TITLE:  Home and Dry (Or, Whether July Kit Or Not, Here I Come), part
4/4
AUTHOR: Ellen Hursh
RATING:  PG-13/R/NC-17 (Little 'a this, little 'a that.)
KEYWORDS:  KW/LKo romance; angst; sexual innuendo and situations
(the type of story.  Angst, romance, humor, fun, medical drama, etc.)
LAST EPISODE SEEN:  "Witch Hunt"
TIMELINE:  Uh... mid-July-ish, 2000. Nearly two months after "May Day".
CROATIAN:  "Odjebi" = "fuck off"; Gdje = where. Any other Croatian words
are either explained in that section, or have been covered in previous
installments (in this case, from the rewrite of the second half of
Season 6). For the sake of convenience (as well as my own peace of
mind!), assume that any conversations that involve Croatians, that do
*not* use any Croatian words, are conducted in Croatian. On the other
hand, conversations between Croatians and non-Croatians, or that use
Croatian words, are to be assumed to be in English.
ARCHIVE:  If you must.
SONG:  "Home and Dry", written and performed by Gerry Rafferty;
available on the 1978 Capitol-EMI album "City to City", which I highly
recommend... along with his other work.
DISCLAIMER:  ER and all its characters belong to Warner Bros.  No
infringement of their copyright is intended.  This story was written for
the enjoyment of "ER" fans everywhere, and may be downloaded for your
own pleasure.
SUMMARY/SPOILERS:  Luka returns home from his trip to Croatia,
reflecting on his time spent there, and reunites with Kerry. Absolutely
no spoilers, because I know that by now I've deviated far, FAR afield of
the show. (Even farther than I already had, up to this point! :-)
AUTHOR'S NOTES:  Oddly enough, I got inspired to start this the last
time "Long Way Around" aired on TNT (pretty much just because the phrase
appears in the lyrics). "Home and dry" is a British phrase that
indicates that one has "safely achieved a goal" (thanks for the wording,
Michelle H!). "Dnevnik" is an evening news program on TV in Croatia.
PREVIOUSLY, ON MY ER:  Luka and Kerry embarked on an affair that turned
out to be based on feelings of love for both of them, and she asked him
to move in with her; Carter was stabbed and first attempted suicide,
then began abusing drugs in order to cope with both chronic pain and the
guilt of Lucy's death, and was sent to a rehab program for doctors in
Atlanta; Luka hired a PI to find Kerry's biological family, with ironic
results, and Kerry had Luka's sole remaining family picture restored,
better than ever; Luka travelled to Croatia, to visit family and "lay
some ghosts to rest"; Spike has the hots for Buff-- oh.




"Dr Benton?" Benton groaned silently as he saw Dr Kovac approaching him;
it took a little while to realize that his foreign colleague looked so
strange because he was dressed much more informally than usual. "I
wanted to apologize to you for what happened back in May. I lost
perspective that day, and ignored the rules of triage in favor of my
personal feelings about your patient."

"Yeah... well... I had time to think about it, too, and I started
thinking about how I'd feel if that guy had shot Reese. My son," he
explained, when Kovac stared at him blankly. "He's a little over three
years old." Luka nodded.

"Yes, I understand that age - my son was nearly three," he said quietly.

"I didn't know you had kids, Dr Kovac."  He shrugged, a little
awkwardly.

"Yeah, I did." He tried to be matter-of-fact about it - he felt
uncomfortable when people began overflowing with sympathy, and felt
oddly touched when Benton simply reached out and squeezed his shoulder.
But then, Benton had never seemed like the sort of person who'd be
likely to get emotional in public. "Uh, here. I got this for you while I
was in Croatia." Benton looked at him quizzically, and opened the small
package Luka handed over. "It's an icon of St. Peter. I realize you're
not Catholic, but it seemed appropriate."

"Huh. Thanks a lot. Really. Hey... didn't St. Peter slay dragons, or
something?" Luka stared at him in surprise.

"I think that was St. George. Why, are you having problems with *that*
dragon?" he asked, nodding at the door of Romano's office.

"Interviewing for a surgical attending position." Benton smiled wryly.

