Missing Pieces

Mark

A/N: You will need to read Fanboy before you read this one shot.

Justin Bieber was in his office.

To be fair, it wasn't really an office. It was once a supply closet and his colleagues never let him forget it. "So good to see you out of the closet, Mark," someone would inevitably say at every staff meeting. It was enough to make even the most confident straight man feel a little defensive in front of guests, though he knew better than to react.

That was what he got for being the youngest in the department though. After finishing his residency, Mark was just glad to have a job, let alone an office of his own in one of the most prestigious Neurology departments in the country. Not all Fellows could say that. To make matters worse, he was the youngest Neurology Fellow they'd ever had. Overachievers always had to put up with more than their share of teasing.

Still, seeing Justin Bieber in his closet - office - was more than Mark was prepared to handle. The cryptic phone call from his mentor, now a private concierge physician who was more interested in touring with celebrities than taking on new patients, was starting to make sense.

"I've got a tough one for you," Dr. Lyman had warned. "They're on the way now. I'll send the labs right away."

"I'm in the middle of rounds," Mark had protested.

"I guess you'd better run then," was all his mentor had said.

"Dr. Mark Burton," Mark introduced himself to Justin first only because Justin stood up as soon as he walked into the room.

"Please call me Justin," he clearly didn't need to introduce himself. "This is Cole Stryder, my newest client. Dr. L said you were the best so here we are."

"Hi, I'm Dr. Burton," Mark turned to Cole. He looked to be somewhere around 18-22 years old and though he was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, like so many of the patients Mark saw, he definitely looked like a celebrity for reasons that were almost too many to list. Maybe it was the expensive haircut, the tan that was a little too even, manicured hands or expensive watch. It could have easily been the way he acted around Justin, as if the man were just another adult in his life and not the cultural icon he was. "You can call me Mark if you'd like."

"I'd rather never see you again," Cole sounded like every teenage boy Mark had ever met, but his hand shook as he reached out to shake hands with Mark.

"Don't take this personally, but I hope you don't have to," Mark was glad when the department's staff assistant rushed in with his tablet and three bottles of sparkling water. "So how can I help?"

"We're hoping you can tell us that. Cole's set to release his first album soon and he'll be opening for my son Dax, uh, Maddox, on their first international tour so we thought we were getting a little check up. Dr. L said he found something..." Justin looked confused and trailed off. "Honestly, it was a formality, I thought? But, uh, it sounds...permanent, maybe?"

"Okay, well let's take a look at the labs he sent," Mark sat down at his desk and motioned for Justin to sit too. His office had never seemed so dark or dingy before. It was a bit humiliating, really.

"Are you even old enough to be a doctor?" Cole huffed. "You look like you're my age."

"It says here you're 18?"

"19 next week."

"Happy Birthday. I'm 24 so, yes, I'm young, but I'm not too young," Mark scanned the results in front of him. Everything looked normal. All the results were good, exactly what you'd expect in a healthy 18-year-old guy. So what was the issue?

"So, what, you graduated early?" Cole was still glaring at him.

"I did, I finished high school when I was 14, college at 17, medical school by 20 and just finished my residency here. I'm in my first year of a two year neuromuscular care fellowship and..." Mark stopped talking when his eyes landed on the reason Cole was in his office. It was buried in the genetic testing results but he knew right away why his mentor sent Cole to him.