The Doctor Will See You Now

Chapter 7

Hey guys! So, I know that last chapter was a little short but I made up for it here! Last chapter was a lead up to this one (that is why it was so short) and I have to say that I hope you all enjoy this new chapter as much as I did writing it. I think that this has to be one of my favorite chapters that I have written to date. Plus, I just think that Emily is a total bad ass in the chapter, but I don't want to spoil anything so without further adieu...


Emily woke up in a cold sweat after only being asleep for about three hours. She raked her hand through her hair as she tried to calm herself. It was the same recurring nightmare that plagued her mind every night, never letting her get a wink of much needed sleep. The only time that she really did get any rest was when her body would finally be pushed passed its limit and she would sleep without any dreams—only darkness.

Throwing the covers off of her, making sure not to disturb Max who was sleeping at the foot of her bed, she crossed her room and opened her chest-of-drawers. She quickly pulled on a sports bra and a bright neon yellow work out shirt. Closing the drawers, she opened another and pulled out slight compression shorts and started shimming her way into them. Afterwards, she moved into the kitchen, while putting her hair into a sloppy ponytail, to grab her keys and phone.

She quickly clicked the side illuminating the dashboard of the phone revealing that it was just past two-thirty in the morning. Taking a deep sigh, Emily also found a pair of old and dirty headphones that she had flung on the counter earlier that day. Grabbing them and plugging them into her phone, she placed them into her ears and turned up the volume of the music that started to play through her headphones and she took off for a run.


Emily could not quite understand how she seemed to get herself into sticky and unpleasant situations. She decided to take a different route than normal for her late-night or early morning run and it turned out that it probably wasn't the best idea she had. She decided to make a quick stop for a new thermometer, however, the universe had other plans.

When she rounded the corner of an alley by the general store, she found four men beating up on what looked like to be a boy no older then sixteen. It was as if they had jumped him since the boy looked to be coming home from the private catholic school that was around the area, given that Emily saw what looked like to be the emblem from the school on his uniform in the faint light when the boy shifted slightly from the punches and kicks to the stomach he was receiving.

She knew that she shouldn't have stepped in, and usually she didn't. She would usually just mind her own business and keep moving so the attackers wouldn't go after her. But something about this kid reminded her of what she used to be like. Maybe it was the fact that he was from the slums of Hell's Kitchen and was going to a decent school in order to better himself and help others. Or maybe it was the fact that no matter how many times the men punched or kicked the kid, he never once cried even though all of his energy was gone, he still fought back. So, with her big mouth she did what she shouldn't have done and told the men beating the boy to stop what they were doing.

"Hey! Stop it, what are you doing to this kid?"

Emily said rushing over to stop the beating in process.

"Isn't it little late to be out, girly?" one of the men snarled at her.

Emily came right up to the group and tried to stop them from beating the poor boy senseless.

"This isn't any of your business sweetheart, so why don't you just continue on like you never saw nothin'…"

The boy caught Emily's light blue eyes as she knew then that she couldn't leave this boy behind. So, she did what any sane women would do in this situation, she kicked the man who told her to leave square in the jewels and while he was doubled over in pain she clocked the next closest guy in the jaw. This was enough to stun the other two men enough so Emily could distract them away from the kid.

Emily took this opportunity to yell, "RUN!" as the kid scrabbled to his feet and ran off into the dark alley. She wasn't watching the other men regain their composure, she was focusing on the boy making sure he had escaped until she suddenly felt her back being slammed against the rough brick wall. She quickly pushed her arms in and then out and around, to free herself from the man's arms who had a slight hold on her shoulders, breaking free from his clutches. Without wasting a moment, and while the drunk men realized that she got out of their buddy's hold, she started to run as fast as she could.


Emily decided to round the corner instead of going straight and unfortunately, with her luck, it was a dead end. It wasn't the type where there was a metal fence you could climb, no; this one was of a solid brick wall that was attached to a high rise. This made getting out of this situation a little harder since four burly looking men were right on her heels.

