POCKET CHANGE 2: A GAME OF CARDS
by Sharon R.

Chapter Eleven

It took Luka a moment to realize just what she was mimicking, then bolted away from Colleen and around the curtains. Todd's face was tense, beads of sweat dripped from his brow, and his hands shook in nervousness as he squeezed the ambu bag covering Carter's nose and mouth, breathing for him. Todd's wide eyes gave away the shear terror he was feeling as Luka bolted to Carter's bedside.

"What happened?"

"He didn't look so good." Todd's voice quivered. "His color… he looked kind of dusky, and his fingernails were getting darker. He wasn't breathing much."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried to. But Mani…"

Luka scanned his short term memory and instantly felt bad. "Yes, you did." This did nothing for the kid as he was scared shitless. "You did the right thing. You're doing just fine Todd," he reassured him as he examined Carter. "Okay, why don't you stop and let's see where he's at."

The outline of the ambu bag mouthpiece remained around Carter's mouth and nose as Todd finally put his tired arms to his side. Luka took note of the color of Carter's skin, nailbeds and gums as he watched for spontaneous respirations. They were so shallow they were almost unnoticeable. After a couple of minutes the color again started to drain from his face.

"Carter," Luka roughly rubbed Carter's sternum with his fist, "Come on, wake up. It's Luka." No response. Opening Carter's mouth, Luka carefully inserted a tongue depressor and moved his tongue around checking first to make sure that there wasn't an obstruction. Then he pushed the tip all the way back in the throat until Carter gagged just the tiniest bit. "Okay Todd, bag him again, just like you were."

"What are you going to do?" Todd asked nervously, his hand cramping and confidence tiring.

"I don't know."

Todd's eyes bugged out of his head, his shoulders rose slightly and he increased the speed at which he was squeezing the bag as he realized that he was the only one doing anything for Carter.

"Slow down, slow - - down," Luka whispered to him, directing his attention over to the corner of the room with his eyes. "You have an audience." There backed into the corner with the same stone cold look on his face was Mbuto. His hands behind his back, he was simply observing. Like a cat out a window on a dark night, he stood like a statue, his eyes fixed on the action - not entertained by it, but rather mesmerized as he kept safe and disconnected behind the nonexistent glass between them.

"What about Mani?" Todd asked quietly as he continued his rhythm with the bag.

Luka looked down and hesitantly shook his head. "I'm sorry. There was nothing anyone could have done."

For a moment Todd felt as though his own breath had been stolen from him. He had left the soccer field to check on Carter - left the children he had been put in charge of.

"What's going on?" Maggie had heard Luka shouting for Carter to wake up and broke away from another patient to find out what was going on.

"His respirations are depressed. No response to painful stimuli but he does have a faint gag reflex."

"Posturing?"

"No. Only moderate signs of CNS involvement - so far."

"Tube him?"

"No. Whether we tube him or not someone still has to bag him, and he seems to be doing fine with what we're doing." Luka noticed Maggie's apprehension at Todd doing the bagging. "Todd found him and bagged him on his own."

Maggie raised her eyebrows, then winked at Todd trying to get him to relax a little. "Saved his life, eh?" She put her hand on Carter's bare chest and felt the warmth of his skin. "It's too bad we don't have any of those wonder drugs anesthesiologists have. A post anesthesia respiratory stimulant would be perfect."

Luka's head shot up at the mention. "A respiratory stimulant," he almost shouted. "SEAN." He definitely shouted that, and within seconds Sean was around the curtain. "Sean, where is that box we got from Chicago with the party supplies?"

"I dunno. I haven't seen it since the party and frankly I was too bolloxed to notice who cleaned up."

"We have to find it." Luka ran out of the clinic, through the hanger doors and straight to the kitchen of the Midway where he found Toomay and her daughters comforting Joseph. His adrenalin filled mission to find the box suddenly came to a halt as he found himself privy to the private family moment. "I'm… I'm sorry," he stuttered at first as he realized that the fractured family was missing one person. "I was looking for…" Scanning the kitchen for the box and not seeing it, Luka turned around and tried to quietly leave the Bisango family.

