Hey everyone! Here's chapter one for you all. I don't know what the rules are for using the names of real people in fanfiction, so I'm just going to make up a name for the woman in the first scene of this chapter. Read on and enjoy!

Lawyers: Our client does not own Scrubs or Dead Like Me, nor is she gaining any profit by writing this story. Don't sue her.

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Chapter 1

Jen Moyers, the White House Press Secretary, was busy sorting through a mountain of paperwork for the upcoming press briefing with the White House Press Corps, a group of journalists assigned to cover news from the White House. The whole plague crisis had become, in her opinion, a media disaster and it was her responsibility to sort through this disaster and collect the necessary information about it to give to the media. The only problem with that was that everyone wanted to know who they could blame for the plague and what the cure for the disease was and those were questions she didn't have answers for.

"I don't care how much they pay me, it's not enough for this job," she grumbled to herself.

"Ms. Moyers," a voice called out over the small intercom on her desk. "Mr. Harris is here for his meeting with you."

Pressing the talk button on the intercom, Jen said, "Send him in."

A moment later Mr. Harris strode into the office with a calm smile on his face.

"Mr. Harris, you said you had some information for the press briefing?" Jen asked with a polite smile.

"It involves the plague contamination," Cade said, shutting the office door behind himself. "I may have an idea as to who is involved."

"Really?" Jen asked, blinking in surprise.

"Yes, but before I go any further, there's just one thing I need to take care of," Cade said.

Before Jen could even ask what that one thing was, pain exploded in her chest, as if claws were tearing at her insides. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. As she sunk to her knees, the pain transformed into an icy chill that spread throughout her body. She looked up at the man she believed to be Mr. Harris and reached a hand out, begging for help, but he just stood there staring down at her. Her thoughts grew hazy and her vision faded.

Cade watched as she flopped over onto her side and began convulsing, the graveling inside of her struggling for control. Several minutes passed before she stilled. Kneeling down next to the woman, Cade saw her eyes blink open and stare up at him.

"Well?" he asked curiously.

Jen sat up a bit unsteadily and stared down at her hands with a look of awe.

"Amazing," she breathed. She paused for a moment to hum and test out her vocals before continuing. "I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but... amazing."

"Glad you like it," Cade said, standing up and pulling Jen to her feet. "So, Miss Press Secretary, there's a press briefing today, do you remember the plan?"

The graveling controlling Jen bounced in place, testing out its new body, and did a twirl before saying with a grin, "I've got that all covered. Don't worry about a thing."

"Great," Cade said with his own grin before glancing down at his watch. He had a few other 'meetings' to attend and hopefully they would be just as successful. "I guess I'll leave you to get accustomed to your new body. I've got a few more people to take care of today."

With a nod to the woman who was suddenly much happier about her position in the White House, Cade left the Press Secretary's office. Waiting for him outside the office door were several more gravelings.

"There are a few people I want you all to meet."

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JD's POV

It started out as a fairly decent day. The construction on my house was finally done and after having the cable and phone line hooked up, I was all set to move in. I had just finished an early morning reap and because I had a night shift at the hospital along with two more reaps to take care of later on, Turk and Perry helped me move my stuff in during the afternoon. Well, Turk did, Perry just kind of stood there.

"You know, you could help," I pointed out as Turk and I passed by Perry carrying a couch.

"I'm helping," Perry said indignantly. "You asked me to help watch Danny while you moved your stuff in and that's just what I'm doing." He held the leash up for emphasis. "Nowhere in that conversation did you mention me carrying things."

Setting the couch down with a grunt, I put my hands on my hips and said, "Oh, I'm sorry; I thought the whole 'carrying boxes' thing was implied when I asked for help moving."

"You'll know better next time then, now won't you?" Perry said with a mocking smile as he sat down on the couch we just brought in, Danny jumping up onto the cushions next to him.

I rolled my eyes with a mental sigh.

"How'd you end up with so much stuff anyway, VB?" Turk asked, looking at all the boxes.

"Mostly yard sales," I said shrugging.

That's only partly true. Once I was sure that I was getting my house built, I started collecting a few things from some of the lonely bachelor reaps that didn't have anyone who would come to collect the possessions they left behind. I didn't take anything personal, just basic things like chairs and a kitchen table.

"Why do you even need this much space anyway?" Perry asked, looking around the room from his spot on the couch.

"No reason, really," I said. "Partly for Danny. He's getting to be a big dog."

"He's not getting to be a big dog, he is a big dog," Perry said, then looked over at Danny and said, "You're a huge beast, you know that, right?"

There actually was another reason why I had the place built bigger than I needed it. Being a reaper for as long as I've been, I've experienced my fair share of homelessness, and if I wasn't homeless, I'd most likely be staying at a previous reap's house where the living conditions were, at times, less than desirable. I figured that if Perry ever ran into a situation like this, then he could always stay at my place. Of course, I'll never tell him this because his ego would most likely get in the way and he'd never take me up on my offer. However, if he thought it was his idea to crash my place...

