Chapter 8 already, I hear you say? Yes, that's correct! Here is Chapter 8, ready and written for you within hours of posting Chapter 7. I hope you enjoy this chapter; I sure as hell will enjoy writing it.

Onwards! The usual warnings - slashy, yummy, naughty goodness. There may be some in this chapter. There may not be. All I can promise you is that it'll be intense as anything. ^_^

Chapter Eight - Control

Dr. Cox POV

Kissing as hard as I could, I thrust myself upwards into Jordan, large hands holding her hips so that she felt the depth, the heat, the friction - she cried out, rocking herself against me, so close to orgasm that I could feel her muscles tightening around me already. I knew it would only take one more thrust and she'd be gone - this was not the case for me. I was nowhere near the end.

I growled in frustration.

"Perry, god Perry, do it -"

It knew it wasn't going to happen; there was no way I could get myself turned on enough to finish this - I mean, I was having a good time, what man doesn't have a good time when he's having sex with a woman like Jordan? She was no novice, she knew what she was doing, but I guess it was one of those night where I wasn't absorbed in it like usual. I had other things on my mind.

Still, she still had the chance of a happy ending so I'd give it to her - rather than do what I usually did and do one really long, deep stroke to finish her off, I suddenly moved hard, fast and deep - the scream that ripped from her throat was as loud and intense as always, but without my release it didn't seem to have the same effect. Instead I went soft, slipping out her as she shuddered in pleasure, my arms pulling her down onto me and holding her close. She wriggled against me, both of us uncomfortable.

"You didn't -"

"Not tonight."

Jordan moved off of me, looking down at me. "That's the second time in the last two weeks, Perry. Something wrong?"

I put my hands behind my head and closed my eyes.

"It was great as always, Jordan. I've just got a lot on my mind."

She stared at me for a few more moments, but I pointedly ignored her (as usual after sex) and made it clear that it wasn't up for discussion. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk to her about it, I just didn't feel like it was enough for it to be a conversation just yet. If I would talk to anyone about it, oddly enough it would be Jordan.

"Well, all right. Night then."

As she closed her eyes and settled down to sleep, I felt myself become wider awake - goddamn Carla Turk. All I hear in my mind was her voice yelling at me, being so brutally honest that I hadn't been able to move for minutes after she had left me standing there on the corner - and all I could see in my mind was, predictably, Newbie. Not for the first time the thought of him was keeping me awake, and it was starting to drive me insane.

If I'd have wanted to, I could've told Carla that I'd been circling his apartment building for the last few hours, confused as hell as to why he was on my mind so damned often and wanting to see him so I could just get that part over and done with and stop thinking about him - however when she'd stormed off out of the building, I'd tried following her but she'd been so fast in that way that only small Latina women can be that I'd lost track of her and ended up aimlessly wandering, frustrated and angry and letting the rain attempt to soothe me.

For a while, it had worked. Until I bumped into her and she'd laid it all out in front of me.

Either I had to start being nice to Newbie or I had to leave him alone - for good. Oddly, the idea of leaving him alone left a strange ache in the pit of my stomach, slightly similar to the ache I got whenever I wanted to play Cat and Mouse (I had liked this analogy of his, and found it pretty appropriate) but different in a way I couldn't place. The idea of being nice to him however had elicited a much stronger reaction and I knew that if I had to choose one of the two it would be to leave him to find someone else to follow, to respect. Not that he really did either of those nowadays.

I groaned, rubbing my hands over my face in frustration and wishing I could go back to that damned day where I first messed with him, wishing I could take it back. As much as I hated to admit it, I wanted the old 'relationship' back, the one where he looked at me like the sun shined out of my ass and the one where I looked at him like he was the pain in said ass - but I was stuck with how I'd made things, and the only thing I could do was either set it right or ignore it and pretend he now no longer existed.

I lifted my head and slammed it back into the pillow, cursing that fluffy-haired idiot and wondering not for the first time why he was the one keeping me awake.

