Chapter Four

One Month Later….

"Why can't this thing go any faster?" Neela complained, watching the scenery rush past outside the window of the train.

Ray looked at her with amusement in his eyes, laughter spilling out before he could stop himself. "Because if we did, we'd be off the rails in a big disaster area right about now."

She turned to him with sarcasm in her voice "Any minute I'm sure to laugh Barnett." But Ray could see she didn't mean it at all by her smile in return to his laughter.

"See now, I know you Neela. I'm sure I don't hear any sarcasm at all in your voice, because we've done pretty well right? You know….thinking about it, I'm sure we're due a pay rise any day now for our good behaviour."

"Sorry," she murmured, with out really thinking about it. Then, her concentration in their conversation drained again and she turned back to the window. Ray supposed he should be grateful. It was the most he'd gotten out of her all week.

He looked at her in concern for a moment. "Neela, what's up with you? Since when are you that anxious to get to county anyway?"

"I really don't know what's up with me. I've been feeling kind of….I don't know. It's probably just a cold or something, I guess."

Ray nodded. "Well, stay away from me is all I can say."

"Great, finally," she breathed a sigh of relief as they stepped onto the platform.

"Hey look at that!" exclaimed Ray, holding up his mobile. "Ten minutes early. Definitely a pay rise."

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"Hey, wow you guys, this looks like it's a record huh?" laughed Chuny as they entered the hospital. "You're early?"

"Don't you know it." was Rays only answer.

"Hey Ray, before you disappear into the void that's the ER, I'm not you're personal answering machine ok?" grumbled Jerry. "One of your many girlfriends called this morning. Sarah, or Angela or someone…"

"Actually," said Neela. "It's Althea. And they've been together for almost two weeks. Went to dinner with them and everything."

Jerry looked stunned for a second. "Well…could you at least give her the right times of your shifts? It's driving me crazy."

Haleh shared a shocked glance with Malik. "Two revelations in five minutes," said Malik shaking his head. "I don't think I can take anymore."

"I know," the nurse agreed mock seriously. "Ray in a relationship and going for dinners with Neela? I thought it was just a phase."

"I wouldn't exactly calla weeka relationship people," said Ray, leaning in to get a chart. "It's just something new I'm trying out ok? Let's not make a big deal."

Neela walked away from the endless questions, trying to keep her thoughts straight as well as trying to figure out where she was supposed to be. But by mid morning, she was feeling so tired that she could barely stand up. As Ray put it, she knew something was definitely up with her, she just couldn't even begin to guess what. She'd been sleeping fine, and she didn't feel like she had a cold at all.

But that wasn't really what was bothering her. What was bothering her was the feeling she was living someone else's life, or that she had been living a lie for these past few weeks. It wasn't the fact that both at work and at home, she and Ray were now like happy families or something. The getting on part was actually a nice change for her. The part that pissed her off was the fact that Ray had gone so far with the being friends routine, that he was treating her more like a sister now then anything else. It wasn't only people at work that were shocked (Still, after a month!) but she was to at how well they were pulling this thing off. And even more shocking, nobody had found out what had happened. Yet.

At least, the fact if she was ill or not wasn't really bothering her, until she had to run out of a trauma to the bathroom with a dodgy stomach…with Ray as a witness.

Her heart pounding as she sat on the floor, she literally felt like she was having a panic attack. Because one thought kept floating around in her head. One thought that terrified her more then anything else had ever done in her entire life. One thought, that had to be impossible. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. The dizziness, the fatigue, the sudden sickness. It was all adding up.

No No No! She kept yelling at herself. Still living in denial, she staggered to her feet fighting another urge to be sick, and walked back outside, only to run into Abby.

"Neela, what happened?" Asked Abby, her dark eyes narrowed in concern.

"I'm fine," Neela muttered, trying to hurry past. Abby placed a hand on her friends arm.

"You ran out of a trauma. That's not like you. Morris maybe, but you're…"

"Ray will tell you," she said, trying to sound calm. "I felt sick on my way over here. It's that cold going around you know? I'll probably be over it by tomorrow." Hopefully, she thought desperately to herself.

Finally at her last break of the day, she couldn't take the stress of not knowing anymore. The panic she felt earlier was threatening to overwhelm her as she made her way across the street to the local store. And she stood for what felt like an eternity in the dreaded isle she'd never imagined herself standing in, at least not so soon. With shaking hands, she picked up a pregnancy test, and instantly knew that she probably didn't even need to take the thing in the first place. Because she knew it. She had been feeling this way for a while now, and she just knew what the results were going to be.

Fighting tears, she walked up to the counter and paid for the test, avoiding the cashier's look of curiosity as she walked out again. Quickly hiding the test in her bag, she hurried back to county's entrance.

By the end of the day, she had her answer. Now, she had to figure out how she was going to cope with this, and what she was going to do about it.

TBC

By the way, I missed out on a lot of episodes of series eleven, and only saw a few eps with Ray in it, including the last one where Carter leaves. So I only know about the series from what I've read about it, but I was intrigued by his character and I like Shane west! Which is why I decided to write a story about him and Neela. So, a little spoiler for the story, it will include some members of Rays family that I've made up, they won't appear for long and hopefully won't be too much like Mary Sues. The reason I'm bringing this up is because I don't know a lot about Ray's family back ground, or if it's been mentioned at all on the show, so there's probably going to be errors there. In my story he has at least one younger cousin that visits. But I guess this is an AU and also fan fiction. But i do like to try and be as accurate as possible with characters. Just thought I'd let you know.