"Excuse me. Excuse me?" Randi was in an especially bad mood, partly
due to the huge influx of patients today - they seemed
to have an instinct for figuring out when County was short on docs, and both
Carter and Dr Kovac had been gone for about
a week. Weaver refused to go into any details about what had happened
to either man, so the department - heck, the whole
hospital - was left to speculate on the real
turn of events. Randi was running the book, and the theories were pretty
varied:
one of the "slash and dash" surgical residents, Dr Roberts, even had
forty dollars (twenty for both Carter and Dr Kovac) on the
theory that the two men had run off together. And now Randi had some
guy who kept bugging her, and wouldn't go away! Cute,
in kind of a Kiefer Sutherland way, but he was bugging her.
"What!?!" She shoved a clipboard at the guy, and
impatiently pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Go siddown, fill that
out,
and we'll get to you when we get to you!" He picked up the clipboard,
examined the blank hospital form, and tossed it back
down in front of Randi, who flinched a little at the loud clatter of
the clipboard. Great... a nut. And Security never came
when
they were called - Psych was just as bad (unless it was Dr Legaspi
responding to one of Dr Weaver's pages... and what the
hell was up with that?).
"That's not going to do me - or you - any good," he explained
calmly. "I'm supposed to talk to Dr Weaver... I'm Dr Dennison,
the new temp?" He showed her the hospital ID he'd been given the other
day, and she stared at him... whoooops. Weaver'd told
her to keep an eye out for the guy.
"Oh, geez. Sorry. It's been so busy--" He shrugged, and waved aside
her apology, gesturing at the mass of patients waiting
in chairs.
"Don't worry about it. As you said, it's very busy. Is Dr Weaver available?"
"Uh..." She turned, and looked at the board. Oh, hell. Weaver was
signed up for a bunch of different cases, no telling where
she actually was right now. "Chuny? Hey, Chuny!" The nurse, who'd been
hurrying past, approached the desk - at first she
was impatient at the interruption, then she got an eyeful of the guy
Randi was talking to. Well, she supposed, she could make
a little time to go over there!
"What's up, Randi?" Mm...hm... slightly taller than Carter, blond,
medium build... looked kinda like a young Donald
Sutherland. Chuny had put in for a transfer from OB to the ER after
catching a late-night showing of "M*A*S*H" on
one of the cable channels (they'd been doing a "War Week" theme on TNT)
- she knew that emergency medicine had
its origins in the "meatball surgery" of battle, and she'd already been
fascinated by the exciting things that she saw
whenever she came down here from OB.
"You know where Weaver is? This is our new doctor-- uh, wha'd you say your name was?"
"Nick Dennison. And you would be," he ducked his head slightly, to
read her name tag, "Chuny Marquez. That's a lovely
name, uh... Mrs Marquez?" She flashed him a flirty
grin... boy, he even sounded a little like Donald
Sutherland!
"That's 'Miss'. And call me Chuny. Please."
"Chuny, then. Pleased to meet you. So you're one of the nurses I'm going to be working with?"
"That's right, Dr Dennison." He smiled slowly, and Randi rolled her
eyes. Great... just what they needed, another doctor
who was fully aware of his good looks. At least Dr Kovac seemed to be
refreshingly clueless about how cute he was.
He wasn't her type (even aside from the fact that he was dating Dr
Weaver... or at least, he'd been dating her at the time
he left), but he was still pretty damn fine.
"Call me Nick. Please. I like to have a certain amount of
informality with coworkers... even if you're to be my coworkers
only temporarily."
"Y'know, Dr Weaver is busy with a patient right now, but I
could take you on a quick 'get-acquainted' tour of the ER right
now, if you don't mind me looking after patients while I'm showing you
around."
"Hey, that's what we're both here to do, right? Thank you, Chuny."
Randi watched them walk away, and rolled her eyes
again as she reached over to answer the ringing phone.
* * *
Kerry finished with the patient, and instructed him to return in two
days for a wound check. "Remember, Mr Griffith - keep
it clean and dry. And I realize it itched, but for god's sake don't ever
do that with a pair of garden shears again!" He left,
and she sighed.
Another month or so, and the new crop of residents would be
arriving. And, Luka would be coming home. He hadn't said
anything about exactly when he expected to be returning,
in the first postcard she'd received from him... he hadn't written
much, really, just a few lines in his spiky hand, closing out with
"Miss you."
