[Scrubs 2.0]
Episode 4
My Doomsday

Note: This contains Original Characters, if such content offends you leave post haste.

Disclaimer: Scrubs is property of whoever owns it (Bill Lawrence/ABC/NBC/Buena Vista/Whatever). All original characters are property of… ME!

Note: Yeah I faked retirement. After some prodding from my cousin… here it is.

Continuity Notes: If you don’t know from the other fics, my continuity is totally different from the current continuity. So Dr. Cox ain’t Chief in my universe yet… Sorry…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Morgan is sitting in the employee lounge eating Chinese food as she watches the clock. It’s currently 5:30 in the afternoon.

When you’re an intern there are a lot of things to get used to. One being the mandatory On Call nights. Fortunately for me I had managed to go over a month without ever having to be On Call at night.

For some odd reason whoever was doing the interns schedules must’ve gotten confused and not realized I had yet to do my first night shift. It may sound a little selfish but I wasn’t about to correct them. In fact I was waiting to see how long I could go without the mistake getting caught.

Well… It finally caught up to me.

// LAST WEEK

Morgan is looking at the schedule with the other interns. “I’m not on call at night again.” She looks over at Eddie.

“Man, this is lame. I get like one day off every two weeks and it has to be a Tuesday.” He crosses his arms. “Why ain’t you said anything yet?”

“Would you?”

“Good point.”

“So what are you gonna do on your day off?”

“Catch up on paperwork and hit the clubs. I’m a doctor, I should be gettin’ all kinds of women.”

“And here I thought your answer for why you wanted to be a doctor would’ve been to help people.” They both turn around and see Dr. Cox standing with his hands in his lab coat pockets. He appears to be studying the schedule. “Esé. Coffee. Black. Now.”

“You know your comments are-“

“You know, I would say ninety percent of the time I see you, you’re acting like a walking stereotype so I don’t want to hear it.” He whistles and nods his head down the hallway. “Go now.” While Eddie trudges off muttering things in Spanish under his breath, Dr. Cox goes up to the schedule and studies it even closer. “Hhmmm…”

Morgan notices what he’s doing. “Just quietly back away.” She begins to slowly back away. “Maybe he won’t notice-“

“Mouse.”

She stops and clenches her eyes shut. “Damn it.”

“I’ve worked quite a few night shifts since I’ve been here and now that I think about it, I have yet to actually see you around here at night.” Dr. Cox looks at her. “Now why is that?”

“Scheduling mistakes?”

“Now we MUST fix that.” He looks around and spots a nerdy intern with blonde hair and glasses. “Skywalker.” He walks over and grabs him by the collar and drags him over to the schedule board. “How would you like to have a full week without being On Call?”

“Would I?” Skywalker beams as he stares at the board. ”I could really use Tuesday night off. That’s when my RP Club meets and I’ve missed the past two.” He chuckles and snorts. “I get to be there for Lord of the Rings night.”

“Fascinating Frodo, you’ll be switching with-“ He glances over at Morgan. “Dr. Liddell.”

Morgan takes a deep breath and lightly bites her lip. “Do not get giddy.”

Skywalker walks over to her. “Thank you Morgan, if there’s anything I can do for you like maybe… Buy you dinner?”

She looks past him with her head cocked to the side. “Is that Leonard Nemoy?”

“Spock?” The nerd turns and looks down the hallway. “Live long and prosper!” He takes off running after a man and tackles him.

Dr. Cox watches the scene as the nerd attacks the poor man. “That’s not Leonard Nimoy.”

“Oh? Oops.” Morgan slowly backs away.

The man being mauled can be heard yelling, “GET HIM OFF ME! HELP!” \\

[Talk to the doctor
He said you're well for home
Take all your medicine
Be sure you're never alone
You'll know it's over
For the rest of your life
You're gonna be high...
Come home
It's something less than a holiday
When you…]

BACK TO TODAY…

Morgan is still staring at the clock which is now at 5:50. Her head goes back and forth which each tick of the clock as the news is playing on the television.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off the damn clock no matter how hard I tried. It was like I was counting down to doomsday.

Adam bursts into the room with a wad of paper in his hand. “Three… two…” He tosses the paper and it falls into the basket as he makes a buzzer sound. “HOWARD SINKS IT FOR THE WIN! THE CROWD GOES WILD!” He makes a crowd cheering sound as he jumps up and down.

Morgan looks back at his antics and rolls her eyes. “Todd rubbing off on you?”

A ricochet sound is heard as Todd suddenly appears next to Morgan. “No but, The Todd would love to rub-“

“Why have you not gotten fired for sexual harassment yet?”

