My Reality

Epilogue: My Conclusion

Three Years Later

Susan held onto her stethoscope gaily, walking down the hallways as she heard the familiar sounds of interns being yelled at.

"Come on, people! Last time I checked, Lucy, potassium wasn't a good idea for someone who's just come out of a triple-bypass! You want to be the one who tells the family why their dear old daddy died of a heart attack?"

Derek grinned at her from the other side of the nurse's desk. "What are you so happy about?"

Susan shrugged. "Glad that I'm not an intern anymore is all. Especially with the two of them running around."

"You are still a resident, Brownie. Quit making googly eyes at Jessica and get back to work," JD snapped as he walked past her.

Groaning slightly, Susan moved closer to Derek. "Five bucks says if we open the supply closet, Dr. Dorian's in there with Cox."

"Do I really have to tell you what a bad idea that is?" Derek asked warily.

Susan grinned impishly. "If we play it right, they won't know it was us."

Derek scratched his scruffy chin and trailed a hand through sand-colored hair. "How about this: you go open the door and I'll be standing far, far, far away so that it's all on you either way."

"You're no fun," Susan pouted as she settled her chin on her hands to scan a chart.

Carla raised an eyebrow at the conversation and exchanged a quick look with Jordan, who nodded to Elliot who casually waved down Turk from a surgical consult.

Turk and Elliot pulled out their beepers.

Having a rather nice session in the supply closet, JD smirked ruthlessly at Perry who only pushed him hard into the wall. Something hit the floor with a thud, but before JD could comment about it, Perry's mouth was attacking his again with a vengeance.

"That resident of yours is downright cheeky, Newbie," Perry commented as he slid a hand beneath JD's top.

"Is it my fault she's taken after you?"

"Better then the wimp beside her." Perry grinned against JD's mouth.

A sharp oath slipped JD's mouth as his beeper went off at the same time as Perry's.

"What the…?" Perry started and headed for the door to push it open. It wouldn't budge.

"One word."

"Janitor."

Perry groaned and scratched a hand through his hair. "I don't guess he's forgiven me yet for slugging him a few years back."

JD pushed hard against the door with his shoulder and winced. "He's got it jammed nice and tight."

Perry smirked suggestively at that, hugging JD from behind and slipping a hand beneath his shirt again. The other went below his pants.

JD grunted something that was supposed to be a word, but came out as something else.

"Beepers," JD reminded him on a gasp as Perry bit down on his neck lightly.

Susan eyed the supply closet door surreptitiously. It looked like it had moved, but wasn't opening. She walked over to it and frowned at the door handle. Someone had lodged something underneath it.

"Who on earth would do that?" Susan asked bemusedly to Derek, who shrugged.

"On three," Perry commented to JD, finally extricating his hands from JD's clothing.

Susan pulled the object from the handle.

"Three!"

A scream and a yelp later had Susan and Derek hitting the floor as Dr. Dorian and Dr. Cox tumbled out of it.

"Brownie," JD barked. "What the hell were you and Lucy holding the door shut for?"

Perry had to debate a minute between the scared faces before he jerked Derek up by the collar to drag him to a patient's room.

"Christ, Annabelle, while you're having oh-so-much fun, I've got to know. Honest to God, did ya really think that you're here to just screw around on your own time playing patty-cake with your other boyfriend while patients need taking care of? Get your knickers up nice and tight, because you've just earned yourself an on-call for tonight with your boyfriend over there."

"Brownie, are you even listening?"

Susan snapped from her daze reluctantly to look at Dr. Dorian's angry face. "Uh…yeah?"

Janitor leaned on his mop with a satisfied grin. Now he and angry-doctor were even, he'd managed to annoy irritating-doctor one more time, and he had a new set of residents to humiliate and pick on.

Whistling lightly, he began to mop again.

"Janitor," Elliot commented with a grin as she picked up a chart. "I don't remember jamming the door."

Janitor shrugged and only gave a smile.

XXXXXXXXX

"A costume party, Jorderoo? For a seven-year-old? Are you trying to make him gay?"

"You're one to talk, Per-bear. Just show up in something; he asked for it."

Perry groaned. "Let me talk to the boy."

"Hi, doc," Jack sing-songed out.

"Hey, Jack," Perry replied as he leaned against the counter of the nurse's station. He was waiting on JD to finish up nightly rounds with his new interns. "Is your mom putting you up to this costume party thing?"

"No, I want one," Jack replied defensively. "I'm gonna be a doctor."

As Susan and Derek came around the corner to find the on-call room, Perry pushed a chair in their oblivious way. Derek managed to stop, but Susan went down and grabbed Derek's shirt as she went.

