Title: The Gift
Author: lyricalpeach
Summary: Follow-up to Bless the Broken Road, future speculation. No ER action.
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Without Prejudice. All the ER characters are property of NBC. No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission. Please don't sue me. The other words are my own. Please don't steal.
Notation: Ray's thoughts 'Neela's thoughts' Abby's thoughts
Chapter 2
'Unpacking is such a chore!' Neela thought, as she ripped the tape off another. 'This one must be Ray's, oops...' But the moment the tape was ripped off, the flaps popped open, revealing sheet music lying on the top with her name on it. Smiling, she remembered Ray playing soft ballads on the guitar for her, songs she had never heard and that she knew he had composed himself. She recognized the melody and smiled, 'Ahh, I know which one this is… and it's my favorite. Anyway, I'd better put it away.' She carefully re-taped the box lid back down and continued opening another.
In the other room, Ray had accidentally opened one of Neela's boxes to find the engagement box, padded carefully with packing material that smelled like jasmine. To overcome the anchovy smell, he thought, smiling to himself. He carefully closed the box and crossed off his name, putting Neela's on it.
Hurrying out to see how Neela's unpacking was coming, Ray stumbled over one smaller unpacked box of books and landed on an empty one, crushing it. "Ow, crap!"
Recovering, he shouted gleefully, "Ooh, time to start making a box tower!" Maybe this will lighten her mood about packing…
"You're silly," Neela glanced sideways at her seemingly five-year-old husband.
Ray attempted to fix the box he'd landed on, and then said sadly, "This one's too smushed." Grabbing a few others, he stacked them in the middle of the room until he couldn't reach without a chair.
"Ray, please flatten those and put them in the storage closet," Neela was losing patience. She hated moving. More than that, she was tired and couldn't take Ray's lighthearted attitude toward packing, which meant that he'd unpacked half as many boxes – of course he had a lot less stuff.
"Oh, alright." Ray, defeated, put all the empty boxes away, revealing just a few boxes left to be unpacked. Bad idea.
The condo was starting to look like their own home, not just a pretty place to live in.
"I'll start some dinner while you finish unpacking those," Ray kissed Neela's head and rubbed her shoulders. "After dinner we'll utilize the dishwasher and relax for awhile." Early shift tomorrow, he resisted saying out loud. She was tired enough already. I'll give her a nice massage, he thought. Hopefully she'd be in the mood for some playtime before crashing.
000
"Ooh," Neela moaned, "I didn't know my back ached that much."
"Now that we're unpacked," Ray said, "you don't have to feel so grumpy anymore. I know you hate moving."
Neela could only moan in response to his ministrations. The tension finally started to leave her body relaxed. Ray sensed she was moaning less and relaxing more. He finished the massage and then leaned down close, brushing his lips against her ear. "Feel better?"
In answer, Neela twisted underneath him to smile seductively, saying, "I knew you had an ulterior motive…"
Ray grinned. "Who, me??"
"C'mere, you."
000000
Since they'd moved into their new condo just over three months ago, Ray and Neela had been slowly decorating. Some new furniture and housewarming gifts made the place feel warm. Wedding pictures and candids from short trips now adorned the walls, desks and tables, and the place had really become home.
The new place had three bedrooms and two baths, lots of room for a little family and plenty of space for occasional guests. The largest bedroom contained their new bed, Ray's favorite guitar, lots of pictures, and Neela's feminine touches. The adjacent room had been left clean and empty save for the stuffed closet. The third and smallest room was on the other side of the condo, and served two purposes, a small music room for Ray and a guest room. There they stored Ray's backup guitar and music equipment and Neela's old bed.
In the living room, a new couch stood proudly, facing the tall, curved bow window. On the living room floor was their soft rug, laid out in front of the couch. A gas fireplace sat in the corner to the left of the window. The kitchen was big enough for two occasional amateur cooks, with a breakfast counter for their rushed mornings. A small dining table sat across from the kitchen in a nook.
More than big enough to be comfortable, and still small enough to be cozy and warm, the building had only two failing features. The elevator was frequently being serviced and the stairwell wasn't heated. Thankfully, the two floors to climb, on top of walking to and from L stations, weren't too bad. Considering the parking costs, walking was a good savings, they agreed, better to have a nice home to come back to.
000
It was Saturday morning, and Neela had actually gotten up very early. She was now making French toast and bacon – good thing she'd learned to cook some basics in the last year. It didn't hurt that bacon was faster and easier in the microwave. Coffee was easy, she'd known how to make Ray's coffee years ago… and juice and milk were refrigerated.
Kitchen smells wafted across the apartment, down the hall, through the door cracks and through the heating vents to Ray's nose. Sniffing without opening his eyes, he smiled drowsily before grabbing his robe and padding out the door.
Neela's back was turned as she was frying the French toast, and the sizzling took all her concentration. Ray reached her before she noticed, but he waited for her to turn around, so she wouldn't freak out too much and burn herself.
Neela turned and was surprised to see Ray standing so close to her and said, "Ray, where'd you come from? Don't sneak up on me like that!", and then recovering from her surprise, sang out, "Well, good morning, sleepyhead!"
Ray leaned down to kiss Neela sweetly. "Cooking? What's the occasion?"
"Do I need an occasion to cook? We've been doing lots more cooking recently," Neela answered, "and I am quite capable of making very good vanilla cinnamon French toast."
"I know that, babe, but you don't usually cook this early on a Saturday." Ray reminded her, wondering what was up.
Neela was quiet just for a moment, looking slightly nervous, and said, "Well…" She paused, and Ray hugged her to him.
"What is it?"
"Ray?"
"Yes, baby?"
"I'm pregnant."
000