Baby Boy: Chapter Two

ER/Luka Kovac/Baby Boy: Chapter Two
Title: Baby Boy
Character/Pairing: Luka Kovac/Sam Taggart
Word Count: 602
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: None to speak of.
Summary: While still with Sam, Luka finds himself visited by someone from his past, but how could he be?
Disclaimer:Neither Goran Visnjic's image nor the character of Luka Kovac of ER belong to me. No copy-write infringement is intended by their use, they are being borrowed here strictly for entertainment purposes.

Baby Boy

Chapter 2

by J.D.

By lunchtime Luka had almost been able to convince himself that what he had thought he had seen that morning was nothing more than an especially deep dream that had held him in it's grip even through the early stages of waking. It made sense, or more sense than the thought of his son, a son who had been dead for close to twelve years showing up in his bedroom looking the same as he had on the day he had died.  The question though was why? 

If it had happened in those first years after he had lost Marko he could understand it.  In the camp, after Vukovar, he'd had moments like that, times when he'd heard a child call for his tata and been sure it was Marko or Jasna looking for him.  Times when he has seen a dark head on one of the pathways and it had taken all of his willpower to keep from going to them and scooping them into his arms, sure that it was Jasna or Marko trying to find him, even as he knew it could never be them.

It had been years though since he'd done that, certainly not since he'd left Croatia, even the dreams were infrequent, so why now? No matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to put his finger on what it was that was that would have opened the door to it, no, not it, him...to him.  To Marko.

It was nearly five when he knew he wouldn't be able to work, how could he? He was beyond tired.  He'd never been able to go back to sleep because his head was filled with too many questions.  Maybe it was that he was afraid of what he might see or maybe it was more who he might see if he did go to sleep. What kind of a father is afraid of their own son?  He hated the feelings that those thoughts seemed to be drawing to the surface.

It was only when he noticed that the apartment was starting to drift into shadow that he realized how late it had gotten.  Sam would be on until seven, he was supposed to be on in an hour, with no sleep and his thoughts as distracted as they were, there was no way he could do it.  He reached for the phone.

"Frank, it's Kovac...is Dr. Lewis around?" He found himself pacing the area in front of the counter as he waited for the woman to pick up the call.  "Susan, Luka...yeah...um, look, I can't come in tonight, I'm sorry, I'll cover for whoever can take it, tell them I'll do two weekends, I really don't care.  I just can't come in tonight."  His face tightened as he listened to first her protests, then her arguments, she might as well just stop, nothing she could say would matter.  "I said I was sorry, I just need tonight off, it's personal. How often do I ask for time off?"  He listened as the woman made one more plea before stopping her.  "No. Susan, I said I was sorry, I'll take however many shifts they want from me for them to do it, I really don't care, and if Kerry doesn't like it then tell her to fire me.  Otherwise, I'll be there for my shift tomorrow.  Thanks."  He dropped the phone in the cradle before the woman could say anything more.

How long could he go without sleep?  He couldn't help wondering if by avoiding sleep all of this might  disappear as mysteriously as it had appeared. But that still left behind the large unanswered question of why, and he wasn't sure if he was ready for the answer to come.

To be continued...

Chapter One here: http://journals.aol.com/azizalsaqr/GoranVisnjic/entries/2006/09/16/confused100-situations/1106