Help Me God

Part III

Coffee with Luka turned into dinner with Luka and then they went back to his place for another cup of coffee. For once Amber didn’t feel nervous being around a man he was very gentle and not at all intimidating and she really liked that she could feel safe with him. For a moment everything went silent and he leaned in to kiss her, she leaned in too ready for a kiss she could just feel the passion in the air. They joined and Amber instantly felt a spark between them, her hands ran over his chest and soon he gently pulled her turtle neck up and over her head. He moved down to kiss her neck when suddenly he stopped and looked up at her.

“What is this?” He asked pointing to the obvious handprints that wrapped around her neck, she had all but forgot about those because she was completely caught up in the moment. His tone of voice was soft and concerned and it caused tears to well up in her eyes, “Did some one try to strangle you? Was it Darien?”

“No,” She shook her head she wished it was Darien because then she knew Luka would go beat the crap out of him and he would leave her alone. She knew that because Sandy was a woman he wasn’t going to hit her, he might yell at her, but physical violence was out of the question, “It was Sandy…”

“Sandy?” He repeated, the name certainly sounded familiar but it took him a while to place why, “Kerry’s girlfriend? Why?” His eyes expressed pure concern too and so she started to cry, it seemed like it had been so long since some one actually believed what she was saying.

“I don’t know why, I was staying at Kerry’s place for a little to get away from Darien and Sandy is just as abusive…please don’t tell anyone she said she would hurt Kerry if anyone found out.” Amber explained as she wiped the tears away from her face, he pulled her into a gentle hug and she rested her cheek against his shoulder.

“Okay,” He took a deep breath and started to stroke her hair softly, “You could have just told me, I wouldn’t make you sleep with me if you wanted to stay here.” He decided to ignore the fact that Darien was abusive for the time being because it now seemed that Darien was the least of Amber’s problems, “You can stay here as long as you need to.”

“Thank you Luka…thank you so much.” She whispered and he continued to hold her as they sat there on the couch, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to slap Sandy around but he had to think of something he could do, there wasn’t any way he was going to let some one get away with that.

The next morning Amber got up before Luka did, she slept in the same bed with him because she said it made her feel safe. Even though he was very attracted to her he held back because he was able to realize that she probably wasn’t ready for anything at the moment. She took a shower and then headed out into the kitchen to call Kerry to tell her where she was, she only had a towel on but she thought that Luka was still sleeping so it was okay. She picked up the phone and a shaky hand dialed Weaver’s number but Sandy was the one who answered so she slammed the phone down and tried not to have an anxiety attack.

“You’re up early.” She heard Luka’s voice from behind her she didn’t turn right away as she heard him approach, “What’s this?”

“What?”

“This…” he came up behind her and gently ran his hand over an imprint of a boot that was right between her shoulders, “Sandy too?”

“Yeah…” She whispered and then she turned to look at him, they stood there for a moment completely silent before Amber leaned in and kissed him softly.

“I told you that…”

“No I wanted to kiss you Luka.” She replied and then smiled slightly, “I have to get ready for work okay?” He nodded and watched her walk off he couldn’t believe how angry he was at Sandy for doing that to her and every second that passed made him wonder if maybe Sandy deserved a good punch in the face.

The first part of the morning went fine, Amber was happy to be there especially since Luka was close by. She was trying to avoid Weaver but that certainly didn’t work very well since the woman was her boss. Before long it was lunchtime and she stepped into the lounge to get her wallet so she could go across the street to get something. When she stepped back out again she saw Sandy standing by the front desk talking to Weaver and her whole body froze up. She stood there and watched as Sandy said goodbye to Kerry and then started to head back outside, and about three seconds later Luka followed. She took a deep breath and decided that she should know what Luka was going to do.

“What do you want?” Sandy snapped at him after he called out to her she turned to look at him with a face that was just plastered with attitude, “I’m late.”

“You can’t be late for all I care.” He stepped up to her, very close to her like he was about ready to grab her and shove her against the nearest ambulance, “Why did you do it? Huh? What did she do to you?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about so get the hell out of my face.” Sandy spat back at him and then she turned to leave but he grabbed her arm firmly and pulled her back so she was facing him again.

