Doc got a look on his face I’d never seen before - a look of pure hatred and anger. “Damn her”, he said. “She better hope the police find her before I do.” Doc wanting to hurt someone? Wow!

Just then, the cops arrived and started asking me questions. He tried to stop them, but I told him it was okay. I wanted them to catch her. She had fled after knocking me out.

“Where is that ambulance?” he asked, impatiently.

“It’s on it’s way”, one of the cops said. “They’ve been pretty busy.”

“Could one of you please go to my car and get my medical bag?” Doc gave his keys to a cop and the officer returned a few minutes later with the bag.

I had rolled onto my right side. "Can you turn over on your back, hon?", he asked. I did and he got out his stethoscope and b/p cuff and took my blood pressure, then he put two fingers on the wrist of my right hand to take my pulse. “Your b/p and pulse are a bit high, hon, but that’s to be expected. Tell me where you hurt besides your side.”

“My foot hurts real bad. And my hand.” He held my left hand up and looked at it. It was swelling and my knuckles were scraped up.

“I’d hate to see what she looks like, Meredith”, he said.

“I don’t give a fat rat’s behind what she looks like.”

Next, he felt my foot through the wrapping. I gasped and tried to withdraw it from his grasp. “Sorry, Meredith. I fear you may have re-injured it. Can you move it?” I tried and was able to with great effort and pain. “I need you to sit up if you can.” I sat up and Doc looked at my back. “You have a few cuts back here.”

“Probably from crashing into your stereo system.”

“I see some on your arms, too.” He reached for a first aid kit that one of the police officers had brought from his car and took out some gauze bandages. He started putting them on the worst of the cuts. Just then, the paramedics arrived and tried to take over.

“I’ll be done here in a minute or two, then you can put her on the stretcher.”

“We need to get her vitals and check her over first.”

“I’ve already done that. Just load her and get her to the hospital. I think she has a ruptured ovarian cyst and she needs surgery as soon as possible. You have taken enough time to get here, get her there NOW.”

“Who are you?” One of the paramedics asked.

“Dr Julian Richards.” He stressed the word “doctor”. “Now, get the patient on the stretcher and to the hospital.” It was unlike Doc to throw his credentials around, but in his defence, he was very worried about me.

“Are you taking responsibility?” one of the paramedics asked.

“Yes, I will take responsibility”, Doc replied. “Now get her loaded! I’m going with her in the back of the ambulance.”

“Doc, let them do their job”, I said.

“If they were doing their job, you’d already be on the way to the hospital.”

“Come here, Doc.” He leaned down. I said in a quiet voice, so the others in the room couldn’t hear me. “I love you, honey. I will be fine. Please relax and don’t get into any fights. I’m the one that gets into fights!”

Doc gave a small laugh. “I just want to get you to the hospital and get you into surgery as soon as possible.” He kissed me, then stood up and turned to the paramedics. “Ok, get her on the stretcher and out of here.”

We were soon on our way to the hospital. Doc rode in back like he said he would and he wouldn’t let the paramedic that was also in back touch me. It was a short trip as the apartment was only five minutes away, so he didn’t have to do much. He did take my b/p once on the way, and started an IV so it would be ready when we got there. He was really getting possessive of my medical care. I didn’t argue with him as I trusted him more than anyone else. He’s never tried to go outside what he is trained to do ie when I have to see a specialist that isn‘t ob/gyn.

At the hospital, they took me in to a room and the ER doc followed us in. “I’m Dr Mark Tanner”, he introduced himself. “What happened?” A nurse took my vitals while he talked to me.

“I got in a fight”, I replied.

“Goodness! What does the other person look like?”

“I don’t know. She ran off when I passed out.”

“Where are you injured or hurting?”

“She has a possible ruptured ovarian cyst, a sprained ankle that is probably re-injured, swollen jaw, scraped up hand and numerous cuts and scratches from being pushed into a stereo system”, Doc interrupted.

“Did you come in with her, Julian?” Dr Tanner asked.

