Originally authored on livejournal as Bingelybeep

Rating: T I think, may change, for drunkenness, swearing and a bit of sexual situation I would imagine, but I'm making this crap up as I go along

Spoilers: Very vague for The Show Must Go On, but basically if it was in the show, it might be mentioned.

Disclaimer: I do not own ER or any the characters or recognisable situations. This story is written and published for personal enjoyment and the love of the characters. No profit is being made.

Summary: Anyone wanna go get crazy ass drunk and pick a fight with some law clerks?

Debt Collection

Ray and Neela were beginning the trudge back to their apartment. After the day from hell Ray really was serious about getting totally shit faced. Naturally, Abby wasn't interested which meant that Jake wasn't either but, he thought, glancing down at the tiny woman trotting by his side, trying to keep pace with his longer legs, there was still Neela. Did Neela even get drunk?

He'd always thought of her as such a consummate good girl, she actually folded her underwear for God's sake. But lately a decidedly more naughty side of her had begun to emerge and Ray had no problems with that at all. He grinned slightly at the memory of her shoving the new Chief Resident, or starting that snowball fight with him in the ambulance bay. All his rocker friends even seemed to like her, which he never would have expected. In fact several of them seemed to have crushes on her, Ray's grin slipped into a slight frown. He didn't know why he disliked that idea so much but he'd noticed himself casually warning them away from her, mentioning how busy she was and how she still liked that soldier-doctor in Iraq. Now he seemed to only invite them over to the apartment he shared with Neela when she was on shift at the hospital. Of course it was partly due to consideration, or rather the fact that Neela kept ripping him a new one for having band practices in the middle of her beauty sleep. Which was ridiculous anyway because she was the last woman in the world who needed beauty sleep.

And that was the other thing. Ray had noticed that he'd been having a lot more thoughts like that recently. There was nothing unusual in him noticing when Neela looked hot, she was a beautiful woman and he was, to put it politely, something of a connoisseur. But he seemed to spend a lot of his time now just watching Neela. Whenever they finished a conversation she would turn away and he would spend a few seconds just watching her, the way she tucked her hair behind her ear or wrinkled her nose when she was thinking. He noticed things about her that he never noticed about other women. He noticed when she did different things to her hair, even though he didn't fully understand how she did it. There was the straight hair left to hang loose and frame her face, the straight haired ponytail, the loose and curly look and his personal favourite, the one where her hair was curly and she pinned it up but left a few tendrils loose, to curl down her neck and around her ears. It was soft, pretty, and it made her less scary when she was yelling at him.

He knew most of her wardrobe and had his favourite ensembles. The only thing he knew he'd never seen her wear was a strappy, black dress he'd found in the laundry basket a few days after Gallant had been in town. He'd been in a foul mood all day after that because he knew she'd worn that dress for her stupid soldier while Ray would never get a chance to see it. He held it up in front of him, saw the incredibly low dipping front and wanted to go over to Iraq and punch the bastard who'd seen Neela in it. But of course he had to remember that he and Neela were just roommates, so he'd mentally slapped himself, dropped the dress back in the basket and tried to stop thinking about how incredible Neela would look in it.

He carried on as normal, screwed up at work, played gigs with the band, slept with random groupies. And if he suddenly seemed to have developed a preference for deeply tanned, shorter women with black hair then that was just a coincidence.

He glanced back at Neela who was still struggling to keep up with his longer stride. He always walked a little faster when he was with her, partly because he liked the way the effort made her cheeks flush, just like when she was angry at him, and partly because it gave him a little glow inside to see her working hard to be with him. Even if that was a little twisted.

After all that introspection he REALLY needed a drink… or ten.

They had reached the point in their journey where they could either turn left and go home or turn right and walk for three more blocks until they reached a rather grungy bar, aptly named The Pit.

Ray stopped and Neela drew to a halt too, turning her face up to look at him questioningly.

"Ray? Why have we stopped? You do realise it's sub-Arctic out here don't you?"

Neela had had a really shitty day and all she wanted right now was to go home, have a long bath and curl up on the sofa with a Jane Austen film and a pint of ice cream. Or get completely shitfaced. Eitherway. But seeing as she had no one to go out drinking with… Abby was an absolute no-no and Ray was, well, Ray. If she was being honest she quite liked the idea of going out for a drink with Ray, he was good fun, he was smart and he was a permanent source of eye candy. She knew he'd mentioned getting drunk earlier but she figured if she was the only one available the invitation probably didn't stand anymore. He'd probably sit in his room and play his guitar for a while then meet up with his bandmates, he'd invite her along but he wouldn't want her to come really.

Neela didn't really want him to go out without her because sad as it was, she had to admit that the Darcy and ice cream plan did hopefully include Ray. She knew from past experience that he would mooch around in the kitchen and then the lounge, gradually drawing closer to the sofa as she watched her film. Then he'd hang over the back of the sofa for a while, looming over her and making comments about her terrible taste in movies. And if she was lucky he'd eventually swing himself over to sit next to her. They'd sit there and he'd eat her ice cream and ruin her film and the pathetic thing was that she'd really, honest to God be enjoying herself. Sometimes when they sat like that Ray's hand would come up and begin to run through her hair, though she wasn't sure he even knew he was doing it. And if she felt really brave Neela would feign sleepiness so she could rest her head on his shoulder and snuggle closer to his side. It almost felt like they were a couple.

Of course, it was natural to feel attracted to Ray, she told herself. They shared an apartment and they worked together. They were forced into close quarters, and as they shared a bathroom too those close quarters included some partial nudity. She didn't exactly have a raging sex life and she living with an extremely good looking man. It was perfectly expectable, except Neela knew that just being superficially attracted to someone didn't usually involve wanting to beat to death every groupie they brought home or losing the power of speech when they got straight out of bed in the morning and wandered about in their boxers.

And now he was stopping in the middle of the street. Probably to ask if she was OK to walk the rest of the way home alone while he went to the Pit to meet up with his real friends. And probably some bloody groupies as well, worse luck.

Ray didn't know why he felt nervous, except that while he and Neela lived together they never really went out together. It was ridiculous, he felt like a teenager asking a girl out for the first time. In the end he settled for a casual command rather than having to actually ask.

"Come on," Ray said finally, motioning to the right with his head as his hands were thrust firmly in his pockets.

"Where?" asked Neela, bouncing slightly to keep the cold out. She hated the fact that her heart had done a little jump when she realised he was asking her if she wanted to be his drinking buddy for the evening. She wanted to make sure that was what he meant so she didn't get her hopes up. Pathetic Rasgotra, she thought to herself but she didn't really care if she got to spend the evening out with Ray.

"I've had a crappy day, you've had a crappy day, we both need a drink. The Pit's straight down that street and I plan to get very drunk, care to join me?" He cocked his arm out to the side in invitation. Neela glanced down at it, then back up to his face. Making her decision she reached out and linked her arm through his as they headed off to get as drunk as was possible on an intern's salary.