Subject: Scrubs, JD/Perry

Discllaimer: I do not own the Scrubs franshice. This is a fan-made sotry of no value or profit.

Summery: There are many ways for someone to deal with a new turn in their life. Avoiding it isn't one, and neither is putting it off. One way or another though, Dr. Cox will have to face the music brought on by dreams that he probably shouldn't be having anyways...right?

A/N: So, yeah, a fiction that isn't an update that I should be doing. But I have been going through some serious crap lately. Honesty, it's getting ridiculous.
And how best to release stress by writing a raunchy gay sex fiction? OH that's right, it's one of those. Don't like you can just piss off. To be fair nothing will really happen till next chapter- which I have already started. It's my goal: this story will be finished by the end of break and before the return of college which I've lovingly named Hell. Enjoy and R&R so I know someone cares.

Slap

"Todd, what the hell?" JD squawked, spinning around to glare at 'The' Todd before spinning to glare at the giggling he heard from his supposed bestest friends, Elliot and Carla. "Girls, what the hell?"

"Sorry, JD," Carla offered. "Todd, say sorry." she nudged him forward.

"Sorry-five?"

JD accepted it -and the pain of a near shattered hand- and Todd went on his way. "OK, what is going on with him? He's...touchier than normal."

The girls burst out giggling again. He waited quietly until they gained control of themselves once more and then for Carla to answer as Elliot ran off to her rounds as soon as she could breath straight. "Sorry, he's just confused, being out and all must be really hard on him, you know?" Somehow 'bring out' Todd had become hopeful and amusing weekly ritual for the girls.

"Confused? Carla, that is the 17th time he's slapped my ass."

"Today?" They'd only gotten Todd to unstraightened himself that morning. It was currently 11 am.

"Yeah."

"...Oh..."

"Yeah."

"This conversation is just so stimulating," a file was shoved into JD's face, "But Bethany, dear, you are needed in room 208. Now would be good. Now Bethy, now now now now...Good god, nothing gets done around here anymore." Perry watched as Dorian bolted for his new patients room, glancing every which-way till the door was firmly closed behind him. "What's got the girly on watch duty?"

"Oh, Todd's been hitting him- er, well, hitting on him...not so much hitting as grabbing and slapping his ass."

"Huh, well she probably deserves it. Moving on, you have the charts for Mr. Gainszer in room 212?"

She handed him the charts, "You should be nicer to her- I mean him. Damn it, you're making it spread."

"Awesome, I would say my work here is done but well, there's just so much more damage to be had. Not to say I'm the only one. Look at you, getting a resident to go so curvy that if he were to walk in a straight line he would actually manage to go in a complete 3 circle no matter how much he attempted to veer off of his very useless path."

"Your rants seem a bit off today."

"Meh, I'm tired. Following Sahara around here so she doesn't kill anyone on all of her shifts is not an easy task." Dr. Cox flipped through some new charts but found nothing interesting. Liver failure, three cases of mono, and the last looked like an overdose. Boring. All of them. He handed them back to Carla for assigning.

"You know," she said slowly, "He's an attending now, you don't need to be followin' him around so much. But you know this already, so either you have nothing to do- unlikely seeing this pile of charts right here- or you like following him around."

Dr. Cox balked. "Oh, oh oh oh oh oh No. Three hundred times over: No." He snatched up an extra chart from her arms and went off, muttering obscenities all the way.

Carla was about to return to her own work when she heard a yelp and crash stream out of room 208. Looking over she could see the patient sitting stock-straight in the bed, arms reaching out, and JD on the floor nursing his nose. "Bambi?"

"Can you get Doug down here, room 208 is, uh...dead. And rigged. Oh jeeze, I think the patient's hand broke my nose..." he felt the offended area, "Yeah, feels broken. I'll be in the ER."

Oh no he didn't, Carla thought angrily as she watched her friend stumble out of the ICU, a fair amount of blood now rushing down his face. Dr. Cox was going to regret this last prank.

† † † †

"Ugh, I am so tired. I've been doing bottom jobs for the last 28 hours and paperwork before that! Don't we have interns for this stuff?" JD, nose now taped and tissue sticking out of his nostrils, tossed nine completed files on the counter. Night had deeply fallen around the hospital. Not that that changed much in the ICU; the florescent lights lit every nook and cranny and the various sounds of people and machines droned on as always. But, by most standards the day had been good, if not rather long. Only one person had died and they'd done so before he was even on scene so it could hardly be counted. Seven of the nine cases were looking good, the last two not so much but things could always change quickly in the ICU. It was best not to write them out yet.

"Poor Bambi, so lost without his interns. Interns not taking you seriously again? Is it Dr. Cox again?"

"Not this time," JD sighed and jumped to sit on the nurse's station. "None of them can take a 'hand-warmer' seriously."

