"May I see the chart?" Kerry interjected quietly.

"No need, Kerry," Kim assured her. "He’s a psych admit now. I’ve got it in hand." Turning sharply to go, she was held back by Kerry’s gently restraining hand.

"Kim…" she hesitated. "You’re bleeding." Kerry pulled a hankerchief from her lab coat and offered it to the psychiatrist, who accepted it with a silent gesture of thanks.

She smiled crookedly at her ex-lover. "Hell of a way to start a shift, eh?

*******

"Damn, I can’t believe I missed it."

"When’d it happen?"

"Few hours ago."

"Right after Legaspi came on duty."

"It wasn’t exactly a catfight."

"Or a fistfight."

"Bout as close as Carter’s gonna get to one."

"Yeah, he didn’t look too upset that Legaspi got crocked one."

"He should be– Weaver might take it in mind to tear him a new one over it."

"Cleaver did not look happy.

"Golden boy’s got some tarnish on him."

"It wasn’t his fault."

"Like hell. He practically ran away from the consult when he found out Dr. Legs was on duty."

"You blame him?"

"Oh please, it’s not like he was putting it to Abby."

"Watch your mouth–"

"’Cuse my indelicacy, but that’s what we’re all talking about here."

"Anybody has a right to be pissed it’s Kovac, and he seems fine with it."

"Maybe he was glad to get rid of her."

"Rid of her my ass– I’ll lay you money he’s hoping for a chance to watch."

Consciously ignoring the rapid-fire scatter of her employees as she approached the admit desk, Kerry racked the last three charts she had been going over and erased two of the names from the board as discharges. "What else do we have, Randi?"

"Chairs are over there–"

Startled by the abrupt tone in the clerk’s voice, Kerry raised a quizzical brow– half inclined to call her on it. Randi had been suspiciously curt since the news of Abby and Kim’s liaison had splattered across the ER with all the grace of a watermelon dropped from a twenty story building. Of course, Kerry realized, she hadn’t helped matters any in the aftermath by choosing– passive-aggressively, Kim would say– to let the gossip flourish rather than putting a swift halt to it. That would have meant admitting, at least in part, to having a major role in the grist for this particular rumor mill. Heated declarations to Romano and quiet conversations with Luka aside, she wasn’t quite ready for that.