"These days, anyone can be," Perry muttered and turned his attention back to his babbling son. "Gonna be a doctor, are you?"

"Just like you, doc. Are you gonna dress up too?"

"I don't know, Jack. Don't you think you and your friends will enjoy it more?"

"You have to dress up," Jack replied, looking at his mother. Jordan egged him on with a smile, holding a new toy in her hands. "You and Aunt Carol."

Perry groaned inwardly. "Alright, Jack. If it's what you really want."

"Duh, Dad. It'll be fun."

"Alright, Jacky. I'll see you Saturday. Love you."

"Love you too, doc." Jack hung up the phone and promptly snatched the new action figure from Jordan's hands. "Daddy's gonna be so mad at you."

Jordan grinned and rubbed a hand over Jack's hair as he ran off.

JD finally rounded the corner and righted the upturned chair as Perry hung up the phone, looking miserable.

"What was that all about?" JD asked as they headed out to the parking lot.

Perry shrugged. "Jack's birthday party."

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's a costume party, according to Jordan and Jack."

"I could be Spiderman…" JD drifted off as Perry unlocked the doors of his car.

Perry raised an eyebrow. "You see, Newbie…that's what gets you into trouble with Jorderoni. Even Barbie would've known that she was probably holding a toy over Jack's nose to get him to say that."

"So what are you going to do?"

"You may feel free to dress up as Serena the Fairy-Princess like you do when I'm not home, but I'm just wearing scrubs."

JD rolled his eyes as he slid into the car. "You're no fun. What did you dress up for on Halloween?"

Perry looked at him as he gunned the engine. "A crabby old man, that's what."

"Yeah, you are hitting those years pretty hard. Before too long, the Discovery Channel might ask your opinion on that documentary they're going to be doing about the meteor that killed the dinosaurs."

Perry kept his eyes on the road, but reached over and flicked JD across the forehead.

"Shut up, Haley."

XXXXXXXXX

The rain had begun to pour by the time Perry parked the car. They ran through the rain to get into the apartment.

JD stretched painfully; it had been a long shift. "I'm headed for the shower. Long day, stupid interns, and ditzy residents."

Perry raised an eyebrow. "As long as you don't take all the hot water using whatever unisexual girly product made for the half-gay man."

JD rolled his eyes but left the room.

Perry headed for the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. His eyes drifted to the window where the rain pattered against the glass. It had been a long road even from the time he'd come home from the hospital for the last time.

The nightmares had subsided vaguely, but he still woke up sometimes shaking or screaming, depending upon how well he remembered the dream. He still grew nervous around certain patients at the hospital, but had found it easy enough to simply switch with another attending on the floor.

Perry stopped himself from counting the drips again, and resisted the urge to flip the coffee pot on more then once. He sighed and sat down at the kitchen table to stare at the window again.

The foggy glass was still as clear in his mind as ever, no matter what room he found himself in. Tucking his hands into the front pocket of his green hoodie, he leaned back and watched the spatters of rain against the window. The harsh lighting of the kitchen didn't bother him as much anymore either.

JD found him like that when he emerged from the shower, clean and dressed. His hair lay damply loose around his face as he slid his hands over Perry's shoulders.

Perry jumped, though the touch was familiar. "Hey, Newbie."

"Off in lala land?"

"Never been there. Let me know how it is; I hear you're a regular."

JD rolled his eyes and sat down adjacent to him as the coffeepot burbled. "What were you thinking about?"

Perry shrugged and linked his hands over his curly hair. "Nothing really, Clara."

"Nothing’s wrong, is it?"

"No. Everything's just fine." Perry smiled at him and turned his gaze back to the window. "I was just thinking about raindrops and glass." He grimaced. "No showtunes, Newbie."

"I'd never."

Perry snorted at that. "You're about as gay as they come. Of course you would. What's that smell on you; apples?"

JD shrugged. "MYOB."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Mind your own business," JD replied simply and stood. "Are we still planning on meeting everyone for drinks tonight?"

Perry groaned as his focus from the window finally broke. "Come on, Newbie…I'm too old for this whole "gang up for drinks" night."

"Jordan's going; she's not too old."

"That's because Jordan bathes in the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins to keep her youthful demonic appearance."

"So that's what happened," JD remarked. "She left you and that's why you look like…"

Perry tackled him to the carpet in the living room before JD could finish.

XXXXXXX

Jordan stared disapprovingly at their costumes. "You couldn't think of something more original?"

Perry snorted, playing with the end of his stethoscope. He wore his usual work attire, sans lab coat and with a scrubs top.

