My Shattered Reality

Chapter 5 My New Day

I smiled as I looked through the glass of the delivery room.

It was eight hours since Carla’s water broke, and I now had a small, less-than-an-hour-old goddaughter by the name of Isabella. Carla herself was sitting in her bed, holding the baby, and Turk was sitting beside her on the bed, making faces at the baby and wrapping his arms around Carla.

I swallowed, though, and not because I was completely happy about all this, either. I kept seeing myself instead of Turk, and Kim instead of Carla.

I sighed rather forcefully and pat a crying Elliot on the shoulder, who’s grinning like an idiot, and turn to go somewhere else. Anywhere else, anywhere but here, anyone except the happy couple, anything except that baby. I told Elliot that after today, I was really exhausted, and to tell me when the two lovebirds got out, because they would be stuck in there for at least a few more hours. She nodded rather blindly and I went back to my locker.

I opened it and shook my head at the box at the bottom. It was locked, with most of my most valuable things in it, stuff that couldn’t be replaced. Even the Janitor couldn’t get in. I put that stuff there because it’s stuff that I won’t even risk in my tent. It’s just a few albums and stuff, but still. Even if they aren’t exactly happy, they are memories.

So I change into my streets and I grab my backpack and I go down the first floor level. On the way I stop by to see Jenny. Ever since I last came here, we’ve started flirting back and forth a little bit. Not seriously, but hey, it’s a little fun.

“Hey, JD.” She said. “How’s Carla?”

“Just fine. She’s in maternity. Turks wrapped around his two girls and making funny faces at them while refusing to let anyone unnecessary near them.”
“He must feel so proud, knowing he’s father.”
“Yeah…the look on his face…” I space out wistfully, and her snapping her fingers in my face brings me back to reality.

“JD, is there any reason you’re here behind the counter?”

“Besides to get a better view of you? No, not really. I’ll be going home, but not that fond of going home so soon.”
She simply smiled and shook her head while I went back to sit in my usual hiding spot…

About five minutes later she comes back to see me twirling myself lazily in her chair. She smirks at my challenge, stealing her chair.

So what does she do?

Sit right down on me, turn the chair wither her heels, and go straight back to paperwork.

“Ah…Jenny…are you sure…you know what? I’m cool with this arrangement.”

She smiled knowingly. She was one of those girls was a slut but not really a slut. Make sense? So it was near impossible to actually get intimate, but anyone could get close…if she made the move. However, it didn’t work out for Todd so well when he spanked her in the hall. I almost pity him, though if they had their own minds I’d pity his balls a lot more.

“Jenny? I promise to get up, but I should go home, so if you could, for moment, please…?”
She smiled and got up, told me to take care of myself, and kissed my cheek as I walked out. I was honestly a little surprised, then took it as more of her ‘flirting-for-the-heck-of-it-and-not-because-I-like-you’ thing and kept on going.

I stood outside the window looking at one of my older friends at this hellhole, Carla Espinoza. I smirked to myself as Gandhi was shooed out and the baby is carefully pried from their arms. Gandhi goes to an on call room and sleeps in a little bit, and Carla follows suit, except in her own bed.

“Barbie,” I said. “With these two off, are the shifts taken care of?”
“Yeah, they’re just fine,” she said happily, slowly starting to walk back to the on call room she was supposed to share with Newbie, but never did use. My guess was because she used her boy toy’s bed.

I shake my head and chill out in the lounge and stare blankly at a rerun of my soap opera.

I feel the corners of my mind tugging to Newbie.

I’m just so used to him running around the halls, saying random things at the most inappropriate times, and basically annoying the hell out of me and everyone else, so much that I want to throttle him, so much that it’s weird to see him moping around here. I swear to god, though, it’s creepy how good of an actor he is, no one’s noticed that permanent smile is getting faker and faker everyday. OR maybe it’s just because everyone else is getting caught up in their own lives and the wonderful way they’re going, and I’m the only one staying the same, as a patter I have noticed.

Maturity. People keep thinking that he’s just growing more mature. But he’s not exactly mature, just a bit more serious. Disassociating himself from the rest of us, the happier of us.

