Title: My Looking Glass

Author: Elise Davidson

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Slash, Femmeslash, magic stuff, drama, angst, all those goodies

Pairings: JD/Cox, Jordan/Elliot, Turk/Carla

Summary: See previous chapters please

Author’s Notes: Wow, I had to think for a minute about the kind of stuff I put before I begin the chapter…as it’s been so long, I’m going to make the author’s notes fairly brief…I’m so sorry it took so long to get this out there! :hangs head: I hope you enjoy though!

I will go ahead and apologize for seeming to cross the Mary Sue line with Erin. It didn’t occur to me until after I’d finished Chapter 17 and posted Chapter 16 that she’d thrown herself in front of others to save them and is now being held by the enemy. I hate to give things away just as much as the next person, but she’s not really being hurt all that much where she’s at; those are for plot reasons that’ll come to light in Chapter 18. The reason it crossed that line is that after our beloved Scrubs peoples ended up in Libris, I’ve been following the original story line almost religiously. It’s no excuse however, and for that, I apologize. I’ve been trying to make as much of a point as possible to make these characters original; not plot-centric. The Hale family, however, was plot-required in the original fic, so I’m kind of toning down as I go. Thanks again everyone for still reading!

Jack clapped his hands, various wooden toys forgotten around him. "Show me!" he babbled. "I wanna do it!"

Mary grinned as she lowered her hands, dark purple casting sparkling trails as it slowly tapered off. "I don’t know if you can yet, JQ," she replied, tapping his nose.

Jack batted at her hand. "I can do it too!" He waved his hands quickly (and a fair bit comically) in the air, but nothing happened. He frowned, the obvious signs of screaming the rafters down shadowing his face.

Mary, on the other hand, was neither Jack’s parents or the nanny, so she didn’t know right away what those signs were.

"Now, JQ," she said warningly, hoping her voice sounded authorative. "If you don’t act like a big boy, I won’t do any more shows. And you’ve only seen what I can do; you haven’t seen the other colors yet. And Vy can lift you right off your feet!"

"Mary!" Violet hissed. "I don’t think Relics Sullivan and Cox would appreciate that!"

Mary snorted. "If you’d ever spent more than ten minutes in a room with either one of those two, you’d know that they worry too much. He’s a doctor, she’s a…something." She frowned for a minute. "They never quite told me."

Violet looked thoughtful for a moment. "Relic Reid said something about her running demons…but I think she was being facetious."

"Then she’ll fit right in at Nox." Mary turned back to Jack. "Won’t your mum just love it here, JQ?"

Aiden turned a page in a book he was reading. "So what’s the "Q" stand for?"

"My name is Jack Quinn Cox," Jack replied proudly.

"He probably doesn’t want to be saying that too loudly," Jeremy pointed out. "Once word gets out who the new Relics are, everyone’s going to know his name. We all know that the rulers haven’t procreated in a while."

"Yes, but they received their powers at who knows when," Mary retorted. "There’s no telling if they passed anything down to little JQ here." She ruffled his hair. "I would’ve felt something by now."

"You only got lucky with the Relics, and even luckier that Mum didn’t skin you alive for all of the rot you pulled getting them here," Jeremy argued. "You maneuvered both her and them into it, and you know it."

"I didn’t make anyone sick, and I certainly didn’t kill anyone. If anything, my going back was probably what made them feel more at ease."

"Yes, but then there’s Relic Turk and his wife. He thinks what everyone should think of you."

Mary’s eyes grew challenging and her face grew hot. "Just because you walk around with all the little knights-to-be at school doesn’t mean I can’t whip you in a fair fight."

"But the problem is that you never fight fair," Violet intervened, hoping to avoid an argument.

"She’s right," Mary decided without missing a beat. "So I could whip you two ways."

"So I get the other ninety-eight under the sun?"

"Jeremy, Mary," an adult voice said sharply from the doorway.

It had come from a woman with very fine, light brown hair that was pulled back in a messy ponytail. Her skin was tanned and somewhat dry, and her face was hard with oddly pale blue eyes. Her arms were crossed, and she wore a plain white tee that was stained with something that looked suspiciously like blood.

Her name was Laura Shay, and she was the head cleric in Hydracia where the hospitals were.

Laura’s face didn’t change from its hard stare. "Enough bickering. I need to speak with you. Aiden, you and Vy can handle the child?"

"My name is Jack Quinn Cox!" Jack said again. He seemed to have forgotten that he wanted to make lights at all.

Violet gave a nervous grin to Jack. "Very good. Would you like to see more lights?"

Jack nodded vigorously. So much so that Violet wondered for a moment if his head would snap off.

"Okay. Aiden?"

Aiden rolled his eyes, put his book down, and came back over. "Watch this." He shook his hands out for a minute, and slowly pulled one finger up. Red slowly sparkled from it as he kept his other hand just above the ground. His fingers vibrated gently, but Jack was focused in a bored fashion on the color.

"Mary did that," Jack retorted.

"Did she do this?" Aiden carefully raised the one finger away from Jack’s face, and then suddenly brought his other palm up to slap his hands together.

Sparks and small flames burst from his hands.

Jack gasped, unsure whether to cry to laugh for a moment. His face teetered between the two before he finally laughed when he realized he wasn’t hurt.

Meanwhile, Laura had led Mary and Jeremy from the room. "I was called away earlier this evening to try and give medical attention to some of our enemies. You know that we’re trying to successfully flip them for information."

The conversation always started out the same for Mary and Jeremy, who had heard it on numerous occasions as it was when one of their parents had been hurt.

Neither twin had said anything upon their stay on Earth, but they’d both been relieved that they didn’t have to worry so much about their parents. The car accident had been the worst thing to happen the whole time that they’d stayed there.

"Cleric Shay," Jeremy interrupted her (politeness was something he tended to forget when it came to his parents after all). "Who was it?"

"It’s your mother," Laura finally replied, a small part of her hating to see such vast cynicism on the children’s faces. "One of them told me she was hurt when they left, but since-"

"You didn’t see her?" Mary cut in. "Where is she?"

