The taxi ride back to the Kovac apartment was one of silence. Luka stared out the window, with his hand on Abby's leg, while her stare was divided between the back of the drivers' chair and Luka's blank face.
She had never seen him look at anyone the way he had looked at Sam. She didn't know whether it was the volume of alcohol that Sam and Luka had drunk and the fact that she hadn't had a drop that made her notice the gestures, the stares, the way that Luka reverted back to his native tongue... In all the time she had known him, he had never let his own language cross his lips - whether subconscious or not.
As the taxi cab pulled up to the front of Luka's apartment, she climbed out as he paid. Abby climbed the stairs to his apartment for the first time in two weeks. She was tired - really tired. And cold. The chill, frosty air of Chicago had seeped through the material of her thick jacket and chilled her to the bone in the few seconds it had taken her to get into the relative warmth of the corridor. She waited at the front door to Luka's apartment and smiled when she saw him stagger up the stairs.
She couldn't believe how much he'd had to drink.
Once inside the apartment, Luka's lips were onher neck and she giggled slightly and pushed him away. She walked down to the darkened lounge and threw her jacket on the place where the table normally was. When she heard the 'frump' of it hitting the floor, she frowned. She heard a click and the room was flooded with light and she saw her jacket lying on the floor, the coffee table pulled close to the sofa and numerous - numerous - bottles of beer scattered across the top of it and on the floor.
She turned to him and frowned.
"Was John here?" She asked, thinking that the two men had gotten drunk as they watched the game the night before.
She saw Luka frown at her and shake his head.
"No, why?" She saw realisation hit as his eyes fell on the mess that he and Sam had left in the lounge of his apartment. "No, it was... Sam, actually."
"Sam?" Abby felt a sense of panic and fear rise up her chest at the thought that Sam had been in Luka's apartment - that drunk. Normally, she wouldn't have minded but after what she had seen and heard tonight...
"Yeah. Last week, I just haven't had time to tidy the place up." He rubbed the back of his neck that was scarred slightly from where it had been charred by the fire at the crash. She noticed he did that a lot lately. "When you guys were supposed to go to the cinema. Neither of us got your message until after we woke up."
Abby stared at him and opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out.
Eventually, she managed:
"Until after you woke up?"
Luka frowned slightly at her, clearly not understanding why this was so wrong. Then understanding hit him and she saw him shake his head.
"Not like that. We had a few beers while we waited for you to get back. We were watching a movie - How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days, actually - and she fell asleep, then I did too. It had been a long day."
Abby thought about it for a few minutes. Luka had never cheated on her. Sam had Steve. Luka had never lied to her, and the fact that he admitted that Sam had been there told her that he was telling the truth. But she couldn't help but feel as though there was something he wasn't telling her.
"You're attracted to her aren't you?" She said finally, quietly making it sound more like a statement than a question.
She saw Luka pull his shoulders up to his ears, his palms facing upwards, his face scrunched up slightly in a gesture of "what?".
"Abby..."
His lack of response frustrated her.
"Do you know what Corday said to me tonight?" He shook his head. "She told me that she didn't know you and I had split up and started bitching about how quickly you had moved on." Luka tried to interrupt but she continued. "All I heard all night from everyone who doesn't work in ER was 'Oh, what a lovely couple.'" She stared at him as she stood on the opposite side of the sofa from him. "I'm not blind, Luka. You're attracted to her."
There was an angry silence between them where Luka stared at Abby attempting to think of something to say and Abby simply stared at him, daring him to contradict her.
Eventually he breathed out and hit his palms off his thighs.
"Yes, I am. She is an attractive woman. But that doesn't mean that I am going to act on that. For God sake Abby, you are still attracted to Carter but I trust you enough not to question you on that because I know that you love me!"
Abby stood rooted to the spot, knowing that he had a point. She stared at him for a few seconds before moving around the sofa towards him. She collapsed into his chest and felt his arms wrap around her. She could smell a foreign smell on his chest and she tried to push the thought from her brain.
He didn't smell of Armani Night.
She sighed and pulled back and pulled his head down to hers and crushed his lips to hers. His grip around her waist tightened and she felt his hands slide up her back. Before he could continue, she pulled back and looked into his eyes that were shining with passion.
"As much as I'd love to stay," she kissed him quickly. "I have a shift in seven hours, and I would at least like to catch a few hours sleep."
She pressed her hand into his chest and pushed him away as he tried to pull her towards him again. She saw him smile lazily and her resolve almost crumbled.
She turned away and picked up the jacket that had crumpled on the ground and threw it around her shoulders.
"I can't believe you're working tomorrow night - it's Christmas eve," she complained as she walked to the door, with Luka hot on her tail.
"I know," he said as he pulled her body onto his chest and slid his hands around her waist, under her jacket. "Are you sure you don't want to stay?" His thumbs rubbed up and down against her hip bones and she shuddered slightly under his touch.
"I want to," she relented. "But I can't."
She eased herself out of his grasp and stepped out of the door. She turned to him and pressed her lips to his again and moved away down the hall, ignoring the far off look she saw in Luka's eyes as his mind travelled to a place that he wouldn't allow her to enter.
She waited until she was outside the building before she rang the taxi company on her cell.
Upstairs Luka was still standing in the hall, his lips wondering where the tingling sensation had gone that had been there last time they kissed someone in the corridor.
- -
Sam dropped her keys onto the bookcase that was on the wall just at the entrance to her and Steve's apartment.
She sat on the sofa and undid her shoes and pulled them from her feet. She rubbed her ankle, where the strap had been digging into her slightly and then stood up. She removed her long coat but before hanging it up, she took out the flat box from the pocket and tucked it under her arm.
She couldn't believe he had bought her that.
Making her way into the bedroom, she stopped by her dresser and placed the box on top before reaching around to pull down the zipper on her dress.
"Here, allow me," she felt Steve's breath on her neck and could smell the alcohol. She doubted that she smelled any better.
She felt his rough hands slide down her back as he undid her zipper and traced her skin. Sam shrugged off the dress and felt Steve tug her towards the bed.
She fell onto the mattress and Steve positioned himself above her, his hands scraping over her body. She was too tired and too drunk to protest, and so lay there, unresponsive, until he had had his fill of her.
TBC