"Waaa-zhuh? 'Lo?"
"Hey, D-Dan? It's Turk."
Pause. Rustling against the receiver. "Turk? …Chris? Man, wha…timezzit?" He was one of the few people who called me by my first name and it felt weird to hear it. Dr. Cox calling me Gandhi sounded more natural for some reason. Wow, I need to get it together, my thoughts are rambling…
"Uh, like almost eight in the morning dude." I cannot believe I sound so calm. Though it's probably from exhaustion and my current crash from my earlier adrenaline high. But I'm in no hurry to get to what I have to say or how to say it so patience comes easily.
Besides. I need Dan at least half awake to register this conversation.
"Tha' early? It's pract'ly a sin…" I hear Dan groan in a huff.
"Yeah…yeah I dunno…I guess…" I didn't know what else to say and my mind went blank.
Another pause. "There a point to calling me Chris or didja' just wanna say goo'mornin'?" Dan sighed a yawn as he said that and I felt my throat constrict.
"Did Johnny put you up to this?" I could tell Dan was more awake now. But at the mention of JD I almost dropped my phone and ran into the bathroom again.
"N-no…listen Dan…" I tried weakly.
"Chris, I swear if that little turd-nugget made you wake me up—"
"Shut UP and listen, Dan!" I exploded in a yell, though it came out super hoarse and not nearly as scary as when me and my V-Bear practiced during Halloween.
V-Bear…
"I…I'm calling because…Dan…JD was shot—"
"WHAT?!" I had to yank the phone away from the shriek.
"Hold it D—"
"NO, WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN JOHNNY GOT SHOT?!"
"Exactly what I said dumba—"
"IS HE OKAY?!"
"SHUT UP SO I CAN EXPLAIN!"
And I did. As best I could in the shortest way possible. Dan was now on his way here, but probably wouldn't make it until noon at best. If—when—JD woke up, it'd be good for him to see some family…
Though in my opinion Sacred Heart was more family to him than anyone else, Dan included. But I still called him, he had a right to know. And my V-Bear would be upset I hadn't told him something had happened.
As I sat beside him, conked out in his hospital bed, IV tubes and other wires stuck all in him, I sighed with a heaviness I hadn't really ever felt before. I scooted my chair up to the side of the bed, rested my elbows on the mattress near JD's wrist…
And I began to pray.
I didn't think Bambi could keep a thing like this a secret, but he did. He had moved in here, what? Almost a full couple of weeks really. As Perry and I opened the door to the apartment (Bambi had given Turk a key in case of an emergency…) all I could do was gasp in shock. I even heard Perry take a sharp breath.
The ceiling had given way, and water dripped from exposed broken pipes and plumbing. A tub lay smack dab in the middle of what we assumed was supposed to be the living room.
Perry swore. "What does that idiot think he's trying to prove, living in this dump? He could have contracted pneumonia or tetanus!" he ranted, shoving past me in the doorway and into the cold, damp living space.
"I don't know…Turk told me before we left that he had been trying to sneak Bambi back at our place…I guess this was why…" I trailed off, stepping around a piece of ruble.
"Stupid idiot is what he is." Perry growled in a murmur, hands on his hips and looking up through the hole into the next apartment above. It was empty too.
"Perry, let's just get JD's stuff and get out of here." I said quietly, my use of Bambi's name snapping him out of whatever thoughts he was currently entertaining. We moved deftly into the back room past the kitchenette. It was the only place remotely livable we found, but pretty bare aside from a small bed and dresser, and it was in need of a good sweeping. It looked like water had flowed a bit into this part of the apartment as well by the look of the water stains on the linoleum.
"Does he not know how to do laundry?" Perry gruffed angrily. I had no idea where this attitude was coming from, but I had a mission and so I ignored his grumblings and sifted through the piles on the bed. Poor Bambi, he was never this disorganized. He must've left in a hurry when he was last here.
I found an overlarge sweatshirt and those scrubs pants Bambi had gotten to match Perry that one time. I whistled and threw them to the Angry Doctor before finding a duffle bag and stuffing it with clothing.
I went into the bathroom to change, not in the mood to flaunt myself in front of Carla. Once inside and closing the door, I turned and noticed a single picture on Newbie's mirror. It was of him and Turtle Head, on either side of some guy I didn't recognize. I normally wouldn't care but…for some ridiculous reason I wanted to know who this was. The picture wasn't that old in my opinion. And Mystery Dork in the middle had on a white doctor's coat over a dark shirt and tan khakis.
