Sorry for the long wait!! I get writers block and laziness pretty easily. Hah. : Enjoyyy!!!!

Feeling very accomplished of myself, I head to the nurses station. I've never seen anyone stand up to Dr. Cox before. I might have just made history! Once at the nurses station, I glance at Dr. Dorian and his 3 friends chatting up a storm. Dr. Dorian glances at me and flashes a smile, which I return and then grab a clipboard, leaning against the counter to look it over. After looking at it for a few silent moments, I tuck it under my arm and head towards the patient's room. After only a few steps, I hear someone catching up with me. I glance to my left to see Dr. Dorian smiling and keeping pace with me.

"Hi Dr. Dorian." I greet him.

He laughs a bit. "You're a doctor now, call me JD. Can I call you Kristin?"

I nod, "Of course."

Although I didn't think it possible, his smile brightens and it's contagious, so I'm soon smiling also.

"My friends and I heard about you standing up to Dr. Cox and thats a really hard thing to do."

My jaw slack a bit in surprise. How do they know that?

"You're never really alone in this hospital," JD explains to my unbelieving expression, "and word travels fast."

I nod, "Oh."

"Anyways, we were wondering if you wanted to grab a beer with us after work."

I'm taken by surprise by this.

"I would love to," I tell him after a moment of silence.

"Awesome. See you at seven then," he says, still smiling, before taking off in the opposite direction.

Still wearing the contagious smile, I walk into the patient's room. But I stop short and the smile falls from my face. Standing in front of me with his back to me is Dr. Cox. The safe thing for me to do would be turn around and run in the opposite direction, but instead I take a deep breath and take my place next to him.

I nod professionaly at Dr. Cox, who just glares, before turning my attention to the patient.

"Mr. Burny, I'm Dr. Pipsol," I glance at the clipboard in my hands, "Your chart tells me you're having back pains? Can you tell me anything about that?"

I'm not sure why, but I can feel Dr. Cox's glare get more intense on the side of my head.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," the patient begins, "I was, uh, helping my girlfriend move some things and there was, uh, suddenly a horrible pain in my back."

I nod as he tells his story, jotting notes down on my clipboard.

"Okay, well it sounds like you just threw out your back, in which case I'll just give you some medicine, but first I'm going to have a nurse take some tests, just in case."

The patients nods his appreciation. A loud, irritating whistle basically ruptures my eardrums and I turn to Dr. Cox, hand on my hip, ready to tell him off. But the look on his face and his arms across his chest make me bite my tongue.

"Pippy, come," He says to my before heading out of the room.

Assuming that this is now my nick name, I follow him like a lost puppy, which I hate.

I meet him right outside the room and he slams the door shut behind me.

"What?" I ask, irritated.

"I want the guy out of here. On his ass, on the street." He orders, bending down quite a bit so we're a little more level.

"What? Why? He needs pain medicine."

He laughs sarcastically. I raise my eyebrows, waiting for him to finish. He pretends to wipe tears from his eyes and gasp for breath from laughing too hard.

"Oh Pippy," Dr. Cox says, a smile of false sympathy on his face. "You want to give this man pills. That truely is priceless."

I let out an annoyed sigh. "Will you please tell me what you're talking about so I can get back to my job?"

Dr. Cox lets his act slip away, and stands up to his full height, which is quite intimidating when you don't even reach his shoulders and he's staring down at you like an angry bull. I take a step backwards so I can see more of his face, instead of his chest.

"The man in there is a drug addict. Please Pippy, tell me you know what that is."

"Of course I know what a drug addict is! What makes you think that man is?" I ask angrily. I really don't like it when people judge with no evidence.

"Hmm... well let's see, he has his story a little mixed up, and did you notice he's a little too eager?" His arms fold over his chest.

"Dr. Cox, I'm sure he's just in pain from throwing out his back. Which you might want to watch out for, because I hearts it's real easy once people get to be about your age." I smirk at him.

"Careful Pippy," He warns, "Putting my age aside, doesn't it bother you that he was 'helping his girlfriend move things,' " He uses his fingers for quotations, "And his girlfriend is no where to be seen?" He puts a hand above his eyes and obnoxiously looks around.

I hadn't thought of that and now I have nothing to say.

"Exactly," Dr. Cox concludes, "Now get him out of my hospital. We can't have druggies as patients."

As he turns to walk away, I dig something up from the back of my brain; I rumor I had heard a while back.

"But we can have alcoholics as doctors?" I regret it as soon as I say it. I'm not even sure why I said it, there's not even anyone around to hear it and congratulate me on me being so idioticly brave.

Dr. Cox stops dead in his tracks and slowly turns to me, the look in his eyes making me want to melt through the wall I've backed myself against.

I open my mouth to say sorry as he gets closer, but all that comes out is a dry little squeak. Suddenly his hands are on the wall next to either side of my head and he's rather close. I crane my head backwards to look at him, gulping over a lump in my throat.

"I think you've gone a little far, Pippy," He hisses in my face. I nod, but still can't get any words out. "You have no idea about my personal life, so don't assume that you do. Now get the fuck out of my sight."

Eyes wide, I duck under his arms and scurry down the hall, not stopping until I'm three floors above him.