A/N: Many thanks go to the super-fantastical Bells of Tomorrow for editing this for me, and for her kind words of encouragement!
...
Perry Cox let out an angry grunt as he pulled his Porsche into a parking space. 'Closed for Remodeling.' He had never heard of the hospital gym being 'closed for remodeling.' Hell, the floor tiles were so damn moldy that Perry was starting to think that they hadn't been replaced since the seventies. It seemed as if fate was against him tonight—the first chance he had some time to himself, the first chance he could work out and unwind, they decided to reupholster the gym equipment.
Gritting his teeth, he shut off the car. The whole fiasco had forced him to actually dig up the ancient gym membership that had been collecting dust since his very first shift at the hellhole that he called a workplace. He wasn't even sure that his name was still in the gym's database.
Already wearing his workout clothes from his failed visit to the hospital gym, Dr. Cox headed for the weight room after reluctantly parting with the twelve dollar entrance fee. His suspicions had been correct; his membership was so old that he had to pay to use the thing again. Trying to shake off his irritation, he found the room with little difficulty and critically examined the equipment.
A twelve dollar entrance fee for this? It was impossible to believe, but the rec center didn't offer any equipment that the hospital gym didn't. He spared the room another bored glance before his eye was caught by a gaggle of women crowding on the stairs by the edge of the room. None of the ladies were able to hold his attention, however, and without giving them much thought, Perry made a move for the bench press—
Hold it – was that Newbie in said horde?
Perry gave an irritated growl and tried to stay out of the kid's line of vision. He had had to deal with Newbie way too much at the hospital today, and he'd be damned if he was going to let that overly zealous man-child ruin his workout—
"Doctor Cox?"
Dammit!
"Doctor Cox!"
Of course Newbie would be here. Of course.
"Dr. Cox, what are you doing here?"
Well, after being singled out like that, it wasn't like Perry could just ignore him. Especially not with all of the titters coming from the henhouse behind him. Clenching his jaw, the older man turned back to face the other doctor (and, reluctantly, the throng of women whose focus seemed to be directly on the only two men in the room). "Well, Newbie," he groused, the word 'well' coming out as a moderately dangerous threat, "I was here trying to work out in peace after a sixteen hour shift that felt like a gift from Satan himself, buuuut it appears that I am forced to yet again tolerate your presence after having spent all day in the hellhole that is Sacred Heart."
There was a smattering of light giggles from a few of the women, and JD grinned broadly. The grin only served to worsen Perry's irritation; was Newbie really that immune to his rants? "So are you here for Zumba too then, Doctor Cox?" JD asked, sounding hopeful.
Just what he needed. More of the kid's made-up crap. "Shelia, what in the hell are you talking about?" Perry demanded with a flick of his nose.
"Zumba!" JD showed no recognition of the annoyance that was slowly brewing in the older man. "It's a really fun dance class—"
A sharp whistle cut off the rest of JD's sentence and drove a few of the younger women to squealing and covering their ears. "You can stop right there, Chrissy," he growled. "Honestly, could you be any more of a girl?" Dr. Cox plastered on a fake grin as he continued. "Do ya think that your tutu makes you look fat? Is that why ya don't want to change with all of the other girls in the locker room?" His false grin immediately transformed into a leer. "Don't e-heeever try and connect with me over your pansy dances again." While not one of his longer rants, Perry still felt pleased with it and turned to leave.
He hadn't gotten more than a few steps away before he heard JD talking to the other women. "Ah, don't worry about him, ladies," the young doctor said with a laugh. "He's just afraid he can't do it."
Perry froze and glared over his shoulder at JD, who was pointedly ignoring him. "I mean, come on, we all have trouble with the dances some days, right?" the brunet continued, leaning back against the railing with a nonchalant shrug. "He's just worried that he's not gonna be able to keep up with us."
