Lawyers: Our client does not own Scrubs or Dead Like Me, nor is she gaining any profit by writing this story. Don't sue her.
Chapter 12
As soon as I brought the three elderly women outside the doors of Sacred Heart, a large cruise ship pulled right up into the parking lot. All three of them climbed aboard and waved goodbye to me from the side of the ship as it slowly sailed away. It seemed very fitting for them.
Once the ship disappeared in a flash, I went back inside the hospital to do my very best to keep anyone else from dieing today, or any other day for that matter. I started by checking up on all of my patients to see how they were faring. However, before I was even able to see my second patient, Elliot practically appeared out of nowhere and dragged me away. Because she had one of those full-blown, panicking looks on her face, I thought it best not to fight her.
Still though, I took a guess on what it was that had her so completely frazzled and said, "Elliot, I swear I'll help with the crowd in the lobby as soon as I'm done checking up on all of my patients."
She shoved me into the employees only lounge where I noticed several other doctors and nurses, including Carla, were milling about, and while I couldn't see their mouths through the facemasks, I could tell they looked just as worried as Elliot.
"What's going on?" I asked with curious concern.
"It's not working!" Elliot squawked, and at my confused look, she elaborated, "The cure. It has no effect. There was just this big news report on it."
That's when I noticed that the TV was on, and sure enough, the reporter was repeating what the different specialists had just confirmed. However, I didn't need to hear the report because Elliot summed it all up for me in a high-pitched tone.
"Streptomycin, tetracyclines, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, and doxycycline, none of them are having any effect on the Y. pestis bacterium. That new biovar that Kelso was talking about is a mutation that makes Y. pestis completely immune against all of our antibiotics!"
I felt a wave of dread crash over me. It just couldn't be possible, it couldn't be happening, and yet I knew that it was true. The past couple days, all the people that had died despite being on antibiotics, they weren't taken out in the last few lashes of the epidemic, they were just the beginning.
"What're we going to do, JD?" Elliot asked me, as if she hoped that, while she couldn't come up with an answer to this dilemma, just maybe I had some sort of idea or magic cure.
But there wasn't a magic cure to this thing, at least not one that we knew of. There wasn't anything that we could do. All these people in the hospital were infected without hope, and if it's not Dan, than it'll be me to get the post-it and reap every last one of them.
Times like these makes me want to piggy-back the next bright light off of this planet.
Breaking many of us from our musings, Carla gestured to the news report and brought up a very good point, "Are the people in the lobby watching this? What about the patients?"
"Frick!" Elliot snapped and raced out of the lounge with many other doctors and nurses on her tail.
It would only be a matter of time before the news spread and chaos erupts in Sacred Heart, and yet instead of running off to assist Elliot or any of my other colleagues with the imminent panic, I headed straight to Dr. Cox's room. I don't know why seeing him suddenly became my top priority and I don't know why I ran the whole way there due to the fact that there was nothing I could do for him or anyone else in the hospital. I guess I just needed to see that he was still breathing, which was ridiculous considering the fact that I practically get a list of who's going to die for the day, and he definitely wasn't on today's list.
When I got to the room, I saw Jordan sitting in a chair pulled up next to the bed and Dr. Cox looking very much awake and aside from his pale complexion and his obvious exhaustion, he didn't appear any closer to death today than he did yesterday. The TV was off and judging from the looks on their faces, neither of them had heard the news yet.
Jordan glanced over at me standing in the doorway and said, "It looks like DJ has some business here with you, so I'll leave you ladies to talk."
After a quick order to Dr. Cox to get better soon (or else), Jordan went back to work and I was left alone in the room with him. He smiled tiredly and said in a tone that lacked his usual vigor, "Hannah, it's so good to see that you're actually doing your job and keeping your head out of the clouds."
"How are you feeling?" I asked in a strained voice as I picked up his chart and glanced over it. He still had a fever and he'd already been given his dose of streptomycin, not that it even really matters anymore now that we know it has no effect.
"My head's killing me," Dr. Cox said honestly. "Not to mention I have this re-heally annoying cough."
I forced out a laugh that sounded more like a grunt, but Dr. Cox didn't comment. He simply lay there and watched as I checked him over. While I wasn't exactly in the mood to laugh, I'd rather have him joke (heck, I'd rather have him ridicule me), than to have him fall silent like that.
I checked his blood pressure and his temperature (which had risen from 99.8 up to 100.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and wrote the updated information on his chart. Once I finished that, I was left standing there with nothing to do. He was already hooked up to all the right IVs and he didn't need any medicine. I could have left right then and there with the excuse that I had to check on some other patients, but I didn't because the reason why I had gone straight to Dr. Cox's room (aside from checking to see if he was doing alright) was to break the news to him. He had a right to know what was going on, and since I'm his doctor, I figured I should be the one to tell him.