Yep, it’s obvious. He’s changed big time, and not for the better.

And I saw his face when he was looking at Gandhi and Carla. He was imagining something. He wasn’t seeing those two – he was seeing himself and Briggs and whoever the hell Jamie would have been.

Ah! I was driving myself crazy. I wish he would stop looking up to me. Why does he have to look up to me? His mom must have remarried when he was a kid, right? And I know that his dad is decent. Why he once looked up to his brother is completely beyond me, though…

I guess I’ll just have to shake him off…just like we’ve been doing for the last six and a half goddamn years.

I woke up the next morning still feeling a little sick and hungry. I call in at work saying I don’t feel too well. Doctor Cox, who had answered, wasn’t too happy, apparently, and wanted me to get there soon. So much for his slave machine.

When I finally got well enough that I was going to head to work a little early, me recovering earlier that I thought it would take, I got a phone call.

Dan.

“Dan?”

“Hey, little bro. How’s everyone there? Ellie? Chief Coxy? Turk? Carla’s pregnant, right?”

“Hey, Dan, I’m all right. Elliot’s just fine, she bought a house with Keith. Cox got Jordan pregnant and then they got an abortion. Turk’s asleep, Carla gave birth at 6:13 pm last night.”
“Really?”
There was a pause.

“Hey, man, my boss is letting me have a few days off, don’t ask why.”

“I don’t want to know.”
“Well, anyway, I might be able to go to that area for a few days so I can do some other stuff later a little off. Want me to drop by?”
“If you want. But you can’t crash with me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I now live in a tent on my land.”
“Oh…why?”
“Eventually I might build a house, here, or something like that.”

“Isn’t it snowing out there?”
“No, just frost.”
“That can’t be good.”
“I’ll be fine. If you want to come, you’ll need to find someplace else.”
“I’ll call Elliot, or I’ll just get a motel room or something like that. Anyway, is there anytime I shouldn’t drop by?”
“Nah, just don’t expect to see much of Turk and Carla, and don’t expect anything from Elliot.”
“Will do, little bro will do.”
Pause.

“How have you been doing…since Kim?”
“I’m just fine,” I said a little too quickly.

Another pause.

“No you’re not.”

I hate that brother bond connection…

“Look, Dan, it was three months ago. I got over it. I’m fine, now.”
“JD-”

“Look, I have to get to work, so I’ll call you later, all right?”
He is about to say something but I hang up.

I hop on my bike and get the hell outta there. I get to work, take a shower in the cold water, and I get into my scrubs. I barely un-dampen my hair enough so that water doesn’t go everywhere.

But then Laverne asks if I should be walking around in winter with wet hair from a cold shower. I just ignore her and go check on my patients.

At about lunch, I sit down with a burger, the first time in a while I’ve eaten that much in the last few weeks, and Elliot sits right across from me.

“I just got a call from your brother. He’s coming in about two weeks, and he’s crashing at my place if he can’t afford a motel.”
“Great,” I mutter barely even halfheartedly. She doesn’t notice and starts going on and on about possible floor designs for her house. I make my excuse of having to visit Grace Wronski and check her vitals ‘make haste’, as the old fashioned knights would call it.

After I check her vials out, she asks if I know what’s wrong with her.

“Ms. Wronski, the acid from your stomach if starting to eat through your intestines. Dr. Reid will be by later and she’ll guide you through a surgical consult. Does that sound good?”
“Yeah…Doctor…Dorian?”
I nod.

“You’re the guy that got beaten up by some street thug, right?”
“Uh…yeah, I guess…”
She laughs.

“I guess we should all be glad he wasn’t one of the ones who had a gun.”

I chuckle it off half-heartedly and I walk back out and then I lean my head against the wall, a little nervous.

I keep going after a few moments.

And soon after that, I went home.

I came back slightly edgy the next day, and unfortunately the first one I ran into was the Janitor.

“Hey, kiddo.”

“Why can’t you just call me JD like everyone else?”
“How about Doctor Dorian? Or how about I just stick to Scooter?”
I shrug and keep walking.

