Thank you to all who have so wonderfully reviewed the long-awaited Chapter 20. I'm not quite sure why some of you couldn't review it and had to write it on Chapter 19 instead but regardless: THANK YOU.

This chapter isn't as long as some of the others and is nowhere near as long as the last chapter, but hey, they can't all be 10,000 words long! XD

So, comrades, let us power on! The twenty-first chapter ahoy!

Chapter Twenty-One - Printed

JD POV

Throughout the night, the weather completely turned. The glittering sun seemed to decide it was time for an unplanned holiday, darting behind the clouds before I could even notice it was there and instead sending her deputy - Mr. Rain Cloud - in her place.

Needless to say, Mr. Rain Cloud and I were not best friends. Still, that morning a tornado could've been heading towards me and I wouldn't have noticed… I had too much on my mind. As I pulled a pair of dark denim trousers on, drawing in a hissed breath at my aching muscles, I mused silently over the fact that though everything had changed in the space of six hours my head still felt just as messed up as it had before.

Mrf. I stood up and stretched, lazily leaning towards my suitcase and pulling out a white t-shirt and a ribbed black zip-up - as I slipped them on, marvelling at the tightness and discomfort of my shoulders, a light knock on my door made me jolt in surprise.

Could it be -

"Hey, V-Bear! Wanna go get some breakfast?"

Damn.

I practically stumbled over the tux that was still spread across my floor as I made my way to open the door; I pulled it open, pulling the zip up and grabbing a clean pair of socks as I jerked my head and indicated that Turk could come in. "Just let me get my shoes on…"

Turk nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets and glancing around the room. A wrinkle of confusion spread across his brow.

"Dude, did you perform your own strip show last night or something? Or - wait a minute…" A grin spread across his face - my heart stopped. Did he know?! Oh god, was I that LOUD?! "Did you and Lesley hook up last night?"

My stomach fluttered slightly as I pulled on a sneaker. I'd completely forgotten about her. "Err, no. I just… got undressed. Like you do."

He looked at me for a moment; I avoided his gaze. Please drop it, please drop it, please drop it…

"So… you ready to go?"

Unbelievably grateful that he hadn't asked what he may have been considering, I nodded, slipping the other sneaker onto my foot and standing up. I leant over and grabbed the key card from the bedside table, hastily sweeping the condom wrapper I hadn't noticed until now out of sight; I turned back to Turk and forced an easy grin, my heart pounding.

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Let's hit the buffet!"

The hall was pretty busy; I felt sad knowing that this was the penultimate breakfast buffet I'd have here… it seriously was epic. Turk and I had stayed in there for three hours the morning before, his joy only heightened when he realised that it was open all day as a room service option. This reminded me of his evening the night before.

"So how was brinner?"

He scooped up some eggs and plopped them onto his plate, his eyes rolling towards the heavens as he remembered. "Immense, dude. I can't even tell you. We ordered brinner room service - brinner in bed!"

I grinned, using a pair of silver tongs to put two slices of toast onto my plate. "Awesome. Did Carla enjoy it?"

Turk shrugged. "I don't mean this in a bad way, but when brinner's around it's kind of hard to focus on anything else."

"True dat."

"Don't say that, it's all wrong coming from you."

We bickered lightly as we made our way to a table by one of the massive windows overlooking the pool, settling ourselves and tucking in to what would probably be one of many helpings. I munched my way through my toast, eggs and bacon, eyes scanning the guests and recognising a lot of them from the conferences I had done on the first day - oh damn, I have to do more of those or Kelso will kill me…

I took an extra huge bite of buttery, toast-smooshed eggs and glanced up again.

Big mistake.

Looking serene and beautiful in her porcelain-like way, Lesley made her way towards our table, holding a plate of - yep, no surprise there, toast, eggs and bacon. Her hair was tied and clipped to the back of her head with a few tendrils falling down and into her eyes, making her look both younger and prettier all at once.

She flashed us both a smile and motioned towards the chair opposite me. "May I?"

Her voice was still all silvery-bell-like. I nodded, coughing down my mouthful and looking towards Turk to see if he was bothered - on the contrary, his eyes flickered from me to her, a knowing sparkle lighting them up.

No, no, don't get the wrong idea Chocolate Bear!

Deftly she began to cut her toast into squares, pinning a chunk of egg to one of them and slipping it into her mouth - I watched, half-horrified that the woman who had seen me admitting my love for another man was now sitting in front of me, and half-pleased just to see her. I didn't understand the feeling… the closest thing to the 'perfect woman' in terms of dating that I had ever met before was Elliot who was pretty much insane in her own right, and therefore we seemed to click well both in and out of a relationship. Lesley though…

Lesley was clearly something different.

Her next words proved this.

"How did he take your confession last night then, John?"

Turk's eyebrows shot up. I looked with utter horror at her, but her eyes were focused completely on the food in front of her. Damn her and her perfect toasty-eggy-bacony-squares…

"I err… he didn't… we…"

"I came to your room about an hour after I'd left but after lingering outside for a few minutes it was kind of obvious you didn't want to be disturbed."

