Janitors Past

"Neil." A low menacing voice echoed through the phones receiver. "Your out of time! I told you to get the payment in or there'd be consequences."

"Maverick-"

"NO!" The voice roared. "I don't make exceptions and now your going to pay for it."

The phone in the Janitors hand trembled slightly. "But sir."

"Good bye Neil."

The Janitor clicked off his cell phone and stepped out of the dark maintenance supply closet. A little distracted from his work now that he had received the disturbing phone call. The hospital staff didn't know much about his background and he was set on keeping it that way, but a blossoming ache in his chest told him that because of the phone call things would begin to change. His past filled with drug abuse and borrowed money from clearly the wrong people was something he never wanted anyone to know about.

He sighed, composed himself and then reached for the mop that had been abandoned on the floor, resuming his duty of moping vomit up off the hall.

Later that night when his ridiculously long shift at the hospital was over and he was walking over to his old busted up van he could feel something, or rather someone watching him as he made his way through the diserted parking lot. He stopped for a moment to look over his shoulder at the bushes and darkness behind him but saw nothing but the unsettling feeling continued to boar down on him. He figured it was just the phone call from earlier messing with his subconscious. Suddenly, seeing as he was still looking behind himself he smacked into something hard, and that something went crashing into the wet cement.

"Owe" It cried, and he suddenly realized that it was JD. Probably has the night shift today, he thought to himself as he looked the kid over. "Could you help me up at least? I think I hit my elbow pretty bad." JD squeaked from the ground.

The Janitor did feel sort of bad, he did hit him pretty hard after all, harder than the times were he was pestering him on purpose. "Oh alright." He said holding out a hand to pull him up and for once didn't let him fall right back on his ass. "You should watch were your going Scooter."

JD just huffed and straightened out his scrubs before looking over his elbow. It was bleeding.

"Aw kid I'm sorry. I really didn't mean too." The Janitor defended as the blood began to stain the sleeve oh his street clothes. JD looked at the Janitor, his blue eyes hesitant in truly believing his apology. The Janitor offered a smile and JD finally gave in. He did seem sincere after all.

"It's o.k." He said as he scooped up his back pack from the floor. "I know you didn't mean it." he gave one last quirky smile at the Janitor before he went on his way across the parking lot towards the hospital. "Later Janitor."

The Janitor shrugged, his mind in too many various places for him to focus on the incident for long. He needed to get home and have a long hard drink. He stuck his hand in his pockets; pulled out his keys and hopped into his van. Wondering what 'consequences' would befall him at any possible time.

o0o0o0o

JD hadn't even made it half way across the parking lot when the throbbing in his elbow became just too much and he felt the need to treat it. He stopped near some bushes and set his backpack on top of them. Opening it's zipper to pull out a tube of ointment and medical tape he always had with him. He wasn't paying to much mind to his surroundings as he was fumbling with his bleeding elbow but he should have, because lurking just behind him was the 'something' that had been watching Neil, Maverick.

After knowing the Janitor in his prior life Maverick had learned a thing or two about the man. And the biggest thing was that hurting Neil himself could never do as much damage as hurting someone he knew from a daily bases would, and with the unsuspecting JD against the bushes the strong muscular gang leader pulled a hand over his mouth and whipped and arm around his neck. Effectively suffocating him into unconsciousness.

JD had struggled, oh how he had when a stranger had ambushed him in the dark parking lot. Not even a yelp was able to escape his throat. At first he was terrified, and then, then he couldn't breath and everything just went down hill from there. No one heard him, no one would probably even notice he was missing until he was long gone and miles away from the hospital.

o0o0o0o

JD woke up in a strange place. At first glance it looked to be an abandoned warehouse. With broken machinery and steam shooting from broken pipes in the distance. His mind was foggy at first, but when he finally began to think coherently he realized that he was still in his street clothes and tied tightly to a chair. "What the hell?" He said nervously. His mind finally realizing the danger he was in. He tugged at the rope on his wrists but they didn't budge. In fact, they were so tight that after a few tugs he could feel the rope digging deep into his skin and thought it was best to stop and calm down.

He sat there for about 5 minutes when finally a figure began to emerge from the shadows. "Hello there sunny." The tall muscular man bellowed. As he came closer JD could clearly begin to make out the mans face. He looked to be in his early 40's, had numerous deep disfiguring scars on his face; most likely from the life he lead, and had dark brown eyes and shaggy unkempt hair.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" JD growled and it sounded remarkably fierce. Definitely something he picked up from Dr. Cox.

"Who am I?" The man chuckled. "Well I'm Maverick, one of the most hunted felons in this region. Surely you've heard of me." He slowly made his way closer to JD. Pulling out a small pocket knife once he came to his side. "You work with Neil don't you?"

