Laced
Disclaimer: don't own anything except the OFC appearing in this chapter.
Rating: R
Spoiler: Season 10 Finale
Pairing: Luka/Abby
Summary: Part 4: First To Know: After witnessing a conversation between two coworkers, Luka is further convinced he needs to talk to Abby, while she makes a surprise appearance in the ER, just not as a doctor.
A/N: Slightly longer chapter, features the song 'green eyes' by Coldplay.
Part 4: First To Know
" What do you mean you couldn't do it?" Carter asked Abby the next morning in a somewhat condescending tone.
She took a deep breath and messaged her forehead; very much in disbelief that John was upset about her actions, didn't it work in his favor that she hadn't reconciled romantically with Luka? Or did he really want to get her off his hands?
" You know what, are you that eager to get me off your back, that you keep pushing me into Luka's arms?" She questioned his credibility, but also taking the spotlight off of herself, had they not been interrupted she probably would've gotten an ear full, but she tried to believe it wouldn't be self-righteous bullshit.
" What about my arms?" Dr. Kovac chose that moment to dive into the conversation, Abby shot Carter an embarrassed look, and shielded her eyes away from Luka, who's initial intent was to grab a few minutes of Abby's time on his break, but hearing the tail of dialogue between Carter and her sparked his curiosity.
" Nothing, they're just long." Abby came up with a lame excuse to safe face, since Carter obviously wasn't going to.
A mischievous smile spread across Luka's face upon hearing what he knew was a flat out lie. He knew enough to know that whenever Abby lied she wouldn't look him in the face, as she was doing right now.
" Listen I've got patients to see, I don't want to screw up being a doctor in my third month, so excuse me." She mumbled, just to make an exit, and left the two men alone.
When Abby was out of earshot, Luka looked aggravated, " I know she came to see me last night, she just didn't quite make it through the threshold, so be a dear Carter and tell me what the fuck is going on?"
John stifled a surprised laugh; he noted that Luka's voice grew heavy with his accent when he was angry and especially when he was cursing.
" All I gotta say is talk to her man." John pushed the chart in his hand against Luka's torso and turned around, yelling over his shoulder that he just signed off.
Luka sighed and looked at the chart in his hands, just as Dr. Chen informed him that a multiple car accident produced six new patients.
He needed to talk to Abby…
Nursing her third cup of coffee Abby fought off the nausea she was experiencing ever since that morning. She thought it might've been something she ate, but obviously the conversation with John and Luka had taken a toll not only on her mental state but her physical as well.
She was caught up in her thoughts, standing in the ambulance bay, fighting off the urge to smoke, and waiting very nervously for her salvation to come, well sort of.
Her salvation arrived in a form of a short blue-eyed brunette named Lara. She was an investment banker, putting in more hours than Abby had in her residency and looking as lovely as ever.
" I don't know if it's possible to look as primped up and perfect while having barely four hours of sleep every night, how do you do it Ms. Brecker?" Abby asked, trying to put on her Teflon façade, not to worry her best friend of 20 years just yet.
Lara entered Abby's life at a destructive period. Abby had just arrived to Chicago with Maggie and a 10 year old Eric in tow, which built tension within the family. Just entering adolescence the quiet Abby met the spunky Lara and they instantly hit it off, helping each other survive the last two decades, and never losing touch.
And if Abby thought Lara was going to buy her cheery attitude she was either dead wrong, or plain stupid, as Lara had concluded.
" Quit with the bullshit, I have a meeting with a very important client in 20 minutes, so you have 15 and a half minutes to tell me why the hell your shaking and why are you showering me with vapid compliments?"
Yup, that was Lara, all no nonsense and time is money, at least one of them had a clear, cut throat view on life and where they were going. Abby, on the other hand, had no fucking idea, that's why she'd enlisted the help of the most rational person she ever met.
Another reason why she'd called Lara on her extended lunch break, which by the way she took guiltily, leaving Corday, Weaver, Luka, and Susan in charge of six new patients, two of which flat lined twice, was because she'd met Luka countless times, and would probably know how to approach the situation best, being happily married and all.
