I had an uneventful night and a decent sleep, waking up around 10 am, very unusual for me. Doc wasn’t in the bed when I awoke. I put my clothes on and hobbled down the stairs. My feet were better than they were the night before, but still pretty sore. Doc heard me coming down the stairs and was waiting at the bottom with my wheelchair. I did not give him a hard time and got in without argument after I kissed him good morning. I was feeling mentally drained from the events of the day before.

He wheeled me to the kitchen, helped me out of the wheelchair and into a chair, then got me a cup of coffee. He had pulled the table out from the wall to make a 4th place setting. Alex and Deanna were up and drinking the nectar of the gods. They had already had breakfast.

“What would you like to eat, hon?” he asked. “There’s some batter left if you want pancakes.”

“I’d love a couple, please.” Of course, he’d made the batter from scratch. Doc wouldn’t be caught dead using a store bought mix.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Alex asked me.

“My feet are a bit better.”

“How about emotionally?”

“I’m tired, Alex. Tired of this whole situation. I need something good to happen.”

“Julian invited Deanna and I to come for a barbecue tomorrow. Karen and her family will be here, too. We’ll have a good time with no negative talk or emotions, okay?”

“Sounds good to me, Alex.”

“I’ll talk to you after you have your breakfast.” Doc set my pancakes down in front of me. They were delicious, as is all of his cooking.

After I ate, Alex and I went to the tv room with a coffee. He closed the door and helped me transfer to the easy chair. Somehow, that had become Doc’s chair, though he often sits with me on the sofa when we watch tv together.

I pushed the chair into the reclining position so that my feet would be elevated. It helped with the pain and swelling. Doc had given me a couple pain pills with my breakfast. Alex sat down on the sofa on the end closest to me. “Say anything you want to me”, he said. “Do you want to talk about yesterday?”

“Is there anything to talk about?” I asked.

“There should be plenty. Someone tried to kidnap you. It was very stressful for you.”

“And then I acted like a dork afterward.”

“You mean by hiding in the closet?” I nodded. “That seems to be how you handle things that are extremely hard on you emotionally. Everyone handles stress differently. At least Julian and I got you out of there without an Ativan injection. That is progress.”

“I suppose.”

“It sounds like you fought hard when they tried to take you.”

“If I didn’t have the gun, they’d have got me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Two of them against me, with two bad feet. No way could I have fought both of them off. Actually, I wonder why the second one didn’t come up to the house the first time. I don’t know where he was - I wasn’t paying attention to anything but the one I was fighting off.”

“That *is* strange, Meredith. Perhaps he was acting as a look out in case anyone came about.”

“Could be. I also wonder why they didn’t have guns.”

“Another good question. Maybe they have records and can’t legally acquire firearms.”

“It’s not that hard to get them on the black market, from what I hear.”

“Julian’s description of them was that they were young. Perhaps too inexperienced to know how. Maybe the police will figure it out.”

“Alex, Julian and I had just gotten back to our wonderful life together - or so it seems. I know it’s been a few months but it’s really not that long since we came home in the spring and settled back into our lives. And now this! I don’t know if I will ever feel safe again!”

“Meredith, you said that last spring when you were in the hospital. And you did get to feeling safe, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but it took awhile. I didn’t always show it, but for a long time, every little noise in the house would make me jump.”

“Why don’t you feel safe now? It looks like the men that tried to kidnap you are dead. If Jane is involved, she may not find out right away.”

“Depending on how much she’s paying attention to the news. Though she may be watching it to see if there’s anything about me being kidnapped. If she sent these guys, she‘ll send someone else to do the job right. I don‘t know how she finds so many people to help her.”

“When one of the detectives calls you, ask him to try to find out if she has access to news in the holding facility. I think they were keeping a close eye on her.”

“I will, Alex. By the way, before you and Deanna go home, could you please have a talk with Julian?”

“Sure. Any particular reason why?”

