"Hey, Luka," Abby sighed as he entered the bay doors to the ER for the beginning of his shift.

It had been a long night for traumas, with one coming in every twenty minutes for four hours solid – they were beginning to treat traumas in the hallways and assign the first year interns to lead traumas due to the insane ratio of four doctors to twenty five trauma patients. Her head was buzzing and all she wanted to do was go home, have a shower and go to bed.

He didn't say anything, simply nodded as he headed towards the Lounge to deposit his jacket in his locker.

She knew that he wasn't taking Sam's decision to move out all that well – hell, she didn't understand why Sam was moving out but she was helping Sam move her stuff over to her new apartment later in the week. The apartment that Sam was moving into was one that she and Susan had been to view but had decided it was just too small for them – with there being only one bedroom instead of the two that they had specified.

"Okay, so what do we got?" Luka asked as he came back up to the board at admit and pulled his hand over his face.

Abby turned to him with three charts clutched to her chest and began surveying the board.

"Old lady in two with an in-grown toenail that is causing some serious infection to spread to her feet – we're just waiting on meds because the whole hospital is backed up due to the insanity of last night." She handed him the chart. "We're waiting on x-rays on a ten year old with a broken leg in four. X-rays also are backed up by at least four hours." She handed him the other chart and saw him roll his eyes. "And we have two pan-handler sisters in three who are waiting on social services to get down here," she sighed as she passed him the third and final chart.

"Don't tell me – social services are backed up too?"

Abby smiled and nodded.

"Only one on duty for here and Mercy." Luka sighed and rolled his head on his neck. "Rough night?" She asked, with a smile on her lips but Luka simply nodded and brushed past her. "You know, her moving out doesn't mean she loves you any less," she murmured quietly to him and she saw him spin around with a questioning look in his eyes. "Girls talk," she laughed slightly.

He sighed again and pushed his fingers into his eyes.

"Yeah well, I just wish she'd talk to me," he smiled tightly and Abby pursed her lips.

"I'll speak to you later, Luka," she told him and placed her hand on his arm.

No matter what she did, it was still too awkward to talk to him sometimes.

"Kovac!" Luka rolled his eyes in their sockets at the sound of Kerry's voice and turned when he heard the clacking of her crutch get louder as she drew closer. "Tell Sam that her first shift back is next Monday!"

Luka frowned at Kerry's retreating back. He didn't know that Sam had spoken to Kerry about coming back to work. Shaking his head, he grabbed a chart from the rack and moved towards the curtains.

Collide

Sam felt the treadmill beneath her feet slow down and she looked at the screen: it hadn't been twenty minutes already surely? Sure enough, she had been jogging for twenty minutes and it surprised her that she hardly even noticed. When she had first started out at the gym she hadn't even been able to run for ten minutes let alone have twenty minutes pass in the blink of an eye. Albeit, she did have a lot on her mind now – moving into a new apartment was never an easy task and it was made only harder by Luka's reluctance to help her. He had downright refused to help her move her stuff over and she had only refrained from bashing him on the head when she looked at his face and saw his genuine fear there.

He thought she didn't want to be with him anymore.

She stepped off the treadmill when it did eventually stop and moved to the pole behind her and began her stretches. She felt her knee twinge slightly and she winced and reached down to rub it. It annoyed her, the fact that it was her knee that was sore and not where she had broken her leg.

"You might want to have someone look at that," she heard a familiar voice say over the sound of her Ipod music playing loudly in her ears.

She pulled the earphones out and smiled apologetically to the man standing beside her.

"Sorry, what?" She asked as she stood up straight.

"I said you might want to have someone look at that," he repeated and smiled as he reached his arm out and Sam stepped into his brief hug. "How are you?" He asked her as she stepped back and they both began their stretches.

"I'm… all right, thanks. A little tired but, you know. How are you? Still busy with work?"

He laughed and Sam ignored the chill running down her spine at the sound. Paul Beckett wasn't what she would call a handsome man but boy was his body in great shape. His sandy brown hair was short and slightly curly, his face paradoxically chubby compared with the rest of his body. He looked young, around twenty-four – not that much younger than herself, she noted – and tired. There was something distinctly… foreign looking about him – though not the same iceberg melting handsomeness that Luka exuded simply by being but something… foreign.

He nodded and skipped onto his other foot, lunging forward to stretch his calf muscles.

"Yeah, I'm keeping busy," he looked up and smiled while Sam stretched her arms over her head.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence while they stretched and Sam found herself watching his rippling muscles under his Scotland soccer strip. She knew he was attracted to her: they'd been out to dinner (well, a casual sandwich in the café across the street from the gym) a few times and she still hadn't found the time to inform him that she was seeing someone. She knew that she would never cheat on Luka, but there was something about having the option to that made Sam shiver, and enjoy the attention she received from Paul. It was ridiculous really: she didn't know anything about him; just that he spent three hours training in the gym five times a week, was busy with 'work' and was Scottish.