“Yes, she’s my significant other and the incident happened at our apartment. The superintendent called me at work and I went over right away. I’m on call for ob/gyn tonight and I need to get her ultra sounded as soon as possible. If I’m right about the cyst, then she will need emergency surgery.”

“Ok. What makes you think it’s ruptured?”

“She got punched hard in the area and passed out. She’s in extreme pain, she threw up and the cyst feels smaller by external palpation.”

“How big was it?”

“11.8 cm at her last ultrasound in January.”

“Wow! Why haven’t you removed it before now?”

“She wouldn’t let me, though she finally consented to it and it’s scheduled for the 20th. Looks like it‘s going to happen tonight instead.”

“Do I get a say in this?” I asked.

“No!” Doc replied firmly. “If it’s ruptured, there’s only two choices - have surgery or bleed out. I don’t think you want the 2nd.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions”, Dr Tanner said. “We’ll get the ultrasound and see what it says. Julian, can I speak to you outside?”

“If it’s about me, and I suspect it is, you can say it in front of me.”

“I was going to suggest that he not scare you with premonitions of doom.”

“She needs to be scared”, Doc piped up. “I made the mistake of not telling her what could happen and she refused surgery for months.”

“It’s okay, Dr Tanner”, I said to him. “Julian is upset and he’s very worried about me. Please give him some slack. And he‘s right. He’s been trying to get me to agree to the operation for almost a year now.”

“We are wasting time here.” Doc was getting impatient.

“Julian, I’ll assess her other injuries while you order the scan. Maybe we should use the portable one that’s here in the ER, it would save moving her around too much.”

“I’ll go get it.”

After Doc left the room, Dr Tanner unwrapped my foot and felt all around it, like Doc had done at the apartment. “How did you hurt it initially?”

“I fell off my horse and got hung up in the stirrup.” I cringed at lying yet again about how I sprained my ankle, but I sure wasn’t going to tell him about our exam room at the farm.

“Well, I think you’ve re-injured it. I’ll get an X-ray to make sure it’s not broken. Let me look at your cuts.” He looked at my left hand and arm, then the right. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“I think there’s cuts on my back.”

“Can you sit up so I can see?” I sat up and he lifted my shirt and removed the gauze Doc had taped to my cuts. “You’re going to need stitches in a few of these, but they can do that while you are under anesthesia if you do need surgery.”

Doc came in with the portable ultrasound. He plugged it in and got it ready and Dr Tanner went out to order the X-ray for my foot.

“Doc, can I get something for pain?” I asked him.

“Yes, hon. Let me do this, then I’ll order something, ok?”

“Ok.”

When he had the machine ready, he pushed my shirt up and squeezed some gel on my lower left quadrant. “Meredith, this is going to hurt more than you are already hurting. I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped. I have to find out if the cyst has burst and if you are bleeding internally.” I could see in his face that it was upsetting him to have to cause me more pain.

“It’s okay, Doc. Do what you have to do.”

He pressed down on me with the transducer. Holy crap, he wasn’t kidding. It hurt like hell, but I tried not to show it. I couldn’t help but gasp, though, as he moved it around and kept pushing down on it. “I’m so sorry, hon”, he apologized.

“Don’t worry about it, Doc.”

Dr Tanner came back in. “The X-ray is ordered, it should be here soon.”

“It better get here fast. She needs to go up to the OR pronto.” I groaned.

“You okay?” Dr Tanner asked me.

“She does that when she’s told something she doesn’t want to hear”, Doc said to him. I rolled my eyes.

“Let me see”, Dr Tanner said as he walked over to the ultrasound machine and looked at the screen. “Julian is right, Meredith. You need surgery, there’s internal bleeding.” I groaned again.

“I’m going to go find a consent form and get her to sign it while she’s willing”, Doc said as he headed for the door. “I’ll also call upstairs and tell them to get an OR ready.”

Shortly after he left the room, the portable X-ray arrived and the technician took radiographs of my jaw, hand and foot. Dr Tanner looked at the results on the computer. “No breaks in your jaw - that is excellent news, but not surprising since you can move it. None in your hand either. There are a couple breaks in the bones in your ankle. I’m going to get orthopedics to look at it. If they have to put pins in, they can do it while you are in surgery for that burst cyst.” I groaned. Just what I needed was more injuries.

