Title: The Talk
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these delightful characters.
Summary: Sequel to The Morning. Finally, they have the talk.
"Nice office..."
Kerry jumped and rubbed at the knee that had hit the bottom of her desk. "Thank you..."
Kim strolled into the room, "You're in charge."
Kerry laughed, "That is what it looks like?"
"You've changed."
Kerry put aside the report that she had been looking at, "You haven't." This made Kim pause. "Why didn't you contact me. I had no idea that you were still in Chicago."
"It's beautiful outside, don't you ever take lunch anymore? Go for a walk somewhere. You know, it's getting harder and harder to find a restaurant that's actually open for lunch?"
"Kim..." Kerry started to respond, but Kim kept going.
"I really did want you to get on with your life. We seemed so different in those last moments at the elevator. I saw both our futures. You would move on, find love, have a family..." Kim shook her head, "My problem was that I didn't give you enough credit, I was sure that it would be with a guy named Sandy, or a Mike, or David. I underestimated you, somewhere along our journey together you started to become a patient instead of my lover. When I was fired, that..." Kim shook her head again, and sat in one of the visitor's chairs, "I was so focused on the facts that I thought mattered. I was telling the truth when I said that I'd been through...it all with a straight woman before. And you were falling into the exact same things. I was an idiot, and then, one day, I realized that I had been an idiot, so I went to the hospital." Kim paused, "I didn't get there...I was almost there, and I saw this red head, crutching along with... You were with Sandy."
Kerry started to respond, but was interrupted by a knock on her door. Susan took a step into the room and realized that she had stepped into the middle something. "I'll, come back...it's nothing."
Kerry shook her head, "No, we were done. Come in Susan. Dr. Susan Lewis, this is Dr. Kim Legaspi. She was a Psych Attending... awhile ago."
Susan shook Kim's hand, "If you want to finish up, really."
"No, I'll see you tonight Kim, okay?" Kerry met Kim's eyes.
Kim nodded and smiled, "Of course, nice to meet you Dr. Lewis."
Susan watched Kim walk out the door, and turned to Kerry with an upraised eyebrow. Kerry frowned, "What did you want Susan?"
"Chief Resident..."
Kim started to speak as the front door of Kerry's house opened but stopped as she realized that it was controlled chaos inside the house. She blinked, a bit surprised as a mostly naked boy rushed by. Kerry was gesturing towards who Kim assumed was Henry at the same time she
was talking on the phone. Kim sniffed the air and decided that she would take a detour to the kitchen before figuring out what exactly Kerry thought Kim would be able to do with Henry.
She grabbed a pot holder and yanked the pot off the stove with one hand while turning off the burner with the other hand. Henry shot into the kitchen and Kim swept his naked form into her arms. "Well, you're lighter than my nephew is, but more nekkid."
Henry giggled and Kim shook her head. "And your room young sir?" He pointed out of the kitchen. Once they were out in the hallway he pointed down it. "So, Hen, do you regularly run around naked?" He smiled and shook his head from side to side. "Ah, so this is a new thing."
He grabbed at a doorway as they went by. "Mine."
Kim nodded and deposited him back on the ground. He scampered over to his dresser and started rooting through it. Kim suppressed a jump as Kerry came up next to her. "He's a holy terror Kerry."
Kerry smiled, "But he's my terror, and that..." she took a deep breath. "You probably didn't need to see that."
Kim laughed, "My older sister has two boys, and my brother has three. Young, naked, running boys, I'm used to..."
"Ever thought of having one of your own?"
Kim paused, "I know my mother does..." she glanced at Kerry, "for me...not her."
Kerry gestured that they should move back towards the kitchen. "She had four right?"
Kim leaned against the kitchen island as Kerry moved around the kitchen doing this and that to get dinner ready. "Yeah, Kelsey, me, Kennedy, and Kevin." Kim shook her head, "My mother can't understand how Kev and Kels both have all boys. My father loves it though."
Kerry turned towards Kim for a moment, "Your mother is Claire, and your father...?"
"Kurt." Kim rolled her eyes, "Hence the multitude of K names...I think that my mother just picked a different battle than the names." Kim shrugged.
"Henry." Kim jumped as Kerry's voice echoed across the room. Kerry managed to look a bit sheepish. "Sorry, I'm so used to it just being us."
"How long has he been walking?"
Kerry did the math in her head, "About four months or so...he's..."
Kim let a small smirk make its way onto her face, "...brilliant like his mother?"
Kerry raised an eyebrow, "The plates are in the cupboard, the silverware in the second drawer from the end."