She yawned, and took a detour into the lounge for some coffee...
then promptly nearly dropped the cup when she saw Carol
emptying her locker into a box. "Carol," she managed, in a voice that
she hoped didn't sound too squeaky. "Uh, you're back?"
Carol turned around, and smiled. Kerry set the cup down on the counter,
and returned the smile hesitantly.
"Kerry, hi. No, I just didn't have a chance to clear out my locker
before I left, and I figured I should come get everything while
Doug and I are in town. I was surprised that it wasn't already
cleared out by now, actually."
"Oh... both of you came to Chicago?"
"Yeah. My mom flew out to Seattle with the girls - I think she
wanted to see for herself what was going on, after the way I
left town so suddenly," Carol smiled. "She's keeping an eye on them out
there, at our house, while we're here to get my house
on the market and take care of everything else that I left hanging. Uh,
you got my letter of resignation?"
"Yes. I was sorry to hear that you won't be coming back, Carol." Carol smiled awkwardly.
"God, I sure left you in the lurch, didn't I? I'm so sorry about
that. It was just... talking to Mr O'Brien, I finally figured out that
my pride didn't mean anything, if I was gonna be raising Tess and Kate
by myself, without their father. Without Doug, you
know?" Kerry thought about the prospect of raising Luka's child without
him around, and nodded.
"Yeah. How long have you been in here? I'm sure the others must have
all kinds of questions for you. I think some of them
were disappointed that you left so suddenly."
"Oh. I wasn't even thinking about that. Hey, how's
Luka doing? He seemed a little down when I last saw him - I wanted to
make sure he was okay." Well, it was nice of you to think of that,
several weeks after the fact, Kerry thought, but what the
heck. "And I didn't see him around when I came in - is he all right?"
"He's all right, but he's not here - he flew back to Croatia."
"What? Oh. I... I was hoping Doug could meet him. He hasn't quit, has he?"
"No, he's planning to return. He just doesn't know when. He has two months off - he's been under a lot of stress lately."
"Oh, no. That's too bad."
"No, no, don't worry. He just... needed to unwind a little. Uh, I
was wondering, by the way - how was that 'new' Volvo
of yours working out?"
"Oh, it's great, Kerry! I'm so glad Luka thought to
send Dave car-shopping with me - it took a while for us to find
it, but it
runs great." Carol didn't mention the interesting time she and Dave had
had, that day: she couldn't believe it herself. They'd
finally wound up getting sno-cones from the same boardwalk booth where
she and Shep had bought sno-cones, several
years ago, and she'd become so caught up in the moment that she'd asked
Dave to go on the Ferris wheel with her. ("Yeah,
right," he'd scoffed, until she had playfully accused him of being
afraid of heights. "Afraid? My middle name is Heights!"
he'd told her with his usual bravado, even though Carol knew better,
and they'd had a pleasant enough ride... uneventful,
but she wasn't sure what, if anything, she'd expected to
happen.) He'd given her an odd look as they returned to her
Volvo, but she'd dropped him off at the hospital to pick up his bike,
as planned.
"Good. That's good. I was interested in buying it from you, in fact. Unless you're planning on taking it with you, of course."
"No, I'd been wondering what I was going to do with it."
"I know someone who might be interested - I'll buy it from you in the meantime."
"Uh, sure. Yeah, that'd be terrific. Thanks... that's one less thing
I have to worry about, now." Kerry nodded. She had sold
the Saab (and the pictures!) back to Herb the other day - he'd even
given her a thousand dollars more than what Luka had
told her he'd paid for it - and deposited the money in Luka's bank
account. If he decided he didn't want the Volvo, Kerry
was pretty sure she could resell it. Or maybe she'd just start driving
it herself - her car had broken down again the other
day, in the parking garage, and she hadn't had a chance yet to get it
towed to the shop. She'd felt a little awkward about
the idea of asking Dave to have another look at it; it was one thing
for him to have offered, back in January, but the
residents were here to practice medicine, not to fix cars.
"You're looking well, Carol - Seattle's obviously agreeing with
you." It was true; Carol had a radiance about her that she
hadn't had the entire time that she had been separated from Doug. He still
wasn't anywhere close to being her favorite
person, but she had to give him credit for bringing out the best in
Carol.
