Title: The Call
Spoilers: Just As I Am
Summary: A call. A bit from after the episode "Just as I Am"

A/N: Uh, bear in mind I just typed it directly into the posting box. (Oh, and I totally love doing phone conversations! :D)

Kerry stared down at Henry, ran a hand through his hair. He was so peaceful while he slept. When he was awake, not so much, but during the night hours...

Kerry smiled, he was good. It didn't matter if Helen accepted her, Henry was her life. That's what she needed to keep telling herself. She pulled herself out of Henry's bedroom and back into the living room. She had journals to read, and had to figure some way to pull her ER out of the crapper, woo the drug companies. She felt a headache coming on.

She sat back on her couch and closed her eyes. A whirlwind day, with good points and bad points. She shifted as something rubbed against her back. She reached back and retrieved the piece of paper that was the irritant.

A laugh bubbled out of her when she saw the number on it. "Ah, the end to a perfect day..." She started to crumple it up, throw it away, but paused and glanced over at the clock. "Three a.m. there's no way she'd be up..."

She snagged the phone off her end table and punched in the numbers. She practically dropped the blue handset as a real voice came on the line, not a distorted voicemail recording. "Hello..." Kerry was speechless, "...I said hello, it's three am, whoever the hell you are,..."

"I...I thought you'd be...I thought I'd get voice mail..."

Silence flowed from the other end of the phone line for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, "Kerry?"

"I, I shouldn't have called. I sat on your number... and today I was rejected by my birth mother, and..."

"What, Kerry...are you okay?"

Kerry laughed almost sadly, "Only you Kim...I call at three a.m., out of the blue after three years, sounding drunker than a skunk and you want to know if I'm okay..."

There was more silence from Kim's side of the line, "Are you... I know that you really wanted to know that side of you... part of you."

Kerry glanced down as Patriot's wet nose bumped up against her sockless foot. "I did, and I she found me, and now I can move on..."

The conversation stalled, all that could be heard over the phone line was the two women's breathing. Finally Kerry broke the silence, "I should go...I have, a long day tomorrow..."

"Kerry..."

"Uh..." Kerry pushed herself forward on the couch, "...yes..."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"What?"

A laugh was filtered through the phone lines, "What, did you think I got out of town, went to... oh, I don't know...San Francisco..." Another laugh, "Sorry, that's not nice of me...but I'm serious..."

"I..." Kerry absently skritched Patriot behind the ear.

"Give me...Fifteen minutes..."

Fin ~ February 11th, 2005