Author's Note: I do not own Digimon.

Thank you to all who read and those who also reviewed. : ) It is nice to hear from you guys and gals. By the way, this chapter seems a little more odd than the others. I'm not sure why, it just does.

Anywho, here is Medicine:


One more test.

One more test and he would be official.

One more simple test and he would finally be a doctor.

"Augh…" Kido Jou groaned as the words in his textbook began to fade in and out of focus. "The biggest test of my life and I can't even read a simple paragraph."

Honestly, he couldn't recall what hour he had started his last study session before the big day. The sun had been out and he could have sworn that there had been noises outside. Yes, he was sure there had been noises because he had put in his ear plugs to block them. As he glanced out his window, the young man was shocked to see empty streets and a star filled sky. Perhaps he had been studying for a bit too long.

After multiple years of working towards his goal, Jou was now closer than ever. And to be honest, it scared him a little bit. Well, more then a little bit… A lot. It scared him a whole, heck of a lot. This test could make or break his career. Sure, he could try again after a year, but it wouldn't be the same.

When his father had taken the test his score had been one of the highest in history. Shin, his older brother, had continued the tradition and brought home a score that rivaled their father's own. None of his relatives had ever had to repeat this damn test, and there was no way Jou could break that tradition without being a failure in his father's eyes.

A mere night before he had overheard his father saying practically as much. Sure, the older Kido had no idea his son had been listening, but that only served to make the statement truer in Jou's opinion. The senior Kido had been sitting in his chair, eyes closed in a look of intense concentration. Although his words were quiet and mumbled, Jou had been almost sure he heard Jou, failure, family, fear, and certain. The simple words had easily been whipped into a perfect fear storm by the boy's anxiety filled brain.

"I can't let him down."

The boy furrowed his brow and stared at the blurry words once more. When a sharp pain began to attack his right temple, he laid his head on the desk and closed his eyes for a moment. If he rested for only a few seconds his brain would have a chance to recharge. Then he could re-read the book for the fifth time and everything would be okay. He just needed to close his eyes for a few seconds...

XXX

"Wake up Jou!"

The boy's eyes opened in a flash as the familiar sound came to his ears. A set of green eyes, paired with rather horrible fish breath, stared eagerly at the boy. How this particular friend had gotten into his room was a mystery to Jou. Of course, the bigger mystery was how he had ended up in a place that was definitely not his room.

"What is going on?"

"It is time to operate!" Gomamon jumped on top of his friend and cheered happily. "Operate, operate, and operate!"

"What?" Jou pushed the Digimon off and stood up with shaky feet.

Instead of his sweat pants and hooded sweatshirt, his body was now clothed in a pair of sea green scrubs. As his hands searched the top of his head, he discovered a thin hair cover. Although the clothing would have been completely out-of-place in his bedroom, they fit in perfectly with the old-fashioned surgery room he and Gomamon where now standing in. Then again, were was Gomamon?

"This stuff is so weird!" The creature in question, was happily spinning on a rolling stool in the corner of the room. "Spin me faster Jou!"

"No, no, no," He plucked the hyperactive Digimon off the stool and collapsed onto the floor. "We have to get out of here."

"Why? You're the doctor."

"I'm not a doctor yet. And if I don't get out of here to pass the test, I never will be." Jou charged to the only door in the room and tried to push it open. The darn thing wouldn't budge no matter how hard he shoved. "What is going on here? I have to get back to my room!"

"You can't leave before the operation!" Gomamon eyed the stool again, but Jou blocked his path.

"No stool. And what operation? I can't operate on anybody."

"Doctor! Doctor!" Another voice broke into the conversation as a middle-aged nurse wheeled a hospital patient into the room. "It is time. You must remove the heart!"

It took a second for everything to absorb in Jou's mind. How had the woman been able to enter through the broken door? He darted over to the swinging doors and tried in vain to push them open. For him, they might as well have just been drawn on the wall. It wasn't until the woman mentioned removing the patient's heart, that he gave her his attention once again.

"You want me to what?"

"Remove the heart for fifty dollars!" Gomamon joked as he sat on a non-movable stool and stared at the patient.

"There is no time for conversation!" The surprisingly strong nurse drug Jou over to the gurney and placed a scalpel in his hand. "You must take out the heart! The media demands it!"

"M…media?" Jou mumbled and felt his forehead break out into a sweat.

The room grew blindingly bright as multiple camera men and women ran in and began to take flash photographs of him and Gomamon. The Digimon grinned widely and wrapped a flipper around his partner's neck. Jou closed his eyes and tried to pretend he was back home in his safe and quiet room. This had to be some kind of stress induced psychosis. He had read about it in chapter four… or was it twelve? Why couldn't he remember anything?!

