TITLE: Running with Scissors (Or, Freudy Cat), part 2/4
AUTHOR: Ellen Hursh
RATING: PG-13/R
KEYWORDS: KW/LKo romance; angst; blah-de-blah-de-blah
LAST EPISODE SEEN: "Quo Vadis?"
TIMELINE: "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
ARCHIVE: If you must.
DISCLAIMER: ER and all its characters belong to Warner Bros. No
infringement of their copyright is intended. This story was written for
the enjoyment of "ER" fans everywhere, and may be downloaded for your
own pleasure.
SERBO-CROATIAN: "Ridokose [with a crossed 'd'] osobe! Mnogi ih je!" =
"Redheads! There are too many of 'em!"
SYNOPSIS: Redheaded babes, black-and-white cookies, and players for the
pink team are among the elements in this latest installment.
SPOILERS: For "Rock, Paper, Scissors"... to some extent.
PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: Home and Dry; And Miles to Go Before I Sleep;
Through the Hourglass; Jupiter Aligns with Mars; Shopworn; Come as You
Aren't; Out and About; Up in the Air; Serpent's Tooth; Thanks a Lot!;
Shall We Dance?; Yes, Sir, That's My Baby!; Yule-Tied; Should Auld
Acquaintance
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to Miesque and Hollie for feedback and input.
PREVIOUSLY, ON MY-ER: Mark had surgery to remove a brain tumor, as
pregnant fiancee Elizabeth worried; Kerry learned that she was also
pregnant after a friendly chat with Elizabeth led her to take (and
"fail") a pregnancy test; Luka and Kerry were shocked by the abrupt
reappearance of a woman from his past; Peter helped the girlfriend of
his deceased nephew.




After Kerry had signed in - after a good, hearty nap on the couch in the
lounge that had her feeling *much* better, if not overly eager to hear
what kinds of ideas *Randi* had for wedding dresses - Cleo took her
around the department, briefly presenting some of the cases waiting. "Ms
Smithers, has vaginal bleeding--"

"I know. She had it last month, too... it's called her 'period'." Cleo
made a quiet choking noise that could have been a laugh.

"Do you want me to call Psych for her?" Kerry snickered softly, and
shook her head.

"What she *needs*, I think, is a nurse to sit her down and explain the
facts of life. And, perhaps, some pads. What's next?"

* * *

"Dave, c'mon." Luka interrupted the man's latest chat-fest with Debbie,
and touched his arm on the way past without waiting to see if he
followed. Dave shrugged and grinned at Debbie, then grabbed a pair of
gloves and trotted after the older man. *Not* someone he wanted mad at
him - the Chief would just tear strips off a guy with the way she yelled
sometimes, but Dr Kovac was big enough and strong enough to really do
serious physical damage. Dave had heard about what the guy had done to
that mugger, and could easily imagine what kind of mush a little less
restraint would have made of the mugger's brain.

There was just enough snow coming down that Dave had to squint a little
as he headed out to the ambulance, though not enough to be a serious
hazard. When he saw the patient being unloaded, he had a brief, crazy
thought that the guy on the gurney was a very ineffective
cross-dresser... then he spotted the priest hovering around the gurney
like a clingy grandmother. Oh, right... he nodded to himself slightly.

Harms smirked at him as he checked her out, and delivered the bullet
with the kind of detached patter that - he'd learned long ago - meant
that he'd been mentally dismissed almost immediately. "This is Bishop
Stewart. Fell down, and was having trouble getting back up." Luka glared
at Dave, who appeared to be on the verge of making a typical smart-ass
response... but changed his mind at the sight of that expression. "He
officiated at *my* confirmation," she remarked, her voice softening for
the first time, and the bishop smiled at her.

"Are you in any pain?" Luka's question was brisk and all-business, to
Dave's surprise - he'd always kinda figured that the big guy looked like
someone who'd have lots to talk about with someone like a *bishop*... he
knew *he* had a few questions for Bishop Stewart!

