Page 43

DON’T WORRY, I’M A DOCTOR

SYDNEY

As soon as the stupid coaching lecture ends, I stand up, looking at Huck as I gather my shit. The other guys are still quiet, which surprises me a little. I clear my throat, not meeting their eyes as I say, “Huck is coming along to the infirmary, so I’ll see you upstairs in a bit?”

When my eyes skitter upward, I see Thad nodding. He’s not looking at me like I’m the odd person out, and I’m grateful. Rory and the other two do some sort of dude thing with their eyebrows at Huck, but he ignores them to offer me his arm.

“Ready, sweet pea?”

Normally, I’d balk at his chivalry, especially when I’m feeling less than strong, but the small spotting from earlier must have increased during class. I’m cramping pretty badly, and it honestly aches to stand upright. So I grit my teeth and take his arm with a fake smile, letting the demon lead me up the stairs of the hall and into the corridor. “Thanks,” I mumble as we start towards the main wing.

He pats the hand on his arm lightly, not saying anything as we walk at a slow pace through the classroom hallway. You wouldn’t know anything is wrong by his posture or expression, and I add some points to his mental tally. I don’t even want to discuss this unwelcome visitor with my team, much less some dill hole from one of the other teams. Listening to them answer questions and act like unruly high schoolers in the class was bad enough. Having one of the unenlightened dudes milling around us start shit about a normal biological function would send me over the deep end, I fear.

Not that it takes much, especially lately.

Huck opens the door for me as we exit the education wing to the main area, and I sigh in relief. “I think it’s this way, right?” Pointing across the atrium to a set of doors diagonal from us, I squint up at my escort. Hopefully, that ingrained spatial memory of his is working because I didn’t pay enough attention when we were being shuffled around on arrival.

“Yep. That section has all the medical and administrative offices, I believe.” He winks at me, obviously realizing I haven’t mapped this giant eyesore of a building yet. “It’s not like you to skip over knowing your surroundings on day one, Syd.”

He’s right; being unemerged forced me to develop a lot of habits to help keep my ass unharmed while moving around Tempest Seven. Not memorizing every inch of this place as if my life depends on it—and it might—is a huge failing on my part. I chalk it up to having to learn to live with a bunch of people in my space and continually getting smacked with reality I had no concept of before being sent to this circus. It’s thrown me off my game and I need to get my shit together before I pay for my distraction.

“After we eat and get this stupid ass homework done, we’ll work on it together. You’re the best at it, anyway.” I grin a little, ignoring the radiating pains from my gut as we enter the double doors to the correct wing. “Will you help me, pardner?”

His face lights up at my request, especially because I teased him. “Sydney Jolie, I would gladly help you learn to walk over hot coals if you asked.”

I frown, giving him a pinched expression. “You’re a demon, Huck. You can walk over hot coals with zero issue, I bet. That’s not saying a damn thing.”

“Sounded pretty, though, didn’t it?” He puffs up a bit and I laugh softly at his antics. He’s purposely keeping my mind off my situation, so I think he’s realized I’m hurting. “But if it makes you feel better, I’d let you wear my hat and put pink sparkly bows on my horns if you asked. How’s that?”

That sounds like a lot of fun—not that I want to admit it.

My eyes dance as I look up at him when we stop at the door to the infirmary. “I’ll hold you to that, Huckleberry Monroe. Don’t play with me.”

Leaning back a little, the devilish demon smirks and pulls his hat off, plopping it on my head. “Cross my black heart and hope to be exorcised. Now get in there and see this doctor before I decide to find a use for those ribbons you’re not ready for.”

My eyes widen and I squeak, making me want to die of embarrassment on the spot. Hurrying inside, I head directly to the desk, looking at the witchy nurse from our medical inspection when we first got here. “I… uh. I need to see the doctor, please.”

Her eyes narrow behind a pair of black wire rimmed glasses. “Name and team?”

“Sydney Jolie, Team Bite Club,” I reply quickly, not wanting to look back at Huck after that flirty exchange.”Is there a wait?”

I don’t see anyone else in the small waiting area, but this isn’t the same place they checked us out back then, so I have no idea how many patient rooms there are. The inspections were done in quickly thrown together suites and this feels like a real medical office. I guess the people responsible for running this joint have been busy while we’ve been getting orientated. The nurse shakes her head, bringing my focus back to her as she clicks at a tablet on a stand in front of her.

“No. Dr. Moreau is here this evening and he’s very efficient. There’s rarely a wait when he’s working. Follow me, but your friend has to wait here.”

Huck frowns, about to protest when I hold my hand up. “That’s fine. He has excellent hearing, so if I need him, it won’t be long before he comes for me.”

“Hmmph,” the nurse says as she rises from her chair to grab a well-protected tablet from a charging station. “If you say so.”

I follow her down a short hallway to a door labeled ‘four’ and when she opens the door, it looks exactly like a normal exam room. They’ve been busy as fuck in this place and I’ve been too worried about my own shit to notice. She points to the exam table, then walks over to pull out a smock. Once she lays it out, she hands me the thick cased tablet with another squint.

“Fill out everything on this. Then change into the gown and push the button by the door so we know you’re ready. Make sure you don’t forget or fake any information—doing so might lead to bad diagnosis and treatment which can disqualify you from the Games and possibly open you up to punishment.”

Blinking at her, I take the device and watch her leave without another word. Of course I realize that the government fucks who run this place don’t want bad PR, but punishment for fucking up a form is a new low. Though I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. They think of us like widgets in their asset portfolio or show ponies. Messing up our health would decrease both our value and the value of our team.