Doc came back in just as I was groaning. “What’s she moaning about now?” He asked Dr Tanner. The ER physician showed him the X-ray results. “Damn. Think ortho can fix it while she’s under tonight?”

“I’m hoping so. I’ll call them right now.”

Doc came over to me and handed me a clipboard. “This is the consent form, hon. Read it over and sign it.”

“I don’t know if I can write”, I said, showing him my swollen hand.

“If you can’t, just put an X and I’ll witness it. By the way, that ring has to come off before you go into surgery.”

“It won’t come off until the swelling goes down.”

“We’ll have to cut it off.”

“Like hell you will.”

“Hon, there’s no choice. You cannot have jewellery in the OR. I have to take my bracelet off.”

“You can take your bracelet off without cutting it.”

“Meredith, I will get your ring fixed. It’s not that big a deal, hon.”

“It’s the ring you gave me, Doc.”

“I know, but it’s not more important than your life.”

“Ok, Doc.” I gave in.

A few minutes later, a nurse came in to cut the ring off my finger. Doc held my other hand - as best as he could with an IV in it - while she did it. I was secretly hoping that ring had done some damage to Jane’s face. She also took my earrings out and with Doc’s help, got me undressed and into a gown.

Dr Beckett from orthopedics came in and looked at the x-rays. “Meredith, it looks like you need some pins. If you are tolerating the anesthesia well, I’ll do it when Julian is done, okay?” I nodded. “You’ll need to sign a consent for the second surgery. What on earth happened to you?”

“I got in a fight.”

“I’ll tell you about it on our way upstairs”, Doc said to him. Then he came over to my bed. “I’m going to go change into scrubs and get ready, hon. I’ll see you when they bring you up, okay?”

“Doc, if I don’t make it, I want you to stay in the house as long as you want. Karen knows where all my important papers are and she knows what provisions I‘ve made for the horses and Jessie. She knows how to access funds for their care.” I had been in the process of changing my will to include Doc in it, but it wasn’t signed yet. Karen was executor and I hoped she’d do the right thing and give Doc what I’d intended for him to have, including the house.

“You will make it, sweetie. You have me doing the procedure.”

I smiled at him. “I know I will, but I’ve had provisions made for the horses for a long time, just in case anything ever happened to me. Don’t worry, Doc, everything will be okay. I want you to know how very much I love you. By the way, Doc - are you sure you are okay to operate on me? I know it has to be stressful on you.”

“I love you, too, hon. Yes, I am fine to do it, I know you will be getting the best care possible. By the way, I’ll tell you now so there are no surprises when you wake up - I‘m going to put a catheter in after you are put under. It will be in for most of the time you are in hospital, okay?” I nodded and he gave me a kiss. “Now, I have to get up there. The sooner we get started, the better.”

I closed my eyes while I waited to be taken upstairs. A nurse came in with the consent form for the ankle surgery and I asked for a phone. I needed to call Karen and let her know what had happened. “You can’t have a cell phone in here”, she said. But we’ll call your friend and let her know.”

I closed my eyes again. I was so scared of the surgery and was tempted to sign out and leave, but I knew I really had no choice but to let Doc operate. I also knew what it would do to him if I did leave and I couldn’t put him through that.

A few minutes later, a couple porters came to take me up to surgery. Doc was in the holding area, he’d changed into scrubs. “Hi hon, I have to go scrub in, but I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, Doc. They gave me something downstairs, I’m sleepy.”

“I ordered a sedative to help you relax. I know you’re really nervous. I have to go, I’ll see you when they bring you in to the OR.”

The anesthesiologist came into Holding to ask me questions about my height, weight etc. “I see you have fairly recently been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse.” I nodded. “There are medications I will give you in your IV for that to help make the anesthesia safer.” He then asked me if I had any questions for him, but I’d had surgery so many times, I knew the routine.

When they took me into the OR, Doc was there. He helped get me onto the table and the anesthesiologist hooked me up to the cardiac monitor. “Geez, it’s cold in here”, I said.

