"When did this start?" Phillips flashed the penlight across eyes that squinted a bit but reacted normally.
"Couple of days ago."
The doctor turned and flipped the room light on again, noting another bit of a squint. "You do anything to bring it on?"
There was a negative shake to the head after a moment's consideration. "Woke up with it."
"Rate it for me."
"Irritating…. Just there in the background making me wonder if it's going to get worse."
"Anything else?" Before he got another shake of the head he added, "Even a couple of days ago, or a couple of days before it started."
He thought for a bit but only spoke up when he was prompted by the doctor's raised eyebrow because it was going to sound strange. "Everything seemed louder a couple of days ago." After a moment he laughed and added. "I just figured it was because Casino was in the room."
The doctor acknowledged the comment with a nod, he'd dealt with the group's expert in safes and explosives. "How about your stomach? Were you off your food? Of course we can't tell with you, you don't eat enough."
"I eat enough." He smiled but shook his head as he took the shirt that was handed to him. "It depends on what I'm offered anyway."
Phillips laughed. "What would it take to get you to clean your plate? I'd like to see that just once."
"Thick juicy steak. Slab of fresh caught salmon. Bucket of clams. Pork chops… shrimp. Even if you could get your hands on it you couldn't afford it..., neither could I." Garrison finished with his tie and snugged it up into place before turning away from the mirror. "Well?"
It took a second for Phillips to switch back from daydreaming about his wife's Sunday roast beef and gravy. "Aside from being a little sensitive to light I don't find anything wrong." That's what made him drag the young officer back into the hospital and into this exam room in the first place. He caught that swiftly replaced look of discomfort when he met him coming out of the building. "No sign of a sinus infection or anything like. I suppose it could be related to the last mission." Like the tense muscles, he thought to himself. "I can give you some tablets for the pain if you want them." The offer was declined, as he knew it would be. "Okay, if it gets worse I want you back immediately. If stays the same and just doesn't go away by the end of the week I guess I want you back and we'll cook up some other tests. Other than that, try and get a full nights sleep for a change, that might help, and let me know if goes away between now and then."
"Are you taking me off the duty roster?"
Phillips shook his head. "As long as it's just irritating and doesn't get in the way of you doing your job I'm inclined to let you decide that one if you get called out. Of course, given your track record, I probably need my own head examined. You never seem to know when you should stand down…."
Garrison shrugged into his jacket. "If I don't there are others who do."
Phillips gave a snort of laughter. "And you listen to them?"
"Haven't any choice, they don't know they are supposed to obey orders, and they out number me." Garrison finished buttoning the jacket and rubbed at his middle. "All that talk of food has made me hungry. I think I'll go find something decent to eat." He turned and looked back when he laid his hand on the doorknob. "You want to come along?"
The doctor frowned at the younger man. "I thought you said neither one of us had that kind of money."
Garrison's smile broadened and his brows went up. "But Actor's still out there waiting in the car and he always does."
Phillip tossed his stethoscope on the exam table and with a quick shrug was out of his white coat. "You'll never get him to pay for it…."
A shoulder went up and then dropped as he ushered the doctor through the door. "Don't worry. He'll think it was his idea."
Phillips laughed, told the nurse on the desk that he was finally off duty, and turned to consider the man he'd just examined when they stepped out into the bright sunlight. "How's your head?"
Garrison smiled. "Doesn't hurt a bit."