Greetings readers of fic! Thanks for all your WONDERFUL reviews:D You guys rock.

And just to clear you some confusion, when a reaper finishes their quota, they're 'promoted' to a higher position, and the last soul they reaped will take their place as reaper. So yes, Dr. Cox will be replacing Dan as reaper, and as for Dan, he's gone bye-bye now.

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 14

'It's done..." I thought monotonously as my hand slipped from my mentor's arm and fell limply to my side.

Dan's gone. I might as well consider him fully dead because no grim reaper out there knows what happens to them once they finish their quota. Who knows if I'll ever see him again!

On top of that, Dr. Cox has been condemned to life as a reaper for who knows how long.

It just wasn't fair.

They turned off all the machines, and everyone began filing out of the room; nobody said a word. Soon only Carla and I remained, and as I stood there and stared at his still form, I felt an uncontrollable rage surge through me. I was mad at whatever higher powers there were that made these decisions, I was mad at Dan for not telling me sooner, and I was mad at myself for not saving him.

"JD?"

I screamed and pushed the crash cart over. I flipped over a tray of tools before grabbing one of the monitors and throwing it across the room. Carla took a step back but remained silent, and when I looked over at her face, I saw nothing but understanding. She got it. This was as hard for her as it was for me, maybe even more so. After all, she knew Dr. Cox longer than I did.

I looked away and ran a hand through my hair. Dr. Cox as a reaper. How ridiculous is that? The man spent years of his life becoming a doctor so that he could save people and keep them alive as long as he possibly could. In a matter of minutes he's just made a complete career flip. He wasn't going to take the news well. I'd have to be strong and help him through all of this, which means that I couldn't let this get to me so much.

Be strong...

I looked over to the doorway.

"Shit," I hissed.

Where'd he go?

Goddamnit. I can't believe I let him get out of my sight.

I rushed out of the room, leaving Carla behind, and looked both ways down the hallway. He was nowhere in sight.

Shit! Where could he have gone to?!

Picking a random direction, I raced off down the hall, only to collide right into the Janitor.

"You're not very good at your job, you know," he commented lightly.

"What?" I snapped in disbelief, taking a step closer to him and looking him right in the eyes. "Are you insulting me on my failure to bring back Dr. Cox? Really? Are you really now?"

I was about an inch from his face.

"That's low, even for you," I hissed.

"No, you moron," he said, rolling his eyes at me before pushing me back a step. "Down kitty."

I glared at him, but he was unfazed.

"No, I was referring to your complete lack of responsibility when it comes to the dead. I just saw the newest edition to your team go running that way," the Janitor said, jerking his thumb behind him, then muttered to me, "and don't think I didn't see what you did to that Castello guy."

My jaw dropped and I sputtered, "You're a reaper?"

"Yes," he said, offended. "What are you saying? You don't think a janitor could be a grim reaper. Is that it? Am I just too lowly and stupid to be able to handle the responsibility? Huh?"

"No, no!" I said, holding up my hands defensively. "I'm just surprised I didn't sense it in you, that's all. Usually my reaper radar is pretty accurate."

Then again, I didn't sense the Todd right away either. I must be getting rusty.

"Oh, so now you're saying I'm so weak a reaper that not even simple reaper radar can pick me up," he said. "I'll have you know that I am head reaper of my team!"

"What division?" I asked curiously.

"Cancer," he said simply.

I wonder if everyone in maintenance is a reaper. Maybe it's his team.

"I'm plague," I said conversationally.

"I know," he said, then bent down and whispered in my ear, "I know all about you, Joseph."

Woah, my creepy meter just went up a color.

I took a step back and, getting back to the matter at hand, I asked him, "Could you please do me a huge favor?"

"Depends. What's in it for me?"

"I don't know, what do you want?" I asked.

He seemed to think about it for a moment before snapping his fingers and saying, "I want a pet tiger."

"No."

"A car with rocket launchers on the roof."

"No."

"I get to shoot you in the head."

I sighed, but relented, "Fine."

"Really? Cool!" he smiled like an excited child before his face turned serious and he hissed, "You won't know when and you won't know where it'll happen. When you least expect it, I'll catch you by surprise!"

"Yeah, yeah," I said, waving off the threat. "Now for my part of the deal. I need to go tell Jordan the news."

He was my patient, so I should be the one to tell her what happened.

