Title: Trouble in Here
Author: Emony
Rating: FRT
Disclaimer: The names of characters contained herein are the property of the copyright holder of "ER." No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and said characters are used here without permission. The title comes from the Howie Day track.
Spoilers: Nothing specific.
Summary: Neela makes a mistake.

I let myself down. I made myself the one person I said I would never be. No, I didn't mess up at work. I didn't do anything to cause my parents to look at me with disapproval in their eyes. I just opened myself too quickly.

It started last week. He came into the ER; the divorced parent of a teenager who'd broken his ankle at football practice. We clicked - in more than just a doctor/patient way. The next day I bumped into him at the Jumbomart. We talked. We laughed. We exchanged numbers. I didn't tell anyone; not Abby, and not Ray. Definitely not Ray.

He rang the next day; Ray was at work. We talked for hours about nothing and everything. We arranged to meet up the next night after my shift was over, and Ray and Abby's would just be starting.

The date was amazing; the best night I'd had in an age. I may have gotten a little drunk. I didn't go home until the early hours of the morning, less than an hour before my shift was due to start. Yes, the sex had been pretty amazing too.

Flowers arrived in the ER that afternoon. Frank was his usual self over them. Most assumed they were from Michael - even Abby and Ray. Nobody thought any different, and I didn't let them know otherwise.

The next day we met for lunch in a posh café a few miles from County. We had a marvellous time; the food was perfect, as was the company. We made plans to meet up again the next night; he would meet me by the El station nearest County.

The next night was when everything changed. A woman arrived with a GSW to the thigh. She'd been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had Sam call her boyfriend, apparently the most caring and wonderful man in the world.

He arrived whilst I was with another patient. I entered Trauma 1. Ray was on one side of the patient and he was on the other. Ray introduced us.

When I introduced Neela to Nikki's boyfriend, her eyes flickered with pain, but she was all professional, as usual. The boyfriend acted weird once she was back in the room. I thought nothing of it, she'd been mood swinging all over the place all week, and I guessed something was up with her and Michael, why else would the guy send her flowers?

We joked on the way home. Neela, Abby and myself. Abby stayed for an hour or so for drinks - root beer for her and regular brew for me and Neela. Once she left, a wall came tumbling down, it was almost as if Neela broke in front of me - slumped on the sofa, staring blankly at the wall, not seeing or hearing anything.

Her mobile phone rang; she looked at it and let it ring. It stopped. Then it rang again several more times. Each time she let it ring. Her eyes full of pain.

She's my best friend, my roomie, and there was nothing I could do. She wouldn't let me. I mentioned Michael once; she laughed and told me she hadn't heard from him in weeks.

The next day she was Neela again, only different; there were walls up that even I couldn't break through.

Who were the flowers from?

End ficlet.