My Control

Chapter Six

After making certain that Josh had really left, JD crept from the alleyway, wondering if he should take the extra time to grab the first-aid kit from his apartment first.

It was why he knew he wasn't cut out to be a paramedic or an ER doc. Split-second decisions just weren't his thing.

Of course, someone important to him was lying brokenly in the room inside the building. That may or may not have been affecting his judgement.

Even as JD opened the creaky door, he heard a rustling to the room to his left. He heard sirens wailing in the distance and looked back, again wondering if he should wait.

Emotion won out like it normally did for him, and he pushed open the door on the left side of the hallway.

Medical training meant nothing when someone important was lying in the floor, bruised and vulnerable.

"Dr. Cox?" JD asked carefully, walking slowly.

A dazed figure in the corner of the room turned slightly, but only just. The man in the floor stared at an opposite wall, rocking towards it as if it were a lifeline.

JD took a deep breath and continued into the room even as the sirens grew closer. With any traumatized victim, JD knew to take it slow and to get there before a cold policeman did.

"Perry?" he tried carefully.

The figure jerked at that. JD approached the crumpled form in the floor carefully. "Dr. Cox?"

XXXXXXX

Perry whipped at the sound of his name, but kept staring at Newbie, who smiled at him finally.

"What're you smilin' at, Bethany?" he murmured.

Newbie only pointed. Perry didn't want to look away, but raised his head, and went wild.

XXXXXXX

JD suddenly found a flailing man howling at him. "Dr. Cox, it's me, JD. Newbie? Carol? Alice?"

Perry's movements slowed slightly and he stared at JD's face dazedly.

JD recognized the high look on his face immediately.

"I told him you'd get here eventually, Clarissa." Perry's head dropped to the dusty concrete floor again. "You've been here the whole time. You didn't leave."

JD felt his heart twist unexpectedly as a policeman entered the room.

"Lieutenant! We found him!" The police officer rushed in. "Is he okay?"

JD snapped out of the odd daze. "No, he's not! You got a knife on you?"

The officer produced a small, black pocket knife. "Why?"

JD snatched it away and cut the plastic ties around Perry's wrists and ankles. "Perry, can you hear me?"

The man didn't move.

The officer gestured the EMT and police doctor forward. He then moved to grab JD's shoulders.

"Come on, son. They're taking him to the hospital to see a doctor."

"I am a doctor, you son of a bitch!" JD snapped angrily, fighting back the tears. He quickly tried to assess Dr. Cox's wounds, but his mind drew a blank other then bad burns, bad cuts, a dislocated shoulder, and a broken forearm.

"Come on, kid. They're taking him to Sacred Heart."

JD's heart twisted again. "You can't take him there. You have to take him somewhere else. He'd want that. Please."

The officer sighed and spoke quickly with the police doctor before turning back to JD.

"You're sure, kid?"

"I'm his student there. He wouldn't want his colleagues to see him like this. Take him to County."

The policeman nodded to his colleague and the doctor began to make work on the broken man in front of him.

"You family, kid?" the policeman asked.

"No, he works with him," Lieutenant Renicki said from the doorway. "Kid, you're either really stupid or you really care about this guy."

JD shrugged, keeping his eyes on the police doctor. "Count it as both. You're taking him to County?"

The police doctor nodded.

"Can I ride with you?" JD asked, his tone shaking.

"You're not family, kid," Lieutenant Renicki said. "I'm sorry, but we can't."

JD's eyes blazed. "You want to stand there and tell me I can't go with him after all this shit? You all but ignored me, and he was here the whole fucking time! And now you want to look down on me just because we're not related by blood?"

Lieutenant Renicki's face didn't change. "I'm sorry, kid. You know where he'll be."

JD resisted the urge to punch someone and shoved his way back to Perry. "I'll meet you there, Dr. Cox. I swear to god, I'll be there."

Perry opened his eyes briefly and grabbed a hold of JD's wrist suddenly in a tight grip.

"You're real…I knew you were. You never left."

JD's heart continued to twist for reasons he couldn't explain.

"We've got to move him," the police doctor said urgently.

