Reconstructed Luka
Part Four
By Miesque
miesque48@hotmail.com

RATING: PG
SPOILERS: None that I know of.

STORY SYNOPSIS: Aleks recovers quite well, and the Kovac family continues southward in search of worthless souvenirs and a drug store. But how did a Stuckey’s get into this story?

DISCLAIMER: The character of Luka Kovac is the sole property of NBC, Warner Brothers, Amblin, and Constant C.  I created Marguerite ‘Daisy’ Childers one day several months ago and she pretty much belongs to me ;).

SONGS: ‘Home Is Where You’re Happy’, by Willie Nelson

CROATIAN WORD TRANSLATIONS: ‘Kako’ (What), ‘Te volim’ (I love you)

PRAISE TO: Three extraordinary friends who provide continued and loyal support, inspiration, and encouragement (besides top-notch editing!).

PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: Not necessary, but see “Deconstructing Luka” (parts 1-6) for details.



Aleks was already sitting up when Luka came in to see him. He was chatting with his mother, grinning ear to ear.

“Dad! They have video games here!” he said enthusiastically. “And they’ve got movies, too.”

“Great,” Luka answered, smiling at his little boy. Daisy turned to him, her eyes curious. “You rest a minute while your Mom and I talk, okay?”

“Sure.”

They stepped outside the room, and Daisy put her arms around Luka, hugging him tight. “Luka, I don’t think I’ve been so scared in my life.”

“Well, it all turned out just fine, right, beba?” he said gently, kissing her neck and slipping his arms around her slim waist.

“My baby was hurt...none of my babies have ever been hurt before.”

“I know, honey. But things like this happen, and you just have to be...prepared for it.”

She looked at him, and swallowed. His first two children had been cruelly murdered-he had been through this before. Gently, she caressed his cheek, and kissed him softly. “I’m sorry, baby...”

“No, no, no...it’s all right, Dais’. Aleks is okay, and he’ll have a great story to tell when school starts again. That’s just how he likes it anyway-to be the center of attention.”

Daisy laughed. “He does like to tell stories, doesn’t he? I swear, he’ll be a writer some day, or maybe an actor. He already reads out loud very well, and he makes up very imaginative stories.”

“He’s like you,” Luka said. “I don’t have an imagination, I’m afraid.”

She gave him a wicked smile. “Oh, I’d say you do,” she whispered, watching a nurse walk by. “How do you think we ended up with five kids, Luka?”

He winked at her. “Come on. I want to see if I can beat Aleks at that video game.”



Luka sat on his son’s bed, watching Aleks sleep, stroking the boy’s dark hair. He had no pictures of himself as a boy, so he had no real way of being sure, but this one looked the most like him. Aleks had Daisy’s warm and outgoing personality, her natural compassion towards others, and her love of life. The boy seemed to tackle everything with boundless enthusiasm. Nik was much more laid-back and philosophical-a very mature nine-year old. Marina-Aleks’ twin-was quieter and a little on the shy side. Jackson ran full-steam ahead into everything (including walls and doors). Meggy was sweet and gentle and worshipped her big, strong Daddy. Sometimes Luka wondered if he was worthy of such unconditional love from so many little ones.

Besides that, there was Daisy. She had become his friend so easily, had managed to get into his heart and she had refused to leave. Brick by brick, she had broken down the wall that he had built around himself so many years ago. She had healed his wounds, soothed away his tears and his pain, and loved him completely. He belonged to her, and he coudn’t imagine even touching another woman. Sure, he had had his temptations-beautiful young nurses who smiled at him and made concerted efforts to touch or rub against him. One had actually said, out loud, “Sleep with me,” even though she had known he was happily married. And yes, he had been tempted. That woman had come along toward the end of Daisy’s pregnancy with Jackson, when he was in New York for that tiresome medical conference. There would have been no harm done, no questions asked, no heartache for anyone-he had been tired and frustrated, away from home, feeling lonely. Daisy would never have known...but Luka would have known. His conscience would have made life impossible to live. He had turned her down after just a moment of consideration.