Romano came out of his office then, and Luka was reminded of a weasel
coming out of its den. The man spotted him, and smiled thinly. "'Lucky'.
I see you're back."

"Yes, Dr Romano. I got you something, too."

"Uh-huh. You wouldn't be trying to kiss up to me or something, would
you?" Luka shot Benton an amused glance.

"Not at all. I saw it and I thought of you." Romano gingerly opened the
box, as though expecting some kind of small rabid creature to pop out
and chew his face off, but smiled in honest surprise and pleasure when
he saw the blade... and determinedly wiped the smile off his face when
he noticed the two men staring at him.

"A knife. You got me a knife, Dr. Kovac."

"It's a replica of knives used by some of the first surgeons - medicine
got its beginnings in the Mediterranean, you know."

"Uh-huh. Well. Thank you very much, 'Lucky'." Luka didn't bother to
protest the impromptu nickname - it wouldn't do any good, with someone
like Romano. Besides, he *did* feel lucky, for the first time in nearly
a decade.

"So what is it, really?" Benton muttered quickly, as Romano bustled into
his office to find the perfect place to show off his new prize. Luka
smiled.

"It's a replica of a medieval torture device - it seemed appropriate,
under the circumstances. Good luck on your interview."

"Thanks, man."

He headed downstairs, and remembered the note when he was in the middle
of a flight of stairs. Well, now and here was as good a time and place
as any, he supposed. He removed the note from his pocket, and sat down
on the stairs to open it and read it. He could see that she'd begun to
try to write it in Croatian, but had scratched out her efforts and begun
again in English. "Luka. You're reading this, which means you're back.
Good! It's been far too long, but even five minutes is too long
sometimes. I've been going nuts without you, and I'm looking forward to
going nuts with you when we get home. Love, Kerry." Hm. Short, sweet,
and to the point - he definitely approved of *that* idea.

He got back downstairs, and was quickly the center of attention... which
he could have done without. "Hey, Dr Kovac," Malik greeted him. "How was
your vacation?"

"Pretty good. Relaxing."

"Can't have been *too* relaxing," Randi commented, and pointed to her
hair. He continued to look baffled, so she explained. "Your hair. It's
all grey, and stuff."

"Oh. It was *always* mostly grey. I've been letting it all grow in
naturally, lately." Randi raised an eyebrow.

"You? *You've* been using hair coloring? YOU?" She gasped. "I mean,
you're like the *least* vain person I know!" He glanced at her
quizzically.

"Thank you. I think. Slow day?"

"Eh. Not too bad today. Might pick up later, though - it's been crazy
most of the time you and Carter have been gone. So... what's the story?"

"Pardon?"

"What's with you *and* Carter just going away like that?"

"*I* went back to Croatia, to visit family. By myself," he told Randi
firmly, when he caught the beginnings of a smirk on her face.

"Guess that's why Dr Weaver's been moody this whole time," Randi
muttered, very quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, Dr Kovac. Nothing," she chirped, trying to look innocent...
and being about as generally successful at it as Edgar Winter trying to
get into the Black Panthers. He eyed her suspiciously, but let it
pass... partly because he'd spotted Kerry. She was talking to some guy
who looked a little like a blond version of Goran Ivanisevic, and Luka
hung back a moment before he said anything, trying to see what was going
on.

"Kerry," he finally said. Well, that didn't sound *too* shaky, he
thought. His heart began to race, but he forced himself to remain
outwardly calm - the Goran lookalike was still there, watching him
curiously.

"Welcome back, Luka. Looks like your vacation agreed with you." Damn, he
was beautiful. She'd almost forgotten how the jeans made his legs look
even longer... and he had definitely picked up a lot of sunshine - she
wondered if that deep, dark tan was all-over. "Uh, this is Dr Nick
Dennison. He's been helping out around here while you were gone." Luka
eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then stepped a little closer.

Nick smiled hesitantly, and put out his hand. Luka shook it, and Nick
was disheartened to be so quickly dismissed as a threat. True enough -
Chuny hadn't been kidding when she'd described Luka as someone he didn't
want mad at him. "Hey, Kerry, can we talk about the schedule for a
minute, before I head home?"

