Note-Thanks to all my reviewers, and a shout out to BellsOfTomorrow for general niceness.
It was with a jolt from a far too vivid dream that Perry woke for the second time that night. He drew himself up in bed, staring at the door, expecting to see a bright light and Carla saying "Oh no you didn't!" But instead, there was just peaceful silence. Writing off Carla's presence as a dream, Perry sighed, and laid back, ready to fall asleep again. But then the alarm clock beeped slightly, announcing the hour, and Perry reluctantly checked it. It was two am. Suddenly, there was a rather loud thumping noise that sounded almost muffled. Something must have fallen down in the lounge, Perry thought, and he got out of bed to investigate. He walked into the room, and for the second time that night nearly had a heart attack.
Turk was sitting on top of a mound of Christmas food, smiling down at him. He was wearing his green surgical scrubs, only they seemed to be fur-lined around the cuffs, and he was wearing a Santa hat.
"Yo, Dr Cox!" Turk yelled from atop the mountain. "Whassup?"
"Ghandi, what in my name are you doing in my apartment?"
"Haunting you" Turk said plainly, taking a bite out of a turkey leg.
"You're…what now?"
"You already met my wife" mumbled Turk through his food, licking his fingers. "So it's my turn. And we've only got about an hour so we better get going"
Perry groaned. It wasn't a damn dream after all. Turk reached out to take Perry's arm, but Perry drew it back as if he'd been burned.
"Who are you?"
"Ghost of Christmas Present. Now come on, hurry up, I haven't got all night!"
"Is the room gonna go all fuzzy like it did last time?" asked Perry suspiciously. "Because I have recently consumed a large amount of alcohol"
"No" said Turk impatiently "Past spins. Present flies! Now let's go!"
And before Perry had any more time to stall, Turk had grabbed his arm, and in a whoosh of air, he was flying. It was an amazing feeling, he felt like he was floating on invisible water. The window magically opened, and the two flew out, higher and higher into the night air. The wind was cold and stinging against Perry's mortal cheeks, and when he looked down, he could see the whole city, from his apartment to the hospital. The hospital seemed to getting closer, and he realised, with a start, that they were about to crash into the wall. He shielded his face as the window drew closer, until they were about to crash into it…
But there was no sound of breaking glass, no streaks of pain. When Perry opened his eyes, they were standing in the middle of the Doctor's lounge, and the window was whole. Perry breathed a sigh of relief.
"What are we doing here, Ghandi?"
Turk didn't answer, only motioned to Perry to follow him. He did, and they walked through the door out into the corridor. They passed the nurse's station, and Perry was shocked to see the same amount of nurses there as there would be any day.
"How come there are so many staff on-call tonight?" he wondered aloud.
"You wouldn't let any of them have a night off" Turk replied simply. Out of the corner of his eye, Perry saw Carla suppress a yawn. He followed Turk into a patient's room, where Keith was checking up on a young woman. Perry peered over Keith's shoulder at the chart, and winced.
"Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis…" he muttered. "Boy, she's not having much luck this Christmas!"
"None of these people are" Turk said. "Mr Byrne three doors down has cancer. This is a hospital, dude, people are sick, even if you're too wound up in your office to notice it! I just hope the Lord God will help them"
Perry scoffed. "There is no God!"
"And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy…" Turk muttered quietly. Then Perry felt a light sensation in his head, and suddenly they were standing in an apartment.
"Where are we…?" Perry mumbled. Then he heard a click of a key in a lock and muffled voices, and he turned toward the door. It opened, and JD and Elliot entered the apartment.
"God, I hope he's ok!" JD said, making his way over to a door on Perry's left.
"I can't believe we had to work a double shift on Christmas!" Elliot said, hanging up her coat before following her husband. Perry winced at her words. Turk motioned to follow them, and Perry resisted for a moment before obliging.
The first thing that struck him about the room, oddly enough, was the wallpaper. It was a powdery sky blue which reminded him of a pair of scrubs, and covered with little ducks. There were toys and clothes scattered all over the floor, a few pieces of furniture, and a small bed in the corner, which JD and Elliot were kneeling by. A small boy lay in the bed, his face pale.
"Is that Sam?" Perry muttered bitterly. Turk nodded.
"You ok, buddy?" JD said quietly, stroking his son's hair. Sam stirred in his sleep, and coughed violently.