Of course, now there was Kerry. It wasn’t as if she had offered a sexual encounter to him. No, that wasn’t it. She had offered him her love. On her part, it was the love a woman has for a man, but he hoped she realized that he couldn’t return that kind of love to her. Luka was a one-woman man: he always had been. In a way, he could receive her love and friendship without any sense of guilt in regards to Daisy. But he did feel bad about having never seen any of the signals she had given him.

Luka delved into his memories of his first weeks at County. The day she’d hired him in particular, working on that rape victim of...what was his name again? Rawlins, maybe? It wasn’t important. It was the way Kerry looked at him when she hired him at the end of the day. Why hadn’t he noticed that?

Well, he thought. For one reason, I was still so numb. It was the anniversary of Vukovar’s fall. I was so...down that day. I did my best to appear cheerful there at the end, to be kind and easy about it, to forgive her for having exiled me before. But now I think about it, she did look...what was the word for it? Starry-eyed? A real rapport had been built up between them that day. A real, but very fragile, friendship had developed as well. In the months and years that followed, that friendship had become solid and unbreakable.

In the weeks following, he and Kerry had not spoken much. Then those two brothers. Dillon and Jake. She had interfered with his patients, which had made him angry and upset, but mainly at himself for having failed to help them. He had blurted out his painful secret to her, and the expression on her face had been very telling-she had looked chastised. Shamed. And that had only made him feel worse. He had used his past against her, and that was inexcusable. Of course, things had eventually worked out for Dillon and Jake. He still heard from Dillon sometimes-he was a high school history teacher. Jake was healthy and cared for by his brother. Life had been good to them after all, and Luka could be proud of himself about that-he had worked with Adele Neuman to get Dillon a good job.

Then of course were the stabbings. Kerry had been so upset, so shattered by it. And then, after blaming him for the horrifying events of Valentine’s Day, she had wordlessly entrusted him with the task of talking to Mrs. Sobreiki. She had shown him a great deal of respect in that, knowing that he could handle it better than anyone. And he had felt obligated to do his best-to not let her down again.

Worse things had happened after that. All those signals Luka had not picked up on were becoming clearer now, in hindsight. Her expression when she’d walked in to find him reviving her DNR patient, for instance. She had called him ‘Dr. Kovac’, instead of ‘Luka’, as she had always done before. She had been upset and disappointed in him again, but now that he recalled it, he remembered the look on her face-something in her eyes. Jealousy. Hurt. Defeat.

After that, of course...less than a week later, he had gone through an emotional hell. First that schoolyard shooting and a battle of wills with Peter Benton, then that pregnant girl who let her baby die. He had crumbled after that, calling in sick the next day, unable to cope any more. It had been Kerry who came to his apartment, talked to him and convinced him that he needed some rest and some time off.

But that was her opportunity, Luka thought, sitting up straight and looking across the room at Daisy, who had dozed off in a chair by the window. Kerry could have said something then. But she had instead informed him of an opportunity he had of driving down to Mexico provided he take a photographer from “El Paso Weekend Magazine” with him. She had given him three full months off-the whole summer, in fact- to get himself back together, to get better. When he’d returned to Chicago with Daisy at his side, happy, healed, in love and married, he’d been too wrapped up in his joy to see the hurt in Kerry’s eyes. In the following eight years, Kerry had remained his friend, and he had established himself as her right arm in the ER: the person she turned to when she was having trouble, the person she talked to at the end of the day. She and Daisy had become close friends. But then, two years ago, she had suddenly announced she was leaving for Johns Hopkins and before he knew it, she was gone from his life.

Now, she was back. And he wanted her in his life again. He needed her friendship. She had become a trusted and cherished confidant to him. They both loved their work, and were very good at their chosen fields. They had a great deal in common, having suffered misfortunes in the past.