Laura sighed, bringing them over to sit down in the hallway of the Aetherian shelter. "That’s just it, Mary. I wasn’t able to see her. One of the men I worked on told me that they took her with them. She and the other three Relics, however, successfully sealed off a large network of the tunnels that’ll save more lives next week than we’ve been able to for the past year."

"Small price to pay," Mary snapped. "She would’ve said that. Where is she?"

"Mary, calm down," Laura retorted, but her voice wasn’t kind. "We were lucky to find this out now instead of later. Her status and rank to the country are too important for her to be killed. If so, they would have earlier instead of taking them with her. Now she’s a mouth to feed and care for."

"And when she doesn’t talk, they will kill her," Jeremy pointed out coldly. "What about the Relics that went with her?"

"They’re in Nox," Laura replied. "Or they were headed that way. I thought to stop by and tell you about your mother before we started the reconnaissance mission to find them."

"Go find them!" Mary muttered. "Don’t stop to care about our mother!" She stood and ran off down the hallway.

"Mary!" Jeremy called and gave Laura an apologetic look. "She’s…"

"She’s just like her mother," Laura muttered. "Go after her. Will Aiden and Violet really be fine?"

"The shelter’s on lockdown," Jeremy reminded her. "We’ll be okay."

"I’m off then. Don’t worry, Jeremy. Your mum’s one of the toughest birds I know."

Jeremy grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He then ran off after Mary down the dark hall.

Laura looked in on Violet, Aiden and Jack once more. She watched the small boy with the barest hint of a smile. He was barely three or four; if he were a true Librisian, he’d have started showing something of his powers by now.

It was a real shame that he seemed to be an Earthen through and through.

Laura began to turn away, and then had the vaguest sense that she had lost a few seconds somewhere along the way. Frowning, she looked back in at Jack and Aiden, who were trying to talk Violet into lifting him off the ground.

Laura shook her head again. It had been a long night, and it wasn’t the first time she hadn’t been able to keep reality and vision separate from each other.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When Carla came to, she immediately wanted to move and find Turk. However, cool hands pushed her back down and a set of oddly lavender eyes were begging her to stay still. The voice was in her head too, telling her firmly that she needed rest.

Carla stared up, looking at a young boy with jet black hair and pale features. "Where’s my husband?" she tried to ask, but it came out more like "gughhh huh bmaub?"

That wasn’t she wanted to say at all.

"He’s fine. I made him go get some sleep; leave it to you to wake as soon as he left," the boy replied witheringly.

"Hey. Pay her some respect, bones. She’s a Relic too, you know," Jordan’s sharp voice drifted.

The boy seemed to roll his eyes for a moment. "I really wish she would stop calling me that," he muttered. "You need to rest. The best cleric in Hydracia is coming to assess your wounds shortly."

Jordan glared as Kalen rose from the cot they’d placed Carla on. "How’s she doing?"

"The arrow didn’t seem to pierce anything vital," Kalen replied, washing his hands just outside the room in a small basin. "What were you doing out there anyway?"

"Less questions; more telling me how she is. Buddha out there is going crazy."

"She’s fine. Cleric Shay coming to see her is more a formality than anything."

"And when is "Cleric Shay" going to be here?"

"In about twenty minutes. She had to go deliver the news of Captain Hale’s disappearance to her children," Kalen replied bitingly, anger at their having left Captain Hale behind showing plainly in his voice.

"Hey, Bones," Jordan said sharply, glaring at him eye to eye. "We didn’t opt to leave Miss Stupid in the tunnels. She threw us down and then had the big scary black man out there collapse it. It wasn’t our choice."

"Tell that to her children, Relic Sullivan," Kalen replied stiffly, bowing his head.

Jordan looked at him. "My son is with her children. Just because you have a little boy-crush on Miss Mary Quite Contrary doesn’t give you a right to talk down to me, you little geek. Now go find your dungeon master and roll a die to decide whether I’m going to kick your ass slowly or painfully."

Kalen didn’t understand the reference of course, but it had him running away, which was exactly what Jordan wanted.

Jordan sighed and went to find Turk again. They hadn’t let the surgeon examine Carla, not trusting his earthen training. When he’d pointed out that he’d had years of schooling, just as they did, Kalen had simply pointed out that their techniques were different, and it would be better if he sat still.

Turk was sitting in a small room with a bed in it, his head in his hands.

Jordan closed the door behind her, and pulled up a chair. "She’s going to be fine, Mohammed."

"I am not sleeping with you," Turk immediately muttered from behind his hands.

"Wouldn’t dream of it," Jordan retorted with a roll of her eyes. "I know you’re worried, but Carla…well, she’s a tough little fighter. Must come with the feisty Latin heritage."

"I’m about to pop the next little brat that comes up to me to tell me anything."

Jordan shrugged, leaning back in her chair. "Wouldn’t blame you. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s going to be fine." She crossed her arms. "And you might want to play nice a little bit. Besides, if you’re nice enough to me, I’ll order my little minions around here to leave you alone for a minute so you can go see her."

Turk finally raised his head. "I can’t lose anyone else."

Jordan felt discomfort arise immediately in her chest. "Well, you’re not going to. I’ll give you a few minutes." She rose and headed for the door. "You coming or not?"

Turk finally got to his feet. "How do you know she’s going to be fine?"

Jordan stopped and looked at him. "Because she got hit with an arrow in her arm and she’s not dead yet. That usually indicates she’s going to be fine just so long as these idiots around her don’t let the site get infected." She tapped his forehead. "Could’ve had a V8 there, Buddha."

Turk rubbed his forehead. "Just let me see her, reaper."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When Jos led them from the shelters in Lucesco, it was morning and the sun was out. Perry was already grumbling about coffee, and had begun to distance himself physically from JD as far as he could. He even appeared to be making small talk with Jos about Lucesco and the people in order to avoid looking or speaking with the younger doctor at all.

JD stuck his tongue out at Perry’s back, but retracted quickly when Perry suddenly whipped around.

"Real mature there, Newbie. It’s obvious both why and how you made it through medical school."

JD glared. "I know what you are, but what am I?"

"A small girl-child with invisible pigtails?" Perry retorted and turned back to Jos.

Elliot swung an arm to JD’s shoulders. "It’s okay, JD. Dr. Cox is just a big hard guy."

JD gulped and didn’t retort, eyes focused on the ground.