“The Todd is lucky in more ways than one.” He looks at Adam and holds up his hand. “WASSUP?” He gets his high five and exits the room.

“First night on call.” Adam hops over the back of the couch. “I remember my first night on call.”

“That was what six weeks ago?”

“Still. I had to do an appendectomy on this guy and his appendix was like literally seconds away from bursting. I mean it was so swollen and nasty looking, I mean it was almost oozing-“

“Heard enough.” Morgan looks up at the clock seeing that it’s only moved a couple of minutes. “What time are you off?”

“Now. I got held up doing a Herniorrhaphy. I just wanted to chill for a few minutes before I went home and cleaned up.”

“You’re going out?”

“Yeah, Eddie invited me to go clubbing with him.”

Morgan’s head snaps to Adam. “YOU out at a CLUB?” She shakes her head a few times. In a robotic voice she says, “error! Error! Does not compute!”

“I gotta meet girls somewhere. I mean you’re the only girl medical intern; actually you’re the only girl intern period right now. All the residents are pretty much hooked up and the nurse’s think I’m too big of a dork to date.”

“Have fun, wish I could go.”

It wasn’t that far from the truth. I’d rather be at a club than here on call, especially considering who else is on call tonight.

Dr. Cox bursts into the room and snaps his fingers a few times. “Remote. Now.” He plops down on the couch on the other side of Morgan with his hand held out. She gives him the remote and he flips it over to Sports Center.

Adam looks over at Dr. Cox and then up at the TV. “I should go. See ya later Morgan.”

“Bye.” Morgan watches Adam leave.

“You’re nervous about being On Call.” Dr. Cox isn’t bothering to look away from the show.

“Uh… maybe?”

“Well, if things get too rough you could hide in the supply closet again.”

“That was the only time I’ve ever done that.”

“Yeah sure. What the hell had you so upset you had to go into the closet and cry?”

Morgan looks down at the floor.

// A flash of Dr. Cox and Jordan kissing. \\

“Nothing that important.” She gets up from the couch and slumps out of the room.

Dr. Cox stares at the TV and furrows his eyebrows like he’s thinking hard about something. He shrugs before turning the volume up on the TV and putting his feet up on the table.

--xx--

Adam is at his apartment and has just stepped out of the shower. He’s towel drying his hair when there’s a knock at the door. “Come on in!”

The door is slammed shut. “Alright! Who’s ready to see some fine Mamcitas tonight?” Eddie looks up at the clock on the wall at sees that it’s already 7:10. “Dude I’m ten minutes late and you still ain’t ready? What up?”

“My sister dropped by and took a shower on her way to some dinner thing. I had to wait an hour before I could get any hot water.” Adam opens the bathroom door and slips across the hallway into his room. “I mean the last thing I wanna take tonight is a cold shower right?”

“You are a dork.” Eddie looks around the apartment at the various posters on the walls. A lot of them are movie posters including, Clerks, Office Space, and Ghostbusters on the wall. “You like a lot of movies?”

“Yeah. I thought about going into film or theater for a while.”

“So why are you a doctor?”

“You know how many people actually make it in the entertainment business?” Adam is quickly getting dressed. “Besides my entire family are doctors. My mom and sister are in Pediatrics, my dad’s an orthopedic surgeon and my brother is a Cardiologist.”

“Damn.” Eddie looks over a computer desk to see Adam’s diplomas. “Yeah, I’m the first one in my family to ever go to college let alone graduate.”

Adam appears in the living room hair slicked back wearing jeans and a blue dress shirt. “I look alright?”

Eddie is dressed in baggy black pants, a Lakers’ jersey with a backward ball cap and chains. “Sure.” Adam checks himself in a small mirror before grabbing a hoodie off the back of the couch. “Any of your family work at Sacred Heart?”

“My Dad, mom and sister work at county. My brother is private practice.”

“Why didn’t you go do your internship at County?”

“Dude, I gotta cut the cord sometime. Besides, I don’t like the walking gag my family now turned in to.”

Eddie opens the door and looks at him puzzled. “Walking gag?”

“My last name is Howard. My sister married a man whose last name is Fine.”

“I don’t get it.”

“I didn’t think you would.” Adam shuts the door behind him. “Oh by the way, just to warn you: every time I go out, something bad always happens to me.”

“Shut up.”

“No really. It’s inevitable.” Adam starts counting off on his misfortunes. “I’ve been beat up by a guy, by a group of guys, by two girls - at the same time-, I even got hit by a car on my 21st birthday.”

“Man you worry too much.”

--xx--

Back at the hospital Morgan is in the ICU checking on the vitals of an elderly patient. “Still no improvement.” She places the chart back in it’s holder at the end of the bed and rubs her face.

