Chapter 28- Strangers

It had been three days, three days since Elliot had turned up at the hospital and four since the transplant had taken place. In that time she had been texting me every hour, calling by after her shift with food and to chat about the happenings over at sacred heart. Though it was starting to get a bit annoying, I would be lying if I said I didn't really appreciate it deep down. Sammy was going from strength to strength, his stats remaining strong and showing no signs of rejecting his new organ. His left foot even gave a small twitch when I was tickling it one afternoon, I had practically gone to Doctor Cox screaming in excitement over that one.

I was even told he may be able to be discharged within the next week if things continue the way they are. Everything just seemed to be falling into place, the only thing that did nag at the back of my mind was that I still hadn't heard from Turk. Despite how mad I was at him, despite how much a part of me hated him for the way things had gone between us, it seemed the less I needed to worry about Sammy's health and overall future, the more time I had to think about him and Carla.

I couldn't deny it anymore, the fact they weren't here, after finding out about Sammy and Kim, really hurt. I really did think that they would at least come and talk to me, that the last, god only knows how many years of friendship wasn't going to be thrown down the drain. At this stage, I just want to know why? Why they were acting this way and how things had changed so much that we were now practically strangers.

Sure things with Elliot were strained and awkward as hell, but at least she was making a real effort to make up for everything that had happened, as it turned out, more so than I even knew...

"Right people listen up!" Elliot Reid called out, clapping her hands together and drawing everyone's attention towards her as she entered the ward and made her way over to the nurses station. Brushing her long blonde hair out of her face, she pulled out a brown envelope from her lab coat pocket and spun around to face the occupants of the room, waving it in the air in the process. "By the end of the day, I expect this to be full of your hard earned cash. No one leaves this hospital for the night without contributing. JD and his son need all the help they can get and by God we're going to give it to them."

The interns, attendings, residents and nursing staff all raised their eyebrows and shared looks between them in response to that and there was a small mumbling of voices heard, not one voice distinguishable in the crowd over another. No one attempted to reach into their wallets, they knew since she had gone private practise, the female doctor had become a bit more ballsy than she used to be, but there was just this tone to her voice that no one was used to. The usual high pitched squeak was gone, replaced by a calm, collective and authoritive, mature one that you just would not have expected from her. As much as they liked JD, they just weren't sure how to react to the whole situation.

"Yo, I'm not giving you a choice in this, cash in the 'lope, now!" She continued, handing it over to the closest person to her, with a look on her face which just dared them to try and refuse it. The nurse hesitantly reached into his scrubs pocket and placed a note inside before pushing it on to the person next to him, his eyes not breaking eye contact with the blonde for even a second.

"Good! Now Doug..." She started, her attention instantly turning to the young mortician who was sucking on a lollypop to her left. His eyes instantly widening as he swallowed with a nervous gulp. " I know you were involved with everyone's little trick on Carla the other day and any other retaliation plans you lot may have cooked up, are, as of this second, officially over. Now, go and get the Janitor and your little brain trust group so you can do something a bit more productive to help JD." With that, she reached into her pocket again and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Handing it to the confused young man along with a small grey key, she smiled and with a flick of her hand sent him on his way.

Doug, after almost dropping the piece of metal, nodded quickly and scooted out of the ward as fast as he could, succeeding in knocking into none less than four separate people, in his hurry to leave.

"KEITH, did you do as I asked?" Elliot called out, after watching the worst Doctor in the world run into a gurney and go flying head first towards the stair case. Rolling her eyes as a muffled 'I'm okay' was heard seconds after it crashed with the banister, she quickly turned her attention back to the group in front of her.

Jumping forward from the slowly dispersing crowd, the eager to please intern proudly smiled to himself and nodded.

"The pole will be here on Monday..." He replied, grinning as he thought about all the fun they were no doubt going to have with their new toy when it arrived. He had been begging her for weeks to think about getting one, even promising he would be the first one of the two to try it out and put on a show.

"The other thing Keith!" She interrupted rather quickly, fighting back the blush which was threatening to explode all over her face. It wouldn't work to be seen to be embarrassed when she was trying out this new, confident, grown up and assertive Elliot.

"oh... Yes." He hurriedly answered, glancing around uneasily as the few remaining people around him attempted to hide their amusement and shuffled slightly further away, about five seconds away from spreading the latest bit of gossip all over the hospital.

"Good, JD's brother will be outside waiting, go give him a lift." She replied offhandedly as she reached for her patients chart and began reading over the notes taken from the previous nights rounds.

