My Guitar God

Disclaimer: I don't own Scrubs, Guitar Hero or any of the songs mentioned in this fic.

Talking/Thinking/Fantasies & Flashbacks

80,000 people have packed the arena. They're chanting my name... "DO-RI-AN! DO-RI-AN! DO-RI-AN!"

I am a guitar GOD! The riff of "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple is blaring out over the roar of the crowd.

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

Women are showing me their boobs. "I totally rock at this!"

"Dude you suck at this!" Turk's voice cut in through the music and snapped me out of my fantasy just as the game told me that I failed at the song. My shoulder's slumped a little bit as I then heard roaring laughter instead of thunderous applause. "You actually might've done well if you hadn't stopped halfway through and started playing with your teeth."

I took the controller off and sighed as I handed it off to Carla. "My bad." She just giggled at me and patted me on the shoulder trying to reassure me that my failure was okay.

"OOoooo! When you're done Carla I want to play that "Take it Off" song." Elliot was perched on Keith's lap reading through the booklet on how to play the game.

Keith pouted. "But baby... It's my turn."

Elliot just smiled and hugged him. "But Keith you have all that paperwork you have to finish."

"Then can you get up so-"

"Just sit there and be quiet please? Carla always wants quiet when she plays."

Carla went through the songs on the list, settling on "I Love Rock and Roll" and picking medium. I felt ashamed that I'd screwed up halfway through a song on easy. Turk had just bought the game two weeks ago and his WIFE was better at it then I was. She was almost done with the song and had a practically perfect score. "This is the best I've ever done on this!"

Turk sat on the couch with a huge grin on his face. "Nothin' sexier than your woman playin' video games."

When the song was over Carla cheered as she had gotten the new high score on it. Beating Turk who didn't seem to mind. "Okay Elliot it's your turn-"

"Now what the HELL is going on in here?" We all turned around to see Dr. Cox standing behind us, hands on his hips, eyes darting back and forth between the TV and us... Oh... Did I forget to mention this was all happening in the Staff Lounge? "Last I checked this was a hospital NAWT an arcade. Shouldn't you people be... Oh I don't know... WORKING?"

"I got off at five!" Elliot piped up.

"Barbie, technically you don't even work here so I'm not going to bother with you. KEN however is on-call tonight." Dr. Cox snapped his fingers and whistled. "That means GET OUTTA HERE! GO GO GO!" Keith knocked Elliot out of his lap, grabbed his charts and flew out of the lounge like a rocket. I could've sworn I even heard him make that ricochet sound cartoon characters make when they run. "Now Ghandi I could expect something like this from you and Princess Toadstool over here-"

"Video game Heroines?"

"But Carla?"

"I've been off for an hour and half. I was waiting for Turk to get out of surgery."

"And I've been off for a half hour now and I came in here to find my baby playin' Guitar Hero. How could I not join in?"

Dr. Cox snorted and his head snapped over to me. "Well, Zelda? What're you doing in here?"

"My shift doesn't start for another hour. I got here early so I could take a shower." Yeah, I was still living on my porch. And it was embarrassing when my neighbors walked in on me taking a shower in their bathroom. "Betty's shampoo smells like Strawberry Heaven."

"Newbie!"

"Sorry Dr. Cox."

"I want the video game out of this hospital. If I ever see it in here again, I'm tossing it out the window and it's going to shatter into a million pieces just like your little girly heart when you read in Tiger Beat that N'Sync was never ever going to get back together."

I just had to try and backtalk him. "I don't see what the big problem is. We were just-" Oops!

Dr. Cox wasn't scowling he was... Smiling. "Tell ya what Newbie- what is this game Ghandi?"

"Guitar Hero."

"And what was the last song Laura here obviously failed at?"

"He knows me too well." I blurted out, "Smoke on the Water!"