" Hey, I happen to have my responsibilities too." Abby announced, as Lara took a sip of her friend's coffee and rolled her eyes,
" Are you trying to say this is so important that you took time out of your day to call upon the help of little ole me?" Lara smirked, not believing a word anyway, as Abby shrugged, " All I'm saying is 'help, I think I'm going crazy'."
Lara's smirk immediately softened and she brushed a strand of loose hair from Abby's face, caressing her cheek,
" Oh sweetie, appearance wise being a doctor agrees with you, but if you're struggling maybe you should take a few sick days, god knows you've earned it." Lara mistook Abby's confession for the obvious, and Abby smiled, sometimes Lara's downfall was the habit of always taking things at face value.
" No Lara, you don't understand, ever since John and I broke up, I've had this burden and I couldn't figure out what the hell it was. I mean I'd taken care of nearly everything: Maggie, Eric, even myself, but it was still there. At first I thought I was mending my broken heart, still reeling from John's good-bye, but it turns out it was a different relationship I still hadn't gotten over." Abby bit her lip, and took a sip of coffee, trying to read her best friend's expression and wondering if she'd have to elaborate more.
It didn't take Lara long to realize who the cryptic confession pointed to.
" Ohhh, Dr. Kovac again, you know if I wasn't happily married, I'd take him off your hands." Lara smiled, but Abby knew she'd said it in all seriousness, except not.
She knew since day one she was involved with Luka that he'd earned the reputation of promiscuity personified around the ER, but outside, everywhere he went women swooned around him. Be it his killer smile, or the angst filled eyes that lured women, but Abby couldn't remember a time Luka was alone.
Except for the past four months, which was what worried her the most, maybe he hadn't had time to mend 'his' broken heart, so she shouldn't force him into helping fix hers, on the other hand she wouldn't be forcing herself on anyone…would she?
" Hello, earth to Dr. Lockhart, did you hear me?" Lara snapped her fingers in front of her best friend's pensive expression, " What's bothering you particularly sweetheart?" Lara asked quietly, taking Abby's hand, and rubbing it between her palms.
Abby sighed and sank down against the wall, not caring that she'd stained the back of her white coat, " I don't know what to do, and I can't stop thinking about him. Ever since Samantha and him broke up it's as if I finally have a chance and I'm scared to take it because something could finally happen. And how do I even know he feels the same, I've never seen him without a woman for more than a month, which was after our break up." Abby paused to take a breath.
" He's been alone for four months now, she broke his heart obviously, and who am I to spring my troubles and needs onto him? Lord knows he doesn't deserve it; he's survived a life threatening disease while trying to help people, I am not dumping this all on him."
Abby sighed, very happy to bear her soul to someone, especially Lara, until her best friend opened her mouth.
" I hope you don't believe your own bullshit?" Lara asked, and when Abby looked up, chocolate eyes glistening with unshed tears, Lara felt like shit herself, " Look I'm sorry but you've already chosen the most selfless career permitted by American labor laws, so why don't you balance out your entire life and do something selfish for once?"
" Because Luka was the only one who was there for me when I was going through hell with Maggie, granted Carter was as well, but then Eric ruined Gamma's funeral and it was just too much to take. I know it was insulting and I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I was in John's shoes, but Luka, he's different, and I blew my chance with him, why should he give me another one, when he's so miserable? So I can break his heart again?"
Abby asked with conviction, running her fingers through her hair, still close to hyperventilating, so close in fact that she dropped her coffee on the pavement, but the plastic cup didn't break.
" Oh baby, look what it's doing to you." Lara pulled in the younger woman into a bear hug as she squatted beside her, " Abby look at me." Lara propped her friend's chin on her finger, and said, " Have you ever thought that maybe the reason why Luka hasn't had anyone besides him for this long of a time is because the one he wants he thinks doesn't feel the same?"
Abby looked up, and refused to cry, she wasn't a crier, tears weren't for people like her, people like her didn't deserve to drown in self pity, or expect people like Lara to pick up the pieces. Those were the last thoughts that ran through Abby's head, as light closed in on her, and Lara's soothing words became lost in the distance, her face virtually disappeared and before Dr. Lockhart knew what was happening, she was wheeled into her own ER unconscious…
Luka was caught up in a conversation with a patient who had lacerations on his fingers after sticking his hand in the sink to fix the garbage disposal, and accidentally turning it on. Luka wasn't even going to ask, as he ordered Neela to take an x-ray of the hand, and then he would examine it.
