(Alrighty, here's chapter one. Thanks for the reviews so far, guys.

And to set things straight: no, you nerds, JD is not in the initial crash.

Ain't diction a bitch?

Enough being cryptic for now. Let me know what you think!)

Chapter 1:

John Dorian knew he was in trouble. Pushing the engine to the max, the scenery blurring past his visor as he pushed on the handle bars, his bottom barely touched the seat as if the further he leaned the faster he would go. The two wheels beneath him jolted dangerously as he tilted into a corner, forcing him to slow and steady himself by sticking out a foot. He glanced at his wrist watch. Eight minutes had already crept by since he had managed to escape his home, bringing his tardiness close to a half hour.

Every second was going to be taken out of his flesh.

As Doctor John Dorian pulled into the staff parking lot of Sacred Heart Hospital he saw his torturous future looming. The one man he was hoping to avoid stood waiting for him at the entrance. The intimidating man was poised with his legs shoulder width apart, arms folded over his broad, chiseled chest. Even at this distance, a full hundred feet, John Dorian could almost make out the pulsing veins bulging on the older mans arms, neck and forehead.

John Dorian was not afraid. He removed his helmet slowly, fixing his hair in an elaborate show of defiance and strength. Let the big bad wolf huff and puff. They were equals now, after six years of hard work on Dorian's part, and it was time for the bullying and scare tactics to end. This was John Dorian's day to prove he was more of a man than anyone gave him credit for.

"Newbie!"

"Oh God!" JD leapt for cover behind his faithful scooter, named Sasha, and clung to her desperately. His helmet clattered to the ground as the scooter tilted towards the cowering young doctor. A shadow fell over him and a sharp whistle stung his ears. He looked up obediently, pouting and whimpering for mercy.

Doctor Perry Cox stared down at JD keenly, his clear blue eyes piercing, his face set in a disapproving scowl. He was known around the hospital for his biting sarcasm, long winded speeches and terribly short temper, from which no one was safe. He hated interns as much as he did the Chief of Medicine. He held very little respect for his superiors, and demanded nothing but from those around or beneath him in the Sacred Heart hierarchy. The only people who seemed unaffected and marginally unimpressed by him were the nurses.

Of course, there was another side to him that validated his untouchable attitude and impossible ego. He was a damn good doctor. The best, as a magazine dared to print, in the city. He embodied the cliché every medical student uttered when asked why they became doctors: the need to help people. His first priority was patient care, rules and advancement in his career a distant second. He had incredible skills, unmatched in diagnosis and tricky treatments, and was also respected as one of the most efficient teachers the teaching hospital had ever seen. His narcissism was completely justified.

JD admired him. He called Perry his mentor, but in the back of his mind he knew he had found a second father. They didn't share any DNA, looked nothing alike: Doctor Cox was tall, muscular and handsome with long face and red, curly hair while JD was of medium height, doughy with round features that made him easily defined as cute with dark, thick hair and innocent eyes, yet their relationship rivaled the closeness of any father and son. Though, JD would be hard pressed to get Cox to admit it, the young doctor was certain Perry silently admitted to paternal feelings for his young protégé.

The sooner JD could get Cox to admit this out loud the closer he would be to the hug he had been working towards since his first day.

"What are you doing, Jennifer?" Perry asked gruffly, touching his nose with his finger before crossing his arms over his chest once again. JD bounced to his feet, straightening up and smoothing his scrubs in an effort to regain some dignity. As he was prone to do, his arms flailed in his haste and he smashed the back of his knuckles against the body of his scooter, which fell over.

"Sasha!" He cried, unable to keep the feminine squeak from his cry. Perry snarled a groan, rolling his eyes and walking back towards the hospital.

"Get in here as soon as you're done weeping over the scratched paint and broken nail."

JD watched Perry leave in stunned silence. He had been expecting a far worse reaction to his being late than an ambush and a girl's name. Both of these things were common behavior for Cox, even when JD was completely on top of his game. So common that JD was quite used to responding to any girl's name, often turning when other, female doctors were being addressed.

Either Perry was in one of his elusive good moods, or something terrible was about to happen.

A firm believer in karma, JD couldn't imagine getting away with being so late, even though he honestly thought he was not truly at fault. Nervous now, half expecting someone to tackle him on Perry's orders when he walked through the doors, JD pulled his scooter up, reaffixed the helmet to the handle bars, and slowly made his way inside.

