Chapter Five: And Back to One

"Something’s going on."

"What are you talking about?"

"Like some kind of wierd daisy chain of denial."

"Are you going to start speaking English any time soon?"

Pause.

"Look around you."

"Yeah?"

"What do you see?"

Obviously not the black cloud of imminient doom that you do."

"You get a good look at Weaver?"

"She always looks like that. Even when she’s just gotten laid."

"How do you … Nevermind. Look at what she’s not doing."

"Why don’t you just tell me?"

"She’s not looking at Legaspi who is not looking at Lockhart."

"Kind of expected, since her girlfriend’s in the room, dontcha think?"

Snort. "Are you kidding? Since they broke it off with each other, it’s only gotten worse."

"Well, Lockhart’s not looking at either of them."

"That’s pretty much par for the course. More importantly, not only is she not looking at Legs and Der Kommandant, she’s also actively avoiding Carter."

"Thought they were suddenly seeing each other now."

"Uh-huh. Plus, she’s exchanged at least four significant glances with Kovac since she came on shift."

"You’re giving me a headache. Can you just give me the bullet?"

"The bullet– you blockhead– is that some very big shit is about to hit a very big fan. And it’s anybody’s guess as to where the splatter’s gonna end up."

"I don’t want to talk to you." She wouldn’t meet Abby’s eyes, and that told the nurse a bit more than she’d expected when she’d seen Kim slip into the lounge. Almost of her own volition she had found herself following her ex-lover, consciously forcing herself to not think about what everyone else who was pretending not to notice her would think about the manuever.

"Things really that bad between you and Kerry?"

"Kerry and I are over." This said with a studied glare at the coffeepot and the mug she held in her hands. "And that’s why I don’t want to talk to you."

"Not over that phone call last night,"  Abby said flatly. "Not over me."

"I don’t want to have this conversation right now."