"Elliot I'm a doctor not a..." Whatever he was going to say was quickly silenced as the attending glanced up from her paper work and simply glared at him. Within seconds the young man was gone, causing the woman he was engaged to, to shake her head, brush down her scrub top before getting back down to business. Grabbing the nearest pen, she began scribbling down all the necessary information to ready the guy for discharge, satisfied that he'd improved enough over the last few days to not to need to stay on the ward.

Within seconds she was on to the next chart, going through her patients list, one case at a time and ensuring they were all fairing up well and the necessary tests and treatments were all being carried out accordingly. When she was finally done, given out her orders to passing nurses on what still needed doing and had the now bulging envelope back in her hands, she allowed herself a few moments to just stop and breathe. She was determined to help her friend in any way she could but that didn't stop the insecure voice inside her from screaming all sorts of things about being a selfish failure . She needed just those few moments to concentrate on forcing the voices to the back of her head and locking them back in their box in the darkest corners of her mind. She was so caught up within her own head at the point that she didn't even notice Dr Cox approaching her.

"Kick ass barbie's back then." He muttered, his face deadpan as he stopped besides her, placing his own chart back in the filling stacks and picking up another one.

"You bet she is." She replied, succeeding in covering up the fact he pretty much made her jump out of her skin. Boy would he have a field day if he realised that one, she would never hear the end of it.

"Good, your much more...almost likeable when you're like this." He responded with a smirk, almost managing to sound completely un sarcastic. Elliot just looked at him through confused eyes, unsure on how to take that. Dr Cox giving someone an almost complement was completely unheard of. Though when she took a second to think about it, he had been acting a little bit softer in certain situations for a while now.

"Thanks... I think... Where are Turk and Carla?" She eventually replied with a shake of her head, putting her hands on the nurse's station work top and leaning against it, studying the older man carefully. It was no secret that he pretty much hated anyone who he came into contact with and up until recently his like of JD was the one thing he would have taken to his grave denying. It was strange, thinking how he was the one person there for him, how he kept going back to that hospital on the other side of town, even now to make sure he was okay. She knew that things could change, that people could change, but looking at him now, she realised nothing actually had, he was the same old person he had always been, he'd just been forced to step up in a way he never expected. What was most surprising however was just how well he had adapted to the role, probably more so than even he realised.

"Carla's taken the rest of her holidays, if rumours are to be believed she told one of the other nurses she wasn't risking bringing her daughter back here and she couldn't trust her care with anyone again. As for baldy... he's operating on my fella Mr Mckenna." Dr Cox replied, his jaw tight, despite what they had done, Carla had been one of the only people in the hospital he had ever considered a friend for many years. He knew how he'd feel if the situation had happened to him and couldn't get his head around Jordan's role in the whole escapade. Taking a child the way they had was unthinkable, whether she was well taken care of or not didn't really matter to him.

"You let him operate?" She asked confused once more as she continued to study the man in front of her. He was full of surprises these past few days that was for sure.

"Despite what a tool I think he is, he is a good surgeon and being a good doctor often means you have to put personal feelings aside to do what's best for the patient." Elliot could do nothing but nod and the two of them soon turned around and headed off in opposite directions, Dr Cox to carry on working with his patients and Elliot, off to find the last remaining link in her 'help JD' chain.

Had I known everything that she was doing, I would have told her it wasn't necessary that I could sort it all on my own. Still I'm not going to lie, when it all came together I was pretty damn grateful. I mean I could have been an adult, have sorted through it myself, but with everything that was going on, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had a clue where to start.

Standing outside the operating theatre, Elliot tapped her foot impatiently on the floor as she watched the clock tick by second by second. She needed to talk to the turtle headed, stubborn, ridiculous excuse for a ma... she needed to talk to Turk, but even she wasn't stupid enough to interrupt a surgery. Instead she waited, and waited and dashed back up to the ward to resuscitate her 90 year old cardiac patient and then came back to wait some more. She had to admit, she was getting more than a little bit impatient but still she refused to put someone's life at risk by charging in there and having an argument with the man with his hands knee deep inside someone's colon.

Hopefully when he emerged from the room, it would be with a fully anesthetised, yet alive and recovering patient, because as much as she wanted to yell at him for the way he'd been acting recently, she was never one for kicking a guy when he was already down. Finally after what felt like years had passed, the big double doors opened and a man was wheeled away, without a cloth covering his face which the female doctor took to be a good sign.

