It took about a week for the shiner to go away for good. Fred was extremely attentive and doing his best to stay in Meghan’s good graces. It probably didn’t help that he kept getting ribbed all during the week of teacher’s training.

Meghan had taken off the day after the accident, as she was down to just one functioning eye, but the next had returned to working on the store room. She finished inventory there, inventoried the rest of the classroom, and got supplies ordered. Now she was spending her free time between meetings getting supplies put away.

Fred brought her another box and cut it open with his pocket knife. “Where do you want these, Meghan?”

She looked over at the box’s contents. “IV supplies go in the cabinet that’s second to the right on the left side.”

Fred nodded and carried the box closer to the cabinet to start putting stuff away. “Are you ready for classes to start next week?”

Meghan nodded. “Yes. You?”

Fred chuckled. “About as ready as I’ll ever be. Three classes starting in one week is sometimes a little much.” He unpacked the rest of the box and closed the cabinet door. “So when do you go back to the doctor again?”

Meghan smiled at him, amused. “Trying to get rid of me, or trying to keep me here so I can teach your medic class for you?” She pulled over another box and opened it.

Fred eyeballed the last few boxes to unpack and selected another one. “Oh, keep you around, definitely. Gotta keep an eye on you so you don’t get yourself in more trouble.”

“Fred! I oughta… ugh!” Meghan up-played her reaction considerably for his benefit. He grinned. “Well, if you must know, I have an appointment next week on Friday with the endocrinologist. Should find out then when he’ll clear me to go back on the truck.”

“You’ve been doing good when not getting beaned with a backboard,” Fred replied. Meghan laughed. “And as much as Mark and I would love to have you helping teach all the classes, I know how much you want to get back to EMS calls. So I’ll take you as long as I can, and pester you to come help me on your days off.”

Meghan smiled. “You might have to sweeten the pot a bit, but I’ll do what I can.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s almost noon. How many more boxes do we have to go?”

Fred glanced at the pile. “Looks like six more. Wanna go grab some lunch? We can finish up afterward.”

She broke down the box she had just emptied and added it to the stack for the dumpster. “Sounds like a plan to me! Anywhere in particular?”

“How about that new Mexican place? Lunches are pretty quick to come out.” Fred added his collapsed box to the stack and headed to the office for his keys. “C’mon, I’ll drive.”

Meghan nodded, grabbed her purse, and they headed for the parking lot.