Nurse Amy was looking over the forms of the students that they had yet to examine. They were now working through the more fussy ones and had to wipe quite a few tears. She sees that Beth Morgan was one of them. She sighed a little inside. Beth was the middle child of the three Morgan girls: 14 year old Ashley, 18 year old Beth, and 20 year old Kimberly.

Kimberly had always been a good and cooperative patient who was easy to deal with. She took her shots with a stiff upper lip and never complained about having to go to the "baby doctor" as she got older. She had even stopped in last month to get a physical that her college required and to get her shots up to date, because she just “felt comfortable with Dr. Sarah”.

Ashley was made in Kimberly's spirit. Always cheerful. Never complained about getting "the baby thermometer" or shots or anything. Amy had been impressed last year when the then 13 year old had taken a series of 4 painful antibiotic shots (one every other day for a week) without a tear or a complaint. She had even thanked Amy for doing her best to make it hurt less.

Beth was the opposite. She grumbled that was being treated like a child, when she acted much less mature than her little sister. And she was very afraid of shots. Amy remembered having to get help to hold her still to get a vaccination at 13.

Amy had been holding off on selecting Beth out of concern that Beth would over react and set off some of the other less brave students. Looking at the pile, she thought that most of the remaining ones would make it through the shots without too much trouble and Beth was looking more and more nervous.

Amy turns to Dr. Kate and says, "Dr. Kate, I think that we should probably do Beth Morgan next. I think that she is getting twitchy seeing her classmates coming out with red eyes and rubbing their butts. And looking over the rest of the list, they are all pretty steady. I don't think that any of them are going to panic if they hear her holler."

Dr. Kate takes a quick peek out at the students who were still waiting. "Yes, I think that your are right. She does seem to be moving towards a state and she looks peaked. I'm willing to bet that she will be another mumps case. She has never been good with shots and these will be rough with her tiny butt. I'll take her. Go ahead and put her in room 9, that is the farthest back. Also, after you get her vitals, let Lisa and Sandy know that we may need their help."

"Sandy? Do you you think that she will be ready?"

"Yes, she has been doing pretty well today. Plus she has helped with some of the younger kids who have trouble with shots last week. She did good. I think that we are going to need her with Beth. I wish Beth was as mature as her little sister Ashley, but we have to deal with the patient we have."

Beth is sitting in the waiting room and is miserable. She is cold and cranky and hungry. Someone brought around sandwiches earlier, but she has just picked at hers. Swallowing hurts. Plus she can't believe that she is sitting waiting for one of the baby doctors to examine her.

She has also noticed that everyone comes back rubbing their butt. It even looked like Lilly Ann and some of the others had been crying. Beth hated shots more than anything.

Amy comes up to Beth, "Sorry that it has taken so long, but you are next. Come on back with me and I will get you ready for Dr. Kate.”

"Oh great. Now I have to go back to see Ashley's doctor in one of the little kid's rooms." Beth thinks as she follows Amy back to the far end of the middle wing.

She is a little uncomfortable when she realizes that this is same room that she and her mom had accompanied Ashley too last year. Beth had only been along on one visit, but she had almost fainted herself when she saw Nurse Amy stick the huge needle into Ashley's butt. She gets a little more scared thinking that she is going to be on the same table that Ashley was, getting a needle just as big.

Amy makes sure that the door is shut and the curtain is in places and starts with the easiest parts. "OK Beth, I need to get a swab for a culture. Open your mouth really wide."

Amy quickly gets a swab and packages up for the lab. "Dr. Kate will be examining you, so I need you to get undressed. You can keep your bra, panties, and socks on for now, but everything else needs to come off."

Beth is cursing her choices today inside her head. She had her mother's small breasts, just an A cup, and she had decided to skip the bra today, just wearing a tee-shirt under her blouse. Sighing, she removed her shoes, blouse, and jeans, hoping that would be enough.

"I need you to take off the tee-shirt too honey and then step up on the scale." Amy told her kindly, but firmly.

Pulling her tee-shirt off and putting with her other clothes, Beth steps onto the scale clad only in socks and lime green panties.

After recording Beth's weight, Amy says, "OK, I just need to get your temperature. Hop up on the table, pull down your panties, and roll over."

