A/P Hi Guys, really sorry about how long it had taken me to update. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I don't own ER - just playing with the characters

Dinner Date.

RPOV

I woke up on hearing Neela come into our room. "Sorry, did I wake you?" she asked as she walked over to the bed. I noticed that she was still wearing her scrubs.

"I wasn't really asleep" I replied a little groggily. "Come over here" I said, patting her side of the bed. She sat down on the bed and leaned over to kiss me. As she pulled away from me I brought her face back to mine and kissed her passionately, my hands exploring her body. Our kiss was briefly interrupted as I pulled her scrub top over her head. My hands were working on her bra clasp when she pulled away.

"Ray" she groaned.

"What?" I smiled, before kissing her again.

"I really want to but I've had an awful night and I'm completely cream-crackered"

"You're what?" I laughed. I still didn't understand some of the British expressions Neela used.

"Cream-crackered as in knackered, beat, exhausted" she removed the rest of her clothes and pulled on a certain t-shirt that I had never gotten rid of.

"Oh okay, I see"

She crawled under the covers and snuggled into my chest and within moments was fast asleep in my arms. I gently stroked her long, dark, soft hair and soon after found myself falling back asleep.

It was eleven am before I woke up again and I was surprised to discover that Neela wasn't laying in the bed next to me. I made my way downstairs to see that she was already dressed and cooking breakfast for us.

"Morning Roomie" I said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before taking out some cutlery and setting the table.

"You know I'm the one who worked all night but you're the one who couldn't get up" she said, spooning scrambled egg onto our plates.

"As I recall you mentioned something about being exhausted so I wasn't expecting you to wake up until early afternoon" I replied. "I wonder if you were just trying to get out of something" I said raising my eyebrows.

She walked over to the table set down the plates of food before sitting on my lap and crashing her lips to mine and kissing me passionately, her hands tugging on my hair as she pulled me closer to her, deepening the kiss. I went to wrap my arms around her waist when she ended the kiss as abruptly as she had started it and moved over to her own seat and started eating.

I sat there with my mouth open "What was that?" I asked, confused by what had just happened.

"I believe it's called a kiss" she smiled.

"Ha ha very funny. Why did you initiate it if you weren't going to take it anywhere?"

"Shut up and eat your breakfast" she smirked.

I quietly picked up my fork and began piling scrambled egg into my mouth. I should be mad at her but somehow all the tension I had felt only moments ago dissolved away as I continued to eat. Once again the food was delicious. "I think you should cook every morning" I suggested.

"Bollocks to that" she quickly replied. "Anyway in case you had forgotten I'm not always here in the morning to cook your breakfast"

"Okay, calm down woman it was just a suggestion" I said with a playful tone as I picked up our empty plates and took them over to the sink, where I began to run some water to wash up.

"Did you seriously just call me woman?" she asked, acting all haughtily as she walked over to me.

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?"

"I'll show you what I'm going to do about it" she said splashing hot water into my face before running away.

"Oh no you don't" I said, grabbing her around the waist, pulling her back to me enabling me to splash her back. I also took this opportunity to start tickling her.

"Ray, get off me" she said, pushing her hands against mine trying to stop me and failing miserably.

"You started this" I replied with a devilish grin spreading across my face.

She held her hands up in surrender "Okay, okay I give"

"Promise" I said looking longingly into her soulful, brown eyes.

"I promise" she said, bringing her lips to mine and kissing me tenderly, I kissed her back.

I should have known better. As we were locked in a passionate embrace Neela used the chance to soak me with the water. Once again she quickly ran away, only this time I wasn't quick enough to catch her. "I'd watch out if I were you, this isn't over you know. One day I will get you back" I said as I started to wash the dishes.

"Ray, on Monday can you bring in those boxes over there to go into my office?" she called from the living room.

"Of course, you know I'd do anything for you baby"

"Thanks" she said, walking back into the kitchen.

"You're welcome. Neela there's something I need to tell you" I could see her entire body tense up at my words.

"What?" she asked.

"We're going out for dinner with Bret tonight" I said, putting on a false smile.

"What? When did all this happen?" she asked, she didn't look impressed.

"Umm, last night at band practice. He asked and I couldn't really say no could I?"

"I guess not" she sighed. "You'd better make this up to me" she said walking over to me.

"Don't worry I plan to spend the whole afternoon making it up to you" I replied, stroking a stray strand of hair from her face before placing the palm of my hand to her face and crashing my lips against hers.

"Good" she said against my lips.

NPOV

Ray and I had spent the entire afternoon back in bed, making love. After a week of not seeing each other for more than a couple of hours a day we hadn't felt this close and connected for a while. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and revelled in the closeness we were able to feel once again. I was glad that my night shifts were out of the way for about a month and that we would have some time we could spend together again.

