Becoming the Luna

Dale beelines to the Pack Clinic and now I can understand the reasoning behind placing it on the first floor.

I expect to see my mom at the Clinic but all I see is Shana and Mae with tense expressions on their faces and an older woman who looks like the adult version of Mae with braids.

The room is big enough to hold all three of them plus the doctor himself giving me a check up, Dale is pacing at one end.

"Where's my mom?" I ask absently, watching the doctor pat me down with warm and steady hands.

"She had a flat tire and locked her phone in her car." Shana explains, worry expressive on her tense face.

There are barely any cabs in Pine Creek which is unsurprising, most people lived together so someone would have to go get her.

"Oh." I mumur, closing my eyes. "Ow!" I exclaim when the doctor digs his fingers in my sides.

I open my eyes to glare at him and he apologizes nervously when Dale growls at him from across the room.

"Okay, big guy, we'll need you to move out." Mae's mom says warmly.

"Why?" He asks coldly, an eyebrow up sardonically.

"Because he's going to get undressed, plus I'll need your help moving the rabid Weres around." She explains logically.

Dale's cold gaze just gets colder, he easily towers over Mrs. Parcell and he uses his height to his advantage.

"Then Doctor Frisky Hands over there is moving too." He says curtly.

Mrs. Parcell just stares at him in exasperation then turns to my doctor with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Frank…" She starts to say.

"It's fine, Ola." He says goodnaturedly. "I'd expected it anyway, I'll page Laura, she should be able to handle this as well." He says, adjusting the labels of his coat as he walks out, he gives Dale a wide berth as he does this.

Dale just casually glares at him as he does this, enjoying the uneasy squirming of the poor doctor.

"Come on." Mrs. Parcell urges him, leading the way out.

He keeps eyes contact with me as he does this and I duck my head, my cheeks burning up.

"I thought they always exaggerated about Alphas." The nurse taking my vitals shakes her head.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Shana shakes her head and they move closer.

"I'm Maria." The nurse introduced, she's petite with mousy brown hair that she kept in a neat pony tail, shiny, dark brown eyes blinking behind black framed glasses. "And you must be, Hayden." She introduces nicely.

I nod to her, my voice box currently on its lowest volume.

"I'll go report this in, Doctor Laura should be here soon, excuse me." She says sweetly, making her way out with her clipboard.

Shana and Mae immediately position themselves on both sides of my bed, staring at me with wide glassy eyes.

"How do you manage to get into the most terrifying situations, Hay?" Shana starts to lecture me like she's my mom and I give her a crooked smile.

"I don't know, Shay, I'm just awesome like that." I say dryly, smiling when they laugh out even though tears are brimming in their eyes.

They're careful to not touch me, obviously something learnt from hanging around the Clinic way too much or Shana would be hugging me to death by now.

"Hi, girls!" A different doctor peeks her head in, she's much younger than the previous doctor with fiery red hair and mellow brown eyes. "Is that my patient, then?" She asks with a wide smile that's quite contagious.

"Yes, Doctor." Mae says politely.

"Just call me, Laura." She waves away, coming closer.

They move away to give her space and she carefully ruffles my already very tangled hair.

"First, we need to get you out of these clothes." She explains nicely. "Would you feel better if your friends helped you?"

I nod at her considerate suggestion.

"Alright girls, I'll let him to you for a while, you know what to do." She says, going out.

"Your arms hurt, don't they?" Shana takes the lead, going to carry a small scissors from a cupboard.

"Yeah, don't move them, please." I request politely.

"Wouldn't dream to." She says seriously, deftly using the scissors to cut through the sweater and the thin shirt underneath.

"Oh my God!" Mae places both of her hands on her face in horror which she quickly schools to a much more solemn expression at a glare from her girlfriend.

"It doesn't look pretty, huh?" I ask wearily.

"Yeah." Shana says in a choked voice, quickly covering my bruised upper body with the Clinic shift for patients.

There's a delicate rope to be tied behind me but there's no way I'm performing the acrobatics required for that to happen.

My jeans are less trickier, she just cuts down both sides and carefully pulls the halved piece of clothing away.

Mae gently tugs off my socks and her expression sours at the bruises that are no doubt evident on my ankles.

"We're done, Laura!" Shana calls when I'm very decent and she comes in with my mom on her heels.

"My baby!" She hurries in, a weary expression on her face and I feel bad about stressing her by getting hurt way too often for an introvert who rarely goes anywhere.

"Hi Mom." I murmur sheepishly.

"I shouldn't have left." She says guilty, averting her face.

"It's better you did." I tell her seriously. "Apparently, Alexis was after me, he'd have done something horrible to you." 

She just pets my hair quickly, moving away for Laura to do the check up.

Her expression moves from worry to uneasiness, to all out pain and I have to close my eyes to the unsettling expressions on her face.

Everyone remains quiet even when Laura finishes up and prepares her results, I'm grateful for this because I'm not really up to talking, I just wanted to fall asleep on my bed, preferably being cuddled by either Virgil or Dale.

"Um, can I say this here?" She asks politely and I open my eyes.

"Yes, please." My mom replies earnestly

"Sure." She accepts gracefully. "Um, we have sprained ligaments in both shoulders so no heavy lifting for a while, that should heal easily enough but there's a bit of tearing in your muscles as well, that might take much longer." She starts to explain, her voice cheery despite the unsightly news that she was giving.

"A little bit of internal and external bruising on your sides but luckily no broken bones, a couple other grazes and little bruises that your body will fix by itself." She concludes.

"I'll need to put your arms in a cast or just bandage them briefly so that you wouldn't put strain on them and worsen the situation, other than that, you just need something for the pain and your body will do the rest."

"Please, no pain meds." I complain unhappily.

"It makes him groggy and nauseous but prescribe them anyway just in the case of necessity." My mom explains and Laura gives her a wide smile.

"Can I go back home?" I ask.

"Sure!" She grins at me. "I don't see why not, I'll be done bandaging your arms in a couple minutes and you should be good to go after that."

I let out a sigh and relax on the bed, my entire body hurts but it was still way better than the side effects of pain meds - well I have to say I definitely hadn't seen this coming when I woke up this morning.