A Warm Presence, Will You Stay?

Chapter 2

"Ok, I need a EKG on bed 1, a full work up on bed 7, and a blood transfusion for Mr. Randalf, blood type B negative! Nurse, could you get me a roll of gause, the patient's bleeding hasn't stopped..."

The hospital's entire staff was running too and fro, frantically trying to treat the influx of patients and keep things under control. I managed my interns as best I could - they were scared and tired and completely unqualified, but I had managed to keep them from killing anyone yet. Keith was the only one of the lot that was any amount of help, taking on the workload of a resident. I had to remember to reward him for that.

The reason it was so busy was a huge car wreck on the free way; not only were more than 15 cars involved, but one of them happened to be a Greyhound bus, fully loaded. Almost all of the fifty-some people on board were injured - five DOA, and the rest critically wounded. Everyone was scrambling around, trying to keep them all breathing with the eleven doctors on call, a few nurses, and an abundance of wet-behind-the-ears interns.

Dr. Cox was one of the busiest, keeping everyone calm and handling nearly a third of the patients all by himself. I had no time to admire him for it, though - I had taken on nearly as many myself. I had to focus on work.

"Lonnie, this guy has two fractured ribs and a possible punctured lung, gut him down to surgery.'

The weary intern turned to me, and I must have looked pretty bad, because he winced, looking me up and down. I peeked down at myself. I was covered in blood (none of it my own,) of various shades - from fresh crimson to the rust brown of hours old blood. Lonnie looked considerable better, and less drenched. I hadn't let him near any unstable patients, he was still to shaky and hesitant. He would have freezed at an inopportune moment. I did my best to smile reassuringly at him, but I guess I didn't manage it, because he just looked even more worried.

"Lonnie! Go." I snapped him out of whatever pity party he was throwing for me - there was no time, not with plenty more patients to tend to. He scurried off with out even a hint of his usual put-upon glare. I sighed a bit - I kind of got to me when the interns started growing up. I was proud, though. Things were winding down a bit now, but was couldn't relax just yet. That was what ended up killing patients - you think they're out of the woods, and they end up going south at the last minute.

I heard, then, every doctor's least favorite sound - the dreaded high-pitched whine of a failing heart monitor. I rushed forward to help, but my head spun in dizzying circles and I faltered, stumbling off to the side of the door. Luckily, Elliot was just as close to the patient, just a step behind me, and she handled it. I could hear her booming out commands to the orderlies in her 'Doctor' voice. I clutched at the counter of the nurses' station with paper-white fingers, trying to get my breathing under control and stop the world from tilting on it's axis.

The same whining 'beep' captured my attention - it had gone on too long, we had lost another one.

"Damnit." I cursed softly to myself, before steeling my nerves again. I had a job to do, and it wasn't going to get done for crying over spilt milk. And I would not have another weird fantasy about all of my patients being glasses of milk, no I would not...

"Bambi." Carla?

I turned around to see the Dominican nurse right behind me, her tanned face concerned and determined as she stared at me. I blinked confusedly.

"Yea-akh!" I started, but found myself choking on a mouthful of cold, stale bagel. I swallowed reflexively, but before I could start complaining she shoved a warm, fresh cup of coffee into my hands. I looked at her like she was God's gift to man. Coffee was definitely what I needed to dispell this unpleasant... whatever it was, from my body. I gulped it all down in one go, ignoring the burning in my throat, and smiled at her thankfully. She handed me the rest of the plain bagel with a returning smile.

"Eat, Bambi, you look like death warmed over!"

And she rushed off.

I quickly shoved down the rest of the food and got back to work. I still needed to see Mr. Flannigan, Bed 4 needed a chest scan and Bed 12 needed to be switched to (nameles drug)...

I stumbled from another patient's room - I was barely lucid at this point, but I allowed myself a contented grin. The bright side was that this was my last patient, and my shift ended in five minutes. I was looking forward to my large, warm bed with it's lavender scented pillows...

But of course, Satan personified, Dr. Bob Kelso just had to rain in on that fantasy. And speaking of fantasies, he had just enough energy to picture Kelso as a big, grey rain cloud before the man opened his mouth to speak.

"Ah! Dr. Dorian, there you are. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to serve another double shift. We are a bit short handed tonight, and for some reason everyone seems to want to go home..."

