Scrubs

My Idea Of The Norm

Blurb, blurb, blurb... Have you ever had the urge to say 'Not' after everything you say? I haven't... Not... I HAVE HEARD EVERYONE THAT'S REVIEWED! So, please don't think otherwise. I'm just feeling really lazy right now, so I'll just go ahead and write thanks everyone!

I'm a pro at the JD '99 Luftballons' dance. I do it, like all the time. Hahaha!

Disclaimer: I own Scrubs... Not...

It wasn't hard to make the decision. It was just hard to figure out a way to tell him... Maybe he'll be happy. Hell, maybe he doesn't even want the kid! Maybe...

Ben smiled, lifting his old-fashioned Polaroid camera to his face. Click!

He loved that old house. Now, he'd just have to find a way to move in.

It wasn't really as if he felt anything for Mariah Lear. But, there was a child in the picture, and he couldn't just turn his back on little Maxien.

He opened the gate, walked up the pathway, and rang the doorbell. No answer... How weird...

He grinned and grabbed the handle. The door was unlocked! "How cliché," he said, aloud, chuckling to himself.

"Ben?"

He smiled at the sound of Mariah's voice. "Present!" he yelled out, walking through the house, towards the kitchen.

There was something about the old-time-e-ness of that house that made Ben love it so much. It reminded him of an old french house.

"Oh," she said. "We need to talk."

Ben found his way to the kitchen. Mariah was sitting at the kitchen table, staring straight ahead, her long blond hair moving with the breeze coming through the open window. Beautiful as always. He smiled, taking a seat across from her. "We are talking," he said, taking a picture of her.

She blinked. "Don't do that. This is serious."

He sighed. Serious... That word sucked. He sat the camera in front of him, though the strap was still around his neck. "Really? What about?"

The room grew quiet. Mariah kept blinking, like she was holding back tears.

"Well?" Ben asked, alittle impatient.

"It's about Max..."

"Max? What happened? Is she hurt? What's wrong?"

"She's fine," Mariah said interrupting his questions. "She's in the back playing. It's not really her. It's more... you."

Ben smiled for a split second, almost a quirk, and then it faded away. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

Mariah looked down at the table. "I don't think you should be in her life."

Ben's eyes narrowed. A confused look washed over his face. He laughed, but he didn't sound happy. "What?" he asked. "You're kidding, right?"

She sniffed. It was obvious that she was crying now. She shook her head.

He laughed again. "Y'know, I'm laughing like this, 'cause... This has to be a joke."

"I'm not joking, Ben. I'm serious."

She's serious. Great. There's that word again.

Ben stood up, slamming his fists on the table. "What the hell, Mariah!? She's not just your kid!"

"Ben, don't yell..."

"You're trying to take my child from me! I think I have the right to yell!"

Mariah rolled her eyes. "Oh, right. Your child."

"Yes, my child!"

"Doesn't really seem that way," she said, sounding immature.

Ben narrowed his eyes again. "What?" he asked, leaning against the table with the palms of his hands.

"If you really though that, wouldn't you have told your sisters by now? Wouldn't you have told your best friend that you shagged a girl and knocked her up the first time!?"

Ben was taken back a tad. That was true... Any time he was going to see Max, everyone though he was 'picking up more film.' He was alittle ashamed... But he believed he had the right.

He leaned against his elbows, literally getting in Mariah's face. "We're both wrong, then. But that doesn't give you any right to take her away from me."

Mariah still didn't look him in the eyes. "Yes it does. You didn't sign the birth certificate, did you? She's my baby. No matter what your blood says."

Ben could feel the rage boiling beneath his skin. And he let himself set it free. He kicked at the chair by his feet, knocking it to the floor. Angry tears flooded his eyes and spilled over onto the floor. There was nothing he could do. He didn't sign the birth certificate. He didn't tell anyone about her. Even though she was in the wrong, she was only grazing the shallow end. He was in the deep end, struggling to stay at the surface.

