It felt like a week, but Ty said she'd slept for something like 16 hours. She felt better and worse all at the same time. Food was her first priority. She stood and streeeeeetched. No, wait, a shirt was her first priority.

Ohgodohgodohgod. Noel grabbed the first thing she found on the bed that didn't smell funky, a loose black shirt. It was wrinkled since she'd slept on top of it for 16 hours, but hey. It was better than the shirt she'd had on before.

She wiggled the IV out of her arm and taped a tissue on top of the spot with the same tape that had been holding down the needle. She checked her burn and found it far less tender, the skin somewhat toughened. Her back and ribs still ached sharply, but that was okay so long as she didn't have to roll down a grassy hill or anything.

---

Ty was in some kind of meeting so she left him a note. It was possible that leaving the hospital so soon had been a bad idea. She got a recommendation from the blonde secretary in the lobby to visit a free clinic not too far. Ty might not even get back before she was done. Hopefully.

When Noel found the place, there was only one person waiting to see the doctor in line before her. The woman had a kid with a nasty cough so Noel took a seat and waited with her blood crusted hair and crumpled clothes. She might hurt, but she wasn't exactly dying over here. She could wait.

Daniel was working at the Free Clinic today, what else could you do when you have medical training and people are getting hurt left, right and center. The clinic hadn't opened long ago but he's had to deal with all sorts of this, stabbings, bullet wounds and a junkie or too asking for medication but he's shooed them off, luckily they were the begging kind and not the violent kind because he couldn't deal with that. The Doctor called in his next patient and a woman and her son walked in.

Daniel smiled as they entered and helped them as well as he could. He didn't have that much medication to offer them but it should clear up that cough well enough and then they'd be fine. They'd be fine until they need him again and he'd make sure he was here when they do.

Daniel stood from his seat and wandered to call in his next patient. He walked out and noticed the young woman sitting, blood in her hair, clothes crumpled and what looked like a taped tissue on her arm. Maybe she'd had a needle in her arm recently. Daniel smiled and approached her. "Ma'am. Is there something you need?"

"Uhm. I was wondering if you could get me something? I just... I really hurt. Mostly my head's been killing me, but I got in a scrape and didn't exactly let the doctors finish up before I had to head out." Noel scratched at the itchy tape on her arm. At least she had the dried blood to prove she wasn't just jonsing for a hit. She would have taken a shower, but with hair long enough to sit on, drying that hair is a bit of an ordeal.

She stood up with great care not to use any muscles in her abdomen or back, ready to follow the doctor to wherever he needed. He could check out her head and give her a band-aid and a lollipop and she would be on her way in no time.

Daniel smiled at the girl and turned around. "If you'd like to follow me." He could tell she must of had atleast some injuries, no-one could coat that much hair with that much blood without having a few cuts. He walked through and finally arrived in his 'office', it wasn't as nice as the one back at the hospital but it got the job done. He tapped the Examination table and signaled her to sit up. "So what is it exactly that's hurting you? What's the cause of the injury?

The Doctor couldn't see many injuries on the face of it but there could be possible internal injuries. Maybe some injuries on the back of her head. Maybe her spine or back. There were plenty of different things that could be wrong with her. He never really like treating women because sometimes it involved touching and he didn't want to do something accidentally that made him come off as creepy.

Would she like to follow him? Anything to get rid of this headache. Part of it was probably related to her power, but the other part? Well... "Uh. I'm told it was a car. I never saw, though so..." She twitched a shoulder instead of shrugging. It was hard to explain how she got burned and thrown into a car. Much easier to leave things open and let people assume she got hit or something.

If there was weirdness she wasn't getting that vibe. Doctors were safe. Especially ones that volunteered their time. She believed in things like that.

Noel hopped up on the exam table. Well, okay she edged her way on by stretching up and leaning to the side. She wasn't kidding about this crap hurting. "Here. This is the part that really sucks." She turned her whole body rather than twisting so that he could see the back of her head and neck and then swept her hair to the side so that he could see her neck.

The brunette was pretty sure the hurting on her abdomen was from the ribs that had turned a mottled black and purple and greenish hue and there was nothing to do about that. What could be done was having the freaking scabby wounds on the back of her head and neck checked out. After all, she and a car had collided. There was bound to be bits of glass or plastic that she just couldn't see to remove.

The wounds showed impact points at the back of her head, the back of her arms and of course there was the tenderness in the rib-area. Between those large wounds were scrapes where she'd slid afterward.

Yeah. No kidding it hurt.

Daniel was up as soon as Noel had sat on the examination table. He looked at her neck and back and put his hand on it gently. Due to the positions of the injury it was unlikely that she would be able to reach it. He stepped back and grabbed some tweezers from the tray by the examination table as he began picking small pieces of glass and plastic from the neck wound. She'd been hit by a car apparently. "I'm sorry if it hurts ma'am but I'm Doctor Daniel Booker, pleased to meet you." He wanted to keep her talking and take her attention away from the small sharp pains caused by pulling out shards of glass.

