Greetings readers of fic! My gift to you is an update. Enjoy!
Lawyers: Our client does not own Scrubs, Dead Like Me, or in the case of this chapter, Charmed, nor is she gaining any profit by writing this story. Don't sue her.
Chapter 16
Perry's POV
As we pulled up in front of the club, Newbie quickly explained that the party was reaper-only and was held every New Years Eve. Souls were invited too. As I got up and fazed through the taxi door, I stared up at the glowing P3 with mild interest. It was a place I had never been to before, but I have heard the occasional good review through word-of-mouth and the newspaper.
We walked up to the front entrance and stopped in front of a bouncer holding a PDA who demanded our names and division.
Newbie threw me a nervous glance for some reason before saying, "Joseph Donovan and... Dan Neutra's replacement. Plague division."
I looked over at the kid, confused. I may call him 'Newbie' and just about any girl's name one could possibly think of, but I do actually know his name and the last time I checked, it wasn't Joseph Dono-something. I wondered for a moment if maybe we didn't have invitations and Newbie was just sneaking us in under fake names. However, before I could voice my confusion, I was distracted by the bouncer's overly-dramatic gasp.
"Dan's replacement?" he asked, sounding both shocked and saddened by the news. "Fluffy's been promoted?"
I looked over at Newbie with a raised eyebrow only to see the same expression on his face as he said, "Uhh, yeah... Dan's been promoted. Filled his quota and all."
Mr. Over-Emotional Bouncer Man smiled sadly and said, "Good for him." Clearing his throat and composing himself, he said gruffly, "You guys can go in."
As we retreated into the club, I looked over at Annika and hesitantly asked, "Fluffy? Do I want to know?"
Looking slightly disturbed, Newbie shook his head and said, "That's one name of his I didn't even know about."
"That's another thing," I said as I grabbed his wrist and stopped him. "Joseph Donovan? What the hell is that about?"
"That's my real name," Newbie explained. "From before I died. Reapers have to adopt new identities to avoid suspicion. Did you think you could still be Perry Cox once you become corporeal?"
"I never really thought about it," I said truthfully, but I saw his point. It would be too strange if another man named Perry Cox showed up at the hospital. It makes me wonder what will happen once I do become corporeal. Will I look the same? Will people I know be able to recognize me?
"Hey, don't worry about that stuff right now," Newbie said with a reassuring smile. "Just enjoy the party tonight and get to know your fellow reapers."
A shriek sounded behind us and we turned around to see a middle-aged woman pushing her way through the crowd toward us. When she finally managed to get to us, she said with a grin, "JD, honey! There's been so much going on in your division, you have to tell me all the gossip!"
Newbie glanced over at me, looking unsure, so I rolled my eyes and growled, "I don't need you to hold my hand, Josephine. Go have fun."
He gave me a grateful smile before walking away with the woman. I sighed, not at all in the mood to enjoy the party, and headed over to the bar. I took a seat next to a man with dark hair and forced a courteous smile at the bartender, a woman with long brunette hair.
"What can I get you?" she asked.
"Nothing right now," I said frowning. "I'm not exactly capable of drinking at the moment."
She nodded absentmindedly before walking away to serve someone else drinks.
"New to the job?" the man next to me asked.
"Yup," I sighed. "Just got back from my funeral today."
"That's always tough," the man said before turning to me on his bar stool and holding out his hand, "The name's Rube."
"Perry," I said, shaking his hand before asking, for pure boredom's sake, "So what's the story on this place?"
"P3?" he asked as he turned back around on his stool and leaned against the bar. "It's just one of the places we occasionally hold the New Year's Party. We buy it out for the night so that we're safe to just be ourselves. The bartender over there is the owner."
I glanced over at the brunette, "So she's dead too."
"No, she's alive."
I blinked and looked over at Rube, "Thought this party was reaper-only."
"Her and her family are one of the exceptions. They don't ask us about our abnormal behavior and we don't ask them about theirs," Rube said before calling the bartender over to order a drink. "You look like a scotch man."
