Author's note: This was written well before the current situation we find ourselves in in 2020.

--------------------------

“Don’t worry about it, Karen”, I said into the phone. “You just take care of yourself and your family and get well soon. I can take care of the horses.” I ended the call and sighed. My bestie had just called to say that everyone in her family was sick with the flu or something and she couldn’t come over today to do the chores. I wasn’t supposed to be on my feet, but there was nobody else to do them. Nasser, the teen boy who did them on Sundays, would be in school, so I couldn’t call him.

Doc was in Los Angeles giving a presentation at an OB/GYN conference. Nick, one of the doctors at his clinic, was supposed to do it, but he was sick. So was the 3rd ob/gyn, Luca, which left Doc. He had to go on extremely short notice. There must be something going around, I thought as I headed out the back door and to the barn on my crutches. I didn’t know how I was going to manage, but I had no choice. The horses needed to be fed and their stalls needed to be cleaned. Fortunately, they were well used to the routine and I didn’t need to lead them through the barn to the door to the pasture after they were finished their grain. I could just open their stall doors and they would head out. At least there were only 4 stalls to clean …. Actually, the equivalent of 5 if you counted the foaling stall as 2.

It took me longer to muck the stalls than it normally would, as I had to take a lot of breaks to rest my feet. Doc is going to kill me when he finds out, I thought. I finally finished and headed back to the house and a shower. I really wanted a bath, but was afraid I’d never manage to get myself up and out of the tub. After my shower, I took a couple of my pain pills and lay down in the ground floor bedroom for a nap. I should have had lunch, but was in too much pain to make it.

When I woke up, it was almost 5pm. Holy crap, I thought, I slept for over 3 hours! I had to get up and go bring the horses in and give them their evening grain. I had put hay in their stalls after doing them to save a step later. It hurt like hell being on my feet and I selfishly hoped Karen would be feeling better by tomorrow.

Back in the house, I looked in the freezer for something to eat. Before Doc, I would have had some store-bought frozen dinners for times like this, when I didn’t want to cook. He was disgusted when he saw them and insisted on throwing them away. “I don’t know how you can eat that crap”, he’d said to me. To his credit, he had replaced them with meals he’d cooked. He would freeze things in a variety of number of servings including some singles for when he wasn’t here and I was alone. I chose a container of chili and put it in the microwave to thaw and heat up. While I was waiting, I put my breakfast dishes in the dishwasher and wiped the table and counters down. Doc would have a fit if he came home and everything was a mess. He’d told me to have Karen do some inside chores for me and said he’d pay her extra for it.

When the chili was heated up, I sat down to eat with my phone beside my bowl. Doc hadn’t called all day, which was very strange. He had called three times the day before. Today was his presentation, but he should have finished hours ago. He was due to come home tomorrow. I couldn’t wait. I missed him so much.

Jane’s preliminary hearing had started today. Doc and I were supposed to testify, but since he had to stand in for Nick at the conference, the Crown Attorney had agreed to push our testimony back a few days. He said he was sure the judge would understand. I was surprised I hadn’t heard from him (the Crown Attorney). He’d said he’d let me know how the first day went.

I finished my chili and put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, then took a coffee out to the tv room. It was awkward with my sore feet. I should have used my wheelchair but I couldn’t wheel it and hold a coffee. Once seated in the easy chair, I called Doc. No answer. I left a message on his voice mail and settled in to watch some shows I’d recorded.

The next morning, there was still no word from Doc and he wasn’t answering his phone. Karen hadn’t called either and she did not show up to do chores, so I did them again. When I was finished, I tried calling her on both her cell and the house phone. No answer on either. I was starting to get a complex, wondering if both her and Doc were pissed off at me for something and ignoring my calls.

The next day, there was still no word from either of them. I decided to go over to Karen’s as I was now very worried about her and her family. Surely her husband or one of her kids would have answered the landline if she couldn‘t. When I got there, I saw that all their vehicles were in the laneway. There was no answer when I knocked on the back door, so I went in. Like me, Karen rarely locked her back door.