I hate this fucking timeline.

I blow out a slow breath, calming my nerves as I sit on the edge of the table and work through the questions on the screen. I do the best I can with what information I have; it’s not like I had time to bring medical records when they did the Sweeps and I haven’t had to see a doc since I got here. That’s probably why I’m here now, though my understanding is this is happening about a year early. Hopefully, this is good enough for the doctor and what he needs to get me fixed up.

Once I’m done, I take off my uniform and fold it neatly on the chairs across from the table. I feel gross being this naked when I’m on my period, and it’s cold as fuck in here, but it’s not like I have an option. I have to get this taken care of before I make any decisions about my body while I’m here. Plus, I really need to make sure I don’t smell like a fucking buffet to a bunch of species slinking around this damn building. That’s the number one goal, to be honest, because while I can keep my legs closed on my own, I can’t control their noses.

Walking over to the door, I push the big green button and move back to the exam table. Hopping on it, I groan softly. I don’t know that I’ve ever had cramps this bad before and I don’t like it at all . I feel heavy and smelly and really irritable—none of which are good for my temper. Lying back against the slanted back of the table, I sigh as I look up at the bright lights on the ceiling. Being a female is a certified pain in my ass sometimes, and men do not have the slightest clue how much work it is just to exist some days.

“It’s you!”

I turn my head, looking over at the centaur as he enters, kicking the door shut behind him with his hind leg. His expression is happy, but it turns to a frown when he looks at the tablet I left on top of my clothes. He’s scanning the information quickly as he moves closer, and I should feel apprehensive, but I don’t. This doctor removed the Marker and I’ve wanted to know why ever since. I’m lucky this damn birth control failed on the night he’s working. If I believed in such a thing, I’d say it was kismet.

But I don’t, so I’m just going to hope it’s as fortuitous as it seems.

“Hello, again,” I say carefully. My eyes dart around the room quickly, hoping to identify any monitoring devices that might be stationed in here. “I’d say it’s nice to see you again, but… given the circumstances, it’s not.”

The handsome doctor winks at me, then jerks his head backward. I follow his inclination and see a small thing tucked on top of a cabinet. It doesn’t look like a camera—though I wouldn’t put filming us naked past the FSHA assholes—so I suppose it’s an audio recording thing. “I certainly didn’t hope to have you as a patient again so soon, Miss Jolie. But according to this, it seems your contraception has expired early? That is a problem for a young woman like yourself.”

I don’t want to respond with any information that can be used against me, so I nod. “Yes. I need it refreshed so I’m safe and also because I seem to be in more pain than normal. It’s escalated quickly since I noticed spotting this morning. I guess it really went kaput.”

His eyes widen and he holds a finger up to stop me before saying, “We can certainly help with that, Sydney. It's a fairly quick little procedure, and once we do it, you’ll need to wait at least two weeks for effectiveness. I’m going to get Nurse Ames to help with the insertion and anesthetic, then afterward, we’ll discuss the rest of your concerns. Okay?”

I nod, not sure why he’s leaving rather than simply pushing a call button or something. However, I want to talk to Dr. Moreau about our last visit, so I say, “Yes, doctor.”

The room is silent as I wait for a few minutes, then the centaur comes back with the grumpy witch in tow. She bustles over to the cabinets, pulling out a bunch of jars, then a mortar and pestle, and finally, a small thing that must be the replacement. It doesn’t look like the one I had when I was dumped in the camps; that one was put in by a human doctor and it was more painful than I’d been led to believe. I frown as she does a bunch of… witchy… things while the doctor raises my gown to fold it up under my breasts.

“This isn’t like they did when I first got to Tempest Seven,” I say as he arranges me just so on the table. “Is this something new?”

Dr. Moreau gives me a reassuring smile, his eyes full of understanding. “Normally, the camps have human doctors who practice medicine in human ways. Luckily for the competitors, they get supernatural medical practitioners who do things in a far less unevolved fashion.”

“Whether they deserve it or not,” the witch grumbles as she brings the mortar full of something smelly over. “This will take away the pain, but it will not make you loopy, dear. Mind, it’s cold.”

I don’t have time to absorb that before she slathers it on my lower abdomen liberally, making me squeak in response. That’s twice people have made me sound like a hiccuping mouse today and I’m going to punch someone if they do it again. The salve is cold as fuck, but my entire lower half numbs nicely within moments. Nurse Crabbypants huffs at my glare, then toddles over to grab the small shiny thing I saw before and brings it back to the centaur.

“Dr. Moreau will hold you still while I get it situated. Don’t wiggle,” she growls as she palms the thing and hovers her palms over me.

How the fuck are they getting that thing inside me without… tools or whatever? !

The witch chants a bunch of foreign sounding words and a blink of light flashes, blinding me. When I finally get my vision straightened out, I see her back at the cabinet, cleaning up her mess while the doctor smiles down at me. I shake my head to clear it, not understanding what the hell just happened. The doctor waits for the nurse to finish up, wiping the gunk off of me and pulling my gown down as she finally brushes past him. Once the door closes, he grins a little.

“I suppose you have questions about your… procedure, Miss Jolie. Don’t worry; I’m happy to answer anything you need to know.” The centaur hands me a pen and piece of paper on a clipboard, winking as he keeps his back to the audio device. “Fire away.”

Oh, buddy. I’m going to make you pay for this shit even if you did just perform the most painless IUD insertion known to womankind.