Title: The Hours Home

Author: BelleG08

Summary: You. You have taken all of me without giving any back. You have broken me down to nothing, and yet you have shown me what it is to be alive.

Disclaimer: I own Nothing. This is a Ray/Neela/Simon Fic.

NOTE: I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you all like it as well. WARNING: there is some slightly mature content here.

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Chapter 11

The sun poured into her east facing room particularly early that morning. It caressed her slumbering face in an attempt to awake her for the waiting day ahead, an attempt that was vainly unneeded.

Neela's internal alarm clock stirred her well before the morning light ever could with jitters of excitement and extraordinary implausibility. Even as she steamed in the hot shower, she continually racked her capacitated brain, not with methods of new surgical techniques like her attending would hope her to, but for empirical details of possibilities that the previous night actually occurred – the dinner on the astoundingly low side of the awkward spectrum, the exuberant duet at the karaoke bar and finally the ephemeral kiss that served as a perfect finale to the otherworldly experience.

Her heart was on fire as she sat in front of her vanity mirror at daybreak, running her thin fingers through her waving hair and dabbing miniscule drops of perfume about her décolletage. She stared at her reflection, squaring her shoulders and sizing up her appearance. Sadly, Neela spent an embarrassing amount of time primping up: shaving her legs, plucking her eyebrows, doing extra makeup and extra product in her hair, putting on a face for a man who had seen her at the ugliest points in her life. For god's sake, she used to room with him. Ray had witnessed her in her three day old sweats, dirty hair, and hung over faced self much too many times to count. And now here she was, trying to make herself beautiful for him.

It was when she debated in her third choice outfit mirror that she heard a soft knock at the door. With a deep, resolute breath, she answered.

Dear god, he could wear jeans.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Ray grinned delightfully, offering her a bouquet of roses.

She blushed, her face breaking into an awe-inspired radiance "Thank you,"

His mouth half-smiled, "You ready to go?"

After placing the bouquet on the nearby table, Neela grabbed her double-breasted coat and bag and nodded in accordance, "I am now,"

When you moved from a place like Chicago to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, one learned to appreciate some things in life, Ray quickly realized once he got home. Oh how he took for granted little things, like a city, not that Baton Rouge was at all some type of backroads ghost town, it was merely not a place like Chicago, or New York. He missed doing things like this, like walking and bumping shoulders with people, having no choice but to eavesdrop on ongoing conversation in the perimeter and dodging traffic.

He missed doing things like this with her.

It was like nothing had ever changed. It was like they were back to being Ray and Neela again, circa two-thousand and five.

Neela was going on and on about possible attending interviews that Lucien had referred her to.

"I mean can you believe it? Attending…I'm almost an attending," she shook her head her eyes clouded by the incredulousness of her eyebrows.

He smirked, "You've come along way from selling two-for-one cupcakes at the local corner store,"

She went expressionless, "Of course you would bring up the Jumbo Mart,"

"Hey, it's ok…we all go through our Jesus phases," oh how he enjoyed the flame in her eyes when he would push her buttons. She was all too easy. "I remember when I used to single-handedly whoop your ass in discharging patients. Like a smooth and easy four to one ratio and everything if I'm not mistaken…what nickname was disposed onto me? Oh…yeah, the closer"

"I'm ignoring you, Ray Barnett," she scolded as they waited at the corner. "Where are we going anyway? I'm starving,"

"Be patient, Neela. It's right up this block,"

"I'm talking a real breakfast, no fruit and yogurt stuff. I want bacon and eggs and an English muffin," her mouth salivated at the mere thought of the greasy goodness.

"Of course you would want an English muffin,"

She rolled her eyes. "You're incorrigible,"

"Its part of my charm," he smiled, resting his hand at the small of her back as they, along with the hurried group of New Yorkers, crossed the walk. After some few argument-filled minutes later, the two stopped in front of the quaint restaurant. A smile moved across the young woman's face.

