 | ShatterStorm Productions
|
| ShatterStorm Productions
|
Series: Light, Water, Muses.
Category: Sequel to Reflections. Begins mid-2001, nearly two years later.
Pairings: Oh, you'll see. The couple you will be introduced to is my take on the old idea that opposites attract. And the two of them could hardly be more opposite...
Personal disclaimer: Zo Goldston, so briefly introduced in Reflections, is mine! Bwahahahahaha! I hope you enjoy her and any other newcomers, as well as my version of Cook County General.
Disclaimer: “ER”, the characters and situations depicted are the property of Warner Bros. Television, Amblin Entertainment, Constant C Productions, NBC, etc. They are borrowed without permission, but without the intent of infringement. This site contains stories between mature, consenting adult females.
Notes: All words in italics are phonetic foreign words, mostly Greek.
Spoilers: There are references to events in ER season 7, but most of this tale is an 'alternate universe' version of season 8.
Important note: Mark Green died with his first collapse in the ER back in December of 2000. A Xena-esque doctor named Mel Tairnghael has replaced him as head Attending.
Summary: Let the bonding continue!
++ Zo ++
Whatever I had expected from Kerry, it hadn't been her boldness. Not to mention the surprise head butt! The taste and feel of her still lingered and I wanted more.
In fear of being trampled, we hurriedly gathered our things and moved on with the crowd. Kerry remained pressed into my back as we went along with the flow of all the other human cattle. Then her hand slipped into mine and the crush faded away…
Eventually, we stumbled out of the crowd and I mooed disdainfully. Kerry's chuckle made me grin. “C'mon then, I promised a tour of my funky building.”
“Okay.”
Despite having only met Xavier Greer briefly, we'd been fast friends. The day I'd finally earned my doctorate, he'd called and told me to come hang out in Chicago. Needing a change of scenery from familiar ole' Southern California, I'd jumped at the chance. So I moved in with his buddy, Bruce, and instantly been in love with the place. When a family emergency out of state had left his loft vacant, I jumped on the chance to sublet. The weeks since had been totally worth the hassle of moving halfway across the country. A massive brick edifice trimmed in intricate stone and woodwork, the old industrial building was magnificent. It soared just over four stories tall and sprawled some 500 feet down the street. “There's only six units in here,” I explained to Kerry. “And they're all on the same floor. Wait till you see the inside.”
We'd already passed through the parking garage after a pause to let her grab her purse. As we crowned the wide flight of stairs, I glanced over to watch her expression. “Wow,” Kerry breathed.
It was a brick hallway, lined with tasteful wall sconces and potted plants. No big deal for an old building in Chicago. Until you looked up to see the shadowed ceiling soaring nearly three stories overhead. “Pretty impressive, huh?”
“I'll say.”
At the final door I quickly undid the locks and swung it open with a flourish. “Here we are.”
++ Kerry ++
Despite the darkness beyond the door, I could sense the vast space. Then Zo reached around the doorframe and fiddled with something that beeped at her. Lights blazed to life within, illuminating an amazing space. There were great groupings of plants, sparse furniture, colorful paintings and a fountain the size of my car. At the center of the vast room was a trio of easels carefully arranged on sheets of paper the size of tables.
“Wow,” I breathed again and Zo was delighted.
“Great place, huh? I'm subletting from a buddy while he's out of town.” A sudden, inhuman screech made me jump and Zo laughed, her warm hands on my hips to steady me. “That's my parrot, Behbis. Just ignore him.” Nodding, I was grateful and regretful to step away from her heat.
Once I'd fully stepped inside, other details became clear. The warm, strategic lighting glittered off panes of glass that seemed to fill the entire far wall that faced the street. The lights of the city twinkled out in the darkness.
“Wait until you see it in daylight.”
“I'd like that,” I responded distractedly while I tried to take everything in. A gentle touch on my arm nearly made me jump out of my skin. That smile captivated me once more and I was lost in the memory of those lips on mine. There was no mistaking the flirtatious pleasure in her expression or in her seemingly casual touch.
“Would you?”
Confusion washed over my panic and arousal. “Would I what?”
“Like to see this in daylight?”
Did she mean what I thought she meant? The smoky look in her eyes said yes. Was that first kiss in the park enough to prove to me that this was, indeed, what I wanted? Did I keep to all the rules I'd always followed and simply walk away? For a brief eternity, I wrestled with myself; saw the disappointment blossom in her animal gaze. That did it. Surprise mixed with pleasure as I threw caution to the winds and dropped the crutch to throw both arms around her neck. It was a reminder that she was half a foot taller than I was!
