Title: Never Let Your Guard Down.
Author: Simple Plan Rulz
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own ER etc etc
Author's notes on the chapter: This is part 2 of this part of the story. Okay I lied, the first part of this chapter takes place like right after the next, then it skips to being on the plane. I like this chapter, because the whole situation is quite funny and because it has a lot of NeelaRayAbby bonding! Which is cute, cause I think they make quite a sweet bunch! Plus we see Ray being nice to Neela, which although he normally isn't on the show, I get the feeling that Ray and Neela are friendly sometimes.
Chapter 12: The 'Rents Part 2
Abby sat next to Ray, eating her cereal. She had tried everything; she had shaken him, shouted and screamed at him and she'd even thrown a bit of water over him. Nothing, he didn't even twitch.
"Ray," she poked him with the spoon. "Come on now Ray, this is boring,"
Still no movement. She flicked some milk at him, nothing.
"For God's sake," She screamed and dropped the entire contents of the bowl onto Ray's head
She was in the process of washing her bowl, when Ray stirred.
"Abby," Ray moaned and began to move a little, he licked his face, "Why have I got cereal on me?"
"Long story, now hurry up and go have a shower, we've got to be at work soon,"
Ray grudgingly abided.
"So, right lets go over this again,"
"Neela," Ray whined, "We've been over this a thousand times, I practically know your parents better than they do and I'm now an expert in your family history and how to behave in front of them, trust me, we do not need to go over this again,"
"I agree with Ray," Abby joined in, "It's going to be okay,"
"I dunno, maybe we should go over the greetings one last time,"
"NO!" Ray and Abby both demanded, they had already spent 7 of the 8 hour flight, and even more time beforehand, going over how to behave around Neela's parents which includes the 'short' history of Neela's family.
"When you guys meet my parents you'll understand why it was necessary to go through this so many times."
"Sure Neela," Ray smiled.
Once they had cleared customs, they found Neela's parents waiting for them. Neela's dad had his hair wrapped in a turban, with a relatively short dark beard with grey wisps. Neela's mum was relatively plump, but she had features which where obviously once, very beautiful, sadly, they where hidden behind a pair of very large and thick glasses. She had longish dark hair. It was quite easy to see where Neela had got her beauty from. Not that Ray thought Neela was pretty or anything.
Ray shook her father hand, "Mr. Rasgotra, I'm Ray Barnett,"
He gave Ray and excepting nod, "You must be the handsome man my daughter is dating,"
Ray smiled, "And Mrs. Rasgotra, Neela has told me so many great things about you,"
"Oh," she hugged Ray, "Well aren't you quite the gentleman,"
Neela smiled; clearly happy her parents liked Ray.
Once all the greetings had been said, Ray insisted upon carrying all the bags to the car.
"So this is Neela's room," Mr. Rasgotra was giving them a tour and showing them where their rooms where. Ray went in a put his and Neela's bags inside, he had wrongly assumed that as he and Neela were supposedly in a 'serious relationship' that he would have to share a room with her.
"Your room is just round the corner," Mrs. Rasgotra pointed to Ray, who looked quite surprised.
"Well Ray, don't you want to take your bag to your room," Neela gave Ray a nudge, annoyed because she had been over this with him on the plane, her parents would have been shocked if Neela had requested a room with Ray before they were married.
Ray picked up his bag and strolled into his room. He was already pissed off because now Abby's room was all the way down the corridor from his and it was past Neela's parents' room, which meant sneaking to Abby's room at night now proved to be more difficult. He took his shirt and pants off, so he could change into some jeans and a cool t-shirt. He hated wearing proper shirts. He heard the door creak and, thinking it was Abby, said "Hey gorgeous, couldn't wait to see me?"
Of course when he spun round, it wasn't. At first he thought it was Neela but then he realized that the girl was younger and sexier than Neela.
"Wow! My sis really managed to get a hot guy like you?"
"Err," Ray fumbled uncomfortably, "yer I guess so, me and Neela." Me and Neela, Me and Neela. It just sounded not right to him; it was Ray and Abby, that sounded right.
"You don't sound to sure of it," Neela's sister moved closer, so close she was practically touching his chest, "you know you could do so much better than my sister, for example, me,"
Had Ray not been in love with Abby or in the current crazy Neela situation, he would have totally gone for it. But he was, so he stepped back and held out his hand, "I'm Ray,"
She laughed "Whatever, but if you ever wanna continue this, my rooms right next door," she shook his hand, "I'm Maya, by the way,"
He smiled, "that's a nice name,"
She smiled a sweet, fake innocent smile, "it means illusion, as in I appear sweet and innocent but actually, I'm a bad girl." She giggled and left.
Ray just stood there looking bemused. This was certainly going to be and interesting weekend.
Ray came downstairs to the lovely smell, of a home cooked Indian meal.
"Mrs. Rasgotra, this smells delicious," Ray commented.