“You tell me to call you by a certain name and yet you never asked my name.”
“Your name is Neil Richard Flynn, but people call you Ricky, or Sparky because of an incident when you tried to fill in for the technician on the set of The Fugitive when you played the Transit cop.”

He stared in shock.

“You broke into my locker!”
“No. If you check, there is no forced entry. And I didn’t pick the lock, though I’m not really sure how you’d pick a combination lock. Files can be very…informative. But anyway, I think I’ll start calling you Ricky.”

Actually, I just watched for days and slowly figured out his combo.
“Don’t you dare-”

“Or maybe Sparky. I can have so much fun telling people about your acting…excuse me, once acting career.”
If looks could kill, I would be dead at this very moment. I hit a sore spot and I knew it. Well, I was getting back for almost six years worth of torture from him.

“I am so getting you for this.”

“Just like always,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Just. Like. Always. Look, what did I do wrong to you when I was an intern? No, don’t answer, I’ll answer for you. Nothing. You terrorize me, and only me, for amusement, making my life miserable. And guess what? Out of six and a half years, how many times have you done something to me? Oh, I don’t know, only a few thousand by now, something every single god damned day! And how many times have I done something back to you? I can count on one hand!” I held up four fingers. “Including right now. So, please, just for ONE day. Leave. Me. Alone!”

He is staring at me in shock and I angrily just turn on my heel and keep storming right on upstairs.

“Newbie, why are you here early? Again? Don’t you have a li-”

“Leave me alone!”
“Newbie.”
“Shove it!”
I figure that probably wasn’t the best of ideas at the moment, but I keep heading up anyway and go straight to the locker rooms.

“Hey, JD-”

“Not today, Todd,” I growl out, he seems a bit surprised, and one look from me and he’s out of there, thankfully in his Scrubs already.

“Jizzle Dizzle?” Turk asks slightly nervously from behind a row of lockers.

“Please, Turk, I woke up this morning on the wrong side of the sleeping bag and my day hasn’t gotten any better since. Can you just leave me alone?”
He nods, and we each finish our dressing in silence and I go out there with a robotic look on my face.

Everyone in the hall seems to avoid me. Doesn’t take long for word to spread that I’m not in a good mood today.

The weird thing is that no one really seems to know how to deal with an apparently easily angry JD. Most of the time, the worst I get is slightly irritated when in the same case the average guy would be breaking something…usually someone’s bones. But I managed to just keep up my robotic mode, and still somehow keep up with a daily life. By my lunch break, I haven’t seen Janitor…no, Sparky, he’s going to hate that, I have to start calling him that…anyway, I haven’t seen Sparky or Doctor Cox, though I’m not sure, for the latter, if this is good or bad. So, I go for being prepared and choose bad.

At lunch, Turk goes to see Carla, who had complications due to some blood loss thing, and to see his new daughter. I skipped lunch, even though I had skipped breakfast, and I simply lay down on the couch on the doctor’s lounge, thankfully invisible to most. I am honestly surprised when I don’t feel hungry, even though I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday, and even that had simply been a cup of coffee.

I suppose for a doctor starving myself isn’t the best of positions, but I also think I might puke if I ingest anything besides a little bit of water, so that’s all I have and I get back to work.

At the end of the day, I managed to still have avoided just about everyone, and so I head home.

But in the middle of the night, I hear Turk calling my name through the tent.

“Chocolate Bear?”

“Hey, J Dog. Can I hang here for a few hours?”
“Ah…sure…” Why would he want to hang out here or all places?

“Any reasons to this, SCB?” I ask him.

“I don’t know…I guess it’s just that with Carla at the hospital, and knowing I have a daughter now…I guess I just feel…lonely.”

“Well, you’re welcome here anytime. Mi casa es su casa…well, I suppose it’s me tent es su tent…but hey, anytime. What are best friends for?”
He smiles and then shivers a little bit, and I immediately offer him my robe, and he takes it rather gratefully and leans against some boxes.