“It won’t bother you in a couple minutes”, he replied.

“Ready, Meredith?” Doc said.

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I know I have the best doctor in the world operating on me.” I winked at him. He chuckled. Someone put a mask over my face and told me to take deep breaths.

I woke up in Recovery. Doc was beside me. It took me a moment to orient myself. “How are you feeling, hon?”

“Sore. How did it go?”

“We’ll talk about that later when you are more coherent. The important thing is you are going to be okay. I put an order for pain medication in your chart. I‘ll get the nurse to give it to you.”

“I had some in the ER. Wouldn’t it be too soon?”

“You were in surgery for six hours, hon. You can have some now.”

“Six hours???”

“Yes.”

“Why did it take so long?”

“It was a big mess. It took me a long time to clean it up, then Adam Beckett had to do your ankle.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sorry, Doc.”

“For what, hon?” He leaned over the stretcher’s side rail and stroked my hair.

“For giving you a mess to clean up.”

“It’s not your fault, Meredith.”

“If I had let you take it out a long time ago, it wouldn’t have been a mess.”

“True, but then who knows what damage Jane would have done had you not passed out from her rupturing your cyst?”

“I’d have pulverized her if I hadn’t passed out, Doc.”

“I’m sure you would have, hon. I‘m going to go get your pain medication, I don‘t know where the nurse is, she must be busy. I did tell her not to worry about you, that I would watch you, but I needed her to draw up the medication. I guess I will do it.” He came back a couple minutes later with a syringe and injected the drug into my IV. Within minutes, my pain had greatly diminished, but the trade off was that it made me drowsy and I drifted in and out of sleep.

After I’d been in Recovery for an hour, I was taken to my room. Doc, of course, came with me. Other than having to do my surgery, it was a quiet on call night for him.

Doc hooked me up to the cardiac monitor that was already in the room. “You need to be on this for a couple days, hon. It’s just to make sure everything is okay with your MVP after having anesthesia.”

“Ok, Doc. How long will I have to be here?”

“A few days, probably”, he replied as he put the pulse ox on my finger. “Your SATS are down, which is not unexpected, but they have to come up before you can go home.” He put nasal prongs on me and turned the oxygen on to the amount he wanted.

“Doc, I want to go to the farm when I get out of here, not the apartment.”

“I was planning on that, hon. I don’t want to go to the apartment either. I need to get the mess cleaned up and I may have to replace the carpet. We can talk about it later, but I’m thinking of giving notice and finding another one to use when I’m on call.”

“Oh, Doc, don’t go to the trouble of moving. I’m sure I will be all right after a bit of time. It’s just too soon right now.”

“*I* may not be all right after a bit of time, hon. That place will always remind me of what happened to you there. I don‘t think I could bear staying in it.” He sat down on the bed. “We’ll worry about it later. Right now, you just rest and get better.”

“Jane knew about my cyst - she said you were going to leave me after you took it out. Did you tell her about it, Doc?”

“No, Meredith, I didn’t. I don’t know how she found out. You do know that it isn’t true, right?”

“About you leaving me after it’s out? Of course I know that’s a lie, honey. I need a hug, Doc.”

He hugged me gently, being mindful of my injuries and surgical incision. Then he kissed me and said “Ok, hon, now you need to get some sleep. I’m going to go out to the nurse’s station and write up your chart, then I’ll be back.”

I fell asleep before he got back and when I woke up a while later, he was next to me in the bed with his arm around me, but he wasn’t snuggled up like at home. Probably being aware of the cuts on my back from being thrown into his stereo cabinet. It broke the glass doors, and pieces of the broken glass had slashed my back.

“Dr Richards!” a nurse almost shouted from the doorway. “What are you doing? You are not to lie down on a patient’s …. Oh, my goodness, I forgot she’s your partner, I’m so sorry.” The hospital was okay with a spouse or s/o lying with the patient, as long as it didn’t interfere in any equipment or make the patient uncomfortable.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it”, Doc said. “Next time, though, please approach the person and whisper.”

