Several weeks later....

Gunny yelped as the doctor poked around on her left hand. She had to fight her instincts not to pull her hand away and punch him, but she managed to hold still. She let him work her hand to see how well it was healing, moving her fingers and testing the wound. This was her first major checkup since everything that had happened with Max a month ago, she'd been healing up and trying to get back on her feet, so to speak.

She'd had a doctor's appointment two weeks before to take out stitches and x-ray everything. She'd gotten a clean bill of health then but they had wanted to see her again in two more weeks, so here she sat. She'd been asked a hundred questions about pain levels, put through the paces for mobility and flexibility tests. Her exasperation was starting to get the best of her and she was tired of answering the same questions over and over again.

Finally, the doctor was finished with her and went to write some notes in her chart while she got dressed. She still limped a little with her left leg. She refused to use crutches though and used a cane when she'd been on her feet for too long and her leg began throbbing. Her left shoulder was 'twingy' from time to time but everything seemed to be in good working order though she still didn't have full mobility back with it yet. Her left hand, she knew, wouldn't ever fully recover. Her two middle fingers were stiff and though she could curl them, she found it hard to manipulate the fingers to pick up things. She had to rely on the other three fingers for most of the 'heavy lifting'. But hey, she only needed the hand to curl around a flight stick so as long as she could hold to one of those, she was fine as far as she concerned.

The doctor came back and gave her the diagnosis before telling her to come back in one month unless she had problems before. He told her he'd release her then to go back to active duty with the Rangers but if she wanted to do light duty, he'd allow that… but no rescues, no flying, nothing for her other than desk work until she had gotten the all clear from him. And he made sure to mention that he'd be calling the Ranger CO, Matt Hawkes, to let him know the doctors orders so there'd be no getting away with anything.

He gave her a prescript for an anti-inflammatory and didn't even bother to ask about her needing pain killers since she still had all but two of the pain pills she left the hospital with. The only downside of not taking the pain pills when things got bad was that she slept a lot as her body became overloaded with the natural chemicals it released when the body was fighting pain and stress. It was getting better though. She didn't sleep as much as she had before, only taking a quick nap in the afternoon or early evening, then sleeping through the night.

She smirked a little as she finished getting her boots on as she thought about the nights she really slept well. Those were the nights Cody could make it up to his dad's cabin where she was staying until she was released to go back to work. They hadn't done much more than just sleep together in the same bed, cuddle on the couch…well more like he sat in the corner of the couch and she reclined against him, giving her a way out if she felt panicky or her need to be free of another's touch became too much. But those nights were some of her better nights for sleeping and she could only explain it as possibly knowing that someone was watching over her, allowing her to relax her guard just enough to truly get a deep sleep.

She pulled on her coat and shook the doctor's hand before shoving the prescript in her coat pocket and headed out to the waiting room. Cody was sitting there, flipping through a well worn magazine. He looked up and saw her coming down the hallway and stood, tossing the magazine back down on the end table. He smiled that quiet smile of his that she'd come to enjoy. "So, how'd it go?" he asked as he fell in beside her, his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets yet staying close without touching.

She smirked, "I can go back to doing light duty but until my checkup in a month, I'm not allowed any rescues, blah blah blah." She chuckled, "Hell, he's even going to call Matt to make sure I don't try to get back to flying before then."

Cody laughed quietly, "Let me guess…Doc Trumen?"

She nodded, "Yep. I take it he's seen you guys more than once?"

Cody nodded. "Yeah. He pretty much gets most of our cases of bangs, bruises, broken bones, cuts and so forth if he's on duty. So he knows all of our tricks. But he's a good guy and doesn't try to dance around anything delicate…just comes right out and tells you the black and white of it." He said as he pulled out the keys to his truck and unlocked her door, opening it and waiting till she was in the seat before closing it.

Gunny smiled a little…such a gentleman. She turned her head to look at him as he climbed into his side of the truck. "So where to amigo?" she asked.

He'd come up to get her early that morning on the snow mobile and take her back to the ranger station where they used his truck to get into town for her 10am doctors appointment. It was now almost 1pm so at least the lunch crowds would be winding down.

He shrugged, "Could go back to the station and fix ourselves something or call up the station to see if they'd had lunch yet and get them to come meet us somewhere…. Or we could just go off and find some place just for the two of us." He said, giving her options.

She was quiet for a while, "Why not call the station to see if they've eaten. If not, we can stop by to pick them up something. Just not in the mood to deal with too many people today."

Cody nodded and smiled. With a quick call to the station, he discovered they'd been called away on a rescue shortly after he and Gunny had left for her appointment. Robin reported they were on their way back now and if they wanted to pick up pizza at their favorite place, she'd call in the order.

Gunny pulled out the prescript, "Probably can get this filled while we wait for the pizza to get done." she said as Cody pulled out of the parking lot.