“Are you asking me to stay?” I purred in a voice I barely recognized as my own.
Zo's reply was slow and sexy, but touched with nervousness, as she bent towards me. “Maybe not asking exactly. More like indicating that you would be quite welcome if you wanted to stay.” It was odd to hear the shy note enter her voice. It was also quite heartening to my nerves. Young Zo seemed afraid of nothing, and yet I was making her anxious. What a relief that it wasn't just me! With a tug on the silky curls at the base of her neck, I answered her in the best way I knew how. There was uncertain shyness in the meeting of our mouths now, as we tasted our deepening connection. There had been no one in the few short months after Kim and I couldn't help but draw comparisons. Warm and sweet, and charged with growing eroticism, Zo's kisses were persuasive, coaxing me to participate fully. Like a fencing match, we parried back and forth, each bringing the interaction up by small levels. I tentatively brushed my tongue over her exquisite mouth; she nipped at my bottom lip once she had captured it. I tugged encouragingly at her silky curls; she dropped her hands to my hips and pressed us crushingly close. When at last we separated only far enough to speak, those blue-green eyes glittered like sun-warmed jade.
“Yes,” I whispered and was unsurprised to hear my voice crack. “I'd like to stay.”
“Good. What time do you have to be back to work?”
Work? Oh, right… “Seven. But I can deal with being shorted some sleep.”
“I'll try not to keep you up all night.”
Slowly, she bent her knees to bring our faces level. The maneuver pressed her strong legs between mine and sent shivers up and down my spine. “Oh, that's alright. My staff will probably forgive my tiredness if I'm smiling, right?”
That earned a chuckle and Zo tightened her embrace to bodily lift me. There were many times in my life that my stature and my crippled leg bothered me, but not with her for some reason. Wrapping my solid leg around her hips, I was discomfited and relieved when she moved one hand to tug the weak one into the same position and hold it there. “C'mon then,” she murmured against my mouth before we were lost in kissing once more. There was a soft bed cradling me, and Zo's warm body and soul surrounding me. Oh, she was full of surprises, this one was. Not only did she prove that many of those urban legends about tongue piercings were rooted in absolute truth, but I found a ring through the soft hood of her clitoris as well. Pressing against it just right had taught me all kinds of useful things about Zo as a sexual partner, not to mention the conflicting emotions when I got a good look at it. Such a startling contrast between her tender, ruby flesh and the implacable silver hardness of the surgical steel. The feel of that contrast against my own tongue was even more startling… but I rapidly grew to appreciate it.
By the time we had worn ourselves out, I knew that I needed to keep her. Was I strong enough to be honest about her? Like I should have done with Kim? It wasn't like Randi and Abby hadn't already made some pretty accurate guesses, judging by their occasional, teasing smirks. I yawned expansively against Zo's throat, enormously pleased with the glow of satisfaction ebbing throughout my body. Sprawled inelegantly along her side with my bad leg thrown across her hips, I traced the line of tiny foreign letters tattooed over her heart. One of her surgeon-sensitive hands was stroking my hip and making the mostly-dead nerves sing quietly.
“You curious?”
The question had caught me off guard and it took me a moment to realize that she meant the tattoos. There were more of them; the small drawings on her skin, but this one fascinated me the most. “Yes.”
“If I tell you that story, will you tell me about your leg?”
So blunt. So fearless. Normally I would have snarled at someone probing that subject, or merely frozen them with that cold Weaver attitude. Not this time. There was something about these tiny letters, something important and painful if her voice was any indication. “Yes,” I said again and Zo took a deep, shuddering breath.
“It's the names of the four children in my family. Written in my first language.”
Raising myself onto both elbows, I looked into her strong, fine features and studied her striking coloring. “Not English?”
“Not exactly. I learned three languages simultaneously.”
The guessing game was interesting and she picked up on that, letting me draw my own conclusions. Since my logical doctor brain hadn't gotten much use this evening, I let it out to solve the mystery. “I heard you speaking flawless Spanish in the ER.”
“Yep. That's two. Any guesses to the third?”
“What are the names?”
“Ah, ah. That would be too easy.”
“Art and Zo? Obviously nicknames, but I never asked you what they were short for. Hmmm…”
It wasn't helping that she was pressing soft kisses to my temple and lightly stroking my back. In trying to figure out names, I suddenly realized something quite obvious.
“Zo?”
“Yeah?”
“What's your last name?”
Peels of laughter echoed around the room for long moments. “Goldston,” she finally chuckled. “Lots of immigrant families had their last names Americanized when they came here.”