“He is feeling responsible for this.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes. When we went to bed last night, he gave me my shots, which made me drowsy real fast. We almost always sleep in the spoon position, with Julian behind me. We said good night and I was pretty far out of it, but I remember him saying ‘This is all my fault. I’m so sorry’.”

Alex sighed. “We’ve made so much progress on that guilt. Damn. Of course I will talk to him. Can I tell him what you told me?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

Just then, his phone rang. He looked at the display “It’s the Williams Lake police. I better answer.”

“No problem, Alex. Take your time with the call.”

It was a short call. Before he hung up, he said “We’ll be there as soon as possible.”

“What’s wrong, Alex. You’re as white as a ghost.”

“Our house is on fire.”

“Oh my God, Alex! Is it bad?”

“According to the police officer, yes.”

“You and Deanna go! Do you want Julian or I to drive you?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m okay to drive.” He got up and left the room. I hobbled out to my wheelchair and wheeled myself to the kitchen.

“I’ll get our things from upstairs”, Deanna said.

“Don’t worry about them”, I told her. “We’ll get them to you. And leave Heidi here until you know what‘s going on. She‘ll be fine with us.”

“Oh, thank you, Meredith. I’m sure she will be better off here until we get things figured out.”

They hurried out the door and were on their way. Doc and I sat at the table with another coffee. Deanna had helped him clean up and the dishwasher was running. “Doc”, I said to him, “They are going to need a place to stay. I didn’t want to say anything to them until I’d talked to you, but what do you think about having them stay here?”

“Absolutely, hon. I was going to suggest it.”

“Looks like we’re on the same page.”

“I’ll call Deanna’s phone since Alex is driving.” He put it on speaker so I could tell them I was with Doc on the offer of accommodation.

“We don’t want to trouble you”, Deanna said.

“It’s no trouble”, I told her. “In fact, we’d love to have you stay here. We have more than enough room.”

“What do you think, Alex?” Deanna had put her phone on speaker, too.

“I’m okay with it if you are, Deanna.”

“It sounds like it’s settled”, Doc said. “You do what you need to do at home, give us a call when you can to let us know what’s going on.”

“Well, this will be weird”, I said to him after he’d ended the call.

“What, hon?”

“Having our therapist living with us.”

He laughed. “It *will* be strange.”

“Though we were good friends with both of them before Alex became our shrink. That helps. I won’t feel like he’s analyzing my every move. Hey Doc, you haven’t had a shower since yesterday.”

“I showered this morning, down here. I was the first one up.”

“Oh. Still, you didn’t shower after being in the barn last night. You are making progress, honey.”

“Progress on what, Meredith?”

“On your need to shower after being in the barn.”

“I was only out there to lock it up, hon. Besides, I was so worried about you, it didn’t occur to me to shower.” He was silent a moment. “Meredith, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to be out there for anything other than something quick like that without needing to shower when I get back in the house.”

“I know, Doc. I love you and accept that you will probably never change about some things. Come here and give me a hug, sweetheart.” He got up from his chair and knelt on the floor to hug me.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Meredith. I love you so much.”

I took his face in my hands. “That feeling is quite mutual.” I kissed him passionately. He returned the kiss. I could feel myself getting aroused. I ran my hands over his chest as we kissed, making my way down. He read my mood and picked me up and carried me down the hall to the bedroom.

“This might be our last chance for a while, hon”, he said as he lay me on the bed.

“You think having guests is going to stop us, Doc?”

“Well, maybe not.”

“Definitely not. Though I guess we can’t swing from the rafters or scream at the top of our lungs.”

“It’s YOU who does that, hon.”

“You do that to me, Julian.” He was kneeling over me and I took his face in my hands again and kissed him. I began unbuttoning his shirt. When I got down to his pants, I undid his belt and pulled the zipper down. I reached my hand inside and felt his hardness. “My, oh my, Doc. There seems to be a bulge here.”

“You do that to me, hon.”

When we were spent, he lay on top of me for a few minutes. I caressed his head and ran my fingers through his hair. He rolled off me and put his arm around me. I lay my head on his chest.

