Without another word, Devin began his examination. He selected an otoscope from the instruments laid out on the desk, and pulled his chair close to the bedside, so that their knees hugged. Carrie's pulse quickened from having him sit this close. "Turn your head to the left for me," he commanded. She could feel his breath on her neck as he peered through the scope into her right ear for what seemed like just a little bit longer than necessary, before asking her to turn her head in the other direction and examining her left ear. Finished with her ears, he retrieved an ophthalmoscope to examine her eyes. She continued to fight the urge to squirm from having his face so close to hers. Finally, he picked up a tongue depressor and the flashlight he had shone into her eyes earlier, and asked her to open her mouth wide. "Tongue out as far as you can," he said. She extended her tongue slightly, too self-conscious to stick it all the way out. "Come on, Carrie, all the way out or I'll have to use this," he said, waving the tongue depressor. She stuck her tongue out a little bit more, still unwilling to extend it fully, hoping he would believe that was as far as it would go. He wasn't buying it. He placed the tongue depressor far back on her tongue and pressed down while simultaneously pulling it forward. She started to gag. "I'm sorry, Carrie," he said. "I gave you a chance." She scowled. How was it he could go from so tender in one moment, to so dominating in the next?

Almost as if he felt slightly bad for her, he eased up on the depressor a little bit. "Say 'ahh'," he said.

"Uh-uh," she said defiantly.

"Well, I guess that works," he said, shaking his head. He disposed of the tongue depressor and put down the flashlight. Now she stuck out her tongue at him willingly. He smirked. "One minute you're so sweet and shy, and the next you're giving me a hard time," he said.

She laughed slightly. "Defense mechanism."

"Oh, I see." He chuckled. He brought his hands up to the sides of her head, and running his fingers through her hair, began to feel her skull for lumps and bumps. She tried to pretend that he was running his fingers through her hair for a different reason. It didn't work. This still made her feel uncomfortable. It got worse when he started to separate her hair and visually examine her scalp. She imagined they had regressed back to childhood, and he was checking her for girl cooties. She sighed. This could not be over soon enough.

"All right," he said. "I'm going to check your lymph nodes now, okay?" She nodded. With his fingertips, he felt the sides of her head and neck, under her jaw, and across her collarbone. Why did he have to stare into her eyes the whole time? She tried to avoid looking back into his.

"Okay, look at me," he told her. Of course, she thought, because he can see how comfortable I am with that. When she met his gaze, he pulled down on her lower eyelids with his thumbs and asked her to look up. Then, letting go, he shifted to pulling up on her upper eyelids and asked her to look down. "Okay, good," he said.

Placing his stethoscope into his ears, he instructed her, "Go ahead and turn and put your legs up on the bed. I'm going to listen to your lungs." She did as he told her, and tried not to tremble too much as he moved the stethoscope around her back with one hand on her shoulder, while she breathed deeply. "Good, now go ahead and lie down." She eased herself down, hating how vulnerable a position this put her in.

"Now, I know I listened to your heart before," he said, "but I want to listen a bit more thoroughly now, okay?" She nodded. With the earpieces in his ears once again, he lifted the collar of her nightshirt and slid his hand and the diaphragm of the stethoscope inside. As if they were still in high school and he was putting his hand down her shirt, her heart began to pound. She prayed he wouldn't notice, but who was she kidding? Making eye contact with her, he said, "Carrie, are you nervous?"

"Um…" Her face felt hot.

"It's okay," he said. "Relax." She did her best to relax as he moved the stethoscope to each key position around her heart, listening for what seemed like an eternity at each one. Finally, he withdrew his hand from inside of her shirt, and she breathed a sigh of relief. After draping the stethoscope around his neck, he placed the fingertips of both hands on the carotid arteries on either side of her neck, feeling her pulse. She found herself making eye contact now instead of avoiding it, and this surprised her so much that she quickly broke it.

"Okay, Carrie," he said, removing his hands from her neck. "We're going to keep the blanket over your lower half and just raise the gown up so I can check your abdomen." Without waiting for a response from her, he grasped the nightgown and expertly pulled it out from under the blanket around her waist, pulled it loose from under her buttocks, and raised it to just under her breasts. She felt a wave of butterflies throughout her entire body. He took the stethoscope from his neck and again placed it in his ears, then began to listen to each quadrant of her belly. She half wondered if he could hear butterflies' wings flapping in there.