"Hand-warmer?"

"Yeah, Todd won't stop hitting my ass and now Estivon from the Cafeteria and Brandon in filing have joined him. I'm considering attaching a trash lid to my pants as protec- Ha, I'm on a counter you can't get me!"

Brandon rolled his gray eyes, putting a pile of files on the stations in-box. "Can't sit forever," he muttered.

I'll pretend that didn't happen, said JD's mind. "My covering-shifts are over anyways, if I'm not needed here I'm out."

Carla smiled and gave him a friendly shove toward the exit, "get out while you still can, Bambi. And don't let-"

"Where does Janis think she's going? I hope its not home because surly you've noticed the four new and shiny patients waiting for your assessment Missy."

"Dr. Cox, I've been working for almost 48 hours, I actually started hallucinating a few hours ago- probably from blood loss now that I think of it-" he poked his nose curiously and winced when It still hurt, "I have been felt up by more guys in the last shift then I thought possible, and I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick. So, can I please go home?" JD did his best to stand his ground again Dr. Cox's glaring eyes. He didn't last long so he simply fell back on begging with his eyes. Whether it was indeed his begging or (more likely) Carla glaring at him from the side, Dr. Cox finally heaved a sigh, throwing his hands in the air, declaiming JD "unfit to practice and a blight on modern medicine."

JD couldn't be happier with it though, and was quickly collecting his bag form the lockers and racing toward the nearest hospital exit. He couldn't wait to fall into bed with a bag of Cheetos's or maybe some pudding and just relax.

Of course, life has a funny way of knowing just what you want, and promptly using that to bitch-slap you back into reality. The slap came in the form of Bob Kelso's face appearing two inches from his own.

"Dr. Dorian, where are you gong?"

Oh wonderful... "I was escaping because the two double shifts I was covering for are over and I thought that maybe I could go-"

"Son, I did not ask for a life story. In fact, lets just skip any stories. Get you scrubs back on before I decide that the next 12 hours are volunteer work." he ignored any protest to walking briskly down the hall, leaving JD to throw his bag back into the locker room. He'd need new scrubs for this shift, the old ones were unwearable. They smelled like, well, sort of like Ted smelled after being locked in a room with Neena. A distinguished mix of sweat, tears, and desperation. He was halfway through getting new scrubs from the dispenser when a sharp while echoed painfully through the locker room.

"Newbie, I am pretty damn certain that scrubs are not in fact needed to go home."

"Yeah, Dr. Kelso roped me into another shift." JD pulled off his pants, replacing on the stiff blue scrub pants. The hospital was probably laughing at him right about now. "Sorry," he added after noticing the silence. Dr. Cox just growled and sped out of the room. Whatever. JD didn't have the presence of mind to direct his mentor's attitude today.

It was five hours later when JD finally got a break. Three more people had been admitted and while that wasn't an overload by any means of the term, they weren't easy people to deal with. It was like the three complete jackasses decided to land themselves in the ICU for old times sake or something. Dr. Cox hadn't been any help dealing with them, refusing to even talk to him. Five hours and all he got were growls and annoyed wave-offs. Maybe when Molly was back on shift she would help. At the moment though, JD was just glad to have a break and planned to use every minute of it napping.

† † † †

"Do ya think you could lay off for like, one hour? One? Really, that's all I ask." Perry could of dodged the punch to the arm that came his way, -he's certainly seen it coming- but Carla was the type to get you now matter when or where you dodged.

"Lay off, Dr. Cox? You want me to lay off? I'm not the one pulling pranks- harmful pranks I might add- on people and then doing nothing but ignore them when they need help you big meanie."

"Big meanie? Really scrapping the bottom of the name barrel aren't ya?"

"Yeah, kinda..." she admitted almost sheepishly, "but that's not the point! You've been harassing Bambi for three years now!" She looked around quickly, checking for any gossip mongers, and lowered her voice so Dr. Cox had to lean in to hear. "I've been talking with Jordan, you know? I know about why she's at her mother's house again. Never took you for someone that talks during their sleep, let alone moan or groan or, what was it she said? Oh yeah, whisper out someone's name ever so sweetly. I'm actually more curious that she doesn't seem to mind. Do you really think that being an ass is going to help you at all? 'Cause it'll only get you alienated."

Perry massaged his temples, "Dear god, you're talking is almost as bad as Barbie's and I use ear plugs with her most times." He didn't bother to dodged that slap either. "Listen, he's not going to alienate me. Ever. It's a physical impossibility. If I disappeared for more than a week and he didn't get to see me during that time, I'm fairly certain he'd just stop existing all-together."

