Doc was dressed in his typical work attire - slacks, shirt, tie and lab coat. He beckoned me into the room and I took a step in. Looking around, I could see all the furniture had been removed and besides the exam table, there was now a desk and chair, and a row of cupboards and a counter in its place. Doc had asked me for a spare bedroom to make into an office where he could do his paperwork, charting etc. He said the library was too big, that he wanted something cozier. I never went in there as I felt it was his private space. Now, I could see that that was just a story to get the room.

“Doc, what …” I began to ask, but was cut short.

“Meredith, I’ve been saying I should do this for a while, I’m I finally doing it. You sigh and groan a lot, I want to make sure there isn’t a physical cause, so I’m going to give you a full exam.” He walked over to the table and pulled a gown and drape out of a drawer. “Normally, I would have you undress while I’m out of the room, but with you not being able to use your one hand, I will help you.” He had been helping me dress and undress since I fell and cut my hand open a couple days ago.

“Doc, I thought you were joking about that.”

“I was - at first. But it’s gone on so long, I thought a physical might be a good idea. Besides, it will give me a chance to check that cyst. I have a feeling that it will be much easier convincing you to let me do that *here* than getting you into the clinic.”

“Maybe another day, Doc. I have things to do right now.” I turned toward the door.

“Not so fast, Missy.” I felt a hand grab my arm. “There is nothing that can’t wait until later. You can’t do much but watch tv or read anyway.” I sighed. “See what I mean? You do that a lot. I want to see if there’s a physical reason.”

“There’s a reason all right, Doc.”

Ignoring my sarcasm, he pulled my shirt up over my head and undid my bra, standing at my back. He reached around me and put the gown on and tied it up. “Now I’m going to undo your pants, and pull them down. Then you can step out of them.” He did it under the gown so he did not see me naked.

Doc neatly folded my clothes and set them on the chair. He then helped me up onto the table and gave me the drape to put over my legs. He sure was making it clinical. He’d seen me naked so many times now, it shouldn’t matter if he saw me as he undressed me.

First he looked in my ears, eyes and throat. “Doc, you’re an ob/gyn”, I said. “Not a GP.”

“Doesn’t matter. I still know how to do a complete physical. We do learn that in med school, no matter what specialty we choose.” He took his stethoscope and b/p cuff from the counter and wrapped the latter around my upper arm. He took the reading and said it was good - 120/70.

Placing the diaphragm on my back, he told me to take a deep breath. Once he had listened to my lungs, he lowered the gown a bit and listened to my heart. Next, he reached up from below and listened under my left breast. “Please lay down on the table, Meredith.” I lay down. “Turn onto your left side, please.”

When I had done so, Doc listened under my left breast again. He seemed to take forever. When he was done, he said “You have a heart murmur, Meredith.”

“Yeah, I’ve had it since I was a kid.”

“I’m surprised I haven’t heard it before. But then, I’ve only listened to your heart when you had pneumonia and the wheezing may have muffled the sound. I take it it’s an innocent murmur?”

“I don’t think it’s guilty of any crime, Doc - so, yeah.”

“Innocent, meaning it’s not because of a heart condition.” He ignored my sarcasm.

“I had a bunch of tests back then and nothing was found.”

“Good. Still, I better keep an eye on it, hon. Now, I’m going to do a breast exam. Please lay on your back.”

Doc lowered my gown to below my breasts. He started with my right breast, moving his fingers in a circle around the breast and pressing in gently. So much different than when Eric Elliott had done it. He moved on to the left, being just as gentle. I was tempted to make a crack about him feeling me up, but he seemed so serious, I didn’t think he’d see the humour in it.

When he was done with the breast exam, Doc pulled my gown back up then pushed the bottom up, so he could do the abdominal palpation. He also pushed the drape down. No matter how gentle a doctor is, I always find this part uncomfortable. When he got over to my left pelvic area, I tensed up, knowing he was near that ovary. “Relax, Meredith”, he said. “I can’t feel the ovary that well when you are so tense.”

“YOU go to a doctor with pain in one testicle and try to not tense up when he palpates it, Doc”, I said irritably.

