*knock knock*
"Riley, get up, breakfast's ready!"
Ugh.
She groaned loudly into her pillow after being knocked out of a way too short sleep, having to prevent herself from immediately falling asleep again by throwing her covers off her bed.
The morning sun blinded her eyes as she took a glance at the window, forcing her to toss in the opposite direction, which promptly resulted in her rolling off the bed, the fluffy rug thankfully absorbing most of the impact.
It still hurt, though.
"Riley, you alright?"
Ella's voice brought her out of her confused ache, the girl slowly scrambling onto her feet and pulling her pants on, sneaking her knife into her right pocket before walking up to the door, opening it slowly to find the skunk mom knocking on Timmy's door, turning towards her as she exited into the corridor-
"Woah, you look exhausted sweetie."
"I am exhausted." Riley responded in a deadpan, nasal voice, the cold still refusing to clear itself.
"Did something happen while you were asleep?"
"I-I don't think so..." She omitted the part in which she browsed the internet until her phone finally died at almost three AM.
"Well, the bags under your eyes certainly tell a different story. But anywho, go grab your breakfast sweetie, we want to get the doctor squared away as early as we can."
Riley nodded and slumped past her, rubbing her eyes as she walked down the stairs. After returning a wave to Lily and Rick as she stepped into the dining room, she noticed them eating cereal, the family sized box of the stuff as well as a large jug of milk taking the center of the table.
After taking her usual seat and pouring herself a hefty bowl of cereal, she grabbed the half-empty milk jug and started to pour, sleepiness not letting her realize that a filled bowl would fill much faster. The sleepy girl spilled a sizable amount of the stuff before finally grasping that fact, mouthing out a quiet 'Fuck' before laying the jug down, shakily getting up to grab paper towels.
"You alright there Riley?" Rick asked, sounding a tad bit surprised by her sudden clumsiness.
"Just tired..." She answered, slurring her words a bit as she walked into the kitchen, noticing Lily's ears perk up at her quiet swear, giggling internally.
She walked back to the table, holding a handful of paper towels as a sudden voice from behind made her jump-
"Morning Everyone!"
After calming her heart and turning around to see a surprised looking Andrew staring at her with his fair share of confusion, she walked back to her seat and wiped the spilled milk from the table, placing the wet bundle next to her bowl, intending to throw it out after finishing with her breakfast.
What Riley didn't realize is that some of the milk had dripped from the table and onto the chair, a cold shock going through her body as she sat down on the stain.
"Got up on the wrong foot Riley?" Her brother followed up, looking at her with some concern as he sat down himself.
"More like on the wrong hour. What time is it?"
"Just after eight." Rick chimed in, chuckling as he realized what happened to Riley, the latter giving him a stink eye.
"Might have spent a bit too long on the phone..." She admitted quietly before crunching on a spoonful of cold cereal, the two siblings sharing their dad's knowing giggle.
"Hah, hope you at least plugged it in afterwards." Rick followed up, before wrapping his portion up and placing the bowl into the dishwasher, which seemed to have been emptied at some point last night.
Riley froze up mid crunch, eyes going wide as she recalled her actions immediately before falling asleep, Lily catching on immediately.
"Oops." Lily giggled knowingly, recalling from memory how her own first night with a phone went. Riley gave her a quarter hearted glare at her sister's tease as she struggled to hold back a grin, knowing full that it was her fault on this one.
"What oops?" Timmy squeaked out, still in his pajamas as he walked downstairs, Ella following him and helping the lil' kit onto his seat before taking her own, looking quite groggy herself upon a closer glance as she poured the cereal into her bowl.
After taking a look at Riley, who was currently busy utilizing the entirety of her higher brain functions to correctly aim the spoon into her mouth, Lily decided to fill in for her-
"Riley forgot to plug her phone in for the night." The sister answered, the guilty party taking a minute to parse her sister's words before she blushed softly, crunching through her breakfast.
Ella looked at Lily and then Riley in surprise as she heard that, seemingly the only party not already aware of the gift she'd received from Rick.
"Is something wrong mom?" Andrew asked, noticing Ella's surprise.
"No, nothing, it's just that dad seemed to imply he meant it as a Christmas present more than anything, so now I'm as confused as everyone else it seems."