He hoped he had convinced her to return to Chicago. He knew Daisy would be happy to have Kerry as a friend again-the two women had clicked right from the start, despite the fact that Kerry had those feelings for Luka. She, being the intelligent woman she was, hadn’t held that against Daisy. She had swallowed her pride-and Luka knew he was looking at this from ten years on-and had readily accepted Daisy, befriending and encouraging her during the somewhat shaky first months of their marriage.

Daisy stirred in her seat and sat up, stretching and rubbing her neck. “Hey,” she said, smiling at him.

“Hey yourself. I was just thinking, Dais’, that we should stay another day. Let Aleks rest up...”

She frowned. Aleks had told her a while ago, before Luka had come back upstairs, that he was feeling fine and wanted to get going. “I can rest in the car, Mom! I don’t wanna stay in a hospital...please?”

“Aleks may feel differently about that,” she said gently.

“No...I insist. He should rest.”

Daisy didn’t want to get into an argument with Luka, but she wanted Aleks to be involved in the decision. The boy knew his own limitations quite well, and if she felt any qualms about him leaving the hospital, she would express them. But she had none.

“Let’s ask Aleks about it, then,” she said.

Luka sighed. Daisy gently shook her son awake, and he sat up. “Kako?”

All the Kovac children spoken Croatian fluently, along with a smattering of French, Spanish and Italian. Luka had insisted they be bilingual. They rarely spoke their father’s language, however, when Daisy was around, as Luka had pointed out that it was rude to do so, since her Croatian was limited to the most rudimentary words and phrases.

“Aleks, your Daddy and I were wondering how you were feeling...if you thought you could handle leaving the hospital today and getting back on the road tomorrow morning. Now, you have to be honest with us, honey. If you don’t think you can handle it, say so.”

“I want to get out of here!” he said. “I don’t like the food and I hate lying down all the time. It’s boring.”

“But doesn’t your head hurt?” Luka asked.

“No. I’ve walked around a few times already and I feel fine. Please...can we go tomorrow morning? Please, Daddy?”

Luka chewed on his lower lip for a moment. “All right. But you’ll lie down in the back of the Cherokee and rest, all right? No jumping around and fighting with your brothers.”

Aleks grinned happily. “All right!”

He heard a noise behind him, and turned to see Kerry standing in the doorway, her hands folded almost shyly before her. She actually blushed a little. “I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“It’s all right,” Daisy said, smiling, clearly delighted to see her old friend. “Come in!”

“How are you feeling, Aleks? Is your head hurting?” Kerry asked.

“No, ma’am. I feel just fine. Mom and Dad said we can leave tomorrow morning!”

Kerry smiled and glanced at Luka. “Well, as it turns out, Aleks doesn’t have a concussion...he’s as hard-headed as his father. So he should be able to travel, so long as he does rest. And I take it you had to be talked into leaving anyway, Luka.”

He shrugged and grinned. “Yeah...you know me too well, Kerry.”

Daisy went around and hugged Kerry warmly. “Luka told me that you might be considering moving back to Chicago. Is that true?”

“I...I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Oh, I hope you do, Kerry! Remember our somewhat raucous lunches together? I miss that so much, and our shopping sprees...besides, I need all the babysitters I can get!”

Kerry rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m not sure about that!” But she looked pleased. In fact, Kerry felt as though something had been released from her soul. Like some of the hurt was going away, only to be replaced by...what? A kind of happiness? A sense of belonging?

Daisy laughed. “All the kids adore you, Kerry. And we all love you. We’d love it if you’d come back home to Chicago.”

Luka glanced at his wife, immensely proud of her. He had never known a kinder or more compassionate person. And for her to know of Kerry’s feelings for him and still be so warm toward her was truly... well...brave. He wasn’t sure if many other women could do a thing like that: readily and even eagerly accept a woman who was in love with her husband.

