When I woke up, Doc wasn’t in bed with me and I could smell something cooking. I shut the monitor off and took the leads off. After getting dressed and going to the bathroom, I made my way down the hall. He was in the living room, reading a book, and looked up as I entered the room. “Hi hon, did you get a good rest?”

“Yes”, I replied as I sat down on the sofa.

“Hey, you are to be on the monitor”, he said.

“Aw, Doc…”

“I’m going to let that pass, Meredith, since I have a special surprise for you tonight. But I want you on the portable monitor.” He got up from his chair and went down the hall. When he returned, he had it in his hand. He attached the leads and turned it on.

“Am I going to live?” I playfully asked after he’d looked at the readout for a minute.

“That depends on your behaviour, hon. Piss me off and you might not.” He was teasing. Progress! There was a time he’d never have said such a thing, even in jest.

“Haha, Doc.”

“Supper should be done. Come on into the kitchen.”

“It smells good, Doc. And smells suspiciously like lasagne.”

“You have a good nose, Meredith.”

“You couldn’t have slept long, Doc.”

“I didn’t make it today.” I gave him a puzzled look. He turned the oven off and opened the door. “I put it together yesterday while you were sleeping”, he said as he took it out and set the baking dish on a wooden cutting board that he had placed in the middle of the table. He‘d already set our places.

“But you always simmer the sauce”, I said.

“Remember when we had pasta last week? I made an extra large batch of sauce and froze what I needed.”

“You planned it for a week later? How did you know we’d still be here?”

“I didn’t, but I took the risk. I figured we might be here a while. Jane is very elusive.”

“That she is, Doc.”

“Want me to get yours?”

“Sure, Doc. Thanks.”

It was delicious, though Doc’s cooking always is. I hadn’t had lasagne since he had got me take out when I was in the hospital back home. The restaurant’s cooking is good, but Doc’s is better. It was a wonderful treat.

Afterward, he put the leftovers in the fridge and the dirty dishes in the sink. As he wiped the table off, he said “I’ll do the dishes in the morning, let’s go to the living room.” Doc not doing the dishes for the second time in only a few days??? This was unheard of.

“Are you okay, honey?”

“Yes, hon. Why do you ask?”

“Because you are leaving the dishes for morning.”

“I did that a few days ago.”

“I know, but that was our date night.”

“Tonight is a date night, too.”

“It is?”

“Yes - sort of. Come in the living room.” He turned off the kitchen light and and led me into the next room. “Sit down on the sofa.” I sat down and he lit the candles that were still there from Sunday night. Then he turned off the lamp and sat down. “I have something for you, Meredith.” He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, which he put into my hand. It was a small, square jewellery gift box. “Open it, hon.”

I opened it and inside was a ring just like the one he’d given me at Christmas. The one that the police had seized because I had had it on when I fought Jane and punched her in the face a few times. They had found blood and tissue in the setting. “Is this …?”

“Yes, it’s the same one. You didn’t want a new one.”

“No, I don’t. But how did you get it?”

“The police were done with it, so I had Scott take it in to be cleaned and the band repaired - at my expense. Then he couriered it to Randall who gave it to me today when we went to the café at the hospital to get you coffee.”

“Oh, Doc. I don’t know what to say - except ‘thank you’!!!”

“You’re welcome, hon. Can I put it on your finger?”

“Of course you can.” I handed the box back to him and he took the ring out and placed it on my finger. “Now, next time you get in a fight, take this off first.”

“Haha, Doc.”

He set the box on the coffee table and gave me a hug. “You don’t know how much this means to me, Julian”, I said.

“I think I do, hon.” He released me from the hug and gave me a long, lingering kiss. “Ready to retreat to the bedroom?”

“Very ready!”

He blew the candles out, then he picked me up and carried me down the hall. Doc has eyes like a cat, he can see quite well in the dark. “You’re going to break your back, sweetheart.”

