Notes : This is the much-demanded sequel to "Secrets and Lies". The first story got such a phenomenal response; it seemed only fair to follow it up
Spoilers : Anything in the first half of season 11 is fair game, but for the record the events of "Here and There" never happened. I don't plan on using any explicit spoilers anyway.
Content Warning: Initially, nothing.
Rating: FRT for now.
Disclaimer: ER and its characters are the property of Michael Crichton, John Wells, Amblin Entertainment and Constant C Productions. No infringement intended and these characters are used within without permission. In other words, I don't own everyone and everything you recognize, but I do own Jenny and Mina. Besides, I own nothing worth having except my car (who's 18) and a toaster, so I'd suggest not suing.
Second Time Around
Chapter One
"Hey - " Bret said, wandering up the hallway to lean against his roommates doorframe. "I forgot to ask – when you coming back?"
Ray looked up momentarily from packing, a slight look of puzzlement crossing his face. Bret was wearing a slightly amused expression, noting the chaos in which his room currently lay.
"Didn't I say?"
Bret shook his head to indicate no. Ray shrugged.
"I'm working Saturday night." He said eventually, by way of answer.
"Right." Bret noted, to fill the silence. He considered his roommate a long moment, before speaking again. "Looking forward to it?"
Ray raised an eyebrow, confused. Bret smiled.
"Thanksgiving, I mean. Your weekend away."
"Sure. I guess." Another shrug. "It's going to be weird."
"You can say that again." Bret took a long drink from the water bottle in his hand. "These last few days have been some trip."
There was a pregnant pause as both men considered the implications of what seemed an innocuous enough comment. Bret broke into a trademark grin and broke the silence again.
"Karen'll never believe it."
Ray suspected Bret couldn't wait to tell Karen all that had happened over the last week. To talk to someone outside of their four walls about the drama of the last few days.
Initially, Bret hadn't believed it either. The look on his roommates face when he'd first heard about Mina had been nothing short of thunderous, which had been unexpected.
The accusations had flown – but Ray had calmly countered them all – yes, it had been why she'd left but, no, he certainly had not thrown her out, she had left of her own accord, and she'd never said a word about being pregnant. Bret seemed insistent on believing the best of Neela, but at that comment his face had fallen flat, and he had been visibly thrown.
"Probably not." Ray replied, imagining her face.
Karen Taylor – his roommate's only sibling – and someone he hadn't seen in a comfortably long time. He knew she was a happily married mother-of-one, sensible and responsible. A far cry from her black-haired, fake-tattooed, sullen pot smoking teenage self, the 16-year-old rebel he'd first met.
Being her older brother's best friend had made him somewhat of an idol to her – though that was not without its discomfort as he remembered. Nothing had ever happened – it was just a bad case of unrequited teenage love and she got over it. But her words, the words of a bitterly rejected teenager, that had told him he would never grow up, that he'd always be a "useless waste of space with a fear of commitment and an attitude problem," rang clear as day. What she was going to think when she found out about Mina? He could only imagine.
"You seeing her for Thanksgiving?"
He changed his line of thought abruptly, not caring to dwell too much on what other people, in particular Bret's baby sister, thought of his situation. Not when he wasn't entirely sure what he thought about his situation yet.
Bret nodded, shoulders lifted in a resigned half shrug.
"She's invited me over for dinner." Bret's tone was a cross between flat and sullen. "I still don't like the jerk she's married to, but I won't punish her and Becca for my personal prejudices."
The smile this time was a little more forced. Ray knew the thought of spending the holiday with his sister and brother-in-law was torture to Bret, especially after they'd made plans to avoid family this time around. But the last week had changed things.
"And it's not like I have anyplace else to be."
Bret finished, levity failing him. Ray straightened, faced his roommate for the first time.
"Look, Bret, I'm sorry." It was a loaded, awkward apology, but it was all he could say. His loyalties were elsewhere. "I know all this has been really last minute."
"We live together, we ain't married. Don't stress it." Bret laughed. "Mina comes first. I get that."
