That did it. She sat down on the couch, unlacing her boots and letting them fall to the floor with a clunk. Red socks. Matt studiously ignored the fact that they seemed somehow special and delightful when worn by Hannah. When she swung her legs up onto the couch, he quickly snatched up a pillow and placed it at the other end for her head.
‘Comfortable?’
‘No.’ She glowered at him. Clearly she’d prefer to be somewhere else right now. ‘I’m not your patient, Matt.’
So that was what was bothering her. Hannah was far more comfortable with being invincible, and just taking him along with her for the ride. Irritation started to prickle his skin, and he took a step back, putting his hands into his pockets. The one thing that he could never be, with Hannah, was indifferent. He had to own that, and ignore the impulse to provoke an equal reaction from her. He was a doctor, and acting that way would be good right now.
‘All right.’ He gave her his best doctor-patient smile. ‘Point one. You have hurt yourself and someone needs to take a look at it. Getting yourself in the right position to examine your own knee properly isn’t easy, I’ve tried it.’
She stared at him. Clearly Hannah took the point, and Matt decided to move on.
‘Point two, I’m an orthopaedic surgeon. Which means I’m qualified.’
‘Over-qualified, I’d say.’ Hannah still wasn’t going to give up. Neither was Matt.
‘Point three. I’m your teammate. When are you going to start trusting me?’
He’d hit a nerve. Hannah sat up on the couch, grimacing at him.
‘Are you telling me that our partnership isn’t working for you?’
It worked just fine. He was aware of Hannah watching him carefully from time to time—most of the time actually—but it still worked. ‘It could work a little better.’
He knew that look. It was the wary, thoughtful look of someone who had been hurt.
‘And you think that’s my fault?’
He shook his head. His father had blamed everyone else for his own shortcomings and that was something that Matt didn’t want to emulate.
‘No, it’s our fault. Mine as well. I think that we’re both people who like to manage things on our own, and that we both have difficulty in trusting others. That usually works pretty well for both of us, but the whole point of this competition is to take us out of our comfort zones.’
She was thinking about it. Hannah was either going to roll her trouser leg up and let him take a look at her knee, or she was going to get off the couch, grab her boots and limp off down the corridor.
Her lip curled, and she reached for the leg of her trousers, folding the material carefully as she pulled it up.
‘You’ll be wanting to see the other knee. To compare.’ She reached for the other trouser leg, rolling that up too. Matt wondered if he should congratulate her on anticipating his next move, and decided that she might not take that too well.
‘Thank you.’ He stepped forward, looking at both knees carefully.
‘I don’t see any swelling, I’m going to check the movement... Tell me when it hurts.’
She nodded, and Matt carefully bent her leg, watching her face intently. Maybe he should trust Hannah enough to just tell him when there was any pain...
Or not. He saw it in her face but she said nothing.
‘That hurts?’
‘A little.’
‘Okay, how about that?’ He moved the leg again, checking the ligaments on the other side of her knee.
‘No, that’s fine.’
‘And this...?’ He dug his thumb into the side of her knee, and she shook her head. That was good.
Matt moved on to the spot that ought to hurt, and she winced.
‘Yeah. That’s a little tender.’