"You know that he only gets angry at you because that’s his way of saying he…somethings you."

"Can it, Elliot," JD muttered.

Elliot looked miffed for a moment and shrugged. "Fine, walk by yourself with Ian then. See if I care. Besides, Jos knows cooler stuff than you."

JD looked up just in time to see a quickly blinding light where Jos was standing, and before he could blink, she was standing next to him.

Jos raised her shoulders. "And that’s how you do it."

"Please, oh please tell me you’re going to show me how to do that so that when I suddenly happen to decide that someone is being annoying," Perry started, glaring directly at JD. "I can leave whenever I wish. Do I have to click my heels or something?"

Jos whistled low as the light around her flashed and bent again, and she appeared next to Perry. "No, not unless you really have the deep desire to click your heels."

Perry snarled under his breath as she led them into the main citadel of Lucesco’s capital.

"We’re in Illuminae right now, the capital," Jos went on. "And anything I say after that is going to sound like a museum tour. So from here, we’re going directly to the Relic’s office so I can send most of you back to Pathosne."

"Most of us?" Elliot asked questionably. "You know, I’d really like to go see Jordan now."

Jos sent her a look that was both kind and curious. "Eventually. Besides, they’re going to take Relic Sullivan and Relic Turk back to the castle as soon as possible. Apart from the mined shelters in the cliffs in Aether, that’s one of the safest places in Libris."

"And Jack?" Perry asked gruffly.

"Is safe with Mary, Jeremy, Aiden and Violet in Aether as well. Once they’re given the all clear that it’s is safe, they’ll escort Jack to Pathosne too."

"Damn right they will," Perry muttered. He crossed his arms again as Jos led them up a flight of stairs. "Now those little brats can take care of my boy correctly, right?"

"As an extra security precaution, they’ll have a few others flanking them."

Perry didn’t seem satisfied, but didn’t pursue the matter. "Now what about Jordan and Carla?"

JD cleared his throat loudly behind them.

Perry rolled his eyes. "And Gandhi. Are they okay?"

Jos shrugged. "Like I know? I’ve been with you all night." She cast her hand over a door suddenly, and then, without warning, grabbed Perry’s hand and slapped it on the door.

Perry’s hand suddenly gave off the familiar white glow, and the door creaked open.

"Every time you enter this office, it has to recognize you as a relic. You are the only one who can open this door," Jos explained, but didn’t stop to go further. She pulled a cloth from the mirror in the room. "And now, it’s back to Pathosne," she finished cheerfully.

"We need to talk," JD muttered beside of Perry before he followed Jos into the mirror.

Perry rolled his eyes. "No we don’t!" he yelled and went after him.

Elliot rolled her eyes. "Men," she muttered, and glanced back to Ian. "Shall we? I seem to have some trouble getting through these things without tripping." She offered her arm.

Ian, dark-skinned as he was, still blushed as he took Elliot’s arm and led her through the pearl-framed mirror in Lucesco.

XXXXXXX

Perry sat quietly on the stairs that led up to the castle doors. He hadn’t taken a chance really to look at the scenery around the castle, but it wasn’t very friendly. Most of the grounds were scraggly, with the barest hint of vegetation growing in about a six-foot radius of the structure itself. From there, there were wild bushes and flowers that came in colors he hadn’t thought possible. They weren’t soft flowers either, like the kinds he could remember from his mother’s garden.

These were tough, small flowers that struggled to survive.

Perry wished fervently (not for the first time since coming to Libris) that he had a scotch in his hands.

When he heard the door open and close behind him (it was difficult not to), Perry turned and immediately rolled his eyes.

"For the love of god, Newbie, I’m trying to think," Perry muttered, glaring out at the copious shrubbery.

Perry thought for a minute if that started the maze that Erin had spoken of.

JD still sat down beside of him and handed him a glass. "One of the kitchen people said that this was what people drink around here to get drunk. I figured you could use one."

Perry didn’t look at him, but still took the dark, almost chocolate-colored concoction. "Now, Newbie…be warned, if this is something that tastes even remotely feminine, I’ll be forced to throttle your scrawny neck."

JD shrugged. "I didn’t think it tasted girly." He sipped again and scowled. "It’s certainly…something."

Perry smelled it suspiciously and pulled away immediately. The burning in his nose at least indicated that there was some real alcohol in it.

"Did they say what it was?"

"No. They just said it’d knock me on my ass and laughed."

"Newbie, even in a place where nothing makes sense, people still know that they can walk all over you." Perry finally cautiously knocked back a sip. It burned and tasted like liquor, but it wasn’t like scotch.

Perry still knew it’d get him drunk eventually. He sipped again. It was an odd combination of both sweet, salt and spice. It was fizzy too, but that didn’t bug him. Just so long as the end result was him plastered against a bed, too drunk to think any more.

JD slowly handled the glass in his hands. The ice in the liquid hadn’t melted yet, and he was tempted to play with the frozen water for a moment, just to see if he could really manipulate it the way he thought he could.

He wasn’t sure Perry would be able to appreciate the trick at all though. The older man was staring hard at the ground, his lips twisted into a stressed scowl.

"So…anything else neat come up?" JD asked as he felt the beads of water vibrate against his fingers.

"Like what, Newbie?" Perry snapped. "It isn’t enough that we’re trapped in this godforsaken place or that there’s people out there who actually want to kill us? And I don’t mean the "Oh my god, I’m gonna kill that guy since he didn’t call me in the morning" but the real mobster kill you. I’m not thrilled at anything going on right now."

JD didn’t seem to have an answer ready, but when he finally did open his mouth, the front door banged open again.

A sharp, familiar expulsion of breath was followed by a haughty "frick, this door is heavy", which signaled Elliot’s arrival.

Elliot kneeled behind them. "Turk and Jordan are back with Carla," she said, her voice heavy and worried.

Perry did turn at that. "What’s wrong, Barbie?"

"Uh…they sort of got ambushed during their thing," Elliot replied uneasily. "Everyone’s okay!" she immediately followed up when she saw the blood flowing through a pulsing temple in Perry’s forehead. "Well, mostly okay…Carla got hit, but-"

She never finished as Perry slammed past her through the open, creaky door.

