Weaver still had not come out to any of her coworkers except Romano and Luka Kovač. She was still quite anxious about anyone discovering her true status even though her sexual orientation was already known to some of her coworkers. Weaver did, however, begin a new relationship with firefighter Lt. Sandy Lopez (played by Lisa Vidal) whom she met in a rainstorm while trying to rescue a pregnant woman from a crashed ambulance. As the two became close, Lopez told Weaver she refused to date a woman who was in the closet. Lopez forcibly outed Weaver with a passionate kiss in front of her coworkers. What followed was a groundbreaking story for American network television as the development of the romance between the two women was treated with the courtship, passion and arguments often reserved for heterosexual couples.