"Please," she smiled at his flattery, "call me Saloni,"
"So Ray, you are a fan of Indian food?" Mr. Rasgotra asked.
"I love it, I only recently discovered it though, and my family tended to only have simple meals when I was younger,"
"If you want, I could give you a few recipes, so next time your parents come round you can make them a lovely meal," Saloni suggested.
Ray smiled and just starred down at his lap.
"Mum," Neela touched her mother's arm, "Ray's parents are dead,"
"Oh," Saloni looked sad, "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Nah, its okay, I guess I could still make it for myself and..." Ray almost said Abby, until he remembered, "and...and...Neela,"
Saloni laughed "I'm sure Neela can cook Indian for you anytime you want, has she cooked you anything yet?"
"Yer," Ray nodded.
"Like what,"
Ray thought on the spot, "curry,"
"Curry?" she turned to Neela, "The boy loves Indian food and all you make him is a curry?"
"And plenty of other stuff of course," Ray added quickly.
"Hmm," Saloni did not seem so sure.
Ray was just sitting there, enjoying his meal, when something touched the inside of his leg, rubbing up and down. At first Ray looked up and Abby who was sitting across the table from him, but no, she was too far away. So he turned to his side and, of course, it was Maya. She was smiling. He gave her a look and she stopped, for now.
The rest of the dinner went well, they just talked about work and well boring stuff, Ray would never normally have talked or acted the way he did, but, for Neela sake, he had to pretend to be interested. Thankfully, Maya left him alone for the rest of the dinner.
After dinner, Neela came to talk to Ray, "Thanks for being so cool about this you know,"
Ray smiled, "Its fine,"
"My parents really like you; I can hear them talking about marriage plans downstairs,"
Ray shrugged "Well, I am irresistible,"
Neela laughed sarcastically, but then she seemed to look calmer, more sincere, "Thanks Ray, for everything,"
"Its okay,"
She smiled and walked out.
That evening Ray was sitting on his bed, waiting for everyone to fall asleep, when Maya walked in.
"Hey," she went and sat on his bed.
"Hey," he smiled politely at her.
She smiled, like she was up to something, "I know about the affair,"
Okay, now Ray was confused. "What?"
"I know your cheating on Neela with your friend Abby, I see the way you look at her and when I touched your leg I saw you look up at her, like you thought it was her and not Neela or me,"
Ray shook his head, "No, I love Neela, she means everything to me, I would never do something like that to her," it felt weird to confess his love for Neela, but he got over it, "Why are you trying so hard to believe I would cheat on Neela?"
"Because I always get the hot guys and it's just not fair, how come Neela gets a boyfriend who's all perfect and good looking?" she moaned like a child.
He smiled, he almost wanted to tell her the truth, that actually Neela was in the same situation as her, but he liked toying with Maya, "I wouldn't be to sure about that if I was you,"
"What do you mean?"
"Just that there are plenty of fish in the sea, so I'm sure there's someone out there for you."
"Whatever," she paused, "So there's no chance for me and you?"
"Sorry," he smiled, "I'm in love with the most amazing women you will ever meet." For once he wasn't lying.
She sighed and went off to bed, or so he thought.
Ray waited about ten minutes before getting up, to go to Abby's room. If he had bothered to check the corridor, to make sure no one was there before sneaking off to Abby's room, he would have seen Maya's eyes watching him to the side of her door. But he hadn't. Maya had expected him to go into Neela's room, but he had he continued along the corridor all the way to Abby's.
Maya gasped, she didn't believe it, was hot Mr. Perfect really cheating on her sister, I mean before I had just been playing with him, was it really true?
No she told herself he just left something in her room and went to go get it or maybe he wanted to talk about planning a surprise for Neela or maybe...maybe...maybe. Maya knew she just had to face it. He was cheating on her sister.
"Hey," Ray walked into Abby's room.
"Ray," she sat up, "we shouldn't, what if..."
"What if what? Come on Abby..."
"I dunno Ray,"
He climbed onto the bed and leaned over her, she couldn't resist him.
"Fine just be really quiet,"
He laughed and bent down to her ear and whispered, "I'm not the one who has to be quiet; you're the one that screams so loud."
Abby didn't object, she just went very red.
Ray was kissing Abby's neck; it was so soft and so sweet. He loved the smell of Abby's neck, he couldn't quite describe how it smelt, it just smelt so...
There was a sudden blinding ness, a white light, Ray wasn't quite what was going on, was it something he had eaten? Was he dying? They often said when you die you see a white light. Ray turned round; he had a felling he was not dead, yet. The whole Rasgotra family was starring at him, their mouths dropped right to the floor; he saw the look of horror in Neela eyes and he knew he had let her down, and it was quite possibly the worst feeling in the world.
By the way the names used in this story (Maya and Saloni) are authentic indian names and Maya really does mean illusion.
Sorry I havent finished, it was just getting too long, I'll update part 3 asap!