She heard the men snickering behind her as she went into the alley as far as it would allow as she searched desperately for something to fight back with. Moving her head quickly side to side, her hair temporally blinding her as she did so, she could not seem to find anything. That was when a grimy hand pulled on her shoulder and pushed her so her back roughly scratched against the coarse brick material. She looked into the dark eyes of her assailant as he boxed her in with her body so she couldn't move and at this point both her heart rate and breathing patterned picked up. Not only due to the run, but coming to the realization that she was caught with nowhere to go.

Her mind finally started to kick in as she struggled against the man who was trying to restrained her.

"Heh, you should stop doing that bitch, you already have so much you have to pay us back for…" The man breathed on Emily's neck while going in to slightly smell her hair.

"Not to mention that, that little bitch cost us our client today!" Piped up from one of the other men surrounding Emily.

Emily continued to struggle against the man's body as he used his forearm to keep her steady. However, it was a little too close to Emily's mouth as she bites down as hard as she could on his forearm drawing metallic tasting blood.

"Shit!" The man holding down Emily yelled out.

This prompted the man to use his other hand that was not directly on Emily's body to slap her harshly across the face. His pinky ring flashed in the faint light that was in the alley as it made contact with Emily's lip. Emily instantly let go of his forearm as she felt a sharp pain tare her flesh away from her lip making her flinch. Breathing heavily, she leaned her head back against the scratchy brick taking in the rest of her surroundings while feeling warm blood rush down her chin.

She saw the man come close to her again as he was starting to get over the pain of her biting him as he pinned her back down with his forearm and with his free hand recoiled for another hit on her face for the trauma she caused from his arm, but everything seemed to halt when the five of them heard a rough voice sound behind them.

"I wouldn't hit her again, if I were you… Actually if I were you I would let her go, it is in your best interest here."

Emily couldn't make out who was there due to the four burly men in front of her but she was sure that she heard the unmistakable noise of a gun cocking. The three men that were behind the one currently holding her against the wall started to approach the man who had interrupted the men. The one holding her against the wall glared at her and decided that to keep her here and in a state where she couldn't run off, he kneed her in the gut.

Emily doubled over and her eyes widened with the pain to her gut. It was almost like she was moving in slow motion as her knees buckled and she hit the hard asphalt. She could feel bile from her stomach come up her throat as she instinctively opened her mouth to drain the stuff that was coming up so that she didn't choke. Emily clenched her hand to her stomach in hopes that it would alleviate the pain but this just brought on another dry heave and made her start gasping for air. She was almost too consumed with the pain in her gut but her curiosity got the better of her as she started wondering who would have decided that it was a good idea to rescue a girl from four thugs.

Her face was trained to the ground as she heard the four men grunting and curse as if they were losing. But that couldn't be possible… it was four against one. Emily could feel the pain start to fade in her stomach as she heard men moaning and a pair of boots walk in her direction. She didn't dare look up in case it was one of her previous assailants. The thought never crossed her mind until now, but what happened if the newcomer actually wanted her for himself?

Emily held her breath as the boots stopped inches from her as the man crouched down to her level, making Emily have no other choice but to look into the eyes of the man in front of her and it was not who she thought it was going to be. To her surprise, there was Frank Castle, once again saving her life.


Emily couldn't make words come out of her mouth even though it was wide open as if she was going to say something. Frankly, she didn't know what to say to the person in front of her.

"You okay ma'am?" Frank muttered looking over Emily with a trained eye noticing her split lip.

It took a moment for Emily to register that Frank was speaking to her as she caught his eye once again.

"I uhh… I… yeah I am fine, thank you…" squeaked Emily.

Emily watched at Frank adjusted his weight from his heals to the balls of his feet as Emily stayed seated in the position that she was in. That was when Emily noticed the gun the was slung on Franks shoulder. Frank looked where Emily's eyes flickered as his own landed on the strap of the gun on his shoulder.

"I figured that I didn't need it to defect some thugs. Granted, I probably should have shot them since I have now seen what they did to you…"

Emily could see the flicker of debate behind Frank's eyes and she tried to keep him from actually having to kill anybody tonight. Well, kill anyone that she knew of tonight. So, Emily just simply nodded her head at Frank's comment and interjected her own.