"Luka," Toomay called out to him, "please, come back." She was sitting on a chair, Joseph on her lap with his head tucked into her chest. "Please talk to Joseph." Her eyes were pleading with him. "Please?"

Luka walked to the center of the kitchen and pulled another chair up next to Toomay's. He had to cock his head to try to get a look at the boy's face. "I'm sorry, Joseph. We'll all miss Mani." Joseph turned his head even more away from Luka. "Are you mad at me?" He took the silence as an affirmative answer. "Mani was hurt very, very badly. Some things just can't be fixed and he was just too broken to fix."

Toomay kissed her son's head and spoke soothing words to him in their French/Lingala. Joseph finally turned to Luka and let the doctor stroke his back.

"Joseph, I want to talk to you about this some more, but right now I have to go take care of Dr. Carter."

"Is he broken too? Can you fix him?" His voice was innocent, his accent fresh and his plump brown cheeks tear stained.

"Yes, he's broken too, but with the right medicine I can fix him. I promise."

Toomay laid her hand on Luka's and thanked him with a smile. "What is it you're looking for Luka?"

"A box. A box that came from Chicago with things for the party."

"Ah yes. It had medicines in it. I put it in Dr. Carter's office."

Luka ran back to the hanger, this time entering through the back door nearest the office. There, neatly stacked in the corner, was the box. When he found what he was looking for he charged out into the clinic back to Carter, grabbing something from the desk on his way out.

"Dopram," Luka announced as he held the vial up for Maggie to see. "I forgot that Elizabeth had put in a CARE package of her own of recently out dated meds."

"This is perfect, only, it's expired and I'm not sure of the dosage. Are you?"

"She shipped it with cold packs and it's been in the air conditioned office. Those dates are premature anyway. As for dosage," Luka pulled a small narrow book out of his back pocket, "I found Carter's cheat book."

"Can someone please…"

In their excitement, they forgot about Todd who was quickly getting worn out from the continuous bagging. Maggie took over giving Todd a chance to sit in a chair next to Mbuto while Luka looked up the dosage for Dopram.

"What is that stuff?" asked Todd.

"Doxapram. It's used to stimulate respiration in patients with drug-induced post anesthesia respiratory depression or, in this case, drug overdose. We just don't use it much in the ER so we'll have to look it up."

"Okay. Let's start with a single IV injection, then go to IV infusion over two hours." Luka checked the dosage in the book again and purposely did the math out loud watching for Maggie to nod in agreement as she checked his figures. "1mg per pound would be about 200mg. The vial is 20mg/cc, so his initial dose would be 10cc." Luka drew up the 10cc and slowly injected it into the port of Carter's IV. As they were waiting for a response, Luka grabbed a 250cc bag of normal saline and dextrose and injected the remainder of the Dopram into it, then changed out his existing bag of fluid careful to titrate it carefully to run in gradually over the next two hours. "Sean, find whatever oxygen we have."

After a few minutes, Carter's eyelids moved and rested at half mast, partially revealing his glassy eyes. This time as Luka checked his responses with a sternal rub, Carter moaned slightly as he arched his back and drew in his free arm. His respirations became more spontaneous and Maggie replaced the ambu bag with an oxygen mask.

"Now, we watch him carefully," Luka told Maggie and Todd with a measure of relief. "The Dopram is only a temporary fix since it metabolizes faster than the narcotics, but the slow IV infusion should give him a consistent minimum dose, without over hydrating his kidneys, until the narcotics are out of his system. Just keep an eye on his input and output." Luka made a notation on Carter's haphazard chart that one of the nurses had started. "We have to be careful and should probably draw blood samples every couple hours to check his BUN and creatnine."

"He has renal problems too?"

"Not since the stabbing, but we should be cautious."

Luka and Maggie stood back and relaxed knowing that it was just a waiting game.

Todd's head dipped down in relief exhaling a long, shaky breath.

"You okay?" Luka asked.

Todd nodded without raising his head to meet Luka's so that the doctor wouldn't see the lone tear that had escaped. What Luka did notice was Mbuto's hand reaching over to touch Todd's face, catching the tear as it slipped from his cheek. The boy who had been so devoid of emotion then gently laid his head on Todd's shoulder.

