“So, how’s his bedside manner?” Kyle couldn’t help asking Ian with a wry smile over at Lili’s scowl, as the older man returned to where they still waited.

Ian stepped out of the exam room with a shake of his head as he finished zipping up his suit again, “Horrible, really. I mean, I kept telling him, move your hand a bit if you wanna see a better reaction than me just coughing,” Ian snickered, “But he’s hopeless. Kids today, I tell ya.”

“There’s something so wrong with you, Ian,” Lili couldn’t help mumbling with a shake of her own head.

“Hey some of us aren’t getting it as often as others. Gotta make due,” he added with an accusing smirk.

“Oh, would you stop? I’ve already had this ridiculous conversation one too many times today,” she complained, as both he and Kyle couldn’t help chuckling at her annoyance.

“Oh well, maybe you’ll have better luck, junior. You’re up next,” Ian told Kyle with another little grin.

“Anything he likes having whispered in his ear, or anything?” Kyle just had to tease back to Lili as he stood.

“Oh, don’t you start,” she warned with a glare, which was only greeted with another chuckle from both of them as Kyle headed off through the door as well.

Thankfully, Ian headed off on his daily duties after Kyle headed inside, so Lili was spared any more of their comments as she continued biting almost clean through her nails while she awaited her own turn as one of Jared’s first ever patients.

“All yours,” was Kyle’s simple return greeting as he exited the room several minutes later and proceeded to quickly head off to spend his last twenty-four hours with his favorite toys. Lili let out a long breath before forcing herself to her feet as she moved to peek inside the door.

“Hey,” Jared greeted her, seeming to be feeling even more awkward than her right then, somehow.

Lili swallowed hard, eyes down, “You ready for me?” she asked, thankfully not looking up to see Jared’s own slight blush rising to his cheeks.

“Yeah, um, come on in,” he managed, though the words almost seemed choked as he tried to force his attention back to the forms in front of him, rather than watching her as she moved slowly to close the door behind her and force her feet to carry her over to the exam table.

Jared sighed slightly as he located her own medical history forms on the computer to center his concentration on glancing over them before the actual exam.

“That good, huh?” she attempted lightness as she managed to force her arms to pull her up to a seat atop the cool, thinly cushioned and papered table behind her.

“No, they’re just, different,” he managed, still focusing his eyes on her charts rather than on her.

“Different than what?” she asked a little worriedly.

“No, it’s… nothing bad, it’s just…” he attempted a glance over at her, “it’s different than theirs,” he offered as he gestured to the now closed door at the side of the room.

“Ok…” she said a little warily.

“It just, it says you’ve, you know, had some…procedures.”

“Procedures?” she asked with a slight raise of her brow.

“Well, you know, that they haven’t had, obviously,” Jared managed as he took another deep breath, looking back down once more.

“Ok,” she repeated again, with her own continued worry.

“I mean, it’s nothing to be worried about or anything. It’s not like something I don’t understand or anything, it’s just…yeah,” he took another breath as he set the computer aside once more.

“Ok,” she repeated again as she bit her lip.

“Um, ok, so the last time you had that done was when you were twenty-two, right?”

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“Had what done?” she asked softly.

“Um, the third IUD, uh, put in.”

Lili couldn’t help the slight blush rising to her cheeks again, before she managed an answer, “Yeah, when I was twenty-two, seventeen, and twelve, that uh, was the first one.”

“Ok, good. That means that it took that first time and everything, and we don’t have to worry about it again for another two years, unless you know, you were having complications or anything.”

“Complications?” she asked with another raise of her brow.

“You know like any kind of infections or pain, or anything.”

“Well it hurt like hell all the times it was first put in. But I guess that’s normal?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, that’s, uh, understandable. But I mean, like no other pain with it any other time? Like uh, during that time of the month, or like, during sex?” he managed to force that question out as if he were in pain himself right then.

Another blush as Lili allowed a nervous laugh before managing an answer, “No, no pain during that time of the month.”

“And, uh, the other times?” Jared forced the question again.

