ER/Stand Crossover




" So what's with the gasoline?" Lucy asked as she rifled though her backpack. Kerry tried not to look as irritated as she felt. She didn't want to explain her motivations to the young woman, since they didn't make sense. Well, she allowed, they make sense if a person accepts ghosts and demons. I have to, since I have direct evidence of both, but Lucy was a different story. Lucy was, underneath the perky, awkward exterior, probably one of the brightest and most rational people Kerry had ever met. In different circumstances, they couldn't have been friends. Lucy would have continued on with her medical training, and as her direct supervisor, Kerry would have needed to maintain a distance. Now, there was no real barrier, except Lucy's jealousy over Doug and Kerry didn't know how to deal with that.

It didn't take a plague for Kerry to know that she wasn't good with people. People had always been something of a mystery to her. She didn't understand why Lucy was jealous over Doug for example. It seemed clear, regardless of the baby, that Doug didn't plan on ever being romantic with her again. It hadn't been very romantic to begin with, really. She also didn't understand why Lucy was there. It seemed like the safer thing would be to remain at the house, and Lucy was smart enough to know that. She decided to go for broke and just tell Lucy. It could hardly ruin her reputation any worse than it already was. " I was using it to make the mining shaft more flammable."

" And we need to do that because?" Lucy held out a carefully wrapped sandwich to her. Kerry took it; not surprised to see that Lucy's idea of supplies still involved food that spoiled without refrigeration. Lucy was bright, but Lucy was not terribly practical. The younger woman looked at her with an expression of curiosity and interest. Kerry had to admit it was rather impressive that Lucy had even found her. She had to share plan with someone anyway.

" Flagg is back. He wants to kill us all, but his powers are. reduced, I suppose. He attacked me. I think I can lure him here and once he's in the mining shaft, I'll throw a match. That should do the trick." And it wouldn't kill her, she believed Robert on that point. It bothered her, because she sensed that someone had to die, and she didn't want that for anyone in the group.

Lucy looked at her. " It won't work. I mean, it is a good idea but it won't work. You've read the bible right?"

" Yes, but not in a while." There seemed to be very little reason to read scripture over the last few months, and Kerry wasn't very religious to begin with.

Lucy hesitated. " Sometimes there's a price to pay to get rid of evil. Look at Vegas. It was destroyed. Do you honestly think we're going to get off scot free?"

It was a good point. " Look, I'm not sure that my plan will work but at least it's a plan. There's a chance that no one will get killed. I admit there's a chance someone will, but that person would be me, and I can live with that." Lucy wasn't the one that had defied Flagg at every turn. By hiking out there with her gun and rucksack full of sandwiches, Lucy was putting herself in danger. " You need to head back, Lucy. This is going to be dangerous."

" You don't understand," Lucy said, her voice filled with exasperation. She paced around the barn, kicking up hay. " There has to be a sacrifice and it can't be you. You're going to have a baby. There has to be a sacrifice, but God never asks for that much. It can't be you."

" Isn't this the same God that killed approximately 99.44% of the population? Was that just for kicks? I saw enough pregnant women die in June to know that it's not something that deters death, Lucy." Kerry found herself getting angry. They were getting into an area where she felt shaky to begin with. Religion, metaphysics, things that depended on faith. those were things that she didn't like. Why she had to be the one who seemed to get the most contact with the unknown, she didn't know. It felt like a cruel joke, made worse by the fact that she felt completely inadequate to understand things. She had put aside the fact that a dead man had neatly stitched up her hand, and she ignored it when she had dreams that seemed like visions. Why couldn't Lucy have been the oh so lucky one to get to deal with this, she thought. Why does it have to be me? Kerry thrived on physical problems. If someone had a hole in their aorta, she knew exactly what to do. If people were hungry, she could make food. Problems were things that had to be solved and yet she felt completely at a loss to handle the situation, because deep down, her often ignored sixth sense was saying that Lucy was right. And if Lucy was right, then Lucy was there for a reason, a reason that Kerry refused to accept. It can be fixed, Kerry thought, the question was how.

Lucy kicked one of the empty gas cans. " Are you done? Do you need some help?" She looked at Kerry earnestly. It was like looking into the eyes of a baby lamb. Kerry tried not to think about what generally happened to lambs in the bible. Lucy seemed to catch her mood. " Stop looking so guilty. I'm not an idiot and I'm not a child. This is going to be dangerous and I understand the risk. You can't be the sacrifice, Kerry. Somebody has to." Lucy took a deep breath. " It's all right. I never thought I'd live past thirty anyway."

" Lucy." That was probably the most depressing thing Kerry had ever heard, made worse by the honest, open way Lucy said it. There was just something wrong in hearing such a young woman say something so fatalistic. " It doesn' t have to be you either. You don't have to throw your life away just because you think you're fated to die. Why would you think that any way?" It just seemed so foreign of an idea to Kerry. Granted, she didn't believe in fate either.