Dr. Cox just rolled his eyes and snatched the controller away from Carla. "Tell me how to work this damn thing." He was actually thinking of joining in. When no one answered he whirled around and snarled, "anyone know how to play?" He looked over at me. "If I can't beat "Smoke on the Water" on the hardest level you can keep the game in here."

My eyes lit up. "Really?"

"If I beat it however, the game goes and you're not allowed to talk to me for your entire shift tonight."

Elliot laughed and crossed her arms. "Come on JD, agree to it. The last video game he probably played was Space Invaders."

Dr. Cox responded with a sound I could describe as part growl part snort.

"Okay fine."

Carla did a quick explanation on how the controller work and Dr. Cox started the song. Seeing him struggled for the first few seconds of the song was entertaining. When he heard me chuckle (and I thought I was doing it quietly, he hears like a bat!) he growled at me and continued. After the initial struggle he didn't miss a single note. Turk was staring at him with his mouth wide open as the song was half over and his score was already up near 150,000. I had stopped paying attention after I saw 175,000 scrolled past on the screen. When I finally heard the song finished his score was 250,000. Dr. Cox handed the controller off to Carla. "Do you need help packing everything up?"

I had to chase after him. "Dr. Cox-"

"Uh bup bup bup!"

"You said during my shift!"

"True, but I'd still rather not have to hear your voice." He picked up his pace a little bit.

I continued to follow him. "But- the game- it- amazing. How did-"

"Listen Newbie, I've got better things to do than to discuss video games with you. The sick and dying people aren't going to save themselves." He grabbed a few charts from the nurse's station and started flipping through them.

"You must've played before. There's no way-"

"Let's leave it at, "I'm just that damn good". If you want to be Mr. Guitar Hero why don't you say, I don't know, pick up a REAL guitar and suck at that?" He whacked me on the head with a chart. "Remember the bet." He smiled and gave me a thumbs up. "Have a terrific evening."

After helping Carla and Turk pack up the Playstation, actually Elliot did most of the helping. I couldn't get the plugs out of the back of the TV (the woman has biceps for fingers I swear). We filed out of the doctor's lounge, Turk holding the actual game system, Carla was holding the controller and I was carrying all of the wires in a box (three people carrying the thing out wasn't really necessary but Turk would've freaked out if someone dropped one piece). I saw Dr. Cox as we headed towards the elevator, he was tapping his fingers on the counter of the nurse's station absentmindedly as he looked at a patients chart. When he looked up and saw me look at him he stopped and scowled.

"Listen, Samus, just because I said you couldn't talk to me doesn't me you can stare at me all day hoping that maybe just maybe I'll crack and want to hear the sound of your voice because that's not just NAWT going to happen. So why don't you help your better half carry her toys out to the car and get ready to come in here and pretend to be a slightly competent doctor?"

"I'll be-"

Dr. Cox whistled and did a zipping motion with his fingers. "No talking." He turned back around and went back to his chart. As I walked away he whistled again. "Newbie!" I turned around to see him slap a chart down on the counter. "This patient is yours."

Turk rolled his eyes as we stepped into the elevator. "Man, is it just me or is Dr. Cox a little extra testy tonight?"

"He has a point baby. It's a hospital not an arcade." Carla had the guitar controller slung over her shoulder.

"You brought the game in."

"I wanted to beat your high score." She smiled and crossed her arms in success.

Turk's jaw dropped. "Woman, you-" He clenched his hands like he wanted to strangle her. I set the box of wires into the back the car as they got into the car. "Have fun tonight V-Bear!"

"I'll try SCB." I leaned through the window to give him a hug hearing Carla mumble something about Turk never hugging her through the car window- she couldn't be that jealous could she? "Night Carla, give Izzy a kiss for me."

"Night Bambi. Don't bother Dr. Cox too much." She smiled as her and Turk pulled out of the parking lot.

It was actually a nice and relatively quiet evening. I got to a lot spend time with the patient Dr. Cox had given me. His name was Chris Cowan, he was suffering from liver disease, due to 20 years alcohol and drug abuse.