“No, I’m not. You aren’t as heavy as you think you are. And you’ve lost weight since your fight with Jane.”

“Isn’t it great?”

“It’s the wrong way to lose it. And you were just as beautiful before as you are now.” He set me down on the bed and lay down beside me.

“You are so sweet, Doc.” He turned the portable monitor off and disconnected it from the leads before lifting it over my head and putting it on the nightstand. Then he took my hand in his and looked at the ring he had given me. “It looks great, hon.”

“I love it, Doc, but I feel so selfish. I hadn’t thought that it might bother you for me to wear it.”

“You mean after Jane’s blood and flesh had been on it?”

“Yes.”

“No, sweetie. It’s been professionally cleaned. If it doesn’t bother you, it doesn’t bother me. But maybe you should wear it on your other hand.”

“Why, Doc?”

He looked a bit nervous. “You’re left handed and maybe it’s not comfortable to have it on that hand when you are using it.”

“No, I’m fine with it on this hand.”

“Okay, hon - but don’t get too used to it being on that hand.”

“What do you mean by that, Julian?” He didn’t say anything at first, but had an unreadable expression on his face. Finally, he spoke.

“I don’t know where that came from, Meredith.”

“Come on, you said it, you must know why you said it.” But he would not tell me anything more than that.

“I’m going to put you on the bedside monitor, then take your temperature and listen to your heart before we go to sleep. I know you slept when we got home, but you need more rest.”

The next morning, I called the College and spoke to a woman named Jackie. She asked me a bunch of questions about what had happened with Dr Watters. I told her the whole story. With my permission, she recorded the conversation. When I was done recounting the incidents, she said “I am going to need a signed statement from you at some point, but for now this will do since I have other women who have given statements.”

“What happens now?” I asked.

“I’ll get together with one of our lawyers and go over the statements and we’ll decide what to do.”

“Will you please let me know when you decide? I’m terrified he’s going to go after my horses when I get them back.”

“I will get some advice about that from the lawyer.”

Later in the morning, Doc got a call from Dr Hampton, the cardiologist. He put him on speaker phone. “How are you feeling, Meredith?”

“Aside from this infection, you mean?”

“What infection?”

“She has an infection at the incision site”, Doc said. “I had it cultured yesterday and she’s on IV medication for it.” He told Dr Hampton the name of the antibiotic, some long name that I can’t pronounce.

“How is her stress level, Julian?”

“She’s pretty anxious at times, worried about her horses and about Jane finding out where we are.”

“Meredith, you have to stop stressing so much.”

“That’s easier said than done, Dr. Hampton.”

“I know, dear. Please try. I can prescribe a sedative if you need it.”

“I have some for her”, Doc said and told him what the sedative was.

“Oral?” I held my breath.

“Rectal.” I blushed, even though my cardiologist couldn’t see me. “She gets nauseous a lot.”

“What is the cause of the nausea?”

“Sometimes it’s from pain, sometimes it’s from anxiety and worry.”

“I concur with giving it in a suppository then. We don’t want her throwing it up and making it ineffective.”

“What are the results of my tests?” I asked him.

“The EKG is fine. Your echo cardiogram showed a bit of a worsening of your MVP and arrhythmia.” I sighed. “Don’t despair, Meredith. It is still considered mild, though borderline moderate. I really think it’s the stress and after this is all over, it will improve. In the meantime, I’m going to make another adjustment to your medication and I want you to get the tests repeated in a month. Hopefully, you will be home by then.”

“I hope so, too! I guess there’s no point in asking to go off the monitors?”

“You guess right, my dear. You can still be off it for six to eight hours a day, IF Julian says you can. I don‘t want you to give him any grief about it if he says you need to be on.” Doc gave me a look of triumph. I’ll get you after this call, darling, I thought.

“That agreement is going to cost you, Dr Hampton.”

“Oh? How much will it cost me?”

“One trail ride with me when all this is over and I’m cleared to ride.”