"Not at the moment. That shot you gave me," Stewart remarked to Harms,
"worked wonderfully, thank you."

"All right. We'll get you into an exam room, and go from there."

* * *

Kynesha's words still echoed crazily in Peter's mind. He'd already
called the halfway house and found out that she'd *started* a fight and
then left, and had been on the phone with Walt, checking on how long it
would be until they'd have his car's rear window repaired. "What you
want with Dr Oreo?" she'd demanded as she stood there in her robe after
her shower, trying to look sultry and sexy. "I can *take care* of you
real good! I just wanna live with *you*, not go back to that place with
them *losers*!"

Walt's voice - "Peter? Peter, you still there?" - had gone unanswered
temporarily, as he tried to process what his dead nephew's girlfriend
was saying. As Jesse himself might have phrased it, *ewwww*! She'd
finally shrugged, though, and settled back onto the couch, muttering
about how she was too tired anyway.

Oh, God, this was gonna be a long day, Peter thought wearily.

* * *

Kerry picked up the chart from the rack, and saw that the patient was
one of their regulars, Roger Pilarsky. Well, he was harmless enough...
not even worth calling up to Psych. "Hi, Mr Pilarsky. I see you're here
for abdominal pain today. Stopped taking your Mellaril again?" He smiled
almost angelically up at her from the exam room bed.

"Oh, the pain has gotten *much* worse since I got here."

"All right, let's have a look." She supposed that she shouldn't have
been surprised to open the man's shirt, and find that, at some point
during his wait, he'd swiped a pair of iris scissors from the tray in
the exam room and stabbed himself in the gut with them. "Um, Conni?
Could I get some help here?" Incredibly, the man kept talking as they
worked, going on and on about how lonely he was, how he had nobody in
his life, how it had been eleven years since he'd been out on a date
with anybody.

"You wanna catch a movie sometime, Dr Weaver? Maybe go out to dinner?"
She glanced over at Conni, who was trying *very* hard to keep from
making eye contact, but was also biting her lip. Just as well... *she*
wasn't even sure that she'd be able to keep from laughing until she was
out of the room.

"Um, I don't think that would be appropriate, Mr Pilarsky," she said
gently, and surreptitiously checked her watch. Hm... if the patient load
around here remained this light, there shouldn't be any trouble in her
meeting with Randi later. A little indigestion, perhaps, from the
cafeteria food, but surely she'd be able to get away for a *little*
while.

* * *

To Kerry's surprise, the flow of patients became even less, and she was
able to find Luka once it had come around to about noon. "Hey," she said
softly, and hesitantly touched his arm to get his attention. He turned,
and smiled down at her. "I'll be down in the cafeteria, for--"

"Oh, right. Have fun, draga, hm? You have your--" She fished her pager
out of the pocket of her labcoat, and brandished it with a mischievous
little smile.

"I always do! I'll try to do this as quickly as possible, okay?"

"Take your time. I'm sure we'll be all right for a *little* while here."
She impulsively grabbed his tie and pulled him down for a quick kiss; he
was startled by her uncharacteristically aggressive move, but went along
with it briefly and then pushed her away gently. "No- no more of that,
huh? Or I won't be able to concentrate on *anything* for the rest of the
day." He smiled at her and caressed her cheek, then Haleh broke the
spell when she bustled past them, smirking.

"Get a room, you two!" Luka rolled his eyes, and squeezed Kerry's hand
quickly.

* * *

She reckoned that she'd managed to get to the cafeteria before the worst
of the lunchtime rush... either that, or the word had already got around
the hospital that the cafeteria was serving liver and onions, creamed
chipped... well, they *claimed* it was beef, but Kerry wasn't exactly
going to lay money on that being the case, and some kind of vegetarian
casserole that bore a disturbing resemblance to a gangrenous
gallbladder. *Ugh*.

She almost never ate the entrees anyway, usually preferring - if she
absolutely *had* to get something from the cafeteria - to get a
prepackaged salad or sometimes a bowl of soup, or even a grilled cheese
sandwich from the grill. Today, though, her selections were a *little*
different from what she'd normally get. She paid for her lunch, and
headed for the table in the corner where she'd spotted Randi on her way
in.