“I know it’s not pleasant, hon, but it has to be done. Just try to relax, okay?” He went back to palpating and when he hit the ovary, I winced.

“So, what’s the verdict, Doc?”

“I don’t think there’s any change, hon. Now, let’s get you positioned for the pelvic exam.” He moved around to the foot of the table and one by one put my feet in the cold stainless steel stirrups. They were wider and higher than the ones in his clinic. “Now, scoot down please.” When I was down far enough, I felt something tighten around my lower left leg.

“What are you doing, Doc?” I asked.

“Just putting the restraints on.”

“WTF??” I tried to sit up but Doc came around the table and pushed me back down.

“Behave yourself or I’ll put the wrist restraints on, too.” He showed me the one on my right side. I had not noticed these.

“Doc, what are you doing?”

“It’s just for your safety, hon. Wouldn’t want your feet to slip out, would we? I’m not tying them very tight.” He went back to the foot of the table and did up the other leg’s restraint. “I’ll be right back, after I wash my hands.” He went into the adjoining bathroom and came back out a minute later. He sat down on his stool, put on gloves and wheeled over to between my legs.

“Doc, please take those things off.” I tried to get up and this time was able to get to a sitting position.

“Meredith, lay down!”

“No, let me out of these.” I bent over, trying to reach the straps to undo them. Doc was at my side in a flash. “Lay back down, hon.” He pushed me down onto the table. He was gentle, but firm. “I think we need to do up the wrist restraints.”

“No, Doc.”

“Yes, Meredith. I told you that if you didn’t behave, I’d put them on.” He did up the right strap, leaving some room because of the bandaging, then reached over me and did up the left. Before he went back to his stool, he brushed some hair out of my face and kissed me on the forehead. “It’s for your own safety, hon. Now, stop fighting them, you won‘t win.”

After he changed gloves, Doc sat back down and raised the drape up to just below my navel, totally exposing me to him. Weirdly enough, even though we had been intimate for a few weeks now, I was still embarrassed at being on display like that. “I’m just taking a look at you, hon. Making sure everything is okay externally.” I could feel his gloved hands part my labia and I felt myself blush.

“Doc, you see that all the time.”

“I know, but it’s part of the exam. Why are you being so contrary today? You’ve never been like this in my clinic.”

I sighed. “This is just so weird, Doc.”

“Isn’t it better than having to go to the clinic?”

“I’ll give you that, Doc. It definitely is better this way.”

“Even with the restraints?” I blushed again. “You never know - you might get to like them.”

“Just how frequently do you plan on doing this?”

“Well, hon, I think I originally said that you need that cyst checked at least every 3 months. I think it should be more frequent, though, since we have an exam room here at home now, so I’m going to move it up to once a month.” I groaned. “Here you go again, groaning and sighing. There must be a physical reason. If I can’t find anything, I will have to repeat the exam in a week or two.” I resisted the urge to groan again.

Doc got a stainless steel speculum out from a drawer. I could feel it enter me and open me up. No matter how many times I have this done to me, I will never get used to it. That feeling of the walls of my vagina being pushed apart.

“How are you going to clean that?” I asked Doc.

“The speculum?”

“Yes.”

“See that thing over there on the counter?”

I raised my head and saw what he was referring to. “Yes.”

“That’s a mini auto clave.”

“Wow, you really went all out, Doc.”

“If I’m going to use a stainless steel speculum on you, I had to get one.” Doc doesn’t like disposable instruments. It isn’t so much the environmental factor - he feels the quality isn’t as good. I am glad he uses reusable because I believe in taking care of our environment.

“Ok, Meredith, I’m going to take a swab for a PAP test.”

“Really, Doc?”

“Yes. I’ll take it with me to work on Monday and send it to the lab with the others from the clinic.”

When he was done, Doc withdrew the speculum and stood up. He put lube on two of his fingers. “I’m going to insert a couple fingers into you now. Just relax while I do the internal and bimanual.”

“Easy for you to say, Doc. You aren’t the one with one hand up your vagina and the other hand about to press down on a very sensitive area. And don’t even think about comparing this to a prostate check.”

