The Doctor Will See You Now

Chapter 20

Hey guys! Sorry that this is late, I had family over to my apartment for the holiday and I wasn't able to update. Anyway, just a warning, but I may not be updating this week because it is dead week (week before my finals) and I have to study. However, if I do miss this week, I will update twice next week.

Guest: You'll want to give her a really big hug come chapter 21!

Mun3litKnight: I am so glad you like my story! It brings me a lot of joy that you and many others enjoy reading it :) . And I think that a confession is on the horizon as well…

It was about a week later, and it was Emily's least favorite day of the whole year: her birthday. So far, no one had actually said anything to her about it, and she was quite glad about that fact. Claire didn't even send those dreadful words in a text because she knows how much Emily hates her birthday. Also, she was happy that Matt didn't send her a message either. Granted she wasn't expecting anything from him, since he had been MIA for about three weeks now.

She was getting used to him stopping by and now it felt strange that he wasn't popping in to check in on her anymore. Not to mention, that she actually hadn't seen Frank in a while. Sometimes, she would catch him leaving in the morning or when he would stop by for no more than ten minutes to check up on her. It made her believe that maybe the kiss that they shared was really just a onetime deal and that would be the line that was drawn in regards to their "romantic" relationship.

But on the other hand, Emily did leave Frank a key on the kitchen counter to the front door of the apartment. She had only just realized that she never gave him one, and so she left it on the counter. When she awoke the next morning it was gone, with Frank presumably taking it so he didn't have to enter through the window or however he had been entering her apartment in the past.

Emily finally reached the top of the staircase that led to the floor of her apartment. However, as she moved closer to her front door, she could hear a man drunkenly scream and kick a door repeatedly. Emily stopped in the middle of the hallway and took a deep breath hoping that it wasn't who she thought it was. She put one foot in front of the other and kept her eyes straight forward going to her own apartment door.

However, she did steal a quick glance at the man and she was right. The man that was pounding on the door was no other than Vinny Tortillini, the man who her next door neighbor had a restraining order on. The man refused to pay child support even though the couple was officially separated and the law was after him—majority of the time.

He used to abuse Mary and her son Nick, the twelve-year-old who brought in his portable game system in for Emily to fix when it broke. The same mother that Emily refused to charge given that the two of them were good company. Vinny knew that Emily had a relationship with Mary and her son and sometimes demanded that she tell them where they were, when they wouldn't open the door when he was on his alcohol fueled rampages. However, tonight, Vinny seemed to be on something more, something stronger than just alcohol.

Alcohol was clearly present in his system, but he mixed it with something else to create this destructive violence that he was exhibiting on the door. Emily had never seen Vinny act like this, and only one time did she see behavior like this. It was when she was doing her rounds at the hospital and a young man, no older than twenty-eight, came in with an overdose of alcohol and meth—and Vinny was exhibiting the same symptoms that young man was.

Emily knew that Mary and her son moved out about a month ago to someplace where the school system was better. Not only that, but Mary was nervous that Vinny had found out where they were living again. A part of her knew that Mary never told him that they were living in this apartment complex, and now Emily knew that if Vinny tried asking her anything, she had to defend Mary and her son Nick—to give them their best chance at getting away from their past. Whilst Emily was thinking, she casually got her keys out of her bag and was flipping through them, trying to find the correct one, when a gruff, slurred and angry voice sounded behind her.

"You that bitch that spoke to Mary and Nick about me and they gone since you live here now…"

Emily tried to ignore the man and his broken English and shoved the key into the hole in order to unlock her door. But just as she was about to push the door open, she felt a hand on her shoulder that whipped her around. Emily's back hit the door with a loud thud sound and she could smell Vinny's nasty alcohol stained breath hit her nostrils. Choking back a gag, Emily swallowed it harshly back down.

"You fuckin' told 'dem 'dat I would be there… You fuckin' told 'em 'dat I needed money you bitch!"

"Get off of me Vinny… I have no clue what the hell you are talking about…" Emily said while pushing against the man, barely making him move.

Emily tried to push him again to get him off of her, but to no avail. He was too far strung out on drugs to realize what he was doing, and Emily could tell that his slurred speech was due to the drugs making the synapses in his brain fire off nerves in an alarming rate—more than what the brain can usually do or take.

Vinny slammed his hand on the door that was keeping Emily pinned against Vinny bringing Emily abruptly back to giving him her full attention. The loud crack of his hand against the door made Emily flinch. She knew that she needed to get away, because the next blow would be to her face.

"Where 'da fuck did they go? I know you're hiding 'dem from me… I'm not going to fall for your fuckin' bullshit again, bitch…"

"Vinny, I honestly have no idea where they are. Even if I did have any idea, what on earth would make you think that I would tell you given how you are treating me right now?" Emily questioned with a sassy tone to her voice.