Toomay brought the doctors their dinner as they waited for Carter to wake up. Being that it was the night before the weekly supplies arrived and food was low, it wasn't much, but they weren't very hungry anyway. Luka and Maggie hadn't said much to each other, neither one wanting to admit their guilty feelings.

An occasional breeze came through the open windows tossing the cords for the blinds around, the plastic tips tapping on the windows. The red rays of the setting sun cast eerie shadows on the floor of the clinic as it peeked in through the glass and caught the cords flapping around. Maggie left the area but returned quickly, putting supplies on the rickety, old mayo stand next to Luka's chair. With some gauze and antiseptic solution she started to clean the abrasions on Luka's cheek left by the branches of the tree earlier in the day.

Luka winced as the antiseptic stung. "That's really not necessary."

"Yeah? Well I happen to disagree."

"I'm not surprised."

Both exhausted and drained, they managed a mutual smile. Luka let her finish what she was doing.

At the same time each blurted out, "I'm sorry…"

"Look, Maggie, I should have told you about Carter first thing."

"And I should have trusted you."

"When you two have finished kissing and making up, could you get me some water?" Carter's voice was very horse but improved over the last time he attempted to talk.

"How are you doing?" Maggie asked.

"I don't know," he managed to get out around his intensely dry mouth, "you tell me."

"Your shoulder should be okay. We'll get you over to Gulu as soon as you're feeling up to it to get an x-ray." Luka instinctively began to check Carter's eyes and head until Carter pushed his hands out of the way enforcing the rule that doctors do make the worst patients. "Can you sit up? I want to check your lungs."

With help from both doctors, Carter managed to sit upright, groaning through the pain, as Luka listened to his lungs. "Deep breath. Again…"

Carter's eyes rolled back as he struggled to keep the room from spinning too fast.

"Again…"

Sitting hurt. The stethoscope skipping around on his back hurt. Hell, the gravity from being vertical slumped his bruised skin on his face downward making him feel like he was experiencing a reverse facelift at that very moment. It was so hot and humid and even though he was wearing nothing more than a sheet he had an urge to strip down to nothing, but that would mean actually moving - with purpose - while spinning and blurry eyed.

"Once more…"

Carter's face turned a pasty white as the last deep breath, or the deepest he could muster, caused his stomach to roll and turn inside out. "I'm going to…" With only nanoseconds to spare, Todd grabbed a porcelain basin and shoved it under Carter's chin. His empty stomach churned as only acid crept its way up and out. The heaving only produced more pain as his muscles contracted and twisted. He reached out for the water that hadn't yet made its way there wanting so badly to put out the fire that now raged in his bruised throat, the stomach acids assaulting it even more. Before he could bitch to them he bit his tongue yet again and spit the blood into the pan along with his retchings. Again, his stomach heaved, dry heaved, stretching every sore muscle in his chest and neck. His hand reached out as he drew his legs up in a panic, his lungs unable to reach a compromise with his churning stomach. It didn't help that the smell of his previous cookie toss was right under his nose, so with what little strength he had, he batted the metal basin to the floor.

"Okay, okay, just calm down," Luka put his hands on either side of Carter's head ignoring the patient's weak grip he had on his arm. "Close your eyes. Breath."

With one hand, Maggie held the oxygen mask over Carter's mouth and nose while gently, but firmly, keeping her other in the middle of his back for support. He groaned as he worked to suppress the vomiting - and it was work. He was exhausted. Taking on all of his dead weight, Maggie and Luka finally laid Carter back down.

"We'll put sandbags on each side of your head. That should help the vertigo," Luka told him gently as he motioned for the nurse to fetch the bags. "The vomiting will eventually subside. It's one of the unfortunate side effects of sudden heavy narcotic use in…" Luka trailed off hoping that Carter was too woozy to care.

"I know," Carter managed, "in drug addicts."

Another nail in Maggie's guilt laden coffin as she straightened Carter's sheet out.

Carter pushed the oxygen mask aside. "I have to pee."

"Go ahead. Just go."

"You catheterized me?" Carter knew his old friend Mr. Foley, but it didn't seem like he was kicking around down there.

