Hello everyone! I'm here with chapter twenty for you all and then we just have a few after this. I would like to remind everyone that I will be writing other fics in the DLMScrubsverse after this one. Three of them, I think, and one will be a oneshot. So don't worry, it's not over yet.

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 20

JDs POV

I had just finished with my last reap of the day and after seeing the man off to his bright light, I clocked in and picked up my patients' charts. Kelso felt I had enough mourning time and after telling me that the distraction of work would be good for me, he ordered me to be back to work today. So once again, I was walking around the hospital with my face mask in place as I took care of plague patients and a couple of non-plague patients.

After last night's talk with Perry, I truly wanted to believe that I got through to him and that everything was going to be okay now, but that seed of doubt just wouldn't go away. Perry was stubborn and could be sneaky when he wanted to be. I called him up this morning to give him his reap information for the day and he said he'd take care of it, but it was one of those 'I'll believe it when I see it' moments.

As Rube once said, he's a constipator, he mucks up the works. Until I was sure he could take care of his reaps on his own, I was going to have to watch him to make sure he got the job done. It was close to noon when his reap took place, and I waited outside the door to the patients' room for him to arrive. I waited and waited and periodically looked down at my watch to check the time. There was no sign of him, and as the minutes ticked by, my patience quickly disappeared.

From within the patients' room, I could hear Perry's reap, a middle aged woman, flat-line. My gaze darted around the halls, but saw no sign of Perry. With an annoyed growl, I swept into the room so that I could try and revive the woman. If I could somehow hold off her death, I would have enough time to drag Perry here to do his damn job. It was a futile effort though, the woman died anyway and I called her time of death to the nurses and other doctors.

With the sheet pulled over her bed, everyone else filed out of the room to take care of the procedures that needed to be done for the dead patient. I was left alone with one dead patient on my right, her soul still trapped in her body, and one unconscious patient on my left.

I glared at the ground and felt so completely pissed off. It was a type of senseless rage that makes you want to break something, or burn something, or maybe just throw a TV off of the roof. Perry lied once again and now another person was suffering.

I heard a gasp from my left and looked over to see the once unconscious patient now staring at me with wide eyes. He gaped like a fish for a moment before stumbling over his words as he said, "Oh God. Oh.. Please no. I'm.. I'm not ready to die. I have a family!"

I heaved a sigh and before walking out the door, I said, "You're not going to die."

At least not today. He looked close though, so maybe tomorrow. Man, I hated being around the terminally ill. I could never have a decent conversation with them because they'd be too busy begging me to let them live. That also made for an awkward conversation around my co-workers. I always ended up having to shrug it off and say that the person must be delusional.

I headed down to the morgue once again to inform Doug of his new, soul-ridden arrival-to-be. Since Perry never showed up for his reap, I doubted that he had come down to take care of Zach, so that would make this the second dead person with a soul to be down here.

Doug's graveling hissed at me from a corner as I entered the room and it scurried over to a shelf to knock some stuff over. Doug, apparently used to this behavior by now, didn't seem to notice or care.

I opened my mouth to tell Doug the bad news, but before I could get a word out, Doug, who just now noticed my presence, exclaimed, "JD, I am so sorry! They took him away when I was off of my shift. There was nothing I could do about it, I swear!"

"Doug, what are you talking about?" I asked with a feeling of dread.

"Zach Copley's family claimed his body yesterday. I tried to stop it, but there wasn't anything I could do," Doug explained nervously. "The funeral's tomorrow."

"What time tomorrow?" I asked.

"Um, around nine, I think," Doug said. "It's at the same place Dr. Cox's funeral was at."

Damnit, that was too soon. I didn't have enough time to track down the body and then drag Perry there to take care of things before the funeral. Zach was practically going to be buried alive. I didn't know what to do. I didn't think there was really anything I could do. I said everything I could possibly say to Perry to convince him to take on his reaper responsibilities and still nothing got through to him.

He's been a major pain in my ass, but... I didn't want him to just go away.

"Doug, you have another body with a soul coming down here soon," I said dully. "Sarah Grash. Try to keep anything from happening to her."