X X X X X

JD POV

I couldn't sleep. It sounds stupid but whenever I closed my eyes all I could see was him, Dr. Cox - not as I knew him now but as he had been before all of this weirdness. The occasional winks, the hesitant pats on the back, the glint in his eye that spoke of danger and anticipation - I missed it, I missed our old relationship and wanted it back to how it was. Every second that I thought about it made me want to pick up the phone and call him, see if he was going as mad as I was, see if he actually gave a damn like I was still trying to kid myself into thinking - yet I knew it was a wasted thought process. He didn't give a damn about me any more than Jordan did, any more than Dr. Kelso did. I was officially being phased out of his life and I was just waiting for the official push.

Suddenly I sat up, determination flooding through my veins; screw it, I thought, pushing the covers off of my restless body and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. I would call him. Even if it made him angry, even if it made him threaten to kill me, it would be something compared to the indifference.

I crept into the kitchen, tiles cold on my feet, my body beginning to shake. What the hell was I doing? He'd cut my man-parts off for this, leave me a bare as Rowdy - but I couldn't see what other choice I had, I needed to know what was going on in his head. Nothing had ever bothered me so much before when it came to him, but now I was overwhelmed with it and couldn't sleep, constantly tossing and turning -

I picked up the phone. My hands were trembling as I started punching in numbers, feeling the usual shame at knowing his cell number despite only having used it once. It started ringing, ringing, ringing - suddenly it clicked through to Voicemail, just his voice saying,

"This is Perry Cox's phone - I'm not around. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."

I couldn't deny it; just hearing his voice sent shivers running down my spine. What the hell was happening to me? Surely I hated him for what he had done to me, to us, how he had treated me? Yet I got a sick sense of pleasure hearing his voice on the other side of the phone - I had to call it again, hear it again. I re-dialled, waiting as it rang and listening to the deep timbre of his words again; I shut my eyes, savouring it. He barely spoke to me these days.

Once more, I said to myself, dialling the number - but just before I went to hit 'Call' the phone suddenly began ringing. Terrified of waking up Turk, I forgot just who it might be and answered. Just as I was about to speak, I realised who was on the other end of that telephone call and stopped, gulping.

A few moments of silence, before,

"Anyone there, or shall I just hang up?"

I let my lips part, wanting to push out some words but finding myself frozen with shock. There it was, his voice, deeper and different to his voicemail - the voicemail had been business-like, just doing what he had to do, but this tone was one edged with that usual frustration and something else - something that sounded just a little bit like anticipation.

"I could just hang up and call the boys in blue, report harassment of some kind, if you'd prefer? I'm really not fussy."

My breathing was coming in laboured; his voice in my ear reminded me of how close he had been, how his lips had brushed my ear-lobe as he'd spoken to me in the doctor's lounge - I knew he would be able to hear it, would probably assume it was some idiot teenager messing around, doing prank phone calls -

"Newbie?"

SHIT! How did he know it was me? I tried to silence myself, lifting the phone away from my ear to place it on the cradle and pretend it had never happened but his voice came out again, still deep, still edged with both frustration and that other one I still couldn't quite place.

"It's 3am, Newbie. What in the hell do you think you're doing calling now? What the hell do you think you're doing calling full stop?"

I shut my eyes. Why can't I speak? My breathing was still laboured, partly from shock and partly from still recalling how it had felt to have that voice in my ear, coming directly from his lips rather than from a phone.

His tone changed.

"Has something happened?"

Was that… was that concern? Was Dr. Cox concerned about me? I finally found my voice, intending to reassure him, but instead all that came out as,

"You tell me."

His breath hitched slightly, and for a few seconds I was sure he was crying until I realised it was quiet laughter. "You call me at 3am to make me answer my own questions for you? Go to hell."

"I called you because I didn't know what else to do," I hissed into the receiver, clutching the phone so tightly my knuckles went white. "Where else am I supposed to get answers from? My friends are falling apart at the seams and they're all leaning on me - who am I supposed to lean on? I'm being kept awake all night just by the… by the thought of…"

I stopped, having to catch my breath - this was crazy.