“You have it, Meredith! I’d be happy to go riding with you.”

“Maybe we can get Julian to go with us.”

“You can work on him about that.” Doc gave me a look that said Not Fucking Likely.

“I think I will order you a new monitor. One that I can program from here to send me a reading whenever I want one. And you can send me a reading whenever you think I should see it.”

Dr Hampton gave Doc the details of the medication change and we said good-bye. Doc went and got his prescription pad, which had been couriered with the ring. He wrote out the new prescription and called Randall to ask him to get it for us. He also told the detective that we would need new monitors. We were totally willing to pay for them, but Randall said no.

“Are you okay, hon?” he asked me after ending the call. “You look upset.”

“Doc, I’m just so flippin’ tired of this. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I’m thinking about going home and taking my chances.”

A very worried look came over his face. “Please don’t do that, Meredith.”

“Jane said she was going to leave us alone.”

“You know as well as I do that we cannot believe her. Do you plan on getting your horses?”

“No, I’ll leave them at Joanna’s, as long as she’s willing to keep them there - until Jane is caught.”

“That right there shows you don’t believe her. If you did, then you would bring them home.” He had a point. I got up from the sofa and reached for my crutches. “Where are you going?”

“To the bedroom. My phone is in there.”

“No, you don’t.” He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me onto his lap, then wrapped his arms around me. “It’s going to be all right, Meredith.”

“I can’t do this anymore, Doc!” I cried as he held me tight.

“Yes, you can, sweetie. You are a very strong woman. Don’t let her win.”

“I’m not as strong as you think I am.”

“Maybe not. Maybe you are stronger.”

“I doubt that.” I nestled my head under his chin and he stroked my hair.

“Relax, Meredith. Getting all worked up isn’t helping your heart any.”

We sat like that for a while, then Doc said he wanted me to go back on either the portable or bedside monitor. “Aw, Doc…”

“Don’t ‘Aw, Doc’ me, Meredith. Remember the deal you just made with Oliver Hampton?”

“Ok, Doc.”

“Do you want the portable or do you want to lie down?”

“I want to lie down.” We went to the bedroom and he hooked it up. I lay down on the bed. Doc went to the bathroom and came back with a cool washcloth. He washed my face with it, then sat down beside me and watched the monitor.

“Relax, hon. If those readings don’t improve, I’m giving you a sedative.”

“Not during the day!”

“Yes, during the day.”

“Come and lie with me, Doc.” He got up and went to the other side of the bed and got in behind me. He snuggled up to my back and put his arm around me.

“Take slow, deep breaths, hon. That will help.” I did as he told me to do. Yes, I know you dear readers are thinking “That is a first, Meredith.” After a while, he raised his head and looked over at the monitor. “It’s looking better, sweetie. Why don’t you go to sleep for a bit?” I was already halfway there. Doc has a way of calming me down.

A few days later, we got a call from Jackie at the college. Once again, we went on speaker phone with her. “We made a decision about Dr Watters”, she said. “We are starting the process to get a hearing to try to get his licence revoked. In the meantime, he has a restriction on him that says he has to have a female chaperone in the exam room whenever he is examining a patient, or whenever she is on the exam table, meaning after the exam even if he’s just talking to her - the chaperone cannot leave until he does or she is off the table and dressed.”

“Does he know yet?”

“He does.”

“What was his reaction?”

“He was pretty calm, actually. He had no problem agreeing to the restriction. We also told him that if any harm comes to your horses, he will be the first person the police will be speaking to. He did look a little scared when the lawyer said that, so I think he will stay away from you and your animals.”

“Oh, I hope so.”

“He’s not very mobile. Age is taking it’s toll on him. He walks with a cane and I’ve heard he sits down to do surgery and for parts of exams where the doctor usually stands.”

“Can’t anything be done about that”, Doc asked. “Sitting for surgery is not ideal.”

