A/N: I appreciate all of the reviews! I'll probably be updating about once a week, because my school work and my original fiction take priority. Choink.

Raising a Hand

Chapter Two

By LQ Aredhel

JD worked hard throughout the day in order to keep his mind off of Julie. He kept up with his patient-load as well as the six patients transferred to him from Dr. Cox, and when he didn't have anything to do, he sat with some of his friendlier patients. It was always nice to converse with someone who didn't know him and wouldn't judge him.

He had a late lunch, which for some reason coincided with Dr. Cox's lunch. When his mentor saw him a few feet behind him in line, he came up and gave him another degrading lecture on stalking. It was in public, and it stung, but JD shrugged it off like he always did and didn't even try to sit with Dr. Cox. He ate his lunch alone.

As much as Dr. Cox's words bit into him, his actions spoke even louder; he'd walked over to talk to him, and a big part of JD was just glad for the attention.

During the second half of his 12-hour shift, JD began to notice that whenever he walked by the nurse's station, one or more of his friends was quickly walking away from it, including Carla. At first, JD just assumed that they were in a hurry for a patient, but the fourth time it happened he knew something was up. JD caught up with Turk just as he was rounding the corner.

"Hey, what's up T-dog?" JD asked casually, hoping Turk really was just in a hurry for surgery.

"Hey, JD," Turk replied, wincing. JD's heart sank.

But he put on his best happy-face and asked, "Where've you been all day, man? I haven't seen Elliot or Carla either." He knew he probably sounded pathetic, but he really needed some reassurance that his friends were there for him.

Turk responded by wearing what JD well-knew was his lying face: head down, eyes wide and avoiding contact. "Well, you know, I've had some crazy tough surgeries today, and Carla and Elliot both have full patient loads, so we're just all really busy."

JD stared at him, incredulous. "Turk, I have a full patient load plus six from Dr. Cox, and I've still had time to wander by often enough to see everyone scurrying away from me. Are you guys avoiding me?"

"Okay," Turk reluctantly admitted, "so we've been on Operation JD Dodge, but can you really blame us? Every time you get out of a relationship like this you mope around and whine to us about it for weeks." JD tried to blink away his surprise; he hadn't actually expected them to be avoiding him. But as harsh as his words were, Turk's expression and voice were filled only with kindness and understanding. It only made it hurt more.

"Look, man," Turk continued, "you know I'm there for you when times get tough. Always. But in the end Julie's just another girl, and you'll get over her too." The meaningful look in Turk's eyes added, 'without me.' He patted JD on the shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile, then turned and walked away. JD watched him go, partially stunned.

The shame that JD felt at realizing how much he annoyed his friends was overwhelmed by the loneliness that cut through him as Turk moved out of sight. So much for the support of friends, he thought.

He went over what Turk had said as he headed for his next patient's room. He barely noticed the pitying looks he was getting from the nurse's station (not even the one chuckling scoff). JD had always relied on his friends to listen to him and be there for him when he was down; but from what Turk had said, that no longer included broken hearts.

JD shook his head, attempting to force himself into a cheerier disposition. It didn't quite work, and his energetic greeting fell flat on his newest transplant patient. In the end, he relied on his fallback: work so hard that it's all he can think about.

It never failed. By the time his shift ended at 9 p.m., JD was back to his old self, if exhausted. There was nothing better to block out bad thoughts than one excruciatingly difficult diagnosis after another. Of course, after JD had figured out those two, he managed to fit in a game of chess with his elderly lung cancer patient, Mrs. Barsol (who JD called 'Mrs. Bar-of-Soap', in his head: he loved the smell of old people).

But hours later as he sat in the locker room gathering his things to go home, he began to dread the idea of returning to the apartment. Carla and Turk had left at six; how awkward would it be if they were there, watching TV or something? Would they leave to avoid JD's 'whining'? The thought made JD queasy, so he was sure that he didn't want to return home. Of course, he didn't want to spend the night at the hospital either; he'd probably get roped into working another 12-hour shift.

The door to the locker room suddenly swung open, and Dr. Cox strolled in, removing his white coat on his way to his locker.

Dare I?, JD asked himself.

Deciding that he was desperate enough to make the attempt, JD loudly cleared his throat (causing Dr. Cox to groan in annoyance), and quickly asked, "Hey, Dr. Cox, do you want to go out and grab a beer or something?"

Cox slammed his locker open and replied as he removed his things, never looked JD's way, "Newbie, don't think I don't know what you're trying to do, because even if I hadn't seen Gandhi blow you off for being a crybaby earlier, I sure as hell would have heard about it by now thanks to Laverne's new system of gossip tunnels running through the walls, so no, Gwen, my answer is no, I do not want to listen to you sobbingly explain in detail exactly why your ex-boyfriend was so perfect – perfect hair, perfect eyes, perfect chiseled abs – and exactly what you did to screw it up." He slammed his locker closed and turned to JD. "And, I don't know, maybe instead of just keeping that little tirade as 'today's answer' we could keep it in our memory banks filed under 'default answer', so that if you ever, for some insane reason, feel like asking me again, you've already got the answer right there, saving us both the trouble. No, Newbie, I will not go out with you. Not today, not ever." He turned and walked away.

Okay, so my mentor hates me, JD summarized later as he rode his scooter aimlessly around town. My friends don't want to be around me, and I just broke it off with my ideal woman. I can deal with this. I don't need their help; I don't need anyone's help.

Thirty minutes later, JD was standing outside of Daniel's apartment with two six-packs – one of beer, that other ginger-ale -- debating with himself about whether or not he should knock on the door.

