She didn't remember much about the accident that put her in the hospital. She had been in a mental fog when she attended the rally in the first place. When she thought about the accident, what she really recalled was Ray. Ray in that hospital. Katey yelling at her. Ray being wheeled away in the hospital bed. Ray telling her not to visit him. Ray telling her that he was in love with her. Ray. Ray. Ray.
She didn't remember being trampled. The trauma room at County wasn't any clearer. Abby was there. Lucien. Some other people. Then there was blissful darkness. It wasn't until she'd come out of anesthesia so many hours later, woke up with a tube down her throat and her body wrapped in bandages that she groggily thought something might be wrong with her. Before she could panic she'd heard his voice, quiet and soothing.
"Hey, Neela...welcome back."
She couldn't see him, he was beside her but turning her head just wasn't an option. She'd felt his warm hand on her wrist, caught sight of his lab coat sleeve as he reached up to adjust an IV drip. It wasn't until a nurse asked him for something that Dr. Dubenko had leaned across the bed and she was able to look at him. As he handed off what must have been her chart, Neela studied her chief. He looked tired. Drawn. Worried. His scrubs were rumpled and his hair was messier than usual. He wasn't wearing his glasses. Were his eyes red-rimmed?
He must have felt her studying him because he'd looked down at her and smiled. "You gave us a scare but you'll be just fine...just fine..."
She drifted in and out of sleep for some time after that but whenever she woke, he was there. Sleep deprived and miserable, but he was there. He'd joke that he was her physician and had a responsibility to his patient. That he had to take care of his best surgeon so she could get back in the OR, he had a lot left to teach her. It wasn't long before those excuses wore thin. The nurses would whisper about it, Neela could hear them as she laid there pretending to sleep. The chief of surgery had more than a medical interest in his intern. She had wanted to laugh, would have but it hurt too much. She'd known about his feelings for her, after all he'd blurted them out in the middle of an argument not too long ago.