Instant Attraction, Part 9
Broken Valentine
By Miesque
miesque@looksmart.com

So it’s short, and the title is really lousy, but I couldn't come up with anything better. Call it a ‘spurt’. The bad things are already happening. I'll be getting Luka some help soon enough. Hold on to your butts! :)

Follow-up to “Be Still My Heart”

Previous installments: Previous installments: Instant Attraction; Room For Rent; Fired; Blackout; On The Line; Point of Refuge; Heart to Heart; Double-Take

Thanks again to Canada for editing and suggestions.



Luka was glad to be alone for a few minutes.

His head was hurting terribly, so a little peace and quiet was a good thing. After telling those children that their parents were dead, all Luka could feel were aches and pains.

Another rotten day, he thought. Right now, he really wanted a cigarette. Desperately, in fact. But he had kicked that habit a long time ago, and he couldn’t bring himself to get back into it again.

Suddenly, he thought of Carol asking him if they had St. Valentine’s Day in Croatia. Well, yes, of course. It was a Catholic country, after all. He had, in a strange way, resented that question. He closed his eyes, remembering his last Valentine’s Day with Tatjana. Making love all afternoon-the kids were staying with friends for the day-and then eating dinner by candlelight, talking so easily about anything and everything. It had seemed like he had known her forever, and that she had always been a part of his life. In a sense, she had been. He had known her since he was just a child. She had been as much a part of him as his arms or his legs.

Of course, now she was gone. A part of his soul had been lopped off.

Earlier that day, a bunch of children had vomited those horrible little candy hearts all over him. It had made quite a kaleidoscope of colors on his shirt, and Luka had come to really hate Valentine’s Day by then. Having to wear scrubs again at work, after having successfully avoided it for so long... it had made him uneasy. There was a strange kind of foreboding in the air for Luka every time he wore scrubs.

Luka went over the past week in his head. He had spent a lot of time talking with Davor, but they hadn’t really gotten far. He could tell his brother was worried about him, and he supposed he appreciated that. But Luka wasn’t willing to let Davor back in just yet. So many things were going on, and so much was weighing him down. It hadn’t really disturbed Luka that his brother had taken Kerry out to dinner, but now, thinking about it, Luka couldn’t help but feel vaguely annoyed about that. What was Davor telling her, and, for that matter, what was Kerry telling Davor?

And that card was still in his pocket. He had moved it into his wallet, right behind the picture of Tatjana and Jasna, and every time he took the picture out, the card would be there. He could almost hear Kerry asking him yet again: “Have you called Dr. Reed yet?” Well, no. Not yet. He wondered why he was delaying it. What was keeping him from just taking that first step?

Shivering in the ambulance bay, cursing Chicago winters yet again, Luka glanced back at the sound of the doors swooshing open. Lucy came out, shivering.

“Bad day, too?” Luka asked, smiling at her.

“Yes! Do I sound whiny here...? Nobody listens to me!”

“I have that problem sometimes, too,” Luka said, smiling wearily. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. I’m sure it’ll be okay,” she said. “I’d ask for your coat again, but you look like a Croatian popsicle!”

Luka laughed. “Are you having trouble with your patients?”

“A little, but Carter helped out and I’m sure everything’ll be okay. What about you? I heard about that couple and their kids...”

“Yeah.  Lost both parents,” Luka said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “But...it’s the sort of thing where a child needs to know, Lucy. You can’t lie to them. If you lie to them at that age, they never will trust anyone. It’s better to have the bad truth than an easy lie.”

She watched him for a moment, curious yet again about his way of putting things. “I guess you had to tell a lot of people that kind of thing...back in Croatia.”

“Yeah.” A thousand times a day, he thought bitterly.

She sighed. “Being a doctor...it’s the pits sometimes, isn’t it?  But then something good happens. You deliver a healthy baby, or you really help somebody, you know? It makes all the bad stuff just...fade away.”

Luka shrugged. “Well, I’ll let that one pass,” he grinned at her. “You’re only twenty-four. In a few more years, you probably won’t see it quite that way any more.”

“What, you don’t think you help anyone?” Lucy stamped her feet to keep warm, finding that hard to believe. Dr. Kovac was a wonderful doctor, as far as Lucy was concerned. “You sound awfully pessimistic.”

“Oh, I can imagine that I do. I try to be optimistic. But...it’s just hard, I guess. You get worn down when it seems like nothing goes right.”

She sighed. “Well, the shift is changing hands,” she said, watching as several doctors came trudging up the walk. “Dr. Greene is leaving early, I think.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He gets to go have Valentine’s Day dinner with his girlfriend while we work our tails off all night!”

He laughed. “Well, that’s nothing out of the ordinary for me. I haven’t had a holiday off in seven years. But that also means that I’ll be in charge of the board tonight. What a thrill.”



The music was too loud. Luka told Malik a few times to turn it down, but he finally gave up. He sat down next to Carol, tried conversation over the noise, but it finally defeated him. Abby Lockhart came up and said something, but he couldn’t hear her. He tasted the blue cake, but found it too sweet and set it aside. He wasn’t hungry anyway. Something was gnawing at the pit of his stomach. A strange feeling. He couldn’t put his finger on it.

Luka asked Malucci what the song was about. “Anarchy,” Dave replied, grabbing Randi for a dance.

Anarchy? Luka thought. Yeah, songs about anarchy always suit Valentine’s Day.

Despite the noise, the board was more or less empty, except for a psych consult called by Lucy. Mark had told him everything was in good order and had left at seven-thirty. Luka felt relaxed enough to sit down and go over charts, finally convincing Malik to turn the music down a notch. He propped his feet up, got a pen and read countless notations and comments from various doctors until his head hurt too much. At nine- thirty, a man dressed as Cupid came in, having slipped on ice and sprained his ankle. Malucci took the bullet, while Chen took a case of a kid who had swallowed something called ‘Bare Booty Oil’. Luka didn’t ask, but she joked with him a little. “Guess he would have had better use of it on a nude beach!” Later, Cleo asked if she could have a few minutes to go pick up her dry-cleaning, but due to the noise Luka could have sworn she said she was going to ‘sick on her sly beaning’ and said nothing, just nodded and waved his hand for her to go.

Kerry came in at ten, looking tired already. Luka wished her a happy Valentine’s Day, but she said nothing about it, except to complain about the hearts and the noise. He was actually relieved to see her. Administration was not his thing. He gave her the information about the board and went back to his seat. She went into the lounge and emerged a few minutes later, looking just as brisk and businesslike as always. He told her about Cupid, handed her the films, and she crutched away. Carol walked by, waved her good-byes to everyone, and left.

A few minute later, he saw Kerry crutch so quickly into the hall that she nearly stumbled, looking unspeakably distraught. She was calling out incoherently over the noise, trying to get everyone’s attention. Immediately, he jumped up, turned the CD player off, and ran to her. Malik looked up, objecting, but then he saw the expression on Kerry’s face.

“What?” Luka demanded. “What is it?”

“Exam three...” she gasped. “Carter...Lucy...blood...”

To be continued...