Title – My Happy Ending
Author – JubilationLee
Summary – A devastating illness to one of their own causes mixed reactions from the staff of Sacred Heart.
Authors Notes – Incase you haven't noticed I know absolutely nothing about how hospitals work, so just ignore me if I get all this stuff wrong.
Confession – I have 6 stomachs. No joke.
Disclaimer – I don't own anything to do with Scrubs! Please don't sue me!
Chapter 4
"Well hello there sport, anything the matter?" JD looked up from where he was sitting on an empty patient bed, to find Dr Kelso towering above him. For a small man he was quite an imposing figure, one that instilled fear into the hearts of many.
"No, sir. Nothing" JD replied in a less than enthusiastic voice.
"Well, then" Dr Kelso said, laying a cold hand on JD 's slumped shoulders, "How about you get of your lazy butt and get back to work, people in this hospital don't fix themselves you know." The cheerful note in his voice, as always, overlaid his true sentiments.
JD got to his feet as Dr Kelso strode around the corner, leaving an imaginary trail of dust, and he made his way to through the busy corridor, back to work.
-
JD felt like crap. Again. His head was killing him and he was beginning to wonder how long it would be before his head actually exploded off his body. The passing doctors and patients were a whirl of colors, and JD found himself hard pressed to recognize and answer the people who offered him greetings as he passed. So this caused him not to notice the figure leaning against the wall, beckoning for him to approach.
A shrill whistle coupled with a voice yelling "Hey Suzan, don't think that I don't think you saw me. Get over here" rang through JD's ears, causing JD to look twice, at the figure looking at him expectantly, eyebrows raised in annoyance.
JD turned and moved to the edge of the corridor so he was standing in front of the man though, out of the way of the traveling people. He gave Dr Cox a half smile half grimace that didn't go unnoticed by the older man.
"Now tell me Newbie, if I might enquire, just how long, exactly, have you been studying medicine?"
JD answered slowly, readying himself for the oncoming lecture, "About 8 years"
"8 years! Wow! Soooo" Dr Cox replied sarcastically, exaggerating his words with a roll of his eyes, "don't you think that by now, you might actually be able to-"
JD squinted and looked around for the reason why Dr Cox had broken off so suddenly, when he was about to undertake one of his longwinded speeches. But has he looked again at Dr Cox and saw his mouth still moving, just no sound coming out, he became a little panicked and looking around him, JD realized he couldn't hear anything, where there should have been the hustle and bustle of heavy footsteps and shouting of loud voices calling to each other, there was nothing, just a small high pitched ringing that circled through JD's head. What the? Who turned the volume down?
"…brain switched on?" The sudden return of sound caused JD to give a slight jump and he quickly tried to think of an answer that would satisfy Dr Cox.
"What?" Good choice.
Dr Cox continued growing steadily more irritated "Great, you didn't even…"
But as quickly as sound had returned it was now gone again. JD stuck a finger in his ear in a feeble attempt to bring back the noise. This action caused Dr Cox to give him an even more annoyed look as he continued his silent rant.
"…filtered excrement…"
Once again noise returned briefly causing JD to wonder exactly what Dr Cox was talking about. I'm missing a good one.
"..into gear and…"
Pretending to understand in an attempt to cover up his broken hearing, JD gave a thoughtful nod.
"..your job". Dr Cox finished his unheard rant with an irritated shake of his head, though for a split second an un-namable expression flickered across his face. He turned his back on JD, heading into the room behind them.
"Uh…Ok. I'll get right on it" JD said after him. Well, that was interesting, JD thought, fighting down the growing panic that had planted itself in his stomach.
-
JD wiped his mouth on the edge of a clean bed sheet, in a fruitless attempt to get the revolting taste of bile off of his lips.
He had rushed into the empty room moments before and started throwing up copiously in the adjoining bathroom from an overwhelming surge of nausea that had hit suddenly, without any warning. He now sat on the bed and decided that, at last he should go to a doctor other than himself. He immediately dismissed the idea of going to one of his colleagues. There's probably nothing wrong with me, he tried to convince himself once again. Then why do I have a really bad feeling about this. He countered, then he scoffed at himself, I sound like Obi-Wan. A thoughtful look came onto his face and he momentarily forgot his troubles, hang on,
"Maybe I am Obi-Wan" he spoke out aloud. His inner (and outer) musings were interrupted by the accusing voice of the Janitor, who had entered silently, unnoticed by JD until he spoke,
"I saw what you were doing"
JD was taken aback, but recovered quickly and tried to act normal, though worried what the Janitor might have seen "What?"
Had he really seen me throwing up? Shit. What if he tells somebody?
"Just now, I saw it." The Janitor continued, his mysterious statement causing JD to worry even more.
"Saw what?" JD said desperately, trying to weed out information.
"It" he said definitely, "how long did you think you could hide it from everyone, especially me?"
"Look man, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm sure whatever it was, you don't need to tell-"
The Janitor cut him off, "Puh! I think everybody in this hospital deserves to know"
"Wha- Wait!"
But it was too late. The Janitor had already left the doorway and when JD ran into the corridor in an effort to catch up with him, he found the corridor empty of people. How does he do that?
-
"Hey crybaby" said a passing doctor, smothering a snigger as he inclined his head in greeting towards JD.