Chris was a nice guy from the second I walked into the room. His blue eyes shinning underneath a mess of long blonde hair. Despite the fact that he looked almost 50, he seemed to have the spirit of a guy half his age. "Hey Doc, what's shakin'?"

"Nothin' really Mr. Cowan."

"Call me Chris, Doctor-" He strained to look at my name tag.

"Dorian. But you can call me JD."

"Sweet, thanks JD." He settled into his bed. "So how's my outlook?"

"Unfortunately you have Cirrhosis and we can't really go back and reverse any of the damage. It says here that you stopped drinking and went into rehab a year ago, that definitely helps. For now the best thing we can do is closely monitor you and have you change your diet and hope for the best."

Chris sighed and folded his hands on his stomach. "I figured this would happen. I knew if I hadn't kicked the bucket by 30 because of an OD I'd die because my liver quit on me."

"You were an alcoholic?"

"I was in a band in the 1980's. Consuming mass quantities of alcohol was necessary as was consuming whatever the groupies brought along to your apartment slash hotel room afterwards." He chuckled slightly. "I'm a lucky bastard to have made it this far." Then he looked up at me, I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was scared to death but that grin still remained in place. "How long do you think I have?"

"Depending on other factors you could live anywhere between a year and 10." I saw him sighed and the smile finally faded. "We could discuss this with your family sometime tomorrow evening. I'll be back in here around six."

"I've just got my ex-wife and our daughter. And my old band mates. I think I should put together a mini-tour. One more outing for old times sake."

"What kind of band were you?"

"Cover band. We were really popular around here throughout the 80's. I'm surprised you never heard of Dragon Tower the greatest cover band in California?"

"What'd you cover?"

"Mostly 70's songs. We did a lot of The Who. Our original lead guitarist loved Pete Townsend's work, him a George Harrison. I mean if it was big in the 70's we did it."

"So what did you do in the band?"

"Rhythm guitar. It's funny I taught the lead guitarist everything he knows our freshman year of college, a year later he auditions for us and blows anything I did out of the water." He seemed to be happy remembering his younger years with his band. "He quit though when he graduated college. Just came in to rehearsal one day and said he was leaving. We got a replacement but it was never the same. I could never gel with someone the way I could with him."

"I always kinda wanted to play guitar." I couldn't believe I had just blurted it out.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I tried to learn years ago. I knew this guy in high school, he let me play around on his and taught me some scales and chords."

"Hey man, I could give you lessons."

My eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah. I'd like my legacy to be the guy that was mentor to TWO guitar gods." Chris saw the goofy grin on my face. "You like that huh? Trust me man, chicks and some dudes dig guys with guitars." I processed what he had just said. "Don't judge me man it was a different time."

A sharp whistle from outside the door caught my attention. "Newbie, do you know how sick I get of reminding you to do your job? I mean it's been SIX LONG YEARS."

"I'm sorry Dr.-"

"Tifa, I know you're in a haze trying to play groupie to a sick rock star but you have to remember that tonight you're not talking to me. Now get to work."

I stood up from the chair. "Can I ask just one question and then I won't say another word?"

He touched his nose and and crossed his arms. "Fine."

"You went and looked up names of female video game characters didn't you?"

"I asked one of my patients for some." With that he turned around and sped off down the hallway.

I turned back to Chris and shrugged. "I'd love to talk some more but I do have other patients. I'll stop by later on."

"It's cool man. Hey who was that guy?"

"Oh that's Dr. Cox, he's my mentor."

Chris burst out laughing. "Really? Doesn't sound like it."

"It's tough love. He doesn't show it but really deep down inside he's proud of me and wants me to succeed as a doctor."

"You would totally make a good rock star kid. You're already high on something."

I sighed and headed back to work. I spotted one of the new nurses walking by and smiled at her. "Hey, I'm a guitar player."

She rolled her eyes and flipped her hair. "I'm soooo not interested."

"Chicks dig guys who play guitar?"