Suddenly, something occurred to me and I started giggling. “What’s that about?” Doc asked.

“I just realized that the cop at the back probably heard us.” The police officers that were here overnight had been replaced with the day shift at 7 am.

Doc gasped. “Oh my God. That’s not funny, Meredith. It’s very embarrassing.”

“Why, Doc? Because you enjoy a healthy sex life with the woman you are going to marry?”

We were interrupted by Doc’s phone ringing. He jumped off the bed and got his pants, trying to get to the phone before it went to voice mail. “Hi Alex”, he answered, a bit out of breath and sat down on the edge of the bed.

I heard the back door open and close. Oh, damn, I thought. “Karen, don’t come in. We’re both naked!” I hollered out.

“Oh, I’m sorry”, a male voice answered. The cop. I’d forgotten about him.

“I’ll be right there”, I called out to him as I reached for my pants. I got into them, pulled my blouse over my head and hobbled out to go see what he wanted, closing the bedroom door behind me. My crutches and the wheelchair were in the kitchen and Doc was on the phone with Alex.

“There’s a lady here to see you”, the cop said. “She says she’s your neighbour but she doesn’t have any ID on her.” Karen was standing behind him.

“That’s my best friend, Karen”, I told him. “She’s fine to come in.”

“Ok, but I will need ID from her before my shift is over. If I don’t log it, I’ll get in trouble.”

“I’ll bring it over as soon as I go home”, Karen told him. We went to the kitchen and I went to put another pot of coffee on. “Let me do that”, my bestie said. “I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be walking around.”

“You’re right about that, but my wheelchair and crutches are in here.”

“How did you get to the bedroom?”

“Doc carried me. We were getting a bit … uh … amorous here in the kitchen.”

“Ah, gotcha.”

We sat down at the table to talk. “What’s going on here, with a cop at your back door?”

“There’s one at the front door, too.” I told her what happened the day before.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice anything when I came to do the feeding.”

“It was probably before the cops got here.”

“I *was* earlier than I usually am. I wish I’d known, though, I’d have come in.”

“It’s okay, Karen. Alex and Deanna were with me until Doc got home.”

Speak of the devil, Doc chose that moment to come into the kitchen. He got a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.

“What’s the news with Alex?” I asked him. I turned to Karen and said “He got a call this morning that their house is on fire.”

“Oh my goodness”, she replied.

“Alex said that there’s extensive damage, but they hope to be able to get some of their possessions out. He said it’s unlivable, though. Deanna is pretty upset, he‘s been trying to calm her down. He said that there’s a real possibility that an ex patient of his started it. Someone who has a grudge against him. He wanted us to know that if that’s the case and the guy finds out where they are staying, he might go after them there. So that we could back out if we wanted.”

“No, Doc. I want them to come here. Where else would they go? To a hotel? That’s not what they need, they need to be in a home environment with people supporting them. As long as they are okay with the risk that someone connected to Jane will come here.”

“I agree, hon. I’ll call him back and tell him.” When he got off the phone, he said “They will be here in a while. Alex is going to take Deanna for lunch and talk to her some more. Then they are going to see what’s open on Sundays and try to get some clothes since all they have is what they are wearing and the clothes they were wearing yesterday, which they left here.”

“Thank God they spent the night here, Doc.”

“Yes, hon. You being so freaked out might have saved their lives.”

“Don’t say that, Doc.”

“Why not?”

“Because that leads to Jane being responsible for me being so freaked out.” He looked at me soberly.

“Jane may have saved their lives”, he said in a very quiet voice.

“Time for a subject change, Doc. I can’t handle where this is going.”

“Okay, hon. Let’s talk about the locks on our doors.”

“What about them?”

“I think we need more, especially on the back doors.”

“No argument from me, Doc. Let’s look into it, though we can’t do anything until Tuesday and we have to meet with the Crown in the morning, so it will have to be in the afternoon.”

