I flinched as the saw roared into my cast. I knew the doctor wouldn't hurt me but the shrieking sound caused fear to grip my chest. We were at a checkup at the doctor. It had been eight weeks since my kidnapping and my wrist was ready to be taken out of it's cast. It was feeling much better and I was a little too excited to be able to use it again. The hard material of my cast would be replaced with a brace to be worn most of the time but I considered that a big improvement.

"Alright, Eden," Dr. Reese said. "If you'll follow me, we'll do a CT scan to see how that liver's doing. It should be perfectly fine but it won't hurt to check." I followed the stout man slowly to a room down the hall.

I walked with an even more pronounced limp than I'd had since I was little because of a hip contusion I had received with the twins. It caused spasms of pain to spread throughout my leg. It wasn't serious, I just had to give my body time to heal, but the fact that I couldn't move as much as I wanted to was annoying. Dr. Reese even had to slow his pace to walk beside me. I could tell he was analyzing each step I took to assess how I was healing.

Once the CT scan was complete and we had returned to the room, Dr. Reese turned to me after washing his hands and putting a pair of gloves on. "I'll call in about a week to let you know about the results. I also wanted to check on your new scars. I noticed you're being careful with your back. If the stitches did not dissolve properly, we might need to take them out manually." I had received more than fifteen gashes on my body from the whip. Only some needed stitches. The others only needed ointment and bandages.

I had four places on my body that were stitched. Twenty stitches from my spleen surgery, twelve on my upper thigh, seven on my cheek, and a whopping one hundred and fifteen plus internal stitches in a gash on my back. Yes, the whip did most of my outward damage. The other weapons only bruised me.

My doctor instructed me to pull up my shirt so he could see my back. "Have you been taking care of them properly?" he inquired. I nodded. I had been caring for them every day, moisturizing, cleansing, and keeping a bandage on them to prevent as much scarring as I possibly could.

I took a big breath, preparing myself so I could talk to the man in front of me. Momma nodded at me encouragingly. I still had trouble talking to people I didn't know very well. I had been working very hard to gain confidence.

"I'm pretty sure all of my wounds look good except for the one on my back. It's just so big and it's taking a long time to heal." My voice still sounded very scratchy. I sounded like the lady at the supermarket Momma took me to, and she'd been smoking for years.

"That's common. It might just be trying to completely heal. Is it still hurting you?" He prodded at my back and I flinched. I had found a way to sleep on my back without extreme pain, but hitting it on something or touching it hurt more than I cared to admit. I had even screamed at Noah when he tried to pull me to his side the week before and accidentally scraped over it with his fingers.

My back wound lingered longer than all the other stitched gashes on my body. Most scabbed and were healed within a week or two. Although many of the stitches took a long time to heal, they felt better within a month. My back, though, stayed red and gave me problems all the time.

"My back hurt very bad until I found a way to sleep without laying on it. It sometimes hurts if I even slightly brush it on something." I coughed, worried I'd be admonished for it not healing properly. My doctor had given us very specific instructions on how to care for my wounds and I had done my very best to follow them.

"She definitely favors it," Momma told him. "She sits down slowly so she doesn't pull it. She doesn't like to lean back on it. It's done wonders for her posture but I'd rather have her hunchbacked than with pain."

"I think most of your pain is warranted. It's a pretty huge gash and required a lot of stitches. It'll just take time to heal. I think you've done a great job managing it so far, but stitches on your back can be very difficult to take care of, thus, slowing down the healing process. I'll send you home with some more medication to keep away pain and infection."

"What can I do about scarring, especially on my face," I muttered. I looked to my knees. I hated my scars. Although my family never treated me any different despite my new set of nasty scars, I felt ugly and had a constant reminder of my past. I couldn't look at myself without remembering everything that had happened to me.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that you are doing everything you can for scarring. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid scars aside from moisturizing or avoiding reopening your wounds. There are a few topical creams I could prescribe, but I can't guarantee they will work. For now, you are doing what it takes to help them." I wanted them gone, but I understood there wasn't much I could do.

"Do you have any more questions?" Dr. Reese asked. I told him no. "Well then, that's about all for today." My doctor smiled sweetly at me. "However, can I take a look at your throat? I notice your voice and I'd like to see if I can detect any damage."

I nodded eagerly. I was embarrassed by the way I sounded. It wasn't normal to sound like I had a cold every day of the week. He inspected my throat with his penlight.

"It's as I suspected, Eden. I can't see any damage. You have fragile vocal chords. They weren't used to working for many years, and without exercise, weaken. Your voice will most likely be that way from now on." My shoulders sagged as he continued speaking, but he was quick to balm the words he said. "There is surgery, but it is unnecessary if you don't feel you need it. Your throat isn't hurting, you said, so it's just the way your voice sounds. No further damage is being done at this point."

