"Forgotten Errors In Judgement" or alternate title. "Hangin' Tough."
Luka stormed down the porch steps, across the lawn, his hands clenched in anger. "I'll kill him.. Hell.. I'll kill them both.. Abby being unfaithful to me! After all I did for her! After all this time, all these years.. I'll-"
"LUKA!" Doug stumbled breathlessly out the front entryway. Crashing down onto his knees as he tripped through the screen door, tearing it away with a sickly ripping noise. "L-luka! Wait!"
The European doctor turned roughly, glaring at the paediatrician. "Go away, Ross.. If I go with you. I'm going to-"
"I'm going to prevent you from doing something you'll regret, Kovac.." Doug panted, scrambling through the gaping tear in the screen. "I'm going to stop you from hurting Carter or Lockhart.."
Luka stood tiredly, watching him as the man righted himself and stumbled to his side. "Ross.. If you come with me.. I'll end up killing you. You know that, don't you?" He replied, amused.
"Yeah.. That's right.. I'll stop you," Doug grinned, punching the man playfully on the shoulder. "Or.. Or at least slow you down. I'm not that easy to catch.." The man laughed, ducking and weaving. "Float like a hummingbird, sting like a b-"
Reeling from the first punch, Doug stumbled, holding his mouth and looking at Luka in shock.. "Y-" Luka's second punch glanced off the man's jaw as Doug ducked, "Stop it! I get it.. I'm not a bee or a humming bird and I fall like a stone. Come on.. Let's go find Carter and Abby! Okay?!"
Luka dropped his hands at his sides and shrugged. "Fine.. Have it your way.. *That* was for punching me at the Diner.. This, however-" He said disinterested as his hand came up abruptly and smacked Doug in the back of the head. Chuckling, he walked to the truck and got in. "Is just for fun.. You comin' Ross?"
"Hey! You hit me!" Doug whined, following Luka to the Ford and getting in the passenger side.
"Shut up and sit there.. Don't move, don't talk.. Just shut up. Shut up." Luka barked, his hands shaking as he started up the vehicle.
************
"G-god.. What did I do.. Oh.. God.." Nik trembled, inching towards the front of the car.
"YOU STUPID BASTARD! WHY DID YOU PUSH ME INTO THE DITCH!!?" Abby screamed angrily as she emerged from the muck and reeds of the drainage ditch. "Carter.. You idiot!" Wiping the mud from her hair, and parting the filthy strands, she looked around for her friend. "Carter?" Her blurred gaze drifted from the oily pool of water she stood in, to the growing pool of blood on the dusty road side. "CARTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
*************
"Have you ever noticed how Tom's butt cheeks clench and release every time that flight teacher is around.." Carol said absently. "I mean.. Not that I'm staring at his butt in every scene.." Kerry chuckled. "Well.. Even if you aren't I am.. Especially that way he smiles.. Every time they go in for a kiss.. It's helpful that we have a slow-motion button.. Oohhhh here we go again.. Get it ready.. Heyy look! It's Val Kilmer.. I always liked him in that movie biography of the New Kids on the Block.. He always reminded me of a 40 year-old Donnie Wahlberg.. Don't you think?"
Carol sighed. "I'm not going through this again with you, Kerry.. I still think Corey Feldman could have done a good job."
"Corey Feldman!? I highly doubt it.. His face isn't full enough.. He wasn't old enough.. I think he looks ridiculous with a beard.. He was a decent Joey McIntyre.. I didn't like his portrayal of Joe's rapid decent into alcoholism, barbiturates and addiction to male prostitutes, though.. It didn't seem real to me.." Kerry rebutted shaking her head and watching Dave grow increasingly queasy.
Carol scoffed. "Real? You wanted to see Corey take one in the ass for the team or something?? John Turturro as Jon Knight, was.." She paused. "Interesting.. I've never seen Jon's plight with his cross dressing, taken so... seriously.. It was method acting taken to a new height. I mean.. He walked around the streets of Boston in a dress for six months.."
"I don't think it comes close to the lengths that Joaquin Phoenix and Christian Slater went to portraying the.." Kerry sighed. "I guess you could say 'close' relationship.. Between Danny and Jordan.. Those guys went at it like wild animals on-screen.. You could really feel the sexual tension.. The pain.. The sorrow.. Especially when Jordan was stabbed by the crazed fan with a vegetable peeler in the middle of the Neiman Marcus.. I mean.. Jeez.. When they say it's a hanging offense to cut in line.. They aren't kidding. He did a brilliant death scene.. That last line. 'I hope you have a funky, funky Christmas.. You bastard!' It was brilliant.. He delivered it perfectly.."