“I’ll make some calls Tuesday afternoon, hon.”

“Kevin knows a guy who’s in the lock business. Let me see if he can call him and get some info”, Karen said to us. “I have to get going, I’ll come back with my ID to show that cop.”

Doc got up and took our mugs to the sink. “Ready for lunch, Meredith?” he asked. “There’s lots of leftovers from last night’s dinner.”

“Maybe we should save them for supper.”

“There’s not enough for four of us, hon.”

“What will we have then?”

“There’s a big lasagne in the freezer, I was thinking of taking that out. I don’t feel like cooking tonight as I’ll be making salads and cooking chili this afternoon for tomorrow.” Normally, it would be too warm for chili on Labour Day, but this year we were having an unseasonably cool streak and the forecast was for it to continue. “I would have started it this morning, but I didn’t know we’d be having guests overnight.”

After lunch, I was feeling really tired. “Doc, do you need help with anything?”

“No, Meredith. You are to be off your feet, remember?”

“I think I’ll go lie down for a while.”

“Do it in the bedroom down here, hon. I only want you going up and down the stairs once a day. I‘d prefer not at all but you insist on sleeping up there at night.”

“Okay, Doc.”

“Let me change the bedding first.”

“Why, Doc?”

“Remember what we did on it earlier?”

“Oh, yeah.” I giggled.

Doc changed the bed and I lay down on it. He pulled the afghan at the foot of the bed up over me and bent down to give me a kiss. “Have a good rest, hon. You need it.”

I didn’t know if I’d actually fall asleep, but I did almost right away. When I awoke, it was almost 6:00. Oh geez, I’ll never get to sleep tonight, I thought. I could hear voices in the kitchen. I got up and used my crutches to get to the bathroom, since the wheelchair wouldn’t get through the doorway. When I was finished, I made my way to the kitchen. Doc was at the counter, Alex and Deanna were at the table.

Doc turned around and saw me. “Meredith!” he exclaimed. “You should be in your wheelchair!”

“I had to pee, it won’t fit through the doorway.” He leaned down to give me a kiss.

“You could have used it to get out here.”

“I’m okay, Doc.” I went over to the table and said to our guests “I’m so sorry about your house.” I propped my crutches against the table and leaned down to give Deanna a hug. “How are you doing?” I asked her.

“Better than I was”, she replied. “Alex got me to settle down.”

“You have a good man there”, I told her. I hobbled over to Alex and he stood up to hug me.

“You should be off your feet, you know”, he said.

“I know. But I’m going to sit down.” I addressed both of them. “You two can stay as long as you need to. It’s no imposition on us at all.”

“You have court coming up”, Deanna said. “You don’t need us underfoot.”

“You won’t be underfoot, Deanna”, I said as I sat down. Doc set a cup of coffee in front of me and refilled the mugs of our guests.

“It’s decaf, hon. You don’t need caffeine after that long nap you had.”

“I agree, Doc. I doubt I’ll sleep much tonight.”

“You can have that sedative again tonight, Meredith”, Alex said. “In fact, I recommend it. You need your sleep, I don’t want you tossing and turning or staying up half the night.”

I felt like rolling my eyes, but didn’t want to give him a hard time as he was going through hell right now. “Thanks, Alex. So, what’s the scoop on your house?”

“It’s pretty badly damaged”, he replied. “They won’t let us in to get anything. What isn’t burned is probably smoke damaged.”

“Doc said you think a patient or former patient might have been behind it?”

“A former patient. Someone who wanted a “get out of jail free card” from me.” I gave him a puzzled look. “They wanted me to certify them mentally ill to get a reduced sentence on some crimes. That’s all I can tell you without violating patient confidentiality. The police are looking into it and trying to track him down.”

“Do they know *how* it started?”

“The fire marshall thinks it was a Molotov cocktail.”

“Oh geez, Alex.”

