A/N: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, not much more to go now… of this bit of the story, anyway. Might not be able to do my usual update tomorrow, but I'll try my best!

Thank you for reading!

Liz

Her shift was over. Ray would still be working, she knew that. He'd taken to working slightly longer hours these days. She couldn't help wondering if he didn't like being in their apartment alone. She still thought of it as their apartment, as her home too, if she was being honest.

Abby's apartment was ok, but it was just somewhere to sleep, even if getting to sleep meant two pairs of socks and a hot water bottle, just to stay warm. She looked around for Ray, but didn't see him anywhere.

Chuny was filing some papers at the admit desk. Neela asked in a tiny voice,

"Have you seen…?"

"Nope haven't seen him" Chuny replied quickly. Too quickly, Neela thought.

"Some of the guys are going for a drink at Ike's tonight, you goin'?"

Neela shook her head, "Not really in the mood".

"Well, you have a good night, then." Chuny said before bending her head pointedly back to the papers.

Neela remembered all the times when Ray had practically dragged her off shift to go home and get some rest, or some beer, but tonight she wandered out of County to catch the El back to, well, Abby's apartment, her shoulders slumped and her head down, feeling very broken and alone.

Ray watched her leave from behind an exam curtain and made a start to go after her. Chuny stopped him.

"Nah, ah honey," she said wagging her finger at him, "if it's gonna happen, you gotta wait for her to come to you. Its better that way, you'll both feel right about it." Ray nodded and smiled resignedly at her.

"Guess you're right, Chuny." he said, putting his hands in his pockets and shambled away, scuffing his boots on the floor with every step.

Chuny looked after him; shaking her head gently, "Young love…" she said softly to herself and carried on filing with a wistful smile on her lips.

Back ho…, back at Abby's apartment, Neela went straight to the fridge. Bollocks, she thought, no milk, or beer, or wine, or ice cream, I've really been letting things slip!

She flopped down onto the couch with a box of dry cereals, eating them by the handful, while she hunted for the TV controls. She switched on the set to see nothing but static snow. The cable feed was dead. She waited a little longer to see if it magically cleared, but this snow storm, like the rain outside, was set in for the night.

OK, she thought, I can sit here, cold and wet and bored, or I can go out, meet the guys down at Ike's and pick up some milk and stuff from JumboMart and not have a completely miserable evening.

She was half hoping that she might bump into Ray there, too, but she didn't really think so and the chances of Ike's putting on Celebrity Poker were slim to non-existent.

But hey, Ike's had beer and that was what she really, really needed right now.

She grabbed her still soaked coat and temperamental umbrella and heading back into town, treating herself to a taxi at this time of night. Ike's was slow, really quiet. She couldn't see anyone she knew in there, guessing they were all snuggled up at home, nice and warm and out of the rain.

She ordered a beer and began to drink, to drown her thirst and also her sorrows. Neela knew she looked like the typical lonely pick up girl, but was prepared to live with it for a couple of beers.

A couple of beers later, with shredded labels all over the bar, Neela started puzzling over the baseball game on the TV. She wondered why American men felt it necessary to get all padded up to play their sport.

Baseball was frankly just rounders for men. She'd played rounders at school and all you'd had to watch out for was a flailing bat, or a badly timed throw, certainly no need to get out the cotton wool for that.

Oh yeah, and American football, good grief, all those helmets and thigh pads and shoulder pads big enough to make Joan Collins weep, why? British rugby players didn't go in for any of that stuff and they certainly didn't throw the ball forwards.

OK, I'm a little drunk now, thought Neela, time to go home. Must pick up milk on the way. She walked a bit stiffly, like someone tipsy trying to control their wayward legs, out of the bar and into the torrential Chicago streets.

She popped her umbrella, which instantly threw a spoke, to be quickly followed by another. Neela threw her arms wide in supplication to the heavens, silently asking the rain, why her? But her only answer was a soaking.

She dumped her useless umbrella in a nearby trash can and wandered off to the JumboMart, chanting under her breath "milk, beer, ice cream, milk, beer, ice cream…" until she got through the doors.

Milk, beer and ice cream bought, she headed back into the downpour. She was drenched through, miserable and not quite drunk enough not to care. I need to go home she thought as she trudged dejectedly along the streets.

She started replaying the rooftop conversation with Ray, hating the way that she'd thrown his friendly approaches back in his face, and just twisted everything to make him the bad guy to make herself feel better.

Had it worked? Hell no, she felt worse now than she did before and now she had even more to fix. Wait; there was something in that conversation she hadn't really taken in.

Had he said, "I love you"? Jesus no, he didn't I'm imagining it, she thought. The little sober part of her said, "Oh yes he did, he said those words with tears in his eyes and you know it."

It must have been "loved" she thought, he can't love me after the way I've been behaving.

Her sober voice said, "Nope he said love, as in present tense, as in what I feel right now and that was still after everything you said to him up there, so unless he's changed his mind since then, it was definitely love."

Neela thought, I think I need to see him, I need to say sorry, I need to say I…

Sober Neela said, "No you don't want to say that just now, you need to mend a few bridges first before you go bandying around words like love. Lets stick to sorry for now, shall we?"

Neela was surprised she hadn't talked herself out of going to see Ray, but what she was even more surprised at was that she was already there.