Nathan Bridger stuck his head into the open door of the Chief Medical Officer's office and saw Doctor Kristin Westphalen concentrating on some reports she had spread out over her desk.

"Good morning, Doctor."

Kristin glanced up at him over the top of her glasses.  "Good morning, Captain," she said in her melodiously accented voice.  "How can I help you?"

"Um, it looks like you're busy, I'll come back later," Bridger said hastily.

"No, not at all," she said putting the papers down.  "There's always more paperwork," she smiled.

Nathan stepped into the doorway hesitantly.  "I got a note from the UEO that if I want to stick around I need to have a physical."

"Yes," Kristin said taking off her glasses, "they sent me a similar note regarding your medical status."

"Yeah," Nathan smiled wanly.  "I guess I need to set it up with you."

She stood and moved towards him.  "We could do it now if you like."

"Um... well... yeah, I guess so."

Kristin smiled at his hesitancy.  She was pretty sure that wasn't his normal demeanor.  "Come back this way and we'll use one of the examination rooms," she said leading him into the Med Bay.  They moved into one of the side rooms and Kristin closed the door behind him.  "I understand they need you to have a full physical."

Nathan had been staring at the exam table and turned quickly towards her.  "Uh, yeah.  That's what it said," he said uncertainly.

"Is it me or doctors in general?" Kristin asked with a smile.

"Huh?"

"If you'd feel more comfortable with Doctor Levin, I can have him give you your physical."

"Oh, no...," he said quickly, "actually, I'm rather comfortable with you."

"Why, thank you, Captain," Kristin said with a little pleased tilt of her head.

"And it's not so much doctors in general as they fact that I hate to be a patient.  I don't like hospitals or shots or med bays or clinics or oxygen tanks or anything like that."

Kristin smiled again.  "Well, I'll try to make it as painless as possible.  Down to your skivvies if you would, Captain."

Nathan nodded and started to remove his shoes and socks as the Doctor turned to the terminal in the room and brought up his medical file. When she turned back he was standing self-consciously in only his boxers.

Kristin glanced quickly down his body and smiled reassuringly again.  "Well, that answers the first question."

"What question?" Nathan frowned.

"Boxers or briefs."

Nathan chuckled softly.  "That kind of depends upon what I'm doing. When I'm aboard a boat boxers are just more comfortable."

"Could you sit up on the table, please?"  Nathan boosted himself up onto the treatment table with his legs hanging off the side.  "We'll start with your reflexes," Kristin said picking up a small examination hammer.  She softly tapped just below each knee cap and nodded when she received the proper reaction and then she lifted each leg as she checked the reflexes on his feet.

Nathan watched her concentration as she performed each action and as she worked, his eyes roamed over her, noting for the first time the rich auburn color of her hair and her trim waist.  He'd looked at her before, of course, but hadn't really considered what she looked like.  "So, how do you end up with two doctorates?" he asked softly trying to make conversation.

She glanced up at him with a quick smile. "Three actually, oceanography, biology and medicine."

"Ok," Nathan nodded.  "How in God's name do you end up with three?"

"Well, I got the medical one first," she said checking the reflexes at his elbow and then bringing up a light to check his ears and eyes.  She tilted his head so that she could look in one ear.  "My second husband didn't want me to work but didn't mind if I went to school so I picked up the second doctorate in biology."

Nathan grinned a little as she moved over to the other ear.  "And where did the oceanography come in?"

"Third husband.  We lived on the Florida gulf coast and the university in Sarasota has an excellent program."

"How many times were you married?" Nathan frowned and then quickly reneged.  "I'm sorry, I shouldn't ask that question."

"No, that's alright.  Look straight ahead," she said as she shined the light in his eyes.  "Three times.  Widowed once and divorced twice."

"Oh," Nathan said staring at the wall in front of him.

"You're not married, are you?" she asked as she tilted his head back to check his nose.

"No, widowed."

"Any children?" she asked feeling the glands under his chin.

"Not anymore.  My son died about six years ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said in a sincere voice while checking his neck.

"Do you have any children?" he asked as she made some notes on a piece of paper.

"Yes, one daughter," she said turning back to him and putting the ends of her stethoscope in her ears.  "And she's just as stubborn as her mother."

Nathan smiled.  "My mother says that children are God's way getting back at you for the child that you were."  Kristin smiled softly as she put the horn of the stethoscope on his chest.  "And she's probably just as pretty as her mother."

Kristin glanced up at him quickly.  "Oh, and gallant too," she said with a grin.  "Deep breaths, please."  She rested one hand on his back as she moved the stethoscope around on his chest, absently noting that the baggy clothes that he'd worn when she first met him and then the coveralls that he'd worn since then did quite a fine job of hiding a rather marvelous physique.

