What had she gotten herself into?
Kerry Weaver walked in the door of her house and felt like banging her head against the wall in frustration.
She'd just gotten back from dinner with Kim. Her second dinner. You know, what some people might call a date.
Kim thought she was interested in her.
Kerry wanted to kick herself for not realising that Kim would have thought this. It was a reasonable assumption. She'd known Kim was gay. She should have realised the impression she was giving off, always calling her down to the ER. She should have realised what the smiling and the joking seemed like.
But of course she wasn't interested in Kim, not that way. Kim was an amazing person and beautiful, of course, but . . . Kerry was straight. She'd been married, for God's sake!
Of course, it was flattering to think that Kim could be interested in her. Very flattering.
She was a beautiful woman.
Kerry couldn't believe she'd told Kim that. It had definitely been the wine.
Not that there was anything wrong with giving someone a compliment.
It quite possibly wasn't the way to go when convincing your close friend who happens to be gay and may be attracted to, that you're not interested.
Because she wasn't interested.
Not one bit.
The phone rang and she picked it up. Maybe it was Kim, she thought, not sure if she was ready to handle this.
It was Luka. She replaced the receiver and started shaking as his words echoed in her mind. She came in here just now . . . drunk driver . . . I thought you'd want to know . . . it looks pretty bad . . .
She raced into the ER half an hour later. "How is she?" she demanded of Abby, who was passing by.
"Kim?" Abby asked. "They're still trying to stabilise her."
"I've got to go and help them," Kerry said, trying to push her way past.
"Dr Weaver, maybe that's not such a good idea," Abby suggested tactfully.
Kerry knew it wasn't. She was trembling, and the effects of the earlier wine hadn't quite worn off.
"Come on, why don't you sit down," Abby soothed, propelling Kerry towards a chair. "She'll be fine. Kovac and Chen are in with her now."
"What happened?" Kerry asked.
"It looks like she was hit by a drunk driver. He was going pretty fast. They don't know if there's any serious internal damage yet, but she hasn't regained consciousness."
"Oh God," Kerry whispered.
Abby didn't know what to do. She knew that the usually brusque Dr Weaver had been known to have feelings, but this was different.
"Kerry." Both women looked up to see Luka Kovac standing there.
"How is she?" Kerry asked fearfully, dreading the worst.
"She's fine. She regained consciousness and she's stabilised. Apart from a couple of broken ribs, she's okay."
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kerry said silently.
She went in to see Kim, heart pounding. Unsure of what to say, but pretty sure what needed to be said.
"Hey. This isn't your shift," Kim smiled.
Kerry shrugged. "Kovac called me in. Thought I should know. He probably knew I'd have fired him if he hadn't," she added with a smile.
Kim sighed. "Kerry, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have tried to make something of our friendship that, well, wasn't there."
"Don't mention it," she responded, followed by, "You know, maybe you weren't."
"Kerry, don't do this. You're upset and you're not thinking straight. Please don't make any declarations of love that you're going to regret in the morning."
"I'm not," Kerry insisted. "But if you want me to wait until I'm thinking rationally, then go ahead. I'll still feel the same way in the morning."
Kim smiled.
When they'd finished talking, Kerry slipped out and ran into Kovac. "Thank you for calling me," she told him.
"No problem," he replied. "I thought you would want to know."
She had to know. "And why would that be, exactly?"
He smiled. "Kerry, what's going on between you two - it's pretty obvious."
She laughed. "God, everybody saw it but me, huh?"
And it had taken an accident for her to see it. She could have lost Kim tonight, without telling her how she really felt. Of course she had feelings for the other woman. She had ever since the day they'd met. And she hadn't seen it. Hadn't realised it.
She'd been so blind and so unbelievably stupid. For the second time that night, she wanted to kick herself and bang her head against the wall.
Except this time, she'd figured out something very, very important, and she knew she wasn't going to let love go.
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