"I need you to find Dr. Cox and bring him down to my locker," I explained. "Make sure he stays there until I get down there."

"Alright, what locker number is it?" he asked.

"It's number-"

"I'm just kidding you," he chuckled. "I already know which locker it is."

So he did break into my locker!

"Right, I'll see you there."

Now to go tell Jordan the bad news. I hope she doesn't really try to kill me.

Perry's POV

Strange dreams are usually Newbie's forte, not mine. The kid must be rubbing off on me though because the dream I was currently having measured pretty high up on the weirdness scale.

Apparently, in the dream, I had died and was now stuck as a ghost. I knew I was a ghost in the dream because not only was I looking at my own body, but when the doctors and nurses left the room, they passed right through me. That was the weirdest sensation I've ever felt in my entire life, and this has got to be the most vivid dream I've ever had too.

In real life, when I actually do die, I know there's no way I'd be wandering around as a ghost. Seriously, what's the point in that? You can't do much of anything.

However, despite this being a dream, looking at my dead body was a little unnerving, so I decided to leave. I might as well take advantage of this lucid dream while I was still asleep.

I went to Kelso's office first and, big surprise there, he was watching TV instead of actually doing work. He couldn't see me, so I decided to use my ghostly powers to my advantage and reached over to push his TV off its stand. However, instead of pushing the TV over, my hand simply passed straight through it. Annoyed by my failure to touch the TV, I walked over to his desk and tried to mess around with the all the papers on it, but my hand passed straight through those as well.

Damn, I must be one of those lame ghosts who can look, but can't touch. What a waste of a perfectly good lucid dream. Let's see then, what is there to do in this hospital that only involves looking?

Wait, the women's locker room. That's perfect, and who am I to turn down a good show?

I left Kelso's office and headed down to the locker rooms. Since I couldn't push the elevator buttons, I had to take the stairs. Before I could reach the locker rooms though, the Janitor stepped directly in front of me and blocked my way. I tried to walk straight through him like I did with everyone else, but he placed a hand on my shoulder and stopped me in my path.

I was a little surprised that he could actually touch me when nobody else could, but when have dreams ever made sense?

"Move it, Lurch," I snapped.

"Can't do that," he said as he swung an arm over my shoulders and lead me in the direction of the lockers. "I've got a pretty sweet deal going right now and I'm not going to let you mess it up for me."

We completely bypassed the women's locker room and walked into the men's locker room instead. The Janitor walked me past several different lockers before stopping in front of number forty-seven.

"What the hell is going on," I asked when I saw that he wasn't moving from the locker.

"I'm sure you have many questions, but it's not my job to answer them, so you're just going to have to wait until Scooter gets here and explains things," The Janitor said as he leaned up against the locker.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, so you just have fun with that, I'm going to go now," I said as I turned to leave, but before I could go anywhere, the Janitor grabbed my arm and turned me back around to face him.

"You're not going anywhere," he said with a firm grip on my arm. "It's my job to keep you here until he gets here. If you leave now, I'll never get the chance to shoot him in the head!" he paused for a moment then said, "Well, I could still shoot him, but it wouldn't be the same if I didn't earn the right to."

"And the dream just keeps getting weirder," I muttered to myself.

"Wait, dream?" he asked, giving me an odd look. "This isn't a dream, this is real."

"Sure, Lurch, and pretty soon pigs will be flying all over the place and you'll tell me that's normal too," I said, rolling my eyes at him.

Sighing, he let go of my arm and held a hand to his forehead as if he suddenly had a headache.

"This is going to be difficult," he mumbled before his hand dropped to his side. "Look, I know you're stubborn and always think you're right-"

"Because I am."

He ignored the interruption, "Try and keep an open mind."

I could hear the door to the locker room opening and foot steps heading right to us. I looked over in the direction the foot steps were coming from in time to see Newbie turning the corner. He wasn't looking too great. He had a black eye and claw marks going down his cheek and around his neck.

"Pricilla's the one we're waiting for?" I asked, throwing a curious glance in the Janitor's direction.

He nodded and my attention was drawn back to Newbie when he said, "She took that better than I expected."

Just as I was about to ask Newbie what was going on, the words died in my throat at the sight of his black eye fading away and the claw marks sealing themselves up. He wiped away the excess blood as if it were nothing new and there wasn't a mark left where the wounds once were.

