Gary considered the Q-tip. “It’s possible we could get away with just the one,” he said.

“Which one?” Archie asked quickly.

“Do you have a preference?” Gary asked.

Archie raised an eyebrow. Wasn’t it obvious?

“Are you concerned about STDs?” Gary asked.

“Right now?” Archie said. He had never been less concerned about STDs. “Not at all.”

Gary smiled. “Then I’ll just swab your penis, then,” he said pleasantly.

“Fine,” Archie said, relieved. He lifted his hands to his hips and looked over Gary’s shoulder at the wall.

Gary put the penlight back in his mouth and lowered out of Archie’s sight. Archie kept his eyes focused dead ahead, cringing as the dry fuzzy end of the Q-tip tickled lightly along the shaft and then around the tip of his penis. It was over quickly. Gary did it expertly, like he swabbed penises thirty times a day. Archie exhaled the breath he had been holding and Gary dropped the Q-tip into a plastic vial.

“Does it ever not work?” Archie asked.

“What?” Gary asked, looking up.

“You threatened to jam the stick up my dick so I’d agree to the swab,” Archie said.

Gary lowered his head, but Archie could see he was smiling. “You could have refused.”

“But I didn’t,” Archie said.

“But you didn’t,” Gary said, still smiling. He picked up his pen and started writing something on the label of the plastic vial. “You can put on your pants now,” he said, not looking up.

Archie stepped off the plastic sheeting, picked up his underwear off the bed and pulled them on, and did the same with his pants. He was starting to put on his shirt when Gary stopped him.

“Not so fast,” Gary said. “I still need a blood draw.”

Archie tossed the button-down aside and sat on the edge of the bed, his bare feet on the floor.

Gary took a seat next to him and crossed Archie’s forearm over his knees. He tied a urine-yellow rubber tourniquet around Archie’s upper arm, letting it snap tightly into place, and then wiped the inside of Archie’s elbow with iodine. “You have nice veins,” Gary said.

“I’ve been told that before,” Archie said.

Gary tossed the used cotton ball in a small orange biohazard bag and then produced a hypodermic syringe from his kit. He took the cap off the needle.

“What will they test for?” Archie asked.

“I expect they’ll run a general tox screen as well as some tests for more specific drugs along the line of what she’s used in the past,” Gary said.