“I’ll just have you come into the office here,” the man said. “I’d like to have a little conversation with you before we begin the tests.”
Amelia glanced at Ben, who gave her a nod of encouragement. “We’ll just wait out here.”
She felt a little apprehensive as she followed the man into the office. Would he believe anything she said? Especially when she struggled to describe the pain and exhaustion she dealt with, along with the other less significant issues she’d experienced over the past couple of years?
“Please, have a seat,” he said, motioning to the chair in front of a large desk.
Once they were both seated, he gave her a reassuring smile. “As Julian said, I’m Michael Donner, and I’m a rheumatologist. When Julian presented the symptoms you’ve been dealing with, we decided that I might be the best person to meet with you and evaluate your symptoms and test results.”
For the next little while, Amelia answered questions about her past and when the decline of her health had begun. When they moved on to her symptoms, Amelia felt a bit of encouragement. He asked questions that made sense to her and told her that he understood what she was dealing with.
“So will the blood tests show what I have?”
“Potentially,” Dr. Donner said. “They can also be used to rule things out as well.”
“I would just like some answers,” she told him. “I’ve lost so much, and I feel like I don’t even have a life anymore. At least not one that I’m in control of.”
“I understand, and we’ll keep looking until we get an answer for you,” Dr. Donner said with an encouraging smile. “Julian has made sure we know that. And once we get an answer, we’ll work out a treatment plan for helping you with your symptoms.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He pushed back from the desk where he’d been making notes throughout their conversation. “Now let’s get this testing started.”
He opened another door and invited a woman to come into the room.
“This is Rachel,” he said. “She’ll be taking your vitals and drawing some blood.”
Rachel was a petite woman with a friendly smile. “Come on through here.”
After a glance at the door leading to where Ben and the others were, Amelia followed her through the door into a room similar to others she’d spent time in over the years.
Over the next several minutes, the woman weighed her and took her blood pressure. Once that was done, Rachel had her sit at a lab table, then prepped her and began to fill tubes with her blood. Amelia looked away. It wasn’t that the sight of blood made her feel faint or anything, but she didn’t need to see what was happening.
Rachel took several tubes, then removed the needle and put a bandage on the spot in her elbow. She then set a juice box and a cookie on a napkin in front of her.
“We took a lot of blood, so just sit there for a minute and eat that.”
Amelia wondered if she’d seen the last of Ben until after all the testing was done. She had to admit that she didn’t like the idea.
She’d already been alone through so much of her health journey, and she wanted him to be there with her. And she kind of thought that he would be willing to be there if she asked.
“How are you feeling?” Rachel asked after she finished labeling the tubes.
She almost gave the number response but caught herself in time. “Fine.”
“You can go back to the waiting area through there,” Rachel said, pointing to another door beside the one that led there from the office.
Happy that she’d get to see Ben again, Amelia slid off the stool and slowly made her way to the door and opened it.
Ben got up as soon as she appeared, a worried look on his face. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, though I think I just had an encounter with a vampire,” she said. “She took an awful lot of my blood.”
Ben grinned. “I’m sure it was for a good cause.”
He led her over to a set of chairs, apart from where Luca sat. Julian and Anthony weren’t in the room.
Amelia sank into the chair with a sigh. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. She felt Ben shift beside her, but didn’t open her eyes.