The reception area was marginally calm. Most of the walk-in patients were being treated, the rest sitting quietly in the waiting room. Near the entrance, across from the sitting area, was a gift shop. There was a line at the counter, making it the busiest place on this floor. JD shook his head. Cox was not waiting for him here, which meant he was probably back up in the ICU. Dreading what he would find there, JD pressed the button for the elevator and it slid open as if it had been waiting for him.

He stepped inside and pressed the button with the number 2 on it before taking in the identity of the other person riding with him. It was JD's arch-nemesis, leaning on a broom with a casual malice oozing from him as he locked eyes with the doctor.

"Janitor."

"Doctor," the Janitor sighed nonchalantly, "you're late."

"How do you know? I could have been here for hours and just had to run an errand down here," JD snorted, imagining the elevator crawling up the shaft by the strength of its pinkies alone. The distance between the first and second floor was excruciating.

The Janitor and JD had been participating in a private war for two ever since JD started at Sacred Heart. In the beginning JD had thought the Janitor was following his own sort of tradition, picking out an intern to torture for a year. Then two years. Then three and four. It was going on six now, and neither showed any signs of impending victory. After a while JD began to fight back, in his own way, and learned to always assume the Janitor was up to something. The more time they spent together, playing tricks and swapping insults, the more JD came to see there relationship as a pseudo-friendship rather than a completely hostile rivalry.

It was a strange acquaintance. They couldn't count on each other for anything, nor could they build up any sort of trust. Yet, somehow, when things got bad for the young doctor the Janitor seemed to back off. That's what made JD think they weren't enemies. There was no classification, which was fine because JD did not want to waste his time thinking about it anyway, having many other real, complicated relationships to sift through.

"Nah, you're late. I saw your graceful display on your scooter just now. You know, you weren't really going as fast as you thought you were. Let me guess. Alarm didn't go off?"

"Yeah."

"Shower head fall off?"

"Mhm."

"Toilet backed up?"

"It pretty much exploded – hey! How did you-"

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. The janitor hummed a wordless tune, slung his broom over his shoulder and exited. JD followed him, trying to get him to explain how he knew, and more how he did it, but a light hand on his arm altered his path. Disgruntled, JD found himself at the nurse's station. Carla Turk, his best friend's wife and his own dear friend, was holding him urgently by the sleeve.

"Bambi," she said in a whisper, casting furtive glances over her shoulders like an escaped convict too long chased by the police, finally at the end of her rope, "What are you thinking being late today?!"

For a moment JD thought this was a trick question, and that Carla was in cahoots with the janitor, but his suspicions waned almost as quickly as they formed. If there was one person in the hospital he knew would never betray him it was Turk, but directly under him was Carla. She took care of the doctors and nurses around her, and was so well apprised of each of their personal lives she could warn them about specific things she knew would upset them.

In this case, it was JD and his fear of Cox finally snapping and making good on all his promises to destroy the hospital.

"I… I don't know?"

"Doctor Cox isn't in the mood to deal with your nerdy games, JD! He'll eat you alive if you screw up at the wrong moment today," she spoke from experience, having barely survived an encounter with Cox after she wrote down the wrong test orders for one of his patients. JD pouted thoughtfully.

"Really? Because he met me in the parking lot and wasn't any worse than normal. In fact, I was disappointed because I was ready to throw down with him, you know, left hook, right jab." JD punched at the air in his best imitation of a boxer. He ducked under an invisible jab and curved a sharp hook, feigning away from Carla to hit what he had thought was open air just outside his peripheral vision.

It was like punching a solid steel wall. Flinching, not daring to cry out or turn to look, he flattened his hand against whatever he had just punched. Carla looked mortified as JD's fingers explored the area gingerly. It was sort texturally, wrinkling as he moved his fingers, but there was something dangerously hard about it. Fleshy, yet tight like a well toned muscle.

"I'm caressing Perry's pectoral, aren't I?" JD whispered to Carla, who nodded stiffly as she slowly backed away. As much as she loved him, she was more than ready to abandon him if it meant escaping another rant from Cox. JD gulped, leaving his hand there as he turned to face the man he had unwittingly attacked, "Doctor Cox! You have a dynamite chest. What sort of work out-"

'Get your hand off me of I'll remove it. Completely. From your arm."

JD did not need a second warning, not that he would have had one. He dropped his arms to his side, staring at Cox like a mouse at a lion.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Cox, for being late and for, uh." He moved to imitate his previous error, then thought better of it as Perry's threat echoed in his mind.

"Why were you late, Newbie?" Perry sighed, shaking his head. He looked tired, like he was battling a migraine and losing. JD knew he had to proceed cautiously, any misstep enough to incite rage in Perry's fragile mental state.

"My apartment is possessed."