Emily bit her tongue knowing that she probably shouldn't have said that to the man who had her pinned, but she would be damned if he was going to hurt Mary and her kid again. It took a few seconds for the gears to turn in Vinny's head as he realized what Emily was saying to him. Before Vinny could lash out at Emily, she was able to bring her leg up and kick him in the shin.

This seemed to have worked given that the man cursed at her and started to back away from her, gipping the spot that was radiating pain where Emily had just kicked him. This gave Emily the opportunity to reach down and turn the knob on her door to open it in hopes of getting away from the intoxicated man. However just as Emily was about to press her weight into the door to open it, Vinny grabbed Emily by the hair and pulled her head back.

Emily instantly threw her hands into her own hair to try and fight Vinny's death grip. The pain to her scalp brought tears to her eyes. Vinny took this moment to throw Emily against the wall in the corner between her apartment and the vacant one that Mary and Nick left behind.

"Now I ain't going to repeat myself again bitch. You gonna tell me where they are or am I gonna have to teach you a fuckin' lesson?"

Emily tried to take a deep breath but realized that the air had escaped her lungs when she was flung against the wall. She just looked at Vinny with tears in her eyes, unable to do anything as he adjusted his grip from her hair onto her neck, squeezing the little air she did have left, out of her completely. She would be damned if she told Vinny where they were. She wouldn't allow a man as disgusting as him to hurt them any longer—even if it meant that she would be taking their place. Emily saw that Vinny wound his arm up as if to punch her in the face and the only thing she could do was close her eyes and hope that the pain would end soon.

However, the pain never came and after what seemed to be like a minute, Emily opened her eyes and discovered that Vinny's wrist was inches away from hitting her cheek with a right hook, but looking further on, she saw that Vinny was struggling to rip his hand out of the vice like grip someone had on his wrist. Emily turned her head to the left and saw Frank with a deadly look in his eyes.

"Walk away man, this don't got nothin' do with you…" Vinny slurred while staring with malice at Frank.

"It became my problem when you decided to take out your issues on my girl here… not to mention that I am pretty sure the people you are looking for are trying to get away from you…"

"I told you to fuck off man!" Vinny screamed at Frank while tightening his grip on Emily's throat.

Emily would have swooned at the fact that Frank just called her his girl but given the predicament she was in, the only thing that crossed her mind was the fact that she couldn't breathe. Emily moved her hands to where Vinny was strangling her and tried to pull the death grip away from her throat. This action made her wince and that was all it took to set Frank in action. Frank charged Vinny and threw him up against the vacant apartment door. Emily stood there trying to catch her breath as she saw Frank start to beat Vinny's face in.

Emily watched as blood started to spurt from Vinny's nose as she could tell that Frank had just broken it. She watched as Frank brought out his gun and placed it on Vinny's temple as he muttered a phrase under his breath that Emily couldn't quite catch. Emily knew that this wasn't the time or place, because anyone who lived in the apartment would have no issues blaming Frank if it meant keeping themselves out of jail.

"Frank… please don't…" Emily gasp, testing her voice, rubbing the place where Vinny had his hands around her throat just moments before.

Emily could see Frank hesitate as Vinny just stood there with his head leaning against the wall in defeat.

"Frank, he isn't worth it…"

With those simple words, Frank started to step back from the man, and rammed his gun against Vinny's face to knock him out. Emily let out a deep breath knowing that no one would care if Vinny was beaten to a pulp and passed out—as long as he wasn't dead—as bad as that sounded. But just as fast as Frank had knocked out the man, he turned around and took in Emily's appearance.

Her hair was tousled from where Vinny had gripped her and he could see the faint outlines of red where Vinny had his hands on her neck. Emily was about to say something to Frank, but Frank just shook his head and took her hand in his, to help her up. But instead of letting Emily do the work, it was almost as if Frank was able to hoist her up by the arm easily as if she were a child. Frank dropped her hand and walked the few feet to her door and opened it. He motioned for Emily to walk through the door first in order to make sure the two of them were safe inside.

Frank wanted to kill that man. Not only was he taking out his aggression on Emily, but he knew that he had taken out his aggression on the people Emily was trying to protect. He knew she was trying to protect someone, because she wouldn't endanger herself unless it was to protect another. It amazed him how she would go through anything if it meant protecting people she cared about. When she spoke, her voice seemed like it was the only thing that mattered. To him, that voice belonged to the one person who he was trying to protect, the one who he would do anything for.

"Thank you, Frank."

Emily had moved in front of the man as they went inside. She knew Frank was lost in thought and she hoped that he wasn't angry at her for what had happened. She looked around her office and eventually let her eyes land on Frank's once again.

"Doc, have you ever thought about moving?" Frank said casually while letting his thumb rub over Emily's cheek.