"Okay.. Enough of Tom and the New Kids saga... I'm going to get a snack.. You guys want anything?" Dave grumbled, getting off the couch. As Dave strode into the kitchen, digging through the fridge and wondering why nobody went out for groceries in the past two weeks, he noticed that the kitchen was strangely empty. Grabbing an apple, he strode back into the living room, munching on the macintosh and looking warily up at the ceiling, which had started to reverberate with the creaking and moaning coming from upstairs. Dave shuddered. At least he knew where SOME people were. Yuck...
********
"Elizabeth... I...I.." Mark panted, straddling his naked wife. "You sooo perty.." He drawled, his bony hands cupping her smooth white breasts, each mound of perfect flesh caught in each smooth palm. Ducking his head to her neck, he peppered it with warm lingering kisses; his lips tugging at the taut flesh, and leaving wet pink trails of love.
"Mark.. Love.. I.. I don't want you to give me a hickey.. You aren't giving me a hickey are you? I-I don't want you to Ahhhhooohh!" Elizabeth protested, her head thrown back, the tangled red curls cascading down her back as it arched, and Mark thrusted again. Each moan of ecstasy was met with the rhythmic thump of her striking the headboard. "Ohhh.. Lorrrrrrd!!!"
********
"Oh lord.. Won't you buy me.. A Mercedes Benz.. My friends all drive porches.. I must make amends.. Work hard all my life, no help from my friends.. Oh lord, won't you buy me.. A Mercedes Benz.." Doug wailed, his hands drumming on the dashboard. "I love Joni Mitchell. Don't you Luka?!"
The Croatian glared at him, turning off the radio as the squealed down the road. "It's not Joni Mitchell.. It's Janis Joplin! Joplin, damn you!" With an angered twist of the radio dial it was met with squealing and static till Luka's 80s station came in clear.
"Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees"
(author's note. Midnight Oil "Beds are Burning" an Homage to Luka killing the lead singer when he beat Mr.Mugger's brains in during Abby and Luka's wondering post-date walk on dark Chicago streets..)
Luka grinned, almost evilly, his teeth gleaming as his fingers hammered on the steering wheel. Singing along to the words, his head swaying slightly, keeping to the beat. As the song wound down. He looked at his passenger. "You like 80s music, Ross?? Here.. You sing to the next one.."
Doug looked at him warily. Sing.. Sing now.. In this muggy truck with no air conditioning and a crazed lunatic behind the wheel. "Sing? Uhh... "
"Now Ross.. Or I'm running over Carter AND Abby when I see them on this road.. I don't care anymore.. Now sing... Next song.. You promise me.."
"I.. Uhh.." Doug stared at the radio.. "Okay.. I..."
"I am covered in filth, at least it's my own
My smell, well, you know you can't get higher
One day in my life is six in your old
With filth, it's all a little faster
I am off the leash and hot with fleas
Family couldn't be stronger
I am off your leash and hot with fleas
Hang your head, hang your head in shame!
Hang your head in shame!"
(Severed Heads -Hot With Fleas)
"That's no fair!" Doug wailed, arms crossed, his face flushed with embarrassment. "That was a bad song."
"Not entirely untrue though.. You are sitting in Tonto's seat.. It's probably riddled with fleas." Luka quipped, his voice hitching slightly, his vision fixed on the road shimmering with heat.
"I'm going to sing the next one!" Doug growled. "I'll sing the next one.. That wasn't fair."
"Stop your messin' around
Better think of your future
Time you straightened right out
Creatin' problems in town
Rudy a message to you
Stop your foolin' around
Time you straightened right out
Better think of your future
Or else you'll wind up in jail
Rudy a message to you
Stop your messin' around
Better think of your future
Time you straightened right out
Creatin' problems in town
Rudy a message to you ..."
(A Message to Rudy -The Specials)
Doug sputtered, turning red and staring out the window. Tears burned his eyes and he sighed. Without taking his eyes off the road, Luka spoke. "How many times did you cheat on her.. Carol.."
"Before or after we got married, Kovac??" Doug said bitterly.
"After."
"Too numerous to mention. Want to narrow it down a bit?? I mean.. You mean after Tess and Kate were in school? After Terri was born or was it after Sam was born? I've fooled around.. Okay?? Not proud of it.. Not any of your business either." Doug replied hoarsely.