A Christmas present? It took Riley a fair moment to realize what it actually meant, since the orphanage's idea of a Christmas present was a handful of sweets for lunch and a piece of used clothes, given out almost at random. Of course, it's not like Riley had never experienced an actual Christm-
Stop.
After taking a deep breath and unclenching her hand from the spoon, Riley sped up and soon wrapped up her breakfast, remaining wordless for the rest of the meal. She wasted no time before heading back to her room, changing into a clean pair of pants and looking for the phone case. Her moves became increasingly erratic, Riley only catching herself after letting out an angry grunt at not having found the box for all of one minute.
This has to fucking stop.
She couldn't let herself get ticked off so much at mere mention of her pre-orphanage past, especially considering how easy was to anyone to bring up the subject on accident, or even just something that would lead her in that direction.
Yes, she had plenty of unspent emotions and feelings about that time, about her mother, but there was no point in lashing out at the Ashers like that.
They deserve better than that.
They deserve better than her-
*knock knock*
The interruption stopped Riley's loathing in its tracks, the girl slowly getting up and opening the door, Andrew standing on the other side, asking softly-
"Everything alright Riley?"
She was confused at his question, more so since she tried to suppress her outburst at the breakfast table.
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"You have tears in the corners of your eyes and we all just heard you grunt loudly."
Goddammit. Guess the hole in the floor is bidirectional in this regard.
"W-well..." She sighed, knowing he'd seen through her, looking up at him in a mixture of embarrassment and inward anger at being caught like that.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"I'm... I'm not sure. It's just something I should have moved past a long time ago, yet every mention of it still ticks me off and I'm afraid I'm scaring y'all with it." Riley admitted truthfully, some of the anger venting out.
"I see. I'm not gonna pressure you on the specifics of course. Mom and dad chose not to tell us about your history and I'm respecting that, but it does sound like something you should talk about with someone at some point. Not to 'protect us' from your angrier moments or something silly like that, but for your own sake, so that it's not as much of a pain to you. Remember what we talked about on Monday?"
"Y-yeah, I do... it's just, its something I've been dealing with for a while, and I don't know how much just some talking can do..."
"A lot, believe me. So, so much, and I think I know who will be the most helpful person to talk to about this."
"Lemme guess, Rick?" Riley replied quickly, not taking her brother fully seriously.
"Close. His parents."
Riley lifted her brow in confusion, the two crusty humans hadn't struck her as particularly good makeshift therapists in their photos.
"Why them?"
"Because they already dealt with that once, with dad."
Riley was brought back to her interview with Rick, and how just so similar his story was to hers, but so different at parts. And since he seemed to have improved from that, guess Andrew's words did have some merit.
"Besides, Gramma Liz worked as a child therapist before she retired, and she was bloody good at that. She... she was the first person I told when I hurt myself."
She nodded in acknowledgment, the weight of his admission certainly skewing Riley's opinion on using her grandparents as receptacles of her angst.
"A-alright..."
"You don't have to Riley, of course you don't, but you are hurting and we can tell."
She gritted her teeth at this, realizing she'd been nowhere near as unnoticeable as she thought she has.
"F-fine... I'm sorry."
"W-what? You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for Riley, you don't owe anyone an apology for 'daring' to be in pain, or for struggling with things."
"I've been unnerving everyone constantly..."
"No you haven't, that's flat out not true. You could scare Timmy half to death with a bed cover ghost, and he's still at his most clingy I've seen him while near you. He's four, and even *he* can tell it's not him you're angry at. And so can the rest of us."
The words ground slowly through her mind as she acknowledged their message, a fist clenching in an internal conflict before Andrew's gentle hug cut through the Gordian Knot of Riley's worries like a red-hot knife slicing butter.
"T-thank you bro." She whispered out softly, returning the hug, managing to stop herself from tearing up as her cheeks dug into the shirt-covered fluff.
"You're welcome sis. Best we both start dressing up for the visit at the doc, the quicker that gets dealt with the better."
She nodded in resolve, a soft smile lighting up her face as she let go of Andrew, who waved off as he went back to his room.
After quickly dashing to the play room to grab the box with the charger, she focused on trying to figure out how the arcane device worked. One end went to the power socket, that was obvious enough, the issue was other, tiny end.
