472

The doctor hesitated then sighed and opened her office door once more. They took seats and Hannah got right to the point.
“A patient of yours is in the emergency department.”
“Ben?” she guessed. “Is he alright?”
“He was in a fight last night. Ben came to the rescue of a woman and beat a man unconscious. He hurt his hand this time. The face he punched repeatedly must have been very hard.”
“Does he remember the fight?” the doctor asked.
“No. He was in a fugue state like before. Some of the ladies confronted him earlier today and asked him to return to your sessions.”
“They did? I thought they hated me!” the doctor said with just a little venom.
Hannah just raised her eyebrows and stared at her until the doctor’s expression showed embarrassment at her reaction. Hannah continued. “It was his reaction that concerns me. When they asked him he apparently had a bit of a panic attack. Is that new?”
Dr. Granger frowned. “Yes, he wasn’t fearful of his sessions before. We were making such good progress!” She was silent for a moment. “You say he’s in the emergency room? Perhaps I could just drop in and say hello.” She stood up and Hannah followed her downstairs but left her outside of her office. Ben wasn’t in the waiting room but one of the ladies was. She recalled her name just before the woman spotted her.
“Hello Mrs. King,” Granger said in greeting.
There was a momentary flare of hostility in the woman’s eyes but that was quickly suppressed.
“Hello Dr. Granger. Ben is behind the second curtain,” Rochelle said.
She nodded her thanks and moved away as quickly as her dignity would allow. She listened then knocked on the wall before opening the curtain and stepping inside.
“Hello Ben.”
He looked up in surprise. “Oh! Dr. Granger, are you doing rounds in the ER?” he said a little nervously.
She smiled to try to set him at ease. “No, I just got word that one of my patients was visiting so I thought I’d drop by to say hello.”
“Hannah.”
The doctor nodded and watched Ben’s expression. He wasn’t angry at Hannah’s interference. If anything he looked a little sad.
“You don’t need me to tell you that she’s concerned as are the others,” she said both gently and quietly as they weren’t in the privacy of her office.
Ben nodded. “Yes, they want me to continue my sessions with you.”
“Are you ready?” she asked.
Something flashed across his face and he looked away then shook his head, unable to meet her eyes. Dr. Granger was sure there had been panic in that look.
“I want you to know that I’ll be here when you are. I hope you-”
A young doctor knocked on the wall and stepped inside the curtain looking at a chart. She came to an abrupt halt when she almost ran into the psychiatrist.
“Dr. Granger! Sorry, I wasn’t aware you were doing rounds with us today!” the woman said with a musical accent.
“Dr. Bhandari, I was on my way home and I heard that my friend was here so I just stopped to say hello,” she said with a smile.
“Ah, ok, I can come back later…”
“No, I was just leaving,” Granger said to the young woman. “See you soon Ben!”
He forced a smile on his face and nodded, not trusting his voice.
When Dr. Granger left the remaining doctor turned to him and glanced at the chart. “So I’m Dr. Bhandari and you have a swollen knuckle.”
Ben lifted his aching hand and she got a look at the damage.
“Ah. Did they take you to get an x-ray yet?” she asked.
Ben nodded so the doctor flipped on the screen in the room and tapped some of the controls to bring up the image. She made thoughtful sounds and looked back at Ben with a smile.
“I don’t see any breaks or cracks so I believe it’s just a dislocated knuckle. I’m going to reset it and then we’ll splint the finger. I’m sorry but this will hurt,” she explained and he just nodded with a sigh.
She took his hand between hers and before he was ready she tugged the finger and directed the knuckle back into position. Ben yelped but he managed to not yank his hand back from the doctor. She was right, it did hurt and Ben closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the wave of pain that shot up his arm.
“Geezus!” he growled once the pain subsided. He opened his eyes to see the doctor staring at him wide eyed and her jaw hanging open.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“You- you’re him!” she squeaked.
Ben raised an eyebrow. “Him who?”
Dr. Bhandari moved her hands from his injured hand to touch a scar on his arm and his chin. “The Bronze Man!”
He scowled and his facial scar flared. She dropped her eyes and pulled her hands back quickly. She moved to the cabinets and pulled out a large metal and foam splint and medical tape. She reshaped the splint for his large hand and proceeded to bind the injured finger.
She glanced at his face and saw he was no longer scowling. She opened the curtain and leaned out. Rochelle looked in her direction and Dr. Bhandari gestured for her to come into the room. When Rochelle arrived the doctor cleared her throat. “I’m going to tell you something you won’t like so I’ve asked your friend in so she can see you follow my instructions. The dislocation was bad and you should have had it treated last night. The inflammation was severe so I’m concerned about nerve damage in the finger. You need to wear this splint for the next two to three weeks and no using the hand if you can avoid it. Light duties only! That means brush your teeth with your other hand.”