"The Kitchenette," she audibly reflected, "You know I've heard of this. They say it's one of the best breakfast's here in the city,"

Ray opened the door for her, and smirked in correction, "It's the best breakfast in town,"

"You know, I'm not joking about the fatty breakfast,"

"I didn't think you were," he laughed, "I've seen you eat before,"

"It's just so seldom that I get a proper meal. You learn to jump at the chance,"

He pulled out a chair for her before easing himself down. "I'm a resident too, Neela," he claimed deprecatingly. "They forget to mention in the Hippocratic Oath that once you get the MD behind your name, proper meals and food in general become expendable," They mulled over the menu in between chats.

After a few moments, Ray closed his laminated menu, "I need to give Archie a call if you're this pitiful. Someone needs to take care of you. You live alone; no one probably sees the light inside your apartment except you. I bet you don't even sleep there. Ten bucks says you're camping out in the on-call room. And God knows what kind of hazardous materials you have growing inside of your refrigerator. With you having this weird habit of forgetting to throw out leftovers and all. I don't even want to think if you actually tried cooking something. I mean…you're like a…a really sad orphan,"

Neela visibly tensed. She knew she forgot something. She bit her lip hard, not knowing how to say it. Everything was so perfect right now, so, wonderful, so fantastic, so…not ever needing to end. How could she tell him? How could she put words to what she feared so much, to what she wanted to stay in the back of her deepest thoughts and fears. Obviously, there was something transpiring between them. What it was, she did not know. But it felt good and right and fragile. Bringing up her elusive relationship back home would no doubt place a kink in she and Ray's tenuous détente.

But it would also be the truth. And the truth is what he deserved.

She shut her eyes, building up whatever minute bit of courage she possessed. "Ray," she started.

"Yeah?" he looked up from the special's list on the table.

"I think that-"

"Hey, guys, are you two lovely people ready to order?" was what the interrupting waitress spoke in, successfully cutting Neela off.

"Yes," Ray smiled and motioned over to Neela, "Give her the most unhealthiest thing you've got,"

She couldn't help the grin that crossed her visage. Shaking her head, she pushed the matter for a later time.

--er--

The day was much too short, in Ray's humble opinion. There were so many things that he wanted to accomplish. For all purposes, this was his first date with the woman of his dreams and they were on a curfew. In T minus thirty hours, she would turn into a pumpkin and then where would they be?

Well, if things went accordingly, happily together – or in one way or another, at least, some form of such being.

He should feel tired. Walking around all day was not too smart for a man in his condition. But he felt too alive to stop, too vivacious to ask for a break. There was simply no time between Chinatown lunch, Little Italy snack, street dog other snack, Strawberry fields, CBGB, the Met, and even the damn H&M that she dragged him into. They even squeezed in a show that night. Brett had give him two comped orchestra seat tickets to Jersey Boys, a show that he would never have chosen, but apparently Neela adored.

She was humming one of the show's she-bop tunes as they made their way into his hotel room with a take out box full of Eli's Cheesecake.

"Admit it," she smiled widely.

"No," Ray was serious.

"You enjoyed it!"

"I did not," he stood his ground. Ray enjoyed watching her enjoy it.

"I saw you bopping your head!"

He scoffed. "Well sue me, Neela. Not all white boys are born without rhythm,"

She giggled like a little schoolgirl as she stole the final piece of cheesecake goodness.

The two sat in silence on the bed, Neela cross-legged, studying her companion's features. "What are you thinking about?"

He shrugged, "How…fateful this weekend turned out to be,"

"You believe in fate?"

"I believe in things happening for a reason," he stared out of the window, thoughts obviously clouding his coherent mind. "I believe in patience and struggle for the right time and place," she furrowed her brows as he continued. "That maybe all that crap that happened-"

"Ray," she started, placing hand on his chest.

