It felt like barely any time had passed at all - certainly it was less than a half hour - when a nurse approached her bedside.

“Number 17, Mia White, the gynecologist is ready for you.”

Mia swallowed the lump that immediately formed in her throat and slowly rose to her feet. The nurse harshly grabbed her by the elbow and began to pull her in the direction of the curtained corner of the large room. Mia didn’t understand why she was being dragged so forcibly by the nurses here - it’s not like she had anywhere to go in the first place. She heard the loud click of the door lock each and every time a new patient was brought into or discharged from the room. A nurse was always standing at the door. It’s not like she could just run out - as tempting as that was the closer and closer she got to the curtain.

“It’ll be just a minute,” a deep male voice said from somewhere behind the curtain. From Mia’s vantage point just at the end of the drape, she could see two large, black handle-looking things and the hairiest pair of shins she’d ever seen on (what she assumed was) a woman.

“One…two…lift!” Two voices chanted in unison and the legs - the entire body - was lifted from where it lay prone and the curtain shuffled and rippled as the body was moved to another surface.

The curtain quickly pulled back and an unconscious woman was wheeled off to a far corner of the room, draped from head to knees with a heavy blanket.

”Mia White?” The doctor asked, not looking at Mia or the nurse still holding her by the elbow.

“Yes, doctor,” the nurse replied as she pulled Mia a step closer to the flat table that they stood in front of.

“Birthdate and purpose of visit?” The doctor asked as he washed his hands in a small basin behind the table.

“Nine, ten, ninety seven,” Mia answered in a shaky, timid voice.

“Full internal scan per request from insurance, cancer prevalence in family history, possible breast tumor discovered via ultrasound today,” the nurse rattled off. Mia was instantly alarmed by how cavalier and uncaring the nurse was in admitting that she could, indeed, have a tumor.

”Doesn’t sound like sedation will be needed with this one,” the doctor said casually, “that should speed things along a bit here. Mia, have a seat up on the table and we’ll get you out of here for the day. I assume you’re up to date with your cervical cancer screenings?”

Mia stammered wordlessly in response as she sat up on the edge of the table and crossed her arms tightly around her chest.

“Oh dear,” he muttered as he nodded towards the nurse to pull the curtain closed. “When was the last time you had a pelvic exam?”

“Uh…never,” Mia muttered.

“I’m sorry dear, what was that?” The doctor asked, giving the nurse an uneasy look.

Mia’s gaze went beyond the doctor standing in front of her. Was the nurse going to close the curtain any further? She could still see an awful lot of the room in front of her… Were other patients going to be able to see her here?!?

”I’ve never had a pelvic exam, sir,” she said quietly, knotting her hands together at her belly.

“Oh,” the doctor said as he nodded wordlessly to the nurse somewhere now behind her shoulder. “Are you sexually active with men, women or both?”

“Neither,” Mia mumbled.

“Ever?” The doctor sounded legitimately surprised.

“Never.”

“A virgin,” he muttered, then seemed to chuckle to himself. “Any penetration of any kind? Tampons? Toys? Anything?”

“Uh…” Mia stammered, embarrassed for a moment until the doctor roughly cleared his throat. “I use tampons. I have a toy but it hurts when I’ve tried to use it so… I don’t really.”

“Ok Mia, well, go ahead and lay back and we’ll get started here. I’m afraid this might be a bit more uncomfortable than the nurses told you it would be when you first got here, but we should have this all over and done with in a few minutes. Just try to relax, deep breaths, I’ll get the scans and images that your insurance is requesting and we’ll be done,” the doctor explained.

Mia sat frozen as the two black handles she’d seen extended straight out from the end of the table were both pulled out to the sides and locked into place.

“Mia. Lay down.” The doctor sounded much more stern than he had just the moment before.

Mia complied with his direction and lay on her back. As she reclined, the doctor grabbed her around the knees and held her legs aloft as the nurse pressed her down to the surface of the table by the shoulders. Deftly, the nurse then grabbed each of her forearms before Mia could move them herself and pulled them out to her sides. Again, effortlessly, Mia felt her arms trapped to the edges of the table. She pulled at her left arm and heard something faintly rattle under that side of her body. Were they strapping her down?! The alarming realization that she was - repeatedly - being restrained into place when she wasn’t even being combative made her temporarily forget about her legs in the doctor’s arms, until he maneuvered her right leg into one extended stirrup and then did the same with the left side. She tried to lift her right foot as he maneuvered the left foot into place and immediately found that her feet were fixed into an immovable position as well. She pressed her knees tightly together as her shins splayed out wide at an awkward and uncomfortable angle.

“All right Mia, I’m going to need you a bit lower here…” the doctor’s large hands wrapped around her hips and he forcibly pulled her until she felt like the entire lower portion of her torso would fall right off the end of the table.

“Knees extra wide, I’m just going to do a quick pelvic to feel what we’re dealing with down here…” he didn’t wait for her to move on her own, he shoved her knees obscenely wide open and stepped into the space between her legs and she watched in terrified silence as his hands disappeared between her legs out of sight. She immediately felt his touch and the cold drafty air of the room pushing against her genitals.

“Deep breath now…” she could barely even take a breath before his finger penetrated deep inside of her body. Instead, she let out a choked gasp as she felt him practically shove and prod upwards towards her belly from the inside.

“Mia, did you drink the liter of water that the nurses brought you earlier?” He asked as she felt herself impossibly stretched from within and he pressed heavily into her lower belly with the hand that hadn’t disappeared inside of her body.

“Yes?” She squeaked. She watched as he looked above her at the nurse who she assumed was still standing behind her.