"I told you, I can't drink anything," I said irritably. Sitting at a bar, it wasn't a fact I liked to be reminded about.
Rube accepted the drinks and said, "I'll just hold onto it for you then." he paused to take a drink of the beer in front of him. "So what division are you in."
"Plague, I guess," I said as I stared straight ahead of me at all the different colored bottles of alcohol, wishing that I could just have a drink.
"You guys have been busy lately," he commented.
"Yes, unfortunately," I grunted.
Suddenly, from behind us, I hear a familiar voice shout, "I'll make you wish you never died, you bastard!" Followed by a crash and soon after that, a smash.
Curious, I twisted around on my bar stool along with Rube to see Newbie and some other guy on the ground, beating the crap out of each other. Both were armed with a broken bottle. They pushed away from each other and rose to their feet. The other guy punched Newbie across the face and smashed his broken bottle against the kid's neck, leaving behind several bloody gashes. Newbie stumbled back a few paces but recovered surprisingly quickly. He smashed his own bottle against the man's bottle, knocking it from his hand, and crowed, "Where's your knife now, Steve? Huh? Where's your knife now?!"
It made no sense to me since they were armed with bottles and not knives.
Completely unfazed by the display, Rube leaned over to me while the two fought and said, "I don't mean to stereotype, but thisdoes tend to happen a lot among your general division."
The bartender, coming out of her stupor, shouted, "Hey! Not in my club!"
Stepping out from behind the bar, the bartender stormed over to the two who continued to fight despite her protests, and snapped, "What did I just say? No fighting in my club!"
Then the bartender did something that completely floored me. She flicked her wrists. It wouldn't have been so impressive had it not been for the fact that two simultaneous explosions erupted from the two fighting reaper's bodies. Newbie and the other guy, Steve apparently, were blown backwards a few feet from the force of the explosion and landed on the ground in a heap.
One of the most surprising things of all was that I was the only one in the club surprised by this.
With her hands on her hips, she asked, "Do I need to kick you two out or are you going to behave?"
"Sorry Piper," they both said as they got to their feet; their wounds already healing.
Crossing her arms in satisfaction, Piper returned to the bar to continue serving drinks.
"Abnormal behavior, huh?" I said to Rube as I turned back around to face the bar.
I guess I should be getting used to strange things like this.
My attention was drawn to the television hung over in the corner of the bar. The channel was set to Time Square and the countdown had just begun. Everyone in the club chanted along with the TV, "Ten, nine..."
"Hey Perry, how long have you been dead?" Rube asked.
"It's been about three days, I think," I muttered. "Why?"
"Five, four..."
"Just thought you'd need this," he said lightly as he slid the glass of scotch over to me.
My hand reached out instinctually to grab the sliding scotch.
"One!"
My fingers wrapped around the glass and a genuine grin spread across my face.
"Happy New Year!"
"Can't celebrate the New Year without booze," Rube said, raising his glass in salute. "Here's to the year 2008."
I raised my own glass and said, "May it suck less than 2007." Lowering my glass, I took a nice long swig of scotch. It was the first drink I've had since my death and it was absolutely heavenly. "Oh yeah, that hits the spot."
Then, of course, Newbie had to come up behind me with an appletini in hand and completely destroy the 'no touching' rule by swinging an arm over my shoulders and saying, "Hey, you're corporeal! Great, tomorrow we'll go get your new ID and all your papers."
"If you wanna keep your arm, Claudia, you better remove it in the next three seconds or I will," I growled and he wisely obeyed.
Still as happy as ever, despite my previous threat, Newbie looked over at Rube and said, "Hey Rube."
Rube nodded in greeting, "Joseph."
Looking back over at me, Newbie blinked as if remembering something and said, "Oh! I'll be right back, I'm gonna go borrow a camera."
As he scurried away, I turned my attention back to my drink while stating absentmindedly, "So, you know Newbie."
