ER/Stand Crossover




It was getting dark. Luka stood on the porch, a coffee in hand. He watched as the sun set, noticing with worry that the dark black clouds of burning fires seemed to be closer. The west side had been smoldering ever since the riots had started and it had flared up again over the past few days. We need to do something, he thought again, I just don't know what.

It had been four days since they had retreated to Carter's home. Aside from an occasional excursion to grocery stores, they hadn't left. It was some much needed rest for all of them, and he knew it had been needed. Oh sure, he wasn't in too bad of shape himself. He had hidden himself away during the worst of the crisis, and he knew that his calmer mental state was due partly to that. His companions had improved markedly and that was going to make it a lot easier to bring up the issue of doing something about their current living conditions.

He still wasn't entirely sure if he really wanted to stay with his newfound companions. If he prodded them into leaving, the way he was considering, it obligated him to go with them. It was a serious obligation, one he didn't intend to take up lightly. He had spent the better of the day trying to make a decision and he still wasn't quite sure. I have to do it soon, he thought as he sipped his coffee. If you aren't going to stay, he told himself, then you need to pack your rucksack and go. A clean break was best for everyone.

The sun slowly dropped below the horizon. I don't want to leave these people, he thought suddenly. It was a gut reaction and he had no intelligent or even well thought out reason to back it up. From a strictly survival stand point, it was a horrible group. Their best skill, medical knowledge, was something he already possessed. Aside from that, they weren't a group filled to the brim with positive traits. One was HIV positive. One was on his way to a serious drinking problem. And one was not only physically disabled, but also having some serious mental issues. Out of the remaining three, Lucy was pleasant and eager to please and somehow managed to make a mess out of everything. Carter was trying, and Randi seemed to view the situation with a cross between irritation at the inconvenience and a sort of underlying amusement. In many, many ways, they were trouble, and yet he wanted to stay. Luka, a small voice that sounded more than a little like his long dead wife, trust yourself. You want to stay, so stay. There must be a reason, and you'll find it.

The porch was dark, but the gentle glow of kerosene lanterns shone through the windows. He could see people moving inside. Dinner had been a half hour earlier and while they weren't much for evening activities, he wanted to talk before Doug got too drunk. The day time drinking had eased off, he gave the man credit for that, but Doug had drunk himself into oblivion the last four nights. It wasn't healthy, and it wasn't very helpful. He sighed heavily. It wasn't going to be a fun night.

The screen door squeaked as it opened. He turned around, startled by the noise. No one had seemed interested in joining him for coffee. Generally no one seemed interested in having much to do with him at all. It wasn't dislike on their part, it was more a sort of inability to reach out. Everyone, and he included himself in that assessment, was emotionally tired. Making friends with the new guy was far down the list. He was willing to admit that he just didn't feel up to conversation a lot of the time.

It was Kerry, and that pleased him on several levels. She had kept very much to herself over the last few days. He wasn't surprised. It was obvious that she was tired, and upset, and embarrassed, and he had no doubts that she would be barely functional without the medication. It worried him that she hadn't really spoken to anyone over anything that had happened. It was a sign of withdrawal, a withdrawal from the situation that, all things considered could precipitate a withdrawal from reality. Judging by what the rest had said about her normal personality, and by his own conversation with her before they had started with the medication, he was starting to think she might be over medicated. Doug had come right out and said it a day earlier, but Luka didn't put much credence to a diagnosis that started with " I know I'm pretty drunk but...." and ended with, " and that'd normally bring out her raving bitch side in under ten seconds, max." Still, it said *something* about her condition that Doug, who seemed to greatly enjoy sniping at her, was worried.

" Kerry, " he softly. She did look and act very subdued, but it seemed wrong of him to judge when no one was jumping for joy at the situation. She was holding a cup of coffee in one hand, and he idly hoped that she was drinking decaf. She didn't look like she'd been sleeping well. Not that I have so much to brag about, he thought as a slight smile came across his face. I hardly slept a wink last night because of bad dreams and I'm still drinking the good stuff.

" Luka. " She blinked. Then she stepped forward, as if she suddenly remembered what she had come out there for. " There's desert if you want it. Ice cream. John doesn't think the power will last through the night so we were going to eat the ice cream." She sipped her coffee.

" No more ice cream..." He sighed again, his memories of the war coming back to him. His children had loved ice cream, to the point that they could gorge on it all day. He shook off the thought. That was a different world, he told himself, and a different time and you won't do yourself any good by wallowing in memories. " Any vanilla?"

