AN: Okay, it's not as long as the last chapter, and I know there are a terrible amount of mistakes, but I am sooo tired. It's past 3:30 in the morning, and I have to take my little sister to the zoo in less than six hours. I haven't been to the zoo in forever, so I'm really excited!!...And really tired. So I have to go. I promise I'll try and come back to it later. If there are any really, really bad mess-ups, just leave it in a comment, and I will be sure to take it into account.

Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing! I really appreciate the support and love! And, also, this is NOT the last chapter. There is still one more left (as far as I can tell), and even then, the saga is not really over. There is plenty of room for a part two!

Alright, enough talk. Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Six:

"It took us a day to get here," Elliot explains, weaving through the crowds of people outside their complex. "We had to stop a lot, stabilize him before we could keep going. Doctor Wen has been working with him on and off, taking care of the worst and going from there." She slows down near a large army truck with a tarp tied tightly over it. "We've had to keep him sedated since we got him out. He's just...been in too much pain."

Perry follows blindly, stopping abruptly as she halts at the rear of the truck. The flap is pulled back, revealing several medical personnel working hurriedly on a prone figure in the center of the truck bed.

"Barbie?" the older doctor whispers, and Elliot turns back, stopping mid-climb into the truck.

"Perry?" It's the first time she's called him that, and he can't help the look of surprise he turns on her, really looking at her for once. She's grown so much. Not height-wise or anything. But there are wrinkles on what used to be fine skin, and premature gray strands are starting to peek through bright blond. Even her eyes, what used to be two shining orbs filled with anxiety and tears half the time, are dull and wise. She looks as if she hasn't shed a tear in years.

"It's him," she assures him, pulling him from his thoughts. "It's him, Perry. The execution was...Well, it wasn't fake, but...He's here. He's safe." She glances uncertainly into the truck, where Doctor Wen is looking haggard and frustrated. "And we could really use your help."

Perry swallows hard, taking a deep breath before nodding and taking the outstretched hands of the people in the truck.

0 o 0 o 0

Elliot frowns and furrows her eyebrows, beginning to shake her head. "It looks...It looks like JD."

Perry turns the VCR off, studying the few people crowded around the television. "Well, we have solid proof that it isn't JD, so we need a new theory."

"Where's Dan?" Elliot looks around, finding solemn faces and averted gazes.

"Dan...left. A few days ago," Turk explains quietly.

Elliot's face blanches, and a hand goes to her mouth. "You don't think..."

"We do." Perry nods. "And he can't find out about this."

"Perry, he's going to find out sooner or later," Carla points out. "We can't keep this from him forever."

"And I'm not asking you to," the older doctor replies with uncharacteristic calmness. "I just...He can't know about this right now. He's recovering. He probably won't even be awake for—"

"Doctor Cox?" an anxious young woman walks into their meeting. "Doctor Dorian is awake."

0 o 0 o 0

The screams echo out across the compound. Several people tensely try to ignore it, talking above the noise or watching the television at nearly full-blast. Others watch curiously as several medical personnel run in and out of a curtained-off area. Everyone knows who the screams are coming from, and not one of them has heard anything so horrible. Suddenly, Perry and his entourage sprint by, forcing their way into the curtained room and whisking everyone else out.

0 o 0 o 0

"JD!" Perry yells, grasping the young man's flailing arms. "JD, it's me! It's Perry! You're safe! You're okay!"

"Let me go!" JD drags in wheezing breath after wheezing breath, his eyes wide but not seeing, his face pained but his strength not waining. "Let me go! I won't tell you! I won't!"

"Bambi!" Carla tries from JD's other side, helping Perry hold the young doctor's other arm. "You're okay! You're with friends!"

"No!" JD screams, sobbing as he realizes his struggles are in vain. "No! Let me go! Please, just...just..."

The young man slowly begins to settle, and Elliot removes the empty syringe from his thigh, capping it and tossing it in a nearby waste bin.

"Oh, Bambi," Carla sighs, rubbing his arm in sympathy.

"What the hell happened to you?" Perry whispers, his fingers stringing through JD's hair.

0 o 0 o 0

JD wakes to darkness.

"No," he moans, shaking his head. He can't go through this again. He wishes they'd be done with him already, make their damn example of him and let him die.

"JD?" a groggy voice says from his left. A body shifts beside him, and fingers stroke the side of his face. "Are you awake."

"Kill me," the young man whispers, tears welling in his eyes and falling in streaks. "Please...I just want to be done."