I was a bit tired of having the constant reminders of my birth mother's torture, but Momma assured me that one day, I would be proud of my scars because they made me who I was. We thanked him and left, our medical related questions answered. We were informed we'd need to come back in six weeks by the lady at the checkout counter.

"I'm glad you're healing, love," Momma observed and kissed my forehead as we walked to the SUV. "You're beautiful, scars and all. And your voice is perfectly fine the way it is."

❃❃❃

"You know, I don't have to go. I could just skip it," Noah considered. I scoffed at his ridiculous statement. I was sitting on the edge of the pool in my bikini with my feet in the water, watching Noah swim laps. He had stopped to look at me, his chest rising and falling in steady breaths. His abs poked out of the water with each inhale. There was nobody more beautiful than Noah.

"That's stupid, Noah," I protested. "This is important to you. I can handle a week without you." I was desperately trying to convince myself what I said was true.

Noah had a football camp coming up. It was in Washington and the farthest that Noah and I had ever been apart. It was important he went so he could get better at what he did best. We spent almost every day together, anyway.

Noah swam to where I sat and rested his crossed arms on my thighs, looking up at me. "But I want you to come with me," he pouted. I brushed my fingers through his wet hair. "We'll be so far apart."

I knew why he was fretting about it. Usually, Noah and I would just be able to walk the few feet it took to find each other when we missed one another. For the past few months, my whole world revolved around Noah. I couldn't even shower or get some homework done without wondering what Noah was doing. I hoped I wasn't imagining that Noah was doing the same thing.

We'd been going out to movies and for dinner on our own for weeks when I'd fully recovered, but we never defined what those events were. Noah certainly never said they were dates. But I'd seen other friends go to the movies before, and none of them were touching their friends the way Noah touched me. He was always almost reverent, holding my hand, kissing my shoulder, pulling me closer to him with his arm around my waist.

"Noah, this is good for you. You get to see a potential college and see how the coaches coach. We can just call each other," I offered, talking to myself more than him.

Noah stared into my eyes as if not paying attention to anything I had said. "You're so beautiful, you know?" he murmured.

His remark caught me off guard. My cheeks flamed and I hid my face in my hair. A nervous giggle bubbled up from inside me. "Stop it," I chided.

"No, Edith. I mean it. You're gorgeous. I'd do anything to have you as my girlfriend," he vowed. His finger drew circles on my upper thigh. Tingles danced through my body. He was being silly. He never talked about me being anything but his best friend.

"Don't play with me," I admonished. We had never talked like this before. He must have known his words were killing me. He had to know how much I loved him, how his words made my heart pound. Everybody else in this family knew how much Noah meant to me. Surely Noah had found out and was trying to embarrass me.

"I've never been more serious in my life," Noah insisted. He grabbed my hand and gently pulled my body into the cool water. I gasped, the heat of my flushed body making goosebumps rise all over my arms and legs. The aroma of amber body soap and a faint tinge of citrus washed over me.I leaned on the edge of the pool wall and Noah positioned himself in front of me, resting both of his hands on the side of the pool, caging me in. I put my hand on his chest, not to push him away but to satisfy my need to touch him. "Sometimes I look at you and wonder how I got so lucky to have someone as wonderful as you in my life. I could die happy if you were actually mine."

He took my breath away. He made me crazy. He got closer to me and nuzzled my neck with his nose, kissing my collarbone. I moaned, embarrassingly enough. "Nobody's dying anytime soon, Noah Winters. I want you to be mine, too," I whispered to him before finding another phrase that worked better. "I am yours."

A smile took over his face. He looked so happy to have me in his arms. I'd never want to be anywhere else. "You have me. God, I've wanted you for years. I've wanted you to be my girl since the third grade. Edith, I want you to be my girlfriend."

I'd dreamed of those words for ages it seemed, but I could have never imagined them sounding so perfect on his lips. Thinking about his lips made me think about how bad I wanted them on mine. "I desperately want to be your girlfriend. I've been following you around hoping you'd notice me for as long as I can remember."

He grinned so big, I could imagine his face splitting. His glacial eyes portrayed a perfect mix of happiness and desire. I'm sure mine mirrored his. "Eden, I've noticed you. Trust me, I've noticed everything about you, just not that you've felt the same way. We should have done this a long time ago," he grumbled. Noah gently caressed my cheek and lifted my chin so my face was angled towards his. "Then it's settled. You're finally my girl."

Our lips met in a kiss I'd always dreamed about but could never have imagined would be so perfect, and all other thoughts evaporated. All that mattered was him, my Noah. He tasted so good, so right, and I kicked myself for not saying anything sooner. If it was possible, I fell even more in love with my best friend.