Sam angrily marched out into the ambulance bay, her arms swinging to keep her angry pace quicker than her normal pace. She passed by many paramedics who seemed to be lounging against the back end of their rigs, but her cold stare didn't falter from the wall ahead. She wouldn't remove her fixed stare from her destination; it wouldn't have been any good.

She was so focused, that she didn't hear her keys drop to the ground, and she would have kept walking if she hadn't heard a voice call after her.

"Miss," the voice was a heavy Irish accent, and it immediately caught her attention. She turned on her heel and gave the man who had called out to her a sharp glare that wasn't really intended for him. Her jaw was cocked so tight that she almost forgot that she was looking at an innocent bystander.

"Yes?" Her question was deep in the back of her throat as the anger was present in her tone. Her face and body stance faltered, and she offered him the gentlest tone that she could muster. Her attitude almost made a total one-eighty. "I'm sorry…What's up?"

"You just," he chuckled deep into the back of his throat, "you dropped your keys."

She looked at him for the first time, and her anger towards Luka seemed to totally disappear. He was a very good-looking man. He was tall, not quite as tall as Luka or even John Carter, but he was still tall standing just a few feet from her. He was dressed nicely, like James Bond wondering the streets of the United States.

His black suit and white dress shirt fit his form carefully, giving him compliments and eliciting every inch and centimeter of him. His hair was a chocolate brown with caramel streaks lightly tainting it, and his eyes matched the color of his hair – they were dark. He had stubble on his face as though he'd been too rushed to stop and check himself in the mirror.

All of that together made him even more attractive; it made her believe that he was handsome without ever knowing it.

He smiled knowingly as she eyed him, and he let her as though he was used to it. He would be reluctant to admit that he was doing the same, openly taking her in. He wasn't used to American girls, especially one so naturally beautiful.

"Thank you," she offered him a smile, once regaining her composure, as she reached out and took her keys from his hand.

Her fingertips brushed across his skin, and her eyes drifted down to his hand. He turned to walk away as he slid his hand back into his pocket, but she reached out and caught his attention by brushing her hand across his arm. He turned to look at her as she dropped her keys into her scrub top pocket, and she fumbled with words to say to him.

"Are you – are you a doctor here? Going to be a doctor here?"

"Uh, no, actually," he looked down to the ground, scuffing the ground with the toe of his shoe as though he was a caught little schoolboy, "I'm an Associate Professor at another hospital."

"So, you're a doctor at Mercy?" She furrowed her eyebrows, completely confused.

"No, I'm Howard Wallace from 'Doctors without Borders' over in Kisangani," his accent seemed to captivate her again, and she silently cursed herself for being so easy to fool. If she were trapped in a room with him and Luka, she'd die of an accent induced heart attack. "I'm a friend of Dr. Carter and Dr. Kovac."

"Oh," she breathed out in a sigh, pursing her lips together. She stood, silently contemplating rather to brave going back inside or to just flee from the sight of the blasted hospital. She wiped at her brow, and she decided that she held a position of authority and it would take more than a brief run in with her ex-lover to make her walk away. "Um, yeah…"

"I was actually coming by to talk to Luka…Dr. Kovac. Do you know where he is?"

"I'm not really sure. I can show you inside and get someone to help you find him," she smiled politely, rubbing his upper arm just as she would the family of a patient.

She quickly withdrew her hand, suddenly realizing what she had been doing and knowing that he realized it too, and shoved them deep into the pockets of her scrubs. The chill of the Chicago air seemed to permeate through her as it made the fine hairs on her arms, legs, and on the back of her neck stand on their ends. She shivered openly and it seemed to catch his eye.

"Are you – are you cold?" He reached out in her direction, his hand falling short of her elbow as he leaned towards her. Her eyes drifted up his face, and she stared at him with pursed lips as she was rendered speechless. He seemed alarmed by the attention she was giving him, and he stood upright as he took the sign that she was uncomfortable. "I'm kind of dead to the weather. I was in Africa for so long that I'm not longer sure when it's hot or cold."

She laughed in the back of her throat, her eyes closing momentarily, and it seemed to elicit a smile across his lips.

"I'll tell you what, I'll help you find Luka," she almost growled his name in the back of her throat, anger rushing through her bones once again at the thought of him. She glanced towards the Jumbo-Mart across the street and thought of how much she desired a good cup of caffeine. She was totally in love with coffee, "if you buy me a coffee."

