Title: Never Let Your Guard Down

Author: Simple Plan Rulz

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own ER etc etc

Notes: sorry i havent updated in ages, I've been really busy. which is a lame excuse, but anyway, for anyone who still cares, here is the next chapter.

Chapter 22: Bad parenting

Sam walked into the apartment put down his bag and sighed. "Do we have any food? I'm starving!"

"Err, yer sure." Ray had quite obviously fallen asleep on the sofa whilst watching the news. Sam joined him on the sofa shortly, a huge sandwich in his lap.

"Woh," Ray stared in amazement at the size of Sam's sandwich, "Did you forget to have your lunch or something?"

"No," Sam shifted uneasily.

Ray stared at Sam noticing he had a new bruise on his arm. "How'd you get that?"

"Dunno," Sam lied obviously.

Ray sighed, "Come on, you gotta tell me what's going on. You're not eating your lunch, you've got bruises on your arm. It just doesn't make sense."

Sam looked away, "this kid at my school, he says he'll beat me up unless I give him the money you give me for lunch everyday."

Ray shook his head and sighed. "So you just let him beat you up?"

"Well no, normally I give it to him but, the other day, I was so hungry…"

"Have you tried telling a teacher?"

Sam nodded, "but they dont really listen to me."

Ray thought for a second, "and you never thought to hit him back?"

"Well no," Sam paused, "I mean I've never hit someone in my life…"

Ray nodded, it made sense. "Well it's not like you probably wouldn't be able to give this guy a run for his money. I mean it's not like you're not strong." It was true, Sam was reasonably well built.

Sam just looked at him.

"Okay, try this," Ray motion to his upper chest, "Punch me."

Sam looked at him like he was crazy.

"Look," Ray started, "the way I see it you got one of two choices you can give your money to this kid every day for the rest of your life, or you can do something about it."

Sam nodded and punched Ray lightly.

"Harder."

Sam tried to punch harder.

"No, no. You're hitting me with a straight arm, you want it to be still bent, that when the punch is strongest. And you gotta put your whole body into it."

Sam tried again, this time with a little more success.

"Try," Ray thought for a sec, "try imagining you're Ryan, from the OC, and I've made you really mad."

Sam punched Ray, but really hard this time, Ray even winced a little.

"Okay, I think that's enough of that," Ray smiled, "so you just gotta try that next time this guy starts on you, okay?"

Sam nodded, "okay."

Ray looked shifty and began to mum, "not that I'm saying violence is a good thing, but you know sometimes in life its necessary to show people that there not better than you, because you know in life theres nothing worse than a man who thinks he's better than everyone else..."

"Ray," Sam interrupted him, "I get it, violence is bad."

Ray smiled, "good," he paused to think for a moment before adding, "but dont tell Abby, you know how she get about these things."

Sam and Ray laughed together.

The next day the hospital was in its usual state of chaos. Ray had already discharged a man who cut his forehead trying to set up his new widescreen TV, a women who was certain she had caught bird flu, when she barely even had a cold, a young boy who had fractured his arm after falling out of a tree, and a little girl who burned her hands making muffins with her mom. He was about to see to an elderly gentleman who had cut off his finger chopping vegetables for his wife's 60th birthday dinner, when Abby came rushing over to him.

"I just got a call from Sam's school, they say I need to go over there quick, it's an emergency."

"Did they say he was okay?" Ray looked concerned.

"No, they just said to come quick."

"Are you free to go?"

Abby nodded, "As long as you take this guy in 3 for me. He took one too many anti-acids for his stomach ache."

Ray sighed at the stupidity of the human race, "Sure, just ring me when you find out what going on."

Abby nodded "Sure," before rushing off.

About an hour later, Ray was working at the main desk, when he noticed Abby walk in with Sam, a relatively fat boy who had a tissue held up to his nose, which was bleeding profusely, the boys relatively fat mother and Sam's principal.

Abby gave the boy over to a nurse and looked back at Ray; she was clearly pissed about something. "So," she asked "what do you have to say for yourself?"

Ray shrugged; he had no idea what was going on.

"What did you think you where doing, teaching Sam to punch people?"

Suddenly it dawned on Ray what had happened. He quickly made excuses, "I only taught him how to defend himself!"

"He's broken that kid's nose! That is not defending himself!"

Everybody looked at Sam, who looked a pale white. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Sorry is not going to cut it, young man," The principal began.

Ray ran straight over to Abby and whispered to her, "Look you sort out the other kid and I'll talk to Sam's principal, you know explain."

Abby sighed, and nodded, before walking off with Sam's bully.

Ray walked over to the principal and motioned for him to sit in the waiting room chairs. He gave Sam some money to get a chocolate from the vending machines. Ray turned to address the principal. "Look, I know this seems pretty bad but, Sam's having a rough time at the moment and it doesn't really help that he's being bullied and all."

The principal looked shocked "Sam's being bullied! But that not what Jesse told me, he said that he had been innocently standing outside when Sam just walked right up to him and starting attacking him. Are you saying this is not true?"

"Well no," Ray looked annoyed, "If you'd bothered to ask Sam he probably would have told you this kids been on his case for a couple of weeks now, making him give him his money. I was just trying to help him out."

"Well, perhaps next time Sam could talk to a teacher about it, rather than seeing violence as the only answer. I am terribly sorry for the mix up though, I just assumed that it was Sam's fault, you know, he's not exactly the well-adjusted type."

Ray quickly became very angry; he rose from his chair, "Not the well adjusted type! You don't know two things about Sam, he's good kid who means well and you have no right to judge him based on his background!"

Neela rushed over, and grabbed Ray's upper arm, "Ray, you're making a scene."

"Sorry," he replied and sat back down.

"Well," the principal stood up and brushed his suit with his hands, "I hope Sam will be better behaved in the future, and I look forward to seeing you on parents evening, if you're still around by then of course." He gave an unsatisfied sniff and stormed off to go see Jesse.

Ray hung his head in his hands. Neela sat down next to him and placed her hand lightly on his back, "It'll be okay." She paused, "By the way, you should know…" she motioned to Sam, who was standing the other side of the waiting room, his facial expression showed that he had witnessed the little scene.

"Right," Ray sighed and turned to Neela and said, "Well if you'll excuse me," before walking off to go have a talk with Sam.

Later that evening when Sam had gone to bed, Ray sat on the sofa, listening to his music, when Abby walked in the door. "You'll be pleased to know Jesse didn't break his nose. It was a pretty superficial injury, the kid just made a big fuss about the whole thing to get Sam in trouble."

Ray nodded, "well that good."

Abby motioned to Sam's room, "you talk to him about it."

Ray nodded. Abby sat down on the sofa next to him. "Do you think we're good parents?"

"Of course."

"But the children of good parents don't go around breaking people's noses."

"Well then it's a good thing Sam didn't break that kid's nose then, isn't it?"

Abby laughed, "Still. You really think so?"

Ray smiled and gripped Abby's hand, "Shit happens, but at the end of the day if Sam knows the difference between right and wrong, and he knows its wrong to punch people for no apparent reason but that its okay to stand up for yourself, but that doesn't mean you have to break anyone's nose, and he knows that you shouldn't laugh at people who are more unfortunate in life than you, and that prejudice, and a refusal to understand other people, is what causes most of today's problems…What I mean is, as long as he knows what really matters, than I guess everything else is okay."

Abby smiled, "That's sweet."

Ray smiled back, "Thank you."