"No. I didn't want to introduce an avenue for infection. You are sporting a very manly external catheter." Luka grinned, as Carter squeezed shut his eyes in part embarrassment, part humility as he let his stream of urine flow into the bag. "You need a good night's sleep. How about some Ativan, just enough to take the edge off, maybe help with the nausea a bit?" With his approval, Luka added the Ativan to the orders for the night and within minutes of the first dose, Carter was asleep again.

The nurses were done with their evening duties and returned to Carter to settle him in for the night. When they were done taking vitals, changing the urine collection bag, administering another dose of IV steroids and hanging his evening round of IV antibiotics, they pulled the mosquito netting around the bed.

Luka's ass already hurt from the hard chair he had been relegated to for so long and it was evident to him that Maggie was feeling the same as she shifted around across the room from him. "You should get some sleep."

"We both should," she answered. "Look, I'm on call tonight anyway. He'll be okay. We have other patients, so there will be nurses here all night. And besides," she thumbed to the corner, "I don't think Carter will be alone." Todd was still there sound asleep, his head tipped back against the wall, with Mbuto curled up next to him, his head in the young man's lap.

One more look at Carter and Luka walked towards the curtain, turning around intent on taking Mbuto back to Toomay and his own bed, but he instead decided to leave him where he had sought out comfort. "Please get me if…"

"I will," Maggie interrupted. "Now go get some sleep while I'm still on talking terms with you."

"Okay," he grinned, "I think I'll hit the showers first. It's Sunday."

The open area of the clinic was empty and only a few of the inpatient beds along the walls were occupied. Two volunteers were wrapping Mani's body and preparing it for burial, a missionary couple standing close by in prayer. His mother sat in a chair right next to the table that held her son, rocking back and forth as she stroked his foot that peaked out from the sheet. Luka closed his bloodshot eyes as his brain took him back to the first visit he made to this very hanger. He remembered the woman and three children sitting to the side. The woman who rocked back and forth comforting the dead baby she cradled swaddled in her arms. He turned his head to that exact spot and opened his eyes, realizing it was the same curtained area he had just walked out of. A few more feet away he stopped in his tracks as an explosion rocked him, catching him off guard. Only it was all in his head and the child in front of him was his son, not Mani. Those memories came like snapshots now, only taking advantage of his exhausted and troubled mind from time to time. He had simply learned to take a breath and move on.

Luka stopped in his room long enough to grab a pair of sweat pants and his one and only favorite towel, marked in big letters - some faded away, PROPER Y OF OOK COU T OSPITA . Sunday meant that the showers belonged to the doctors and nurses for that day. Carter will be mad he missed it, Luka thought. The heat in the hanger was stagnant at best and not much better once he exited the building. He had to walk quickly to evade the bugs that came out at night to feast on the flesh of the humans and was quick to get into one of the three portable showers closing the door behind him.

They don't make these things for tall men, he thought as he ducked down to catch the cold water on his hair and face. He soaped up and rinsed quickly but instead of leaving right away, leaned back and parked his worn-out body against the wall of the cubicle not caring about how the frigid water made him shiver. It felt good anyway. But he looked forward to the day he could luxuriate under warm water and shave with a razor instead of a lame-assed battery powered Norelco. This was the one place he could go to be alone without someone knocking on his door and barging in with a question or an emergency. He savored as much of it as he could until he worried about the water going to waste.

He dried off, stepped into his sweat pants, draped his towel around his neck and headed back to the clinic intent on getting some sleep while intermittently checking on Carter, no matter what Maggie said. There was sporadic lighting at the camp, modern day electricity with only a few times so far that they had had to rely on back up generators. But on this side of the hanger, from the front to the back door where the office and doctors' rooms were located, there was only one light fixture, with one bulb and it was mounted directly over the door. There was no moon that night and as Luka stepped out of the shower stall, combing his fingers through his wet hair, he saw a figure dart into the back door. At the same time, a gust of wind howled down the dirt alleyway that made up the corridor between the large tin hanger and make-shift auxiliary buildings. His towel shifted off of his shoulders and onto the ground picking up the dirt at his feet. "Oh crap." Well, it was only dirt. Reaching to pick it up, he ran to the door ahead of what might be another African dust storm thinking about how his dirt covered towel would have to be washed first thing in the morning. Maybe he could bribe Toomay into doing it.