She moved her stethoscope around to his back.  "Take a deep breath and hold it, please."  She again rested her unused hand on his shoulder as she listened to his heart and he was surprised by the warmth of it.  "Breathe."  He took a couple of breaths before she moved the stethoscope to the other side of his back and told him to hold his breath again.  Nathan normally would have looked straight ahead, barely tolerating the exam but now he turned his head to look at the delicate hand that lay on his shoulder.  "Breathe," she said again.  Moving the stethoscope once more, he saw her tilt her head in concentration.  "One more time," she said softly and he breathed deeply and then held it.  "Breathe," she said straightening up.  "Lovely."

She made more notes on her paper before looking up at him again.  "Why don't we get the vitals now?" she said indicating the scale in the corner of the room.

"It's an interesting combination," Nathan said stepping up onto the scale.

"Hmmm?" she said sliding the weights until the bar stood still.

"Medicine, biology and oceanography."

"It's all my interests," she said taking more notes.  "Sit on the table again," she said picking up the pulse/blood pressure cuff and slipping it around his upper arm.  "What are yours?" she asked pressing the start button on the machine behind him.

Nathan looked down as the blood pressure cuff expanded almost to the point that it was uncomfortable and then started to lose air.  "Mechanical and structural engineering mostly."

"Is that what your degree is in?"

"Yeah," he said as she took the cuff off and put it back on the machine.

"At the Naval Academy?"

"For my bachelors.  I got my masters at MIT."

Kristin looked up from where she was making more notes.  "When you were in or out of the Navy?"

"In the Navy," he said as she came back to the side of the bed.  "They sent me through."

"I see.  I didn't know they did that.  Lie down please."

Nathan swung his legs up onto the table and lay down with his hands at his sides.  "If they think you're worth it, I guess."

He stared at the ceiling as she ran her hands down his ribcage before beginning her examination of his abdomen.  "Obviously, you were worth it."

"Oh, I just always figured that if they were good enough to send me through the school I really should use the knowledge."

"Deep breath," she said and as he breathed in she felt up near his diaphragm.  "Again," she said before doing the same thing on the other side.  "You didn't really build this as a research vessel though, did you."

"No, I'm afraid not," he said wincing a little as she palpitated his abdomen.

"Did that hurt?"

"Nope, just didn't expect it."

"Alright," she said moving lower to probe just below the waistband of his boxers and check his hips.  "Which way do you prefer it?"

Nathan moved his glance from the ceiling to her face.  "What, the seaQuest?"

"Yes."

"The only reason I've come back is because they turned it into a research vessel."

This time she looked up at him.  "Did you really spend six years alone on an island?"

"No, for the first five years my wife was with me... until she died."

"It must have been lonely," Kristin said softly turning to make more notes.

He shrugged a little.  "We liked it that way and there were other people on islands close to us.  We completed a hell of a lot of research during that time."

"I've read some of it.  Very well done, both yours and your wife's."

"Thanks."

"You can stand again," she watched as he sat up and slipped off the table until he was standing.  He jumped a little as she ran her hands across his shoulders and down his back.  "Sorry, checking your spine... obviously from your research you have an oceanographic interest too."

"That was my minor."

She looked around his shoulder at him.  "A major in engineering and a minor in oceanography and you think my mix is interesting??"

He chuckled a little and shrugged his shoulders.  "I guess it is kind of weird."

She shook her head with a smile and then looked contritely at him.  "There's only one part of the exam left.  Would you like Doctor Levin to do it?"

"Oh," Nathan said with a rueful face.  "No, that's alright.  I don't mind if you do it."

"Alright, turn around and drop your shorts, Captain," she said reaching for an examination glove.  'Well', she thought, 'tan all over.'  Again he felt her hand resting gently on his back as she continued the exam.  "Cough."  She patted his back softly as she withdrew.  "You can pull your shorts back up."

Nathan pulled up his boxers and turned towards her.  "Why did you come here?" he asked gently.  "If you don't mind saying."

"A lot of reasons," she said dropping the glove into a waste receptacle.  "If you can't prove any inoculations that you've received in the last six years we're going to have to catch up on them," she said kindly.

"I haven't had any since I left the Navy," he said shaking his head.

Kristin nodded.  "Why don't you put your socks and shoes on and put your jumpsuit back on half way and we'll see about getting them out of the way."

Nathan pulled his jumpsuit up to his waist and sat on the table while he put on his socks and shoes.  He could hear the doctor moving around behind him and listened to the clink of medicine bottles with a little apprehension.  Kristin came back in front of him with a tray covered with a towel.