"Thank you again, Frank, I mean it"

"Yeah well, you shouldn't have been out here at this time of night. What were you thinking?" Frank gruffly retorted.

Shrugging Emily simply stated, "I couldn't sleep and so I went out for a run."

Frank ran a hand over his face.

"For a doctor you aren't the smartest, are you? I mean you could've gotten hurt a lot worse—"

"Well, I wasn't and I am a grown woman. I can make my own decisions" Emily huffed.

The two stayed there looking at each other as the tension built between them. Emily was not one to back down and this was a new one to Frank. The only other person who had no problem going toe to toe with him was his late wife, Maria. Frank shook his head trying to clear his thoughts as Emily watched the peculiar motion.

Emily bit her lip slightly and winced as she felt a sharp pain as she did so. She had forgotten that the flesh was torn and she had a deep cut on her lip. Frank, noticing Emily's lip, found that she had only made the wound worse due to this action and as a result, more blood bubbled to the surface of the exposed wound. Carefully, Frank brought his hand up, cradling Emily's face with his fingertips by placing them slightly behind her ear and with his thumb, slightly swiping underneath her lip where the blood had pooled. He then gently placed his thumb over the wound and applied pressure.

Emily was shocked by this motion. Yes, the two had touched each other before when she had to extract the bullets out of his body and when she re-did his pulled stitches, but this was different This seemed almost intimate. If Frank moved his face an inch or two closer, they would be kissing.

"Wha—What are you doing?"

"Stop talking, you are just going to make your wound worse. You should know that putting pressure on the wound helps stop the blood…you are a doctor after all, right?"

Emily deeply sighed and bit her tongue so she wouldn't say anything that may be construed as a cheeky remark towards the man who had just saved her life once again. So, she adverted her eyes from Franks intense glare as she stared off into the alley just above Frank's shoulder.

That was when Emily noticed that one of the men from before had gotten up and started to draw a knife from the waistband of his pants. She could tell because there seemed to be a glint off of the metal that was produced by the hazy light that streamed down the pathway. Before Emily could make out what he was about to do, the gnarly man ran towards the two of them.

Emily didn't think in that moment, she only acted. That was why before Frank even had time to turn around, and register what was happening, Emily threw out her arms and clutched his shoulders, that were covered by a black leather coat, and pulled him towards her as if to try to move Frank out of the way and change the directory of the knife so it would come at her instead.

She was able to just move him out of the way as the knife sliced through the air barely skimming the surface of Emily's cheek causing a long, but shallow cut on her cheek—not deep enough to need stitches. She could feel the stinging sensation and could also see a piece of hair flying the other way as it was cut off by the motion of the swinging blade that the man held close to her face.

However, Frank on the other hand, was not expecting to fall forward towards Emily, as he abruptly placed a hand on the brick wall by the side of her face stopping his momentum from going too far forward and crushing the girl beside him. He realized that he was millimeters away from her hair and unwillingly he let his sense of smell be consumed by the scent of lavender. He didn't know it yet, but he had already started to associate that smell not only with Emily but also the sense of calm that would eventually rush over him when she was near.

However, before he let himself get consumed by his thoughts, there was a threat at hand so Frank quickly reached for the pistol that was in the waistline of his jeans. He could see the blade leave a feather of a cut on Emily's face as he turned his head. Without hesitation, and without waiting for the man to move his arm back to plunge the knife down into Frank's back, to make up for missing his target the first time, Frank put two bullets in his chest and one in his forehead with ease and fantastic precision.

Emily saw the man that attacked them fall into a bloody heap. All the blood escaped Emily's face as she turned into a ghost shade of white. She had seen people pass away on the operating table and when they were brought in with severe wounds. She was even okay when Frank put a bullet in the Russian's head when he was about to kill her. But she could distance herself then and she also never saw the Russian actually take the bullet to the brain.

Now, when it all happened in a blink of an eye, and in a way like this, meaning that she saw the bullet go through this man's skull as he fell lifelessly down to the pavement, all she could do was start sucking in shallow breaths as if she was going to have a panic attack.