The comforting fingers on his face pull back, curling around his arm and shaking gently. "JD, you're not...you're not there anymore. You're safe. You're with me."

"I'm sorry," JD sobs, panting and choking on the words. He still hurts so much. The pain, it's everywhere. "I'm sorry about...Jeremy. I'm sorry...I couldn't help him. I'm so sorry."

A sharp intake of breath sounds, and then smooth, warm words are breathed into his ear. "Jeremy wasn't your fault."

"He was my responsibility, and I...I failed. I failed, I failed."

"There was nothing you could do."

"Perry...I need Perry. Where's Perry?" JD pleads, his fingers twitching with the need to touch his husband one last time. A warm hand takes his own, brings it to a stubbled cheek.

"I'm right here," Perry says. "I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere."

0 o 0 o 0

"He's sick," the older doctor explains to the small group standing around him. "It's the same thing Jordan had when we brought her here."

"But we took care of that," Turk points out. "It's treatable."

"Yes," Perry agrees exhaustedly, "but it's a whole new strain, meaning that people who were immune to the disease before aren't now. Which means a whole new vaccine and a whole new cure."

"It's busy work," Elliot says slowly, thinking the statement through before she says it. "They're trying to keep us occupied."

"They made a new virus to keep us busy?" Carla asks.

The blonde doctor nods. "If they keep us busy with this, we don't have time for anything else. Our relocation program will have to be completely rescheduled. We'll have to spend more time on making vaccines and cures for people."

"And not everyone will make it," Perry says angrily, "which will just give them more leverage to hold against us."

"We can't be everywhere at once," the nurse scoffs.

There is a silence before the Irishman speaks again. "We don't have to be everywhere." He looks towards JD's curtained room. "We have to be here. With him." He turns to the others, giving them a sharp look. "We have to keep him alive at all costs. He's what this country needs."

"Perry, he's...he's barely alive as it is," Carla says quietly.

"Then do your god damn job and keep him alive!" Perry shouts, rubbing a hand over his face when everyone jumps. "I'm sorry. I..." He shakes his head, watching his sleeping husband through a slit in the curtains. "I can't lose him. We can't lose him. He's all we have left."

Elliot is the first to take a determined step forward. "I'll help prep him for an injection." Carla steps up beside her, giving her a nod and leading the way.

Turk starts towards JD's room. "I'm gonna check on his stitches."

Perry watches them leave, wanting nothing more than to get a good night's sleep with a well and optimistic JD. But his husband has been neither of those things for a very long time, and Perry doubts very much that he will be any time soon. He closes his eyes, reveling in the quiet before realizing what he has to do.

0 o 0 o 0

"Glad to see you're up and about."

Jordan looks up from the book in her lap, smirking as Perry walks into her hospital room. "Why's that? Need a babysitter to watch the kids while you and the man-toy sneak away?" Jordan knows she's struck a nerve when the man winces at the mention of JD.

"No, I just...I'm glad to see you're doing well. Jack and Jenny and Sammy have missed you. Izzy, too." Perry looks uncomfortable, and he hasn't moved an inch further into the room since he walked in.

Jordan gives one of her rare smiles, patting the bed invitingly. "What's on your mind, Per-Bear?" Perry hesitates only a moment longer before taking long strides into the room and seating himself beside his ex-wife. "How's DJ doing?"

"He could be better," Perry admits, and the worry starts to shine through his stoic mask.

"But he could be worse, right?" Jordan finishes for him, elbowing him playfully. "It's JD, Perry—the boy wonder who got us up and running. People like him don't just give out. He's a fighter. Saved my sorry ass."

"He begged them to kill him." The words aren't meant to be so abrupt, but they are, and Jordan's attitude changes almost immediately.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Perry swallows. "He was having a nightmare, a flashback, and he was saying things that...I just can't imagine JD saying."

Jordan's lips thin into grim lines. "It wasn't exactly the Hilton, Per," she explains. "I thought the same thing a few times while I was in there."

"I'm losing him, Jordan." The doctor looks up, his eyes red-rimmed and swimming with exhaustion. "He's slipping right out between my fingers, and the tighter I try to hold on to him, the faster he seems to go." A choked gasp makes him turn away. "I don't know what to do."

Jordan sighs, laying her head on the man's shoulder. "He loves you. Anyone can see that." She nudges his hand with her own. "You can't give up on him, Perry. He's got this huge responsibility that he never asked for."

"He shouldn't have stood up that day. He should have just kept quiet and not done a damn thing."

