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 3
Ray was struck with amazement – I know we've been talking about it, but.. Wow!! Are we ready? I guess we will be.. He came out of his brief state of shock and grinned ear to ear. Suddenly, he picked Neela up and swung her around and around until she cried happily "Stop, stop!"
Ray, breathless, slowed to a stop and gently put Neela down. His arms around her waist, and leaning his wide shoulders back and stretching his neck down, looked at her with joy and amazement. "Baby, that's wonderful!" He smiled softly, and Neela smiled back.
"I've been suspicious for awhile, but just tested this morning. The due date should be middle of December," Neela explained. She continued, "I didn't want to say anything until I was sure." Pausing, she added "I guess we didn't plan for it to happen quite so soon, but I'm really, really, REALLY happy."
Ray nodded, hugging her to him tightly again and lifting her feet off the floor. Neela laughed with joy, and he and resisted spinning her, saying, "So am I, babe, so am I."
"Well, let's have our breakfast, and then we can get ready for some shopping," Neela smiled.
"I'm hungry for something else," Ray started with a grin, but Neela stopped him.
"Food first, I'm hungry!"
Impatiently, Ray waited for Neela to finish eating while he drank coffee and munched a piece of Neela's French toast he'd slit and stuffed some bacon and maple syrup into. "Mmm, this is really good, babe."
"Better than chocolate raspberry jelly with chocolate sprinkles?" she teased.
"Better than the Krispy Kreme donut, but not better than my sweet doughNeelanut," he gave her a mischievous look.
"Okay, I'm done eating now…"
Scooping Neela up gently, he said, "I'll clean up later.." Ray carried her to their bedroom and laid her down. They celebrated in their tender way, and afterwards, Neela fell asleep. Ray lay watching her, but gave up when she fell into a deep sleep.
When Neela woke up, it was mid-morning and Ray had already cleaned the kitchen, showered and packed a day bag for their shopping trip.
"Let's go," Ray smiled eagerly, "have your shower and get dressed and we'll head toward Michigan Avenue to do some window shopping."
"I think I'd rather go to Oakbrook mall…" 'where all the baby stores are…'
"Okay," Ray said. Oakbrook is huge.. and has all those baby stores that we noticed last time, he thought, pushing Neela towards the bathroom. Ray was feeling just a little apprehensive about baby shopping, but he quickly laid out her coat, hat and scarf for her and headed to the kitchen to pack some lunch, because it would be lunchtime by the time Neela was ready, and a long day for him while she shopped.
000
"Oooh, look!" Neela exclaimed again. She'd ooh'ed and ahh'ed almost constantly as they looked at all the baby clothes. Of course, they weren't really ready to buy much yet, but it was fun to see all the cute designs.
Ray followed faithfully as Neela bounded from rack to rack, store to store, and finally got tired. Neela didn't need maternity clothes yet, but she'd be thinking about it about a few months down the line. He was sure a lot of shopping was headed his way and made a mental check to ask Abby to take Neela shopping so he could opt out sometimes.
000
A month had passed, and so far Neela had the easiest pregnancy she could have asked for. Other than being tired and hungry, Neela had tolerable nausea and no vomiting. She wasn't showing yet, so they'd been able to keep it a secret. Although their excitement might have shown through a bit, since they were still in newlywed mode, nobody noticed.
Neela was awoken when Ray stirred and got out of bed, letting cool air under the blankets. "Ray?" she said sleepily, "where are you going?" No answer came but for the sound of the bathroom door closing.
Suddenly, Neela heard retching in the bathroom and hurried over. The door wasn't locked, and she threw it open. Ray was there, hunched over the toilet, looking shocked.
"Ray, are you alright?" Neela was worried. She felt his forehead, touched his cheek. 'No fever… Did he eat something wrong? Stomach virus??'
Ray reached over and flushed the toilet, then got up slowly and rinsed his mouth in the sink. He looked at Neela, and said "I'm okay now."
"What happened?"
"I woke up and felt dizzy… not sure what happened."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Neela still looked worried.
"I'm fine, baby. It's probably just something I ate. Let's go back to bed." He put an arm around her and led her back to the bed.
000
Next morning, the same thing happened. "Ray, you'd better get checked out – let's go to County." But when they arrived, Neela felt a little nauseous herself, so she persuaded Ray, "Let Abby take a look at you."
Reluctantly, Ray left Neela in the lounge and went to find Abby. "Abby, do you have a few minutes? I've been nauseous and dizzy two mornings in a row, with vomiting. I… uhm…" Ray hesitated.
"You need blood drawn," Abby remembered his issue with needles, "okay." She knew he didn't want everyone else to know. "Curtain 3's open. Have a seat, I'll be right back."
Ray went to sit down, pulling the curtain around him. Abby pulled it open when she arrived, and he yanked it shut. She started toward him and he wriggled.
"Stop it, Ray!" Abby exclaimed in a whisper, "I just need one little tube, and it's the tiniest butterfly needle ever." Ray had been fidgeting, he really hated needles. Thank goodness only Abby would know as long as they were quiet.
Looking like a scolded child, he sat still, squeezed his eyes shut and tried to relax his arm.
"Done!" Abby said, "the results should be back in an hour. Go find Neela, and I'll page you when the lab comes back."
Ray found Neela still in the lounge. She'd fallen asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he sat down and rested. He felt fine now. What could it be? Two mornings in a row? He leaned back, and before he knew it, Abby was shaking him gently.
"Ray," Abby said, "there's nothing wrong with you."
"What?"
"The labs are normal, everything's fine." She gave him a look, and at Neela sleeping, and remembered noticing a bit of extra glee they'd been demonstrating recently. She began thinking about an interesting possibility…
Ray looked confused, and just sat.
Abby pretended to ask off-handedly, "So… when's the baby due?"
"What? Neela told you? We agreed to wait until the first trimester passed…" Ray was shocked.
"Ah-ha! No, Neela didn't tell me," Abby laughed, "I just had an inkling of why a healthy man would be vomiting two mornings in a row and otherwise be completely fine."
Ray was still confused and just looked at Abby with a face that screamed, 'I don't get it, help!'
"You're having morning sickness," Abby said, trying not to look amused.
"What? I'm not pregnant, Neela is. Why would I…" finally, it dawned on him – the sympathetic husband syndrome.
"It's a sign of your emotions, how closely tied you are to Neela."
"But she's only having a little nausea, no vomiting at all." Abby held back a smirk and a giggle. She knew it wasn't easy for Ray to show vulnerability to outsiders. At least she was on the borderline. She knew Neela and Ray trusted her completely.
"And now you're having it for her." Oh, no… Am I in this for the whole pregnancy?
Abby noticed him turning white and said, "it's probably just for another month, sweetie," trying to be reassuring. "Just try to eat well and get lots of rest."
Debating for a moment, she decided and whispered, "Luka was fine by the end of the first trimester." Ray eyes opened wide. Really? "Shhh… it's our secret, okay? I won't tell anyone. If anyone finds out it won't be from me." She thought to herself, they'll be able to tell if he gets pale and Neela gets bigger, and smiled.
000