Eclipse

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this Fic, they belong to Michel Crichton, Christopher Chulack, John Wells and all the other Big Cheese's who produce ER. So you can't get me done for stealing any characters. ;)

Author: Well that happens to be me. I do however own this story,it was my ER obsessed little mind that thought this up so please don't steal that pleasure from me. This Fic is mainly Samka orientated, with a little Ray/Neela/Susan thrown in for good measure. :D Thanks go to all the reviewers so far, keep 'em coming! And special thanks goes to my Beta reader. She knows who she is! ;) So, sit back, relax and enjoy.

Int. County General Hospital.

As Sam walked trough triage, a cup of coffee in her hand, she struggled to open the door. She was soaking wet, her hair still in curls but dripping with rain and a few stuck to her face. It was pouring it down outside, and it was rather dark for September. She knocked on the door, waiting for someone to come and let her in. Luka looked up from the paper work he was doing at admit and saw her. Part of him wanted to walk away, pretend he hadn't seen her, so he didn't have to talk to her, pretend like everything was fine. But he couldn't; he knew that he couldn't. He wasn't like that. He got up and walked around the desk, slowly walking up to the door and pushing the button, the doors slid open and Sam smiled.

"Thanks, I thought this coffee was gonna burn my hand off any minute,"

He smiled weakly and turned to walk back to triage, Sam followed. He sat back down as she placed the cup of coffee on the desk. She pulled off her coat and bag and as she walked round the desk she got to beside Luka's chair and Luka not noticing her coming round, pushed out his chair to go over to a drawer and accidentally pushed into her knocking her sideways. He just managed to grab her arm before she fell, pulling her back up.

"Whoa. Um, thanks," she smiled shocked.

"No problem," he replied, there was a long pause as they both stared into each others eyes.

"Erm, can I, have my arm back?" she asked. He didn't even realise he still had a hold of it til he looked down. He quickly let go and shuffled uncomfortably looking down.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Sensing his awkwardness, Sam smiled and made her tone playful. "It's fine, honestly. You saved me back there; guess you were just checking that I could stand up straight before you let go ..."

"Yeah," he continued to burn a hole in the floor.

"Well I, uh, better, get to work," she replied a little embarrassed.

"Yeah," he replied. She walked round his chair and shoved her coat and bag underneath a clear part of the desk. She walked out the opposite side and picked up a chart. Why had that little conversation been so uncomfortable?

Luka watched her walk down the hall and disappear into an exam room. Turning back to face the pile of paperwork, he noticed the coffee still standing on the desk.

Then at that moment Susan walked up to him.

"Hey Luka, how you doing?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he stated with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Ok. Well, we're trying out a new scheme today. Nurses with doctors; we hope it will reduce the long waiting times for the patients and the confusion among the staff. You're paired with Sam, thought you guys might like that," she replied sensing his annoyance.

"What? Me with Sam?" he asked. This was the last thing he needed, or wanted.

"Yeah. Thought you'd like it. Ok great, seeya later," she turned around raising her eyebrows as she walked off.

Great. Just great. After the awkwardness of that first meeting this morning he had to work with her all day. How awkward was that gonna be? Maybe if I swap with Ray or someone, say I need to get some paperwork done and I need someone older like Haleh to keep track on everything while I work. He thought. No, that wouldn't work, I'm just gonna have to do it. Wouldn't be that hard, would it? I mean I can just examine the patient, write down the orders and leave her to it.

He got up from his chair and walked round the desk; he picked up a patients chart and looked at it. He made to head for the cubicle Sam went into but turned around again. He stopped for a moment, and then saw the coffee on the desk. He went over to it and picked it up. He started walking down the hall to the cubicle. He walked in and saw Sam talking to an elderly patient.

"You left your coffee,"

She turned around and saw him holding out the coffee. "Oh, thanks. Ok, I'll get onto it. See you later Mrs Forester." the old lady nodded her head as Sam walked around the bed and out onto the corridor after Luka.

"I've got a patient in 2 I need to examine,"

"Oh. Ok. Want some help?"

"Well...yeah," he replied.

He walked back down the hall to admit. It was her turn to stare after him with a longing look.

The day crawled on and it was soon Lunch. Luka was still at Admit, and had two piles of paper work, one clearly higher than the other.

Sam came out of a block of cubicles and ran into Susan.

"Oh hey, how's the pairing going? I thought you guys might like it. Rather than not seeing each other all day," Susan asked. Sam looked at her confused.

"What? Pairing? What do you mean?" she asked.

"You and Luka. We're pairing the docs with the nurses today, try to cut down waiting hours and confusion. He didn't tell you?"

"No. I just thought it was an ordinary day. Except the weather,"

"No, it's a new rota we're trying out, seeing if it works, if it doesn't then we're back to the old ways. It's scheduled so that the docs spend at least 6 hours with their assigned nurse so that correct treatment can be discussed and reviewed. Hmm, it's odd he didn't tell you, I thought that'd be the first thing he said after 'I love you'," she said.