"And where do you think we'd be if he hadn't?" Jordan accuses, lifting her head and grabbing his chin. She forces him to look at her. "We'd be dead. Do you know how many people would give their lives for that kid? How many people already have? Don't do that. Don't sully the names of the people who have died for your husband. Your husband, Perry. And don't tell me that doesn't mean anything either."

"Of course it means something," Perry scoffs indignantly. "Don't lecture me, Jordan Godzilla Sullivan. I know a good thing when I have it."

"Then don't let this good thing get away from you," the woman commands. "You think you're losing him? Do something about it. Get him back. You need him. I need him. We all need him."

"I know." And he does. He's preached the same words, and he believes them with all his heart. JD is the one that will end this war—there is no question about it.

"Good," Jordan says with a satisfied nod. "Now get some sleep. You look like hell."

Perry chuckles, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

0 o 0 o 0

"Perry, quit treating me like a fucking kid and show me the tape already," JD seethes, his eyes narrowing as the older man flicks a thumb across his nose and crosses his arms. "And don't you dare try that with me. It only works on Elliot."

Perry can't deny this. He also can't deny the fact that he's been stalling for the past three days. JD has been demanding footage of the execution since day one, and the older doctor has done everything in his power to keep him preoccupied, even going so far as to use Sammy as a decoy.

Everyone knows who's on that tape, and the more JD alternately demands the tape and his brother, the more Perry can see that he's starting to put things together.

"JD," he breathes desperately, shaking his head and swallowing, "I don't want you to see the tape."

JD's anger morphs into skeptical concern. "I have to see it." He takes a deep, shuddering breath. "I know what you're thinking, and I know...I know it's a possibility." He frowns. "I'm not that naïve, Perry." The older man winces at the accusation. "But I need to see it for myself."

They stare at each other for a long moment before Perry turns and leaves, returning a minute later with the tape and three other people that JD is so happy to see, he almost bursts into tears.

"Hey, Bambi," Carla greets softly, Turk and Elliot following her to the bed and surrounding the young man with comfort and support.

"We're here for you, Vanilla Bear."

"We'll always be here, JD."

JD's eyes begin to prickle, and he ducks his head shyly. "Thanks, guys," he says huskily.

A fake gagging noise comes from the end of the bed, and the four look to find Perry standing, tape in hand, with a disgusted look on his face.

"Alright, ladies, as touching as all this love-slop is, I'm gonna have to ruin the moment by saying we have some business to attend to."

Carla, Elliot, and Turk glare at the man, but JD just nods, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Okay," he says.

0 o 0 o 0

By the end of the video, JD's eyes are wide, and when Perry stops the tape, all attention turns to him.

"JD?" Elliot asks softly, the hand she has on his shoulder squeezing lightly. "Sweetie, are you alright?"

"Can you..." He clears his throat. "Can you rewind it?"

"Bambi," Carla says sadly, stroking his hair.

The young man pulls from the touch. "Perry, rewind it."

The older man frowns but reaches down to rewind the tape.

"Doctor Cox," Elliot huffs outrageously.

"Barbie, just be quiet and let him see it," Perry snaps.

"There!" JD straightens, suddenly, and reaches out, waving his hand wildly as if the action itself will do what he wants. Perry presses the play button with his thumb, cringing as the sound of a gunshot echoes from the speakers. "Again."

"JD, this isn't going to—" Turk tries to reason with his friend.

The gunshot sounds. "Again."

A grim look takes Perry's face as he rewinds it and lets it play again and again and again, JD staring pensively at the screen each time. He's about to put his foot down on the next "again" that comes from the young man's mouth, but this time, JD says, "Pause it!"

Perry does so, and the young man sits forward, squinting at the screen. He pays no attention as his breathing worsens, as the heart monitor begins to beep erratically, as his friends try to gently push him back against the pillows.

"JD?" Perry asks quietly, and all activity ceases as the young doctor takes in a sharp breath, his eyes widening. The Irishman quickly pushes Elliot aside, grasping his husband's shoulders and leaning into his line of vision. "Baby, what do you see?"

The three standing around them are taken aback. It's the first endearment that they have ever heard Perry use for their friend, the first time that the doctor has used anything but a girls' name in their presence. Perry doesn't seem to notice. JD's eyes slowly focus on the older man's face, taking in his wide, worried eyes, his pursed lips, his flaring nostrils.

"That's not Dan."

AN: Later, Gators! I will catch you in the next chapter! Goodnight! Yah!