And, my goodness, did Daniil ever hover as Dr. Weiss began the pelvic exam. I have to admit, I probably didn’t help the situation much because it was uncomfortable at first. He didn’t hurt me, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was just…uncomfortable the way he pressed inside me and on my lower stomach.
I didn’t exactly whimper, but a noise made its way past my throat and I tried pushing back in the stirrups.
Then, the doctor made a soft gasp, and Daniil said softly, “Get your fucking hands off her.”
“Wait, wait,” I mumbled. “I’m all right. It’s just uncomfortable.”
There was a pause, and Daniil looked up at me—I couldn’t see the doctor because of the sheet—and he asked, “He’s not hurting you?”
“No. Not at all. It’s just feels unusual.”
Another pause and Daniil’s gaze had darted all over my face before he glanced down at the doctor. “Try not to make it uncomfortable for her.”
Dr. Wisser’s voice was very soft as he said, “I won’t be able to do that if you don’t remove the knife from my throat.”
I gaped, and then shrieked, “Daniil! Stop that right now!” No wonder the poor doc’s hands were starting to shake inside and outside of me.
Daniil glared down at the doctor, then me. “If he hurts you, you tell me.” His shoulders moved, and the doctor took a deep breath.
I glared right back at him as the doctor started to hesitantly do his job again. “Maybe you should come up here if you’re just going to scare the doctor to death. He needs to be able to do his job without worrying about getting knifed in the back.”
“I won’t do anything to his back.” Daniil shrugged.
“Or his front, Daniil. You’re scaring him.”
“If that scares him, then maybe he shouldn’t be your doctor.”
“Anyone would be scared with a knife to their throat.”
“No. Not everyone.”
“Oh. Excuse me. Only sane people would be scared.”
“I know plenty of sane people who aren’t frightened with a knife to their throat.”
“And this coming from the least sane person I know.”
“Then you don’t know enough people.”
The doc cleared his throat loudly. “I hate to interrupt, but I need to ask you a few questions.” Daniil and I both shut up, he staring down and me staring at the blanket where the voice was coming from. “And he’s also not insane. He knows what he’s doing while he does it. That’s not the actions of a technically insane individual.”
I gritted my teeth. “What did you want to ask?”
“First, are you absolutely positive you could have gotten pregnant before your last period?”
Daniil stilled, and his gaze shot to mine. Oh, perfect. A medical professional asking me if I was having someone else’s baby. “Yes. I’m sure. I hadn’t had sex for six months before then.” I wanted to give Daniil the finger. He appeared to have caught it and glanced away looking a little sheepish. Dick. But I knew that was the ever-present question of men when someone got pregnant outside of marriage. My dad was right about some things being easier. And I had to give Daniil credit that he hadn’t actually ever asked that question.
“And you weren’t taking any fertility drugs?” doc asked, pressing around inside me again.
I tried not to flinch and answered, “No. Just one night without a condom.” Daniil and I hadn’t even had sex since we got back from Key West. Half the time I was too exhausted and asleep as my head hit the pillow, and the other half of the time I stayed at my apartment, keeping some of my independence—albeit with a few grumbles from Daniil.
“Okay. Well, I need to finish up here, but you already measure too large for five weeks. You’re showing all indications of a multiple pregnancy. I’ll need to do a sonogram when I’m done to verify how many fetuses are in the womb.”
I stared at Daniil, and I was pretty sure I looked about the same as him. Shocked. I almost forgot with the whole knife issue that the doctor had said my numbers were high. Although it appeared that Daniil might need to sit down, he was so stunned. He cleared his throat when I couldn’t help the wince, his eyes going back down to the doctor and watching what he was doing. It appeared to help him.
Daniil froze when the doctor removed his fingers from me, and he hissed, “What did you do to make her bleed?” He was furious, and his arms moved again.
“Daniil, stop it.” I knew from the doctor’s gasp again that he had the knife back out.