“We will be okay, Meredith. We have insurance and nobody was hurt or … worse. I hate to say this, but it‘s thanks to you that we weren‘t there last night. If you hadn‘t been so upset after almost being kidnapped, we‘d have been at home and very well might have died.”

I did not want to go down that line of thinking again, so I said “I’m just glad that both of you - and Heidi - are okay.”

“Is everyone ready for supper?” Doc asked. I knew he was trying to change the subject for my sake.

“I’ll help you set the table”, Deanna said to him.

“We’ll eat in the dining room”, Doc replied.

“We’re fine to eat here in the kitchen, Julian”, Alex said.

“We eat supper in the dining room most of the time, especially when we have company.”

“Okay, Julian, but please don’t think of us as company.”

“We won’t”, I said to him. “We’ll put you to work doing chores.” I winked at him to show I was teasing. Doc’s face had a horrified look on it.

“Meredith! We will not!”

“Please do”, Deanna said to him. “We want to pull our weight.” She got up and went to the cupboards and took some plates out. Alex followed her and helped set up the dining room table.

Doc served the lasagne he’d defrosted and heated up, as well as what was left of the previous night’s meal. Afterward, Alex and Deanna offered to help him clean up but he said no, to go rest. They’d had a hard day. They asked if we minded if they retired for the night and both of us said no. They needed an early night.

Doc put as much as he could into the dishwasher and left the pots for morning. “I don’t want to make noise and disturb them”, he explained. “We can run the dishwasher in the morning, too.” I felt that he was making some progress in being able to leave the dishes like that, but it was mostly because he was being considerate of our guests.

He and I took our coffee into the tv room to relax for a bit. It was raining and it was coming down hard. It was way too cool for this time of year. I bet we’ll get snow early, I thought. Doc started a fire in the fireplace. He sat in the easy chair and turned on the tv. It was Sunday night, which meant Fear the Walking Dead would be on in an hour. Julian didn’t watch it, but I did. He says he doesn’t know how I can watch zombie shows but I love them. I offered to tape it but he said no, he’d read a medical journal while it was on. He can read with any kind of noise going on in the background.

I found a nature show to watch until 9 and Doc came over to the sofa and sat next to me. He doesn’t mind nature shows - in fact, I think he enjoys them. He turned himself sideways and I leaned back onto his chest. He put his arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder. We still watch tv sitting like that.

We were both engrossed in the show when I heard a scratching at the window, then a voice saying “Shoo! Go!” WTF, I thought. I started to get up, but Doc stopped me. “I’ll check it out, hon.” He went over to the window and opened it.

“It’s just me, Dr Richards”, the cop at the door said. “There was a squirrel up on the ledge scratching at the window with it’s paw.”

“Scruffy!” I yelled as I got up from the sofa and went to the window.

“Meredith! Get off your feet!”

“Oh, settle down, Doc! This might be Scruffy!” Scruffy was a squirrel that had attached herself to me about three years before. She had a deformed front paw and the first time I saw her, she had patches of fur missing, which is why I called her “Scruffy” - because she looked … well … scruffy. I took pictures of her bald patches and showed Steve, who said it was a type of mange. He gave me some medication to put in squirrel food and I put a dish out on the front porch every day, sitting far enough away from it that she would come and eat, but close enough that other squirrels kept their distance and didn’t take her food. That did the trick and her fur grew back in.

Over time, she became friendly enough that she would take a nut out of my hand but I didn’t try to pet her. I did, however, talk to her all the time. She would come running any time she’d hear my voice - unless someone was with me. One day when I was sitting on the porch swing, she crawled up my pant leg and into my lap, then looked at me as if to say “well?” I had already given her some nuts. I held my hand out to her and she sniffed it, then rubbed her head on it. I took that as an invitation to touch her, so I petted her for a while.

One evening, when it was raining hard, she scratched at the window. I opened it and she came in. She was soaking wet so I got a towel and dried her off. She spent the night in the house and left in the morning. After that, she would come in whenever she didn’t like the weather - rain, snow or cold. I put a litter box in the bathroom on each floor and she instinctively knew to use it. She never once went anywhere else in the house.