Rube smiled at the nickname and said, "Joseph is a very social person, a lot of us know him."
I nodded as I took another drink of scotch. The whole situation felt strange. When I was alive, the hospital had been my domain. I knew everyone and had different connections and influences on people. When Newbie came in as a scared little intern, he was in my territory, my world. Now I was in his world; the new inexperienced reaper who hadn't a clue what the hell he was doing. With the exception of Rube who I barely knew a thing about, I didn't know any of these people. I was out of my element and I hated it.
Bounding back over like a buzzed puppy, Newbie held up the digital camera triumphantly and said, "Okay, turn around and smile!"
I looked over my shoulder at him with a frown as the flash went off.
After pressing a few buttons, Newbie looked at the picture on the small camera screen and said offhandedly, "Well, good enough." Holding the camera out to me so that I could see the screen, he said, "See? That's you."
For curiosity's sake, I looked down at the picture of some random guy on the screen before shaking my head and saying, "No, that's not me. You fail at taking pictures, Newbie."
Pointing to the picture on the screen, he patiently explained, "That is you, or at least that's how the living see you."
Guess that explains my question about people recognizing me. The answer seems a little obvious now. Of course I wouldn't look the same. If someone who knew me saw me, it would cause wide-spread panic. I took the camera from Newbie's hands and looked at the picture of the scowling man more closely.
He, or rather, I looked younger. Possibly around thirty, maybe thirty-five. My hair was straight instead of curly, and while it was still the same length, it was now a dark blonde. My face was completely different, a bit younger, not at all like me. Squinting at the picture, I saw that my eyes were the only thing that remained the same about me.
Wondering if I had changed completely or if it was just an illusion, I looked up at the mirror wall that held the different liquor bottles. I mentally sighed in relief when I saw Perry Cox staring back at me.
"So it's an illusion?" I asked uncertainly.
"To the living, yes," Rube said.
"Spirits and other reapers see you for how you really are," Newbie explained.
Okay, that made a little sense, except for one thing.
"Why didn't your appearance change once I died?" I asked Newbie. "For that matter, why didn't the Janitor's?"
"I don't know about the Janitor, but I can explain me," Newbie said. "I look the same for both the living and the dead because anyone who could have recognized me as Joseph Donovan has died. It takes a while, but eventually the illusion reverts back to your old self. Maybe it's the same way for the Janitor." He shrugged, apparently not caring too much either way. "Anyway, enjoy the rest of the night. Get drunk, and savor that drunk feeling."
Taking the camera from my hands, Newbie said something about returning it to someone named Devon before skipping away. Yes, skipping. I'm not really sure if that's the appletini kicking in or if it's just Newbie being himself.
"Why did he say it like that?" I muttered suspiciously, glancing over at Rube. "Why did he tell me to savor the feeling?"
"Probably because reaper-metabolism makes it nearly impossible for us to get drunk," Rube said with a shrug. "These parties are the only time they make drinks strong enough to work on us."
"You're kidding," I said, aghast. Let him be kidding. How the hell else am I supposed to escape this crappy reality? Sleep? Yeah, right.
"Afraid not."
I can only be drunk one day out of the whole year? Maybe two if they have another party. Holy crap, I need a scotch!
"Piper!," I called out. "Another scotch! In fact, give me the whole bottle. Bring over a couple beers too. Just put it all on Mr. Donovan's tab."
She threw me an amused smile as she got my order together. Setting everything down in front of me, she asked, "Anything else?"
"How about the recipe for this extra-strong scotch you make?" I asked with a hopeful grin.
"Sorry, buddy, family secret," Piper said before turning to serve another customer.
'Oh well,' I thought as I looked at all the bottles sitting before me. 'This should do for now.'
"I'm in hell," I groaned.
Things had been looking up this morning. I woke up without a hangover, probably due to that reaper-metabolism Newbie keeps mentioning, and the puppy had been quiet and well-behaved ever since I'd gotten back to the hotel room.
