Interception

Disclaimer: ER and its characters are not mine and have been borrowed without permission.

A/N: So who's pysched about the very positive RN blurb in next week's TV Guide? Shane's coming back in late February and claims, "Fans will be relieved and delighted with how it ends." Yeah!

Simon Brenner turned the key in the lock as gently as he could, thankful when it turned over with only the slightest click. Although he was secretly hoping that Neela was wide-awake and ready to greet him, he suspected she was fast asleep. Her shift had ended nearly 4 hours earlier, and he'd caught her as she'd stumbled through the ER on her way out, pulling her into the break room to confirm that he was still welcome at her apartment that night. She'd nodded tiredly as she leaned her head back against the locker, her eyes fluttering shut. The circles under them only confirmed what he already knew to be true. Neela was exhausted.

"Are you going to be awake when I get there?" he asked. He was still on for another two hours, and that was assuming that he didn't get tied up with a trauma coming in ten minutes before his shift ended, always a likely scenario.

"Probably not," she mumbled. "I'll leave a key out for you under the mat."

"I don't have to come over," he offered, his heart not in it. He smiled when she shook her head no.

"Great," he said, kissing her quickly. "I get off in two hours."

She nodded, kissed him back, and then headed towards the exit.

The end of Simon's shift arrived, and as he'd feared he was up to his elbows in blood, trying to save a gun-shot victim whose heart refused to keep a stable rhythm long enough to ship him upstairs to surgery.

It was nearly an hour and a half after his shift officially ended that he was able to sneak away. At Neela's door he briefly considered going home, but reassured himself that Neela wanted him there. She'd said so herself. And after he'd spend six months pursuing her, he wasn't about to let her change her mind. Even if he could just curl up beside her, wrap his arms around her and inhale her scent before falling asleep, that would be enough.

The apartment was dark, and he picked his way across the unfamiliar room gingerly. Fortunately, Neela's housekeeping was as meticulous as her surgical procedures, so he didn't stumble. He stepped into her room and could just make out the tiny lump in the bed that must be her. The lump was rising and falling in a slow, even tempo, leaving no doubt that she was asleep.

Simon quietly stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed next to her, taking great care not to wake her as he curled around her, his chest pressing against her back. When she didn't move, he placed one arm across her body and nuzzled her neck, pressing a quick kiss to it before laying his head on the pillow.

He had almost drifted off to sleep when he felt a strange vibration. He opened his eyes, noticing that Neela's face was now bathed in a sickly pale blue light. He felt the vibration again. Her cell phone! She must have gone to sleep with it. He smiled to think that she was waiting for his call. But if he hadn't called, then who was calling now? It was after midnight. Simon felt around for the cell phone, surprised to find that even asleep, Neela still had a firm grasp on it. He slowly eased it from her hand, his curiosity now overriding his desire to keep from waking her. Finally she gave up her phone, and he pulled it over her body to stare at the screen.

You have 3 new text messages. Read now?

Three messages? From who? Simon glanced at Neela, but she was still out cold. He tapped yes, and her inbox opened. The sender of each message was listed as Ray Barnett.

It didn't take Simon two seconds to remember who Ray was. Although Neela hadn't mentioned him since his impromptu visit in October, Simon had been able to glean some information from the less discreet ER staff. Apparently, Ray and Neela had lived together at some point during their internships. There had been some sort of falling out between them, and the depth of Ray's feelings for Neela and vice-versa were still hotly debated among the staff. Simon had felt fairly secure that Neela's affections rested with him, but the slightest doubt began to appear when he saw Ray's name next to each text message. And that wasn't all. As he scrolled through her inbox, Simon saw that nearly every message was from Ray. They texted multiple times a day, sometimes sending as many as 20 or 30 texts. Apparently they had been texting that evening when Neela fell asleep.

Simon wrestled with his morals for exactly three seconds before giving into his temptation to read her messages. Piety had never been his strong suit.

So I was thinking about coming back to Chicago to visit. Do you think that's a good idea?

Then, a few minutes later….

Neela? Did you fall asleep on me? Or is it the visit? I won't come if you're not okay with it. But if you are, I'd like to pick up where we left off last time.

And finally….

Okay, I'm guessing you're asleep. And if you're not, well, forget I said anything at all. I really want to see you, but only if you're 100 percent okay with it. And if you're not, that's okay too. But let me know, okay? I won't bug you about it, I promise. Sweet dreams, Roomie.

And that was all. Horrified, Simon scrolled through both Neela's inbox and her outbox, reading each message. She and Ray discussed fairly mundane things - work, the weather, his recent birthday - nothing that would indicate that there was anything more to them. But the fact that she was opening up to him at all….

Whenever Simon asked Neela how her day was, she would either shrug off his question or worse, tartly reply, "You were there too, you know." But there was no indication of any sarcasm or holding back with Ray. Simon had always assumed that Abbey was Neela's best friend, and there were certainly a fair amount of incoming and outgoing calls and texts to and from her. But they were dwarfed by the calls and texts from Ray. He was either her closest friend or…something more.

For the first time, Simon wished he knew more about Ray and Neela's relationship. What had happened between them before Ray had left? And why had he left? And what had passed between him and Neela when he'd visited last fall? When Simon had peeked through the door, Ray had been standing and still clothed, a good sign. But Neela had wasted no time ushering Simon away from her door and emphasizing while she was at it that there was nothing going on between them, indicating that there was something going on between her and Ray. Yet Simon had noticed Neela's puffy eyes the next day, as well as the fact that the mysterious doc hadn't returned to Chicago since. If there had been anything going on between Ray and Neela, Simon was willing to bet that it was now over. So how could they remain such good friends? And why would Ray want to come back to "pick up where we left off last time" if he had left Neela in tears that night in October?

Simon was already forming a plan as to how to resolve this problem, although he was having more difficulty justifying this idea. Ray had said that he wouldn't bug Neela about the trip, and he also didn't know if she was asleep or if she had read the message and was panicking. If she never got the message, Neela would never know Ray had asked to come visit, and Ray would assume that Neela didn't want him to come. Even better, if Neela sent Ray a message saying she didn't want him to come, then he would have no choice but to drop the matter.

Simon looked over at Neela. He didn't want to lose her. He thought that he might have a pretty good chance of holding onto her, but only if Ray stayed out of the picture.

The idea of Ray returning to claim Neela quashed whatever few moral quandaries Simon was wrestling with. He quickly typed out a message and hit send, then deleted the last three messages from Ray as well as Neela's response. Satisfied, he put the phone on Neela's bedside table and snuggled under the covers, pulling Neela towards him possessively.

"I'm not going to lose you, Neela," he whispered. "Not to Yale, not to Duke, and certainly not to Ray Barnett."

*****

Ray opened his eyes when he felt his phone vibrate. His heart started to ache even before he finished reading Neela's message. He looked over at his laptop, clicking on the space bar to highlight the now dark screen. The browser flashed on the screen, and Ray sighed. He'd found such a great deal on tickets to Chicago, the best he'd seen since he'd started looking last October. Although he would willingly pay any price to see her, his desire was limited by his pitiful checking account. If she had said yes, he would have had enough money to buy the ticket and pay his rent. But she didn't want to see him.

Resigned, Ray closed the browser and then the laptop before crawling under the covers. As he closed his eyes, he knew that Neela's rejection wouldn't keep him from dreaming of her that night, just as he had every night since he'd left Chicago.

The End