JD sighed as he rose too and hurried after Perry, worry for them all streaming like ice through his body. When he reached the library, he found Perry yelling at Turk, Jordan listening to a lengthy, quickly-spoken lecture from Elliot, and Jack tugging at both of his parents shirts to try and get their attention.

Carla was sitting half-asleep from some type of sedative in a chair, her arm held in a sling and bandaged. Blood was on her shirt, and she stared hazily off into space.

Perry barely paused in his lecture to scoop Jack up, and immediately whirled back on Turk. "How could you let her get shot? Is chivalry a word that needs an izzle added to it so you understand when to take a shot for your own wife?"

Elliot’s words were, however, too strung together and too high-pitched for normal human ears, but the words "died", "dare" and "screw you" had been heard here and there.

JD looked around the chaos however, and frowned. "Where’s Mary and Jeremy?" His face deepened. "Hell, where’s Erin?"

Carla did look up sluggishly at that. "She just had to go out with a bang, that stupid woman," she slurred out.

JD glanced over at Elliot, who shrugged high without a clue.

"Turk, if you could stay down here, Aiden will escort your wife to her room so she can rest," Ian said loudly, hoping his voice sounded more authoritative than he felt.

"She’s not going anywhere without me," Turk replied, shoving past Perry hard to start to help Carla to her feet.

"You wanted to do this mission," Ian retorted hastily before he could think. "You need to be down here and listen while we try and plan a rescue."

"My wife is hurt because of you people," Turk snapped back. "The least you can do is let me take my own damn woman to bed so she can "get her rest" since you wouldn’t let me treat her in the first place."

"We had no way of knowing what was on or in that arrow; it’s imperative she get her rest as soon as possible," Ian pointed out. "It’s just as important that we speak now of this mission."

Perry hugged his son close, his head pounding with the non-stop course of activity and stress that pulsed through him. He thought he heard Jack whine, but didn’t cease holding him.

JD touched his shoulder gently. "Perry," he tried quietly.

Perry didn’t listen, but he didn’t jerk from JD’s hand either.

Ian and Turk’s argument had finally ended, and Turk was leading Carla up the stairs with Aiden.

Jack reached for his mother then, and Jordan gladly took him from Perry, who looked like he was about to either explode, kill people, punch someone or all three (and not necessarily in that order).

"So you want us to go back out there and grab your moronic, pathetic excuse of a captain because she decided to become Miss Martyr?" Perry asked, voice angry and vibrating in anger. "You said that none of us would get hurt!"

"We can't possibly predict-" Ian started, but he wasn't fast enough, and Perry's personality was beginning to rear far uglier than any of them had known.

"I don't know why I ever bothered to believe any of you," Perry seethed, his teeth bared and his jaw set. He didn't swipe his nose this time, and that was mostly because nothing felt like it was going to be okay ever. "You fixed my son, for that, you've got my ever-so-undying appreciation. But I don't owe any of you jack-asses a thing, and I'll appreciate it even more if you just show me the goddamn door before I break each and every one of you freaks into small, mushy little pieces."

Ian struggled to take a deep breath, but it came out of his mouth in a shaky expulsion that belied how little confidence he held.

JD felt torn then. A part of him was beginning to agree with Perry. Too many people had died, too many people had gotten hurt.

He still knew, however, if he left now, he'd still wonder how many more would die and get hurt. The decision wasn't fair, nor was it easy to make.

Perry, on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do. His fists were clenched hard at his sides, and his teeth were set into a snarl. He glared over at Jordan.

"Let's go."

Jordan sent him a disdainful look. "Since when have I ever taken orders from you, Per-bear?" She hitched Jack protectively on her hip. "We’re safer here then there, and besides, I was getting tired of normal, boring old home."

"Jordan, I have a life there; we have a life there! It’s not just you we have to think of; what about Jack?" Perry snapped.

The condescending look didn’t lift from Jordan’s face. "No matter what you think of me, I still love and care for our son, and I think he’s safest here. You really want to go back to sending him to daycare every day where he got that stupid cold in the first place?"

Ian shot Violet an urgent look that Elliot caught, but no one else seemed to. She jerked on Violet’s sleeve then.

"Violet, are any of the other kids in Jack’s daycare in danger?" Elliot asked quietly.

Violet made a small, strangled noise that indicated she was trying to avoid the topic.

"Well?" Elliot asked, anger coloring her voice gently.

"Of course they are," Violet finally said in a whisper. "Jack was more susceptible; it’ll take longer on normal children."

"Unless any of those other kids were one of you too; isn’t that possible? Why didn’t you bother to help them?"

Elliot guessed that as Violet’s skin seemed to carry a luminescent, purple quality, that it was completely normal when the teenager’s cheeks bloomed violet.

"We did not have time," Violet pointed out. "We were more concerned with Jack."

"Why?"

"Because he was Relic Cox’s son; surely I didn’t have to say that?"

"So you saved him and not the others just because he happened to be his son." Elliot glared at her. "That couldn’t have been the only reason."

Jos, who had been listening in, snorted. "Course it wasn’t the only reason," she replied for Violet, who gave her a "shut-up" look. "They figured they wouldn’t come otherwise."

Elliot stood then. "I’m going back," she said quietly.

Perry threw his hands up in the air. "That is so not right," he snapped.

"And I think Jordan and Jack ought to stay here too. It’s safer," Elliot finished.

Perry finally turned his furious glare over to JD. "What about you, Newbie? You gonna tuck your girly tail between your legs and hide from your real life too?"

Jordan sidled a vaguely disinterested look Elliot’s way. "Why should you go back? You know it’s safer here."

"For who?" Elliot muttered, glaring at Ian. She glanced back to Jordan. "Besides, you and Jack will be safe, and that’s what matters."

"Barbie’s half-right. It’s not safe here at all. Everyone of us ought to grow half a brain and go back all together," Perry shot in before Jordan could reply.

Jordan, however, didn’t seem to want to put up with much of it. Holding Jack close, she rose from her chair. "I’m staying here with Jack." She struggled to keep her grip loose on the toddler’s frame, all too aware of how frail he truly was. "And I think you ought to grow your full brain back and do the same."

Though she wasn’t sure of the layout of the castle, Jordan turned and left the room.

