Every Once In A While
Part Three
By Aeris Jade Orion
aerisjade@worldnet.att.net

Rating: PG-13/R
Pairing: Weaver, Legaspi, Randi, Doyle, Ensemble
Beta Reader: Scotty Kira Drag fighter Welles

Spoilers: Hell yeah. For most if not all of season seven



The halls were quieter than she remembered. Each patient seemed tired and drawn. The nurses rushing around in chaos, trying to keep up with each case. Greene seemed to be exhausted and agitated. Yelling out orders at the residents and orderlies.

The old board was now replaced with a clear plastic board that lowered and raised. Even the desk itself had been rearranged. Now there was an oval desk, split in half. Everything had been reorganized, and shuffled, making her old work place seem like a strange land. She remembered how hectic and busy it could be, but did there used to be an undercurrent of excitement? Even a degree of fun? What had happened to this place?

"Hey, Maggie...!"

Carter's boyish smile assured her that she was in the right place. Even his eyes were lit up, making her feel slightly guilty over not having made time to keep up their friendship. Especially when she noticed the loss of innocence in his eyes. "Hey yourself, hijo," she replied, her own smile appearing.

The handsome young man clapped her on the shoulder, a brotherly gesture that might have been a hug under other circumstances. "Kerry told me you might be stopping by," he said.

'Kerry, huh?' She chuckled softly. A couple of years ago, Carter would've balked at calling the fearsome Dr. Weaver by her first name. "When exactly did she tell you?"

"This morning. She called to complain about Randi. Apparently..." Carter paused to laugh shortly. "Get this. Apparently, she stowed away in Kerry's car. Can you believe that?"

Maggie cleared her throat innocently, unable to stop the small smirk from twitching at her lips. She quickly got control of herself as Carter narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Did she also tell you that I'm looking into the sexual harassment charges?"

Carter took her arm and started to walk down the hall towards Trauma two. "Yeah," he said, lowering his voice. "She asked me to help you anyway I could. She's really worried about this thing with Dr. Legaspi."

Maggie followed him into the empty trauma room and glanced around. She wasn't sure why she'd wanted to see the room. There wasn't any physical evidence to find. Not where sexual harassment involved. Her eyes traveled over the floor, the tables, counters, security cameras...

Her eyes darted back to the security camera in the corner. She didn't recall it being there when she was working here. They'd been installed in the hallways and other public areas shortly after Mark Greene was violently assaulted, she recalled, but trauma and recovery rooms were considered off-limits for privacy reasons. "When was that put in?" Maggie asked.

"She had them installed after...about a year ago," Carter told her, looking distinctly unsettled. "They're in all the rooms."

Maggie remembered hearing about the Sobriki stabbings last year. Some of Chicago's medical community, with their typically morbid humor, referred to it as 'The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.' Maggie didn't think it was funny at all. She'd known Lucy Knight, too.

"You know, it's funny," Carter said, making an obvious effort to think about something else, "Kerry first experimented with videotaping traumas a few years ago. The first incoming trauma I ever ran, she caught on tape and made me look like a total idiot. Caught me wiping my nose with my gloved hand and everything."

"Is that so?" Maggie replied absently, her mind on other things.

"Could have been worse. She also caught Mark telling Doug some things about his marital life that were really..."

"Too bad those things aren't running full-time," she said.

"They are now," Carter told her. "There's a motion sensor, so they automatically start taping whenever someone's in the room." He waved at the camera and said, "Smile. You're on County Camera."

Maggie looked at the cameras with renewed interest. "So...they would have been rolling while Dr. Legaspi talked to the girl in here, right?"

"Sure. I'm sure the detectives would've checked the tapes, if that's what you're thinking."

"That's what I'm thinking," she nodded. So wouldn't that have cleared things up one way or another? Assuming, of course, that they actually watched the tapes while investigating. If they hadn't... "Do you keep the tapes?"

"Yeah, of course. In the security office."

Maggie faced him more fully. "Wouldn't there be a record of when those tapes were viewed?"

Carter met her gaze as realization set in. "There's one way to find out..."



The highways and byways of America flew by, but Kerry kept her eyes on the road ahead, tuning out the sights along with the sound of her passenger's arguments.

"What good is this going to do?" Randi asked for the hundredth time. "You really think things'll be any better in San Francisco, or are you just using it as an excuse to run away from your problems?"

She ignored the dark-haired woman and coaxed the car to go a little faster. They were about a day from their destination.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd let your own fear conquer you," Randi sneered. "I used to think you were the toughest woman I ever met outside of prison. Maybe inside, too."

She knew what Randi was trying to do. She'd been doing it since they'd started for California. For some reason, she was actually attempting to get her angry. The entire time she'd known the desk clerk, it had been a constant battle between them, but this was a first, even for her.

"I mean, you've never run from anything." Randi shook her head sadly. Gazing at her as though she didn't even recognize her. "But as soon as you let someone get inside your skin, you take the first opportunity to head for the hills? Jeez, talk about wimping out..."