"Hey, Dr Weaver," Randi greeted her casually. The young desk clerk had a
soda from the fountain in the cafeteria, and was nursing it as she
watched people going by. "The food isn't that great here, but some
interesting people come through, don't they?" Kerry turned and watched,
incredulously, as one of the nurses passed by with a huge serving of the
vegetarian casserole on his plate.

"Amazing," she breathed softly, then turned back around. "What do you
have, Randi?" She indicated a notebook that sat on the table in front of
Randi

"I have *just* the thing," Randi said proudly, opening the notebook to a
sketch that she passed to Kerry. "It's based on a Mid-Eastern design, a
garment called a salwar kameez. I dated a mechanic from Karachi once,"
Randi reminisced, "who liked that sort of thing. I think he was kinda
disappointed that *I* didn't like it, too. But it looks perfect for
*you*... you know, that thing of 'cover everything, leaving a little
mystery'."

"Oh. I *do* like that," Kerry admitted, a little reluctantly: it wasn't
every day that her idea of a good outfit happened to mesh with *Randi's*
idea of a good outfit, after all! "It's, well, very colorful, though,
isn't it?" Randi arched an eyebrow at her.

"You were planning to wear white at your wedding? C'mon, it's not like
I'm asking you to wear *this* outfit!" Randi showed Kerry a sketch of a
bright red floor-length dress with an equally vivid red length of fabric
draped over the model's arm and shoulders, and she stared at it,
wide-eyed.

"Oh, it's very pretty! Not for me, but it's pretty."

"Yeah. And one nice thing about the salwar kameez is that it's *very*
comfortable - I don't know when you and Dr Kovac were planning to get
married...?" Kerry blushed at the not-so-subtle bid for information.

"We were thinking about the middle of next month, if that's not too
short notice for you."

"Valentine's Day?!? Well, I, uh, guess that's not a bad day for a
wedding." Kerry was perversely amused by Randi's flustered reaction, but
not amused so much by what Randi said next. "And that should give you
guys plenty of time before the baby comes!"

"W-what?" Randi grinned.

"Hello! This is a hospital, secrets don't stay that way for very long!
We all figured out about you two dating, after all, why shouldn't some
of us figure out about the baby? Besides...." Randi pointed at what was
on Kerry's lunch tray: a handful of saltines, some pickles from the
salad bar, and a few packets of chips, in addition to her plate of
fruit. Kerry looked down at her lunch as if seeing it for the first
time.

"It's not why we're getting married, you know." She wasn't sure why she
was justifying herself to *Randi*, but for some reason she felt the need
to do it. Probably those pregnancy hormones starting to kick in, she
mused moodily. "He proposed several weeks before we found out."

"Hey, you don't have to explain anything to *me*, Dr Weaver. I think you
guys make a *great* pair. You kinda loosen each other up, y'know?" Kerry
raised an indignant eyebrow at that, which caused Randi to snicker
quietly.

"'Loosen'? I'm not... *do* I need loosening?" Randi stifled a grin at
Kerry's worried expression, and settled for swiping a piece of
cantaloupe from the other woman's tray.

"Uh... you remember how I was dressed for Halloween, two years ago?"

"As I recall, you said you were dressed 'like a total stiff' after I'd
thanked you for reading the memo about no costumes," Kerry drawled, and
waited for the guilty look to flash across Randi's face before she let
herself smile. "I've enjoyed working with you, the last five and a half
years, you know." Randi's face screwed up in confusion at that.

"Um, is one of us leaving?" Kerry shrugged.

"No. I... Randi, if I weren't department chief, who do you think would
be good in the job?" Randi shrugged, obviously reluctant to commit
herself on an answer.

"Why're you asking *me*? I'm just a desk clerk!"

"Yes, but you see everything that goes on around here... and usually
have an opinion."