" French and regular. And chocolate." She smiled slightly. I'm more of a chocolate fan. I don't know what I'll miss more, chocolate ice cream or bananas. "

" I forgot... no more bananas." He wasn't that fond of them but he got the point. " Kerry, listen, about the medication... How are you doing with it? Side effects? That sort of thing? " It was hard to politely say, " Do you think you've been zombified?" She shook her head. " It's fine. I'm fine. I haven't noticed any side effects." A wary look crossed her face. He mentally sighed. He doubted that she would mention side effects or continued mental issues. Kerry was the sort that thoroughly understood the stigma of poor mental health. It didn't help that she had heard some of their remarks, both at their impromptu meeting and some that had been made after.

" Is it helping? If its not helping, we can try something else." That was what worried him. If it wasn't helping her, then there was no point in her taking it. Much as he had thought before, he wasn't physically afraid of a disabled woman half his size. Her unstable period seemed to have passed, and he was fully convinced that Captain Walker had deserved the many shots to the back and head. " Doug seemed to think that you were over medicated. "

" How drunk was he?" Her tone was matter of fact. She stepped closer. " He's not generally a drunk you know. He lost someone. Someone that was pretty special to him." She smiled pensively as she sipped her coffee. " I guess, in the back of my mind, I always thought they'd get married." She shook her head, still smiling. " I somehow saw them running off together, and coming back with silly grins on their faces, full of stories of how they were married by some Elvis impersonator in Vegas. And now she's dead."

" My father had something he used to say," Luka started. " The only thing we really know about life is that at the end, everybody dies."

She laughed. Or rather she chuckled, but he was glad to see someone laugh. They had all been decidedly serious the last few days. " Doug is a good man. We don't get along well." She gestured with the hand that she held the coffee mug in. " I think its pretty obvious we don't get along. He'll get past this, but it'll take time. It's a hard blow... loosing someone that close." She looked at him, a surprisingly piercing look, and seemed ready to say something more, but stopped herself. " There's plenty of ice cream anyway." With that, she turned around and went back into the house.

He followed her after a moment. There was no reason to wait, and perhaps ice cream would keep everyone calm and focused. That would certainly be a switch.


The ice cream was delicious. It was up to the usual Carter standard of quality, one of those Italian brands that he remembered from Europe. He didn't even think it was sold in the States. No one seemed too tired to concentrate, which was a rarity. Doug was drinking a beer, but that wasn't a concern. It was usually a little later in the evening that Doug would go after the harder stuff. Luka suspected he was having trouble sleeping, which didn't seem to be a rarity in their group. He hadn't slept well himself and the night before, while pacing in the hallway, he had heard Jeanie tossing and turning, and he considered her the most laid back and calm in the group. Of course that didn't mean she wasn't prone to nightmares, but it worried him. Lucy and Randi were chatting about clothes. Randi had definite opinions and evidently viewed Lucy's look as "dowdy". Luka rather liked the young woman's somewhat conservative look, conservative compared to Randi anyway. I'm just old fashioned, he decided as he averted his gaze from Randi's revealing top. It wasn't a new way of dressing either. Carter and Doug were too comfortable with it. Kerry was twirling ice cream around in her bowl. She didn't seem to be eating, which was starting to worry him. Lack of appetite was a side effect of Prozac, and it wasn't like the woman was overweight by any means. And, he thought suddenly, she never did say whether she thought was over medicated. Carter was leaning back on the couch beside her, his dish of ice cream long gone. For a group of people that had been highly stressed, they all seemed pretty relaxed. That's a plus, Luka thought.

He leaned forward in his easy chair. " Listen, I think we need to talk about what we're going to do. We can't just stay here forever. I mean, this is a pretty nice house but come winter, its going to be a little cold." Not that he knew that. He usually left for Louisiana as soon as the weather started to turn, the plus to the life of being a doctor temp.

" And there's all the... all the bodies." Carter added. " There's a disease issue. Cholera comes to mind. And typhoid." " And mutant strains of the superflu." Kerry said softly. Luka was surprised that she joined the discussion but he realized that she had a point. " Not to mention some old favorites like bubonic plague. And then there's animal borne diseases. With humanity out of the top place on the food chain, we're going to see an explosion in the animal populations. Rats for starters, have a lot more food available," her voice caught a little there, " and rats carry disease." There was a long silence after she finished.

" That's such a charming thought, Kerry." Doug chuckled. " Is this what you've been thinking about? The rat population?" Luka saw anger flare across her face, but it faded after a second. He looked at everyone else. They clearly expected more of an argument but instead, Kerry simply leaned back on the couch. Her quiet abdication seemed to startle Doug and surprise the rest of them. Luka wished he knew her better, because it just didn't seem that odd that she didn't want to fight. Perhaps the most disconcerting thing was that she had made a very good point.