“I’m renovating a house! I can’t do that with one hand!” Ben growled.
The doctor took his right hand in hers and jabbed her pen repeatedly into the last section of his finger. Ben stared at his finger.
“You couldn’t feel any of that could you,” she said.
“No,” he replied quietly.
“That numbness may go away if you follow my instructions. You need to reduce the inflammation but mostly you have to let that finger heal. Think RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. I want you to use a cold compression wrap to reduce the swelling. Then put the splint back on and keep it elevated. I’m giving you the roll of tape so you can keep the splint in place. You need to do this.”
“Message received doctor. Thank you,” Rochelle said looking at Ben, daring him to argue.
The doctor left with a final look at Ben’s body and Rochelle led him from the Emergency room back to her car.
“Do you have one of those cold compression wraps?” Rochelle asked.
“Yeah, I have one at home.”
“Then that’s where you are going,” she finished.
Ben leaned back in the chair and stared out the side window as she drove. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he struggled to get it out with the splint on.
“Hello?”
“Ben? It’s Gwen. I have some happy news for you! Your new van will be in on Thursday! You can pick it up Friday morning.”
“Excellent! I’ll go to the bank and get the certified cheque. See you then!”
“I’ll have a certified cheque for you as well. See you Friday!” Gwen said and hung up.
Ben looked over at Rochelle. “Could we stop at the bank on the way home? It won’t take long.”
The stop didn’t take long as the bank manager dealt with Ben himself directly and fast tracked his request. As they made their way back out to the car Rochelle smirked at him.
“I wish the bank manager jumped through hoops for me like that!” she snorted. Ben just smiled in return.
As they got back on their way she gave him a serious look. “Ben, am I going to have to worry about you ignoring the doctor’s instructions?”
He looked out the window and grimaced. He knew himself only too well. Once he began a renovation project he was fully committed to getting it done. He couldn’t just stand by and watch from the sidelines. “I’m going to have to find something else to occupy me while I heal and it can’t be here,” he sighed.
“Why don’t you take a trip down south to someplace sunny and hot! Lie back on a lounge chair on a beach, listen to the waves, and relax! Go dancing at night and dine on fresh seafood!” Rochelle moaned, obviously describing her ideal holiday.
“I don’t think I could handle more than a week of that,” Ben admitted.
“So take a week! See how you are after that! Ben, you have to do it!”
Ben thought about it then frowned. “Would you come with me if I did? I don’t want to go alone.”
Rochelle blinked. She hadn’t thought of that. It had been years since she’d taken a vacation. “I… guess I could take some time. It would have to be someplace inexpensive. I’m on a budget.”
“Rochelle, if you join me on a vacation I’m paying. You just bring your sexiest bathing suit and an outfit to dance in,” he said with a grin. Her face lit up with a sexy smile. “I’ll do some research to see what’s available on short notice and I’ll let you know. Can you arrange to be away from Saturday to the following Saturday? Oh! What about Jayden?” he suddenly recalled that she might need to be home during his house arrest.
“Sara can keep an eye on Jayden so that covers him. I can take next week.” Rochelle suddenly realized she’d have Ben all to herself for a whole week. Lots of time to get to know each other much better. Maybe learn to connect with the man on an emotional level. She’d never done that before and the idea made her nervous. She chickened out. “What about Trish?” she blurted.
It was Ben’s turn to blink in surprise. “Yeah, I’ll ask her to join us!”
Rochelle opened her mouth to tell him she meant taking Trish instead of her but the idea of having Trish along to act as a buffer appealed to her so she just smiled. “I’ll take care of asking her and you can look into availability.”
Ben smiled and nodded.
They drove home in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.
Rochelle was working out her strategy for ensuring Trish said yes.
Ben was trying to think of any decisions he’d have to be involved in for the renovation of the house. He had the plans all worked out and had gone through them with Dominic. Truly, other than for his own personal satisfaction he didn’t need to be there.
She parked in her driveway and Ben walked with her over to Trish’s place and kept going to meet up with Dominic and Hector. Jayden was pushing a broom to tidy up the sidewalk and the driveway from all the mud and rocks the heavy equipment had left behind.
The team was finishing up on the new basement floor and the walls were in place as well though the forms were still on them. The forms would be removed tomorrow when a crane was brought in to pull them out. It would then be used to move four massive I-beams in place which spanned the width of the new basement. Eight uprights would be welded to these to support four more I-beams for supporting the second floor. Ben wanted ten foot ceilings on the first and second floors. As he was keeping the existing basement on the front of the house the ceiling height across the new basement would also remain at eight and half feet.