"Kerry?! I... You shouldn't be in here. The p-paint fumes." Benton fumbled with the keys in his hands, his eyes averted from the nakedness of the two doctors.
"Get her off me Dr.Pete!!" Dave yelped from under Kerry's strong-hold.
"Kerry?" Benton shuddered again. Seeing Kerry half-naked hadn't been on the top of his list of priorities for the day.
"Get OUT Peter." She growled angrily.
"Heyyyyy.. You'll get no argument from me on that one, trust me." Peter smiled nervously as he backed out of the door and locked it closed behind him. As he walked away from the room he could hear Dave's muffled screams, and Benton slipped the key into his pocket and began to whistle.
**
He'd been very fearful for his Chief, (and OF his Chief too.. Especially since she'd started to take off all her clothes.) but she seemed quite spry and energetic for somebody who'd just survived a landmine. As she peppered him with warm kisses, Dave relaxed and slowly began to kiss her back.
****
"When I joined this thing, I was under the impression that it we'd be getting plastered on free wine, Seri.." Dave grumbled, rolling over in bed, onto his stomach and kissing the woman beside him. She was wearing nothing but the thin sheet that covered the both of them, outlining their naked bodies and covering her breasts.
"Dave this is about restoring life. Saving lives. Not getting drunk." Serena scolded him, kissing the man on the lips.
"I just figured. If I'm out there risking my ass, I should at least get something out of it.. I mean a little free wine.. Would that be so hard?? I mean.. We're planting the damn bushes.." Dave sighed and flinched as Serena punched him hard on the arm.
"It's grape VINE, Dave.. Not bush.. You don't get it do you!? Everything is not always about you. The mines are always cleared by the time we get there." She said angrily, scrambling out of bed, the moon shining from the window and casting the room in deep chalky blue. The light accentuated her soft curves and Dave gasped, taken aback by the stark beauty of her naked form.
"I didn't mean it that way Seri and you now it." Dave said pained. "I was joking."
Serena crossed her arms and stared outside, letting the cool breeze wash over her body. "You seem to joke an awful lot, Dave.. Maybe getting married to you was a mistake.."
"A mistake?! No! Seri.. Please.. It wasn't a mistake. I love you.. You're my activist.. my Winnie Mandela.. my Eleanor Roosevelt, my Charlotte Witten, My Gloria Steinem, my right hand, my reason. You are me. You are what makes me. You are a part of me. If you leave Seri.. I am nothing.." Dave rolled over in bed and looked away from his wife, tears welling in his eyes.
The moon shaded a strange shadow across her legs, black slat-like bars on a prison. Dave rose from the bed, and wrapped his arms around his young wife. "I love you. I love every bit of you." He murmured, burying his face into her hair.
"Even the bits made of metal and plastic? Dave.. I'm not the woman you married.. I'm not fresh out of college and bright-eyed anymore. I'm not whole.." Serena started to cry, silently, no sound escaping her lips as the tears fell and her body shook with the sobs.
"Seri.. I didn't marry you because you had ten fingers and ten toes. Remember? 'For better or worse? In sickness and in health?' We've already done that.. We survived.. I sat by that bed in the hospital and signed the forms. We cried in each other's arms. We buried the it for good. I'm not letting you leave. I'm not leaving you alone.. The last time I... The last time I left you alone..." He trailed off, his arms loosened and fell to the side as he pulled away from her.
"Dave.. We should get some sleep. Tomorrow.. Tomorrow we're going to Srebrencia.. They've cleared that field.." Serena sighed tiredly.
"So. You're not leaving me?" Dave said softer, his toes curling on the carpeting.
"No Dave, I'm not leaving you." Serena crawled back into bed and Dave
followed soon after. Wrapping his arms around her, a hand trailed up her
leg and brushed her thigh before she felt his touch. She smiled grasping
his fingers. "Stop it Dave.." Serena murmured.
"Just take it off.. Put it beside the bed.."
Dave's head ducked under the covers as his fingers explored her body, gently caressing her thigh as he kissed it and stuck his fingers under the lip. Running his moistened finger across it till the seal broke, the suction eased, and the leg slid off easily in his hands. Dave laid it down under the bed before cuddling up next to his wife and falling asleep.
