"Alright, Mr and Mrs O'Donnell, will there be anything else I can do for you whilst you're here?" Henry asked as he stood up from his desk, prompting the older couple to follow suit.
"No, Doctor. Thank you for all your help." Mr O'Donnell said gratefully; in stark juxtaposition to his initial reaction to the idea of a new doctor.
"It's no trouble at all, sir. Just remember to take the cough syrup before bed and the paracetamol in the morning for the fever. Should the cough and fever persist, feel free to send for me and I can have a look. Drink plenty of fluids and do keep me posted should anything change, but other than that you should be fighting fit before you know it." Henry added a little reminder in his parting words, smiling politely as he watched the older couple leave towards the reception and out the door. "Goodbye now, and do feel better!"
Henry relaxed his spine as soon as the couple was out the door, leaning nonchalantly against the wall as he glanced towards Mary with a knowing smile. Henry chuckled and shook his head; he was used to having difficult patients, and there was nothing like war to teach one that lesson. He had patients who would try to get up and go back onto the battlefield; he'd have patients who fought him after losing limbs or their ability to hear from the loud blasts of ammunition. And who else were they to fight; their quarrel was with the Lord, their quarrel was with the horrors of war. But the only people they had to take things out on were those who tried to help them; and for that even Henry couldn't fault them.
His hands stuffed back into his pockets, Henry strolled back into his office, grabbing the file folder off of his desk with the name 'O'Donnell, Seamus' written in pen on the tab. Humming quietly to himself he walked up to the filing cabinet, thumbing through the alphabetised names and slipped Mr O'Donnell's file in right behind his wife's file. He pushed the drawer shut with a huff and stalked back towards his desk and sitting himself down once again, prying open the old medical encyclopaedia he had been skimming through priorly.
Henry was only about fifteen years old when he first began to take an interest in medicine; prompted by a visit to the local Aldringham Cottage Hospital with his Granny who was then the Duchess of Hertford. At first it was just because he begged her to take him to one of her Board of Trustee's meetings; at the time she was delighted that young Henry took an interest in the family's duties as one of the leaders of the county, but inside Henry was more interested in the doctor's duties rather than his Granny's.
Aldringham was a village with only a mere thousand people, mostly centred around Aldringham Manor and its surroundings. Most of the people who lived there were farmers, worked in town, or were working for Aldringham Manor. The cottage hospital in the villagemay have been small compared to the hospitals in Oxford where Henry trained and the Kensington General Infirmary he'd worked at; but it was terribly busy in comparison to what Henry was realising little Fir Creek to be. And was it any wonder, with only a few hundred people living in this small, still growing coal mining village.
Henry thumbed through his medical encyclopaedia brushing up on his general medical knowledge; one of his professors at Oxford stressed the vitality of brushing up on one's medical knowledge in order to ensure one could triage patients educatedly and accurately. Though Henry always liked to keep fresh on new medical journals and the sort, he couldn't help but feel like he was brushing up on things he already knew, solely because there was nothing else to do. The dispensary was stocked so there was no inventory to do; Lord only knew there were no patients at the time, no requests for house calls, no emergencies at the mine; he was practically begging to feel less utterly restless.
He flipped the page feeling this indelible sensation deep within his gut; the feeling that someone was watching him. He glanced up and flinched ever so slightly; catching glimpse of an adorable little blond toddler stood right in front of him and staring at him curiously with his innocent hazel brown eyes.
"Oh, hello there Danny." The corners of Henry's lips perked up into a smile as his face seemed to brighten at the sight of the little lad.
"Hewwo." Danny waved adorably with his dainty hand before going back to playing with the sleeves of his grey woollen jumper.
"Awww, hello to you too, mate." Henry said cheerily, leaning forward and resting his palms under his chin. Danny didn't say anything, glancing down bashfully as his soft, silky blond hair fell down into his eyes. Henry just watched him with a smile on his face as the little boy silently glanced around, his gaze at the bookcases and anatomical diagrams that lined the wall; a look of intrigue and fear washing over his big amber eyes at the illustrations of the human musculoskeletal systems.
"Is everything alright, mate?" Henry asked sweetly; he didn't know why but everything Danny did seemed to bring out this caring paternal side to him though he barely knew him. The way he looked around and stumbled about clumsily brought a smile to Henry's face.