Then Josie came and brought me to get my new ID.
"It's the DMV. What did you expect?" Newbie said, standing next to me in the never ending, slowly moving line.
Unfortunately, reapers didn't get special treatment at the DMV and had to wait in line just like everyone else.
"We've been standing in line for a little over an hour now, Newbie. I've just barely gained back the ability to eat and I'm starving because someone didn't think we had enough time to grab a quick breakfast. You were in such a hurry to get us out the door and over here, yet when it comes to you getting to work on time, you stop and take all the time you need to get your hair and makeup done because someday you hope your prince will show up at that hospital and sweep you off your feet and of course you have to look nice when he does," I ranted.
"You know how much time that rant ate up? We're next," Newbie said as he dragged me to the window.
My rants just don't have the same effect as they used to. I need to find a new way to instill fear into his dead, reaper soul.
"John or Chris?"
"What?" I asked, confused.
The middle-aged DMV lady rolled her eyes before asking again, "Do you want your new name to be John Mcginley or Chris Warrender?"
"I can't make up my own name?" I asked a bit incredulously.
"John or Chris?"
I didn't like the 'John' name. Newbie was using John, and that would become confusing after a while. I wasn't too impressed with the 'Chris' one either. It was like the better of two evils. Truthfully, it doesn't matter what name they came up with, I still probably wouldn't like it because of the mere fact that a new name was just one more nail in the proverbial coffin of Perry Cox.
"Chris," I sighed.
The DMV lady typed something into her computer before pointing me over to a stool set off to the side where you get your picture taken. I sat down on it a she took an unflattering picture of me before disappearing into a back room.
"What a nice lady," Newbie said sarcastically while we waited for her to come back. "Harold is usually the one who handles these sort of things. He's a lot more tolerable."
The grouchy DMV bitch returned about five minutes later and passed a folder full of papers through the window slot.
"That's your basic package. Driver's license, birth certificate, medical records, social security number and card, and just about every other form of paper work you need to get by," she explained.
"What about my medical degree?" I asked. "I'm a doctor."
The woman frowned, "Something like that will take a bit more time to get. Once I confirm your history as a doctor, I'll fill out the forms to get your degree. However, without a hospital to vouch for your previous years of experience, you may have to start out at an entry-level job."
...I'd have to start out as a damn intern again?! I am in hell!
"How long would it take to get him a degree?" Newbie asked while I silently fumed in a corner, plotting my revenge on the world.
"A couple weeks," she said. "Possibly over a month."
"Okay, well, you can call this number to confirm his status as a doctor," Newbie said, scribbling some information down on a piece of paper. "This is his name, and you can contact us on an update at this number here."
She nodded and took the paper then said with zero enthusiasm, "Have a nice day."
My mind had gone into shock over the whole thing. I couldn't believe it. All those years of work, gone. Down the drain. Useless. I just didn't know if I could even stand going through being an intern again. Then an attending.. A resident. They were steps someone shouldn't have to repeat. I was in such a stupor, I didn't even care when Newbie led me out the door by my sleeve like a brain dead animal.
My mood was a little better by the time we reached our destination on Newbie's scooter. He had stopped calling cabs now that I was corporeal. The kid really needed to get a car, and if he doesn't, I will because I refuse to ride the bitch seat of that thing for much longer.
Climbing off the scooter as soon as he parked, I frowned at the building before us. Sacred Heart Hospital. I always knew I'd come back here and check up on everyone, but now that I was here, I wasn't so sure I wanted to go in. we walked up to the front entrance and I hesitated at the doors.
"You okay?" Newbie asked, seeing me pause.
"Just fine, Newbie," I said, false confidence in my voice.
I was about to walk through the doors when Newbie grabbed my sleeve, looking a bit hesitant himself, and said, "I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You need to stop calling my 'Newbie' and girls' names. Especially here or around people we know. That was something Dr. Cox did, and it'd raise a few eyebrows if Chris Warrender did it too."
