A/N Heyla! How are y'all doing? I'm great because YEY people like this story. So I'm a happy bunny. Apart from the fact I'm really suffering from hay fever this year! Thank you for the lovely reviews. So, today I have been doing the very useful task of listening to my mp3 player and taking down lines I think may work as inspiration and lines for the beginning of chapters. Very useful indeed! I got loads, and have marvelled at the randomness of my mp3 player- as you shall see. Because every song I use lines from I can proudly say I actually have on my mp3 player. So, expect randomness! I hope you like that extra detail anyway, but I enjoy doing it, tis quite fun!

I also changed the title to The Dark Side of the Moon, because Haunting Memories sounded too depressing and... horror story like. Then I changed it again, because I didn't know how that would fit at all... So it is now If You Were With Me Tonight, which is a line from the song "Hear You Me" by Jimmy Eat World, and goes "If you were with me tonight, I'd sing to you just one more time,". Hope you prefer the new title, though if anyone has any better ideas, I'm open.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2- Ray

"When you look away, is it mean to say, that she haunts you night and day?"

Girls Aloud "See The Day"

Bored, bored, bored, I typed into the computer. Then I deleted it, refreshed my email page and sighed. No new messages. I sighed again, louder. Abby glanced at me.

"What?" She snapped.

"I'm so bo-ored," I whined.

"What exactly do you expect me to do about it?"

I grinned, "Now we're talking."

"Shut up, Barnett, god some people never change do they?"

"I sure hope not."

She turned back to the computer, shaking her head. I wheeled over to her, "What you doing?"

Jerry looked a warning over at me. "Barnett."

"Listen to Jerry, Ray, he knows form expereince what comes of bugging me. Don't you Jer'?"

He nodded, "Oh yeah!" He whistled, "It wasn't pretty."

I sighed and rolled away. "Fine, I'll go do the rounds then."

"No way, my turn."

"Come on Abby, please." This had to be the first time I'd ever fought about checking on patients, but I was so bored I'd do anything rather than sit here.

She shook her head and smiled, "My turn, loser." She walked off and I stared after her, longingly.

With nothing else to do I refreshed my e-mail page. I sucked in air as I saw who my new message was from. You have one new message from Neela Rasgotra.

"What's up with you?" Jerry asked, absent-mindedly.

I shook my head, "Nothing." Shit, it was something. Neela had emailed me. Eighteen fucking months later, she'd thought to get in contact. Feelings I thought I'd hidden away inside me flooded back up, making me angry, sad, happy, lonely. I shook my head again, I was a mess. How the hell could one e-mail do this to me? Simply because of who it was from...

I clicked open. I had to see what she had to say. I skimmed through it, then read it properly a couple of times. She'd lost my e-mail address, somehow I found that one hard to believe, especially given as it was the same as Abby's work one, with the name's replaced obviously. In case you forgot, like I could forget her. Did she think she was that forgettable? Or that I could move on that damn quickly? I guess she didn't realise how much I'd really cared for her. More than anyone else before. That was obvious just from my reaction to her little e-mail.

I'd love to hear from you, it's been too long.

I could agree with that one. If we'd just been room mates I would have expected more correspondence than I ever got, but we were much more than that. She was my best friend. There was one thing I kept re-reading though, something that didn't quite fit. Your ex-roomie. Roomie -that was what I called her. The rest of the e-mail sounded like she was a bit bored and had remembered my e-mail address, blaming it on Abby, and decided to write me. But that made me think that maybe she hadn't forgotten me. That she still remembered me as a friend. It was hard to explain but somehow that made me happy.

Hey Neela,

You're right, it really has been too long.

I sat there for a while, thinking about what I could possibly say. There was so much I wanted to know, for her to know, but all of it was off limits now of course.

Of course I could never forget my nagging room-mate! I've had a couple since and you're definitely the cleanest. I miss your cooking -not. No, but I do miss our poker nights, no-one else is into it. Kids these days.

I'm still rocking out, good phrase by the way, did you ever expect me to stop? Yup, my guitar is still in pride of place and I've managed to weasel my way back into the band. They couldn't cope without me.

How's life outside of County?

Nice hearing from you again,

Barnett

I hit send before I could chicken out and went to find Abby. She was talking to Sam in exam 2.

"Can I have word with you please Abby?"