Ian sighed deeply. This wasn’t going at all according to plan. "If you really wish to go back, there’s nothing we can do to stop you."

"Carla will want to talk to you when she gets up, Perry," JD pointed out finally in a voice that sounded far more confident than he actually felt.

Still, something that looked suspiciously like hurt flashed across Perry’s raging frown like lightening; too quick to catch and impossible to tell how much. He left the room in silence, but the door slamming sounded like a crackle of tense thunder.

Ian began to rise, but JD grabbed his shoulder. "He’s not going to want company right now."

"But he needs protection outside the castle; he doesn’t know what’s out there," Ian retorted.

"Let me go after the big baby," Jos waved off. "You two deal with…Barbie, is it?"

Elliot blew a piece of hair from her face. "No; it’s Elliot."

Jos frowned. "Barbie’s easier to remember," she finally shrugged and left the room after Perry.

"He’s not going to…hurt her, is he?" Violet asked cautiously.

JD shrugged, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes wearily. "Maybe. I don’t really know."

Elliot, however, didn’t seem to have lost focus and sat by JD’s side. "JD, we’ve got to go back…at least, for a little while. And we really need Dr. Cox or…" She gave a wary stare to Ian and Violet. "One of them. It’s the kids."

JD frowned in confusion. "Kids?"

Elliot rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "The kids! The ones Jack goes to daycare with! That…thing that was in Jack; the black shadows you talked about."

JD’s face hardened. "But I thought it was only for Jack, and besides, this is their disease, not-"

"Listen to me!" Elliot snapped. "It’s not just for him; it’s not just their disease. It’s just something that hasn’t come to our place yet; if we don’t go back to help, that’s going to change. You can see it where the X-rays might not be able to, and Dr. Cox can heal it. Don’t you get it? Those kids are going to die."

Violet’s face seemed to droop lower and lower in guilt as Elliot’s voice spoke hard truths.

"Why didn’t they tell the others?" JD asked, his chest tightening in fear that what happened to Dan could happen to someone who, like Dan, had nothing to do with the whole ordeal. He looked at Ian. "Isn’t there some kind of treatment for this besides what we had to do for Jack? I mean, a treatment before imminent death is near?"

"Of course there is," Violet blurted out. "Jack’s case was special; it normally doesn’t get that far in our children."

"What was it, anyway?" Elliot asked curiously. "I’ve never seen a disease that destructive in so little time."

Ian shrugged. "Under normal circumstances, the kids have it when they’re near Jack’s age, sometimes a little older. It’s usually treated with a serum for the cough and a weaker version of the illness itself to battle the stronger. Eventually, the body wins out."

Elliot and JD looked at each other for a moment, and though both were still rather worried, gave into a fit of laughter.

"You mean to say that Jack almost died because of magic chicken pox?" JD asked through a laugh that sounded entirely like someone had squeezed his throat.

Violet raised her eyebrows. "What in the name of the Creators is chicken pox? It sounds absolutely dreadful." She began to wring her hands then, knowing that their window of opportunity was small to deter Elliot and JD from going back.

Elliot, however, was determined. "We’re going back to help those kids. They didn’t do anything, and this isn’t their war. There’s no reason why it should suddenly have to be."

Meanwhile, Perry was standing in the small field of tall grass outside of the castle. The sky was furiously cloudy, but the sun was also rising below the horizon.

"Are you done brooding yet?" Jos asked from behind him. Her arms were crossed, and she impatiently tapped her elbow. "Because, you know, when you’re done throwing your temper tantrum, we’d love for you to come back in and act like a human being."

"Kid, I’m so not in the mood for your crap right now," Perry retorted. "So march your little fanny back into that castle and leave me the hell alone to think."

Jos rolled her eyes. "Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do and what not to do, but either way, you’re needed in both places. Your son’s okay now; he should continue to be beneath our watch."

"Like I’m going to leave him here with you fre-"

"You’re not winning yourself any points by keeping up with that whole freak thing," Jos interrupted him. "Besides, not only are you one of us, but I didn’t see Jack doing too well staying on Earth."

Perry whirled around. "Are you telling me that I can’t take care of my own kid?"

"He’s not just your kid," Jos pointed out. "He’s Relic Sullivan’s as well, and she seems to agree with the general opinion that he’s safer here."

Perry glared back at the sky. The wind was bitterly cold, and chewed itself right down through the bones. He gave an involuntary shiver, and wondered for a moment if it was ever anything but cold in this place.

Crossing his arms and taking his best intimidating stance, he glared down at Jos, who was a good head or two shorter than he.

"I’ll stay until Carla’s okay again."

"I’m not making a deal with you," Jos replied matter-of-factly. "And I wouldn’t force you to remain here against your wishes. If you truly know in that thick skull of yours that Jack’s safer with you on Earth, I’ll take you out of here myself. But I think we both know that’s not true." Jos flicked a brown braid of hair off her shoulder. "You’re just scared, underneath it all. And who wouldn’t be? I was when I first arrived."

It caught Perry’s attention enough as he turned his back on her again, seething in self-anger at wanting to ask.

"I came here when I was 10," Jos finally said when he didn’t ask. "And I spent most of the first six months of my time here locked in my room, begging to go back home. I refused to go to the school for magic, and I wouldn’t let the Lucescan priests near me to discern my element."

"You got a point or is this gonna be some long, round-about tale of childhood woes and how they relate to my current problem?"

"God, that’s your problem. You’re a cynical ass." Jos blew a strand of hair from her face. "Look, six months after I got here, some git with a good shot killed both my parents and put my sister into a coma. That was when I found out I could fix the sick, if I really wanted to. Now it’s time for you. You’ve healed your son; you’ve seen what you and your friends can do. It’s not just about being a freak or being gifted in some strange way. It’s about what you know is right on the inside."

Perry sighed imperceptibly.

"And it’s something bigger than your stupid fears of being somewhere new," Jos finished off haughtily. "Grow up."

Perry turned when he heard retreating footsteps. He caught Jos by the collar and glared at her. "You’re really a brat."

Jos snorted. "I’d be offended if I wasn’t. Someone had to tell you to quit being one yourself." She wrenched loose of his grip and re-entered the castle.

