TITLE:  Poly Wanna Cracker?
AUTHOR:  Ellen Hursh
RATING:  PG-13
KEYWORDS:  A bit of angst, but mostly fun, with just a dash of the usual
weirdness y'all have come to expect from me.
LAST EPISODE SEEN:  "Lockdown"
TIMELINE:  Consider it the penultimate episode of season 9. :-)
ARCHIVE:  If you must.
DISCLAIMER:  ER and all its characters belong to Warner Bros.  No
infringement of their copyright is intended.  This story was written for
the enjoyment of "ER" fans everywhere, and may be downloaded for your
own pleasure.
SUMMARY:  *Whatever* shall Elizabeth do with herself, now that she's a
widow with a child?
SPOILERS:  If only. ;-)



Luka was sitting in curtain area three working on charts. More accurately, he was *hiding* in curtain area three: he was off in five
minutes, and did not want to get sucked into something that would keep him there one minute longer than necessary. He looked up as Elizabeth
entered the room, and noticed that there was something... *familiar* about the way she was looking at him.

"Oh, Luka. I'm sorry. I can't have dinner with you tonight." Ohhh, boy, he thought. Here it comes again. "I've got to find out." Luka stared 
at her quizzically.

"'Find out'? But Mark's *dead*. What's left to find out?" Elizabeth sighed slowly and quietly.

"No. It's not Mark. I've got to find out if *he* still loves me. Because... I'm still in love with him. I've been in love with him since
the moment I laid eyes on him, five years ago. He's *not* the father of my baby, but I *do* love him so. I'm sorry. You'll find someone, Luka, 
I know you will. She's out ther-- whoulph!" Luka grumbled, and shoved her into a pile of linens as he stood up, interrupting her spiel.

"This is not goddamn fair! I fall for one woman, she runs off to be with her lousy ex-lover. I fall for-- well, *sleep* with the next one,
anyway, but she's in love with Carter. No big loss there, actually. Next I sleep with a French skank who gets knocked up and then aborts what I
*think* *might* have been my baby. And now you! God, you were married to one of the most boring men on the planet, and I *still* come up short
next to this mystery man! Sheesh! I would've been better off falling for my lesbian boss!" There was a rustling noise outside the room, followed
by Kerry tumbling through the door and barely catching herself with her crutch.

"Um... hi. Did I mention that I'm actually *bisexual*? I had a little talk with Randi the other day, and she informed me - I had *no* idea! -
that it's possible to be attracted to both women *and* men! Does that, uh, interest you at all?" Luka thought about that for a moment.

"Sure, what the hell. You're certainly cute enough. Just let me sign out and get my coat. Ciao, Elizabeth." Kerry made a little "yes!" motion
with her crutch as Luka left the room, and grinned at Elizabeth, waggling her fingers in a "bye-bye" motion.

"Bye, sorry to be losing you, keep in touch, sayonara, arrivederci, and baadaye!" She turned to follow Luka, and the last Elizabeth heard 
from her was a happy "Woo hoo!"

* * *

Elizabeth stumbled up to the ticket counter, a backpack weighing on her shoulders and Ella trailing along behind. The check-in process was
lengthy, what with the increased security since the events of nearly a year and a half ago, but finally they reached the airplane. Elizabeth
silently blessed "pre-flight boarding", which allowed her to board early with Ella, and get the mite strapped into her seat. "Very soon, Ella,"
she whispered. "We'll soon be there."

Three and a half hours later - which seemed much, *much* longer due to Ella's crying over her achy ears - the plane finally touched down at
Sea-Tac. She hadn't been *entirely* honest with Luka; true, she *had* come to Seattle to be with the man she loved, but she had also come here
to be with the *woman* she loved. She just hoped they would understand about her hasty trip out here.

The drive was peaceful, with Ella burbling away in her car seat in the back as Elizabeth sang along happily to "Hey Jude" on the radio. She
wondered if it was just her imagination, that Ella seemed to be burbling louder when *she* was singing. "Are you singing along, my lovely girl?"
Hm... that did *not* sound like an enthusiastic "yes"... more like a raspberry. "Ah! And here we are, my dear! This is the place." She pulled
into the driveway of the large brown house. "Now you wait here, Ella. Mummy will be right back." She got out of the car and went to the door
to knock, with no answer.