Kerry knew that the desk clerk wasn't going to shut up until she'd coaxed some sort of reaction from her. "I'm doing this for Kim."

"Oh. So the blonde asked you give up your job, your home, and your friends. And you oblige. Gee, how sweet."

She felt the familiar flash of anger threaten to come out. Fighting against the rage she spoke softly, no longer trying to hide the
emotional pain she felt. "I didn't say she asked me. I said I'm doing this for her."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is, she deserves someone better than me."

Randi sighed. "So what? Even if you two are through, why do you have to move away? Chicago's your hometown, too. And you were at County first."

Kerry shrugged. "It's not that simple, Randi. I just...I don't think I can handle seeing her now." And being around her, but not with her, hurts too much, she added to herself.



"I don't believe it. How on earth could the cops miss something like this?" Carter stared at the silent screen, watching as Kim listened to the young girl talk. Every few minutes, a nurse entered the room, grabbed something, then ran out again. Finally the blonde spoke, and the girl relaxed a great deal. Dr. Legaspi squeezed her hand and left.

"Maybe they didn't," Maggie replied, also watching the screen. "Maybe they watched them and didn't find anything, but just neglected to make a record of their viewing. It wouldn't be the first time people around here didn't fill out all the paperwork that they're supposed..."

"Wait a minute..." Carter rewound and froze the tape, and frowned slightly. Standing just inside the doorway connecting to trauma one was Conni Oligario. "You see that?"

Maggie leaned forward, starting to smile. "Well, what do you know..."



Randi hated to admit it, but she could understand exactly where Weaver was coming from. The ER Chief honestly believed that her love affair with Legaspi was completely over. She was also totally in love with her blonde lover, and Randi could just imagine what it would be like to see the one she loved every day. Every day, she would be a reminder of what Kerry'd lost, and might never have again. All's fair in love and war, or so they said. But while Kerry Weaver was fearless and invincible in war (and what was emergency medicine but a form of war), she was utterly vulnerable when it came to love. Randi had seen that long ago, and kept it to herself.

But she'd be damned if she were going to sit back and let the ER become Romano's personal dumping ground again. Weaver was strict, and could be temperamental, but at least she treated everyone with respect. If that meant Randi had to tie her up and drive her back to Chicago at gunpoint, so be it.

"Running isn't going to make it go away," she tried again.

"Do you like to walk?" Kerry asked.

Randi eyed her suspiciously. "Not really..."

"Then unless you want to walk to California, shut up."

She let out a sigh and tilted her seat back a few degrees more. Thelma probably wanted to bitch-slap Louise once in a while, too, she reminded herself.



"...that was when Dr. Legaspi told her she was gay," Conni concluded. "She wasn't touching the patient or acting flirtatious, or anything like that."

"You're certain about that?"

"She acted like one of the nuns in Sunday School." Conni nodded for emphasis. "I've seen patients in all kinds of states after suicide attempts, and I tell you that girl was NOT acting violated. If anything, she looked like she couldn't care less."

Maggie gave an inward sigh of relief. Conni Oligario might not be entirely comfortable with gay women, but she was the soul of honesty. "Why didn't you tell this to the detectives?"

"I did. Don't ask me whether they wrote it down or anything."

The lounge door slammed open as Malucci entered. "Conni, what did you do with Miss Carthay's labs?"

"I put them on her chart!"

"Well, they're not there now." Malucci gave her a look of disappointed expectation and walked out again.

"Residents..." Conni let out a deeply put-upon sigh and dumped her coffee. "I've got to go."

The nurse exited, and Maggie stood up, wincing as her bones popped loudly. She'd been working on this thing for the last 24 hours. Now at least all her work was starting to go someplace.

She could feel Carter pacing right behind her, struggling to keep quiet. She'd agreed to let him tag along, mainly because she felt like he wasn't telling her something. If things worked out, she'd try to get it out of him. Later.

"Why the hell would the cops keep pursuing this thing?" he wondered aloud. "If they talked to Conni and saw the tape, they should have dismissed this right away.

Maggie turned to her friend, tempted to respond. It still surprised her, after all these years, how he could be so naive. Just like when he'd covered up for Dale Edson's screwups, citing some kind of Musketeers' credo... "It's not that simple."

Carter stopped pacing and squared off with her. "Yes it is. She's innocent. We've got a tape, and an eyewitness."

"Yeah, but they've got more than that." She told Carter what her father had turned up: Shannon Wallace's father was a close friend of the Mayor. Add on to that his being the personal doctor of the police chief. Then of course, there were the two detectives, both of whom were known for their bigotry. Carter listened and nodded, but it was clear he didn't like it either. "Why are you so interested in what happens to Legaspi?" Maggie asked him.

"She shouldn't get persecuted just for doing her job," Carter replied. "And...because Kerry cares about her."