"Make sure he gets hourly observations and I want even the slightest detereoration in his condition reported to me immediately." Turk called out as he emerged from the room behind the gurney, covered in blood but otherwise seeming to be in a pretty nonchalant mood. "Go away Elliot." He continued as he spied the woman leaning against the wall to his right. Without acknowledging her any further or even taking a second glance in her direction, he carried on down the corridors, throwing his overalls in the medical waste bin as he passed. He did not have time, or the desire to speak to her right now.

"No, not until we talk, now what the hell are you playing at?" She demanded, pushing herself into a more steady position and marching towards him, flicking her hair slightly to get the ever growing bangs out of her face. "JD is your best friend, hell Carla used to tell me how she feared you would run away together, so what's going on? Why are you acting like the world's biggest jackass."

Stopping abruptly so the woman nearly banged into him, Turk turned around to half face her, making sure his body was still turned away so she knew in no uncertain terms that he was not planning on sticking around and engaging in any sort of conversation further than what he was about to say.

" His brother kidnapped my daughter, scared us half to death and somehow I'm the bad guy?" He replied completely perturbed by the way she seemed to be seeing things. No one had any right to judge how he was reacting they didn't have a clue what was going on, how he was feeling, about the ins and outs of how his relationship with JD really worked. But most importantly, they didn't know what he knew, they didn't know how much better off JD was thinking that his best friend had abandoned him, than he would be knowing that very same person, may have been able to save his dead girlfriends life if he had just acted instead of brushing everything under the carpet.

He couldn't face him knowing what he knew, he just couldn't. To see that level of heart break on a man's face who spent his life making him feel whole was just too damm hard to deal with. Maybe he was a coward, but hell sometimes running away was the best option for all concerned. He couldn't stand the thought of JD looking at him with nothing but hate in his eyes, knowing the truth of what he had done. Staying away was the least painful of the two options for them both, even if the other man never knew why.

It was just better that way.

"You and I both know that JD had nothing to do with that. Yes what Dan did was cruel but he's off to the airport right now, so he's no reason to stay away from JD. Besides you were avoiding him way before that even happened, we all were, so don't just sit there and pretend otherwise. Look I don't know what's going on inside your head, but whatever it is you need to deal with it and go and talk to your friend." She sniped, her tone leaving really no room for arguments as she looked the man who was quite a bit taller than her when she wasn't In heals, in the eye, refusing for even a second to break contact.

" Elliot, just leave it, it's none of your business." He continued, attempting once more to walk away and get back to the one thing he had been trying to focus on all week now.

His work.

As long as he was cutting and slicing and saving people's lives, it meant he didn't have the time to focus on anything else or even let little thoughts about how much of a screw up he was enter his mind. He couldn't save Kim now, but he could make sure the same thing didn't happen to anyone else who walked in this place.

Elliot however had other ideas and instantly grabbed hold of his arm, and pulled herself forward and around his body. For a moment the older man was confused as to what the hell she was doing, but it soon all became clear as she made her way to the end of the corridors, slammed the double doors closed and stood in front of them, blocking his only exit.

"Well I'm making it my business."

"Of course you are, because everything has to resolve around yo..." He started, but never got to finish as the blondes eyes dangerously darkened and she interrupted with a growl.

"Don't you even dare! I care about you, I care about both of you, and there has never been a moment when the two of you weren't inseparable for the entire time I have known you. Now I don't give a rats arse about what ever little excuse you have or what's supposedly going on. The fact is whether either of you admit it or not you need each other. So I can even spend the next five hours yelling about what a selfish pig head your being or you can save us both the bother and snap out of your little man period and go and talk to your friend who quite frankly is so cut up right now that I don't know how he's still functioning."

"I find the term 'man period' to be really insulting." Turk shot back, his voice taking on the tone of a sulking teenager, as he pouted slightly under the ice cold stare he was on the receiving end of.

"Yeah, well I find it insulting and degrading when the very same thing happens to me, but you don't hear me whining about it. Now you can either swallow your pride, leave right now and go and see him or I'll grab you by your little special area and drag you over there myself." She barked, her eyebrows raising, as if daring him to see if she was joking or not. Turk gulped and looked around carefully, desperately looking for witnesses. It wasn't that he was scared of Elliot per say, just... she could be quite frightening at times, especially when she had the mad woman on the loose look in her eyes. Besides, she was even starting to sound like Jordan, which was terrifying enough on its own merit.