She pulled out her phone from under the pillow, inspecting the shiny thing from every direction, trying to find a fitting hole for the wonky shaped peg.
It took her seven flips of the phone to finally find the wide slot, and five rotations of the micro-USB plug later she got it in without feeling like she'd broke something, the display lighting up with an image of a battery filling up confirming her hopes.
With a mad dash around the room, she caught up to the other siblings as far as degree of clothing left, running downstairs to grab the jacket and the shoes, otherwise ready to head off.
Most of the family was already waiting for her, everyone sans Ella and Timmy congregated near the garage door, the groggy girl already feeling sleepy due to the warmth.
Her eyes were already closing by themselves as she heard a loud whine come from the direction of stairs, half dressed Timmy seemingly trying to run away from Ella.
With a quick dash Timmy was next to Riley, the scared kit immediately holding onto her leg before she knelt down next to him, asking softly-
"What happened?"
"I d-don't want to get shots!"
"Sweetie, I told you, you've dealt with your shots on our previous visit, there won't be any more this time." Ella responded, clearly exasperated.
"B-but what if there are some new ones?" The kit was clearly panicking at the thought, something which Riley would definitely empathize with. Nevertheless, it was important to get them dealt with, and her groggy brain managed to conjure something up-
"Timmy, you don't want to get Sniffles sick, right?"
The little brother stopped wiggling for a moment as he thought deeply through her question, an uncertain answer coming out eventually-
"N-no..."
"Then you should take your shots if there are any, so that he won't get sick from you. And if there will be any shots, how about you sit on my lap and I'll hold you closely so that it doesn't hurt?"
She snuck a passing glance at Ella, who seemed to be a bit surprised but not at all disapproving of her efforts to get the lil' tyke on board.
"O-okay..." He gave her one good hug before letting go, running back to an impressed looking Ella as she took him back upstairs, Riley taking a good while to gather enough strength to stand back up.
She got back to the rest of the gang, all sharing the skunk mom's impressed expression, looking at Riley as if she'd just reigned a tornado under control.
Or a four-year-old, same thing.
"Well that was smooth." Rick admitted, the two siblings nodding slowly in admiration, Riley too tired to realize the significance of what she'd just done, just idly nodding in response.
A few minutes and two dressed up skunks later, they finally entered the garage, the question of how do you fit six people in a five seat car answered as Andrew took the front seat, Riley squished in the middle of the back between Lily and Ella with Timmy on her lap.
The drive to the clinic was... honestly, Riley had no idea, having fallen asleep almost the moment Rick turned the engine on. And while she had no real guarantee that a loud argument didn't take place during her sleep, the fact that she didn't wake up until they were already at the clinic made that unlikely.
***
"Riley, get up, we're here!"
Lily's squeak shook her out of her brief nap, an incomprehensible grunt escaping her lips as she looked around the by now emptied car and thankfully mostly empty parking lot beyond it.
After fumbling with the buckle of her seatbelt for a solid way too long, she managed to stagger out of the car into the chill air, quickly following the rest of the family inside.
She staggered along most of the family as they took seats next to one of the rooms, Rick doing something at the reception before coming back, announcing to Riley-
"Alright, you're gonna go in first Riley so that they can fill up a proper medical card for you. If you need anything just call, but I doubt I'll be needed."
With a half awake nod she acknowledged his words, or at least she thought she did.
So tired.
After forcing herself awake for an admirable three minutes, exhaustion started to claw at her once more, Riley struggling almost violently against it before she was finally granted some respite, a soft female voice calling over from the door-
"Riley Asher?"
The last name did make her smile a bit as she slowly got up before walking over to the door, a smiling anthro fox doctor urging her in with a gesture.
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"Take a seat sweetie. How are you feeling?"
"Tired." Riley answered honestly, sitting down just a bit too strongly on the chair, losing her balance for a bit.
"Uh-oh. Has this been going on for a while?"
"No-no, just slept much less than I should have today."
"I see. Did something happen?"
"No, just got a bit caught up on the internet."
The doctor chuckled knowingly, taking a look at Riley's patient card before speaking up once more, a pen in her paw-
"Alright, let's start with the basics. Please give me your full name Riley."
