--

His Different Stages

--

by: J-Scrubs

--

Author's Note: Hellooooo, out there! I'm back again, and I sincerely hope this chapter is up to everyone's standards. =]

Warning: Slash of the man on man kind. Don't like, don't read. And some scotchy-ness.

Disclaimer: I do not, and never will, own Scrubs.

--

Chapter Four ; His Depression

--

JD sat on the floor for about 10 minutes after Dr. Cox left, just thinking. He was still sad about Jenny, of course, but his little chat with Dr. Cox had made him feel infinitely better. And when he had mussed his hair, JD hadn't been able to fight back the blush at the not-really-that intimate contact. It was a big deal for Dr. Cox to do such a thing, though, and it made something deep inside JD's stomach wiggle a little in a totally not uncomfortable way.

JD shook his head in an attempt to clear it, and bit his lip a little. Dr. Cox had touched him before, but it was usually in a mocking way, or at least very reluctant. It hadn't ever been so completely willing and . . . well, sweet. He sighed and scrubbed a hand across his forehead, giving the side of his head a sharp tap as if to knock the thoughts out of his head. He warned himself "Don't go there, J-Dizzle, you know it'll never happen and will only lead to heartbreak."

Now, it was no big secret that JD had a bit of a crush on his mentor. In fact, the only people who couldn't see it were Dr. Cox himself and quite possibly Turk, who maybe just didn't want to see it. Carla had been giving him this little smile every time she saw them together, which, now that he thought about it, had been growing larger and much more Cheshire cattish recently for some unknown reason. But JD had easily convinced himself that this crush was a bad thing, a very very bad thing, because it would only end up with him hurting.

Yesterday had just been proof of that fact. When Dr. Cox had landed that fist on the side of his face, he had barely even felt it at first. Not that it wasn't a hard punch, because it sure as hell was, but because he had been so focused on the internal shock and pain. It had shocked him so much emotionally that he didn't really feel the already-forming bruise until about fifteen minutes later. Besides that, he hadn't even been completely sure why Dr. Cox had punched him at all. Sure, he had stood up to him, but he'd done that before a million times before and it had never ended with him almost tumbling to his death off of a roof. Evil roof of Satan, with it's sinister gravel of Hell that makes people look like they have a bajillion tiny dents in their skin if they sit on it too long.

The last thing he remembered saying to Dr. Cox was something taunting about whether he wanted to see JD's testicles for proof that he had them. JD reddened a little at the memory, thinking of all the connotations in that sentence. Maybe he was so disgusted at the thought of something like that that he couldn't help but want to beat my face in. Although this thought was supposed to be funny, and make him feel a little better, he couldn't help but feel a little more dejected, because it was quite likely that had been the reason Dr. Cox had punched him.

And JD had forgiven him for that, he really had. That didn't mean it didn't hurt, having the man you had a huge crush on, and could most certainly love if he'd let you, be so disgusted by the notion of seeing some of your unmentionables that he wasn't able to hold back a fist flying at your head.

JD sighed again, and resolved not to think about it for at LEAST another hour or so. He was tired, anyway, and there was an on-call room just down the hall. He walked quickly, trying to keep his mind away from Dr. Cox, and stopped short a couple feet away from the door as Jordan came out of the room, with a big self-satisfied smile on her face. When she noticed him, she leaned in as if to tell him a secret.

"Might not wanna go in there just yet, DJ. Perry's in there, and he may need a little time to get his breath back." She adjusted her bra a little for good measure.

JD felt himself stop breathing for a second, as his eyes widened and his heart constricted painfully. He tried to laugh it off, thinking, "she's lying." But why would she lie? After all, to the best of his knowledge, they were still together. They must do . . . stuff like that. Except Dr. Cox had only left him sitting on the floor about ten minutes ago. It was pretty quick. Then again, Dr. Cox was kinda old, and JD knew from experience that Jordan wasn't really into foreplay, so it wouldn't be all that much of a shock if they had just gotten right down to it and finished fast.

JD stared at Jordan for a moment, surprised when he saw an almost sympathetic expression on her face, but that disappeared and he thought maybe he'd just imagined it as she smirked and said, "I've got to be going now, DJ. Why not check inside if you don't believe me, though?"

She left, and JD did check. He opened the door slowly and peeked inside, then felt his heart squeeze again painfully as he saw Dr. Cox laying down on one of the beds, looking absolutely sated. He breezed out of the room quickly, and winced as he heard it close way too loudly. He swallowed hard, trying to ignore the burning behind his eyes, and walked briskly away from the room, away from Dr. Cox, and away from what he knew had just happened.

--

As Dr. Cox drove to a bar that night, he gripped the steering wheel hard. There was no way JD felt the same about him. Hell, the kid thought of him like a father. This, of course, was a big blow to his ego. So he did the only thing he could think of to do, the same thing he always did in situations like these – he drank.

He drank a lot, mainly scotch, and by the time he was done he was smashed. The bartender requested he let him call someone to pick him up, and he slurred his apartment's phone number. The bartender handed him the phone, and he listened to it ring for a few seconds until his ex-wife picked it up.

