"What you want for dinner, babe?" Steve called through their apartment to Sam who was in the bedroom, getting ready for her shift.

"I'm working night shift, I'll get something on the way in!" She called back as she finished applying concealer and foundation over yet another bruise on her jaw.

She flinched as she touched it too heavily and shook her head, remembering how Steve's mother, Linda, had threw her shoe at her in yet another one of their arguments and caused the bruise: she didn't need a genius to tell her where Steve got his temper from. She was just thankful that they had left after their three week long visit.

"Is that Dr Kovac on tonight?" She heard Steve's voice at the door and, jumping slightly, she turned towards him and frowned.

"I told you that I'd changed my shift so I wouldn't be working with him, just like you told me to do." She couldn't keep the bitter tone out of her voice as she turned back and finished applying her make up.

"Hey!" She felt Steve's grip on her shoulder pull her around and she looked up at him. "You didn't answer my question."

Sam shook herself free from him and glared at him.

"No, he's not."

It had been three weeks since she had told Luka that they couldn't continue in what they hadn't really begun: after Steve found that photograph of her and Luka tucked in the pocket of her coat. They had argued heatedly that night and he had slapped her - hard.

Abby had come to the restaurant opening with Carter because Luka had been called into work but Sam couldn't help but feel he had avoided seeing her. She couldn't exactly blame him, though.

"Good beca-"

"I have to get to work," she said as she pushed past Steve and grabbed her bag from the bed as tears began to well in her eyes as she remembered the look of loss and despair that washed over his face when she had muttered those words to him.

"You don't start for another hour!"

But she was already out of the door and on her way to County General.

Luka drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of his new black Mitsubishi Warrior Truck as he waited for the traffic lights to change. He flicked through the stations and his fingers automatically stopped when he heard the news report:

"The reasons behind the disaster that struck in Chicago almost two months ago have still not been fully uncovered. The Chicago El crashed off the tracks at the High Street Station after one of the wheels came loose. The disaster caused a total of one hundred and forty five casualties, fifty of which were fatal. The investigation continues."

He shook his head as his mind supplied him with images of the burning bodies and screaming children. He saw green and continued driving towards the hospital. Weaver had called him in because both Pratt and Gallant were suffering from food poisoning from when all the men had gone out the night before. He didn't mind the extra work though: it kept him away from his home, his bedroom that still smelled of Sam and was still filled with her images.

He hadn't seen her for three weeks now, since New Year, and he couldn't deny that he missed her. He had tried to spend more time with Abby over the past weeks but whenever he was with her, he missed the spark that he felt when he had been with Sam: that uncontrollable need to touch her at every opportunity; that burning sensation whenever their skin met, even for the briefest of moments. He felt guilty about how he had treated Abby, but there was something about the way he felt when he was around Sam that had made it seem that what they were doing was just... right.

Clearly not to her.

He held a towel over his hand trying to stem the flow of blood that was pouring from the bite wound there from where one of his patients had decided he would make a good dinner.

"You should have someone look at that," Kerry Weaver told him and she shook his head.

It was then that his eyes fell on the form of Sam Taggert walking towards admit, her head turned down as she scribbled onto a chart. She looked up then back down and then back up again when she saw him standing there, blood dripping from his hand. He hadn't seen her for three weeks and she looked tired. Tired but good.

His eyes followed her as she looked away from him and then walked out of admit. He frowned at her back and wished that she would turn around again.

"Hey, Sam?" He heard Weaver call after her retreating form and he saw her turn, her eyes flicking from him to Weaver.

"Yeah?"

"Watch out!" Carter yelled down the corridor as he trundled down the corridor after a young patient.

Sam turned towards his voice and attempted to jump out of the way of his patient but failed and was clamoured over the eyebrow with a metal bed pan.

"Ah shit!" She stumbled backwards and her hand flew to her head as she felt a wave of dizziness hit her.

"Hey, are you okay?" She nodded in response to Carter's query and watched as he continued down the corridor, calling for security to help him.

"Dammit..." she muttered as she turned back towards admit and walked straight into the chest of Luka, who had walked up behind her.

She could feel his hand on her waist, the other prying her hand away from her eyebrow. She felt his fingers spread over her tender bone and she pulled away quickly, not wanting to feel his touch again.

"Ow - fucking, ow!" She complained at him and returned her hand to where it had been.

"Miss Taggert?" Sam turned towards the voice, her hand shaking as it covered her wound and she wasn't sure if that was from pain or from Luka's touch.

She saw Layla, the pregnant teenager from weeks before.

Luka felt Sam's body shake slightly as his fingers rested on her back and he put a hand on her shoulder, knowing what this woman represented to Sam.

"Do you have a minute?" Layla asked and Sam nodded, stepping out of Luka's grip.

Luka saw Sam turn to Kerry and give her a shaky smile, her face ashen as she walked out of the ER with Layla by her side.

"Looks like the crazies are out tonight."

Luka nodded in agreement and watched as Sam turned her head towards Luka from where Luka knew she had been staring back into admit at him.

"I just... wanted to tell you that I took your advice and called the police. A date has been set for the trial. It's in three weeks and I was just wondering... would you be able to come?"

Sam stood with her hands on her hips and she attempted to control her breathing as she saw the slight swell of Layla's stomach. Sam frowned at her for a second then nodded.

"Yeah sure," she confirmed and she saw the girl smile gratefully.

"I just... I also want to thank you so much. I wasn't going to keep the baby but you made me see that... yeah."

Sam felt tears well up in her eyes again and crushed them down.

"It's no problem. I've been where you are, it's not going to be easy but you'll make it just fine," she smiled and placed her hand on the girls arm.