"You mentioned shots earlier.  Do you have a problem with needles?" she asked gently.

"Not when they're used on other people," he said with a half-hearted grin.

"You can't look at them," Kristin guessed.

"You probably don't want me to see them," Nathan affirmed.

"No problem," she said moving over to his side and pointed at a cabinet on the wall.  "This will be shots for tetanus, yellow fever and a PPT test.  I want you to watch that cupboard."

Nathan turned his head and looked at the drab gray front of the wall cabinet.

"I came here because it presented a unique opportunity to satisfy all my interests in one place," she said as he felt a small prick on the back of his arm.  She saw his quick intake of  breath and wince as the needle pierced his skin.  "I mean as a scientist this is a rather exceptional place.  The possibilities are rather remarkable," she said administrating the second shot.  Then she stretched his arm to the side and he felt her make a quick injection on the inside of his forearm.  "That's it," she said wiping the injection site with an alcohol swab.  She felt his relieved breath.

"I'll need to check that last one in three days."  She pulled the towel back over the tray before she came around to his front again.  "Last part is taking blood, I'm afraid," she said gently.  "Which arm?"

Nathan rotated his wrists out and looked at both of his arms.  "The right one, I guess.  That's the one everyone seems to use."  He held his arm out to her.

She felt tenderly along the inside of his elbow.  "That will do nicely."  She pointed to the other wall.  "Look that way."  Nathan turned his head to the left and stared at the wall as Kristin stretched his arm out to the side.  "You don't pass out or anything, do you?"

"Not so far," Nathan said a little nervously.  He started a little as she tightened a strap around his upper arm.

"Make a fist a few times," she said softly.  He clenched and unclenched his right hand several times.  "Hold it," she said and he made a fist.  "A little pinch."  He winced a little as the needle was inserted and he felt her release the strap.  He breathed deeply until he felt her slip the needle from his arm and replace it with a gauze pad.  "Put your fingers here."  He covered the pad with his fingers and she bent his arm up.  "Keep the pressure on," she said softly sliding the syringe under the towel.

"That wasn't bad at all," Nathan said appreciatively.  "You've got a nice touch."

"Thank you very much, Captain," Kristin said in a pleased voice.  She moved the tray back to the desk in the room and brought over an adhesive bandage to cover the gauze pad.  "You can put the rest of your clothes back on," she said moving to sit at the desk.

"Okay," he said a few moments later and she turned to see him sitting on the edge of the exam table swinging his legs.

Kristin looked over at the computer screen.  "Alright, question and answer time."  She looked back and saw the first genuine grin she'd seen on his face all day.

"Fire away, Doctor."

"You've probably answered these numerous times but here they are. How would you describe your general health?"

"Excellent."

"Do you use tobacco?"

"No."

"Do you drink alcohol?"

"Yes."

"How often?"

"Varies.  Not at all while at sea but occasionally ashore."

"Have you ever had pain or pressure in your chest?"

"No."

"Chronic cough?"

"No.

"Heart trouble?"

"No."

"Allergies?"

"Yes. Penicillin and sulfa drugs."

Kristin looked at him over her glasses.  "What kind of reaction?"

Nathan grinned humorlessly.  "Serious hives... you don't want to see it."

"I imagine not," she grinned back dryly.  "High or low blood pressure?"

"No."

"Periods of unconsciousness?"

"Not without getting smacked on the head."

Kristin asked questions for another couple of minutes until she pressed the enter key with finality.  "That's all for the preset questions.  Now a couple of questions on my part."

"Um hmm."

"What is this from?" she said touching her own upper right chest.

"I forgot to duck."  Kristin stared silently at him.  "I got in the way of a bullet."

"That sounds unpleasant," she said looking at the screen again.

"Almost ultimately unpleasant."

"Bursitis in your right shoulder?"

"Yeah."

"From sports?"

"Baseball."

She looked over at him assessingly.  "And you've broken your nose," she stated.

"More than a couple of times," Nathan grinned.

"Any problems breathing?"

"No," he said shaking his head.

Kristin looked back at her screen, reviewing several items before turning back to him.  "That's it, Captain."

"You're kidding?" Nathan asked surprised.  She smiled and shook her head.  "That seemed to go really fast," he frowned.

"I could do it again if you'd like," she offered.

Nathan stood up from the exam table and settled his jumpsuit.  "No thanks," he smiled.  He started towards the door of the examination room and then stopped with his hand on the door handle and turned back.  "I don't suppose I could buy you a cup of coffee, Doctor?"

Kristin looked up at him and smiled gently.  "Do you know, Captain, I think I'd rather like that. Give me a minute here and I'm all yours."