Five days passed since Ray had last seen Tony and Neela together. While he was all too happy not to hear any…giggling, the doctor was scared that the more he didn't see the couple, the more likely they were off somewhere…doing stuff.
But no, thank goodness, Barnett saw Neela at the board, alone. The man took a moment, as he had far too many times, to examine his ex-roommate.
Rasgotra studied the board assignments with her characteristic focus, but a weight that had dwarfed her and smothered her happiness for so long was visibly gone. Neela actually looked…at ease.
'As much as I want to be the one who can make her happy, if Tony Gates can make her look like that, I'm OK. As long as Neela's content. God, all this emotion. That's why I was in a band. Tortured artist and all.'
Shaking his head, Ray continued to evaluate his colleague from afar.
"You know, it's not polite to stare."
Startled, Barnett jumped and quickly turned around to see Abby. He regrettably let out a barely audible, "Eh?" which wrung out a laugh from the new mother.
"Oh come on, I wont tell."
Ray was visibly relieved to find a confidante decided to milk it for all it was worth. "So, shouldn't Tony be hanging onto her right now?"
Abby knew she was being Ray's inside person on Neela's private life, and decided to put the poor boy out of his misery.
"Didn't you hear? They broke up almost a week ago. Neela saw him as sort of a healing factor and frankly Gates was okay with that."
A whirlwind of emotions passed through Ray at that moment but all that escaped him was "Oh?"
Abby couldn't believe it. She just couldn't! Here she had given the poor kid an opening, a chance to go for Neela because really, the whole damn ER knew that Ray heart Neela and most probably vice versa. Somebody had to take the first step!
Sighing loudly, Abby walked away before she could smack Ray, and discreetly gave Tony, who was hiding behind the gauze bandage shelf, a slight wink to let him know that Phase I of operation "Reela" was complete.
Barnett only wondered where Abby had gone for a moment before returning to Neela-staring. Yes, the activity had a name, Ray did it so often.
'I wanna know what she's thinking.