"Neil?" JD said confused. "I don't know anyone named Neil!"

Maverick's face turned fierce, the calmness from before gone in less than a second. "Don't lie to me kid!" He roared, coming closer to JD and punching him in the gut hard before smiling callously. "Now I'll ask you again; you work with Neil don't' you?"

JD was in pain. His punch was so hard he had effectively knocked the wind out of him. "I, I really don't know who your talking about." He panted, wanting to cry but willing himself not to.

"Well let me refresh your memory then. You ran into him today in the parking lot. He's a Janitor at the hospital."

JD's eyes grew wide. The Janitor? He could barely process it in his mind.

"Ah-huh so you do know of him." Maverick said as he began to pace around JD, the pocket knife from before twiddling in between his fingers. "Let's give him a call shall we?"

JD raised his head as the majority of the pain subsided in his abdomen. Looking the criminal determidly in the eyes. He didn't understand what was going on exactly, but was intelligent enough to know that whatever it was wasn't good. He'd have to stay strong.

o0o0o0o

"Barbie where's Newbie, he's an hour late!"

"That's weird he called me right when he left his apartment, are you sure you didn't just miss him." Elliot chirped not entirely paying attention to Dr. Cox.

"I've paged him about a hundred times." The older doctor grumbled, his voice still full of malice for the younger doctor but now there was worry.

"Maybe his pager is low on batteries?" Elliot offered but Dr. Cox wasn't satisfied. He figured he'd go out and see if JD was in the parking lot trying to pick up a border line chick or filling his hair with girley gel products. It was a possibility after all; he was a girl.

Over the years JD had become important to Perry, as much as he had denied it to everyone else, even Newbie, he couldn't deny it from himself. He knew that JD would never be this late and above all ignore his pages. Something just felt off.

As Perry made his way to the hospitals outside he was emmediately filled with alarm when off in the distance of the parking lot sat JD's scooter, no JD in site. He stomped over to the blue hunk of metal and put a hand on the engine, it was cold. He frowned amd swiped his head around looking for anything that could give him a clue as to were JD had gone. Then a blue bag with it's contents strewn on the floor caught his eye. He jogged over too it, instantly knowing it was JD's when in the heap of things lay his scrubs with his name tag neatly clasped to the front pocket. Then something even more disturbing caught his eye, medical tape with blood.

o0o0o0o

The Janitor had barely made it to his cramped one room apartment when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out dreading who it might be, and just as he had thought Maverick displayed on the screen. He flipped open the device and held it to his ear, the odd mix of hesitation and fear running through his veins.

"What is it?" He said irately.

"Now Neil that's no way to say hello." The man chuckled through the phone and it made the Janitors skin crawl. There was grunting and a whimper filled with pain in the background and the Janitor began to panic. "I have someone with me." Maverick sung, and it sounded awfully odd coming from him. "Say hello to Neil." He could here him tell someone.

"Janitor..." A weak but familiar voice said and Niel instantly fell too his knees.

"JD?" The phone was taken away and he couldn't even hear the boys response. Suddenly there was anger, such anger and he couldn't keep from yelling.

"What the hell is wrong with you! He has nothing to do with me!" His fingers were shaking and he could barely keep the phone in his hands. "Let him go!"

"Now Neil, whose fault is this?" The Janitor was speechless he had known what getting involved with Maverick would get him into. He was a criminal after all. But he never wanted someone else to suffer because of it.

"Just let him go, I'll do whatever you want." He pleaded.

"This is no longer up to me Neil. I expect the money wired to my account in an hour, directions for what to do next are in his bag, and then, if you make it in time... maybe he'll live." He laughed softly. "But Neil, if you go after him before you've handed over the money you'll find nothing but a dead corpse for sure, not a dying one." He said, and the phone went dead. The Janitor was up and running in seconds.

o0o0o0o

By the time Neil made it to the hospitals parking lot Dr. Cox had already found the 'directions' in Newbies' back pack and was sitting against a cement wall reading what looked to be a ransom note with trembling hands. He looked up from the printed paper when the Janitor's van came to a careening stop at his side. The second Perry saw his face he knew he had something to do with it.

Neil jumped out of the van in an instant and came up to Dr. Cox's side. "Is that it?" He could barely keep his voice from braking.

"What's going on!" Perry shouted. Grabbing the Janitor by the collar. "What the hell is this!" He shoved the paper in his face and Neil thought it was the post pissed off he had ever seen 'angry doctor.'

"I'm sorry! I never wanted this to happen." He tried to explain, grabbing the paper and then reading it himself. "God this is all my fault."