Emily looked into Frank's worried eyes and sighed. She knew that this conversation was going to come sooner rather than later.

"Honestly, I do. Sometimes I think that I should just move and not worry about all of these cruel people who wash up every so often. But other times, I feel blessed for living here…"

"What do you mean by that?"

Emily blew air out of her nose and smiled slightly making Frank give her a questioning look.

"I don't know, it's stupid…"

"I doubt it, Doc."

Emily licked her lips as her cheeks started to turn pink. Whatever it was, Frank knew that the confession was making Emily nervous.

"If I never ended up living here… I never would have met you Frank…"

Frank closed his eyes soaking in Emily's words. He was getting in far too deep with this girl, but he couldn't walk away. There was no way he could walk away when she said things like that to him. He was supposed to be hard and tough, not touched with these petty emotions. Frank opened his eyes once again and looked into Emily's curious eyes.

She was probably waiting for a reply back or him to say something of equal value. However, instead of talking, Frank used his free hand and rested it behind Emily's neck. He tilted her head up slightly letting her soft hair cascade around her face and fall onto his hand. Frank pulled her forward and placed a kiss on her forehead while dropping his hand on her cheek in order to wrap the same hand around her waist to pull her into a hug. He knew that he wouldn't be able to say the right words, especially with his conflicted feelings. So, he did what he did best, put his words in the form of action.

He was once again enveloped by the intoxicating smell of lavender. That scent was like his drug… She was his drug. He couldn't get enough of her even though he needed to stop seeing her in order to break his addiction. But how could he break it off if this just felt so right?

Emily was walking up to the fire escape with two mugs of coffee. When she confessed to Frank why she didn't mind that she lived in the shit hole that she did, he surprised her with his actions. She knew that there was something he wasn't telling her, but she just as equally couldn't say all that was on her mind.

After the two had parted, Frank just sidestepped her and opened the widow that lead up to the fire escape. He stopped and looked back at Emily as if to say that he needed air and that he wouldn't be far from her. It had been about a half an hour and Emily found herself bringing up coffee to him.

Emily found Frank staring out over the horizon watching the cars pass by on all the busy New York streets. She slowly walked up to him, and instead of saying anything, just outstretched her hand that held the plain black mug filled to the brim with black coffee. Frank gave her a look and graciously accepted the warm liquid. Emily tucked her free hand underneath her arm and over her chest as if to preserve some of the warmth that was once there. She didn't grab a jacket before coming outside, since she was only planning on making sure that Frank was okay up here.

Emily looked out past the roof top and watched the cars pass down below as she sipped her own coffee.

"I'm sorry…"

Emily turned to look at Frank and furrowed her eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry for not getting to you quick enough"

"Frank there was no way for you to have known. I'm just happy that you got there when you did."

"But Doc, if I wasn't there then that man…"

Emily turned and placed a hand on Frank's bicep pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Frank, nothing happened and I am sure nothing is going to happen again, okay? I am safe and there is nothing that is going to happen to me. As long as you are here I'm safe"

"Doc that's—"

"Frank I know you are worried about me but you need to think about yourself sometimes too. I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself… in most situations"

This brought the pair to an uneasy silence. Uneasy in the sense that Emily felt that Frank needed to care for himself and not just for her. She wanted him to be able to let someone in and not have to worry about losing them. The two of them stood there in silence as Emily started to rub her arms and Frank returned to staring out and watched the passing cars with his lips pressed in a line.

Emily was just about to turn to go back downstairs but her phone chimed alerting her that she had an incoming text message.

Happy Birthday Emily –Claire

Emily wiped her finger across the screen to remove some of the smudges from it. She blew air out of her nose and rolled her eyes and typed a message in response.

Thanks. You know how much I enjoy it. Please note the sarcasm in that. –Emily

Emily was about to put her phone back in her pocket but her phone buzzed again. Emily looked up at Frank and he just raised her eyebrows at her. Emily pressed her lips together in a tight smile as if to say that she was only going to be a little longer.

I'm surprised you actually texted me back –Claire

Yeah, well don't get used to it. –Emily

So any plans? –Claire

Not Really. –Emily

You should invite Frank over –Claire

Why do you say that? –Emily

Because you shouldn't be alone on your birthday. –Claire

Plus, you should really tell Frank how you feel. –Claire

Wait, what? –Emily

You know exactly what I mean. I know that you really like him Emily, it is so clearly plastered all over your face. Plus, I think you need to let someone in. I may not approve of Frank Castle, especially being the person you confide in, but I know that he means something to you. You should take a leap of faith and tell him what you are not willing to tell anyone else. He may surprise you. –Claire

Emily blew a forceful breath out of her noise and shoved the device back into her pocket. She knew that Claire probably had a point, but she didn't know if she was ready to let anyone see that ugly side to her.