Lucy looked at her oddly. " Aren't you putting yourself in the same place? You're not only planning to kill yourself, you are taking a baby with you. Have you thought about that?"

" If my plan works, nobody gets killed at all," Kerry responded. Of course, if her plan failed, then Lucy's words were true, but she tried to ignore that little fact. She just had to make sure her plan worked. No one had to die, the rational voice in her brain chimed, the plan can work. Lucy just doesn't see it because she's probably still depressed.

Lucy simply shook her head. " It won't happen that way. You know that in your heart, even if you can't let yourself really think about it." She picked up one of the still full gas cans. " These are pretty heavy. You shouldn't be lifting things this heavy. You're pregnant and you're kind of high risk. How many are left?"

" Just that one and the one next to it. And maybe four more." Kerry tried not to let how tired she was come into her voice. Lucy had a point, a good point, a point that she had no intention of admitting to. She had spent the better part of a day and a half lifting those cans and carrying them and the truth was, she was worn out. Exhausted really. As much as she wanted Lucy to leave as soon as possible, she also didn't want to drag those remaining cans over to the mining building. Talking to Lucy had been a welcome respite even though she could feel herself stiffening up. " Those go in the shaft. I didn 't plan to pour them out. They're just for.. added firepower. Lucy, you need to leave. You're putting yourself at risk."

Lucy picked up another can. " Why don't you show me where you are putting these, at least? You look really tired. I wouldn't feel right leaving knowing that you're hauling all this stuff around."

A protest started to rise in Kerry's mind but she forced it away. Lucy wasn' t making some sort of veiled reference to her handicap and moving all of the rest of the cans proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was fully capable of moving them by herself. If Lucy was concerned, it was because of the baby, and Kerry decided that it was silly to protest. She would make Lucy leave after the remaining gas cans were moved. " I'll show you where I' m putting them."

The younger woman followed her out into the snow. It didn't feel right and she worried. The problem was that it felt right to have Lucy there, and it would feel even better if the entire group was there. If her sixth sense was in fact getting pretty accurate, then that feeling meant her plan would fail. On the plus side, it meant Lucy, and the shade of Robert Romano were right, that she would survive the final battle. On the negative side, it meant her feeling that somebody was going to die. It depressed her. It depressed her a lot.

The mining building was pretty extensive. She suspected that whoever had built it let it double as a bunkhouse. The main room had a stack of bunk beds off to one side and tables were set up. She led Lucy to the next room, where the rock face of the mountain made up the far wall. It was colder, and the smell of gasoline was very strong. The mining shaft was where she had concentrated most of the gasoline. Her thought was that her very presence would lure Flagg there. She would get him close to the opening, and then fire a gun. The spark would start the fire.

" I think I see what you're planning." Lucy said. She set the gas cans down, close to the shaft but not in it. Kerry could see that she did understand. The cans were insurance. Once the fire was lit, the gasoline soaked floorboards would catch, and the gas cans would explode. It wasn't terribly clever, but it was effective.

" It should work," Kerry said. It was just a matter of time before Flagg came. She looked at Lucy, and again hoped that the younger woman wasn't there for the reason that she thought. It wasn't right, and the more she considered it, the more she wondered if that was the right conclusion to draw. Maybe, she thought, this is just coincidence. Maybe Lucy was just worried. The thought made her frown. She was tired of trying to make sense of odd notions and feelings, and she was tired of trying to assign deep meaning to every action. Instead, she decided to try to make right something that she suspected she had put asunder. It wasn't easy, she always tended to be too blunt in such talks, but it was possibly her last chance. " Lucy, you know that Doug and I aren't a couple, right?"

That seemed to take Lucy back in surprise. " Well, yes."

" I just wanted to make sure you knew that." I am being too blunt, Kerry realized. She decided to press forward anyway. The problem had to be addressed. She sensed that Lucy hadn't pressed forward with Doug out of a misguided sense of honor. Doug was the father of her child. Nothing more. Perhaps, a better friend than she ever would have thought, but Doug was not the love of her life. Lucy needed to understand that there was no chance that there would ever be anything more than friendship between Doug and Kerry, and that there was no reason for her to wait. " It's not going to bother me if you and Doug date. You're both adults. I think you'd be good together." And she did. In some ways, she thought Lucy was a much better match for Doug than Carol Hathaway. Carol tended to ignore a lot of Doug's lesser traits. Lucy didn't have the same tendency to submerge herself in Doug's little world and was less likely to put up or condone things.

" Um ok." Lucy seemed quite off put by her words.

" Hey!" They both spun around. Kerry whipped out the .45 she'd been carrying but lowered it very quickly. Taris was standing in the doorway, wearing all of her winter clothes, with a smile on her face. " I followed Lucy, because I knew she'd find you."

And that put a whole new worry in Kerry's mind. The Bible was full of examples of sacrifice, and the Old Testament in particular used children. It was hard, because her sixth sense was suddenly chiming in that something really bad was about to happen.



Part 59
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