The door slammed behind him and he nearly had a head-on collision with Colleen.

"Fancy meeting you here." Luka didn't mind running into the red head.

"I was going to check on John, but I didn't see you, and it seemed awful quiet in there, and…"

"In that?" Luka asked nodding his head at her chest.

"What?"

"In that. Just a t-shirt?"

"Oh, well, it's huge. I mean like a dress, sort of. And I'm washing my… things…"

Her face was inches from Luka's bare chest, still glistening from the lousy job he did of drying off. As she lowered her eyes so as not to appear to be staring, she found herself looking at the waistband of his sweats which were obviously too loose as they barely hugged his hips. His well tuned muscles rippled slightly and as she continued her gaze downward, she couldn't help but admire the little fine line of curly black hair that made its way from his naval straight down in between the curves of his groin just above the waistband.

"Everything looks good." Luka mentioned.

"Hmm?"

"Carter… John? He'll be fine."

"Oh, good. I'm relieved to hear it." Colleen fidgeted a bit as she motioned to the door. "Well, I guess I'd better get back to…," she trailed off.

"Get back to what?" Luka laughed.

"Laundry," she admitted. "And you have something better to do?"

Luka shrugged. "I was going to shave. I suppose I wouldn't mind some company. The day hasn't been very, well, encouraging."

"Okay."

Colleen followed Luka into his little bedroom that housed nothing more than a bed and a crate for a nightstand. She watched from a sitting position on the bed as Luka took out an electric razor and started shaving.

"You always miss that spot there," Colleen pointed to an area just in front of his right ear.

"No mirror. Here?" he asked unsuccessfully moving the razor to that side of his face again.

"Um, no. Here." Colleen stood and took the razor from Luka finally getting the spot. She liked the feel of the vibrating Norelco in her hand and continued with absolutely no complaints from him.

Colleen was taller than most of the women he had been with and she had no problem reaching his face. After she'd sweep the Norelco over one section she'd stop to feel the skin with her hand to see how close she got. Luka enjoyed the feel of her silky fingertips as they skirted around the curves of his face. Eventually she lingered with her hand letting it trail off behind his neck, tickling the sensitive area under his ear on the way. Luka exhaled and closed his eyes almost involuntarily. He dipped his head down and met her lips while wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her into him. The natural heat intensified between them as he explored the soft, moist insides of her mouth. She tasted like the apple juice they got in mass quantities. Tart. Sweet. Warm. As they pulled away from each other, slowly, the delicate skin of their lips stuck together briefly, and they lingered that way until Luka finally grinned, breaking the seal.

"I see you like music," Colleen gestured to the CD player against the wall.

"Mmm. A well meaning person left that for me last night."

"Now I'm interested in hearing what the last thing is that you listened to." Colleen moved to the CD player, sat on the floor, and turned it on.

"No - you're not." Luka blushed and chuckled nervously as she pressed the 'play' button.

Colleen listened for a moment as Luka leaned against the wall, his arms behind him, his head abashedly tipped downward. "I expected Bob Seger, Dylan, maybe the Stones, but not…," she looked up at him as he finally raised his head.

"But not opera? Hmm?" Pushing himself away from the wall, he sat on the floor in front of Colleen gently pushing away a lock of her red curls that had fallen in front of her eyes and tucked it in back of her ear. "You don't find it sensual?" Luka took her hand and put it on his chest just to the left of his breastbone. "Your heart doesn't pound with the emotions of the music? You aren't drawn in by the angry drums and the sad violins?"

"I guess I never paid much attention to it." Her voice quivered just a bit as she slowly moved her hand over Luka's chest. "Tell me about it."