I put away his chart as slowly as I could, trying to buy time to figure out how I wanted to tell him. I didn't know if I should just be blunt about it and get straight to the point, or if I should be vague and let him figure it out on his own.
"Newbie, is there a reason you're standing there staring at me?" Dr. Cox asked in annoyed curiosity.
"We have a problem," I said.
My face must have appeared grave because I swear that I saw worry flash across his eyes, however, he remained completely composed when he asked, "A problem?"
"There's been reports all over the news, and if I went down to the labs, they'd confirm the same thing," I said somberly. "The antibiotics aren't working against the plague bacterium."
Dr. Cox let out a long sigh, almost as if he suspected something like this was happening. Who knows, maybe he did suspect it. Maybe he could feel himself getting worse and thought that perhaps the medicine wasn't working quite right.
"Are any of them working?" he asked monotonously. "Any of them having any effect?"
"None that we know of," I replied quietly.
Dr. Cox stared down at his lap, like he was thinking over his options. I basically just told him that there was no hope of recovery, that he was going to die, and in a true 'Dr. Cox fashion', his face remained completely expressionless as he continued to stare down at his lap. I bet right now he would love nothing more than to head to a bar for some scotch.
Several long minutes dragged on, neither of us saying anything. My gaze kept jumping from the floor to Dr. Cox and then back again. He furrowed his brow as if he was having a mental debate.
God, he looked so defeated at the moment.
"I could try something else," I said suddenly, surprising even myself by talking. I wasn't ready to give up. "If streptomycin isn't working, than maybe tetracyclines will."
Dr. Cox sighed and shook his head, "No, I was taking tetracyclines and I still got sick."
"Then we'll try something else. Maybe the two most common and most effective treatments aren't working because whoever spread the disease knew that we would try them first, so they made the disease resistant to them," I guessed, feeling a bit more hopeful because of the theory. "I could always try gentamicin, chloramphenicol, or even doxycycline."
"If you think it will help," Dr. Cox said, though he still sounded a bit unsure.
"We'll never know if we don't try," I pointed out positively as I grabbed his chart and scribbled a couple notes down on it. "You just hang in there and I'll get right on it."
I quickly left the room. I was a man on a mission, however, before I could actually get to said mission, I was called down to the front desk of the lobby by a Mr. Charlie Rin-tin.
God dammit, Dan.
With a growl, I walked over to the elevator and took it down to the first floor. I stormed out of the elevator and down to the lobby, and when people saw me, well, they raised an eyebrow in my direction because 'royally pissed off' isn't usually a look they see on me.
When I reached the lobby, I was met with quite a sight. Dan was leaning against the front desk with a leash in his hand and the puppy standing by his feet. He was surrounded on all sides by children eager to see the puppy who in turn was thrilled at all the attention he was getting. Meanwhile, a nurse from the front desk was currently yelling at Dan, saying that he couldn't bring a dog into the hospital, and also telling him that he needs to be wearing a face mask and that he can pick one up by the door.
"Dan!" I snapped. "What do you want? I'm really busy."
"I decided to bring Hobo by to socialize with people," Dan explained. "You don't want him to become one of those 'when dogs attack' stories, do you?"
Dare I ask?
"Hobo?"
"Yeah, you know, The Littlest Hobo. He traveled around doing good deeds. It was a TV show in the eighties," Dan said.
"Hm, I don't remember that one," I mumbled, thinking back.
"That's too bad, it was a good show," Dan said.
"What is that dog doing in my hospital?" a voice snapped from behind us.
We both jumped and twisted around to see Kelso standing there looking thoroughly pissed.
"Do you have any idea what kind of germs that animal is bringing in here?" he growled.
"I think dog germs are the least of your problems right now," Dan pointed out humorously.
Kelso, however, was not amused. He glared at Dan before turning his gaze to me and asking, "Do you know this person, Dr. Dorian?"
"He's my brother," I sighed. "And he was just leaving, weren't you, Dan?"
All of the kids that were playing with the puppy 'awwed' at the thought of their new, furry little friend leaving.
"What about little Hobo's socialization skills?" Dan asked with a mock pout.
"You're not naming him Hobo because we're not keeping him," I hissed, then said, "Take him to the park, take him to a store, take him anywhere but here. Just go! I've got far too much on my plate as it is, I can't be dealing with this right now!"
