A/N: Wow, it's been like a month. Sorry about that. I wish I had something more to give everyone, but sadly, this is all I got. This scene takes place after Season 11's "You Are Here." I'm not sure if that messes with the timeline of my story, but we're going to throw it in here anyway.

Neela's evening was finally looking up. After spending another hard shift at the hospital, she had come home, broke out the alcohol, and sat in front of the TV. Of course, that was after she had taken a shower and thought about burning the clothes she had worn during her hospital shift. The day had been that bad.

She wished she was still in Baton Rogue, enjoying the sunshine. Looking out the window of her apartment, she only saw rain. It had been raining for the last three days straight. That did nothing to improve her mood.

The sound of the apartment door opening and closing drew her back to the present. Ray was coming inside, taking his jacket off, and throwing it in the usual place on the back of the couch.

"You're home already? I thought you had a gig," Neela said, craning her neck to look back at him.

"Yeah, um…" Ray cleared his throat. "I missed it. Stayed at the hospital with a patient." He sat his guitar up against the back of the couch and came around the front to sit down.

"What happened? Is everything alright?" Neela asked in concern. She lowered the volume on the TV and waited for him to speak. He was rubbing his hands rather roughly over his face.

"Got a headache," he offered with a weak smile. He looked as stressed as she felt right now. Maybe she wasn't the only one having bad days since they had returned to County General.

"Come here, then," Neela responded, putting a pillow on her lap, and tugging him down until his head was resting on it.

Ray sighed softly as he let her sooth the headache pounding angrily through his skull. "Do you remember the patient I was dealing with today? Eugene?" he asked. She made a noise of agreement. "I found him outside the hospital when I was leaving. Told him I'd pay for his taxi to go home. He refused, so I started talking to him. I found out he doesn't want to go home because his mom's boyfriend raped him."

There was a heavy silence. "Oh, god, Ray, that's horrible," Neela murmured.

"I know," he whispered back. "And here I've been yelling at the kid to go home."

"You didn't know."

"I had to make things a little better," he continued. "So, I took him back to the hospital and stayed with him until his mom came."

"You made the right choice in the end," Neela praised, and they both lapsed into silence. Neela was watching the almost muted television while comforting Ray. She took the blanket from the back of the couch and spread it over him, succeeding in jolting him awake.

"Ugh, sorry, Neela, must have drifted off," he apologized, starting to get up.

"It's okay. Stay," Neela replied, pulling him back down. "My show's on for another twenty minutes."

He didn't resist. "I can't stop thinking about that kid," he groaned. "I can't believe I kept shutting him away when something that horrible had happened to him."

"It's really eating at you, huh?" She almost smiled a little. A while ago, Ray wouldn't have cared the slightest if he made a mistake like that. He had come a long way since when she had first met him. "Would it make you feel better if I said you did what you could after you knew? You got through to the kid where other doctors couldn't. No one else found out what had happened to him."

"A little…" he answered.

"Ray," she said gently, reaching for the remote as her show came back from a commercial break. "Get some sleep tonight. You're as exhausted as I am."

"Bad day for you too?" he asked.

"Seems they are contagious."

"Yeah, and my band's gonna kill me too," he muttered half to himself.

"Screw them," Neela replied before focusing her attention on the TV.

TBC. Maybe I will have a real chapter up for you soon.