Ray told me about his work colleagues and how they all wanted to meet me. After hearing stories about me for the last five months they were really looking forward to getting to know me. I suggested that maybe we could have a BBQ or something next Saturday evening. Ray agreed that it would be a good idea and that I should invite my colleagues along too, he specifically mentioned that I should invite Jo as she was such a nice girl. Besides his own team she had been one of the first people to make him feel welcome here when he started his new job. He even admitted that they had gone out on a few dates but agreed to just be friends. I couldn't help feeling slightly jealous at his friendship with her.

I was just finishing up on getting ready for dinner, I was wearing a cute little black dress and heels. I decided to curl my hair and wear it down. It wasn't often I got to dress up so I was making the most of it.

"Wow, you look WOW!" Ray said at a loss for words.

"You look very handsome" I said, casting my eye over his black trousers and royal blue shirt that he was wearing.

I was having difficulty with the clasp of my necklace.

"Here, let me help you with that" he said, standing behind me and doing it up. He brought his lips down to the skin just below my ear, I could feel his hot breath on the back of my neck and felt that familiar shiver run down my spine. He gently began kissing my heated skin when the phone began to ring. "I'll get it" he said.

After putting my earrings in I made my way downstairs and overheard the last part of Ray's conversation. "Yeah that sounds great. I'll see you soon. Bye" he span around and I swear that he jumped when he saw me.

"Who was it?" I asked.

"Just Bret"

"He called even though we're going to see him in about ten minutes"

"Well you know Bret. He's a born worrier and wanted to make sure that we were still coming tonight"

This didn't sound like the Bret I knew, he had always seemed such a laid back guy as if nothing could worry him.

"You ready to go then?" Ray asked.

"As ready as I'm going to be" I said taking a deep breath. I really didn't want to do this dinner it was going to be really awkward. All I wanted to do was veg out on the couch watching movies with Ray.

Ten minutes later we had arrived at the restaurant and were being seated. We had only just sat down when Ray excused himself to go use the bathroom. I didn't know what I was going to say to Bret when I remembered about his phone call. "So, Ray tells me you're a bit of a worrier. The brief time I spent with you back in Chicago I can't say that you seemed the worrying type"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, looking confused.

"It's just it's a little bit overkill calling ten minutes before we're due to meet you don't you think?" I replied, trying to be as polite as possible.

"I didn't call you guys"

"Oh" I said, a little shocked and wondering why Ray had lied to me. That's when he came back from the bathroom and sat down beside me.

"So, what'd I miss?" he asked.

"Nothing" I said quickly cutting Bret off before he could say anything. I didn't want to make things any more uncomfortable than they already were.

"Neela, Ray here tells me it's your birthday next month. Are you looking forward to it?"

"Do I look like I'm a kid" I said a little more sharply than I had intended.

"I take it you're not a fan of birthdays then" he continued with the conversation.

"No, not really. Most people seem to forget anyway" I thought back to the year where only Tony had remembered when my birthday was.

We spent the entire meal making small talk, I don't think any of us were that comfortable in the situation. I still couldn't get past the fact that Ray had found it necessary to lie to me about the phone call earlier. When we got home I planned to dial *69 and find out who had really called. I zoned out a bit when the conversation turned to music and their plans for the band.

Finally the evening had come to an end and we were in the car on the way home. "You could have made a bit more of an effort" Ray said, glancing over to me.

"What?" I replied.

"With Bret, you didn't talk to him much and when you did you were a little rude"

"Well I'm sorry that I don't live up to your expectations of how a good little girlfriend should behave"

"What? That's not what I meant. What is with you tonight? Ever since I came back from the bathroom at the restaurant you've been distant"

"I guess I'm just tired" I shrugged.

The rest of the car journey was spent in an awkward silence, neither of us wanting to be the first to speak for fear of upsetting the other.

"I'm going to bed" Ray said as soon as we walked through the front door.

"Okay, I'll be up in a moment"

"Goodnight" he kissed me before walking upstairs.

I went straight to the phone and found out the number of who had called. I recognized the number as being the hospital's. This didn't make any sense, if somebody from the hospital had called it must have had something to do with work so why hadn't he just told me the truth? I was still no closer to finding out who it was that had called earlier tonight.

I switched off the lights and made my way upstairs to bed. I crawled under the covers, but instead of snuggling up against Ray I lay on my side, my back facing him.

A/N As always let me know what you thought. Thanks :) There won't be another update for probably over a week as I am going on holiday on Monday. Yay!