A/N: Oh yes. I've become the cliche. That's the last time I wager against Sarika, master of all! And I was so hoping on Abby and Ray... but alas, we cannot always have what we want. So this bit of Valentine's fun is for you, ma amie! Enjoy the paradox of Neela and Ray!
4:05
"Valentine's Day," Pratt yawned, looking at his watch, "has commenced. Go home to your loved ones and roses and chocolate. We single people have work to do here."
A group of medical students rolled their eyes, but seemed pleased with the dismissal. It was, after all, 12:01 am, February 14th; the day of love. Or, perhaps to their sleep-starved minds, the day of sleeping all day and gorging on half-price chocolate sometime around noon, the 15th.
"Barnett!" Pratt barked as the resident tried to scurry unnoticed down a hall. "We've got a trauma-to-the-head comin' in, five minutes. Grab Neela too. I feel a 'teachable moment' coming on."
"Oh yeah? When did you shed your stone skin and pick up a professor's hat?" Ray scoffed, pulling on a disposable gown and gloves. "Neela!"
"What?" Neela snapped back as she stepped from the staff room, glaring at Ray. "I just got on shift, and I swear - if you even start about the plumbing-"
"Ouch!" Ray held up his hands, pointing to Pratt. "Boss-man number 12 wants us in on a head trauma, ward three, I think. Get on a gown and gloves, touchy."
Embarrassment flushed Neela's face. She squinted at Ray's smirking expression, then tsked and sped into a gown. Why did he have to be so smooth? Cocky…arrogant…prick! Neela thought, her mind spitting venom as Ray trotted ahead to meet the oncoming ambulance. Why had she taken his offer to be room-mates? Granted, they'd only had one meeting since she'd moved in. His working dayshifts while she worked nights made for minimal contact. But…then he was there and yet he wasn't there! Ray might have been an insufferable, mulish annoyance, but he was still company. Except he wasn't. Not when she needed company. Neela couldn't call Abby; Abby was invariably with Jake and why dampen her friend's high spirits with inane drivel about work or social problems? And she couldn't talk to Sam or the nurses or anyone! Neela was loathe to admit it, but Ray was a good listener when he wanted to use his more extroverted talents, but she couldn't dump her woes on him, could she? They were just room-mates…not friends.
"Hey, Neela? Wanna stop squinting at the wall long enough to pull the pulse off this John Doe?"
Neela jumped, looking into Pratt's annoyed, but vaguely amused face. She hadn't realized the stream of thought had taken her to the ER doors. Looking down at the patient, the young woman began automatically gathering his stats. She worked quickly and efficiently, answering the occasional question from her impromptu mentor.
"…garbage guy found him in an alley, lying beside an up-turned can," Pratt rattled off the patient's known history, his gaze flicking between Ray and Neela.
"Woah…you mean someone hit this guy over the head with a trashcan?" Ray interjected, eyebrows shooting upwards in grim surprise. "Wow…I didn't realize the homeless were so territorial."
Neela looked sideways, her expression pulled in a shocked, mildly disgusted gape of amazement.
"You can be highly ignorant, you know that?"
It popped from her mouth before she had a chance to think it. Pratt's lips twitched in a smile and the nurses exchanged tired, if knowing glances. Ray's jaw dropped, his brow clenching in a frown as a biting retort flew from between clenched teeth.
"What's this, your 'time of the month?' Chill out, Neela!" he growled back, working on the patient in easy, simultaneous action. "Get off my back."
She jerked back, amazed at his sparking response to her remark. Usually they exchanged a few jabbing comments whenever paired together, but his vehemence startled her.
"Look…can we get back to the patient before you two continue with your schoolyard taunts?" Pratt jumped in before Neela had a chance to answer Ray's remark. Both residents blushed and the a few nurses chuckled as they continued on the trauma patient.
-
Neela tucked a wayward strand of hair behind an ear as she ducked out ward three's doors. The John Doe (Ray had started calling him JD, but had stopped once no one livened to the joke) was stable and breathing, awaiting a CAT scan to check for further damage.