When Frank heard the gasps of breath next to him he whipped his head back and noticed the women in front of him clench her fingers into his shoulders as if he was the thing keeping her upright. He looked Emily straight in the eyes and felt her hair tickle his nose in the close proximity of their bodies as he could once again smell the strong scent of lavender wafting up into his nostrils.

Frank was just about to say something when he heard sirens go off in the distance. He stood up slightly dragging Emily with him as he did so.

"Come on, we need to go." Frank harshly stated.

Emily just nodded towards the sound of Frank's voice as he kept a firm hand around her waist as if she would fall down at any moment. While Emily stumbled on wobbly legs, the pair of them made their way out of the alley and down the street to hide low for a while until the cops dispersed.


Emily fumbled with her keys in front of her door. Her hands shook slightly and she couldn't seem to concentrate on finding the right key to the door with the old flickering light that barely illuminated the hallway. Finally, she was able to jam the correct key into the door knob and twist it opening allowing not only herself, but Frank to enter.

Emily quickly threw open the next door that separated her office from her apartment and abruptly sat down on the couch by the door that recently held a bloody and dying Frank Castle. Some color had returned to her face but she was still in shock. This concerned Frank as he watched the girl as if she would fall over at any minute.

Frank watched a furry blob come from Emily's room and realized that the dog must have figured out that someone was in the apartment. Max quickly brushed up against Frank's leg as he gave the dog a swift pat, but Max's destination was Emily. Max sat in front of her and Frank watched as she pulled the dog close to bury her face into the dog's fur.

Frank sighed and looked around the dark apartment. He figured that it would be best to tend to Emily and her wounds first. He didn't know how extensive they were and they may have been worse than what she was letting on. Not to mention that her lip had started to swell and she needed to ice it before it got any worse.

Therefore, Frank found his way into the kitchen, flicking on the light switch illuminating the small space. He went into the freezer and found what he was looking for; a bag of frozen peas. He took them out and slammed the door shut walking back towards Emily and Max noticing that neither of which had moved an inch.

Frank scratched his nose not really knowing what to do in this situation making him get agitated with himself.

"Hey…" Frank let out harshly by accident.

He wasn't intending for his voice to come out like that so it made him cringe as he heard his own voice. However, this seemed to do the trick to get her attention as Emily peaked her head up from Max's fur. To Frank, it seemed like she had started to calm down but he knew she didn't sleep much given that she was running around at two-thirty in the morning. Therefore, it also looked like she was just exhausted from the past couple of days.

"Here" Frank extended the frozen peas to Emily as she stared at him with a questioning look.

"It is for your split lip"

"Thanks…" Emily whispered as she hesitantly brought the cold pack to her lip flinching at the tenderness of her wound.

Frank nodded to Emily's reply. Looking around the room, he wanted to find where Emily kept her medical supplies because he wanted to but some butterfly bandages on the slight knife cut on Emily's face so it had a less chance of scaring. Frank opened his mouth as to say something but Emily beat him to the punch line.

"My medical bag is on my dresser."

Frank tilted his head towards the women and went to go retrieve the bag. He went through the door and found it easily, but before he left he did take a quick glance at Emily's room. He realized that she didn't really keep a lot of stuff lying around. It was like she didn't have anything of sentimental value here, even though this was where she lived. This striked Frank in a weird way. People, especially women, like to have a lot of crap around to tell the story of their life, as this one seemed to have nothing to put up on display.

Deciding to push these thoughts to the back of his head and worry about it later, he headed out of the bedroom and moved towards Emily. He made his way over to her and saw that Max was now pattering around in the kitchen as Emily sat back on the couch with the ice pack on her face and her head tilted against the back against the posterior of the couch while slightly making contact with the wall as well.

Emily watched lazily as Frank came in front of her and went through her bag. If this was any other scenario, she would have bitten off a person's hand if they tried to riffle through her medical bag like Frank was doing. However, it seemed like she had no strength to even move, let alone fight with the punisher.

Frank found what he was looking for as he pulled out an alcohol wipe and some butterfly bandages.