As soon as I stepped inside, the odour of decaying flesh hit me. Once you have smelled it, you never forget it. I covered my nose with my sleeve and looked around. I found them upstairs, Karen and Kevin in their bed and their teenagers, Chey and Brent, in their respective beds. Their family dog wasn’t in the house, I didn’t know where he was.

I stumbled down the stairs and outside where I gasped for breath. I sat down in one of their outside chairs and took my phone out of my pocket to call 911. There was no answer. WTF? I thought. How can there be no answer at 911? I waited a few minutes and dialled again. Still no answer.

Then I thought of Karen’s livestock. They had a steer they were raising for beef, a couple horses and a milk cow. I made my way to their barn and sure enough, the animals were inside. I checked the automatic waterers. They were working. Good, at least they had had water, if not food. I let them all out into the pasture and threw some bales of hay out for them. Their stalls were awful - there was at least two days of manure there. I got to work on the first one. By the time I was finished it, I knew there was no way I could do the rest. My feet were just way too sore. The animals would have to stay outside. They had shelter out there, so they would be okay. I’d throw some hay out every day for them and there was still good pasture. It was only early Sept.

Back home, I let my own horses in and fed them, then went to the house for a shower. I still could not reach 911. I had a very uneasy feeling. After my shower, I went to the tv room and turned on the news. The announcer was talking about some sort of virus going around that was 100% lethal to those who got it. Doctors were advising people to wear masks when around others as a precaution. They were also saying to not go to the ER if you had symptoms as there was nothing they could do for you and they needed the beds for people they could help. Oh God, I thought, did Doc get the virus? Is he dead? No, he can’t be, he’d have called me to say goodbye.

I tried 911 again and this time I got through. The dispatcher told me they were over run with calls because of the virus. She suggested getting a doctor to fill out death certificates and then call a funeral home to get the bodies. There were too many for the morgue to deal with and an autopsy wouldn’t tell them any more than they’d found in the ones they’d done so far.

I called Curt Wilcox and he said he would do it for me. “Meredith, I have the virus so I will drop them off in your mailbox so I don’t expose you to it. Just give me their names and you can fill the other information out. Though I don’t think it’s going to matter anyway.”

“I’m so sorry you have the virus, Curt. Why do you mean about it not mattering?”

“This virus is 100% fatal to those who get it, Meredith. Most of the population is not immune to it, only a tiny fraction is. About 1% or maybe even less. This is the apocalypse, Meredith. If you are immune - and it seems you are or you‘d be sick by now - get started on a plan to survive. Winter is coming.”

I was at a loss for words. I finally managed to speak. “Curt, I can’t reach Julian”, I said in a tiny voice.

“Where is he?”

“In Los Angeles at a convention. Nick was supposed to do a presentation but couldn’t go because he got sick, so Julian went instead.”

“When did you last hear from him?”

“A couple days ago. I’ve called many times, at first I was getting his voice mail, now I can’t even get that. Either it rings and rings and rings or I get a busy signal, which is a first for me when calling a cell phone. I’ve tried to reach the hotel and same thing.”

“There’s probably a lot of others trying to reach loved ones. Could be messing up the phone lines and the satellites. I know one thing about Julian. He loves you more than anything, he would get in touch with you if he could, even if only to say goodbye - if he has the virus. Keep hoping.”

“I feel like this is goodbye forever, Curt.”

“It isn’t, Meredith. When it’s your turn to go to the other side, look me up.”

“Thank you for everything, Curt. I know I gave you a few grey hairs.”

“More like a few bald patches.” We both laughed.

I hung up the phone and had a good cry. Doc would be devastated at the loss of his best friend - if he himself even survived. When I got my composure again, I started calling funeral homes. None would come out and get the bodies. A couple advised me to bury them myself. A few said to just leave them as it wasn’t going to matter anymore anyway.

I couldn’t leave them. Not my bestie and her family. Kevin had a construction company and kept an excavator at home. He’d dug horse graves for me many a time. I’d watched him work the machine and had even seen him start it. I thought maybe I could do it.

