My Split Conference

"Wow, some psycho killed a nurse there?" Elliot asked incredulously.

Turk nodded as Carla handed him his surgical consult’s chart. "Yeah. And JD didn’t sound like he was feeling great either."

"What happened to the nurse?" Carla asked, though she was long-used to the mental patients.

Unfortunate the situation may be, but if a nurse had died around a mental patient, it was because the nurse didn’t know what she was doing.

"JD didn’t say," Turk went on, and something in him frowned. That didn’t seem right for JD to leave out all the stranger details of something this juicy. "But he sounded like he had a cold or something. Must be going around."

Carla frowned as she filed away a few charts. "There’s no colds going around; not this time of year."

Turk shrugged to say something else, but another voice had interrupted him.

"Say, Gandhi," Jordan said from behind, holding Jack on her hip. "You haven’t seen Per-bear and Susie Q, have you?" she asked in irritation as Jack made for one of her earrings with a giggle.

Turk turned with a grimace in his heart but a fake smile plastered to his face. "JD called and said they were getting held up over a death."

Jordan frowned, though the memories of their argument were still in her head. Of course Perry hadn’t called her; it wasn’t like him to actually inform her of anything, was it? It was one hell of a way for him to pay her back for the heated debate, but not unlike him either.

Still, it did mesh badly with tonight’s dinner with her mother. She looked at Jack and wondered if the four-year-old could sit still for as long as it took her mother to gab.

Elliot shrugged and poked at Jack’s belly. "Something about a nurse getting killed while they were there. They’ll probably be home tomorrow night."

Jordan turned an annoyed glance in Elliot’s direction, preparing to call her something insulting. But then she stopped as she saw that Elliot had both purse and knapsack in hand.

"Say, princess. Do you have plans tonight?"

Elliot pulled away from Jack surreptitiously. "No, but I’d planned to catch up on some…"

"Would you like to make a quick fifty?" Jordan went on as she pulled Jack’s hand from her hair. She grinned alluringly. "And I don’t mean it that way."

"Um…I…don’t really…" Elliot began to back away from Jack’s outstretched hand. His…little hand…

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Look, precious. Here’s the deal. I can’t miss dinner with my glorious mumsie tonight; I’ve already blown her off for the past two months. I need a babysitter."

"I…uh…don’t like…"

"Too bad, because I’m not leaving him with Gandhi and his priestess," Jordan smarted back without letting Elliot finish.

Elliot bit her lip as she watched Jack’s little hands. She could use the extra cash. But those tiny fingers… She shuddered.

"Going once, going twice, going…"

"Fine, I’ll do it," Elliot muttered. She began to say something else, but Jordan had managed to give her both baby bag and the squirming three-year-old before she could blink.

Jordan blew her a kiss. "Thanks, princess. Where do you live again?"

Elliot mumbled her address, but Carla had to give directions when the blond had gone off on a freakishly long tangent.

"I’ll pick him around midnight, Blondie." Jordan sauntered off.

Elliot peered at the small boy, seeing Dr. Cox’s piercing eyes with Jordan’s satanic smile.

Jack giggled at her. "Blondie!" he crowed.

Groaning, Elliot balanced Jack on her hip and tugged the baby bag over her shoulder. "I’m scared of little hands," she grumbled.

Carla smiled. "If you want, Turk and I can take him. We’ll just drop him off at your place before Jordan comes for him."

"Would you?" Elliot asked gratefully. "That grin of his is beginning to give me the creeps."

"Aw, he’s just a little cutie," Carla replied and held her arms out for the boy.

The minute Elliot’s hands left Jack’s waist though, the small boy’s lip quivered. Carla frowned; she recognized that look whether it be patient, husband, or child.

And then Jack let out a scream that Elliot swore had damaged her eardrums. He immediately began squirming harder than ever in Carla’s arms, his hands outstretched towards the blond woman.

"No…no, no, no!" Elliot snapped and began to back away.

Big tears began to roll down Jack’s face. "Blondie," he snapped petulantly.

Elliot groaned as the guilt kicked in over the fear of his hands, and she sighed. "Fine." She grumbled in her head and decided the "little-hand" rule would have to be broken just this once.