He shook his head with an ironic smile, "You know…you're a doctor, a trauma surgeon. You make life altering decisions in a split second everyday. You choose things for people you don't know and you save their lives. You choose what to do and how to do it and when to do it," he shrugged, bringing his eyes to hers, "But never once did you choose me,"

"Ray," her heart broke at the vulnerability in his face, "Things were…complicated,"

"I know,"

She shook her head, placing her hands on either side of his face, "I never thought that I could be with you…It's not that I never wanted to be with you," Her eyes were laced with threatening tears. "The thought of being with you was terrifying and against everything that I thought I was supposed to feel. And yet my heart was doing things that my mind would not account for," she clutched his hair, "And I let myself slip in so many ways that I hated myself for what was going on inside of me, for being so selfish-"

"Neela, you don't need to explain,"

"I want to," she truthfully told him, "You need to know that there are things embedded so deep inside of me for you, feelings that have been there for you for so long that I can't remember not having them. And the day that I moved out of the apartment was one of the hardest things that I ever forced myself to do to you. I thought moving in with you was a bad mistake in a moment of desperation," her mouth moved to a smile, "But it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,"

He smiled so brightly, it melted her heart.

"And then everything fell apart because of my guilt and fear and my reaction to fly away instead of fight…and I was too stupid and naïve to think that pushing away from you would work. And then when I finally came to terms, after so many hurtful and selfish mistakes, with what was right ," her thumb caressed his cheek softly, "It was too late," her voice broke.

Ray held her hands, pulling her up to standing. His voice was firm with conviction laced with inborn huskiness. "It's not too late for us,"

His eyes danced with the most intense of anticipation, green with clear light as he gripped her midsection so tightly she could almost not breath, not that she would have noticed over the hard, incessant pounds that were her erratic heartbeats. Pulling her hand tightly, he tugged her into his embrace. In that moment, she could not hear anything else around them, see anything but him, feel anything but the electricity that flowed between them.

"I choose you now," she quietly spoke.

He smiled, his hands cradling her face. He murmured, "I've always chosen you, Neela," And with that, he crushed his lips heavily against hers.

Their kisses were intoxicating, as rough and hungry as they were meek and gentle, cool and serene as they were hot and warring. It was a fight between their tongues, their bodies trying to get as much of each other as physically possible. It was natural the way they fit so nicely together, perfect even, the way his hands melded to her petite body, the way her small digits traced his tattoos, the way their bodies put off enough heat to make them both gleam in a lustful sheen of glowing perspiration.

She was more beautiful than any dreams he ever witnessed, more perfect than any of his innermost thoughts and desires, more intoxicating than any groupie he had ever encountered. He was drunk from her. His senses so fully saturated and yet still drinking in anything they could: his eyes boring deep into her heavy lidded orbs as he kissed her sensitive neck, his nose breathing in her glorious scent of vanilla and mangoes, his tongue tasting every part of her that he possibly could.

Neela was so far from gone, so near the edge just by his mere kisses. Impudently, she whimpered, noticing that they were both fully clothed.

His mouth moved to a knowing smirk, fully impressed with her forward emotions. And as flushed as she already was, his heart beat so much quicker, if at all possible, as he noticed a blush furiously rushing to her cheeks.

Holy God, she was beautiful.

She was perfect.

And she was his.

Standing there, lust-filled eyes, dark with primal need, wide with anticipation, her lips swollen from his kisses, a mark already forming on the sensitive part of her neck below her perfect little ear – the moment was almost dreamlike, euphoric as she nodded her head in silent assent. Her small, yet surgically precise hands searched forward, fingering the hem of his shirt. In a swift movement, he lifted her, steadying himself on his fairly new lower appendages and laid her down to the bed. She pulled his shirt off of him and offered a praise of a approval at his fine toned abdomen and chest. His eyes danced as she leaned back against the pillows, silently pleading for him to join her.

And as he did, Ray vowed to give his beloved companion the greatest night of her life.

Years and years of angst, friendship, misunderstandings and miscommunications culminated to the beautiful tangles of their bodies in that New York Hotel room, the lights of the city serving as a backdrop to their dance of love. For they were not having sex, or doing something dirty or hooking up, Ray and Neela were making love to each other. The glowing outside reflected against their contrasting bodies, her caramel against his fair skin, melding too perfectly for words – although they were spoken in sweet nothings of soft whispers and loud, resolute promises.

They were all that mattered in the world that night. They were the only people in the world during the most romantic night of the year. And in one satiated moment of completion, Ray and Neela finally lost themselves in each other, simultaneously uttering the eight most powerful letters of all time.

"I Love You"