Blue Eyes | 5sos

Twenty-three

(not proofread)

..

I sat surprisingly patient while waiting and watching Michael do whatever it was he was doing. Since it had been years since I had a proper checkup, I honestly didn't know what was to come.

I couldn't help but wonder if Luke would've been able to secretly convince him to do a drug test.

"Alright," he smiled and grabbed the stethoscope that draped around the back of his neck. "So you have asthma?"

"I guess, yeah. I don't know."

"Well, that's what it said in your file."

Oh, then yeah, I guess I do." I shrugged.

"Well, smoking with asthma is a pretty dangerous thing to be doing. It's bad to be smoking anyway."

"You sound like my dad."

He smiled and laughed. "That's probably because we're both doctors. Trust me, I'm not as uptight as him. Just no drugs or alcohol, though, and I only say that as a medical professional."

"So if you weren't a doctor, would you care?"

"Yes, Carson. Drugs are still very bad for you, regardless of my profession."

I stayed silent, and Michael took that as an opportunity to place the stethoscope on my chest, instructing me to take some breaths now and again.

Even though I still didn't know him very well, he seemed to be a lot more lenient than my father has been, which was surprising considering he could become my new doctor.

"You're nervous," he commented, pulling away and taking the stethoscope off. "Your heart is beating fast."

"You can tell all that just by listening to my chest."

"Yes, I think it's just anxiety since you don't sound like you have a heart murmur or anything. I can always ask Luke if he'd like to do some further cardiac testing."

"Nope. He does not need to be involved in this."

He laughed and grabbed the weird light tool from the wall behind me. "He is legally and biologically your father, Carson."

"It doesn't mean I want him to be."

"Well, he probably still has a say in something since you're a minor."

I rolled my eyes and opted not to say anything for fear of lashing out. Frankly, I was getting rather sick of hearing about Luke and how he got a say because he was my father.

Rather fucking annoying, if you ask me.

"Just going to have a quick look in your ears, alright, hun?"

"Yeah, whatever."

Michael gently moved the hair around my ears out of the way and put the tip of the instrument into my ear.

This had to be the most awkward thing I've ever experienced, and frankly, it's one of the reasons why I despised doctor visits.

"You okay?" Michael asked after he had taken a look in both of my ears. "Your ears look great, by the way."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to be done with this."

"I'm sorry. Luke wanted you to get a checkup."

"You didn't?" I raised my eyebrows.

He shrugged and put the tool back on the wall. "Well, you're Luke's daughter, but that doesn't mean we all don't want you healthy and safe."

After that, I stayed silent, and the rest of the checkup went rather smoothly, a lot better than I expected. It wasn't much longer before Michael allowed Luke back into the room again.

"How'd it go?" He asked and looked over Michael's shoulder from where he stood, adding stuff to my chart.

"Everything went great."

"You cooperated? He looked over at me.

"Yes."

"That's surprising."

I watched as Michael gently pushed Luke's shoulder. "Hey, lay off her. It was a big day, and you're her dad; you should be supporting her instead of criticizing her."

"I don't condone her doing drugs or alcohol, Michael."

"Neither do I, and we all need to have some kind of family meeting. But until then you need to support her better, or else she's going to continue to use drugs and alcohol without some kind of support system to guide her through recovery."

I gave Michael a small smile when he looked over at me. As much as I complained that I was agitated with how Luke was treating me and getting his friends involved in my business, I was quite grateful for Michael at this moment.

"Are we good to go then?"

"Yeah, I'll let you know the blood test results as soon as we get them back."

"And a drug test."

Michael rolled his eyes but did not respond this time to Luke's comments.

"Carson?" my father asked. "You ready?"

I chose not to speak to him and stood up, thanking Michael, then followed Luke out the door, down to the parking lot, and to his car.

One thing was for certain, no matter how many changes happened in the past few weeks in my life: I still wanted to go home.

                            ..

We had only been home for an hour when Luke got called to come back to the hospital. There were understaffing issues, and they needed help in the emergency department.

I stood by the front door, waiting for him to grab his hospital bag so we could leave. Frankly, I wasn't looking forward to sitting at the hospital for god knows how long, but Luke didn't trust me to be alone still, so I was stuck with going.

"Oh, Carson, you don't have to go, hun. I'm not sure how long I'll be there, and you probably don't want to hang around the hospital all night," Luke spoke once he had walked down the stairs and saw me standing by the door

"I thought you didn't want me alone."

"I don't, but there's no point in you coming there just to sit in my office," he smiled. "If I'm not out before one of the guys, I'll have them come to check on you; they've all got spare keys. Please, just don't do anything, Carson."

"Okay." I watched him grab his keys from the hook on the wall next to the front door and then open said door.

"You know how to set the alarm, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Okay, um, I'm sorry for my behavior at the checkup earlier; it was wrong of me to say things about you cooperating or not for the exam."

"It's okay, Luke."

With that, he smiled one last time and then walked out the door. I did set the alarm like the security system he asked me to do, and it was quite honestly pretty quiet in Luke's home except for the sound of Petunia's paws on the floor.

The only problem for me was the strong temptation of the locked alcohol cabinet that sat in the kitchen.

Ah, fuck it.