Disclaimer: I dont own any of the characters except the ones I created. I don't mean any offense by any racist language in here. Its all fiction.
Intro: This is set three years into the future. Ray has his legs. Ray and Neela are married. Um...Moretti doesn't exist, its mostly the cast from season 13.
Neela sighed resignedly as she was handed yet another chart: abdominal pains. Pratt claimed this was the last one and then she could finally go for a break – she'd been on for the last thirty six hours, it was ridiculous, they were interns' hours not a resident who was over thirty.
"Please Neela," he'd practically begged and she, much to her shame, had caved.
"All right, but then I need some food. What time is it by the way?"
"Er…" Greg glanced at his watch, "Six-thirty. Thanks, Neela, you're a life saver." He offered her one of his huge, winning grins and hurried off.
"Don't mention it," she muttered to herself before heading to Exam 3 where her patient was waiting.
She looked through the glass pane in the door on her way in and saw a youngish man, maybe in his late twenties, early thirties sitting alone on a hospital bed. There were no nurses in the room but that didn't surprise her considering there were patients overflowing into the hallways. This guy was lucky to get a room.
Pushing open the door, Neela walked briskly into the room, immediately going into doctor mode, her mind whirring with the possibilities of what abdominal pain could mean.
"Get out!" came a loud screech and the small woman jumped, severely startled. She looked up to see the man and she was suddenly struck with fear at the way he was glaring at her as if she were the worst thing imaginable.
"Excuse me, sir," Neela managed to get a few words out of her mouth despite her shock.
"Didn't you hear me the first time you filthy bitch? Get out! I don't want your kind anywhere near me. I already told that nurse."
"My kind?" the resident frowned, confused and a little angry at the way the man was being so rude and abrasive.
"Yeah, you brown lot. I see you on the street and I wanna kill you all. You're a stain on the planet and you should be destroyed. You are scum; you should have all been drowned at birth."
Neela understood the man's attitude now and it filled her with cold hatred. He shouldn't be allowed to speak to anyone that way. He had no right to accuse her of being filthy because of her skin colour. That had died out years ago and she hadn't met anyone ever quite so blunt and outward about their views. The man was a racist.
"Sir, I'm only here to help," she began again but he just yelled at her, his eyes swirling with loathing and contempt. The young woman got slightly worried as he climbed out of bed and began advancing on her, "Sir, would you sit back down, please."
Ray was rifling through the chart rack, trying to find one that didn't involve the spewing of bodily fluids from either end of the body all over him. He had already had one kid go through his first change of clothes after throwing up on him and then another woman had thrown a cup of coffee at him. The reason for that he couldn't quite remember. Now Ray had no spare clothes left in his locker and several angry scalds on his arms.
It was about then, as he was wavering between a swollen testicle and an inflamed eye, when he heard shouting from a nearby exam room. He turned round, alerted by the angry edge to the voice and saw Neela through the glass window in the door. She looked frightened.
Immediately the young doctor darted forward and tugged open the door. He was met with an anxious looking Neela and a patient that was advancing on her.
"Hey, man, what are you doing?" he queried, taking hold of the Indian woman's arm gently, offering support.
"Get that bitch away from me! I don't want her touching me. I want a white doctor!" the man shrieked.
Ray frowned at that last statement. A white doctor? He linked the pieces together and came to the conclusion that this guy was a racist. It was obvious to him that Neela had never encountered such an unsavoury, hostile character and he wanted to comfort her. She was, after all, his wife. To do so, Ray brought his arm around her in a half embrace and whispered softly in her ear.
"You okay, honey? He didn't hurt you did he?" Neela shook her head and glanced for a second at Ray, the man she loved most in the world, before returning her gaze to the man on the bed.
"Ergh! That's disgusting. How can you touch her? How can you get that close?" the patient spat, an expression of repulsion on his face. He caught the look that passed between the two doctors and something clicked in his brain. "Oh my God! You're together. That's sick, man, so sick! It makes me wanna hurl just thinking about it. Don't blemish yourself with scum like her."
"Dude, calm it or I'll have to get security," Ray growled, stepping forward, ready to protect Neela.
