Please Remove Your Shirt

Author's Note: My fun with the prompt for today—which is in the title. For Febressuary 2022.

Let me know what you think with a review.

PPPPPPPPPPP

Ressler sat on the hospital examining table cradling the shoulder that seemed to be dislocated.

"You know, you should probably put on the hospital gown before…" Liz advised.

"They only need my shirt off," he scoffed. "It's a shoulder injury not a wear-a-hospital-gown injury."

Liz watched him wince as she shifted slightly.

"Then take off your shirt so the doctor…" Liz started.

Ressler sighed. Truthfully, he wanted her out of the room. Since Audrey died, he hadn't been going to the gym much and he also hadn't been eating very healthy food or sleeping very well, or really, doing much besides working and laying down. He may have been suffering from mild depression.

A nurse hustled into the room and dropped a couple of sterilized pieces of equipment on a tray.

"Not for you honey, unless you have lady parts under that suit," the nurse laughed and smiled at Ressler before she left.

Liz looked at the tray. Yep, someone was coming into this room for a pelvic examine once they sorted Ressler out.

"I don't think I want to know what they do with that thing that looks like a duck," Ressler said, eyeing the equipment like it could jump at him at any moment.

Liz chuckled and nodded.

A doctor walked into the room looking at a clipboard.

"Mr. Ressler?" She asked as she walked toward him. "I'm Dr. Singh."

Ressler smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"Why are you not in the hospital gown that…?" Dr. Singh asked.

"I didn't think I…" Ressler started.

"I told him to…" Liz said at the same time.

"I'll need you to please remove your shirt before I come back," Dr. Singh said as she walked toward the exit. "And you should listen to your wife."

"She's not my…" Ressler started but stopped when the doctor was gone.

"I told you," Liz warned him as she stood. "Come on, let's get it…"

"I can," Ressler said as he pulled away from her hands who were undoing the buttons of his shirt.

"No, you can't," Liz hissed at him. "You can't move your shoulder or arm so let me do this and we can get out of here by midnight."

Ressler swallowed hard and gave up. He sat while she undid his shirt and winced through her pulling it off his body and down his arms. The left arm took a little more maneuvering as it was the injured shoulder.

She folded his shirt and placed it on the hospital bed next to him with his tie. They'd gotten his jacket off in the parking garage and left it in the car.

"There," Liz said satisfied.

He placed his one hand across his stomach which had gone from flat and toned to slightly squishy.

"So, you have any plans for the weekend that you need to change?" Liz asked him as if it was normal to sit and talk with your shirtless partner.

"Not really," Ressler said.

Liz looked at him carefully.

"How are you doing with Audrey gone?"

She watched him swallow hard.

"I know I may be prying but…"

"I miss her," he said quietly, his face turned toward the window.

"Have you thought about talking to someone?" Liz asked.

He chuckled slightly and his shoulders shook.

"You won't know unless you try," Liz said encouragingly.

"I tried," Ressler chuckled. "He just wanted to medicate me."

"Okay, we need to find you a good psychologist," Liz said as she stood and walked toward him, standing between him and the window and making him meet her eyes. She saw vulnerability, something she had never seen on his face before, and she almost stepped back it was so surprising.

What he didn't tell her was that he was medicating himself with some leftover oxy from his leg injury. That he'd gone to a couple of clinics to get more pills. He didn't tell her that he'd taken a couple in the washroom when they got here, and it was just starting to kick in.

"Fine," he said quietly.

"There's all kinds or research on the loss of a romantic partner at a young age and the healing takes time, but the stats are good that he or she can move…" Liz started.

"I don't want to move on," Ressler sighed sharply, cutting her off.

"Well, right now you…"

"Keen, I know the stages of grief," he said meeting her eyes and then looking away quickly. "And I'm still in stage four: depression and it's manifesting as not taking care of myself, eating a lot of ice cream, and sleeping a lot."

She looked at him surprised by his accurate self-diagnosis. She was going to suggest depression may be a good descriptor of his current state. She was surprised by his candor and wondered why the man who was normally so closed off was so revealing right now.

"I haven't been able to get up and go to the gym in almost two months," he said softly. "I don't really feel like doing much and I know…"

"Ahh good, Mr. Ressler, your ready for the exam," Dr. Singh said happily as she walked into the room.

Liz gave Ressler a soft smile and he smiled back. Audrey was gone and nothing could change about that, but Ressler needed to get to the space where he could move on and she needed to help get him there.

The end.