"Yeah, I'll look after her," Doug said, and I could tell he wanted to question me about why this was happening again. I had said I'd take care of things and I didn't. Doug looked doubtful, but he didn't say anything.

The graveling pushed an occupied body bag off of the examination table, and as Doug turned to pick it up, I left the morgue. As I walked through the halls of Sacred Heart, I pulled out my cell phone and scrolled through its phone book until I reached Perry's name. I didn't know what to do or what to even really say, but I had to say something to him.

I pressed 'call.'

Perry's POV

I sat across from Jordan at a small table in a Coffeebucks. She had a bagel along with her coffee, and I had a doughnut. We had been there for about half an hour now, exchanging small talk and just awkwardly sitting there.

"So you just came down here and left behind a job and everything you own so that you could help out DJ?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess," I said with a shrug.

I was basically bullshitting most of what I told her because I hadn't previously come up with a side story to tell her.

"So what do you do for a living?" she asked without much interest. I knew she really didn't care what my life was like and was probably more interested in this leading to sex (which really isn't that different from how our relationship had been before). Though I'll never admit it, Newbie was right about one thing, she was on some sort of grieving rebound. Still, I believed that over time this would turn into something more than just rebound sex.

"Oh, you know, this and that," I said vaguely before changing the subject, "What about you though, tell me about your life."

Before she could say something though, my cellphone went off and I mentally winced. I thought I had turned it off.

"Well, go ahead and answer it," she told me in an annoyed tone.

I really wasn't leaving too good of an impression on her.

I flipped open the phone and growled, "What?"

"Oh really, you're going to give me that attitude after you bailed on me again?" Newbie's voice snapped over the phone and I sighed.

"I'm a little busy here, John," I said. "I'll take care of it later."

"No, you need to take care of it when it happens!" Newbie said. "It's your job now and you can't just choose whenever you want to go into work." He paused to growl something to himself before asking, "What could be so important that... You're with her right now, aren't you?"

"I might be," I said as I threw Jordan an apologetic look.

"You know what? Fine, go head! You don't listen to a thing I say anyway," he grumbled, then paused before saying, "Since you have so much free time on your hands now, being unemployed and all, the least you could do is bring the puppy to his obedience classes. I've missed the last few lessons."

"I thought you weren't keeping the dog," I pointed out.

"Just do this for me," he said, exasperated. "Drop the puppy off at my apartment afterwards. If you can't handle your job, I don't expect you to be responsible enough to take care of a puppy."

"Fine," I relented. "Bye."

I didn't know what got his panties in a bunch. I was going to take care of my reaps eventually. I guess he changed his mind on that though.

I hung up the phone and turned it on silent before slipping it into my pocket. Turning my attention back to Jordan, I said a bit sheepishly, "Um, John just wanted me to bring his dog to obedience classes."

"Uh-huh," she said slowly before she stood up from the table with a fake smile. "You have fun with that, I have to be somewhere anyway."

"Wait, you're leaving?" I asked, standing up myself.

"Yeah, like I said, I have somewhere to be," she said, glancing down at her watch.

"Could you.. give me a ride to my hotel?" I asked a bit hesitantly. I definitely wasn't on her good side right now, but I didn't want to have to ride public transportation again.

"You don't have a car?" she asked.

"I left it behind when I came down here," I lied.

"That was a stupid thing to do," she said, then sighed, "Alright, I'll give you a ride, but we're picking up my brat from preschool."

I nodded before following Jordan to her car and sitting down in the passenger's seat with a smile. I would get to see my son again, and not just briefly like last night. Of course, there wasn't much I could say to him or anything, but just seeing him would be enough.

We arrived at the preschool and I waited outside while Jordan went in to get him. I stood leaning against the car with my arms crossed over my chest and my eyes on the front entrance. It wasn't long before my little boy came racing out of the school with Jordan walking calmly behind him. He rushed over to the car, but then stopped short when he saw me.

Tilting his head to one side, he gave me a curious look before calling out questioningly, "Mom?"

"It's fine, sweetie," Jordan assured him. "He came by last night, remember? Mommy went to go have coffee with him while you were at school."