"Um... yeah. It is. It's kinda rainy sometimes, but it's beautiful. Very green and clear. Not much like Chicago, that's for sure."
"That's good. I'm glad you're happy."
"Thank you, Kerry. And... I'm glad Luka's doing okay. I was afraid I might have really hurt him when I left the way I did."
"Hurt--? Carol, how could you hurt him? He was never interested in
you!" Kerry's exclamation was instinctive, and she
immediately wanted to take it back. But... the thought of Carol
thinking - believing - that she'd had that kind of power
over
Luka - that had been too much for her to take.
"Why do you say that?" Kerry sighed. She hated to break cover this
way, especially after the way she'd pressured Luka into
keeping quiet, but Carol had formed entirely the wrong
idea about what kind of relationship she'd had with Luka.
"Because he and I have been together since January," she admitted
quietly. Doug entered the lounge, carrying a couple of
to-go containers from the cafeteria, just as Kerry finished talking,
and he looked at the two women quizzically.
"Who's been together since January?"
"I was just telling Carol that she doesn't have to worry about
having broken Luka's heart when she left, because he's been with
me since January." Doug stared, shocked, at her for a few seconds, and
then began to laugh.
"Hey, good one, Kerry. You had me going there for a moment. No,
really. Who's been together?" She gave him the Stare of Death,
and he quit laughing. "My God... you're really serious. You, and- and- him?"
Kerry smirked, and folded her arms.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Doug."
"Uh, well, it's just that I always... you know... imagined you
married to an anesthesiologist, or something. You're just dating this
guy, or have you actually gotten married?"
"Still dating, but we've discussed marriage." That wasn't quite
true, she knew - he had mentioned the subject a few times,
that
was all - but he'd backed away from it pretty quickly. She couldn't
blame Luka for being reluctant to tie himself down with her
on a permanent basis. Hell... for all she knew, she could get a letter
from him one day, letting her know that he'd decided to stay
in Croatia after all, and asking her to send him his stuff. It wasn't
as though he had that much, after all, even after the nearly four
months he'd been living with her.
Doug stared at her, wide-eyed. "Now I'm really curious
about this guy. Puts up with you, he must
be some kind of saint. Got
any pictures?"
"Doug, just leave it," Carol started to say, but Kerry shook her head.
"No, that's all right, Carol. I have one in my purse." She went to
her locker, dialed the combination and opened the door, then
reached into her purse for the strip of pictures.
* * *
They'd been on one of their infrequent Official Dates when he'd
spotted the photo booth and dragged her over to it. "You want
me to do what?" She tried to sound indignant, but
couldn't help laughing as he fed quarters into the machine - he was
behaving
like a goofy kid, and his mood was contagious.
"I want pictures of us. I'm happy, you're happy, I want a memento of this evening. Smile." He nudged her to look at the camera.
Snap!
His right hand is caught in the act of pointing, and he's squinting
a little as he glances at the camera, a half-smile on his face. She's
still looking at him, but laughing, her hands resting easily on his
left forearm.
Snap!
He's looking at her again, laughing, his left hand touching her hair
and his right hand clutching her hand. She's facing him, but she's
glancing at the camera on her left.
Snap!
They're kissing; their lips touching gently, almost tentatively. His hands cup her face, as her hands rest lightly on his thighs.
Snap!
Their kiss has intensified, deepened - his right arm is around her,
pulling her close, though his left hand is still lightly touching her
face. Her left hand can be seen clutching at his back, and her right
hand (although it can't be seen from the angle of the camera) is
at his waist.
They continued to kiss long after the camera had clicked for the
fourth time, and the strip of photos had been kicked out of the
machine's innards; by the time they separated, they were both breathing
heavily. What little lipstick Kerry had put on earlier
was long kissed-away, and her hands had migrated up to his hair, where
they'd nested happily.
She sighed, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Now what?" He
watched her curiously, as he stroked her hair - so soft and pretty,
and still holding a little bit of the scent of her perfume.
"You've never done this before? I thought these booths were supposed
to be some kind of, uh, American dating ritual?" Kerry
smiled, and managed to snuggle a few millimeters closer to him.
