Note-I've been playing with this idea for a while, and thought I'd make it into a oneshot, so pretty please don't kill me if you don't like it! I'll take it down if I get any bad reviews, just please don't go over the top! Thanks.
Elliot stood at the nurse's desk, flicking through her charts. Today seemed fairly boring. Still, that was what you got in private practice! At least when she was an intern she'd been able to deal with the odd coding. The only excitement she got in this job was a bigger pay check once a month.
She really missed being an intern. People didn't expect you to always be right then, you could afford a few slip up. And she knew that JD was always there to catch her when she fell, like the great friend he was.
Where the hell was JD anyway? Carla and Turk had said he'd gone to stay with family down in Dallas for a vacation. That had been three months ago, and she still hadn't heard anything from him. It wasn't like JD, to leave her hanging like that.
A sharp, Todd-like wolf whistle interrupted her daydreams, and she turned her head towards the noise. A young, brunette woman had walked through the door. The woman turned to Todd, and in response to the whistle, winked flirtatiously. The woman came up to Elliot, and smiled.
"Hi, I'm looking for a Dr Percival Cox, chief of medicine? You know where he is, hon?" she asked. Elliot was slightly startled. Hon? But she smiled, and pointed down a corridor.
"Yeah, he'll be in his office. Upstairs, third on your left"
"Thanks, hon" the woman smiled, and walked off.
Dr Cox sat in his office, flicking through his paperwork. He groaned.
"How the hell did Bobcat deal with all this crap?" he wondered out loud. He took a sip of coffee. There was a knock at the door, and Ted came in.
"Good morning, Dr Cox" he stuttered monotonously. "There's a woman outside to see you"
"Fine, send her in" Dr Cox muttered. Hey, it was an excuse to delay all the paperwork he had to finish by Friday. Ted went out, and the woman came in. She sat down on the chair opposite him as if she'd been there for forever.
"Long time no see, Perry" she smiled. Dr Cox frowned.
"I'm gonna go ahead and ask, who the hell are you and what do you want?"
The woman smiled teasingly, but her eyes were sad.
"Geez, Perry, I knew you wouldn't recognize me but I didn't think it would take this long!"
Dr Cox stared at her blankly.
"Ok, I'm gonna give you some sugar, so be enlightened. My name's Jane…"
She sighed, and slapped her hands on her legs in frustration at the still blank look Dr Cox gave her.
"Jane Dorian"
Dr Cox was silent. Then a sudden look of shock and horror spread over his face.
"Newbie?"
Jane smiled sadly, and nodded.
"Yeah. I'm back!"
Dr Cox went white. His mouth opened and closed like a fish, but no sound came out. He closed his eyes for a moment, and steadied his breathing. Then he opened them again.
"So…no family vacation in Dallas?"
Jane shook her head.
"Does anyone know yet?"
"Please, Perry, it took enough courage to get down there in the first place. Can you imagine how Elliot would react?"
Dr Cox could. It involved a lot of crying and overall madness.
"And Turk's a homophobe as it is. Carla might understand, but I'm not taking any chances. Dan already disowned me when I told him…"
There were tears in Jane's eyes.
"Shit, Newbie…"
"You were the only one I thought I could tell who would stay, well normal. My life's so fucked up and insane right now…I need some form of normality!"
Dr Cox nodded.
"And I know this is crazy right now, but I needed to tell someone!"
Jane was crying now, streaks of watery mascara scraped down her face. Dr Cox sat back in his chair, defeated, and wondered how on Earth he couldn't tell that the girl who sat opposite him was his very own Newbie? Sure, the face was more feminine, but it was still the same kid who followed him around day after day.
Maybe all those girls' names actually meant something.
The seconds passed by and they felt like hours.
Dr Cox sighed for what was probably the hundredth time that minute. Then he leant across, and pulled Jane into a hug. She sobbed into his shoulder.
"So I have to do something pretty big to get a hug from you, huh?" she gulped.
"Yeah…this is pretty big"
Jane laughed bitterly, and pulled away.
"I'm sorry I ruined your day, Perry"
"No worries, Newbie. You got anywhere to stay?"
"Yeah, I'm living at a motel until I pluck up the courage to tell Turk"
"Take care of yourself, Newbie"
"Of course! I'm a big girl now! See you round, Perry"
Jane walked out, and closed the door behind her.
Dr Cox lay back in his chair and sighed.
Yeah, he'd changed a lot since he last saw him, and this was a pretty darn huge change. But she was still the same old Newbie. And no surgeon or therapist was gonna change that.