JD sent him a confused look and continued writing in his chart, the comment flowing off him like water. It was the seventh time that afternoon somebody had referred to him as "crybaby" and he still had no idea what they were talking about. He didn't have the energy to dwell on the thought either, the headache JD was experiencing seemed to be increasing as time passed, and while the Aspirin he had taken a short time ago had helped to slow the escalating pain and gotten rid of the nausea, it hadn't gotten rid of the headache altogether.
The motherly voice of Carla spoke from behind him, "You okay Bambi? I heard you were a little upset earlier" she said, laying a kind hand on his shoulder.
The look of confusion, again found its way to JD's face as he asked "What? No I'm fine, who told you I was upset?"
"Turk did"
"Turk?" JD asked confused.
"Yeah, he said you were crying in an empty room, something about Star Wars?"
"What? That is, that is completely not true!" JD cried in a defeatist way
"It's okay Bambi, we all need to have a little cry every now and then its nothing to be ashamed of."
"But-"
It was at this moment that Dr Cox passed and seeing JD started to pretend cry in an exaggerated manner that made JD fume. He stormed off and left Carla and Dr Cox, both looking worried and triumphant respectfully, and went to looking for Turk.
"Idiot" Carla said, giving Dr Cox a back-handed whack in the stomach.
-
JD found Turk a while later, sitting and talking in the staff lounge with Elliot.
"Why did you tell everybody I was crying?" JD demanded in an angry, accusatory voice, not waiting for the two to acknowledge his presence.
"I didn't!" he cried hurriedly, his eyes flickering towards Elliot in a "help me" gesture.
"Well, Carla told me you did, and, and" JD stuttered trying to find the right words "Carla doesn't lie" he finished weakly.
"Ok, I told Carla but that's only because Elliot told me you were crying and I was telling her to look out for you, incase you were upset or something"
JD turned to Elliot who immediately held up her hands in defense and cried, "The Janitor told everybody that you were sobbing in an empty room! I swear! I was just concerned about you"
"The Janitor!"JD said It all makes sense now. JD was seething so much that it was a wonder smoke wasn't coming out of his ears. Why am I getting so worked up about this? It's not half as bad as some of the other things he's done to me.
"So what were you crying about?" Elliot asked once again, speaking at the wrong time, "I heard it was about Star Wars?"
"I WASN'T CRYING!"
The two friends stared at JD in shock, they had rarely seen him so riled like this before, he would usually just find a way to laugh it off, never go off the rails like this. The statement seemed to linger in the air as if it were echoing through the room. The three occupants all stood around, unsure of what to do next. For JD, the shout had caused the pain in his head to escalate, which made him to sit down heavily and lay his head on the table in defeat.
"You okay?" he heard the far away voice of Elliot intone, accompanied with her soothing hand, rubbing his back.
He answered slowly, "Yeah, just a little stressed, I guess"
"A little!" Turk cried in incredulously "Man I thought you were gonna murder us!" he finished laughingly, in an attempt to lighten the mood.
The two laughed and JD forced a small smile as silence overtook the room. After a few uncomfortable minutes of silence, Elliot spoke up again.
"So, um, do you want a ride home tonight, JD? Turk and Carla and I are going out for drinks after work, I could give you a ride or whatever?" she asked nervously.
"No, you know I cant, I've got this really important" he paused, looking for a decent explanation, "thing I gotta do tonight" he completed.
"You're blowing us off again aren't you?" said Turk carefully, not wanting to insight JD's anger again.
"Look, I'm sorry, it's just that I promised my bro that I'd help him shift some stuff into his new apartment tonight" He lied quickly, unwilling to tell his friends the real reason for his not being able to go, as the blood pounded harder in his ears.
"Well, I'll come and help out then, then after we've finished, we'll all go out together" Turk offered.
"No! I mean, it might take ages, like all night and you really don't want to help out, you know, its pretty boring stuff" JD said, thinking quickly
"Alright then man, I guess I'll see you later" said Turk as JD got up to leave.
"Yeah, see-ya guys" uttered JD tiredly.
"Bye JD" said Elliot.
JD stopped at the door and said over his shoulder "Sorry I yelled at you guys" and left the room.
He missed the worried look that passed between his two friends.
-
JD was leaving the hospital later that day, he had phoned ahead and made an appointment with a doctor over at St Mary's and he didn't want to be late. But passing through the automatic doors, JD could hear an exaggerated sobbing coming form the shadows around the entrance area and knew who it was even before the figure revealed himself a moment later.
"Well, well, well, look who it is, Mr. Crybaby" Said the Janitor with a cocky grin, triumph written all over his face.
For JD, this was the last straw and despite his pounding head and he approached the Janitor and looked him in the eye "You know man, despite the fact that it's none of your business, I wasn't crying today and even if I was, what gives you the right to go around telling everybody? I've put up with your shit for a long time and at the moment, I really don't need it. So just lay OFF!"
JD left the Janitor standing in the doorway in shock, who after a minute, gave a small nod and said to himself, "The kid finally grew a pair".
He began to mop the floor, a smile playing around the edges of his mouth.
Thank you all for the reviews, though i am a bit worried that you're eating glass and batteries.
Ummm, yeah. Onion.