"Sure." She followed him into the lounge, and Nick grinned at Chuny.

"And now we pretend that they're not making out in there, right?" She
shrugged.

"Eh, they usually behave themselves around here. Betcha if you went in
there right now, there'd probably be a coupla feet between them... but
they might be breathing kinda heavy."

* * *

Nick hadn't been completely wrong, though - Kerry was in Luka's arms the
moment the door closed behind them. They weren't making out, though,
just holding each other very, very tightly. "I missed you so much," she
told him from the general vicinity of his chest, as he rested his head
on top of hers and stroked her hair. He thought it was probably the most
relaxed he'd been since... well, since shortly before he'd left.

"I missed you, too. I won't lie to you, Kerry - if you hadn't been here,
waiting for me, I probably would've stayed in Croatia. I was terrified,
when I got to the door and found that the locks had been changed." She
backed away slightly, and peered up at him.

"I sent you a letter, the moment my keys were stolen." He shrugged.

"It probably arrived right after I'd left. I hope you didn't send any
more of those 'special' pictures...?" Her eyes got huge and panicked for
a moment, then she shook her head, just as Luka was starting to worry
about Nik getting hold of any stray photos.

"No. The labcoat photos - and... the other one - were the only pictures
I sent."

"Mm. That's good. The ones you did send were very cute, though. And, uh,
I see you went back to that photo booth."

"Mm-hm. I figured you should have *something* you could show in mixed
company." He kissed the top of her head quickly.

"Actually, I showed it to Vesna one morning."

"Your sister-in-law? You showed your sister-in-law *THAT* picture? Oh,
god, what did she think?"

"She simply said 'Lovely woman. Interesting outfit.'"

"Oh." Luka laughed.

"Yeah. 'Oh.' I'm going to head home now, maybe start some dinner, so
there's something to eat when you get off?" She grinned, and reached up
to his neck to pull him down for a kiss.

"Okay. I'll see you then - I'm just on for about four more hours, but
I'll try to get right home." She reached out and squeezed his hand
quickly. "Oh... do you want to be back on the schedule for Tuesday, or
Wednesday evening? You did say that you wanted to discuss the schedule,
right?" she asked, when he furrowed his brow at her in confusion.

"Mm, yeah. That's true. Might as well make it Tuesday." He leaned down
and kissed her one more time, very lightly.

"See ya later, then... love you."

"Love you too, Kerry."

* * *

It seemed to Kerry like an eternity went by before she was finally able
to sign out and leave, but finally she was pulling up in front of her
house, and parking. She switched off the engine and sat there for a
moment - he'd told her he was heading home, but she felt a little
nervous... almost as though she might get inside and find that he wasn't
there, after all. That she'd only imagined his return. She sighed and
got out of the car, and quickly - at least for her - went up the stairs
and unlocked the door. "Honey, I'm home!" she called out, as she shut
the front door behind her and went into the living room. Mmm...
something in the general direction of the kitchen smelled very, very
good.

He emerged from the kitchen the moment he heard her voice, and was
quickly by her side. "Hi." He kissed her and began to unbutton her
blouse, and she chuckled softly.

"Can I take my jacket off first, please?"

"Sure, sure. Sorry." She removed her jacket and tossed it carelessly
aside, and leaped into his arms. "Whouaugh!" he grunted, as the sudden
impact knocked him backwards and off his feet. "Damnit, Kerr--" he began
to complain, but was silenced by her kiss.

She backed off for a moment, and stared at him. "You remember what you
wrote in your letter?"

"Wh-which one?" She swatted his shoulder affectionately.

"The one where you told me all about what you wanted to do when you got
back."

"Ah, *that* letter." He grinned, and looped his arm around her waist.
"C'mere." He pulled her closer for another kiss. "So you wanna do what I
suggested in my letter, huh?"

"Yeah. Do you even remember?" she teased. He raised an eyebrow, and set
about proving that he very definitely *did* remember what he'd written.

* * * * * *

He lay back, exhausted, with Kerry sprawled on top of him, and gradually
realized that they made a strange sight - her blouse was partly
unbuttoned (he was going to have more buttons to sew back on, later) and
he was still wearing his t-shirt, and of course they had removed their
pants. Once all that had occurred to him, he couldn't help laughing
softly. She roused just enough to make a soft enquiring noise.