"Ugg, this part" Beth thought, but she didn't complain. She felt so tired right now, that laying down would feel good. Besides, she was pretty sure that she was in for week or two of rectal thermometers at home and at least they didn't hurt. She hopped up on to the table, lied down on her tummy and half halfheartedly pushed her panties to the bottom of her butt.

"Let's get these down a little further." Amy said as she pulled the teen's green panties down to her knees. As she parted Beth's buttocks, she could feel the heat radiating off of her. She placed the lubricated bulb of the thermometer against Beth's anus and slowly pushed it in two full inches with a slight twisting motion. Then she released her buttocks and place a firm hand across Beth's fever hot bottom, checks her watch and puts her other hand on the teen's back.

"Great, now I am being treated like a child who has to be held down. She didn't treat Ashley like this last year when they took her temperature before her shots." Beth thinks bitterly. She doesn't consider how Ashley's and her different behavior might get different treatment.

After a few minutes as Dr. Kate enters, Beth feels the pressure lessen and then feels Amy part her cheeks and the odd feeling as the thermometer is pulled from her rectum.

After pulling the thermometer from the teen's rectum, Amy gives Beth a quick pass with a tissue to remove the excess lubricant and tells her, "You can pull up and sit up Beth."

"Her temperature is 103.2 Dr. Kate." She says as she reads the thermometer and records the reading."

"Oh my. Can you bring me a 1000mg of Tylenol PR from the med room?" Dr. Kate asks as she hands Amy the shot order. Written on it is, "Split the full active mumps dose into two shots and bring back Lisa and Sandy with you."

"OK Beth, I see that you are not feeling well with that fever. Do you know when it started? Are you feeling any pains?"

"I don't know. I was feeling worn out last night. I thought it was just the long trip, you know. But I was still tired in the morning and I have been getting the chills for the last hour or so. And I tried to eat the sandwich, but I just couldn't bring myself to ...." Deep breath, "And I just feel cranky" Beth kind of ran down.

"Well let's look at you. Can you open wide?" Dr. Kate uses her otoscope to check Beth's throat, nose, and ears. She notices the swelling in her jaw and feels the tenderness.

She then asks Beth to curl up in a ball and touch her chin to her chest to check for stiffness and is happy not to find it.

Sandy pops in at this point, "I have the Tylenol for you Dr. Kate. Sandy is still going to be a few minutes."

"That's OK. Can you open it and get a glove and some Surgilube ready while I finish up the exam?" Dr. Kate says, wanting Sandy available in case she needs help with Beth.

Kate listens to the teenagers heart moving her stethoscope around her chest, under and around her small breasts. Then she moves to Beth's back, asking her to "Breath in, breath out" as she listens for wheezing.

"Just a couple more things to check and I will give you some medicine for the fever. Please lie back and raise your hips up for a second." As Beth does this, Dr. Kate slips her panties off leaving the teen laying naked on the exam table.

Dr. Kate feels her abdomen, pressing deeply over her ovaries while looking for signs of pain. Then, to Beth's dismay, she carefully palpates under her arms and along each breast. Finally she spread's Beth's legs to feel the lymph nodes in her groin.

"All done, Beth. You definitely have the mumps. Based on how far along it is, I am guessing that you, Jack, and Tina all got it from the same place. Fortunately I don't see any spreading to your lungs or ovaries yet. I am concerned about your fever though."

"Before I give you the gamma globulin. I'm going to give you some Tylenol by suppository, because it's the fastest way to get it in your system. You've had suppositories before right?"

"Yes, Dr. Kate." Beth blushed at this. Her mom, Ruth, was a former pediatric hospital nurse (who still picked up the odd shift). Ruth strongly agreed with Valley Care's rectal temperatures only policy and had applied it to Beth and her sisters at home. Ruth also believed in the rectal route for anti-fever medicines, so the Morgan girls were used to having medicine push up their back sides when they were sick.

As Beth turned over on to her stomach, baring her slim bottom to the room, Dr. Kate put on a glove and held her finger out to Sandy to put some lubricant on it.

Beth once again felt her butt cheeks being spread wide. This was quickly follow by the cold suppository on her anus. The next part was a bit of a shock. Her mother would just barely push the suppository in until it was naturally sucked in. She never pushed more than the very tip of her finger in. Dr. Kate pushed her entire finger into Beth, forcing the suppository as far up into the rectum as she could. Kate kept her finger in Beth for a full 20 seconds, before slowly with drawing it and then squeezing her buttocks together for another 20 seconds.