Fortunately, I was right. I was able to figure out how to start it and work it, though it took a few tries. I dug 3 graves, then went to the house for the bodies and brought them downstairs. I had found a mask in a kitchen drawer - Kevin used them when doing work where there was a risk of inhaling things he shouldn’t inhale.

I put Karen and Kevin into one grave, figuring they’d want to be buried together. I knew I’d want to be buried with Doc if we both died at the same time. When I’d covered the graves, I turned the excavator off and threw some hay out for the animals then went home. I sat in the shower (on my shower seat) until I’d drained the hot water tank. Then I fed Jessie and after she’d eaten and gone outside again, I crawled into bed and fell asleep.

When I woke up, there was daylight coming in through the blinds. I looked at the clock. It was just before 7am. I was so sore from all I’d done the day before, but I forced myself to get up. I had to take care of my animals and then Karen’s. I needed to make a long term plan for hers, I couldn’t leave them out all winter.

While I was doing chores, a thought occurred to me. Where was Jane? Was she alive? Dead? I knew she was in Williams Lake for the preliminary hearing and she was being housed at the detention centre here, but was she there *now* or at the court house?

When I got home after feeding Karen’s critters, I called the detention centre. I didn’t expect an answer and wasn’t surprised when I didn‘t get one. No answer at the court house or the police department either. I tried Scott, same there. I couldn’t get her out of my mind, so I decided to get cleaned up and go into the city myself and see what I could find out. I had to make sure she was dead. If she wasn’t, God knows what she would do. She was very resourceful. I would have no peace until I knew for sure.

Before I left, I got my heavy duty flashlight to take with me. I didn’t know if the power was still on in the city or not. I had solar power, so couldn’t tell if the grid was still up. I also tried to call Doc again. No answer, not even voice mail. I sighed and headed out the door.

I did not see one car on the road on my drive in or when I got to Williams Lake. I tried the police station first, not expecting anything, but hoping anyway. It would have been so easy to find her body there. However, there was nobody alive in the building. The power was out, but there were some emergency lights on, presumably battery powered. I managed to find a paper copy of a list of names of people they were detaining and Jane was not on it.

Next, I went to the courthouse. I knew where the holding cells were where they kept prisoners making court appearances so I headed straight there. As at the police station, the power was out - I was glad I’d brought my flashlight. I found the cells but there was nobody in them.

Time for the detention centre. That was last on my list as I hoped to find her body in one of the first two places. That would have saved trying to get into the jail and then walking through it looking for her. I was using my crutches and it was slow going.

When I got there, I could hear the generators. Good, I thought, there will be power, though I didn’t know for how long. The gennies wouldn’t last forever. The guard at the reception desk was dead in his chair. There was a ring of keys on the desk, but there was a bullet proof glass between us. My only hope was to get them through the “trough” that they used for visitors to put their ID in when checking in. I reached under the glass and over the counter, being thankful that I’d not regained the weight I’d lost in the hospital last spring. It was not easy but I finally was able to grasp the ring and pull it toward me.

Now, to hope that one of the gazillion keys would unlock the door that would get me in. I tried key after key with no luck. Finally, I got the right one and the door opened. I pulled the key off the ring and put it in my pocket, in case it was a master key. I didn’t want to drop the ring and lose sight of what key it had been.

I couldn’t find anything resembling a prisoner list, but there was a map of the institution on the wall at the reception guard’s desk. I could see the closed circuit tv screens. All was still in every image. I took the map down and headed into the jail. I was right, the key was a master key and got me through every door. I went to the first cell block and made my way down it. I really lucked out and the prisoner’s name was posted beside each door. Still, I peeked in the window of every cell just to make sure it wasn’t Jane in there.

I finished the cell block and took another look at the map. Well, you frickin’ idjit, I thought as I read “Temporary Holding” on a small cell block not far from reception. That was probably where they held out of towners who were there for court. I headed over there and looked down the row. My heart sunk. One of the doors was wide open. I went toward it and saw “Jane Patton” on a small wipe-off board beside the door. I guess they used that for this row because of a high turnover, I thought. There was nobody in the cell. Damn, I thought. Did they have her in another cell and hadn’t wiped the name off the board? I went to every cell, looking in each one and trying the door to make sure. All of the doors were locked and all of the prisoners inside were dead. None looked like Jane.