I started to protest, "Sir, I just got off a 36 hour shift, I really don't think that I'll be alert enough - "

"Nonsense, you'll be find, sport." he brushed me off.

"No, really sir, I can't..." Was it even legal to make someone work that long?

He frowned at me. "Well, I was counting on your dedication tot he hospital, but if thats not enough for you..." he glared at me disaprovingly, but grudgingly said, "I am willing to offer double the overtime pay. As I said, we are really shorthanded."

I considered it. On one hand, I wasn't at my best right now, but on the other hand, god knows I needed the money. My new apartment's rent was due soon, and I already had to steal food from the hospital constantly to keep myself from spending all my money on groceries. Which would make me feel guilty if it weren't for the face that I couldn't actually buy lunch there anyway, as the janitor's henchman Troy would just sabotage it. Now I had to give my lunch money to Elliot, who the Janitor aparently 'loved' and made Troy treat extra nice...

"Well, Dr. Dorian?" Kelso prompted impatiently.

I made a quick, and probably foolish, decision.

"Of course, sir. Just let me take five minutes to freshen up and get some coffee, and I think I can put in another ten or twelve hours."

"Splendid!" he grinned insincerely, his voice heavily laced with sarcasm, and marched away.

I set off for the showers and lockers, determined to at least rinse off and change into clean scrubs before getting back to work. I needed something good to eat, too, before I collapsed. As I entered the room a wave of steam hit me, and a cheerful male voice humming along "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve. I brushed it off - after all, I could hardly be the only dirty guy in the hospital after that rush, even at this odd hour. I peeled off the stained and smelling scrubs top, trying hard to avoid it touching my clean-in-comparison hair, which had noticeably drooped from it's usual glorious spikes into a limp mess atop my scalp. I heard one of the stall doors of the showers creak open and I couldn't help but glance over - who was down here... alone... with me... at four in the morning?

I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Nick in my perverbial vision as opposed to the Janitor or some other frightening prospect. I turned around with a smile for his, wanting to ask what he was doing here so late - I thought he had left hours ago - but then I realized Nick stood there...

In the nude.

I let out a little squeak of "Nick!" berfore whirling around in a panick, and I felt the capillaries in my face heat up furiously. I didn't even have the presence of mind to hope I wasn't blushing too badly - all that was going through my head was,

'Oh my god, hes naked, hes right behind me and naked! Jesus Christ he's tan, I wish I had looked longer! Wait, no I don't! Oh god, he's gonna rape me... stupid, why would he rape, you, you're not even that good looking. Wait, do you want him to rape you? Ok, stop this line of thought... pleasant thoughts. Nick has dynamite areolas. Damnit!'

And so on.

A concerned voice and a warm, wet hand upon his shoulder broke him out of his rambling thoughts, but completely stopped any others from taking there place, and he could only stand there with his back to a man he had become exceedingly close to in the last few weeks, frozen with confusion and embarrassment.

From his place under the pounding warm water spewing from the shower nozzle, he heard the door open and someone step into the locker room with blundering, heavy footsteps. He didn't stop my humming, though - he was in far too good of a mood for that. In his last few weeks as an intern, and straight through into the first few days as a resident, he and JD had become great friends. His former rival had been with him through every low and high of his ordeal. His failure to save his patient Peter from death still scared his into freezing every now and then, but he was finally getting back to his old confidant self - not the false confidence he and fabricated to deal with the strain of his job.

He was finally collected enough and stable enough to start persuing the man that had taken care of him in his moment of weakness. JD had been a pillar for him recently, taking the almost impossible to deal with strain of his own internship, and helping him deal with his own. He had even taken patients off his hands if they had gotten too close to dying in front of him. Too many times, he had watched JD forlornly pronounce the time of death out to a room of somber nurses through a window, and thought if only he could be stronger. Strong enough to deal with death so well as JD did.