He shrugged, accepting the answer, and I kneeled down on the ground so that I was at his eye-level. I was glad that he was wary of a stranger, I taught him right, but I was also saddened by the fact that to him, I was that stranger.

Still, I put a friendly smile on my face and said, "Hey there..."

I trailed off and blinked, a frown forming on my face. Suddenly the situation was all wrong. Yes, I got to see my son again, but-

"Something wrong?" Jordan asked, walking up behind our kid and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing," I said automatically. "I just... don't know his name."

"It's Jack," she said simply before leading Jack around me and over to the backseat of the car. I stood up and watched her hook him into the car seat in the back.

Jack. That's right, his name is Jack, but for a moment there, I didn't know that. I didn't know my own son's name. Wasn't I the one that gave him that name? I'm not sure, I can't really remember. It's hazy.

I looked up at the sky and I knew this was their doing. Whoever it is that controls things up there was giving me a small warning, and I knew that the next time around it was going to be much worse. What if I forget that I was even together with Jordan when I was alive, or what if I forget that Jack is my son and not some dead guy's? What if I decide this time around that I don't care to be with Jordan and Jack? Could I handle something like that? Do I really want to take that risk?

It was worth it, it had to be...

But what if it isn't worth it?

"You coming or not?" Jordan asked from her seat at the driver's side.

I nodded numbly and got into the passenger's side. She drove me to my hotel and dropped me off at the front entrance. Neither of us said anything about calling the other.

The puppy greeted me when I entered my room. Thrilled to have some company and attention, he wagged his tail and stayed glued to my feet as I walked over to grab his leash. He yipped a couple times when he saw me holding the leash and jumped up on me. I pushed him off and attached the leash to his collar. Heading out the door, I took the stairs and went out a back way with him dragging me along with enough strength to pull a sled.

We took a cab to where the classes were held. I knew the location because while I had been incorporeal, Newbie had mentioned it. The class took place at a large pet store in a busy plaza. I signed the fluff ball in and only half listened when the lesson started. I was just too distracted by everything going on in my life... afterlife. Besides, there really wasn't too much I could teach the pup anyway considering he didn't have a name I could address him by.

While the teacher was going over the basics (sit, lie down, heal), I noticed a scruffy looking girl leaning against the plastic walls that fenced off the class. She looked to be around five years old and was currently eyeing the different dogs with an oddly serious look on her face. She also looked homeless, or at least not well off. Her clothes looked old, worn down, and dirty and her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks. She wore a jean jacket too big for her over a pink, puffy dress with green leggings and an orange ski hat to top it all off.

I turned my attention back to the class, only occasionally glancing at the girl, and listened to the teacher at she told us how to properly walk a dog. Apparently tugging wasn't the way it was done. The lecture part of the class ended and everyone was left to try the tricks out on their dogs while the teacher walked around to help.

Looking down at the German shepherd who paced around my feet, I said, "Well, you heard the lady. Sit."

He paused to look at me with one ear flopped down and the other pointed up before returning to his pacing.

"Okay," I said with a shrug. "But if Newbie asks, I tried."

"You gotta push down his bum when you tell him to sit," I heard a young voice say matter-of-factly from my right and I turned to see the little girl standing there. "What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one," I stated.

She frowned, "Are you sure? Maybe someone else named him."

"Nope, no name," I said.

"You should name him soon then," she said. "A name is important."

Then she walked off and approached the next nearest dog and its owner. I raised an eyebrow at her and got that whole twilight zone feeling. After talking to the owner for a moment, she walked over to another dog and it's owner. This time she smiled at whatever the third owner said and after a few more word exchanged, she reached down and pet the dog. As she stroked her hand along the golden retriever's back, I saw a brief glowing residue left behind. The owner of the golden retriever remained completely oblivious and went back to training.

My eyes widened at the sight of the glow. She was a reaper? But she was so young, and it was a dog she took care of, not the owner. The little girl walked out of the store, and with a light tug of the lease, I walked out after her with the puppy trotting next to me.

I caught up to her a little ways outside the front door and stupidly asked, "You're a reaper?"