When they started to pull Perry's hand from JD's wrist, the older doctor started to scream unexpectedly.

JD resisted the urge to whimper and backed away even as they gave him another sedative. He walked out of the building, rain falling hard over his head and hoodie. His shoes were soaked, and his jeans weren't faring much better as he watched the ambulance drive off.

Suddenly then, Carla and Turk were both there, asking questions a million miles a minute.

"Stop," JD said hoarsely. "They're taking him to County."

Turk put a hand on JD's shoulder. "How bad was it, dude?"

JD shook his head numbly. "I can't describe."

Carla gave Turk a look that had the man backing away from his stricken friend. Carla moved forward and put an arm around JD's shoulders.

"Come on, Bambi. We'll drive to County."

Still feeling only shock, JD nodded and let Carla lead him to the car.

The drive to County was long and silent. Turk seemed more uncomfortable then anything, so he drove. Carla sat in the backseat with JD, who had started to shake.

"Bambi, you're soaked," Carla finally said when they were nearly there.

"I know." JD didn't move to take off his wet hoodie. "He looked awful, Carla," he said in a broken whisper.

Turk pretended not to hear as JD began to sob.

XXXXXXXX

In a haze, Perry slowly came to. The first thing he remembered seeing was the dingy yellow ceiling of a room. It was different.

It slammed his head into a full-blown ache as he realized someone had come for him. He slowly looked down to his wrist, where an IV was jabbed into his bruised forearm. Bandages were around his chest, arms, and hand. One arm was in a cast, and a sling was wound tightly around his collarbone and shoulder. The bandages felt constricting.

The doctor in him began to assess, if only to distance himself from everything else.

Broken arm. Dislocated shoulder. Numerous burns and lacerations over the pectoral, spinal, and abdominal area. Showing withdrawal symptoms likely of heroine, methamphetamines, and morphine. Signs of other abuse. Bruises and needle marks along the arms and face. Laceration across the cheek, neck, and upper arm. Burning consistent with bonds presenting along the wrists and ankles. Mild hypothermia, presenting with early signs of a lung infection. Obvious signs of malnutrition and dehydration. Patient is showing no sign of talking to anyone; consult psych.

It almost made him feel normal to stand back and assess himself like it wasn't him. He couldn't be the broken man lying in the bed. It was someone else. It had to be.

Perry swallowed, already hating the feeling of tubes being just inside his nose for oxygen purposes. He looked flittingly across the doors of his room, seeing other nurses and doctors pass by.

After a brief moment of embarrassed terror, he realized he wasn't at Sacred Heart. He wondered how he'd managed that.

He turned his head to the side, and saw a curled figure in a chair. Quite suddenly, he was hallucinating all over again.

Newbie was there, sitting in a chair. He was sleeping this time, something he'd never done in that tiny room in the broken-down house. He looked restless, and was frowning in his sleep.

Perry fought the urge to cough. He didn't want to wake the kid. He made to lift an arm to ring for a nurse, but suddenly found himself restrained against the bed. The terror was back almost immediately and he jerked at the restraints.

JD woke almost immediately and stared for a moment before picking up a cup of ice water next to the bed.

"It's okay. You're safe," JD said before he thought of anything else.

Perry stared at his face. The eyes were different than his other visions. Newbie's eyes were happy and relieved this time, not desperate and imploring.

"Newbie?" he croaked.

"Don't talk," JD said. He dipped a sterile rag into the cup and pressed it to Perry's mouth. "You're at County."

Perry sucked greedily at the cold rag at his chapped lips. "Josh okay?"

JD jerked his head back to him. "They haven't found him," he said evenly. He dipped the rag into the cup again and pressed it to Perry's mouth. "Are you in pain?"

"I'm touched, Clarabelle," Perry managed to mutter. "I'm fine."

JD's face crumpled for a moment before it composed itself again. "Yeah." He put the cup down and made to leave the room.

Without warning, Perry gripped JD's wrist again. "Don't leave. You can't."

JD stared at Perry oddly. "But…"

"Newbie, you didn't leave me then," Perry replied, as if it made all the sense in the world. "You can't leave me now."

