AN: here's chapter four! I'm not sure if its going too slowly or not, I'm trying to build the foundation at the moment, but might move the action quicker so let me know what you think. Thanks!

Chapter 4:

Ray was nearing the end of his shift and was standing at the admin desk wondering whether he should take another case. He was only on for another twenty minutes and all of the charts looked liked they would take longer. I could always leave now. Ray thought to himself. It is only twenty minutes after all and I've already signed off most of my patients. He had pretty much convinced himself when a little voice in the back of his mind spoke and told him that he shouldn't shirk his responsibilities. But it's the end of my shift! He argued back with the voice. The voice told him that it wasn't for another twenty minutes. Fine. I'll stay. Are you happy now? Yes, the voice said. Annoyingly Ray noted that it sounded rather like Neela. She's even getting into my brain. Her constant lectures to him about taking responsibility were apparently starting to sink in. But the truth was, he didn't mind really. She was making him a better person for it. He wasn't going to tell her that of course though. She would probably take to nagging him about everything if she saw that it was actually working. Not that she doesn't do that anyway, he thought smiling and picked up another chart.

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Once Ray had finished with his patient he was already half an hour over the end of his shift but he felt that he had done the right thing. He was happy knowing that Neela would have been proud of him.

Speaking of Neela I had better get that milk for her otherwise she certainly wont be happy when I get home.

Ray walked to the jumbo mart and found the milk aisle. He picked up a few other things that they were running low on and also picked up some chocolate covered marshmallows. Neela was crazy about them and knew she would appreciate them.

Ray entered the apartment half an hour later to find Neela in the kitchen standing over a saucepan on the oven. "What are you doing?", he asked surprised. She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Brewing a love potion", she replied.

When he didn't respond to this, she turned around properly. "I'm cooking, what does it look like?"

"Well you never cook so the love potion thing was pretty believable", Ray said teasingly.

"Ha ha. Although it has been said in the words of The Police, 'every little thing I do is magic'", she joked.

Ray eyed the saucepan. He supposed it looked okay and it actually smelled pretty good. "Are you sure I wont get poisoned?"

Neela glared at him. "Well that was my plan, but you might get lucky".

"I got some more milk", Ray said trying to redeem himself.

"Good", Neela said sulkily.

"And some chocolate covered marshmallows…"

"Ooo!", Neela said looking delighted, forgetting her anger, "thanks Ray!"

"No problem Roomie", he said grinning sexily making Neela's heart skip a beat. Whoa that was weird. Maybe he wasn't kidding about the whole Barnett sex appeal thing. I suppose he is quite sexy, Neela thought grudgingly. All of a sudden she felt uncomfortable with him looking at her.

She turned around back to the stove and cleared her throat. "Anyway I can eat them tonight while watching Passion Valley", she said happily.

Ray groaned. "Oh no. You're not going to make us watch that crap again are you? We have to watch it every week".

"Yes. Yes I am indeed". Neela said, "And I know you like it really".

Ray had a shower while Neela finished making dinner and then they sat down to eat. Ray was not poisoned and found that it was actually very good which he told her. After they finished dinner Neela sat down on the sofa to watch Passion Valley. Ray joined her and quite enjoyed it. I guess its not that bad after all. A bit trashy though but hey. Neela got very involved in the drama and actually gasped out loud several times when shocking revelations were made. This was very amusing to Ray and once after she let out a small shriek Ray actually laughed so hard that he almost cried.

"Well I'm glad to see your in a better mood then this morning", She said throwing him a dirty look but she wasn't really angry.

"Yeah I am". Ray said, "Nick told me that Melissa was a friend of his new girlfriend and so I'll probably see her around a lot. I'm going to give it another go with her. Thanks for making me feel better".

Neela smiled, "No problem Roomie", she leaned over and gave him a quick hug which surprised Ray but he was really quite pleased about it.