Confessions (Gallant, Pratt, and Valerie's POV)

This is the scene in between when Gallant gets called back to the hospital and when Neela gets drunk. This chapter is Michael, Pratt and Valerie's POV.

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Disclaimer: I do not own the rights or the characters associated with ER.

Gallant, Pratt, and Valerie's POV

Michael Gallant couldn't believe that he was sitting at a table with Greg Pratt and his sister Valerie. Pratt was trying to pick up his sister and the sad thing is, that it was working. He couldn't believe that his sister would actually fall for that, but then again Valerie did have a little pink book as thick as Pratt's little black one. He couldn't believe that Pratt showed up. This wasn't how tonight was supposed to go. It was just supposed to be Abby, Lester, Neela, Valerie, and him. Abby and Lester were supposed to entertain Valerie, while he got some alone time with Neela. Instead, he's stuck babysitting these two to make sure that his friend didn't get his heart broken. What an idiot. Some friend he is. Showing up uninvited, ruining his friends plans. Michael's attention diverted back to Neela.

'Man, she looks pretty tonight,' Gallant thought. He didn't realize it, but he had been staring at her for the last ten minutes. He just couldn't stop looking at her. She was so beautiful. He could stare at her forever. Unfortunately, Abby had other ideas. Abby had realized early on that Michael was staring at Neela, so every so often she would look at him and he would turn away and pretend like he was having a conversation with Pratt and Valerie. Then once Abby turned away, he would go right back to staring at Neela.

"Hey Mike," Pratt said trying to get his attention. "Mike." Still no luck. "Yo, Gallant!" Pratt said loudly and smacked his hand on the table.

Gallant came out of the Neela induced daze that he was in. "What?"

"Nice of you to come back to Earth," Pratt said. Gallant had no idea what he was talking about. "I've been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes."

"Oh, sorry," Michael could feel the heat rise up to his cheeks.

"Is the view good from where you're sitting because from where I'm sitting, the view is excellent."

"hat are you talking about?" He knew that Pratt was talking about Neela.

"He's talking about how you were staring at you're little girlfriend over there," Valerie said.

Apparently, his staring wasn't just obvious to Abby. It was obvious to Pratt and Valerie as well. He had to do something to cover it up. Neela can't know that he likes her. "I wasn't staring," Michael said defensively.

"You defiantly were," Pratt laughed "You do it all the time. At work, at Ike's, at the movies. Pretty much whenever the two of you are in the same vicinity, your eyes are always glued on her like she's a big, flat-screen television and the Red Sox are in the World Series."

"I do not."

"Yes you do."

"No, I don't. I have no idea where you pulled that one from Pratt, but I can tell you that it's crap. I do not stare at Neela, not have I ever stared at Neela."

"Really?" Pratt said folding his arms across his chest. "Okay, Ike's last Friday night. Neela, Abby, and Lester were studying at this very table. You not only insisted that we go to Ike's after work, but you then spent the next to hours staring at her. You stared at her so hard, that I thought she was gonna have holes in her by the time she left.. What was that about, huh?"

"What?"

"What was all that staring about? Did she have something on her face? Was she sending you messages in Morse code by blinking her eyelashes? What?"

"She did not have something on her face!" Gallant said. "She looked absolutely perfect."

"So you admit that you were staring at her," Valerie said.

"Yes, I was staring at her, but she looked exceptionally beautiful that day. How could I not stare at her?"

"What about yesterday in the cafeteria?" Pratt asked. "Was she exceptionally beautiful then?"

"What about tonight, Michael? Is she exceptionally beautiful tonight?" Valerie asked She decided to get in on the action. She always loved torturing her brother. It was so fun.

"Look, she's always beautiful, okay. She's always beautiful and I'm not the only guy who thinks so. Pratt thinks so too. Don't you Pratt?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Within three minutes of her being at County, you hit on her. Remember? I sure do."

"She's a beautiful woman with breasts. Plus, she's a med student. I always hit on the med students," Pratt said. "I think that you're jealous that she liked me better than you."

