Chapter 9- All Of The Above

Amberleigh emerged from the shower trying to leave her deep and troubled thoughts behind. But not even the warm water had been enough to wash away that dirty feeling upon her body. The way Grayson’s skin pressed up against her had made her body burn and excited. But in time her body and heart would want the billionaire less and less. And she would never put herself in such a compromising position with him again in the meantime.

But the scene she witnessed when Amber entered the exam room was enough to give her just the distraction she needed. Cori was attempting to start an IV in Grayson’s arm and Amber got to learn another fun fact about the billionaire. He was a big ass baby when it came to needles.

The shot into his arm earlier had come quickly when he was distracted by Leo’s trying to die on them, But now his best friend was hooked to a machine breathing for him, the bleeding stopped, and all his vital signs looking pretty. Grayson paled even more at the sight of the needle as Cori approached. He fidgeted on the chair and looked about to fucking bolt. If the overall situation wasn’t so fucked up, Amber would have laughed and had some fun with it.

“Um is that really necessary? Can’t I just drink some water?” he asked.

“This is the best way to hydrate you quickly, though oral intake will certainly help. I’m also going to be taking some blood to check your electrolytes and kidney function.”

“So two fucking needles?” his voice raised an octave or two.

Amber grinned as she stood behind him, listening to his ass trying to negotiate. She was tempted to tell Cori to grab a bigger needle, but that would be a bit heartless even for her. Grayson had been through it, especially these past few days. And even if he had put her through it since he found out about she and Leo being together and about the baby, it was time to let all that shit go. It didn’t matter anymore. That was the past and this was a new chapter in their lives. Friendship and supportive of one another.

“Well, I can get the bloodwork out of the IV since it’s a fresh IV. So just one stick,” smiled Cori.

Amber walked around to the front of Grayson’s chair, “I’ll hold your hand through it. And I’m sure the Doc has a nice big boy sticker for you after it’s done.”

He rolled his eyes at her. She giggled as she had never seen him doing something so undignified before. Well unless she counted the time his drunk ass drank straight from the kitchen faucet and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand after. Truly shocking.

“Don’t forget you’re next,” he said, “I’m sure you need some bloodwork too.”

Amber sulked a bit. She wasn’t a huge fan of needles herself but the thought of that speculum up her snatch wasn’t pleasant. No doubt the Doc would want to examine her thoroughly down there to make sure the baby was still where it was supposed to be. She didn’t feel cramps or anything, her pain and soreness was more from muscles and bones which had been roughed up by Lazy Eye. But it was better safe than sorry.

“At least you won’t ever get to experience a medical torture device known as a speculum. Then you really would cry,” she argued.

“At least you don’t have balls and a cock that gets squeezed like fucking grapefruits.”

“Ever heard of mammograms asshole? Men are pussies. You can’t even handle colds. Push a whole person out a small hole and then bitch to me about pain.”

Cori laughed, “You guys think you have it so rough. Sure you get prostate exams and groin checks, but we have pelvic exam and breasts exams and rectal exams.  Periods. And pregnancy and childbirth.”

“And don’t forget how babies can split you open when their huge heads come out and they have to stich up your vagina.  My son was nearly nine pounds. Then you have to use a warm squirt bottle down the stitches so you can take a pee-”

“Okay Okay! I concede!” said Grayson, “that all sounds fucking terrible.”

“Oh, but she was just getting to the good parts. Hormones. Chaffed nipples. Blocked milk ducts,” added Cori, “and then post-partum bleeding. Return of menstrual cycle. Bloating. And we haven’t even talked about menopause yet.”

Amber laughed by the disturbed look on Grayson’s face. Cori was also enjoying it by her smile. Amber wondered if Cori had a child of her own. She was still fairly young, early twenties, but Amber had become a mother at seventeen. She had felt that fullness and pain in her aching breasts full of milk with no baby to feed. It had hurt like hell and her boobs felt like they were going to explode. She’d placed packs of frozen peas on her breasts, popped some ibuprofen, and wallowed in self- pity for days.

“Alright! No more! I fold. Women have more unpleasant things to deal with. But I still don’t like needles. I had particularly bad experiences with an inexperienced phlebotomist in my youth who liked to go fishing in my arms. More than once. I hated getting her at the lab. And she was the reason I developed a strong aversion to needles.”

“You poor thing,” Amber said as she patted his cheek, “I’m sure Cori is gentle. Would you like me to go first?”

Through gritted teeth came his reply, “That won’t be necessary. Let’s just get this over with.”

“I won’t go digging around for your veins I promise. They don’t call me one stick Cori in these parts for nothing.”

He tensed and breathed about a thousand times a minute as the doc in training came closer with that IV catheter in her hand.  She tied the tourniquet around his muscled bicep and searched for a good vein. Amber kept her promise and slipped her hand into Grayson’s. He let her. And when Cori did find a ripe juicy vein, and inserted that needle, his grip grew painfully tight. He nearly broke Amber’s fucking hand in two. But she didn’t complain, just took the pain in silence.

Thankfully Cori was good and she got the vein on the first stick. She removed blood from the IV tubing into a small vial, before she hooked Grayson up to an IV pump. A bag of saline pumped rapidly into his vein, it was called a bolus of fluid. His breaths eased but he’d developed a sheen of sweat across his brow.

“You did so good. I’m proud,” Amber said.

“I should be used to needles by now.”

She discreetly tried to work blood and feeling back into her hand. She wanted to address his statement, but here wasn’t the place.  No doubt the billionaire had been subjected to lots of tests and bloodwork thanks to the medications he was on and his disease.

 Six years ago, both he and his father had been diagnosed with a fatal brain disease called Huntington’s. Cole Godwin had been suffering symptoms for ten years now, though the disease progression for him moved slowly, while his son had started showing symptoms last year at only twenty-three. At this rate, Grayson wasn’t going to live to his father’s age of sixty. He was unlikely to even see fifty. He already had problems with tremors, his thought process, and anger at times. While Cole was soon to be forced to walk with a cane more than just around his home, was having falls, and needed to write things down in a notebook to help him remember. This disease was devastating and things would only get worse for them both.

  Amber rubbed his arm instead. She couldn’t talk about such things here and Grayson was unlikely to open up anyway about such a sensitive topic. Cori walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a smiley face sticker and a sucker.

“I believe a sticker was promised. But I’ll do you one better and add a sucker. You did great.”

Grayson snorted as Cori put the sticker on his shirt and handed him the sucker. But Amber wound up eating the red lollipop she stole from his hand. She gave him a grin and popped it into her mouth. She was starting to feel hungry again.  By that time Doc had returned to the room and washed his hands at the sink.

“Miss Dubois? Are you ready to be examined?” he asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be Doc.”

Amber handed the sucker to Grayson before she shimmed out of the yoga pants Cori had given her. She could feel Grayson’s eyes on her as she got up on the exam table. At least his chair was seated near the head of the table and not the bottom. Not that he would want to watch the Doc shoving things up her pussy. That wasn’t sexy at all really. And not that Grayson hadn’t seen her pussy before either. Or tasted it or fingered it or caressed it or sucked it or fucked it. All of the above.