"Okay. Just don't tell Carter." He laughed a little, playing with her fingers. "I don't really listen to it a lot. But this opera, Norma, by Vincenzo Bellini, was my mother's favorite. Bellini was a brilliant Italian composer who died at the peak of his career when he was just 34. Can you imagine? So young. Every year it was performed at the Croatian National Theater, this enormous old building in the city. My father was a train conductor on the Zagreb route and once a year we all got dressed up to go to see Norma and went to work with him. My dad would say, It's time to go check up on our good friend Norma." Luka laughed as he recalled his childhood. "I loved to sit and just watch my mother's face as she laughed and cried. Each time was like the first time for her. This piece, Casta Diva, was her favorite. She hummed it when she was doing housework."

"Why this opera?"

"I don't know. It's a tragic story about a Druid woman who falls in love with the enemy, a Roman, and even considers killing her children she secretly bore with him, to keep from having them taken back to Rome as slaves." Luka's voice quieted as he gave Colleen's hand a gentle kiss.

"Tough day for kids?" she intuitively asked.

"Tough day for mothers."

"Luka, I'm sorry about being so insensitive and taking pictures of you guys treating that kid."

"I think I was the only one who was bothered. Some days are just harder than others. Don't worry about it. How long will you be in camp?"

"I leave in the morning on assignment."

Luka tried not to look too disappointed.

"But it shouldn't be for long. I'd like to come back here if that's okay."

A knock at the door brought them to their feet. There was no one on the other side of the door, but when he stepped back to shut it Luka saw a brown bag conveniently parked in the center of the doorway.

"I guess the music was too loud," Colleen remarked as Luka shut the door.

"Um, no, I don't think so." Luka smiled widely as he first took out a CD of jazz music, then two small sample bottles of wine. Something else was in the bottom of the bag which he turned upside down and shook. Out plopped a strip of condoms.

"Is that what I think it is?" Colleen asked.

"Yes, I believe lifted from the HIV education packets we hand out to the refugees." Luka opened the door again, sticking his head out and turned towards the clinic area. "Thanks Maggie."

It was awkward as both tried to think of ways to bridge the moment and get back to the pleasantries. Colleen changed the CD, Luka opened the wine and they both glanced at the condoms.

"Where were we?" Luka asked playfully as he imbibed on a healthy portion of the wine. It tasted great, even if it did come with a screw cap. Better than the beer, the apple juice, the bottled water. Red wine always made him feel flushed and added to the already sweltering night air, and his state of arousal. He suspected that Colleen was catching on, especially after she put hers down and sat on the bed next to him.

"You mean where were we after talking about your mother? Or, where were we after did this?"

Luka could feel the heat of her passion even before her lips connected with his. This time the kiss was fiery and they knew it would not stop there as their hands traveled over each other's body stopping only to remove what little clothing there was. First off was Colleen's t-shirt. Luka had to consciously pull away from her mouth so as to enjoy the moment as he slowly hiked the cotton shirt up over her hips, breasts, shoulders, then finally over her beautiful head of silky red curls leaving her only in a pair of white lace panties. As he planted yet another kiss on her plump lips, he traveled the tips of his fingers down her throat, over the ridge of her collarbone, finally stopping at her breasts as he circled around the dark areola causing her to inhale deeply and throw her head back.

Luka took advantage of this, trailing his lips down her exposed throat, tasting the pure whiteness of her soft skin, then gently laid her back on the bed as he made his way to her breasts, suckling and teasing one with his mouth, while fondling the other with his hand. Ever the talented physician, Luka continued titillating her with his mouth while discreetly letting his hands wander down to her moist panties. Colleen moaned at the slightest touch as his fingers stroked her through the lace before finally making their way inside the fabric rocking her to orgasm that she had no intention of minimizing out of bashfulness.

As she lay momentarily exhausted, Luka completed his job, taking down her panties and laying small sweet kisses on her engorged hills and valleys.

"Stop," she blurted out as she panted. "Stop!" She grabbed both sides of his head and giggled as she tore him away from his admiration pulling him back up the length of her naked body where he rested himself on his elbows planted on each side of her face. "Something isn't right."

"Shhh. You talk too much." Luka put his finger on her lips, then began kissing her - tiny kisses - on her forehead, her eyes, nose and chin while his fingers played with her curls. The sexiness of the jazz - the saxaphone, piano and brush stroked drums - covered the little noises they made and lent itself to the overall lust filled atmosphere of the tiny room lit only by that one light bulb over the door to the building outside Luka's open window.

