A/N Heyla! Thanks for all your great reviews. You're all lovely!


Chapter 7- Neela

"Hey Neela, did you hear about Kovac and Abby?" Ray asked me when I passed him in the corridor of the ER. I frowned;

"No, why what's happened?"

"You'll never guess," he said with a big grin, "I saw them in exam room 2."

"Your point is?"

He looked at me as if I was stupid, "I saw them... together... in exam 2," he repeated slowly, and suddenly I got what he was saying.

"You are kidding me!" I said, gasping.

"I must have a gift for finding these things or something."

"Oh my god! I have to find Abby," I said, grinning.

I walked off and found her grabbing a couple of charts. "Here, you can have this one," she said, handing me the chart of a three year old with belly pains. I followed her down the corridor.

"So, how are you?" I asked.

"Fine," she said, looking at me as if I was crazy.

"And how's Luka?"

"Why don't you ask him?" Was it just me or did she sound wary.

"Oh, it's just Ray was telling me that..."

"What did Barnett say?" She asked, pulling me over to the wall.

"Just something about you, Luka, exam room 2."

"Shit." She looked at me and added, "Nothings going on."

"Isn't what it sounds like," I said, grinning, "How come you didn't tell me you had a thing going?"

"We don't! One thing led to another and... I don't know... we've just made out a few times. No big deal."

"The look on your face tells me you're lying!"

"Nothing is going on, alright?" She said, slightly fiercely.

"Alright, but if you ever want to talk about nothing, I'm here ok?" I said, before walking off to see my patient.

Ray and I were on the same shift so we got the L back together. I leaned against him, and he leaned against me. "I'm just so tired," I said, closing my eyes.

"Me too," he replied, stifling a yawn. The next thing I knew there was a guy in uniform standing over us.

"Last stop, you have to get off here."

I sat up and rubbed my eyes, "What?"

"Last stop," he said, before walking away.

"Shit." I nudged Ray and he woke with a start. "Ray we missed our stop!"

"What?"

"We missed our stop!"

"Oh... great," he muttered, following me off the train. We stood on the platform of an unknown station in the dark. It was bloody freezing. Ours had been the last train to stop here.

"What are we going to do? I don't have any money for a cab."

"Me either." He seemed to think for a minute. "We'll have to walk."

"We don't know how far away we are, and it's freezing!"

"Do you have any better ideas?" I shook my head, "Come on then, we'll warm up as we walk." He offered me his hand and I took it as we walked down the steps.

It was a lie that we'd warm up, we ended up completely and utterly freezing. We took turns with what sides we walked on, so we could swap which hands we held. The other one would get cold almost instantly, no matter how far I pushed it into my pocket. Even though we were completely different heights we were oddly the right heights for holding hands. My nose was the most cold, and I'm sure it was red.

Every now and then we'd stop and ask where we were, but most of the time it was meaningless as neither of us had really gotten to know Chicago. It was just a case of walking along the main street and hoping we would come to somewhere we knew. After what felt like hours, but was only forty five minutes of walking, the wind cutting into our faces Ray stopped and pulled us into a shop doorway.

"That's it, I can't bear this any more." I wondered what he was going to do, then he pulled his mobile, I mean cellphone of course, from out of his jacket pocket. It was an old model, and looked like it had taken it's fair share of batterings, but I was ecstatic to see it.

"Why didn't you phone someone before?"

"With this? Plus I thought'd only be a quick walk." He dialled a number in and held it to his ear. "Come on, come on, answer damn it," he muttered then said with relief, "Sam is that you?"

Sam was a member of Ray's band, the bass player if I wasn't mistaken.

"Hey dude, how glad am I that you picked up, I'm freezing, can you come pick me up? I'm on," he craned out onto the street, and said the name of the street before flipping the mobile closed. He grinned at me, "He's coming with the van."

"Thank goodness!" I said, before cupping my hands and breathing into them.

When Ray had said van, I had stupidly assumed he meant some sort of mini-van, with a couple of rows of seats. But of course, Sam's van really was a van, with three front seats and a large space in the back which had a number of boxes in it, some cans of paint and a drum kit. There were already a couple of people in the front and back, so me and Ray had to climb in the back. I perched awkwardly on a metal toolbox, while Ray sat next to me on the floor.

"We were going to Indigo, fancy coming?" Sam asked, craning back, with a smile, "It'll definitely warm you up."

Ray looked at me and I shrugged, "Sure," he said. Sam nodded and turned back to the front, before pushing the accelerator to the floor. I slid off the toolbox and landed in Ray's lap. Everyone laughed at my shocked face. "Don't worry, I've got better balance than you," he said, tucking his arms around me.

We arrived at Indigo, which was a newly opened club with a really long line. But we just walked in, past the bouncer.

"We play here," Ray said. I nodded and handed my coat to the check-in girl She gave me a ticket which I stuck in my trouser pocket. I suddenly felt very over dressed. Ray had one of his metal t-shirts on, as always, and everyone else was dressed similarly, in jeans or skirts. I'd been dressed for work, in a blue shirt and black pants. Ray gave me a smile and led me into the main room of the club. There was a stage at the far end, but it was empty. The bar ran along the left of the room and the rest of the room was filled with bodies, all dancing to the thumping music the dj was playing. It seemed to be one of the songs Ray played, rocky, but with the bass turned way up. Sam had been right saying it'd warm us up, it was boiling in here.

"Do you want a drink?" Ray asked, I nodded, and he pulled me through the crowd to the bar. "What'll it be?" He shouted over the music.

I thought for a while then gave the easy answer, "Beer please."

"Girl after my own heart," he said with a smile, "Not too many don't want you getting flu again though!" He said with a laugh.

I ended up having quite a good night, much to my own surprise. We'd had a couple of beers, danced a bit and just generally had a laugh. Sam and the rest were all nice and Ray was charming as usual. It was the kind of fun I hadn't had for ages, the kind where you're just hanging out with some nice people, getting a little drunk. When we got home we were both slightly tipsy and a bit giggly. Ray headed to the shower first and I went into my room to get my pyjamas.

I looked in the mirror to see my black hair all mussed up, my eyes shining. I didn't look too bad I thought to myself. Next to my mirror was a calender, with a red circle around next Saturday. Michael was home in less than a week and I still hadn't made a decision as to what to do. Night's like tonight really didn't help, I'd be so close to making up my mind and then I'd have a great time with Ray and realise how brilliant it would be to have a boyfriend who was in the same city as me, that I could hang out with and have fun with. And then the little voice in the back of my head would wonder if that was because I wanted Michael to stay at home, or whether it was Ray I really wanted. I shook my head and went into the living room. T.v would cure such thoughts.


A/N I thought this was quite a sweet chapter, what did you guys think? Please tell me with your lovely reviews! And I hope you don't mind the mix of British and American things, I thought Neela would pick stuff up, living over there. But all my knowledge is from films, books and t.v so if there are any mistakes, I'm sorry!