After taking a deep breath, managing to dig up her second name from the depths of her memory, too tired to get anxious over it once more, she answered-
"Riley Mary W-, sorry, Riley Mary Asher."
"That's a nice pair of names. Now, your date of birth."
"Sixteenth January, two thousand four."
"Current age?"
"Fifteen, almost sixteen."
"What gender do you identify as?"
Riley blinked in confusion, the question making her tilt her head.
"W-well, I'm a girl..."
"So, female it is. Have any health issues you're dealing with right now?"
"N-no, not to my knowledge."
"Any allergies?"
"Again, none to my knowledge."
"Have you ever been checked for those?"
"I don't think so."
"Alright, we'll get that squared away some other time. That's all the questions for now- well, at least all the general ones."
"W-what do you mean?"
The doctor sighed deeply, taking a moment to collect herself before going through the more awkward part of the questioning-
"Have you had your first period already?"
Oh. That kind of specific questions. Just fucking peachy.
"Y-yes, I have."
"How old were you at the time?"
The question stung a bit as she recalled the scene, immediately disposing of the memory the moment she extracted the relevant tidbit.
"Eleven."
"Have you had them regularly in your recollection?"
"Yes."
"Alright, that's good. Don't worry Riley, it's a natural thing all girls experience, nothing to be ashamed of. Now, let's move onto the height and weight."
She stood up before walking over to a clunky, metal device, gesturing towards it as she said-
"Riley, take off your shoes and stand on the rubber pad at the base."
With a nod, she slowly got up, kicking off her sneakers as her blush faded before walking over and standing on the rubber surface, apparently meant for feet.
The doctor reached over and pulled another metal element down, Riley jumping a bit as she felt it touch the top of her head. The doctor held her gently as she pushed the measure onto her, noting the result down with a slight nod. Afterwards, she reached over to the weird looking scale behind Riley, slowly changing it a bit until the two arms were in balance, adding another note on Riley's form.
"Four-eleven and a bit, and ninety three pounds. Looks like a normal weight given your height, if towards the lower end. Been eating well?"
"Y-yeah, I've been eating alright, probably didn't eat that well before I was adopted, the food at the orphanage wasn't that good."
"Orphanage?" The doctor asked curiously, listening intently as she pulled up a small notepad.
"The one I got adopted from?" Riley was unsure at her curiosity, noticing doctor's tail start waving gently after she'd asked her question. If hanging around the Ashers has taught her anything, it was how to tell when someone with a tail was interested in something, and her doctor definitely was.
"Yes, of course, I was just curious about which one it was exactly, since there's been some worrying news about-"
"Oakwood Child Care Center?" Riley finished for her, acutely aware of what was the deal with it.
"Y-yeah. I take that was the one you were adopted from?"
Riley nodded slowly, awaiting further news on it.
"I'm unsure of details, but from what I've read it was closed recently or something. But that's neither here nor there, let's proceed to physical examination, please sit back down on the chair and take off your shirt."
Some of the color flushed from her face, a hesitant question squeaking out as she desperately hoped for the negative answer-
"B-b-but I don't h-have to take m-my bra off, r-right?"
"Oh no no no, of course not. I just want to listen to your heartbeat and examine your abdomen and back."
With a relieved sigh, Riley slid out of her jumper and shirt, leaving her top almost completely exposed, the pale teen shuddering a bit at the cold in the room.
"Good idea, I'm gonna turn up the heat a bit-" The doctor walked over to the thermostat, upping it by a handful of degrees before reaching over for a stethoscope, the one that every single doctor in any media she saw seemed to have.
"I'm gonna listen to your heart and then lungs, alright?" She asked as she stood over Riley, who nodded in response.
The cold metal made her jump a bit to the touch, but she calmed herself down quickly, shaking just a bit.
"Mhm. Mhhm. Take a few deep breaths."
After taking a moment to shake off the cold, unpleasant sensation, Riley breathed as deeply as she could, the listening part of the stethoscope moving with every breath, her entire front feeling cold.
"That's all well, altho your pressure seems a bit high. Now, stand up from the chair and turn away from me."
