So, my dear friends, I have re-surfaced once again. I have finally regained my muse for this story, and I hope to keep cranking out chapters semi-regularly from now on. So thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or alerted. You are all ridonkulously fabulous.
Dr. Cox sat alone in the on-call room, staring down at his intertwined fingers. The image of John Dorian's chart had been burned viciously onto his mind's eye.
Hepatitis B………………………………………………………………… Positive
He wanted desperately to sprint back to the laboratory, snatch the offending page off the tile floor, and rip it into atoms. Those words crept down his throat and entered his heart, tugging malevolently on his arteries.
Hepatitis B………………………………………………………………… Positive
Perry wasn't sure what happened after he left the lab. Perhaps he had passed out in the hallway, or punched an orderly in the nose, or maybe curled up in a corner and cried himself into oblivion. Perhaps he had done all three. But Dr. Cox had no memory of those few desolate moments.
Hepatitis B………………………………………………………………… Positive
He morosely analyzed this illogical diagnosis. Hepatitis B was transferred only by bodily fluids. As Perry had learned from years as a hospital attending, this usually meant one of three things:
1) Person A injected himself with an illegal substance then passed the needle to Person B,
2) Person A got freaky-deaky with Person B, or
3) Person A gave birth to Person B.
Dr. Cox knew enough about his "Person B" to rule out all three of these possibilities. No doctor in his right mind would get high and come to work. Then again, Perry wasn't honestly sure if JD was, in fact, in his right mind. But it seemed unlikely nonetheless. The doe-eyed resident also habitually bragged to his mentor about any and all sexual encounters, in his own innuendo-ridden way, but no such annoyances had taken place lately. Or at least none that Perry had listened to. And the third possibility could be ruled out immediately, given that JD's mother remained alive and well.
Hepatitis B………………………………………………………………… Positive
Completely baffled, Perry closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands. He knew that the method of transmission was barely relevant, but he could feel a thought lumbering forward from the back of his mind. Like a sudden burst of icy water, the realization tumbled over him.
"I got hit with the business end of one of my Hep B patients' syringes."
Dr. Cox remembered now. He remembered the intonation of JD's voice, the quiver of his lip, and the flutter of his eyelashes. He had been an intern at the time, expressing his worries to four orange juice-sipping doctors in hospital beds.
Hepatitis B………………………………………………………………… Positive
Perry had been the one who told JD to suck it up, shake it off, and move on. Of course doctors get sick sometimes, but it comes with the job. Grab some rubber gloves and grow a pair, he had irked.
And then it struck him.
JD had been tested for Hepatitis only hours after his exposure. And the results had come back negative.
This had to be a mistake.
Dr. Cox gasped audibly and jumped to his feet, his head missing the top bunk by a fraction of an inch. He fumbled desperately with the door handle until it finally released him into the corridor. The laboratory was three doors down on the left.
Upon his arrival, Perry's left foot suddenly slipped out from under him. His muscular frame collapsed onto the unforgiving linoleum floor, and he whacked his cheek on the counter in the process. Perry clamped his eyes shut and cursed loudly for a good minute and a half before the pain faded to a tolerable level.
A wrinkled sheet of paper caught his glistening eye. How tragically appropriate, he thought. Newbie's test results. He brushed off the sneaker-print and propped himself up on his elbow. Newbie tested negative. This is all a mistake. False positives turn up all the time.
But that familiar word printed in green ink shoved him back into reality.
Hepatitis B………………………………………………………………… Positive
False negatives happen, too.
Meanwhile, JD's trance was abruptly interrupted by the sound of knuckles on glass. He inhaled deeply and glanced up to discover Elliot's familiar cerulean eyes peeking between the vertical blinds. JD plastered a smile across his face and gestured for her to come in.
Elliot turned the door handle with shaking fingers and stumbled into the room, wearing sky-blue scrubs and a bewildered façade. She clasped her hands behind her back and remained stationary for a moment, in a perfectly silent and sufficiently awkward manner. With tears welling in her eyes, Elliot gnawed her bottom lip.
Luckily, JD knew her well enough to know what to do. He opened his arms and beckoned Elliot closer with a subtle nod of his head.
Elliot sniffled quietly before advancing over to JD's side. She lowered herself onto the edge of the bed and collapsed into his embrace, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Elliot hadn't wanted to be this girl, hadn't wanted to wear her emotions on her sleeve, hadn't wanted to burst into spontaneous hysterics. So she closed her eyes and trapped her tears.
Running comforting fingers through Elliot's silky blond hair, JD shifted closer to the opposite edge of the bed. He waited a moment before leaning back into his pillows, pulling her impossibly closer.
Elliot silently obliged and lifted her legs onto the mattress, wrapping her entire body around JD. She felt his breath on her scalp, his arm around her waist, his chest rising and falling under her head. Elliot pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his neck without a second thought.
JD's breath stuck in his throat. Elliot's lips sent electrical currents spindling through his veins, and his muscles stiffened in response.
Slightly confused, Elliot pulled away. She looked down at JD with the same insecure gaze that he fell in love with a year and a half ago. "What's wrong?" she whispered.
Well, JD thought. It's likely that I am infected with a serious illness, my mentor is missing in action indefinitely, and you, my dear, are lying on my IV tube. But not one of these concerns escaped his lips. In this moment, the only thing that mattered was the woman lying beside him.
"Nothing," he quietly responded, running an index finger down the side of her face. "Nothing at all."
Insert review-whoring remark here. It's late, and I'm too tired to come up with anything. Just do me a major-large and click that lovely green button down there.
~JD