"You okay?" a husky voice sounded next to Emily.

Emily looked up at Frank and sighed.

"Yeah, just a friend trying to butt into certain aspects of my life that she probably shouldn't."

Frank relaxed slightly knowing that Emily was talking to a girl. He didn't know why but he felt slightly jealous at the fact she was texting someone before he knew that it was a girl.

"I can't imagine you're taking shit from her."

"Heh, she is the only one I do take shit from. She worked with me when I was working at the hospital and she always kept me on track with how I should deal with patients and other situations that presented themselves at the hospital…"

"She sounds like a good friend then."

"She is."

Emily looked back up at Frank and gave him a soft, warm smile due to their conversation about Claire. She turned and was about to head back downstairs since she felt that Frank wanted some more time to be alone. Nevertheless, Frank surprised Emily by carefully snatching her wrist in his hand, making her turn and look back up at him.

"Doc…"

Emily watched as Frank ran a hand through his hair as if he was nervous and couldn't find the right words. So, Emily patiently waited until he did find the words that he wanted to speak knowing that they were important.

"Doc… I hope that you are having a happy birthday…"

Emily looked at him curiously and opened her mouth, but shut it when she realized that Frank was still not done talking.

"I just… here…"

Frank shoved his hand in his pocket and dropped Emily's wrist from his light hold. He dug around in his pocket until he pulled out a little brown paper bag and handed it to Emily. Emily turned the bag over in her hand, not expecting Frank to get her anything.

"Frank, you didn't have to get me anything—"

"Doc, just open the damn thing…" Frank muttered and Emily caught on to the hint of nervousness that was washing over Frank.

Emily fingered the paper and found the fold of the bag and proceeded to open the flap. Emily tipped the bag over her hand and a small necklace emerged from the contents of it. Emily turned it over and it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. There was a small oval piece of turquoise attached to the middle of a gold chain that had simple notches in it creating a knot-like feeling to it. Emily gasp at how beautiful the piece of jewelry was and looked up at Frank in disbelief.

"The lady at the pawn shop said that turquoise was the stone of your birth month and I figured it looked nice enough to get you for your birthday…" Frank shrugged nonchalantly.

Emily looked up into Franks eyes as tears were brought to her own.

"Frank, you shouldn't have…" Emily whispered.

"Wait, do you not like it?"

Emily shook her head to Frank's comment.

"Frank… I love it… its beautiful…"

Emily traced over the small oval shaped turquoise once again not believing that Frank got her something—especially something this beautiful and delicate. Emily was brought out of her thoughts when she heard Frank clear his throat and she looked up at him.

"If you uh… turn around and lift your hair. I'll put it on for you."

Emily Placed the small piece of jewelry in Frank's palm and turned around, lifting her hair in the process. She could feel Frank's warm hands on the back of her neck trying to fasten the clasp and the contact with his skin made her shiver, noticing how she was starting to get really cold from being outside for too long without a coat.

Emily felt Frank get the clasp of the necklace and she let her hair fall down around her. She turned back around to face Frank as she looked down to marvel at how elegant the necklace looked.

"Thank you Frank… really you shouldn't have gotten me something."

"Doc, it's your birthday. Everyone needs to get at least some sort of gift on your birthday."

"Still… Thank you."

"No problem Doc."

Emily smiled up at Frank and placed a hand on his chest immediately feeling his warmth radiate off of him. She looked up into his eyes to seek some sort of allowance for what she was going to do next. Emily didn't see any warning signs that told her to stop so she kept a hand twiddling her necklace as she lifted up on the balls of her feet.

She finally closed her eyes and pressed her lips against Frank's as she felt his hands wrap around her waist as her hand that was not fiddling with her necklace was placed on Frank's cheek. Frank pulled her close noticing how cold Emily was as their chest collided together. The two of them kept pace with each other as they were enveloped into the other. Emily pulled on Frank's bottom lip with her teeth and this sparked a growl-like sound from Frank's throat.

Frank responded to the action by tipping Emily back and kissing her more reverently, letting himself be washed away by the scent of lavender that was proving to still be the most addictive drug to him. Eventually the two of them parted only to catch their breath. Emily's face was not only red due to the cold, but because of their heated make out session.

Before she even realized it, Emily's mouth was speaking before her brain could comprehend what her tongue was saying.

"Frank… I need to tell you something."

"What is it Doc?" Frank asked looking into Emily's blue eyes with a peaceful look written across his face.

"I need to tell you about what happened to me… I need to tell you why I can't operate on anyone and why I get panic attacks… I need to finally be honest with not only you… but also with myself about what happened all those nights ago… Because I am afraid that if I don't tell you now, I have a feeling that I may regret it for the rest of my life…"