"It can be."

"I guess I understand now."

"Understand what?"

"Why sometimes you would come over after your shift and be… well…" she grinned, almost in spite of herself. "You know…"

Kerry felt herself flushing violently and dropped her head in response. "Kim…"

"Sorry. I know… The past. All that."

"I thought you were going to take a chunk of Carter’s hide out before you were through."

"I suppose I could’ve handled that better," she admitted, grimacing.

"You think?" Knowing the irony wasn’t lost on the woman across from her.

"I’ve never been one for flagellation, self-inflicted or otherwise. The boy has got to get over it."

"True," Kerry agreed, pausing. "But you know…"

Pale eyes found hers, brows arched inquiringly.

"He had a point."

Kim absorbed the news with a gentle flinch and shook her head softly. Instead of speaking, she rose fluidly from the couch and opened the spare locker where they kept the extra scrubs. Unselfconsciously stripping off the ruined top, she grabbed a towel and dampened it, wiping the life’s blood of the trauma victim from her chest and arms. "I was just running down to the market to pick up some stuff for dinner," she said quietly.

"You still shopping one meal at a time?" Kerry asked, more than willing to follow the meandering trail of her thoughts. Her gaze never left the bared expanse of her ex-lover’s back, and she noted now with surprise how Kim’s shoulders looked narrower to Kerry, more frail than she remembered. Kim had always seemed larger than life to her, had towered so fearlessly over Carter a few moments ago; and yet now she appeared unimaginably delicate, wounded.

"One habit I’ll never be broken of, I’m afraid." She sighed and let the towel drop to the floor beside her discarded shirt. "The UPS truck must’ve not even seen him. He was driving one of those tiny pseudo-sports cars, and the truck driver must’ve not seen him," she repeated, lost in the memory and beginning to tremble with its recall. "And that noise– unmistakable, no other sound like it. That screech, a scream of metal. You don’t usually… well, it’s the noise that attracts your attention, you know? But I saw it. Saw it happen right in front of me when I was walking to the store, minding my own business."