"She is," Santos again answered for me.
Doc nodded as if he’d expected nothing less but wanted to double-check, then turned his attention to the screen of the laptop mounted above the counter before addressing his patient.
"I'm assuming you've discontinued the cane?" At Santos' derisive snort, Doc continued on without comment. Santos had ditched that thing the first chance he'd gotten. "Well, let's get the shirt off and check the wound sites."
As Santos and Doc did their thing, I became the staring creeper. I had to drag my gaze from Santos' tattooed arms and torso since even the scars and weight loss didn't detract from the fact that he was fucking hot. Thankfully, neither of them was paying me any direct attention, and I managed to concentrate on the healing puncture wounds as they were revealed. The skin was pink and somewhat puckered; it would definitely leave more scars, but they looked like they were doing well to me. To Doc, too, it seemed.
"I think you're fine to resume normal activities, pending urine and blood tests," he declared after some poking, mobility tests, and more questions.
The darkly sensual stare Santos directed at me over his shoulder, out of sight of Doc, froze me to my chair. I might have spoken too soon about getting frisky if he got an all clear. Seemed like I’d have to put up or shut up.
I swallowed, equal parts worried and excited for what that look promised, and pulled my phone out to text Tony the good news to distract myself while Santos finished up.
"Miss Moretti...Eden," the doctor corrected, drawing my attention to him. "If you'd follow me to another room, I'll get the nurse to take care of you now and bump your appointment up. I'll move my lunch to later since you're already here."
Santos had tensed at the leaving part, and after hearing his concerns over me being out of his sight while we were away from the house, I decided not to make them worse. Besides, he'd asked me to stay for his, well, demanded, but still.
"I'm fine in here, Doc, nothing this one hasn't seen before," I quipped. Making light of the situation was my usual go-to when I was uncomfortable.
He nodded without argument and excused himself with the promise to be back after the nurse did her thing. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling the strain in the silence while we waited on her to appear.
“I don’t have to stay if you’d rather have some privacy. I can take the chair out in the hall, not like anyone can get into the room any other way.”
“It’s fine,” I reiterated with a shrug as I gathered my long black hair up into a bun to get it out of the way.
“It’s not if it’s making you uncomfortable, Eden. I wanted you to stay for me and my peace of mind. I can get that just fine from the hall.” He crossed his arms and stared me down, silently demanding the truth.
“Have it your way, Santos. You’re right. I’m not sure I want you in here in general, but I also don’t particularly care if you stick around. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but I’m neutral on the subject. There isn’t anything that’s going to be discussed or checked out that I wouldn’t relay later anyway, so in this instance, it’s a moot point.” I held my hands up, quirked my lips on one side, and raised my brows.
Our standoff was interrupted by the nurse, and Santos wisely chose to take a seat and shut up while she did her thing. I swore his gaze burned into me like a brand, but I refused to turn and look. Instead, I just sat there, hyper aware of his attention. I had stared at him though, so I figured fair was fair.
The doctor came in before the nurse finished with my blood pressure, so she quickly marked the results down in my chart and took her leave.
“Okay, so how is everything feeling? Any pain or other concerns?” he asked as he reviewed the screen with my chart on it.
“Good, for the most part. My ribs hurt if I wear a bra for too long or exert myself too much. Regular pain relievers help, and I don’t push it. The bruising is gone, and so is the red crap in my eyes. I even got my license, so my vision must be fine too since they didn’t say I needed glasses to drive.”
He congratulated me on that last bit, but he didn’t crack a smile like I’d been aiming for.
“I’ll want a full work-up with a blood draw and urine sample and new scans to make sure everything healed properly.” He typed on the laptop, presumably putting the orders in and taking notes, then snapped a pair of gloves on. “If you lie back and pull your shirt up, I’ll examine your ribs.”
I pulled my hoodie over my head and tossed it to Santos before stretching out on the table and rolling my tank top up to just under my bust while the doc pulled the foot extender thing out so I could lay my legs down. Both me and Doc glanced toward the corner of the room at Santos’ noise of surprise.
“Don’t mind me, didn’t realize you had that,” he said, gesturing to the tattoo across my abdomen. I hadn’t thought about him not knowing about it yet. Honestly, I was shocked that the others had kept their mouths shut other than vague teasing. Which, come to think of it, was probably not helping the poor guy’s irritation.
I shrugged and didn’t comment. Doc took my cue and ignored it as he began pushing and poking in seemingly random spots with the same questions, over and over. When he was finally satisfied, and my ribs were on the tender side, he helped me sit up then went to dispose of his gloves and wash his hands.
“Nothing feels off from what I can tell, but you probably need more time to heal. You’re still taking the vitamins I prescribed, right?” At my nod, he made more notes and continued. “It could be that you weren’t in the best of health before the incident, but the scans will either confirm that you’re on the right track, or we’ll find something else that needs to be addressed. Moving on—I want to refer you to a specialist for a general visit and an ultrasound of your bladder and reproductive organs. I’m not well versed in that area and would like to cover all the bases before you become sexually active again.”
“Geez, Doc, you just want to foist me off to avoid getting charged,” I teased at the same time Santos snapped at me.
“Eden!” was all he managed before I stopped him with a glare, not appreciating his sharp tone in the least. Or his intention to be a damn tattletale.
With a groan, Doc ignored my teasing, waiting expectantly for Santos to continue. When he didn’t, he turned that look on me.
“I didn’t know,” I told them both and shrugged. “No one said I couldn’t have sex!”
Doc blinked twice then took it in stride, much as I imagined he had to do on a regular basis with his line of work and employer. "Refraining wasn’t explicitly recommended. I had assumed that you might be hesitant to engage in or would have pain with intercourse.”