Page 95 of The Fighter
“Sorry, Leo. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
When I couldn’t respond, Raven scrambled out of my hospital bed and called for help. A doctor’s assistant came rushing in while Raven explained what had happened.
“I didn’t mean to. It just happened when Leo tickled me.”
The man was a no-nonsense type and pulled the cover off me with an abrupt movement. “Spread your legs so I can see.”
“I’m fine.” I was pushing his hands away and hating that Raven saw me like this.
“I don’t see any blood. Does this hurt?” He pushed at where I’d been operated.
“Yes, it fucking hurts,” I hissed and shot him a killer look.
“I’ll tell the doctor. If it swells it could be a sign that your blood vessels have burst again.”
“I’m so sorry, Leo.” Raven was standing to one side, her arms crossed with each hand on the opposite shoulder and her face dipped low in shame.
I pushed out a few words through my pain, “It was my fault.”
On his way out, the doctor’s assistant gave a firm instruction to me before he closed the door. “Stop tickling your wife. I’ll find a doctor.”
The fact that he assumed Raven and I were married lifted my spirit with pride. I hadn’t done anything to clear up the misunderstanding, and with her daily visits, it was a natural assumption for the staff to make.
“I’m okay. Won’t you come back here?” I patted the mattress.
“Maybe it’s better if I keep a distance.”
“My thigh is just sensitive from the operation. It’s nothing.”
Moving slowly, she stepped a little closer and sat down on the edge of the chair next to the bed. “I can’t stay long anyway.”
“Why not?”
Raven still looked shaken from what had happened and bit down on her lower lip without answering me.
“Are you still working on the case? Is that why you can’t stay?”
“No, of course not. After what happened to you and Magni, I’m done with Dina’s case. Erika warned me that nothing good comes out of disturbing the dead, and she was right. If Laura and I hadn’t gone, none of this would have happened.”
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Just promise me that if you do work on it, you’ll include me.”
“I won’t work on it, Leo. I mean it.”
“Good.”
She got up and stood behind the chair when a doctor came in.
“I heard there was a small accident in here?”
I stared with my mouth open. “You’re a woman.”
The doctor was in her thirties. With a kind smile she walked over to me. “My name is Doctor Kim. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?” Like it was the most natural thing in the world, she lifted my covers.
I jerked back a little, still surprised to see a female doctor. “But you’re a…”
“A woman. Yes, I’m aware, but so are most of the world’s population. It’s really not that special.” The doctor looked over at Raven. “You won’t mind if I examine your husband, will you?”
“Ehh…” Raven looked at me as if she expected me to correct the doctor but I was too busy pushing back in my bed when the woman reached for my inner thigh.
