Absolute

24

The Academy hospital was nothing like I thought it would be. For starters, it didn't say Academy in big block letters across the top, and it didn't look like a secretly operated hospital. Which I guess is what I should have expected.

Sean drove us into the parking garage, finding a spot that was labeled as his own. He was unbuckled, car off, and at my door by the time I finished unbuckling myself and finding where my phone had slid to on the floor.

He opened my door for me and offered me a hand, smiling warmly for how early we'd had to wake this morning. I'd never had a set time that I'd had to wake up. Had never had an appointment to keep, and so for some reason, all of these firsts had made me grumpy.

Sean said it was cute, but I sort of felt like he was saying cute in the same way some people call dragons cute.

He was really excited to show me his office and he got me checked in, apparently, though he'd been by my side the whole time and we'd only said hello to a few people. There was a short, yet sharp, knock on the door to Sean's office.

He'd warned me in the car that while it was fine for him to be my doctor outside of the hospital, technically family wasn't allowed to treat family. I was so elated that he considered me family, as I considered him like family, that I completely forgot to be nervous about meeting a stranger until Sean gave them permission to enter the room.

But by then I felt it was too late for such feelings. I'd gone through so much, I could handle meeting a new person.

Maybe it was having Sean as my example of a doctor, but when the older lady in a white jacket similar to the one Sean wore walked in, I was surprised at her age. She greeted Sean first, shaking his hand before turning to me. She was nice, and I think her being female gave me further comfort.

The exam was not short, but she made it easier by explaining what she was doing every step of the way. And Sean didn't leave the room until she asked for me to change into a gown. He stayed out while she did her job.

In the end I found out that my irregular periods were not something to feel lucky about, as Marie had told me long ago, but something to worry about. She allowed me to get dressed and brought back not only Sean, but also a stack of papers for how to proceed with my care.

She said a lot of things to Sean that I didn't fully understand, as most of it was medical lingo I'd never heard before.

Sean had to stay and work a shift, so he could be free tonight for the meeting with my birth mother. But he walked me out to the front of the hospital- after a breakfast date that included cafeteria pie.

There, a black SUV was waiting. I got in, greeting Victor as I did so. Luke and Gabriel were in the back seat, the former of the two complaining about being hungry. Together we went to the mall, and after a few hours we found what Gabriel called an appropriate dress to wear.

I don't think my mother would have called it appropriate, but I didn't think Gabriel cared about her late opinions. Especially when it came to me.

We ate lunch at the mall, each guy choosing a different place and ordering enough food for me to choose anything I wanted. I realized that I loved everything except for Victor's sushi, which he made me promise to try again at a more refined dining choice.

It was the busiest day I'd had so far, and it wasn't even halfway over.

We returned to what was now my home. Several of the guys were around the place, but Gabriel ushered me into my bathroom, which wasn't attached to my room but across from it. I didn't even expect to have my own bathroom, so I was always a little uncomfortable when someone complained that it wasn't attached on my behalf.