"Ray, leave it," Neela held him back however, there was nothing good that could come of Ray beating a patient up on her behalf, "We'll get someone else."
"Yeah, you do that, I don't want either of you two near me. You're contaminated."
"Sure, sir," Ray grimaced and left the room with Neela just in front of him.
"I'll get Morris and maybe a psyche consult," the British woman said, moving off to find the attending.
"Okay, you sure you're all right though?" the man asked, placing a hand in the small of her back.
"Ah-huh," Neela nodded and headed off. She really needed that break.
"Hey, Ray, there is somebody small, loud and annoying here to see you," Frank's voice rang out across admit and Ray looked up to see a flustered looking woman with a little girl in her arms.
"Angie," he stated, hurrying over to greet the nanny of his child, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry, Ray, I have to go. Neela was supposed to come back hours ago but she must've got held up and I need to catch my flight to Seattle. I've fed her and she has all her night stuff here but I really gotta go."
"Thanks Angie, it's okay, you've been working way to much overtime for us anyway. You're practically part of the family. Here, give her to me," Ray reached out and took the small child into his arms.
"Daddy!" she yelped, grabbing him round the neck and hugging him tightly.
"Hey, kiddo." Ray grinned at his daughter as she stared up at him with huge, chocolate brown eyes. They were exact replicas of her mother's.
"Missed you," the girl declared and cuddled him closer.
"Me too," Ray said before taking the bag of things from Angie and bidding her goodbye. He was left standing in admit with his three year old daughter, no Neela and he still had another four hours on shift.
Just at that moment, Sam appeared at the nurses' station looking anxious, they'd just had another influx of patients and she was down two nurses due to a virus.
"Hi, Sam, would you mind getting Molly up to day-care and seeing if it's still open? Thanks." Ray pushed the child towards the nurse and hurried off.
"Hey, Ray, I'm a little busy here! Damn it!" Sam sighed and looked at Molly who was perched on the edge of the desk. The kid was looking slightly puzzled as to why her father had vanished so quickly. A few tears were welling in her eyes and Sam groaned, begging the child not to start crying.
"Sam! I have three traumas coming in. I need you," Luka's voice called from where he was wheeling a patient through the double doors.
The nurse looked around for someone who could mind Molly but only found Frank. He would have to do.
"Frank, look after Molly, will you? Get an orderly to take her up to day-care."
"I don't want the munchkin!" Frank shouted after the nurse's retreating back but she ignored him.
The man who had given Neela so much grief was called Henry Butcher and he was watching the exchange between all the staff closely. There were so many coloured people in this hospital it made him sick. His father had always taught him that they were below society and should be treated no better than rats.
When the two doctors had left he'd studied admit for awhile and seen a small girl being brought in. She was brown skinned like that British doctor but had the face shape of the male doctor and he guessed that she was the kid of the two of them. In his eyes that was wrong. She was an abomination and should have been killed as soon as she was out of the womb. White and black people shouldn't breed it was disgusting. They needed to be taught a lesson. Henry decided he would be the one to teach them that lesson.
"'scuse me, I was sent down here to pick up a kid," a voice said and Frank barely looked up from his computer screen, he was too busy looking up some guy he'd spotted that looked like a well known criminal.
"Oh, that was quick, yeah, she's right there," the old man pointed to Molly who was currently sucking her thumb and clutching a soft frog that he'd pulled from her bag for her, "Don't forget her bag."
"I won't. Come here, little one," the young man reached towards the child and she looked at him suspiciously. He looked nice enough and his words were soothing but there was a strange edge to his voice. But she couldn't do anything to complain as he lifted her up and grabbed the bag before walking out of the hospital.
Everyone was too busy to notice the small child that belonged to their friends in the arms of a stranger who was heading out of the hospital. All they were focussing on were their patients.
Henry allowed himself a small smile as he strode out into the cool air of the ambulance bay. That had been too easy. See, he knew no one cared about coloured babies. As he passed a bin he dropped the kid's bag in a bin - he wasn't planning on caring for her after all – and vanished into the night.
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