He finished solemnly, before he smiled broadly in an attempt to diffuse the situation and turned to walk away.
"Be sure and say hi to Neela for me."
Bret tossed lightly over his shoulder as he disappeared down the hallway.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
Brake lights snaked ahead of him into the far distance, a blinking stream of red. He rolled his shoulders, stretched out his neck, preparing to be in this jam for the long haul. In retrospect, he should have left earlier. It would not make a good impression if he was late.
He sighed as he eyed the endless line of cars, knowing that lateness was now inevitable. He'd been so keen to make this weekend perfect. To not do anything to jeopardize any future visits to his daughter. This had not been part of the plan.
He wanted to get to know his little girl. Mina currently was a stranger to him. Was that his fault? Could he be blamed for not feeling a connection to his child? It certainly hadn't been instantaneous when they had met, as he'd always imagined it would be. As he'd always heard it would be. It wasn't because he didn't want to feel connected to her, and it certainly was not because she wasn't an adorable child. Mina was perfect – a miniature version of her mother. He loved her unconditionally, he just didn't know her. That, he decided, underlined the difference between him being her father and being her dad. The former was his current situation, the latter was his aim.
And of her mother, he still didn't know where he stood. She had left because she had been afraid, he knew that, but he found it difficult to pin down what she had feared. That he'd have forced her to get rid of it? Of how he'd react to being told the news a second time, after what happened to Abby? Or was what she was most frightened of that he would have had the opposite reaction – that he would have stayed and stuck it out with her? Her reactions and her expressions had confused him. And at the root of it all, there were still brief glimpses of anger. Anger at her deception, and at being cheated of so many of Mina's important moments – her first word, her first step, her first Christmas.
But neither of them could turn back time now. The five years and the bitter words were said and done. And they had now to make best of the situation that they'd found themselves in. He drummed his fingers absently, almost in time to the music, and felt familiar nerves coil in his stomach. He prayed to whatever God it was that brought them here that this weekend wasn't a total disaster. For Mina's sake, as well as his own.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
"Neela - " Jenny snapped, the constant movement frustrating her. "Neela – will you stop the whirling dervish routine just for a second? You've checked everything. We've cleaned this house top to bottom."
She placed her hands square on Neela's shoulders and stopped the other woman in her frenetic tracks.
"Not that I know why you're so bothered anyway."
Jenny shrugged.
"I don't want him thinking I'm bringing our daughter up in squalor,"
Neela replied, and Jenny snorted.
"Squalor? He's a single guy - " Jenny threw up a hand. "Neela. He's a single guy. This place, even in the state it was in, would have been paradise."
Neela checked her watch anxiously.
"Have you got everything?" She asked. Jenny sighed wearily, ticking the items off on her fingers as she spoke.
"Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie." Jenny rolled her eyes at Neela's worried, neurotic expression. "All in the fridge…or at least, the ingredients are."
Neela let out a long breath.
"Good." She tapped her watch face, glanced out the window. "Where the hell is he?"
If she sounded impatient, that was because she felt it. This was his first visit to them. This was his first proper meeting with his daughter, and almost as importantly with Jenny. Neela was determined that things go well. Him being late wasn't the best start.
"What time did he say he was going to be here?" Jenny asked casually, scanning up and down their street for any unfamiliar passing cars.
"I told him to get here before 3." Jenny flicked a quizzical gaze to her best friend. Neela elaborated.
"That's when Mina's back. I wanted him to be here when she was dropped off."
"She doesn't know he's coming?" Jenny asked, a surprised inflection in her tone. Neela shrugged.
"No?" She ventured eventually. Jenny raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes again, her expression telling Neela all she needed to know about what the redhead was thinking.
"Oh boy." Jenny muttered, exhaling deliberately. "Well, looks like he got here."
Jenny non-sequitured and Neela looked confused. With a tilt of her head, Jenny indicated the dark green Honda now visible through their front-room window. Neela's stomach pitched, her heart thundering. Now, all this worrying and fretting, this was real. She silently crossed her fingers as she watched Jenny walk to the front door to let him in.
