Disclaimer: I still own nothing

Author's Note:
This really isn't my favorite chapter, it's just my "let's move things along so I can get to Chapter 4, the interesting chapter" So I apologize for out-of-character moments, it's based more on an emotional episode stand-point than on the comedy ones.

This chapter goes out to my readers, Pink-Charmed-One, Meaghayne, Lili, Cori, and saltoftheearth, I love you guys.

Chapter 3

"I used to like music," Jace said, finally opening up to me. I sat in the chair next to her bed, giving her someone to talk to. She had been here for three days now, which seemed to be all the time it took for her to miss casual conversation.

A timer appeared in the corner of the room with 2 days 23 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds. When the last second ticks Jace's eyes open and she starts to quickly talk to JD.

"I had this little silver CD player that I used to carry around with me everywhere," she said, sighing with the memory.

"What happened to it?"

"Sold it, along with the CD's. Two more weeks of mind-numbing bliss."

This would become the kind of day I would both love and hate. I liked having her open up to me, let me know what was wrong, what was right, what she missed, what she hated. But then came her bad days, the days where she threw things, screamed, cried. The days where I was forced back into the reality that she was my patient, not just my friend, my patient with a potentially serious problem.

A problem that Dr. Cox seemed to think that only I could fix.

"As much as I'd love to help you, newbie, I've got work on my own. Now you may want to get yourself back in there and stop her, she's trying to get through the window."

I ran to the room and pulled her from the window, where she turned from beating her fists on the pane to onto me. With each hit they became weaker until she was tied out and started weeping against my scrubs.

"I cracked it, I was almost out," she wept.

"Yeah," I lied. "You almost beat the system."

Elliot rounded the corner on her third day since getting doubled patient loads. She had yet to come across JD, since none of their patient visits seemed to coincide anymore. She couldn't help but think her was intentionally avoiding her.

"I knew I shouldn't have told Turk, he probably warned him."

Elliot walked to the nurses station and fell over the table, exhaling happily at finally being off her feet.

"Bad day?" Carla asked. Elliot laughed sarcastically. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah, point me in the direction of JD."

Elliot was amazed when she saw Carla pointing at a room. She pulled herself off the table and walked to the door, stopping abruptly as she glimpsed him through the window, sitting on the ground cradling a frail, crying patient.

"Oh," she said, instantly feeling horrible.

"Dr. Cox specially requested JD to watch her, you didn't know?" Carla said, shocked. "Yeah, it's supposed to be a learning exercise or something."

Elliot sank back onto the table, feeling a horrible nausea wash over her for having wished plague and death on the boy. "I should get back to my patients..."

Admittedly I'm not the strongest person here. Elliot has kicked my ass a few times, even, I'm not afraid to admit it. That was how I knew that when I lifted the girl after she fell asleep, there was something really wrong.

"I think we should attatch a feeding tube," I told Dr. Cox. "It's obvious she hasn't been and doesn't plan on eating what we've given her by herself."

"Could you lift her?" Dr. Cox asked while considering my request.

"Yeah."

"Then we do have a problem, I'll try to arrange it." I nodded and grabbed one of my other patients charts. Something stopped me in my tracks. Dr. Cox had grabbed my shoulder to turn me to face him. "JD, you have to understand something."

Something was wrong, her never used my real name before.

"We aren't sure she wants to get better, not all patients who come here can leave here. Don't go killing yourself over this one."

Part of me could understand what he'd been telling me, I could remember an old woman I had tried helping not long before who felt ready to go, but the rest of my couldn't quite comprehend what was being said to me, not about her, she was young, she wasn't ready.

"She does want to get better!" I snapped, uncharacteristically losing my temper with him. "What person wouldn't want to get over that? Why would you give me a patient if you didn't expect me to help her?" Dr. Cox didn't get his usual look of anger when I raise my voice, instead something flashed across his eyes that I didn't recognize from him. Familiarity, maybe. At that moment I didn't care, I was more angry at him than I'd ever been. "If you thought that she was going to die, why would you bring her here?"

I'd struck a chord with him that time. The anger found it's way into his face, but I didn't care. I turned to walk away before he got the chance to yell.

Today has just not been my day.

Dr. Cox let out an annoyed sigh and leaned against the nurses station. Carla poked her head up and sat on the counter next to him.

"I know why you brought her here," she said.

"Oh really? Amaze me."

"You thought that she would be the same as that guy, you wanted to help another one, since you don't know what happened to him." Dr. Cox's eyes widened, Carla was dead on and he hadn't even thought of that.

"But she isn't him," he said slowly. "She doesn't have the spark."

A clock flew past PC's head followed by a wave of angry profanities, the second set that day. He inched his way from the room, sorry that he had tried anything.

"Walking out on your patient?" Dr. Elias asked him. PC jumped nearly a foot into the air.

"No, I just..." Carla cast him a look from behind the nurses station that made him want to tell the truth. "Yeah, I guess I was."

"Reason?"

PC let it all go in that moment. "I don't get why you would give me a patient like this, there are so many other doctors and interns in here, why did you have to choose me?"

Dr. Elias shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it could be because you looked at me funny while I was having a bad day, or maybe you rubbed me the wrong way and I thought 'let's scrw him over, it'll be fun.' " PC stood still, unsure of whether or not the man was being serious. "Or maybe it's because I think you're a strong doctor who can handle a patient like this, did you ever think of that?"

PC shook his head, feeling ashamed.

"That's why you're just an intern, and I'm the doctor," he said, frustrated. Dr. Elias closed one of his patients charts and began to walk away.

"Oh, and Perry," he said. PC looked up and caught the other doctors knowing smile. "You may want to get back in there. Your patient is trying to climb out the window."

Author's Note:
And that's Chapter 3, I promise Chapter 4 will be better. It should be up next week, I just have to get back into the habit of writing more each day.