  We discuss the connection between absorption, averages and fluctuations in
nuclear reactions. The fluctuations in the entrance channel result in the
compound nucleus, Hauser-Feshbach, cross section, the fluctuations in the
intermediate channels, result in modifications of multistep reaction cross
sections, while the fluctuations in the final channel result in hybrid cross
sections that can be used to describe incomplete fusion reactions. We discuss
the latter in details and comment on the validity of the assumptions used in
the develpoment of the Surrogate method. We also discuss the theory of
multistep reactions with regards to intermediate state fluctuations and the
energy dependence and non-locality of the intermediate channels optical
potentials.
