He waited for Nat to tiptoe from his room then reached under the pillow and took out the cell phone. Punching in a phone number, he waited as it rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Monica – it’s Tobey.”

“Why are you whispering?”

“I’m in the Bowman’s spare bedroom,” he explained. “I’m supposed to be sleeping.”

“Tobes – you got a cold? You sound bad!”

“I’m fine,” he insisted, “listen . . .”

“So how’s Natty? Did she . . . ?”

“She’s OK,” Tobey said. “I’m not her favorite person right now, but I got her to listen to me about Brittany – listen Monica I went over there yesterday.”

“Over where?”

“The Simmons,” he explained. “I stopped at home after I left your place, Brittany was on my machine inviting me to go to the Riviera with her after Christmas. Listen . . . “

“Holy shit!” Monica cried. “Is she crazy?”

“Well, yeah, but get this – they know that Derek guy,” Tobey told her. “He called the house while I was there!”

“No fucking way . . .”

“Yeah, listen, I intercepted the call, take down this number.” He rattled the number off to Monica.

“This is all falling into place so nicely for us,” Monica said. “What about Natalia? Is she willing to go to the police?”

“I got her to consider it,” Tobey said.

“I told you she’d be the toughest part of this,” Monica said. “But listen – I had this idea, I’m actually getting ready now to go over to Leo’s . . . “

“To Leo’s?” Tobey asked. “What’s that about?” he laughed.

“You’ll see,” Monica said. “But do me a favor. If you get Nat to go to the police, make sure you call me first! It’s very important!”

“What are you up to, Monica?”

Being with her was the only sure-fire cure, and really, he was starting to feel better just by having her with him. Of course, some antibiotics would certainly help the situation. He signed his name on the admittance sheet and pulled his baseball cap down over his forehead. With the extra stubble on his face, it was doubtful anyone in the small waiting room would recognize who he was. Besides, most of the patients were elderly anyway-he doubted if any of them even knew who he was..

The nurses, though. The nurses knew.

"Mr. Maguire?"

He looked up to see a nurse in blue scrubs with a clipboard at the foot of the hallway, motioning for him to follow her.

“I’ll wait here,” said Nat, getting ready to take a seat.

“No,” Tobey insisted, grabbing her hand. “Please.”

Natalia stared at him for a moment, surprised at his urgency. Without saying anything she followed him down the corridor after the nurse in blue. They entered the compact room and Tobey took a seat on the examining table.

"Doctor Johnson will be in soon, so before she gets here let me just get your vitals down, okay?”

Tobey hated doctor’s office formalities.

She took down his weight, and was in the middle of taking his blood pressure when Doctor Johnson walked in.

“Hello all,” said Doctor Johnson, looking down at her clipboard. “Mr. . . Maguire, right?”

Even though his senses weren't functioning in top form, two things were quite obvious: one was that this doctor standing before him had a strong, southern drawl and two: she knew who he was.

She wore a long white overcoat over pale pink scrubs with white loafers, her golden brown hair pulled back into a playful ponytail that was banded in pale pink as well. Her smile was as striking as her accent and she happily approached his bedside, her ponytail swinging.

She extended her hand and shook his firmly, her brown eyes never leaving his. “I’m Doctor Johnson. Although most people just call me Carley.” She glanced down at his stats. “So. . . we’re not feeling too well today, are we?”

“Again,” he said, a bit sadly.

“Not a nice way to spend Christmas Eve, eh?"

If only she knew how this whole week had been going!

He laughed. “Ah, well, it wouldn’t have been Christmas if I hadn’t caught something.”

She laughed too. “Glad to hear you’ve got a sense of humor about things.”

Goodness, she’s young! I’m sure that even I am older than she is. . .

She got to business and started rattling off her questions.

“Chest pain?”

“It’s getting better.”

“Your throat isn’t though, am I right?”

“Yeah.”

She put her hand to his chest and pushed inward forcefully. Hmm, not bad , she thought fiendishly. She couldn’t help herself - she was, afterall, a fan.

“Does that hurt, Mr. Maguire?”

“A little, yeah.”

"Hmm,” she said quietly.

“I could save you about twenty minutes and tell you it’s strep throat,” he said, helpfully.

“Mmm,” she said, taking her stethoscope to his chest. “Probably so, Mr. Maguire. Although you could save me even more time by keeping quiet.”