Sam shifted uncomfortably at the last phrase. "Um, yeah he didn't mention it. I'll go find him I just got his labs back," she walked off irritably not looking at Susan before she could say anything. Susan looked confused then shook it off and walked off down the hall.

Sam came to Luka in the Lounge infuriated at Luka for not telling her the rota for that day, infuriated at him for blatantly ignoring her when he knew full well that he was supposed to be actually talking to her. She slammed the door open and caught it as it flew back towards her and slammed it shut. Luka looked up.

"Why didn't you tell me!" she yelled, furious.

"What?" Luka replied, putting down his coffee.

"About the rota today? Me working with you. Susan just told me. We're supposed to see patients together, decide on tests, push the meds together. We're supposed to be together at least 6 hours during this shift,"

"I'm sorry," Luka knew he'd done wrong and he knew the results would be another argument.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she pushed. Her hand was firmly on her left hip. Luka stood up to face her, shuffling his feet restlessly.

"I don't know. Maybe to avoid...awkwardness," he finally looked at her.

For a moment, Sam couldn't think of anything to say. "Why would there be any awkwardness?"

"Come on Sam. We both know why there would be,"

"Yeah but does it have to stop us from working together?"

"I...don't know. It's hardly easy,"

She sighed and looked down. "I never wanted this Luka. Believe me I didn't,"

"Well then why are we here? Why are we doing this? What's going on Sam?" he said more forcefully.

She relaxed her arm and stared at the floor. "I don't know. I don't know anymore..." she looked wounded as Luka watched her. He could tell she was hurting inside, just as much as he was. He longed to go over to her, to embrace her, to pull him towards him, comfort her and make her feel alright. But he knew that wouldn't be possible.

"Maybe, I should tell Susan we'd prefer to work separately today,"

"What? Why?" she looked surprised.

"Because, it's clearly not working. It'd be for the best. For the patients,"

She was speechless; he used the exact same phrase she'd used on him the previous weeks before. She now knew what it felt like to hear those words. How piercing it was to hear 'clearly not working' how demeaning it was to be told something like that. She didn't argue, it was the last thing she wanted. She knew how upset she'd made him after telling him those words the weeks before. She didn't want to make things worse. This was the second time she'd hurt him by something she had said to him, not meaning to in any way but actually causing more damage than she anticipated by trying to do something 'for the best'. She licked her lips and looked up into his smouldering hazel eyes, almost succumbing to their desire, but just managing at the last second to regain her bearing. She tilted her head and closed her eyes, nodding her head slightly. As she opened her eyes he continued his gaze, the longing in his eyes shattered in front of her.

"Ok. Fine," she swallowed hard. He nodded, and broke the gaze, walking around her and getting to the lounge door, he paused for a moment, and then grabbed the handle pulling it open carefully and stepping out onto the corridor.

For a moment Sam couldn't move, her feet seemed rooted to the floor. Biting her bottom lip she closed her eyes, opening them only when they stung so badly that she had to open them, to free the tear that was welling up inside of her. Another tear followed, and Sam quickly wiped it away. Forcing her feet to move, she went to the coffee machine. A cup of coffee would take her mind off things. As if.

Luka walked up to Susan at admit who was talking to Ray about a patient. He waited patiently until Ray had finished.

"Oh, Dr Kovac, I have your Labs back on the allergy guy in 2," Ray handed his the clipboard.

"Oh, thanks Ray," Ray nodded and walked off.

"So...what's going on? Why was Sam oblivious to today's rota?"

"I dunno. She's oblivious to a lot of things at the moment,"

"Luka..." Susan said watchfully.

Luka sighed, clearly exasperated. "We both work in different ways; we're better off going back to the old rota. So we've decided we're gonna work separately today. I'm sorry,"

"Ok. Look what's going on with you guys? You seem very...distant. It's not like you two. You had another fight?" she asked warily.

Luka looked up at her. "No. We haven't had another fight. We just prefer to work our separate ways," he replied with an air of aggravation in his voice for Susan to even imply that they had 'had another fight'.

"Ok, well, there's a little boy in 5, broke his finger," she sighed.

"Thanks, he's been admitted?" he replied as he took the clipboard out of her hand.

"Yeah, family problems," the uncomfortable phrase that came from her lips which seemed to fit his situation also, really rubbed salt in the wounds, he walked off to see his patient.

Sam came out of the lounge, looking even more tired than before. She rubbed her left eye and walked up to admit.

"Hey, you ok?" Susan asked.

"What? Oh yeah. I'm fine,"

"Look, if you want to go early, to pick up Alex, feel free. It's a lagoon out there. Traffic's gonna be hell,"

"You sure?" Sam asked hesitant.

"Yeah, I know what it's like to get home so late you can't have a proper talk with your son. Except I'm sure you have a better conversation with Alex than I do with Cosmo,"

"Yeah. Ok thanks. I'll get off at say 5?" she smiled.

"Sure. Just let me know when you're off,"

"Ok. Will do." she picked up a chart and walked off.