"You better start explaining right this second or I'll kick it right out your ass!" Perry roared. He didn't need him whining, he needed answers.

"Just calm the fuck down O.k., and let go of me!" Neil released himself from Dr. Cox's grip and straightened his jacket out before taking a deep breath to explain. "I borrowed money a long time ago from a gang leader... I know, I know what a fucked up idea, but I was a 30 year old druggie at the time, I needed it... I wasn't able to pay him and so instead of beating the shit out of me, he's put the worst possible burden on my conscience, he's kidnapped Scooter."

Dr. Cox's was speechless. Newbie was with some lunatic gang leader because of something he had nothing to do with, and because of the Janitor! Without a coherent thought Perry's fist was in the air and had connected with the Janitors jaw. A look of pure malice in his eyes. "You asshole, because of you he could be dead." He spat, and without another word he was heading towards his Porsche. The ransom stuffed in his coat pocket. "Hurry up!" He called out finally. Signaling for the Janitor to get in.

o0o0o0o

"Look, I'm sorry. You think I'm happy about this?"

Dr. Cox didn't answer him just merely looked at him as they made there way to the bank. Dr. Cox would empty out his entire bank account if he had too.

"How much?" He said as he parked at the banks entrance.

"$30,000"

Dr. Cox gave an irritated growl before he filed out of the car and went into the building. He emerged 5 minutes later his expression still one of complete hatred when he looked at the Janitor.

"It's done." He said as he entered the car. "Now Janitor-" He pulled out the ransom. "It says he's here. Do you have any clue were that is?"

"First of all it's Neil." Dr. Cox gave him an odd look then asked again, but a lot softer.

"Neil, do you have any idea were that is?"

"Yea yea I do. It's were I first met him." Dr. Cox nodded and they were on their way. The Janitor, Neil, directing the way.

Suddenly when they were about half an hour into their drive Neil's cell phone rang. The two men looked to each other before he answered the phone.

"Hello."

"Hello Neil. I see the transaction has been made. Now it wasn't that hard after all was it?"

"Is he alright?"

"Now now Neil, I told you it's all up to you. He doesn't have much time."

"What the hell does that mean! You have the fucking money!"

"I should have had it week's ago. Good bye Neil, I liked our little chat."

"God Dammit!" Neil screamed. Frustrated he threw the phone into the back seat.

"What is it?" Perry asked almost hesitantly; whatever had gone on at the other end of the phone didn't sound to good.

"He did something to him." Niel felt tears pricking at his eyes.

"What?! What the hell does that mean?" Dr. Cox was clearly irritated and attempted to relieve the tightness in his shoulders by popping his neck.

"He said it's a matter off time."

"Jesus Christ." Dr. Cox breathed. Fear running through his veins. Newbie damn well better be alright, he thought. Otherwise I'm going to have to kill this lurch.

o0o0o0o

"Help!" JD yelled. "Help Please!" There was nothing, only the echo of his voice throughout the warehouse. "God why'd this have to happen to me." He stared at his arms. A steady flow of blood was trailing down to the floor from his wrists and upper arm and it made him wince. Though by now his entire arm were numb because of two things, the tightly wound rope, and the amount of blood that was leaking out of him. "Jesus." He breathed. Feeling the energy leaving him.

Maverick had toyed with him for a while. Punched him and then yanked at his hair to hear him scream. It was a long time since he had had somebody to torture, and to him it seemed like such a waste to not hear him yelp just a little. JD had cursed at Neil. Had wondered why he had tortured him for years and now was probably going to die because of him. What the hell did he do? Seriously! But then just when he thought he had gone through the worst. Maverick had sliced his wrist and arms and had just left him there. Tied to the chair like some animal.

He looked into the darkness of the warehouse. Every noise springing hope that someone was coming for him. But he was disappointed every time because all he saw was darkness. He could barely keep his head up now, he was sleepy, and as much as his doctor part of thinking told him not to, he was just so tired. I wonder if Dr. Cox is pissed I'm late for my shift, he vaguely wondered as he fell into unconsciousness.

o0o0o0o

"How much longer, Neil?" Perry growned out. The curly haired doctor was worried, he did in fact have a soft spot for the kid, and whatever it is that was done to him probably wasn't very good.

"Not much. At the end of this road make a left. It's a big abandoned warehouse."

Perry frowned at their surroundings. Could we even be in a worse of a neighborhood! Finally he saw the building and he let out a long sigh. "Hang on Newbie."

The car jerked to a stop at the front of the building and Perry and Neil jumped out. Searching for an entry into the warehouse as quickly as they could.

"How do we get in?" Dr. Cox asked as he looked over the building. Silently noting just how enormous it was.