The girl obliged, the doctor observing her back for a while before scribbling down another note-
"Spine straight and all good. You can put your shirt back on."
Riley wasted no time in doing that, feeling much warmer even with just the thin layer of fabric.
"Now, let's take a look at your hearing. Take a seat over there-" She pointed to a soft chair in the corner of the room- "And put the headphones on."
After sliding her shoes back on Riley took another seat, the thick pair of headphones muffling the background noises to almost nothing, the only thing Riley was able to hear being her own heartbeat.
"There's a button on the right armrest. Can you feel it?"
Her right hand felt something mechanical as she settled in, fingers finding the button in question. After a nod from Riley, she continued-
"Good. I'm gonna say 'start', and every time you hear a noise just press the button, does that sound reasonable?"
"Yeah, I'm ready."
The doctor walked up to the machine behind her and pushed a button with a soft-spoken 'Start!', the first 'ding'-like noise ringing a few seconds later, Riley slamming the button under her hand in response.
A dozen or so more sounds came through, at irregular intervals and with a varying pitch. Riley could have sworn she didn't actually consciously heard the highest pitched one before pressing the button.
"That's it. You can take off the headphones off, fifteen out of fifteen. Your hearing seems to be in perfect condition, so that's great. Now, time to test sight. Stand up and walk to the wall next to the door, straight against it and look at the letters on the opposite wall."
Riley's sudden realization she'd have her eyesight tested made her breath shallow a bit, the girl desperately hoping that she was alright in that regard as she walked up to the wall.
"Start by reading the rows in their entirety from top to bottom, letter by letter, until you can't make out the letters from the distance you're looking at. Don't worry if the letters get too small to read, it's normal."
Riley took a deep breath and focused on the chart, sounding out the rows-
"C. R, B. T, F, P. S, C... G, O. H, K... D, E, P. D-D, U, Y, F, F, T. Z... O, O..., O, C, D, B, C. I can't make out anything from the lower ones."
The doctor scribbled intensely, nodding as Riley finished reading.
"Alright, come with me into the side room-" The doctor got up and opened the door in the other corner of the room, leading to another, smaller space, quickly lit up with a flick of a light switch.
"W-what for?" Riley asked, uncertain before following her anyway, the smaller room mostly just housing a couple larger machines.
"A better vision test so that we can get a more precise result. If you could, sit down on this stool here and rest your chin on this black part there-" The doctor instructed before walking over to the other side of the device, turning it on.
"S-so it's not good, is it?" Riley's heartbeat sped up as her worries were confirmed as she shakily sat down on the pleather stool, sliding it a bit closer to the large machine as she placed her chin on a small rubber pad, two large round holes right in front of her.
"It's not 20/20, but it's hardly horrible. Besides, your sister and mom are doing fine, and I'm quite sure that they both have worse sight than you. Lean your head in, look right into that binocular looking part, and focus on the boat."
Boat?
Guess Lily and Ella were doing alright with glasses, but... she wasn't like that, she had to tend for her-
Did she? Andrew's words from yesterday rung through her mind, smothering her panicking lizard brain as her heartbeat calmed down.
"Riley?"
"S-sorry, got a bit distracted..." Riley shook her thoughts to the side as she leaned in, resting her face on the rubber rings around the spaces for her eyes to look in through.
There was what appeared to be a small image of a distant boat in the middle of the sea, her eyes immediately trying to focus on it, the image fluctuating for a good few moments before clearing up, a follow up instruction prodding her out of her focus-
"Now, focus on the red dot. There will be a small flash of light, and that will be it for the vision test."
The words confused her for a second before the image of the boat suddenly disappeared, replaced by a single distant red dot. Riley focused as hard as she could, her ears tearing up the tiniest bit from the exertion, but the dot didn't appear any more foc-
Ow!
The sudden flash made her head jerk backwards as it hurt her eyes, the brief pain washing away after a few rapid blinks.
"There we go, trouble's over. I hope it wasn't too harsh on you Riley." The doctor got up, making sure the girl was okay before walking towards the back of the small room, reaching for what looked to be a large metal briefcase and laying it on a nearby table. The insides, to Riley's surprise, appeared to just be a massive collection of identical looking circular lenses, together with a larger slot for a what looked to be the world's clunkiest glasses frames.