"With who though? It's not like you could revert to your old ways.. You haven't been sleeping with nurses or any of the specialists upstairs.. We would have heard something.. It's a sieve in County.. There's no secrets, you know that.." Luka said quietly.
"Sometimes patients.. Sometimes ladies I pick up in the grocery check out line. Depends.. I'm handsome.. I'm a doctor.. It's not that difficult.." Doug muttered angrily. Was the man that thick?
"But it's hard to stay faithful to a woman like Carol? Ross.. You sicken me. She'd been telling me you were so wonderful.. You have four children, Doug.. How could you do something so..." Luka broke off, sighing.. "Sad.. You're a very sad person, Ross.. I'm sorry you're not happy.. Especially with a woman like Carol."
"She stopped making me happy, many, many years ago, Kovac." Doug said bitterly, the hot sun streaming through the open passenger window. "She came to my house that day.. Rushed over on the plane.. She came to me.. But it was too late.. She'd kept so many things from me. She came to me because she said I was her soul mate.. I wasn't.. It was a forced relationship.. It always had been.. We had our moments.. but that's all it was.. Moments in time.. Not a marriage."
"But.. Ten years of marriage and children.. All based on lies?" Luka said incredulously.
"Not lies.. Just old faded hopes and dreams.. She isn't the first mistake I've made in my life and won't be the last. Hey.... Isn't that your Father-in-law dragging a body out of the ditch?" Doug said tiredly.
**************
"Get up you idiot." Nikola grumbled, dragging Carter to the center median. "I didn't completely run you over. "Get up."
Carter groaned painfully. Last thing he remembered was jumping in front of a car. Now he was flung halfway in the ditch and hurting all over. "I am.. Just wait a damn second.. I.. I think I sprained something. Wait would you? Do you know how much my family is worth? Do you realize who you just nearly killed with your shitty little car, sir? Do you realize who is about to phone his lawyer and sue your ass?!" Carter snarled angrily, as he pulled out his cell phone.
"Carter.. Don't!" Luka and Abby shouted almost in unison, Abby struggling from the mire of the ditch, and Luka leaping from his truck. "It's my/Luka's father in-law!"
"What? He just nearly ran over Abby and he DID run me over.. How does him being a former father in law change anything!?" Carter snarled, dialing out the international long distance codes and cursing at his phone. "Fuck.... Fucking thing doesn't work on these damn backwoods roads.."
"Carter.. Calm down.. Let us take you and Abby back to the farm.. Get you both cleaned up, and check out that leg.. Okay?" Doug said encouragingly. "Okay Carter?"
The younger man sighed, and nodded as he allowed Luka and Nik help him into the truck.
"Abby you okay?" Carter asked, watching her walk a few steps behind.
"I'm fine Carter.. Let's just go back to the farm. Okay? Get some food and-" Abby stopped. "There ISN'T any food.. I meant to go grocery shopping and.." She trailed off.
*****
Kerry and Carol eyed the last of Dave's snack. "You mean that's the last thing to eat in the whole house Malucci?" Kerry said menacingly. "Uhh..." Dave looked at the two women, frightened and wondering if he threw the apple STRAIGHT UP in the air, if he had enough time to make a break for it. "It.. m-might be.. Why?" He squeaked nervously
**************************************************************
"Because that means you have to go grocery shopping.." Kerry replied, turning her attention back to the movie. "Go." She waved him away with a handful of Croatian Kunas.
"But.."
"Take Luka, Doug and Peter with you.."
"Luka and Doug aren't here... They went to look for Carter and Abby.." Dave said tiredly as he munched on the remnants of the apple.
********
"Where's all the blood coming from Carter?" Luka dead panned, looking at the trails of red on the pavement.
"Blood?" Carter said fearfully, patting himself down to make sure he was intact. Slowly a smile crept on his lips. "Ohh.. Blood.. Riiiiight... I-" A hand went to his back pocket and extracted the remnants of the offending bleeders. "I knew we were running out of food, so when we were in town last week at the McDonald's, I hoarded the ketchup and BBQ sauces."
"Why was it still in your pocket?" Nikola murmured, confused as he stared at the deflated, mucky condiment packets in Carter's hands and wondering if it was all over his upholstery.
"With no food in the house, Dave started eating them. So I started keeping them on me, or rather I 'kept' them on me before, you, Jacques Villesneuve over here ran me over." Carter muttered, eyeing the truck. "You guys going
grocery shopping? It's about time."
"Actually Carter, I came out here to kill y-" Luka smiled calmly, his lips pursed in irritation as Doug interrupted him.