Jack promptly shoved those "little hands" of his into her hair and giggled; tears a vague memory.

"Crocodile tears," Carla mentioned to Turk. "Remember those, baby."

Turk sighed.

XXXXXXXXXXX

The ceramic was beginning to make his back hurt. Perry closed his eyes to try and distance his mind from the pain. It had been hours since Mr. Andrews had last checked on them.

Perry put that down under the list that psychos needed sleep too.

Still, the older man shifted uncomfortably. It probably wouldn’t have been as bad as he thought if he didn’t have to use the restroom. That thought had crossed his mind much earlier when it wasn’t a need, but now that it was, he wasn’t sure how he was going to go about it.

JD looked up to the ceiling. Basic needs for his body were beginning to cull through his mind, and he didn’t want to think about it too closely. He inspected the ceiling with dim eyes. He’d grown used to the darkness now, and had been able to make out more shapes.

One shape in particular was beginning to bother him. He’d noticed it earlier; the small circle attached to a dark box that he couldn’t make out. It looked uncomfortably like a camera.

JD squirmed against the ceramic. His bladder was beginning to scream that if he didn’t find a way to do something, it was going to rebel against him and really humiliate him in front of the worst person ever.

Perry watched the kid moving. Apparently, he was having the same problem. He sighed hard, feeling JD’s knees jerk slightly at the sudden noise. Perry knew the kid was scared.

Hell, he was scared too.

"You’d think someone keeping two people captive would’ve checked in more often," JD finally mumbled as he grew tired of the silence. It was beginning to let his mind think of all the frightening possibilities.

"I thought I said you weren’t allowed to talk, Diana."

Perry wished the silence wouldn’t grate on him so badly. The old fear of sitting in a closed, dark room was beginning to make him feel claustrophobic and nauseous. It was similar to waiting for his father to come in and beat him with a belt all over again as Paige hid under the bed. The fear was an old one, something he’d beat a long time ago.

Dark, small places couldn’t and wouldn’t hurt him now, or even make him feel small. Not like it used to.

But being in the tub for so long with JD’s knees pressed against his own had begun to pull some of the old memories back. He pushed them back with resolve, and realized that someone was saying his name.

"Dr. Cox, are you even listening?"

Perry finally angled his head towards the voice. "What, Newbie?" He felt JD shift uncomfortably against his legs again, and sighed.

"Look…I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t about to cut loose all over myself. Could you just undo my belt and jeans so I can at least use the bathroom?"

Perry sighed. The similar need was there for him too. And even though it was dark, he could still feel the humiliated color enter his cheeks as he turned in the tub and fumbled with the belt buckle and zipper.

The thud reverberated through the bathroom as JD tumbled over the lip of the bathtub. JD grew nervous as he sat down on the cold commode, but still relieved himself. The sigh of relief was something he shoved back down as he felt his cheeks turn red in embarrassment.

"Did you…uh…need to…"

"Shut up, Newbie. I know I’m an adult, but if you could just pretend to be one for a minute, then I think the world might just clap for you."

JD sighed and heard the slight shifting of Perry clambering out of the tub. The older man had already done it once or twice, but he still managed to trip at the last minute.

Still, JD turned and fumbled with the belt and jeans around Perry’s toned hips. He was glad it was dark then, mostly because it meant the older man couldn’t see his embarrassment.

Perry felt similar, but words would only prolong the discomfort of the situation.

This time, they sat outside of the tub. It was mostly because neither man wanted to climb back in, and also because the water dripping was still soaking the floor.

JD sighed and leaned his head against the cabinet. "I can’t think of a way out of this," he finally muttered. The silence around him was deafening, and he hadn’t been able to bring himself to give an internal monologue at this point. He shifted his feet slightly until one had nudged the older man’s sneaker.

Time was becoming surreal as it was; JD felt that talking to himself would either make him feel crazy or suggest what all could happen.

Perry’s heard jerked up with JD’s as they heard the footsteps and the unlatching of the door.

Bright light flooded in. Perry squeezed his eyes shut even as he tried to move towards the noise. A hard hand shoved him back down to the tile.

JD shut his eyes against the light, but struggled to focus blearily on the thin, black-haired man.