However, JD didn't let his cower for long, he thought fondly. JD had helped him find his own strength, weaned him off the patient switching and taught him to cope with the prospect that sometimes his patients would die, and he had to except that as a reality. It felt weird to hear such serious and depressing words come from the younger doctor's mouth - JD was usually so upbeat and silly, and always had a smile for everyone he met. It was that bright and warm demeanor that attracted him so. He couldn't help but frown for a moment. The other people at Sacred Heart didn't seem to appriciate what an effect JD had on their lives. He brightened up everyone's day, made the world seem lighter and the work easier. He was like the hospital's own personal sun, which was a fitting discription, considering that his head was always in the clouds. He chuckled to himself. He, unlike most of the staff, found JD's constant daydreaming adorable. The way he tilted his head to the side like a curious puppy, making his ebony hair flop into his face...

Realizing he was starting to prune from the steam of the water, he quickly twisted the knob to 'off' and mentally cursed - he had forgotten his clothes and towel of the bench outside. He shrugged, not really caring. He wasn't ashamed of his body, and the guy probably wouldn't even be looking. He could count the number of gay man in Sacred Heart on one hand, even when he giddily added JD to that mental list. He stepped out into the cold locker room air, and froze at the man standing directly in front of him. JD pulled off his signature blue scrub top, revealing an expanse of porcelain white skin stretched taunt over the subtly muscled plain of his back. Getting the shirt over his head, he couldn't move an inch as JD twirled around and froze, staring at his naked body. Facinated, he observed the fetching crimson blush start at the little brunette's cheeks and quickly spread to his entire face and neck. The resident squeaked out a high pitched and terrible embarrassed "Nick!" and spun back around.

If I wasn't so amused and charmed by his innocence, I would feel bad for embarrassing him so. As it was, I decided to play with him a bit. Walking over to the bench with my clothes resting so innocently on top, I slipped on my towel, making sure it was extra low on my hips, and slinked behind my interest. I rested my still-wet, and I'm sure, comfortably warm, had onto his bare shoulder, subtly massaging the tense muscles I found there. Doing my best to sound concerned, I said softly, and just a little breathily into his ear;

"JD...? You okay, buddy?"

JD showed no reaction. I felt like laughing. Had I stunned him so much he could even speak? Settling both hands onto those slender shoulders, I gently turned him around. At this he snapped out if whatever trance he was in, looking up at my face (quite determinedly, I thought, not looking any lower,) with his large grayish-blue eyes, his face still blushing a soft pink in embarassment.

When I looked at the rest of his face, though, rel concern immidiatly washed over me. JD looked haggard and overworked - his porcelain pale face had taken on the grayish tint of exauhstion, and his beautiful eyes had dark shadows ringing them, making them look sunken and tired. His usually flawless hair was drooping - in fact, everything about the younger man seemed to be drooping. It was like that bright light JD carried around in his presence had been dimmed to low. He hated it.

"JD, man, you look strung out." he started casually, knowing JD could be almost fanatic about his work. "You need some rest. Please tell me your shift is just ending?" He had gotten lucky - he had been serving his clinic hours almost half way through the crash, so he had missed the brunt of the work, but even he was worn out by now. He knew for a fact JD had been having a long day even before the accident happened, and he had worked all the way through it, not even taking a break once. It was times like that he both hated and admired his secret crush. Well, not hated - he could never find it in his to truly hate the man who had become his best friend in the last few weeks. What he hated was that JD overworked himself like that, bringing himself to the edge of his endurance before allowing himself a rest.

JD looked sheepish. Sensing what the man was implying, he lost his trademark cool.

"You aren't going home?! JD, you can't overwork yourself like this! How long until it's over?"

The brunette mumbled something. Oh, I wasn't going to like this. "What?"

"...ten 'r twelve hours..." he muttered under his breath. He rushed on, "He, uh, Kelso offered me double overtime... I guess he knew I'm broke."

He knew he must look apoplectic right now. He was going to kill Bob Kelso. He was going to kill him dead. He was sure he could do it, he could strangle him with one of his god-awful ties. There were plenty of people to frame, plenty of people in the hospital that wanted the Cheif of Medicine dead...

He didn't notice his crush looking at him closely.

"Your think of ways to kill Kelso, aren't you? You know, if his tie is a clip-on today you be screwed..."

"No I wouldn't, I'd just crack him over the head with that fancy plaque he has on his desk..." he replied absently, still thinking of ways to murder Kelso. He started and looked incredulously at the grinning man. "JD, we have been spending entirely too much time together."

A lie. He could never spend too much time with JD. There was no such thing.

To Be Continued...