"Come on Jou!" Gomamon let go of his neck and pointed to the patient on the table, who Jou had just noticed had a covered face. "You can get that heart!"

"But…. He… She? They need anesthesia and IVs!"

"Not here, my dear!" The nurse admonished him and placed his scalpel filled hand on the patient's chest. "Now operate or you'll stay here forever. We have all the time in the world. Do you?"

As a bead of sweat rolled down Jou's forehead, the boy tried to take slower breaths than the sporadic gasps he had been relying on. Why hadn't his inhaler been transported to the loony land with him? As the reporters began to chant the nurse's sentiment and Gomamon offered his own cheerleading section, Jou pushed the scalpel into the patient's chest and made a large incision. If he played along, surely he would wake up from this nightmare.

Instead of blood or any normal signs of a customary operation, the man's chest opened to reveal an animated object shaped like a cartoon heart. The bizarre creature crawled out and stood on the non-opened part of the chest. Its eyes were large and narrowed in a threatening manner, as they settled upon the scared young adult. He frowned at Jou and let out a noise that sounded like a low growl. Unlike Gomamon, who found the situation fascinating, Jou watched with a twitching eye as everything he knew about modern medicine was destroyed by a walking valentine.

"Who dares try to remove me?!" The heart demanded, forcing Jou to collapse in shock on Gomamon's favorite rolling stool.

"Look at it, Jou!" Gomamon, ever cheery, stared in happy amazement and poked the heart with one of his claws. The cartoonish organ let out an angry noise and shook his fist at the Digimon. "Boy, he is a cold heart. Isn't he, Jou?"

"It is tal… talking!" The nervous boy whimpered, unsure he could play along with this world much longer before a panic attack settled in.

"And it never shuts up!" A new organ crawled out from the opening and glared at the heart. "He always has to be the star of the show! He just pushes people around, the big bully!"

"Well we all can't be a self-destructive time bomb." The heart stopped glaring daggers at the grinning Gomamon to send even colder expressions at his bodily enemy.

"We appendixes are an important and loved organ!"

"By the medical waste bag, maybe!"

Gomamon watched with childlike wonder as the two organs began to fight on top of the patient. He turned to call Jou over to watch the disagreement with him, but the boy was sitting in a corner with his knees pressed against his chest. It seemed like Jou was more focused on not hyperventilating then watching the organ fight club. The Digimon's smile left his face and he hurriedly flopped over to Jou.

"Hey," His green eyes watched the boy kindly, as his flipper wrapped around Jou's shoulders. "What's wrong? This is quality entertainment."

"Entertainment? This is a nightmare! How can I ever be a doctor if I can't even perform surgery, in my own dream, without the organs starting fights and crawling around the room?!"

"Jou," Gomamon's tone dropped to a more serious one, "That is the key."

"Failing?" The boy finally looked to his partner's face with worried eyes.

"Nooooo, this is your dream. That is the key." Gomamon pointed to the room before them. Each of the colorful characters were frozen in place, and for once there was complete silence in the room. "If you don't believe in your dream of being a doctor, how can anyone else?"

"But this test… it.. it's the biggest one. What would my dad think if I failed it? He'd be so disappointed."

"Jou, you sure miss some important things." Gomamon rolled his eyes and pointed at his friend's chest. "You are the smartest guy I know, but you just don't get it. Your dad doesn't care if you score high, he cares that you try your best. And isn't that all you should care about too?"

The idea seemed far too simple in the man's opinion. His family hadn't consistently produced adequate doctors, they had routinely produced amazing above-and-beyond doctors. As much as he wanted to believe that any grade he produced from trying his hardest would be welcomed, he couldn't. That wasn't how his family worked. The Kido's demanded excellence at each turn, and Jou was no longer sure he could produce that. When placed in the highly stressful situation of his dream, everything he had ever known about medicine had vanished from his memory. Sure, the situation was completely ridiculous... but it still proved his point.

"Alright!" Gomamon attempted to pull Jou's arm towards the frozen medical scene. "You gotta get back in there!"

"Don't you get it?" The boy stood up, mainly to keep his arm from the insistent seal creature, "I can't do it! I froze before, I'll freeze again!"