Perry shook his head. Jos was painfully like Paige was as a child. Sighing again, he entered the castle again to once again try and talk normally in the library.

However, when Jos and Perry came into the room, the argument was still going on. Jordan and Jack were still absent, and JD and Elliot glanced over to Perry.

"Dr. Cox, we’ve got to go back," Elliot said again firmly, hoping her voice wasn’t going high-pitched. "We’re doctors; it’d be reckless if we didn’t."

"What do you mean?" Perry asked with a frown.

"Those kids in Jack’s daycare," Elliot snapped. "Haven’t you been listening? Violet thinks they could’ve gotten the same thing as Jack did."

Perry looked at Jos, who held her hands up.

"Like I know anything," she said in her defense. "I wasn’t there when your son was healed; I’ve barely met the child."

"Jack was most important," Ian argued. "There’s not much we can do for those kids without exposing you and ourselves!"

"So you’re just going to let them die?" JD asked, his heart wrenching. "What about their exposure? What about their families?"

"There isn’t much we can do," Violet replied. "Except give you the antibiotic we use to treat it when they’re not as close as Jack."

"Give it to us then; we’ll take it and cure them ourselves," Elliot pointed out.

"Barbie, there’s not much you’ve ever been able to do in the healing department; you ought to sit this one out," Perry pointed out hatefully.

"And let the same thing that almost killed Jack kill others? Blow it out your ass," Elliot retorted, punctuating her statement by blowing hair out of her face again.

"Now is not the time for you to grow the pair that Newbie so desperately wants," Perry snapped back. "You and him are going to stay here; I’ll take care of it. All of us know it’s safer here."

"You’re not going back alone; you saw what they did to me-hell, what they did to Jack!" JD yelped immediately.

"Case closed, Newbie. Stay here."

"I’m not an intern anymore!"

"You’re not an intern, but you’re still acting like a girl!"

Something hissed quietly in JD’s chest, threatening to rage through his mouth. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Perry.

"I’m not staying here, and that’s my final say," he said firmly. "You can’t tell me what to do anymore."

"By god, you’re staying here where they can’t hurt you anymore even if I have to tie you to a bed! You’re not strong enough, and you know it!"

The hiss in his chest suddenly became a roar, and before JD could stop it, his fist was roaring forward and slamming into something fleshy and solid with a slapping thunk.

Perry grunted as the unexpected swing caught him off guard and knocked him off balance. Blood immediately filled his mouth from where his teeth had cut his cheek and tongue, and a red bruise began to flush against his jaw.

"Oh, Newbie…" Perry cracked his knuckles as the anger resurfaced. Unfamiliar feelings of protection of JD were making him edgier than before, especially when Jordan and Jack had gone so quietly. "Big mistake."

Grabbing JD by the front of his shirt, Perry raised his fist to strike. JD squeezed his eyes shut, knowing more than well that he deserved it.

Instead, however, Perry lowered his fist and dragged JD out of the room and back outside into the frigid evening. He shoved JD away from him, glaring hard at the younger man.

The wind whipped even JD’s styled hair (though it was falling a bit limp from lack of washing). The younger doctor looked furious and frustrated, lightening snaking across the sky with a crackle of thunder.

"Are you done?" JD snapped. "I don’t need you acting like this! You’ve never acted like this before; why the hell now?"

"Because people weren’t getting hurt before! We weren’t trying to be killed before! Or did that escape your memory?"

"Jack is perfectly safe here, and so is Jordan," JD replied stubbornly.

"I’m talking about you, Maria," Perry snarled. "I can’t lose any one else!"

JD stared at him. Like himself, Perry looked outraged and apprehensive, desperately on the edge of struggling to say words that weren’t familiar to him anymore. Though lightening and thunder clouded all the sound, freezing rain and bits of snow began to sting their cheeks.

Perry sighed, rubbing a hand hard over his face to try and clear his brain. All he knew was that Jordan and Jack were safe, but JD was posing a huge problem, and though the reasons weren’t yet clear as to why it mattered so terribly much that JD remain safe, Perry knew it was something he had to achieve at all costs.

Feeling awkward, uncomfortable and worried, Perry finally lay his hands on JD’s shoulders with long sigh. JD gave him a confused look, and glanced quickly around.

"Am I dying? Or are you?" JD asked a moment later when Perry said nothing else.

Thunder crackled again, and the electricity from the lightening made the hair on JD’s neck stand on end.

That, or Perry’s intensely harsh gaze. It held a tinge of something JD couldn’t explain, even though he knew what the look was and meant.

"I’m going to be fine," JD finally said after a moment. "We’ve got this."

Perry struggled mentally and physically take to stock of his reactions to JD’s words, the weather and the feelings struggling to bubble to the surface.

Hands tightened on JD’s swimmer-like shoulders, skin was damp and like gooseflesh from the cold, his hair was getting wet from the rain…JD’s hair had ice crystals in it, though the wetness didn’t seem to affect him by much.

The feelings were harder to analyze, but Perry wasn’t stupid. He knew he was worried about the kid. The why was harder to admit, and so he didn’t.

Instead, he yanked JD to him unexpectedly into a bone-crushing embrace, arms wrapped tightly across JD’s smaller frame.

JD suppressed a sound of surprise, but it finally clicked for him and he knew he wasn’t the only one feeling differently towards Perry since the whole thing hard started over two months ago.

"Damn right you’re going to be fine," Perry muttered. "Because you’re staying here, and that’s that." He yanked away from JD and started off for the castle again.

JD, who was floating too high from the hug, cheerfully fell in step beside of him. "No, I’m not." He shrugged. "We’re supposed to be doctors; we’re supposed to help people when we can. If I don’t go back, then I’m more than every girl’s name you’ve ever called me."

Perry looked at him wearily. "I’m not going to change your mind, am I?"

JD shrugged. "I could be persuaded."

Perry groaned and gave him a hard shoulder bump. "Too soon, Newbie."

JD quirked an eyebrow up at the remark, but said nothing else as they entered the castle again to discuss tactics and protocol with the remaining party in the library.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the end, it was only JD and Perry who returned back to Earth, taking Ian with them for good measure. Jack was sent immediately to the Aetherian sanctuaries to be held under tight security and strict watch. Violet accompanied the small boy, leaving everyone else behind to discuss a rescue plan for Erin.