“Man, JD, I can’t believe you actually live here.”
“It’s not that bad. I actually kind of like it. I think even if I build a house here, I might still stay out here. It’s nice. Or maybe one of those Mongolian portable homes or something. Or maybe a motor home, that would be awesome…” I trail off a little and Turk just starts laughing.

“JD, you gotta find some place better than a tent soon. It’s so cold in here…no wonder you’re always sick. Wait, why aren’t you shivering?”
“I guess I just don’t feel the cold that much. Don’t’ worry about me, I’m tough enough to last.”
Turk nods.

“From your porch, you got a nice view, ya know?”
“Yeah. I love it. Kim and Julie and Carla did to. Even Doctor Cox liked it.”
“Yeah, I heard from him.” Pause. “Why were you in such a bad mood today?”

“I don’t know. Just woke up feeling a bit crabby this morning.” Turk shrugs it off.

“You know you got your interns scared out of their minds? And everyone was a little weirded out.”
“Yeah…I am so sorry about that.”

“No problem, I’ve been waiting for thirteen years for you to breakdown.”
“I only had to wait three months for an angry breakdown from you.”

“Exactly. How do you do it, though? I mean, fourteen years, today was the most I’ve seen you that angry, and the longest you actually stayed that way. Rest of the time, you’re best friends with everyone, even the people who hate you. I mean, it took you thirteen years to crack. How do you do it?”
I suddenly imagine an egg with my face on it, and weights adding on top, each saying ‘years’ instead of pounds, and the egg me only cracking when there are thirteen ‘years’.

“I am a mental bodybuilder.” I mutter. For some reason, Turk grins wildly, before turning his smile back to normal and saying, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I guess it’s just not in me to hate people.”
“JD, today you, when you weren’t being a robot, people thought you were on the verge of killing anyone who wasn’t a patient. And now you’re already looking peppy and cheerful again. You’re moodier than Carla when she was pregnant.”
I smiled at him.

“I do feel better.”
He nodded idly and seemed to zone off into his world, so I slip back under the covers.

After about five minutes, he shakes his head.

“So, Vanilla Bear, I hear your brother’s coming in a few weeks.”
I nod.

“For some reason, I both am and am not looking forward to it.” Turk nods in understanding.

“Look…JD…just, thanks for being there. Last few days.”
“What did I do?”

“You were just there for me.”
“Uh…okay, if you say so.” He shakes his head in a bewildered yet amused way.

“JD…seriously, that’s another thing I don’t get about you. You’re always there for us, and you always let us yell at you and say means things and a few hours later we just say sorry and we’re back on your list.”
“You never left. Turk, I still cared for you, even that one time when you punched me in the face in college.”
“Exactly. I mean, you’re always there for us, and I’d like to think that we’re always there for you…but we aren’t because you never need us, besides with the occasional help in your love life. Anything else, someone else is involved, as well. It’s like…you don’t need us.”
“Are you crazy?” I asked. “You guys are what keep me going.”

He gave me a watery smile, and hugged the shit out of me, before he sat back.

“So…I saw some Chinese out there…”

“Help yourself.”
He gave an excited little yell and walked out, and came back in about ten minutes later, with me under the covers of my sleeping bag again, and he gave me some of my spicy chicken, while he took the pork. I didn’t eat much, but still.

“Hey, JD?”
“Hm?”
“Carla…she was saying you needed something to do…and…we want you to design a baby room, nursery thing.”
“You guys live in an apartment. Well, I suppose posters and-”

“We’re buying a place, soon. Nothing big, but still.”
I couldn’t hold in a smile.

“If you get me the layout of the room, it’ll be perfect.”

Turk laughs and nod and we start reminiscing about out college days, and after another hour or so, Turk leaves to go home, having to be on call tomorrow. I slip into my sleeping bag again, smiling. I am not completely sure why, but I feel so much better. For the first time in weeks, I truly feel happy. For the first time in months, I feel I have a real reason to stay here.

POV: Perry Cox, a day and a half later

I growl to myself the next day as a new shift starts. Carla’s still home, and will be for the next few weeks, and Gandhi was apparently trying to work somewhere in between too many shifts to cover up where Carla’s slacking off, and working not much to spend time with his new daughter.