"I wouldn't know, honestly. I was a late bloomer when it came to dating, and even then..." she shrugged.
"'Late bloomer'?" He wasn't sure what flowers had to do with dating,
except that it reminded him that he'd meant to pick a flower
to put in Kerry's hair tonight... now that her hair was getting longer,
one of the pink morning glories would be lovely in her hair.
"I didn't date at all until I was in college, and even then, not
very often." Though some of those dates had been very
interesting, to
say the least.
"Oh. I--" They were interrupted by a knock on the side of the booth,
and Luka briefly poked his head through the curtain to see what
was going on. "Somebody else wants to use the booth," he told her
when he ducked back inside, and snagged the strip of photos
from the slot where it had been ejected. "Shall we?" He offered her his
hand, and she took it.
* * *
Kerry passed the strip of photos to Doug, who stared at them intently. "Hey... whoa, this is the guy? This is Luka?"
"Yeah." Doug laughed - a short sound that cut off when he saw Kerry glaring at him.
"I think I met him. Yeah... it was at the Jewel, the day before
Easter." He tilted his head and squinted at Kerry. "Yeah.
He was
looking at a picture of you when he was waiting in the checkout line.
Right in front of me, in fact. I thought it looked like
you, but -
sorry - from what little I could see of the picture, and from what I
knew - thought I knew - about you, it seemed pretty
unlikely."
"Oh? And what could you see of the picture?"
"Let's see... you looked like you were wearing some kind of dark,
short-sleeved blouse with a... a light pink t-shirt underneath?" He
looked at Kerry again. "Oh, my God. You weren't." Carol frowned
questioningly at him. "An unbuttoned blouse? You weren't!"
Kerry blushed - she'd had no idea that Luka was carrying that
picture around with him.
"I'm gonna kill him," she muttered, as Doug handed the pictures back
to her. She put the strip back in her purse, and closed the door
of her locker.
"What?"
"Nothing. Look... please don't say anything about any of this to anyone." Doug and Carol grinned at each other.
"Oh, uh, I think it's probably safe to say that it's probably common
knowledge - secret romances don't stay secret for very long
around here, right, Carol?"
"Better believe it, Kerry," Carol told her, still grinning. She'd
been vaguely disappointed to find that Luka hadn't been carrying a
torch for her after all, but more in the sense that she'd enjoyed the
boost to her ego at the time. (And... it had been nice,
to think that
someone that cute was interested in her, after what she'd
been through.) She was glad that she hadn't hurt him, though: he was
such
a nice guy and he'd been such a good friend to her that she had been
wishing, the last few weeks, that she'd taken more time to say
goodbye... to explain her actions to him a little better, instead of
making that speech to him that seemed kind of stupid in
hindsight!
"C'mon," Doug tried to tease, "why not make a formal
announcement? You could make it now... I want to see who wins the pool
that Randi probably has going." Carol elbowed him sharply.
"Stop it, Doug. We won't say anything, will we,
Doug?." He muttered and looked around the room, but finally nodded
reluctantly.
"You will let us know who won, though, if or when you
finally decide to announce that you and Luka are a couple?" Kerry smiled
tightly.
"At the very least, I'd have to wait until he returned - who'd
believe me?" Doug rolled his eyes, and soundlessly whistled, earning
him another Stare of Death... from both Kerry and Carol,
this time.
"Come on, Kerry," Carol tried to reassure her. "It's not that unbelievable--"
"Yeah, and you can always show 'em those pictures, if-- okay,
sorry," Doug muttered, as Carol glared at him. "Hey. We're happy for
you, Kerry. Really." She smiled.
"Thanks... I think. I need to head back out there - it's a zoo, and there's supposed to be a new moonlighter arriving any time now."
* * *
"ER," Randi snapped into the phone. Ringing off the damn hook today
- even the callers knew when they were busy! A heavily
accented voice answered her.
"Mees Doctor Keery Veaver, pliss." Randi shifted her gum to the other side of her mouth.
"'Scuse me?"
"I em lookink for... to talk to Keery Veaver? I em Russian, pliss,
my English for to speak, no so good. I em... friend Yuri Zhiv--
Zhivko." Weird... Randi could almost swear that when the man had paused
in the middle of giving his name, he'd gasped slightly,
as though somebody had poked him. Whatever.