Surely the damage wouldn't be isolated to her head and neck. She was hit by a car, he'd be surprised if this was it. He had damage on her arms and so her back had likely received some injury too. "Excuse me ma'am but they way you shuffled onto the table. Could you take off your shirt please? I'm betting that you have rib or back injuries and I'd like to take a look at them if that's the case." Daniel was trying to sound a professional as possible, he never liked asking people to remove their clothing but if he sounded professional and cold surely it'd be fine and not awkward.

Immediately the guy went to fetch more equipment. Perfect. It was so bad, she needed more than just a band-aid. Noel tried not to get discouraged.

"Noel." She grit her teeth so that she would not cry out when he went after her wounds. "Uhm. That's not making it- Ah!" She cringed and just the cringing made her want to cringe again. Stupid freaking stupid hurtful stupid car. She took a second to breathe and Dr. Daniel gave her that second to recover before going on. This time she blurted the whole sentence out before he could pick at her again.

"That's not making it worse? I mean, it already quit bleeding." Truth be told after the initial hurt, it was sort of feeling a bit better. Or maybe that was the rush of natural chemicals her body was producing to counter act the hurt.

>"Could you take off your shirt please?"

What was it with medical professionals and making her disrobe! She just wanted to be better while being clothed. Was that too much to ask?

"No."

Noel made her hands relax even though her heart was drumming. It was good that she was facing the wall because she could feel the heat in her face from a sudden flush. She had to explain before he thought she was being rude. "I can't lift my arms above my head." There. She swallowed hard and hoped that he understood. She physically could not remove her own shirt because of her injuries. It was the kind of shirt that slipped on over the head and it had been hard enough to get on.

She swallowed again. Gulp. "You have my permission to do what is necessary." Yes. This was the part where she very purposefully did not look at him. If this was some ploy... she was going to kill him dead. She didn't get that idea from how his words tasted, but still... dead.

Daniel stopped dead when she said no and to be honest he was a little relieved. He didn't want to have that awkward silence when you're checking over a disrobed person's injuries but he was a surgeon so surely he could handle it. "I'm so sorry. If it was up to me I wouldn't be having to do this." Daniel laughed slightly to himself and he went about thinking how would be best to do this.

Daniel held the edge of the piece of fabric in his hand and lifted the back of her shirt up to inspect the damage, from what he could see it didn't look very good, there were scrapes here and there but it was her ribs that he really wanted to take a look at. Daniel made his way to the front of her and smiled. "Excuse me Noel, if you don't mind." He wasn't really asking as he lifted the front of her shirt to just below her bosom as to allow her some dignity. The Doctor put his hands over the ribs that were clearly bruised. He could feel them quite clearly but he tried not to hurt her too much. When he felt her however he could pretty much tell what happened. Daniel also noticed something else, he didn't catch most of it but he needed to check the injury anyhow. He lifted her shirt a little higher completely oblivious to what he was actually doing. He ran his hand over the medical gauze that covered the injury just about to remove it and check what kind of injury it was when he noticed what he was going and he just stopped dead and eventually lowered her shirt slowly. "...I'm so sorry."

If she didn't try to look at him it wasn't as bad. Noel could sort of pretend neither of them were doing anything while she inspected the water stain on that ceiling tile. At least, she could pretend until he touched her.

Noel sucked in a breath. It hurt. She did mention that, right? The problem with inhaling was that the action of inhaling also hurt. It sent her into a coughing fit that left her wanting to just curl up. Her head throbbed and her eyes watered. Again he gave her some time before moving around to inspect her front. Apparently there was no glass in her back. She had been wearing a shirt when she got hit by the car so that made sense.

And then? Well, she shoved him. It was a knee-jerk instinct-kicking-in kind of moment where she never actually decided to shove him, she just noticed that she had after the fact. Her shirt fell down and she gripped it in her hands to keep it there.

> "...I'm so sorry."

"I got burned." If looks could kill or if she could die from embarrassment they might both be dead right now. "I don't need you to look at that." At least, she didn't think she did. That was one thing they had actually taken care of at the hospital, probably because it was so obvious.

And, no, she wasn't crying. That was just left over from when she had been having her coughing fit. Noel rubbed at her eyes.

Daniel wasn't expecting being shoved by the attractive if not very sensitive woman. His body didn't know what was coming and as such he moved back slightly from the girl and once the initial force of the shove lessened he moved back on his own. The Doctor then noticed the tears in her eyes and his words couldn't keep up with his head. "I..I..I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..I was just attempting to...What I'm trying to say is. I didn't mean to cause you any more pain than was needed and I'm sorry that I did not ask permission to check that injury and reached that far up your shirt." Wow. That sounded bad even when trying to make it sound better. Daniel opened his mouth again to try and change his statement but wasn't sure how to do it.