After getting everything moved in, Turk and I spent the remainder of the time before our night shifts unpacking boxes and Perry spent his time hooking up the TV, but only, he assured us, because it benefited him. When it came time for Turk and me to head out, Perry and Danny were engrossed in some sort of hockey tournament, so I left a spare key to the house in the kitchen so that he could lock up on his way out.

Since Turk and I now lived pretty much in opposite directions of each other, carpooling was kind of pointless, so I followed behind him on Sasha. We arrived at Sacred Heart just in time to clock in and avoid a lecture from Kelso about being late.

I checked my two post-it notes for the third time that day just to confirm what I already knew, that I had an hour to go before I needed to go up to the third floor and take care of my reaps. I headed to the Nurse's Station to get my charts and see what patients I could take care of in the meantime. However, Lavern stopped me before I could grab my charts and go.

"This arrived for you today," she said, holding out a small white cake box that, to everyone else, appeared to look quite innocent. To me though, I could practically hear the ominous music playing in the background.

Taking the box from her while ignoring her comment about how she's not my own personal postal service, I opened it up and looked at the small round cake inside. Written out in green on the white icing was the message:

Nana Hobbs moved on.
Sorry. Call me.
Love Mom

"Lavern, can I use the phone real quick?" I asked, having left my cellphone in my locker.

She frowned, looking like she wanted to say no, but handed the phone over anyway. Pressing nine to dial out of the hospital, I called up Mom's home phone and waited. It only took a few rings before she picked up.

"Hello?" she asked, probably not recognizing the hospital's number.

"Hey Mom, I got your cake," I said, getting right to the point. "You wanted to talk?"

"Oh good, I was worried you wouldn't get it. I don't have a home address for you," she said. "Yes, I wanted to talk about some things."

"I did just move in to a new place, do you want the address?" I asked.

"Later, right now I want to talk about Nana Hobbs," she said.

"Yeah, you said she..." I trailed off.

It didn't make sense to me why I couldn't just come out and say it, that she was promoted, that she's moved on to the next stage in her afterlife. I didn't even like Nana Hobbs all that much. In fact, I gave her that nickname just to annoy her. She was a bitter old woman and she was horribly racist. Of course, that was understandable considering the time she came from.

"She was promoted," Mom said, finishing my sentence. "Bernie took her replacement out to show him the ropes about an hour ago."

"Who's her replacement?" I found myself asking even though I really didn't care to know.

"His name's Holden. He's nineteen, sweet kid," she said, that maternal, motherly tone already tingeing her voice. "Deaf though, which might be a problem, but we'll work something out. You should come home sometime and meet him. Learn some sign language though."

"Mom, I'm-" I paused with a frustrated mental sigh. "I'm too busy with things here."

"Come on, Joey," she said pleadingly. "You haven't been home in so long. You haven't even met Sam's replacement."

"Well, from what I've heard, I wouldn't like Brian anyway. Always slacking off and getting into trouble," I said a bit angrily. "He's..."

He's just like Mason. Hell, he's just like me when I was first starting out.

He is not, however, worthy of being Sam's replacement.

"Look, I'm just not interested, okay?" I said stubbornly. "Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

She sighed in exasperation, "Yeah. So what's this new address of yours?"

I quickly told her my address before saying my goodbyes and hanging up the phone. Lavern raised an eyebrow at me as she took the phone back.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I said, grabbing my charts.

I had work to do and I couldn't be distracted by the new replacements in my division. It wasn't that I didn't like them, I'm sure I'd find that they're nice people if I actually got to know them, I just didn't like the fact that they were taking the place of someone I've known for over a hundred years now. At least with Dan I actually knew Perry beforehand. I guess I just didn't want to face the fact that because I'm the youngest reaper in the plague division, everyone I've known for so long will end up being promoted long before I reach my quota and I'll end up being stuck with a bunch of newbies.

Sighing, I headed to the elevator to go check up on my first patient.

'At least I'll still know Perry and people in other divisions.'

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Perry's POV

The mutt and I got so distracted with the game - or at least I did. Can dogs even see the moving pictures on a TV screen? He must have liked the noise or something. - I didn't even realize what time it was until Newbie came dragging himself back in through the front door after a long night shift.

He gave me a curious look and asked, "What are you still doing here?"

The only answer I could come up with was, "You have all the good channels. Why would I not be here?"

He seemed to accept that answer, as he should, and dragged himself into the kitchen, tossing a newspaper down onto the table before rummaging around for a snack.

"You never went grocery shopping," I reminded him, turning my attention back to the TV screen. "Good luck finding something to eat."

"I know, but I still have a few things left over from my previous apartment," he explained, pulling something out of the cupboard that sounded like rice.

I glanced over my shoulder briefly. Yup, a box of five minute rice. I looked back at the TV screen while absentmindedly scratching Danny behind the ears.

While the microwave ran, the kid came up behind me and, clearly misreading the 'leave me alone, I'm watching TV' vibe, he asked, "So what have you been up to this whole time? Watching TV?"