"Per-Bear, is that you?" Jordan didn't sound in the least bit worried, preferring to sound more like how she would speak to someone while she inspected her nails for dirt.

"Yeaaaash, it is I, Jorderoo. What's shakin'?" he said, leaning heavily on the wall near the phone.

"You're drunk." It wasn't a question.

"'O coursh I'm drunk! What dooo youuu expect ? Nobody likes me, you don't. Jaydee doesn't either. He thinksh I'm jus' an old gay mean old gay man, and ya know what?! He's riiiight. Haha. He is sho right."

"Perry. Perry, shut up. I'm coming to get you, and we need to talk. Asshole." With that, Jordan hung up.

--

When Jordan arrived a few minutes later in her own car, she looked very annoyed. She walked right up to Dr. Cox and smacked him on the back of the head, muttering things like "idiot, going out and getting drunk of his ass without even knowing how the damn gelled-up freak of nature feels" and "stupid jackass, making me have to give Jacky to the neighbors."

She nodded a thank-you to the bartender, and threw Dr. Cox's arm over her shoulder none too gently, attempting to hoist as much of his weight as she could to the car. When she got him inside and settled herself in the driver's seat, she rolled her eyes over to him and sighed, exasperated, when she saw that he was already away from the land of consciousness. He rarely ever got drunk enough to just pass out, except when he was going through serious emotional turmoil. Her eyes softened a little as she watched the steady up-and-down motion of his chest as he breathed, and she reached out to pull lightly (not as lightly as she should've, because she'd be damned if she showed so much affection to anyone, let alone Perry) on one of his curls. Then, she drove them home.

--

Dr. Cox groaned loudly as his alarm clock woke him up at 5:00 AM. His head was killing him, and his stomach was churning. He reached out a hand to turn it off, knowing that he had to get up or he'd be late for his 6:00 AM shift. He couldn't really remember much, but judging by how he was feeling he assumed he's gotten quite drunk last night. Not that he remembered. Suddenly, his stomach lurched and he had to rush to the bathroom.

--

Jordan smiled from the counter where she was sipping coffee. She loved the sounds of hangovers in the morning, when they weren't hers. About fifteen minutes later, Dr. Cox walked into the room, fully dressed in scrubs and closing his eyes with a wince at the light.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice rough from throwing up.

"Oh, nothing. Unless you mean the fact that you had to call me from the bar to pick you up last night, because apparently you were too drunk to drive home. All depressed and what-not. Understandable, considering, and these are your words, not mine, that Sally doesn't love you and thinks you are just mean and old and gay."

Dr. Cox opened his eyes fractionally at that. "I did not say any such thing!"

Jordan raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Sorry, Per. You did. And I'm pretty sure you're wrong about the kid's feelings, too."

"Excuse me?" Dr. Cox's eyes widened a little more. "And why would you think that?"

"Well, you should have seen his face when I told him about our little sex romp yesterday. He looked like someone had just run over his puppy with a monster truck and stood there and pointed and laughed while he begged them to call someone to help."

Dr. Cox simply stared at her for a moment, shocked by his new development. Then, "You told Newbie?! Why?!"

"Excuse me, but he was walking right into the room when I exited. I figured I should warn him. Besides, I wanted to see how he'd react. It was very satisfying, to say the least. He looked absolutely heartbroken!" Jordan cackled a bit, raising her coffee mug to her lips to take another sip.

Dr. Cox opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. A little part of his mind said to him, "Do you know what this means? It means he feels the same way!" but the cynical part of him was bigger, and stronger, and it lead him to say, "Heartbroken? Yeah, right. The kid was probably disgusted or surprised or any number of things! He was most certainly not heartbroken. There's no way he could possibly -"

"Per, if you finish that sentence I will rip your lungs out through your ass. For someone with such a big head you really need to have more confidence when it comes to lovin'. Seriously, you need to go find that kid now, before he jumps off a roof without your help."

He took a moment to process what she said. First of all, how did she know about the roof thing? Only Carla had kno–oh. Well, there you go. Then, before he had time to think more about it, he was being shoved with surprising force through his apartment and out the front door. Jordan threw him her keys.

"Your car is still at the bar. Take mine, and go find that damn mousse-head girly manboy." She graced him with one of her rare smiles (not smirks or evil, menacing sneers, at least), then promptly slammed the door in his face.

He stared at the door to his apartment for about three seconds before he turned and took off running toward the elevator.

--

End Chapter Four!

I hope that was okay. I really don't think it was good, but you tell me. =/ Err, I think the next chapter is the last, so yeah! xD Also, I'm sorry it was pretty short. A little more than half of my other chapters, I think. Or 2/3s or something. =P

Review, review, review, please! I like to hear your thoughts and all that good stuff. =]

I apologize if this is the biggest piece of crap you've ever read. Hmmm. I should probably have more confidence in what I write. Lmao.

- Jess