they were watching Merrick. Only Merrick could go from 0 to hero in less than a few weeks. They both had something between hero worship and desire chasing across their faces. Debby must have been talking badly about him to cover up how she felt.

"Don't you two have something to do?" Merrick insisted, watching them scuttle off in different directions at his reprimand.

"I'm glad the surgery was a success, Doctor, but as the girls said, we knew it would be with you handling it," Mickey said, giving him her sexiest smile before squeezing his arm as she swept by him, letting her chest brush his arm in an overt come on.

Agatha bit her lip to keep from laughing. "That's quite a cheerleading section you've developed, Dr. Merrick. I don't know why Sam was worried about you making friends."

"Perhaps they are so annoyingly perky and friendly because all of their names end in Y," he mumbled.

Agatha stopped and considered what he said. He was right. She had never noticed it before; Maggy, Debby, Mickey, Holly.

"Huh," was all she said at the realization that he was right. "Still, it's got to be nice to be liked finally, Dr. Merrick," Agatha said as she stood and walked towards him. She patted his arm before brushing it with her chest just as Mickey had done. She had meant it as a joke, but the sparks that shot between them were anything but funny. 

Agatha paused mid-motion and looked up at him. Merrick returned her stare, searching her gaze for something.

"It's still as strong as ever, isn't it, Roark?" she asked in a husky voice that she was surprised even worked.

What he might have said in return was cut off by Chloe Jurick, who had been a nurse but was now administration, moving through the E.R. and bringing a trail of people with her, including Sam.

"What's going on?" Merrick asked as he saw Chloe start to hand out new red, white, and blue lanyards and envelopes.

"It's Veteran's Day. The hospital always tries to do something special for our veterans. This year is a special lanyard and a gift card." Sam watched as Chloe moved to specific people that Agatha knew to be veterans.

The entire E.R. had stopped what they were doing to watch the little procession, but then that was the point. To make a big deal about those who had served. Mickey and Debby wandered back in their direction, watching with smiles as she reached Merrick.

He was ex-military, and that made him sexier than most men to the cheerleaders.

"And to one who will hopefully become our next full-time staff member!" Chloe said as she gave the items to Merrick. "Thank you for your service."

Merrick looked at the items in his hand, stunned into silence, and his response tickled Agatha. Her amusement made a nice change because it hurt to be forgotten, and Agatha had been overlooked on Veterans Day for the last two years.

As Chloe moved on to Bill, a fellow nurse, Agatha realized that she was being skipped once again, but correcting the situation never crossed her mind because it felt too much like bragging and would draw unwanted attention toward herself.

Merrick looked over at her empty hands. He had noticed she had been skipped too.

"Everybody also has their name on the hospital marquee out front for the day," Agatha provided in an attempt to squash his rising temper at Chloe forgetting to honor her.

"But somehow, I get the impression that your name isn't on that marque, nor has it ever been." Merrick's jaw muscle was jumping in anger.

"It's fine, Merrick. If it really mattered, I would correct it," Agatha lied in an attempt to calm him down.

Merrick stepped close to her, getting in her personal space, making her heart skip. "It matters, Stevens. It matters in the same way Jenny matters on Memorial Day!" His voice was hard, and at the mention of Jenny, her eyes teared up.

"Who's Jenny?" Sam asked, speaking loudly enough to catch the attention of those who were standing nearby.

"Jenny was a nurse who served with Stevens and me. She died, and I was just telling Stevens that recognizing her service on veterans day, especially since she did two tours, was just as important as remembering Jenny on Memorial Day!" Merrick growled.

"Now you're sure it was two tours. Last week you seemed unsure!" Agatha joked in an attempt to break the mood. 

Merrick slammed the lanyard and gift card down on the counter, and she flinched.

"If this hospital isn't capable of keeping their shit together and recognizing every single one of their veterans, then I'm not sure it's a place I want to work full time!" He was speaking loud and clear, and his eyes found Chloe's across the space of the E.R. before he stomped off.

Chole's eyes grew wide in shock and embarrassment as she looked at Agatha.

"Of course, Agatha, how could we forget about you!" Chloe said, rushing over and giving her a lanyard and gift card as well.

Agatha gave her a weak smile and accepted the gift with a soft word of thanks.

"I'm sorry, Agatha!" Chloe said as she hugged her. "How could I forget?"

"Really, it's fine. I wish Dr. Merrick wouldn't have said anything," she insisted.

"I'm glad he did. I won't forget next year. I promise," Chloe assured her before she rushed off to her next stop.

Agatha took a deep breath to calm herself before she went to find Merrick and give him a piece of her mind, but when she turned around, it was to find several pairs of eyes looking at her.

"I'm so sorry, Aggie," Sam said, looking embarrassed as well.

"It's fine, Sam," she reassured him.

"I knew you were a veteran, but I never really thought about it. I should have done what Merrick did two years ago. I can't remember you ever being acknowledged for your service." Sam looked extremely upset.

"It's really alright, Sam! Besides, if you had corrected the situation, you would have gotten the ass-chewing that I'm about to give Merrick!" Agatha reassured him once more.

"How does he know you served?" Holly asked, confused.

"We did two tours together a few years back before I retired." Agatha reached for her phone. "Do you mind if I leave a little early for lunch?" she asked the other nurses.

They all shook their head. They also felt bad for not realizing she had served, but they didn't let it keep them from asking a few questions.

"Was he as mean there as he is here?"

"How many nurses did he date?"

"What does he look like in uniform?"

The questions were fired at her at once, but Agatha ignored them all. What had happened between her and Merrick was between her and Merrick and no one else.

There were not a lot of places for Merrick to go in the busy hospital, so her money was on the roof. Very few people ever went up there, and as she climbed the stairs, her anger grew. Who the hell did he think he was? If she had wanted to say something, she would have.

As she pushed open the door, she saw Merrick standing at the edge of the building, looking at the cars below.

"What the hell was that?!" she charged him, getting right up in his face. "If I had wanted the situation corrected, I would have corrected it the first year it happened. It wasn't your place." She was livid, and it wasn't only about Merrick outing her. Her anger was wrapped up in part frustration that he was there because it was messing with her emotions and part fear that he meant what he said when he had threatened to leave so soon after coming back into her life.

Merrick stepped toward her, causing her to take a step back, and his intensity made her shiver.

"I did what I thought was right, and I would do it again given a chance!" His voice was low and menacing. She knew he wasn't angry at her but at those who had forgotten her.

"I know. You always do what's right!" Agatha shouted, letting her frustration get the better of her. "Why are you here, Merrick? Did you know that I would be here?" She bit her lip as soon as she asked the question. It was one she had promised she wouldn't ask.

His gaze fell to her lips at her action, and he took his time answering her. "I'm here because DeGraff's reputation proceeds him, I was invited, and I needed a job. I had no clue that you had moved to Georgia, but if you had, I figured it was a big enough state for the two of us."

"Well, it's not!" Agatha was breathing hard, causing her chest to brush his. It was as close to an embrace as one could get without officially being one. She wanted to kiss him, but instead, she forced herself to turn on her heel and walk away, ignoring what every cell in her body was begging her to do.