About two o'clock the next morning, Neela was asleep in her bed when she was woken up by the front door to her apartment closing. She got up and walked into the living room and smiled when she saw Ray had sat his bag down on the chair that it had been in before and was taking his coat off.
"Was the traffic too bad being that it's Christmas Eve?"
"It was okay until I got closer to Chicago and then it took me two hours to get through all of the holiday crowd," he said, walking over and taking her into his arms. She buried her face into his chest, happy to be with him again. The past two months away from him had been torture.
"What did your mom say when you told her about the baby?"
"I had to pull the phone away from my ear because she started to cry at the fact she was finally going to be a grandmother. She had feared that it would never happen. Have you told your parents yet?"
" I called to tell them Merry Christmas and told my mother. She got real silent for about thirty seconds before she asked me who the father was. When I told her it was yours, she was happy. She still remembers you from when we were roommates and said that this baby was going to be a beautiful child, especially if he or she had your eyes."
"Well your mother has always liked me, it's your dad's reaction I'm worried about."
"Mum said she would handle him. We didn't get into how you felt about the baby when we talked on the phone. Are you happy about the baby?"
Ray leaned down and softly kissed her before he caressed her face softly, smiling lovingly at her.
"I'm happy about it, Neela. If there wasn't a chance here in the next few months that I won't be transfering my residency to Johns Hopkins so I can continue my work with soldiers and veterans, I would ask you to come to Baton Rouge and have the baby there."
"I know. How about I stay here for the rest of my pregnancy so that will give you roughly seven months to transfer your residency and find us a place in Baltimore. I haven't been to a doctor yet to verify it yet but I can assume I will be due in July. So the weather will be warm and it will easier to move. I am going to ask Simon to help with doctors appointments on days when I can't take the El and when I get too far along. I'm going to call Elena's office the day after tomorrow to see if I can get an appointment the week you are going to be here, so you can go to the first one with me."
"Neela, I don't know if I like the fact that Brenner knows about the baby. He still wants you, Neela."
"I think he now realizes that with the baby coming, any chance he might have thought he had with me is over. Besides I told him if he said a word about my pregnancy to anybody, I would let Dr. Banfield kick his ass."
"From what you told she did to that mugger, she could most and likely do it too."
"So Dr. Banfield, Dr. Wade, Brenner and Dubenko are the only ones who know about the baby?"
"Yes and until I know for sure that everything is going to be okay, I don't want any gossip spread around the hospital. That is why I'm going to Elena at Mercy."
"I agree. Do you have to work tomorrow?"
"No."
"How about we go and get some sleep and talk some more about this tomorrow."
"Okay."
They shared a kiss and went back into her room to get some sleep. As they held each other, she felt his hand move over her stomach and felt happiness overtake her. For the first time in a long time, she thought everything was going to be okay.
The next day, Neela and Ray were in Ike's, one of the few places that was open on Christmas Day, talking and laughing with Tony and Sam. The four of them were interrupted by a beautiful woman in her mid thirties with long dark hair, fair skin,exotic features, a slender frame and about five foot six inches tall. Neela smiled when she saw her and got up from the booth they were in to embrace her.
"How are you doing, Elena?"
"I'm great. I came over here because Lucien Dubenko called and said you wanted to make an appointment with me. He said that you passed out in one of the trauma rooms and that you had found out you were pregnant. He wanted to make sure you could get an appointment with me this week."
Neela saw the looks of shock come over Sam and Tony's face and she knew that she and Ray were going to have to make the two of them promise to keep her pregnancy secret.
"Yes, I am Elena. I am thinking my due date is in July but I wanted to make an appointment to verify that and to make sure the baby is okay."
"Are you sure of when the baby was conceieved?"
"Yes, Halloween."
"I will have my assistant call you tomorrow and get you in that very day. So which one of these two handsome gentlemen is the father?" she asked mischieviously, looking at Tony and Ray.
Ray stood up and joined them, wrapping his arm around Neela's shoulder. She leaned into him and smiled at Elena, who was smiling wistfully at them.
"This is Dr. Ray Barnett, he is doing a residency in PMNR in Baton Rouge. He is here for the week until he goes home after New Year's."
Elena and Ray shook hands and all three of them joined Sam and Tony at the table. He looked at Neela with surprised and hurt look on his face.
"Why were going to keep the fact you were having a baby a secret, mayday?"
"I'm sorry, Tony but I was afraid that if I told too many people, it would be all over the hospital and I don't want my baby to be the subject of rumor mill at County."
"We understand, Neela," Sam said, smiling at her. "Congratulations to the both of you. Are you moving to Baton Rouge?"
"No. Ray might be transfered to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore so he can continue his work with injured soldiers and veterans so I am going to stay here and have the baby, so that will give him time to find a place for us there. It will also make it easier to move when the weather gets warmer as well."
"We won't say anything, mayday."
"Thank you, Tony."
Neela turned to Ray, who was watching Elena, who had a fierce look of anger that all of a sudden come across her face. The woman was looking towards the door to the bar where Simon had walked in and had stopped short when he saw her sitting with Neela, Ray, Sam and Tony. Something told her that things were about to get very interesting between her new doctor and Simon Brenner.
"Neela, something tells me your new doctor and Brenner know each other," Ray whispered in her ear, continuing to watch Elena and Simon stare at each other.
"I agree and we are about to find out just how well they know each other," she said as Elena got up and walked over to where Simon was standing . Both Neela and Ray cringed when the other woman slapped Brenner hard across the face.
AN: How do Simon and Elena know each other and why did she slap him? What did Brenner do to her to cause such a strong reaction from Elena? Let's just say Brenner's former bad boy ways are about to catch up to him big time. How will it affect him helping Neela out during her pregnancy?
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