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part ii - are you still in love with her?
“Ray, just the doctor I wanted to see!” Abby said cheerfully. “I wanna talk to you!”
“Uh, sure. Is everything okay?” Ray juggled the charts he was holding and frowned. “Or do you need me to go and see a patient?”
Abby smiled at him. “No, I don’t need you to come and see a patient and everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Well, you want to talk,” Ray pointed out as he put the files down and stacked them neatly. He leaned against the reception desk and looked at her expectantly.
“We talk all the time!” Abby insisted.
“Yeah but you never come to me and say we need to talk,” Ray replied, his frown deepened. “Is everything okay with Joe?”
“Everything’s fine with Joe,” Abby promised.
Ray smirked. “Are you and Luka finally going to get married then?”
“It definitely isn’t that ,” Abby answered, mirroring Ray and leaning against the reception desk. “When and if Luka and I decide to get married, I’ll make sure you’re one of the first people to find out.”
Abby watched as Ray’s hazel-green eyes clouded as he mentally went through a list of all the things she could possibly want to talk to him about and suddenly he was frowning again as something clicked into place.
“Is Neela okay?” he finally asked.
“She’s fine,” Abby hurried to assure him when she saw the growing look of concern on his face. “I mean, I want to talk to you about Neela but she’s fine . It’s about something else.”
Ray’s shoulders sagged in relief.
“Sorry for worrying you,” Abby said, patting him awkwardly on the arm.
He shrugged and fiddled with the files again. “So Neela… what did you want to talk to me about her?”
Abby looked around to make sure Frank, Morris, or Hope weren’t around. The last thing she wanted was one of them blabbing about what she was about to say. It would be around the whole hospital by the end of the day if she wasn’t careful. When she saw Frank rounding the corner, she grabbed Ray by the arm and dragged him to the entrance.
“Why don’t we take a break? Do you want to go and grab something to eat?” Abby asked.
“Uh… sure,” Ray agreed, allowing her to steer him out the door even though he could have easily stopped her from doing it.
She brought him to a secluded deli that she knew wouldn’t have any of their co-workers around because it was out of the way of the hospital and even though she knew Ray was dying to know why she wanted to talk about Neela, she made small talk until they were seated at a table with tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
“Well?” Ray asked impatiently as he opened a package of Goldfish and poured them into his soup. “What’s going on with Neela?”
Abby considered stringing him along for a little longer but decided to take pity on him and put him out of his misery because it wasn’t worth tying him all up in knots because she wanted him to try and ‘steal’ her from Gates. She opened her Diet Coke and took a sip to give herself a second to think about how to broach the subject because she hadn’t put much thought into what she would say even though she’d been planning on talking to him (or Neela) for ages even if Luka hadn’t agreed to tag team it with her.
“I’m worried about Neela,” she finally said. “Aren’t you?”
Abby didn’t expect Ray to look so stricken by her question, but he did. He busied himself tearing the crusts off his sandwich and avoiding eye contact.
“Of course, I’m worried about her but I don’t know what to do about it. I mean, I know what I want to do about it but she’s not exactly giving me signals that she wants me around right now. Every time I get a chance to talk to her, it seems like she’s always going off with him .”
“Yeah, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about,” Abby said, dragging her spoon through her soup before eating some. “I want you to do something about it.”
Ray frowned. “What are you talking about Lockhart? You want me to do something about it?”
“Get her alone, tell her how you feel about her, kiss her… let her see that there’s another option besides Gates,” Abby ticked off her fingers. “You know do something about it.”
“I don’t think she’d be too open to that .”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be too sure about that Ray because please, I’ve seen the way she looks at you when she knows you’re not looking. But that’s not what I’m talking about, you should talk to each other first, lay all your cards on the table, and let her know that you’re a real contender for her heart,” she said even though she knew that Gates wasn’t in the running for it, and she was pretty sure that Ray probably already had it even if Neela hadn’t said anything to confirm that theory yet.
Abby bit into her grilled cheese and wondered if Luka would find out if she asked Neela about it while Ray pushed the Goldfish up and down in his soup with the belly of his spoon.
“You should eat something instead of playing with your food,” Abby told him even though she could tell by the look on his face that he probably felt too sick to eat. “Wow, you have got it bad. Don’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ray replied taking a shaky bite of demolished grilled cheese.
“You should order another one,” Abby said helpfully. “That looks almost inedible.”
