"Hello," Phoebe said to the woman behind the desk, "I have an appointment for some tests. My doctor made the appointment last week."
"Sign in and we'll be with you as soon as possible," said the woman without looking up.
Phoebe signed the sign in sheet and then she and Piper had a seat in the waiting room. The room was nearly full. People of all ages and descriptions sat waiting for their appointments. Some were small children and they were obviously bored and restless. It was one of the reasons Phoebe hated going to the doctor.
"I hope this doesn't take long," Phoebe said. "I hate coming to a place like this. Just sitting around waiting. I feel like I'm wasting my time."
"You aren't wasting anything," Piper said. "Just remember, this is all for your baby. All things considered, it's best if we take every possible precaution with this pregnancy."
"Is this your first, dear?" asked an elderly lady sitting near them.
"Yes," said Phoebe uncomfortably. "I guess I'm just nervous about it."
"That's perfectly normal," said the woman. "I have seventeen children. But I can still remember the first one and how nervous I was. What was that, seventy or eighty years ago? After a while it gets hard to remember exactly. Anyway, I'm sure everything will be fine. The advances in medical sciences can almost perform feats of magic nowadays."
"Yes, I guess you're right," Phoebe said.
Obviously the woman had lost touch with reality at least some. She appeared to be about seventy. Hardly old enough to have a child the same age. Phoebe looked at Piper who just smiled. They sat quietly waiting for Phoebe's name to be called.
"Phoebe Halliwell?" questioned a nurse, stepping into the waiting room after a couple of hours.
"That's me," Phoebe said, standing up.
"Ah, Miss Halliwell," said the nurse. "There seems to be some mix-up. We don't seem to have an appointment for you."
"What?" Phoebe questioned. "My doctor said he was going to make the appointment last week. What am I going to do now?"
"Oh, don't worry," said the nurse. "This happens some times. But we've had a couple of cancellations and a few no-shows. The doctor said that since you're all ready here, we could squeeze you in."
"Good," said Phoebe. "I'd hate to have to come back here again."
"Now," said the nurse, handing Phoebe a stack of multi-colored papers that must have been an inch thick, "since we don't have an appointment, obviously your doctor hasn't sent over your records. We'll need you to fill these out so we can have some information on you."
"You've got to be kidding," Piper said, looking through the stack of papers. "This is going to take us all afternoon."
"It's necessary I assure you," said the nurse. "Unless you'd like to schedule another appointment. We can get you in three weeks from next Monday."
"Three weeks?" Phoebe questioned. "Piper, let's just get this over with. Please, this is hard enough as it is. I just want to be done with it."
"Okay," Piper said. "Let's get these filled out as quickly as we can so we can get you into the doctor."
"Oh, you don't understand," said the nurse. "This paperwork is so that we can send you to the admissions office. There, you can fill out the paperwork to have a doctor appointed to your case. Then you can fill out the paperwork the doctor will use for the tests and examination. After that, we'll see about assigning a doctor and filling out the paperwork to open a file on you."
"You can't be serious," said Phoebe. "Can't you just call my doctor and have him send my records over? He said I was only supposed to be here a couple of hours."
"Sorry, regulations," said the nurse, smiling. "Oh, pay particular attention to the blue forms. Those are especially important in this case. We don't get many witches here and the doctor will need to know as much about you as possible."
Piper and Phoebe just watched speechless as the nurse turned and walked away.