Chapter One

"Gawd, I hate Fridays!" Alexa slammed the file she was holding down onto the nurse's desk, surprising Taylor who was seated behind it. "Everybody is stupid on Fridays," she continued in explanation, when Taylor looked at her strangely.

Taylor searched through the files beside her and handed one to Alexa. "Only two more hours, and Friday's over. It has to get better."

Checking the chart, Alexa shook her head, "Not if the patients keep coming in. I'll be here until they're not."

"Just be glad this is a clinic, not a hospital. We get to set office hours." Alexa nodded, as she put down the chart, and rubbed her eyes. The day was seeming to drag on forever. "There's nobody waiting right now, and you've got five minutes until the next scheduled appointment. Take a break, Lex."

Alexa looked up, "That sounds great." She debated going to her office, but decided against it, because she knew she'd have to answer phone calls if she went near it, so she headed quickly to the break room. Flopping on a sofa, she rested her head on the back and closed her eyes, trying to block out the fact that she was still at work. She tried to ignore the sound of the door as it opened.

"Dr. Reeves?"

Alexa sighed and looked up, mumbling, "Where oh where is my prince charming to take me away?" Standing up, she turned to Taylor. "Yes?"

"There's a guy out here claiming to be in a hurry? You want to take it?"

Alexa rubbed one hand over her eyes, and nodded. "Sure, let's go." She followed Taylor out the door and towards the exam room, where Taylor handed her a file. "So, what's the story?" Alexa, flipped open the file before going into the room.

"Read the chart. You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Taylor smirked as she walked away, leaving Alexa outside the door, confused.

She stepped inside as she glanced at the chart, "Hello, Mr., uh, McLean, I'm Dr. Reeves." Her eyes scanned the rest of the page in front of her before she looked up. She paused momentarily, surprised by the guy in front of her. He was thin, and wore a hat and sunglasses, even though it wasn't that bright in the room. The sleeveless shirt he wore showed off the many tattoos covering most of his arms. She pulled her eyes away from examining the tattoos and tried to recover her professionalism. "I was told you were in a rush, so . . ."

He looked at her as if she had startled him and then spoke quickly. "I've got rehearsal."

Alexa nodded, "Alright then, what's the problem?" She waited as he fidgeted in his seat, and then pulled at the edge of his shirt.

"I got a tattoo a couple days ago, and it's not healing." He twisted around, pulling at the arm hole of the shirt, to show Alexa a tiny part of the tattoo on his back.

"Well, okay. I'm going to need to see the tattoo," she paused, hoping he'd get the idea, "Could you pull up your shirt?" She noticed a smirk on his face as he turned and pulled it up, displaying his back, and a white gauze patch.

Alexa ignored the smirk, and pulled carefully at the gauze, cringing at the red skin underneath. "Ouch, when did you get this done?"

"Last week."

Alexa cringed again, wondering why anybody would choose to do this to their body in the first place. One or two, that made sense to her: artistic expression and all. But this guy was turning himself into a walking coloring book. "Okay, well it's a pretty bad infection, so I'll give you some cream to use on it. If it's still bad in a couple days, come back, we'll see what else we can do. Alright?"

"Cool." Alexa watched as he pulled his shirt back down, noticing the solo tattoo around his navel. He held the shirt just above the tattoo, when he realized where she was looking. "It's my lucky number."

Alexa blinked. "What?" She flushed slightly realizing she'd been caught. "Oh, I . . . wasn't, . . . I didn't . . " She watched the smirk on his face again, as she stammered. He was obviously someone who was used to being looked at.

"It's cool, wouldn't have �em if I didn't want people to see them."

Alexa quickly wrote out a prescription on her pad, and handed it to him. "I suppose that makes sense. My question would be, why do you need so many anyway?" She stopped, wondering if she'd just insulted him, but he smiled.

"It's addictive. You get one, then two, then you're hooked. You can't stop." Alexa was surprised at his enthusiasm for the subject.

"I suppose." Alexa didn't hide her skepticism.

"You got any?"

Alexa looked at him and shook her head. "No. Don't want any either, thanks."

His eyes scanned her up and then down, and Alexa felt herself blushing again. "Too bad. I can think of the perfect thing for you." Suddenly he looked up at the clock. "Shit. I gotta go. Thanks doc."

Alexa nodded, and then he turned and flew out the door.


Alexa was working at her desk a couple hours later when Taylor interrupted her. "So, Lex, what was the story on that guy?" Alexa hardly looked up from the paperwork in front of her.

"What guy?" She heard Taylor sigh.

"McLean. The tattoo guy."

Alexa shrugged. "Infection, I gave him a prescription for stuff to clear it up."

"Not exactly what I meant, Alexa."

Alexa finished up the notes she was working on and looked up. "Okay, so what exactly did you mean?" Taylor took a seat in the chair opposite Alexa and smiled, clearly amused by Alexa's ignorance.

"Well, first off, I think I've got some information that you might want."

Alexa raised her eyebrows. "Oh? And that might be?"

"That guy wasn't just any guy. Obviously you don't pay much attention to the entertainment scene."

"I don't tend to have much time for that," Alexa watched the excited look on Taylor's face and sighed. "Okay Taylor, who is he? And why didn't you tell me before?"

Taylor fished a magazine out of her purse and held it up for Alexa to see. "Notice anybody familiar?"

Alexa scanned the cover; tall blonde, tall dark and handsome, shorter blondish-boy-next-door type, short Latin-type, and ... the tattooed guy. She read the magazine title, and then the article teaser. "The Backstreet Boys? He was one of them? Shit. They're pretty popular."

Taylor laughed. "A ha! Good sign, at least you've heard of them."

"Of course, who hasn't. The music is great. I'd just never paid attention to what they looked like before." She grabbed the magazine from Taylor. "Mighty nice looking group of guys."

"You can say that again. You should have seen the reactions of a couple of the younger patients when he walked in." Taylor giggled. "You would have thought they'd died and gone to heaven."

"Sounds a little like you felt the same way, Tay." Alexa chuckled as Taylor blushed. "Wonder why he'd come in here?" Alexa wondered aloud.

"Who cares? We've got a kick ass story to tell now. We could probably write a book and make thousands, just off that one visit." Alexa rolled her eyes as Taylor spoke.

"Um, one problem. Ever heard of Doctor/ Patient confidentiality? Might be a little bit of a conflict."

Taylor giggled, "Oh, I'm sure the Disciplinary Board would understand. After all, he's one of the Backstreet Boys. There's got to be at least one fan on the board."

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