"Thank you."

Sam felt herself pulled into a hug and after a stunned few seconds, she returned it.

"Thank you, thank you," Layla mumbled again and Sam could tell the young woman was very close to tears.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. Just... give me a call at the hospital and we'll see about me getting my shift sorted around the date of the trial."

Layla smiled and wiped her hand over her face and nodded.

"Thank you, again, Miss Taggert."

Sam smiled sadly and watched her walk away.

Turning back into the ER, she walked up to admit and saw Carter standing waiting for her. He walked up to her and placed a hand over her elbow.

"I'm sorry, Sam. It's that whacko kid that tried to burn down all the curtains down in here about a month ago, had me chasing him all over the goddam hospital. Come on, let me get this checked out for you," he said hurriedly and Sam shook her head and laughed lightly.

"It's fine, just a bruise," she told him with a smile.

"Well, it'll need a couple of paper stitches. Just... come on."

She relented and followed him into the darkened exam room. She walked in behind him and heard Chuney talking animatedly to someone in one of the beds. When Sam stepped out from behind John, she saw Luka sitting on one of the beds while Chuney cleaned up what looked to be a nasty bite wound on his hand. She frowned in concern but didn't say anything and walked over to a bed and propped herself on the edge of it.

"What happened to your hand?" John asked Luka as he examined Sam's head and no one in the room could deny the tension that had erupted in the room when Sam and Luka had looked at each other.

"Crazy patient decided she wanted something to eat and didn't want to wait for her food to come," Luka's heavily accented voice said and Sam shuddered slightly.

"Sorry," John muttered, thinking he had caused the shudder.

Sam simply smiled and reached her hand up to play with her necklace - something she noticed she did a lot lately.

"Wow, that's gorgeous," Chuney said and pointed to Sam's necklace, as she stood next to the bed getting a gauze plaster from the storage closet.

Sam looked down and blushed slightly. She saw Luka's head turn in her direction and she tried to tell herself that he didn't look absolutely gorgeous with a look of surprise on his face.

"Steve get it for you?" Chuney said as she barged Carter out of the way to look at it.

Carter let out a laugh and glanced to Luka who had an animated smile on face.

"Uh, no actually," Sam smiled slightly and her eyes were subconsciously drawn to Luka's face.

He looked tired. His eyes were dark, past the point of being a good look for him and Sam couldn't help but frown in concern. She saw him smile sadly at her and she looked away quickly.

"No?" Chuney was still trying to look at Sam's necklace but John was muscling his way back in, using his butt.

Sam grinned to herself and looked back to Luka who was now looking down at his hand, while Chuney put the gauze strip over the now clean wound.

"Doctor Carter?" Malik stuck his head in the door and looked at John who was just about to place the first dissolvable stitch onto Sam's head. "You're whacko kid has got himself another lighter and is trying to burn his way out of his restraints."

"You're kidding?" John said as he looked around, his hand paused in mid air above Sam's face.

"It's all right John, I'll finish up for you in here."

Sam snapped her head around to Luka and stared at him.

"You sure?" John asked as he turned his head around to Luka who nodded. He placed the forceps onto the table he had pulled over.

Luka waited for a few seconds after Chuney and John left the room, then slid off the bed and moved slowly towards Sam. She pulled her head down to her chest and sighed.

She couldn't do this.

She felt his fingers under her chin as he tugged her face back up. She tilted her head upwards but kept her eyes downcast as he rubbed her eyebrow with a swab and then place the first paper stitch there. They remained in silence for the two minutes that it took him to apply the stitches and then they just stayed where they were: him standing in between her legs, her in front of him, her eyes trained on his heaving chest.

"I can't do this anymore," he said quietly as his hand rose slightly off of the bed at the side of Sam's legs. "I can't keep pretending like nothing has happened," he said as he raised his eyes to hers and she gulped down at the emotion that his eyes held.

"Luka..." she breathed out and lowered her eyes from his, her eyes once again training on his shirt collar."We can't talk about this," she made to jump off the bed but his hand on her thigh stopped her. She looked down at the hand accusingly, but he didn't remove it. His other hand reached up to her shoulder and he began to play idly with the fabric of her scrubs. She closed her eyes against his touch and tried to regulate her breathing.

"I... I can't stop thinking about you," he announced and Sam looked back up to him and pulled her lips between her teeth as she felt - again - tears well in her eyes. "I miss you."

Sam opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. She just stared at him for a few minutes, watching how the dim light from the bedside tables highlighted his defined jaw bones, how the shadows made his eyes darker.

"I cry at night thinking about it, about what we did. About what we could have had." She shook her head at her own words and looked down from her study of his face. "It's been three weeks, Luka, three weeks and I can still feel you - inside of me."

They were silent again and Sam stood up and walked past Luka, putting as much distance between them as possible. She leaned against a bed and closed her eyes against the emotions that were raging within her.

She felt his presence behind her but she didn't turn around.

"I can't stop thinking about you, Sam," he said again and wanted so desperately to reach out and touch her, to let her know that he was there. But he didn't. "I can't look at you, because every time I do all I want to do is reach out and kiss you."

She turned around then and he could see the tears in her eyes.

"Don't, Luka." She pleaded as she fought back tears. "Please. I, I can't do this anymore. I can't see you, I can't even look at you because when I do I'm reminded of what we did. Of what I know can never happen again," she was really struggling now, as her throat closed up and her eyes glazed, her gaze becoming foggy. "I have to go," she said and turned away from him and walked out of the door.

Luka sighed heavily and watched the door swing for a few seconds before muttering into the empty room:

"Volim te... I'm falling in love with you..."

TBC