I rubbed at my eyes and sighed, trying to finish my chipolte chicken salad before Shane showed up. The day had been rough already. Some of my patients seemed a little more argumentative than usual, but I suppose when you're learning how to walk again that's your right.

I had ended up working longer with a patient than I'd meant to. I couldn't help it. She had just been so motivated I hadn't wanted to let that go to waste.

So I'd ended up working away the majority of the time I had allotted for lunch and was trying to get some food in at least. I didn't work well when I was hungry.

Now you're looking at me like I'm crazy and I know what you're thinking. Aren't we always hungry now? The answer is yeah. The trick is just learning how to be hungry.

I finished the last bit of deliciously spicy chicken and looked at the clock, swearing. It had taken me way longer than I thought it would to inhale some food. I frowned when I realized that Shane was late.

Shane was never late.

Actually, he was usually early. I stood up, peering over the receptionist's counter to look into the small waiting area. I thought that maybe Shane had slipped in without me noticing, which was unlikely considering he was a pretty big guy, and was waiting on me but he wasn't up front either.

Worry creased my forehead as I sat back down at my desk. I picked up his folder to check that he was, in fact, scheduled for today.

The words stared up at me: two o'clock on Wednesday, the thirteenth of September. That was today except now it was 2:20 and Shane still hadn't shown up. I waited another ten minutes and sighed, wondering if he had just rescheduled and I'd forgotten.

Just as I was thinking about seeing if my next patient was maybe early and I could just get started with them, Shane burst through the door, startling the receptionist.

He hustled into the room, stopping in front of me. I noticed that his limp was a little more pronounced than usual and looked up at him, my mouth sliding into a frown.

"Did you run up here?" I asked crossing my arms in a disapproving way. He wasn't scheduled to start running for another two weeks at the least.

Shane grimaced and sat on the nearest table, rubbing absently at his left leg. "Sorry I'm late, Doc. Hospital seems busy today. The parking lot was slammed."

"You didn't answer my question," I said, raising an eyebrow.

Shane grinned a little sheepishly. "Let's call it a jog. I wanted to get at least a little work in today." His stormy blue-grey eyes watched me apprehensively.

Standing up, I stood in front of him, arms still crossed. "And how did that feel?"

By the way he was leaning a little to the right and still rubbing at his leg, I already had a pretty good idea.

But Shane was a Marine. So he shrugged and said, "Didn't hurt too bad." With a grin he pointed at the scar tissue on his exposed calf and bicep. "I've had worse."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help a smile. Shaking my head I said, "No more running for now. Got that?"

Shane smiled back and said, "You got it, Doc."

I went back to my desk and picked up his folder, flipping through my notes from his session last week. Really it was just a way to keep from staring at him too much.

Like I said, you've seen him. You might not like him very much but you can still admit that he's a good looking guy. Well, I don't know, maybe he's just not your kind of attractive. From that expression I'm thinking you like prettier boys.

That's fine. Me, I like that he's got that rough and tumble look. You know, hard jaw, intense eyes, even the fact that his nose is just a little crooked. He said he's broken it once or twice. When I asked him how, he said it was what he got for being a stubborn kid who just couldn't back down from a schoolyard fight, even when the other guy was bigger.

It kind of gives him a tough guy look. That's come in handy once or twice. After all it's kind of why your group is afraid of him right? Don't deny it. I can see it.

But I digress.

Looking back at him, I asked, "How's it feeling today? Don't try to bullshit me."

Shane grinned, then said, "I actually do feel pretty good today."

"And you're still not taking the pain meds except when it's really bothering you at night?"

He shook his head. "Actually haven't been taking them at all. Don't need them. I don't like the fog they put me in, and it hasn't hurt badly enough lately."

I nodded and moved on. If he felt like he didn't need them I wasn't going to press. I wasn't a huge fan of opioids anyway.

"So was there anything you wanted to work on in particular?" I shut his folder, looking at him. We were getting into the stage of treatment where Shane could focus a little more on what he wanted to do instead of what I needed him to do.

He frowned, thinking. "I'd like to get into more strength training stuff today." 