'Kerry' again. Not 'Dr. Weaver'. "And you care about Kerry, don't you?"

"Yeah. She bent over backwards to help me when I was screwing up my life and my career. A lot of people would have just let me go." Carter smiled, relaxing a little. "I still don't know her very well, but there were times when I lived in her house that I could see how lonely she is. She deserves a friend like Dr. Legaspi."

She had to smile at the term 'friend'. That same naiveti kept him from seeing what was really going on between Weaver and Legaspi. But Maggie had her own ideas about them. She'd recognized the way the older woman had acted when she'd talked about Legaspi. She'd seen certain signs when Legaspi had taken the picture from her. "They're a little beyond friends, Carter. They're lovers."

"I know." He nodded. "At least they were."

Ah. So he wasn't totally dense, just too much of a gentleman to blurt out his friend's secret. Maggie liked that. "What happened between them?"

The anxious energy drained from his body as he slumped against the counter. "I don't know. You know how private Kerry is, she never talks about her private life. All she would tell me is that she screwed up." He suddenly re-energized. "So now what? We've gotta do something about all this."

Maggie thought about it. "I know someone who'd like to meet you."

"Really? Is she pretty?"

She snorted with laughter. "No, he's not."



The air was warmer now. Warm enough that she could get away with a pair of jeans and an old sweater. She smiled gently at the sight around her. Miles of wilderness. Mountains with freshly melted snow running from them. Rivers rushing through at their highest level.

She was glad she'd listened to Randi. Pulling off the highway, onto one of the parks to eat lunch had been an excellent idea. No matter how much the clerk nagged at her and got on her nerves, Kerry was secretly glad to have the company.

"Did I ever tell you I was engaged to be married?" Randi asked out of nowhere, swallowing a mouthful of pastrami on rye.

"No." Kerry glanced at her in surprise. She recalled how Kim had responded to her own prior marriage. "You didn't."

Randi nodded thoughtfully, taking another bite of her sandwich. "Yeah.  Only man I ever really loved, and it scared me. I was this troublemaker that no one wanted to get close to, then one day I met Kelley. He saw right past it all."

Much as Kim had seen through her... "What happened?"

Randi looked hesitant for one of the few times Kerry had ever seen. "The night after he proposed, I...went to this club and started a fight. I had been messing with this one guy in particular. He finally had enough and came at me. I pulled my gun and that's when the police showed up. I'd found it in a gutter a few months earlier. Turned out to have been a murder weapon. The police charged me for that, too, though the murder charge was dismissed later on. But Kelley... The look in his eyes when he found out..."

Ignoring the rest of her yogurt, Kerry thought about the time she'd caught Jerry and the nurses betting on what Randi had served time in prison for. She'd been the one to brazenly pose the question in front of everyone, and the guarded look on Randi's face as she replied, "Malicious mischief...assault...battery...possession of a concealed weapon...and aggravated mayhem," was fresh in Kerry's memory. Like she was challenging them to make something out of it. No one had.

Randi numbly put her sandwich back in its wrapper. "I was scared to let anyone in, and I let that fear drive me. It was the last time I saw him. I didn't even try to get him back, and it's something I've lived with ever since." She turned to Kerry, letting the mask drop for just a second. Allowing her boss to see the just how intelligent and serious she was. "If you love someone...anyone," Randi told her in a whisper, "don't give them up without a fight."

Kerry swallowed as she realized that the woman she thought could never possibly understand her knew her better than anyone else. Their eyes held each other for a long moment before Kerry blinked and took a swig of her diet soda. Her mouth had gone very dry.

Just as quickly the gum-chewing street-smart woman was back, and walking toward the driver's side door. "Come on, if we get going we can make Cali by tomorrow." She smirked before getting in the car. "I heard Tool going to be in town for a concert."

Kerry tossed her trash into the trash can next to the picnic table, and made her way to the other door. Settling into her seat she struggled to get their original relationship back. "Is that a band or a hardware store?"



"So this is John Carter." The pepper-haired man squinted at the young resident. "I expected you to be younger, somehow...and short, with pimples."

Carter smiled gamely and shook Doyle's hand. "Well, you grow up fast in the ER. Nice to meet you, sir."

"Is he the one you took to the pistol range," the older man asked his daughter, "and he blew out the exit sign?"

Maggie fought back a smile as Carter threw a look at her. "Did you find out anything?"

Her father tore his gaze away from Carter and nodded absently. He pushed a folder across the booth table. "Apparently, Miss Wallace is quite the victim."

Maggie opened the folder, and skimmed the first page with disbelief. "I don't believe it...."

Carter leaned over, trying to read the file over her shoulder.

She held it against her chest, not wanting to spoil the surprise just yet. "John," she asked coyly. "Did you ever read the story about the boy who cried 'Wolf'?"

"Yeah, sure."

"How about the girl who cried 'harassment'?" she added, and her smile was wolfish in its own right.

Aeris Jade Orion
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