Title: Never Let Your Guard Down.
Author: Simple Plan Rulz
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own ER etc etc
Sorry I took forever to update, I have been busy with music coursework latlely!
Author's notes on the chapter: So, I sat down to write this chapter and I thought, 'OMG! I haven't sent Abby to one of Ray's gigs yet,' Which is something I defiantly wanted to do, with in the story, because at the beginning, Abby is supposed to not like Ray's music and then, though-out the story I was planning to have it grow on her, so obviously going to Ray's gigs is important. So I had them go to a gig, but, in true me style, I couldn't just leave it at that so there's all this build up to going to the gig, and like the aftermath of the gig (you'll understand when you read it). Oh yer, and for some unknown reason, the reception seems to be quite a focal point at the beginning of this chapter! But yer, anyway I'll stop blabbering and get in with it. Thanks very much for all the reviews, especially krazypirategurl who has now reviewed my story 11 times! (yer, I counted!)
Chapter 14: Shrug it off
(Chapter starts with Ray and Abby in the kitchen, on Wednesday)
"So guess what?"
"What?" Abby replied, clearing up the dishes from dinner.
"I've got another gig on Saturday!"
"You know, I've always wanted to go to one of your gigs."
"Yer? You should come,"
"Sure, if I can convince Morris to let me have Saturday night off!"
Ray shrugged, "Just shake your boobs at him a bit!"
"WHAT?"
"He's totally got a crush on you; just shake your boobs a bit and he'll give you whatever you want!"
"Shut-up!" she threw the dish cloth at him.
"Hey!" Ray looked at the huge wet patch on the side of his t-shirt "you got my t-shirt all wet!"
Abby shrugged, "Oh well, guess you'll just have to take it off!" she lifted it off, over his head.
Ray smiled, he liked this idea.
(Thursday)
"Hey Neela," Abby called her over, she had just finished up in trauma, "you wanna come to Ray's gig with me on Saturday?"
Neela raised her eyebrow.
"Please, come on, I need you and it'll be fun!"
Neela sighed, "Fine, whatever,"
(Later on that day)
Neela strolled into reception, Sam was busy writing on the board and Susan was fiddling with some charts.
"Hey Neela!" Sam called her, "You up to anything interesting on Saturday? I see you have the night off!"
"No, I'm just going to one of Rays gig's with Abby,"
"Oooo, sounds like fun, an evening with Abby and her toyboy! You know I might as well just write third-wheel on your forehead in this big, black marker!"
"Hey," Abby had obviously appeared in reception, early enough to have heard Sam, "Neela will not be the third wheel; she's coming because Ray will be on stage all the time and so I need someone to hang with me!"
The girls looked at each other, trying not to laugh.
"And besides," Abby continued, "he is not my toyboy!"
All the girls burst out laughing.
"Abby, just face it," Susan patted her on the shoulder, "everyone knows you as 'that female doctor who's dating that young doctor who paints his nails black!"
"UH! He hardly ever does that anymore!"
"I know," Susan said sarcastically, "I know!"
"Whatever," Abby shook her hair, "you're all just jealous cause I got the young, good looking doctor and you didn't!" Abby stormed off, in a huff.
"What?" Sam exclaimed, looking slightly sheepish and going red, "we are so not jealous!"
"Yer, like we'd be into Ray!" Susan added, also slightly red.
"Yer, I'm totally not in anyway, shape or form, interested in Ray Barnett!" commented Neela who's cheeks where now bright red.
The girls avoided each others gaze for a few minutes, before making their excuses and leaving.
(Friday)
"Look, there's Morris," Ray pointed to Morris, who was in the reception, "put this on,"
He reached into his bag, and pulled out one of Abby's tops, which was, extremely low cut.
"Where did you get this?" said Abby putting it on.
"Out of your draws, this morning," Ray explained.
"So, you just went poking around in my draws!"
"Yer," Ray didn't understand what was so wrong with that.