After a glance back at the display of the machine Riley had just used, she picked up the clunky frames and picked out two lenses from the dozens in front of her, slotting them into the frames before passing them over to Riley, who was looking at it like a piece of extraterrestial technology.
"Put 'em on and take a look around. They don't fully account for astigmatism, but it still should be a massive improvement."
With a small gulp, she slid the glasses on her nose, the contraption fitting roughly comfortably before she opened her eyes aga-
Woah.
She started looking around the room frantically, fascinated by the massive change in her vision. Everything she wasn't standing right next to gained so much detail it was absurd, she thought she could read the small text from the soap dispenser in the other corner of the room if she tried hard enough.
The biggest change came with the doctor herself. Of course, she knew that anthros' coat of fur was just an uncountable number of small hairs, but to see it clearly enough to the point where she actually could make out individual ones with just sight and not touch was something else entirely.
"I'm guessing from your reaction they work quite well, don't they?" The doctor chuckled, smiling warmly as she watched Riley look around the room in fascination.
"Y-yeah, holy sh-sorry..." She barely caught herself at the last moment, the doctor giggling at her slip up before walking over.
"And the actual glasses will be even better. Lemme fill up the prescription so that you can take it to the optic center nearby before we move on..." She sat back down in front of the machine, reaching down to grab a blank prescription slip, quickly filling it up and handing it over to Riley-
'''
Dr. Bayley Wickers
156 Park Rd. Duluth MN
SPECTACLE PRESCRIPTION ONLY
_______________________________
Patient: Riley Asher
Address: 18 Bright St.
Grand Lake, MN 55779
______________________
Eye |Sph. |Cyl. |Axis|
----+-----+-----+----+
O.D.|-1.75|+0.50|100 |
----+-----+-----+----+
O.S.|-2.00|-0.75|130 |
______________________
Date of Exam: 19.12.2019
Expiration Date: 19.12.2021
'''
The assortment of all the numbers made Riley's head spin as she parsed through the slip, one part in particular catching her attention-
"Oh Dee? Oh Ess? What does that part mean?"
"Oculus Dexter and Oculus Sinister. It's just Latin for 'Right Eye' and 'Left Eye', respectively."
"Well that sounds... sinister." Riley chuckled, cursing herself for letting such an atrocious pun out.
The doctor barely held back a chortle at that, smiling as she shook her head, taking a few moments to take a breath before continuing-
"Alright, that's it for the eye exam. Give me the glasses back and take a seat back in the main office, on that chair right next to the table. We're not done yet, next on our list is be a blood pressure test, so roll up your left sleeve to your shoulder."
Riley nodded, the world returning back to its mostly blurry self as she handed the glasses back and walked back to the main office, eyes squinting just a bit as they got used to the bright light once more.
A few moments later, the doctor walked back into her office as well, locking the door to the side room behind herself and speaking up-
"I'm gonna take your blood pressure now, please don't speak or move until it's done."
She slid over a small device with a small rubber pipe leading to an armband attacked to her, the latter promptly strapped onto Riley's left arm before the device was turned on.
Riley felt the armband squeezing harder and harder around her, the sensation making her anxious as the squeezing turned slightly painful, her eyes darting around the room before it finally let go, Riley letting out a breath she wasn't even she was holding as the serpent let go of her arm.
"Huh. One thirty five over eighty seven, pretty high. Not dangerously high or anything, but still noticeably raised. Are you feeling anxious?"
"A-a bit, never had my pressure taken like that..."
"Ah, I see. Should've thought of that, my bad. Considering that the pressure is probably alright, you can't extract that much from a single reading anyway. I'll note it down and then we'll move onto the next thing... a blood test."
The last two words froze the blood in question solid, Riley's eyes darting up at the doctor in fear.
The doctor noticed her sudden stillness, a realization lighting up in her mind-
"You've never had your blood taken, right?"
"N-n-no, b-but I know it involves needles..." Riley's voice was breathless and raspy, the last word adding further fuel to her anxiety as she realized just how close she was to being stabbed like that...
"Mhm. I understand it's something you're afraid of, but a blood test is very important in your situation, we don't even know your blood group. Besides that, we have to check your hormones to make sure they're all in order. Hmm... do you want me to call over your dad?"