"Soooo….wanna explain to me what that was about?"
Ray had come up beside her, unconsciously herding Neela into the staff room. His face was set in a haggard, tired frown and the young woman suddenly realized he'd taken a double shift to cover rent expenses and groceries. The realization provoked a smile from the resident, much to Ray's obvious wariness.
"What? What's the smile about?" he demanded, nearly tripping over a chair. Suddenly, in a display of rage, Ray kicked the chair from his legs, snarled and dove after it, latching onto the arms as if his next trick was going to be to toss it through the nearest window.
"This is a bad day-" he managed to heave out, hunched and using the chair as support. Neela just stared in amazement.
"My fucking, supposed girlfriend decides to ditch after realizing her god-dam secret dream is to travel around the fucking world and I'm suddenly some giant inconvenience! I wait for her to finish up her term at school and she just smiles at me like I should be happy or something and…and this is fucked. I'm sorry, I just…there's never anyone around."
He wasn't weeping and he wasn't choked with emotion, Neela observed. Ray's voice was still and quiet, pierced infrequently by the sudden expletive. Had he loved her?
"It's not really a big deal," he finally sighed, turning and slumping into the chair. "It was a bad time…With work and everything…and you…"
"Me?" Neela coughed, staring at him.
"You," Ray nodded firmly. "My girlfriend cut the chains this morning-"
"Nice metaphor," the young woman snorted, silencing at Ray's baleful stare.
"Anyway, so I was coming to work thinking okay, I can do this double, then maybe persuade my room-mate to go for a coffee. But then the waiting room got backed and Kovac was a jerk about patient-doctor relationships or whatever and then you came and started in before I even got to say 'hello.' It started out good then got shitty. Real quick. So, I think you owe me a coffee. You're, like, done almost, right? You only came to take the last of Carter's shift because he got to flu or had to make out with his girlfriend or something, right?"
The waves of information kept Neela from forming a coherent answer. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, then prodded a temple with one forefinger.
"You are…very odd, Ray."
"Coffee?" He piped, looking mildly hopeful, but wary of rejection.
"Fine. I'm off now. Let's..let's go."
Ray jumped up and swaggered closer.
"Right. Lemme change and I'll meet you, okay?"
His grin made her glare and smile; a difficult feat.
-
"So it's one am outside this dingy little club and the bouncer, I mean, why would this place need a bouncer, it was so small, well, he walks up to us and grunts, "You th' guys?" And Tim goes, "Yeah…you said one thirty, right?" And the bouncer guy nods his stereotypically-bald head, grunts again, "Yeah, the place usually cleans out by one. Maybe you could start unloading your equipment now?" And we're like, huh? Why would they call us in to play for an empty house? And the bouncer looks at us and says, "We wanna get the bugs taken care of before renovations next month, okay? Think you'll be done within the week? We can't afford to be closed too long.""
Neela snorted with laughter at Ray's animated story.
"Then Tim suggested we change our name from Cockroach Killers and decide on getting a better secretary."
"Did that actually happen?" She was finding it difficult to believe such an obvious lapse in understanding could occur.
Ray took a sip of his coffee and nodded.
"Yeah! Weird, hey? Here we go," he unlocked the door to their building and held it open for her. "Oh, and happy Valentine's Day."
She raised an eyebrow at him. Neela tsked again, muttering, "How could you have remembered?"
Ray grinned, "The nurses posted signs everywhere."
"I figured as much."
"C'mon, admit it…if I'd had roses too, you'd have melted."
"I'll admit no such thing! It's not even true! Roses!"
"Oooh yeah. I can see it now: you jumping into my arms, music playing, the works."
"So you think I'm easy?"
"Maybe for roses."
"Nice try."
She gave him a loose jab in the gut. Ray grunted and grabbed her wrist before she could give him another. He grinned and bent to kiss her cheek briefly. Neela stared for a long moment, then:
"Shy?"
Before Ray could respond, Neela grabbed his collar and gave him a proper kiss, her lips crashing against his. He started, then responded in kind, and dropped his coffee. Ah, l'amour.
4:05 am.
End