Sorry for not updating. I've just been busy with being cool and doing things, except I haven't actually and there is no excuse. Please enjoy this chapter in which things happen and I shamelessly, randomly, and pointlessly insert my wise and charming OC in the cheesiest possible way.
The next eight years were nothing short of the bliss the universe had promised.
As JD had predicted, not much work got done in that dorm room after they pushed the twin beds together. The inseparability of soulmatehood had once seemed a tad suffocating to both of them - not so much when it became their daily life. JD and Turk lived out their college years happily, and when they got to medical school, they could truly see the rest of their lives together. It was truly endless, stretched out in front of them. Their mutual worry about what they couldn't see faded away to a tiny flicker, barely on the radar.
Still, a flicker is a flicker.
JD looked down at his new scrubs, unable to stop himself from nervously tugging at the hem. Turk had informed him that the outfit was blue. The medical staff was wearing blue, he'd said, and the surgical staff had green. An easy way to tell people apart.
"Unless you can't see the difference," JD muttered to himself.
JD glanced around the busy hallway, feeling utterly alone despite the crowd. He'd barely seen Turk all day, and since they'd missed most of orientation, JD hadn't even gotten the chance to make any new friends. Turk, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any trouble getting along with his surgery buddies. JD was seriously considering asking the pot of fake flowers in the nurses' station where it was from. Small talk, you know.
"Lost, Bambi?" that nurse Carla asked from behind the counter. "Or just recovering from all the procedures you're not doing?"
"Not lost," JD muttered. "I'm waiting for Turk. My soulmate. We're supposed to leave."
"Cute. Very cute," Carla chuckled. "How long you two been together?"
JD couldn't manage to hide a small smile. "First day of college. Random roommate assignment."
Carla's eyes widened slightly. "That's… actually a nice story. Good for you. Better than the grocery store or something, like everyone else."
"Uh, thanks," JD mumbled. "I'll tell destiny you're a fan of its work."
"Unclench," Carla said fondly. "You're done with your first day. Your boy will be here soon."
JD leaned on the counter. "What about you?" he asked, desperate for a change in subject. "Got a good soulmate story?"
Carla shook her head. "Nope. But I'm fine. I have to be taking care of my mom, anyway. I'm not gonna be one of those nutjobs trying to look everyone on the street in the eyes."
"Guess I got lucky," JD sighed, slumping further onto the counter.
"Come on," Carla said, amused. "Was it really that bad today?"
JD shrugged. "It was fine. Can't complain. Not really what I expected."
"We were a little short-staffed, I guess," Carla allowed. "One of the attendings, Dr. Cox, was supposed to help out, but there was a case that needed his attention."
"Just tell me if you see a very attractive bald black guy, will you?" JD said, more flatly than he'd intended.
Carla arched an eyebrow at JD's tone and sat down. "Is that him over there?" she asked. "I've got to get on this paperwork if you're just gonna be grumpy."
JD stood up straight and turned around. He got a glimpse of Turk down the hall and took a step, only to bump into something that was moving very fast. It turned out to be a person.
"Oh! Sorry!" a somewhat familiar-looking blonde woman exclaimed. "I didn't mean to -" She stopped, narrowing her eyes as she stared at JD's face for a solid five seconds. She seemed to relax after that. "Didn't mean to hit you."
JD glanced between the woman's hairstyle and her colorless scrubs. "Uh, are you a crazy person by any chance?" he asked slowly.
The woman huffed, crossing her arms. "No. Just checking for a soulmate. I'm Elliot."
"Okay," JD said cautiously. "I'm JD. And I've already got one. He's over there."
Elliot turned her head to look, and JD couldn't help but grin. Turk was talking animatedly with one of those douchey surgery guys, too involved to notice JD watching him.
"Looks nice," Elliot commented, turning back to JD when the view was obstructed by some labcoats walking in the opposite direction. "You're lucky."
JD nodded, quickly losing interest in this conversation. "Yeah. We met in college."
Elliot opened her mouth to reply, but before JD could do so much as blink, she crumpled to the ground.
JD only froze for a moment. He crouched down, trying to at least get her out of direct foot traffic. He twisted quickly, thanking God that Carla was there and could help him, only to find that Carla had been standing right behind him, not sitting at the counter. And she was leaning on it for support.
"She's fine," Carla muttered. "Shock to the system."
JD nodded slowly. "Guess you spoke too soon about not having a soulmate."
Carla slowly brought herself upright. "You go on home. It didn't hit me as hard as her."
"If you're sure. Congrats," JD said a little too quickly, turning around to find Turk. He barely heard Elliot's mumbled confusion as his eyes focused on what was happening down the hall. Turk was leaning shakily on the wall railing, with some doctor in front of him. He seemed to be one of the labcoats JD had just seen walking that way, though JD couldn't see his face.
