I know nothing about medicine, so forgive the inevitable mistakes.

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A lot had gone wrong in the past couple of weeks; Karen Black was suffering from breast cancer, Keith was barely talking to Elliot and as a result of the latter, her mother once more suspected that she was a closet lesbian. For these reasons, Elliot decided to embrace the main positive in her life; Dr Cox would be back in Sacred Heart in under an hour.

She walked towards the nurses' station with a spring in her step and smiled at everyone who caught her eye. On the counter was a large cardboard box, and everybody seemed to be holding a small black package wrapped in cellophane. In the middle of the flurry of activity surrounding the desk stood JD, proudly wearing a t-shirt that carried the motif 'Welcome Back Coxer'. Seeing him so obviously enthused, Elliot didn't think about what a bizarre gesture he was making, only how good it was to see things back to the way they should be; JD fawning over his mentor.

"Oh hey Elliot, I didn't think that they made them small enough for you, so I got a children's shirt especially." JD tossed the package towards her with surprising accuracy. It was, in his bumbling way, a kind gesture.

"Thank you!" Elliot wondered what Dr Cox would make of all of this. She shrugged off her lab coat and pulled the t-shirt over her top.

"Now, when he finally gets here, I want everyone assembled in the cafeteria and ready to sing this song by John Sebastian. The lyrics are on the piece of paper that was in the bag with your t-shirt. Does anyone have any questions?" He looked around the room and caught sight of Carla's raised hand. "Yes?"

"Bambi, do you really think that Dr Cox is going to want this much of a fuss? I mean, you're probably more in touch with his feelings than he is." Carla looked around her for support, but before anyone else could chime in, JD continued speaking.

"Okay, I'm not taking any more questions." JD hopped down from the chair he had been standing on and stage-whispered emphatically. "Firstly, Carla, I paid two dollars extra to get you a maternity t-shirt, and secondly, we need to show Perry that we all care."

Even though he spoke determinedly, Elliot could see the look of uncertainty in his eyes. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea in the history of the world, but it wasn't the worst either.

"You know what? I think he's going to love it." She caught Carla's eye and they struggled not to laugh. "I'm just going to check up on a couple of things, and then I'll be in the cafeteria completely ready to sing."

Of course Dr Cox wasn't going to love it, but Elliot knew that he liked to tolerate such things. It was simply the dysfunctional way things worked.

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It had been great having Dr Cox prowling the halls of Sacred Heart again, reducing interns to tears, and making sarcastic quips whenever possible, but Elliot had forgotten just how frustrating he could be. She was growing increasingly stressed about Mrs Black, whose predicament had done nothing to dent her kindly demeanour, and now her friends didn't believe her that Dr Cox was scared of mistreating a patient. To top it off, he had made fun of her attempts to help him get back into his routine.

She stood beside Mrs Goldstein, wondering what had caused her to misread the signals so completely. For the past two weeks her life had revolved around making sure Dr Cox didn't drink himself to death, and today he had publically humiliated her for no discernable reason. There was a tap on her shoulder. Elliot turned around.

"Uh, Elliot?" Doug shuffled nervously from one foot to the other, and she tilted her head to one side to let him know that she was listening. "I'm going to the toilet."

"Uh, Doug?" She knew that it was cruel to mimic him, but Elliot was too tired and cranky to care. "I don't care. Now scram!"

There was something satisfying about watching Doug scuttle away from her, fumbling with the door handle in his eagerness to escape. Slow, sarcastic applause sounded, and Elliot knew without looking that her little outburst had been witnessed by Dr Cox. Frick. He was going to be insufferable.

"Well, would you look at that? Doctor Barbie's all grown up." He checked Mrs Goldstein's chart and watched as Elliot injected her dosage of medication into her IV. "Is she doing alright?"

"Yeah, she's stable. Now unless you have anything useful to say, leave me alone." Elliot compared Mrs Goldstein's current condition to what was written on the chart, doing her best to ignore Dr Cox. He stood with his hands clasped behind his head, and she had a horrible feeling that he wasn't going to obey her request.

"Now listen here, because I'm only going to say this once; it does matter –it always will matter – that people view me as invincible. As even you will be aware, I am an egomaniac, and I happen to get off on the... well, the worship and awe with which you lesser doctors regard me is... it's like sex, frankly; sex, mixed with coffee, steak and the tears of a certain little girl who puts mousse in her hair and continually attempts to invade my privacy."

"I see." Elliot didn't see, but she didn't know how else to respond to this disturbing analogy.

"It is ve-e-ery important to me that I go back to being that guy; the one everybody scurries to for help in an emergency, and if I hide in your size zero skirts then I can't." Dr Cox watched her intently, making Elliot feel a little uncomfortable. He had belittled and humiliated her after all the time and energy she had put into helping him. The explanation wasn't good enough, but she didn't want to hinder his progress.