Great, a lot of extra work for me.

“Hey, Doctor Cox-”

“What, Newbie?” I growl.

“I was just wondering…with Turk and Carla being gone a bite more, you get extra cases…I was just offering to take some.” He starts walking away, fiddling with the sleeve of the white lab coat over his scrubs. “Anytime you need some help.”
I stare after the idiot. Doesn’t he have a life?

POV: JD (yes, the previous POV was short. Deal with it.)

I just shake my head as I walk away from Doctor Cox. I keep going until I see Turk stressing out in the hallway.

“Chocolate Bear?”
“Hey, JD…I gotta go, double shift…”
“Shouldn’t you be at home with Izzy?” I asked, already using the nickname they invented.

“I would like to, but even with paid maternity leave, we’re having big time problems making ends meet and the baby we know is going to cost a lot more and-”

“Deep breath in, and out, and in, and out,” I slowly instruct him. After a few moments, he runs off and yells something to Todd about a surgery later. I just shake my head and keep going to see Courtney King.

“Hey, Courtney.”
“Hey, Doctor D,” She said. “Wazzup?”
“Well, you’re actually doing pretty well, considering how you came in.”
“Nasty crash. Anyway, I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”
“What is it?”
“I know you said I have to be here or in another hospital for a few more weeks…but a friend of mine’s, she’s a year older than me and she recently graduated law school, and she’s going to have a baby shower this Saturday and I really want to be there so I can support her. Please?”
“I’ll arrange it, but I can’t make any promises.” She smiles and nods. Great, now I have to actually talk to Cox.

I sigh and check up on my rounds and stop by the ICU to adjust a few dosages on a transplant failure, and then I go down to the urgent care clinic and talk to the new head there, Dr. Theanoah. Weird name, which was why everyone just called her Doctor Thea. Though I just use her first name.

“Hey, Daisy?”
“Hm?”

“Can I take you up on that $300 a night thing for a week or so?”

“Really? Don’t you have a life?”
“No, not really. But can you arrange so two third of what I make is in Turk’s account?”

She smiled.

“No problem.”
“And keep it low profile. Don’t lie if you don’t want to, just don’t find him to tell him.”
She knows what I means, and nods before pulling out a few forms and papers to deal with this stuff. Now I have some plans for the night.

So I just go right back upstairs and grab a Granola Bar for lunch. I suppose I should have more from a few days of not really eating more than five bites of Chinese, but I am honestly not that hungry.

So I just shrug it off to myself and keep going with my day. I force myself to act happy, and now and then, when I drift off, rather than staying silent like normal, I actually say something.

Yep, they definitely think I’m normal. Most of them had slowly reverted back their normal personas while in my presence, and even Laverne had snapped at me.

Finally! Everyone was treating me normally.

Except Doctor Cox. I sighed when the time came I would actually have to talk to him. I found him signing a few things at the nurse’s station.

“Doctor Cox-”

“Oh, good, Carol, you’re here, listen-”

“I need to arrange for a patient to have a one day leave this Saturday to attend the baby shower of a college mate.”
“Newbie?”
“Can you do it? Because otherwise I have a lot to do.”
He slowly nodded and said, “Staff lounge, now.”
We walked in and he yelled at everyone else inside to scram, and they did. Then he turned to look at me.

“You know exactly what I wanted to talk about, Shirley.”

God, can’t he ever let it go?

“No, I don’t.”

“What you said when you were drunk.”
“Sir, I already told you. That was probably some exaggerations. I won’t lie and say my mother’s boy toys and I got along perfectly, but I was fine, trust me. I was drunk, and we both know how different people are drunk versus sober. Thank you for signing the temporary release forms, now I have a lot to do today.” I somehow managed to keep talking with the same monotone voice the whole time.

I walked out before he could say another word and I went down the hall to Courtney, and smiled at her squeal of joy, though it could give Elliot some competition.

I walked out and saw Janitor waiting with his usual mop. He smiled a feral smile and I knew he was hoping I would think everything that occurred was a fantasy or a dream. He opens his mouth, but I interrupt him.