I bought 3 small fake trees and made a nest to put on each one to mimic as close as I could her natural sleeping conditions, though I cut up an old blanket and layered the pieces in the bottom of each nest to make it more comfortable for her. One tree went in the tv room, one in the downstairs bedroom and one in the master bedroom. She slept in whatever room I was in or whatever one was closest to where I was in the house at the time. She seemed to love her nests.

Jessie thought the squirrel was something to chase around the house. And they had great fun, I think Scruffy liked it, too. But if she wasn’t in the mood and Jessie got too close, she had a sound she made to warn the dog. Jessie knew to back off. Some evenings, Scruffy would curl up with Jessie on the sofa for a while.

When Doc started coming around, Scruffy made herself scarce. She trusted me, but nobody else. She would come around during the week that first summer that Doc and I started spending time together, but not on the weekends when he was here. She disappeared when he started staying here every night. I hadn’t known if she’d gotten killed by a car or a predator or if she had found new territory.

So, this night, when I heard the police officer say a squirrel had been at the window, I was hopeful it was her. But if it was, I thought, that meant something was wrong. She would never have come on the porch with a stranger - the cop - standing on it.

I got my crutches and went out to the porch, asking Doc to stay inside. I called for Scruffy. She didn’t come at first, so I asked the cop to move to the other end of the porch for a few minutes. He was nice enough to comply. Finally, the squirrel came up the steps. She was walking oddly, favouring one of her hind feet. She was able to walk on her deformed paw - it turned inward and she just walked on the other side of it. Fortunately for her as I doubt she would have survived an injury to her hind leg if she couldn’t walk on 3 feet. A predator would have got her. I bent down and picked her up and put her on my shoulder. Then I hobbled back into the house, with Scruffy hanging on. She seemed to sense I couldn’t walk well. Doc had a fit when I brought her in.

“You aren’t bringing that squirrel inside, Meredith!”

“Yes, I am, Julian.” I looked at him defiantly. He knew by my look and the fact that I did not call him ‘Doc’ that I was serious and would not back down. I sometimes call him Julian but when I do it while standing firm on something, he knows I mean business.

He sighed. “Well, it’s not sleeping in our bedroom!”

“SHE will if that’s where she wants to sleep. Don’t worry, she doesn’t sleep on the bed. Now, will you please get me a couple old towels from the linen closet? She‘s soaking wet. I want to get her dried off and look at her leg. I think she‘s injured.”

I took Scruffy into the tv room and sat down in the chair. Doc came with the towels and Scruffy made a noise at him, in her “stay away” voice. “It’s okay, Scruffy”, I said. “Doc won’t hurt you. He’s a big softie.” Jessie, recognizing Scruffy’s tone, made a wide berth and went around the other end of the coffee table to get on the sofa. Fortunately, Heidi was upstairs with Alex and Deanna.

I looked at her leg. It was swollen and she pulled it away when I touched it. I feared a break. I gently rubbed her down with the towel, staying away from her leg and contemplated what to do. I decided to call Steve’s answering service and talk to whoever was on call from his clinic that night. Before I could do that, Alex came downstairs.

“I hope we didn’t disturb you”, I said to him. Scruffy scooted off my lap and hid at the back of the seat between it and my body. She seemed to sense Doc was close to me and had probably watched him from the trees, but Alex was a total stranger.

“Don’t worry about it, Meredith. What’s going on?”

I told him about Scruffy appearing - he knew about her - and of discovering her sore leg. “Let me call Steve”, he said. “My phone is upstairs, can I use your house phone?”

“Of course, but is he on call tonight?”

“I don’t think so but I’ll get some advice and see if he thinks the vet on call should see the squirrel tonight.” When he got off the phone, he said that Steve wanted me to take Scruffy in to his clinic for x-rays. He wasn’t on call but the vet that was was out on a farm emergency.