“Goldston,” I repeated softly, liking the name, but being no closer to figuring out her racial background. “Italian?” The mockingly distasteful twisting of her expression made me laugh. “I'll take that as a no. But Mediterranean, right? You certainly have the features and the coloring.”
“You're getting very warm.”
Then it hit me. The letters on her skin were blocky and formal looking. From my med school days, I remembered seeing the original Latin words for some of the terms I had to know. And that made me think of the oldest culture in the northern Mediterranean.
“Greek?”
God, I was growing to love that smile. “That was pretty fast. Most people take forever. My paternal great-grandfather had the last name changed when he immigrated sixty years ago. And you?”
“Dunno,” I said quietly, casting my gaze away. The pain of loss and separation were still a dull ache. “I'm adopted.”
Zo's hug was abrupt and warmly suffocating. In an instant I was sprawled on my back with her weight like a blanket over me. “Were your folks good to you?”
What an odd question. “Yes. They were. I lost them a few years ago and I miss them.” Like black storm clouds over the afternoon sun, her expression darkened. The wracking pain was startling on her normally sunny face. “How did you lose them?”
A heavy sigh escaped Zo and she dropped flat onto me, drowning me in her long curls. “Car accident,” she whispered in a ragged tone. “Art and I survived. I was only ten.” Where earlier I had clung to her in lust and eagerness, now I wanted only to comfort. “Cory, the eldest, took us on as wards, along with Yaya, our grandmother. It was hard, but we needed to stay together.”
If Zo had been ten… how old were the rest of them?
“Poor Cory. Not even twenty, newly married and suddenly he has all of us. I think it aged him before his time. But he did a great job and he and Diana are still together after all these years.” Once again, Zo was propped up on her elbows and I could read her eyes. “Once Fin turned eighteen, he went to seminary and sent what money he could. Theh mou, we lived skinny those few years before Art hit that magic number and was off to boot camp. Once she was past her initial training and into MP school, she drew up the paperwork to become my sole guardian so that Cory and Diana to get back to their own family. Living with Art was the best. I still miss her somethin' fierce.”
I remembered the funny and competent woman that shared Zo's genes from the commitment ceremony in February. Maybe someday I could get to know her better, since Zo spoke of her so adoringly. The thought startled me. This spunky young thing had crawled under my skin so far, so fast.
“How long ago?”
“Almost sixteen years.”
Ohmigod.
That meant that… “Yes,” Zo smiled gently and kissed me. “I'm twenty-six.”
I was five years older than her eldest brother, for God's sake!
“Scandalized Kerry?” She teased and the kiss was longer this time. Despite my shock and mortification, I felt myself responding. “My brothers will be impressed that both us girls bagged MDs.”
“I'm old enough to be your mother,” I whispered, torn between horror and humor. The response was immediate as her lanky body ground into me, pubic bone and rock-hard nipples making me hiss in response.
“I assure you, Doctor Weaver,” Zo growled like a wolf in heat. “That my feelings for you are anything but maternal.”
I had no response to that but to haul her closer and let her lead me where she may.
++ Zo ++
A walking bundle of contradictions, this one was and it was a bit difficult to keep up sometimes. The iron-fisted dictator of the ER contrasted with the vulnerable woman she protected. Even in bed, Kerry could be aggressive one moment and shy the next. All of the contrasts were intriguing and dizzying. Pushing aside my inner psychologist, I lost myself in her taste and feel and smell. There was little extra flesh on her small body, just flat working muscle. She was a moaner; I'd discovered earlier as she made that soft, low sound almost continuously under her breath as I made love to her. It changed in pitch and tone like an opera singer, but the volume barely went up. Gasping in surprise as I teased a hand deep between her legs, Kerry stared up at me with those fathomless eyes and clung to my shoulders like a drowning woman. The connection between us scared the bloody hell out of me, just as much as it thrilled me to have found her. I could almost hear the lioness growl of her soul sing to me. My musing was set aside as I watched the beauty of her climax race along her nerves and escape her in jerking whimpers, breathed out whisper-soft into the dim room. My name sounded exquisite coming from her as she relaxed back into the bed. Soft kisses, strong arms draped around my neck, my hair tickling us both. What a great way to spend a night. “You need to sleep,” I breathed against Kerry's lips. She made a faintly disgruntled noise like a child, but her eyelids were already drooping. “I'll be here in the morning. I promise.”
And Kerry slept.
Holding her, I wondered if I'd gotten in over my head. From my time in County's ER, I knew she was closeted at work, as well as shut off from her co-workers. No doubt to preserve the dignity of her position. Could I pretend nothing was happening between us? I knew how tactile and friendly I was and that kind of restraint wasn't part of my nature. But hell, if Art could keep the military off her back for being gay, the least I could do was respect my new girlfriend's privacy. It was a hopeful and confirming thought and I allowed darkness to close around me as I held my lover close.