Where was she? Where was Doc? I still couldn’t get hold of him and feared the worst. I felt panic building up in me and screamed and screamed and screamed.

“Meredith! Meredith, wake up!” Someone was shaking me. I opened my eyes to see Doc. We were in bed. He was the one who was shaking me.

“What the …?” I asked.

“You were thrashing around pretty bad, hon. And you were screaming at the top of your lungs.”

I remembered my dream. “Oh, God, Doc. I had the worst dream!”

He took me into his arms. There was a knock on the bedroom door and it opened. “I heard screaming”, Alex said, “Is everything okay?”

“She had a bad dream”, Doc said.

Alex came around to my side of the bed and sat down. I was clinging to Doc. “What was the dream about, Meredith?” he asked.

“I….can’t….”

“You can’t tell me?” I shook my head. “Why not?”

“It ….was…..awful.”

“Was it about Jane?”

I nodded. “Partly.”

“What was the other part?”

“Everyone was dead or almost dead and Doc was away at a conference and I couldn’t reach him and I had to bury Karen and her family by myself and Jane had left the detention centre and I didn‘t know where she was!” I blurted out in one sentence.

“Wow, that’s a lot”, he said. “Have you been worried about Jane escaping?”

“No, not really. I haven’t even been thinking about her the last couple days.” I clung to Doc.

“You’ve had a lot of other things going on, but it could have been buried deep down.” He got up and headed for the bedroom door.

“We’ll see you in the morning”, Doc said to him.

“Oh, I’m not going back to bed just yet, Julian. I’ll be back in a minute.” We heard him go down the stairs and out the front door. Where is he going? I thought.

“What time is it?” I asked Doc.

He looked at his watch. “It’s about 5:20.”

“Almost time to get up. Well, in a couple hours.”

“You can sleep in, hon. In fact, we both can. Who is doing chores this morning?”

“Chey is. She wanted the extra money and Karen was happy to have the holiday off.”

Alex came back to the bedroom. He had something in his hand. “I’m going to give you something to help you get back to sleep”, he said to me. “I know it’s after 5 but you had a very late night and I want you to get some more sleep.”

“No, Alex”, I said.

“I gave her something after Steve called”, Doc said.

“Ativan?”

“Yes, you called it in yesterday. There was only enough of the other sedative for one dose.”

“I forgot about that. Darn, I could have saved myself a trip out to the car. How much did you give her?“

“1 mg.”

“She can have 1 more.” He drew the dose up.

“It’s okay, hon”, Doc said. “I think you should have it.”

“Okay, Doc.”

I was still clinging to Doc. Alex didn’t ask me to move. He pushed my nightgown up and swabbed my hip, then injected the medication into me. He capped the needle and sat down. “I’ll just sit with you for a few minutes”, he said to me.

“I’m sorry I woke you up”, I said in apology.

“Don’t worry about that, Meredith. It sounds like quite the dream you had.”

“I haven’t told you the half of it! I’m so glad it was just a dream, not only because of the content, but because I was in so much pain.”

“What from, hon?” Doc asked.

I lifted my head from his chest and looked up into his face. “I was walking around, doing chores here and feeding Karen’s animals, then taking their bodies down the stairs and out to the back yard where I had dug graves with Kevin’s excavator.”

“Oh, my”, Alex said.

“I’m so glad that was just a dream, hon.”

“Was I in it?”

“No, Alex. Curt Wilcox was. He had the virus.” I shuddered as I remembered more of the dream.

“Meredith, you’ve had such a stressful couple days. The attempted kidnapping, then Deanna and I losing our house and you taking us in, and your squirrel breaking her leg and needing surgery. You probably pushed worry about the preliminary hearing deep down and out of the way in your mind. It’s little wonder you had this nightmare.”

“Alex, she had a dream about Jane the other night”, Doc told him. “She fell out of bed, but she wouldn’t tell me anything about the dream, other than it was about Jane.”

“Doc! I didn’t want him to know!”

“He’s our therapist, hon. I was fine not saying anything about an isolated dream. But now you’ve had another one.” I sighed.