“No, it isn’t but there is no evidence that any patients have been harmed because of it so we can’t do anything. But we are going to do everything in our power to revoke his licence, so hopefully he won‘t be operating for much longer.”

“Now, Meredith”, Doc said after ending the call. “Don’t get all worked up over this. Your horses are safe at Joanna’s. Even if Watters were to want to follow through on his threat, he can’t.”

“I know, Doc.”

“I want to see good readings on that monitor.” It was late afternoon and he’d insisted I go back on the portable after 8 hours off. He watched it intently.

“The more you watch, the more nervous I am going to be, Doc.”

“Sorry, hon. Come in the kitchen while I get supper started. We can talk.” We had been together 24/7 for the past few weeks, yet we never ran out of things to talk about. I knew he was *the* one, the one that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It just felt so right. I wasn’t sure I wanted to discuss the M word yet, or if I ever would, but I didn’t need that to be with someone long term. The last one hadn’t turned out so well in the end.

After Doc had done supper clean up, we played Scrabble while having our evening decaf. And, lo and behold, I won a game! I couldn’t believe it, this was the first time I’d won against Doc. But was it a fair win? “Doc, you weren’t holding back, were you?”

“No, hon, I wasn’t. I promised you I’d never do that and I’ve kept that promise. You won fair and square. Congratulations, Meredith! Now, I have to get my honour back.” He started getting ready for a second game, which he won, of course.

We went to the living room and watched a bit of tv, then I went to the bedroom to get ready for bed. He followed me a few minutes later. I was already in bed. “Time for your temperature and vitals, hon.” I had finished the IV antibiotics that day and was feeling better. Tomorrow I’d start on the one week of oral meds. My temp that morning had been 36.4C, which, while low for some, is just a teeny bit up for me. Doc said he wanted to keep checking it to make sure it didn’t go up again. I thought that was bovine excrement and he was doing it because he liked to. Who am I to argue, though? I rolled over on my right side as he was still taking it that way. “Hon, can you get out of bed? I’m going to do it a different way tonight.”

“Uh, okay”, I said as I threw the covers back and sat up. What the heck? I thought. Doc picked up his stethoscope from his nightstand and came around the bed with the things he needed to do a rectal temp. He set them down on my nightstand and sat down on the bed.

“Lie over my knee”, he directed. I did as he asked, and could hear the snap of the glove being put on his hand. He pushed the edges of my gown aside, exposing my naked behind. A moment later, I felt him separate my cheeks with the forefinger and thumb of his left hand, then the thermometer was inserted with his right hand. He let go of my cheeks and rubbed my back under the gown while we waited. I could sense him looking at the monitor. “Your pulse rate is up, sweetie.”

“I bet if you felt between my legs, it would be wet”, I said.

“I’m sure it would be. Unfortunately, I can’t do that after lubricating your anus with the glove on. And it would be too awkward with the other hand. I’ll check it later.” After three minutes, he took the thermometer out and read it. “36.2”, he said. “It’s pretty good.” I heard him put it in the vial of antiseptic solution on the nightstand, then he wiped my anus and took his glove off. “You can get up now. Sit on the bed, I’ll be back in a minute.” He went to the ensuite to wash his hands.

Back in the bedroom, Doc sat on the bed again but farther back than he had been sitting. “Come here, hon. Sit on the bed between my legs.” I sat down with my back to him and he undid the tie of my gown at mid back before picking up his stethoscope and putting the ear pieces in his ears. He listened to my lungs, then reached under the gown and around under my left breast. He pushed it up with his hand and placed the diaphragm under it. After listening there for a minute, he reached farther and placed it between my breasts. Then it was back under my breast. This time, he cupped my breast in his palm while listening. At that point, I knew he was listening for “fun”.

I could feel his breath on my neck as he listened to my heart. My breathing picked up and I could feel myself getting wetter. “Your heart is a bit fast, hon”, he finally said as he took the ear pieces out.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means I have to get it back down.”

“How?”