Tobey’s eyes grew wide. Doctor Johnson winked at him.

“And I mean that kindly. Don’t want you straining your voice, do we?”

“That’s what I told him!” Nat spoke up happily. Tobey shot her a look that said ‘whose side are you on?’

“We’re just gonna do a quick throat culture, okay?”

Oh shit. He hated these. She was gonna stick a huge-ass cute tip in his throat and nearly gag him to death.

And sure enough, the assertive doctor with the alluring smile was coming at him with a Q-tip. He squeezed Nat’s hand as he gagged.

The doctor stifled a giggle and smiled sympathetically upon her patient who was still coughing.

“It’ll take about ten minutes to get the results back, so the two of you just sit tight, okay?”

She left the room, her white coat trailing. Tobey sat in quiet expectation. He could always portray utter calm with unbelievable ease, but inside he was cringing. It’s strep and she’s going to want to give me a shot. Don’t be a baby Tobey, you’ve had dozens of shots. This wasn’t his regular Doctor and Natalia was here to make everything so much more complicated, and he always tensed up which made it hurt like hell. He would have gotten up and left, if Nat hadn’t been there.

It was nice to be with her again. He liked how warm her hand was on his; it was as if they had never been apart. But they had been apart, and it had been his fault. His brow furrowed at the jumble of thoughts racing though his mind, he felt dizzy and leaned forward.

“Tobey!” Natalia’s voice made him focus enough not to fall off of the high table. He looked directly into her worried eyes.

“I’m ok.”

“No you are not, I’m getting the doctor,” she quickly exited, his heroine with chestnut hair. Another pang of guilt stuck as he remembered how she must have felt, all alone at the hospital, confused, and hurt.

The doctor and Natalia reentered the room.

“Mr. Maguire, or should I say Doctor Maguire,” she drawled, “You certainly hit that nail square on the head, the test was positive. Now what about your almost passing out on us, that will never do.” She came up very close to him and tested his temperature. She pressed her lips together in dismay and shook her head slightly.

“Lie down and remove your pants”

“What?!” The fever was definitely getting worse, he thought, he was getting delusional.

Dr. Allen smirked, “Not a proposition, Mr. Maguire. I'm giving you a shot of penicillin, and the best place to do that is…,”

“My ass?” he completed.

“Your hip, actually,” she seemed quite amused, and he could tell Natalia was stifling a smile.

Women.

He did as instructed. The doctor gasped as she examined his posterior, “What have y’all been up to? Looks like someone’s been playing kind of rough.”

“What?” his voice raised an octave and cracked with the effort. Tobey was distinctly uncomfortable, with this strange, beautiful doctor questioning him about his exposed nether region.

“Look at this,” she coaxed Natalia to join her in her evaluation. Natalia’s eyebrows arched up. “Uh, Mr. Maguire, you are aware that your gluteus maximums has a large contusion, I hope.”

“Oh, I fell off the swing, last night, nothing really. Can we get on with the shot, please…” his knuckles were going white as he held onto the table for dear life. He was as tense as he’d ever been in his life, and just wanted to get it over with and get the hell out!

The doctor sensing his tension, tried to lighten the mood. “You know I can refer you to someone about your, er, problem."

“My bruised ass?” he shot back, getting annoyed.

“No, the cellulite.”

Natalia could control it no longer: her laughter filled the room and Tobey closed his eyes, trying to block it out. But it was no use: her laughter crept its way into Tobey's heart and he smiled. . . even laughed himself. Dr. Allen chose that moment to do her job and jabbed the needle into his left buttock. Tobey didn’t even flinch.

“You’ll all set, Doctor Maguire," she beamed. "You take care, remember lots of fluids and sleep.”

"Yeah," said Nat, "that's for sure. He didn't get any sleep at all last night."

Doctor Allen paused, and gave Tobey a crooked, fiendish smile as he buttoned his pants back up again. "Ahh. . . not a wink of sleep? Now I get it. I was wondering how you fell off a porch swing, but I think I got the picture now."

Tobey's mouth fell.

"But hey, that's none of my business!" She happily ripped off a script from her pad and handed it to Natalia. “Make sure he takes this twice a day, and honey?”

“Yes?” Natalia replied.

“Don’t be too rough with that ass." The doctor winked and disappeared out of the room leaving Tobey and Nat staring at each other. This time they both broke out into laughter at the same time.