"W-w-what for?"
"With our younger patients who are afraid of needles, having their parents be with them to hold their hand or have them sit on their parents' lap helps a lot."
Riley, meet your own treatment for Timmy. Four years, fifteen, what difference is there after all.
"A-alright, b-but I'm probably too old to sit on his lap, heh..."
"Maybe, but even holding your hand will help a lot with the anxiety. Give me a moment-" She walked over to the door to the office, Riley sitting motionless on her chair as the doctor leaned out-
"Mr. Asher? Please come in."
Rick walked into the office a few moments later, sounding slightly confused as he asked-
"Did something happen Riley?"
"I-I need some h-help with the blood test..."
She didn't see his reaction, but thankfully he seemed to get the issue immediately, taking a free chair and sliding it over to Riley's side, sitting down right next to her and slightly extending a hand for her to hold onto.
She grasped it in an instant, holding it tightly as she doc asked-
"So, do you need a moment Riley or do you feel ready?"
"A-as ready as I-I'll ever be I guess."
"That's good. Let me finish preparation and we'll be ready to get it over with." She answered, relief in her voice as she grabbed a rubber tourniquet and carefully wrapped it around Riley's arm, before chiming up-
"Rest your elbow on the armrest comfortably."
With a bit of fiddling she managed to rest her arm reasonably well, taking a deep breath as the rustle of single use medical tools being unwrapped became the only sound left in the room.
"You're gonna feel a slight prick for a few moments." The doctor continued, softly feeling up the inner side of Riley's arm as she prepared the syringe.
"Look away and hold your dad's hand as tightly as you want."
Riley took the advice to heart, her eyes closing and her right hand clenching around Rick's paw so hard she was worried for a moment she'd hurt him-
Before the thought could even finish, a cold sting in her left arm stilled her mind, the girl not daring to breathe or think for these few moments before the needle was removed from her, a soft breath of relief being interrupted by-
"Ow."
She opened her eyes, immediately noticing that her hand was holding Rick's paw tighter than she thought was even physically possible, immediately letting go of him with an embarrassed chuckle, the skunk dad wasting no time in stretching the aching hand.
"Well done Riley. I'll send it off to the lab straight away and the results should be ready in a few hours."
The girl relaxed on her seat, her body finally unclenching as she slowly rolled her neck and shoulders, brief respite being cut short by some more bad news-
"Now, we'll need to catch you up on your shots, since you haven't had any since you were six."
Goddammit.
***
Fifteen minutes and one very sore shoulder later, Riley finally left the doctor's office, Rick and his very pained paw staying behind for his own checkup.
As she walked out, Ella looked up at her with a slight smile, speaking up-
"That took a while. Hope everything's alright?" The skunk mom stretched as she stood up, her back a bit sore from all the waiting in the plastic chair.
"Yeah, all's well for now, except for this-" She handed Ella the glasses prescription, who just smiled and cheerfully responded-
"Hey, that means you get to choose some cool frames for yourself. Don't worry about the price or anything, my insurance covers all the glasses, so go wild. My checkup will probably start soon, so maybe have Lily help you with it?"
Riley was happy she wasn't being a bother in this regard, Lily springing to attention on her own upon being mentioned, seemingly not enjoying the wait any more than her mom was despite having a charged phone with her.
"There's even a place with a nice selection of frames in this clinic, just down at the other side. Just show them the prescription and which frame you want, me and Lily are enough of repeat customers to where they'll handle it on their own." Ella continued, Lily nodding in agreement and tilting her head in the direction of the store as she looked at Riley, who got the clue and slowly walked down the corridor.
"Alright, is there anything I'm looking for specifically?" Riley asked, completely unsure of anything glasses related.
"No, not beyond just finding something that sits comfortably on you and looks cool. The lenses are then made somewhere else according to your prescription and put together with the frame you chose, and the actual glasses will be packaged in enough soft stuff to secure a baby and mailed to us."
Riley nodded as they made their way to the fancy shop, every wall and several stands absolutely filled with frames of all sizes and colors, all the variation making her head spin.
Fortunately, thicker frames, which constituted a vast majority, were discarded right away. If Riley had to have glasses, then they were gonna look cool and sharp. Brown, round frames definitely fit Ella, but on her they'd just look comical.