I wracked my brain for names and stupid stories Newbie would prattle on and on and on and on about during our rounds together—and while I didn't recall much because I of course tune him out—Newbie had, to my knowledge, never spoken of someone even resembling this man. And in the picture, the three seemed thick as thieves.
I growled and practically ripped off my blood stained shirt (my Newbie's blood!) and pants, and pulled on my borrowed clothes from the nerd. I looked into the mirror now (carefully avoiding the photo of their annoyingly cheerful faces) and saw myself for the first time in hours. I looked haggard. And not in the nice rugged way; I looked like one of those addicts on the subway. My eyes were bloodshot, but I hadn't been crying…
I can't remember much during those times JD's heart stopped though.
I jerked my head away and stuffed my clothes in the waste basket as I walked back out the door. Carla was holding some book and running a hand over the cover.
"What's that?" I asked, though I sounded more annoyed than I wanted. She didn't seem to notice.
"I found it under a pillow. It's Bambi's journal." She said with a watery smile.
"How do you know?" Again, I had some weird curiosity over all things Newbie. I may need to visit my shrink again if this keeps up.
"It has a unicorn on it."
"Oh yeah…his diary. He told me about that stupid thing once. Said it protected his dreams or some girly crap like that." I rolled my eyes and started looking for anything else that might be useful to the kid, in a spurt of uncharacteristic kindness on my part you understand.
Carla gave me a hard look.
"What?"
"Why do you always have to belittle everything Bambi likes?"
"Why is Bambi such a girl?"
"Stop it."
"Stop what?"
"Stop being such an egotistical jerk!"
This made me pause for a second and glare at the little Latina nurse.
"It's who I am, thanks for noticing."
Carla just threw the duffel bag she was packing at me and slammed the diary on the bed. It flipped open to a page and since I was bored (nawt curious) I peered over to it while Carla's back was turned to grab his comb and I stilled at what I saw written there.
Dr. Cox, My Hero.
I blinked to make sure I saw right, as I had been awake for about fourteen hours, and concluded I had seen right. I wasn't…y'know…surprised or anything. Stupid kid followed me around like some puppy I had been foolish enough to feed a scrap or two. But that was honestly all I did give the kid, was a scrap of a compliment here and there every six months and maybe a shoulder pat that one time…
And he thinks I'm his hero…?
Stupid kid.
But now allofa'sudden I felt an urgency deep in my chest to go back and see how he was doing. I grabbed the ridiculous diary, unicorn and all, and stuffed the bag with it. I don't know why I did, I just did it. Then I grabbed the other things Carla had pulled out and stuffed them in the old bag too. It's not like I was anxious to go back to that den of illness and failed bureaucracy, but thinking about Newbie, in that room…what if an intern fouled up a simple IV? Or Bob kicked him out in favor of a hypochondriac board member? Or my She-Zilla of an ex-wife smothered him in his sleep with her bat-wings?
Well, that last one was kinda' far-fetched. She enjoyed him torturing me with his daily presence too much to kill him. Besides, she was still asleep in her cave about this time.
I had let myself go numb over the whole ordeal surrounding Sandra Dee in ICU, but now I think the exhaustion was allowing me to feel again. Maybe even imagine I cared about the runt. But I didn't. I was just concerned over the fact that my relatively clean track-record might be blotched if he got worse. I definitely did na-hu-hawt worry about Newb-the-boob. Wasn't that obvious?
Don't answer that.
"What..? Hey, slow down! Where's the fire?" I asked the raging curly-top before me. He was stuffing all he could in the bag that I had sorted on the bed and making his way out of the apartment. Toiletries I had just grabbed (I knew my Bambi would want his 'unisex' hair gel) in hand, I ran after him, barely having time to lock the door. I almost slipped in a puddle, too!
"Something could happen while I'm—I mean, while we're gone. We should be getting back." Perry said, going down the stairs instead of the elevator.
I don't know what made him say that of all things. But I didn't have the time nor the will to jab into him about his self-proclaimed non-existent feelings. He was already in the car—the driver's seat this time, ugh—and like a bullet we shot out and into the highway towards the hospital.
I clutched the duffel bag, willing myself to stop thinking about bullets, blood and hurt Bambis.
"What is going on around here?"
It was nine in the morning at Sacred Heart, and Bob Kelso had just come in for his shift. The usual crop were there waiting in the lobby; the hobo, a kid who swallowed something and would easily pass it rather than come here, a pregnant woman and her near-fainting husband and a few other stragglers Kelso had no interest in even seeing.
