ER/Stand Crossover




It was a typical mess, Luka thought. He had never prided himself on being organized. That had been Daniella's job when they were married, and since her death, he had let a lot of things that weren't important go. Like washing his clothes. He'd stopped caring and usually just drove into town and picked up new ones rather than fight people over the washer. He was similar to everyone else in that respect. Organization was not a personality trait that many of them shared. Carter and Jeanie, designers of the chore schedule, both had their moments but they generally peaked at moments of agitation and didn't care the rest of the time. Kerry enjoyed micromanaging everything so if she wanted something "organized" she did it herself from start to finish. So unless it was something she wanted to do, she wasn't terribly interested.

Besides, Luka thought, she was the one who put us in this mess. The last thing he really wanted to do on a cold December afternoon was search abandoned buildings and referee arguments between adults. For example, Dave and Doug were in much disagreement with Carter over what pregnant women shouldn't do. Carter felt, and Luka concurred, that it was pretty cold for a pregnant woman to be running around for hours. Obviously Dave and Doug agreed, that was why they were off searching for a pregnant woman. Carter however, felt that the concern extended to Randi as well, and wanted Randi to head back to the house.

" It won't mean less people searching, " Carter patiently explained. " Lucy can take Randi's place and we have to have someone at the house for Taris."

That Doug and Dave were protesting was due far more to their level of upset than to any real problem with the idea. " Randi seems fine." Dave scoffed.

Carter's eyes narrowed. It was a surprisingly harsh look for the young man, a look Luka hadn't seen before, but applauded just the same. It was cold, and getting colder as the sun started to set. It was ridiculous to keep searching anyway. Kerry was going to return when and if she wanted. Luka had already come to the conclusion that if she was hiding; they wouldn't find her until she wanted to be found. If she was dead, the cold would prevent them from finding a body. If she was hurt, he suspected that she was pretty well screwed. Regardless, he didn't think that she was going to be found by their half assed methods. Randi didn't need to be out there. She was at just as much risk as Kerry was, if not more. He had gotten a little more of her family health background out of her and there was a worrisome history of miscarriage. Carter had a point, especially since it was extremely doubtful that Randi was doing that much better of a job than Lucy would. Randi was looking tired and heavy with child. There was no need for Randi to be searching cold houses. If Luka had his way, Jeanie would be going with her. Jeanie didn't share his concern, that was true, but he was a bit more of a traditionalist than he liked to admit. Something bad was going to happen, that he knew, and he wanted to protect the women. It was sexist but that was just how he felt.

Carter took a step closer to Dave, his shoulders squared. Luka tensed, sensing what was about to happen. " Dave," Carter said softly, his words tight with anger, " Randi is almost six months pregnant. You don't want Kerry running around in this weather. Well, I don't want Randi to either, for the same damn reason. She's more pregnant than Kerry. Lucy would probably be better at searching than her anyway. She's tired. She needs to head back to the house and I don't really care what you think about it."

Luka stepped in, and grabbed Dave's arm before it had a chance to rise and pop Carter in the face. " I think that John is right. Randi should head back. She really is tired, Dave. It'll be more helpful to get someone out here that is fresh. Besides, it might hurt Lucy's feelings to not be included." He felt like a raving third stage male saying it, but he knew it would stop the fight that was about to start. In reality, having Lucy help out was less handy than having Randi, even if Randi's pregnancy was slowing everything up. Lucy was clumsy and not terribly thoughtful about details. Worse, she was often nervous by herself and tended to stay close to whoever she was partnered with. She was a good kid, Luka never would deny that, but he was pushing the idea of Randi heading back for Randi's sake, not Lucy's.

" I'm not a piece of meat." Randi chimed in. She gestured to the sun, which was starting to head west and then to her watch. " I think we should all head back. Not for the day," she held up her hand as if to ward off the protest she knew was coming, " but to get warm and get something to eat. Look at you all. Dave, you're shivering and you have been for over an hour. Carter's turning blue. Doug doesn't even have gloves. An hour break isn't going to hurt anything and we can pick Lucy up." Randi looked to him for back up.

He did his best to look menacing. He never thought of himself as intimidating but Jeanie had told him that everyone found him physically imposing. It was silly. At best he was just taller than everyone. He certainly wasn't more muscular. He could take Doug, that was true. Doug was, at heart, a soft touch and confrontational only over children. Luka was a bit larger, and a bit younger. Dave and Carter were a different story. Carter was physically strong, almost the same size as him and if pressed about something important, Carter would fight and fight hard. Dave was the same, and Dave had a much quicker temper. He found it amusing at the time, but now he hoped it would come in handy. " Randi is right." He struggled to find something else to say. " Maybe we should try something different. We've looked all over the town, but we haven't checked those farms outside of town."