He set down his ice cream dish down, letting it bang a little to regain everyone's attention. " Disease *is* a problem. So is the fact that the city is burning down. That's not going to stop until it rains. "

" What about other people?" Jeanie asked. She caught his eye, as if agreeing that they needed to keep the discussion moving. " We're not the only ones left alive in Chicago. We've all heard the gunfire."

" I don't think I want to know the people that are shooting." Lucy smiled as she spoke but her tone was serious. She looked a little more together than when Luka had met her, but he still wasn't taken with her. She was just so young, and maybe just a little too naive.

" But that's Luka's point." Jeanie pressed. " This may not be the safest place to be and we need to start thinking about how we're going to live. It's going to be pretty cold this winter without electrical heat and its pretty damn hot here without air conditioning. Stop and think a minute. This heat is not helping preserve all of the corpses. If we stick around we are risking illness at the very least. "

" But where do we go? " Carter spoke as if it was a rhetorical question. Judging by his tone, Luka suspected he had something in mind. The younger man waited a long moment, and then gestured expansively around the room. " I know this might be a shock, but this isn't the only house my family owns."

Randi shook her head. " I don't think visiting the small tropical island paradise where the Carters are worshipped like gods is entirely practical."

Everyone laughed. Carter took it fairly well. He waited until the laughter died off to continue. " I meant, " he said good naturedly, " that we could go to the hunting lodge."

" The hunting lodge?" Doug snickered. " We have the mansion, the tropical island, the hunting lodge.... What else? The bomb shelter and the thoroughbred horse farm?"

Carter smiled. " We have several thoroughbred horse farms. We even had a few horses at the hunting lodge. It has a bomb shelter too. We believe in being prepared or at least my grandfather did. He was a little paranoid on the subject actually. The hunting lodge is very self sufficient. It has its own generator, lots of solar power gadgets, lots of tasty animals to shoot, and its pretty isolated. My grandfather said it was our place to ride out a crisis." He smiled sheepishly. " I guess this is an official crisis."

" So where is this hunting lodge?" Jeanie asked.

" In Colorado." Carter got up and strode over to the bookshelves. He returned with a large atlas. He opened it on the coffee table. Everyone gathered around. Carter's face grew animated as he pointed to a dot that represented a town in the Rockies. " It's really not that far. We could be there in a couple of days if the roads were clear. It'd be nice and cool for the summer."

" The roads are terrible though." Lucy said. " Come on, you guys remember the drive here. We were lucky to get the cars through."

Luka held up his hand. " That's not really a problem. Motorcycles would be fine." It was something he had already thought about. He wasn't fond of motorcycles but they were a good way to get around blocked roads and there were surely going to be roads blocked.

He noted with pleasure that almost everyone seemed to be interested and in agreement. " So do we all want to go there? Anyone have any other suggestions?" He noted with interest that Randi looked liked she wanted to say something, but after a moment she leaned back in her seat. " Anything?"

Kerry raised her hand hesitantly, her face blotched with red. She was angry or embarrassed, it was hard to tell. He hoped it was embarrassment. Carter had told him that her temper was quite brutal and judging by the sudden worried looks on their faces, everyone was in agreement on that point. She lowered her hand as soon as he acknowledged her. " You realize, " she said curtly, " that there's no way I can ride a motorcycle for ten minutes, let alone over five hundred miles. You need full use of both legs to maintain balance on the turns and stopping. I don't have full use. Even riding behind one of you wouldn't work. Its painful. I can't even drive for long periods of time."

Both anger and embarrassment, Luka realized. Embarrassment from having to admit to being incapable of a task, and anger that they didn't think about her problems ahead of time. It had never occurred to him that she'd have problems with a motorbike, but then he didn't know exactly what was wrong with her. " All right, " he said easily, " that's not impossible. We're not in a hurry. What about a truck or a jeep?"

" I can't drive a stick shift either." Kerry said. " There's too many pedals. It would need to be an automatic."

Doug started to laugh. " Any other requests? Is a cd player a vital necessity too?"

Luka tensed as Kerry rose to her feet. Now there was no mistaking the fact that she was pissed off. " Doug, " she said calmly, but coldly, " If you think I'm enjoying this, you are sadly mistaken." Her eyes blazed, and she started stomping away. " I really could care less where we go or how. Just let me know when you all make a damn decision." With that, she left the room.

There was silence. " Well, " Carter said finally, " are we all agreed on Colorado?" Everyone nodded, though it seemed desultory to Luka. Carter seemed emboldened by the general acceptance. " Then tomorrow we'll go looking for vehicles and supplies. "

Wonderful, Luka thought, we made a decision *and* no one got slapped.



Part 13
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