I wanted to stifle a laugh looking at him. Of course he wanted to do strength training. Shane had been doing any strength training he could just as quickly as I would clear him. Looking at his arms and chest, even on his injured side I was impressed with how well he had managed to maintain the muscle.

Shane grimaced. "But first my back and hip have been a little tight lately."

I smiled. "Oh goody. You know what that means."

Shane narrowed his eyes at me and said, "You just enjoy this. Don't you?"

With a shrug I reached over to a nearby drawer, pulling out a few needles and a pair of rubber gloves. "Go ahead and lay down on your stomach. Where on your back?"

Shane reached around to indicate the right side of his back, just under his ribs, near the spine. With a frown, I asked, "Let me guess, it's the right hip that's tight too?"

Shane nodded, chin resting on his folded arms.

"You've been standing with all your weight on your right leg, haven't you?" I tugged his shirt up and pressed gently at the area he had indicated, trying to find where the muscle was tightest.

I knew I'd found it when he shifted slightly, muscles tensing automatically. I massaged the area for a second, then opened one of the needles.

They were actually the same kinds of needles they use for acupuncture, but were used completely differently. In acupuncture, the needles are inserted very shallowly, just into the skin.

What I was doing was a technique called needling (clever I know), in which we took the needles and actually inserted them into the muscle.

We tried to find what are known as trigger points, which are basically just muscle knots, and the needle would act as a mechanism to convince the muscle to relax. It was a relatively new technique and one of my favorites because you got almost instantaneous results.

It did hurt a little though. Muscles are stubborn. They don't always want to relax, even when it's good for them and depending on things like pain threshold, sensitivity and muscle tightness, needling can hurt.

Shane usually handled it pretty well but he didn't like it very much.

"Okay, ready?" I asked, hovering the needle just over his skin.

With a heavy sigh, Shane said, "Do your worst, Doc."

I talked to him as I worked, asking about his brother and whatever else came to mind. For some reason, our conversation somehow wandered over to the attacks Ashley had told me about.

Shane muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a four letter word when I found a particularly tight knot before saying, "I can't believe you haven't been seeing those stories. They've pretty much dominated the news-feeds lately."

"Hm," I said, focusing on what I was doing. He really did have some great muscle striation. "I don't know. I've just been busy. Paperwork is kind of a killer."

I pulled his shirt back down and asked him to sit up and stretch to the side. He did, then sat back up straight. "Way better. Thanks, Raleigh."

Stretching again he said, "I don't know how you could've missed them. Everyone's been talking about it. Some crazy shit from what I've seen."

I asked him the same thing I'd asked Ashley. "Do they know what's causing it?"

Shane shrugged and said, "They think maybe it's some kind of sickness."

I looked at him blankly for a second. Then I asked, "What kind of illness? Haven't people been attacking each other? What kind of sickness would cause that?"

Shane shook his head. "Hey, you're the one with the degree. You tell me."

I bit my lip, thinking through a brief epidemiology class I'd taken a long time ago. It was hazy but I couldn't remember learning about any kind of bacteria or virus that would cause someone to become violent or aggressive like that.

I looked at the clock then to find we only had a few more scheduled minutes, and turned to the front desk to see if my next patient had checked in yet. I frowned when I saw that no one was in the waiting area.

That was weird. Usually we always had someone waiting to be seen, but I shook it off. It would give me a little more time to work with Shane.

After taking a look at his hip, I had him go through a handful of strength exercises and stretches before checking the waiting area again. I was startled when Shane said, "You got someone more interesting than me coming?" He grinned when I looked at him.

"Nope!" I said cheerfully. I looked around at the empty clinic with another frown. I knew that at least one of the other PTs was downstairs working with a patient in the gym, but it was strange that none of the other doctors had patients.

It was getting a little later in the day but usually we were all working with at least one person up until we closed at five. It weirded me out that the clinic was so still and quiet.

Shaking it off, I thought that maybe it was just one of those days where people just didn't want to do anything. You know, just one of those days were you want to do nothing but watch re-runs of your favorite show on Netflix. Just a lazy kind of day.

Looking back, I know I should have payed more attention to that gut feeling that something was off.

I was just about to ask if there was more Shane wanted to do when everyone's phone went off at the exact same time.