Just as he'd parted with the patient, studying the chart of his next patient, Lara Brecker ran in, in a screaming frenzy, the first familiar face she saw turned out to be his,
" Luka, it's Abby, she passed out in the ambulance peninsula, bay or whatever you call it."
All color drained from Luka's face. Abby, passed out? He couldn't comprehend it, but his job had to taught him to act first, ask questions later, and his instincts told him if he didn't act soon, the ambiguous situation would turn to worse.
He literarily sprinted across the lounge to Lara, ordering Jerry rather loudly to get a gurney immediately, the blonde man complied and disappeared, returning ten seconds later with prepped up gurney.
Once they were outside, Luka dodged Jerry's hand in helping place Abby on the gurney, she looked like she'd been asleep for ages, which to Luka suggested either insomnia or exhaustion had plagued her, he felt strangely protective and overwhelmed by the swarm of attention that called to him as Jerry, Lara and him rushed the Abby into a trauma room.
In a span of fifteen seconds they were joined by Dr. Lewis, and Pratt, who sent questioning stares toward Lara's direction, knowing very well she'd been the last one to see Dr. Lockhart conscious.
And the investment broker felt really lost being unable to answer any questions they had, and man were the questions pouring in. Was she breathing normally? How long had it been since she had her last cigarette? Did she act strange? Did she look exhausted?
Lara was caught between loyalty for her friend and Abby's health. If she said she'd been acting strange and was hyperventilating they'd want to know what the conversation was about, and if Abby had suffered any form of physical exhaustion lately.
Lara didn't answer anyone's questions she was left in the waiting room as Luka and Pratt worked on getting Abby stabilized. She sat down in one of the stiff chairs, as Susan asked her if she'd like something to drink or perhaps somewhere to lie down.
" Do I look that awful Suze?" Lara asked shakily, having been acquainted with Susan as well since Abby began her residency at ER.
" No, of course not, just a little pale." The blond doctor had a hard time bending the truth, as her friend sat motionless except for the movement of her blinking and the nervous habit she had of twisting her wedding band.
" Oh god, I totally forgot I need to cancel my appointment with a client." She exclaimed, flipping on her cell phone and zoning out Susan completely, not at her own fault, but as a defense mechanism.
Susan expelled a breath of exhaustion and excused her self, walking back into trauma 1.
Things had been hectic here not a half hour before when a multiple car crash produced six patients, all now safely either bandaged up and sleeping or drugged and escorted to the OR, for further operation. Now finally as things settled down, havoc wreaked into the door of ER once again, this time in a form of an unconscious doctor.
Abby was in good hands, Susan observed as she watched Luka listen to her heartbeat, and Pratt setting up an IV leading to Abby's arm. Everything would be fine, Susan told herself, and even produced a thin smile when Luka looked up at her, except in his eyes she saw only fear and desperation. Susan's smile collapsed.
Before she could make a move, Luka's voice stopped her, " Her heartbeat is no longer erratic, and her breathing is stabilized, we'd need to run some more tests, but she should be fine." He stole a guilty moment to step into old shoes, a flashback to when he'd cared for her bruises after Brian's attack, and brushed a stray tendril of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear with such love and care that Susan became fairly suspicious but also moved.
But the turbulent anxiety never left his haunted gaze, as Pratt excused himself, Susan said in a quiet voice, " Everything is going to be fine, you said it yourself, now go talk to Lara, she's freaking out, I'm going to find Abby a room upstairs." Susan gave his hand a gentle squeeze and walked out.
Luka took a second to study Abby's features as if seeing her for the last time. She was so peaceful in her sleep, even if now it was drug induced. Her eyelashes fluttered, and her ruby red lips were mottled with pale spots but it didn't matter, if only he could place on kiss on them, just one, and no more sleepless nights remembering how good it felt to kiss her and hold her would follow.
" I promise you'll be better sweetheart." He said more so to assure himself than her, and then settled for kissing her warm forehead, maybe she was getting a fever, or maybe it was over exhaustion, who knew, but as soon as the tests came in, Luka would be the first to know…
I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter now I met you
And honey you should know
That I could never go on without you
TBC…