Oh holy Vishnu, was she doing this on purpose?! If Turk had had hair, his eyebrows would've been lost beneath it right now - his eyes were still flickering from me to her, but now it was in shock rather than understanding. I was pretty sure it would click soon, and I really didn't want it to.

"You stopped… you stopped by my room? Oh… that was nice of you…" My voice was faint, pathetic, embarrassed - still she focused on her squares of yumminess, cutting them smaller and smaller and smaller -

"You seemed… content. So I left you to it."

Suddenly her knife and fork went down - her hazel eyes finally came to rest upon mine. They were unreadable. I hesitated. "Are you… are you angry at me?"

A tiny smile formed on her lips. "It's not every day that I get asked out and then rejected on the same day. Particularly for another man."

Turk's jaw dropped. I ignored him. "You have to know, I didn't just ask you so that I could… y'know…"

"Get over him?" Lesley nodded, taking a sip of orange juice. "I did wonder if I was just a tool to help get rid of some spanner in the works -" her smile became a wry one. "But I'm going to forgive you anyway. You can't help being in love with someone else."

I mumbled something akin to 'another man' - she laughed, placing a warm, slender hand over mine and smiling properly as she looked into my eyes, sincerity glowing from every pore. "It makes no difference if it's a man or a woman, John - the fact is… well, you've fallen for someone. Someone who would appear to mean a lot to you." She bit down on her lower lip slightly. "I'm sorry that it's not me, but what can you do?"

She flicked the tendrils out of her eyes and took her hand back, stabbing a bacon-and-toast square with her fork. "Besides, I've known you for less than twenty-four hours, I really shouldn't have taken it so personally."

God, she was right… it felt like so much longer! I couldn't put my finger on it - because it really wasn't just because she was so similar to me - but there was something that made her important regardless of time-span. Sure, I hated hurting women that had feelings for me, but with Lesley it felt like I was ruining something far more powerful than just a relationship. She was like… a better version of me, almost…

"You're romanticizing me, aren't you?"

I blinked, coming back to the room - both she and Turk were staring at me, him looking suddenly horrified… she was grinning at me, blatantly reading my every thought from behind my eyes.

She's a witch too, like Carla…

"I know that I can't expect to be your romantic interest," Lesley began, cupping her hands around the cold glass of juice, her thumbs catching the little drops of condensation. "And I know that I pretty much live at this hotel and you live a few hours away. But…" she hesitated. I looked at her patiently, becoming more and more aware of Turk's frozen expression and trying my best to ignore it. "I'd like it if we could stay in touch after you leave tomorrow."

Again, I found myself surprised by her. "Like you said though, we barely know each other -"

"But I'm prepared to change that," she intercepted, flashing a smile in my direction. "I always wanted to meet the male version of me - true, I didn't think he'd be so old -"

I folded my arms. "When I'm sixty and you're fifty four -"

"I'll still think you're older than the hills. Deal with it, Dr. Dorian, you're an old man - but I don't mind," she added, winking. "Your experience plus my youth will make us a pair not to be reckoned with, don't you think?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but made the mistake of looking at Turk who was now staring wordlessly across the room - I turned my gaze in the same direction, finding myself first looking at Carla (who looked tired… she should've known brinner would last a while) and then -

My hand flew to my chest, flattening against where my heart was now pumping a mile a minute.

"I like that shirt on him," Lesley's soft, slightly teasing voice came from behind me. "The grey-blue of it brings out his eyes."

I turned my body and head quickly back to face her, determined not to stare at the man I was rapidly falling for as he chatted to my best friend's wife. I began shovelling cold eggs and toast into my mouth, jiggling slightly in my seat. Lesley watched me, blatantly amused.

"God, he just sets you completely on edge, doesn't he?" she mused, her eyes drifting to gaze at him again. "Hmmm. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find him attractive, but I don't quite get how you could fall for a man like him."

Turk's horrified eyes turned back to face us. Finally he spoke. "Dude, did you…?"

I hastily cut across him to reply to Lesley. "I'm not in love with him yet."

She shook her head. "Oh I know - you've both got to be there for that. But you are falling, right?"

I nodded quickly.

"And how long has it taken for you to admit that?"

"Maybe a month, month and a half?"

It was her time to blink in confusion. "…is that all?"

I hesitated over the answer, but to my surprise, Turk suddenly intercepted.

"Dude, you've been falling in love with him for four years."

My eyes flew up to meet his - he was still clearly horrified after working out why my tux had been strewn across my carpet, but for some damned reason he had decided that now was the time to find his vocal chords again. "Don't be stupid, Turk, I've never looked at him like that before now."

He snorted. "You might not have looked at him that way, but that doesn't stop it being true! He's the closest you've ever had to a relationship the entire time you've been at that hospital - and you know I'm right, man."