Mary and Jeremy had finally returned with their father, Ethan, in tow. The remaining three Hales looked tired and weary, but no less determined to immediately plan a reconnaissance mission to save their mother.

Carla, who was still recovering, was sent to Hydracia to rest up properly in the hospital. Though Turk blustered, yelled, lectured and swore, he finally remained behind with the Hales.

"You’re one of the strongest we have right now; you only need accept your gifts and talents," Aiden had pointed out to him.

Over the next few days of planning, Jordan, Turk and Elliot learned that the bells had various volume to them, and often, if they weren’t clanging loudly in disharmony, Ethan would wave it off and turn back to the complex map.

The map that Ethan had left on the table for them to study was not only detailed with small, oddly swooping cursive, but also unfinished. A few words were in Latin, some in Greek, and even a few that were a language that Elliot barely recognized as the old language of the Scottish isles, Gaelic.

Ethan had explained the map was the known tunnels underground, and some of them led directly into some of the small land bases that Idyllithia had set up along the Librisian perimeter.

They weren’t very big, from what any of them could tell, but it was very possible that transporting Erin was considered too much of a risk, and so was probably being kept in one of them.

Jordan regularly went to visit Jack every day, but Jack was beginning to ask about his father. Jordan simply blew it off and told Jack he was at work.

Jack, on the other hand, was beginning to become unsatisfied with this answer. He wasn’t stupid, after all…he knew Daddy worked a lot, but he usually saw him for dinner at least once a week…

And it had been two.

It was hard for Jack to focus on it, however, until the end of the day when his father normally told him his bedtime story and tucked him in at night. Violet kept him busy most of the day, playing with other children who could do simple small tricks.

Jack had overheard his mother arguing with Violet, in fact, about the whole thing. The toddler didn’t think it hurt anybody; it was cool to watch.

But Mommy seemed to think it was a word Jack hadn’t understood.

In the evening coming into the third week JD and Perry had been gone, Turk pored over the map that Ethan had left tacked to the table. The tunnels were crunched and tiny, and most likely dark. They had Jordan to solve that, but there was the matter of actually fighting enemies. Carla was still recovering in Hydracia, but Aiden had promised to cover as best he could.

Elliot, at best, only had the element of surprise.

Though Ethan had firmly told both Jeremy and Mary they weren’t going, both seemed determined to defy his orders.

Jeremy walked into the library as rain pelted the windows with tiny clinks. He carried two mugs of coffee and passed one to Turk as he sat down.

"Thanks," Turk muttered and sipped the coffee. It tasted no better than the hospital kind, which, as the kitchen staff had been supplying the caffeine lately, came as a bitter surprise. "What is this crap?"

Jeremy shrugged. "I made it this time. The staff doesn’t stay overnight usually."

Turk sipped again with a grimace. "You’re killing me, man."

"Having any more luck with that? My dad knows it like the back of his hand."

"We can’t take him away from the front lines," Turk retorted factually.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "You’ve been paying attention when he talks."

"Your mom risked her ass to save ours," the surgeon pointed out. "That’s not something I’ll take as a freebie. No one deserves to be where she’s at."

For the smallest moment, Jeremy looked very much like a small boy who was worried horribly for his mother, but the look passed nearly as quickly as it had come.

For Turk, the pain of losing his own mother was still fresh enough that he finally raised his tired eyes from the papers.

"Your mom’s tough," Turk finally said after a moment. "She’ll be fine." He sighed and pressed his eyes shut. "You know, I don’t guess there’s a way to just walk through the front gate, is there?"

Jeremy frowned. "What do you mean?"

Turk leaned back and crossed his hands behind his head. "Well, kind of like the tactic of just hiding in plain sight. I mean, Jordan’s got their element, doesn’t she? Her and your sister? And you guys know magic; couldn’t you give the rest of us a…disguise of some kind?"

Jeremy cocked his head to the side. "All the tunnels are still underground. We’d have to have a ready and able spy."

"You guys don’t have spies down there already?"

"Of course we do; we can’t jeopardize any of their current missions, is all…not without endangering them all."

"We’re talking about one spy." Turk suddenly snapped his fingers. "I think I’ve got a plan."

Jeremy leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. "I’m listening."

"These guys…the Idyllithians, you call them?" Turk waited for Jeremy’s nod. "Well, they’re after us, aren’t they?"

"Well, yes…they’ll probably ransom my mother for one of you."

"Well, why don’t we beat them to it?" Turk pointed out. "Hey, Jordan! Elliot, get in here!"

"You don’t know me well enough to order me around, Gandhi!" Jordan’s shrill voice yelled back.

Elliot, however, entered the room with reddish eyes that indicated she had been catnapping. "What?"

"I think I’ve got a plan."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kelso hadn’t been happy when JD and Perry returned, but with the recent outbreak amongst the children and the high fatality rate, he begrudgingly signed them back in.

Perry pinched the bridge of his nose. God bless the old devil; he didn’t ask how Perry and JD seemed to be the only ones with an answer for the illness that had struck the daycare so hard, and had even drifted to a few parents and other patients as well.

With the total number of cases so high, the CDC had descended upon the hospital staff, making inquiries and doing investigations in an attempt to pinpoint the disease. Unlike Kelso, they interrogated JD and Perry in depth.

Given the recent history and the sudden turnabout, JD wasn’t surprised. After all, before they had left, patients were dying left and right. Now that they were back, they suddenly had a miracle cure.

JD opened the door to the hotel room. All three of them had been in agreement that JD’s apartment and Perry’s place weren’t safe enough to stay at. Still, fast food and room service were beginning to edge on Perry’s nerves.

Ian, however, seemed well-adapted to it, and never tired of the burgers Perry or JD threw on the table. Indeed, Ian seemed to have a curious liking for pizza.

JD startled himself awake as Perry entered the room, shaking rain off his hair as he shut the door behind him. He carried a pizza and a 12 pack of beer in his hands.

Ian had been firm about them not going out in public, and while JD had argued, Perry had reluctantly agreed.

Perry dropped the pizza on the dresser and plunked the beer into the small fridge. "When’s your shift start?"

JD rubbed his eyes. "I’m off the next 14 hours, and then on call for 12 more."

