Next thing she knew, the ambulance turned off it’s lights and pulled into an underground drive. Harsh sodium lights greeted her as the doors opened. She was helped out and then Luc on the gurney was taken out and into the building through huge glass doors. She followed and headed down the hall with the medics and Luc when a nurse stopped her.
“Just wait here ma’am,” the nurse said.
“No, I want to stay with Luc,” Meg countered.
“Ma’am, the doctor is going to have to deal with his wounds and it will be easier on you if you stay here,” the nurse said with more force.
“No, I’m going with him,” Meg said trying to push forth.
The nurse didn’t say anything, she simply grabbed Meg by the arms and walked her backwards into a waiting room. Meg tried to get around her, but it wasn’t working. Next thing she knew, she heard Ginny’s voice.
“Meg! Stop fighting the nurse!” she hollered with sub-vocals ringing under the words. Meg flinched and stopped.
“But… I want to be with Luc,” she said. Despair was coloring her tone of voice as Ginny lead her to the couch and they sat down together.
“You need to let the doctor do his thing. As soon as he can, he’ll let us into see Luc. Plus, if Luc starts to fight the doctor, anyone in there might get hurt. Sometimes when we are in pain, we don’t react well and strike out at people,” Ginny tried to explain.
Meg blinked, trying to understand Ginny as exhaustion and adrenaline let down hit her hard. She swallowed and nodded her head. Ginny wrapped her arms around Meg and held her close. Meg put her head on Ginny’s shoulder. The tears began to flood her eyes and she began to cry softly.
“It will be okay,” Ginny said softly. “Luc’s tough, and we heal fast. Just relax.”
Meg cried for a few more minutes and then ever so slowly fell asleep. Ginny adjusted Meg so that she was asleep across her lap. Meg’s hair fell to one side and Ginny could see the necklace that Luc had picked out for her. Ginny smiled, and hoped that Luc would be alright.
“Don’t you dare die on me Luc,” she thought as they waited for the doctor to finish up with Luc.
*
Ginny had fallen asleep too while waiting for the doctor to report on Luc. She woke as the door opened and the nurse entered.
“Is she still asleep?” the nurse asked quietly.
Ginny nodded.
“He’s out of surgery, and the doctor thinks he’ll be down to talk to you in a little bit,” she said and left as quietly as she’d entered.
Ginny tried to wake up without disturbing Meg. It almost worked. Meg sat up and blinked groggily. She looked at Ginny with a look of confusion. She sat up and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
“Has the doctor been here yet?” Meg asked.
“He’s suppose to be here any minute,” said Ginny.
They sat there trying to wake up as they waited for the doctor. Ginny stood up and stretched while Meg sat.
The door opened a few minutes later and the doctor sat down in the chair next to Meg with a thump.
“First off, he’s fine and sleeping off the anesthetic. Thank you for being such a quick thinker and apparently a race car driver,” said the doctor with a tired smile on his face.
“Can we go and see him?” asked Meg.
“As soon as we get done talking here,” he said. “Now, the bear did a lot of damage to his neck and shoulder. Missed the artery and veins by centimeters. His collar bone is broken and I had to rebuild his rotator cuff and most of the shoulder. However, he will heal. There will be scars, but he is alive. Hardest part will be keeping him from shifting.”
“Why don’t you just keep him sedated?” Ginny asked.
“Well, I could do that, but that leads to other problems as you know,” said the doctor.
“What kind of problems?” asked Meg.
“Sometimes shifters have trouble with the anesthetics. Just like old people hear or see dogs or cats, shifters sometimes do the same thing. It is like their four legged side tries to take over. We have to use heavier doses than for humans too and after too many doses they become hypersensitive to the drugs. Luc hasn’t had too many surgeries or serious injuries, so he may be okay. On the other hand, his dad had terrible issues. So, I am loath to dose him anymore than I have to.
“And why do we need to keep him from shifting? I thought you healed better when you shifted,” said Meg.
“We do. Right now, Luc is in four legged form. What I don’t want is for him to shift back to human form, said the doctor. He was trying to be patient with Meg. He’d only learned a few minutes before he came to see the women that Meg was human and rather new to the whole shifter world.
“Oh, said Meg who realized that there was so much she didn’t know about Luc. “Is me visiting him going to make him want to shift back?” she asked.
“We don’t know. How long have you been mated?” asked the doctor.
“Um, he just gave me this,” she said as she touched the necklace. “But, I’ve known him for a couple of months and we’ve been living together most of that time.”
“Plus with the bear attack, he will probably fret if he doesn’t smell she’s okay,” added Ginny.
“There is that,” added the doctor. “By the way, my name is Jeff. Before you ask, yes, I shift and I’m a doctor and a veterinarian.”
“Oh, I … I didn’t even think about that. I guess it would be helpful to be both,” said Meg.
“It was really difficult to be honest. Especially as my wolfish side kept seeing all the patients as prey,” said Jeff.
“Ewww!” said Ginny.
The nurse walked in and gestured towards Jeff. “Sir, Luc is whining.”
“We’ll be right there,” said Jeff and turned back to the women. “He probably smells you and is fretting. Let’s go see him and see how he reacts.”