***
"NO!!!! CHASE!! DON'T!!!" Carter screamed painfully, his voice child-like and laced with fear as he startled himself awake. Benton knocked on the door, sticking his head in.
"You okay man?" Peter let himself in the room and closed the door behind him. "If you need to talk...."
********
"So.... Let me get this straight.. No bullet wound.. No landmine catastrophe.. You got drunk and broke your leg chasing a city bus?" Nikola shook his head. "That is a leetle hard to believe, Luka.."
"My college friends.. They take my money so I cannot drink anymore. I had bus tokens.. But the bus was leaving. It was dark. I stepped in storm drain. I fall and break my leg.. It was a bad break. So now I limp." Luka shrugged.
His former-father in law rolled his eyes and sipped his beer. "What did Dani do when she find out?"
Luka smiled. "She hit me over the head with her purse. It was a big purse.. All kids vitamins.. Medications.. Lots of coins.. It was heavy.. Left a bump.." He rubbed the back of his head at the memory and grinned. "Any more questions?? Want to know why I only have one testicle?"
&&&&
"Carter. If you want to talk." Benton stood at the foot of the bed, rubbing the back of his neck and staring at the trembling, sweaty resident. "I mean it man. About anything.. I'm here for you."
"Oh really?? Like you were there for me at the Detox centre? You left!" Carter's voice was small, childlike and full of pain.
"I didn't leave, Carter. They told me you had to sign in yourself. It had to be your choice.
"My choice? Is it still my choice? What I do? Then I choose that you leave.. Now. How about that? Get out." His eyes narrowed and his face flushed with anger.
"Carter..."
"OUT!" The younger man yelled, shrilly like an animal in pain. He threw a pillow, it glanced off the surgeon's nose and fell at Benton's feet.
"Okay Carter, I'm leaving.. If you w-"
"OUT NOW!" Carter said tearfully.
"I'm gone Carter, but I meant what I said." Benton muttered sadly as he exited the bedroom.
****
"Mark can you watch Suzie for a second?" Susan bent over, the milky white fullness of her breasts in full view as she placed the baby in the cradle. "Mark?" She waved a hand in front of his glazed happy expression, and slowly his gaze moved upward and into her eyes. "Watch the baby. I'm going to take a shower before work."
Mark nodded carefully as if his head would suddenly detach and roll off his shoulders. "Yuh huh?" He watched her go, her small round bum moving beneath the tight denim, mottled with paint from the last time she'd painted the apartment. Mint green.. Mark smiled.. It looked good on her ass. "Susan?"
She turned, her hair bouncing on her shoulders and catching the light, like a model in a hair commercial.. Except this model had ripped paint covered jeans and a t-shirt covered in baby vomit. "Yes Mark?"
"Do you remember that night?" He murmured staring at her vomit covered breasts, the nipples stuck out from the cold air in the room.
"What night, Mark?" Susan replied, biting her tongue and instantly tasting blood. She knew what he was talking about, she just wanted to hear him say it.
"Jen.. She was studying at the library.. Rachel was there.. Sleeping in the basket on the floor.." Mark turned staring at Suzie who squirmed in the cradle and scrunched up her little nose.
"Stop it Mark. Stop it.. That's over.. That's done.. I can't talk about this right now. I have to get ready for work." Susan turned away, her barefeet padding on the linoleum.
He stood from the rocking chair, knocking his knee against the cradle's edge and cursing aloud. The baby started to howl and Mark ignored it, chasing her down. "Susan.. Wait.." He said feebly. "That night.. You said you loved me.. I should have married you.. Not her.."
"Mark... You couldn't do that.. I know you. You couldn't have left Jen a single mother. It's too late Mark. I don't love you the way I used to.. I don't love you like that anymore. I have too much on my mind right now. Babies, work, evil Weaver... It's too much, I don't have time for a husband or a fiancee or a boyfriend. A friend.. I need a friend Mark.. You're a good friend. I need a friend, not a-"
"If I had a condom that night.." He looked at her expectantly, grasping her wrist.
