The Alpha's Healer

07 | Dr Carlos

They arrived at a hospital building as tall as the sky. The glass windows created walls filled with medicinal scents. Iris felt strangely at home when the smell of disinfectant mixed with the aroma of herbs she sniffed at the labs in her University.

Sebastian and Iris were led to a private corridor on the fifth floor by a nurse. They stopped in front of a door with a tag 'Dr. Carlos Mendes'.

"Dr Carlos is inside. Please enter." The nurse respectfully opened the door.

"Um, I will wait for you here." Iris said.

Sebastian paused and glanced at the row of cold metal chairs. "No, come in with me."

Iris was never a person to argue. It mattered little to none whether she stayed out or went in with him.

She quietly mumbled a thank you to the nurse and followed him inside. The temperature was freezing inside, which reminded Iris of climate in fire moon pack.

There was no nostalgia to speak of. Yet, before the thorny memories of those cold nights in the attic could rip through her, the rustic decor of the cabin and an eccentric looking man in the middle of it all took her by surprise.

Dr Carlos stayed facing the shelf lined against the wall behind his desk. His curly hair covered the collar of his white coat and tucked between the messy strands were a dull pencil and an uncapped pen.

When the doctor didn't turn around for a full minute, Sebastian took it upon himself to make their presence known by knocking heavily on his desk. "Dr Carlos?"

Dr Carlos spun around to face them. A pair of thick frame glasses occupied the entire upper half of his face, pushed up by his cheeks when he smiled at Sebastian.

"Oh, you're here. Sit down. I was a bit occupied with my recently delivered specimen. I apologise for the neglect."

Iris stepped back to make way for Sebastian when he pulled out one of the chairs by the desk. Her simple reasoning being that he was a patient and needed to sit down to get checked.

The moment she moved out of the way, Sebastian paused like time had stopped for him. His eyes travelled the distance between the chair and her and stopped at her face. His eyebrows raised up to his hairline in a silent question she didn't understand.

They held each other's gaze, confused by what the other person meant by their actions.

"Both of you can sit down. We have enough chairs." Dr Carlos laughed.

When gestures and eye contact didn't do it, Sebastian used his words, "Sit." He tapped the back of the chair.

Iris' face flared bright red when she realised the chair was pulled out for her. It kicked in a breathless reaction where she tripped over her feet to sit down in a hurry. Sebastian grabbed her arm in time to save herself the mortification of slamming face first into the wooden desk.

She settled on the chair, head down and face covered on either side with loose hair. She was too embarrassed to face the doctor and Sebastian.

The patient and doctor cooperatively erased the mishap from their minds and jumped directly to the issue at hand, which was Sebastian's injuries.

"You look pretty roughed up. May I check your injuries? Please step behind the curtain."

Iris' stiff body thawed once the two men disappeared behind the curtain. Her curiosity inflated and soon her eyes wandered off to the shelves again.

Books with withering spines, jars filled with questionable things submerged in yellow liquid were stacked on top of each other in dangerous angles. Her fingers curled as a familiar itch to flip through pages and ran to the tips.

"No wonder you're healing at a snails pace. You were poisoned with wolfsbane." Dr Carlos pushed back the curtain and went back to his desk.

Sebastian occupied the empty chair next to Iris. Her nervous gaze seemed to hide the curiosity behind a cover. Like a crime, something shameful and overall unworthy of being seen.

"That answers a few questions." Sebastian nodded nonchalantly.

"We can get answers to the rest of your questions if you're willing to get some tests done."

"Are the toxins still in my body?"

"Not to the extent of being harmful. The medicine you took at the critical time was life saving. It managed to flush out most of it. The slow healing is an after effects. It will go back to normal in a couple of days."

Iris let go of a breath she'd been holding since he mentioned the medicine. Then, the relief turned into a frown when Sebastian said, "Then I don't need additional tests. Just redo these bandages and we'll be on our way."

"Alright."

Iris lifted her head in shock. Shocked that a doctor gave up so easily. The university where Iris graduated from was affiliated to a hospital. It wasn't the best, but the little that she saw had given her a good insight on the hospital environment.

One of the few things she learnt was that a doctor always went an extra mile to persuade the patients about their health. Doubts began to rise like smoke under her nose.

Dr Carlos happened to look her way and their eyes met. His cheeks bunch into light smile as he adjusted his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"You're the one who gave him the medicine?" He asked her.

Iris nodded heavily. She clutched the bag so tight that her nails dug holes in it. Her mind created a web of whispers where nothing ever went right.

The little confidence she gained a minute ago had already fallen victim to that web. The insects of insecurity and fear of having done something wrong gnawed on it.

"You identified the poison and gave him the right medicine. It saved his life. Have you studied medicine?"

"I have." Iris answered without going into detail.

"Can you share the whole experience with me? If you don't mind. Since he's not willing to take any tests, we'll have to rely on you to make a precise diagnosis..."

Iris readily co-operated as soon as he said it. Her enthusiasm returned with full swing as if someone had blown life into her rigid frame.

Dr Carlos pulled out the own hanging between the locks of his hair and wrote down everything she said. The entire process took no longer than ten minutes to complete.

Iris didn't notice when Sebastian left her side to get his bandages redone. When he came back, Iris was deeply engrossed in a discussion with Dr Carlos about a certain herb believed to have gone extinct a century ago.

"These books, look, this entire thing." Dr Carlos made wild gestures at a certain shelf. "- is about herbs and medicinal plants. They are rare and impossible to duplicate so the medicines these days are nothing but chemical components meant to mimic the same properties. It works for the most part, but the side effects are just as bad if not treated in time. Essentially, using medicine is like slow poisoning. The more you take, the faster it acts. Alas, the younger generation is least interested in these boring ideas. My own son, a medical graduate from last year, has not bothered with these specimens of mine since he was a little kid. I haven't talked about it in ages. Haha."

"It's interesting." Iris genuinely complimented his collection.

The aged eyes behind those frames sparkled. "You think so too? I know there are people who appreciate good things, they are just harder to find. Would you like to stay for a while? I'll explain them to you and we can also discuss more about him."