She shook her head slightly and looked to her foot.

"I better get started," he told her after a few minutes of silence and Sam nodded. "What are you doing after your work out?"

Sam looked up and smiled despite herself.

"I'm just going home, I'm nearly done."

He nodded and moved past her, placing his arm on her shoulder as he did so.

Collide

"You know what makes this day even better?" Luka asked sarcastically to Carter and Abby as they made their way up to admit to begin their shifts.

Carter laughed and took a few charts from Luka's overly large bundle.

"What's that?" he asked joyously and laughed at the glare Luka sent him.

"The new med students start next week," he replied over enthusiastically and grinned when he saw the grin drop from Carter's face.

"Oh great, more misdiagnosis, problem questions and-"

"Hoy, that's enough! It wasn't that long ago that I was a med student!" Abby laughed as she tossed her cup of coffee into the bin.

Luka walked away and grinned when he heard Carter attempting to talk his way out of a scold from Abby.

"See, you weren't like that though, you were a nurse before so you didn't really…"

Collide

Luka pushed the door to the lounge open and sighed. He was glad to be going home to Sam tonight. His day had been long, tiring and all he wanted to do was go to bed with her tiny body wrapped around him.

By the time Luka reached home, it was eleven thirty and all the lights in his apartment were out. He looked up at the bedroom window as he walked towards the building. He could imagine Sam lying with her head in the middle of the pillows, her body starfish on the mattress as she stared out of the window at the soft, twinkling May stars. Either that or curled in a ball under the thin sheets sound asleep.

It didn't matter to him; all that mattered was that she was there.

He couldn't imagine coming home and finding an empty apartment, finding that Sam wasn't actually there. He opened his front door, stepped slowly down the few steps, and shrugged his shoulders trying to relieve his aching muscles. It had been a long shift, consisting of multiple traumas but mostly him hunched over a desk filling in numerous reports and charts and signing off on countless patients. His feet ached, his calves throbbed and his arms felt like dead weights hanging at his side.

He took in his surroundings as he walked up the stairs to their bedroom. Sam's dishes were sitting on the wooden draining board, her gym bag tossed lazily onto the kitchen floor, her jacket strewn across the back of a dining chair. He smiled as he glanced at the ordered chaos: his apartment looked lived in.

He kicked his shoes off at the door to their bedroom and closed it silently behind him, watching her slumbering form for a minute until his fatigued muscles began to pulsate in complaint at being held captive too long. He practically crawled to the bed and slid tiredly beneath the sheets, reaching his arm out to Sam's curled body and pulling her close.

"Take your clothes of Kovac," she told him without opening her eyes and he attempted to smile.

"Too tired," he mumbled into the pillow and slid his eyes closed. "You do it."

"I thought you were too tired?" She admonished tiredly and Luka turned his head further into the pillow, pulling her body closer to him. His lack of response was all the confirmation Sam needed that he was indeed too tired and she turned her body to face him. "Long shift?" She asked as she sat up, undoing his belt and unzipping his pants, to then slide them down his long legs.

He nodded in response and reached up to her hand when she began to work on his tie.

"Leave it," he commanded but she shook her head.

"You'll choke to death, Luka," she informed him and gently untied his tie and pulled it from him neck and unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt.

He opened his eyes again when she was laying back down beside him, her eyes boring into his. He smiled tiredly, lifted his hand up to her face, and rubbed his thumb over her cheek.

"Kiss me, Sam," he told her, too tired to lift his head closer to her.

"I'm too tired, Luka," she joked and he lethargically raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, if you insist, old man," she laughed and leaned into him.

"You'll pay for that, Taggert," he mumbled against her lips but was silenced when she pressed more firmly against him.

He felt her legs wrap around him as her strong arms slid around his shoulders and held him to her. He was surprised at how much more toned she had become after spending only a month at the local gym. He sometimes suspected that she lied to him about the amount of time she spent there but he didn't question her – didn't know how to question her about something so trivial.

He sighed against the top of her head and closed his eyes. He fell asleep to the sound of Sam's gentle breathing and her gentle fingers massaging his aching head.

Collide

Sam stretched laggardly on the dining chair and groaned out a yawn as Luka lifted her plate away from her. She had woken up early to make him his breakfast in bed but he had awoken when she dropped the frying pan onto the floor and hadn't been able to get back to sleep.

"You hardly touched your food," he commented and Sam looked up at him with a smile on her face.

"I guess I wasn't that hungry," she told him as she reached out for her glass of orange juice and took a healthy gulp.

She couldn't see him but she knew he nodded his head and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. She heard him clatter away in the sink and she got up from her chair and moved to the sofa and switched on the television, flipping the channel to start her daily routine of daytime TV.

"Chevron one encoded, chevron two encoded."

She saw Luka wander back into the room with a second cup of coffee gripped in his hands and he winced when he saw the television screen.

"What are you watching?" he asked as he sat next to her, absently lifting her feet into his lap and rubbing her ankles with his free hand.