"Kept awake by the thought of you and who the hell am I supposed to talk to? Whose going to support me?"

"I don't know, but it sure isn't going to be me, Gloria. Take your angst elsewhere, I don't want to hear it."

The phone clicked as he hung up, leaving me with a dialling tone in my ear. I shut my eyes, automatically putting the receiver back onto the cradle and leaning my elbows onto the countertop, resting my head in my hands. So. This was it. It was going to be like this from now on.

I stood up properly, rubbing my hands over my face and making my way slowly back to my bedroom.

The phone rang again.

Don't bother. Just leave it.

But then Turk will pick it up and wonder what the hell's going on!

What the hell IS going on?!

I padded to the phone quickly and quietly, picking it up and pressing it to my ear, closing my eyes tightly.

There was silence. Until.

"You're keeping me up."

I snorted quietly. "I'm not the one whose calling this time." I hesitated. "Though I'm sorry for calling earlier. I just… I can't help but -"

"I'm not talking about now, Hayley, I'm talking about tonight. The night before. The night before that."

My breath caught in my throat; I felt my hands start to shake again. "I… how am I -"

"Damned if I know."

I slid down the cupboards, sitting on the floor with my knees drawn up to my chest. I held the phone close, wondering how I got here, wondering how it was that my mentor, my tormentor was on the phone to me at 3am telling me that I was on his mind, that I was keeping him awake.

"I…"

For some reason I stopped at this - my head was spinning. This was seriously crazy, surely this couldn't be happening? I shut my eyes and shook my head.

"I can't sleep."

The line went dead. Apparently I had leaned too far, too hard on with him without even meaning to - but still, I hadn't dreamed this, had I? He had just called me back to say he couldn't sleep because I was on his mind constantly, every night? And why did that not feel weird but instead, in the most bizarre way, exhilarating? I was still slightly breathless as I forced myself to stand, placing the receiver down as quietly as possible and shuffling off to my bedroom, voices in my head telling me to go to his apartment and demand to see him but I knew for a fact that would be taking it too far. I mean, Jesus, an hour ago I was angry as hell at the guy for having so much power over me and abusing it for his own entertainment - yet now I wanted to see him. Now, I wanted to look him in the eye and see that what he had told me was true - that he thought of me. That he was still thinking of me, even now.

I slipped into bed again, reaching for my cell to check the time - one new text message? My stomach dived again, wondering if it was, wondering what it said -

None of this tomorrow.

That was it. None of what? No talking about what had come up during our brief conversation on the phone? No talking whatsoever?

And even though I knew it was probably the latter, and even though my head was so full it was all I could do to actually lay it down on the pillow, the moment I shut my eyes, I fell asleep.

The first time in days.

Dr. Cox POV

I put my cell down on the bedside table next to me, knowing he was probably jumping for joy that I somehow knew his cell number, and wondering why such a small thing would cause him so much joy. Equally I wondered what the hell had pushed me to ring him back, to admit something so potentially damaging, so emotional it made me feel dirty even remembering. Even though my plan was to ignore him, to blank him so hard that he just had to go crawling after someone else for a 'mentor', I knew that by calling him back I had started something new - perhaps a continuation of the game I had already started and perhaps something different altogether.

But what I knew for sure was that once my head hit that pillow, I was gone to the world - at least for the next few hours. Worse, that I knew why,

To avoid confusion, yes, that is the end of the chapter. Short, I know, but I've given you two chapters in one day, so shhh :-P Also, it's been brought to my attention that a) apparently my character voices aren't differentiated enough and b) that the "JD POV" etc is distracting. What do you guys think? I wasn't concerned about the character voices/narrative voices simply because I've had reviewers saying they're spot on but am I wrong? Do let me know, guys, because I was going by the mass reviews rather than a single one, but if y'all agree I don't want to be ruining the story for you if it's not IC enough!

Thanks guys, and love as always! R & R your beautiful hearts out.