Hello everyone! If you're interesting in the Psych fandom, I've started a new fic. Don't worry about this one suffering though. There may be delays in updates, but that's mostly because I started classes again .

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 18

Perry's POV

After opening up a bank account and putting some of the money in there, I got a cellphone under my alias before heading over to some bargain stores to buy clothes and other essentials. Still, as helpful as the money was, it wasn't enough for a car, so I would be forced to suffer the horrors of public transportation for a while longer until I could find another source of income. I also knew that eventually I'd have to find a place to live once the money Dan paid for the room ran out.

I looked at my new watch for the fourth time that day, watching the minutes tick down until what was supposed to be my next reap. I definitely wasn't going, that I was sure of, but I still couldn't help the foreboding feeling I got from the whole thing; as if the world was about to implode.

'It's probably because of all that crap Newbie was feeding me about the 'importance of the job,'' I thought, shaking my head.

One minute left.

I need something to distract myself with. Wait, Jordan has today off if I remember correctly. I'll go see her, try to smooth over yesterday's mishap.

The minute was up and the world continued to turn. I knew it was all just a bunch of hype.

JD's POV

Having finished my last reap, I had decided to go meet Dr. Cox at his next reap. He seemed a little freaked out after his first one, so I figured I could be there for moral support. I knew he'd never admit to needing support, but he was going through an afterlife crisis so it was important that I was around to keep him from falling off the deep end.

He'd especially need support for his next reap because it just so happened to be a young boy around Jack's age. It was never easy when it was children and I'm sure that it was even harder when you had kids of your own.

There's just one problem. For me to be there for him, he actually has to be present. He only had a few minutes until little Zach passed on and he still hadn't shown up.

Maybe he's just running a little late or maybe he's caught in traffic. Somehow I don't think that's the case though.

Repeatedly looking from Zach to my watch, I muttered, "Dammit, where is he?"

The little boy flat-lined and I watched with a frown as doctors and nurses flew into the room to try and revive him. The clock ticked past the boy's ETD and eventually the doctors called his time of death. Once they all filed out of his room to go notify both the parents and the guys down in the morgue, I slowly walked into the room, bypassing other unconscious plague patients. I stood by his bedside and pulled back the white sheet that covered him.

I had seen this happen before. The boy's soul hadn't come out of his body, and it wouldn't until Dr. Cox did his job. The soul was instead trapped inside, completely aware of everything that went on around him, but unable to do anything except lie there.

"Don't worry," I told him. "I'll fix this."

Pulling the sheet back over the boy, I headed down to the morgue so as to inform a certain reaper of the situation. The reaper in question was none other than Doug Murphy. Doug was a part of the external influence division and when I first came to Sacred Heart, it only took me about a minute to realize this fact. He wasn't exactly the most subtle reaper in the world.

Walking into the crisp room that was the morgue, I shut the door behind me to ensure privacy. At the sound of a crash followed by a curse, I looked over to see Doug struggling to drag a corpse back up on the examination table it had fallen off of. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a graveling crouched on a counter cackling.

Gravelings weren't something we in the plague division saw too much of because they preferred chaos and accidents to sicknesses. In a nutshell, gravelings are dark gremlin-like creatures that are invisible to the living and cause the accidents and incidents that kill people. I guess you could say that reapers are the clean-up crew after gravelings are done with people.

The reason why there was one here now, in a place where everyone was already dead, is because Doug was cursed. He screwed with the rules and made a monumental mistake in the past that has since then caused gravelings to haunt him wherever he goes. It's the number one reason why so many of Doug's patients have died. Working down in the morgue was probably the best move he could make.

Seeing that nobody else was in the room, I cleared my throat before saying, "Doug, we have a problem."

"Oh God, what now?" he groaned, finally managing to get the body back up on the examination table.

"You should be getting a kid down here pretty soon, Zach Copley, whose soul is still inside his body," I explained a bit sheepishly.

"What?" he squawked.

"Dr. Cox didn't show up for it," I said. "But don't worry, I'll find him and get him to fix this. I just need you to stall for time."

"I can only stall for so long," Doug said stressfully. "Eventually his family will want his body for his funeral."

"It shouldn't take that long," I said, sounding unsure.

Dr. Cox could be really stubborn when he wanted to be.

Perry's POV

I stood in front of the door to our apartment, or rather, the door to Jordan's apartment. Perry Cox wasn't a resident of anything anymore. I came here feeling confident and defiant against the rules Newbie set down, but once I got here, my confidence deflated and I couldn't get myself to even knock on the door. She was in there, I knew. I had heard her voice, and Jack's as well, coming from inside while I stood out here trying to gain up the courage to knock on the door.

'First with the reap and now this?' I thought irritably. 'Grow a pair and knock on that door!'

As I wondered what I would even say to her, I found myself raising my hand and knocking on the door. It only took a moment for her to answer, and I felt completely unprepared when she did.

"Are you stalking me?" Jordan asked with a dirty look. "Who gave you this address?"

"I found out from John," I lied. "Look, I just came to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I've heard that you're going through a tough time and I thought you could use some company, but I approached the situation poorly and... Yeah. Sorry about that."

"I appreciate the sentiment and all," she said insincerely, "but I don't need anyone's company. I'm doing perfectly fine on my own, okay?"

"Yes, I can see that quite well from all the vodka bottles and other questionable alcoholic drinks you have scattered about as if a hurricane stopped at the liquor store before coming here and with a child present no less. It's not that I'm saying you're messy, I'm just wondering if your maid fell off the AA bandwagon or that perhaps you fired her because 'you don't need anyone's company,' not even the company of a charming man such as myself whose only want is to take you out for coffee," I said with an annoyed huff.

She looked surprised for a moment and appeared to almost be in physical pain before her mask came back on and, narrowing her eyes, she hissed, "You should go."

"What?" I asked, bewildered.

"Get out. Now," she said, pushing me back a few paces before slamming the door in my face.

"Jordan, wait!" I called through the door before hearing the lock click. "Dammit!"

I hadn't meant to go on a rant. I can't help it, it's just who I am, but it also reminded Jordan of who I was, and I highly doubted that she would want to be around someone who reminded her of her dead ex-husband.

I screwed up, and there was no going back now.

I left the apartment and headed to the nearest bar despite the fact that I couldn't get drunk. I guess in a way it was a mental comfort to just be in the atmosphere of a bar. Unfortunately, the bar I went to happened to be a popular hangout for college students and all that youthful energy was quickly getting on my nerves. I was just about to leave when suddenly at a table in the middle of the room where two college boys had been competing against each other to see who could drink the most shots, one of the boys passed out on the floor.

Seeing that he had won the competition, the second college boy yelled out, "I am victorious! Who here dares to challenge the Drinking King and his stomach of steel?"

"You playing for cash, kid?" I asked as I approached the table.

"Is there any other way to play?" he said with a cocky smile as he waved the money he had won in his previous challenge. "Think you can take me on, old man?"

Sitting down in the empty seat across from the kid, I slapped some money down on the table with a smirk. "Bring on the shots."

Who better to play a drinking game than a reaper who can't get drunk? I think I just found myself the prefect temp job until I get my medical degree back.

Yay! Done with chapter 18! I hope there wasn't any confusion about what happened to Perry's second reap. If there's no reaper to collect the soul, then the soul stays stuck inside the dead body, completely aware of everything going on. That just so happens to be my worst fear.

Review please!