“Let me get you a pillow and blanket, Dr Richards. Meredith, how are you doing?”

“I’m okay”, I said.

“Do you need anything? A drink?”

“Water would be great.”

Doc started to get up. “I’ll get it for you, hon.”

“Lie down, Doc. You need sleep just as much as I do.”

“I’ll be back with it in a moment”, the nurse said.

I fell back asleep very quickly after having a drink. The next time I opened my eyes, it was daylight. Doc was still sleeping, so I lay quietly as I didn’t want to disturb him. He still had his left arm over me, but high enough up so as not to disturb the surgical site. My left hand was wrapped, so I put my right one over his and tried to go back to sleep, but I kept thinking about Jane and wondering how she found out about my cyst. I was also worrying about what she’d do next. If she thought she had killed me, what would she do when she found out she hadn’t? Was Doc in any danger? Or my animals? Or Karen and Kevin, who were staying at the farm? I sure hoped not. If she was smart, she’d be long gone as the police would be looking for her.

I also thought about Doc’s reaction when he realized that Jane had likely caused my cyst to rupture. The look of hatred and anger on his face was so very far from the sweet, gentle, kind and caring man I had fallen in love with. Doc wouldn’t hurt a fly, even if it was hurting him. (Spankings don’t count) That Jane had elicited such emotions from him was pissing me off. Doc said she had better hope the cops find her before he did. Hell, she better hope they find her before *I* did.

A nurse came in to find out how I was doing. She changed the bag on my IV, but didn’t need to do my vitals as the cardiac monitor and pulse ox were tracking them. Doc stirred. “Dr Richards”, she said “Seems you’re sleeping better than the patient.”

“I just woke up a few minutes ago”, I cut in. “I was trying to go back to sleep but I’m sore and have too much going through my mind.”

“I will bring your pain medication in.”

“No, it’s okay. It makes me sleepy and I don’t want that right now.”

“She can have a milder one”, Doc said. “I’ll come out and write the order.” He got off the bed and put the side rail up. A few minutes later, he came back in my room. “Your medication will be up from the pharmacy shortly, hon. I’m going to go change back into my regular clothes, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Breakfast came, but I wasn’t hungry. I did, however, have the coffee that was with it. Doc came back while I was drinking it. He saw the tray and that I hadn’t eaten. “Meredith, you have to eat something.”

“Doc, that hot cereal looks nasty.”

“I’ll get you some toast, okay?”

“Ok.”

While he was gone, a nurse came in and changed my catheter bag. “How is it? Is it hurting?”

“The catheter?” I asked. “No, just feels weird.”

Doc came back in with a couple slices of toast. “I’m going to the café downstairs to get a coffee. Do you want another one?”

“Yes, please!”

“Anything else?”

“No, that’s fine, thanks Doc.”

Dr Beckett stopped in just after Doc was back with two coffees. “I’m sorry I kept you up so late last night”, I said to him.

“No worries, Meredith. It’s what I’m here for. How are you feeling?”

“I had some pain medication, so it’s better than it was.”

“The surgery went well. You have a few pins in there now. They match the ones in your right leg and wrist.”

“Oh good, I hate not matching”, I said jokingly. Dr Beckett chuckled.

“Julian told me what happened. I’m sorry. I hope they catch her soon.”

“Thanks, Dr B.”

“Is your pain being adequately controlled by the meds Julian has you on?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Good. You have a short cast on it, I think I’ll keep it on instead of using an air cast, since the last time you walked on it when you shouldn’t have. We’ll X-ray it again before you go home to make sure all is well with the pins but I hear you will be with us for a few days.”

“Julian thinks I will be.”

“Julian knows you will be”, Doc piped up.

“I’m just teasing you, Doc”, I said to him. He mumbled something I didn’t quite catch but I thought I heard the word “women”.

“I’ll stop in again this afternoon before I go home”, Dr Beckett said as he left the room.

“Meredith, you are incorrigible”, Doc said to me. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Come here and I’ll give you some ideas, Doc. I think it would be HOT to do it in my hospital bed.”

“Meredith! We can’t do that!”