Doc chuckled. “Well, I see your sarcasm is intact.”

He began pressing down on my pelvic area with the fingers of his free hand. Once again, when he hit the area of my left ovary, I winced. Of course, Doc noticed. “When we are done here, we are going to discuss removal of that cyst, Meredith.”

“You know my answer, Doc. Don’t waste your breath.” Doc did something he very rarely does. He sighed. “Gee, Doc, maybe you need a full checkup. There may be a physical reason for that.”

“Very funny, Meredith. You know I rarely sigh. YOU do it all the time.”

“Maybe it’s the beginning of a problem, Doc.”

He ignored my comment and said “Now I’m going to do the recto-vaginal exam, Meredith. Just relax while I push my finger into you. Bear down on me.” At the same time as he pushed one finger into my rectum, he pushed the other lubricated one into my vagina. I did as he said and bore down. This was a lot easier than it used to be - all those rectal temps, suppositories and plug insertions have helped, I’m sure.

As he had done with the bimanual, Doc felt my pelvic area from the outside as well as inside. This was getting real old. “Doc, must you?” I asked.

“I must”, was the reply. I sighed. After a moment, it was done. “I’m going to do a rectal now.” Doc said as he removed his gloves and disposed of them. “Let’s get your feet out of these stirrups.” He pulled out the leg rest and undid the straps and took my feet out of the stirrups, then came around to the side of the table to undo the wrist restraints. “Turn over onto your left side. That’s it. Now, bring your right leg up.” He took my ankle and pushed it toward my chest, bending my knee in the process. “Just a moment while I re-glove.”

“Doc, do you really have to do this? Didn’t you tell Eric Elliott that it isn’t necessary on me?”

“I didn’t want him doing it on you, I could tell you were very uncomfortable with him. What’s the matter? You let me do a lot of anal things to you, why balk at this?”

“I swear, you just want to look at my butt, Doc.”

He suddenly got quiet. When he had clean gloves on, he put lubricant on his finger and did the rectal. Once again, having all those temps and such over the past few months made insertion a breeze.

It was over in a minute and Doc was wiping the lubricant off me. “Let me wash my hands, hon, and I’ll help you get dressed.”

“I want you to get some blood work done”, he said as he helped me get my clothes on. “You have to go in to the lab to do that.”

“Aw, Doc…”

“Don’t ‘Aw, Doc’ me. I’ll get the requisition done up on Monday, you can pick it up later in the morning or in the afternoon and get it done.”

“I could go late morning and then we could have lunch somewhere.”

“Sounds good, hon.”

“But, Doc, why do I have to have blood work done?”

“It’s all part of a complete exam, Meredith.”

“So, did you find a cause for all that groaning and sighing you say I do?”

“You mean that you do, not that I say you do. And no, nothing yet. Maybe the blood work will tell us something.”

A while later we were in the kitchen having a coffee and working on a grocery list. Doc had taken over the shopping, he said he might as well do it after work rather than me make a trip into the city to do it. I am happy to have him do it, I hate grocery shopping.

“Doc, how did you manage to pull that off, getting that table and everything in here without me knowing?”

“Why do you think I suggested you go on that overnight with Karen to her friend’s pajama party?”

“You little stinker!”

“It was the only way to pull it off. I had to get you out of here for a few hours or more. What do you think of the room?”

“Seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a room that will only be used every few months.”

“Who says it’s only going to be used every few months?”

“Isn’t that how often you check my cyst?”

“I’m hoping to take that cyst out in the near future.”

“Like hell you will. I‘ve had enough of hospitals and surgery.”

“I get that, Meredith. You’ve had a rough six months or so. But this cyst needs to come out. The sooner, the better.”

I glared at him. “You know my answer, Doc.”

“Getting back to the room - I’m not sure that I needed lubricant for the internal exam.” I blushed. “You liked it, didn’t you?”

“Liked having you poke and prod at my sore ovary?”

“Aside from that. Come on, you can tell me, hon. I’m not going to say anything to anyone.”

“Well, maybe a little.”

“I have a feeling that room is going to get used more than just once every few months, hon.”