Episode 81, scene 2. Rossi comes out of Dr. Morton's office into the reception area. Sign on office door: [Dr. R. B. Morton Chief of Staff. Betty is fluttering around the information desk. Dr. Claire Morton Markham walks up to do a number on Dr. Rossi. CM: Mike? It's me, Claire Morton. [Claire waves her left index finger in front of Rossi's eyes.] CM: Tell me when you see a solid object approach. Nothing. Nothing. Total distraction. Your mind's on a million things. MR: I was just talking to your father. CM: Things medical? MR: He asked me to dinner. CM: He likes you. MR: Claire. CM: Well, with my husband back in Peru, he probably thinks I'm allowed a little male companionship, at a safe distance. Say, three feet across the diningroom table. MR: And what about after dinner? CM: What about it? MR: Somehow your father doesn't impress me as being the kind of man to provide safe male companionship. Or any kind under the circumstances. CM: [Seriously] He doesn't know I'm married. I haven't told him. MR: Why haven't you? CM: I don't know. MR: Oh, come on, Claire. CM: I can't. MR: Your father heads this hospital. He's respect . . . [Betty flutters by and speaks to them.] BA: Dr. Rossi. Dr. Morton. MR: Hello, Betty. CM: Mike, can't we get out of here? Isn't there some place we can go? MR: Oh, look. There really isn't that much to talk about. CM: But . . . MR: We've been talking about respect. The respect I have for your father. The respect I believe he has for me. I don't want to be brought into his house under false pretenses. CM: I'm the one that's pretending. MR: I have respect for you. And I want to keep that respect. CM: I'm sorry, Mike, I . . . MR: Yes, I'm sorry. CM: I am. I wasn't able to tell him. Our relationship . . . MR: Whose relationship? MR: Dr. Morton. You have to grow up. Stop acting like a frightened child. No matter what's frightening you, go to your father. CM: Children go to their father. MR: So what? You're still his child. Go to him. Don't put everyone in a false position. Yourself, your husband, your father, or me. MR: Look. I want to go to your house for dinner. But I want to be invited because your father knows he can trust me. Because he knows he can trust you. I'm not a knight in shining armor. I'm not without feelings. But I do have something. Something that's becoming quite a quirk with me these days. I like things to be on the up-and-up. MR: Tell him. [Betty continues to flutter around.] [Rossi walks toward the double doors, leaving the hospital.] [Claire walks toward her father's office but doesn't go in.] [Unusual handheld camera shot from the back seat of Rossi's car of the Fire Station and then the south side of the square.] [This conversation explains that Dr. Robert Morton doesn't yet know that his daughter Claire, is married to Dr. Vincent Markham.] Episode 81, scene 2 HOME