Another nervous chuckle before she returned, “Aren’t you supposed to ask me if I’m even sexually active, first?”

Jared allowed his own nervous smile then, “Sorry, still new at this, remember?” another breath, “I guess I just assumed that since you got it put in when you were only like twelve, and then, you know, kept repeating the procedure every five years…”

Lili allowed a more sincere smile that time, “You mean, they didn’t tell you about that?”

“About…what?” he asked, thrown enough to look back up at her at last.

“We all have to get it done. It’s policy.”

“We all, who?” Jared asked, thrown once more.

“All the women on the ship, at least the ones who could have kids at all.”

“But…” he just shook his head, his own existence seeming to counter the policy she spoke of.

“Your mom, and the other mothers, they all had to go through a ton and a half of proceedings and tests and votes and whatever else before they were even given the go ahead to have it removed long enough to give birth to any of you,” she informed him, though gently.

“I see,” he said, blinking slowly as he mauled over that new piece of information.

“They probably just didn’t get around to telling you yet, since they were really only planning on you having about three patients right now, only one of which is even female,” she added with a slight smile once more.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he allowed his own ghost of a smile, not letting himself dwell on that information at the moment “So, um, I guess this is where I ask you if you are sexually active, so I know whether or not to ask you if you have any pain then.”

Lili allowed another nervous chuckle before responding, “Well I’m glad you’re actually asking me instead of listening to your other two patients. Might get slightly different answers,” she added with a tinge of annoyance remaining.

“Sorry?” he asked with a raise of his own brow.

“It’s just stupid crap,” she shook her head.

“What is?” Jared managed, seeming to switch back out of doctor mode and into friend mode once more.

Another shake of her head, “Kyle and Ian, just saying stupid shit.”

Jared creased his brow once more at the first sign he had seen of her saying a bad word about anyone, ever, “Like?”

She just turned her eyes down again, running a hand through her own locks, “Just their stupid male hormones assuming things that aren’t true, when they don’t even have any real proof, like, at all.”

“I’m sensing I missed something.” he responded, a play on the facts of their last extended conversation.

“Yeah, you and me both,” she scoffed.

“Lil?” he asked gently with a slight tilt of his head, actually trying to meet her eyes for once.

She just shook her head again, but seemed to forget the situation at hand as the stress of the week was forcing her to try and reach out to any friend she could find right then, “Just, the night you told me about, you know,” she said more quietly as she cast a glance toward the closed door Hamil’s assistant, Nancy, still waited outside of.

“Yeah, what about it?” he asked, his own voice dropping quite a bit then as well.

“Just, they apparently were trying to find you that night to tell you about this whole trip, I guess,” she shrugged “and they saw that you were in my room for like, a long time. And they’re guys, and guys’ brains are just…”she shook her head.

Jared swallowed a bit as he nodded slowly, “So, they think that you and I, like, did something, then?” he asked, thinking back to that night and his odd encounter with Ian after he had left Lili’s room, which now seemed to take on a whole new dimension, when placed next to Jared’s theory on Ian’s and Lili’s possible attraction to one another even before that night.

“Yeah, they had a real field day with the fact that you had to give me a physical today,” she scoffed again.

Jared sighed slightly before continuing, “Do you want me to like, say something to them?”

She just shook her head, “Please don‘t.”

Jared narrowed his eyes again, “Well, you seem pretty upset by them, you know, thinking that something like that would, ever, happen between us.”

Lili shook her head again, “It’s not that, Jared. It’s just…if you go and say something to them, then they’ll know that I said something to you.”

“Well, they are insinuating stuff about me that isn’t true, too,” he pointed out.

Lili let out another derisive chuckle, “Please, you’re a guy. Since when do you think it’s a bad thing for someone to spread rumors about you getting laid?”

Jared looked up at her quickly, as though almost hurt by her words, somehow, “Listen, um, this is obviously uncomfortable, for both of us. So, I’ll just tell Hamil to finish up your physical later today. I still have a lot more books to read anyway. See ya tomorrow, Lili,” he finished under his breath before heading out of the room without another word.