"The Yuromov's... Our neighbours.. They said if we came over and slaughtered a pig ourselves we could have it for half-price." Doug said hastily. Nikola cocked his brow.
"The Yuromovs? They haven't had livestock since-" he murmured to himself till he caught Doug glaring at him.
"Yes... Luka phoned me.. I was coming to help.. Slaughtering animals is hard work.." Nikola said quickly, looking at his former son-in-law.
Carter looked at them. "I have money.. We don't have to go out and slaughter animals.. I have money.. Just take us to the store.." To further his point, he reached back into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Slick, red and sticky with ketchup he held it between his thumb and forefinger and pried it open with his middle finger. The Italian leather protesting slightly as it flopped open, his gold cards a shiny orange hue as they too were covered in the tomato condiment.
"That is pretty disgusting, Carter.." Abby remarked, watching him extract each card and wipe them into his handkerchief.
"Yeah.. Well, if somebody hadn't been standing in the middle of the road yelling at me, maybe a car wouldn't have hit me as I saved their life." Carter snorted angrily, staring at the Visa card and wondering if hickory barbeque sauce tasted richer if it was licked off a Gold card.
"Saved my life!? Well then!" Abby snapped angrily. "Thank you Sir Lancelot.. Thanks to you, I smell like a wet dog that rolled in manure! How's your ankle, poor baby.." She snarled.
"Oohhh the demeanor of the evil bitch has changed! Wow.. A few hours ago you were remarking that I was your saviour.. That I helped you get back into med school that I was the wonderful angel that I am.. Now I get patronizing
bullshit?!" Carter sighed dramatically, and stared out the window.
"Stop it now you two. Or I'm letting you back out onto the road!" Nikola barked, Luka and Doug following close behind in the truck. "We are going grocery shopping. Dr. Carter will pay since he's so graciously offered. I will take you two to the hospital first."
****
"How's Reese doing??" Peter smiled, laying back on the bed. The obnoxious and nauseating sounds of Mark and Elizabeth going at it in the next room filtered underneath the closed door of the bedroom that Peter and Kerry
had shared.
Over the months the rooming arrangements had changed and morphed. Lately Kerry and Dave had started sharing the same bed, much to the chagrin of Carter who begged Peter to have the empty bed that was now in his room.
So now Kerry and Dave slept in Carter's old room; in the same bed. and Doug and Carol shared a room, and Mark and Elizabeth.. They more than just slept in the same bed... Peter shuddered. He didn't want to think about things
like that.
"Reese is fine.." Cleo looked at the boy who was rough housing with the Ross twins, their brother and sister, Ella Greene and her younger brother Theo. "Reese... St-" She paused, smacking her forehead with her palm. Yelling
at a deaf kid.. Yeahhhh right, that would work.. "One second, Peter- Tess.. Tell Reese to get off Sam.."
The dark-eyed child with long brown curls grinned at her babysitter. "Sure Cleo.." Her perfect lips parting as she smiled, the dimple on her cheek like her mother. It was amazing how much they looked like Carol..
It was amazing how much all the children acted like their parents. The twin terrors of County Gen' had turned into beautiful young women, and Doug was already threaten to enroll them in private school, or a nunnery. He wasn't sure which. She watched as Tess carefully tapped the elder boy on the shoulder and signed to him, to put Sam the right way up.
Sam crashed onto the lawn in a fit of giggles, the purple-lish hue that had clouded his face, receding, his cheeks pink with the cool Chicago air. The offspring of the ER clan all tearing around Cleo's lawn like a mad whirling dervish.
Jane Lily Del Amico had grabbed a fistful of fresh mown grass and shoved it in her mouth, as Kate came up behind her and batted it out of her little hand. "No.. Sweetie.. Nooooo." The older girl tutted disapprovingly, as the infant's face crumpled in tears. If Anna had just used birth-control and hadn't acted like such a slut.. At least that's what she'd overheard her Dad telling Mark. It was one night of rebound sex after Anna had been dating a narcissistic pilot with butt
boils and one night of unplanned sex and out came Jane.. Her father's dark eyes and her mother's light hair and rose coloured lips. She was a sweet child, just a bit- "NO Jane..." Kate said again, pulling the muck from the little girl's fingers, "No. Don't eat dirt..." No.. She was alot like her parents.
Luka, being the saviour of all living beings had done everything for Anna.. Had even been her Lamaze coach.. Anna repaid him by making Luka, Jane's god-father. When Abby found out, she'd cursed, swore, and cried. She had shed so many tears over the man, it seemed that he wasn't worth it. Before his little god-daughter was born, she had thought that. It was a certainty in fact. Men were scum.. Then she met 'Luka the god-father', things changed.