"Fine, fine," Dan said with his hands raised defensively. "No need to bite my head off."
Before I could respond to that, my pager went off. I pulled it out with a sigh and quickly read the message.
Oh, no..
I raced from the lobby before Dan or Kelso could even blink and headed straight for the elevator. One of my interns paged an SOS to me, telling me to get to Dr. Cox's room immediately. They didn't say what was wrong but I knew that whatever it is, it couldn't be good.
I waited for the elevator to take me to the third floor, my foot tapping impatiently. In the time it took for me to go see Dan, what could have possibly gone wrong? I didn't get a post-it for him today, so it couldn't have been fatal. Then what was it? What could have happened? Can't this stupid elevator go any faster? I should have taken the stairs. I swear, if this is some sort of minor intern freak-out, heads will roll!
There was a ding and the doors opened. I shot out of there like a bat out of hell, and almost ran straight into Jack Castello.
"Outta my way Castello!" I snapped, pushing him to the side.
He fled down the hall with a whimper. You know, it was funny at first, but his fear for me is starting to get a little old.
When I finally reached Dr. Cox's room, I took in the scene around me. Two of my interns, Keith and Lisa, stood near the wall looking a little tired and staring down at Dr. Cox. Anyone else who might have been in the room before I got there had already left to get back to other patients. As for Dr. Cox, well...
He was unconscious, and his once pale face was now flushed with fever. To top it all off, he had a tube going down his throat. All in all, he wasn't looking too good.
"What happened?" I croaked, suddenly feeling very tired myself.
"Respiratory failure," Keith said. "His fever spiked too."
"We gave him an antipyretic to bring it down," Lisa said, and both her and Keith looked to me as if asking if they had done the right thing.
"Good," I said, reassuring them. I glanced over at all the different monitors, and then to the respirator. "One of you needs to go tell Jordan."
They both suddenly looked horrified.
"But Dr. Dorian," Lisa said, "she'll kill the messenger!"
"Yeah," Keith agreed. "She scares the hell out of me."
"I'll let you decide who has to go," I said, then dismissed them from the room.
I knew that I had other patients I had to treat, other patients that were just as bad, or maybe even worse off than Dr. Cox was, but I just couldn't pull myself to leave the room and get back to work. I slumped down into the seat placed next to his bed, and with a sigh, I buried my face in my hands.
Just moments before, he had been fine. Well, not completely fine, but at least he was conscious and pretty much breathing on his own if you didn't count the nasotracheal intubation. The whole thing just seemed so unreal. Dr. Cox was too strong to be brought down like this. In fact, the entire time that I've known him, I don't think I've ever seen him get sick. Really sick, I mean. Not just some hangover. That didn't count.
Yet, as unreal as the whole situation felt, nothing made it more real to me than the hiss of the respirator, the beeping of the monitors, and seeing him there in bed looking so.. completely.. vulnerable.
But I couldn't give up. Not just yet. I could still cure him. There were other antibiotics I could try, and time was of the essence.
I got up from the chair and left the room, pretty much speed-walking the entire way to the supply closet where I knew the medicine lay. This had to work. It had too...
Jordan was in the room when I came back to administer the antibiotic. I was going to try gentamicin first. It was one of the more recent treatments and was worth a try.
"What are you doing?" Jordan asked. "I heard that none of the treatments were working."
"I'm not giving up just because some news reports say we're all doomed," I said as I injected the antibiotic into his IV. "I know that streptomycin isn't working and I know that tetracyclines isn't doing its job because he still got sick when he was taking that, but there are still lots of other antibiotics I haven't tried yet."
"What do you think his chances are," she asked quietly, not looking up from Dr. Cox's face.
I paused for a moment, before hesitantly saying, "I don't know."
Although I couldn't see her mouth through the mask, I was pretty sure she was frowning at this point.
Discarding the empty needle, I said, "There are a few other patients I have to see."
She nodded.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes at me and snapped, "Yes, I'll be okay DJ. Unlike you, I'm not a little girl. I'm pretty sure I can handle things here."
"Okay," I said, then walked to the door, but before I left, I paused in the doorway and asked, "About my intern that came and told you the news, should I be worried for their well-being?"
"His hair will grow back, and that cut probably won't even scar," Jordan said dismissively.
'Poor Keith,' I thought, shaking my head.
As I walked away from the room, I could have sworn I heard Jordan say in a mildly distraught voice, "You're such a girl, letting this get the best of you. You better not leave me and Jack alone..."
If anyone ever asked, I would deny ever hearing Jordan's one vulnerable moment. I knew she'd find some way to actually manage to kill me if I ever told a soul.