"Headaches, dizziness, and even fainting," JD said under his breath, reciting what he'd known about the soulmate phenomenon since kindergarten as his mind began to piece together Elliot's fainting and Turk's apparent disorientation. The sheer volume of new information flooding the brain took some getting used to. JD hadn't experienced much of that in his old dorm room. Neither had Turk, but he sure seemed to be experiencing it in that hallway.
As JD watched, Turk seemed to recover a little. He stared at the face of the man in front of him, with such a sense of wonder that JD felt like he was intruding on a private moment.
"You okay, Bambi?" Carla asked from behind him, closer to the floor. She sounded tired, maybe overwhelmed. Not like when he and Turk had met.
"Uh, yeah," JD said nervously. "Just… forgot something."
He turned around quickly, before Carla could press into the obvious lie. He wasn't exactly sure where he was going, especially with the really inconvenient blur that the walls became. One sentence that had rattled around in his head for years seemed to be shouting at him.
"What if it's just a glitch, and you meet your real soulmate and forget about me?"
JD wiped a tear away as he opened the door to what he thought was the on-call room.
It was not the on-call room.
A man about JD's age, fairly attractive despite the bruises on his face, smiled up at him from the hospital bed. "You're not my doctor," he said pleasantly.
"Uh - no," JD stammered. "Sorry, I thought this was… somewhere else."
"It's okay," the man said with a grin. "You're cute. I don't mind."
JD blushed, but shook his head. "I, uh, I have a soulmate. Actually. So, uh…"
"So why aren't you talking to them about why you're upset?" the patient asked.
JD opened his mouth, then closed it. "So what's got you all beat up?" he asked, ignoring the question.
"I'm Steve, by the way," the man responded. "Car crash. On the way to a party, no less."
JD barely heard the response. He glanced at the door, then sat in the chair next to Steve's bed. "I'm hiding," he admitted after a pause. "From my soulmate."
"Why?" Steve asked curiously. "Did you fight?"
"No," JD muttered. "He's not my real soulmate, that's why. Or at least I'm not his."
Steve raised his eyebrows. "I'm missing something here."
JD sighed, sinking back into the chair. "So am I. That's the problem. When we met, we had the change… obviously. But only halfway. We couldn't see everything. And now I'm seeing him looking extremely disoriented with some other guy."
"I see," Steve said thoughtfully. "So you haven't met this other guy?"
"No," JD said quietly. "Don't have to meet him to know he's probably perfect."
"Maybe it's not that big a deal," Steve suggested. "Maybe he just has two soulmates somehow. And so could you! If you only got half the colors, maybe that other guy is, like, completing everything."
JD shook his head, staring at the wall. "You wouldn't understand. If you haven't had a soulmate."
Steve looked down at his hands. "I did."
"What do you mean, you did?" JD muttered.
"He died," Steve said simply. "An accident. We met when we were 20. He didn't make it to 25."
JD slowly looked up at Steve's face. "Oh - oh my God. I'm so sorry."
Steve shrugged, twisting his hospital bracelet around his wrist. "It's okay. I'm all right."
"Do you ever… see anyone?" JD asked after a long moment. He knew he was being selfish, but he had to know if there was a life after losing a soulmate.
"Do I see anyone?" Steve repeated, meeting JD's gaze at last. "No. No one else. Everyone knows you only get the one shot."
JD closed his eyes, trying to compose himself. He couldn't lose it in front of this patient.
"I guess I only got the one shot," Steve corrected himself. "You might have two."
"I don't know," JD said thickly. "Maybe I've already lost him."
"If you don't go try to fix things, so help me, I will get out of this bed on my broken leg and drag you there."
JD finally stood up, but he couldn't make himself open the door. "Your theory - it's just too easy. Like a lazy plot twist in a cheesy movie. Stuff like that doesn't actually happen."
Steve cracked a smile. "Of course it does. It happens every day, JD."
"Thanks," JD said, still not quite sure if he believed this guy's hypothesis. "I… hope you feel better."
"Don't worry about me," Steve assured him. "I'll be just fine."
JD nodded as he took a deep breath, gathering his courage. When he opened the door, the first eye he caught was Elliot's, apparently recovered.
"There you are," she said breathlessly as she grabbed his arm and dragged him back toward the nurses' station. "We've been looking everywhere."
"Uh, sorry?" JD managed. "Who's been looking?"
"I found him," Elliot announced as she delivered JD at the counter. "Do the eyes thing. I'm gonna go find Turk."
"What the hell is happening?" JD asked frustratedly. He froze when he noticed the labcoat doctor from before talking to Carla. His back was still facing JD, but Carla seemed to be pushing Labcoat Doctor toward him.
"You'll be no worse off for trying," Carla insisted.
Labcoat Doctor groaned and turned around. The murderous expression on his face melted quickly. JD blinked, and the world was spinning.
"He was right," JD managed to get out breathlessly before everything started to fade. The last thing he registered was a pair of strong arms catching him.
