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 8

Ray and Neela had been home together with Ana for just two weeks. Ray had paternity leave until after the holidays, and special permission to take shorter shifts for up to a month afterwards, so Neela wouldn't be alone as much. It was a temporary pay cut, but they'd planned for this, and worked it out. Neela had partial salary during her leave and their medical benefits with the hospital were excellent, so they would be alright.

Ana had such a mild temperament that they had it easy. She cried only when she needed something, and she never lacked for love and attention. When her parents were otherwise occupied, she busied herself with looking at the white blobs on her ceiling and the dangling plush animals or listening to soft music. Ray had recorded a number of soft tunes he had played on the guitar for her to listen to, nothing like the energetic music he loved dearly. He also sang to her constantly.

Neela was amazed at how good Ray was with Ana – and yet she had never doubted that he would be an amazing father. Not only that, but he took care of her at the same time, not letting her overdo anything, instructing her firmly to rest so that she could recover. Between the two of them, they had fewer struggles than anyone would have thought in those first two weeks.

Neela was very tired, and so was Ray, but they stayed up for a while after they had laid Ana down to enjoy their Christmas eve. Ray turned the fireplace on and grabbed several pillows to set up against the couch and a comforter. Neela poured mugs of the cider they had been keeping warm. As she set them down, Ray turned the stereo on low. Soft instrumental music began playing. They sat down on the thick, soft rug in front of the tree, wrapping the comforter around them and leaning against the pillows. Warm and comfortable with each other as always, they looked around their home. Gifts, colorful and beautifully wrapped, sat under the tall evergeen they had picked out together. Their eyes traveled up to the softly lit branches to the beautiful star reflecting the streetlights streaming in from the window. The warm, spicy smell of cider and the greenness of the tree filled their noses, and they turned to each other to wrap their arms fully around each other. Gentle cuddling turned into tender kisses, and Ray pulled back as words of the soft music caught his ear.

"Ray?"

"This song…" They gazed deeply into each other's eyes, and then leaned in gently until their foreheads were touching, and nuzzled noses as Ray sang along softly. Neela rested her head on Ray's shoulder and closed her eyes to focus on listening to him, to the voice that stirred her heart, that could always get her attention, and melt her.

000

"The Gift" Jim Brickman

Winter snow is falling down

Children laughing all around

Lights are turning on

Like a fairy tale come true

Sitting by the fire we made

You're the answer when I prayed

I would find someone

And baby I found you

All I want is to hold you forever

All I need is you more every day

You saved my heart

From being broken apart

You gave your love away

And I'm thankful every day

For the gift

Watching as you softly sleep

What I'd give if I could keep

Just this moment

If only time stood still

But the colors fade away

And the years will make us grey

But baby in my eyes

You'll still be beautiful

All I want is to hold you forever

All I need is you more every day

You saved my heart

from being broken apart

You gave your love away

I can't find the words to say

That I'm thankful every day

For the gift

000

Neela had become cozily drowsy from Ray singing her and was jolted a bit when before the song ended, he began kissing her again, and then with one soft kiss, stopped. He waited until she'd opened her eyes to look at him. The intensity in his eyes told her he wanted to say something, and he did.

"Neela." He paused as he pulled her in for a long, deep kiss, lingering before he stopped again. "Thank you."

"For what, Ray?" She must have been dozing, he thought, she has no idea what I've been singing, what I've been working up to saying.

"For the Christmas gifts you've given me." Neela looked confused.

"What do you mean, it's not actually Christmas yet, I haven't even put all your gifts under the tree… unless you sneaked and found something… oh…" Neela became distracted, 'did he find the…' and then realized, 'oh, maybe I'm missing something, something in what he was singing…'

Before she could finish her thought, Ray silenced her with another kiss. "Thank you, for the gift of your love, and the gift of our daughter." Neela smiled. Ray was always reminding her how lucky she was to have him when he shared like this. She knew how deeply in love he was with her, and she was as deeply in love with him.

"I love you, Neela," he paused at her name and continued, "more than you'll ever know."

"I love you, too, Ray. I love you so much." This time Neela pulled him in for a kiss. "Thank you for loving me and looking after our family. You're such a great dad to Ana."

"She's a lucky girl, to have you for a mommy," Ray smiled.

"And I'm lucky to have you as my husband to share life with," Neela looked at him lovingly.

Ray almost blushed, and quickly leaned in to kiss Neela again, to hide his face and express his love with his soft mouth. Her words meant so much to him.

Pulling her in tight, he gradually realized it could be Christmas already, and checked the clock to see. It's already past 1am? No way! They had tended to be a little confused about the hour of the day recently, with Ana up every few hours.

"Neela, babe, it's past 1am..."

"What?!" Neela was astonished at first, then laughed. "Well, we do lack for any reasonable schedule these days…"

Suddenly they heard a cry. They smiled at each other warmly, and Ray helped Neela up. "Well, let's go wish Ana a Merry Christmas," Ray said softly. They padded to Ana's room and she stopped crying the moment she heard them. Ray scooped her up and kissed her forehead, saying "Merry Christmas, Ana," before handing her to Neela. Cooing, Ana felt the warmth and comfort of her mother's arms and her father's voice.

Neela echoed, "Merry Christmas, Ana," then turned to kiss Ray, cudding Ana between them. Ray smiled warmly. "Merry Christmas, Ray."

"Merry Christmas, baby."

000