Chapter 63: A Necessary Evil
One thing that Sarah had been putting off, and finally had to steel herself to do, was her first visit to the gynecologist. She filled out the paperwork, blushing red at some of the questions, and under "reason for visit," she wrote, "Marriage in 2 weeks."
The doctor came in and read her sheet, offering her an absent-minded, "Congratulations." She followed by asking Sarah aloud all of the questions that Sarah had already answered on the sheet. "Are you sexually active?" she asked.
"No."
"Ever been?"
"No."
The doctor peered at Sarah over her severe-looking glasses. "You do know what that means, don't you?"
Frowning, Sarah nodded.
The doctor scoffed. "Are you sure, at the mature age of twenty-seven, that you've never had sex?"
Sarah lost it. Tired of spending the last year defending her sexual choices to Paris, and tired of people's assumptions about her because of her looks, she took a deep breath. "Contrary to what you might believe," she said, grating the words out from between her teeth, "Not all virgins spend their time hanging out in forests with unicorns. Some of us go to college and have lives of our own, and when we actually show some responsibility in our sexual choices, we shouldn't have to defend them to other people – least of all, not a doctor!"
The doctor's eyebrows shot up. "Oh...kay, then," she said smoothly. "Sorry about that; you're just a rarity, that's all. I didn't mean to imply that you hung out with unicorns or anything."
"Only on weekends," Sarah told her, deadpan. Well, so far, it was the truth.
The doctor laughed and continued with the examination.
In a somewhat warmer tone of voice, she explained what she was going to do and why, and then she did it. Sarah suffered through the indignity and pain of the procedure, and concluded afterwards that it had been worth it: she was perfectly healthy, and the doctor foresaw no problems with the consummation of her upcoming marriage.
Sarah didn't know what to say, though, when the doctor asked if she had someone else, a woman, that she could talk to if she had questions later on. Then, smiling, she thought of Bev, who had stepped very neatly into the role of Sarah's mother-figure. "Yes, I do," she assured the doctor.
"Glad to hear it. Well, you're all set, Sarah. You should have no problems. Now you have a nice wedding, mind you, and congratulations!" The doctor winked. "And enjoy the wedding night, too."
Sarah blushed. "I'm somehow sure that I will," she said. "You've never seen anyone quite like my fiancé, anywhere in this world!"
A/N: I know, I know... but someone as responsible as Sarah is in this story surely wouldn't leave out such an important detail as a trip to the doc, now would she? The funny thing is, some of this is almost word-for-word dialogue taken from my own first trip to the gyno. Just had to stick it in here, seeing as how Sarah really did hang out with unicorns on the weekends.