We Are Family…
When you work in a hospital you find that you're there so much that colleagues become like family. From brothers and sisters…
"Hey J.D!" Turk grinned passing J.D, a protective arm around Carla.
…To scary Uncles…
"Shouldn't you be working Margaret?" Dr Cox groused as he stalked past glaring at J.D.
…That one sexy Aunt who always wear low cut tops at Thanksgiving…
"Are they still in there?" Gina asked as she sidled up to J.D looking agitated. J.D looked from her cleavage to her face.
"Yeah," he said softly. "Mrs Parker came out bawling at one stage though."
"Thanks that fills me with confidence," Gina frowned and reluctantly headed off toward her office.
…And of course, that one cool cousin that you can't wait to see every summer.
The boardroom door flew open and people started filing out. Dr Anderson emerged as one of the last, he clearly looked unhappy.
"Hey, how's it going?" J.D asked trying to sound casual.
"They're having a short break," Dr Anderson sighed running his fingers through his hair. "Don't know why they don't just hammer the last few nails into my coffin and get it over and done with."
"I'm glad to see you're being optimistic," J.D joked feebly and quickly realised Dr Anderson wasn't laughing. "It'll be ok man."
Dr Anderson gave a short, cold laugh. "You should stop handing out the Hallmark sentiments and save some lives mate."
"Yeah," J.D said bowing his head, and then lifted it slowly. "Good luck."
"I can't believe the Todd has a girlfriend," Elliot gasped. "And one that finds him charming!"
"You should have seen it at dinner," Carla enthused. "She thought everything he did was hilarious."
"Does she high five?"
"More than him."
"I cant believe it," Elliot breathed, her eyes wide. "I didn't think it was possible, that a woman would actually want to be with Todd."
"I know, I'm thinking she may have had a repressed childhood," Carla agreed as Dr Noll appeared.
"Nurse Espinosa can you give me a hand with a patient," He asked and then smiled at Elliot. "Dr Reid."
"Of course doctor," Carla smiled and then looked curiously at Elliot who smiled back at Dr Noll.
"Hello doctor."
"You slept with him!" Carla mouthed and Elliot blushed, her eyes going even wider.
"A little," she mouthed back.
"Was he good?"
"Oh my god he was…"
Dr Noll looked up from the papers he was signing and the two women pretended to be occupied in something else. He looked at them both oddly and then slapped his clipboard onto the desk. "Nurse Espinosa."
"Coming," Carla giggled and turned back to Elliot as she followed Dr Noll. "We'll talk later."
"No Mr Ferguson I'm sure your wife would be happier that she went that way," Gina winced as she talked on the phone. "Ok Mr Ferguson, I'll tell Dr Bruce. Once again sorry for you loss."
"Gee, you're really racking up the points for a fast track to hell aren't ya?" Dr Cox declared as he leaned against the doorframe.
"I plan to sit between you and Hilary Duff on the way down."
"I hear Hilary is a lovely person."
"Do you want something Perry?"
Dr Cox walked slowly into the room, grimaced and then forced out what he was thinking. "I'm sorry for not telling you about Jack."
"Your son."
"Yeah," Dr Cox nodded. "He means a lot…hell he means everything to me."
"And your wife?"
"No, ex-wife actually."
"Oh, the divorce must have been hard on Jack."
"Actually he came several years after the divorce."
"Oh."
"Oh come on," Dr Cox groused as he started pacing. "Like you don't have post divorce sex."
"Yes but never a post divorce baby."
Dr Cox bowed his head. "If its any consolation I didn't know until after he was born. I thought he was the product of a one night stand with a pool boy."
"Your ex-wife sounds a warm hearted person."
"But see, that's the thing," Dr Cox gushed with an air that said the words had been screaming to be spoken. He sat roughly in a chair opposite Gina. "I thought Jordan was the best I could do, I care for her, I do but we're so alike that it's oppressive. We're always arguing, in fact if we don't argue our relationship holds nothing for either of us."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you're different," Dr Cox breathed. "I don't know why but you bring back the happiness that I've lost after working in a damn hospital for so many years. All the death, disease and sadness starts to kill you one little bit at a time until you're nothing but a cynical, cold shell that doesn't know what joy is any more."
"Doesn't your son bring you joy."
"Its not enough," Dr Cox swallowed. "I thought it was but…" his voice trailed off. "What are you thinking?"