What if you'd found something I didn't want you to see!"
"Like what?"
"Like, I dunno, stuff from my previous relationships!"
"I doubt it; I go through your draws all the time and I never found anything like that!"
"Uh! Well don't ever do it again."
"Sure, whatever," Ray blatantly wasn't listening, "So just go over to Morris and lean right over the counter, make some small talk, and then ask him for Saturday off. I'll guarantee you he says yes!"
"God," Abby moved uncomfortably in her top, "I feel like such a whore doing this!"
"Yer well," Ray spun Abby in the direction of Morris, slapped her ass and gently pushed her towards the reception area, "that's cause you kinda are!"
Abby gave him the evils, before strolling off to see Morris, "Hey Morris," She leaned really far over the counter, "Whatcha doing?"
"Sorting some stuff," he looked up and his eyes bulged, "that's err...that's a...nice top you got there,"
Abby had to stop herself from laughing at the way Morris so blatantly stared and the way he stuttered nervously. "So Morris, up to anything on the weekend?"
"Nope, just err...work...err...yer...lots of work,"
"Well listen Morris," Abby said in her most seductive voice, "could you give me something?"
Morris seemed to choke a bit, on his own words and so all he managed to get out was, "Anything!"
"Great, could you give me Saturday night off?"
Morris seemed a little distracted by Abby's...top, when he answered, "Yer sure!"
"Morris," Abby obviously faked being shocked and covered up her cleavage with her hand, then she leaned in to whisper in his ear, "this is neither the time nor the place!"
Morris looked completely shocked. "But...err...aren't you...err...you know...going out with Ray?"
"Sure," she smiled at Morris and winked, before walking off.
(Saturday)
"So, Ray's band are actually quite good," admitted Neela, as she downed another Malibu and coke.
"You know you might want to leave off the Malibu's for a bit,"
"And why would I want to do that?"
"Cause otherwise you gonna puke, and if you don't puke you'll have one hell of a hangover tomorrow!"
"But it's free! Free! Why is practically insulting to Ray not to take advantage of the fact that he got us free drinks! Free! Free! Free!" Neela got slightly over excited about the concept of the drinks being free, and ended up falling of her stool.
"Come on Neela," Abby lifted her back onto her stool, "Lets not get too excited!"
"hmm," was all Neela managed before slumping onto the bar, dead to the world.
"Great, I bring someone to keep me company, and she goes and passes out on me!"
Ray song finished and he step up to the mike.
"Now, she's probably gonna get pissed off with me for this, but I wrote this song, for the women I love, and, I'd like to dedicate it as our last song to her!"
Ray started to play again, it was a soft slow song, just watching him, playing his guitar, it was so, mesmerizing. It was the sweetest thing he had ever done for her. She smiled to herself as she listen to him play. Then she felt something touch her softly on the shoulder, she turned around...
When the song was finished, Ray said his goodbyes, thanked everyone for coming and went off to find Abby.
"Abby!" he called for her as he pushed his way to the bar, "Abby!"
He saw Neela slumped over the bar. "Neela!" he lifted her head up, "Neela where's Abby?" It was then Ray realized she was out cold. He spun round, but then something caught his eye, the emergency exit door was slightly ajar.
"Dobbs!" Ray called to the barman, who was startled as Ray awoke him form his sleep, "just watch over this one for me for a sec, would you?" he motioned towards Neela.
Dobbs nodded, and went back to sleep.
Ray carefully opened the door, and peeked out into the alley. Further down he could make out a guy, quite big and tough, Caucasian with very short hair, and lots of tattoos. He was pressing Abby up against a wall, with a knife to her neck, she was struggling to get out of his grip, but he was too strong.
Ray creped up behind him slowly, he could her Abby pleading to the guy, she obviously hadn't noticed Ray, "Get off me," she whimpered, "please, just leave me alone!"
Ray moved out of the shadows and grabbed the man by his arms completely taking him for surprise. "Abby run!" he yelled.
