One Minute Off
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Nothing at all.
It was a cold and snowy 5 A.M when I started driving home. I was so excited about tomorrow, because I would finally be a full fledged doctor. I had moonlighted with about three different people, so I was tired. I decided to get a coffee at Tim Horton's before I headed to bed (I don't know why, I just felt like having one, okay!). I got to one of the many intersection's with a Tim Horton's on it, when this car took a very sharp turn too fast and barely missed me. Just when I had turned my head around to look forward again, a car following it, crashed into me, head on. The steering wheel crashed so hard into my stomach that it felt like all of my organs weren't there. Blood started to come out of my mouth uncontrollably. My vision went black. I heard a horn until my hearing went. Then, my head dropped hard against something. And then, nothing.
"Barbie, where is Amanda? He was supposed to be here an hour ago." Dr. Cox yelled at the Nurse's Station where Elliot was leaning.
"I don't know Dr. Cox. It wasn't my turn to watch him." she said, not even looking up from her charts.
"When she gets here, tell her not to show her face to me." Then Dr. Cox turned and went to check on his other patients.
When Dr. Cox was driving home, he passed the same intersection where my car had crashed. He pulled over and stared at the car for a moment, making sure that he wasn't hallucinating.
'That's JD's car.' he thought. Then he ran over to see if I was inside.
"Oh my God, Newbie. What happened?" He said through the broken window. When I didn't respond, he pulled the door off it's hinges. He tried to pull me out, but the steering wheel had me placed to tightly against the seat. He checked the pulse on my neck to see if I was still alive. My head lolled to my left shoulder and that worried Dr. Cox extremely.
"Newbie. Come on Newbie. I know you're alive." Cox started to gently tap my face, trying to wake me up. My eyes opened, but only half-way.
I looked up at him and tried my best to smile, but it just ended in pain.
"Newbie, don't do anything unless I tell you. Okay? Blink once for yes, twice for no." I blinked once. "Okay, just hold still while I figure out how I'm going to get you out of there." With that statement, I tried to keep my body from shaking. After a minute of thinking, he had it. "Alright, JD, I'm going to first, call 911, and then I'm going to get you out of here." He went away, I heard him talk, and then he came back. "You're still alive, right." I blinked once. "Good."
He gripped my shoulders and turned them towards the door, until I started groaning, almost screaming, with pain. "Now," he started, "I'm going to pull you out of the door, so it's going to hurt a lot. I just want to you hold on as long as you can. Do you understand?" I blinked once, again.
He pulled this time, and I started yelling as soon as he started. "I'm sorry." he said, when we were both on the ground, my head in his lap. "I didn't mean to cause you this pain. Just anything to get you out of there. Newbie keep your damn eyes open!" I did my best to open them wider. As the snow was falling on my face, it was getting harder and harder to keep them open. "Look, John, I know that you're tired. But please, just hang on." Just then, Dr. Cox was illuminated by red and blue lights. The next thing I know, I was being lifted onto a gurney and taken into an ambulance.
"Dr. Cox," I said, as loud as I could.
"John, save your energy. You're going to need it."
"Dr. Cox," I repeated. "Thank you."
"For what?" he asked.
"For being a father." and then, I closed my eyes.
Cox started to panic, "John? Johnathan! Johnathan, wake up! You are not leaving." He grabbed the shockers from off of the wall, and charged up. "Clear!" Nothing. "Clear!" Nothing. "Clear!" Nothing. And then, for the first time, Dr. Cox cried. He called it at 11:59 pm. One minute and I would have been a doctor. One minute and I could've been remembered as Dr. Dorian. But, I guess not. I'm going to be a stupid intern forever more. And if there's anything I've learned since being dead, it's that Dr. Cox has been, and always will be there for me, whether I'm actually there or not.
P.S. Stay safe. Be careful on the slippery roads during winter. I've lost one too many family members during winter because of car accidents, and I don't need anyone else dying because of it.
Short Moose