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When we arrived, Fury greeted us with a woman at his side. “Swan, this is Noelle. She’s my woman. We thought you might be more comfortable if she was here with you.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, holding my hand out to the other woman. She had flame-red hair and a slight build. Her frame was strong, though. She wore a tank top and shorts. Her arms were muscled, showing her strength. I thought it fitting that a man named Fury had a woman who looked like Noelle.
“I hope we’ll become friends,” Noelle said with a smile. “El Diablo said you’ll need the other women and me to help you pick out a dress tomorrow. Lyric has already planned a spa day to get you ready. We’re going to have so much fun!” The other woman’s smile was bright, and she looked genuinely pleased, though she didn’t look like the type to enjoy spa days.
“I think this is the part where I’m supposed to protest and tell Reaper he’s spending too much money.”
“And I’d follow with telling you it’s my fuckin’ money. I’ll spend it when and how I want, so you’re not winning those types of arguments.”
I shrugged. “However, I’m not winning those types of arguments, so I’ll refrain.” Everyone chuckled.
“All right. Lie down on the table here. I’m not going to poke and prod. I just want to get an idea of how big an area we’re talking about.” I did as Fury instructed. “Just going to pull your shorts down over your hip. Are you OK with that?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Fury did, looking at the slightly raised area from different angles before actually touching it. The lump was painful, but I tried to be stoic through the whole thing. It wasn’t as bad as it had been when the docs were constantly doing stuff to it, but it was still tender.
“Does it hurt all the time?”
“No. Only when I’m on my feet too much or when it’s being touched excessively. What you’re doing is uncomfortable, but not nearly as bad as when everyone in the world was examining it.”
“Good. So. I’ve looked at your records. I’ve also looked at all the imaging you had done. I see nothing mentioned about a biopsy or any kind of lab sample to determine exactly what it was. Only imaging documentation.”
“Yeah. I didn’t let them. They wanted to do chemo first, which I went along with, because they said it would make the excision easier. There was no talk of just doing a biopsy and leaving it as it was. When the chemo didn’t affect it at all, I didn’t really see the point. The procedure they described had the potential to get pretty invasive.”
“I see.” Fury stood and looked at the affected area as if he really wanted X-ray vision so he could see exactly what was going on. “Well, my guess is Doc is going to want lab samples. I’ll let him make that decision, but knowing for sure is really the key.”
“I thought I already knew.”
“Well, they think they know. It’s like the old saying, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Things aren’t always what they seem, though. I have a few questions I need to ask you. Questions I didn’t see answered in any of the history and physicals in your chart.”
“All right. Shoot.”
“You started experiencing pain about four months ago. Yes?”
“That’s right.”
“Did you injure yourself in any way?”
“No. I just woke up one morning and my hip ached.”
“Hum… what about… before that. Like a few weeks? A month? Two months?”
I thought back. “Well, yeah. I fell when I went hiking in the woods. Wasn’t a big fall or anything. I just tripped over a tree root and landed on another one.”
“Did you land close to where the tumor is now?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. Maybe? I’m just not sure. I think so?”
“OK. OK. We’ll visit that later when Doc gets here. How’s your pain level right now.”
“Not bad. I’ve been walking a lot lately. That seems to make it worse. It aches now. It’s more aggravating than anything else.”
“OK. I want you to take some anti-inflammatories along with some painkillers. Nothing too strong. I’m also giving you a stronger pain medicine to take at night to help you sleep. Looking at you, I’m betting you’re not sleeping well.”
“Well, I’ve been sleeping outside mostly. It’s not very comfortable and, I’ll admit, not very safe. I tried to stay in good neighborhoods and such, but it wasn’t very… relaxing.”
“Right. I’m assuming that’s all at an end?” He looked at Reaper instead of me. I had to grin. Normally, I’d be upset, but Reaper had effectively taken over my life. And I wasn’t at all broken up about it.