"Oh my god. It's like arguing with a three year-old." Carla said, giving up. At least she tried. "Fine, ignore me, after all, I never know how to deal with people and relationship issues. Nope, no experience at all. You go ahead and keep hissing and spitting at him, but if you pull any more pranks like you did this evening, I will hurt you. Got it?"

"Yes." Perry had no idea what she was spouting. Probably something the Janitor did though. He wasn't sure why the Janitor dislike Newbie so much, but it was still maybe sort of his fault seeing as how he'd had paid the guy five bucks to pull something. 'Something' was quite a generalized term though. It was hard to keep track of how people defined it. Especially when money was involved. It would explain that nose bandage Newbie was sporting though.

Speaking of which, it had been nearly an hour since he'd seen the resident dragging himself around. And, despite what Carla had been telling everyone, Perry did notice that Newbie was tired and buckling under the strain of the hospital. He knew, in fact, that the kid had covered Barbie's shifts and then had somehow been roped into covering for some nameless intern. And now Bob had him pulling more hours. Perry had come, worked, gone home, and come back again and Newbie was still here, having not left once.

So, he wasn't at all surprised when he found him asleep in the on-call room, nor could he blame the kid. He was surprised though when an eye cracked open to take notice of him. "Hmm? Dr. Cox...?" the other eye opened tiredly. "Sorry, Dr. Cox, didn't mean to fall asleep for so long." JD murmured, "I'll just...ah, get back-"

"To sleep. You can't work when you're this tired. You're on your fourth- well technically fifth- shift in a row, Newbie. I'll take over your charts for a few hours." Perry left before there could be any response. JD was already asleep again anyways.

Carla could shove her advice, he knew what he was doing this time...maybe.

† † † †

It was kinda funny how you could lose track of time in a hospital. Well, kinda funny or kinda sad. Kinda funny is probably the better option though. Something that's kinda sad is just sad in the end. Either way, one had to rely on basic knowledge: there were 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night (give or take due to seasons but again, basic knowledge here). So you have a 1/12 chance of guessing the correct time of day or night. There were a few places where it was a 1/24 chance, like a supply closet or the morgue, which was defiantly trickery- not that those guys ever had to pull enough shifts or warrant a losing of time. Or, of course, if you're in the on-call room with no windows and no idea what time it was when you entered nor how long you were out for.

JD guessed 3am despite the odds.

Watches were always great for helping, but he's left it with his bag somewhere in the locker room. Should probably check where I threw that...

Instead he made his way to the nurses station -wincing from the harsh florescent lights- for his charts. He'd probably slept for a while and missed quite a bit, though there was something he wasn't really getting... "Hey, anyone see my charts?" Carla was nowhere to be seen and the one nurse on duty wasn't pay him any attention. There were no charts in the assignment box. "Of course not," JD whispered mostly to himself.

"Of course not what, Daisy?"

JD would have jumped right over the nurse's station if a heavy hand hadn't decided to clamp down on his shoulder. He still managed to squeak though.

"If you're looking for your charts, I'll have you remember me telling you I'd take them. Also, insert here some girl insult about that squeaking of yours. I am, unfortunately, to tired at the moment to bother."

"Insert insult, got it. Um, how long was I out? I could probably take my charts back now..."

Dr. Cox didn't look thrilled at the prospect. Actually, he just looked tired and not much else. "You were out for about 5 hours. You needed it. In fact, I would highly recommend going home and sleeping more, your s12 hours are almost up anyways. You won't be missing much, Newbie."

"No, Dr. Cox, I got five hours of sleep, I'm ready to go. I actually think my own shift starts soon anyways." JD checked the clock on the hall wall. It was almost 4am. His own shift was at 6am. "Yeah...no point. And...I- I know you think I'm incompetent and such, but your shift is over. Maybe you should get some sleep and, well, I can take it from here." Holding his hands out for the charts was risky, but Dr. Cox had already covered for him while he caught up on sleep of all things. He felt bad enough. That knowledge didn't stop him from expecting a hit or insult though.

"OK, fine."

When the charts hit his hands, JD winced, still expecting the worse. Instead he was left staring after Dr. Cox as he strode away.

"Don't kill anyone Newbie."

And now it was just him. Him and a dozen very ill people. Oh dear God...

OK, that wasn't too bad. JD was again at the Nurse's Station, this time chugging a cup of coffee. He had been fine for the first six hours, then the tiredness hit him again. Apparently, he was needy and five hours just wasn't good enough anymore. Jeez, when he was an intern he was able to go six- even seven- shifts and still make it home. OK, sure he was on his sixth now, but still. He slept for five hours, was that not good enough anymore? So yeah, he was hitting the coffee a bit harder then normal, but it was needed. There was one patient in particular, Mrs. Cairston, who caused this. She had been crashing or seizing or both constantly and had only been stable for that last hour or so. Not that it would help. A year ago, JD had diagnosed Mrs. Cairston with Melanoma and despite any surgery it had persisted and reached her spinal chord and then it finally moved to her brain. Now she wouldn't last more than a few more hours.

