Fear (1)

"Do I really have to do this?" Lillian looked up at Blake with her teary eyes. "Is there no other way?" She asked him again.

"Lillian, yes." He answered her briefly as he rubbed the spot in between his eyebrows. He was starting to develop a headache once again.

"But I don't want to go through with it. It will hurt a lot." Lillian mumbled again as she trailed her eyes back to the sharp needle which was waiting to suck the blood out from her veins.

"Did it hurt you the last time I drew your blood out? No, it didn't. Why would it hurt you now?" The lady who was sitting on the bed next to her decided to help Blake out with this. She could tell that Blake was running out his patience from his face alone.

"It didn't I guess." Lillian replied to her as she tried to think of the last time the lady had something of the same sort. But no matter how hard she tried to think, she couldn't recall. It slowly dawned on her what the lady was referring to, the IV needle she had found attached to her arm when woke up at the base. How was she supposed to feel pain when she was more or less likely sleeping through it?

"I was not even conscious." Lillian tried to argue with the lady whom she was seeing for the first time.

"Lillian, please. Mrs. Jackson has to take your blood sample so that she can send it to the lab. You should let her do her job as your doctor. She is nice enough to do this herself when she has a busy life." Before the lady could reply to her, Blake spoke up. He had his eyes fixed on her small face as he glared at her.

"F-fine." Lillian muttered softly in response after seeing the look on his face. He looked like he would cut her head off from his gaze alone. Only if it was possible in the real world.

She didn't know why, but the sight of the pointed needle alone was giving her shivers. Not wanting to look at it any longer, she shut her eyes close. "Just do it already." She pushed her hand forward and demanded the lady to get done with it as soon as it was possible.

Mrs. Jackson, who had been watching the exchange between the two, could only shake her head as she took the lady's extended hand. Finding a vein on Lillian's slender arm wasn't hard for her, and she didn't even have to use a tourniquet.

She had already wiped the spot three times with alcohol swabs, so she just focused on slowly pushing the needle through her skin at an angle so that it would go right inside her vein without piercing another structure.

"Ow, ow, ow." Lillian clenched her fists tightly as she felt the needle being pushed through her skin.

"Don't." The lady scolded her as she started to pull the plunger back. It was making it hard for her as she didn't want to apply too much force. "Blake." she pointed her chin towards her right hand as she asked Blake to help her out.

Blake heaved out a sigh and stepped closer to the bed. "Lillian, look at me." He instructed her as he gave her shoulder a light pat. "Hold this, don't clench your palms." He put the same hand forward as he offered to be a squeezable plushy for her.

As if it was just his words for which Lillian was waiting. She grabbed his arm with her left hand as her right was being held in place by the doctor.

As soon as Mrs. Jackson felt her muscles relaxing, she started to pull the plunger back. She sneaked a glance in Blake's direction and smiled to herself when she saw him standing there like a mannequin.

Blake didn't even blink as Lillian dug her fingers in his extended arm like it was nothing but a stress ball. The sharp edges of her fingernails poked his skin as her grip grew stronger with each passing second, yet he continued to stand in his spot without moving. To him, the pain didn't seem much.

"It's done." Mrs. Jackson spoke up when her eyes landed up on the full syringe.

Her words were followed by a sharp hissing sound which clearly left Lillian's lips.

"You can stop crushing my arm now." Blake mumbled in a bored tone as his eyes trailed to Lillian's scrunched up face which had somehow found its way to his arm, and was now partly resting on it. He briefly glanced in the direction of her right arm and exhaled out a small breath which he had been holding in as his eyes ended up resting on the band-aid in the center.

"Lillian, it is done." The doctor spoke up with a light chuckle as she transferred the blood into two blood sampling vials, both of which had some powdered chemical resting at the bottom.

"What are you doing?" Lillian spoke up in a meek tone as she finally opened her eyes. The lady's action left her a little curious, and her pain was long forgotten.

"I am making sure that your precious blood stays safe until I drop it to the laboratory on my way back home." The lady replied to her politely.

"Oh!" That was all Lillian could manage to say in response as she observed her actions. There was nothing much to see, yet she was intrigued by it.

"May I ask you a couple of things if you don't mind it, Lillian?" Seeing that was already doing better, Mrs. Jackson thought it would be better to get some answers from the patient herself even though Blake had already filled her in.

"Yeah, sure!" Lillian bobbed her head up and down.

"Why do you not like getting shots?" She thought it would be better to start with some basic questions, such as her fear. Even if it couldn't be classified under phobia, her fear could not be looked over. There had to be an event which led to it. The lady was interested in knowing about that particular event to have a better grasp of her life.