'This dream is weird, even by Newbie's standards,' I thought as I stared at the kid with wide eyes.

"He's all yours," the Janitor said as he walked toward the locker room door, but before he left, he paused next to Newbie and said, "FYI, he thinks he's dreaming."

Newbie nodded in understanding and waited until the Janitor was gone before turning his attention to me. He took a deep breath, as if preparing himself, then let it out slowly. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his scrubs as he walked over to me.

"So..." he dragged out. "You think this is a dream."

He struggled to meet my eyes when he said this.

"It's pretty obvious, don't you think?" I asked.

"That it's a dream?" he inquired.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Come on, Newbie, the ghost thing, my death, and your magical healing ability. What else could it be?"

"A strange afterlife that you never could have imagined," he supplied weakly.

"Yeah right," I snorted, rolling my eyes.

"But it's true," he said, and he sounded so completely serious when he said that, for a moment I almost...

"Bullshit," I said, glaring at him.

"Would it help if I showed you your body?" he asked.

"I've already seen it," I snapped. "I don't need to see it again."

"Dr. Cox... Perry, you died. The plague doesn't have a cure, remember?" he said. "I tried other methods, but..."

"If that's true, Gloria, then how is it possible that both you and the Janitor can still see me and talk to me?" I asked.

Let's see him explain that one.

"Yeah, about that, that's a really long story," Newbie said, stalling.

He walked over to the locker we stood in front of, I guess it was his locker, and put the combination in. I glanced inside when he opened it up and saw a cake sitting in there. I thought back to when the kid's dad died and how Dan and I had sat down with him to watch sports and talk about their dad. That was when they explained the whole cake thing to me.

"Who died?" I asked quietly, and a bit stupidly too considering what he just told me.

He tensed up, and without looking at me, said stiffly, "You."

Newbie reached behind the cake and pulled out an envelope. He stared at it for a moment with a surprised look on his face, and I suspected that he didn't expect it to be in there. Coming out of his stupor, he tore open the envelope and pulled out a post-it with a short message on it and two of those hotel key-cards. He folded up the post-it and stuck it in his pocket along with the key-cards.

"Come on, I know where we can go," he said as he pulled the cake out of his locker and closed it up. "I'll explain things along the way."

I still think this is all just some elaborate dream I came up with while delirious with the plague, and because it's a dream, there's really no reason why I should follow Newbie to wherever it is he wants to take me. It would make more sense to just stay at the hospital and wait out the rest of the dream.

And yet, there's a stupid, gullible part of me that's beginning to think that maybe this isn't really a dream at all, and If I'm ever going to find out what's going on, I should follow Newbie. Dream or not, he plays an important role in whatever it is that's happening.

So I followed him right out the hospital doors. He dumped the cake in the first trash bin he came across and then called up a taxi.

"Your shift isn't over," I found myself saying, and I wondered how I even knew that. Maybe I had subconsciously heard it mentioned while I was asleep.

"You just died, I think they'll understand," was his excuse.

The taxi pulled up and Newbie opened the door for me.

"I can get my own door, Fiona," I growled, but climbed in anyway.

"For the next couple days, you won't be able to touch much of anything," Newbie said to me, then turned to the taxi driver and said, "Holiday Inn on Maple Street."

The driver nodded and pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

"So about that long story," I said. "How about you give me the cliff notes."

"Right," he sighed as he gazed out the window, avoiding my eyes. "I'm not what you think I am."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "What do you mean by 'what'?"

"I'm what the living like to call a 'grim reaper.' The Janitor's one too, that's why we could both see you," he explained.

Yup, definitely a dream.

I glanced at the taxi driver for some sort of reaction to Newbie's big revelation, but the man didn't even bat an eye.

"If that guy can't see me, then why doesn't he seem to be affected by the fact that you're talking to air?" I asked.

"It's one of the perks of being a reaper," Newbie said, flashing me a quick smile before looking back out the window. "When it comes to interacting with the living, I have a choice, and right now I choose not to. All that man sees is me sitting back here quietly."

"Is that why I sometimes couldn't find you at work?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him suspiciously. Looking back on it, there were a few times when Newbie seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.

Newbie gave me a guilty smile, but this time didn't turn away from me as he admitted, "There were a couple times. The job comes with other perks too. For one, I can't die because technically I'm already dead. Also, due to reaper metabolism, I can heal pretty quickly, but you already saw that one in effect."

