Page 31 of Dark Shaman: Love Found
The door burst open with enough force to startle them both, and Bridget rushed in.
"He's awake?" She walked up to him and smiled. "Welcome back, Tim."
"Hello," he rasped.
"How are you feeling? Any pain? Discomfort?"
"Everything," he managed. "Hurts."
"That's to be expected. Hildegard, get him some water, please. Small sips only."
He heard Hildegard filling a cup, and a moment later she brought the cup along with one of those bendy straws to his lips.
"Slowly," Bridget instructed as Tim tried to gulp the water like a man who'd been wandering the desert for days. Two weeks, to be precise. "Your system needs time to adjust."
The water was possibly the best thing he'd ever tasted, cool and clean and washing away some of the sandpaper feeling in his throat. He remembered these instructions from hisfirst brief awakening, when they'd given him broth and he'd thought he was dying. Or already dead and being tortured by beautiful demons.
His stomach chose that moment to announce itself with a growl that could probably be heard in the next room.
"Hungry," he said, the word coming easier now that his throat had some lubrication. "Really hungry."
Bridget and Hildegard exchanged looks.
"That's also normal," Bridget said. "And it will get worse, but you have to start slow. Clear liquids protocol same as before." She pulled out a penlight and pointed it at his eyes, making him wince. "Pupils reactive. Good. Can you follow the light?"
Tim dutifully tracked the penlight as she moved it back and forth, up and down. The movement made his head spin, but he managed.
"Excellent." Bridget pocketed the light and began a more thorough examination, checking his reflexes, his pulse, pressing gently on various points that made him want to squirm away. "According to my last measurement, you've grown four inches," she said. "But I want to measure you again."
"Four inches?" Tim's voice cracked on the words. He'd grown four inches? That would make him...what? Actually, average height instead of vertically challenged.
"Four and a quarter," Hildegard supplied helpfully. "You're my height now."
Tim tried to process this information. He'd been five-foot-six on a good day, five-seven-and-a-half in shoes. Adding four inches would put him at five-ten. Still not tall by any measure, but no longer having to shorten every pair of pants he got.
"Your body has cannibalized muscle and fat stores to fuel the growth," Bridget continued her clinical assessment. "You'll need to rebuild, but that comes later." She stepped back, seeming satisfied with her examination. "You've progressed remarkably well. Better than I expected, honestly."
"He's special," Hildegard said, and Tim couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or sincere.
"Indeed." Bridget made notes on her tablet. "The first stage of your transition is complete, and if you can make it to the bathroom with Hildegard's assistance, we can remove the catheter."
Tim's face heated. He'd been trying very hard not to think about the various tubes attached to his body, and particularly that one. The thought of Hildegard handling that procedure made him acutely uncomfortable.
He would have been fine with any other female nurse doing it, or the doctor, just not Hildegard.
"Can't we wait for Julian?" he asked hopefully.
"The sooner it's out, the more comfortable you'll be," Bridget said on her way out the door. "Hildegard will take care of you. I'll be in my office if you need anything."
And then she was gone, leaving Tim alone with the hottest nurse on the planet, possibly the universe.
"Can you put me back under while you do it?" he asked, only half-joking. "General anesthesia seems appropriate for this level of mortification."
Hildegard laughed. "You can close your eyes and pretend you're unconscious. How about that?"
"This is not how I imagined you handling that prominent part of my anatomy," he muttered, then immediately wanted to take it back. "Sorry. That was inappropriate."
"Was it?" She moved closer to him, so close that he could feel the heat coming off her body. "You've been flirting shamelessly since you woke up the first time. Why stop now?"