“It does sound like a good idea,” Kerry admitted. “I’ll really consider it, Daisy. It might be a good thing for me all around.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” She squeezed Kerry’s hand, smiling sincerely. “We want you to be in our lives...a part of our family. It hasn’t been the same since you left. We really miss you, Kerry.”

Kerry blushed pink, looking down. This wasn’t some act of charity on Daisy’s part. It was a sincere, kind and warm offer of friendship and inclusion. Daisy was incapable of falsehood or cruelty anyway.

“Thank you,” she finally whispered. “I...I appreciate that, Daisy.”

“Now,” Luka said. “We just need to sign a bunch of release papers and get ready to leave tomorrow.”

Daisy hugged Kerry again. “I hope we come back to Chicago to find you already there.”

“Maybe,” Kerry said, smiling, brushing tears away.

There was a comfortable silence, and then a nurse came in. Kerry ordered the release forms, signed them quickly, and after saying goodbye, left them alone. She stood outside the door for a moment, amazed at how calm and relaxed she suddenly felt. A weight had been lifted off her heart. She felt good about herself for the first time in years. She glanced at her watch and saw that she was late for the final workshop meeting. Smiling to herself, she crutched down the hall toward the elevators. She had a lot of thinking to do, and a future to consider. A good future.



Home is where you’re happy
And I’m happy here with you
Or any place on earth that you may be
Home is where you’re happy
Just any house will do
And I’ll feel at home
As long as you’re with me

This room could not hold me
For one short minute
If you weren’t here with me
I’d soon be gone
The chair is just a chair
When you’re not in it
It takes more than rooms and chairs
To make a home

Time, someday, may cause this house to crumble
But we’ll move into another, love and all
And if time, someday
Should make your footsteps stumble
I’ll be there to catch you should you fall

Luka and Daisy lay in bed, her head resting on his chest, her eyes closed. She wondered sometimes if she were a nymphomaniac. It wasn’t like they made love every night, but they were very active after a decade of marriage, kids, bills, arguments... They weren’t yet at the ‘finishing-each-other’s-sentences’ stage yet: her mother had informed her that that would take maybe another five years. But they could read each other’s minds. She knew what made Luka tick, and he knew which buttons to push with her. He knew what made her happy-not just in bed, but in their everyday lives. A gentle kiss, some wildflowers, a little pinch on the tuchis, a shared glance...it made Daisy feel like she was a teenager in love. It gave her so much freedom, and so much joy. From the first time she had made love with him, she had felt completely safe and happy. There had been rough moments. Bitter arguments, clashes of wills. She smiled to herself- the only time she’d ever really felt jealous had been when Luka loaned Abby Lockhart-now Abby Malucci-that money to pay for her final year of medical school. It wasn’t necessarily because she felt that Abby was a threat, but because she had been yet another woman who had kind of a crush on Luka. And Luka, according to Haleh, had noticed Abby once, a long time before.

Daisy sighed and glanced up at her sleeping husband.

She had practically dragged Luka upstairs to bed after dinner. He had been kind of off all day, due to his memories of the past, and his talk with Kerry. Daisy felt no jealousy towards Kerry at all, but she understood Luka’s guilty feelings about the situation. He had not recognized the woman’s signals, and for a man like Luka, who loved and respected women so immensely, it had to be kind of...disheartening. So Daisy had been the aggressor tonight, pushing him onto the bed and making love to him, giving him pleasure, kissing away his worried frown.

She smiled to herself. This is the kind of lovemaking that made babies, she thought. Nik had been conceived just a few days after their wedding. They had made Jackson on a weekend trip to the lake, having left the other kids with Carter and Jing-Mei (who had needed ‘baby practice’). Meggy had been conceived on a rainy afternoon when the kids were all sick with stomach flu and Luka’s tennis match with Carter was cancelled. She remembered Luka muttering, after the kids had all been put to bed, ‘There’s nothing to do!’. Daisy had come up with some interesting ideas.