He did that a lot, Sam realised and it became a member of the list of things that she used to find endearing but now found simply routine.

"Stargate SG-1," she told him and saw him frown.

"I didn't know you liked sci-fi…" he began and smiled at her through his frown.

Sam turned to him and raised her eyebrow, stilling his hand as it wandered up to her knee.

"I don't," she said as she clutched his hand in hers to stop it from touching her.

She didn't know why but she found that the more he touched her, the more she wanted him to stop. She tried not to notice the look of loss that passed over his face as he turned back to the screen.

"So…" he gestured towards the television with his hand that he had pulled free from her grip and sipped from his drink.

"This is the episode where Sam and Jack finally admit that they have feelings for each other!" She told him excitedly and he marvelled at her change in mood.

He had tried to speak to her when the programme started but she had animatedly told him to be quiet or he would not be having sex for a fortnight. He sighed into his cup and saw the ripples spread out and touch the edges. He didn't know why but Sam kept pulling away from him when he touched her and it only added to his belief that she didn't want to be with him anymore but was too afraid to say to him. His frown deepened and he clutched onto his cup tighter.

He had given up everything for her.

"Don't you think that Susan and Abby are getting a bit you know… close?" She asked and he looked up, amazed that she had spoken during what was one of ithe best episodes uever/u/i – until he saw that the commercials were on.

"What do you mean?" he asked turning to her with a frown on his face.

She dropped her head in indignance and raised an eyebrow at him, a grin appearing on her face.

"Oh come on… they spend all their time together, they're buying an apartment…"

Luka frowned at her and cocked his head.

"They're friends…"

Sam pursed her lips and shook her head.

"Come on, Luka… you can't deny that they're… close."

He looked away from her and stuck his tongue between his teeth.

"It's… not what you think," he stated quietly and Sam sat up further, drawing her legs under her and crawled across the sofa towards him.

"You know something, don't you?" She accused and narrowed her eyes at him as she slid into his lap.

He liked how she wasn't complaining now that she was touching him.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" he said and looked past her head, biting his bottom lip.

She slowly opened her mouth and her eyes widened and she slapped his chest hard.

"You do!" She shouted as she pointed at his face with her finger.

"I don't!" He laughed and slid his arms around her waist and attempted to pull her onto him for a kiss.

"Oh you're not getting out of this one Kovac, now either you tell me or you don't get sex for a month!"

Luka paused dramatically and looked around the room.

"Carter and Abby kissed," he said quickly as though it was all one word and he jerked when Sam jumped away from him and jumped up and down in the middle of the lounge.

"I knew it! I knew it!" She danced around in a circle alternately punching the air.

Luka simply watched her: her face was a mixture of admonishment, happiness, glee and smugness. He laughed when she jumped onto the couch and shook her hips from side to side, pumping her arms in the air.

"I thought you thought that her and Susan…?" He laughed and caught a hold of her tiny waist and pulled her body across his, his hand gliding under her top, over her now defined stomach muscles.

She grinned up at him and shook her head, her eyes alight with… something.

"That was two minutes ago."

Luka shook his head and leaned down and kissed her, his hand sliding further up her strappy top and he heard her moan into his mouth.

"Leave it," she commanded and pulled his head back down when the telephone rang on the table at the side of them.

He complied and manoeuvred their bodies so she lying underneath him, his other hand fumbling with the bottom of her top, attempting to pull it up over her body but when the answering machine cut in, Sam lunged out from underneath him and flew to the phone.

"Hey guys, I know you're probably having sex or whatever but I was just wondering if you guys wanted to catch some lunch before Luka's shift late-"

"You!"

Luka sat up in surprise when he heard the bite in Sam's voice but her grinning face told him she was only pretending. Luka dropped his hands from his face and pursed his lips – she had again managed to get away from him touching her.

"I can't believe you kissed Abby!"

He snapped his head up to her and began furiously shaking his head at her, telling her to stop talking but to no avail.

"You didn't tell me! – Aaah! Here's Luka, my programme has just come back on!"

Sam sat down next to Luka, pushed the phone to his ear, and hooked her arm around his as she settled in to see Anise and Martouf arrive through the Stargate.

"It was either that or no sex for a month," Luka said lightly and Sam turned to him, kissing his jaw line, her eyes turned to the television set.

"Yeah I'll see you later," he said and she heard the resounding beep as he hung up. "I meant to tell you last night: Weaver has booked you in for your first shift back next week when the new med students start," he told her but she simply nodded. He sighed in frustration and shook his head.

"What?" She asked, glancing fleetingly at him before returning her gaze to the television.

"I didn't know you had been thinking about going back to work."

She shrugged but didn't look away from the television and he stood abruptly from the sofa.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to take a shower," he told her without pausing in his journey up the steps.

"Are you mad at me for not telling you?"

"Yes," he replied quickly as he ascended the stairs. He couldn't hear Sam's reply over the sound of the door to the bathroom slamming shut.

TBC