With that in mind, there were really only one or two shelves full of acceptable frames, angular, metal, and narrow. She took her time, going through the selection one after another, eventually stumbling her way on the ones that looked just right. Neither super narrow nor outright rounded, fitting well on her angular face.
As she took a look in the nearby mirror she noticed the frames weren't fully black like she thought on the first glance, the small bridge and the ends of the temples colored white.
It never ends, doesn't it?
This time Riley took that observation in stride, finding Lily in the maze of her frames and showing off her find, the younger sister grinning widely as she took Riley's new look in, wordlessly responding with two thumbs up.
"I don't think I'm gonna top these, so what now?"
"Let's take them and the prescription over to the counter-" Lily responding, walking towards the human clerk that managed to look even more tired than Riley was.
Riley quickly followed up, placing the folded frames and the prescription on the counter, Lily cutting her off before she could fumble her way through-
"Hello, we want to purchase a pair according to this prescription, filed under Helena Asher's insurance." She spoke with confidence and a fair bit of pride at being the one to introduce her sister to the wonderful world of glasses.
She was smooth when she wanted to be, goddamn.
Lily speaking up shook the clerk from his open-eye slumber, the college aged man taking a moment to recall something before responding uncertainly-
"Her insurance only covers family a-and not friends Lily, you know this."
Lily's confident smirk soured in an instant, the lil' skunk suddenly looking mighty pissed before she spoke up again through her grinding teeth.
"She. Is. Family."
The clerk quickly went from uncertain to uncomfortable, rapidly switching his glance from between looking at the two sisters and the display of the monitor on his desk, typing rapidly.
"I-I-I-I'm sorry, t-there's n-no R-R-Riley Asher i-in our rec-"
"Then you better fix those. Understood?" Riley took a slight step away from Lily just in case as she noticed her tail bristle even more so than in their initial meeting, the sight intimidating on a very deep level.
The clerk apparently thought the same, blood draining from his expression as he shook in place like a dried leaf for a solid few moments before finally answering-
"Y-y-yes, Miss Asher."
And taking the slip of paper along with the slick frames into the back room, almost tripping on his feet, much to Riley's barely held back amusement.
A few moments later he darted back behind the front desk for just an instant, Riley catching his terrified expression before he cowered back into the back room the very next second.
The note with the girl's order didn't even have time to land on the glass counter before Lily snatched it out of the air, quietly turning away and walking out of the store, her entire body shaking.
Riley slid right behind her, afraid to even let out a peep as they walked back to the rest of the family. Fortunately, she noticed Lily's tail slowly return to normal, if still puffed up a teensy bit, a hint of the stronger smell she smelled yesterday tickling her nostrils.
"Lily, is everything alright?" Rick spoke up with a hint of worry as he looked up at them, the younger sister taking a deep breath before responding-
"Y-yeah, it's fine now, just had to deal with a douche behind the counter and got pissed..." She responded with a sigh, taking a moment to focus on returning her tail back to its normal appearance, before suddenly realizing something, turning towards Riley and hugging her tightly.
"G-God I-I'm so sorry if I scared you Riley..." She muttered to her, Riley sensing just a hint of something wet before returning her hug-
"Shhh, don't worry Lily, it's all right..." Riley gently stroked her back, the younger skunk quickly calming down under her touch.
"Hell, thanks for sticking up for me there." She followed up, proud of her sweet sister for doing something like that, even if she was taken aback by her abrupt change in demeanor.
"Y-you're welcome Riley..." Her voice was much softer and calmer now, with a hint of happiness at being appreciated like that.
Wish a gentle motion, Riley took her to a pair of nearby free seats, the younger sister leaning on her arm after they sat down, the older one reacting with a smile and seating herself comfortably.
As adrenaline washed from her system, she felt the tiredness return with a vengeance, unable to resist it now that she was warm and had Lily leaning on her, soon joined by Timmy after he'd changed seats just to be able to lean on her other arm. The addition of their soft tails on her lap sealed her fate, her hands gently stroking them absentmindedly as she dozed off.
Hopefully Timmy indeed wouldn't have any shots she'd have to help him with.