"That I should see how Ross is getting on," Gina breathed as she stepped out from behind her desk and hurried from the room.
Turk sat uncomfortably at the end of couch, flipping through a medical journal while the Todd sat beside him with Sophie on his lap. They had been playing tonsil tennis for the best part of an hour.
"Dude you so have to stop," Turk pleaded trying to shield his eyes with the magazine.
"Turky is right," Sophie gasped pulling away from Todd.
"Don't ever call me Turky!" Turk groused looking mortified.
"Aw kitten I was just admiring your fine boobies," the Todd pouted.
"You can admire them all you like later Pookie," Sophie smiled gave him another quick kiss. She hopped off his lap and Todd slapped her butt. "Pookie!"
"Sorry, but I couldn't help myself," Todd grinned, Sophie giggled and scampered off.
"Pookie?" Turk mused raising an eyebrow as he looked at Todd.
"That's her public nickname for me," Todd smirked. "When we're having sex she calls me God."
"Dude that's blasphemous!"
"I know," Todd enthused. "That's what makes it so dirty."
Turk tried to hide his revolted expression with the magazine as Todd sat grinning inanely before launching into a story about how he refers to Sophie's breasts as Mary Kate and Ashley.
"Hey Gina," J.D smiled as Gina joined him at the best vantagepoint to await the outcome of all that was going on in the boardroom.
"Go stick your head up a wombat," Gina scowled and crossed her arms.
"Ok," J.D nodded. "I'm sensing some tension."
"Did I not tell you to stick your head up a wombat?"
"What's a wombat? Is it like a vampire Womble?"
Gina looked at him exasperated before being distracted by the boardroom door opening. Dr Bruce stalked out, snarled at Gina and marched into a waiting elevator. The rest of the gathering piled out followed lastly by Dr Anderson who looked solemn.
"What happened?" Gina asked, the colour draining from her face.
Dr Anderson's expression changed from solemn to amused. "The Parker's relented after having a long talk about what Perry said to them and despite this one sad event my record is still impeccable and it would be unfair to destroy my career."
"Thank God," Gina gushed and wrapped Dr Anderson up in a tight hug. "I was terrified you were going to get struck off."
"You," Dr Anderson smiled. "Such a worrier, why I was confident the whole time."
"But you told me you were gonna end up on the streets being forced to whore yourself to make ends meet," J.D said blankly.
"Don't you have lives to save?" Dr Anderson countered and flicked JD's ear.
"Ow, not necessary," JD frowned and stalked off down the corridor.
"Have you seen Perry? " Dr Anderson asked pulling away from Gina's embrace. "I want to thank him for his little speech to the Parkers."
"He can have been beaten unconscious by a large man with a gavel for all I care," Gina huffed and looked away.
"Really, I thought you wanted to do the nasty with him," Dr Anderson chided. "Oh but wait he let slip about having offspring and possibly a wife."
"Ex-wife."
"Break up must have been hard on the kid."
"He was post divorce."
"Oh," Dr Anderson said blankly. "We'll I suppose that happens."
"Not to me," Gina spat and marched back in the direction of her office.
"No, my sperm fear going anywhere near you," Dr Anderson muttered and looked around to notice he was all alone and lacking anyone to celebrate his victory with.
Elliot stopped to scribble down some notes on her clipboard but before her pen touched the paper she was dragged into the supplies closet.
"I've got pepper spray!" she yelped only to see Carla standing there looking blank. "Hey Carla!"
"So tell me about Dr Noll," Carla enthused. "He's a very talented doctor oh and that tush…"
"You should try holding it while being pinned to a plastic swimming pool."
"Y'what now?"
"Oh," Elliot felt her cheeks redden. "He invited me back to his place, to relax, turns out his way of relaxing involves a bottle of champagne, a kiddies swimming pool and the roof of his apartment building."
"Oh my God," Carla gasped and then smiled wryly. "So was it good?"
"It was fantastic," Elliot purred as the door opened, and light flooded in.
"Afternoon ladies," Dr Noll perked and sauntered into the supplies closet.
"Dr Noll," Elliot and Carla said together.
"Why is it the thing you need most is always on the bottom shelf," he mused and bent down to retrieve whatever he was after from the bottom shelf.
Elliot and Carla's eyes both found themselves observing his rear. They shot each other an embarrassed look and pretended to focus on their surroundings.