My mouth opened and closed for a few seconds. "I… what about Elliot? Kylie?"

With a sigh, he spread out his fingers in front of me and started counting off points. "When you're depressed, the first person you seek out for advice is Dr. Cox. When you're happy, you instantly go to him to spread it around. When you're lonely, you go to him. When you need help, the first person you always go to, WITHOUT fail, is Dr. Cox. That's the way it's been for four years and it aint gonna change."

Again, my mouth fell open. I was saved having to answer to this by the arrival of Carla, who kissed the top of Turk's head and then looked fleetingly from me to Lesley.

"Hey - what are you guys talking about?"

As she settled herself down beside Turk, he shot me a triumphant look, knowing that Carla would back him up. "How JD's probably been in love with Dr. Cox from day one."

Carla's eyes flew to Lesley, blatantly unaware - as Turk had been - of the changes that last night had brought. "Uh…"

"It's okay, she knows," I mumbled. "Carla, Lesley, Lesley, Carla."

"Mrs. Turk, I presume?" Lesley said with a bright smile, extending her hand. "It's wonderful to finally meet you, I've heard… a tiny bit about you!"

"Oh!" Carla's hand met Lesley's mid air, shaking it lightly before smiling hesitantly at her. "But I thought… you and JD…"

"I thought so too," she said, rolling her eyes in my direction. "But after last night I'm pretty sure all hope of that has pretty much flown out of the window."

It took Carla mere seconds to love her. "You have no idea the frustration I've had to go through with JD these last few months. Day after day, moaning on about how much he loves Dr. Cox -"

"HEY!" I protested loudly, slapping a slice of toast out of her hand and glaring at her. "Don't exaggerate!"

"- I kind of hoped that you'd be the answer, but apparently boys will be boys."

"That makes me sound gay."

"Well no offence Bambi, but you're acting kind of gay."

"I am not! Just because I happen to have-"

"- had sex with a man, that doesn't make you gay?"

All eyes swivelled to Lesley - she shrugged innocently, taking a slice of toast and nibbling on it. "I'm just saying what you were going to say…"

I shook my head, hard. "I was going to say that just because I have feelings for a man doesn't make me gay!!"

"You had sex with him, Bambi?!"

"Baby, I don't feel so good…"

"When did this happen? Did this happen last night??"

"Seriously baby, I think I had too much brinner -"

"Sit down Turk, this will just take a minute."

"But I don't wanna hear about JD's sex life with Dr. Cox!"

"Can we all stop talking so loudly?" I hissed desperately, wriggling in my chair with immense discomfort. "Otherwise we may as well just stand up and announce it to the entire room!"

"Come on JD, we're only messing around." Carla reached out to touch my hand, but I pulled it away, suddenly feeling a little cold towards them all.

"I know you are, but you don't seem to get that… that this isn't some joke to me. It's not like Elliot or Kylie or Neena or any of the girls I've been with."

They all stared at me, hazel, chocolate and mocha mixed together in one intense stare.

"And yes, if you must know, we did… do things last night. It was quite possibly the most emotional night of my life and I feel like a complete ass for even telling you about it. I sound gayer and gayer every time I talk about it."

"No," Carla said softly, a warm, sad smile edging her lips. "You sound like a guy who can't stop himself falling in love with someone. And there's nothing wrong with that."

I looked her directly in the eyes. "Does he love me?"

Silence.

"Then there's something wrong with it."

Lesley suddenly sat up straighter in her chair. "Don't look now John, but he - damn it -"

I had barely a second to glance at Dr. Cox before he was standing directly beside me - but rather than acknowledge my presence, he turned his attention to Carla.

"So, as we were saying before Kelso so rudely interrupted us - you're okay to do your bit with Nurse Bonnington later?"

She nodded, clasping her fingers in front of her as she looked up at him. "That should be fine."

"I think Leventhal wants to do his bit today -"

"That guy is a jackass," Turk interjected, pouting somewhat (probably still grumpy that Carla didn't pay any attention to him feeling ill). Dr. Cox nodded curtly.

"That guy is a jackass and no doubt we'll have to put up with cancer jokes for the entire time he's up there but for whatever reason Kelso chose him, soooo the way I see it, we've got no choice."

Carla grimaced. "Turk and I have to go to the dinner with him tonight."

"Good luck. Last time I was forced to -"

He kept talking, his voice smooth and uninterrupted - I let myself zone out to the sound of it, soothed by the deep, friendly tones that he used with Carla…

Something rough fell against my hand.

A small piece of paper.

Small enough that no one else had seen it.

I casually snuck a glance up at him but he was still talking to Carla, hands slipping inside of his pockets, attention wholly on everyone else around the table rather than me; everyone else stared rapturously at him as he spoke - even Lesley.

Slowly and carefully so that no one would notice, I unfolded the piece of paper and let my eyes focus on the letters printed in black.

5pm, center of the maze, whether you've remembered or not.