"Um... Dr Kovac would be a good department chief, I guess. But he's
already said that he doesn't want the job." Kerry nodded; that was
something she already knew.

"Anyone else?"

"Uh... the only other doctor I can think of, who would be *good* in the
job, doesn't work here anymore." Kerry looked at her expectantly -
*surely* Randi didn't mean Doug for the job! "I think Dr Lewis would
probably have done a good job. But she's probably havin' a ball, down in
Phoenix... all that sunshine and stuff, and living near her sister's
family... she probably wouldn't wanna come back."

"Susan? Hm." Randi frowned at the slightly faraway look in Kerry's eyes.

"You're not thinking of quitting after the baby comes, are you?" Randi
had to admit that Weaver could stand to back off a little on some of the
minor day-to-day details of running the ER, but otherwise she seemed to
do a pretty good job.

"I don't know just yet *what* I'm thinking of doing, Randi. I'm not sure
how I'm-- how *we're* going to manage a marriage and a baby, *and* an
administrative position like the department chief position." She tapped
her fingers on the table a little nervously; she hadn't intended to tell
Randi any of her doubts, she wasn't a person who tended to have very
close friends. Even with her friendship with Jeanie, both of them had
tended to hold back from the other... and Kerry had tried to keep the
focus on Jeanie most of the time anyway, rather than open herself to the
other woman.

"You're smart, Dr Weaver. I know you'll figure something out. Hey, have
you done something to your hair?" Randi quickly reached out and flicked
at a bit of hair that had escaped from the braid. "Oh, it's *darker*. I
like it, it's a good color for you." Kerry smiled shyly.

"Thank you. I'm going back to my natural color. It's still a little
darker than this, but I thought I'd do it gradually."

"Huh. So you're not really a redhead? The color sure looked good on you,
though!"

"That's why I kept it for so long." She scratched her chin thoughtfully.
"You heard that I had a visitor yesterday?" Randi nodded casually.

"Sure. Gorgeous redhead - Malucci could barely stop drooling long enough
to tell me about her."

"She's my sister... or rather, my adopted sister. I dyed my hair once
when I was still in high school, because I wanted to look more like
her... fit in a little better with the family. Mom and Dad had a fit,
but it looked so good that I did it again in med school, and kept doing
it... up until now. I just felt like a change, I guess." She'd been
munching on the contents of her tray as they talked, and was surprised
when she found that she'd eaten everything.

Randi grinned, and pushed up the sleeve of her t-shirt. "I got this
tattoo once, when *I* felt like a change." Kerry politely examined the
band around Randi's upper arm.

"The artist did a good job. I got a mild infection from *mine*." Randi's
jaw dropped open, and Kerry smiled quietly - it wasn't *every* day that
she got to shock someone like Randi!

"*You* have a tattoo? No. Way."

"It's very nice. Nothing wild, just...." She cleared her throat, and
blushed slightly. "Never mind."

"Is it on your butt? I bet it's on your butt." Kerry glared at her, and
she snickered. "Okay, okay. I know, 'never mind'. Seriously, though - we
need to get together at some point so I can get measurements on you.
Let's see... tonight's no good, I have a spinning class--"

"A what? Spinning?" Kerry was trying to imagine Randi behind a spinning
wheel, making yarn, and failing completely.

"Oh, it's cool. It's kinda like a stationary bike, and-- well, I guess
you probably can't do that, can you? But the teacher - that's me - leads
the class through visualization exercises... like, different kinds of
terrain, changing the tension level on the bikes to simulate different
kinds of effort. It's great exercise!"

Randi halted her enthusiastic explanation and took a gulp of soda,
nearly draining the glass. "Anyway, how does tomorrow night work for
you? Since I don't think you wanna head out at 10:30 this evening, which
is when I usually get home from class." Kerry shook her head at that
idea - she had more in mind to be asleep by that time, preferably after
getting a little exercise of her own!

"Um, yeah. Yeah. I guess tomorrow will work." She fidgeted a little in
her chair for a moment, and cleared her throat. "Anyway, we should get
back to work."

