In the last chapter, I forgot to remind you (in case you'd forgotten) they're not mine!

A/N: While it sounds like they might as well be dating, I only intend for them to be really close friends...at this point...

II.2. Reasons

/Back at the apartment/

Neela couldn't remember if it had been seconds or hours since she hung up the phone. She couldn't think at all. She was with it enough to recognize Ray's footsteps bounding up the stairs and the key in the lock.

The door opened and slammed into the wall behind it. Not bothering to close it or take his key out, Ray dropped his bag and rushed over to the couch where Neela sat balled up with her knees pulled up to her chest. The first thing he saw was the wet red rag pressed between her thigh and stomach. Ohh Neela…Leaning over the back of the couch he picked her up, not caring at all that there was now blood all over the front of his shirt.

"Neela, Neela, Neela," he whispered her name as he stood there holding her, pulling her as close to his own body as he could. When he felt the unique stickiness of blood against his stomach, his mind snapped back into reality, and he tried to assess the situation. He started by sitting her down on the floor. "Has it slowed?" His voice was panicked, but it didn't seem to faze her. He pulled his key out of the door and shut it gently.

"Only a little." She answered him in a very soft whisper.

"Do you feel sick? Headache? Any of that?" He grabbed the soiled towel that had dropped to her side when she sat down. He threw it in the trash as he went into the kitchen to fill a bowl with warm water. It made a thud as it hit the side and its weight compressed the garbage below.

And I was worried he'd see the scalpel package in the trash…

"No." She shook her head.

Taking a couple of clean dish towels out of the drawer he went back over to where she was on the floor and sat next to her. She was still curled up with her arms around her knees. He gently pulled her leg out straight so he could see her cuts.

Noting the severity and running through the treatment options he began to wipe off the red liquid.

"Neela?" She looked at him out of the corners of her eyes. "Do you want to tell me what this is about?" She dropped her gaze again, giving him a silent 'no.'

They sat in silence while Ray finished cleaning her leg. He noticed at some point she had let it run all the way down to her foot, leaving a now dry path.

"I know exactly how deep they are, I don't need stitches. The best treatment would be simple butterfly band aids." The flat, business like tone in her voice shocked him. "And probably some antibiotic ointment." Think back though Ray. You totally detach yourself. To her, right now, those cuts are on a patient—Neela. She is Dr. Rasgotra. It pained him that he knew what this was like. It pained him that he had gone through it, and it pained him that Neela was going through it again.

He noticed she was looking at the contents of his bag, which had spilled out when he tossed it aside when he first came in. She evidently saw the suture threads.

"I just wanted to be prepared."

"Still a boy scout…" The fact that she would make a joke in these circumstances allowed him to relax a little.

"I never actually was a boy scout, smartie-pants." He said it with a smile and looked up at her. She wasn't smiling, but her eyes told him she was trying.

"I'm sorry I got your shirt dirty." Only then did he notice she was wearing a shirt of his.

"Eh, well, at least it's black—it won't really stain." They traded crooked smiles. After a few silent minutes, she spoke up again.

"I had a few unexpected visitors today." She saw his body tense. He was now bandaging her leg.

What did they do to her that made her do this? Should I have taken her to the ER?

"Unexpected, but they were soldiers Ray, not…" she paused, "they we just soldiers." He relaxed.

You always go to the worst case scenarios, Ray. Wait…soldiers? He looked up at her.

"You know soldiers only come to the house for one thing…" her voice broke off, choked by the words. Oh God. "They come to ask where he wanted to be buried." He felt her body grow tense under his hands as he finished securing the bandage.

"Neela, I'm sorry…" He sat up on his knees to put his arms around her.

"They just want to know—to know where to ship the dead body" With that she collapsed, crying silent tears. If Ray hadn't been holding her shoulders she would have collapsed onto the floor. He was surprised she had been able to get that whole sentence out.

"I'm so sorry," he repeated himself, clueless as to what else to say.

After a few minutes, she sat up and mockingly, recounted the conversation, imitating the voices of the soldiers. "'Hi, are you Mrs. Gallant?' 'Yes, but I didn't change my name, so— ' 'Right, Dr. Raz-goo-tra,'" she said, purposefully butchering her last name. "'We just came by to tell you we let your husband die'" Neela looked up at Ray, who was looking down at her, not knowing how to react. She apparently took his look as one of doubt, and added, "well, they might as well have said it like that!" She was getting angry. "Instead, they try to make it sound serene…when really, my husband's body is coming back in pieces! The concept of open-casket funeral is completely lost on the military. They think you're lucky if you have an actual body to bury!" She slumped down again.

"Shhhh…" He rocked her back a forth. What the hell do you say to someone whose husband just died? "Shhhh…"