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It had been almost midnight by the time Dr Cox had fallen asleep, and so Elliot was more than a little tired when she arrived at work the next morning. Every time she thought of JD she couldn't help but picture Dr Cox sprawled across his couch, unshaven and looking like a vagabond. Why didn't he show up? Perry had obviously needed him. Realising that she had internally referred to Dr Cox by his first name, Elliot blew her fringe from her eyes and continued on her way to the lab, unwilling to examine her thoughts.
"Franklin, hi." Elliot stepped into the laboratory and towards the Asian doctor. There was nobody better suited to his work in the lab, and he was always friendly.
"Elliot, you're here for Mrs Black's results, right?" He opened a manila folder and placed the contents on the table. "Sorry, but there was nothing conclusive at all- maybe you should try having a more detailed physical and take it from there."
Elliot couldn't help but let her disappointment show. "When you find something, I'll give you priority, alright?" She nodded.
"Thanks." It was a generous offer, but still Elliot couldn't hide her disappointment. For the duration of the walk to Mrs Black's room, she was subdued. The hopeful expression on her patient's face only made Elliot feel worse.
"Dr Reid, did you get my test results back yet?" As she spoke, Mrs Black bunched the blankets between her fingers, belying her obvious tension. "Oh god, it's not good news, is it?"
"Actually Karen, we don't have any news yet. I'll schedule some more tests for this afternoon, and we'll take it from there. In the mean time, is there anyone I can call for you? Some company might help." She watched as Karen's eyes filled up with tears, wordlessly handing over a paper tissue.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm divorced, and my parents live all the way in Texas." She wiped her eyes. "It seems a bit much just to call up new friends out of the blue- I moved here after I left my husband."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. I'll check up on you again soon, and in the mean time I want you to think about calling someone, okay? Things like this can bring people closer together; there was this one time one of my dad's friends, Mr Malawski, was a patient of his- he's a doctor too- and so my mom slept with him right there on the hospital bed. It turns out Mr Malawski just had indigestion, not a heart attack..." Karen laughed weakly, making Elliot realise that perhaps it hadn't been the most relevant of stories after all. At least she had made her patient smile again.
"Right, well I'm not sure if I've made any of those types of friends yet, but fingers crossed." The teasing look Karen shot her let Elliot know that her anecdote had not rendered her a complete freak of nature in the eyes of her patient.
"I'll come back before lunch." Her mood considerably worse than it had been when she had woken up, Elliot went to the nurse's station and started filling out the paperwork for her patient.
"Hey Elliot, do you know who else needs a full physical?" Looking up from the form, Elliot saw the Todd sitting on the counter opposite her, grinning as though he believed he had said something particularly witty- the sad part, Elliot knew, was that he did. His hand was held up in the position for a high five.
"Yeah Todd, if you make one more remark like that then by the time that I'm finished with you, you will be the one who needs a physical." Carla slammed the paperwork Todd had requested down in front of him, expression deadly serious. To her amazement, Todd remained quiet. If there was a way for her to become as brave as Carla, then Elliot knew that she would take it. Sensing that Elliot wanted to talk, the nurse gravitated back towards her.
"Carla, I feel really bad for Mrs Black. She has nobody with her, and she just moved here." Elliot also felt particularly bad for someone else who was suffering. "Is Turk with Dr Cox just now?"
"Yeah, he is." They considered what the apartment would be like. Elliot pictured Turk making a series of unsuccessful ice breakers before switching on the television and felt frustrated by how inadequate it would be in making Dr Cox feel better. Could she do more than Turk? Ignoring the doubt in the pit of her stomach, Elliot decided to bite the bullet.
"JD's supposed to be with him next, isn't he?" Carla nodded, remaining silent as she gauged Elliot's mood. "I'll cover for him."
"Don't you have a date with Keith tonight?" It never ceased to surprise her how Carla could spend so much energy on work and keep tabs on the personal life of almost every member of staff.
"Oh, Keith will understand." In spite of her happy-go-lucky tone, Elliot wasn't so sure, but she felt that it would be wrong to go out for dinner as though there was nothing amiss when someone as important to the Sacred Heart family needed her help. She had just started thinking of ways in which to pacify her boyfriend when he materialised seemingly out of nowhere.
"You're sure Keith will understand what?" He placed a hand on the side of her waist and smiled in a way that gave Elliot a little more confidence about how her words would be received. Subtle as always, Carla managed to blend back in to her workspace. Standing on her tiptoes, Elliot gave Keith a brief kiss.
"Well, I'm going to have to reschedule tonight. I'm so sorry, but-" When she tried to kiss Keith again, he moved away.
"What about us, Elliot?" His smile turned into a pout and in that moment Elliot was hard pressed not to think of her boyfriend as a petulant child. Still, Keith had been sweet to her so she took a deep breath and remained calm.