"Mark... Would we have fucked our brains out?? Is that what you're asking? I don't know Mark. I can't answer a question like that."
"Can't or won't, Sue?" Mark's eyes full of anguish and reddened with the tears that he'd wiped off on his sleeve.
"Both.. Mark.. I have to go." Susan walked away from him and into the bathroom, her hand on the door as she stared back at him.
"What if I told you, I had a condom now.. What then?" His hands went to his back pocket and he pulled out his wallet.
"Mark.. I.."
"Well?"
******
"Should I drive you home now?" Nikola smiled. "I promise. I won't make you chase after the car."
Luka groaned and stared at the empty beer cans surrounding the old man. "Fine.. Take me home, but are you sure you are okay to drive?" Maybe I can sleep here. Then.. Tomorrow when you are sober.."
Nikola shrugged. "Fine with me. What would the 'war hero' want for supper, eh?" He chuckled softly, as he rose his aching body from the chair and staggered to the kitchen.
****
"Dave?" Kerry kissed his neck and massaged the taut muscles in his shoulders. The tiny muscles in his oiled skin twitched as the cold air seeping in from the closed window brushed past his naked shoulders, and whispered down his spine as Kerry's fingers worked their way into the knots in his back. Her thumbs moved methodically as she rocked. "It was a mistake was it? I'm sorry Dave if it was. Please.. Say something."
"You were married before. Weren't you? Dr.Weaver?" Dave pulled his arms up and folded them under his head as Kerry leaned forward with her might and cracked his back, loosening the muscles.
"I think you can lose the formalities, Dave. Call me Kerry. I've think you've earned it." Kerry laughed.
"But.. Were you?" Dave insisted again, moaning a little when Kerry had found a particularly tight muscle, groaning happily as it loosened.
"Was I married? Yes Dave.. I was.." She replied, her smile disappearing. "Why?"
"Did he leave you?"
"You mean, run off and not come back? You really think I have THAT bad a reputation with men?!" Kerry muttered in disbelief, her perpetual rocking as she rubbed his back, her hair tousling with the movement and falling in her eyes in sweaty tendrils.
"He died?" Dave turned to face her, to see her expression, but Kerry's hands held firm.
"No.. Not that either.. Why this line of questioning all of a sudden, Malucci?" Her experienced hands moved south, caressing the small concave of his back, the slope that rose over his perfect buttocks. IT was tanned and firm like the rest of his body, thanks to his pass at the gym and his Italian heritage.
"I'm just curious. You said once that all I had to do was ask. I'm asking. Is that okay?" Dave's voice strained with tears as Kerry rolled him on his back, working the oil into his chest.
"Yes Dave.. That's fine. What's wrong?"
"You guys are divorced then? It was amicable?" Dave sighed as Kerry nodded, concentrating her focus on massaging one of his nipples, and warming it in her hands as the oil spread over his chest.
"Divorced.. Annulled... It was an amicable breakup, true enough.. We loved each other dearly, but we hated being in the same room with each other.. Love's funny that way."
Dave smiled bitterly. "Sort of makes you wish you could get rid of Greene that easy.." His hand that had been on the bed, feathered up her thigh, his fingertips barely grazing her skin.
"Sort of." Kerry smiled in return and lay her head on his chest that smelled of almonds and sweat.
"Did you know I was married, Chief?"He muttered as he stared at the stippled ceiling, making out pictures in the shadows.
"Well.. Considering I had to kick out several angry women all looking for you in the past few months, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you had run off with one of them to Vegas." She laughed, drawing lazy circles on his stomach with her finger.
"No.. This was a few years ago.. Her name was Seri.. Her father a Pentacostal minister.. Her mother, a total bitch. I met her in in Grenada. She wasn't there for school though.. She was there to protest the woman's rights.. There was a protest which escalated into a riot, I saved her ass and we had sex in the back of her electric car.." Dave grinned. "You could say the sex we had was electrifying... We got married after I finished school, then I joined Roots with her and we travelled Europe for a bit.."
"Alls well that ends well?" Kerry's voice rose with hope.
"Not quite, Chief.." Dave sighed, kissing the top of her head.
****