“Why not, Doc? I’m sure other patients have done it.”

“Oh, they have - some have even been caught. But even IF I were inclined - which I am not, because I would lose privileges here - you are less than 12 hours out of major surgery, so you will not be doing anything for a few weeks.”

“Which means YOU won’t be doing anything either!”

“Except this ….” he leaned over the bed and kissed me.

“Doc, maybe we should get a hospital bed to play on at home.”

“There isn’t enough space in the exam room, hon.”

“We can use another room.”

“Hmmmm…..sounds interesting, let’s think about it.”

“Doc”, I said. “Last night in Recovery, you said you’d tell me about the surgery later. What happened?”

“It was a mess, hon. Took me a long time to clean it up. And then I had to get what was left of the cyst off your ovary. That took a long time, too, because I was trying to get it off without damaging the ovary. Right now, you still have the ovary, but I don‘t know if there is enough tissue left for it to function properly.”

“It’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t, Doc. You told me that I would be fine with just one ovary.”

“That is correct, hon. Another thing you need to know. There was a second cyst - very small still and hiding behind the big one. I removed it as well.”

“Will I get more of them, Doc?”

“I don’t know. You may or may not.”

“I hope not, Doc.”

“Me, too, hon.”

Someone knocked on the door and entered the room. “Hello, I’m Scott Fletcher from the police department. I presume you are Meredith Kingsley?” he said to me.

“Yes, I am. And this is Julian Richards, my s/o.”

After shaking hands with Doc - he couldn’t shake hands with me as one was wrapped up and the other had an IV in it - he said “I just wanted to update you on what’s going on. There’s an APB out on Jane Patton. We don’t know how bad she’s hurt, but we’ve notified all hospitals within a 200 km radius. We’re done at your apartment, we got some blood samples, which we will analyze to see if any are hers. If she’s bleeding, she may seek medical attention.”

“I’m worried she’ll go to the farm and harm my horses or my friends who are watching the place for us”, I said with concern.

“We have an undercover agent out there, if she goes near the place, he’ll get her. I’ll let you know if there are any other developments.”

After he left, Doc said to me “Hon, I’m going to go shower and change clothes. I’ll talk to Mr Novack and see if the landlord’s insurance will cover the damage to the carpet, if not then mine should. Mine will cover the stereo and cabinet, I’m sure.”

“Doc, if anything isn’t covered, I’ll pay for it, since it’s partly my fault.”

“It isn’t your fault, Meredith.”

“I provoked her when I told her off.”

“She would have attacked you anyway, hon, especially when you refused to do what she wanted.”

“Maybe…”

“No maybe about it. You get some rest while I’m gone. I’ll be back in a bit.” He leaned down to kiss me before leaving.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep fairly quickly. I guess I was more tired than I’d realized. I woke up just before Doc got back. “Did you sleep at all?”, he asked when he saw that I was awake.

“Yes, Doc. I just woke up. How bad is the apartment?”

“Don’t you worry about the apartment, you just concentrate on getting better.”

“Doc, don’t treat me with kid gloves. Tell me how much damage there is.”

“There’s some damage in the living room and entrance way. The carpet will have to be replaced as there’s blood on it. The stereo system and doors on the cabinet will have to be replaced. But do not worry about it, the important thing is that you get better. Now, I want to change your dressing and look at your incision. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He came back with dressing material and went to the sink to wash his hands, then put gloves on before pulling my blankets back and lifting up my gown. He took the dressing off as gently as he could. “It looks really good, hon.”

I looked at the incision. It was longer than I was expecting. “Oh great, another big scar. Doc, you are going to be so turned off.”

“By your scars?” I nodded. “No, hon, I’m not. I love you, the whole package. Your scars don’t put me off at all. Do mine put you off?” He started to put a fresh dressing on me.

“Of course not, Doc. But there’s a bigger onus on women to be flawless.”

“Nobody is flawless, Meredith. And I don’t pay any attention to societal expectations. I fell in love with *you*, not your body. You could accumulate a dozen more scars and that wouldn’t change the way I feel. Don‘t ever forget that, hon.”