Summary: Perry gets some news.
A/N: This is a pretty short one, but there you go.
Care Less
Perry had been at Sacred Heart for three months.
He felt he had a pretty good grasp on people there. He knew which of his fellow interns he was better than, which wasn't hard as he believed he was better than them all. He knew which residents were half decent and the ones who were total scum. He also knew which of the nurses he could rely on in a heavy situation. Dammit, all the nurses were good, but some were great.
But there was one big difference that Perry knew set him apart from every other intern here, literally. His way, his tone, his stern look; it all meant that while the rest of them sat together and talked their way through their breaks, Perry often sat alone. If he did sit with others, he didn't join in the conversations much.
It was on one of the rare occasions that he was with two of the other interns that he didn't hate completely, Martha and Bessie, that one of the nurses came up to him with some news.
She smiled at his sympathetically. "Perry, I just got a call from one of your relatives, your cousin Martin, I think. I'm sorry, your mother passed away."
"Okay." Perry said, barely pausing on the food he was chewing.
Bessie now wore the same sympathetic look as the nurse. "Maybe you could go home."
"No, I'm fine." Perry said. He noticed the conversation soon seemed to quieten down and soon after that, Perry dismissed himself.
It was later that day when Bob Kelso approached him. Perry was busy with a patient and didn't look to his resident immediately.
"Dr Cox, can I have a word, please?"
Perry looked at the older man, finished off what he was writing on the chart before he followed the man the short distance he'd moved. "Some of the other interns were a little concerned about some bad news you received today and I want to make sure that you're still capable of doing your job."
"Of course I am."
"A loss in the family is a hard thing to deal with..." Kelso continued.
"Look, I appreciate the concern and I might be over come with emotion right now if I actually cared. But I don't. Now, I've got work to do." With that, Perry, walked away to check on another of his patients.