"I was just thinking how incredibly stupid we are."

"And that's funny."

"Well, no. But... look at us. Half-dressed, in the middle of the
floor... no 'protection'. Like we were kids."

"Mmm... which we're not." She snuggled against him, her hand snaked up
inside his t-shirt and playing with his chest hair, and he shifted
position slightly... he was exhausted, but certain parts of him were
more resilient than others.

"No. And my back is going to feel every bit of this in the morning." But
he made no move to stand up. "What are you doing?"

"Just doing an experiment."

"How does playing with my nipple constitute an experime-- oh. Mm." He
purred softly, and wriggled under her.

"Feel like going another round here on the floor?" She smiled
suggestively at him, and he smiled serenely as he massaged her back.

"Mrm... I'm very tired, Kerry. I have been travelling for far, far too
long today." He glanced over at the couch. "Why've you been sleeping on
the couch? Has your leg been giving you that much trouble? Perhaps you
*should* think about taking something for the pain."

"What? No, it has nothing to do with my leg hurting - it's... just a
little easier to sleep down here. The bed's too big for just me."

"Oh. I wondered if that might be it."

"Mm-hm. It was a little strange, too, wearing anything to bed." He
grinned at her.

"Then why did you wear anything?"

"Because it didn't feel 'right' to sleep on the couch naked."

"Mrm." He rolled his eyes slightly at that. "You've slept on the couch
naked before." She blushed at his reminder of Valentine's Day - or
rather, the next morning! - and bent to kiss his neck. "Your hair is so
beautiful - getting so long...."

"Tell me about her."

"Hm?"

"Danijela. Tell me about her. She's partly why you went back, isn't
she?" He sighed.

"Yeah. I got a lot of things resolved... tied up a lot of loose ends I'd
left hanging back then. Talked to my parents and Danijela's family while
Nik and I were visiting Sibenik. I think my mother was a little
horrified by the idea of me moving on with my life, but..." he shrugged.
Kerry chose to ignore - for now - the fact that he'd sidestepped her
question, and went with the direction that he seemed to be comfortable
taking.

"How did Danijela's family react?"

"Mm... I think they were philosophical about it. They admitted they'd
been angry at me then, that it was a good thing I stayed in Zagreb."

"At least your parents were supportive at the time, right?" He shrugged.

"My father came up to visit me once, but he didn't stay long. And my
mother stayed home. But, they had to talk to me this time."

"As long as it went well for you." He shrugged. "How'd you sleep, being
by yourself this whole time?" He shrugged again, and she glared at him.
"You *did* sleep alone, didn't you?" He laughed softly.

"Mm... there were many mornings that I woke up to find I had company."
She gave him the Stare of Death, and he relented. "My little nieces -
Marija, Anja, and Natalija. I think I fascinated them... I'd wake up
covered in kids, just about." He glanced over at the couch. "I don't
suppose you could go grab that blanket over there, could you? Or let me
get up and get it?" She sighed softly, and snuggled into him.

"Or better yet, we could put that delicious-smelling food away for
later, and go upstairs and sleep in a *real* bed, together."

"Oh, twist my arm, woman," he teased. He rolled her off of him,
stretched a little, and then retrieved his pants from... hm... where
*did* they go? Ah, there they were. Putting away the food took a little
longer than it ordinarily would have, since Kerry wasn't being terribly
cooperative: she kept distracting him as he tried to load containers
into the refrigerator, but he finally got the last bit stowed... and
suddenly threw her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs as she
shrieked, and giggled almost uncontrollably.

* * *

Several hours later, he woke up with his head resting on her chest, and
discovered that his hand was already engaged in a gentle massage of one
of her breasts. Hm. He saw no reason to disrupt the status quo, so he
moved just enough to be able to watch her face as she slept. Now *that*
was a sight he'd really missed. Her eyes gradually fluttered open, and
she smiled when she saw Luka lying there with her. "Hi." He sat up, and
moved so he could kiss her.