"Neither one of us is having a personal crisis, Keith. During my time at this hospital Dr Cox has given me so much, whether I realised it at the time or not, and I need to help him work through this. We can change our reservations for next week." Keith nodded reluctantly. It had gone better than she had hoped.
"Okay." He lifted the chart he had come for and disappeared around the corner. Elliot refused to return the knowing look Carla was sending her- Keith had been good about her cancelling the dinner they had planned, and it would be disloyal for her to express her doubts at present- and was elated when her pager sounded. At least, she was until she saw that one of Dr Cox's patients needed her help. There weren't going to be enough hours in the day... Elliot sighed. Frick.
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When she had checked up on all of her patients, Elliot finally headed to the cafeteria for lunch. She saw that Keith was sitting with the other interns and couldn't help but feel guilty about the sense of relief that she wouldn't need to sit through an awkward lunch with him- it would be her fault that it would have been awkward in the first place. Sitting down beside Turk and Carla, Elliot was glad that she had them around her. If it wasn't for Carla, she would have lost her head long ago, and Turk could almost always put a smile on her face.
"Hey guys, I'm sorry to interrupt." They ceased embracing, and Carla was the first to pull back. Turk whimpered at the loss of contact with his wife.
"Don't be silly, Elliot, you're having a rough day. You could just turf some of those patients to another doctor." There was a hint of uncertainty in Carla's voice, which confirmed what Elliot herself had suspected.
"No. I don't think that'd be right." They fell silent for a moment until JD joined them, his tray carrying an empty plate.
"Damn that Janitor and his evil ways..." JD stared dejectedly at the line of people progressing through the lunch hall, and Elliot turned in time to see the Janitor walking towards her.
"Here's yesterday's lunch, Blonde Doctor." He placed a tray of congealed looking mush beside her. It didn't smell especially nice. Elliot wrinkled her nose and tried her best to sound grateful.
"Oh, um... thank you. That was kind of you." She kicked Turk under the table to prevent him from laughing.
"No problem. It's all in a good day's work." Even after he had left, JD remained on guard.
"What was that about?" Turk was, as always, protective of his Vanilla Bear. Carla rolled her eyes.
"Nothing! Why would you expect me to know that, Turk? I mean really, it's you that knows everything about what JD may or may not have done to deserve not being given lunch, not me!" Elliot fell silent as she realised that several pairs of eyes were fixed upon her. She had positively screeched the last part.
"Actually Elliot, I was talking to JD." The two men nodded in unison.
"Right." The best way to shift attention from herself was to talk about something more topical. Her mother had used this method many times with some serious results. "So Turk, how's Dr Cox doing?"
"Since I don't have lunch any more, I'm going to check up on my patients." JD stood and left the table as quickly as Elliot could ever recall having seen him move. Turk coughed to regain her attention.
"He's... um... not so good."
"Is he any better than before?" Elliot knew that food and holding hands wasn't much, but she couldn't help but let herself hope.
"Not really, no." What could she do?
"But tonight you can check up on him. He's having a hard time-" Carla was cut off midsentence as Todd came to stand by their table.
"You know what else is having a hard time? My penis! Up high for the Big Dog." Turk made as though he was going to reach out, but Carla cut him off with a severe look.
"Baby?" When Carla didn't relent, Turk hung his head. He looked so forlorn that Elliot almost pitied him.
"Fine, but that's all for today." The two surgeons shared a high five with child-like enthusiasm and left for their scheduled operations.
"Did you see the way JD left as soon as I mentioned Dr Cox?" She was certain that it hadn't been her imagination, but still Elliot wanted to check what Carla thought of the whole situation. Of the two of them, Carla could be depended upon to remain level headed.
"I know... Elliot, you shouldn't blame yourself for the fact that he isn't better yet. You did everything you could for him yesterday, and you'll do everything you can today. That's what matters." Once again, Carla had managed to work out her biggest insecurity and manage to reassure her.
"I hope so, Carla."
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Elliot spent almost every spare moment of the next two weeks with Dr Cox, making sure that he ate, washed and went to bed at night. She told him about her life, updating him more to have something to fill the silence with than because of any real interest on his behalf. She told him about her patients, her brother, the latest hospital gossip, and made sure that he listened to all of the unintelligible messages that Jack left on the phone. She even sat with him as he digested JD's visit.
When she saw that he had emerged from his catatonic state, Elliot was more relieved than she was willing to admit to herself. She returned home to the familiar surroundings of her own flat, woefully neglected and with its cupboards under-stocked, and tried to ignore the nagging voice, which sounded suspiciously like one Percival Ulysses Cox, that told her now his life was back on track, it was time to fix her own.
Tomorrow, Dr Cox would return to work and her days would go back to revolving around her patients and Keith. Thinking of her boyfriend didn't bring the spark that it once had, which didn't make sense, because Keith was wonderful, attractive...
Exhausted, Elliot pulled her duvet over her head and went to sleep.
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