“You will see. I need you to lie down in the middle of the bed.” He got the remote for the bed and lowered the head. We had been sleeping with it partway up. I lay down and he put a pillow under me, then parted my legs with his hands. “I need to check that wetness. Something tells me I don’t need lubricant.”

He gently inserted a couple fingers into me. “Oh my, Ms Hottie! You are *very* wet.”

“Can you do something about that, Doc?”

“I sure can, hon. First, I need to check your ovaries, just to be sure everything is okay.” He felt around my pelvic area with his other hand, making sure not to press too hard on the surgical area. “Everything looks good. No sign of any more cysts.”

Was this just a ploy to examine me without me kicking up a fuss? I wondered. Oh well, even if it was, I was enjoying it.

He stopped palpating and moved his fingers in a different direction, finding my g-spot. He massaged it, starting slowly, then increased the tempo. I bucked my hips and ground myself against his hand, building up to an explosive orgasm. Later, I thought about it and hoped that neither of the night guards were near the bedroom window. If they were, they got an earful.

Doc took his hand out of me and lay down on the bed, stroking my hair. When my breathing returned to normal, he leaned over and kissed me passionately. His breathing got heavy and mine picked up again. He undid his zipper and pushed his pants down. That’s as far as he got with undressing.

Later, as we were going to sleep, he said “I hope Hampton enjoys the last half hour’s reading that I sent him.”

“Doc, you’re getting bad!”

“You’re a bad influence on me, Meredith.”

I relaxed more and more over the next week. The police started talking about letting us go home if there was no sign of Jane for another week. I should have known that no news was not good news.

One day, Doc and I were having a game of Scrabble after lunch when we heard a commotion and voices outside. There was a knock at the door in the code that the police used. Doc got up and went out to the living room to answer it. “You stay here, Meredith - until I know what’s going on.”

A minute later, he came back into the kitchen with Dana behind him. “We’re getting you out of here”, she said. “Gather up anything you want to take that you can carry in your hands. Don’t worry about clothing.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We think Jane has found you and is on her way here.” My heart seemed to stop.

“She’ll never get inside the compound, right?”

“I don’t know. She has others with her and they are all heavily armed. They’ve already shot at police that were pursuing them and took their tires out. They are travelling in a hummer, presumably a bullet proof one as they were fired upon and nothing happened. We’re taking no chances and getting you out of here.”

Doc got his medical stuff together in his bag and brought the portable monitor out to me. “I want this on you, Meredith”, he said as he attached it to the leads. I had asked him to get my stuffed horse, Julie, that he had brought me in the hospital. It was the only thing I thought of to get as I didn’t have anything else there that was of value to me. I wasn't thinking about my purse.

“Ok, let’s go”, Dana said.

“No”, I said.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Doc asked.

“I’m not going.”

“This is no time for games, Meredith.”

“I’m not playing games, Julian. I’m not going.”

“Why not?” he asked, raising his voice, which he very rarely does.

“Julian, I’m fucking sick and tired of it”, I said with emotion. I rarely swear at him. “That bitch has put us through so much, it’s ending now. You go with Dana. I’m staying here and I’m going to face her and end this.”

“Are you making a death threat, Meredith? You can’t do that, no matter how justified you’d be.”

“No, I’m not going to kill her. But I am going to tell her off and then kick the crap out of her.”

“Let’s go”, Doc said to Dana. “Let Meredith do what she wants.”

We were standing at the head of the hallway. I had been walking without the crutches for a few days. Dana led Doc half way down the hall to a door. We had been told it was a storage room. She put a key in the lock and opened it. There was what looked like a wall behind it. Dana reached out and touched something and the “wall” slid open. She reached up and flicked a switch and I could see that a light had come on, but I couldn’t see beyond the entrance.

“Can you hold this for me, please?” Doc asked Dana, handing her his bag. She took it and he walked toward me. “I need what might be my last kiss from Meredith.”