"Ouch," yelped Luka, biting his tongue on several more 'colorful'
expletives. Impatiently he tried to push Kerry's hand away from his head.
"Take it easy, Luka," said Kerry, as she tried to examine the gash on his
forehead. "You could still have fragments in there, and I can't examine you
properly unless you keep still." She pushed him firmly back down onto the
gurney.
"Hmm, you'll need a few sutures in there," she added. "And I want to get a
skull x-ray as well."
"Kerry, that's not necessary," protested Luka.
"You lost consciousness," said Kerry, replacing the temporary dressing on
Luka's head.
"Only for a few seconds."
"Actually, it was closer to half a minute," said Yosh. Luka shot him a
dirty look.
"How did it happen anyway?" asked Kerry, as she peeled off her gloves.
Luka scowled. "Dr. Carter was having some problems with one of his
more...difficult patients..."
"And he asked you to help?" Kerry was unable to keep all of the surprise out
of her voice."
"Not exactly," muttered Luka.
"The patient was drunk...and singing rather loudly," said Yosh. "Dr. Kovac
was next door and he came in to see what was going on." He stopped as he
saw the thunderous expression on Luka's face.
"No...please continue," said Luka, through clenched teeth.
"Um, well...the patient had a bottle with him, and Dr. Carter was trying to
take it away from him..."
"And that's when he got *really* pissed off," said Luka. "The patient that
is...not Carter."
"So he swung the bottle at Dr. Carter," continued Yosh.
"Who promptly ducked out of the way," muttered Luka.
"And well...it hit Dr. Kovac instead, and it broke."
"Which would explain why you smell like the inside of a distillery," said
Kerry. "Well you *do*," she said in response to Luka's injured expression.
"Well, I think you've probably just got a mild concussion, but I'll get a
skull x-ray just to make sure, and I'll keep you under observation for a few
hours." Turning to Yosh, she said, "Yosh, can you clean him up a bit and
I'll see about organizing the portable x-ray."
"Oh but my shift..." Yosh started to say, but then changed his mind. "Yes,
Dr. Weaver," he said instead as she left the room. He had been about to
tell her that his shift had actually just finished, but it wasn't as if he
had anyone to rush home to, and it wasn't every day he got to be 'up close
and personal' with Dr. Kovac. Getting a basin of warm water and some
cloths, he started to clean away the blood from the injury site.
Luka winced involuntarily as Yosh touched a tender spot.
"Sorry, Dr. Kovac," said Yosh, noticing the movement.
"Not your fault," said Luka. "You have a very gentle touch."
"I only wish I could show you how gentle my touch is," thought Yosh. His
thoughts on just *how* he would like to show Dr. Kovac the gentleness of his
touch were interrupted by the door behind him crashing open. "Oh great," he
thought, as he heard Abby hurry in.
"Oh my God, Luka! Are you all right?" asked Abby, as she hurried up to his
side, almost pushing Yosh out of the way. "I was on a break and I just
heard what happened."
"I'm fine, Abby," said Luka, tersely. "It's just a small laceration."
"Let me see," said Abby, reaching for the bandage.
Luka caught her hand. "I said, I am fine. Yosh here is looking after me."
Abby barely gave Yosh a glance as she said, "His shift was over half an hour
ago. I can take over here." She picked up the cloth and was about to start
dabbing at Luka's face, when Yosh firmly removed it from her.
"It's quite all right, Abby," he said, in a voice dripping with deceptive
sweetness. "You see, when I'm needed, *I* don't mind working after my shift
is over." He could hear Luka stifle a snort of laughter while Abby looked
as if she'd just found a bug in her beer.
"Yeah Abby," said Luka, "Yosh is doing a good job here. Why don't you go
and check up on Carter...I think he may have stubbed his toe while ducking
out of the way."
This time it was Yosh who had to try and stifle a snort of laughter. Abby
shot him a dirty look before leaving the room.
"Ah, that Abby," said Luka, almost to himself. Then he looked at Yosh and
said, "Listen, if your shift is over, you should go home. I can get someone
else to clean me up."
Yosh knew that if a call went up for volunteers to clean up Dr. Kovac, he'd
be crushed to death in the resulting stampede. Looking at his watch, he
said, "I hadn't any plans made for tonight." Hearing a groan from Dr. Kovac,
he looked up in surprise.
"Jebi ga! Jebi ga! Jebi ga!" said Luka, thumping the side of the bed in
frustration.
"What's the matter Dr. Kovac?" asked Yosh, concern in his voice. "Are you
in pain?"
"Yes," said Luka through gritted teeth, "But that's not the problem. You
heard Dr. Weaver. If she keeps me here for observation I'm going to miss
the match." He closed his eyes and thumped his head back against the
pillow, before groaning again...this time for the pain.
Yosh was puzzled for a moment before he remembered. "Of course, Croatia
against Italy."
Luka opened his eyes and looked at Yosh. "You follow the World Cup?" he
asked, surprise in his voice. Yosh nodded as he picked up a clean cloth.
"My God," said Luka, "You must be the only other person in the hospital who
even knows that it's on."
"I follow it as much as I can," said Yosh, carefully not revealing that he
enjoyed it as much for the swapping of shirts at the end of the match as the
actual game itself. And that long pan down the line of the teams during the
national anthems...that was just heaven. He sighed happily, before bringing
himself back to the present where to his surprise and delight, Dr. Kovac was
unbuttoning his shirt.
"Yosh, would you mind getting me a scrub top?" asked Luka, "The blood is
soaking right through this shirt."
"Oh of course," said Yosh. He dropped the cloth and hurried off to
supplies, returning with a green top that he just *knew* would look good on
Dr. Kovac...but then, practically anything looked good on him...and nothing
would have looked even better.