He didn't expect himself to get so upset. He didn't expect to fall against the cabinets and slide to the floor. To sit there, crying like that. Finally, whipping away tears that were only replaced by new ones, he looked at her. "You have to let me say goodbye."

Tears were in her eyes too. It sucked that even though she made the ugliest faces when she cried, that even though he couldn't hate her more than he did right then, he still thought she looked beautiful.

She nodded, pointing wiry towards the back of the house. "She's in her room..."

He nodded back, standing up from the floor. He felt dazed as he walked now. Like crying sucked all the energy from him. He suddenly found himself staring at his own reflection in the mirror.

He turned away and entered her room. She sat on the floor, mindlessly shaking a teddy bear. Her attention broke from the bear quickly and she looked at the door. She smiled. "Ah!" she yelled.

Ben smiled, wiping his eyes again. "Hey Maxie," he mumbled, walking in and sitting on the floor next to her.

She lifted her tiny hand. "Ah!"

He half smiled, pressing his hand against hers. "High five," he said, quietly.

She touched his face. "Wwwet," she said. She smiled big, showing a variation of missing teeth. "Wet! Wet!"

Ben smiled again, blinking away tears. "Yeah..."

Max pressed her hands against Ben's camera. "Ah! Ah!"

"You wanna take a picture?" he asked. "Okay."

Ben lifted his camera, hugging Max to his side and snapped a picture. He lit it slide from the side of it and pulled the picture out. He showed it to her. She smiled and tired to grab it.

He pulled it back. "No, Maxie."

She frowned. "Ehhh..." she wined.

Befor she realized, he lifted the camera again and snapped another picture. He looked back at her. She was staring at the ceiling, blinking hard. Ben laughed, looking at it. She looked confused. She could have that one.

Ben rummaged through her toys, coming up with paper and a pen. He scribbled down a quick note and slid it into her hand. "Keep that safe, okay Maxie?"

She smiled.

Ben realized at that moment, being serious wasn't for him. Having to do things like this... They hurt. It brought a pain to his chest. It made his heart hurt. Maybe that's why he hated that word. Maybe he could be happier, being sillier than he already was.

Max stared at the sheet of pictures in her hands. "No... That's dumb. That sucks. Mega suck. Super suck. Suck-tastic."

She lay her head down on the lunch room table. "This is probably way more obvious than I'm making it seem..."

Suddenly, something paper-thin hit her on the head. She lifted her head and saw the Janitor, holding a big container of some kind of liquid. "Yo, Boss!" Max said, smiling at him. She looked at the table. A paper mouth-mask sat in front of her.

"Put that on, Picture girl," he said.

"Uh, why?" she asked, lifting it over her head and strapping it around her mouth.

"Ammonia," he said, matter-of-factly. "I'm about to use alot of it."

Max heard a grunt and she looked in the direction it came from. A line of orderlies and lunch workers stood in front of the lunch counter, arms crossed. They seemed to stare daggers at her.

"Aren't you gonna give them masks?" she asked.

"What?" He looked over at them. "No. They have no chance in life. You've got somethin' goin' for you."

Max disregarded that. "Hey, can you help me out?" she asked.

He looked at the ceiling. "I don't know. I'm feeling alittle woozy..."

"From the... ammonia?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

She laughed. "All I really need you to do is point." She held up the sheet of pictures. "Which room could a dance be held in?"

Janitor rocked back and forth, waving his finger up and down. "Rrrrriiiiiiiggghhhhtttt..." he started, and pressed his hand down on the picture of his choice. "Here."

Max's eyes widened. "Of course!" she yelled, through her mask. "You're a genius, Boss!"

He grinned. "That's what my sister-mother used to always tell me."

Max stood up, ripping her mask off and running from the lunch room. She walked past the angry line of orderlies. "Sup?" she greeted, grinning at them.

They eyed her evilly.

"Hey, Max!" one of them called. She turned towards them .

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Ever heard of a game called Jiggly-Ball?"