Disclaimer: I understand Hart Hanson and FOX have ownership rights to all 'Bones' concepts, characters, and dialog. This is intended to be simple Fan Fiction for the enjoyment of the author and any readers.
Tuesday Morning
Make You Smile Dental Associates
Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Her left hand moved nervously from the chain around her neck to the dog tag where her thumb pad rubbed the embossed lettering, then pulled the dog tag up and down along the chain. An instant later the hand was adjusting the collar of the blouse for the hundredth time. It then moved to the blue cropped slacks where more imaginary lint was brushed away. The right hand was not engaged in any of this activity; it was captured in a large left hand which was providing consistent gentle reassuring squeezes and circular thumb strokes. The left foot was a free as the left hand and it tapped along with some internal beat within Emily's subconscious.
Emily had not been as anxious when they were working on all the forms to be completed. It occupied her mind. Now the waiting; she was doing her best to take in her new surroundings, analyzing the various unique objects in this quiet comfortable, well, it should be comfortable; in her rational mind she knew it was a pleasant calm comfortable room. Interesting paintings or posters or … she wasn't sure what or how they were produced, decorated the walls. The left hand rubbed the top of her thigh and the left foot tapped a little faster. She tried to calm herself. She watched as an older woman came out from somewhere behind a closed door. The woman did not appear to be in any discomfort. Another, with an older child, probably about Jenny's age, went in the same door when the child's name was called. Neither she nor the child showed any increased level of anxiety. She lost track of the number of times, David provided reassuring words and touches. 'I need to be calm,' she told herself. She tried very hard to put poor Bertha's experience out of her mind. David had stated very clearly that there might be some discomfort, but no pain.
She managed to slow her foot and stop her hand. She forced her mind to move to much more pleasant thoughts. 'Engaged!' The word rolled around in her brain. All the conversation after his proposal and her ready acceptance flowed around in her consciousness. When she was ready, he had said. She knew she was ready now. However, the logic of twenty-first century legal issues had to be considered and addressed before they could be legally married. The same issue as the special card and number, he and Angela were concerned about getting for her. For the moment she let logic and those issues slip to the background and she basked in the warm glow of her emotional happiness. The memories of their time in bed last night, surged through her consciousness. They snuggled together, closer and more purposely intimate than before. David's gentle kisses, touches, caresses warmed her body and mind. For the first time she had allowed herself the freedom of limited exploration of David's body. The warmth of his skin to her touch, the firmness of his muscles under his shirt, the shape of his ears, nose, lips, and chin were all areas her fingers lightly touched and studied. All her exploration brought out even stronger feelings within her body than had surfaced a few times earlier when they hugged and David comforted her. New feelings, feelings she had been concerned with. The physical feelings that David had assured her were normal and expected when they talked Sunday morning were getting stronger. Their conversations made her less concerned about having these feelings, but more concerned about where they were leading her. She actually felt a sense of pleasure, of well-being, of almost excitement, she had never felt before David … and now she felt a feeling of anticipation, she wanted to experience all these feelings again…
"Emily?"
David looked up at the hygienist, Tom. "That's us … you'll be fine…" he whispered reassuringly as they rose and headed to the door.
"Hey, David, how're you doing?" Tom greeted as he smiled and then looked quizzically between the two of them.
"Great, you?" David replied.
"Good, good… ahh?"
"This is Emily, my fiancée … Emily this Tom, he will do the, ah, take pictures of your teeth and later he will clean them, after Susan has done her examination. "
"Really! Congratulations!" Tom responded with a grin.
David grinned back as he wrapped his arm around Emily's waist and pulled her slightly closer to him. Emily managed a wary smile.
"Well, come on back and we'll get started. "Tom said as he led them back through the door.
"Ah, Tom, "David started, "Emily grew up in an unusual situation and has never been to a dentist so, I told her I would stay with her. I did explain some of what you'll be doing, but she's really a little uneasy."
"Oh?" Tom looked at Emily and then back to David. "Ok, um, not a problem. I'll just drag another chair in from one of the other rooms."
A few minutes later, Emily was settled, more or less, in the large padded reclining dentist chair. Her eyes danced around the room taking in the various odd machines and things she could not begin to understand. She gripped David's hand as Tom chatted away to both of them, explaining what he was going to do. Emily watched warily as he put on very thin white gloves and asked her to open her mouth. Over the next few minutes small oddly shaped devices were put in her mouth then a small machine pointed at her cheeks for a couple of seconds then the device was removed and the process repeated. Other than the odd devices being somewhat uncomfortable, there was no pain. Emily was relieved and became more composed.
Tom soon left and David leaned into Emily kissed her lightly. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" he questioned as he smiled at her.
"Actual, not at all … what is Susan going to look for in the pictures?"
"Well, pictures were of the inside of your teeth. She will look herself at the outside when she comes to examine you. "David explained as suddenly a small screen that was hanging in front of them from a pole came on with many pictures of teeth.
Emily looked quizzically at the screen trying to understand what she was seeing.
David leaned over and whispered in her ear. "You have cute little teeth."
"Those are my teeth?" Emily looked closer. Her hand went up to tentatively touch her teeth. "They look very large to me on that screen."