"Hang on," she told him, and put him on hold as she looked around.
Ah... there she was, coming out of the lounge. "Dr Weaver!
Some Russian guy on the phone for you, on Line 2. Says his name is
Yuri."
"Hm? Oh. Thanks, Randi." She frowned - she didn't know any Russians,
let alone any named Yuri - but took the phone and pressed
the button for Line 2. "This is Dr Weaver."
"Hey, beba."
"Wh-- uh, Y-Yuri," she stammered. "It's been a long time."
"Too long," Luka agreed. "I can't talk very long, this is an international call, so... uh... how are you?"
"Good. I, uh, got the delivery I was expecting."
"Shto? Oh, your period. That's good... I guess. Um. How are y-- I just said that, didn't I?" He laughed a little awkwardly.
"Mm-hm. How about you?"
"I've been bette-- excuse me." He spoke to someone nearby. "Rekao
sam, chu platiti! My brother," Luka explained. "He worries
too much!" That comment was clearly directed at both Kerry and Nik, and
Kerry laughed. There was the unmistakable sound of a
scuffle on the other end, and a different voice came on the line;
although she didn't know it, it was the same voice that had asked
Randi for her, only with far less of an accent than he'd put on for
Randi's benefit.
"Hey, so you're Luka's woman, huh?" Kerry arched an eyebrow at the impudent tone in Nik's voice. "You love him, right?"
"That would be an accurate assessment," she said carefully - she
really should have taken the call in the lounge, she could see that
several people in the area were trying to be inconspicuous about the
fact that they were eavesdropping on her end of the call: her
laugh had drawn a little attention.
"Hm." Kerry got the feeling that, if Nikola Kovac were standing in
front of her, he'd be eyeing her critically about now, at the same
time that he was hmming at her. "I'll hand you back over to my brother,
then." The phone changed hands - Kerry could hear Luka
snapping something at Nik that produced a laugh.
"What are you wearing?" She smiled at the plaintive question... she remembered him asking a similar question, not so long ago.
"My labcoat," she told him sweetly.
"And?"
"Just that." She could imagine his eyes getting very large and eager
at that thought. "I can send you the materials, if you like," she
offered, aware that Lydia had drifted a little closer.
"You mean... a picture of you... wearing... just your labcoat?" His voice was soft, and a little hoarse, and she smiled.
"That's right, Yuri," she told him briskly, and quickly copied the
address he gave her, onto a sheet from her prescription pad. "All
right. I'll get that to you as soon as possible. Until then, I hope you
can make do with the materials you have." He was silent for a
moment.
"Oh. How'd you find out I had that picture?"
"I'll let you know in my correspondence, Yuri." He chuckled at that.
"Volim te, Kerry." She stretched, and used the motion as an excuse
to look around casually, to make sure that the few people
in earshot had moved away again.
"Volim te, Yuri," she said quickly and quietly; Luka promptly irritated her by laughing again, softly.
"I'll see you when I get back, draga. You got my postcard?"
"Yes! I received that just yesterday. Thank you."
"You're welcome. We'll... probably be going down to visit our
parents, and then, uh, up to Vukovar, for... well... you know, so I
don't know how quickly I'll get anything you send. But I'll keep
sending you postcards and letters, okay?"
"Yes, I realize that. Until next time, then?"
"Da. See you later, beba. Vidimo se."
"Bye." She hung up, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong... that
she hadn't just been hearing a very dear voice that she hadn't
heard for a little over a week - a little over a week since he'd left
her sleeping peacefully to go catch his flight. She hadn't been
able to get any sleep in their bed the last week... she'd been
practically camped out on the couch the entire time.
She'd gone to see Carter's grandparents - her parents...
she was never going to get used to that thought, she was
sure - shortly after
she'd heard from Peter in Atlanta... she'd tried to pretend that she
was just there to pick out some clothes to send to John, but Millicent
hadn't been having any of that. She'd insisted that
Kerry stay for a while, so they could talk for a while, privately.
"Hey, Dr Weaver!" Chuny's voice cut into Kerry's thoughts, and she looked up.
* * *
Nick, who'd just finished his tour of the ER with Chuny, spotted
Kerry on the phone. Hm... pretty redhead - even prettier when she
laughed, as she'd just done. She was wearing a labcoat, so she was
probably one of the doctors... this job was looking better and
better all the time!