Okay, something was bothering him, it didn't take a rocket scientist to tell, and he was either trying to bring it up in this poor attempt at small talk, or he was trying to distract himself with small talk. Although I didn't mind the latter so much, talking during the game was a big no-no. Maybe during a commercial, but most likely not even in that case. It's nothing personal, I'm just following the two laws of nature which state that it is Newbie's role to be annoying and it is my role to ignore him.

So ignore him I did.

Taking the hint, he went back into the kitchen to attend to his rice which was done cooking by now. I could hear him puttering about in the kitchen, grabbing an eating utensil and opening up the newspaper, when a commercial came on.

"Never pegged you as a big newspaper fan," I said, throwing him a bone.

Pages of newsprint shuffled behind me.

"I like to cut out the obituaries of my reaps," Newbie said simply in between mouthfuls of rice. "I guess it's my thing."

Because that's not weird or creepy at all.

The game came back on and we fell into silence again. However, it wasn't a moment later before Newbie suddenly gasped and started coughing and choking on the rice he no doubt still had in his mouth at the time. When he didn't stop after about half a minute, I muted the game and looked over my shoulder at him. He held onto the table with one hand for support while the other hand was fisted up in front of his mouth as he continued to cough.

I sighed, "Really, Newbie, rice? I've seen you fall off a building and break most of the bones in your body and you can't handle a little rice?"

Danny whined from his spot beside me on the couch, watching the kid intently.

"Oh, he'll be fine," I told the dog, exasperated.

Apparently reaching his limit, his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out on the kitchen floor. Danny barked in distress before bounding off the couch and racing over to the downed reaper.

"Drama queens," I muttered, standing up myself and heading into the kitchen.

I leaned against the kitchen counter, waiting and watching as Danny slobbered all over Newbie's face in an attempt to revive him.

"It probably wasn't even the rice. It was mostly likely the anxiety that made him choke in the first place that did it," I pointed out to the dog.

A moment later, Newbie coughed again and sat up, sliding backwards until he was leaning against the cabinets below the sink. Danny's tail wagged rapidly and he stuck to the kid's side the whole time.

"Who chokes on rice?" I finally said. "It's rice. You don't even need to chew it."

"Which makes it all the more easier to get into your lungs," Newbie rasped in between coughs. "And your concern over my plight astounds me."

"Don't be so dramatic. We all know you're fine," I said, waving him off. "Well, Danny doesn't know, but he doesn't count."

He coughed for a few more minutes, grimacing every time he coughed up a slimy grain of rice.

It was hilarious.

"So what got you so worked up anyway?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

He seemed to have forgotten that little detail in between all the choking because once I reminded him, his eyes shot open and he stumbled to his feet, dragging himself over to the table. Plopping down into one of the kitchen chairs, he pulled the newspaper over to him, quickly scanning the pages until he found the article he was looking for.

"So I didn't imagine it..." he said in a tone of quiet dread.

With a shaky hand, he pointed out the article he was looking at. Curious, I looked over his shoulder and blinked in surprise at what I saw.

Reaper Terrorist Group Behind Plague?

"I never expected the first sign of the apocalypse to be in bold print on page three with a question mark," Newbie said.

I rolled my eyes and pulled the newspaper over to me for a closer look.

"Have you even read this thing? It might be about something completely different," I said. "Don't you think that something as big as proof of the afterlife would be page one material?"

We both took a moment to read through the article. It wasn't that long, but it said enough.

"You see! It is about us! 'A possible terrorist group calling themselves grim reapers could be behind the deaths of millions of American's'," Newbie said, reading from the article.

"'Could' is the keyword there, Newbie," I said. "They don't know a damn thing. They're just making up rumors."

"That doesn't matter!" he snapped. "This isn't a supermarket tabloid; this is a reputable newspaper company. People are going to listen to what they're saying. And look: 'Government officials have yet to comment on the matter.' That's implying that all of this speculation is true and that the government is hiding something about it."

"You're freaking out over nothing," I said. "Relax and just think for a minute. People will notice if you're panicking over something like this and then they'll wonder why you're panicking which, in the end, will just give them more proof that the article might hold some truth."

Taking a few deep, calming breaths, he said, "You're right. You're right."

"Of course I'm right," was my automatic response.

"I'm going to go to bed," he said, standing up. "You can stay here and sleep on the couch if you want."

I looked down at my watch. It was pretty late already and I really didn't feel like driving back to the dump I was currently staying at.

"Why not?" I muttered. "Couch is comfortable enough."

Nodding goodnight to the kid, I turned my attention back to the article after he left.

Reaper terrorist group. That's a laugh.

Responsible for the plague though?

"It's nothing," I muttered to myself.

I pray to that big bastard in the sky that I don't believe in that this is nothing. Newbie will never let me hear the end of it otherwise.

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Yay, done with chapter one. Hopefully I got their POVs right (feels rusty). Don't have too much else to say here, though I would like everyone's personal opinion on the reaper replacement characters. I myself am usually not a fan of OCs, and I would like to know whether you'd like to see more or less of these characters.

Review please!