Bright light flooded his bleary vision and he immediately noticed just how much he hated florescent lighting. He squeezed his eyes shut against the headache that the lights induced. His head lulled to the side as he tried to blink his surroundings into focus. In his delirium he reached for the first set of what looked like scrubs that his blurry vision came across.
"What… what happened." He saw the IV in the back of his reaching hand and let it fall back to the bed with a grunt. "Awww man." He clapped his other hand onto his forehead.
"You had a case of ventricular tachycardia. It almost sent you into cardiac arrest." Cox turned his head towards the sound of Carla's voice. "You're lucky Bambi was there to take care of you."
Cox turned his head back to the first set of scrubs that he had reached for. Sure enough it was JD. But it was strange though. JD didn't have his normal goofy grin. And there were no ridiculous, random, daydream induced comments. Instead he was calm, focused, intent on the clipboard in his hand, his eyes darting across the information. To his own shame, Cox found himself somewhat intrigued by JD's interesting contrast in behavior. It wasn't something he got to see often.
He ran his hand over his face. "How long was I out?"
"About two and a half hours," JD suddenly spoke up, turning his blue eyes to his mentor. "We gave you some lidocaine and put you on fluids. We also ran an ECG."
"Fortunately, there's nothing permanent. We didn't find anything wrong. It was just a temporary case."
"No shit. I coulda' told ya that," Cox huffed at Carla. "I don't have any history of VT or anything like that. I've just been running on coffee and stress for the past three or four days. I haven't slept or eaten in any of that time so I'm sure the fatigue, the caffeine, and maybe the nicotine have all just caught up to me finally."
"You've been smoking?"
"That's not the point, Newbie. The point is that I'm fine. All I need is some rest and something to eat."
"Muffin?" JD offered, pulling a muffin out from… somewhere.
Cox looked at the muffin perplexed. He pointed at it. "Where?.."
"It's best not to ask," Carla advised.
"C'mon, Dr. Cox, just eat it to hold you over," JD said returning to his humble, goofy self. "At least until you can get a real meal in you."
The patient doctor huffed and snatched the muffin from JD's hand. Carla started to try and help him right the bed but he shooed her off. He sat up and swung his feet over the edge. Thank god. He still had on his pants. But where was his shirt?
"Okay Bambi, I have some other people to check up on. He's your patient."
Cox's head snapped up from his banana nut muffin. He shot a look at JD then looked back at Carla. Unfortunately he couldn't beg her not to leave him alone with Judy through a mouthful of muffin. Instead it was just a muffled, "Mrmph!"
Carla looked back as she left and gave him one of those strange foreboding grins before disappearing into the bustling hallway.
The big goofy grin was almost too much to bear. Cox rolled his eyes and groaned.
"Well, Cox, your prognosis looks perfectly fine as long as you take better care of yourself and follow your doctor's orders," he preened a bit and shrugged his shoulders, "That would be me."
Cox winced at that last part. "And those would be?" He glared at JD and took an angry bit from his muffin. He already knew, but it was company policy to let the doctors gloat… I mean… tend their patients….
"Get plenty of bed rest, stay away from caffeine and nicotine for a while. And try to relax some."
Now JD had stood there many times before and endured countless rants, insults, and girl's names from Dr. Cox, but none of them compared to the horrible feeling that he got when he met the tired, angry, icy stare that Cox was giving him now.
"Judy, did you hear anything I told you in that room just before my HEART EXPLODED!?"
"Relax, Dr. Cox, you'll…"
"… I can't relax! I want that which out of my house! I want to sleep in my own bed! Dammit! I want my boy back!..." Cox continued staring at JD, not quite sure where to go with this. He clamped his jaw and huffed through his nose. "I can't go back there. Not while she's there."
"Where's Jack?" Even JD was surprised at the softness of his own voice.
"He's at Jordan's mom's house. She takes good care of him, but if Jordan goes through with suing me for custody… I could lose my boy."
Suddenly the half eaten banana nut muffin went rocketing across the room.
"Trying to take my money is one thing! Now she's trying to take my son! My son! MY JACK!" Cox stopped again suddenly.
JD saw his mentor's chest heaving. "Bare down, Dr. Cox. Force a couple coughs."
Cox did so, and that was all it took to get his heart to slow back down.
"You're lucky we got some fluids in you."
The two doctors remained quiet for a moment. Neither one knew what to say to the other. It was finally Dr. Cox's voice that broke the noise of the hospital.
"Thank you, JD."
JD's eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sound of the nearly impossible combination of words. "What?"
"Don't make me say it again Newbie. You know how much I hate it. It's just, if you hadn't been there…"
"But, Dr. Cox, I was the one who practically caused it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried."
"Oh shut the hell up, Sally. Yes it was your fault. But you knew exactly what to do. It could have happened for some other reason, some other time, some other place and I would have been absolutely sca-ha-rooed."
"So… What will you do?"
"Hmph. I'll just sleep in the on-call room. Maybe get some grub from the cafeteria." Cox said as started pulling the 12 lead off and stood up from the bed, "where are my shoes?"
"Your shoes are in that chair. We had to cut your shirt off. Dr. Cox, staying at the workplace is not going to help you relax. And the food here is worthless…"
"Amelia," Cox cut him off, "I will be fine." He was standing directly in front of JD. JD had never really noticed that they were almost exactly the same height. And he had also never really noticed how strong Cox's chest looked, and how it rose and fell with every breath. "What?"
JD's eyes shot back to Cox's face. "Ah… er… I…"
"Come on, come on, spit it out." Cox pumped his arms in a beckoning motion, but all JD could do was watch the muscles in his shoulders flex as he did so.
"Y-You should come over to my place!"
"…What?"
"Ummm, well, Carla cooks great dinners. And Turk and I were planning on watching the game tonight. And you could sleep in my bed – I mean – not with me in it…"
"Oh, heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-hellll no!" Cox cut the blubbering doctor off, "There is no way I am staying with you."