Colleen explored every part of his smooth chest and back before finally sneaking under the waistband of the loose fitting sweat pants, her fingers just barely able to reach his soft cheeks. "The playing field is uneven."

Luka slipped off of her and stood, but before he could undress, Colleen sat up on the edge of the bed and did the honors herself undoing the knot in the waistband and pushing the gray sweatpants down off of his hips, catching it briefly on his erection before finally exposing all of him directly in front of her face.

Luka held her head as she leaned forward and reciprocated the kisses and caresses he had already bestowed upon her. She hungrily took the length of him in her mouth and gave him pleasure he hadn't felt in so long. Before he knew it, she had opened one of the condoms and unrolled it over him. Suddenly, he practically pushed her back on the bed, and entered her sharply as they both gasped. The sweat acted as a natural lubricant as their bodies moved rhythmically, her breasts slipping over his chest, her taut nipples tickling him.

Without losing ground, they changed direction leaving Colleen in control atop Luka's hips. She teased him as she pulled away making him reach for her. Luka's hand finally found her weakness and as they matched their movements he brought her to an earth shattering crescendo. She arched her back and put her hands on her breasts as her body tensed and rolled inside. Luka reached up and put his hands on hers then interlaced them palm to palm as she turned her attention to him looking him deep in his eyes while lifting and lowering herself on him finally letting him grab her hips and control the speed before pounding into her as he came. From somewhere deep inside he could feel the stress and anxiety of the day explode as the sweetness and soothing of the woman on top of him replaced it. His own head was thrown back as he moaned and held his breath for what seemed to be too long. When he came up for air, Colleen was collapsed on top of him, her face nestled in his neck. The music had ended, the creatures in the distant trees and insects of the night were the only sounds they heard now, except for their own deep breathing.

Luka was jolted awake by the grinding of truck gears. The sun barely peaking over the horizon, he had slept for hours without waking - a first since his arrival. He could still smell her even though she was gone. The little wine bottles were empty, his pants in a heap on the floor. His towel had been pushed into the corner and picking it up he saw that more than just dirt had soiled it. A big splotch of truck oil had settled into the fabric. It was ruined, he wasn't careful enough. He quickly put on a pair of jeans and a shirt before slipping into his shoes and running out to try and catch Colleen before she left camp.

He barely caught himself as he tripped on the fresh supplies parked in the hallway outside his door. Outside of the hanger the sound of the truck drew his attention to the main gate where it stopped picking up a redhead wearing shorts with a backpack strapped to her. He waved, but she didn't look back.

In the trash can outside the door, Luka pulled out a newspaper, the Sunday Vision from Kampala, the driver had obviously thrown out. It was a day old, but the news was fresh to him. He made his way through the clinic and picked up Carter's chart at the nurses desk where the head nurse, a very seasoned and head strong African woman, was setting up for the day.

"How is our Dr. Carter this morning?"

"His vitals are stable, keeping down water but still quite uncomfortable," she spouted with her choppy accent as she looked over her reading glasses. "But he took off his catheter by himself, refused an enema and sponge bath and is generally a pain in my rather large ass."

"He's doing fine then, Sera?"

"Apparently."

"Thank you," Luka gave her with a smile as he walked around the curtain to Carter's bedside where he found him sitting up propped by pillows.

"It seems you have hurt Sera's feelings by refusing her traditional enema and sponge bath," he jokingly told Carter as he gave him a cursory exam. "How are you feeling today?"

"No, no. How are you feeling today," Carter mocked with a sly grin, his voice still raspy. "Whoever told you that opera was a chick magnet?"

"How did you know?"

"Please. You think I slept much?"

"Hush. I don't want you to get over tired." Luka sat down in the chair next to him with a cup of coffee Sera brought him.

As Carter laughed and joked about the night, Luka lost himself in the front page picture of the newspaper he had just unfolded. He read it two, three times before believing what he was seeing.

"What?" Carter asked, finally realizing that Luka hadn't heard a word he said. "What is it?"

Before Luka could hide it from him, Carter reached over and pulled the paper back far enough so that he too could see the picture. The color drained from his face and matched the pallor of Luka's.