My Newbie's New Self
I walked into the reception of the hospital, where Newbie had been working for the past year, almost nervously. I hadn't been planning to visit him as to me that would mean I must have missed him, which I didn't. I was a little concerned about him, sure, especially since Carla had been telling me that they hardly ever spoke to JD anymore. He always said he had to work or something. I'd just reminded her that the first few months in a new hospital are always stressful and busy, but I don't think I reassured her much.
Anyway, the point was that I was only here because Kelso had forced me to come to some stupid medical conference around here, so I thought I may as well drop by and call him a girls name or something for old time's sake. And I was a little curious to see how well he'd do in a hospital without his three girlfriends. I looked around, and since I didn't see him I decided to ask at the nurses' station in front of me. I stepped up and waited for the woman behind the desk to notice me.
"Yes?" She looked up at me from the book she was reading.
"I was just wondering if you could drag yourself away from whatever cheesy romance novel you girls are passing around this week and help me find someone." I informed her with a huge smile on my face.
"If you could just tell me who you're looking for…?" She prompted, somewhat frostily. Oh yeah. This wasn't Sacred Heart. People here wouldn't know not to take half of what I said seriously.
"I'm looking for Joa…er, JD." She looked at me with a confused expression. "He's a doctor here?" I tried again.
"What kind of name is 'Jay Dee'?" She asked incredulously
"Nickname, actually…" I muttered, frowning. I'd never heard anyone apart from the patients call JD anything other than that. I mean, sure, I called him whatever popped into my head when I saw him, Laverne called him Q-tip. Carla called him Bambi, but we all knew that he wished we would call him JD. How could his new hospital not know that?
"Sir, if you could give me an actual name…?" She sounded more than a little irritated.
"John. John Dorian. I'm…" Ok, what was I? I could hardly say that I was his unwilling and uncooperative mentor. "I'm an old friend." That made it sound like we'd gone to college together or something, and that really was a scary thought. I actually had to make an effort to keep from shuddering. "From his old hospital, I mean." Her eyebrows had shot up.
"Dorian has friends?" I frowned at her. She composed herself. "Sorry. He should be down the hall in room 102." I nodded my silent thanks and turned down the corridor she'd pointed at. I was incredibly confused. How could JD not have friends here? He was one of those insanely likeable guys who almost everyone was friends with. Yeah, he annoyed the hell out of me, but I didn't really mind him that much.
I walked down the corridor slowly, but still seemed to get to room 102 in no time at all. I peered through the open door and saw JD standing at the foot of the patient's bed filling out a chart. He was wearing a white coat. It seemed weird for Newbie to be wearing it, but then I remembered that he wasn't a 'Newbie' at being a doctor here. I could only have been there for a few seconds and I could've sworn that I'd been almost silent approaching the door, but I suddenly realised that he was looking right at me. He looked so different. Nothing about him said 'quirky, young naïve kid'. He looked a lot more mature, he wasn't so scrawny, and had he always been that tall? He finished with the chart, put it back on the foot board of the bed and left the room, completely ignoring me. I turned quickly, ready to follow him. Instead, all I could think was how different his walk was, too. I shook my head to snap myself out of it and finally chased after him.
"Newbie! Newbie!" I even tried my trademark whistle. He paused briefly and I thought that he was going to wait for me, but all he did was stick his head through the door he'd stopped next to.
"Hey, Clarissa, how's about instead of wasting your time in here, you move on to someone who actually stands a chance." There was a muffled voice from the other side of the door. "I'm sorry, was I not clear enough? Move!" A short, red haired intern came running out of the door. I was shocked. Newbie, yelling at someone? There had been that time when he'd yelled at us all a couple of years ago when he was dating that coma patient's wife, but he'd never yelled at an intern before. What he did next shocked me even more. "It's nothing personal Mrs. Wilkins, he's just not even your doctor." Newbie had just yelled at an intern in front of a patient as well as almost told said patient that she was going to die. What was going on? And the girls name thing? That was mine!
We finally reached the cafeteria, which was good as I realised that it was lunchtime. I was a few steps behind JD as I'd refused to actually run after him. That seemed too much like something out of a bad romance film, and I just wasn't into that, especially not with Newbie. He grabbed a tray and got into the line, but almost immediately he moved straight to the till after glaring at the interns in front of him until they moved out of the way. He bought his lunch and then sat down alone at a table in the corner next to the window. I hurriedly paid for my own lunch and sat down opposite him.
"Say, Nancy, I know it's been a while, but surely you remember how I feel about being ignored? So if you want to, you can tell me that you just didn't see me and I'll be more than happy to play along." He finally looked up at me, his face showing no emotion.
"I saw you. I didn't ignore you." I frowned.
"In what way was refusing to answer me and failing to recognise my, and we may as well say it, awe-inspiring presence not ignoring me?" I asked him, almost annoyed.
"There wasn't anything that needed to be said. Besides, I sometimes struggle to respond to things that aren't my name." I stared at him.
"I've always called you Newbie." I was so stunned by how… different he was, I couldn't even muster up a sarcastic response, and he was still expressionless which was really quite freaky.. "Ok, so sometimes I call you whatever girls name pops into my head, which, by the way-" He cut me off, before I could ask about his stealing of my thing. Ok, maybe I was taking it a little personally, but still…
"No one's called me anything other than Dr. Dorian in almost a year." He stated.
"Oh." I responded, not sure what else to say.
"So why are you here?" He asked.
"Kelso sent me to a medical conference around here." I explained. Seriously, what was wrong with JD?
"Great." He stated, as if he thought that what I'd just said was irrelevant. "But why are you here?" I opened my mouth to answer, only to realise that I wasn't sure what to say. As I'd told myself earlier, to say that I'd come to visit would be like admitting that I'd missed him, and that was not true.
"I thought that since I was in the neighbourhood I'd drop in and…" I trailed off. Also earlier, I'd said that I'd call him a girls name for old time's sake, but I'd already done that. "Say hi?" I tried. JD sighed and put his head in his hands.
"You shouldn't have come." He said flatly.
"Well why the hell not Priscilla? You can't honestly be saying that me taking the time to visit isn't what you've been dreaming about for the past twelve months. Hell, I'd have thought-"
"Yeah, you'd have thought." He snapped. I was completely stunned. Maybe he'd finally filled that prescription for testicles I'd given him a couple of years back. "I haven't worked with you in a year. I'm respected here, people listen to me, and I've managed to become a damn good doctor, so don't come barging into my life and assume nothing's changed. I don't want or need your opinion anymore." He was glaring at me, which I supposed was better than no expression at all. Still, I wasn't used to an angry Newbie. The last time it happened I'd punched him in the face, but he had shoved me. I didn't know what to do this time. So I decided to take the easy option
"Well that's just dandy." I said quietly before I stood up and left the cafeteria. Just before I closed the door, I looked back at him over my shoulder. He was leaning back in his chair, arms folded over his chest, and staring tiredly out the window.