Esta Cena Fan and CharmingPiper, you win! The prize – a sense of smug superiority, knowing you got it right. Hehe. Now…if anyone has any ideas of how to finish this up, they would be welcomed…


"Neela!" Ray ran full pelt down the street, arriving breathless beside Neela. "Why'd you leave without me? I said I'd walk you home tonight!"

"I just wanted to be on my own."

Well, if that wasn't an obvious – and completely unsatisfactory – answer! Ray walked next to his girlfriend, despite the fact that she quickened her pace. He had been wanting to talk to her since that afternoon. The police had come, and taken a statement from Tanya Roberts. The man who raped her had been arrested, and despite the girl's fear, her mother had been full of concern and support for her daughter, rather than the expected anger. Neela had disappeared into the ladies toilets and hadn't come out for half an hour – Sam had told Ray she could hear crying, but when the intern reappeared she looked fine.

And ever since then, she had taken every pain to avoid Ray. It was very well done – it didn't even look as if she was trying to keep away from him. But he knew she was. At long last he was starting to realise that there was more to a person's feelings than what they actually said to you.

"Neela, talk to me!"

"What about?" Her tone was colder than he ever remembered it being. She pulled the keys to her flat out of her pocket, and glared at him. "Leave me alone, Ray."

"Why should I? I care about you, Neela!"

She flinched, and opened the door. But before she could stop him, Ray followed her inside, and stayed behind her all the way up the stairs.

"Ray, just go home." Unlocking her own door, she turned her back on him. "Please. Leave me alone."

But he still came into her apartment, even though she didn't want to. "Neela…please talk to me!"

"Don't come in!"

"You can't stop me! Look! I'm inside now! Neela, I want to know what's wrong!"

"It's none of your business!" She pulled off her coat, and hung it over the back of a chair, her eyes never leaving him. "Why did you have to come in?"

"Because I want to know what's wrong! How many times to I have to say it? What can I do to convince you that I care about you?"

"You can leave!"

Closing his eyes for a moment, Ray pulled his temper back under his control. He didn't want to shout at her – that was the last thing he should be doing. "I won't, Neela. Not until you tell me who it was."

She looked at him warily. "Who what was?"

"The guy…" He swallowed. "The guy who raped you. Don't tell me he didn't – I saw how you reacted to that girl today."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I want to help you! I don't want you to be scared of me any more."

Neela looked away at last, taking a shuddering breath and going to sit down on the sofa. "If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"

He wouldn't. Of course he wouldn't. But he needed to tell her what she wanted to hear. "Yes." Crossing the room he sat down next to her, at the other end of the couch.

She leaned back, looking very firmly at the floor next to her.

"He was called Ryan. I suppose I was only going out with him to annoy my parents – they don't like the idea of me having a boyfriend." She sighed. "He was nice. I was in love with him for a while. At least, I thought I was. It was probably just infatuation. We'd meet up in his flat, watch a movie…"

"When…was this?"

"Just before I moved here. I wanted to get away from him…so I moved to America." Neela shook her head. "I was stupid. I didn't want to sleep with him, so why did I go out with him? But…one night he told me I should. I said I didn't want to – I tied to leave. And then he…" She closed her eyes, flinching away from Ray when he tried to touch her arm. "I thought he didn't mean to. How stupid is that? The whole time I'd been telling him to stop…and then he did it again…"

"A-again?"

"Three times…" Her voice cracked. "He wouldn't let me leave the house for a bit. Told me to go and have a shower. So I went into the bathroom and took my clothes with me. But I just turned the shower on and wet my hair. I left it on for five minutes, then changed…" She fell silent.

"Then what?"

"He left. So then I walked out, and I went straight to the police…"

"Where is he now?"

"He got a year. But he's probably on parole by now…I don't know. He – he'd done it to two other girls as well…"

This time she didn't move when Ray tried to hug her. But when he pulled her closer, she began to cry. "They told me it wasn't my fault…"

"It wasn't! Of course it wasn't!"

"But if I hadn't…"

"Hey, you didn't do anything to deserve that, okay?" The young man stroked Neela's hair very gently. "You didn't."

They stayed like that, Ray holding Neela while she cried, for an hour or more.