"That's not funny."

"It wasn't meant to be."

The two just stood glaring at each other for a moment or three, Elliot's blue eyes shooting fire balls of hidden fury into Turk's brown ones. The surgeon could have sworn he actually felt a nervous sweat breaking out on his forehead and the woman in question seemed to grow to about 50 feet tall, taking on the appearance of a giant who was about to crush him with the not so little red heal of her famous stiletto shoes. In fact if you asked him later that day he was sure he would add on the cheering squad of other hospital giants which seemed to be shooting up around her, demanding he leave.

Shaking his head and snapping out of his rather JD like day dream, Turk swallowed hard once again before sagging his shoulders and taking a deep breath. No more words needed to be spoken between them and Elliot soon turned around, pushed the doors back open and left the man in green alone in the corridor. Hoping more than anything that he would stay true to his unspoken words.

I was in Turks situation once and I can tell you, Elliot really does appear about ten foot tall when she gets a certain look in her eyes. It can be pretty scary like looking into the eyes of a demon released straight from hell and ready for its first feed, of course I would never tell her that one. I like my head permanently being attached to my shoulders.

"Over the years, I have come to accept many, many, many, strange things happening when it comes to you. The strangest up until five minutes ago was the shaving your head for a patient thing... no, actually on second thoughts it had to be the giant black doctor game you played around the hosptial... Not to mention the spinning around pretending to be some sort of hawk..."

"Eagle." JD interrupted, with a small smile and a shake of his head, god they had done some pretty fun, yet ridiculous things over the years, as much as he hated to admit that the man was on to something.

"Right... my point is... what the hell is with all the curtains?" Doctor Cox asked, with raised eyebrows as he turned and looked around the hospital room, which was by now covered head to toe in different types of fabrics. There was baby blue ones with small ducks all over them, royal red with swirling golden patterns, White ones, black ones, ones with clowns, one with toy blocks, one with square patterns and flowers and even ones with the odd silver unicorn. Some were on the floor, some resting over empty incubator cots, some on a night stand, hung up on shelves and against the windows. it really looked like there had been some sort of factory explosion in there. "I mean for a second I thought that last bottle of scotch the other night was giving me some sort of delayed hallucinations. Oh and please... he's a little boy... don't go for the butterflies."

JD almost snorted at that, which surprised him as the feeling of pure hilarity hadn't been inside of him for a while now. It seriously felt like a lifetime had passed since the last time he had experienced it, even though it was only three weeks ago in reality. Looking up to face the man he considered recently more of a friend than a mentor, JD shook his head and reached out to grab the nearest piece of material and move it out of the way.

"I think its something to do with Elliot's 'make it up to JD mission'." the younger doctor explained with a roll of his eyes. "You should have been here an hour ago, this place was filled with different miniature models of cots! It took me saying I loved the brown and dark brown coloured one over the brown and white coloured one and the texture was just perfect for the theme of a new bedroom, for the hippie woman to leave."

Doctor Cox just raised his eyebrows even further as he tapped the bridge of his nose with his index finger and looked from the vast different colours of curtains over to the man cuddling his son in the middle of the room and back again, his face a mixture of confusion, entertainment and bewilderment. Of all the things he had expected to see when he finished his shift at the hospital an hour after talking to Barbie and headed over to visit Sammy, this didn't even make the list.

"How have they even allowed the place to be filled with these?" He asked eventually, shaking his head with a snigger and picking up a fabric book which was on the floor to flip though the many different designs that had been presented to them.

"I'm not sure they even know... Either that or Elliot has her brother under a very tight thumb." JD explained, as he let the material fall from his fingers and allowed his now free hand to gently stroke at his sleeping son's face. The older man gave a half hearted, yet still not entirely sarcastic laugh as he flipped the book over in JD's direction and showed him the design he had just landed on.

" I'd go with this one, matches your old unicorn diary perfectly."

The man looked like he was going to say something else as well, but he abruptly stopped and his face fell into an unreadable, yet slightly cold expression. Confused, JD looked at him with his head tilted to one side before he realised the direction the man was looking in. Slowly turning his head around to look towards the door, he soon saw the reason for his friend's sudden change in attitude as a pair of green scrubs appeared in the door way.

"What are you doing here." The older man grunted instantly as he took a few steps forward and placed himself subconsciously between JD and the new arrival. Taking on a protective stance as he folded his arms across his chest and dared the man to say one wrong thing.