Okay, so I can't deal with it by myself. All he wanted was someone to hang out with, was that too much to ask? So JD took a deep breath, hoping that he wouldn't annoy Daniel too much, and knocked. Daniel answered moments later, and his face lit up with he saw JD.

"Hey, Johnny!" he greeted him, not noticing when JD winced. I told him my name was Johnny?

"Hey Daniel. Sorry if I came at a bad time." He gestured to the ginger-ale. "Just wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight?" He decided to leave out the fact that he was desperate for human contact.

Daniel smiled. "Actually, I could really use some company."

JD smiled back and entered the apartment. It looked a lot like his and Turk's place, except it only had one bedroom as far as JD could tell. It was a bit smaller. Daniel took the six-packs from JD and they both sat on the sofa at one side of the room.

"I was just about to watch SAW III," Daniel told him. "Are you interested?"

JD grimaced on the inside; scary movies were not his thing, especially gory ones. But Daniel seemed pretty excited about it, so he put his happy-face back on and nodded. "Sure!"

So Daniel put in the DVD and settled on the couch right next to JD. Even as the credits started, the music told JD that he didn't want to see this movie. Especially not with someone who wasn't used to him watching gore movies from behind the couch so that he could duck behind it when it got to bad. Turk would understand and tell him when the bad parts were over.

JD took a deep breath as the movie began. How weird would it look if he just covered his eyes once in a while? he wondered. Probably pretty weird.

JD glanced over at Daniel a couple of times; he was drinking a ginger-ale and watching the movie with mild interest, even when a scream cut through the background music, causing JD to whip his head around to the screen. It was covered in a mess of blood and skin. JD squeezed his eyes shut. This is going to take some work, he thought, and grabbed blindly for a beer.

By the time the movie was over, JD had consumed four beers and was quite buzzed. He was curled up on the couch and had taken to unabashedly hiding his face in Daniel's shoulder when it looked like something bad would happen. He noticed Daniel's amused looks whenever he did this, but ignored them; nothing would make him keep his eyes on that screen.

Finally, the credits were rolling, scary music and all, and Daniel turned off the DVD player. Will & Grace was on TV.

JD looked up to see Daniel standing in front of him smirking down at him. "Do you not like scary movies, or are you just really drunk?" he asked.

JD attempted to look affronted. "I'm not drunk!" he said, surprised at how loud his voice was. "I'm just a bit tipsy, that's all." He nodded his head down to his hands, which were caressing his own chest. "I get handsy," he explained.

Daniel chuckled and sat back down next to him. "I have to admit, I appreciate the physical contact anyway," he said, almost to himself.

JD thought that was an odd thing to say. "Why?" he wondered out loud.

Scooting over so that their thighs were touching, Daniel replied, "I guess I've just been lonely lately. I only moved here six months ago, and I don't really know anyone yet. I don't have friends or family or anyone to really talk to here, you know?"

"Yeah," JD sighed. "I know. My friends don't want to talk to me because they say I'm too whiney."

"Really? They won't talk to you?"

"Well, just since I broke up with my girlfriend," JD clarified. "My best friend Turk told me that I get too whiney after I screw up relationships."

Daniel nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry. If you ever need someone to talk to, you can always come over here," he offered.

JD smiled. "Really? Jeez, you're so nice to me."

Daniel just looked confused and concerned. "I'm just doing what any good friend would do. It's horrible that they would abandon you like that, just because you need some help."

"That's what I thought!" JD agreed. "But, I mean, they're all busy working at the hospital, so it's not like they have time to focus everything on me."

"It doesn't take more than a few minutes to listen to someone talk."

JD shrugged. "Plus, this kind of happens a lot. I'm really great at messing up relationships, and of course it's always painful. But this time, I think I was really in love with her. Why can't they see that? She wasn't just another girl, she was special."

Daniel nodded reassuringly. "It takes time to get over someone like that. And friends." He put his arm around JD's shoulders. "Sounds like we could both use a friend."

JD smiled. "Yeah, guess so." They settled into a comfortable silence until JD realized how close they were; Daniel was pressed against the entire side of his body.

Before he could say anything about it, Daniel began speaking again. "This may sound crazy, but have you every drunkenly kissed a friend by accident?"

JD's head immediately went to his incident with Carla. "Actually, my friend and I once did that and the next mor—" He was cut off when Daniel's lips crashed into his. After his shock cleared, all JD could think of was the fact that someone was kissing him, and he began kissing back. When he realized who that someone was, he pushed him again.

"You kissed me!" JD squealed, panicked.

Daniel bit his lip and feigned innocence. "It was an accidental drunken kiss," he explained.

JD hesitated and almost nodded. "Wait, that doesn't count because you're not drunk!"

"But you are?" Daniel asked, looking sly.

"No, I'm just tipsy, I told you! Neither of us is drunk, that doesn't count!"

Daniel sighed. "I'm sorry, Johnny. I guess I've just been pretty lonely lately."

"Yeah, I understand," JD said cautiously. "But you kissed me."

"Well," Daniel breathed out, exasperated. "Haven't you ever just been so desperate for human contact that you latch on to anything near you? I physically miss people. And the contact felt good. It was a nice kiss, wasn't it?"

JD hadn't really thought about whether it was good or not. He supposed that it had felt nice. "It was okay," he finally agreed.

Daniel nodded encouragingly. "I just figured that since we're friends now, and we're looking out for one another, we can do things like this to help one another."

"Kissing?" JD made a face.

"It helps me deal with my situation. You may have your own way of doing things, but this is my way," he explained, inching closer again. "Come one, it'll be fun."

It didn't seem right to JD, but he knew what it felt like to have no one there for him. So he allowed Daniel to kiss him again and relaxed into it. It felt pretty good, but JD had to wonder how much of that was the alcohol.

If Dr. Cox could see me now…