Greetings readers of fic! Here's chapter 3 of My So-Called
Afterlife. Some of the events in the chapter may require some knowlege of my other story 'My Deadly Little Secret.'
Lawyers: Our client does not own Scrubs or Dead Like Me, so don't bother suing her.
Chapter 3
In retrospect, I probably should have headed home once Peter Bengal's soul passed on and try to catch a couple more hours of sleep before I had to go to work. However, I knew my conscience would never let me hear the end of it if I just left his body laying in the alleyway next to the Dunkin Donuts. So I played the part of the freaked out customer and went running back into the building to report the dead body I came across when I had gone to the dumpster to throw away my coffee.
Not only did that mean I had to throw away a perfectly good coffee to make the story true, but I also had to wait around for the police to come and take my statement. Now, you would think that because it was a Dunkin Donuts the police were being called to, they would be there quicker than you can blink, but that stereotype doesn't apply when it's almost four-thirty in the morning. Also, since it was 'just a homeless guy' (their words, not mine) who was quite obviously already dead and was out of sight of the general public, it wasn't their top priority.
By the time they actually showed up, I was already on my second muffin and my fourth cup of coffee. After taking my statement and asking several questions, I was free to go. Thank God too because my shift was in two hours and both the hospital and the apartment was a bit of a drive from here. I'd have just enough time to shower before heading into work.
Man, with only two hours of sleep, I knew that today was just going to drag by.
Thankfully, traffic wasn't too bad, so not only did I get a shower out of the way, but I also had enough time to stop by the coffee shop near the hospital to get a coffee for Dr. Cox as a sort of peace offering to make up for me biting his head off yesterday.
Sure enough, as soon as I reached the nurse's station, I was met with an angry glare and his harsh cry of "Priscilla!" but before he could say another word, I held out the coffee to him like I was holding up a shield. He looked from me to the coffee a few times before growling and snatching the cup away from me. After taking a small sip to make sure that the beverage was good enough to let this all slide by, he finally said, "You're off the hook this time, but for God's sake, Newbie, the next time you're PMSing, send out a memo to the rest of us."
"Bambi, where were you this morning? You were gone when we woke up," Carla said as she walked over to me from down the hall.
"I was out getting some last minute Christmas shopping done," I lied; I finished that weeks ago.
She smiled, nodding, and it was at that point that Kelso walked in and shouted, "Gather 'round everyone!"
We shrugged but complied anyway; everyone within earshot of his call crowding around him. Kelso gave us all one of those quick fake smiles before frowning and saying, "As I'm sure you all know, we've recently lost one of our own yesterday. I believe a moment of silence is in order for Ted." we all bowed our heads solemnly for several seconds before Kelso said, "Moment's over! For anyone who's interested, his funeral will be held the day after Christmas. Now, moving on to other related news. Due to the hospital's low budget, the only lawyer I was able to hire on such sort notice is a Mr. Castello."
Castello... Castello... Why does that name seem so familiar?
I approached him in two quick strides and reached forward with both hands. Both hands which, instead of simply coming in contact with his chest, went into his chest, but not in a graphic, bloody way you may see in one of those twisted cartoons. It was more like I fazed my hands into his chest. Finding just what I was looking for, I grabbed hold and pulled his soul right out of his body.
Jack, his soul that is, gazed at me in fear. I responded with a cheerful smile and said quietly in case someone was listening through the door, "Listen closely Jack because this is how it's going to go down. First, you're not going to press any charges against my friend. Carla was simply acting on her mothering instincts. As for pressing charges against me, well, who would believe you? You following me so far?"
He nodded fearfully.
"Good. The second thing you're going to do is sign custody of Brooke over to her Aunt. You're also going to turn yourself into the police for the child-molesting bastard you are, and you're going to do it without a fight. Lastly, you will speak of what just went on to nobody, you will walk out of this room and do what you have to do to fix the mistake you've been making all those years. There are others out there like me, Jack. I have friends. Understand?"
