“Oh Baby.” She offered softly. “I am not leaving your side. In fact I’m calling my Father’s driver to come get us when this is over.” With that announcement she whipped out her cell phone.
“I thought you weren’t speaking to your parents?” I was dumbfounded.
“I’m not. But I have use of their driver which makes sense since I won’t go see them to pick up my weekly check.” Josie explained. “They just send the driver over with it to the town house they bought me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well I need it to get around to all of my meetings.” Josie was so sincere and so delusional.
“Your parents support you?” I was at a complete loss.
“Of course I couldn’t very well be expected to have a ‘job’ not with all of the important work I have to do!” Josie answered with a smile.
“Put that away.” A very familiar alto voice commanded. I snapped my head around to see Nicole dressed in pale blue hospital scrubs and a long white lab coat with her hair pulled back in a French braid. “The cell phone.” Nicole insisted. “Turn it off. Apparently you missed the signs hanging everywhere explaining the dangers of using a cell phone in a hospital. Now put it away before you kill someone.” Reluctantly Josie complied as she gave Nicole an icy stare. Nicole was unaffected she simply smiled at me. “Miss. Grant I’m Dr. Kendell.” She smiled.
“I’m Josie Stendorf. Stephanie’s partner.” Josie announced boldly.
“No you’re not.” I shouted. “This is our first date.” I looked to Nicole for help. Suddenly I reached up and grabbed her by her lab coat and drew her down to me. “Make her go away. Please. She’s crazy. Nicole she has issues.” I pleaded. Nicole chuckled softly as she pulled herself away.
“Miss. Stendorf.” Nicole began in a very professional tone. “I am very familiar with Stephanie and she needs to do this on her own.” Josie opened her mouth to speak but Nicole quickly cut her off. “She has issues with privacy and apparently self assertion.” At the last part she cast a glance in my direction. Turning back to Josie she touched her gently on the arm. “You understand that it is very important for her to do this on her own?” Josie’s eyes widen with a sudden understanding.
“Oh yes of course.” Josie leaned over me and patted my shoulder in sympathy. “Call me I have some groups that could help you.”
And then Josie was finally gone for good I prayed. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay one scary date taken care of now let’s take of you.” Nicole smiled brightly. “First I need to ask you something …”
“I swear she seemed perfectly normal when she asked me out.” I protested.
“That’s not what I was going to ask you.” Nicole laughed as she shook her head. “I was going to ask you if you would feel more comfortable with another physician?”
“No.” I answered honestly.
“Good.” Nicole smiled. “Now put on the Johnny and I will be right back.”
“But …” I began to protest.
“No buts.” Nicole chastised me. “Put it on and I’ll be right back.”
“Rats.” I grumbled.
Once I was clad in the flimsy hospital gown Nicole returned carrying a clipboard. “Okay what happened?” Nicole placed the clipboard down and put on a pair of rubber gloves. She gently removed the ice pack and began to examine my knee. “We were roller blading along the Charles when Josie said something stupid. It caught me off guard and I fell.”
“Hmm.” Nicole said thoughtfully. She opened the back of the hospital gown and examined my back and then took a quick look at my head. “Did you hit your head at all?”
“No.”
“Lose consciousness at anytime?” She asked as she began to clean my knee with disinfectant.
“Ouch. No.” I answered.
“Raise your leg.” I obeyed. “Wiggle your toes.” I followed her instructions. “Any nausea?”
“Nope.”
“Dizziness?” She asked as she shined a penlight in my eyes.
“No.”
She returned the light to the pocket of her coat and retrieved her clipboard. “Are you on any prescription or none prescription drugs? Any allergies?”
“No and no.” I snarled.
“Did you drink any alcohol today?”
“Not yet.”
Nicole chuckled at me. “All right. We’re almost finished. It looks pretty superficial. We just need some x-rays just to be on the safe side.”
“Oh man.” I groaned.
“Just a precaution Stephanie.” Nicole was very reassuring. “I need to ask before you go down and they will probably ask you again but is there any chance you could be pregnant?” I just rolled my eyes and stared at her in disbelief. “I have to ask.” She explained.
“Well let’s see in the past three months I have only come close to having sex with one person and although your sister claims to have many skills I doubt that is one of them.” I teased causing Nicole to blush.
“I see.” She cleared her throat. “I’ll leave it to you to break the news to her on that one. Speaking of which …” I held my breath as I waited for her to finish her thought. “I can’t tell anyone about this. As your doctor I cannot even mention that you where here. Not to my sister not to anyone. As a patient you have rights. So this entire afternoon is Entre Nous.” I stared at her blankly. “Between us.” She explained. “Anything you tell me is confidential. I just needed you to know that.”
“I understand.” I sighed with relief. “Fortunately there is nothing to tell. There is one thing I would like to ask you. When Haven first hired me, I started on their insurance plan. I don’t really care for my doctor. He did a lot of unnecessary tests.”
“He didn’t cross the line did he?” Nicole questioned me the anger evident in her tone.
“No.” I reassured her. “He just tested me for everything. Like a pregnancy test even though I had explained that I had my period twice since the last time I had sex. He also tested me for every STD under the sun. Which is fine but I have already had all of those tests. I didn’t know if it was University policy or what?”
“No.” Nicole explained flatly. “Who is your doctor?”
“Dr. Fink.”
“Arthur Fink?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay off the record as your friend get another doctor. He is known for running tests just to pad his bills to the insurance company.” Nicole explained. “Which is odd since he sucks as a diagnostician. Ally has the same HMO as you do. Her doctor is fabulous, Dr. Martha Chang she is who I would recommend.”
“I tried to get her but she wasn’t accepting any new patients.” I explained. “I have always felt more comfortable with a woman.”
“She has privileges here. I could talk to her if you like?” She offered as her pager went off she looked at it and scowled. “I’ll see when you back from x-ray.”
“Thanks Nicole.”
When I returned from having my knee x-rayed from every possible angle I quickly got dressed and waited. Nicole finally returned. “Well it seems that all you have is a really big boo boo.” Nicole smiled. “Just sign here and take these to the cashier and you are free to go.”
“Thank God.” I sighed as signed the paperwork and accepted my copies. “So is boo boo a technical term?”
“Absolutely.” Nicole grinned. “You might want to put some ice on that knee when you get home. Speaking of which how are you getting home?”
“I have Allison’s car.” I explained guiltily.
“That’s right she’s in New York.” Nicole added without missing a beat. “Well take it easy and I’ll see you on Thanksgiving.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t tell she hasn’t invited you?” Nicole groaned. I just shook my head in response. “Big dumb Amazon. Well I’m inviting you.”