"I just... JD and I need to talk." He replied, stepping further into the room and looking down towards his friend with a pleading expression. Elliot was right, they needed each other and it was high time he swallowed his pride and went to talk to him. JD didn't understand what was going on and he knew in his heart if the situation had been reversed it would be nothing like this.

JD could do nothing but stare as Turk appeared properly in his vision. He had been debating with himself alot recently how he would react when they came face to face again after everything that had happened. He'd imagined, intense feelings of rage, or hatred, or longing, or suddenly realising how much he missed him and leaping into his arms claiming all was forgiven. What he hadn't expected were the emotions flowing through him at that precise moment and they confused the hell out of him.

They had known each other for years, been through more than he could possibly imagine, Turk was the one who made him cool, made him accepted and let him know what it was like to have true friends. He was the first person he met when he started med school, the person he called whenever something exciting happened, the person he couldn't wait to introduce to his mum, rent a place with and party until they couldn't party anymore and were forced into the real world of doctors and surgeons. He was the man he considered his absolute, his guy love partner, the only man who he'd ever imagine hands inside of him. He would give him a kidney without a second thought, sell his soul if it meant he would be okay.

Turk meant the world to him.

Yet, sitting there, staring at his face, he was surprised to realise that none of that seemed to matter, it just felt like he was looking at another stranger, another person he had no connection with who had just popped by on a whim. All the memories that they shared at that moment, didn't even feel like they had ever existed, like they were someone else's, between two people who had no connection to each other at all.

He felt nothing, no hatred, no love, no... nothing.

And that absolutely terrified him.

"Please JD... let me explain." Turk said softly, trying to avoid the daggers being shot his way by Doctor Cox as he took a couple more steps towards his best friend. Or at least as close as he could get without walking into the chest of his current protector. Not that the man would ever admit to being that.

"I don't want an explanation, nothing can excuse the last few weeks... months. Just ... Just go Turk." JD muttered carefully, his eyes adverting so they were looking at the wall behind him rather than at him. It just felt wrong, wrong to be so disconnected to the one person he'd always run to for everything. All he knew was that he wanted him to leave and never come back. To pretend their entire friendship never happened and just be done with it.

"JD..."

"You heard him. You need to go, now." Doctor Cox said, cutting him short of whatever it was he was going to say. Turk desperately looked from the raging older man to his thirty year old counterpart, trying his hardest to convey just how sorry he was and just how much he wanted to have this conversation with him, for both of their sakes. Even if it meant by the end of it JD never wanted to speak to him again, which he was pretty sure is exactly what would happen. Elliot was right though, he needed to know the truth he deserved that much.

"Just leave!" JD yelled out, jumping to his feet, trying his hardest not to disturb the small baby which still lay in his arms. To no avail it seemed as within seconds Sammy was awake and he soon let out a high pitched, struggled wail at the sudden disturbance to his sleep. "Now look what you have done!." JD continued, the anger finally disappearing as he directed his attention down to his son and gently tried to calm him, along with his own bubbling temper.

"I will give you till I count to five to turn around and walk back out that door." The man, Turk was pretty sure he would now always refer to as 'the protector' hissed, his face reddening as he grabbed the man by his scrubs top and threw him backwards towards the exit. Despite how much he wanted to protest Turk couldn't summon up the energy to fight back and instead bowed his head and backed out into the corridor just as Doctor Cox started the five fingered count down.

Running his hand over the top of his head, Turk took a deep breath and rested his head against the hospital wall opposite the doorway he had just been thrown out of. He really thought it would have been like all the other times, that JD would at the very least hear him out. He's seen the man angry before and knew without a doubt that he deserved that anger, but the reaction still surprised him. He was half tempted to leave, to turn around and go home to his wife and child. At least he could say that he had tried and that the other man knew that he was thinking about him, maybe he could come back in a week when he had calmed down a little and had time to think.

Standing up straight Turk went to turn around and leave but he only took a few steps before stopping again and glancing back to the room where his best friend currently resided. In a matter of seconds he made a decision. He'd come this far, he might as well stay to see it to the end.

(A/n) Wow over 5,000 words, pretty sure that's the longest chapter I've done in a while, or even in this story! Was going to split it in two but figured it would be better ending this way Hope everyone likes it! And again thanks for everyone whose still reading. As JD said, well things may explain Turks behaviour, nothing excuses it. I've always wondered if people bother to read the authors notes... so here's a little experiment... if you do and feel like reviewing... and a random animal noise to it ;)