I nodded, remembering how instantaneously the bruise and scratches had healed. The rest of the ride went on in silence, and it wasn't long before the taxi pulled in to the Holiday Inn parking lot. Newbie opened the door for me again, but this time I didn't protest his help. He paid the driver before we both went inside. Instead of stopping at the front desk, Newbie led me straight to the elevator.

It seemed a little weird to be following him everywhere like this when back at Sacred Heart, he was always the one to follow me.

We stopped at the third floor and I followed him to room 321. As I watched him pull one of the key-cards out of his pocket, I thought back to the post-it and figured there must have been some information on there about what hotel to go to and what room. Newbie slipped the card into the slot before opening the door, and when he did, a puppy came barreling out into the hall.

The little fluff ball raced circles around us, completely overjoyed that someone had come to see him.. or her, and then raced back into the room, expecting us to follow. As we walked into the room, I glanced over at Newbie and saw that he didn't look even slightly fazed.

"You got a puppy?" I asked, slightly surprised.

He nodded while closing the door behind him, "Dan got him. Would it be okay if he stayed here for awhile until I find him a new home?"

"Yeah, it's fine," I said, bewildered.

Why was he even asking me? This wasn't my room, I didn't pay for it. If Dan got the puppy and the puppy was here, then it was most likely Dan's room. So why was he asking me as if I was staying here? I have a home, I don't need a hotel room.

Speaking of Dan...

"Is Dan a reaper? What about the rest of your family? Is it something you're born into?" I asked.

Pricilla sat down on the bed heavily and the fluff-ball hopped right up there with him and lay down in his lap. He absentmindedly stroked the puppy's head as he said, "Yes, Dan was a reaper."

Was. The past tense stuck out like a sore thumb in Newbie's sentence.

He continued, "Yes, everyone in my family is a grim reaper, but... technically we're not related. We just consider ourselves a family because of how closely we all work together on the job."

"Not even you and Dan?" I asked, they both acted so much like brothers; they had the sibling rivalry thing down.

"No, he's just a guy on my team I met a number of years back," Newbie said shrugging.

There was no way any of this was real. I mean, come on! A family of reapers? What do they do on family outings? Go to war zones and take of souls of the dead and dying? Sure, Newbie was a little weird at times, but this is just ridiculous.

I cracked a smile, "So you're a grim reaper, and I'm dead?" he nodded. "Shouldn't I be going somewhere now?"

"Why, do you have somewhere you need to be?" he asked curiously.

"You know what I mean, Ginger, or didn't they teach you this in Reaper School?" I chuckled. "Bright lights at the end of a tunnel, angels flying around in the sky, a place where all your dreams will come true and maybe someday you'll become a real boy! Or maybe you'll be sending me to hell, is that it? Did I annoy you one too many times while I was alive? That's a little harsh, don't ya think, Newbie?"

"You don't believe me," Newbie stated, exasperated.

"Of course I don't believe you!" I snapped. "What gave it away? Was it the bright lights thing or the fact that I acted as if heaven and hell even existed?"

"Well, as long as you're in your happy little denial bubble, I might as well lay all out for you now," he said, sounding a little annoyed by this point. "Yes, you're dead, but no, you won't be moving on to the next plane of existence anytime soon. You want to know why? It's because becoming a grim reaper isn't something you're born into, it's a job that gets replaced by one person after the next. Dan finished the job and because you were his last reap, you'll be taking his place as grim reaper. That's right, you're a grim reaper now! I know, it sucks, but that's just life for you, or rather, that's death for you!"

Frightened by the yelling, the puppy jumped down off of Newbie's lap and escaped into the bathroom. With his lap free, he stood up and walked over to the front door and opened it up.

Standing in the doorway with his hand on the knob, he said, "It's a lot to take in, and once you actually start believing what I'm saying, I'm sure you'll have lots of questions. When you're ready to talk, come find me." and with that said, he slammed the door shut and left me alone in the room with my thoughts.

I stared at the door for a moment before walking over to the bed and sitting down.

It wasn't real, it was a dream, and when I woke up, I'd laugh at how much it was actually affecting me. Still though, for a dream, it was extremely vivid, and for that matter, it was pretty emotional as compared to all of my previous dreams.

I swung my legs up on the bed and slid back so that I was leaning up against the pillows and the headboard of the bed. I automatically reached for the remote, and I was once again reminded of the dream when my hand passed right through it.