Daniel shifted on his feet slightly, he didn't notice it but it felt like he was back in high-school...He didn't even want to remember the time he was thinking of. Daniel played an awkward smile of his lips as he looked back at her. "Are you sure you don't want me to look at it?"

Crap he was sincere. If he would just be insincere or slimy for just one second, she could really hate his guts. As it was she just felt bad for manhandling him. She didn't mean to, it just hurt. And when things hurt that bad she'd do just about anything to make it stop.

So. Would she like for him to look at her burn? "I'd almost... rather die... of infection." The truth. She tried to stick to it.

Noel put her head in her hands and tried to find a rhythm of breathing that didn't hurt. "I came here... because I'm... in pain... So far... all you've done... is make... things worse." It seemed that there was no way that she could sit or slouch that made breathing easier. There was just no way to get away from the pain. A little flag of panic unfurled inside of her making her breaths shallower and closer together.

She couldn't breathe. She just couldn't breathe.

Daniel shook his head and immediately the shoving incident was forgotten as he walked over to fetch the pain medication she'd require to help with the fractured ribs and general pain. He lifted them up and read the label, yeah it was fine. Nothing would go wrong from now on. "Don't worry. I'm not usually like this I'm a surgeon the rest of the time. I don't really know what's gone wrong today." Daniel was about to give her the meds and let her be off but then her breaths started getting shallow.

Daniel spun as fast as he could, placing the medication on his desk. He was actually going to help this woman no matter what. Daniel got eye level with her and looked her in the eyes.Watch her. See how her eyes glaze over as she runs out of breath? See how he life is slowly drifting away? Is it not magnificent? Daniel could do nothing to stop the voice but he could do something for Noel. "Noel..Everything is going to be okay. Listen to my voice, everything will be fine. Relax. Daniel spoke in as a calm tone as he could, he couldn't let her panic it would only make it worse. Daniel made various 'ssh' type noises to help calm her. If she relaxed her muscles would loosen and she would find breathing a lot easier and hopefully he'd be able to help her and give her the medication. He'd probably need to say sorry to her later....Somehow.

By the time he noticed that she was freaking out Noel was gasping, every breath in was like she had to drag the air in kicking and screaming. Can't breathe. Can't breathe!

He got close, but he didn't touch her again. He had been careful before, but it hadn't always been okay. This was... okay.

She swallowed hard. What was wrong with her? She didn't freak out. Noel might not have known much about herself, but she knew that much. Right down to her toes she brave. Usually.

Noel tipped her head forward until her forehead rested against Dr. Daniel's. She needed something to steady herself and right now he was the best she was going to get. She could feel his breath with each word spoken and that was different.

Every time she felt him speak she tried to follow his direction and relax some part of herself. Her hands, her arms, her back. No matter what she tried her shoulders wouldn't un-hunch but that was okay she could draw more and more breath with each comfort Dr. Daniel presented.

It took time, but eventually she was okay. Well, at least as okay as she had been when she came in.

Great. Now she was hurt and embarrassed.

"Sorry." She put her face back into her hands.

Daniel smiled as she leaned her head on his. He continued to make the 'ssh' sound as if trying to coax a baby into going to sleep. His smile only brightened when her breathing calmed down. "It's what I'm here for, no need to be sorry."Daniel watched as she cupped her head in her hands and he ran a hand through her hair. He was going to make sure she's okay and then he'd get her the medication.

Daniel watched her and spoke once again. "There's really no need to be sorry. Well as long as you're okay, here's my numbers." Daniel walked to his desk and scrawled a few digits on a small piece of paper. "That's this office, my normal office and my cell if you can't reach me on the other two...You know just in case you are in any more pain."

But... she was sorry. She didn't mean to be a bother. It was stupid to add a mental complication on top of so much physical.

He held her head and ran his hands through her long brown hair like she might be a child. His fingers caught on the snarls and matted blood, but it was nice all the same. Maybe she felt like a kid after her performance here today. Noel in return nodded. She was okay. Really. If they could just move past this and get to the real reason she was there...

Medicine. Blessed, blessed medicine. Noel tried not to just straight up snatch it out of the doctor's hand when he offered it to her finally. Screw waiting for water, she downed those horse pills straight away. And she got a prescription and a phone number for more. Perfect. Exactly what she needed five minutes ago.

"Thank you." It hadn't kicked in yet, but Noel had faith.

"Can you write your name too? My memory hasn't been the best lately." Assuming everything was good to go, Noel slid very, very carefully off of the table with the paper on it.