Tangled Web, Epilogue
Perry couldn’t decide how long this thing with JD should last. He also kept asking himself if he should’ve let it happen at all, but the more he thought about it, the more sure he was that it would’ve happened eventually.
Over the last year, he’d spent many a drunken night wondering if Jordan and Elliot getting together was the only reason he had gotten with JD at all. He didn’t-wouldn’t-lie about it; the answer was an unequivocal yes. It wouldn’t have crossed his mind otherwise, not in the least.
To which he kindly told himself that he was so full of shit if that was the only reason. If it had been the only reason, he and JD wouldn’t still be together a year later.
As JD readied Jack for school and the nanny tended to Jenny, Perry pulled his jacket on. The winter this year was bitterly cold, though neither of them seemed to mind. It was all Jordan could complain about lately, it seemed.
“Newbie! Get a move on, you can be late all you want to for the sake of fashion, but some of us need to keep our manly image!” Perry snapped down the hallway.
Jack came barreling down the hallway, nearly running headlong into Perry and dodging the couch by a mere inch or so. He immediately hid behind said-couch, head peering above the back of it.
“What in god’s name…?” Perry trailed off, but then JD came out with Jack’s winter coat; a puffy dark blue monstrosity that Jack only had to wear on very cold days.
“It’s either this or the hat,” JD said firmly, holding up a fuzzy blue toboggan.
“Neither!” Jack said smartly, and yelped something awful when Perry grabbed him around the waist.
“Jack, you don’t want to get sick. Now pick one,” Perry ordered.
Jack sighed and finally pawed the toboggan from JD’s hand. At least he’d be able to move with the hat.
“Now get your lunch and Ivy will take you down to the bus,” Perry said, handing him his lunchbox.
JD raised an eyebrow. Usually, he or Perry walked Jack down with Jennifer in tow. He waved bye to Jack and Jennifer, who both received a kiss and hug from Perry.
“Not up to the bus stop today?” JD asked casually as he pulled a jacket on over his scrubs top.
“No.” Perry jerked him forward and kissed him soundly, feeling the initial stiffening of surprise, followed by the sweetly gradual relaxation that came after. He wrapped a hand against the side of JD’s neck, swiping his tongue quickly over the younger’s lips before he pulled away.
“What the hell was that for?” JD asked, absently handing Perry a briefcase.
Perry shrugged. “Have you seen your schedule yet?” He opened the door.
“You can’t figure something else out?”
“Couldn’t be helped. Barbie’s out for the week at a conference, Keith’s grandmother died yesterday and Lisa can’t do it by herself. Dr. Travis is a daytime only kind of guy, not to mention he sucks as a teacher.”
JD groaned, and shut the door. “In that case.” He grabbed Perry’s shirt and started heading back for the bedroom.
“Newbie, we don’t have time.”
“Like hell we don’t if I’m gonna be on for two weeks straight.” He kicked the door shut behind them and tackled Perry to the bed.
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JD smoothed his rumpled scrubs top, and tweaked his hair again as he viewed the chart in front of him. His shirt was hopelessly wrinkled (Perry’s fault) and his hair wasn’t holding up like it usually did (also Perry’s fault), but he at least knew he was good for a week or so on sex.
Carla took the signed chart and read over the orders, eyeing JD surreptitiously from behind it. “Rough morning?” she asked absently.
JD rolled his eyes at her. “Shove it,” he said cheerfully and took a new chart. “Oh, Ms. Callahan. Carla, get a psych consult.”
“How do you know she already needs one?” she asked witheringly, upset that JD wasn’t dishing the dirt.
“Well, she’s underweight, her BMI is low, and she’s in diabetic starvation. Just waiting now for the ketones to start showing up in her urine.” He took the chart and headed for the patient’s room.
Perry rounded the corner with the interns following behind him, scribbling notes as he talked.
Carla didn’t miss the way Perry glanced into Ms. Callahan’s room, explaining the woman’s acidemia and diabetic state. She also didn’t miss the way his eyes lingered on JD briefly before he went onto the next room.
She made a small smile to herself before returning to the paperwork. It looked like all was finally well.
The only exception being that Izzy had recently caught on to the new baby, Duncan, in the house, and she was most certainly not happy about it.
Turk came into the ICU for a surgical consult, and kissed his wife gently as he stopped at the desk. “What are you grinning about, baby?”
“Oh, nothing,” Carla said idly. “Just thinking about Izzy and Duncan.”
Turk noticed her gaze following an interaction between JD and Perry. “You know they’ve been hitting each other for like…a year now, right?”
Carla jumped and raised an eyebrow. “No, it’s only been six weeks!”
Turk snorted. “You’re blind, woman. They’ve been doing the nasty since Jordan and Elliot got together.”
“Jordan and Elliot-what?”
“You were pregnant for a while, baby. It’s okay.” Turk petted her hair, though he knew it’d win him diaper duty for at least a month.
“Don’t treat me like I’m crazy! I wasn’t that out of it, was I?”
Turk didn’t mention that Duncan’s pregnancy had been hard on Carla, the fatigue and all-day sickness worse than it had been with Izzy.