The man in the bed, Mr. Novak, had been admitted my first day at Sacred Heart. He was in bad car accident which had left him in a coma. Just being in the room with the guy makes me nervous because he has a very bad habit of-

As if to purposefully interrupt her thoughts the monitors begin beeping frantically.

I’ve been lucky so far in that I’ve yet to lose a patient. Mr. Novak however, seems to be hell bent on being my first.

Morgan runs out into the hallway. “I need a crash cart in here!” An older nurse comes running in with the cart and Morgan gets to work.

“His O2 levels are starting to drop.” The nurse informs her.

Morgan takes the paddles from the defibrillator as the nurse prepares the patient. “Alright, clear!” She shocks Mr. Novak and waits a second as the monitors continue to beep. “We’re gonna go again… CLEAR!” Another shock as the monitors return to normal.

“All vitals are normal Dr. Liddell.”

She nods at the nurse and then looks up. “Thank you.” She opens up the patient’s chart and makes a few notes as she shakes. “I need- I want him heavily monitored tonight. I’ve got a feeling this might happen again.”

“Are you okay?”

“Me?” Morgan looked over at the nurse. “No, absolutely not.” She looks down at the floor for a second and takes a deep breath before looking back up. “Yes.” She puts on a fake smile. “Just a little shaken is all.”

“You should sit down for a few minutes sweetie.” With that the nurse leaves the room.

Morgan abruptly collapses in a chair and starts breathing heavily. She looks over at Mr. Novak in the bed and glares at him.

Codes are something I have yet to get a handle on. This one had one had been my third and I wasn’t looking for to the fourth, fifth and so on.

Morgan looks at the comatose man with a sad look on her face. “Please don’t do that again.”

“Hmmmm…. begging?” Dr. Cox is standing in the doorway arms crossed leaning against the frame. “You know eventually you’ll have to stop bargaining and start relying on all the nonsense you learned in med school.”

“I just don’t want to lose any patients.”

“There are going to be patients that you will not be able save.” He nods over towards the bed. “This guy has crashed like clockwork almost every six hours practically since he’s been here. And unless he wakes up within the next six he will more than likely crash again.” He looks up at the clock. “And you have until roughly 3 AM until you have to go through this all over again.”

“Nobody crashes like clockwork.”

“Well Red, take a look at his chart.”

Morgan cautiously picks up the chart and goes through it. Sure enough the chart shows Mr. Novak crashing twice a day. “Oh God.”

“If you’re going to pass out could you do it AFTER you put a catheter in Mr. McCarthy in bed 6?”

Morgan just nods letting out a squeak that sounds something like, “yes sir!”

“Fabulous!”

Morgan starts staring intently at Mr. Novak waving her hand back and forth.

As I tried to Jedi Mind Trick my patient into not dying I couldn’t help but wish I was out with my friends.

--xx--

Eddie and Adam are standing outside of an old warehouse. It’s a fairly short line as the guards are moving people along as quickly as possible. There was a fairly eclectic crowd around them as some are dressed very colorfully almost like ravers while some are dressed up like punks, some still were dressed like Eddie in a hip hop style.

“Strange group.”

“This is one of those clubs where they try to cater to more than one group. They alternate between playing typical rave music to hip hop and even some hardcore stuff. It’s a little bit for everyone.”

One of the guards sticks out his hand. “ID’s please!” Once he’s checked their ID’s another guy hands them each a bracelet and an envelope.

The two make their way inside the club and are met with another line.

Adam can’t believe it. “Is this Club Long Line or what?”

“Gotta check your keys in, it’s a way for them to cut down on drunk drivin’.” Eddie puts his bracelet on. “Basically in order to get out of here tonight only one of us can drink. You order a drink you get your bracelet taken away.” He takes out a pen and rights something down on the envelope. “I put both of our names on here. The key girl won’t give your key back if you don’t have your bracelet.”

“I won’t be drinking so we’re cool.”

“Good because I’m gettin’ drunk off my ass!” Eddie slips his keys into the envelope and hands it to a girl at a desk before they enter a large open room. Loud techno music is playing as lights flicker in various colors around the room. They slowly make their way to the bar and he sits down. “You can go out there if you want. I just like to visit my buddy Jose Cuervo before I do try to impress the ladies.”

“But I need you to watch my back.”

“You’ll be fine. I’m promise.”

Adam nods nervously before making his way out to the dance floor.

--xx--

Morgan is looking up at the clock as she checks an IV on a patient. The clock says that it’s 10:34.

