"Carter. If you want to talk." Benton stood at the foot of the bed, rubbing the back of his neck and staring at the trembling, sweaty resident. "I mean it man. About anything.. I'm here for you."
"Oh really?? Like you were there for me at the Detox centre? You left!" Carter's voice was small, childlike and full of pain.
"I didn't leave, Carter. They told me you had to sign in yourself. It had to be your choice."
"My choice? Is it still my choice? What I do? Then I choose that you leave.. Now. How about that? Get out." His eyes narrowed and his face flushed with anger.
"Carter..."
"OUT!" The younger man yelled, shrilly like an animal in pain. He threw a pillow, it glanced off the surgeon's nose and fell at Benton's feet.
"Okay Carter, I'm leaving.. If you w-"
"OUT NOW!" Carter said tearfully.
"I'm gone Carter, but I meant what I said." Benton muttered sadly as he exited the bedroom.
****
"Mark can you watch Suzie for a second?" Susan bent over, the milky white fullness of her breasts in full view as she placed the baby in the cradle. "Mark?" She waved a hand in front of his glazed happy expression, and slowly his gaze moved upward and into her eyes. "Watch the baby. I'm going to take a shower before work."
Mark nodded carefully as if his head would suddenly detach and roll off his shoulders. "Yuh huh?" He watched her go, her small round bum moving beneath the tight denim, mottled with paint from the last time she'd painted the apartment. Mint green.. Mark smiled.. It looked good on her ass. "Susan?"
She turned, her hair bouncing on her shoulders and catching the light, like a model in a hair commercial.. Except this model had ripped paint covered jeans and a t-shirt covered in baby vomit. "Yes Mark?"
"Do you remember that night?" He murmured staring at her vomit covered breasts, the nipples stuck out from the cold air in the room.
"What night, Mark?" Susan replied, biting her tongue and instantly tasting blood. She knew what he was talking about, she just wanted to hear him say it.
"Jen.. She was studying at the library.. Rachel was there.. Sleeping in the basket on the floor.." Mark turned staring at Suzie who squirmed in the cradle and scrunched up her little nose.
"Stop it Mark. Stop it.. That's over.. That's done.. I can't talk about this right now. I have to get ready for work." Susan turned away, her barefeet padding on the linoleum.
He stood from the rocking chair, knocking his knee against the cradle's edge and cursing aloud. The baby started to howl and Mark ignored it, chasing her down. "Susan.. Wait.." He said feebly. "That night.. You said you loved me.. I should have married you.. Not her.."
"Mark... You couldn't do that.. I know you. You couldn't have left Jen a single mother. It's too late Mark. I don't love you the way I used to.. I don't love you like that anymore. I have too much on my mind right now. Babies, work, evil Weaver... It's too much, I don't have time for a husband or a fiancee or a boyfriend. A friend.. I need a friend Mark.. You're a good friend. I need a friend, not a-"
"If I had a condom that night.." He looked at her expectantly, grasping her wrist.
"Mark... Would we have fucked our brains out?? Is that what you're asking? I don't know Mark. I can't answer a question like that."
"Can't or won't, Sue?" Mark's eyes full of anguish and reddened with the tears that he'd wiped off on his sleeve.
"Both.. Mark.. I have to go." Susan walked away from him and into the bathroom, her hand on the door as she stared back at him.
"What if I told you, I had a condom now.. What then?" His hands went to his back pocket and he pulled out his wallet.
"Mark.. I.."
"Well?"
******
"Should I drive you home now?" Nikola smiled. "I promise. I won't make you chase after the car."
Luka groaned and stared at the empty beer cans surrounding the old man. "Fine.. Take me home, but are you sure you are okay to drive?" Maybe I can sleep here. Then.. Tomorrow when you are sober.."
Nikola shrugged. "Fine with me. What would the 'war hero' want for supper, eh?" He chuckled softly, as he rose his aching body from the chair and staggered to the kitchen.
****
"Dave?" Kerry kissed his neck and massaged the taut muscles in his shoulders. The tiny muscles in his oiled skin twitched as the cold air seeping in from the closed window brushed past his naked shoulders, and whispered down his spine as Kerry's fingers worked their way into the knots in his back. Her thumbs moved methodically as she rocked. "It was a mistake was it? I'm sorry Dave if it was. Please.. Say something."
"You were married before. Weren't you? Dr.Weaver?" Dave pulled his arms up and folded them under his head as Kerry leaned forward with her might and cracked his back, loosening the muscles.
"I think you can lose the formalities, Dave. Call me Kerry. I've think you've earned it." Kerry laughed.
"But.. Were you?" Dave insisted again, moaning a little when Kerry had found a particularly tight muscle, groaning happily as it loosened.
"Was I married? Yes Dave.. I was.." She replied, her smile disappearing. "Why?"
"Did he leave you?"
"You mean, run off and not come back? You really think I have THAT bad a reputation with men?!" Kerry muttered in disbelief, her perpetual rocking as she rubbed his back, her hair tousling with the movement and falling in her eyes in sweaty tendrils.
"He died?" Dave turned to face her, to see her expression, but Kerry's hands held firm.
"No.. Not that either.. Why this line of questioning all of a sudden, Malucci?" Her experienced hands moved south, caressing the small concave of his back, the slope that rose over his perfect buttocks. IT was tanned and firm like the rest of his body, thanks to his pass at the gym and his Italian heritage.
"I'm just curious. You said once that all I had to do was ask. I'm asking. Is that okay?" Dave's voice strained with tears as Kerry rolled him on his back, working the oil into his chest.
"Yes Dave.. That's fine. What's wrong?"
"You guys are divorced then? It was amicable?" Dave sighed as Kerry nodded, concentrating her focus on massaging one of his nipples, and warming it in her hands as the oil spread over his chest.
"Divorced.. Annulled... It was an amicable breakup, true enough.. We loved each other dearly, but we hated being in the same room with each other.. Love's funny that way."
Dave smiled bitterly. "Sort of makes you wish you could get rid of Greene that easy.." His hand that had been on the bed, feathered up her thigh, his fingertips barely grazing her skin.
"Sort of." Kerry smiled in return and lay her head on his chest that smelled of almonds and sweat.
"Did you know I was married, Chief?"He muttered as he stared at the stippled ceiling, making out pictures in the shadows.
"Well.. Considering I had to kick out several angry women all looking for you in the past few months, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you had run off with one of them to Vegas." She laughed, drawing lazy circles on his stomach with her finger.
"No.. This was a few years ago.. Her name was Seri.. Her father a Pentacostal minister.. Her mother, a total bitch. I met her in in Grenada. She wasn't there for school though.. She was there to protest the woman's rights.. There was a protest which escalated into a riot, I saved her ass and we had sex in the back of her electric car.." Dave grinned. "You could say the sex we had was electrifying... We got married after I finished school, then I joined Roots with her and we travelled Europe for a bit.."
"Alls well that ends well?" Kerry's voice rose with hope.
"Not quite, Chief.." Dave sighed, kissing the top of her head.