In the few days Henry had been around, he'd slowly but surely managed to win over Danny's heart little by little with each passing encounter. Though at first he'd shy away from Henry and hide behind his father, withing a few days they'd got to the point where Danny seek him out himself; often times he wouldn't say much to Henry, but nonetheless Henry was pleased that the boy was warming up to him.
"Scawy." Danny said softly, pointing at the diagram of the skeleton on the wall.
"Oh, I see." Henry nodded in understanding as he followed the little boy's line of vision towards the diagrams; he realised that it might be strange to see something like that for a small child. "Danny, mate. Come here." Henry beckoned the child over, watching as the little boy blinked his big brown eyes up at him before stalking up to him behind his desk.
"Are you scared of the diagrams?" Henry smiled knowingly, prompting the little lad to nod. "Would you like to know a secret?" He whispered, earning him yet another nod from Danny. "I used to be a bit frightened of them too. But then I got older and I realised that there's nothing to be frightened of."
"Reawwy?" Danny asked.
"Well, of course." Henry said animatedly, reaching over to ruffle the boy's soft blond hair. "Would you like to have a look? You don't have to if you don't want." He asked, noting Danny's eyes dart between the diagrams and the dark haired man before him.
"Okie." Danny nodded genuinely. He didn't appear to be hesitant so Henry thought there was no harm in explaining it to him; though he hadn't a clue how simplified to make it.
"Brilliant, alright. Come on, you." Henry scooped up the smaller boy into his arms and carried him on his hip; huffing playfully as though the little boy was heavy, earning him a soft giggle from the shy little toddle.
"Alright, where shall we start..." Henry hummed to himself as he carried the little boy towards the diagrams and arbitrarily deciding which to show him. "So this is a skeleton." He explained, watching the little boy stare at the drawing blankly. "I know it looks a bit frightening at first, but there's nothing scary about it. In fact! Our skeleton is our best friend."
"Fwiend?" Danny asked curiously, the look of interest in his eyes making Henry smile.
"Yes, we all have one inside us. When we're little like you are, you have a little one inside. But as we grow big and strong like you will, it grows with us. That's why your daddy gives you a glass of milk every night before bed so your skeleton can grow big and strong with you!" Henry glanced down wearily, feeling a slight sense of relief that the little boy seemed to understand the context he was putting it in. "Our skeleton help us stand and sit and pick things up, put them down, kick a football, and most importantly it protects all the stuff inside our body. Without it we'd not be able to do all the fun stuff."
"Oooohh..." Danny drawled softly, his eyes brightening visibly.
"And this..." Henry stepped to the side with little Danny in his arms. "Is the muscular system." He pointed to the diagram of the muscles that he admittedly understood how one might find disturbing. "This man has big muscles because he's strong."
"Daddy says milk make me strong." Danny said animatedly, making Henry crack a smile.
"And your daddy is absolutely right." Chuckled Henry as he gazed lovingly towards the little boy in his arms. Though he'd only known little Danny a few days he couldn't help but feel attached to him in a way; almost like he was with his own niece, Anna. "Well, Danny? Are you still afraid of them?"
"No" Danny shook his head with a wide grin as Henry felt his heart leap in his chest.
"Good lad" Henry smiled back at the little boy, taken by surprise as the tiny tot gave him a soft peck on his cheek.
"Hope I'm not interrupting the lesson." Henry heard a smooth confident voice coming from the doorway, immediately turning around to see Thomas leaning against the doorjamb in uniform with his arms nonchalantly crossed over his chest; a content smile creeping over his handsome face as he gazed leisurely at his little son in Henry's arms.
"No, not at all, Constable." Henry felt a heat permeate over his cheeks as he observed the handsome man's dreamy brown eyes fixated on him. "I was just showing Danny some of the diagrams."
"Oh? Is that right, bud?" Thomas approached the dark haired man as he held his son in his arms; he kissed Danny atop his soft blond hair, smiling wide as he watched the little boy smile up at him and nod excitedly.
"Hey, um. I actually had a favour to ask of you." Thomas asked softly, locking eyes with Henry. "I hope you don't mind I checked with Mary to make sure nobody was in the clinic?"
"Of course, is everything quite alright?" Henry flashed him a perplexed look.
"Yeah, I just needed a wound checked out." Admitted Thomas.