" Damn it," Doug muttered. He ran a cold looking hand through his hair. " It never even crossed my mind to check." He paused, obviously taking a moment to think. " Maybe we should rethink this and get a little more organized. We 've gone over the town and there's no sign of her. We need a new plan." Dave looked like he wanted to say something but it was clear that everyone else wanted to head back and Luka knew that Dave wasn't one to go against the crowd. It probably didn't help that it was cold and starting to feel pretty futile. Luka didn't know why, but he felt like they'd been wasting time. Not wasting time exactly, he corrected himself, but I feel like we've been holding a place somewhere while events move on around us. It wasn't a good feeling. He didn't like it, he didn't like being a pawn.

After a few moments of glaring, everyone started shuffling off to the truck and jeep. Doug and Dave hopped in the back of the blue truck while Randi and Carter took the cab. Luka went to the jeep. Normally he would have offered one of them a ride. It was cold to be riding in a truck bed, but he wasn't in the mood to deal with either Doug or Dave now that they were in agreement on a dinner and sanity break.

It wasn't that much warmer inside the jeep anyway. The plastic roof wasn't quite attached right. Carter had promised several times to fix it but it never had been taken care of and flapped merrily as he and Jeanie drove. Jeanie had been extremely quiet during the entire argument and during the whole day of searching. " Are you OK?" he asked.

She nodded. " This is pretty pointless." There was a degree of hopelessness in her voice that Luka found worrisome.

" What do you mean?" It occurred to him that Jeanie probably knew Kerry best but they hadn't asked her what she thought about the last few days antics. Then again, he trusted her enough that he knew she would have spoken up if she had something relevant to add.

" Something's going to happen." Jeanie said. " Sometimes, even before the plague, I would wake up in the morning, knowing something bad was going to happen. I think Kerry's trying to stop whatever it is, and its not going to work. It can't work. It's like there's a play and we've all been assigned roles." Her tone didn't pick up at all and that worried him even more. Jeanie was, to him, a source of quiet strength and if she was scared or frightened, it didn't bode well. It didn't bode well at all.

" It'll be OK," he said. He didn't feel it, but he wanted to make her feel a little better. If it came right down to it, he would make sure that she walked away from whatever was about to happen. That he had already decided.

" I know," she said softly. They rode in silence for a few moments. Then, Jeanie put her hand on his leg and looked at him intently. " I love you. I don't say it as often as I should, but I do. These last few months have been wonderful, despite everything that's been happening." She stopped. " I just wanted you to know that."

" I love you too." It was the same for him, and he didn't think she knew just how she had made him happy. It had been a long time since he had been happy. " If anything happens to me, I don't want you to be unhappy for the rest of your life. I was that way when my wife was killed and I was miserable for years, not realizing that it was possible for me to be in love again. I was wrong. I don't want you to ever be that unhappy and miserable."

" You will be all right, " she said, a smile flitting across her face, " but I promise. Will you promise to take care of Taris. if anything happens to me?"

" Yes. And you'll do the same. I think we're both worrying too much." He laughed a little, hoping to ease the tension. He did have a bad feeling about the whole mess, but he also thought that they were both starting to creep each other out with the talk of death and dying. He pulled up to the house. The place looked quiet. He wasn't surprised, he couldn't see Lucy going on a wild rampage and Taris was generally well behaved. Still, there weren't any lights on and that was odd. Lucy and Taris both were the sort to flick on lights whenever it started to get dark. He suspected that Taris was more than a little afraid of the dark, to the point that she had night lights in her room. He thought Lucy would have appreciated a night light. It was odd to not see any lights on.

Dave and Randi were at the door, while Doug and Carter were wandering around the yard, deeply interested in something that Luka didn't see. It made his sense of unease increase. Doug and Carter weren't outdoors sort of people so whatever they had found had to be pretty obvious. " What's going on?"

Doug gestured to the snow covered ground. " There's tracks in the snow. They 're not fresh. It was snowing and this set of tracks," and he pointed to the larger set of footprints, " is partly filled in. The smaller set isn't filled in at all so they were made after it stopped snowing." It went unspoken that Lucy and Taris made the prints and Luka felt his concern step up several notches.

That concern was born out by the excited shouting coming from the house. Dave had gone inside, as had Jeanie and they both rushed out, looking worried. " They're not here!" Dave shouted. " Both of them!"

" I don't think Lucy knew Taris was in the house." Jeanie said. She held out a piece of paper that had been written on. " She left a note saying that she was going to check the out buildings that are on Carter's property. Taris must have decided to go after her."

" Well, we can't let them wander around." Doug said quickly. " It'll be getting dark soon. Lucy can take care of herself but if Taris didn't find her." He gestured to the woods. " A little girl shouldn't be wandering the woods at night."

It was certainly a good idea, but judging by how stunned everyone looked, Luka knew that he was going to need to take charge. He didn't want to, he felt that things were spiraling down to a grand climax that he didn't want to see, but he had to. " All right, lets get some food and warmer clothes. We'll have to walk and it will get dark so we need flashlights too. Let's meet on the porch in fifteen minutes."

It was going to be bad, a voice whispered in his mind. He shuddered, and hoped the cold chill that washed through him was really just the cold.



Part 60
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