Part One

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If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom

all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have

a faith that can move mountains, but have not love,

I am nothing.

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“John?” Jing Mei called down the hallway corridor. “Can you take this abdominal pain in Exam 2?”

Carter rolled his eyes. “Deb!” he exclaimed. “ Deb, Deb, Deb.” He shook his head slowly.

“What?” Jing Mei asked looking up from the chart she was carrying. She eyed the brown-eyed, brown-haired doctor. She still didn’t quite understand why she answered to that name.

Well, when John called her that. He did it just to aggravate her.

“Deb, I’m done for the night. Finito!”

“Aw, come on John! Weaver’s killing me tonight. I’m running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off!” she pouted.

He continued to shake his head.

Jing Mei didn’t know what to do. Ever since she came back, well, forced her way back into County, everything was going to hell. Weaver and she finally had an understanding that they would not allow their differences to get in the way of medical care, although, sometimes she wondered if Keri intended on keeping up her part of the truce. Like tonight, Weaver had been yelling at the top of her lungs, again, and handed her four separate charts.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Jing Mei exclaimed sarcastically.

“Hey, if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime!” she deadpanned and hobbled away on her crutch.

The thought just made her cringe. “Come on John, just one measly patient! Keri’s got it in for me tonight. I’m almost done my shift too. But at the rate I’m going, I won’t be done for another hour or two.”

John had always had a soft spot for Jing Mei. She knew it. Why else would he be her labor coach? It wasn’t the most glamorous job, and plus he had just gotten off a double shift.

John gave in and nodded his head. As he took the chart, Jing Mei sighed in relief. “John, you’re a lifesaver!” she exclaimed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. When she pulled away, from the innocent peck on the cheek, John’s wide eyes explained everything.

Jing Mei always had to laugh at John and his ego. Lately his love life had been the talk of the ER. He’d just broken up with Susan Lewis, an older doctor whom she’d respected while being a med student. She never understood his choices in women. Since she’d come back to County a year and a half ago, Jing Mei had been catching up on all the news of the ER soap opera.

Sometimes she was glad that she was never part of the drama that was the ER’s love life. Not that Jing Mei really ever had one.

Why bother?

That had always been her excuse anyway. She was a smart sexy woman and had everything ahead of her. What did she need with love? It just complicated things. Always.

“John, get over it. You may be the Don Juan of nurses and the older doctors in this ER, but it was just a thank you,” she chuckled and walked away.

» * »

John watched as Deb walked away towards Curtain 3. He looked over his chart and assessed the possible problems. “This should be quick.”

It had been a long day. John was ‘trying’ to get over Susan Lewis, by the accounts and whispers of the nurses in County. The thought made him laugh. He didn’t quite know what to make of it. He had been visibly upset, but in Susan’s opinion, not because they broke up.

John didn’t know what to make of it. Susan was right, he wasn’t really upset. It just seemed like something inevitable. His relationships had the lifespan of a gnat. Part of him didn’t quite understand it himself, his inability to make any of his relationships work.

For all his knowledge of the medical field and how to heal people physically, he didn’t quite know how to heal his spirit. So many things in his life had made him the man he was today: his parents, his brother’s death, Grams, Chase, the stabbing…

John headed to Exam 2.

Forget the self examination. I just want to get out of here.

Please R&R! I hope you guys like it. Keep in mind that it is my first Jinter fanfiction. Be kind!