"You made it out of the tub, I see," Thomas mentioned in a calm voice. He kicked the door shut.

Perry looked up, eyes still smarting from his inability to focus. A small headache began to pound at his temple.

"You know, keeping two people locked and bound in a bathroom isn’t the way to prove to everyone how sane you are," he snapped at him.

JD shook his head at that.

Eric, who felt the barb a little too close to home, snorted in anger. "So you’re not going to help?"

Perry didn’t reply to that, but the determined look on his face was enough for Eric.

Eric, after all, had just been waiting for a reason to exact his authority. "Well, that’s enough for me."

Perry struggled to focus as he felt the man walk past him. The next thing he heard was JD’s sharp intake of breath. It wasn’t a normal inhalation. It held fear and terror, and Perry felt the color drain from his face at the sound of it. It held a tinge of a whimper even, but Perry couldn’t find words even in his private mind to berate the kid.

"Can you focus yet, Perry?"

It was the first time that Thomas had referred to either of them by name.

Still, Perry struggled to get his eyes to look at JD. When it did happen a few seconds later, it was now JD who had the knife to his throat. Immediately, Perry made a move to get up, but the knife was then pressed harder against JD’s neck.

"Stop," JD hissed.

Perry froze where he sat.

Thomas seemed calm, almost amused even as he looked at Perry. "Now, I’m going to give you two choices." Slowly, Thomas pulled the knife away from JD’s neck and shoved the sleeves of JD’s zipper-hoodie from his arm to reveal the pale skin underneath it. "I’m going to carve him, or you will." He twisted JD around by his collar.

Perry’s breath hitched in his throat. "We never said we wouldn’t help you."

"It’s too late for that; don’t you see?" Thomas asked, his voice growing agitated. He lowered the knife to JD’s wrist. "I already know that you two have been trying to figure a way out since the beginning; I’ve been watching."

JD’s eyes flickered up, and though his vision was still slightly impaired, he could now make out the cameras in the room. Perry’s eyes went up as well, but then went back to Thomas.

JD swallowed hard as he twisted his head around to look at the blue vein in his wrist.

"And I’ve got to tell you, Perry," Thomas went on, almost spitting the older man’s name out. "I don’t have any medical expertise and I might cut a little too deep."

A spot of red suddenly appeared over JD’s arm. Though JD flinched, he didn’t make a sound.

"I can’t cut him if I can’t see what I’m doing," Perry replied, trying to make his voice reasonable to the man in front of him. "My hands are tied."

"You’re a doctor. And you’re old enough to know what you’re doing without looking. But if you’re going to piss and moan about it, deal’s off."

And then Thomas began slicing across JD’s forearm in an almost delicate fashion. JD shut his eyes closed against the sharp pain, feeling the drips of wetness trail across his skin.

"Stop, I’ll do it," Perry finally muttered, but Thomas didn’t.

"No, I already gave you a chance," Thomas replied in near amusement. "Your name’s Perry, isn’t it?"

"You already know that," Perry replied, real fear beginning to tug at his belly. Nausea washed through him in a cold wave.

"Just making sure."

Perry stiffened as the man began carving letters into JD’s arm.

"You’re next; don’t be greedy," Thomas admonished when Perry made a move towards him again. "And I will cut deeper then I should if I need to."

JD struggled when he felt the blade digging deeper into his skin. He bit his lip first, tasting the copper that filled his tongue. He tried concentrating on it, even as the man continued. JD tried to think of how long it would have to go on; Thomas as going painfully slow as it was. It burned hard as he felt the metal drag through his skin.

Good god, what was he trying to do anyway?

"Leave the kid alone," Perry finally snapped, but Thomas didn’t even flinch or look up. He only continued to maneuver the knife with practiced ease.

JD tried squeezing his eyes shut next and curling his toes as well. He tried instinctively to pull his arm away, but the grip around his elbow was hard and firm. Then he finally opened his eyes, focusing on the dingy, yellow tiles. Reluctantly, the corners of his eyes pricked with tears.

Perry felt something terrible claw at his stomach. He remembered then how Paige would look at him, pleading with wet blue eyes for him to do something…anything to make their father stop moving. He was glad that the kid wasn’t looking at him.