Wonderful, I can't even watch TV.

The puppy came out a couple minutes later and hopped up on the bed. He lay down right next to me, but in a way where he wasn't laying into my incorporeal form, and looked right up at me with two big brown eyes. It was as if he could see me, and the way he lay next to me so carefully, it was like he actually knew of my... condition. Animals usually have a sixth sense about that sort of thing, so I shouldn't be too surprised. I hadn't been expecting it though.

The little fluff-ball lay his head down and closed his eyes, and I decided to do the same. I slid down further in the bed so that I could actually lie down, and then closed my eyes.

And waited to wake up.

Just wake up.

This was quite obviously a dream, so why couldn't I wake up?

I waited longer, my eyes closed tight.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, please just wake up.

Strangely enough, I think I may have drifted off, because when I finally opened my eyes and looked at the clock on the bed stand, the glowing red numbers told me it was nearly ten at night.

Was it possible to sleep in a dream? I don't think I've ever done it before.

Maybe... this wasn't a dream.

No, it had to be a dream. Something this bad couldn't be happening. I didn't die, it was a dream.

I'm not a grim reaper, I'm just dreaming.

But then why couldn't I wake up?

I never needed a drink more than I did at that moment, so I got up and left the room. I didn't even need to open the door, I simply just walked right through it. I once again took the stairs down due to my inability to use the elevator. Not that it really mattered though, ever since the beginning of this dream, I haven't felt tired or winded once. It was kind of nice.

I found a small restaurant that was part of the hotel and headed straight for the bar, but when I saw who was sitting at the bar, I stopped. It was Newbie, and he was sitting there drinking what looked to be his sixth appletini. Not about to let him stop me from getting drunk off my ass, I continued to the bar and to prove that what he said didn't scare me, I sat down right next to him.

He glanced over at me before looking back down at his appletini.

"Ready to talk?" he asked.

"I was actually planning on getting drunk," I said.

He seemed to wince at that and said slowly, "Drunk... right."

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, I'll tell you later," he said evasively and took a sip of his drink.

Hearing a buzzing noise, I looked over to see Newbie's cellphone vibrating on the bar. Seeing that he made no move to pick it up, I asked, "You gonna answer that?"

He shook his head, "Just people looking for me. I don't feel like talking to them right now."

The cellphone stopped buzzing just as the bartender walked by, and as he did, I said, "Bartender, one scotch."

"He can't see or hear you," Newbie reminded me.

"Then order me something," I said, as if it were obvious.

"You can't actually eat or drink anything until you're corporeal," he explained.

"You're kidding me!" I snapped, and almost pleaded for him to say he was.

"Don't worry about it, you'll be corporeal again within the next few days," he explained. "You won't feel hungry or thirsty in the meantime."

"Fabulous," I said sarcastically as I leaned against the bar. "So... a grim reaper, huh?"

"Yeah," he said. "We take the souls out of the bodies and watch over them until they go off into the afterlife."

"Sounds like a babysitting job to me," I griped. "How do I get out of this job? Can I quit, because if so, then I quit."

"It doesn't work like that," he said before finishing off his appletini with a gulp. "When you finish your quota, which is the number of reaps you have to do while you're a reaper,then you finish the reaping job."

His cellphone started buzzing again, but we both ignored it.

"How do we know who to kill," I asked.

"Okay, for one thing, we're not killing anyone. Those people will die with or without our help. It's very important that we're there to release their soul. Got it?" he hissed.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, Francine, I got it," I mumbled.

"Good," he smiled a fake smile. "As for who we reap, let me worry about that. I'll get the assignments and give yours to you. On a side note, we'll only be dealing with plague victims. What a reaper dies of is what they end up taking care of. There are different divisions based on causes of death, ours being the plague division for example, and for each division, there's a number of different groups stationed all over the planet that take care of the area they're stationed in."

"That's all so... very interesting," I said dully while leaning face-down against the bar.

I'd sell my soul if I could just wake up.

Done with chapter 14. Hopefully I did okay with Dr. Cox's POV. I've been writing for JD so much it's weird to just switch around like that.

New Scrubs tomorrow. Yay! I hope they don't kiss, it would screw things up WAY too much. Plus, JD has a kid. He can't be doing stuff like this! Oi!

Review please!