He was standing there, staring across the small room at her, when she suddenly opened her eyes and spotted him. Immediately, she shot off to bed to her feet, then backed up.
“Hi,” Viking said quietly, happy to see that she had zero mobility issues. “I’m Viking. How are you doing up here?”
She gazed at him and that awful, terrible fear was back.
“I’m sorry I woke you up. I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to see if you needed any medical attention.”
The fear was now being replaced with suspicion.
“I’m a trained doctor,” he told her. “I know that I don’t look like your average family doctor and I get that, but I promise it’s true, even though I don’t actually practice formally anymore. Are you hurt anywhere? I can help if you are.”
She shook her head, that amazing hair cascading down her