"The screen can be adjusted to whatever size the dentist wants…" David explained. After a few more minutes of them looking at the x rays of Emily's teeth with David trying to point out a few things he had some idea of, the dentist arrived.
"Hi Emily, I'm Doctor Susan Murphy, how are you today?"
"I am good … Doctor Murphy." Emily replied cautiously as she glanced at David.
"Oh, just call me Susan, he does, "she glanced at David with a smile. "So, I see you're bringing me a new patient."
David chuckled, "Yeah, Emily's my fiancée."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that, congratulations!" Susan replied and smiled at both of them.
Emily blushed slightly at the word. It was the second time he had said it. She loved the sound of it and the look on his face when he said it.
"Ah, Susan, Emily had a unique upbringing and has never been to a dentist." David hesitated as he glanced between Susan and Emily. "So, she's a little nervous."
Susan looked slightly stunned, but quickly composed herself. "Oh, well, that's fine…" she turned to Emily. "Nothing to worry about, I'll just take a look … "she said as she pulled on a set of gloves and leaned in.
Emily was still a little nervous as she felt small instruments poking around in her mouth, scraping here and there along with slight pulling between her teeth. She watched as the dentist moved to look at the pictures then back to her mouth a few times.
"Do you brush and floss regularly?" Susan asked.
"Ah, David gave me a small brush for teeth cleaning and I have been using it…" Emily responded anxiously.
Susan looked over to David then back to Emily. "Actual, your teeth are pretty good. The gums look healthy. There is a lot of tartar build up, but Tom can take care of that. Also, they're pretty discolored … we'll see how much he can polish them up, but you might want to consider whitening," she said as she smiled at her. "You're lucky your teeth and gums are health, if you haven't had dental care before."
David was relieved. He was sure Emily's mouth was going to be a disaster.
Emily smiled warily and glanced between David and Susan. "So, there is no need to remove any of my teeth?" She immediately saw two horrified expressions cross the faces in front of her.
"There is almost never a reason to remove a tooth. Either I or an oral surgeon can fix almost anything wrong with your teeth, so long as you brush and floss regularly and have regular exams. That way we can catch any problems early. As I said, your teeth and gums are much healthier than I would have expected with no dental care. Even your wisdom teeth are fully erupted and straight," Susan responded, and then she smiled, "You must have really good genes."
"Thank you Susan, we're both relieved to hear that…" David smiled and squeezed Emily's hand hoping she wasn't going to come out with her famous line…
Susan smiled at both of them, "So, when's the big day for you two?"
David grinned over at a now slyly blushing Emily, "I only asked her last night, so we haven't picked a date yet."
"Really?" Susan smiled and chuckled, "So, do you have any questions for me, Emily?"
Emily remembered the short discussion in the car to the dentist. They agreed it would be wise for her not to ask questions that might cause suspicion. He would ask the 'right' questions and would answer or explain anything for her later. "Ah, no, none that I can think of … I am very happy that my teeth have no problems." Emily responded carefully.
"Ok, then," Susan smiled, "I'll let Tom know you're ready for the cleaning. It was very nice to meet you Emily and again congratulations to both of you."
Once Susan had left, Emily leaned over to David, "I'm not wearing jeans. I have never worn jeans in my life. I do not understand how pants can help keep your teeth healthy… "Emily looked at David perplexed.
David just stared at her for a few seconds trying to figure out what she was talking about. "Jeans?"
"She said I must have really good jeans … because my teeth were healthy… I don't underst"
"Oh, no, not pant jeans, she meant your genes from your parents, ah, your, umm, heredity." David explained.
"Oh… so she was saying that my good teeth are like the color of my hair or eyes and I got them from my mother and father?" Emily responded.
"Yes, pretty much… We can talk about it in the car. Ok?" David confirmed as Tom came through the door.
The next fifteen or twenty minutes were not as easy for Emily as she had hoped. There was really no pain, but it was very odd having a strange man cleaning her teeth with a humming little machine, gritty paste, water and a tube that made very strange sounds as it took the water and extra paste out of her mouth. A couple of time she thought she might choke on the water when his fingers were in her mouth operating the small humming machine with a brush on the end. Then when she thought he was finished, he started wrapping a short string around a finger on each of his hands and was back in her mouth dragging the string back and forth between her teeth. She looked over at David in slight panic only to see him smile at her and feel him pat her hand as it gripped the arm of the chair.
A half hour later Emily was seated in the passenger seat of the mustang holding a small bag of items received at the dentist as they were deep in a long rehash of the events of the past hour. As they cruised south on route 3, in conversation about the experience just completed, she was unaware they were heading away from the condo.
"Why did Tom use a piece of string to slid and pull between my teeth?"
"It's called flossing. It was to remove any very small bits of food or whatever that might be stuck there that the toothbrush didn't remove when you brushed."
"Oh… it would seem that it would be difficult to do yourself… Tom was able to see in my mouth easily… "
"Yeah, that is true, but I buy a large package of small disposable flossing strings with small handles, they make it much easier."
"Ok…"
They exited the highway and a few minutes later pulled into a shopping area and up to a store.
Emily looked at the large elegantly scripted words imprinted high on the front of the building over the front windows. 'Long's Fine Jewelers, since 1878', she read and turned quizzically to see a large grin on David's face.