“Hi, Sparky.”
He stares.

“Look, Sparky, I am honestly sick of people treating me weird, so how about we reach a truce, you call me whatever the hell it is you want to call me, and I’ll call you Janitor and we go back to normal with me dodging you and you trying to make my life miserable?”

I start walking again before he says a word and I call back, “See you later, Janitor!”

Once again he looked surprised but I left already and went towards the free clinic for that 300 smackaroonies.

Hey, I used smackaroonies. Maybe I am getting better.

So I jump right in and take on the challenge completely on my own. Well, okay, a lot of coffee helped, the only thing I’ve ingested in days, but still, I think I did fairly well.

I was utterly exhausted the next morning and rather than go home, seeing as I only had about three hours, I just slept in my on call bed.

That was generally how the next three or four days went. I went to my tent only when I had longer than four hours, which was only twice, and I was probably going to collapse at some point, but lots of coffee and a few Vicodin pills popped every now and then, and I barely scraped by. Turk only seemed to notice he wasn’t bankrupt, and didn’t realize he had a bit more than he should.

I was cool with that.

But then…

“Vanilla Bear?”

I smiled to myself when I got home to see Carla rocking Izzy to sleep in her arms. I gently took my daughter into my arms and started rocking her to sleep myself.

I smile as I look down at her. She so…soft, and squishy looking (oh, yeah, for a surgeon, descriptive, right?). I feel as if anymore than a feather touch and she’ll shatter.

It’s a weird feeling, you know? I mean, I made that. She’s half me. Half me, and half the woman I love. I would die in less than a nano second for either one of them.

I mean, I look down at this baby girl, and I think ‘She’s mine. I made her, and I brought her into this world.’ I can’t help but think that. I suppose it sounds cheesy, but still, I just…I don’t know, it’s a weird feeling. But I do no that no matter what, Izzy’s not going to get hurt…ever. I brought her here, so I’m taking care of her.

Even though she’s asleep, I keep rocking her, and Carla doesn’t mind at all as she sits down and leans her head back, exhausted. I set Izzy in her new cradle, and sit down on the couch, and wrap my arms around her.

“Hey, baby. How was it, taking care of her today?”
“Tired,” Carla moaned. I nodded.

“Carla, needed me to cook?”
“I got a few TV dinners someplace…” I think that neither one of us could cook a full meal if we tried.

I got up and heated up a few dinners and we just lazed about the couch for a while, before I grabbed my bank report and glance over it. But then I stare and Carla notices.

“Turk? Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
“We got a lot more than we should.”
She frowns.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, I somehow ended up with a few hundred more dollars than I should. And that’s after it’s been taxed!”
Neither of us know what to do.

“Carla, I gotta go clear this up right now. Daisy or Kelso will know why, but I don’t want them to think I’m stealing anything.”
She nods. A lawsuit is the last thing we need right now.

So I reluctantly hop into my car and drive on over. I plan to go to Kelso first, but I bump into Daisy, the only other one in the hospital who knows this much about the hospital financials.

“Daisy! Yo, wait up!”
The blonde turns around and says, “Hey, Turkey.” Damnit, she still won’t drop that stupid name. “What’s up?”
“This.” I hold up the bank paper. “I got a few hundred extra dollars, and I gotta clear it up before someone thinks I’m stealing it.”
“It’s not stolen, it’s legit.”
“But..how?”
“JD.”
“Huh?”

“He’s taking night shifts here. He said that you two were stressing out way too much and he asked me not to tell you upfront because you guys would be too proud. But then he also told me not to lie.”
“Extra shifts?”

“I don’t know about extra, I just know how much some people make. That’s all.” Her pager beeped and she quickly ran in the other direction.

Great, just great. If I didn’t already feel bad enough about leaving JD to himself, now he’s overworking himself just for us.

I quickly go looking for him, and find him in his on call room.

“Vanilla Bear?” I said.

“Hey, Turk. What ya doing here?”

I held up the report, the net total highlighted.
“Why are you working double time for us? Do you think we can’t handle ourselves?”