Dr Noll straightened up again and looked at the other two. "Am I in the way?"
"No," Carla gasped.
"How could you ever be in the way?" Elliot added.
Dr Noll looked at Elliot and Carla suspiciously, "Dr Reid can I have a word with you?"
"Sure," Elliot nodded and looked over at Carla, motioning to the door with her head.
"Oh, I uh have to get back to work now," Carla muttered, clearing her throat and then fled the supplies closet.
"Elliot," Dr Noll sighed. "Our relationship outside the hospital isn't affecting your work inside is it?"
"What? No," Elliot blustered. "I mean, you're very cute and I sometimes find myself running into people/walls/patients because I can't manage to look away but generally things are fine."
Dr Noll laughed, caressed Elliot's cheek with his hand and gently brushed his lips against hers. "Good," he breathed before making his way out of the supplies closet.
Elliot waited a few seconds before letting out an excited scream and knocking several packets of bandages off the shelf.
Gina stormed back into her office, slammed her door and then stopped. Dr Cox was still sitting at her desk distracting himself by linking paperclips. He looked up startled.
"What the hell are you still doing here Perry?" Gina hissed looking at him astonished.
"I don't think we've finished talking," Dr Cox replied dropping the paperclips.
"I think I'll decide when we've finished talking if it's all the same to you."
"Why do you get to decide?"
Gina floundered a moment, "Ladies first."
"Oh come on Blondie," Dr Cox gasped. "That's just, that's just so ridiculous I don't even want to repeat it."
"So what do you call not telling me about your wife and child huh?"
Dr Cox opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, "I call it needing to make sure, being certain and not wanting to hurt you."
"Hurt me?" Gina laughed coldly. "Right, so you waited until…until…"
"Say it," Dr Cox said in a soft almost pleading manner.
"Say what?"
"That you like me too."
They stood silently watching each other, Gina's chest rising and falling rapidly from the pent up emotion that was wracking her body while the veins in Dr Cox's neck pulsated as he waited for something, anything to happen.
"What's the point," Gina said through an almost strangled sob and hurried from her office.
By the time Dr Cox had followed her to the corridor she was nowhere to be seen. He let out a fierce growl and kicked a nearby bin which spilled over, its contents scattering a small way down the corridor.
"Oi," yelled the Maintenance Man. "You clean that up mate!"
Dr Cox was so infuriated he couldn't even think of a witty comeback, instead he sneered at the Maintenance Man and stormed off.
"…So then I stuck the tube in Mr Wanganeen's…" JD's voice trailed off as he watched Gina race out the front of the hospital. "She looks upset."
"I'll go comfort her," the Todd offered cheerily.
"I think she's likely to remove your fun bits with her teeth dude," Turk shrugged. "And not in a good way."
"Ohh dude," the Todd winced. "That's just evil."
"Where's Gina," Dr Bruce declared appearing with a handful of papers.
"Um, I think she's just popped out for a moment," Carla piped up. "Anything I can help you with?"
"No, Mrs Chatterton died and I need her to talk to the family," Dr Bruce said coldly.
"But she was fine when I saw her this morning," JD said blankly. "In fact, she was getting released tomorrow."
"Oh there was a mix up with her medication," Dr Bruce shrugged. "She reacted badly."
"Oh my God," Carla gasped and then looked innocently at Dr Bruce. "I'll go see if she's in the bathroom."
"Yes, make sure you do or I'll have you all working nightshift as well!"
"Hey Alan," Dr Cox remarked joining the group. "I noticed you from across the room what with your pitchfork and horns an all."
"What the hell did you do man?" Turk spat glaring at Dr Cox.
"Jackass," Carla hissed.
"You're a very bad man," JD added reluctantly. "Sorry wanted to join in."
"Why the sudden influx of hate?" Dr Cox asked slightly taken aback. "Granted, I don't generally mind but seeing as you're all I have in this god forsaken hell hole I'm trying to at least pretend we're friends."
"We're all working nightshift," Turk sighed.
"Since when?" Dr Cox frowned confused.
"Since you acted like a big idiot and upset Gina," Carla scorned. "We're being punished for her not being here to save Bruce's ass."
"Hey, you don't know the whole story…" Dr Cox began but his half-pleading tone was ignored by the group that disbanded leaving him standing alone in admissions.
Yeah, we're all just one big family…