The patient, an younger man with black hair notices this. “You’ve been in here twice in the past hour, both times you can’t stop looking at the clock. What gives?”

“Nothing, just wanna see what time it is.”

“You just want to get out of here don’t you?”

“More than you know.”

“Is it nerve wracking being a doctor?”

You know when most people ask you about being a doctor they usually phrase it like, “So how does it feel to be a doctor?” or “It must be great to be a doctor” or even “The pay must be fantastic!” This is the first time a patient had seemed to note that being a doctor wasn’t all about big money and a title.

Morgan takes a deep breath. “I’ve never been more scared in my life.”

“So what made you want to be a doctor in the first place?”

“I don’t know. I just kinda woke up one day and decided I wanted to be a doctor so I could help people.”

“So when you were in college you just decided pre-med?”

“No I decided this when I was probably around 4 or 5.”

“Really that’s weird.”

“Yeah my grandpa said that I was sick when-“ She’s interrupted by the sound of her phone going off to the tune of “Who Are You”. “Sorry I should get this.” She picks up the phone with a slightly more chipper attitude. “Hi Grandpa, did you need something? No? Okay. Me? I’m fine. No really I’m fine. Scared? Why would think that?”

“Because I’m standing right outside the door.” David pops into the room and hangs up the phone. “Hello MAL.” He holds up a paper bag. “Fish and chips just like your grandmother used to make. Good comfort food.”

“I won’t be getting around to eating it for at least another half hour.”

“S’alright. They have a microwave in ‘ere don’t they?”

“Yeah just leave it on the chair there and I’ll put in my locker when I’m done here.”

David clears his throat a little bit. “See you in the morning. I love you.”

“Love you too granddad.”

The patient looks up at her. “He’s very English.”

“Yeah I get that a lot.” Morgan follows her grandfather down the hallway. “Granddad wait up.”

David slows his walk and waits for her to catch up. “Yes?”

“I’m terrified. There’s this patient and he’s been coding a lot lately and I don’t know if I can deal with not being able to save him.”

“I’m not a doctor but I would think that if you were able to save everyone that would put things out of balance. I mean we watched the Lion King in the cinema together. Circle of Life and all that.”

“How can you be so…”

“Oh come MAL I’m not heartless. Don’t let this stuff get to you. If you can’t save someone then it just means it was their time.” David pats her on the shoulder. “I think you’ll be a great doctor so don’t worry about it.”

“What are you doing here?” Dr. Cox has just come out of a patient’s room.

“Just droppin’ off some dinner.” He looks at Morgan. “I made probably made enough for two you should share some with Dr. Cox here. I’m sure it beats take away or even the food down in the canteen.” He then leans down to her ear. “I mean that is what you do with boys you fancy right? You used to share your lunch with that one boy in the fourth grade. What was his name?”

Morgan puts on a fake smile and starts shoving David down the hallway. “He was just leaving! Say bye Granddad!” She drops the smile when they’re halfway down the hallway. “Don’t embarrass me in front of Dr. Cox.”

--xx--

Eddie is sitting at the bar with three empty shot glasses in front of him and one still in his hand.

“Eddie?” Adam is sitting on the stool next to him sipping on a bottle of soda. “Can we go out and mingle now? It’s been two hours?”

“I told you to go out and dance.”

“I can’t dance. Someone will make fun of me.” The song changes over to some Trance-like beat as the lights dim and strobe lights come up.

“Now you can dance! You don’t need to know how for stuff like this. Just jump up and down and flail. Now go find a nice raver girl.”

Adam slides off the stool with his bottle in his hand and gets lost in a sea of people.

“Bottle of Water please!”

Eddie turns his head to see a short and cute girl. His mouth drops as he studies her while she waits for her drink.

She’s dressed fairly strange with plaid strap pants with wide legs, a rainbow colored t-shirt, black arm warmers with colorful beads all up and down her arms as well as around her neck. Her short hair is spiked has chunks of purple and green all over in it while she wears purple lipstick and has two piercing in her eyebrows as well as several pairs of earrings.

The girl turns her head and notices Eddie staring at her. She grabs her bottle of water and walks up to him whispering, “take a picture Holmes, it’ll last longer.” She then disappears in the crowd leaving him alone at the bar.

“¡Ella debe ser la mía!”

--xx--

Morgan is in the on call room with her lunch. She looks up at the clock before opening the bag.

So it was a little after midnight and I was about to sit down and eat my dinner. I still had a couple of hours until doomsday and-

Just as she’s about to take a bite of her fish her pager goes off. She looks down at it. “No way.” She looks up at the clock. “But it’s-“ She sighs before jumping up from the bed and taking off down the hallway to Mr. Novak’s room. The only person in there is a nurse.