“It was pretty subtle,” Turk finally said just to make her feel better. “Don’t worry about it; it’s all good now.”
Carla harrumphed. “You’re not getting out of diapers.”
“I know, baby.” Turk sighed and headed for the surgical consult.
JD sat on the park bench, holding two-year-old Jennifer on his lap as she slept. The day was dimming, and Jack (or Perry, for that matter) didn’t seem ready to call it a day. They were both tangled up on the jungle gym (JD knew that Perry had to have taken gymnastics or dance at some point to twist like that) and still playing.
Jennifer slept quietly, having tired herself out on the swings and slides. She was still fairly quiet for her age, though she had begun to talk more after starting preschool.
Perry left Jack on the jungle gym, panting hard and apparently fairly tired himself. He came and sat down beside of JD, who scooted over a bit to allow him room. Perry didn’t seem to be having that today, however, and slid an arm easily over JD’s shoulders as they kept an eye on Jack.
“So we’re really doing this thing,” Perry asked absently as Jack did a particularly spectacular leap from the mid-bar of the gym.
“If you have to ask that a year later, maybe you should really think about this thing all together,” JD replied in the same absent tone, rocking Jenny when she seemed to wake for a moment.
She peered at her father, and then up at JD before falling asleep again.
“We should get them both back to Jordan’s,” JD remarked, and started to stand, but Perry held his shoulders down tightly.
“A few more minutes, Newbie,” Perry said quietly in a tone that made JD glance at him curiously. “Just because I can’t tell you the things you want to hear doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”
JD nodded quietly and leaned his head on Perry’s shoulder. “Yeah, we’re really doing this thing,” he finally said after a few quiet moments as the sky darkened further and the wind picked up.
Perry smirked and squeezed his shoulder. “Jack, come on! Time to go!”
Jack groaned at that; he was getting ready to try the top bar. Couldn’t his father see that?
“Why!” Jack whined back, scaling to the top of the jungle gym.
“Come on, Jennifer’s asleep and your mother wants you home by eight,” JD shouted up to him.
Jack glared, but recognized a lost cause. Even if it was stupid to go home just because Jennifer was a baby who couldn’t stay awake.
Perry held his arms out. “Come on, Jackster.”
Jack gleefully yelped and jumped from the bar and onto his father, who nearly staggered off his feet when he caught him. JD startled, which shook Jennifer, who gave them all a glare at being woken.
The drive back to Jordan’s was quiet, as Jack, for all of his teasing that only babies went to sleep before eight, had nodded off in the backseat.
Perry held the steering wheel loosely with one hand, the other resting on his leg. He looked at JD when the younger man slowly slid a hand in to twine with his fingers. Perry squeezed back gently, though the touch was intimate and unfamiliar to him.
There was no one he’d rather do it with.
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Elliot came out of Jennifer’s bedroom after having read her a story for bed. Jordan was waiting on the couch with a cup of coffee for both of them.
“Well, surprise, surprise,” Elliot said idly, sitting down beside of her. She took the coffee and sipped deeply, murmuring in pleasure at the much better tasting coffee than what the hospital usually had.
“Hey, I learned a few things being Perry’s wife. Like how awful hospital coffee is,” Jordan mentioned, allowing Elliot to slide into her side.
Elliot, however, jerked back up and stared at the coffee. “This is Perry-coffee then?”
“Oh relax. Perry liked the hospital coffee. He brought it home all the time.”
Elliot seemed to relax at that, and set the coffee down, leaning into Jordan’s side and wrapping her arms around her waist.
“You ever regret this?” Jordan asked quietly, balancing her chin on Elliot’s head.
“What a silly thing to ask,” Elliot muttered. “And you say I’m the needy one.”
Jordan tugged on her hair teasingly. “Seriously, after all the crap…do you ever regret it?”
Elliot breathed deeply, taking in Jordan’s smoky, heavy scent and the clean sweetness that lay underneath it. She kissed Jordan’s neck gently, and worked her way up to the older woman’s mouth, working her lips gently against the other’s.
“I never regret it when I stand up for what I really want,” Elliot replied. She kissed her again, running a hand through Jordan’s hair.
Jordan smiled against her mouth. “You’re such a cheeseball.”
“Satan.”
“Every day.” Jordan pulled her to her feet and slowly enveloped her into a warm hug. “Would you change me?”
“Undoubtedly,” Elliot replied with a teasing note in her voice, earning herself a swat to the back. “Joking!”
“So was I. It was a love tap,” Jordan scoffed, and kissed Elliot’s cheek. “Come on. Let’s go show you the difference.”
Elliot grinned at the warm pulse of arousal that flowed through her belly at that, and tagged along with Jordan to the bedroom.
Author’s Notes: That’s all she wrote, folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed this story as much I’ve enjoyed writing it. Many appreciative thanks go out to Quaxo, my most wonderfullest beta in the world who deserves tons of cookies and hugs and punching bags daily for having to put up with me and my OCD-schedule. Thanks to all of you kind readers and reviewers for stopping by, and we’ll see ya next time!
--Elise--