"Yeah, sure. No, wait," Randi said, as Kerry reached for her tray. "I
can get that for you."

"Randi, I got it here on my own. I can take care of it myself." Randi
raised her hands in surrender.

"Sure. Far be it from me to stand in the way of your
self-actualization." Kerry glared at Randi, aware she was being mocked,
but Randi merely flashed her an ultra-innocent "who, *me*?" look that
neither of them believed for a moment and slugged down the last of her
soda. "Catch ya later, 'Chief'," she said lightly, playfully saluting
Kerry with her empty glass and echoing Malucci's favorite
disrespectfully respectful appellation for Kerry, before gathering her
things and leaving. Kerry shook her head and stood up, then carefully
picked up the tray and carried it to the conveyer belt that took dirty
dishes and trays back to the kitchen. She paused a moment after setting
the tray onto the belt, then continued toward the elevator, to return to
the ER.

* * *

The priest who'd come in with the bishop kept hovering and getting in
Luka's way, and finally the bishop smiled faintly. "Joe, why don't you
go call the church and let them know that I'm okay and being seen by a
doctor." Joe retreated with obvious reluctance, and Stewart laughed.
"Kids. You'd never know, looking at him now, that he was one of the
biggest troublemakers in his neighborhood, would you?"

"Mm," Luka replied noncommittally as he continued to examine Stewart.
"Do you fall often?"

"Not usually. My balance is sometimes a little off, but I'm *usually*
okay."

"All right. I want to get some x-rays, make sure you haven't broken
anything." Stewart nodded, and looked up at him curiously.

"That's an interesting accent. Where are you from?" Luka eyed him for a
moment, then decided that a *bishop* was unlikely to be involved in any
kind of sociological experiments... he was fairly certain, though, that
he probably wouldn't be able to bring himself to strike a man wearing
*those* garments!

"Croatia."

"Ah. That's a very Catholic country, isn't it? Do you go to St Jerome's,
perhaps?"

"No." Not regularly, anyway... he'd intended to go by there after the
Christmas party, but he'd been so tired after getting the few items at
the store that he'd gone straight home after that. He remembered
thinking that maybe Kerry *did* have some kind of bug that she'd passed
on to him... of course as it turned out, he had passed something on to
*her*, and they would see the results of *that* "bug" sometime in July.

"Are you married?" The bishop pressed on, undeterred by Luka's short,
sharp answers.

"No." He had hoped his terse, uncommunicative answers would get across
to the other man that he wasn't interested in talking about himself -
and definitely not on a personal level! - but Stewart was either
extremely dense or extremely stubborn. Which one it was... who knew?

"Haven't found the right one yet?" Luka declined to answer that one at
all, and simply glowered; he knew that if he *did* answer, he wouldn't
be able to stick with his short answers, as he'd originally intended. He
was glad that Abby hadn't come down this time... then again, this was
*his* patient, and not Carter's, and somehow she managed to be the one
who transported Carter's patients up to Radiology most of the time.

He had no idea whether or not Carter's relationship with Abby was more
than simply friendship by now... he just hoped that, whatever
relationship the two of them *did* have, they were both happy. Abby
seemed like a nice enough person who'd had some bad luck, and Carter...
well, Carter would be family, soon enough! He just hoped that their
choice of a wedding date wouldn't be taken the wrong way around the
hospital, although he supposed it probably would - both he and Kerry
were still outsiders around here, even after the length of time they'd
each been working in the department.

Hell, Kerry had been here for nearly six years, and she was only now
seeming to make friends with some of the staff. Kerry and Randi... those
two seemed like an unlikely teaming on the surface, but he knew Kerry
well enough to know that she had a hidden, unpredictable side that
seemed like it would mesh well with Randi's brash, outgoing persona, and
he couldn't *wait* to see what Randi came up with, that Kerry would
approve!

--
Ellen K. Hursh - simplify addy to reply
"Sometimes I think about two women doing a spell, and
then I do a spell all by myself."--Xander, "Restless"