“Dr. Liddell he’s crashing again. His heart just stopped.”

Morgan takes a few deep breaths before. “Oh- okay. Crash cart.” The nurse calls for the cart and one is brought in. Morgan sets up the defibrillator. “Alright clear!” She shocks Mr. Novak but he shows no signs of life. “Again. Clear!”

As I struggled to save Mr. Novak the only thing I could think about was, “what if I can’t do it?” And after I tried for the “God only knows” time I knew I was about to find out.

“Red, that’s enough.”

Morgan drops the paddles and looks back at the doorway. “Just one more.”

“There’s nothing more you can do. Call it.”

“Time of death 12:24 AM.” She takes off her gloves and snaps them into the trash can before running out of the room making sure she doesn’t brush up against Dr. Cox. “I have to be alone and think. Where? I can’t go back to the On Call Room. He’ll probably look in a supply closet- The roof sounds good.” She notices she’s right next to the stairwell and throws open the door.

--xx--

Eddie looks up at the clock and notices it’s 12:30. He now has a couple more shot glasses in front of him and decides to go look for Adam.

Out on the dance floor the music has changed over to something with a more hip hop beat to it. After searching a few more minutes he spots Adam jumping up and down.

“Come on let’s go man!”

Adam shoves a piece of paper in his face with a phone number on it. “Check it out! I got a girls number!”

“Cool!”

Adam starts doing a celebratory dance. “Who’s the man? I’m the man!” He starts waving his hands in the air and his soda bottle comes flying out of his hands hitting someone in the back of the head. Adam continues to do his dance. “Oh yeah!”

“Dude! It’s just a phone number! Knowing how dorky you are she probably gave you a fake one.”

Adam shrugs before he’s grabbed by the collar of his shirt and is now face to face with tall muscular man dressed all in leather with a green Mohawk. “Uh… hi?”

The man shoves the soda bottle in his face. “This yours?”

“Uh… maybe?” The man drops the bottle as he rears back his fist. “Wait! Can’t we-“ The first connects right in the side of the face and the punk drops Adam.

Eddie rushes over to his side. “Adam? Adam! Can you hear me?”

Adam sits up looking a little wobbly and turns his head to Eddie. “I’m the Keymaster are you the Gate Keeper?” His eyes roll into the back of his head before he falls backwards again.

--xx--

Morgan is sitting up on the room with her back to the ledge. She has her knees up to her chest and her head resting on them.

I don’t know how long I’d been up on that roof. I just knew that someone had to be looking for my. My pager had gone off twice, not that I cared. I was starting to wonder if I was cut out to be a doctor.

“I paged you twice.”

Morgan looks up and sees Dr. Cox standing there. “Sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it. By intern standards it is a miracle of some sort that you haven’t lost a patient until now. Every intern learns sooner or later that you can’t save everyone. And you can’t go freaking out every time you lose a patient, you have to deal with it.”

“So I should just- what- move on every time a patient dies and not care?”

“You can care all you want, just remember that it doesn’t always come down to how good a doctor you are. Sometimes it just comes down to luck or faith or God.” Dr. Cox drops a brown bag in front of her. “Here’s your dinner, I’ll give you a half hour.”

Morgan opens the bag to see that everything is still warm and steaming. “I guess he cares.” She watches him open up. “Thank you.”

Dr. Cox doesn’t bother to turn around. “Yeah whatever. Eat up.” The door slams shut behind him.

Doomsday came and went but I dealt with it.

It’s now 10:04 AM and Morgan is walking out of the building. She spots Eddie and Adam (who has an ice pack on his eye) coming in.

And Adam dealt with the inevitable.

“What happened to him?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Adam hangs his head as Eddie helps him into the building. “I told you it was inevitable.”

“We’ll try again some other time. I guarantee you that you will have a good time.”

“I lost that girl’s number.”

“Dude you idiot! You’ll never see her again!”

“Adam?”

The two turn around to see the raver girl from the night club standing behind the admissions desk. Her hair is back in two pig tails devoid of any unnatural color, the piercings and freaky make up are gone and… she’s dressed in pink scrubs.

Eddie recognizes her. “You work here?”

“It’s my first day.”

Adam smiles. “Sarah this is Eddie. Eddie this is that girl I met last night.”

But some things just can’t be dealt with.

Eddie does his best to hide his disappointment. “Oh.”

xx-xx-x-xx-x-x-x-x-xx-x-xx-x---xx-x-x-x

I’m not particularly fond of his “episode” but I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things again.

NEXT EPISODE: Morgan confronts Jordan and Janitor tries to find a way to relieve his boredom.