-----------------
To Luka's annoyance, the blood had soaked all the way through to his vest.
He had just pulled it off when Yosh returned with the top.
Yosh felt like all his birthday's had come at once when he saw Dr. Kovac
sitting on the bed...topless. Now if he had only thought to bring a camera
with him. He vaguely wondered if he could get away with telling Dr. Kovac
that they needed to take a few pictures of his injury for risk management,
and if so, would he be able to get a full length rather than just a head
shot.
"Here's your scrub top," he said, hearing his voice as if it was coming from
a million miles away.
"Thank you," said Luka, pulling it on. He looked at his watch. "Was there
any sign of Dr. Weaver around?"
"I didn't see her, but it was getting pretty busy out there. I'm sure
she'll be back as soon as she can."
As it turned out, it was another half hour before Kerry returned with the
portable x-ray. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Luka," she said as she quickly
set up the machine.
The films were quickly taken and Kerry settled down to putting some sutures
in Luka's wound. "I want to keep you under observation for the next twelve
hours," she said as she finished the last stitch.
"Do you have to?" asked Luka, with a groan.
"It's just a precaution," answered Kerry, a frown on her face. "Do you have
somewhere you need to be?"
"I *was* hoping to get home in time to watch Croatia play Italy," said Luka.
"I've had this planned for weeks."
"Croatia against Italy?" said Kerry, a note of puzzlement in her face. "Oh
wait, is this the World Cup?"
Luka nodded.
"Oh I'm sure that you'll be able to find out the score," said Kerry, pushing
herself up from her seat.
"That is *not* the same as watching it," said Luka through clenched teeth.
"Well I'm sorry *Doctor* Kovac," said Kerry, "But your health is more
important. Now if you had somebody with you to check on you every hour;
that might be different. But you are living alone, right?"
Luka groaned and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Then he opened them
again and looked at Kerry, "So you're saying that if I had somebody with
me...say a trained nurse to check up on me, *then* you'd let me out of
here?"
"Well, I suppose so," said Kerry.
The words were hardly out of her mouth before Luka had turned to Yosh,
"Yosh, how would you like to watch the game on a big screen...surround
sound, plenty of beer. And all you have to do is make sure I don't pass
out."
Okay, now Yosh *knew* that the God's were smiling on him. "I'd be delighted
to, Dr. Kovac," he said, a smile almost splitting his face in two."
------------------
Yosh could hardly believe it. Here he was, sitting on a couch watching a
soccer match with *the* Doctor Kovac...or rather, *Luka* as he had been told
to call him. The match was even more exciting on the big screen, and Luka
was being most generous with the refreshments. Of course, the best part of
the night had been walking out of the ER together. Abby had been taking yet
another break and her cigarette had almost fallen out of her mouth when she
had seen them.
Actually no, thought Yosh, the *best* part of the night had been when
Croatia had finally scored. Luka had been so excited that he had been
jumping round the couch and pulled his shirt off like the scorer had done.
Unfortunately he had put it back on again...but only until the next goal.
"Come on, come on," said Luka through gritted teeth. "Blow the damned
whistle..."
Yosh too was waiting eagerly for the final whistle...and then it came.
Croatia 2 - Italy 1. Luka started jumping around the living room cheering
loudly in Croatian.
Dragging Yosh to his feet, he hugged him so tightly that Yosh felt he was
going to pass out. Okay, that was probably more due to the proximity of
Luka's luscious body than lack of oxygen, but he was still feeling dizzy
when Luka finally relaxed his hold. For some reason though, Luka didn't let
him go, but stayed looking down at him.
"Did anybody ever tell you that you have beautiful eyes?" said Luka, as he
pushed a lock of hair away from Yosh's face.
"Well not recently," said Yosh, confused by Luka's sudden change in manner.
"And your lips...so...so kissable," said Luka.
Yosh's eyes widened as Luka bent his head towards him. "Dr. Kovac! Are you
feeling all rig..." The words were cut off as Luka fastened his mouth over
his. "I'm being kissed by Dr. Kovac!" was Yosh's first thought. His second
was that Abby was going to be pissed as hell...his third was that Luka was a
most excellent kisser...and after that, he wasn't really thinking very
clearly at all as his knees buckled and he felt Luka pick him up and carry
him to the bedroom where all his fantasies about the tall Croatian came
true.
-----------------
Yosh sighed happily as he heard his name called.
"Yosh?"
Opening his eyes, Yosh saw Luka holding his hand out for the scrub top,
which was being squeezed tightly in his hands.
"Here's your scrub top," he said, hearing his voice as if it was coming from
a million miles away. The remnants of his fantasy were pushed to the back
of his mind until the next time.
"Thank you," said Luka, pulling it on. "Are you all right? You looked a
bit 'lost' for a moment."
"I'm fine," said Yosh. "Just thinking about the match..."
Luka snorted in disgust. "At least *you* will be able to see it...Kerry
probably will not allow me to leave until it is well over."
"Maybe she'd let you leave if you had someone to keep an eye on you," said
Yosh, carefully.
"Hmm, I'll have to try that," said Luka, thoughtfully.
And Yosh smiled to himself as he finished cleaning up Luka. Maybe some
fantasies could come true after all.
----------------
The End
Notes - many thanks to Fat Cat for checking out the scoreline in the
Croatia/Italy match.
Copyright Footer', 'This site is not affiliated in any way with "ER", its writers or production company, or NBC, and makes no profit from the show. The ERROS skin is by Brihana. The script is eFiction version 3.4.2© Tammy Keefer, http://efiction.org\r\n