"Yeah, so what? You're one too," she said with a raised eyebrow and a condescending look.

Ignoring the fact that she knew I was a reaper too, I said, "I wasn't aware there are reapers for animals."

"Animals have souls too, dumb-dumb," she said, looking miffed.

I closed my mouth because I really didn't want to get into a fight with a five-year-old and I didn't quite know what to say to her.

"How old are you?" I asked after a moment.

"I died when I was seven, but that was three years ago. So ten, I guess," she said with a careless shrug.

The puppy walked over to her to sniff her, and she reached a hand down to pet him, but I jerked him back before she could. She crossed her arms and frowned at me.

"You're very young to be doing this," I commented.

"You're very old to be doing this," she said. "There's not a right age to be doing this, stupid."

I glared at her and could swear that she was Jordan's illegitimate child.

"What's your name, kid?" I asked.

"Riley," she said. "Why? What's your name?"

"Perry."

"The new plaguie," she said in recognition, and at my curious look, she said, "Word travels fast among reapers. So what do you want, Perry?"

"Nothing, just... You're so young," I murmured.

"Yeah, you keep saying that."

"Don't you miss your family?" I asked and had no idea why I was even talking to her.

"Duh," she said with a roll of her eyes. "But how is anyone supposed to heal if they keep opening up an old wound?" Muttering 'dumb-dumb' once again, she turned to walk away.

"Wait," I said, and she paused to look at me over her shoulder. "Do you need any money or something?" She was a brat, but she was still a kid.

"I can take care of myself, you know," she said stubbornly. "Mentally speaking, I'm a lot older than you realize. Death does that to you, it makes you stronger."

"Well, if you ever need help or anything, you can find me at Sacred Heart Hospital," I said.

"Whatever," she grunted as she walked away.

Shaking my head, I pulled out my cellphone to call up another cab. The class was over by now, so the only thing left to do was drop the fur ball off at Newbie's place. As I stood on the sidewalk with the puppy walking around my feet, wrapping me up in the leash, I suddenly heard someone call out, "Buster, heal! Heal!" This was soon followed by the screech of a car's tires and a dull thud. I didn't have to look to know what had happened to the golden retriever.

I sighed.

"You see? That's why you should listen to what I tell you," I told the puppy who had gone still at my feet and was watching the scene. He gave off one whining howl before going silent again.

I reached down and pet him on the head.

JD's POV

Carla wasn't too happy at the sight of the puppy when we all came home after our shift, but she let it slid for now. Truthfully, I had no idea what I was going to do. Perry wasn't doing his job, the souls were rotting away in their bodies, and not a single person was interested in taking the puppy off my hands. At this point, I wasn't even quite sure I wanted to give the dog away. I hate to admit it, but I've grown attached to the little guy.

If I kept him though, that would just add even more problems. The apartment had a 'no pets' policy, so he couldn't stay here. Also, Carla would be having a baby soon, and having a dog around the house could be risky. While I'm on that subject, I couldn't live here forever either. With a new baby, Carla and Turk would want their space at home to raise the kid, and I wasn't oblivious enough to believe that I could be a part of that space. I'd need to eventually move out.

Maybe I could stay at one of my reap's former houses. I've done it before.

I got up early the next morning and dressed up in my funeral clothes that have seen a lot of action lately. I was going to Zach Copley's funeral because I'm responsible for what's happening to him. If I had been a better reaper teacher, Perry would have done his job and got the kid's soul out.

So I went to the funeral and I stood in the back and listened to the priest's speech that sound fairly close to what was said about Perry. The ceremony eventually ended and the casket lowered into the ground. I felt panic surge through my stomach because the boy was still in there, completely conscious. I wanted to rush over there and pull the boy from his casket, steal the body even, but I didn't. I just stood there and watched. A plan like that would be stupid and spur-of-the-moment. I needed a better idea that wouldn't get me caught and would save the boy.

Glaring at nothing, I left the cemetery, scheming of way that would fix everything.

End of chapter 20. I believe there are two more chapters after this before I move onto the next story of this series. Hopefully Perry wasn't OOC in this, he's harder to write.

Review please!