The twins, of course. She stifled a giggle. At the time, they still had the Cadillac, and they had decided to take a drive out into the country one evening. They dropped Nik off to stay with Mark and Elizabeth, drove for a while, and then she just couldn’t resist nibbling on his ear-he had such adorable ears-and after a while he’d had to pull over. It was far too tight a squeeze in the back seat, so they had climbed out, found a lovely spot under an oak tree in a little field, and made slow, passionate love in the darkness. It had been a cloudy night, so no one (she hoped!) saw them. There was a small pond nearby, so they had gone skinny-dipping. “I haven’t been naked outdoors since I was about ten,” Luka had told her afterwards. A few weeks later, a routine checkup revealed a second pregnancy, and three months later, Dr. Coburn had pointed at the screen and said, “There’s Baby A...and Baby B...” Luka’s deadpan statement of “If there’s a Baby C in there we’re gonna need to buy a school bus” had made Daisy laugh. He always made her laugh. But it made her even happier to be able to see him smile.

Tragedy had been such a weight on Luka’s shoulder when she first met him. Even that first time she saw him, when he’d lowered his sunglasses to look at her, she had immediately noticed something dark behind his eyes, something very sad. In the following days, getting to know him, drawing him out a little at a time, she had realized he was beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. All the men she’d known in the past had been so shallow, so self-involved. This guy-she remembered thinking that with Luka, those still waters ran deep. He was so calm on the outside, but on the inside...he just smoldered. It was a combination of raw, bold sexuality and an almost innocent sweetness. She had felt it the first time they kissed at that restaurant in Mexico. His kiss hadn’t been innocent, as she recalled. There had been desire in that first kiss-it had been totally sexual, entirely needful, nakedly passionate. He had needed... craved... physical contact and affection. He had reached out for it then, but his reserve and self-control had made him withdraw. After that, the need was still there, and Daisy had figured out ways to get past his reticence and into the heart of the matter. Trauma, loneliness, fear, guilt, grief and exhaustion each had to be conquered, one by one. Every time she made contact with him, she had been able to chip more away from the wall he’d had around himself. By the time they made it back to Chicago, the wall had been destroyed and he’d been vulnerable, exposed to her love. He hadn’t been able to stop it then, and he had surrended to her on that beautiful morning, giving himself and his heart to her.

Daisy rested her chin on his chest and smiled up at him. He amazed her. The nightmares came back sometimes. The pain of his losses in the past still lingered, but she had figured out ways to ease them away. A kiss, a smile, a warm touch, and he always got past it. He still had scars on his body that told the story of his past life, of the horrors he had suffered. But his heart had healed. He was whole now, surrounded by a family and by friends who loved him.

She kissed his lips softly, then snuggled into his arms. He murmured her name and hugged her gently.

There was no way she could break this chain that attached her to him. She didn’t want to break it. It was the very source of her happiness.

Daisy remembered calling her mother after Luka went back to work a few days after they arrived in Chicago. They had stayed at his apartment, wrapped up in a warm cocoon of lovemaking, talking and planning, but he did have to go back to work. When he had left, Daisy had spent much of the morning cleaning his apartment, then went out grocery shopping. Getting back to his apartment, she sat in front of the telephone for nearly an hour before finally picking up the receiver and calling home.

“Marguerite Eleanor Childers, where in the name of Mother Dixie are you?!” her mother had demanded.

“Well, I’m in Chicago.”

Her father was on the other line. “Marguerite? Darlin’, you had us worried...no calls, not even a postcard!”

“I’m all right, Daddy. Just fine. In fact...well...uh...Mama, Daddy...I nabbed myself a doctor!”

“A doctor?” Kathryn had always wanted Daisy and Leah to marry professional men, preferably with money in the bank, a good reputation, possibly from a good family, and no police record. “Not one of them fake doctors, I hope. Like a psychiatrist or a podiatrist...”

