Disclaimer : I own nothing, guys at WB and NBC do. I just borrow to have fun…
"What's that?" Luka wondered as he entered the doctor's lounge.
"A bouquet." Ray chuckled as he stated the obvious. "I think there's a card on it."
"Don't tell me, you haven't read it." Smiling, Luka grabbed his lab coat and turned around.
"Oh, yeah. 'For a wonderful evening with an amazing lady. Love, Victor'. I guess that means Abby is off limits now. Wait until the rumor mill gets that." Luka looked at the bouquet. Red roses? That was... definitely not good. He watched Ray leave and moved closer. He checked the little card and cursed as he read it. 'Love, Clemente'? For the hundredth time since that dreadful plane crash, he wondered what to do next. He had thought a little patience and distance was maybe required. But watching at the twelve roses, that didn't sound as a good idea anymore. But he couldn't just tell her, to stop seeing him, or could he? She had been the one who had insisted on just being friends. Maybe he should take the hint.
"How's your coffee?" Abby was lost in her thoughts. "Abby?"
"Yeah what?"
"Your coffee?" Neela pointed at the cup in her hand. Abby looked down almost baffled to be holding it. She slowly shook her head, as though wondering what she could say about it.
"Nice." Neela rolled her eyes at the word.
"Is it the only word you manage to say these days? Your vocabulary has sure shrunk! Now tell me what's wrong?" She moved closer to her friend. Something had been bothering Abby for some time now and she cursed herself for not having asked before. Since Michael had come back, she had spent most of her down time with him.
"Nothing is wrong." Abby gave her a sad smile and sipped her coffee.
"Yeah tell that to someone who doesn't know you. Is it Clemente? Has he tried something last night?"
"Tried?" She repeated the word not understanding what Neela had meant. "Oh no! Of course not. He was a perfect gentleman. He drove me home, we shook hands and I went to bed." Neela's eyebrows shot up. "Alone, I went to bed alone!"
"Oh, okay."
"You don't believe me?" Abby disbelievingly asked. How could Neela doubt her on a subject like that.
"Of course, I believe you. Afterall Clemente is not your style."
"Exactly. He definitely isn't."
"You like them taller with an European accent..." Neela observed Abby as she was talking. She saw a shocked expression on the other's woman face.
"Why are you saying that?"
"Didn't you tell me that you slept with Luka?"
"What?" Abby cursed herself. She never should have said something. But that night she had simply needed to say it out loud to someone. It had been too big a secret to keep it to herself.
"I heard it." Neela moved closer and gently putting her hand on her arm. "At the time, I just thought you were joking and just said it to make me stay. But then I wondered... You seem somehow different. So did you really sleep with him?" Abby shook her head and derisively laughed at herself. What was the point in denying it?
"Yeah I did." She answered in a whisper.
"And it wasn't good?"
"It was great. It was just..." How could she possibly describe what she had felt?
"Just...?"
"Awkward after all those years. I mean... It felt so strange, so unreal the next day. You know like when you have this feeling that you shouldn't be there, but wouldn't want to be anywhere else. When you have this urge to run away, but can't break free because somehow it feels so right."
"Wow."
"Yeah I know. If you had asked me two weeks ago, I would have honestly told you that whatever was once between me and Luka was over, dead and buried. That we were just friends and that I was happy about it. But now..." She broke into a sad laugh. "Now I know it has never been over. It's been there all the time, I just didn't let myself feel it."
"And how does he feel?" Abby looked at her cup and tried to smile.
"He told me what a great friend I was and that he didn't want to lose that."
"Ouch! You got the 'friend speech'?"
"Yeah. And I gracefully accepted it. It's my problem not his." She saw Neela's worried eyes on her. "It's okay. I'm grateful he was honest enough to stop it right away." As she finished her sentence, an ambulance entered the bay. "Time to go to work."
"I knew it." Chuny was clapping her hands. "This morning was just perfect. Did you see the look Luka gave Clemente when he went to help Abby with the GSW?"
"He sure didn't look happy to end up with Neela in Trauma 2. He kept looking at them. It was about time. It started to feel a little desperate in here." Haleh was smiling as she remembered the little scene. I had taken him two trials to put the central line. That had never happened before.
"Here he comes." Frank warned the two nurses. They immediately became serious again.
"Have you seen Clemente? I wanted his opinion on one of my patient."
"I think I saw him leave with Abby. Maybe they went for something to eat. Do you want me to page him?" Frank reached for the phone and picked up the receiver.
"Oh no. I can check that later. Thanks." Luka slowly shook his head. Things were getting worse. First last night's date, the twelve red roses in the lounge and now lunch? With a sigh he went back to the doctors' lounge.
"Frank, that was a lie! Abby went eating with Neela, not Clemente. Poor Luka! He actually sounded sad." Chuny observed Luka's retreating form.
"Yeah, now I feel bad. I mean that was not the plan when we started it. I don't want them to be miserable." Haleh's smile had vanished. She looked at Frank and didn't try to hide her annoyance.
"All he has to do is talk with Abby. If he doesn't do it, he can only blame himself." The older man grumbled. It had seemed an appropriate answer at the time. Well maybe not... As he looked up, he saw Abby making her way towards him.
"Have you seen Clemente?"
"No, so now you can't live without him. After one single date? Wow! He must be good." He used his most cheerful tone to hide his uneasiness.
"No, I need to check something with him." Abby stared at Frank and couldn't help noticing that he was avoiding direct eye contact. She wondered what that could mean. She turned her attention to Chuny and Haleh and realized that both nurses were also behaving quite strangely. What were they up to? Had Clemente said something? If he had, she was ready for murder.
"Well I don't know where he is. Check the lounge, he's maybe there." He had hardly finished his sentence that she was already on her way.
"Okay, thanks!"
"Frank, I knew you felt bad too." Haleh smiled at him.
"No, I don't." Half-smiling, he calmly rearranged papers on his desk.
"So why did you send her to the lounge when you know that the only person there is Luka?" The young nurse wasn't fooled. Behind his rough manners, Frank had a heart of gold. Unless...
"Clemente was just a way to make things move. Now let's see how it rocked." A devilish smile was once again to be seen on his face.
"How do you want to do that?" Chuny wondered.
"You have good ears, just go there and eavesdrop."
"Me? What if they see me?" She looked at Haleh, hoping for support. But soon she had to realize that her friend was thrilled by Frank's idea. Yeah well, no support could be expected there. She was outnumbered.
"They won't. Just go! We'll make sure nobody else goes there. Go!" Reproachfully she glared at her friends and made her way to the lounge.