My first instinct is that I don’t trust them. Do we want them to know there’s potential weakness here? Does this have anything to do with Vivica Young’s precognition skills and the fact that she thinks we might need help from the witches?
Or is all of this a trap? Part of a larger scheme by those witches who have fucked with me, fucked Riley over, and now want Greyson in the ‘family’ fold?
45
Amelia
It’s Thursday night and I’m exhausted. I’m standing in the doorway of the clinic, waiting for Mason, who’s on his way to pick me up.
Thankfully, there haven’t been any further health issues with anyone in the pack since Lorenzo collapsing, but the town is currently under what Mason called a code orange (one step down from a full-on red alert which is reserved for extreme danger), and everyone is staying close to home, and in the village other than for absolutely necessary reasons.
And I’ve now met nearly half the pack. And it’s been a whirlwind. The rest are coming tomorrow, save anyone out of town as myself and Cat along with Cat’s mother-in-law, an elderly lady who still has all her mental faculties and who used to be the pack healer went about examining everyone as they came in, just doing a quick vitals check and questionnaire. Bailey helped too, with the data side of things and it was a continuous flow of people today. Mason dropped me off at dawn before he went for his morning run and now at 7:00 at night, we’re finally packing it in for the night with plans to do the rest tomorrow before I head over to help Ivy get ready for the wedding Saturday.
I’m tired, hungry, I miss Mason, and I’m also invigorated by today’s work. Caring for the people of a whole village? Something about it was just really… satisfying.
I think I could do this. I hate that they’re worried about what’s causing this and I hope it’s nothing serious, but I feel like a little family practice like this could be right up my alley. And I like, a whole lot, that as soon as a second case of a mysterious illness shows up, they are doing their best to take control. This says good things about how this village cares for their people.
I want to help. Though, I don’t know if I’m totally qualified. I mean, I’m a trained nurse with a good couple years of on-the-job experience under my belt, in an ER that sees all sorts of trauma as well as minor injuries, but I’m human and these people are supernatural. I said this to Cat earlier tonight, but she tells me she thinks I can help long term and she’d love to take me under her wing.
She’s overworked and wants more free time, too. She’s heavily into botany and wants more time to devote to it and expects she’ll have even less time to devote to it as the pack population ‘explodes’ (her word) with the council alphas beginning to pair up.
Mason came in at noon to bring us some lunch while I was holding a newborn baby, the baby of Sean and his wife Lorraine. Sean was the one who handed out cigars and shots of celebratory whisky the night I got drunk at Roxy’s. His baby boy, Arsen, stole my heart the minute I laid eyes on him and when Mason walked in and stopped cold, making me freeze mid-coo, seeing the look on his face? It had my insides doing somersaults. Of course this was followed by my insides dropping with dread – that old feeling coming over me, that sadness. Women joke about ovaries doing an egg-drop at a hot guy, but unfortunately for me, my ovaries spend their time alternately dazed, then confused.
His eyes went sharp as he obviously picked up on my vibe and then he kissed me with a fierceness that had Lorraine coming to divest us of the baby.
Mason then whispered against my mouth, “Don’t go there. You don’t need to. We’re gonna have everything we want some way, somehow.”
I wanted to tell him I’m fine. I wanted to say ‘it’s too soon for us to worry about this’ but instead, I nearly burst into tears, feeling lucky, feeling hopeful, feeling concerned gazes upon us. I brightly smiled and handed out stickers to Lorraine’s three-year-old daughter, who in a teeny, sweet-as-pie voice, requested an extra one for her big “bruver” who is at school.
As I’m standing in the doorway now, waiting for Mason and daydreaming about a hot bath and some food, my phone makes a sound that confuses me until I realize it’s my new phone. I’ve left the old one off and in my purse. I haven’t checked it since I read Gloria’s last message and the temptation to just toss it has been real. I do owe my friends some callbacks eventually though. I really don’t want to just vanish from their lives. I’ve got some great friends. And I’ll need to decide what to do about my job at the hospital. I’ll think more about all this next week, I guess.