“Hi there, Gideon. How are you feeling?”
“It hurts,” he said, matter of factly through clenched teeth.
“Can you tell me where it hurts?”
Gideon pointed to his side. “Hurts real bad.”
“Alright, that’s steady then. Nurse Mendez’s preliminary evaluation points to possible swollen appendix. We are going to do an ultrasound to confirm.”
“Like…I’m pregnant? I’m not pregnant. I’m a dude.”
I glanced at Nurse Mendez who is smiling at me.
“I see Nurse Mendez is already giving you a taste of some pain killer.“
“It’s …nice,” Gideon agreed. 
I checked his vitals while he relaxes. “Blood pressure’s good, Let’s get the tech in here.”
Gideon looked at me. “Hey.”
“Yes?” I asked, making notes.
“You are really hot.”
Nurse Mendez smothered a laugh.
I felt my cheeks grow warm. “Me or Miss Mendez here?”
“You,” Gideon insisted. “Like the pain goes away the more I realize it…damn you are really hot.”
“Thank you Gideon,” I said, trying to polite. “Let’s focus on your medical care ok?”
“Mm you can be my doctor any day.”
Nurse Mendez giggles. “Aw cute, you made a new friend.”
Gideon continued. “I’m gay you know, so I am a good judge of these things.”
“Nice to know you’re feeling better,” I said.
“Hey. Since I’m here and like naked under his gown, you should check to make sure everything down there works.”
Nurse Mendez had to leave she’s laughing so hard.
“Gideon, we’re here to treat your appendix.”
“Mm you can treat me any time,” Gideon slurred. 

The pain medication made him doze off and we were able to get an ultrasound. His appendix looked like shit, so we rushed him into the OR. Normally I don’t follow up with patients for operations that simple, but Nurse Mendez told me that Gideon was asking.

When I walked into his unit in intensive care, Gideon lit up. “Hey, it’s the hot doctor.”
I blushed. “You are clearly feeling better, Gideon.”
Gideon gave me a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. “I’m sorry if I was kind of inappropriate with you. I get that way when I’m drunk too.”
I check his vitals while we chat. “Well you gave the nurses plenty to tease me about for the next year.”
Gideon laughed, a beautiful sound. “Well…you are hot. I can’t stop thinking about you. I was being obnoxious and you were being so kind to me.”
“A lot of times, patients that come in here are sick and being sick makes them act in different ways,” I responded. “You learn to focus on taking care of them and not making it personal.”
Gideon plucked at his blanket. “What if I wanted to make it personal?”
I tilted my head. “I make it a policy not to date patients.” For some reason the words came with a hesitation and a bit of regret. 
“Well….I’m getting discharged this afternoon. I won’t be a patient then. I mean, if I happened to bump into you in let’s say a bar somewhere-”
I laughed. “A bar? You just had major internal surgery. Are you really feeling that much better?”
Gideon beamed. “Yeah, I feel amazing. A bit sore, but amazing. My appendix had been bothering me for a few days before I came in.”
I stared. “Why did you wait?”
“Cause I thought it was a stomach ache…my roommate is into an Indian food kick and oh my god, it’s so spicy.”
“Is that so?” I asked, amused.
“…Do you like Indian food?” Gideon asked.
I was impressed by his persistence. I tucked my pen in my pocket. “I really like curry.”
Gideon lit up. “There’s a great Japanese curry place like three blocks from my apartment…”
I shook my head. “You don’t give up don’t you?”
Gideon chuckled. “Nope. I’m not letting you slip away.”

I’m not really sure why I gave him my phone number or why we played phone tag for the next few days. However, it was a good thing we did. I was able to detect that Gideon’s incision was infected and got him to go back to the hospital right away. 

I of course, had to go visit him in intensive care.
“My my Gideon, did you miss us at Royal Medical so badly?”
Gideon grinned. “I got impatient waiting for a curry date.”
I peeked at his incision site. “Oof, that is angry looking. We’re gonna get you on intravenous anti-biotics pretty quick here.”
“Are you going to be my doctor again…?” he asked, hopeful.
“Yes, Gideon, I will.”
“Good,” he said. “Then I know I’m in good hands.”
I gazed down at Gideon’s angelic face. “You need to get better soon or I’m going to get curry without you.”
He tried to sit up and I kept him down. “Stay down Gideon.”
Gideon slouched back. “Really? You mean it? Oh come on, now you’re teasing me cause I can’t leave the hospital!”
“You’re the one with an infection, not me,” I pointed out. “Blame it.”
Gideon smirked. “You could still do a testicular inspection on me to kill time.”
I choked on my spit and coughed. “Randy little thing aren’t you?”
Gideon laughed. “You are so fun to get a rise out of.” The nurses came in and our conversation got interrupted. 

It was another five weeks before Gideon was well enough to get curry with me, and he was right, it was damn tasty. But the company was even better. 

Gideon looked much more attractive cleaned up, in regular clothes. I found myself drawn to his brash, forward behavior…attracted enough where I wanted to see him again. And again. And then he spent the night. 

Now every morning, I see the scar on his abdomen and stroke it with my finger. I promise myself he will never end up in my ER again. I know I’m powerless to stop that, but some part of me wants to believe that Gideon has paid his dues to

Asclepius

and now he is mine forever.

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Text is fictional. Picture is a stock image but I couldn’t find the source. The picture was hosted on ABC news’s website.