“Did you let her void?” The doctor asked the nurse harshly. Mia didn’t hear a response from the nurse, but the heavy sigh paired with the withdrawal of the doctor's fingers from her vagina seemed like all the answer she really needed.

“I have the Foley prepped and ready,” she heard the nurse say from behind her head.

“And the rest?” The doctor barked. Mia watched in horror as a speculum was passed over her body and immediately positioned between her wide open legs.

“I’m sorry, Mia, this is going to get a lot more uncomfortable than you probably planned for today but we’ll be as fast as we can here, ok? Deep breaths, you can be a brave girl for me…” the doctor cooed as Mia felt something impossibly cold and large press into her. She wanted to writhe away but gasped and choked as the intrusion only became more intense and painful as the doctor methodically opened the blades of the speculum.

“Good girl, good girl…” the doctor continued to softly mutter as the nurse came around the side of the table with something in her hands.

“Now Mia, I need you to tell me when it feels like you absolutely cannot hold your bladder any longer. Can you do that for me?”

She couldn’t have imagined feeling any more pain or discomfort than she was at that moment, but then she felt a sharp, bright, burning sensation deep in her pelvis and let out an audible cry.

“You’re doing so great, Mia, tell me when the pressure in your bladder gets to be too much and we’ll get started…”

Get started?!?? What had he been doing already?!? She closed her eyes tightly as the pressure began to build inside of her and took short, quick breaths as panic began to take over her senses.

“Deep breaths, Mia. Deeeep. Breathe…” She was able to relax imperceptibly as the speculum was removed, but the pressure continued to build within her bladder and her urethra stung like she had a UTI.

“That’s all of it, doctor,” the nurse said as she pulled aside the ultrasound cart. The doctor gave Mia a look of surprise and smiled slightly.

“You’re doing ok?” The doctor asked as he took the probe from the nurse.

“I really need to pee again,” Mia gasped in a bare whisper.

“Perfect, we’ll be finished up in just a couple minutes, I promise,” the doctor said as he took a large tube of lubricant from the nurse and began to squeeze it all over the top of the probe. “I’ll be inserting this probe inside of your vagina and we’ll be taking a bunch of scans and images from various angles and organs within your pelvis. I’m sorry we don’t have a smaller probe, this will be uncomfortable to start…”

Without any further preamble, the doctor firmly pressed the probe inside of Mia, not stopping until she felt the intense cramp of it being pressed against her cervix. She was absolutely going to pee all over this doctor… She squeaked as she felt the pressure of the probe against her bladder and whimpered as she felt it threaten to leak, but nothing happened.

“One more minute and we’ll empty the bladder, Mia,” the doctor said as he continued to press and prod the probe around inside of her.

“Please, I just want…” she begged in a whisper as she felt something sting sharply inside of her. She looked up just as she watched a horrified patient and completely emotionless nurse walk past the open end of the curtain. How could she avoid ever returning to this place in the future?!?

”Picture perfect,” the doctor praised as the pressure in her bladder began to lessen and lessen until she felt completely relieved of the need to urinate. What the hell had they just done to her?!?

“A few more images here…” Mia squeaked as the probe was pressed deep, DEEP inside of her. It felt as if the doctor swirled it around and then another deep, DEEP pressure within her body.

“You know…” the doctor said looking intently at the screen, he exchanged a glance with the nurse, “We don’t have time today, but I think we should get her back in here soon and do a biopsy in this area here…just to be sure. She has such an anomalous family history…”

The nurse murmured and nodded her agreement, “She’ll be back in a couple weeks for a breast biopsy anyway, we can do a full gynecological work up and endometrial biopsy at that time too. I can add it to the appointment time when she stops by scheduling on the way out.”

“Oh, perfect,” the doctor agreed as he withdrew the probe and handed it back to the nurse. He immediately unfastened Mia’s feet from the stirrups and pulled them out long in front of her.

“Need a hand up?” He asked, holding out an outstretched arm. Mia reluctantly took it, and was immediately surprised to find that her arms were no longer fastened by her sides. How long had she been lying in frozen fear?!

“Hope that wasn’t too bad,” the doctor said with a smile, not unkindly. Mia couldn’t agree. Her pelvis burned and ached. She felt completely and utterly violated. She couldn’t believe that she was going to need to return in a couple of weeks for even more invasive tests. She hadn’t seen anyone who appeared to be undergoing biopsies in the large room, but she hadn’t been paying close attention either. Wasn’t that something that needed to occur in a sterile and surgical environment?

“Come with me,” the nurse said shortly, grabbing Mia by the elbow again and nearly pulling her off the table. “We’ll get your clothes and send you through scheduling on the way out.”

Mia stumbled, half naked after the nurse, and caught eyes with another young woman her age being led by another nurse over to the curtained examination corner in the room. The other woman looked far less alarmed than Mia felt like she should be for whatever fate awaited her at the gynecologist’s exam table.

The nurse leading Mia swiftly grabbed Mia’s clothes from the cubby where they had been stored for the duration of her appointment and thrust them into Mia’s arms.

“They’ll direct you to a small changing room once you leave the room here,” the nurse pulled out her badge to unlock the door. “Make sure you don’t skip the scheduling window on the way out. You’ll need to grab your appointment card for your next visit. Two weeks from today, if you need to change the day or time, you can do it there but you indicated in scheduling this appointment that Thursday was the only day of the week that works with your current schedule so we went ahead and fit you in with the last opening we have for that week.”

“Will I come back here?” Mia asked carefully as she stepped through the open doors. The nurse smiled as the doors quickly shut, leaving Mia standing half naked, clothes in her arms, in an empty hallway.