Ignoring her dilemma, Elliot took the chart from him and marked down that she had given Mrs Goldstein the appropriate dosage. She sniffed and attempted to keep the tears back. Frick. She would not cry in front of him. She would not-

"Let's go for a coffee. What do you say, Barbie?" The suggestion shocked Elliot so much that she looked up, forgetting her ploy of being busy. She fumbled with her pen as she attempted to formulate an answer.

"That'd be okay, I guess." Elliot placed the chart on the end of the bed and followed Dr Cox downstairs to the deserted cafeteria, wondering what he was thinking of. He gestured towards her usual table and Elliot sat, watching as he used the coffee machine. She was surprised to note that he had made the coffee exactly the way she liked it.

"Alright listen up, Barbie. I do not like this kind of thing, so listen closely." Elliot nodded, incapable of formulating a response to his rapid fire speech. She sipped at her coffee, unsure of how Dr Cox managed to drink the scalding hot liquid without so much as wincing. It probably wasn't macho to show weakness. Elliotrolled her eyes. "Good. Now, as you will no doubt be aware, due to my overwhelming good looks, I'm a man. Since Natalie and her blacker half are the closest thing you have, in your limited circle, to male friends, then I should explain that I can't speak so quickly that my words all squish together like some kind of unintelligible string and become so high pitched that nobody can understand what I say whenever I want to talk about something stressful."

He drew breath. Even though he had been mocking her, Elliot was strangely impressed.

"That's true, yes."

"Right. Anyway Barboo, I appreciate what you did for me. Really. I mean, who would have thought, that being as painfully thin as you are, you'd be a pretty decent cook-"

"Is this going anywhere in particular?" Elliot was sick of the way he continued to insult her as though nothing had changed, and she couldn't stand how even when attempting to thank her, he was so rude. Realising that he had touched a raw nerve, Dr Cox became more serious.

"Yes. I'm sorry." He ground out the words as though they were painful, which, as Elliot supposed, they were. "You made darn sure that I listened to every message Jack left on my phone, you covered my shifts, and you kept my entire life above board. Why would you do that?"

There was an intense curiosity behind his eyes. The question threw her off guard, and Elliot looked down into the depths of her cup. Why had she done it? It hadn't occurred to her that she could do otherwise or even that she would want to.

"Because no matter how much of a bastard you are, you always pull through in the end." She drank the last of her coffee. "I wanted to. I couldn't have done anything else." Perry frowned slightly, opening his mouth, but Elliot pre-empted his words. "And no Republican jokes."

"Fair enough. But didn't your beloved boyfriend mind that you were neglecting him to take care of me? Not that I care – I need something to rub in Keith's face, mentally, that is."

The question made Elliot recognise a truth she hadn't been willing to acknowledge; she hadn't missed Keith at all, and spending time with him was becoming an obligation. Unwilling to let him know what she was thinking, Elliot smiled at Dr Cox.

"Ah... not too much, no." She coughed, knowing that her lie was obvious. Frick. Dr Cox raised his eyebrows but did not comment. "How's Jack about the whole thing?"

"He's too little to understand, God love him. I'm taking him to the zoo this weekend. If anything tells you that he's Jordan's son, it's his sadistic urge to watch animals stuck in cages. I have to salute the little guy for managing to resist a bribe of toys to make him agree to watch the game." There was a deep affection in his eyes for Jack, and it was very sweet to see, but Elliot knew better than to comment.

"That's... um... great, I guess. Have a good time, and whatever you do, don't let him climb into the lion enclosure." Elliot flushed under the incredulous look he flashed her. "Well a friend of mine went to the zoo with his friends, and they all dared him to go into the lion enclosure, so he did. Anyway, the lion smelled his cologne and attacked him. Well, tried to. Sexually."

"I am... at an actual loss for words here, Barbie. Did he survive this sojourn into the territory of a wild animal?"

"Yeah. But the scarring was pretty bad from the lion's claws and he-" Elliot sighed, aware that Dr Cox had predicted the end. "He killed himself the next month."

"Wow." He drank the last of his coffee and stood. "Well thank you... Elliot."

"You're welcome." She sat in shock as Dr Cox walked towards the cafeteria door. He had called her Elliot. In a way, she knew it was pathetic for her to be happy about this small victory, but Elliot didn't care. He respected her.

"Hey, Barbie, are you planning on, you know, going home tonight? Because your shift's finished now." Perry shook his head impatiently. Realising that she had been sitting grinning like an idiot, Elliot stood and followed him quickly.

It didn't matter that he was calling her Barbie again, because once was all that she had needed to know that Dr Cox valued her, which was a good feeling.

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