"It’s nothing."

"You know I’m going to hear about it in six different ways before my first hour’s over." She hesitated, pushing a dark lock of hair behind her ear. "If it’s all the same… I’d rather hear it from you first."

Brooding eyes met hers for the first time since she walked into the room. "Why’s that?"

"Because you won’t sugar-coat it. You won’t lie. And you won’t try to make me feel worse than I already do."

"I thought you didn’t feel guilty."

"Believe it or not, neither one of us are in this to hurt anyone."

"That’s right, it’s not about anyone but the two of you."

The dry irony in his tone caught her up short, and she looked at him closely. "Have I missed something, Luka? Cause I was thinking you were pretty okay with this."

"Depends on what you mean by okay. I understand what you’re doing. Maybe even some of what she’s doing. But asking me to be happy about it is something else."

"So does this mean you’re not going to tell me about whatever happened this afternoon involving Kim? It’s her day off… so if she’s hurt somehow…"

He obviously saw the worry in her eyes, for he shook his head quickly. "No, she’s fine. She brought a MVA in this afternoon– she was on-scene when it happened. Kerry let her run the trauma. Carter wasn’t okay with it."

"Kim?"

"Yeah."

"The psychiatrist?"

"Yeah."

"Ran a trauma."

He looked at her impatiently. "That’s what I said."

"Kim brought in a MVA and Kerry let her run the show."

"That’s what Haleh said."

"And Carter flipped."

"Told her she had no business being in the room."

Abby paled. "Do I want to know what Kim said?"

"Haleh said that she took off a layer of his skin before Kerry stepped in and put a stop to it."

"Since when have you been a fan of Haleh says?"

He shrugged imperturbably. "Hard not to be with everything flying around the way it is."

"Better than Days of Our Lives, huh?"

"It certainly isn’t Martha Stewart," Luka admitted with a smile.