JD heard the desperation and wondered just what had happened to drive Dr. Perry Cox into such a state of desolate hell.

"Okay. I won't leave," JD replied finally, pulling the chair back to Perry's bed. "Let me call a nurse though so you can have some more pain medication."

"If it means you won't go all daydreamy-fuzzy on me again, whatever, Newbie."

JD didn't like the sound of that immediately, but rang for a nurse who came in and administered the proper medication.

XXXXXXXXX

JD dragged a hand through his hair as Perry slept, hand still enclosed firmly around his wrist.

"Bambi?" a quiet voice asked.

Carla stood at the door cautiously.

JD nodded quietly with a free finger to his lips for soft voices.

"How is he?" Carla asked carefully.

"Other than he won't let go of my wrist, fine," JD muttered bitterly.

Carla placed a motherly hand on JD's shoulder. "He'll bounce back, you know that, JD, don't you?"

"I'm not so sure he should be able to bounce back from something like this," JD murmured quietly as he attempted to ease his wrist from Perry's grip.

The older man's hand loosened slightly, and JD dragged his hand away. Perry's fingers still caught JD's palm and refused to let go.

JD sighed. "Carla, would you bring me another cup of coffee?"

"Bambi, you haven't slept in two days."

"He's not letting go. And I don't think I should try to get him to." JD looked carefully at the older doctor's face. "If I hadn't been there, I think he would've gone nuts at the idea of restraints."

Carla pursed her lips in slight disapproval. "Can I at least make you eat something?"

JD nodded. "Yeah. Bring some Japanese, would ya?"

"That's my Bambi. Turk's worried about you."

"Just tell him I'm fine. Perry's not talking to anyone else right now except me, and I think I should stay. Is Dr. Kelso having an aneurysm yet?"

Carla laughed weakly. "He understands of course about Perry. He's got Doug and Elliot covering your shifts. Even Turk offered to try and cover one or two, but Kelso went so red, he was the color of a tomato."

JD smiled half-heartedly. "I can't leave him right now, Carla. I just…I can't."

"I understand, Bambi. I'll bring you some food and coffee though. You will haveto sleep eventually though."

"I will." JD's face was pale all the same, and he kept staring at Perry. Something was running through JD, but he still wasn't sure what it was. "He kept telling me that I hadn't left then, and I shouldn't leave now."

Carla shrugged. "Maybe a hallucination."

"When Jordan came in yesterday, he freaked."

"There's no telling why, Bambi. You'll just have to try and give him what he needs for now."

JD stared at her. "I'm not Superman, Carla. I can't do this all on my own."

Carla smiled gently and kissed JD's forehead sisterly. "You'll have to try, Bambi. I'll go get you some of that Japanese."

"Thanks, Carla. Tell Kelso I've got the plague or something. Make sure to let him know whatever it is, I got it from Janitor."

That got a weak chuckle from Carla, who looked at her broken friend in the hospital bed.

"I will, Bambi. I will." She gave a final one-armed hug to JD's shoulders before she trudged out of the room.

Jordan stood there with Jack on her hip. "How's Perry?"

Carla sighed. "I don't know. He's been here a week, Jordan."

"Like I don't know. I just want to know how he is." The stress and worry was beginning to show clearly on Jordan's usually composed face.

"I'm sorry, Jordan. I didn't get much out of JD. Perry's been sleeping most of that week. You know that."

Jordan sighed and kissed Jack's cheek affectionately. Jack giggled at her and caught pieces of her hair in his chubby fists.

"If you want, Turk and I can take care of Jack for a few days."

Jordan sighed, dashing a tear away with a free hand. "No, that's okay. Jack's anchoring me."

Carla nodded and tickled Jack's stomach. "You be good to your Mama, ya hear?"

Jack giggled again and made baby noises.

Jordan walked to the door of Perry's room, staring in. "Say hi to Daddy, Jack-jack."

Jack waved at the window affectionately.

A piece of Jordan's heart twisted when JD picked up Perry's hand and waved back.

Continues with Chapter 7