Still, as it had been then and as it was now, Perry felt his limbs were paralyzed.

JD felt tears roll down his face reluctantly at the pain in his arm as Thomas finally pulled away. Blood dripped to the tile, and the dripping of the bathtub hadn’t stopped yet.

Thomas washed the knife under the faucet and turned to look at the two of them. Yes, the two men had some kind of connection. He idly spun the knife on it’s tip against the ceramic, watching them with observant, brown eyes.

"So tell me," Thomas went on. His hand went down to grasp the wooden handle of the knife again. "I’ll do it or he will."

Perry still flexed his fingers under the tight, nylon bonds. They dug into his skin and gave him something to fix his mind upon instead of JD’s bleeding arm.

Both medical minds in the room reminded them that the arm would need stitching.

Thomas swept the knife from the counter in a near parody of juggling. He knelt to JD’s shoulder.

"John, right?" Thomas didn’t wait for an answer. "I may slip a little harder next time. You going to do it or am I? I really only need one of you."

JD turned his head finally to look at Perry’s white face, noting the fear underlying the anger on the man’s expression.

"I’ll do it," JD said in a hoarse whisper as he opened his hand blindly. His throat was thick and his stomach ached as he felt the handle come into his numb fingers. Human nature took over, and JD jerked as best he could in an attempt to stab Thomas.

Thomas clucked as he dodged easily. "I thought you’d do something like that." He leaned over to Perry and wrapped his fingers around the doctor’s throat tightly.

JD stiffened at the sudden sound of someone not being able to breathe. The gagging started next as he listened to Perry struggle desperately for air.

Perry saw stars as the oxygen left his lungs and he saw black at the edges of his vision.

"Do it, John, or it ends now for him."

JD felt more tears pricking at his eyes as he felt something shoved beneath his hands. He couldn’t see what he was doing as he fumbled the knife sloppily against something. He heard a sharp wince behind him.

Thomas stood a few minutes later as he stared down at the two men. "And if there’s any more ill-conceived escape attempts, I’ll know. I’ll even know what you’re talking about."

JD dropped the knife, hearing it clatter to the floor in a harsh sound that made his ears hurt. Perry felt blood drip down his arm, and stared up at the man with a look of pure rage. It was better to give into the anger and frustration then to let the man know something had actually hurt him.

Still, Thomas looked at them with that same calm look of amusement. "Say, Newbie…did you really think I wouldn’t know?" He swept the knife from the floor.

Perry flinched inwardly at the nickname now as Thomas left the room in silence, flipping the light out on his way.

Still, the metallic sound of a lock being turned hurt his ears, and Perry looked at JD, whose back was still faced him. The trembling belied his stature, and Perry sighed as the guilt clawed again at his stomach.

"It didn’t hurt that badly," Perry finally muttered after a moment. The new cuts stung against his skin, and the trails of wetness made the untouched skin feel itchy as the blood began to coagulate.

JD didn’t reply and wiped his face against his shoulder as he twisted. He wasn’t sure what to say now, and finally settled for staring at the floor as color washed over his face once more.

Perry felt at a loss for anything he could say to make the kid feel better, and he thumped his head against the door he leaned upon now. His mind insisted that he should say something…anything really, to try and reassure JD that they’d be okay in the end of it.

But the fear in his mind told him that it was a very real possibility that they wouldn’t be, and the words were now stuck in his throat. He’d never been one for false hopes, after all, and he wasn’t going to start now.

Perry knew that it was sheer terror that prevented him from speaking at the moment. His stomach felt like it was going to turn itself into a pretzel, and he knew he didn’t trust himself to talk. The stinging pain was welcome then. It gave him something to pinpoint his mind upon instead of thinking about the kid sitting across from him.

JD finally turned and looked at him with an odd frown, but the desperation laced under the look made it a pleading expression instead.

"We’re not going anywhere soon, are we?"

Perry knew that it would help to tell him it would be okay. He knew that if he told JD that it was going to be okay, that JD would believe him. He also knew that if he told JD that they were totally boned, JD would resign himself to it as well.