"Why would I be jealous? And why would she like you better than me?"

"Man, you didn't know her for a minute before you put you're foot so far in your mouth that I thought that you were going to have it surgically removed."

"What did he say?" Valerie asked. This was even more fun than she thought. She always loved the way that her idiot brother acted like a fool whenever he was interested in a woman and from the stories that she was hearing, he was defiantly interested in this one.

"Something about her being from India, which she's not, and some other shit. I don't know. I forget. But she was real mad though. I thought she was going to slap him."

"She wouldn't have slapped me," Michael said "Besides, I apologized for that."

"Yeah, and then you took her out to dinner. Why didn't you ask her out then?"

"You took her out on a date? On her first night at the hospital? Wow, I have a lot more respect for you," Valerie said.

"It wasn't a date," Michael said. "I took her out to eat because A) we were both hungry and B) she had a bad first day, so we had something to eat and I told her all of my County horror stories. No biggie."

"Is that why the two of you have at least two meals together a week at the hospital?" Pratt asked.

"We're friends. That's it."

Before either one could respond, they were interrupted by a waitress asking if they would like any refills. This particular waitress seemed to be very interested in Gallant, but Gallant was not interested at all. When the waitress left, Pratt said, "Dude, that waitress was totally into you? What the hell is your problem?"

"What?"

"Please tell me that you at least knew that she was hitting on you?"

"Of course I knew," Michael said. "I'm not interested. That's all."

"Right. Because of Neela."

"How many times do I have to tell you, we're just friends."

"Sure. Right. Whatever you say." Pratt wasn't buying it. He saw the way that Gallant looked at Neela and the way that Neela looked at Gallant. They defiantly weren't 'just friends.'

"Let me just throw something out here," Valerie said. "I think that the two of you are more than friends. You just don't know it yet. I think that she likes you as much as you like her and is just waiting for you to get up off your ass and ask her out. I think that when you do ask her out, not only will she say yes, but she will be very happy and very relieved that you finally decided to go for it. I think that once the two of you get it together, you will be together for a long time."

"Amen to that," Pratt said.

"I think that you're both crazy and that there is no way that she will say yes if I asked her out. She's probably not even interested in me."

"She is so interested in you," Pratt said. "I see the way that she acts around you and believe me, she's interested."

"You really think so?"

"Yes!" both Pratt and Valerie say at the same time.

"Go ask her out. What could it hurt?" Pratt said.

"Come on, Michael. She'll say yes. I'm sure of it," Valerie said.

Michael thought about it carefully. He really liked her and hoped that she felt the same way. He realized that he would never know, until he asked her out. "Ok, I'll do it."

Just as Michael was about to go over to where Neela and Abby were sitting, he saw Neela laughing with the bartender. She was so beautiful when she laughed. She looked like she was having a good time. He turned back to face Pratt and Valerie feeling like his heart had been ripped from his chest, "What did I tell you? She doesn't like me. She's more interested in the bartender who she's just met than she is in me."

"Really, then why is she staring at you through the mirror of her compact?" Valerie asked.

"Huh?" Pratt and Gallant said at the same time.

"She's staring at you through the mirror of her compact."

Gallant turned around to see. Neela wasn't staring at him. She was talking to Abby. "She's not staring at me."

"Well, she was staring at you until you turned around to look at her." Valerie paused. "It's an old trick. If you want to know if a guy is staring at you, you take out a compact or a mirror and pretend your checking your makeup. Instead, you check out the guy."

"I know that trick. I caught a couple of fine looking ladies pulling that same stunt on me," Pratt said.

Michael shook his head. 'Idiot,' he thought. Valerie seemed to be amused, though. "So you really think she was checking me out?" Gallant asked.

"You didn't see her eyes. She's was looking into the mirror, but she was looking right at you. You should ask her out." Valerie said. "If you don't, I'll get Mom on your case."

He didn't want his mother to have any part of this. If she was involved, he would never hear the end of it. "You really think she likes me?"

"Yes Michael, I do."

"Okay, I'll ask her out....maybe," Michael said, "I'll think about it at least."

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