"Sonovabitch!" I unintentionally snapped out loud.
However, my outburst went unnoticed because I wasn't the only one that wasn't happy with this arrangement.
"Castello? As in Jack Castello?" Carla asked suspiciously.
"The very same," Kelso nodded.
"Dr. Kelso, I can't believe you!" Carla raged. "You can't possibly be thinking of letting that sick piece of scum work here!"
"I don't think any of you realize just how little money Ted was working for. This is the only lawyer we could find that would work for so little, and not only that, but he's actually a good lawyer. Lucky for us, he killed his career because of that whole pedophile incident," Kelso said, actually smiling.
While we were all worried over the man's history of pedophilia, or in my case, the reaper-related incident I had with him, Kelso was happy over all the money he was saving for a lawyer that's actually good at his job. Out of all the evil things Kelso has done, this really takes the cake!
"I hope he's as good a lawyer as everyone says he is because we're sure going to need that skill when he starts molesting the patients," Dr. Cox said.
Carla nodded in agreement and snapped, "Exactly! I don't trust that pathetic excuse for a man around the patients. I can't believe you're even considering this!"
"I'm not considering it, it's already been decided," he said smugly before frowning at Carla and continuing in a stern tone, "On that note, Mr. Castello has requested that you stay away from him, Nurse Turkleton, and I'm inclined to agree with him."
"But Dr. Kelso-"
"Save it!" he said, holding up his hand. "I will not have you assaulting our new lawyer. You are not to go near Mr. Castello, understand?"
The glare Carla gave him could have vaporized him in a second, but still, she nodded and growled quietly, "Yes, sir."
I was a little surprised that she left it at that. However, even though she agreed not to harass the man, I knew that she would still keep a close eye on him. She cares too much about the patients to not watch over them, and I have no doubt that the rest of the nursing staff will keep an eye on Jack. It reminds me off a pack of wolves looking out for each other, or a pride of lions, or... Hey, that's right! There's a new episode of Meerkat Manor on tomorrow.
With a smirk, Kelso walked away and everyone else grudgingly dispersed to get back to work, but judging by the looks on everyone's faces, I had a feeling that this wasn't over yet. Especially for me. I had to figure out how I was going to deal with this situation and soon.
'Shit. Shit. Shit.'
Okay, so let's go over the facts. He knows I'm not normal, and I mean that in a 'not human' sense. Not only that, but the last time I saw the man, I had threatened him and, ahem, kinda ripped his soul out of his body... Hey, he deserved it! The guy's an asshole. There are three outcomes I can see happening with this whole thing: One, he'll fear me and I can use that fear to my advantage. Two, he'll blackmail me; he is a lawyer after all. Or three, he'll skip straight past blackmail and expose me to the whole world. If that happened, either he'll end up in a mental hospital, or I'll end up in a lab being experimented on by the government.
Creepy scientist number one watches me through a one-way window and says, "We've tried shooting it, stabbing it, poisoning it, electrocuting it, burning it, and suffocating it, but still we've yet to figure out how to rid the world of death."
Creepy scientist number two looks thoughtful for a moment before exclaiming suddenly, "I've got it! Let's try blowing it up!"
Creepy scientist number one squeals with joy and shouts, "Yes! That's perfect! By completely vaporizing it's form, we destroy death! You're a genius!"
"Yes, I know," creepy scientist number two says smugly.
Yeah, not my idea of a good time. If I want him to fear me, than I'll have to go to him first and remind him of that fear, otherwise, he might think I'm afraid of him. If that thought gets into his head, then who knows what sort of evil schemes he comes up with. That settles it then. As soon as I check up on Mrs. Sven to get an idea as to how my pneumonia patients are doing, I'll go hunt the jerk down.
"How're you feeling, Mrs. Sven?" I asked kindly.
"Not too great," she groaned, looking a little pale. "Am I supposed to feel nauseous?"
"Don't worry, that's just a side effect of the medicine. Pneumonia takes some time to recover from, so you'll have to be patient," I explained.