The local hip-hop station jerked us both from slumber hours later. “What is that racket,” Kerry murmured sleepily and I half-crawled over her to smack the alarm silent. Only, there was still a racket coming from outside and I grinned. Sure enough, one unfocused green eye peered at me, confused and growing irritated. “Either your radio is busted, or…”
“That's the parrot, sorry,” I finished for her and it seemed only natural to drape my much-larger body over hers and tease away her yawn with warm kisses. “Good morning gorgeous,” I purred and earned a drowsy smile. “Shall I introduce you to my shower?”
My pulling away was interrupted by Kerry yanking me into a good morning kiss that curled my toes and reawakened my unsettling need for her. There was no denying that she was more than a lover, more than an attraction, more than someone I found intriguing. There was something between us that had left us both altered forever. Kerry's sleepy smile had matured into a full-blown smirk by the time I was let up for air. As for me, it felt like a Succubus had done me in. “Good morning. Thank you for last night. And today.”
“Umm… anytime. Wow.”
Oh, I knew I was stammering like an idiot, but all of the blood in my brain had migrated south and her teasing hand on my hip wasn't helping any. “In a minute,” Kerry purred softly and tossed me onto my back before proving exactly what kind of lover she could be when she woke up well-rested and frisky. I never knew what hit me as she steam rollered me beneath the weight of my heat and arousal. How long she kept me begging, flying, twisting the sheets and her fiery locks… I had no clue. Theh-mou (My God), no one had ever made me scream like that! Kerry climbed up my sated body and rose above me with a look so smug it would have been irritating under different circumstances.
“Sleep well?” She teased and, honest to God, batted her eyelashes at me. It was so adorable, that I burst out laughing and her smug look deepened.
“Yes, thank you,” I replied as deadpan as I could manage in that moment and tried to gather my strength. A few teasing kisses had me paying attention, especially when Kerry abruptly pulled away and grinned.
“Shower?”
“What?” Oh yeah, I had offered. And this could very well be continued in there… “Oh, right. C'mon then.”
++ Kerry ++
Lordy, but she was cute. Utterly unselfconscious in her nudity, Zo bounced from the room and stuck her head back in to toss me the crutch. Despite that fact that I wasn't quite as comfortable as she was, I refrained from hiding in my own clothes and followed the sound of her humming cheerfully. Outside the bungalow-like room that housed her bed, glorious early-morning sunlight streamed into the larger space of the apartment. “Wow,” I breathed in awe.
“Isn't it awesome?” Zo chortled as she cuddled up to me from behind. There was a coffee cup in the hand that snaked around my middle. I snatched it away as she chuckled and kept talking. “A thousand odd square feet of glass to let in the sun. I love this place.” A rough kiss on the neck and my frisky young lover was moving down the hallway again. She seemed to move to some inner music that put a bounce in her step and a grin on her face. It was a big, luxurious bathroom with a whirlpool tub and fluffy carpet. Instead of the big tub, Zo was fiddling around in the glass-walled shower. “No time for a bath, babe. I'll make it up to you later. Now c'mere.”
That smoky voice had dropped to a suggestive thrum on those last words. My rising hormones strangled my disappointment at missing out on a bath and I quickly joined Zo in the big shower.
Of course, the shower turned into a get-to-know-you-better marathon that had me running seriously late to work. Irritated and amused, I stared out at the passing traffic and half-heartedly listened to Zo talk on her cell phone. “No problem Drake, I'll be in by in ten. No, I just need to drop somebody off first and go back and get the bike. Ha, ha, very funny. I'll see you then.” I looked over to see Zo shake her head and scowl good-naturedly. “He's a pain, but I like working for him.”
“Sounds better than mine. He's a pain and I don't like working for him.”
“Ah, yes. The infamous 'Rocket'. Lucky you.”
“Robert's reputation has spread to your circles?”
“No, I'm friends with Xavier and your nurses, remember?”
“Of course.”
“Are you okay with this?”
It was an expected and surprising question. Was I okay with this? I'd screwed up so badly with Kim, fear and self-preservation ruining the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me. And now, there was this delightful young woman, earnest and sensual. I really needed to get my act together. “Just be patient with me,” I said in a shaky tone I hardly recognized as my own. A quick squeeze of my fingers and Zo's hand returned to the stick shift.
“As long as you dance back,” was her enigmatic reply.
There had been no time to ask what she meant. A long, loving smile at the admission doors and a quick, 'see you soon,' and Doctor Weaver was off and thundering.
