Lost Scrubs
Act 1, Scene 1
We open on the plane, with everyone boarding. Hurley rushes past Walt and grins, Walt grins back. Jack is stowing his luggage in the overhead compartment. He catches Locke's eyes. They nod to each other in greeting.
We move up the plane, about three or four rows behind Locke, and there we encounter JD, Turk and Carla. JD is struggling with a packet of airplane peanuts.
TURK: Dude, how did you even get those? We haven't taken off yet.
JD raises a finger in an 'ah ha!' way and produces a small bag, which he unzips to reveal bag after bag of airplane peanuts.
CARLA: Oh my God…
JD: (proudly)I like to keep my nuts with me at all times.
A hand appears over the back of his seat. JD sighs and high-fives it. We hear the usual sound effect.
JD: Todd, I thought you were afraid of flying.
We pan backwards to the next row. The Todd is sitting with his legs clutched into his chest.
TODD: High…high…too high…
TURK: Todd man, we haven't taken off. Besides, aircraft travel is the safest mode of transportation in the world. Nothing's gonna happen.
We pan across from Todd. Ted is sitting beside him.
TED: We're all doomed.
CARLA: Ted, c'mon. Turk's right. Plane travel is safe.
TED: We're on a plane?
A bag is thrust into the overhead compartment above them. The gang look up to see Dr. Cox wearing his usual just-about-to-blow expression.
JD: (voice-over) Dr. Cox was kinda mad that the medical conference made him miss his son Jack's second birthday.
We cut to Sacred Heart Hospital and Dr. Kelso delivering the news to Dr. Cox (no dialogue). Dr. Cox pauses for a long moment and then-
We cut to outside Sacred Heart, as all the windows in the hospital explode outwards simultaneously.
End-of-fantasy flash back to the plane. Everyone watches Dr. Cox as he takes a look around at the plane, curls his lip in disgust, and sits down beside Ted and Todd. Only now does he appear to register who his seating companions are. Another look of absolute contempt escapes him, before he appears to shrug it off, and finally he lays his head back on the seat and closes his eyes.
JD: (whispers, to Turk and Carla) Whoah. For a minute there I thought he was gonna-
He trails off and looks up. Dr. Cox's head is directly above him, eyes wide, teeth bared.
JD: (terrified) Uh…hey, Perry. Looking forward to the flight?
Turk and Carla wince at the unwise use of 'Perry'.
DR. COX: Well gee whiz Sally let's see. When I was just a little nipper I composed a special fairyland wish list of things I have to do before I please God shuffle off this mortal coil and right up there at the top was spend fourteen hours on a plane with the shallow end of the human gene pool, so yes Newbie, I'm tremendously thrilled at the prospect of this flight but here's the only thing – if I have to sit here and listen to you rustle open each and every damn one of those bags of peanuts like I know you're just dying to do I will rejoice in performing some not quite necessary in-flight surgery on your spleen. Do I make myself just peachy crystal clear?
TODD: (retches)Todd gonna blow…
DR. COX: Use this.
TED: Not my bush hat…!
Noisy sounds of the Todd evacuating his stomach. Ted looks on sadly. Everyone else looks a little nauseated themselves, except for Dr. Cox, who simply reclines back in his seat again.
DR. COX: I have fourteen hours to visualise Bob Kelso's grisly demise and as we all know that's not nearly long enough to devote to that particular topic, so please, don't break my concentration. Let's just get through this damn flight with no drama…
Everyone seems to accept this. JD sadly zips up his bag of peanuts, settles back in his seat and affixes the standard-issue plane headphones. We hear a Spanish voice begin to warble and JD's eyes close.
JD: (voice-over) Looks like it's just you and me now, Julio Iglesias…
Act 1, Scene 2
The world swims into focus for us, and we find ourselves looking up at treetops and an azure sky.
JD: (voice-over) I'm dreaming...I'm having a waking dream. But there's something missing…
A blurred figure appears above us. As we slowly focus in, it's revealed to be Julio Iglesias.
JULIO: Senor Dorian, the crowd are baying for you. I don't know how much longer I can hold them with my Spanish rhythms!
JD: (voice-over, relieved) Ahh, there it is.
End-of-fantasy flash to a closed eye. It opens. It belongs to JD. We pull back slowly to see his face, and his hand as he rubs his bruised temple. There's a cut on his left cheek. He touches the blood and looks confused, before getting unsteadily to his feet.
He's standing in a small clearing in a forest, grass rising to his knees. There are sounds in the distance.
JD: Hello? What happened? Turk? Carla? Dr. Cox?
He begins to move toward the sounds, slowly at first, but with increasing speed, until he's in a flat-out run through the trees, until…
JD / JACK: Whooaf!
…he and Jack collide in mid-run, thumping to the forest floor. JD gets up woozily for the second time in as many minutes.
JD: Who are you?
JACK: Who are you?
The sounds in the distance are much closer now, and one is unmistakably a woman screaming, over and over again. JD and Jack exchange a look and then begin to run again.
JD: (voice-over) I didn't know where I was, why I was here, or where I was running to…I only knew one thing: that people needed help. (pause) and that whoever he was, he ran as gracefully as an ocelot…
They burst from the trees and emerge onto the beach, and we pan around their faces as both men take in the scene of chaos and carnage. Both stand speechless for a few seconds, until –
DR. COX: Newbie, get your ass over here! Now!
Cox is kneeling between two prone figures. JD tumbles over to join him.
DR. COX: Guy on my left just stopped breathing. Girl on my right has severe internal bleeding and a punctured lung.
JD: Got it.
He begins artificial respiration on the man.
JACK: I'm a doctor too.
DR. COX: These two won't be the only ones. Go.
Jack nods and moves off. We follow him as he runs across the beach, past the still-working engine as its ominous whine builds up and dies off repeatedly. We see Todd and Turk working on another body, and Carla tending to the very pregnant Claire.
CARLA: Honey, you've got to move.
CLAIRE: I can't! I…the baby…if I move the baby could be at risk…
CARLA: Listen, I'm a nurse and normally you're right I wouldn't ask you to, but it's just that I don't want that big bit of airplane hanging above our heads to fall on us. Being horribly crushed into a pulp can sometimes put a pregnancy at risk too.
Claire looks up and sees the huge bit of fuselage swinging and creaking, ready to drop. She struggles to her feet, Carla supporting her.
CARLA: Attagirl.
There's a shouting from nearby. A man, dazed, is walking right in front of the still-active engine.
JACK: Stop!
Jack sprints to him and knocks him aside an instant before the powerful suction of the engine would have pulled him to his death.
TED: (muffled, beneath him) Oh thanks. Thanks a lot…
Another dazed man walks toward the engine. This time there's nothing Jack can do but scream a warning before it's too late – the man is sucked to oblivion and the engine explodes in a massive fireball arcing over the beach, sending everyone not already on the ground tumbling.
JD and Cox are the first we see to look up. JD seems stunned.
DR. COX: Hey (whistles) snap out of it, Sue Ellen! We're still sucking air but there's a guy right next to you who definitely won't be unless you quit the guppy fish impressions and get back to work!
It works. JD resumes the artificial respiration.
JD: (voice-over) Even at times like this, Dr. Cox found the strength to rise above it and think of others.
We pan over to Dr. Cox as he works feverishly to stabilise the girl. There's a flash and we're transported to his son's birthday party, with Dr. Cox helping him blow out the candles. He grins with pride as little Jack manages it.
End-of-fantasy flash. We can see the pain in Cox's eyes.
JD: (voice-over) How does he separate himself like that…?