“No, Mama,” Daisy said, rolling her eyes. “A real, live, honest-to-goodness physician. An ER attending.”

“What’s his name?” her father asked.

“Luka. Luka Kovac.”

“Sounds foreign. Where’s he from?”

“Croatia,” Daisy answered, nervously wrapping the telephone cord around her finger.

“Croatia?” Her mother took a deep breath-Daisy heard it distinctly. “What do you know about him?”

“I know he’s wonderful and that I love him, Mama. He’s a widower...thirty-six, born in Sibenik, Croatia, September the ninth, nineteen-sixty-four. Father was a train conductor. Mother worked in a loal market. Has one brother, Gregor...”

“A widower? Does he have children?” her father asked.

“His wife and children were murdered in the war in Croatia, Daddy,” Daisy said softly.

“Oh Lord!” Kathryn Childers. “The poor man!”

“And you’re up in Chicago with him now, Marguerite?” her father asked.

“Yes. We’re...we’re getting married Friday.”

There was a loud thud, and William Childers gasped. “Katie? Daisy, it seems your Mama fainted. You’re getting married?!”

“Yes. We are. I...I hope y’all can come up and be at the wedding, Daddy. I’d love it if you would.”

“I’d like to talk with him first, darlin’,” William said gently. “He is marrying my baby girl.”

“Then get up here! Both of you. Luka and I want to get married as soon as possible. He’s a very serious man, and we can’t see any reason to wait around...but...Daddy, he’s a good man. The best man I’ve ever known, besides you. I...I really want your blessing, and I know you’ll love Luka. Please come up here. I want you to be here.”

They did come to the wedding. They made it into Chicago the day before, and Daisy had sat nervously in the bedroom with her mother, discussing what kind of wedding dress they could get on such short notice, while Luka and William sat in the living room, discussing ‘important matters’. When the two women ventured back out, both men were unscathed, so Daisy figured things had gone well. William had immediately warmed to Luka, as had Kathryn. The wedding took place in a small Catholic church in Chicago. Her father walked her down the aisle-Daisy wearing a simple white dress-and she became Mrs. Dr. Luka Kovac on July 10, 2000.

The next day, Daisy was introduced to everyone at County General. She remembered the briefly shocked expressions on everyone’s faces, but she mostly remembered Kerry’s expression: the barely concealed hurt in that woman’s eyes. Daisy had immediately felt great sympathy, but not really pity, for the older woman. She had done her best to befriend Kerry, and to include her in their lives. She had Kerry over for dinner as often as possible, had lunch with her at least once a week. She sensed such loneliness and isolation in her, and wanted so badly to help her, to make it better.

She sighed. Luka was a very lucky man-he was so loved. Beloved, really. He had been married first to a beautiful, gentle woman who adored him, and had created two children with her. War and tragedy had taken them from him in cruel violence, and nine years of grief and isolation had followed. Then he found himself loved again, drawn out of the darkness and into the light. Not only that, another woman had secretly loved him, and in loving him had been one of his strongest, most unflinching allies. He had supported Kerry as well, and when he became ER chief a year before she left, she had been unfailing in her trust in him. There was loyalty, Daisy thought. Kerry had never said it out loud, but she had showed her love for Luka in the only way she could: by being his friend.

Daisy yawned and stretched a little, snuggling into him. On the coldest nights, she was always warm with him beside her. She knew him so well-she understood him, practically speaking his language. She could read his moods, she could tell when he was anxious or worried, and knew how to soothe those troubles away. It was an art that she had learned after just a few weeks, in fact, after meeting him. Getting him to talk out his concerns always worked.

“I love you,” she whispered into his ear.

“Te volim,” Luka answered her softly, squeezing her. He was only half awake, but he could feel her warm body on top of his own, and caught the sweet scent of her skin. He kissed her gently, then closed his eyes again and drifted back into peaceful sleep. Daisy caressed his cheek for a moment, then closed her eyes and fell asleep.