So Perry settled with silence instead. The silence meant to Perry that he didn’t know if they were screwed or not. Silence meant that JD wouldn’t ask anything again, and it also implied that JD wasn’t relying on him. It meant that Perry wasn’t relying on JD’s ever-present optimism to help through this too.

JD looked at the frowning face. Normally, it would only mean another frown. But this time, as JD looked somewhat blindly at the pale expression and the tight features, JD knew that the situation was beginning to become desperate.

Sighing, JD leaned back against the cabinets again. The darkness was comforting now, and JD knew that if he moved his knees a certain way that his knees would run into Perry’s. He did end up sliding his knees across the floor, if only to stretch his legs out. His feet bumped into Perry’s legs.

JD shifted slightly on the floor as he listened to the tapping of the water hitting the bathtub. His eyes drifted back to Perry. With his eyes being normally adjusted to the dim lighting, he could now find the outline of his fellow captive easily.

He could also know from the lack of ranting that there was one thing certain at the moment.

They were totally boned.

XXXXXXXXXXX

The stinging pain against his arm woke him first. Perry grunted in his sleep and opened his eyes to the same darkness he’d seen before. It was impossible to gauge how long he’d been asleep, and time of day wasn’t on his list of things to pay attention to.

A twinge of fear shot across his heart when he didn’t see the outline of someone across from him. He turned his head, and ignored the feeling of relief when he saw JD’s head just above the lip of the bathtub. It bothered him that he hadn’t heard JD climb back into the tub.

The pattering of the rain had stopped, and so the room was completely silent. Perry didn’t hear the TV in the next room the same way he had previously, which meant that Thomas had left the room or was asleep.

Unable to guess which, Perry didn’t move to open the door. When it came down to it, he’d rather know that the patient was out of the room then try and escape when he was present.

Perry shifted uncomfortably on the floor, realizing just how much he hated going to sleep without realizing it. His mind was becoming more and more alert as he assessed the situation in a fashion that only a doctor could.

The cuts on his arm were superficial at best, and the worst that would happen was a mild infection. It only meant the scarring would last longer than other marks. Perry took a deep breath and switched his mind to JD’s arm instead.

From the slicing that gone on there, Perry knew already that it’d mark for life. It wouldn’t be legible forever, but the cuts would turn to pink scars, and would then turn to vague marks across the pale skin. It’d always be there though.

Perry moved against the hard tile and flexed his fingers again to move the blood in them again. It was becoming second-nature to move his hands so they wouldn’t lose nerve damage.

After his fingertips remained numb though after fifteen minutes of moving his hands around though, he was beginning to realize that it wouldn’t matter.

The feeling of dread and hopelessness was familiar, but Perry tilted his head up and looked back to the bathtub.

"How’s your arm, Newbie?" Even in the darkness, Perry saw JD’s shoulders stiffen at the nickname. "Come on, Betsy, how is it?" Perry hoped that the change of name would bring the kid away from what had happened earlier.

JD shrugged, rolling his shoulders in a dejected way. "It’s alright."

"Don’t be a hero, Alice. There’s no desperate man waiting to lay you down and take your maidenhood in the misguided attempt to marry you. How is your arm?" He punctuated the last of his statement.

JD only gave the same roll of his back. "It hurts, okay?"

"Be a doctor, Yolanda."

"It’ll need stitches if we get out of here," JD finally said after a minute. "But I’m not bleeding to death."

Perry rested his shoulders against the door at that. It was all he needed to know, after all. He sighed and shut his eyes in the darkness, even though he didn’t need to.

JD rested his neck on the lip of the tub, letting his head fall back as the blackness of the room began to close in on him. He tried to move his arms, but only felt sore muscles protest back. He felt more than heard his own sigh, and knew that they didn’t get out of there soon, that neither of them would come out of that dingy little bathroom unscathed.

Still, he tried to focus on the ceiling instead of Perry. The reality of the situation had begun to dawn on him, and if he let himself, he could remember the days spent trapped in his own dark room while his mom’s boyfriend had locked him there.

JD shook his head to clear his mind. It would be too easy to slip back into that eight-year-old’s shoes rather than be himself.

Even so, it wasn’t hard to close his eyes and remember being locked in that dirty room. It wasn’t difficult to hear the noises again, and he lost himself in the memories as he stared blankly at nothing.

But a voice kept calling him back, one that wasn’t in tune with the memories. It took JD a few seconds to realize that someone was saying his name.

"JD!"

JD snapped away from those long-forgotten memories and tilted his head back up to alertness.

"Did you just say my name?"

Perry shrugged in the darkness, though he knew JD couldn’t see it. He was beginning to feel more isolated then ever, and refused to listen to the angry side of his mind as he maneuvered himself to a standing position.

JD heard a couple of thuds on the floor before he felt the vibrations of the tub around him when something plunked hard beside of him. A hard relief made his heart skip as he felt knees against his own.

Perry didn’t say anything more, mostly because he knew that if he opened his yapper right now, he’d say something that he didn’t want any living being to know.

He was scared, and he was terrified out of his mind, and if he let it become the predominant feeling, he wasn’t going to be able to think past it. Taking a deep, inaudible breath, Perry registered the stinging across his arm again and the feeling of the hard surface behind his back. He tried to relax his aching limbs, the water in the tub soaking his still damp jeans again. He felt the shaking knees against his own, and stretched his legs out to rest beside of JD’s hips.

JD looked over at Perry’s outline in the darkness, and concentrated hard on the feeling of someone else being near him. If he focused on presence of someone else, it made it different from that dark room he’d been locked in for days. He too finally let his legs stretch out. More then a few muscles thanked him.

Perry didn’t say anything to him. His voice had finally managed to lodge itself into his throat, and he focused hard on the pain in his arm and the wet feeling against his rear. The darkness was closing in on him again, and the claustrophobia was back as he felt the walls of the tub against his arms.

JD was the one to talk first in the end, but Perry found he wasn’t terribly surprised by that notion.

"Is it okay if I’m scared?" JD finally asked.

Perry snorted, and even in the dark, JD could see the derisive, derogatory glare on the older man’s face.

"You’re scared, now, Lucinda? You should be. I must be mistaken on my days of the week; I missed the memo that told me it was Obvious Day on Camp Stupid. Honest to god, Newbie, I…" His voice hitched again when he felt JD’s knees stiffen at that nickname.

Perry sighed hard. Newbie wasn’t a name he was going to be able to fall back on again soon. He stared at his legs, the soreness now familiar in his arms. He bent his elbows and tried to straighten them as best as possible.

It wasn’t very much, and it didn’t bring the sweet relief he’d been looking for. The anger only grew, and Perry could already feel the horrid sensation in his heart that it was only a matter of time before he took it out on the man across from him.

Even so, he knew JD was wound as tightly as he was. Before too long, JD was going to snap under the pressure of the situation as well.

But then the metallic sound of the metal sounded again, and he felt JD shift jerkily. Perry whirled his head too as light flooded the room, and yanked his knees back up to his chest defensively.

This time, Perry had the sense to shut his eyes against the light, but it still pounded sharply across his mind. A shadow drifted over his sparking vision as Thomas entered the room. He heard the knife clack against the tub again, and dread entered his stomach.

"So let’s try this again. Are you two going to help me or am I going to make you help me?" Thomas tapped the knife against the ceramic in a parody of a beat.

The color had drained from JD’s face at this point, and Thomas had apparently taken this as a negative sign though Perry hadn’t said anything in reply.

"We are going to do this the hard way, aren’t we?" Thomas drifted back to the bathtub to Perry’s ear. "Are you going to do it or am I?"

"I will," Perry finally snapped roughly, and sent an unfocused, blank look in JD’s direction.

The kid’s look was equally unfathomable, and Perry felt his stomach shrink at that as he turned around clumsily.

The knife was slipped into his cold fingers, and Perry gripped the handle tightly.

Thomas rounded the bathtub and jerked JD by the collar to turn around. Perry felt soft skin against his hands and a limb press up against the knife.

Perry tried hard to ignore the wincing as he dug the knife in without being able to see. He knew that he pushed away the wetness that had trailed across his fingers, willing the knife to stay still in his slippery fingers.

JD shut his eyes hard, and drew into himself as he waited for the pain to simply stop. It was something he was afraid to hope for this time.

If the pain stopped, that meant it was Perry’s turn.

Continues with Chapter 4