"Josie, if getting me to stop was as easy as asking me, I would've stopped a long time ago," I said rolling my eyes as I pulled ahead and walked through the automatic doors.
"I'm serious," he said, trotting after me.
"Fine, fine," I relented. "No old nicknames around them, the hospital, or any place where someone might have known Perry Cox. That good enough for you, John?"
John. Just because that would annoy him too.
"That's good," Newbie said, stepping in front of me and stopping me in my place. "Or JD. JD would work too."
"Don't push your luck, John," I said, then asked. "So what are we doing here?"
"I'm taking you on one of my reaps to show you how it's done," he said as he pulled a yellow post-it out of his pocket, and said, "This is all the information we get on them."
"You keep it on a post-it?" I asked incredulously as I looked down at the small square of paper.
P. McLane
Sacred Heart Hospital
Room 324
E.T.D. 2:15PM
Newbie shrugged, "They're easy to carry around and there's always plenty of them."
"ETD?" I asked curiously.
"Estimated time of death," Newbie explained as we started walking again. "We better hurry, we only have five minutes."
We took the elevator up to the third floor and years of working in the hospital made the room easy to find. A quick glance at the name on the door told us it belonged to one Patrick McLane. We walked inside and I looked from the old man on the bed to Newbie, only mildly curious as to how the whole thing was done. He walked over to the old man's side and slowly ran his hand down the man's arm, his fingers leaving behind a brief glow.
He stepped away from the bed, clapped his hands once and said, "Well, that's it."
"That's it?" I asked.
That couldn't just be it. It shouldn't be that easy.
"Yup," he said, nodding. "Now we go wait in the hall for the old man to croak and then watch his soul until it moves on."
Supernatural babysitters.
The whole thing went against everything I knew, and yet I still followed the kid out into the hall. Leaning against the wall with Newbie near the door, we waited. It wasn't long before he flat-lined, and every instinct I had screamed at me to go in there and revive the man. It was a horrible feeling, just standing there and letting someone die when I knew I could help somehow. I looked over at Newbie, not understanding how he could be so calm and aloof over the whole thing. He was a doctor, and yet he stood there with his arms crossed, ignoring his Hippocratic oath. He was probably daydreaming.
Other doctors and nurses swarmed into the room, but it was too late. The man's soul was standing in the doorway. Newbie took the man by the sleeve of his hospital gown and led him away from the scene. I numbly followed behind.
After Newbie explained to the old man that he was dead, the two talked about the weather and possibilities of what the afterlife was like. Neither were bothered in the least by the whole situation. It was strange.
It was at this moment that I saw Jordan off in the distance, walking down a different hallway. This was my chance to see her. Maybe I could somehow explain the situation to her.
"Nice demonstration, John, but I have to go do something," was all I said before racing off in Jordan's direction.
"What's his problem," I could hear the old man ask.
"He's new..."
I finally caught up to her at the nurse's station and called out her name. She turned around and gave me a half-curious, half-annoyed look.
"Yes? Can I help you?" she asked irritably.
"You look great," I murmured absentmindedly. Really, she looked as if nothing had happened. Her eyes weren't even blood-shot. Of course, she was the same way after Ben died. She always was good at putting on a mask.
"I'm flattered," she said sarcastically then raised an eyebrow at me, "Do I know you?"
Of course she couldn't see me for who I really am and as I stood before her, I wondered what the hell I was doing. Had I honestly believed that I could bring up something only Perry would know and expect her to except my whole story without question? No, that was stupid. She had gone to my funeral, I couldn't go back to being Perry.
I could be Chris though, and maybe she would like him.
"You.. don't know me," I finally said. "Not yet, at least. Maybe we could go out and grab a bite to eat sometime... or something?"
It was apparently the wrong thing to say because while she may look okay, it was still too soon after my death to be going out on a date.
"Are you hitting on me?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
Carla, who had been watching the whole thing from the nurse's station, decided to intervene and walked over to us.