“All right, all right,” Luka said. “We’ll stop at Stuckey’s.”

The kids were whining about being hungry, and Luka’s head was hurting. He pulled into the parking lot and turned the engine off. In a matter of seconds, all five kids were bustling out of the back and running inside, Jackson bringing up the rear. He was not a sprinter.

“Ouch...that’ll leave a mark,” Luka said wearily when his youngest son ran into the glass door. Jackson, however, saw no one around who would be impressed by a dramatic over-reaction, so he shrugged it off and went inside, leaving handprints on the door.

“I think we should get his eyes checked,” Daisy said, unbuckling her seatbelt. “He bumps into everything, Luka.”

“I checked his eyes...they’re fine. He just doesn’t pay attention to where he’s going.”

“We’d better get in there before they wreck the place.”

They climbed out and went inside, grateful for the air-conditioned state of the restaurant/souvenir shop. The kids were wandering down the aisle in the gift store part of the place, looking for stuff to beg for. Luka gave Nik a look before the boy could he even start. He had found a box of his favorite snacks: pecan prallines.

“Yuck,” Marina said. “I hate pecans.”

So do I, Luka thought. “We’re gonna eat supper first, Nik, come on.”

Remembering the culinary preferences of five children is an intellectual achievement worthy of a Nobel Prize, Luka thought as he ordered five burgers, each made differently, and sat down in a booth beside Daisy. The four older kids sat together at another booth, with Jackson and Meggy seated with their parents. Meggy grabbed Luka’s pen from his pocket and drew strange shapes on a napkin-Luka had surmised, first with Jasna, that children all write in hieroglyphics until they actually learn to read and write in their own language. Meggy was no exception. Jackson gobbled up his French fries and went for Meggy’s.

“The boy eats like a horse,” Daisy said.

“Be careful, Jackson, or you’ll *look* like a horse,” Luka commented.

“Daddy, is ever’body gonna be at the reunion?” Jackson asked as he shovelled more French fries into his mouth.

Luka looked at Daisy, eyes widening. “Reunion? What reunion?”

“Luka...uh...you know that the family reunion usually takes place in June, but it was moved up due to Cousin Frances’ upcoming surgery. It’ll be going on when we get there. Uh...Karen and Gretchen and all the Oklahoma people’ll be there, as well as the East Texas Childers’ and the Louisiana Childers’...”

“And the Childers’ from the Planet Zorlak, too, I imagine,” Luka said sourly. She hadn’t told him about this little detail, and he kind of wished she had. He genuinely liked her family, but all at once they were a little overwhelming. Almost to a man or woman they were extroverted, outgoing, always clapping him on the back, talking a bit too loudly. Besides that, he never could remember the names of half of them, and the other half...it was sheer dumb luck on his part when he got their names right. It had made for some uncomfortable moments. It was uncomfortable enough when it was just a one-on-one, and very stilted, conversation with her father. To suddenly be surrounded by hundreds of Childers cousins, all staring at him, trying to figure him out...it had made Luka want to go hide in the closet.

The kids had all visited El Paso several times, travelling down with Daisy in the summers. She’d usually leave Nik there for most of the summer, and he’d come back home for the school year tanned and golden, having spent almost every waking hour outdoors, fishing with his grandmother and riding fences with his grandfather. Next year, she knew she’d be able to leave Nik and the twins as well. Her mother had been adamant about being able to see her grandchildren as often as possible, so William and Kathryn not only insisted they come down to visit in the summers, but they also made occassional visits to Chicago as well.