JD didn't know if it was fortunate or unfortunate when her family arrived. He was glad, of course, that she'd have someone other than a doctor at her side. He was a good doctor when it came to terminal patients, he could connect or "get way too involved" as he was often told. But still, telling family members that there was nothing anyone could do, that never became anything less than suicidally depressing.

From where he was standing, JD could see the family- a brother, husband, and daughter- standing around Mrs. Cairston's bed, whispering to each other. There were stats he should be checking, but they deserved some time alone, and really, he didn't want to go in there. She wasn't the nicest person he'd treated but there was something about her. Maybe the way she dealt with her ailment, maybe the way she dealt with him. Whatever it was, JD had come to really respect her more and more with each of her stays in the hospital.

"Hiya there, Newbie."

Hot coffee and surprises were just not to be mixed with JD. He was now holding his burning arm to his chest. "OK, ow. And hi, morning, afternoon, evening, Dr. Cox."

Dr. Cox raised an eyebrow to JD's surprise. "Busy thinking about the prom or something? Shouldn't let yourself get so distracted."

JD thought about rolling his eyes, but the coffee burn was still fresh in his mind and annoying an emotional doctor who leaned toward angry way to often really only aided the possibility of future burns. "Yeah, I guess. Aren't you supposed to be home sleeping or something?"

"Meh, no point being there at the moment." Dr. Cox grabbed Mrs. Cairston's chart and gave it a thorough once-over. "So, guess this is it it, huh? Pretty good estimation there on her time."

"Yeah,...joy for me."

"Well aren't you in a mood. Anyway, time to check out, your shift is done."

JD checked the wall clock again. Indeed his shift had ended half and hour ago. About time but still. "I'm going to stay. For Cairston." he didn't have to look to know that Dr. Cox had rubbed his nose, folder his arms, and was currently giving him his 'you're-really-going- to-do-this-again-Newbie' look. There would be a rant.

"Oh golly, Martha," yep there it was, "Did you really go and get attached again? I must have warned you about this five dozen time but no, you didn't listen. Not that I'm surprised, if it's not about you latest style choices -not very good lately, yes I said it, but caffeine and hospital showers really do not suit you, missy- you wouldn't listen! And for christ-sake, this one isn't even nice and cuddly like your normal go-to's."

JD waited for a moment, but the older doctor only stared him down. "Yeah, you're probably right. But I'm still staying."

"You realize you've been here for almost three days, don't 'cha? Like, willingly here?"

"I promised Carla and Turk some space and, anyways, she may have hinted that she wanted the house to herself last night...and day." when the other doctor just nodded in minimal acknowledgment, JD figured he was dismissed so, checking that his pager was on properly, he started towards the break room. He'd come back to check Mrs. Cairston's stats in a bit, once her family had a chance to speak privately with her.

† † † †

There was something bothering Perry that he couldn't quite place. He'd been trying all morning to pin it down but it just whisked itself away whenever he thought about it. But he was here early because of it. Sure, what he's told Newbie was part of it; with Jordan gone, his apartment wasn't good for much other then drinking and dreaming. More often than not, the drinking following the dreaming.

It had been awhile since he had dreams of this sort or...intensity, if that was the right word for them- Realism was another good word for them. It had been years though, years, since he'd had this issue. Forty-something year olds were not supposed to be dealing with this, not when they had an ex-wifey and a kid at home.

And no matter what, men certainly hadn't been involved for at least a full decade and a half, when he was still an ignorant intern learning the ropes of medicine while simultaneously clubbing every night and have crazy, wild flings on the side.

The point was, he should be over this. He was over this. Wasn't he?

It didn't help that when he left his apartment to escape his thought he ran right into John Dorian. How the hell was that kid still standing? Why was he still here? And why the hell did he look like someone was about to throw his puppy off a bridge?

Following Newbie's sad gaze into the patient's room told him half of it, the chart told him the rest. The kid had gotten attached, again. It was what made him a good doctor most of the time- the caring and getting involved. But sometime Perry couldn't help but wonder if the price was worth it. Ever patient that didn't leave here had the potential of taking a small piece of JD with them. Eventually all the small pieces would add up and nothing would be left.

So, sure, he'd gone off a bit, ranted a bit, made Newbie feel bad a bit. But Perry couldn't help but notice that he felt a bit bad by the end of it too, and that was not supposed to happen.

† † † †

End Chapter One

† † † †

Last will: Thanks for reading, I'll get to work on the next part of this little mess. Sorry for any typo's, grammar errors, or format mishaps. I'm not a very good Beta for myself. Again R&R so I know someone cares...