A Simple Twist Of Fate

Per Request

Part One

By: Monica

Rating: PG-13

With a Luka/Weaver Romance

It is said that one small decision made in a split second can change the course of your life, your entire life. It is said that if you get out of bed on the left side instead of the right then your day will be different, yes and no decisions always leave one to think what could have been or what couldn’t have. Luka was running late for work and he most certainly didn’t want to hear from Weaver again so he was trying to shave quite quickly, and in between the strokes of the blade he was trying to get dressed it should have been a simple task but he was also slightly hung over from the night before. He finished getting dressed and hurried towards the kitchen where he took out a bottle of vodka and had one gulp, drinking what you drank the night before was said to help a hangover. He then hurried outside while putting on his tie, it was cold and he hadn’t bothered with a jacket and he didn’t have the time now to debate going back inside to get one. He entered the black corvette that he had bought on a total act of spontaneity and took off, going well over 50 miles per hour. He had a fail safe if he ever got pulled over, he would just tell the police he was a doctor and he was called into an emergency. Every time he had been pulled over it was by a woman cop and he was lucky that he could use his charm to weasel his way out of it.

He sat his cup of coffee in the cup holder and pressed down the gas a little more before turning the radio on. He rolled his eyes only to find that it was on some teeny bopper station so he took his eyes off of the road for just a moment and opened the glove compartment to get a CD. It wasn’t a very long drive to County General but he wasn’t about to listen to Christina, or Brittany through the duration of the journey. This split second that he looked away he made his fatal error, he had grabbed a CD alright but when he looked up it was too late and he slammed on his breaks but he still plowed into the car in front of him. Remarkably his only injuries were a few cuts on his hands and face but the person he hit wasn’t so lucky. He did a quick check to make sure that he was okay before grabbing his cell phone and heading to the car in front of him which had hit a telephone pole. The car was so crumpled up that he didn’t even recognize it as the car that belonged to Abby Lockhart. He walked to the driver’s side and looked in the window, which was completely shattered, the shards crunched under his feet as he walked and when he looked in he saw Abby slumped over the wheel. Plenty of people were now crowding the area trying to either see something gross or help, but most people just wanted to gawk at the magnitude of the accident. From the back of the crowd Luka was dimly aware of some one shouting that he had called an ambulance.

Everything from then on was a blur, he barely even remembered riding in the ambulance to get to the hospital. If he would have just left earlier, or driven slower, or paid attention to what he was doing this all could have been avoided. He stood outside of the trauma room looking in, he couldn’t even bring himself to go in there the guilt was just too much to handle. If she died because of a stupid choice that he had made then he didn’t think he could live with himself any longer. He took a deep breath not even feeling the cut that was on his forehead. Carter and Lewis were the ones treating Abby and besides the guilt that he felt, the look on Carter’s face was enough to get him to stay away.

“Luka, you’re bleeding.” Kerry said just as he turned to head for the lounge. He rolled his eyes and stepped past her he didn’t want to hear her lecture him on how irresponsible he was. He felt bad enough and he wished people would just leave him the hell alone. “I’m not going to lecture you about the crash Luka I just want to take a look at that cut.”

“Fine, but if you say anything about it, I walk out of here.” He said in a threatening tone he was angry of course but he was a lot more scared. There was no way he was going to let anyone see him being scared because in some way that might threaten his manhood. Weaver nodded at him and headed towards an empty exam room, he reluctantly followed her. Once in there he sat down and kept his mouth shut thinking of all the things he could have done to prevent this, and how easy it would have been to do it too. Luckily he didn’t need stitches and Weaver was quite amazed that he was not more injured. She hadn’t actually seen the crash site but when she heard that Abby had to be cut out of the car she figured it must have been terrible.

“There,” Weaver pulled off her gloves and tossed them after she finished, “I hope you are going to stick around here and talk to the police.”

“Yes…besides I want to see if Abby is okay.” He said before standing up and walking out of the room. He spotted the police almost immediately and his first instinct told him to turn around and go the other direction, but for some reason the way Kerry had suggested that he stay made him feel like it was his responsibility.

After talking to the police he was informed of Abby’s condition by Carter who was definitely none to gentle about it. He describe every singe detail of her status like it was Luka’s fault, of course Luka knew it was but he thought that maybe Carter didn’t have to be such an ass for the time being. Finally after a long debate Luka was allowed into the ICU to see Abby. She was in a coma and she had about a 30% chance of coming out of it. He took a seat by her bed and put his hand on hers quietly telling her how sorry he was and how he should be the one in the bed and not her.

