Author's Note: JD/Cox slash. Based on the song by the Editors "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors".
Disclaimer: Not mine.
"I can't shake this feeling I've got
My dirty hands, have I been in the wars?
The saddest thing that I'd ever seen
Were smokers outside the hospital doors"
JD's face started to hurt from the smile he was wearing for the last 30 minutes. One of his patients, an 11 years old boy that had cancer, had a love for football and was getting bored from lying in his bed. So JD bought him a ball and was playing with him for the last half hour in his room.
The kid wore a matching expression, smiling from ear to ear He was giggling and laughing all the way.
They were playing for awhile until the young patient threw the ball so hard that it hit JD's leg, which sent the ball flying through the window
"Oops?" JD offered to his patient, who rolled his eyes in response and went back to his bed, covering himself with his blanket.
"I'm sorry; I'll go get it back, ok?"
"Uh huh." The boy answered, his focus already turning to the TV screen. JD moved to the window so he could see where the ball had landed. Luckily it was still in the borders of the hospital and he recognized the place as one of the smoker's corners.
The young doctor grabbed his stethoscope from the counter, where he put it earlier so it wouldn't interfere with his game, placed it on his neck and walked out of the room towards the smoker's corner to retrieve the ball.
On his way down he got paged. He cursed under his breath as he changed his direction and ran towards the room that he was paged to. The little kid would have to wait a bit longer; kid could use some sleep anyway.
Ten minutes later the trauma was over and the patient was saved. JD made his way down to the smoker's corner, with a big smile on his face once again, this time from succeeding to save someone's life.
He arrived at the door and prepared himself for the cloud of smoke. JD had never smoked in his life. Well, he tried it once and hated it and he never tried it again. He hated cigarettes and his opinion of a person would lessen if he found out they were asmoker.
As he opened the door and stepped outside he saw that his assumptions were right. A cloud of dark, thick, smelly smoke met him. He waved his hand in front of his face and looked for the ball. It was resting in the corner of the veranda, not minding the smoke. JD smiled to himself again and went to grabbed it. He picked up the ball and hugged it tight against his chest. Then he walked over to the door and was about to leave when his eyes caught something odd.
He turned his head to the left and saw Dr. Perry Cox, his mentor, leaning on the wall, looking into space, smoking.
JD's smile vanished and was replaced with a deep frown. He knew Perry used to smoke, but he was sure he'd quit years ago. Of all people, he didn't expect to find him there.
He moved closer to the older man. Dr. Cox still didn't notice him. It looked like he was deep in thought.
"What the hell are you doing?" JD finally said.
Dr. Cox shook his head, apparently a bit surprised to be interrupted. He moved his head to the left and saw JD standing next to him, gazing at him with an angry, accusing look.
"Shelly, what do you want from me?" He asked with a frown on his face.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing with this cancer stick in your hand? I thought that you stopped years ago."
Dr. Cox snorted, "Just what the hell do you think you're doing talking to me like this Newbie? Sarah, you're the last person on earth that has the right to tell me what to do, and you're the last person on earth that I'll listen to. Now move your scrawny body out of here before I'll shove my pack of cigarettes so deep into your ass that smoke would come out of your nostrils." He turned his head back and took a long drag from his cigarette, closing his eyes as he slowly let the smoke out, trying to irritate JD.
It worked. JD clenched the ball even closer to his body and greeted his teeth.
"I wouldn't normally dare to 'Tell you what to do'," JD said with venom in his voice, "But I can't believe that you can be so stupid. You're a doctor; you should know the risks of smoking more than anyone else."
"Newbie, did you just call me stupid?" Dr. Cox turned his head quickly to the left and stared hard at JD. "I'm this close to acutely punching you. "I'm this close to actually punching you." He took another drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke right in front of JD's face.
The young man returned the look, "Never mind, I don't fucking care. Kill yourself if you want." He said as he walked towards the door and stormed angrily out of the veranda.
Perry leaned back on the wall. He closed his eyes and sighed. Even if he didn't want to admit it, he didn't like the idea of JD catching him smoking. He hated himself for feeling like that, but JD's words stung him a little. The kid was really disappointed with him and it bothered him more then he wanted it to.
Dr. Cox took a few more drags from his cigarette and then put it out on the ashtray. He threw what was left into a garbage can and walked over to the door. He opened it and stepped inside the hospital, sighing hard and rubbing his hands across his face.
JD went back to his patient's room, the frown still planted on his face. He couldn't believe that Dr. Cox had started smoking again. He didn't understand how he could do it; both of them were doctors, both of them saw the damage it caused to so many of their patients.
Cancer, coronary heart diseases, abdominal aortic aneurysm, chronic obstructive lung diseases, raises the risk for strokes and the list goes on and on. Not to mention the bad breath, the yellow teeth and all the second hand smoke it causes They've both seen enough people fading away and dying from its effects. So how could Dr. Cox be so stupid and do it to himself? Why not just pump pure poison into his veins?
The young doctor arrived at his patient's room and found him sleeping as he suspected he would be. He placed the ball on the table and moved to the kid's bed. He covered him with a blanket, still deep in his thoughts.
He didn't understand why it bothered him so much. He hated cigarettes and he would be angry with anyone who smoked, but for some unexplained reason it made him even angrier to see Perry do it, even more than anyone else. He remembered how he kept preaching to one of his patients years ago about the effects of cigarettes and tried to do everything he could to make him stop. He wondered if he still had that voice box he used to try to scare him, and he wondered if it would work on Dr. Cox.
He also remembered how Dr. Cox told him that he couldn't change people. They would keep doing things that will hurt them, and all he could do is help them when they got sick.
Still, he decided that he wasn't going to sit back and watch Perry smoking those death sticks. He'll make Perry's life a living hell until he quit smoking.