She nodded, coughing a bit as I hovered over her, checking her vitals. Hmm, her temperature had risen a bit. I'll have to keep an eye on that. Still, I smiled at her encouragingly before a cough drew my attention to another one of my patients in the bed next to hers.
His name is Shawn Gorvick. He had recently been in a serious car accident and had already undergone a couple of surgeries to fix some broken bones and nerve damage. He still had to have his knee fixed, but other than that, he was recovering quite well after an accident like his.
"Is everything going well for you, Mr. Gorvick?" I asked.
"Dude, I'm nineteen. Enough with all the 'misters', call me Shawn," he said.
"Can do, Shawn," I said smiling, "We're going to hold off on the knee surgery for a bit until we feel you've recovered enough from your other operations. In the mean time, is there anything you need?"
"Good food?"
I laughed, "I'll see what I can do."
He grinned and as I left the room, I could hear him shout, "And none of that healthy crap either!"
While making a mental note to see if I could find something to sneak Shawn that would taste decent but wouldn't make him sick, I set off on my mission to find Jack. It wasn't too difficult to locate him. I was right in my assumption that the nursing staff would be watching him. One small inquiry to a passing nurse on the man's location and I was given exact coordinates. Apparently he was in Tedd's old office, clearing out the space and making himself at home.
I leaned against the doorframe casually and knocked once. Jack gazed over his shoulder curiously, but as soon as he caught site of me, he whipped around, dropped all the papers he had been holding and backed away. Good, the fear was still there. That would save me some time.
As the papers he dropped fluttered to the ground, he held up a hand defensively and said, "I did my time fair and square, okay? You keep your demon hands away from me!"
"And here I was hoping this wouldn't be awkward," I muttered as I closed his office door behind me. After all, I didn't need any spectators.
He grew a shade paler with that move and took another step back. Ignoring his discomfort, I decided to get straight to the point, "I don't like you, Castello."
I'm not sure why I decided to go the whole 'last name' route with him, it just seemed right for the moment.
"In fact, I think you're the person I dislike the most in the hospital. Quite possibly even more than the Janitor," I said before crossing my arms, "Don't let that go to you're head though. The Janitor is a formidable opponent of mine, but you, you're just not worth my time."
His hands shook as he grabbed a letter opener off of his desk and held in in front of himself with a nervous gleam in his eyes.
I sighed, "Look, I've been in this hospital a lot longer than you have, so between the two of us, this is my hospital. What I'm trying to say here, Jack, is that you're going to stay out of my way, get it?"
"Got it." the letter opener was still clutched in his hand.
I gave him a bright smile, "Good."
To prove that he didn't scare me in the least (well, he did just a tiny bit, but I wasn't going to let him know that), I turned my back to him, exposing myself to a possible attack and went to leave. This was the real test to see if the fear was truly still there and that my words had an impact on him. I made it to the door and my hand wrapped around its handle. Hell, I even paused a moment before turning the handle, but Jack Castello remained right where he was, backed up against his desk. He made no movement when I opened the door,. As I stepped out into the hall, my smile turned to a grin and I did a victory dance in my head.
'And this round goes to JD!' I mentally cheered.
I wasn't able to walk three steps from Castello's office before I ran right smack into the Janitor. Now it was my turn to look nervous.
He gave me a really stern look as he said, "Hey, I'm watching you." he gestured from his eyes to mine and then back again.
As Dan always told me, whenever worried about the reaper secret getting out, deny, deny, deny.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, giving off my best confused look as I stepped around him and continued on down the hall, shooting the occasional glance over my shoulder as I went.
"Don't forget: My eye. On you!" he shouted.
Seriously, what is with that janitor?
I'm ending it here. I know, it has seemed a little slow so far, but it will pick up. Hell, I'm just getting started! One note for all of you: Because I'm not a doctor and there's only so much I can try and figure out online, the medical knowledge of the story won't be up to par. Just bear with me here, people, I'll do the best I can.
Anyway, review please!