They didn't look rich, important or related to a board member. If you didn't meet that criteria, then it was three-strikes and you're out with him. They didn't call him Beezlebob for nothing.
Well, that was just Perry Cox, but same difference.
-Down the hall, Ted raced to get to Kelso, but tripped on the water Janitor was mopping with and slid into a patient's room-
What irked the old doctor was the fact that everyone was so glum. And the fact that the Janitor was actually doing work than plotting some scheme. Make no mistake, Bob Kelso reveled in the disgruntlement and sadness of others. But only when he caused it.
-Ted was punched out by the patient's husband ("And STAY OUT! You perv!") and continued his trek to Kelso when he was blocked by interns on rounds-
He went up to the counter of the nurse's station and slammed the top with his hand until Laverne slowly turned to give him a look.
"Can I help you?" She asked in a way that booked no argument how she felt about helping him of all people.
"Yes, thank you, Linda," Kelso said, tone clear he wasn't thankful and a smile that was obviously fake.
"It's Lavern." The old but still sassy nurse interrupted with pursed lips and a narrowed eye.
"Whatever!" Kelsp hissed, smile gone and angry scowl in place of it. "What in the name of Sam Hill is wrong with everyone here?"
-Ted finally squirmed his way through, avoiding confrontation as best as he could as usual, and tripped again, falling flat on his face and just short of the counter-
An intern, one of JD's, slunk to the counter, grabbed a silver tin file, and slunk away, sniffling. He stepped over the groaning body of Ted.
"See what I mean?" then a thought came to him, and he growled. "Perry didn't rip into the entire staff again did he? Confoundit, I told the man to sheath in his claws, I can't have a bunch of weeping interns cluttering the halls! If they can't do their jobs, then I have to deal with it!" He raged.
Lavern looked like she was seriously holding herself back from slapping him across the face. But she was a good Christian woman and restrained.
"Lord help me Jesus, for he knows not what he says." She murmured to herself, staring him down.
"Quit blathering and answer me, woman!" Kelso yelled.
"Did you check your messages?" Lavern asked, putting a hand on her hip. Kelso didn't notice the small tremor in her voice, nor the redness of her eyes.
"No, of course not. I go home to stay, not be on call." Kelso grouched.
Just then, the Todd came through, twisting his scrubs front absently and stuttering a bit as he spoke to a police officer.
"I-I dunno, officer…see uh, I wasn't on duty…" Todd said, the blank dumb look he always wore testifying the truth of his story more than his words. The officer just nodded. It was surreal seeing Todd this worried and uncertain. He didn't even ask for a "talkin-to-a-cop-high-five!"
"It's alright. Just take me to uh..who did you say? Dr. Turk, that was it."
"Sure, r-right away. He's with JD still." And they passed, continuing the path to ICU.
"Why's a cop here?!" Kelso was about to bust a nerve.
A hand took grip on the counter, the other grabbing hold a second after. Ted pushed himself up and gasped, "I've been trying to reach you, sir. Dr. Dorian…*wheeze*…was s-shot this morning." Ted seemed content to relay this message while half-slumped on the counter and still on his knees.
"What?" Kelso's eyes were angry and wide now. Ted whimpered in fright.
Just then, Elliot burst through the doors, wailing incoherently. Her hair was tangled, her white lab coat thrown on top of her PJs and her mascara running black mingling with her tears. Lavern swore, looked up and muttered an apology to Jesus, and then went over to her and guided her to the cafeteria, shushing her and rubbing her arm, trying to calm her down.
Kelso turned to Ted.
"What did you just say?" He hissed, eyes flashing.
"I…uh…D-Dr. Dorian..was s-shot…" Ted now looked really sad about what he was saying now that he could catch a breather.
"What do you mean 'he was shot'?"
"Last night—er, early this morning I guess—Dr. Dorian was coming off his shift when next thing anybody knew, a shot was heard and then Dr. Cox was rushing him in on a gurney. He's in critical care right now, b-but stable…"
Kelso swore, thinking of the legal implications and trying to stave off that tiny, microscopic part of him that still cared about his patients.
Especially now that one of his own had just made that list.
A/N: How will Dan react when he arrives? How will JD feel when he wakes up? Who is Mystery Dork? These and four other meaningless questions will be answered here next time on As the Stomach Turns~
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haha jk jk. Gotta love Carol Burnett. Anyway, you guys wanted an update, so here ya go.:')