Playing Doctor

He pushed enter and her face immediately popped up. He clicked it and went to her page. Her picture was sweet, just a close-up of her smiling, her eyes sparkling. Her hair looked longer than it was currently, but other than that, she looked just like her picture. He pulled up the About section and noticed that she still had her location set as Portland, Oregon, and he was glad about that. He frowned though, noticing she actually had her phone number listed. That wasn't good, he'd like to find a way to get her to take that off of there. That was just asking for trouble. Under Family, she had her mother and a couple of cousins listed, but no siblings. Under Interests, she listed action/crime movies and thriller/crime books. She also listed tennis and biking.

Smiling, he went to her main page to see what she posted, but the smile quickly fell from his face as he read the most recent post, which was from her mother to her.

Aurelia Louise where the hell are you? I have been calling you for a week and a half and you are completely ignoring me! I will not have it! I demand you returned to Portland!

Daniel scrolled down to the next post and his frown hardened.

Aurelia, where the fuck are you? I will find you, you conniving bitch! You better get back here asap before I have to come after you!

That was from someone named Marcus Stahl, who Daniel assumed was her ex-boyfriend. He scrolled further, noting the man had sent numerous messages all along the same lines. The mother too seemed to be extremely manipulative and whiny. Every other message from her blamed Aurelia for something ranging from the petty to the serious. No wonder Aurelia's heart had become so stressed. He knew the diuretics had been the leading cause of her Pericarditis, but he'd need to watch her stress levels too after seeing these messages. He had a feeling that Aurelia hadn't been on her Facebook in some time, judging by the fact that she hadn't actually posted anything in more than six months. There were no interactions with anyone here in White Plains, in fact there were no interactions with anyone on her Facebook page from anyone other than her mother and this Marcus Stahl.

Considering that, he wondered about the phone number on there and went back to it. After looking at it, he pulled up her file and checked the one he had listed for her. They were different, in fact, her new number had a New York area code. He should have realized that right away. He'd been so concerned about seeing a phone number there, he hadn't paid attention to the actual number.

He pulled up her photos, knowing he was just being nosy now. Most of the images were of things, a bird bath with hummingbirds in it, a plate of food, some landscapes… he had to scrolled pretty far to see any pictures of her by herself or her with this Marcus person. She didn't look especially happy in in the shots. She smiled, but it looked strained and didn't quite reach her eyes in the majority of them. He finally got past shots of her and Marcus to shots of her with other women, groups of people etc and he could see the absolute happiness in her face in those. Her face in those shots was breathtaking. She really was a stunning woman. Vibrant. Ethereal. Beautiful. She still was all those things, but he could see her time with Marcus had stolen some of her innocence from her face and she wasn't nearly as open as these pictures from eleven years ago said she was. He wanted that back for her.

Shaking his head, he logged out of Facebook and closed down his laptop. Snooping into her life had been a mistake. A mistake he'd make again even if he'd been given the chance to go back and change it. He justified it by telling himself that the pictures and posts from Marcus and her mother would help him treat her, but he knew it was a lie. He'd been satisfying his curiosity about her and gotten more than he bargained for. The crush he'd been nursing for her was now much bigger. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He couldn't ask her out; couldn't take her to dinner; couldn't meet her for coffee to discuss the latest James Patterson novel; couldn't hold her hand or kiss her… Not for several months anyway.

And he had every intention of doing all of those things as soon as she was no longer his patient. Now he just had to figure out how to get through seeing her as a patient for the next several months without giving himself away!