Disclaimer: I don't own ER, or any characters you recognise.

Hi all! This is the first ER fic I've written that I think is fit to be posted; by no means my first ER fic. *lol*

Just to make this clear - I have no medical knowledge, just way too much time to search the internet. Sorry for any inacuracies.

Enjoy!

It is just before dawn on a Tuesday, there is a fine dusting a snow covering the ground outside the ER, and Ray has been on shift for almost twelve hours.

He is rushing to attend to one of his patients when Ray feels himself stumble, and is unable to stop his inevitable fall. He lands with a thud, right at Weaver's feet.

"Barnett?!" Weaver exclaims in surprise as she looks down at him.

Ray lies on the ground, shocked for a moment. He then he reaches out to Kerry, and says. "Can you give me a hand?"

Weaver takes Ray's hand, and helps him pull himself to his feet. She then questions him. "What happened Barnett?"

As Ray brushes himself off, he answers. "Nothing, I tripped." He then steps away from her, and moves towards exam 2, as he tells Weaver. "I've got to get back to my patient."

Before Kerry can say anything, Ray walks away, and all she can do is get back to work. That was odd.

Two and a half weeks later. Ray, Weaver, and Sam are working on a trauma patient, a teenage boy shot in a crossfire.

Ray moves to intubate, and just as Sam hands him the tube, his hand cramps up, causing him to drop the tube. "Damn it!" He exclaims with frustration. What the hell is happening to me?!

Sam looks at him questioningly, as she says. "Sorry, it was my fault. I'll get another kit." She then goes to retrieve the intubation kit.

While Sam is looking for the kit, in a hushed voice, Weaver asks Ray. "What's going on?"

"…" Ray hesitates before he answers. "I don't know."

The undertone of fear in Ray's voice leads Weaver to tell him, much more gently than she usually would. "We can handle this. Go sit in sutures, I'll be in soon."

Ray simply nods as he steps away from the gurney, and walks through the door into the suture room.

He sits down tiredly on the gurney, and takes his right hand in his left, and rubs it, trying to ease the cramped muscle.

By the time Weaver enters the room ten minutes later, the cramp hasn't subsided, and Ray is lying back against the gurney, his face showing his pain clearly.

Knowing that he must hate this situation, Weaver forces herself to treat him like any other patient. She has already drawn up a dose of clonazepam to treat the cramp. Weaver puts the tray she is carrying on the gurney, and asks Ray. "You don't have any allergies, do you?"

"None." Ray replies simply, then looking at the needle with caution, he asks. "What's that?"

"Clonazepam, it should stop the cramping. Then we'll work out what's causing it." Kerry tells him as she rubs an alcohol swab over Ray's bicep, and then picks up the needle.

Just as she goes to inject the medication, Ray stops her, and says. "I hate needles."

"Just look the other way, I'll do it as quickly as possible."

Ray hesitates, but after a moment, he turns his head away, and within a second, he feels the sharp sting of the needle entering his arm.

"Okay, all done." Kerry declares, she then goes about cleaning away the medical equipment while they wait for the medication to take effect.

Within five minutes, the medication begins to work, and Ray can relax. Kerry wastes no time before asking him. "How long have you been having these muscle cramps?"

"…Maybe a week."

"Any other symptoms?"

Ray thinks for a moment before he answers. "Some weakness in my legs, I keep tripping over my own feet, and I sometimes can't hold onto stuff." When he says it aloud, he knows that he was stupid not to see someone before now.

Weaver grabs a note pad from a nearby counter, and jots this down before saying. "I want to do some tests …Do you want me to go get one of the nurses to start a chart, and admit you here? Or set up for you to go to the outpatient clinic?"

"Outpatient." Ray answers without pause, he then asks. "What sort of tests are you thinking?"

"Routine labs, EMG, MRI, lumbar puncture, maybe more." Kerry tells him quickly.

Ray knows that she must have an idea what is going on to be ordering this range of tests, so he asks. "You think I've got something major, don't you?"

"…" Kerry's hesitation says it all for Ray, but still a moment later, she confirms his fears. "It could be nothing, and you know that without the tests I'm just guessing, but… the symptoms suggest a number of conditions. Tumour, MS, CNS infection, ALS."

Before Ray can respond, there is a knock on the door, and Abby walks in. "Sorry to interrupt, Dr Weaver. Your patient in curtain 3 isn't looking good."

Weaver quickly moves towards the door, as she reaches the doorway, she turns back to look at Ray, and says. "Come to my office after your shift."

Ray can only nod as Kerry hurries from the room, leaving him to his thoughts.

A tumour?!

MS?!

Infection in the brain?!

ALS?!

This can't be happening!

He has given many people these diagnoses before without pause, not even thinking about what they will face, but now-

Surgery.

Endless meds.

Long hospital stays.

Neurological degeneration.

Pain.

Death.

Should I continue this fic?

Please let me know what you think!