“I think she knows that you are sorry, Luka.” He heard a familiar voice from behind him and then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head slightly to see that Kerry was standing there with a somber expression on her face. He sighed heavily he had done stupid things before but never something of this magnitude to some one that he cared about. For the first time in a very long time he felt completely alone, it was like an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach and he most certainly didn’t like it.

“Yes but saying sorry isn’t going to fix this is it?” He replied softly as he squeezed Abby’s hand a little just wanting her to wake up. He didn’t care if she never spoke to him again, he could live with that, what he couldn’t live with was her dying. He felt tears prick at his eyes so he turned away from Weaver so she couldn’t see them. She stood there for a moment with her hand on his shoulder, knowing that he was crying his silent tears but she wasn’t going to say anything about it.

“If you want to talk you know where to find me…” She slowly moved her hand from his shoulder and turned to leave when she felt his much larger, stronger hand over hers holding it gently but firmly in place.

“Will you please just stay with me a little longer? You are the only one who hasn’t looked at me like I’m the root of all evil.” He laughed a little and wiped his face and she smiled at him before pulling up a chair and sitting next to him. “I was just thinking about how if I wouldn’t have gone out last night, and I wouldn’t have had a hangover, then I wouldn’t have been running late and this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Do you ever think that there is a reason for everything?” She replied placing her hand on his leg just above his knee. He put his hand on top of hers, he was raised catholic but had stopped believing in god a long time ago.

“Well explain to me why god would have a perfectly good reason for this happening? Why wasn’t I injured? I am the one who deserves to be in that bed not her.” He replied his voice getting increasingly louder, Weaver smiled at him weakly and tried to get him to tone it down just a little.

“Maybe this is your wake up call…”

“And maybe I’m just an asshole Kerry.” He snapped back at her before looking up at Abby, her head wrapped in a bandage and tubes stuck just about anywhere they could fit them. Weaver didn’t take offense at his rough tone because she took into account the fact that he was angry.

“You can believe that this happened because of your poor decisions if you want. I believe that if this was your wake up call then Abby will be fine so why don’t you think of it that way?” She offered her opinion in a soothing tone of voice but he didn’t know if he could buy into her crap.

“Well I could believe that the moon is made of cheese but that wouldn’t make it so.” He replied in a tone of voice that was completely laced with sarcasm. Weaver couldn’t take it any more, she was trying to comfort him but with every word that came out of her mouth he had a retort. She didn’t want to leave him there alone but she felt as if she might get snippy with him if she stayed. She nodded at him and stood up silently before she turned and walked out of the room. After she left Luka laid his head gently by Abby’s and started to cry silently until he drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up it was dark outside and he wondered how long he had been sleeping there, and why no one had tried to wake him up. He figured Carter of all people would be watching his every move, he knew that he wasn’t very wanted around the hospital any more. He took in a deep breath and sat back in the chair, he was hungry so he decided that it wouldn’t hurt if he went across the street to get some food. He left the ICU and his head was throbbing slightly from the cut but he told himself that all the pain he felt was certainly pain he deserved. As he headed through the ER he tried to avoid Carter and Weaver, he felt bad about before when he snapped at her. She was just trying to be nice to him and considering that everyone else wanted to lynch him he figured it must have been hard for her to do that too. Weaver was on her way out the door, her shift had ended and she didn’t want to try to converse with Luka her day had been bad enough. He stepped up right behind her as he was leaving but she didn’t notice him, and if she did she certainly wasn’t acting like it.

“Kerry,” He said as he sucked up his pride for the moment, “I’m sorry about earlier I know you were just trying to help…thank you.” He offered her a slight smile and she smiled back a little too, her smiled made him feel so much better like half of the pain had been washed away just by that one action.

“No apology needed Luka, you are in a very tough position right now.” She put her hand on his arm gently and they continued outside to the ambulance bay. He looked at Doc Magoo’s and almost instantly he got the lonely feeling again. He didn’t really want to eat by himself but he felt like if he asked Kerry and she declined then he would look like an idiot.

“You know I was just about to go get something to eat, would you like to join me?” He asked her nicely, she was very tired and she just wanted to go home and take a hot back and have a nice strong drink but the expression on his face told her that he needed to be with some one.

“Okay but you’re buying.” She smiled and he smiled back at her, and once again her smiled seemed to chase all of the loneliness away. He didn’t know what it was about her but something had changed, and now he was just happy that she would take time out of her life to spend with him. He almost felt like he didn’t want to be with out her for any longer then he had to be. They headed into Doc Magoo’s together, as Luka was thinking about how this might just be his wake up call.

End Part I