“I can’t believe I’m about to drive a squirrel in to the vet at this hour on a Sunday night”, Doc complained as we got ready to go.

“You don’t have to, Doc. I can take her in.”

“You can’t drive with a broken foot.”

“I can take her”, Alex offered.

“Thanks, Alex but I’ll take her. You stay here with Deanna. She needs you.”

I got Doc to get the cat carrier from the back porch to put Scruffy in. I had bought it to use for the occasional time I had to take a barn cat in to the vet. I disinfect it after each use. Julian carried it out to the car, he wasn’t crazy about doing so but I couldn’t carry it and walk on crutches. I reassured him that Scruffy could not bite him from inside the carrier. My heart went out to the poor squirrel - she had to be in immense pain to put aside her fear of other humans and come to me for help.

Steve sedated her and x-rayed her leg. As I’d feared, it was broken. My vet gave me two options to treat it - set it and put a small cast on or surgery to pin it. “She will have to be in the house for a few weeks whichever way you decide to go. Even though it is surgery, I recommend the pins, if you are willing to spend the money on it. The leg will heal better that way.”

“Steve, you know money isn’t an issue - not even for a wild squirrel. Or should I say semi-wild. Do the pins.”

“Okay, you and Julian go home, I’ll call you when I’m done and let you know how it went. I’m going to call in one of my assistants who lives close to here and is on call. I’d rather not wait until tomorrow to do it. How late can I call?”

“Any time, Steve. I don’t care what time it is, just call when you are finished.”

Doc and I talked on the way home. “I guess I have no choice but to get used to a squirrel in the house.”

“It’s not that bad, Doc. She does her business in a litter box. She hasn’t once had an accident. And she sleeps in the tree in the bedroom. I may have to lower the nest a bit so I can reach to put her in it. Don’t worry, she won’t be sleeping in the bed. Too risky - she could get rolled on. Jessie is big enough to yelp loudly if one of us rolled onto her. She’d move real fast.”

“Well, that is a relief.”

“Should I tell you that she likes to come on the bed with me for a bit when she gets up in the morning?” Doc groaned.

“Meredith, what if she has parasites?”

“She doesn’t. I checked her over. And I give her flea prevention treatment when she is coming around. I’ll do it when I bring her home.”

“Flea prevention for squirrels?”

“It’s the same stuff they use for cats. It’s similar to what I give Jessie. You’ve seen me squeeze it onto her skin between her shoulder blades once a month from spring to fall.”

“Okay, there’s another relief. What about the possibility of rabies?”

“Squirrels don’t tend to get rabies. They don’t even consider a bite from a squirrel a rabies risk, unless the animal was acting weirdly - you can verify that for yourself with the doctors in the ER or with Public Health. We are safe, but you have to remember she is a wild animal so learn to read her moods and signs to stay away. She’s never bitten me.”

“She trusts you.”

“Yes, but I also respect her. Unless I have to - like tonight - I leave her alone if she’s signalling to stay away. Jessie knows, too. She got a swipe across the face with her claws once and that was enough to teach her. You grew to love Jessie and you‘ll grow to love Scruffy. Don‘t give me that look, Doc. I know you have gotten attached to my dog.”

Steve called just after 1 am. We were in bed, but I wasn’t asleep. “The operation is finished”, he said to me “She came through just fine and is awake now. I’ve given her some pain medicine and she’ll probably sleep through the night. I will call you in the morning and let you know if you can pick her up in the afternoon. Tell Alex I’ll call him later in the morning.” Alex had talked to his brother earlier and told him about the fire.

“Now, will you go to sleep or do you want that sedative?” Doc asked. I wouldn’t take it earlier, I wanted to be awake when Steve called.

“I’d like the sedative, please, honey. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep without it.”

Julian got up and got the sedative ready. I turned onto my side and he gave me the shot. After disposing of the syringe and packaging, he got back into bed. We both fell asleep very quickly. It had been an eventful day and evening. The only good thing was that I hadn’t thought about court all day.