Taken from Chapter 37 of The Thin Line
When Steph was called back to do her MRI, Bobby and I stretched out in our chairs to wait, I remembered about the phone calls id made and looked over to Bobby and grinned at him.
"You do it?" he asked me
"Yes I did"
"What time?" he asked
"Should be here in about fifteen minutes" I said looking down at my watch
"Good" Bobby said as we returned to wait again
Before we had gone over to Stephanie's today, Bobby was worried about her going thru the MRI. He figured she was probably scared and felt all alone. I reminded him that she wasn't; we all loved her and cared for her. Getting a look from Bobby, I picked my phone off my belt and made several phone calls. I called Ranger and Hal and told them how Steph was going to be doing something very difficult and could use her friends. Agreeing to the plan they all said they would be there.
True to my word fifteen minutes had passed when I smacked Bobby on the arm when Ranger walked in followed by Tank, Hal, Cal, Woody, and Ram. They all walked over to us and took a seat.
"When's she supposed to be done?" I heard Ranger ask Bobby and they put their heads together and started talking
While I talked to my friends I would occasionally look over and see Bobby and Ranger together. It struck me that they were the two men that had held Steph's heart, the former and the current. Stephanie held MY heart but I saw no place for me in their little group. I heard a door open up and saw Stephanie emerge. Looking over to Ranger and Bobby, I hit Bobby on the forearm getting his attention.
"Hey Steph's coming"
Everyone hushed in their talking and looked over at Stephanie. She kept her head down and held a large brown envelope in her hands. We all stood up waiting for her to see us but she didn't. We watched as she walked over to us and grabbed her purse off the chair that sat between Bobby and me.
"Steph" Bobby said his tone curious
"I want to go, let's go now, I need to get out of here" I heard her say and knew right away something wasn't right. I looked over at Ram and he shrugged his shoulders telling me he felt it too but wasn't sure what it was.
I watched as Bobby took a step towards her to comfort her but Steph turned on her heels and began to walk away towards the door that we came in. She never picked her head up and did only when she ran into Tank, looking up into his face her eyes widened in surprise as she took a few steps back and looked around finally seeing all of us standing there.
"What are you all doing here?" she asked
"They came to support you" Bobby said coming up behind her placing his hands around her waist. Grrrr.
"Babe your one of us" Ranger said
"You all came because of my MRI?"
"Yes beautiful" I said getting her beautiful blue eyes turned on me "we all knew you were scared so we wanted to come and support you. Let you know we got you" I told her watching as a tear ran down her cheek. Oh how I wanted to go up and wipe it away.
Steph smiled and went over to every man that came for her and hugged them. When she got to me she gave me a tight squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. When she pulled back she locked eyes with me for a minute and then thanked all the guys again for coming.
"So how was it?" Bobby asked when she returned to his side
"I don't want to talk about it" I heard her say to him and I furrowed my brows wondering what was wrong
"Steph?" Bobby questioned her again but she wouldn't look at him
"Bobby I'm tired, I just want to leave. I don't really want to be here any longer"
"Ok" he said hugging her. As he did he looked back at us giving us a look of pain. We all looked back at him letting him know we felt it too.
I don't know what happed while Steph did her MRI but she isn't the girl she was when she went in there. She was scared and all but she was still Stephanie, now she's ticked and not really being sociable. I don't know what happened but I'm gonna find out.
When we all departed and said our goodbyes outside, Ranger and the rest went back to RangeMan and left me with Steph and Bobby. When I opened the truck and got in I heard Bobby ask her if she wanted to go on over and drop her x-rays over to Dr. Orinda.
"Maybe tomorrow. I really don't want to deal with this anymore today" yep something was up
"OK we will take them over tomorrow" Bobby told her kiss her forehead as he helped her into the truck
I took my opportunity to ask her since it was just us in the truck "ok Beautiful what's wrong? I know you're scared and all but something's got you mad" I asked looking back at her thru the rearview mirror
I watched as Steph looked down at her hands in her lap and started picking at her nails. Something I've seen her do when she was nervous.
"The MRI guy was mean to me" she admitted
"What?" I asked her watching the road and looking back at her again thru the mirror
Stephanie began to tell us how the guy that did her MRI spoke to her in the beginning and then how he jumped on her for coughing during the test. When she was done, my knuckles where white from gripping the steering wheel so tight. I was calling on every ounce of training I had not to turn around and kill the mother fucker who dared to talk to Stephanie that way. He might be safe now but I guarantee you this he won't be for long.
"He shouldn't talk like that to people who are scared, hurt, or injured" Steph said bring me back from thinking how to kill this prick "it was an accident"
"NO SHIT" I gritted out
"I wanted to complain but when I got out of there I just wanted to go" she said and I looked back in time to see her swipe at her cheek as she looked out the window
I was so frikken pissed off. No one talks to Steph like that, they have no idea what we all went thru to get her to do the Damn test "Come here" Bobby's words broke into my internal rant. I watched as he drew Steph to his side and apologized for how the ass hole spoke to her. Steph snuggled down into his arms and then I heard the unmistakable sound of kissing, looking back into the mirror I saw Steph's eyes closed receiving and giving back Brown's kiss. Looking out at the road before me, I sighed and pushed my boot further down on the accelerator.