In The Palm Of Her Hand
Part One
By Cimerene
cimerene@gci.net

This fic takes place before and after the season finale.

Disclaimer: This fanfic is PG! All characters belong to the creators of E.R. I have cheerfully borrowed them for a while, and will put them back when I'm done playing with them.

Major thanks and apologies go out to Cathy and Jim for their wonderful editing and beta reading job! Without much further ado.

"Kerry!" the voice rang out stridently down the hallway.

As the short redhead continued to blast the radio in the small bathroom she peered intently into the mirror. The green eyeshadow she had chosen almost matched the shirt she was wearing, but she wasn't sure. Perhaps she should change into the light brown shirt? It accentuated her figure more.

"Kerry Ann Weaver, I'm not calling you again, girl." The voice rang out again.

Kerry continued singing, her heart and soul into the music as she wiped off her lipstick then carefully reapplied it. She was applying the second coat of lipstick when the door opened suddenly, causing her to smear it..

"MOM, I'm trying to get ready." Kerry said indignantly. She grabbed some tissues and once again tried to apply her lipstick.

She looked up when the music was suddenly snapped off. "Mom!" she wailed.

"Kerry Weaver, how many times to I need to remind you to keep the level down?!" her mother said staring intently at her. 

Kerry sheepishly looked up. "Sorry mom. I tried to keep it down, honest, but they were playing that new Debbie Boone song and I started singing along and I sorta…" she trailed off.  If anyone would understand it was her mother, Annie who had taught Kerry her love of music and they often sang as loudly and as vibrantly as possible throughout the house.

"I don't care if they were playing "ODE to JOY" on the radio, young lady. Your father is down with a migraine, and if he hears your radio one more time tonight he's threatened to go on your date with you. And I'm pretty sure that's not what Jeff had in mind when he asked you out." Annie said lightly.

"Mom, he wouldn't. Please stop him. I've wanted Jeff to ask me out forever!" Kerry unplugged the radio and handed it over to her mother. "See no radio. I've given it up, now please talk him out of this.. Mommy please!"

Kerry's mom patted her on the head. "Don't' worry Button, he won't go, he'll just threaten to. After all, a migraine is not the sort of thing you want to have while traipsing around the fair. ON the other hand, if I hear this radio one more time this evening, I might go in his place." 

"MOM!"

Kerry's mom shook her head and with a firm grip on the radio left the room.

Kerry turned back to her mirror, somehow she had to get this lipstick perfectly on before he was due to show up. She nervously looked at her watch, only 1 hour to go.. she would never get ready on time.

several hours later...

Kerry sat just inside the fortune tellers tent, ready to bolt at any moment, and irritated at jeff for getting her to sit there in the first place. She didn't believe in this mumbo jumbo; there was no way that anyone with a reasonable level of intelligence could possibly believe crap like this. Jeff had picked her up nearly 2 hours ago. She had been so excited to see him, he was so good-looking. The only reason she was enduring this fortune teller junk was for him. 

The woman who sat before her was middle-aged, yet seemed much older through the eyes of a teenager. Her long blonde hair was done up in a pony tail, her clear complexion and over framed glasses enlightened no one to what she did for a living. 

"It's normal to have doubts" the woman said.  

Kerry forced herself to listen carefully. "Beware of doubts, for doubts are the mind stealers." The woman stared intently at Kerry's palm. This youth would have an exciting future ahead of her, though clearly not the one she was hoping for.    

"I foresee that in time you will believe, but it will be longer than you think."   
.
She pointed to a spot on Kerry's' hand. 

"You see this line? It represents your health. At this moment in time you have relatively good health, not subject to the usual illnesses and diseases of someone your age. But this line branches slightly in the future. It shows me that you will be in some sort of agony, which will bring you constant pain." 

She frowned news such of this importance was rarely withheld. She hated readings such as this. Where the future wasn't as clear or as pretty as the recipient would like. She studied the small palm more closely, trying to find news that would interest the young teenager before her. Nothing would be gained by scaring the youth in front of her, her future was as clear as a crystal vase. Heartbreak and pain would forever shatter this girl

Kerry glared at this woman who actually seemed to believe all of this crap. Double-talk, the whole thing was nothing but double talk. she thought, I could make better stuff up in Geometry class.

"This line worries me." The woman pointed to her palm. "I see you working hard, very hard, many years from now. Yet, I see you never succeeding at your goal.   It is almost as if the struggle is the commitment, and not the job itself. This saddens me." She paused, waiting for Kerry to assimilate her information. "I see you working in a large place, perhaps a hospital. You seem to feel the desire to understand others, yet I see that you are not understood by these others, as you wish to be."

Kerry stared at the fortune teller; such gloom and doom. She really only wanted to know about her love life, yet this woman only wanted to talk about boring stuff. 

NO one really cared about how work would go or if she would feel pain or not. Everyone felt pain in their life, and no one liked their jobs. IF this woman was real, she would tell her something that would be very interesting, something about her… Kerry Weaver, that would put her doubts aside.

"Your love life is this line here."

Ah, that's better, its about time that woman told her something interesting, Kerry thought.

The fortune teller pointed to a line that branched out in several ways on her hand before clearly going its own path. "I see many love interests. One or two you may even think will be your true love." She paused then took a sip from a nearby glass of water before continuing. 

"You will find your true love, but you will not recognize him. You will search for him, yet he will be under your very nose the entire time. Many trials will you both go through before you recognize each other." She smiled at the youngster who looked suspiciously back at her.

The fortune teller looked wisely into Kerry's face, she saw the doubts and knew if she made the effort that Kerry would be a believer, but she wasn't the type of person to force herself on others. She preferred to let people believe as they wished, whether it was the truth or not. She stared back at Kerry's palm for a few more moments. Should she tell her? Did she have the right? After all, the blessed gifts her mother and grandmother before her, had given her came unbidden. The ability to foresee the truth was a rare ability. This youth before her had the suspicious look of someone who disbelieved. Quickly she came to a decision.

"When I see your future, I see many things. While you are carefree now, there will come a time, earlier than you think when you will endure hardships and suffering. You will forget those who care about you and you will feel as if you are destined to be alone.  

"Pain will be your friend and loneliness will become your lover. You will be in a position of leadership, but you will feel as if this leadership is built on a house of cards waiting to tumble." She paused and looked from Kerry's palm to gaze deeply into her eyes. "You will survive."

"Do not forget this. You will live and love again." She stopped suddenly then briskly removed her hand from Kerry's. "Whatever happens child, do not forget this, you will live and love again."

Confused, Kerry stared at the woman before her, it almost seemed as if she could see her own future before her eyes. 

"Kerry, hey, babe, you in there?" A blonde haired youth quickly popped into the booth. He smiled at the Palmist and grabbed Kerry by the hand. "S'cuse us," he said almost on an aside to the palm reader. "C'mon, the pig races are starting, we gotta go quick. I've got a bet down on number 5." 

Kerry looked from the palmist to the face of the young man in front of her. Her future was for her to decide, not what some old woman had figured out for her. She grabbed the hand before her, Jeff was her destiny, not some shadow of a man she wouldn't see for years to come.

The palm reader stood and watched as the teenager left. 

As she closed the flap on her tent she sighed and then said softly to herself. "Poor little girl."

--
My Life is an open book, but finding the right page to turn to could be a bit difficult~
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