Chapter 3: Wakka

Disclaimer: see chapter 1.

A/N: I apologize for the wait. Just so ya know this fic isn't dead but I had a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the school work load and thus couldn't find my focus for fan fiction. The writer's block didn't help...

Walker switched off the radio as the broadcasted sermon came to a close then lightning fast had the steering-wheel back in his white-knuckle grip. He took a deep breath in and tried to slow his pounding heart rate. It's no big deal, ya? He thought, You used to drive with one hand all the time. Nonetheless the thought of removing his hand again to roll open the window for some fresh air or to cross himself in the aftermath of the sermon shot his pulse through the roof.

He relaxed as best he could into the seat, willing his muscles to loosen while at the same time retaining his paranoid gaze on the road. Several cars past him on the left, in fact most cars when coming in contact with his blue Pontiac Grand Am going ten miles under the speed limit went around if the road permitted them. Sometimes they would even if it didn't, which made him to bite his lips and glare after them furiously, You know how dangerous that is?!

That's not to say that he was paranoid or anything. He'd like to live dangerously too, up until a year ago. He felt sweat pricking his brow; This isn't the time to be thinkin' bout dat. Just get to the hospital, pick up Lu and go. Driving had seemed like a good idea at the time. Lu was working on her internship at Liberty Health Hospital and would have to bum a ride off someone to get her back as far as the PATH train and from there to the subways. When Walker had heard this he decided there was no way in hell his Lucia was gonna be takin' the subway after dark and finally after nearly a half hour of eyeing the machine he had gotten into the driver's seat and headed off.

For his first time driving since the accident he had to admit he was doing pretty good. No mishaps, no distractions....

Bingly-bingly-BEEP!

"JESUS! Ah, I mean..." he glanced up at the upholstery ceiling of the car then quickly at the passenger seat. His black cell phone was ringing and vibrating like it was about to throw itself out the window if he didn't answer it. He glanced nervously at the road then back at the phone. I'll just take the message, he thought. But then what if it's somethin' real important? What if it's Lu? He licked his lips as he debated the issue in his head then almost gasped in relief as his destination came into view. If it was important I'll see her in a bit.

He turned on his blinkers and came to a steady but full stop in front of the building, ignoring the angry honks that blared behind him and turned into the parking lot of hospital.

Liberty Health was a huge complex, painted mostly white and sprawling over 15 acres with a view of the statue of Liberty and the New York City Harbor. It specialized in tending women, infants, and those suffering from trauma. After the accident Lu had chosen to go into the medical field rather than pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a chemist. No one questioned her, even to remark with surprise at her decision. Everyone already knew. Lucia's motto in life had always been never to trust others with a job that can be better done yourself; never mind that even the best care money could buy wouldn't have been enough. She was driven, always had been, and now her goal was to save someone who had died a year ago.

Stepping out of the car he glanced down self-consciously at his ripped jeans and white muscle shirt, feeling a bit out of place outside this pristine building where words like electrocardiogram, aphasia, and anoxia were tossed as casually as paper by the side of the road. Chad would have felt at home here even in rags. He had always been the smarter of the two of them, able to keep up with Lucia when she went off about chemical formulas and molecules. Walker had always stood by as their intellectual arguments left him in the dust.

But Chad was gone and he... he was still here. He bent to lock the car door behind him, wondering if he should have at least combed his hair or something before he had left. But then again he almost never did whenever he knew he was gonna see Lu. Sometimes he would even make sure that his unruly orange hair was sticking as straight up as possible, kept out of his face with a blue sweatband, just so she would sigh in exasperation and run her long white fingers through his hair in a futile attempt to tame it, he long nails lightly scratching his scalp.

It was the only physical contact they had had since that day. Discomfort or no, he wouldn't miss it for the world.

The automatic doors slid open easily to allow him in and for a moment he was bathed in a blast of chill air that settled into cool fresh environment. A young woman with blonde hair pulled back in a bun with a pair of tiny rectangular glasses that perched on the end of her nose sat at the reception desk. She glanced up and offered him a pleasant smile that went slack at the same time her dark brown eyes flew wide, "Welcome to Liberty Health Hospital. Hey, aren't you that guy who...?"