He's goading me, the curly-haired doctor realized. The worst part was that even though Dr. Cox knew he was being baited, he—or more accurately, his ego—was powerless to stop it. The insane amount of pride that he held fueled him to whirl around and storm back over to the crowd, clomping up so that he was on the same stair as JD and thus able to glare directly into the kid's eyes.
"Can't 'keep up' with you, Gladys?" he asked, applying finger quotes. "Aren't you the little girl who can't even play basketball with Gandhi without having to stop and catch your breath?"
Rather than being rattled, however, JD simply grinned. "Well, Perry," he said, "I think that one of the things that makes me great at Zumba is my stamina." Winking, he nudged at the girl closest to him, who gave him a funny look and shifted away.
The older man simply bared his teeth and began to seriously reconsider his rash decision, but the door at the top of the stairs suddenly opened and a fit young woman in workout clothes popped out. "Hey guys!" she said cheerily. "Come on in and I'll fire up the CD player!" Grimacing at the woman's overly-perky tone, Perry briefly glanced over his shoulder, as if plotting to slip out when nobody was looking, but the women behind him on the narrow staircase hemmed him in, forcing him up the stairs behind JD.
As their group filed into the room, they began to place their belongings against the far wall, sorting into lines that stretched across the room once they were settled. Perry reluctantly found himself standing next to JD, but not by choice. They'd been next to one another in line, and the shift of people had seemed to push them together. He gave the empty little workout room a once-over as the woman he assumed to be the instructor started the music and jogged over to the front of the group. Just what in the hell was he expected to do—?
Without warning, the sound of incredibly loud hip-hop music assaulted his eardrums and the woman at the front began to move. She started with some quick movements that consisted mostly of stepping first to her right, and then to her left. Perry was left bewildered until he felt JD smash into him on the left step.
"Ow! Doctor Cox," JD yelled to be heard over the music, "you're supposed to move! Do what Natalie does!" He pointed at the instructor. But before Perry could get a snarky reply in, JD turned back to the front and began to imitate the quick little jump-steps that were being shown.
Maybe it was the fact that every other person in the room was doing the movements. Maybe it was the deafening hip-hop with an admittedly catchy rhythm. But for whatever reason, Perry found himself trying to catch up with where everyone else seemed to be.
Even though the ridiculous hopping they were currently doing made him feel incredibly stupid.
As the singer continued to wail about how much he was drinking that night, the instructor decided to incorporate a drunken little stumble into the dance. Cute, Perry managed sarcastically as he made a valiant effort to keep up with the shuffling kicks that everyone else seemed to be able to do just fine. Dammit, his body was built for weightlifting, not this pansy-ass dancing—
The red-headed doctor bit back a groan as the teacher planted her feet firmly apart, raised her hands above her head, and began to shake her backside at the class. Did anyone really expect him to do this? A quick glance to his side showed that at the very least, Newbie was indeed following the dance. Quite fervently, as a matter of fact. His eyes were closed as he shook his rear, as if he was completely lost in the thumping rhythm.
He didn't realize that they'd started moving again until the teacher let out an almost primal yell and motioned to her left. Actually managing to keep up this time, Perry followed the turn and even managed to anticipate the side-stepping movements the group began to do. The fact that he was doing them with the wrong foot seemed completely irrelevant to him at the time. Another holler from the teacher had them all facing the back wall, complete with another series of side-steps. Perry let out a little smirk, feeling rather smug that despite Newbie's taunting, he could indeed 'keep up with them'.
At least he felt smug until he made to move and found himself moving in the wrong direction. It wouldn't have been a problem had Newbie also been moving the wrong way, but as it happened, the two collided and ended up flush against each other.
Perry's eyes widened and, against his will, his face colored slightly. Probably not nearly as much as the kid's face, however. They both froze, even while the other girls around them continued to dance (though a few did raise eyebrows in their direction).
JD opened his mouth, apparently about to speak, but Perry simply bared his teeth and growled "Not. A. Word," though it wasn't audible over the music. He gave JD a rough shoulder bump and stormed out of the room, making a mental note to never return to this gym, no matter how desperate he was for a workout.