"Alright, I could certainly access it fo you, if you'd like." Henry nodded in understanding to Thomas before setting little Danny down on his feet.
"Danny, bud. Daddy needs Henry to check something for him, how about you run along into the kitchen and ask Rose for a snack." Thomas knelt down to the little boy's eye level, watching with an amused smile as the boy's bright blue eyes illuminated at the word 'surprise'. Rose was a young miner's wife who was childminder to Alfie and Danny whilst Thomas was on patrol and doing other such Mountie duties; the boys seemed to like her but Thomas still checked in on them at every chance he could, being the doting every-protective father he was.
Henry couldn't help but smile as he watched the tender moment from above, his heart swelling in his chest as he observed the precious little lad take off out the door and towards the kitchen; his little shoes tapping against the hardwood floor as he bounded down the corridor. Thomas rose up off of his hunches with a subtle huff, turning around to meet eyes with Henry who lowered his gaze with fluttering lashes; there was something about Thomas' intense brown eyes, unique in colour like a deep vat of honey that every time Henry looked into them he felt himself get lost deeper and deeper into their dark amber hues.
"Sharp lad you've got there." Henry pointed out with an awkward chuckle, earning him a smile from the handsome uniformed officer in scarlet. "Right, well go on into the examination room just there. I just need to get some gauze and plasters." He gestured towards the room across the hall, though he found it rather silly to be telling the man where the examination room was, considering he was the one who'd literally showed him the ins and outs of the surgery only days prior.
"Yes sir." Thomas teased, saluting the dark haired boy playfully with his open palm at his temple.
"Right, go on then, I'll be just a minute." Chuckled Henry as the taller blond disappeared out into the hallway leaving Henry to grab a few things.
He stalked over to wash his hands before making his way to the dispensary cupboard, pulling out some gauze, a few plasters, and a bottle of antiseptics; noting that Thomas mentioned a wound of some calibre. Henry took all his necessary supplies in a small basin and casually walked over towards the now shut examination room door; knocking twice before going ahead and creaking the door open ever so slightly to slip through to the other side.
"Alright, let's have a look at-" Henry started mindlessly as he stepped through the door and shut it behind him. He turned around thoughtlessly and glanced up towards Thomas, stopping dead in his tracks as his eyes widened to see the gorgeous fair-haired man sitting casually on the examination table in nothing but his trousers and boots; his bare torso on full display.
Henry gasped quietly as his eyes seemed to glaze over; staring blankly in a mix of pleasant surprise and perplexity at the handsome blond Thomas' exposed torso. His arms were muscular and strong with bulging biceps and wide sculpted deltoids with a well wound bandage obscuring one of his shoulders. For a split second Henry felt as though he was having an entire out-of-body experience; his eyes scanning over the man's defined abdominal muscles; his chest strong and rugged with the slightest amount of dark blond hair over his pectorals that had Henry's head in a tailspin.
"Uhh... You okay?" Thomas blinked perplexedly, wondering why Henry stood petrified like a soldier turned to stone by Medusa.
"Erm, yes!" Henry cleared his through as he drew himself back into the present, immediately realising how terribly incriminating his ogling likely was. "Yes, terribly sorry, I was miles away." He stammered, hastily walking over to the washbasin in the room, running his hands under the water as he tried to recover but to no avail. He took a deep break and closed his eyes, regaining his composure before drying his hands meticulously and turning around towards the handsome, very bare-chested, Greek god before him.
"Right, let's have a look then..." Henry mumbled half under his breath as he approached Thomas with a forced cordial smile; his eyes immediately focusing on the bandage wound over his right shoulder. With all the mental willpower he had, he kept his focus on the bandage to ensure his gaze didn't wander towards the man's gorgeous musclebound torso; it was certainly no simple feat. He carefully pried off the plaster and unravelled the bandage seeing what looked to be a partially healed would that appeared to, at one point, have been rather deep. He suppressed the urge to wince at the thought of how painful it must've been to incur; keeping a straight face whilst treating even the ghastliest ailments was an art he'd learnt to perfect not only whilst at university but on the battlefield hospital tents as well.
"It's not infected and appears to be healing. You're clearly taking proper care of it." Henry noted, his bright blue eyes flicking between the healing wound and the fair haired Constable's chiselled face. "How long ago did you incur the injury?"