"I think that I can manage a cup of coffee," he smiled, noticing her eyes dragging towards the store across the street, and he nearly laughed at her desperate appearance for a cup of coffee. He paused; his hands idly settled deep into his pockets, before he pulled his left hand out and gently pressed it against the small of her back. "This way."

She bit her bottom lip, fighting a smile, and nodded quickly.

----

She peered around the corner, after being told Luka was working on charts at his desk, and found him with his feet propped up and his shades gracing his face. She never understood how he got away with that, considering how often he really did it, but she definitely couldn't understand how he could find that comfortable.

She clutched her cup of coffee tighter within her grasp, saddling up to his sleeping side, and she smiled, clearly amused, looking down at him. Regardless of how angry he made her or of how distant he always kept her, a part of her still loved him and found his sleeping form as cute as it had always been. She'd always found the pleasure of watching him sleep – it was mostly peaceful.

She hated to wake him, and she almost blindly reached forward with shaky fingertips to pull the sunglasses out from in front of his eyes. She hated that she was, once again, the one revealing the eyes behind the shades. She hated to wake him, especially since she'd left him, because she'd found it hard to bear seeing him on the days following his restless nights.

Her fingers pinched the sunglasses and pulled them from his face quickly, a quick flash of light rousing him from his gentle sleep. He didn't open his eyes as quickly as she'd expected him to, but his eyes fluttered open until he noticed her while he stretched big. She almost saw a smile through his angst-ridden eyes.

"There is a Dr. Howard Wallace here to see you," Sam glanced at him sheepishly and regretfully as he settled back down into his chair, and she set his sunglasses down on the desk in front of him. She clutched her cup again, tightly, and she pursed her lips together until his eyes fell on her.

"Okay," he had a firm nod accompany his word.

"He wanted me to get you. Says he's a friend of yours and Dr. Carter's," she pointed towards the administration desk with her thumb and his eyes slowly left her face to obediently follow in the direction she was indicating. She could see it in his eyes, he was in pain at the sight of her. "Come on. He's been waiting for a while."

She fought the urge to reach down and grab his hand to lead him. She definitely still had feelings for him, and she didn't quite know what to do with them. She had loved him – so much – but she knew that their differences were just enough to keep them apart.

"Thank you, Sam," he smiled at her politely, leaning forward until the chair practically ejected him from it. Standing to his feet, he stretched again, a tired groan eliciting from the back of his throat, and he followed the torn path of the tile floor to the administration desk.

Jerry's voice was loud and overpowering the quiet voice carrying around the ER: "I want anchovies, pineapple, pepperoni, sausage…Yeah, some of that, too."

Luka stifled a chuckle in the back of his throat so Jerry couldn't hear him as Sam slipped behind the desk in front of him to stand and start making up the nursing schedule for the next two weeks. He raised his hand at Howard, offering his greeting silently as his old doctor friend eyed the white coat from a short distance. His eyes seemed to droop low just to reveal exactly how tired he was, and he narrowed his eyes to clear the fog from his view.

"Hello, Dr. Wallace." He offered his hand out to an old friend to be shaken.

"Luka," Howard took the offered him and gave it a firm shake, "I think that we're better friends than that."

Luka and Howard laughed, both laughs holding a twinge of an accent.

"You're right," Luka conceded and chuckled softly in the back of his throat, his eyes falling to the floor in a sheepish nod. "After all of the shit we went through together over in Africa – we'd have to be on a first name basis."

Sam paused upon hearing Luka speak – she'd never heard him say that before. He rarely spoke crudely; well, he hadn't compared to what she had been used to – Steve. She listened to this man who was practically a stranger interact with Luka, and she was amused just by the sound of their voices.

"I'd suggest coffee, but I see that you already have one," Luka motioned to the Styrofoam cup full of black coffee sitting on the counter in front of Howard, and he slowly noted that his matched Sam's cup of steaming coffee. He was slowly beginning to piece it together. "Did you two?"

"Dropped my keys," she explained, monotone, without looking up form her paperwork in front of her. Luka's gaze followed behind him, and he nodded as his head slowly turned back to his visitor. A hint of jealousy passed through him, but he knew that he had no right; after all, he and Sam weren't together – and there wasn't a way that Howard could possibly know of his history with this woman.

"I see. That would explain the coffee," he, once again, smiled politely. He didn't know why he was so jealous about a steaming cup of coffee, but he knew that no explanations were needed. "Well, then – I'll give you the tour of my hospital."

"All right, that sounds good," Howard nodded in agreement, giving Luka an apologetic smile.