"I don’t know how much longer we’ll need to be here," Perry replied finally. "Or at least you; the patients seem to be responding well." He looked around the room. "Where’s Ian?"

"Checking in back at the castle," JD informed him, and grabbed a beer and a slice of pizza. "He’s gonna be sorry he missed the pizza."

"Kid’s got an unnatural attachment to pizza and fast food."

"They probably don’t have much of it back where he’s from," JD pointed out. "Mary had a rather unhealthy addiction to Diet Coke it seemed."

Perry swallowed a mouthful of pizza with beer. "Good. We won’t have to treat the fatties and tubbos anymore."

"Just because they don’t have it doesn’t mean they don’t have disease. I’m not gonna forget those patients any time soon." JD sat on the edge of one of the two beds. A cot was folded against the wall where Ian had been sleeping. "It probably won’t hurt though to get back soon. The CDC’s really breathing down our necks."

JD jumped in fright with a yelp suddenly as Ian slid from underneath the bed.

"Christ, don’t do that!" JD muttered, heart beating fast as he struggled to calm his churning stomach.

"They’re ready to go through with their rescue attempt," Ian replied. "They’ll be leaving tomorrow night."

"Why night?" JD asked. "Wouldn’t it be easier all around to do it during the day?"

"Not for the type of reconnaissance they’re going to be conducting," Ian stated blandly, and turned his attention quickly to the pizza. He did, however, skip over the beer.

JD had begrudgingly let him have a sip of it a few nights ago, and Ian had sworn never to touch the stuff again.

"So when will we be going back?" Perry asked. "You know they’ve been watching us ever since we got back."

"We’ll be going back in a week in order to give you two proper time to take care of your employment affairs," Ian replied as he took another bite of pizza.

"Why bother? We didn’t last time," Perry pointed out, taking a mouthful of beer.

"Last time, the situation was more dire," Ian replied as he reached for a second slice. "It’s the responsible thing to do."

"Do you ever get tired of acting older than you are?" Perry muttered and threw his empty beer bottle into the trash.

Ian shrugged. "I’ve not much choice." He stood up and pulled the cot out. "I’ll be going to bed soon; please keep it down."

Wheeling the fold out cot towards the small alcove outside the bathroom, Ian began to prepare for sleep.

JD rolled his eyes. "Kid needs to have more fun," he said to Perry.

"I can still hear you, you know."

Perry was the one who rolled his eyes this time. "I think Charlotte knew that, kiddo." He swigged from the beer bottle and began to eat another slice.

JD looked carefully at Perry, who had turned the TV onto a game in silence. The night outside of the castle hadn’t repeated itself, and JD wasn’t sure how to approach it now that it was nearly three weeks later.

He settled instead for silence and watching the hockey game on the television.

A moment later, however, Perry had sat down beside of JD. "View’s better," he muttered gruffly.

JD felt his senses become hyperaware that Perry was sitting close enough that their legs were just barely touching, and so he fell back on simply not moving. He finally had to in order to reach for another beer.

He was going to need it.

Ian rose from his cot once more when Perry began swearing loudly at the TV, but then didn’t rise again, apparently in a deep sleep.

JD watched the game, unsure all together of what was going on. "So…the point is to get the black thing in the net?"

Perry grunted an assent.

"So…you do that by hitting it with a stick and knocking other people out of the way?"

Perry shrugged. "That’s the idea."

JD shook his head, still watching to try and get an idea of the rules. However, it really only came off as a bunch of overly-muscular guys knocking the hell out of each other to swipe the puck into the goal.

Still, about an hour later when Perry switched to a football game, he leaned back. "And that is why the Detroit Redwings are the best team ever."

"Because they hit hard and score well?" JD asked cautiously.

Perry waved his hand in a dismissive fashion. "Somewhat." He looked over at JD, who was staring at his beer. "You really don’t know anything about hockey, do you, Patricia?"

"Would it matter if I lied?"

"Not really; there’s not a chance in hell you could fake your way through this one." He looked back at the football game, and decided to move back up to the head of the bed to rest more comfortably. JD’s silhouette was stark against the bright TV and the dim room, sitting stock still as if frozen.

Perry rolled his eyes. "Relax. We’re in the clear and the CDC’s not gonna be trying to shove their heads up our asses much in about a week."

JD did seem to relax at that notion, but not by much.

"I won’t say it’s all gonna be happy sunshine flowers in the end, Newbie. We don’t have the luck to just buy it quickly and be done with it though, so you know we’re gonna be fine in the end."

JD looked at him and shook his head warily. "Ever the optimist."

"I prefer realist, Mary Ann. Shut up; I’m watching the game."

JD grinned in spite of his thoughts and relaxed much more this time, leaning back on his elbows. He was about halfway through his third beer now, but it was making him more sleepy than anything. Looking back at Perry, JD noticed that the older man was staring steadfastly at the television.

Sighing and deciding it was always he who would have to make the first step in anything, JD leaned his head on Perry’s legs, exhaustion and a belly full of food combining in a sudden need to sleep.

Sprawled awkwardly over the bed, JD’s soft snores soon filled the room.

Perry looked down at the dark head of hair and the quiet movements of JD’s sleeping frame. Glaring at the television as if it was its fault for his next action, Perry let a hand drift to the crook of JD’s neck and shoulder, fingers resting lightly on the younger man’s collarbone.

The kid was still there. Perry didn’t want to look at the ugly scar that marred JD’s back, and so he gently traced the hard bone of JD’s neck in silence, eyes never leaving the television after that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author’s Notes: Yes, I know it’s been a while, and I am so sorry! I’m just glad I was able to get this chapter out for everyone!

Thanks so much to everyone who reads this story! I’d like to extend an even bigger thank you to the wonderful, awesome reviewers who keep putting stuff in my inbox XD I’m so sorry I haven’t been responding as well; work’s been hectic and I just now got done wrangling with school. Thanks so much to all of you who continue to read this story even though the updates have gotten slow and I’m a rude author by not replying to you! XD :hides herself under the desk to avoid the slew of rotten veggies being thrown at her:

Thanks so much again; all of your encouragement and support is very much appreciated and taken to heart. Thanks all!

xxElisexx