"About two weeks..." Drawled Thomas, earning him a hum of approval from Henry as he nodded to himself. The wound appears to be healing rather well for something that appeared rather deep.
"Two weeks? Well I reckon it's healing rather well for being only two weeks along." Henry raised his brows as he examined the wound further. "Fair warning, this might sting a bit." Henry warned softly as he applied a generous amount of tincture of Iodine antiseptic to a ball of cotton wool and began cleaning the wound with gentle dabs; grimacing as he observed Thomas wince visibly with a muted hiss. "If I may so bold to ask... How exactly did you... erm..."
"Bullet grazed my shoulder." Thomas said nonchalantly as though it was absolutely nothing.
"God in Heaven." Henry gasped softly in utter shock as he stopped what he was doing altogether and stared wide eyed at the handsome man. . "How in God's name did you manage that?!"
"There was an armed and dangerous convict on the loose." Thomas explained with a nod. "He escaped from a jail in the States and somehow snuck over the border."
"Blimey. Like something out of an American country-western film, that." Henry noted under his breath as he unscrewed the cap off of a tube of Polysporin and applied a bit of the cream directly onto the wound. "Though one daresay it's terribly on brand for their lot to be armed."
"A few of the Mounties found out he was near Fir Creek so we all went to the scene to apprehend him; He shot a few bullets in our direction and one managed to graze my shoulder." Thomas let out a sigh through his nose as he stared off into the abyss all the while "But I ended up at the end and turning him back over to the Americans, so I guess I got my revenge at the end." He said with a light chuckle to hide any trauma he'd incurred form the whole ordeal.
"Well thank heavens you're safe and well; I should think that alone is a relief to all of us." Henry cooed softly as he stuck on the last bit of bandage with a plaster. He glanced up toward Thomas who stared at him with a blank, unreadable look in his mysterious brown eyes; immediately realising what he'd just said. "Us... as in... the townspeople of Fir Creek. We're lucky to have a brave, dutiful Constable here to protect us. Of the few people I've met in town thus far, I can say one thing they have in common is that they all sing nothing but praises for Fir Creek's very own heroic Mountie."
"Well, I don't know about all that..." Thomas' lowered his gaze bashfully down to the deep mocha varnished oak floors; a light tinge of blush permeating over his sun kissed chiselled cheeks. "It's my duty to protect our little town and everyone in it. But I can't lie and say I wasn't a bit selfish in that moment. When I realised I'd been shot, all I could think about were my boys and what would become of them if something had happened to me."
"Crickey, that's a ghastly thought." Henry was clearly taken aback by that. "I'm terribly sorry, I hadn't thought of it like that."
"It's quite alright, I took no offence." Thomas shook his head vehemently, cracking a slight smile to ease the situation. "I guess I'm just glad I made it home to them."
"Quite right." Henry smiled back at him, feeling this strange fluttering within his stomach like butterflies. "Right, well. I suppose we're all done here. Continue with your cleaning and dressing regimen, It's healing brilliantly and I should think it plausible that it's not long now before it's healed fully, touch wood.".
"That's good to hear, Doc." Thomas gave him a nod as he slid off the examination table and walked over towards the opposite corner of the room where he had a white shirt, his red uniform tunic, and his brown hat neatly laid out over a chair.
"I'll leave you to get dressed, and you can come back weekly perhaps so I can check your healing progress." Henry averted his gaze from the sculpted human Roman statue; fighting the urge to allow his eyes to feast on every rippling muscle on full display. Henry caught himself staring yet again, turning around and letting out a quiet sigh as he reached for the doorknob to make a quick escape.
"Hey, Henry." Henry felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up; a chill sent down his spine at the way his name sounded coming from the handsome Constable. He craned his neck to look at Thomas, cocking an eyebrow at him curiously as he watched the man approach him with his shirt still in his hand. "Thank you." Thomas said sincerely, a dimpled smile blossoming across his perfect face.
"You're very welcome." Henry reciprocated with a bashful grin before turning back around and slipping hastily through the door, shutting it behind him. He he breathed out a sigh of relief as he found himself alone in the corridor. He reaching up to his necktie to loosen it a bit as he felt his laboured breath return to some semblance of normalcy, the heat he felt within him dissipating slowly but surely; He's going to be the death of me, Henry thought to himself as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. The absolute death of me.