A/N: Hey, everyone. This is my first Scrubs fic, so I hope it's not too much of an epic fail. LOL, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Scrubs. I just watch it in absolute glee.
His Silent Treatment
"Seriously, Turk! Why would you do that!?"
"I'd thought you'd know it was another game of find Rowdy!"
"You have to announce the game before going ahead with it, Turk. Everybody knows that!"
"Everybody as in…?"
"Forget it! I'm not talking to you until Rowdy is back."
"Aw, JD!"
JD turned sharply on his heel and stormed off towards his next patients' room. It wasn't until he was completely out of sight did Dr. Cox magically appear from behind the nurse's station, clapping sarcastically. "Well done, Gandhi, and I mean really well done. Seriously, how do you get him to not talk to you? No matter how much I rant he insists upon being my best friend, yet here you are, sulking that your number one gal pal is giving you the silent treatment over a missing dead dog. Tell me how do you do it?"
"Tsk, JD's just in a bad mood today. He'll turn around. And, well…I did kind of break the rules to the game."
Dr. Cox stared at him, bemused. "You're serious, aren't you? Dear God, you're actually serious. Two grown men fighting over a ridiculous dog involved in a ridiculous game. Seriously? Seriously, seriously, seriously?"
"Your rants may get to JD, but they don't faze me."
"Gumball, if you consider that one of my rants then you must really have never heard me go off, am I right?"
Turk just stared before turning to go his own way. Dr. Cox was left standing to bask in his first victory of the day before Carla intervened. "Dr. Cox, do you honestly think anyone believes you'd want Bambi to stop talking to you?"
"Aaand, you don't think I'd like that why? God, Carla, you've seen the kid trail after me like the untrained labradoodle he is! Half the time he doesn't even need my help, yet he seeks me out for it anyway. It's annoying!"
"But half the time you don't need him in the patients' room either, but you whistle and there he is."
"Okay, so he's a trained labradoodle. My mistake."
"My point is, he's always there when you call, and whether you admit it or not, you like that. You like his presence."
"Ha! Carla, don't even get me started on what his presence does to me. It just, it just makes me want to crawl out of my own skin!"
"Maybe, but that's probably because you won't admit to how much you like him there."
"Just give me my charts, will you?"
Carla did her half grin as she handed Dr. Cox his first patient of the day. It was precisely at that moment when JD chose to pass them by, most likely to go find Turk and apologize, but – "Newbie!" Dr. Cox let out a sharp whistle. "Come!"
Automatically, JD turned towards him, not even stopping to pause or ask why. It was like instinct now. He heard the whistle, heard his nickname (or whatever girl's name Dr. Cox had planned for him that day) and followed. It was that simple.
As they walked by various patients, JD always two steps behind, the young doctor couldn't help but wonder why his mentor hadn't started telling him what they were dealing with today. It was usually on the way to the patients' room when Dr. Cox would explain the situation in a short, simple manner, usually throwing in a girls name or two, but today he just stormed down the hall. Not like that part was any different, but –
"Listen, Patricia, we're dealing with a bit of a sap today. You know, a pansy. Anyway, he's a perfect match for your kind of bedside manner, so while I check all his vitals, I need you to give him a pep talk, understand?"
There it was. Just a little delayed. "Yeah. Sure thing."
"That's a good Newbie."
Inside the patients' room lay a man about JD's age, looking nervously from Dr. Cox to the young doctor he had never met. Ah, so this is why Dr. Cox wanted him here. I mean, he had told him in the hallway, but seeing the patient made it all the more obvious that Dr. Cox thought him a child. For God's sake, the man was practically shaking, but still, how could you blame him? What he had was manageable, but serious enough to make one worry.
As Dr. Cox looked through the charts and began taking the man's vitals, JD sat himself on the side of the patient's bed. "It's alright Mr. –"
"Mr. Berningham."
"Mr. Berningham. Nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Dorian, and I think you know Dr. Cox."
Dr. Cox nodded without looking, which seemed to make the patient look more uncomfortable.
"Right, well, we're going to take good care of you. Just know that it's perfectly normal to be scared over something like lung cancer, but the good news is that it's very manageable."
"Manageable? How?"
"Well, the part of your lung the tumor attached itself to is easy to operate on, and in since we caught it so soon, it hasn't had time to spread. I personally know the surgeon who will be working on you, and he's fantastic at what he does." JD pulled up on his shirt just enough to show Mr. Berningham his scar. "See? I let him remove my appendix, right before it was about to burst. No problemo."
The man before him swallowed. "Okay…okay, I believe you."
"As you should." JD raised one eyebrow in a cartoon like fashion. "I'm a doctor."
A loud clearing of the throat interrupted his little show. JD flinched. He didn't have to look at Dr. Cox to know he was being given the eye. "Anyway, yeah…you'll be fine, seriously."
"Newbie, let's go."
