Her eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
I smirked. “I need to conduct a strep test for a little boy who won’t let me near him. I’d like to demonstrate it on you first so that he knows it’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Bridget nodded in understanding. “Okay…I guess there’s no harm in that.”
Lifting my brow, I said, “I’ll try not to make you gag.”
Oh, yes. Watching Bridget Valentine lighting up red was perhaps my favorite pastime.
“Meet me in there,” I said. “I have to grab something.”
I made my way over to a desk drawer where I kept my stash of extra special reinforcements for particularly resistant patients of the younger variety.
Returning to the room, I noticed that Bridget was working to calm the boy’s nerves.
His mother looked skeptical as I held up the swab. “There is no way he’s going to let you near him with that thing,” his mother said.
Bridget bit her lip. Perhaps she could relate to that scenario when it came to me in a different sense.
“Okay, Chaz…I see you’ve already met my friend, Bridget. I’m gonna show you how this works. She’s gonna open her mouth and say ‘Ah’ and then afterwards, she’s gonna get a big, swirly rainbow lollipop to suck on. I happen to have one for you, too.”
Stifling my laughter, I turned to her. “Okay, Bridget…open wide and say ‘Ah’.”
She did as I said, sticking her tongue way out. “Ahhh.”
I stuck the swab deep in her mouth, without actually culturing her throat, although for a split second I was tempted to catch her off guard and do it just so I could see her gag.
Turning to Chaz, I said, “See? That wasn’t bad at all. Now, Bridget gets her lollipop.” I took the plastic wrapper off and handed it to her.
Bridget took an exaggerated lick. “Mmm.”
My cock twitched.
Fuck. Quick. Think about Nana.
Opening a new swab, I turned to the boy. “Alright, Chaz, your turn for a lollipop.”
With tears in his eyes, he reluctantly opened his mouth and allowed me to swab him. I handed him the lollipop along with a pat on the head.
His mother was amazed that he’d cooperated. “Wow. Props to you, Doc.”
“Well, I couldn’t have done it without Nurse Valentine.” I winked at Bridget.
“Anytime, Dr. Hogue.”
Translation: “Fuck you, Dr. Hogue.”
“Someone will be back with the results in about fifteen minutes. Hang tight,” I said to them before exiting the room.
Bridget followed behind me.
I turned around and walked backwards, smiling. “I’ll let you know if we find any streptococcus in your sample.”
Of course, I put the emphasis on cock.
A few days later, it was early evening at Bridget’s house. I was minding my business when I heard screaming coming from the kitchen. Soon after, the smoke detectors started to go off.
What the fuck?
Bridget was running frantically around the stove while flames shot out around the pan she’d been frying something in.
“Run outside, Brendan!” she screamed.
Having to think fast, I reached past the flames and turned off the heat, which she hadn’t done.
“Do you have baking soda?” I yelled through the chaos.
She pointed to the refrigerator in a panic.
I found it in the back of the first shelf. Dumping the entire box over the flames, I was able to douse them.
She was shaking uncontrollably.
Instinctively grabbing her and pulling her close, I rubbed her hair and tried to calm her down. “It’s okay. Everything is fine. You’re fine. It’s out.”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she looked up at me. “Oh my God. I didn’t know what to do. I seemed to remember that I wasn’t supposed to use water but I just…froze.”
“It’s alright, Bridget. It was a small grease fire.”
“What if you weren’t here?”
“Then you would’ve run out and called the fire department.”
“While my house burned to the ground? That’s all we need.”
“It’s okay. That didn’t happen.”
We went outside to check on Brendan who was patiently waiting on the front lawn with the neighbor.
“Are you okay, Mommy?”
“Thank you for listening to me and running outside,” she said.
“I ran over to Mrs. Savage’s house. She called the firemen.”
“Thank you, my big boy. You did the right thing, but everything’s under control because Simon acted really fast.”
Sirens were blaring in the distance.
I turned to Bridget. “Why don’t you take Brendan out of the house for a bit. I’ll talk to the fire department. Then, I’ll air everything out and clean up in there.”