Inpatience from her patients was not unexpected in this line of work, especially when the waiting room was busy -but today was not one of those days. Today the queue was moving rather quickly and no one was waiting very long at all to be seen. Today - this gent just seemed to be in a bad mood. So his snappy comment, came as something of a surprise and she stopped in her tracks for a moment, the notes still held before her, forgotten as she appraised the back of his head, as though the back of his scalp could tell her something about the man she was about to deal with.

Merida was grateful that he was turned away from her because she could hide her wrinkled nose in annoyance as she quickly schooled her features, into her best professional healer face- all calm, control and bedside manner.

Still, 'I'm sure you are sir' was all she said to his demand that she hurry, in a vaguely condescending tone, as though agreeing with a child that they were actually a cowboy. She set aside the medical notes and moved around to the front of the bed, taking the offered arm to examine the bite marks. Her fingers deftly moved the arm to give her the best view of the tiny needle marks.

'And how exactly did you manage to come into contact with doxy's?' she asked, meeting his gaze appraisingly, trying to ascertain if she was dealing with a hapless victim or an idiot doing something appropriately idiotic like smuggling doxy eggs.

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