JD was up and following his mentor once more as they headed back to the nurses' station to pick up another chart.
"You seriously couldn't have done that yourself?"
"Done what?" Dr. Cox asked, rather surprised he was being questioned by the labradoodle.
"I mean, I know your bedside manner isn't the best there is, but you've never let that bother you before."
"Because I'm a fantastic doctor, and that's all that matters."
"Well…yeah. I'm just saying that –"
"What are you getting at, Shelia?"
"I'm just saying that my presence seemed unnecessary."
Dr. Cox stopped mid stride, spinning around to take in the young doctor's expression. JD swallowed. Hard. His mentor looked pissed, or puzzled, or just really pissed. He couldn't tell. "Not that…not that I'm complaining." Oh God, I'm stammering! Again! Stop stammering, JD, stop stammering! "I mean, I'm glad you think I'm good at it. I mean…I'm glad you called me, I just -"
"Listen, Betsy! If you were that busy with your oh-so-many patients, have the backbone to say so! I don't want to hear your complaints when you came trailing along without a moment's hesitation, understand?"
"I'm not complaining, I just –"
"And for God's sake, could you have gotten anymore sentimental back there? I mean really! Is it any wonder why I called you specifically to talk that guy into growing a pair? He's just like you! It's like I'm treating you, sending you off into surgery, and it's annoying enough that I have to see you on a daily basis, but treating you too? Seriously, Newbie, is he your brother? Some secret relative no one's supposed to know about? Maybe Dan isn't related to you at all. Maybe you're sibling is actually that guy in there and –"
"Okay! Okay, I get it! Sorry for asking!"
"Don't cut me off, Shirley!"
"I've done it before!"
"And you should sure as hell be grateful I let those times slide, but I am not in the mood today, not even a little."
"Fine! Then I'll just stop talking to you all together then!"
"Sweet mother of God, really? Really, really, really? Newbie, I just can't tell you enough how happy this makes me feel! Finally a full…maybe two hours of Non-Newbie problems. And I've graciously given you two hours because, let's face it, you probably won't even be able to last that long without completely breaking under the silence, but either way, I'm going to milk this opportunity for as long as I can. God, it's like a vacation!"
JD gave him the best glare he had before storming off. Dr. Cox watched as he angrily snatched the chart away from Carla and made his way towards his next patient.
"What's got into Bambi?"
"Didn't you hear?" Dr. Cox was now rocking on his heels, a child-like smile spreading over his hardened features. "Newbie's giving me the silent treatment! Ha! I've finally got him to stop talking to me!"
Carla just grinned and shook her head. "Are you sure you're okay with that?"
"Carla, do you not see this expression? Seriously, how many times have you seen me this happy?"
"Oh, I can name a couple: Whenever the Detroit Red Wings win a game, whenever someone admits you're a fantastic doctor, whenever a Hugh Jackman movie fails to become a success, whenever Bob Kelso falls on his own ass, whenever - "
"Okay, okay, okay. But seriously, Carla, how can you mistake this expression for anything but pleasure?"
"Because it won't be one of pleasure in a few hours from now. To be honest, I'm not even entirely convinced you're that pleased at this very moment."
"Give me a break, will you? I'm allowed to be happy that the kid's finally leaving me alone for a while."
"Mmhmm… Anyway, here's your next patient."
"Are you kidding me? I'm taking my break early today. Might as well enjoy it in since I know Newbie won't be interrupting me this time around. Maybe I can get through a whole show without him cracking under what I'm sure he thinks is, 'Intense silence.'"
"You know, I think you're dismissing JD's silent treatments too easily."
"And why's that? I've seen his silent treatments before with that boy toy of yours."
Carla glared.
"Okay, Gandhi. He'll randomly say something and then turn to him and exclaim how he's still not talking to him. You know that's just an excuse for him to make some sort of eye contact, right? The kid hates fighting of any kind. He just sucks at it, so he does his own childish maneuvers and fools himself into thinking he's making a statement, when really he's just reverting back to when he was a five year old girl."
"But the very fact that JD hates fighting makes it all the more meaningful when he closes up."
Dr. Cox just shook his head. "Maybe in your little group that's how it works, but for me it's an all expense paid vacation. I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I can."
"Well then have fun. Feel free to come to me if you need someone to talk to. You know, when you're at the very brink of your patience and can't take the fact that your protégé is ignoring you."
"He is not my protégé, the way that I am not his mentor!"
"Okay! Whatever you say…"
Dr. Cox gave one last huff before walking briskly to the lounge. He was used to giving Carla credit, because as far as people in his life went, she knew him pretty well, but she couldn't be more far off on this one. There was no way he'd ever miss that little twerp's chirping. Never ever, ever.
A/N: I have this story pretty much planned out. It'll most likely be three chapters, and the release for a new one won't be long at all.
Anyway, this was my first attempt at a Scrubs fic, so go easy on me. Hope you enjoyed!