Sam smiled and said "I've got to go and check on those labs anyway. I'll see you in a bit." She walked out. Abby turned to me.

"What's up?"

"Did you get an e-mail from Neela tonight?"

She smiled, "Why? Did you get mail?"

"Stop grinning, Lockhart, yeah I did. So you gave her my address?"

"She asked how you were, I said ask him yourself," she gave me a look, "It's not as if your e-mail is confidential or anything, it's just your work one. Substitute the names and everyone's the same."

"I know, it was just weird."

"Did you reply?"

"Yeah."

"Good," she said, shaking her head, "Knowing you two it'd take you months to reply. Oh but what if she thinks this or oh no she might think I mean... blah blah blah."

I stared at her, then put my hand on chest. "That hurt Abby, that really hurt."

"It's true, that's why," she said simply before walking out. I shrugged and followed her, it wasn't like I could argue.

Finally the night was over. We'd had a bit of excitement when two drunk drivers had a collision outside, but it had only been minor injuries. I'd never treated a drunk with such care. When I got home sun was pouring in through the windows and the radio was blaring from the kitchen. I went in, my eyes bleary, a headache starting already.

"Callie, will you turn that down?"

My newest room-mate looked at me from over her bowl of cereal. "What?"

I went to the radio and turned it off. "I said, can you turn it down."

"Sorry," she said, smiling guiltily. "Rough night?"

I shrugged, "Not really. Boring."

"Oh right. Well, I'm going to work soon, so you have the apartment to yourself."

"All I want to do right now is sleep. And have a shower." I headed to the bathroom and she followed me, looking guilty again.

"Yeah, about that..." I went in and saw what she was probably just about to tell me. Somehow the shower head had detached itself from the shower, leaving just a miserable tube that resembled a silver hose pipe.

"Great," I muttered. I turned to her, "Was it Brett?"

"Um..." she said, not looking at me.

"I am going to kill him." One of the ways I'd weaselled my way back into the band, as I'd put it to Neela, was by offering my old friend, Brett, a room when he was stuck. His girlfriend seemed to come as part of the package, Callie was the most recent. A hell of a lot of damage also seemed part and parcel when Brett was around. I'd known that before of course, but it just hadn't struck me until he moved in just how clumsy he was.

Callie just gave me a small smile. "He said sorry."

"I bet he did." I sighed, "I'm going to bed."

I went into my room, pulled off my trousers and fell into bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow nothing else mattered. All mind could think was; sleep. When I finally woke up my alarm clock read 15:11. I had one of those moments of thinking I'd slept till 5, before registering the 24 hour clock. I got up, ran my hands through my no doubt already tousled hair and went to the kitchen. The apartment was in silence, Callie was at work and Brett was probably off somewhere, avoiding me. I poured myself some cereal and went to veg in front of the t.v. Ah, sweet bliss, there was nothing on. I stared at the news, chewing, while my mind was on a certain e-mail.

I just couldn't get her out of my head. I'd think I had, then some tiny, stupid thing would bring her back to the front of my mind. Neela Rasgotra, the one girl to tame Ray Barnett. The one who had made him think it was actually better to stay in and cook, then watch t.v with a couple of beers rather than play a gig. Oh yeah, it had been that bad. When she had gone I'd thrown myself into the music, spending as little time at home or at County as I could. Too many memories. Then I'd gotten an e-mail from Carter (funny how life seemed to revolve around that wonderful invention). Apparently Abby had told him that I was fucking up. So he told me to get back to what was important. And weirdly enough, I'd listened. He was right after all. Damn him.

I wondered if she'd opened my present yet. It wouldn't surprise me if she'd just thrown it out. She knew what it was after all. It had been a bad idea, giving her that t-shirt. But I couldn't keep it, it reminded me of the one time I'd let my guard down -only to have it all thrown back in my face. I could still remember the last time I saw her, hugging her tightly, wishing to God she wouldn't leave me. She did though. She was married, she had to, no, she wanted to. She wouldn't have married Gallant unless she loved him enough to leave with him.

It didn't stop me missing her though. I couldn't stop missing her.

A/N So, what did you think of our Ray? Alright? I had a bit of trouble with this chapter, I kept writing it in third person! So if you see any he's where there should be I's please forgive! And I really need some feedback because I'm just not sure about it...