Although she had had rectal thermometers and suppositories inserted before, she had not felt anything like this. (For all her preference for the rectal route, Beth's mom Ruth had never been a big proponent of enemas, and had never felt that Beth needed one.) Beth had been so shocked at this, she did not notice Amy and Lisa arriving with her doom.

Beth is starting to turn over to sit up (and maybe find her panties), when Dr. Kate puts a hand on shoulder and says, "Don't get up yet. You still have to get your gamma globulin. Your butt is a little small, so we have divided into to two shots. I know that sounds scary, but we'll give you both at once so it will hurt less."

Beth begins to panic as the words hit her and as she catches a glimpse of the huge needle in Amy's hand. Her heart is beating faster and faster. "No. No. No. Two shots? I can't have two shots. Maybe you can give me one today and then see if I get better tomorrow."

Dr. Kate puts on her best "Mom Voice" and squatted down to look into the girls eyes the way she has had to do with other (usually much younger) scared patients. "Beth. Stop. I need you to try to calm down. You need to have this medicine. You have a bad case of the mumps and you need this to keep it from getting worse. And you will get the shots."

"Now we are going to do everything we can to minimize the pain, but you have to do your part. You have to lie still and you have to do your best to relax. It will hurt, but the more you relax, the less it will hurt."

Putting Beth's hands around her left hand and putting her right hand between her should blades, she nudges the girl back into a prone position saying, "Lie down, point your toes in and try to relax. Squeeze my hand if you need to and take slow breaths. This will be over soon."

Beth laid down silently crying. She tried to relax and tried to think of Ashley taking the big shot as she felt the cold alcohol wipes on both sides of her butt.

As Dr. Kate made Beth lie down, the others took up their positions. Sandy held down Beth's legs as she had done with other patients over the last couple of weeks. Amy and Lisa each laid their left forearm on the naked girl's back to hold her in place using their left hand to pinch up a section of buttock. They held the syringes with their long large bore needles in their right hands. With a nod, they both quickly darted the needles into the girl's glutes.

Beth gave a short shriek as she pain of the large needles slam into both sides of her buttocks but she managed to stay still. This was as bad as the one time her father had taken a paddle to her bare butt when he caught her smoking. And then it got worse. Her screech turned into sobs of “Ow! OW! OW!” as her butt was on fire as the nurses pushed the thick serum into her petite buttocks. The pain kept spreading. Then it stopped spreading.

Lisa and Amy withdrew the needles and cleaned off some blood from the wounds. After applying band-aids they spent a moment gently massaging the teen's sore bottom.

"It's all over now. I know it hurt, but it is done now. Do you want some tissues to blow?"

Beth shook her head yes and took the offered tissues. Blowing out her nose helped reset her and the pain was not as intense as it was before. It had settled into a dull ache, kind of like her butt had felt after her Dad had finished paddling her for smoking.

She was starting to feel a little embarrassed about her behavior. Despite the pain in her butt, she carefully sat up, wincing as she did, in an attempt to regain some dignity. As much as she could, sitting naked and red eyed in front of four people that held you down for shots.

"I'm sorry that I made such a fuss. I don't know what it is about shots. They just scare me. I wish that I could be brave like Kim and Ashley, but something about shots just puts me in panic mode."

It's Lisa who puts a hand on her shoulder and says,"It's OK Beth. It is just something that you have to work on. These are tough shots and you did stay still. I had to help a couple people do that today and you are not the only one who cried.”

“Just remember, you can't always avoid the pain, but you do have some control over how you react to it. You can't always make it better, but sometimes you can choose to not make it worse."

"Listen to Lisa. She is wise for her age. Now I have to go to the next patient. Sandy will help you get dressed and take you back to an isolation room we have set up for those who we are sure have mumps. You can lay down there until we arrange for your folks to pick you up." Dr. Kate said.

As the doctor and nurses trooped out, Sandy helped Beth slip back into her panties. She then helped her wash her face at the little sink in the room before getting dressed. By the time Sandy helped her on to cot in the isolation room, she was only a little red eyed.