"I'm a doctor, Bat-lady," Perry replied as he tipped a finger over a fuzzy ear on Jordan's headband.

"They're cat ears," Jordan replied huffily. "And what the hell is DJ supposed to be?"

"I'm him," JD retorted with unholy glee, pointing to the embroidered "Perry Cox" on his lab coat.

Jordan groaned. "You two make me want to puke." She turned to find Jack at the grassy park. "Jack, your dad's here."

Jack ran over, wearing mini-scrubs and a toy stethoscope. He grinned at his father.

"You look like me," Jack said proudly.

Perry grinned and tweaked Jack's nose. Jack grinned and went to play with his other friends.

JD handed Jack's gift to Elliot, who wore a pair of leopard ears in her blonde hair. She looked slightly frazzled as she took it and sat down on the park bench.

"What's eating you?" he asked.

Elliot shrugged. "Lots of little hands everywhere. Jack's hand, I can handle…but all of his friends?" She shuddered. "Who knows what they've been getting their grubby mini hands into."

JD laughed. "You're a doctor; you get exposed to this crap every minute of the day."

"And then some. Come on, Barbie. You're leading them in pin the tail on the resident," Perry commented and ushered Elliot over to Jordan. Susan and Derek stood with them, looking frightened and upset.

Perry sat with JD on the bench. "You took my coat, Bessy."

JD shrugged in the slightly too-big coat. "You took my hoodie."

"Likewise, so you're one-up on me."

"Yeah, but you took my favorite one."

"Christ, you whine like a little girl, Newbie," Perry muttered, but there wasn't any real anger in his voice. "I'll give it back if it means that much to you."

JD grinned at him as he crossed his arms. "I think you need it more then I do."

Perry did smile at that as the warm, California breeze rushed over his face and he watched Jack pin a tail into Susan's backside with a laugh.

"Yeah. I think I did."

The laughter rushed on the wind and through the trees as Derek gave a yelp of his own when a child pinned the tail to his middle back.

JD looked at the kids. "So why'd you pick me anyway?"

"You're being a sap, Newbie. What'd I tell you about that?"

"Hey, one of us has to be every now and again."

"Yeah, but you're one all the time, Juliet."

"Why did you?"

Perry shrugged and stood. "Read that letter again sometime, Newbie." He walked off to join his son in the small group of kids torturing the two residents.

JD rolled his eyes, but pulled the letter out of his wallet anyway. He frowned. It hadn't been folded that way the last time he'd slipped it into the brown leather.

Sitting alone still on the bench, JD opened the letter once more, and found there was more writing on the bottom that hadn't been there before. He smiled at it, and slipped it back into his wallet to join the other children playing the grass.

Elliot and Jordan watched with amused grins as JD and Perry led the boys in a rousing game of tackle-tag.

"So," Elliot said lightly as she tugged at the cat-tail on Jordan's waist. "Any chance of you wearing that around the house while Jack's at Dr. Cox's house this weekend?"

Jordan snorted and crossed her arms. "Not on me. You, on the other hand, sometimes require a leash, blondie."

Elliot tugged at the tail again with a giggle. "But it's so cute."

"Watch it, princess."

"Alright, alright," Elliot replied and released the black tail.

Jordan rubbed her forehead as she took up JD's vacated seat as the blonde girl sat beside of her.

"Tired?" Elliot asked.

"I've been taking care of other people's kids for an hour now," Jordan replied warily. "What do you think, precious?"

"I think there's no expiration date on fun."

"Oh, yes there is, Blondie."

"There is not," Elliot replied defensively. "It's in the rules that JD made up. There's no expiration date on fun, just your botox."

Jordan glared at her and tickled her in a rare show of playfulness. "You really don't want to see your next birthday, do you?"

Elliot laughed. "Worth it," she retorted with an impish grin. "You're just too cute when you're angry."

"Cute is going to be the color of your backside by the time I'm done with it." Jordan turned a smile to her though. "Or do we forget so easily?"

Elliot only grinned at her and tugged her back up. "Let's go play with the kids. You're never too old to play on a jungle gym."

A thud drew their attention to JD, who was lying back-down in the dirt. Perry was sitting on top of the gym with Jack, and they both grinned and laughed. He finally made sure Jack was okay to stand on his own at the top, and clambered down to help JD to his feet. Elliot giggled as she helped another child to the second level, and Jordan groaned when they both tripped and fell back to the dirt.

Jack sat on top of the jungle gym with a wide grin as he met his eighth year. He really was the luckiest kid in the world.

xxFINITOxx