"Hi, beba." He wearily ran his hand up and down her body, occasionally
pausing to linger on those pretty breasts. He moved his hand further up,
carefully tracing the features of her face, and occasionally moving in
to kiss her again. "I've missed this. I"ve missed *you*. The letters -
and yes, the pictures - were nice, but I'd rather be here, with you." He
twined a leg around hers and settled down to some serious kissing - not
really planning to *do* anything, just enjoying where he was. However,
they were interrupted, mid-kiss, by their stomachs attempting to carry
on a conversation with each other. "Mm. Hold that thought," he told her
regretfully, just as she'd returned to her earlier experiment that had
involved his nipple - it had been made much easier by the fact that they
were now both completely naked. He'd lost his pants again, somewhere
between the kitchen and here - he'd probably dropped them when Kerry had
gleefully discovered that when he had her in a fireman's carry, she
could reach his butt very easily - and he'd stripped off his t-shirt
right after he'd plunked her down onto the bed. He suspected that he'd
had ideas about jumping on her, and continuing with what they'd been
doing before in the living room, but they had both succumbed to fatigue:
there just wasn't anything like a person's own bed, for a good rest.

They trooped downstairs, not even bothering to put on any clothes. "So
you never flirted with that Tennyson guy?"

"Dennison. And no. He flirted with me, very briefly, but I think he's
just that way. Heavens, I even saw him flirting with Janet Coburn,
once." Luka shrugged, and began retrieving containers from the
refrigerator - he tossed Kerry one that he was *pretty* sure had some
olives, and she promptly opened it and began nibbling.

"She's a good-looking woman. Not my type, of course, but very striking.
Do you want some cheese?" Privately, Kerry had to agree - she admired
Janet's toughness and outspokenness.

"Please. Hey, Carol and Doug came back to town, you know, to finish up
some business. Thank you," she said, as he quickly under-handed the
block of mozzarella to her.

"Mmm-hm?" He was focused on his investigation of *where* that chicken
had gone, but he was listening. "You mentioned that in your letter.
How're they doing?"

"They're doing well. They seem happy. I don't think Carol's managed to
find a buyer for her house yet--" He glanced over his shoulder.

"Maybe *we* should buy her house." The sudden suggestion startled Kerry.

"Oh? I thought you didn't like the noise of the El." He shrugged.

"Trains are easy to get used to. Very rhythmic. I like rhythm," he
teased, and smiled when she blushed slightly. "And they're on a
schedule. Besides, how much work did I do over there for Carol?" Kerry
giggled.

"And how many people would we have to bring in, to 'fix' all your
repairs?" He grunted indignantly, and threw a dinner roll at her. "Hey!
What's with you wanting to buy something else, anyway?"

"Dunno... I just think it might be nice if we had someplace that was
*ours*."

"This *is* our place."

"Your house. Our home," he corrected her, as he finally found the
chicken and brought it over to the island, where Kerry was making an
honest effort to devour all the olives - he reached in and plucked out a
few, and popped them into his mouth.

"So why would it be different if *you* owned the house, and I moved in?
That's what you think, right?"

"Hm. It just is. Why'd you mention Carol and Doug?"

"I bought her car. I thought you might like to drive something that
actually *works*, for a change."

"Mm. And on the other hand," he pointed out, "if you let us go public we
could ride in to work together, huh?"

"But we don't always have the same shift," she retorted, and he was
*just* about to get angry when he looked into her eyes... and he
relented. Again. Dammit. He sighed.

"You know, one of these days I'm going to kiss you right in front of
everybody at the hospital," he warned her.

"You would, too, wouldn't you?" He nodded seriously.

"Yeah. And I just hope you'll be able to forgive me when I do."




POST-GAME WRAPUP:

Um... for the meaning of "praline" (assuming you hadn't figured it out
on your own already), check out the book "Merde!" by Genevieve.

For more information on St. Peter, go to
http://saints.catholic.org/saints/peter2.html

--
Ellen K. Hursh
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I
thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the
terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?
So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of
the universe." --Ranger Marcus Cole
* * *
"Whoa, I'm eleven hundred years old. I had trouble adjusting to the idea
of Lutherans." --Anya, "I Was Made to Love You"