"Well, bother," she muttered, and went around back... where she was delighted to find an *enormous* yard that looked out on a lake. Two
dark-haired little girls were running around, clad in identical tiny dungarees and t-shirts, as two adults - a man and a woman, both with
dark hair - stood on the dock doing something to the boat tied up there. The woman looked up first, then nudged the man, who also looked up at
Elizabeth incredulously.

They advanced slowly upon Elizabeth, as though she were an illusion that might evaporate at any moment, then suddenly pounced on her. Elizabeth
laughed and tried to hug both Doug and Carol as they wrapped her in their embrace. "You came!" Carol cried out finally. "We weren't sure if
you ever would, but we hoped for so long!"

"I'd wondered why you didn't come to Mark's funeral," Elizabeth sighed, as she rested her head on Doug's shoulder.

"We didn't come, Elizabeth, because we knew we'd try to get you to come back to Seattle with us," he informed her gently, giving her an extra
squeeze. "It's been too long since we left you behind in Chicago, and we knew that you had to be the one to make the decision." She kissed him
first, because her head had been resting on his shoulder, but Carol was the next to be drawn into an extended lip-lock, with Elizabeth's hands
gladly caressing her cheeks and hair... and skating downwards over her back to rest on her waist.

"Where's Ella?"

"Oh! She's in the car. I left the windows wide open, though." Doug silently tut-tutted her as the three of them headed back around to the
front of the house.

"Kate! Tess! Let's go meet Ella, shall we?" The two girls hurried to join Elizabeth and their parents. "We've got lots of room for you and
Ella, and - maybe - anything you need to ship here from your house," Carol assured Elizabeth, catching hold of the redhead's hand as Doug got
her other hand.

"Well, that *was* part of why I got such a large house - hoping that I'd have *both* my favorite ladies living here eventually." Elizabeth beamed
at Doug's smooth words, and pulled Doug and Carol closer until she could wrap an arm around each of their waists and plant a big smooch on each
cheek.

"I guess that means you like it here so far," Carol guessed.

"It's beautiful here. The air is so clean, and it's so *green*-- I mean, well, you know."

"Yes, we do, don't we?" Carol and Doug exchanged a private look, remembering the day three years ago when Carol had arrived.

"I feel so badly about the way I left, though. It was terribly sudden - I even had to break a dinner date..."

"Uh... your dinner date wasn't with Luka Kovac, was it?" Carol's tone was cautious, and Elizabeth looked at her curiously.

"As a matter of fact, it was. Why?" Carol closed her eyes miserably.

"Oh, *no*. How did he seem to take it?"

"Well, he was a bit upset, but overall he seemed all right with it."

"'All right' as in 'all right', or 'all right' as in 'get gloomy and sleep with a nurse after killing somebody'?" Elizabeth thought seriously
about the question.

"Actually, after he'd settled down, he was fine. Especially after he left with Kerry Weaver."

"To go drinking and pick up women, right?" Doug had heard about the rather... *interesting* revelation about Kerry last year, and had been
completely insufferable for an entire week.

"No, they went out *together* - it seems that she's really bisexual."

"Buh- buh- bisexual?" Doug appeared to be having trouble grasping the concept, and Carol leaned across Elizabeth to gently close his gaping
mouth.

"Yes, dear. As in, she 'swings both ways'. It seems that *I* was right, after all. But Luka seemed to be doing okay?"

"As okay as *he* ever seems to be - he's a bit dour, isn't he?" Doug rolled his eyes, and stepped forward to the car, where Ella was
patiently waiting.

"Hey, sweetie," he crooned. "I'm your Uncle Doug." She watched, entranced, as Doug opened the door of the car and gently extracted her
from her car seat. "Yeah. There we go. How about we all go inside and get something to eat and drink... and then maybe a *nap* after your long
trip?"

Kate and Tess looked at each other, and rolled their eyes - *they* knew what one of those mid-day naps, with the door shut, *usually* meant:
icky mushy mommy-and-daddy stuff. As to what the red-headed stranger who talked funny was going to be doing during that nap-- they paused to
exchange a quizzical look as Daddy led her by the hand into the house. Hm....



POST-OP NOTES:

Yeah, right. Like *I*, of all people, could pass up another Luka/Kerry scene? (I know, I know... TPTB will never Go There WRT her being
bisexual. Something about it being terribly Incorrect, or whatever, now that she's tasted the joys of the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name.)
Hey, if people get to deny that Luka & Abby are, as a couple, "blue-dead", I get to indulge in my *own* denial, dammit! :-)