There was quite a struggle; the knife gleamed in the streetlights as it came dangerously close to both men. Eventually the man broke free and spun round so fast, slicing Ray on his shoulder. Blood gushed to the surface, spewing all over Ray's t-shirt. Ray staggered back clutching his shoulder.
Ray saw the man coming back, charging at him. At the last moment Ray dipped his right shoulder straight into the guy gut, winding him and causing him to fall back onto the ground. Ray, the pain from his shoulder forgotten, quickly leaped onto of the man and grabbed the knife. He lifted his fists and punched him in the face over and over again, screaming "Never, ever, ever touch my girlfriend ever again, cause next time, I swear to god I kill you!"
Finally Ray delivered the last blow. The man didn't move, he was perfectly still. Ray checked his pulse; he was still alive, and proven by the soft rising and falling of his chest, still breathing, probably just unconscious.
For once, Ray was finally able to look around, check Abby got away. He saw her standing by the exit, with Dobbs. "Don't worry bout it Ray, I called 'er cops!" he called to Ray, in his thick Boston accent.
In a few minutes, the usually quiet alleyway was buzzing with activity.
"Your hurt," Abby commented, "you should really let them take you to the hospital, that cuts quite deep."
Ray smiled jokingly, "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch, marry, t'is enough"
"Are you quoting Shakespeare?"
Ray smiled "Romeo and Juliet, to be precise. It's my favorite book."
"Really? I never imagined you to like Shakespeare!"
Ray shrugged.
"But really Ray," she looked more serious now, "You could've died!"
"My life were better ended by their hate, than death proroguéd, wanting of thy love."
She slapped his arm playfully, "you're just showing off now!"
"Come on," He wrapped his jacket round her, "Let's go home."
The journey home was fairly quiet.
When they arrived in their apartment, Ray moved to hug Abby, but she stepped back. Her face was paler now, like it was before the police had turned up. "Look, thanks for everything and all, but I'm really tired, you know, and tonight was quite an shock for me, so you no I'm just gonna go to bed, alone. Why don't you go sleep in the spare room?"
Ray understood why she wanted to be alone, but didn't want to go sleep in Neela's old room. It gave him the creeps; Ray was the kinda guy who crashed on people sofas, not the type to crash in peoples spare rooms. It seemed almost too good for him, hence why he had always slept on the sofa. Ray got out his blanket and lay on the sofa. He knew he wouldn't sleep, not only cause of what had happened that evening, but because his shoulder was really hurting. But he'd rather live with the pain than have Abby notice him getting some painkillers!
When Ray woke up, he had finally got to sleep at about 5am, Abby was sitting on the end of the sofa. "What time is it?"
Abby was startled that he was awake, "12, we gotta be on in a few hours,"
Ray nodded. "Are you sure you wanna go to work today?"
"Listen Ray, I'm sorry about yesterday, I was kinda harsh. After all, you had just saved me."
"Its okay," Ray shrugged "I understand."
There was a silence, not awkward, more comforting.
"How's your arm?"
Ray shrugged, "Kay I guess,"
More silence.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Shrug it all off, whenever you have a problem you just shrug and that's it, you don't think about it anymore."
"Abby," he moved closer to her, "this is gonna sound strange but, its cause I'm not as brave as you. Rather than face my problem head on, I shrug and just pretend like I don't have problems."
Well, at least that was what he had wanted to say, it came out as a "Mmuuh, I guess I just do,"
Abby stared out of the window to the streets below. More silence.
"Its okay," he took her hand, "We can get through this, together."
Abby smiled. "I'd like that."
I like the idea of Ray's favorite book being Romeo and Juliet, when I wrote that bit about Abby saying, 'are you hurt' the first thing I though of was when Mercutio says that bit bout'a scratch, a scratch,'in Romeo and Juliet and the whole Shakespeare thing seemed to evolve from their! I'm not quite sure which chapter I will use for the next one, but it is very likely it will take place a couple of months after this one.