elmo-doodle: Oh dear; can anyone say "filler chapter"? I apologize for this one-- I had expected it to be longer, and it should probably have been included in chapter four. I'll get chapter six written and posted up ASAP to make up for my rubbishness here!

Chapter Five

Although he would never admit it, Perry was still thinking about his run-in with the Masked Knight from the night before. Certainly, the last thing he had been expecting was to see the local hero crouched over in an alleyway and he had expected even less to be patching that hero up in his own sitting room. The older doctor had never paid much thought to the mysterious man before, but now that he had met him and talked to him, hundreds of questions began to race through his mind: who was this hero, really? How old was he? He sounded young, so how young was he? What other special abilities does he have? How did he get them? Was he trained to be this experienced? Were there more people like him around the world? Yes, Perry was curious about this Masked Knight.

"Doctor Cox!"

Perry blinked and spun around to face Carla, who was giving him a perplexed look. "What?" he asked her.

Carla looked a little mystified as she answered, "I called you three times and you didn't hear me." She instantly looked worried. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

"Carla, relax-- I'm fine. I was just thinking," he said. "I've got a lot on my mind."

She nodded, although still had a little bit of concern etched in to her features. "Okay, then. Your new patient, the one that Doctor Kelso assigned to you last night, arrived not too long ago. JD's shift doesn't start for a few hours so you'll have to go in first and talk to her. She's only four, so don't be mean," she added teasingly and held out the chart.

Perry frowned lightly at her. "'Don't be mean'?" he repeated as he took the chart. "Seriously, Carla, I'm a doctor. I know how to treat my patients."

Carla raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh," she didn't sound convinced. "Just go, I have work to do."

Perry growled slightly, but there was little force behind it and Carla knew it. He took a quick glance at the chart in his hand before heading off to the room the girl, (Kayla, the chart stated) was in. She had been placed in one of the private rooms and Perry knew without a doubt that her parents were paying Kelso hundreds of dollars just for that. Greedy, money-grabbing bastard that he was.

Perry knocked on the door and entered, to see Kayla sitting up on the bed playing with a teddy bear. The little girl looked up at his entrance and smiled widely at him. "Hello!" she said, brightly. "Are you my doctor?"

He nodded and moved further in to the room. "Yeah, I am. I'm Doctor Cox."

"I'm Kayla. I'm four years old!" she said proudly, holding up the appropriate number of digits on her left hand. "And this is Branwell." She picked up the teddy bear and held if facing Perry. She lifted his paw and waved it in the air. "He wants to say 'hello', too!" Kayla looked at him hopefully. Perry hesitated but also didn't want to upset her, so after taking a quick glance around to make sure nobody was watching, he reached out and briefly shook the teddy bear's paw, and quickly took a step back. Kayla was pleased, if her big grin was anything to go by.

Gods, Perry thought, swallowing down his embarrassment, this is more Newbie's area, not mine. "So, how are you feeling today?" he asked, settling in to a pattern familiar to him.

"...hungry."

Perry smirked. "Okay, but anything else? Tired? Weak?"

"Oh," Kayla giggled. "I've been sleepy since I got here, but mummy said that I've been sleepy all the time lately." She frowned suddenly. "Is that bad?"

Perry was surprised at her quick change in demeanour. "I'm not sure, Kayla," he said truthfully. "We'll get some tests done on you later but first I think we should get you something to eat, whaddya say?"

She beamed. "Okay!" she replied.

Perry felt slightly better at seeing her smile again as he nodded and left the room. He headed back to the nurses' station and handed the chart over to one of the women working there. "Could someone get this girl something to eat?" he said. When he got an affirmative, Perry walked away to see to his other patients.

* *

(A/N: This next little section takes place BEFORE JD got Kayla's lab results. Sorry for the confusion!)

JD and Turk were taking their break in the doctor's lounge. They were each spread out on one of the couches, not really watching the TV that was playing some random soap. JD had just finished telling Turk about what had happened to him the previous night.

"Damn," Turk muttered, raising his eyebrows. "It's not often that someone gets one up on you. And then Cox crept up on you?"

JD frowned. That was something that had been bothering since he had gotten home last night. For some unknown reason, JD couldn't sense Percival Cox. He wasn't too shocked to hear somebody walking towards the alley but he was surprised when he realised that it was Perry, someone who he saw almost every day and should be able to sense pretty well. It was easy to sense Turk, Carla and Elliot clearly because he was so close to them, and even Kelso and the Janitor appeared on his radar.

The fact that Perry was a blind spot was a mystery to him.

He shook his head. "I just don't understand why I couldn't sense him." JD sighed. "And I can't believe I didn't notice it before now. Weird, huh?"

Turk nodded. "You'd think that you would pick up on him the most. Especially with you being in love with him and all."

"Uncool," JD said, pouting. Turk grinned at him and JD smiled back. "Damn you and your ability to sense these things."

"That's right," Turk said, getting off the couch. "You can sense when someone's approaching you, and I can sense people's emotions."

"Like Jasper from Twilight."

Turk pointed at him. "That was uncool." He looked at his watch. "Break's over, I gotta get back to surgery."

"Yeah, I need to pick up Kayla's lab results," JD said as he stood up too. He stretched and winced a bit as the stitches in his arm pulled slightly. "You'll take the stitches out for me in a few days, right?"

"Sure thing, man," Turk agreed. "Gotta go. I'll catch you later."

"Okay," JD said. Turk left the room and went right while JD went straight on to head to the radiology department.

**

Perry's day had gone by slowly. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't because JD wasn't hanging around him all the time, but eventually he had to admit that having the kid beside him made his shift go faster. His patients were fine, there was nothing to do at the nurses' station, the cafeteria was boring and for some reason he couldn't see JD anywhere.

So when Perry found himself at a complete loss of what he could do, he went back to visit Kayla.

The little girl was sitting up in her bed with Branwell placed between her crossed legs and a book laid in front of her.

"Hey there," he said. Kayla looked up and beamed at him. "How's it going?"

"I'm teaching Branwell how to read," Kayla announced. "Oh! JD came in with a nurse and they took some of my blood. I didn't cry at all!"

Perry allowed a small smile to slip on to his face. "That's good," he said. "Doctor Dor-- I mean... JD hasn't been back in, has he?"

Kayla shook her head. "No," she replied. "He said that he'd be back when the other Doctors have done tests on my blood." She frowned. "How do they do that?"

"Well..."

"Doctor Cox, could I see you outside for second?"

Perry was saved from answering a potentially difficult question by the arrival of JD. There was something wrong though; the kid's eyes were serious and devoid of all humour or happiness that was usually always there. Perry nodded.

"We'll be right back," he said to Kayla. She waved to them and went back to 'teaching' her teddy bear as they were leaving.

"What is it there, Newbie?" Perry asked, turning to face the younger man after the door had been closed.

"It's Kayla's lab results," JD said, holding the folder out to Perry.

He took the folder but didn't look at it, instead keeping his eyes trained on JD. "It's bad?" he asked.

JD nodded and then took a deep breath. "She... she has severe combined immunodeficiency."

Perry hurriedly opened up the folder, his eyes scanning down the list of results and finally reading the analysis at the bottom for himself. He snapped the folder shut and looked at Kayla through the window. "Shit," he muttered.

elmo-doodle: This may also be the shortest chapter that I've written . Review-- or not. Even I'm not happy with this chapter, heh!