"If I remember correctly there should be a door on the other side of the building."

They rushed over to the other side and just like Neil had said there against the wall was a big heavy metal door. They both struggled to open it and with much effort it creaked open giving them enough space to slip inside. The building was silent and that worried Neil. He thought that the kid should at least be yelling or something.

"Newbie...Newbie!" Dr. Cox cupped hands around his mouth and yelled. There was no response.

They walked down the corridor coming to another door that opened much easier and entered. There was machinery everywhere and broken pipes spewing steam. "He's got to be in here somewhere." Neil said, putting a hand on Dr. Cox's shoulder but the doctor shrugged him off, sending him a glare that could make ice melt. He wasn't one to be comforted. Especially by someone like him.

They walked towards the other end of the space slowly. Searching every corner for the person they were so desperate to find. Finally as they made it passed the center of the building they could see a form off in the expanse of the building.

They both began to run and as soon as they were close enough to make out the body and mess of blood that was JD. Perry shedded off his coat. Desperately ripping it into shreds to tie around Newbie's wounds once he was close enough.

Neil wasn't a doctor and understandably couldn't quite cope in high stress situations. Dr. Cox had to nearly punch him again to get him to help with the kid. JD wasn't moving and his breathing was shallow, and what frustrated Perry above all was that he was strapped to a damn chair.

"Knife, knife. I need something to cut this rope." Perry howled, making Neil move.

He shuffled in his pockets until he found his pocket knife. "Her you go."

Perry snatched it in a seconds and started cutting through the thick nylon around JD's wrists. "Dammit JD you better be o.k." He whispered in his ear.

Once the rope was cut away he pulled JD to the floor and began to wrap up his wrists and forearms. "You know you can move. Get his other arm!" He ordered.

And Neil did. When they were done Dr. Cox grabbed JD and hoisted him up, and as quickly as he could brought him to the Porsche waiting outside.

JD laid in the back as they drove faster than either of them had ever had to the hospital. "Will he be O.k." Neil asked. Guilt growing more enormous every time he got a look at JD.

"He was there bleeding for more than an hour, an average person bleeds to death in half that time. The fact that he's still alive proves he's strong."

Neil nodded. It wasn't a definite answer but Dr. Cox was right. Scooter was a strong kid.

o0o0o0o

It had been 2 weeks since JD had been kidnapped. The police had found Maverick and Dr. Cox's money was retrieved. Even though that was the least of Perry's worries it was a nice touch to finish off the incident. When JD returned to work everyone was easier on him. Elliot helped out with his patients and even Dr. Cox was going easy on him. Nothing like a near death experience to let people realize just how much you mean to them. I knew he loves me. JD thought as Dr. Cox walked down the corridor. Now all I need is that hug.

He was walking down the hall towards his first patients room when he collided into the Janitor, AKA Neil.

"Hey kid." He said a little sheepishly. JD didn't really know what to do. Perry had told him the entire story, as much as it annoyed the older doctor but JD had asked while he was still recovering and he couldn't refuse the kids request. Not after the kidnapping. He also told him that he had visited his room everyday while he was asleep. JD new that Neil hadn't meant for any real harm to befall him. Even though it did, and it was mostly his fault. He decided the first big step in putting the whole ordeal behind himself was to forgive him. He could only imagine how guilty he had felt, and he knew deep down that he never meant for something like that to happen.

"Hello Janitor." He said it as goofily as he could because the janitor didn't look in the least bit happy, or calm, in fact he looked sad. "Look." JD said coming closer so he wouldn't have to talk so loud. "I know you didn't mean for any of what happened to happen. I've known you long enough to know that you'd never want to actually harm me, and I understand why you got involved with a guy like Maverick. So I just wanted to tell you that I forgive you. Don't think about what happened ever again." JD smiled trying his best to sound as sincere as he could.

Neil smiled back. It wasn't an enormous smile but it was something. JD hadn't seen him smile at all for days and he knew it was because of what happened.

"There's one thing though." JD said before he turned the corner. "No more picking on me." He smiled a toothy grin. Hoping that finally after 3 long years the Janitor JD feud would finally be over.

"No luck there scooter. Besides you've already for given me." The janitor said. Motioning for JD to give him a hug. "C'mon I don't bite."

JD looked over his shoulders, making sure know one was watching before he gave the Janitor a hug. It was nice and when he pulled away he felt that indeed the two of them did have a friendship. "Could you at least go easy on me from now on." He offered before he continued down the hall.

"Maybe."

The Janitor watched JD continue down the corridor towards his patient. A kick me sign tapped to the back of his scrubs.

Ah some things never change.