“No!” He looks surprised I would say that. I think we both are. “You just…you need to spend a little bit of time with your daughter…but I also know what soon you might take even more shifts just to scrape by. I didn’t want you to overwork yourself.”
“But you’re nearly killing yourself, here,” I said as I sat down.

“Well, no. Unlike you, I don’t have a life or a kid. So I’m fine.”
“JD-”

“I’m fine. I am not trying to play you guys off as helpless, just that I want to be a friend to you guys. Honestly, you guys did a lot for me, I’m just trying to give a little bit back.”
By slowly killing yourself?

“By slowly killing yourself?”

He shakes his head as he lays down.

“I’m fine. I just need some sleep at the moment. I’ll see ya later. You have a family who needs you.”
At the moment, I want nothing more than to just stay here with him, but I can’t. He’s right, I do have a family.

I think about what he said. We did a lot for him? We were never there for him. He never needed us.

“Turk?” Carla asks when I drove home. I answered her unasked question.
“JD’s working double shifts to get us by.”
She sits up like a board immediately.

“Bambi?

“I tried to talk him out of it…but he needed sleep at the time. He really needed it.”

She sighed a bit forcefully and she frowns ever so slightly when we here a slight whimpering on the baby monitor, and she goes to take care of it, while I try and clean the place up just a bit and wonder what is happening to my best friend.

I look down at my chart, for the print was slightly blurry. I blink for a few moments and it comes into focus and I hear Cox trotting down the hall.

“Suzie Q!” I know he means me. I jerk my head up to nod at him, and then turn back to my chart.

“What, Doctor Cox?”
“I am told Gandhi finally got you off the double shifts?”
I answered truthfully.

“He convinced me not to overdo it, so I plan to do that every Tuesday and Thursday. Why?”
“You got this weekend off. Don’t think I haven’t noticed, but you are beyond exhausted and you need it. It is…Friday, and in ten minutes, it’ll be three pm. So, I expect you back here at three PM on Monday, got it?”
“Ah…” The dangerous look in his eyes and him touching his nose is a sign that there’s no room for argument. “Okay…” I can tell he just doesn’t want me screwing up on a patient. Figures. It might look bad.
“Good. Laverne, make sure he doesn’t try to sneak in any extra work in between.” She nods and I sigh, finishing the forms for this chart. Ah, well, maybe I could use a weekend off.

I finish my chart and wonder where to go. I decide the bar’s fun. An Appletini and a few beers would be good.

I go and take a seat on the stool.

“Hey, JD.” Candy says. “Did you really have to come just a little while before I get off my shift?”
“Can’t you stay anyway?”
“Yeah, I guess…I’ll be off in half an hour. But until then, what’ll it be?”
“Appletini and any spirit you can think of.”

She nodded and turned around, her black jeans skirt whipping around, and she was giving me my order moments later.

I smiled a little and stupidly mixed a little of the spirit in my Appletini and I had the drink down my tummy in moments.

“Another one? Bottle?” I asked. She looked at me a little oddly.

“You know this doesn’t make it go away?”

“It does a damn good job of helping me pretend it does.”

She just shook her head and got me the bottle.

After the bottle, I mostly just had light beers, I think, and soon she was actually sitting beside me on the next stool, apparently off her shift. She ordered a drink, as well. We both were having light beers, but I was already drunk.

“So,” she said. “What are you trying to forget?”
“I dunno know…I think…forgot…guess it worked…”

She only smiled and got herself some spirits, too, and soon neither of us were sober.

After that, everything was one giant blur.

Next Morning

“JD?”

I groaned. Five more minutes, mom, I won’t be late for school…

“JD!”
“What?” I asked, finally sitting up.

It was then that I realized I wasn’t in my hometown. I wasn’t even in my own tent. I was sitting in a bedroom god knows where, in a slightly small bed, and my clothes all over the floor, along with someone else’s.

I look slowly to my left.

“Hey, JD. Welcome to the living.”
Oh my god. Neither of us are fully sober, neither of us were protected. And neither of us are clothed. I open my slightly hoarse mouth.

“Candy?”