Chapter 5

It had been three months since the accident and Sam's recovery had progressed well. She had returned to work with the agreement that she would accompany small cases, no traumas. Luka, on the other hand, had returned to his emotionally enclosed ways. Since Sam had rejected him he didn't know how to act around her. She seemed depressed but tried to hide it with all she could so he acted as if nothing was wrong.

"Sam, can you get me some morphine for the patient in exam 1, he believes that aliens are going to take the creature that is growing inside of him when it is actually a tumor." Susan chuckled a bit, feeling a bit guilty for laughing at the man's misfortune.

"Yeah sure." She was in a daze. Susan had notice that it had been like this for quite some time now. She visited Sam often during her recovery and they developed a close friendship. She finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Once you do that will you meet me in the lounge, I want to show you some pictures from Cosmo's birthday party last week that I think you will enjoy." Susan lied. Sam nodded and headed for the medication.

Susan walked into the lounge to find Luka in there getting ready to start his shift. "Hey, how you doing?" She asked sincerely.

"Fine." His cold response sent a chill down her spine.

"Listen, Sam told me about what happened a few months ago. Ever since then she said that you have been distant, like you don't want to be around her. It sounds like everything isn't 'fine'." She was pushing him to answer her truthfully.

"Susan, I appreciate the bond that you and Sam have formed through her ordeal but that doesn't mean that I'm ready to play Dr. Phil with you right now." He snapped. Susan was taken aback by that. She hadn't heard him speak with anger in his voice quite like this since that night in his apartment.

"She does love you Luka."

"Thank you Susan, but my shift has started. I need to get out there." With that he left, but not before Sam walked into the room.

"Hey, you on?" She asked him?

"Yeah, better get to work." He smiled at her and rubbed her arm before walking out of the lounge ready to put his feelings in the back of his mind while listening to other peoples problems.

"What was that about?" Sam asked. Susan shrugged her shoulders. "So where are these pictures?"

"I lied, I wanted to talk to you about how you were doing."

"Sue, we talked about this last week. I told you I'm fine."

"Yeah, but I just talked to Luka and he seems to be a little more than irritable to say the least and I've seen the way you walk around here like a zombie. Should you take more time?" Susan asked her friend.

"No, I told you. I'm happy to be back at work. It gets my mind off things. About what happened between Luka and I."

"Maybe you should go back to the therapist. Get some advice on where you stand."

"I don't think I need some shrink telling me how to handle my relationship with my… well with Luka." Sam looked down at the floor.

"Okay, well I just thought I might offer my help." Susan headed for the door.

"I wanted to say yes to him so badly. I just don't think I am ready for marriage. It seems a huge jump from accusing me of deliberately miscarrying to asking me to be Mrs. Kovac. It just didn't seem right."

"Have you told him that?"

"I tired that night but he left the room, I didn't see him until he got home from work the next day. He didn't even wake me before he left." Sam sat down on the couch and put her head in her hands. "I don't know what else there is to do."

"Just try talking to him. I have to go, I'm sorry Sam." Susan walked out of the room leaving Sam alone to think about the scar that was just violently ripped open.

Luka pushed open to door to exam 2 to find a young woman there complaining of cramps that had been going on for over a month. He smiled warmly to her and introduced himself.

"I'm Dr. Kovac, how are you doing today Ms. Young?"

"Not to good, that was until you walked in." She smiled. "I've been having these really bad cramps, kinda like period pains, but they have been going on for over a month now. I've been taking Ibuprofen for the pain and at first it did help but then I had found myself taking 12 to 16 pills a day just to stay comfortable." She was trying to mask the pain that she was in. "Are you married?" She asked. When he didn't respond she spoke again. "I'm not either."

"Okay, we're going to run some tests and see what's going on with your pain." He pulled back her blanket and tried to palpate her abdomen. She screamed in pain when he touched her. "Chuney, can you order x-rays and a c-scan for me please. Also run a CBC, Chem panel and lytes." He handed her the chart and walked out the room.

"That doctor is very hot. I don't see how you get any work done around here." Chuney smiled and walked away rolling her eyes as she exited the room.

Luka headed to the board to sign himself up for another patient when he saw Sam heading out of the break room with tears in her eyes. He immediately went to her.

"Sam, what's wrong?" He put his hand on her face and she turned into his hand, thankful that he was there for that moment.

"I was just talking to Susan." Luka pulled back, irritation shown across his face.

"I wish that woman would just mind her own life and stop interfering in ours."

"She's just trying to help. I really think we need to talk after work. What time is you shift over?"

"I get off in an hour. You?"

"I've been off for a while. You know how it is. Even though I'm not on traumas I'm still getting the overtime." She smiled. "I'll call Teresa and see if Alex can stay there for a while. We'll go out somewhere. Anywhere."

"Okay. That sounds good. I'll see you in an hour then." He gave her a quick kiss and headed back to admit. She watched him leave and then retreated into the lounge to make some phone calls.

Back into the lounge, she picked up the phone and dialed the familiar numbers of Alex's best friends house. After two rings a young boy answered. Obviously, it was Perry.

"Perry, this is Sam, can I talk to Alex?"

"Sure," He handed the phone to Alex. She could hear him tell him who was on the other line.

"Hey mom, when are you coming to get me?"

"Hey kiddo, I wanted to talk to you. I'm going to come over there right now so we can talk about something, and if it's ok with Jason's mom, I'm going to see if you can stay over there for a little while. At least until I take care of a few things."

"What's going on?" He asked, sounding concerned.

"I'll be over there in a few minutes ok?"

"Ok." She hung up the phone and grabbed her jacket and quickly left the ER.

Just a few short minutes she pulled up to Teresa's home. She got out of the car and was greeted by Alex waiting for her.

"Mom, what's going on? We're not moving again are we?" He sounded disappointed. For once she could honestly tell him no.

"No kiddo, I wanted to talk to you about me and Luka. I want to know how you feel about him." She sat down next to Alex on the curb.

"He's ok, why do you ask?"

"Well, because three months ago he asked me to marry him." She waited for an outburst from her son. Surprisingly he was quite. "I told him that I didn't think we were ready for that. Since then I'm starting to think that I made a mistake. I wanted to know how you felt about that."

"You want to marry Luka. Would I have to call him 'dad'" Sam chuckled.

"No, but I wanted to know how you would feel about having a permanent father figure in your life, if I were to marry him. I know it's been just you and me for a long time but I think this would be good for us. I just don't want you to think that anything is going to change. You will always be my number one guy." She hugged her son.

"I know I can be kind of a jerk sometimes but I do want you to be happy. I love you mom." Sam was in awe. He son was no longer ten years old. He aged before her eyes, she began to cry.

"I love you too Alex. Are you ok with this? I'm not doing anything unless you are ok with this."

"Yeah, I like Luka. He's cool. He shows me a lot of neat things. I'm still kinda pissed that he didn't let me go with Dad, but I still like him. Don't tell him I told you that." He whispered the last sentence to her. She smiled.

"I wont as long as you promise me you wont cuss anymore." She grabbed Alex again and hugged him tightly. "I've got to go. Did you ask Jason's mom if you could stay longer?" He nodded. "She's ok with it?" He nodded again. "Ok well get inside it's freezing out here and you don't have your jacket on." He got up and ran inside, a smile grew on his face as he did. He liked the idea of having a stable family. "Don't forget to check your blood sugar!" she called after him.

Alex sighed. 'Moms" he thought to himself and closed the door behind him.

Sam got back in the car, reeling over the conversation she just had with Alex. He was ok with her and Luka getting married. 'But after what happened will he still want to marry me?' she asked herself. She would find out tonight.