"Yeah, I am," Walker said, scratching the back of neck nervously. Couldn't people just leave that alone? "Uh, I'm looking for a girl named Lu, ah, I mean, Lucia. She's about this tall," he said, gesturing. "...and has long black hair that she wears a bit like yours, ya? Only with braids hangin' down and...This isn't helping, is it?"

The receptionists smile had taken on the fake plastic quality of a Barbie doll, "I'm sorry, there are many people who match her description. Could you please tell me what her malady is and her last name and I should be able to tell you."

"Oh, no, she's not a patient. She's a med student. Interning, ya? And her last name is-," just then the distant wail of a siren hit an earsplitting pitch and the main doors flew open. Three gurneys were hauled out the back of the ambulance and before Walker could make out the unfortunates their forms were obscured by buzzing attendants.

A group of hospital aids came trotting out the bone white doors to Walker's right, one of them clicking by him in her black high heels, her ebony braids trailing from the tight bun perched atop her head. She stopped just in front of him and her face twitching briefly between shock and annoyance before resuming its impervious mask of cool calculation, "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh, came to pick you up. So you didn't need to take the subway, ya? But I guess you're kinda busy...I'll, uh, just go."

"Didn't you get my message?" at the helpless look on his face she gave a sigh and turned back towards the commotion. However, it seemed that everything was under control and there was little she could do until she learned the patients' diagnoses and less if they were pronounced dead.

"Yes, it is a bad time, but I'm sorry for snapping," Lucia apologized.

"Hey, it's ok. You're under a lot of stress here," Walker said. Lucia offered him a rare half-smile then with a sigh of exasperation slipped the blue sweatband off his head and began to comb his hair to the side with her long fingernails. It was all Walker could do to keep from purring and he closed his eyes, just for a second, and so missed that tiny half-smile stretching into a full one, putting a merry twinkle in her usually solemn crimson eyes. Suddenly the ministration stopped and Walker opened his eyes questioningly only to find she was gazing back at him, her ever-present mask of calm replaced by startlement.

"Did you drive here?" her voice was incredulous and concerned at the same time.

"Uh, yeah," he replied, scuffing the floor. "It's been a year, ya? I gotta move on," Lucia's lips tightened and Walker wondered if he had said the wrong thing. What if she wasn't ready to move on?

A tense moment past, Walker felt as if he was poised upon a tight rope waiting for the dark haired beauty in front of him to tumble, dragging him down with her. She seemed to be staring right through him into the past, back to that day when his brother died and he could do nothing to stop it...

Lucia glanced away as the three gurneys were brought into the inner sanctums of the hospital and sighed as if all the breath were being smothered from her. Her shoulders slumped as if under a great weight then straightened as she once more assumed her mantle of ice. "Go home, Walker," she said and turned away. "I have a feeling that I will be working late."

"Yeah, but-," he called after the fading moment.

"Just go," she didn't raise her voice, she didn't need to. He wondered if she knew how much he hated that tone, that sultry monotone devoid of life. The very sound of it was like watching her fall farther and farther away, back into the past.

For a moment Walker tried to think of something to say, anything to lift the oppressive shadow that had fallen across this parting, making like so many others. He had almost dared to hope that they were passed this. Couldn't he just once do something right for her? Couldn't she once let him?

Yet nothing came.

He watched as she drifted back towards what he knew was her refuge, her prison from the world: the labyrinthine tracks of the hospital. Soon she would slip back into her work, probably forgetting that he had been here at all.

Nobody said it, nobody dared but everyone knew why she was here. Every face that she tended was the same one. Every lost life pulled her further away from the present while every life saved deepened her regret. All he wanted to do was catch her and pull her away from this freefall. But would that be betrayal? Would-

"Give me a call when you want to be picked up, ya?" Walker shouted after her.

"Don't worry, I'll find a ride," her voice floated back over the hubbub and he watched her as she was swallowed by the sterile white doors and then for a moment longer.

With a sigh he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned back towards the door. There was only one thing he could do:

Find a seat and begin the wait.

The next chapter will either be titled "Lulu" or "Lulu & Kimahri". Please review

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