Title: Next of Kin (Part 3 of 4)
Beta: Ash – thanks, hon.
Abby Lockhart didn't know why the hell she was nervous; it wasn't as if she'd done anything wrong. Neela and Ray had asked to meet her for coffee early, before the start of their shift. Maybe there was something in the air; maybe it was worrying about something else. Or maybe she was worried her friends were going to tell her the one thing she didn't want them to. She wanted them to be happy; lately she'd worried that maybe they weren't so happy anymore - they were both a little stressed out when she saw them together at work, but not out of work. So maybe it was the stress of their relationship being a secret. Whatever it was, she was worried she was about to hear bad news, which she wasn't ready to deal with. There was something odd about hearing about it, but this was a whole living vicariously moment, and she didn't want it to end.
She looked up as the door to the café she was sitting in opened; Ray held the door for Neela to walk through, then followed through himself. They both looked nervous as they took seats opposite her. Neither looked as though they knew who would start, or exactly what they would say. They sat in silence until Abby couldn't take it anymore.
With an exasperated look on her face, she asked, "Well, what is it?"
"Uh…" this little gem from Ray who looked guilty, about as guilty as Neela did when she added,
"We, uh, well-"
"Spit it out guys, our shift starts in -" she looked at her watch, "forty minutes."
They looked at each other, Neela grabbed Ray's hand under the table and nodded at him; they both turned to face her.
"Wegotmarriedthreemonthsago." She hadn't realised Neela could talk quite that fast.
"You did what?"
This time Ray tried, "we got married, three months ago."
"Oh. Right." Thank God, I figured with all the looks she was pregnant.
"You're not pregnant, are you?"
"NO!"
Half the patrons jumped and turned to look. "Don't mind her she just gets a bit excited some times."
"Abby!"
"So you're not pregnant, but you got married three months ago…"
"Yes."
"Why tell me now, not then? Why tell me at all if you didn't then?" I knew they were dating then, I even knew how long they'd been dating… why did they not tell me?
"We, we wanted it to be-" he turned to look at his girl-, wife for help.
Abby put him out of his misery. "You wanted it to be just you guys for a little bit longer?"
She almost laughed at the relief on their faces that she showed some semblance of understanding. They weren't out of the woods yet, this hurt and maybe someday they'd get to know how much, but when don't I bottle stuff up? They don't need my problems on top of any of theirs…
"Yes."
"Forgive us?" Ray asked with a little sorrowful smile, the sort that if she turned back time she might think about chasing.
"Maybe. I don't know, it hurts that you didn't tell me and there's probably some reason why you're telling me now, other than just being ready to tell… but I get it, sort of. Just don't say your sorry, 'cause I don't want it and you're not, either of you."
A thought suddenly occurred to her.
"The forms Susan's badgering everyone about?"
The looks of guilt answered before the nods did.
"Thank you."
"What for?" this from Neela.
"For telling me first, instead of letting me find out from Susan or through the ER gossip mill instead."
Neela smiled her first real smile as she leaned into Ray, and Abby saw the rings glinting on her fingers. A sudden girly moment pounced and Abby reached for her hand. Neela understood immediately, finally able to show off her rings - and her husband, of course.
The harder part was still to come. After a long discussion it was decided just to hand in the forms and let Susan find out in her own time, rather than telling her like school kids explaining to the teacher what they'd done wrong. However, it didn't calm any nerves Neela had. Posting her form into the locked box under the admin desk, her hands shook with nerves. She was glad everyone else was too busy to notice.
Her shift seemed like one of the longest she had ever endured, when in reality it was comparatively short and calm. The busiest part being when there were two trauma rooms in use at the same time; her in one with Abby, and Ray in the other with Jane and Susan.
Ray was not fairing much better; his trauma with Susan was just that. He was nervous and acting like a first year intern again, leaving Susan annoyed with him already - before she got to any sort of admin work.
The shift ended without comment from Susan, which led to further frayed nerves lasting over night, so that neither Barnett had any sleep.
Susan sat down at the table in the lounge room and pulled the box of forms onto the table top. Reaching for the key in her pocket, she opened the box and pulled out its contents. It appeared that she had most of the forms already, with only a few to be added from the next shift. She was to read them through before she put them into a database; that was part of the deal for her to have quick access to the information. If she wanted it, she had to get it and sort if herself. If it was anything less sensitive, she would have had a med student do it. Damn Weaver!
The first few were simple; she already knew the answers to them. She snorted as she came to Morris's form; the one she'd seen Jane sneak in that morning, trying to avoid her eye. Definitely something going on there. At least he got it right this time, I hope he realises he's the reason everyone has to fill these in every two months.
As she read the next few, she had the feeling she was forgetting something. Finally, it came to her as she was picking up Ray's form. Putting it back on the table, she stood up and went over to her own locker, opening it quickly and pulling out her own copy of the form, placing it in the 'already read' pile, so as not to forget it later on in the process.
She poured herself a mug of coffee and sat back down, once again picking up Ray's form. She read through it quickly, until she came to the important bit of information, she stared at it for several moments. Dr Neela Rasgotra-Barnett? Was he smoking something when he wrote this? I thought he realised this was serious; he doesn't play the idiot rocker card much anymore.
She placed his attempt at filling in the form on a new pile, the 'idiot pile', and reached for the next form. I'll deal with that later. She continued on through Luka, Sam, and Haleh, until she came to another surprise. Dr Neela Rasgotra-Barnett? He got her in on it too? Next of Kin: Dr Ray Barnett? Are they having a laugh? She added Neela's to the 'idiot pile', and continued on through the end, putting all the forms but two back into the box and adding a divider so that new forms would be separate.
As she sat back to look at Neela and Ray's forms again the door began to open. She looked at her watch; Abby's shift was ending. Yup.
"Hey, Abby."
"Susan." Abby headed to her locker to hang up her white coat and turned to look at her. "Is there a problem?"
"Uh, do you know if Ray was messing around when I gave out these forms?"
"He wasn't."
"Neela?"
"Nope. What have they done?" Abby's face looked as if she knew exactly what they'd done, or at least what they'd written.
Susan sighed, she really shouldn't show her, but it was either show it to Neela's best friend or take it to Weaver. She knew which Ray and Neela would rather deal with. She held out the two forms to Abby.
Abby read them through, no surprise showing on her face, nodding she looked up, "What's the problem?"
Susan laughed. "The problem?"
Then it hit her; she'd seen the way they'd been recently.
"How long?"
"How long, what?"
"Abby."
"Three months."
"They've been seeing each other three months?"
Abby shook her head. "No, for over a year now. They've been married for three months."
Susan's jaw dropped. "How did we not know? Did you know?"
"I knew about their relationship a few months in."
There was a somewhat sour look on Abby's face.
"And about the marriage?"
Abby sighed. "They told me this morning. They're young; they wanted it to be just themselves, and it was an accident that I found out anything in the first place."
"How did you find out?"
"Well-"
End Part.