The rest of the day was a blur of activity. By now, everyone in Sacred Heart was aware of how ineffective the antibiotics were and with this knowledge came chaos. Families that were unable to see their loved ones due to Kelso's new rule to avoid exposure were tying up the phone lines trying to get some information on the situation. Many of the patients were in hysterics and had to be sedated. Believing that they were doomed to die, some of the patients actually got sicker, as if their bodies were giving up on life.
Thankfully, I managed to restore some hope in my patients by telling them what I told Jordan. Those of my patients who were actually conscious fully supported my plan to try a different antibiotic.
In between checking up on all my patients and answering any questions my interns had, I also went down to help out with the insanity that was taking place in the lobby and the waiting room. The majority of people that were there were complaining of plague symptoms, and I helped weed out the hypochondriacs from the actual sickies. I think there were only three people in the waiting room who were actually there for a reason other than the plague, and they avoided everyone else as best they could.
Despite all the previously mentioned madness, everything was actually going pretty well. Lavern managed all the phone calls like a pro, and everyone in the waiting room and lobby eventually got to where they needed to go. Everyone in the hospital was working together like a finely-tuned machine.
Although there was one small incident.
One of my interns had paged me asking for some patient help, so I had been on my way down the hall when it happened. It was no one's fault really, just an unfortunate accident. I turned a corner of the hall at the same exact time a nurse was pushing a cart with a couple trays of hospital supplies on it. You know, needles, medicine, scalpels, the works. We collided with each other and both the cart full of supplies and I went crashing down.
While the nurse apologized profusely and repeatedly asked if I was okay, I hid the hand that had been impaled by one of the scalpels behind my back and told her with a forced smile that no harm was done. I couldn't let her see my hand because if she did, then she would want to get it stitched up and maybe get an x-ray, and by the time that got done, the wound would have already healed itself. That would cause many unwanted questions.
So I grit my teeth, kept a smile on my face, and helped her pick up the supplies with my good hand. I quickly sent her on her way and as soon as she was out of sight, I turned my attention to my hand with a miserable whine.
"Oh God," I hissed, my voice higher than usual. With my good hand, I grabbed hold of the scalpel and ripped it out quick, like a Band-Aid, with yelp of, "Shit! Shit!"
"Oh my God!" I heard a cry coming from my left.
My gaze snapped over to see Jack staring at my bloody hand with a horrified look on his face. So, reacting like an injured animal, I snapped at him, "You got something to say to me, Castello? 'Cause if not, you better get out of my sight in three, two-"
He was already in the elevator, pressing buttons frantically before I could finish. With a sigh, I looked back at my hand to see the wound all healed up. I vaguely wondered if he saw too much, but then quickly brushed aside my worry. He's seen worse than this from me and he was far too afraid of me to do anything about it.
Wiping the blood off on my scrubs, I continued on my way down the hall to help an intern with a patient.
When my shift finally ended, it was well into the night and I was so exhausted that I didn't even feel like getting a newspaper for the obits. I was on my way up to the third floor to check on Dr. Cox again when I was stopped by Carla.
"I know your shift is over, Bambi, so why are you still here?" she asked.
"I was just going to check on Dr. Cox before I left," I said tiredly.
"I just checked on him, his condition's no different," Carla told me. "Now leave while you still can. Go home and go straight to bed."
"Yeah, okay," I sighed. "I am kinda tired.."
Elliot had already gone home and both Carla and Turk's shift went a couple hours after mine, so I dragged myself outside, hopped on Sasha, and drove home. Dan was already asleep in my bed by the time I got there, and the puppy was once again confined to the kitchen, crying to be let out. It was a wonder Dan could sleep through it. I had a feeling the neighbors weren't having as much luck sleeping as Dan was. It wouldn't be too long before the landlord found out about our little visitor.
I stared down at the puppy and he stared back up at me, still whining in the back of his throat. I knew I'd never be able to get to sleep with that noise, and there was no way I would be spending another night curled up in front of the gate again.
I opened the gate with a defeated sigh and said, "Come on."
The puppy wagged his tail gratefully and followed me into the living room. I collapsed onto the couch and half-heartedly pulled the blanket over me. A second later, the puppy was up on the couch with me and curled up on my stomach.
"Don't expect this to be an every-night thing," I mumbled to him before I fell asleep.
Yes! End of chapter 12! I finished this chapter sooner than I thought I would. The next update won't be as quick. Sorry!
D: Poor Dr. Cox! And Jordan... and JD... Hell, everyone's having a pretty tough time right now.
Review please!