"Is this man bothering you, Jordan?" she asked, giving me a dirty look.
It was a look I've gotten from Carla many times before, so I wasn't too bothered by it.
"Chris! There you are!" Newbie shouted from behind me as he came racing down the hall. Seeing who I was with, he flashed me a brief 'what-the-hell-are-you-doing?' look before smiling at Carla and Jordan.
"JD, what are you doing back?" Carla asked, a bit surprised.
"And who it this?" Jordan added, glaring at me.
"I was just showing me cousin, Chris, around the hospital," Newbie said, saving my ass from the two angry women, one of whom was pregnant and hormonal. "He's moving down here for a while to help me out and keep an eye on me. Right, Chris?"
"Right," I agreed, defeated.
Carla suddenly smacked Newbie on the arm, "What are you doing in this hospital without a face mask?"
"Oh," Newbie said. "Right, I forgot."
Carla grabbed two masks from the nurses station and handed them over to us, "I better not catch you without one again. You too Chris. Now's not the time to be getting sick."
"Okay, Carla," Newbie said and we pulled our masks on. "Chris and I have to go now. I'll see you at home later tonight."
Waving goodbye, Newbie dragged me away and into a secluded stairwell. As soon as the door closed, he turned on me and snapped, "What the hell were you thinking? You can't see these people!"
"Wasn't aware that was a rule, John" I hissed.
"I would think it would be obvious that when you die, you can't haunt the people you knew when you were alive," Newbie growled in frustration.
"I wasn't haunting them, I was just having a friendly conversation," I protested.
"You were asking your widowed ex-wife out on a date!".
"If you didn't want me talking to any of them, then why did you bring me back here of all places?" I asked. What did he expect me to do? Ignore them?
"I needed to show you a reap, which, by the way, you missed the most important part of when you ran off. The reason why we reap," Newbie said, then added, "Plus, some of your future reaps will take place here, so you can't avoid the hospital completely."
"I can't avoid the people I knew either," I said.
"Knew, as in past-tense. You have to move on from them. We all have to move on from the people we knew when we were alive," He explained.
"Why should I?" I asked angrily. "Huh? Who's gonna stop me? You? You can't stop me from seeing my family."
"There are consequences," he sighed sadly.
"I don't care!" I yelled, pushing him into the wall; feeling so angry that I wanted to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze. Not that it mattered, he couldn't die.
I couldn't die either.
I left before I did something I'd regret; storming down the stairs and out of sight.
JD's POV
I stood in front of my locker and turned the combination with a sigh. That hadn't gone well at all. Of course, when I first died, I hadn't taken the news of never seeing people I knew ever again very well either. Still, I couldn't let him see them. I'd have to somehow convince him that the consequences weren't worth a brief meeting. I won't talk to him today though, he needs to cool down.
Finished with the locker combo, I heard a strange click noise as I opened my locker door. However, before I could even comprehend what that click meant, the gun set up inside my locker went off and blew a hole in the side of my head.
I stumbled backwards with a cry of both pain and shock. Holding my hands over the wound on my head, I fell against the lockers behind me and slid to the floor.
"Sonovabitch!" I bite out with my eyes shut tight.
Goddamn Janitor! This was the last thing I needed right now!
He was right though. That completely caught me by surprise. I stayed on the ground, wincing and breathing through my teeth as I waited for the wound to heal. Feeling the last of the wound close up, I took a deep soothing breath before getting to my feet and cautiously making my way over to my locker. I wouldn't put it past the Janitor to have the gun go off twice.
It didn't though, and when I looked closer, I saw that a silencer had been put on the gun so as not to attract attention. Grabbing a scrubs top from my locker, I wiped the blood off my face and off the floor. After that, I took the gun out of my locker and hid it in the scrubs top so that I could dispose of it later.
"At least I'm not in debt anymore," I muttered as I closed the locker door and left.
That's the end of chapter 16. Happy holidays everyone!
Review please!