"He's got pneumonia" Perry realised suddenly. "I never knew…"
"Well, why would you?" Turk replied. "Every time Vanilla-Bear tries to tell you, you ignore him"
Elliot knelt down beside JD, and took her bag off her shoulder. She unzipped it, and emptied the contents onto the floor. Out fell syringes and bottles of Tylenol.
"They're the ones stealing the medical supplies?" Dr Cox said, aghast. "But…why? This kid obviously needs medical attention!"
"There are free clinics all over the place, right? If the underprivileged don't want to go there than they can die because they damn well aren't coming into your hospital unless they can afford it, right?" retorted Turk instantly, irony lacing his sentence.
"That's ridiculous; of course they can afford it"
"No they can't!" Turk almost shouted in frustration. "And you know why? Because you docked their pay!"
Elliot gently pushed the needle into Sam's arm and injected him. Perry realised that her face was streaked was watery mascara. Newbie was trying to hold his tears in too, but failing, and he dashed the sleeve of his scrubs across his face. With a start, Perry realised that his eyes were watering too. He blinked the small droplets of water away, but not before Turk saw them.
"Let's go, Ghandi" he said gruffly.
"Wait" said Turk. "There's just one more thing"
Reluctantly, Perry turned back to the scene. Elliot was reaching inside her bag, and was pulling out greasy looking paper parcels and drink cans and placing them on the floor. JD took one of the parcels and opened it. It was a hamburger. He took a bite, and Perry could see him suppress a grimace.
"The classic Christmas meal" he said sarcastically. "A Turkey and stuffing burger from the Food Court"
"It was all we could do on such short notice" said Elliot. "If stupid Dr Cox hadn't made us work Christmas Eve, I could've done something really nice!"
"Don't say that, Elliot. Dr Cox is a good guy, really"
Elliot scoffed.
"Yeah, that's why we're stealing medical supplies from under his nose! You're only defending him because you're still hoping for that hug!"
"I will get that hug…" JD muttered. Perry laughed.
"The kid's loyal" he said to himself.
JD picked up a can of Coke, and opened it.
"I toast him" he said simply. Elliot was, quite obviously dumbfounded, and if Perry was honest with himself, he was too.
"What?" he and Elliot said at the same time.
"He's our boss, whether we like it or not. Now, I've seen him at his worst, but I've seen him at his best too. And things can only get better. So a toast to Perry Cox, my boss, my friend, my mentor!"
Elliot shook her head as JD drunk Perry's health. She moved slightly so that she was lying in her husband's lap. It was an almost beautiful scene, with the pair cuddling and Sam lying in the bed. Perry was transfixed, and barely noticed Turk holding his arm. In fact, he only realised they were moving when they seemed to shrink into nothingness.
He and Turk landed in a deserted street. Perry looked around him, and was astonished to see that there were no lights. All the lights in the buildings were off, there were no streetlights and there were no cars. Perry looked up at the sky, and even that was black and faded, as if it had been blotted over with ink.
"Where in hell are we, Turtle-Head?" he said, his head still in a twelve-o-clock motion. But when he turned back to Turk, he nearly jumped out of his pyjamas. Turk had suddenly aged dramatically; he looked almost a hundred. His face was set with deep wrinkles, and his eyes seemed hollow. But strangest of all was that there seemed to be something underneath his surgeon scrubs top. Something that looked oddly like a…
"Is that a hand?" Perry said, terror beginning to set in. Turk soundlessly reached under his scrubs top, and pulled out something in a bundle of rags. The bundle squirmed as Turk set it down on the pavement, and he then proceeded to bring out another bundle, which he carefully laid next to the other one.
"What are they?" whispered Perry, his voice hoarse. The bundles were stirring, and they gradually sat up, like zombies, and the rags fell away to reveal two faces that Perry recognised, faces that struck terror into his heart.
"Jack? Jenny?" he whispered.
His children were pale and skinny like Sam had been, and they huddled round Turk like animals.
"The boy is ignorance, and the girl is want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased!"
Turk let out a screeching moan, and Perry shielded himself from the man. And when he opened his eyes, Turk and the children had vanished, and all that remained on the floor were a pair of green scrubs with fur lining.
Then there was a movement, and Perry looked up, in fear. Something black was moving in the distance, shuffling ever closer slowly. Something shrouded in a long black cloak.
Something coming for him.