Living with my greatest fear.

~Chapter 23~

*THE BELL GOES AND THOMAS MAKES HIS WAY TO THE MEDICAL ROOM*

Thomas' POV:

I start making my way down to the medical room for my checkup with Dr Collins. I'm not actually that bothered about it to be honest, I've known Dr Collins for about 5 years, so he doesn't really scare me. I'm not saying I like having a check up, I could think of a load of things that I would prefer to do, but it's not too bad I guess.

I don't know what I'm meant to do when I get to the medical room, I guess just knock on the door and wait for Dr Collins to let me in?

I get to the medical room door and do just that. I knock on the door and wait for Dr Collins to say or do something.

Grant's POV:

I just finished sorting some things out on my computer for the rest of the day, when I heard a knock on the door. I assume it's Thomas, so I get up and open the door to greet him.

"Hi Thomas! Come in!" I say, smiling and pointing towards the dental chair. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay, thanks," Thomas replies.

He sits down on the dental chair and I sit on my stool and roll over to my computer, reading some things on Thomas' records. It all looks pretty up to date, which is good. This should all run smoothly.

"Just a couple of questions for you then," I say to Thomas. "How many times do you brush your teeth in a day?"

"Twice."

"Good, and flossing? Do you floss?"

"Sometimes, I don't do it all the time."

"Okay, that's something I'd like you to start doing more often, okay?"

"Okay, I'll try to remember to do it."

"Good, okay. Last question, is there anything causing you any pain or discomfort? Anything feel different than how it used to?"

"Umm..no I don't think so."

"Great!"

I make sure I save everything in Thomas' records and then roll my stool round so I am in front of him.

"So all I'm going to do today is have a quick look around your mouth and make sure everything is how it should be, and then you're all set!"

*END OF THOMAS' CHECKUP*

Grant's POV:

"Everything looks okay, well done!! You're free to go! Just remember to floss!" I say to Thomas, as I put the chair back up to its original position.

"Thank you. I'll try to remember!"

"Of course! I'm sure you will manage! Oh, and as you leave, could you go to Miss Kettleworth, and tell her that I'm ready for another person, please?"

"Okay," Thomas replies, as he gets up and walks over to the door and leaves.

I roll back over to my computer and I update Thomas' record. There's not much to update, which is good. I also made a note to myself on his record to make a phone call to his parents just to let them know how it went and to book him in for an appointment down at the office in about 6 months time.

Once I have done all of that, I get up and start to clean everything away. I start with putting all of the tools that I had out on the tray in the Autoclave to sterilise ready for later, then I wipe down all of the surfaces with some disinfectant and replace the blue tape on the light handles.

After that, I go back to my computer and I load up my next patient's records - Megan Allwood. When the record is loaded, it doesn't show any information, meaning that Megan isn't one of my patients down at my office. This is probably going to be quite a quick checkup because I don't know her past history with her health; all I know is her name, age, address and that she isn't allergic to anything.

Whilst I'm waiting for Megan to come down to the medical room, I go through some extra things on my computer. I start looking at the next couple of people's records, to get an idea of how long each one may take and when I need to stop so it doesn't go into their breaks.

*A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER*

There's a knock at the door, I stand up and open the door, expecting to see Megan standing there, but I don't. Instead, I see Miss Kettleworth.

"Hi Dr Collins. Megan is here, but she is quite anxious at the minute. She's just sat against the wall a bit further down the corridor."

"Hi, Miss Kettleworth. Okay, I'll go and have a chat with her. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem." Sophie says, smiling as she walks back to her office along the corridor.

I look to my right down the corridor, and I see what I assume to be Megan sitting with her head in her hands against the wall. I walk up to her and crouch down. "Hey, lovely..are you Megan?"

She just nods.

"Hi, Megan. I'm Dr Collins. Do you want to follow me into my room and we can have a chat there?"

Again, she doesn't say anything, she just shakes her head.

"Are you scared about something, lovely?"

"Yeah..."

"What are you scared about?" I say, putting a hand on her knee, to act as a bit of comfort.

"You...I don't know you and I don't like the dentist," she says, practically whispering.

"I understand that, Megan, but do you want to come and sit in my room so we can talk about it without other people who walk past hearing it?"

"Umm..okay..." she says, still whispering.

"Let's go then," I held my hand out for her, waiting for her to hold onto it. Kind of to my surprise, she does.

We get into the medical room and I tell Megan she can sit wherever she feels most comfortable. She walks over to the corner of the room and goes to sit down on the arm chair. I wait for her to sit down and get somewhat comfortable before I go to sit in front of her.

"Is there anything in particular that you're scared of?" I ask her, trying to see if she's had a bad experience that's now made her scared, or if she just doesn't like it.

"No, I just don't like it. It kind of makes me feel sick." For the first time today, she actually looked up when she said that to me. I think she may be getting a little bit more comfortable with me because I'm not forcing her to do anything.

"Okay, that's understandable. Would you be okay with me giving you a check up today, or would you prefer me to give you one tomorrow?"

"I think I would prefer it if I had one tomorrow. So I can kind of get used to you today, I think.."

"That's absolutely fine, we can definitely do that," I say, smiling at her.

*7 MINUTES PASS AND MEGAN LEAVES THE MEDICAL ROOM*

Grant's POV:

I'm glad I got Megan to speak to me and have a conversation with me. I think it was a better idea saying that she could have her check up tomorrow instead of forcing her to have it today when she's not really that comfortable with me.

Even though Megan didn't sit on the dental chair and I didn't use any tools, I still have to wipe everything down and put the tools in for sterilisation. The first set I put in for sterilisation is ready to be taken out now and to be put into a bag, so I do that and then put the bag in the cupboard.

*11:05AM - BREAK TIME*

Grant's POV:

It's now break time, so I don't have anyone for about half an hour. After Megan, I had about 5 others - most of which were my patients from down at the office anyway, so that was relatively easy. I've gone through all of the A's and B's for today, so after lunch I'll start on the C's, which means it'll be Ellie's turn soon. Her checkup will be pretty quick, if she even lets me do one, as she's coming down to my office later one anyway.

a/n - omg tysm for 9k reads!!! that's crazy!! any feedback or anything would be appreciated :))