“Oh you know, you beat the living crap out of Amber…did you think no one would find out?” He yelled at her, his voice echoing throughout the ambulance bay. People stopped to watch the commotion and Amber stepped outside but she wasn’t spotted by either of them. “What did she do to you? WHAT?”

“I’m warning you let go of my arm…”

“Or what? Are you going to hit me too? Go ahead hit me!” He challenged and she clenched her teeth for a moment before swinging at him but he caught her fist in his hand, “Not so easy when your opponent is bigger then you.”

“Luka!” Weaver’s voice came from behind them, Amber turned and watched Weaver make her way over to the two of them, “Don’t you dare hurt her.”

“Look at Amber…did you see what she did to Amber? Do you even CARE?” He let go of Sandy’s fist and turned to look at Kerry but he let his guard down and Sandy swung and hit him right in the face. Amber cried out in surprise and ran over to him, Luka was barely fazed by the injury and he remained standing, all that the punch had accomplished was to piss him off.

“SANDY!” Amber stormed right up to her and got in between her and Luka, “You are so lucky that he doesn’t hit women.”

“Yeah whatever.” Sandy responded and then she crossed her arms over her chest, “What are you going to do about it?” Finally Amber felt like she could take this bitch on and she took a step back; Luka put his hand on her shoulder hoping to prevent her from doing anything.

“Amber stop this now.” Weaver growled glaring in her direction but there was no way that Amber was going to stop, not now.

“You know I am required by law to inform you that I’m a fifth degree black belt.” Amber said to Sandy Calmly, Sandy just looked at her like she had completely lost it, “Because when you get to that level you can easily kill people with your bare hands but you certainly aren’t worth killing, so I’m just going to walk away.”

“You do that, run off scared back to your boyfriend…” Sandy replied and looked at her for a moment before swinging her body into a rather graceful roundhouse kick, the heel of her shoe stopping mere millimeters from Sandy’s jaw, it was so close Sandy could feel the wind that the kick generated.

“Whose scared now? Bitch?” Amber gracefully put her leg back down and then her and Luka turned to walk back into the hospital, “You are probably going to need some ice.”

“I didn’t know you could do that…” He replied with a smile on his face he was glad that she actually stood up for herself this time.

“AMBER!” Weaver snapped, Amber didn’t think that she should be in any trouble considering the fact that she had stopped herself from shattering Sandy’s jaw in two different places, “How many lies are you going to tell…to HOW many people?”

“I’m not lying and if you would rather believe that then fine, but when you go home and she beats the crap out of you because I’m not there to be her personal punching bag I will have absolutely NO sympathy for you…I won’t shed a single tear.” Amber replied before taking Luka’s hand, “Come on lets get the hell out of here.”

The next week went rather smoothly, Amber was avoiding Weaver and Weaver was avoiding Amber so things remained rather peaceful. Luka and Amber had started to date officially and for the first time she actually knew what true love felt like. She woke up every morning with Luka by her side and she fell asleep in his arms every night, she couldn’t have hoped for a better man.

She was on the night shift for the week which didn’t really bother her because Luka was there too, it was pretty slow and Amber was sitting in the lounge reading a magazine with her feet up on an extra chair. Luka came in and kissed her on the cheek before pouring him self another cup of coffee, night shifts were usually slow, but now that Amber was there he didn’t really mind.

“We got a trauma coming in…” Abby shouted to them as she poked her head into the lounge, Amber sighed and set her magazine down after marking her place in it, then she headed out with Luka. From there everything became a total blur because that was when she saw that it was Kerry on the stretcher. She took a step back and ended up stepping on Luka’s foot, but he didn’t say anything because he was also in shock.

“I got this Amber you go sit down.” Luka finally said and then he moved past her to help out, Amber stood there for another moment, she was right about Sandy, and since she wasn’t there things had just gotten completely out of hand for Weaver. She didn’t know if she should cry or be angry, it didn’t seem fair that Weaver got so hurt because she wasn’t there to take it. She slowly walked towards the lounge and sat back down, she picked up her magazine but she was took shaken to actually read it so she stared at the words until they finally became a blur as she started to cry.