Gomamon frowned at his friend and tried to push him forward by butting his head against the back of Jou's legs. He couldn't understand what Jou didn't see in himself. As far as his Digimon was concerned, Jou was the most talented doctor-in-training there ever was or could be. If the anxiety ridden man could just get a little more confidence in himself he would be able to see how talented he was. There had to be a way to get his friend to move forward and face his fears. The most motivating thing Gomamon could think of was to remind Jou of another one of his pressing anxieties.

"You know, if you don't face your fear you might never get out of here for that test..."

The statement got Jou moving forward. It was a slow slightly drunken walk, but it was a forward moving motion. Gomamon hurried to catch up to his friend and cheered the boy on as loudly as he could. Jou never looked at him, but the Digimon was sure he could hear the shouting. No one could ignore noises as loud as the ones he was creating.

Walking back to the table was painful in more ways than one. Jou could feel the sweat rolling down his face as his stomach tried to offer an upheaval of his lunch. Why was he doing this? Why in the world would he go through with this procedure when he knew he couldn't make it through this or his test? Gomamon's shouting began to penetrate his brain, and Jou looked to his left where the Digimon was grinning ear to ear. Even when he didn't believe in his abilities, that little creature fully believed in him. Gomamon never doubted him or told him he couldn't do something. If someone else could have that much confidence in him, why couldn't he?

Jou furrowed his brow with new determination and offered his best friend an appreciative smile. The Digimon winked at him and offered one more cheer as they headed towards the gurney. Each step Jou took offered him a new level of self-confidence and a more realistic medical situation. One step, and the battling organs vanished. Two steps, and the paparazzi morphed into the necessary medical equipment and supplies. Three steps, and the sour-faced nurse transformed into a kindly looking assistant. As his last step brought him to the side of the gurney, the entire room shifted into a modern setting. He looked down at his middle-aged patient and forced himself to focus on the task at hand.

The strange thing about the operation, besides the fact it was taking place in the weirdest nightmare he had ever had, was that it seemed to bring every skill he had learned or practiced in the past six years back to him. He no longer felt the crippling doubt brought out by a complete lack of knowledge. As his hands wisely maneuvered through the necessary actions he found his confidence rising to a new high. By the time he finished the operation a large smile was plastered on his face. Gomamon cheered once more and leapt into his friend's arms.

"You did it, Jou!" The Digimon cheered happily and let out a few chuckles. "I knew you could! Just took a few a panic attacks and an organ fight club and-"

"I get it, I get it." Jou laughed along with his friend, unable to hide his new-found joy. "Hey, what's happening to the room?"

Gomamon looked at the medical supplies and people as they began to fade away, then looked back into Jou's eyes, "The operation is over."

"So? Why does that cue a disappearing act?"

"Hello?" Gomamon playfully knocked on the boy's head, "You faced your fear remember? Fear can't exist if you don't feed it with worry and panic."

Suddenly, the dream world was beginning to make sense, a fact that interested and slightly worried Jou. When the insane began to make sense it was usually a sign to get out while you still could. When the room had completely vanished and the duo were left in an empty void, Jou felt his Digimon squirm in his arms. He let go of Gomamon and watched as the creature began to fade like the room had moments earlier. Jou dropped to his knees and tried to hold onto his friend.

"What is going on Gomamon?"

"It's time to go, Jou." The Digimon grinned and offered one flipper in the air to be high-fived, "Just remember the you can do this. And it doesn't matter what happens if you give it all you can!"

A bittersweet smile passed over Jou's face and he grabbed his friend's flipper tightly, "You got it, Gomamon. I'll do my best. Thank you."

"Oh, Jou," The creature winked at him and faded into the air.

XXX

As the real world came thundering back to Jou, he sat up with a start and scrambled to find his cell phone. With phone in hand, he darted out of his room and past a rather confused set of parents. It took only a few minutes to slip on his shoes by the door, but it was enough time for his father to catch up to his hurried child. The eldest Kido laid a hand on Jou's shoulder and tried to offer him a comforting smile.

"I know you can do it, Jou."

The boy thanked his father respectfully then darted out the door in fear of being late to the examination. He didn't know for sure if he would get a score higher than his brother's or father's, but in truth he no longer cared. All that mattered was that he was going to try his hardest on this and every future obstacle in his path. As long as he did that he knew he could make his family and Gomamon proud. And maybe, just maybe, he could also be proud of himself.


There actually is an exam at the end of the medical school track for Japanese doctors. I did a little research on the subject, but couldn't figure out if the test was scored on a pass/fail basis or a specific number range (i.e: 1-100). Also, I kind of destroyed the Digimon doctor aspect for Jou in this tale. I actually didn't mind him being a Digimon doctor, but I needed him to be a human doctor for this tale.