"Who's that?" He pointed at the redhead, and Chuny smiled.
"Oh, that's Dr Weaver. She's been keeping busy because she's missing her boyfriend."
"So she's not available? Pity." Chuny raised her eyebrows at the tone in Nick's voice.
"No, and the guy wouldn't like to come back and find that you'd been
eyeing his woman." He smiled at the mildly scolding tone
in her voice.
"So he's a very large person, then," he guessed.
"Not big, the way Malik's big," she explained. They'd
encountered the nurse on their way around the tour, and Chuny had
explained
that Malik was who they sometimes called when there wasn't time to
summon Security. "But he's tall, and probably strong enough
that if he hit you, you wouldn't forget." Nick raised his eyebrows.
"Then I'll have to make sure I never give him a reason to hit me, won't I?"
"Good plan," Chuny laughed. "Although I should warn you that we've
been letting her think we don't know that they're dating."
Nick grinned at her.
"That has to be driving people around here crazy, sitting on a secret like that."
"We like him. And... she's not so bad, now that they're dating. And
I never said that," she added hastily, embarrassed by her blunt
comment.
"Said what? I didn't hear you say anything." He glanced over at the
desk, and saw Dr Weaver hang up the phone - he saw a pained
look flit across her face for a moment, and could tell when she clamped
down on it: she wasn't the only one who clamped down.
"Hey, Dr Weaver!" Chuny's call startled both Nick and Kerry out of
their respective thoughts. "That new doc is here! I already took
him on a tour of the department, where do ya want him?"
"Nick Dennison, ma'am," he said quickly, holding out his hand. She shook it, and gave him a peculiar look.
"You're a little late, but it looks like Chuny's been seeing to getting you settled in."
"Right. Uh, I hope you don't mind, but I took a look at the woman in
Exam 1, and called a psych consult for her - she was starting to
get restless." Kerry glanced at the board - Exam 1 was one of her
patients.
"The arm burns? That's not psych."
"I've had some experience - it was clearly self-inflicted." Kerry
stared at him, and wasn't sure whether or not to be pleased that he
didn't
back down. She knew as little about him as she had about Luka, about
this time last year - the agency that County used for its
moonlighters had the same kind of erratic supply that any
temp agency had: the last guy had barely been aware of the difference
between
an Ewald and a Foley.
"All right," she said promptly. "Mrs Chambers is yours. Follow up
with whoever Psych sends down. You know how the board works,
I trust?" He glanced at it quickly.
"Yeah. I'm not familiar with all the initials, but I'll pick that up
quickly. Oh-- and you'd be KW, wouldn't you? I'm sorry I poached."
Kerry shrugged.
"Don't worry, Dr Dennison--" He interrupted her quickly.
"Nick." She ignored his interruption, though, and continued as if he hadn't spoken.
"As long as Mrs Chambers gets the help that she needs, you can poach
away, as long as you let other people know what's going on."
She put a magnet by Joan Chambers' name, to indicate that they were
waiting on a psych consult, and replaced her initials with "ND".
"While you're waiting on Psych, why don't you take some of the sutures
that are waiting, too?"
"Uh... all right, Dr Weaver."
"Good. I'm going to go check on the guy in Exam 4 with stomach flu." Kerry crutched away, and Chuny giggled softly.
"Is she always this warm and cordial to newcomers?" Nick asked her.
"That's just the way she is. She's not too bad to work for. Oh--
hey, but there was that time she wrote a romance novel. She claimed
she didn't do it, but I don't think so."
"Really. A romance novel, you say? Was it any good?" Chuny shrugged.
"I dunno. I thought the Latina nurse in it was kinda racist, myself,
but there were some pretty steamy parts." Nick glanced in the
direction Kerry had gone.
"Wow. Now I am sorry she's already taken. I don't
suppose you'd be willing to let me take you out for dinner
tonight?" Chuny
raised an eyebrow.
"Ooh, with such a charming delivery, how can I possibly say no. Oh yeah... 'no'."
"You wound me, Chuny. Really, you do."
"Good thing you're in a hospital, then, huh?" She snickered and
walked away, and he shook his head with a rueful smile. Ah well.
Now... on to those sutures.
POST-OPERATIVE NOTES: