Disclaimer: It turns out that "Scrubs" is not mine.
Rating: PG
Summary: An anthology of short stories about Perry Cox's life. LOTS of drama, angst, tragedy.
Characters: Perry, JD, Turk, Carla, Elliot, Jordan, Jack...

Perry Cox
PenPatronus

Chapter One: Perry's Sons
Summary: Perry's reaction when JD saves Jack Cox's life.

It took Doctor Perry Cox less than 30 seconds to respond to Carla's page. He burst through the double hospital doors with the force of a thunderstorm. "Jack? Jacky!"

"Daddy!" Four-year-old Jack Cox wiggled out of Jordan's grip, sped past Carla and quite literally leapt into Perry Cox's arms.

"Oh my son, my son…" Perry's knees wobbled and he collapsed backwards into a vacant wheelchair. Jack practically disappeared into his father's arms, wrapping himself in the white lab coat like a blanket. The blood covering Jack's shirt was still warm and wet.

"It's not his," Jordan quickly said when Perry's teary eyes widened. Though she was crying herself, Jordan forced a smile through and planted a kiss on Perry's thin lips. Carla leaned against the counter at the nurse's station and watched as Perry passed his doctor's eyes and hands all over his son. Every few seconds he pulled Jack to his chest in a tight, desperate hug, then went back to business. He didn't even find a bruise.

"Jordan…what the hell happened?" Jordan shook her head, suddenly unable to speak, joined her son on Perry's lap and curled against them both. At a loss and even more frustrated than usual, Cox looked around until he spotted Carla. "What happened?"

Carla cleared her throat, loosening it so she wouldn't yet betray her anxiety. She spoke clearly and carefully but fast enough to keep Perry from throttling her. "One of the patients from the psych ward had an…episode. She broke out, found a scalpel from a chest tube tray and grabbed Jack."

"I was super brave, Dad!" Jack burrowed upwards and grinned at his father. "Just like GI Joe!" Perry smacked a kiss right on the kid's nose.

"You sure were, sweetie." Jordan tried to smile at Jack, was wracked by a sudden sob, and buried her face into Perry's shoulder. "Oh God…" she wept. Dr. Cox wrapped his arms around his family but kept his eyes locked on Carla's. His voice was made of steel, his face expressionless, his body language statuesque.

"Whose blood is this?"

Jordan, finally able to breathe, gathered her wits and her skirt and stood up with Jack in her arms. "Let's get home."

"Newbie can cover my patients. I'll go get the car."

"No." Jordan's voice was uncharacteristically soft and quiet, totally void of its usual sharpness. She took Perry's hand and squeezed. "You need to stay here right now. I'll take Jack home."

"Jordan—"

"Perry, go with Carla. We'll be fine. Just go with Carla now." Carla was grateful when Perry didn't put up a fight. No one but Jordan could convince him to do that otherwise. Dr. Cox kissed Jack a dozen more times before finally releasing them. He watched Jordan walk down the hall, and didn't pivot back to Carla until they were out of sight.

Carla checked her watch. "Come on, we have to get to the OR." She began to jog with Perry on her heels.

"All right, Carla, fill me in."

"Elliot and I were in the on call room when we heard Jack scream. She called security and I yelled for the guys. JD got Jack and Turk tackled the patient but—"

They rounded a corner and nearly collided with Doctor Reid. Carla's heartbeat tripled at the sight of her friend. Blood was on her lab coat and in her blonde hair, on her hands and shoes. "They just finished prepping him," Elliot immediately explained before Carla could ask.

"Is he ok?"

Doctor Elliot Reid was suddenly replaced by Elliot: a vulnerable, anxious wreck. "He crashed and we had to do CPR right on the elevator floor. Turk was carrying him and we just set him down and—Carla, I'm not sure if…"

Carla felt Perry Cox stiffen beside her. He slowly walked between the two women and went to the operating room's observation window. Carla watched his facial expressions in the glass. Inside, Todd and Turk stood with a half-dozen surgical nurses over the pale, unconscious form of John Dorian. Turk was focused, but his wife could see that he was shaking slightly. Tenderly he pressed his fingers across JD's forehead. Carla knew he was praying. Instruments were pressed into the surgeons' palms, and the operation began. Perry stepped forward, leaned his forehead against the glass and sighed. His breath fogged up the window, momentarily blocking out JD's face.

"From what we could judge from the angle of the entry, the scalpel nicked a lung and hit his heart…there was a lot of blood loss."

"He saved Jack's life…" Perry whispered.

"Yes. He did."

"Will he live?"

Carla didn't respond, and neither did Elliot. They would all have to wait for the answer.

JD's eyes were open, his ears weren't blocked, his nose wasn't plugged…but he couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't get any of his senses to function. He hovered in an eerie limbo, waiting for his body to work again. Gradually, he began to feel the blanket over him and the mattress below. He smelled iodine, tasted blood in his mouth, heard the beeping of a heart monitor and Turk's familiar snoring somewhere near. And then he could see Perry Cox.

"Hey there, Newbie."

The whisper hit JD like a punch. He clenched his eyes shut and simply breathed. Minutes passed, and both men patiently let them. And then JD took the deepest of breaths and exhaled words by degrees: "Is…Jack…ok?"

Perry smiled, but only with his lips. "He's fine…how do you feel?"

JD swallowed. "Lou-sy."

"Water?" JD nodded. Dr. Cox disappeared from his sight and reappeared with a cup and a small sponge on the end of a straw. He dipped it in the liquid and then held the sponge to JD's lips. JD drank. The effort drained him and before he could help or even begin to fight it, his eyes closed on themselves.

"Newbie?"

"Sleep…"

"Soon. Soon, kid. Look at me." JD felt Dr. Cox's fingers in his hair. "Open your eyes, son."

Son?

JD obeyed. If he didn't know any better, if he wasn't a doctor and didn't know perfectly well that his brain was exhausted and he was quite possibly delusional, he would've sworn that Perry Cox was crying. Cox looked at him for a moment before his face screwed up uncontrollably and he pressed his forehead against JD's shoulder.

"Dr. Cox…what's wrong?"

Perry blinked at him. "I'm worried about my son."

"I thought you said Jack's ok."

"He's fine—"

"But—"

"Jack's fine, Newb—JD." Cox stared at him so long that if JD had the energy, he would've blushed. "Thank you." A healing warmth spread across JD's body, waking up his nerves, strengthening his heart, reminding his body that it was time to wake up and get to work.

Before he fell asleep, JD felt dry lips on his forehead and heard a voice say something he'd never expected to hear. "I love you JD."