The silence that had come over the living room after Kerry had put Henry to bed wasn't entirely unwelcome. It was broken by Kim, "Who was on the phone?"
"Lena, Lena Petrovsky, just asking me a favor." Kim raised an eyebrow and Kerry rolled her eyes, "She's a friend, from college actually. I haven't...not since..." Kerry shook her head, "Between work, and Henry, I just fall into bed at night."
Kim frowned, "Should I..." She started to get up, but was restrained by one of Kerry's hands on her own.
"No, stay..." Kerry shook her head and chuckled for a second, "I seem to say that a lot. I keep trying to convince you that I'm not who you think I am, and then I wind up being exactly who you thought I was..." Kerry took her hand off of Kim's.
Kim scrunched up her face, "God, if only we could go back to Thanksgiving..."
"Why? Would you still tell me that you were gay? Tell me that you thought that we had been going out on dates instead of friendly excursions?" Kim stayed silent. She blamed the fried chicken. It always made her blurt things out that she shouldn't. "If I could do that conversation again."
Kim swung one foot underneath her body and faced Kerry on the couch, she took both of Kerry's hands in her own with a twinkle in her eye. "You know, this is our second meal together. Some people..." Kim took a long inhale and Kerry rolled her eyes, "...might consider... a second
dinner... a date."
Kerry smirked, "Date? Isn't that like a prun..." One of Kim's hands covered Kerry's lips.
"No improvising..."
Kerry smiled and nodded as Kim continued, "You do know I'm gay, right?"
Kerry tilted her head to one side, "Of course I do! I mean I don't have a problem with that. I have," a snort of laughter came out of Kerry's throat, "I have gay friends."
"Oh...Oh, I'm sorry, Kerry...I misread this..."
Kerry patted Kim in a mock condescending way, "No, I mean...I didn't...I..I..I'm sooo sorry if I gave you the wrong impression..."
"It's just that you called me down for" Kim smirked and wiggled her eyebrows, "...eight psych consults in the past week..."
"Yeah...I...we," Kerry cleared her throat, mostly so that she wouldn't crack up laughing, "we...work well together."
Kim shook her head, "My instincts are usually a lot more reliable..."
"You know what, I'm-" Kerry paused, "You know what? I'm really very flattered." The look on Kim's face seemed to say, 'you darn well better be'. "It's just that I'm, uh,...I mean...gosh, you're such a beautiful woman." Another snort of laughter emanated from Kerry, "You're, oh Kim... you're oh so beautiful. But I'm str...I..I'm straight...I mean, I don't...I'm straight."
Kim's face morphed into a very serious look, "Ok."
Kerry's did the same. "God Kim, I was so, I was scared out of my mind. And I had never...really considered this." She held their hands up, which were still joined.
Kim leaned in, but was stopped by Kerry's hand. "Not...not yet. Okay?"
Kim stared into Kerry's eyes, "Yet?"
Kerry nodded, "Yet."
"No one." They were back to not talking about their relationship, but instead talking about the past. Mostly Kerry's past few years. "But Abby forced you to go upstairs right?"
Kerry nodded. "I..."
Kim shook her head, "You are one of the most infuriating people. I wasn't even there. Sandy must have..." Kim shook her head again. "She should be sainted."
Kerry rolled her eyes, "You didn't live with her...but yes, she put up with...some...of my issues."
"Some?"
Kerry rearranged herself on the couch before she answered, "She uh...she outed me in the middle of the entire ER."
Kim frowned, "How?"
Kerry touched her lips, "She kissed me. It was in the midst of a sort of fight. We had gone to a Blackhawks game, Susan and Malik I think were there, I ducked out of the way, she got pissed and stormed off. The next time she came to the ER she wanted to talk, there was so much other stuff going on that I just couldn't. So she used actions..."
Kim had a hand on her forehead, "And you had a child with her, you let her back...my God Kerry, how could she do that to you?"
Kerry frowned, "It's over, it's passed. Maybe it wasn't..."
Kim shook her head, "And what would have happened if you had reacted more like...Shannon..."
Kerry moved back into the arm of the couch, as far away from Kim as she could be, "I gave her a good Weavering. And...for your information, though I don't know why you even deserve to know, I went after her. God Kim, could you be any more judgmental."
"What...? Kerry...I just...I'm doing it again. I'm sorry..." Kim shook her head, "I guess you're right. Yet. Yet is good huh?"
Kerry let a small smile grace her face, "Neither of us are going anywhere right?"
Fin ~ February 25th, 2005