Ray dropped it and sat back. “Are you just in the mood to mother me today? Ray, tell Neela how you feel. Ray, don’t play with your food. Ray, you should order a new grilled cheese .”
“Clearly, the both of you could use a little mothering because look at you,” she said, grinning at him. “You’re shaking like a leaf and Neela’s with the wrong person.”
“I am not shaking like a leaf!” Ray protested, giving her a look. “Also, Neela told me that it took you and Kovač a while to get together—”
“Oh, she did… did she?”
“Do you really think you’re qualified to give me romantic advice?” he asked.
Abby gave him a withering look, the one that she usually reserved for people she wanted to shut up and he deflated instantly.
“Deflection will get you nowhere Barnett,” Abby said. “You do love her, don’t you? I’m not making wild assumptions here, am I? Because right now I feel like I’m wasting my breath.”
“Yes,” Ray answered immediately.
“Yes, what ?” Abby asked, taking another sip of soda and raising her eyebrows at him over the bottle.
“Yes, I love her!” Ray replied. “I don’t know how anyone could not love her. She’s so beautiful and so passionate about what she does. For some reason, she saw the best in me and she chose me to be friends with, she chose me to encourage me to be better, and yeah, a lot of the time the encouragement was basically her yelling at me to do better… but I always wanted to do better because of her. I mean you know how perfect she is—”
“Neela’s great ,” Abby agreed, feeling self-satisfied. “But Ray, you need to tell her how you feel and don’t give me the old I’m just giving her space line. You could give someone space forever if you don’t take matters into your own hands and don’t even say that you’ve tried because I’ve seen you trying lately, and it’s pretty pathetic.”
“Thanks,” Ray grumbled.
“Listen, I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought Neela was happy.”
“And you think I could make her happy?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Are you listening to a word I’m saying here? Yes, I think you could make her happy! She was always pretty happy with you if I recall correctly.”
“Until she wasn’t,” Ray said.
“I don’t think her not being happy was the problem,” Abby answered. “I mean she never gave me an explanation for why she moved out in the first place but I’m assuming it wasn’t because she was un happy.”
Ray sighed. “I don’t know how to talk to her without it turning into an argument these days and it’s not like I walk into every discussion with her looking to fight either.”
“Fighting could be construed as a good thing in some cases,” Abby said. “Some people would say that it means there’s something worth there that’s worth saving, or whatever the age-old adage is.”
“I don’t want to fight with her though. I just want to bring her home and take care of her, and for life to resume as normal except maybe it could be…” Ray trailed off, getting a far-off look in his eyes.
“More this time?” Abby asked as she busied herself eating some more of her lunch.
“Maybe it could be more this time,” Ray agreed, attempting to eat more of his own food before stopping again and shoving the tray away. “But I also just want to be there for her, that’s all I’ve wanted this whole time and I haven’t understood why she’s pushed me away. I don’t understand why she chose Gates over me.”
“Trust me, I know what it’s like to be interested in someone who can be more than a little closed-off,” Abby mumbled, thinking about the early days when she’d first started to like Luka. “Unless Neela already told you all about that too.”
Ray shook his head slowly. “No. Not really, she just told me that you had history and that it took the two of you a while to get to the point where you are now.”
Abby had a vision of them eating kid cereal and gossiping over breakfast before work, or after work, or something in between and she felt bad for what the two of them had probably lost when they had unwittingly caught feelings for each other, and Neela had moved out… and now. Now .
They were both walking around looking like they had lost their best friend, which they probably had and it was why she had come up with this whole plan to get them together in the first place.
Well, that was part of the reason anyway. She still wanted Neela to get away from Gates first and foremost.
She cleared her throat and straightened up, her resolve to see them together strengthened even though it hadn’t ever faltered to begin with.
“Listen, sweetie, you really should talk to Neela. You can tell her what you told me.” She eyed him thoughtfully. “Well maybe you could ramble less, it probably won’t compute unless it’s short and to the point.”
“And… if she doesn’t want to hear it?”
“Then you tell her to come and find you when she’s ready to hear it,” Abby replied like it was the simplest thing ever. “It can’t be any worse than what the two of you are doing now, which is a whole lot of nothing. And don’t say you’re waiting for her to be ready either because you can go your whole life waiting, and nothing will ever happen. She obviously isn’t going to budge first, so man up and talk to her!”
“Okay, okay!” Ray said, putting his hands up in surrender. “You know, you’re kind of pushy Lockhart. Were you planning on keeping me here until I agreed to your demands or would you let me go at some point?”
