Culling

Part II • Chapter XI

Uncle Lucas came to stand near the table next to me. From his attitude, I assumed that my uncle had gone through something like this routine with his sons before. I wondered if it was any different for him, being at a doctor's appointment with me?

"I'll bring you up to date," Sean spoke to my uncle after I had given him a nod of approval. "Sang has been undernourished, I'm assuming from birth. So her growth could have also been stunted; the Gentreau family is known for being made up of taller individuals."

"Wait just a minute." I stopped him. "Are you saying that my mother wasn't short? I always thought she was short, because my father was very tall."

Uncle Lucas looked at me, his eyes full of some unknown emotion. "No. Diana was actually about 180 centimeters in height."

My eyes widened. Six feet! Darnnit. I really was the shortest one of them all. This sucked.

"Don't pout. You are still perfect." Sean poked my cheek before continuing, addressing me and my uncle. "One thing I want to do before the end of this exam is to take blood for a Complete Blood Count and a Chemistry Panel test. Sang has never been to an official doctors' appointment before. So she has never had any of these tests done."

"Of course." Uncle Lucas answered. "Please make sure to test for everything that could be a concern, and for overall health as well."

"Sang says she doesn't want a pelvic exam at this time," he looked at me and I nodded in agreement, "but she experiences an extreme level of pain that I want to look into. I'm concerned it could be endometriosis. I've been giving her high dosages of pain medication as treatment in the meantime, but I'd like to do an ultrasound to see what comes up. However, I'm concerned we won't be able to do a full treatment before the games start."

"You could always just put her on birth control for now." Dr Riordan said, he clearly had been paying attention even though he looked as though he was not. "It sounds like it's the perfect time, just give her a shot."

"That's what I was thinking as well..." Sean frowned as he began to type something on a tablet that he had been holding.

"Plus, it would be remiss of you to not consider the necessity of offering protection." Dr Riordan continued. "She's going to be the only female in a battlefield with one hundred and thirty-nine men. There are only nine of you. You need to be prepared for anything."

My breath caught in my throat. I hadn't even considered that! Sean stiffened in response and glared at him, as did Uncle Lucas, but it was Owen who spoke.

"Dr Riordan," his voice was cold and angry. "I understand that you wanted to appraise Miss Sorenson of the situation, but it was not necessary to say it in that way." He had gotten up and stood next to Sean. "Yes, she should be aware, but my brothers and I have already discussed that concern and have a plan of action. You don't need to cause her to panic."

They had considered that something like that could happen? My eyes shot to Owen, but he was glaring at Dr Riordan. Did they really think that there was a possibility that... of course they had to, they weren't naive. "I... I want the shot." I told Sean.

Sean frowned and tilted my chin with his finger until he was looking into my eyes, his gaze was deathly serious. "Miss Sang, we'll get you the shot - for more than the one reason. But rest assured that all nine of us will protect you to the best of our abilities. I don't want you to live in fear of that, alright?"

He was so sincere. "...alright, I'll try." I told him honestly.

"Good. Now, the last thing," Sean glanced over at Dr Riordan before looking back at us. "I really would like to get an MRI done..."