Carter handed him the chart and he thanked him but didn't look down at the chart. Couldn't.

He kept his eyes trained on her legs, the only thing that he couldn't see of her body. The hiss-click, hiss-click beside him told him that she was breathing, the beep-beep-beep across from him telling him that her heart was beating.

Her face was ashen on the thin pillow below her head, her darker than normal hair spread across the pillow in limp waves. Her eyes were still swollen but less so than they had been before. Her lips were double their normal size, cut and still slightly bloody. Her left cheek was covered in bruises and the tiny patches of skin that had somehow managed to avoid bruising were deathly pale, and veiny. He couldn't see anything from her bosom down as the thick blankets surrounding her stopped his eyes from taking her in.

"Bruises cover most of her body," Carter began speaking, quietly and slowly as though he were talking to patient's husband and not Luka Kovac, trained medical doctor. "She has four broken ribs, three on her left side, one on her right. Her lungs suffered a bit of a bashing in the accident, and are bruised. Her rib nearly lacerated her left lung but just missed it and there is a slight tear in the exterior muscle tissue but it will heal. She has broken her leg in two places, has a hairline fracture to her hip that will heal in about two months - she won't be affected by it." Luka nodded as he stared at her legs. "The most severe injury was her head injury. The pressure was building in her skull so they had drill a hole into her head to alleviate the pressure. She's been hooked up to a machine so we can monitor her brain activity."

Normally, Luka would have scoffed at John for explaining this to him in such simple terms but now he needed to hear it.

John kept looking at Luka who had yet to look at Sam's face since he entered the room, twenty minutes before. He curled his tongue in his mouth and then flicked it out between his teeth. If he hadn't known before, it would now be glaringly obvious to him - Luka Kovac had very, very strong feelings for Samantha Taggert.

"Her output is normal. She hasn't suffered any brain damage. She's still intubated in case there was something that the surgeons missed but they don't think they have." Luka nodded and raised his eyes to John's face. "Corday says that she should wake up some point during the night... and if she doesn't then..."

Luka nodded and looked away, across the room behind John and stared out of the window at the end of the room.

"She's going to be fine Luka."

Luka nodded, slowly and turned back to John and smiled tightly.

"The doctor in me knows that. But the man in me..." he trailed off and John saw that his eyes drifted up her body, to the machines around her and then back to his face. "The man in me looks at all this," he motioned around him and John had to swallow past the lump that jumped into his throat at the pain that his best friend's eyes held. "And wonders how she can be."

John pulled a seat across the floor and sat beside Luka as he kept vigil over Sam's bedside.

"They did a rape kit," John said uncertainly and Luka snapped his head to him.

"Oh God..."

"They found semen and they're doing DNA testing."

John could see Luka's face pale slightly as he looked away and raised his thumbnail to his lips and began nibbling on it slightly.

"There was vaginal trauma," he continued and looked away from the look of pain on Luka's face. "There was a lot of bleeding as well - too much to be from the vaginal tears... she had a miscarriage."

Luka froze and felt the blood leave his face and his arms and plummet to his feet that fell from their resting place on the bottom rung of the gurney.

"She was pregnant?"

"Yeah... she probably didn't even know; it was only about three or four weeks - way too small. She couldn't have known. She was going to have that bastard's baby."

John watched as Luka leaned forward onto his knees and screwed his eyes shut.

"I did this to her," he muttered into his hands and John sat up straight, in shock.

"What?"

"I... went to see her earlier, before all of this happened. I shouldn't have done it... I shouldn't have gone... I think I saw him when I left, standing around the corner... but I... I don't know... I was just too..."

"Luka..." John started but trailed off, not knowing what to say. Heaving in a sigh he filled his lungs with air before exhaling it slowly into the air around him. "Luka... when they do a DNA trace... is it going to be a match to yours?" John asked, not knowing how else to ask the man in front of him if he had slept with Sam before she left.

Luka nodded but then stopped and turned sharply to John and stared at him.

"I didn't rape her John."

"I know!" John said quickly, realising that his words had implied that. "You would never do that... but Luka... Why?"

Luka was silent and John was caught between disgust at his friend for cheating on Abby, jealousy because Luka had had Sam and John hadn't and pity for the state the man before him was in.

"Why, Luka?"

"I couldn't let her leave without saying goodbye. We... we broke up last week and-"

"You were having an affair!" John almost shouted as he stood up from his seat. He watched as Luka nodded. "How long?" He asked bluntly, his voice devoid of emotion.

Luka had cheated on Abby. Luka had cheated on Abby.

"About four or five... months."

John threw his hands up in the air and fumbled for words to say. Coming short, he simply stared at the man who used to be his best friend.

"So there is a chance that that baby is..."

Luka shrugged, fanning his fingers out from under his chin and couldn't bring himself to look at John.

"Did you use protection?" John asked incredulously, dipping his chin into his chest and staring at Luka.

He saw Luka's sheepish eyes turn to him and he sighed.

"I think there was once..."

"When you didn't?"

"When we did..."

John threw his hands into the air again and tried to find words to say.

"For God sake, Luka! You're a doctor, what were you thinking? You know the risks of not using protection!"

"She was on the pill!"

John laughed incredulously and spun around in an exasperated circle.

"Everyone knows that that is not one hundred per cent effective!"

He watched as Luka threw his hands up to his face and dragged them across his eyes.

"I know..."

"I can't believe you, Luka. I thought I knew you, I thought you were a man of honour... now? Now I don't know what to think..."

With that John pivoted on his heel and left the room.

Once he was outside the room, he leaned against the wall and breathed deeply. He couldn't believe Luka had cheated on Abby. Sam and Abby were friends, for crying out loud. He dragged his own hand across his face then pushed off of the wall and made for the elevators to take him back down to the ER and to an insanity that was sane than what he had just experienced.

TBC