Luka usually wasn’t able to make it to the Childers family reunions. He had gone once, and had managed to cope quite well, but they had only been married a year at the time and he’d been totally astounded. Cousins, aunts, uncles...there were dozens of them. It seemed like they were coming out of the cracks in the walls. William was one of nine kids, Kathryn one of eleven. Thus, a staggering number of cousins and in-laws. Even worse, at first, they had all been startled by Luka’s presence and accent. Daisy’s brothers, in particular, had been unprepared for their new brother-in-law. Fortunately, they were good-hearted, if somewhat rowdy, young men and they had accepted Luka after a while. Kathryn had insisted, after seeing how happy Daisy was, and with the quick arrival of healthy and beautiful grandchildren, that the family receive Luka with open arms. And since her word was law amongst all the Childers family, even those with slightly less open minds had kept their mouths closed.

“Luka, it’ll be all right. They all like you, and with the kids...”

He frowned at her. “I wish you had told me, Dais’.”

“What, you have refused to come?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No...that’s not it. I would have had time to get out that genealogy chart and memorize all those names.”

She giggled. “And faces.”

“Ugh...your cousin Freddy kept calling me “Luke Skywalker”.”

“Remember that Freddy’s the one that threw the snake at me, Luka. He has a history of mental illness going back years.”

Luka chuckled. “He’s the only one of your cousins that I find rather difficult to like.” He ate a French fry before Daisy could snatch it away from him. She still enjoyed berating him about his diet. “Dais’, you are not going to turn me into a vegetarian, so forget it.”

“Well, you sure did wolf down that hamburger, Luka Kovac.”

“I’m hungry. Maybe I’ll get another.”

“No, you will not! A nice grilled chicken sandwich, maybe, but no more burgers. This fast food is bad for you.” After this statement, she took a delicate bite of her cheeseburger, and he rolled his eyes heavenward.

“Hypocrite!”

She laughed, her eyes sparkling. The kids were chattering amongst themselves, getting wound up already about seeing all their cousins again. Luka had described the Childers Family Reunions as ‘Childersville’, and Daisy had to agree. She had lost count of the number of cousins she had. She vaguely remembered it numbering at about sixty-six when she was a teenager, but it had no doubt grown since then.

After finishing their meal, Luka and Daisy let the kids pick through the chintz and souvenirs in the gift store. Texas-shaped ashtrays, rubber tomahawks, bow and arrow sets, games of every kind: road bingo, trivia games with those weird pens that only work on the little ‘fill-in-the-correct-answer’ pages, a giant eraser with ‘Texas’ on it for two dollars. Luka refused to buy it for Nik, who sulked. When Aleks came up to beg for an ‘Indian’ drum set, Luka knew it was time to get out of Stuckey’s before the other kids got ideas. There was no bigger mistake a parent could make than to buy a kid something that makes even more noise than the kid himself. Marina only wanted a plastic horse and rider, while Aleks settled for a rubber snake. Nik picked out a set of magic tricks he could teach himself. Jackson wanted an Indian arrowhead-probably made last Thursday-while Meggy got an Indian girl doll. Luka bought a new wooden backscratcher-Nik had accidentally broken his old one.

Loaded with their loot, the kids ran in a herd to the Grand Cherokee and piled in.

“We survived that, didn’t we?” Luka muttered. “Just imagine two hundred more of them at your father’s ranch.”

“Baby, let’s stop at the first drugstore we see, okay?”

“Why?”

She gave him a look, and a grin slowly spread across his face. “Aaah...you’re thinking five may be enough, eh?”

“Well...a little more thought might be in order at least,” she admitted. But she knew better than that-she was already feeling the urge. Shoot, she thought, it may be too late already. “Six is a handful.”

“You mean five,” he said, opening the car door for her and helping her in.

“I mean six. Five of them...and you.”

He laughed, gave her a kiss, and went around to get inside. They had several hundred more miles to go before they reached El Paso, but right now they needed to find a hotel room.

And a drugstore.

TO BE CONTINUED...

--
Giving money and power to government is like giving
whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
~P.J. O'Rourke, "Parlaiment of Whores"
If a man watches three football games in a row,
he should be declared legally dead.
~Erma Bombeck
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
~Stephen Wright