"This may sting a bit" Frank said trying to not seem as harsh as last time.

Frank crouched down in front of Emily as he lifted his hand up to brush the wipe against the cut on her face. He saw her wince and involuntarily lean back a little trying to get away from the stinging sensation. He tried to be as gentle as possible but it was a little nerve-wracking as Emily's eyes were trained on every movement he did.

"I guess I should thank you for saving my life again" Emily said trying to break the silence.

Frank place the wipe next to his foot on the floor and reached into the box to pull out a bandage.

"I guess this makes us even again" Frank responded while not looking Emily in the eye and instead focus more on the cut on her cheek.

"What do you mean?"

"You're the one who pulled out all those slugs I had embedded in my body. Plus, you pulled me out of the way from that stupid thug and I don't like to be indebted. I also get the feeling you don't like feeling that way either. So I guess we are even now," Frank simply stated while starting to place the bandage on Emily's face.

"But I mean…. How… like…"

Frank, anticipating this question, stopped what he was doing and directly looked into her eyes.

"I was on top of the building you ran past and I realized that it was you who seemed to get in trouble, yet again. Granted, before you ask, I didn't have a clean shot on any of them so I decided it would be better to go down there and fight them face to face."

Emily nodded her head as she caught sight of Frank's spilt knuckles. It seemed like it would hurt to have punched men over and over again with knuckles spilt wide open like that but he made it seem like there wasn't much pain that was to be felt. However, if there was, she was pretty sure that Frank was use to hiding his pain.

Frank took his time so he wouldn't have to think about the women in front of him as he applied a second bandage to the cut for extra precaution. He didn't know why he felt the need to take care of this girl and if he had to admit it to himself, he felt that it was pretty infuriating. He tried his hardest to not let anyone get close to him and for him to not get close to anyone else. But this girl in front of him had a habit of breaking down the walls he put up.

Not to mention the fact that he also was agitated that no matter what, it seemed like this girl had this calming effect on him. It was hard to stay angry or irritated when she was around him and he had only known this woman for a short amount of time.

"You want to stay?"

Frank abruptly came out of his thoughts when the melody-like words sang threw the air. He didn't realize that the girl was trying to tell him something. Noticing this, Emily repeated herself as her face started to heat up.

"I was wondering if you would like to stay here. I mean you need to treat your wound and I am—was a surgeon so I could do that for you," Emily spat out while closing her eyes forcefully.

Frank just gave Emily a curious and questioning look like it was absurd that this was coming out of her mouth.

Realizing how this must sound, Emily opened her eyes and started to stutter out more words to explain, "I…I mean like... uhhh… you don't have to stay here at all and I was just offering because I didn't know if you had any other place to lay low and take care of yourself. Plus, I mean, it must be pretty hard to lay low especially when you are supposed to be a dead man…Also, not to mention that they say the best place to hide is in plain sight, right?"

Emily ranted on but stopped herself before she got too far off track, she had a tendency to ramble when she was nervous. Not to mention that she was still trying to compartmentalize seeing a man shot right in front of her. So, she took a deep breath in hoped that it would steady her shay voice and body and looked into Frank's eyes.

"I know this may sound silly to you and all but I think it is your best option. Also, to make things fair, it wouldn't be free. As you can tell I don't live in the safest place and I tend to have so undesirable costumers. So, if it came down to it, you could give them a tough word of two…"

Emily went on another tangent again explaining how his dog Max was here and she had an extra room with a bed already made up and it wasn't any trouble to her if he stayed especially since she went on to say that she wasn't expecting him to be around much anyway.

Frank kind of just sat there in thought trying to process what Emily was trying to ask of him. However, before he could fully think everything through, his mouth and heart once again spoke faster than he could think.

"I'll pop in, here and there, but I don't intend to stay… I'll only come by long enough for my wound to heal up…"


Heheheheheheheheheheh... Yeah I know I left it off there, but what did y'all think? Also, I forgot to mention it above, but thank you to all who left reviews on the previous chapter! I always smile when I read them, so thank you again for commenting!