Abby shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean you technically have a shift you have to finish but I also have pull with the boss, and I’m sure he’d understand if I kept you here until you agreed to my—”
“Demands?” Ray said helpfully.
“I was going to say very reasonable request,” she answered, grinning. “But you’re going to do it, right? You’ll tell her how you feel?”
“I said okay , didn’t I?” Ray asked in exasperation, looking even more shaky and anxious than when they sat at their table at the start of lunch.
“No takebacks,” Abby pressured.
“No takebacks,” he promised.
“Okay, good!” Abby felt completely satisfied with the turn of events. “Now I’m going to order another grilled cheese for you and you can eat it on the walk back to the hospital. I’ll be right back!”
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Abby got home later that night, feeling very pleased with herself, and she was looking forward to telling Luka what had happened with Ray.
“Luka?” She called. “I’m home!”
“In the kitchen,” Luka replied. “I got Chinese for dinner, I hope you don’t mind!”
“That’s fine!” Abby answered, shedding her coat and going to see him. She smiled when she came into the kitchen and he was dividing a carton of cashew chicken onto two plates. “Hi!”
“Hi!” Luka said cheerfully, as he smiled at her. “How was your day?”
“I had a great day,” Abby said, beaming in return as she washed her hands and then went to help him separate their dinner. “How about you?”
“I had a great day too.” Luka took out a package of eggrolls and put one on each of their plates. “Actually, I had an interesting conversation with Neela.”
“Oh you did, did you?” Abby couldn’t help but feel her curiosity piqued at this tidbit of information. “Uh, what did the two of you talk about?”
“It was a continuation of our conversation from earlier this week. Except she’s the one who did most of the talking this time. She admitted to me that she’s in love with Ray. I told her that it didn’t come as much of a surprise to me and that she needed to tell him how she feels. I think I did a pretty good job of convincing her to do it because when we left each other, she told me that she was going to tell him. I mean, she’s going to have to break up with Gates first but after that.”
“Oh…” Abby trailed off and opened a container of beef and broccoli. “Well, that’s just so nice Luka.”
Luka looked at her almost suspiciously. “What’s going on Abby?”
“Well, I talked to Ray today because I said I was going to give fate a little push, and I got him to agree to talk to Neela,” Abby explained.
“Well, it looks like they’re finally on the same page, huh?” Luka said as more of a statement of fact than a question. “I guess it’s just a matter of who gets to who first but it’s going to be mutual. Not that there ever was any doubt that it would be.”
“Should we place bets to see who says something first?” Abby asked. “My money’s on Ray.”
“I think I’d hedge my bets with Neela,” Luka replied, smirking at her.
“You have to say that because you talked to her,” Abby said as she ripped open a pouch of teriyaki chicken and divided the skewers between her and Luka.
Luka cocked an eyebrow at her. “Well, isn’t that why you’re saying you bet Ray finds Neela first? Because you talked to him first?”
“I might be a little biased,” Abby joked. “But honestly, I’ll be happy that either of them finally says it. I’m still betting on Ray though, just for the sake of the pool.”
“I wonder if we should just get in on the ER pool,” Luka mused. “Providing that they have one.”
“Oh they have one,” Abby assured him as she rooted through the bags for the duck and soy sauce. “Do you think it would be cheating if we jumped in now?”
Luka shrugged. “Maybe we’d have an unfair advantage at best. Maybe we should just keep it between the two of us. What do you get if you win?”
“You and dishwasher duty for a month,” Abby answered automatically. “What about you? What do you want if you win?”
“Oh, I think you know.”
Abby snickered and rolled her eyes. “You’re insatiable, you know that right?”
“Oh, I was talking about having sole control of the remote for a month,” Luka teased. “Maybe I could finally watch something I wanted for once.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.”
“I’m serious,” Luka said, looking at her solemnly.
“Fine. If Neela, uh, gets to Ray first then you can have sole control of the remote,” Abby answered just as solemnly as he had looked at her, even though a smirk was tugging at her lips and threatening to spill all over her face.
Luka rounded the counter and pinched her side playfully. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” Abby said as he drew her in for a kiss. “So, it’s a bet then?” she asked against his mouth.
“It is,” Luka replied. “May the best man win.”
Abby had a fleeting thought that she didn’t care who told who how they felt first as long as it happened and then her mind went completely blank as Luka slid his hands into her hair.
end part ii
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