'All these kids,' Cleo thought. '-and none of them are mine.. not a one.. I've just become the babysitter...' "The spinster-bitch." she said aloud to herself.
"Cleo? You say something?" Peter said confused, rolling onto his stomach as it started to growl fiercely. He hoped somebody else had discovered that he'd eaten the last can of food in the house and went to get more. Although, his stomach seemed to be regretting the pickled beets, hopefully that one can of them would be the last of it.
"N-nope.. Not a word, tell the rest of them that their kids are okay.. I gotta go tuck them into bed.." Cleo said with a laugh as Tess and Kate struggled with a sibling. Tess with Sam in a piggy-back and Kate pulling Terri up onto her shoulders. The Chicago night had settled quickly and Reese had caught Cleo's quick signing, as he grabbed Ella in a tackle onto the lawn, their laughter becoming infectious as they all ran into the house, giggling. The back door slammed and Cleo winced. All those kids in her house for four months now, it was amazing nothing valuable had been broken..
Her face contorted with pain as she heard the sound of shattering glass. If that was her mother's crystal...
"Okay, Cleo.. Thanks for taking care of them," Peter said quickly. "Tell Reese I love him."
"I will, Peter.." She hung up the phone with a sigh. For a moment there, she was actually thinking he was actually going to say it for once.. Not that they were together anymore.. They hadn't been together in years. Still there was always that chance..
********
"So Doug.. If you don't love Carol.. You still love your children... I don't know how something so wondrous as four children can be created in such a dysfunctional family setting." Luka grumbled, his knuckles whitening on the
wheel.
"Yeah well.. You got a daughter, and you didn't even have to fuck anybody.. How messed up is that!? All holy fucking Croatian Virgin. Gets himself a kid without ever burdening the loins of a woman.. God Father my ass.. You are NOT Brando."
Doug snorted, in a sing-song voice. "Besides, my infidelities are none of your business. Carol isn't any of your business.. She isn't, and you remember that. Tonight I will have sex with my wife and I will enjoy it. I never said I didn't love her. I said getting back together with her after Seattle was a mistake. She's with me now, and I'm not about to end it because you say so. I have children with her. She sleeps beside me, and with me and not with you and that's the way it will always be, no matter how many strippers I have slept with or will sleep with. We've grown apart, that year she spent in Chicago when I was in Seattle.. It was a crucial year. She should have come with me, she chose not to.. Are you expecting a normal male to not have sex for a year on the basis that his ex-girlfriend MIGHT show up on his doorstep? That's what she was, Kovac.. So I slept with my receptionist, and my nurse, and my PA... I wasn't tied down anymore." Doug sighed. "And that was her decision."
"What about the wedding?? The rest of the kids.. When you came back.. You are tied down now.. And yet.. You still..." He trailed off with a heavy sigh.. 'Doug Ross is a pig.' Luka surmised. "Why?"
"I'm assuming that you've not heard the tales then, Kovac!" Doug snarled, rolling down the window. It was getting too hot in here. "I've always been the roving dog, humping the master's leg... You never heard of that girl I brought in.. She died.. I-I didn't even know her name. It scared me into real relationships.. I had some close ones over the years.."
"No.. Actually that's legend.. Are you basically saying you can't change a leopard's spots? After all this time, after having four children, you're still sleeping with other women?" Luka snorted. His excuses were weak.
"Yes.. That's what I'm saying. I love my children, I like Carol. She's a wonderful woman. But if you're expecting me to stay home and play Daddy day after day, you're wrong Kovac. We're not the same people. I'm not like you.. I can't dote myself after one tiresome female." Doug sighed, Kovac had a real knack for making him feel like shit. Why did he come along again? He couldn't remember.
"Yes, well you've obviously never lost anyone you've loved before Ross. Until that happens, I don't think we're anything alike at all Ross.. None. I love Abby.. That is one thing I'm sure of, and one day, I'll have children with her, and it will be everything that I smell, and breathe and live for the rest of my life. Family is what counts, Doug. Not the next patient, or paycheque or sexual conquest. Your family matters. It's too bad you'll never figure that out." Luka said sadly, the truck slowing to a stop as Nikola had pulled in front of the hospital. They had arrived. "Get out, take care of them. I will park." He said quietly, watching Doug get out of the vehicle and help Carter and Abby from the car in front of them.