“Meredith, what happened in that dream?”

“I can’t tell you, Alex. Sorry.”

“Can’t or won’t?” I was silent. The Ativan was taking effect and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Alex sensed that and said “I’m going to let you go to sleep. We’ll talk later.” He got up, bade us good night and left the room.

Doc and I slept in until around 10 am. Alex and Deanna were so quiet, we hadn’t heard them get up. We got dressed and went downstairs. They were in the kitchen and had made coffee. “Sit down, you two”, Deanna said. “We are going to serve you breakfast today.”

They made a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast along with some cut up fruit and, of course, coffee. I apologized to them both for waking them up with my screaming.

“No need to apologize, Meredith. You are going through a lot and you have the hearing starting on Wednesday. It’s no surprise you are having dreams”, Deanna reassured me.

Later, Alex drove me to get Scruffy as he wanted to see his brother and Doc wanted to finish up his preparations for our barbecue. We went at midday since Karen and her family would arrive in a few hours. I sat in the room where the patients are kept and visited with the squirrel until Alex was ready to go. Scruffy lay in my lap and let me pet her. Her leg was wrapped in squirrel-size bandaging. She seemed very subdued.

When Alex was ready to go, he came in to get me. Steve was with him. “She’s so quiet”, I said to him. “Is she in pain?”

“She’s had some pain medication and I’ll give you some to take home. It’s liquid, you can feed it to her with a syringe, she seems to like it, so you shouldn’t have any trouble. To answer your question, I’m giving her enough to dull her pain but not take it all away. As you know, if an animal feels no pain, it will not rest. I don’t want her running around, I want her kept quiet for at least a week or two. Keeping her in a box will help her rest. That carrier is perfect.”

“Wouldn’t that stress her out to be confined?”

“She will probably sleep a lot for the next few days. Once her pain starts getting better, she may get restless. You can’t let her outside until I say so, I can’t stress that enough. You can take her out of the carrier and pet her from time to time, but she has to be quiet, no running around the house.”

“What about eating, Steve? As you know, squirrels sit up on their hind legs to eat.”

“Yes, there’s really no choice in that. You may find that she won’t eat or won’t eat a lot if the pain is too much. If that happens, call me and I’ll increase the dose of her medication.”

Alex and I headed for home with Scruffy. I put the carrier between us, with the hope that she would get used to him and his scent and realize he wasn’t going to hurt her. I had been fine with her not trusting anyone but me as it was in her best interest to be wary of humans, but Alex and Deanna would be staying with us for a few months and I didn’t want her to be afraid of them and be stressed out all the time. She also needed to get used to Doc, since he was now a permanent resident of Chateau Meredith.

Of course, Alex took the opportunity to have a chat with me. He hadn’t said much on the way to Steve’s clinic, I presumed because he knew I was anxious to see Scruffy.

“Meredith, tell me about the dream you had the other night. The one where you fell out of bed.”

“I’d rather not, Alex.”

“Why not? Was it that traumatic?”

“Yes. And I don’t want Doc to find out.”

“Was he in the dream?”

“Yes.”

“You know I can’t tell him anything unless you give me permission.”

“I gave you carte blanche to tell him almost anything, remember?”

“Yes, but I agreed to not tell him anything you didn’t want me to.”

“You won’t say anything then?”

“No.”

I leaned back against the seat and told him about the dream. It was much shorter than the one I had last night. Short but still very disturbing. When I finished recounting it, Alex said “I can see why you don’t want to tell Julian, but you two are about to be married in a few months.”

“What’s your point?”

“That you shouldn’t be keeping things from each other. I know you want to protect him, but what would you want him to do if he had a dream about you?”

“I’d want him to tell me. But he is going through enough as it is and feels so guilty about everything Jane has done.”

“I know, and I’m working with him about the guilt. He already knows the dream was about Jane. You really should tell him.”

“I’ll think about it, Alex.”

“Good. Here we are, home sweet home.”

Alex took Scruffy upstairs to the master bedroom for me. I let her out of her carrier for a bit. I lay on the bed with her and petted her before taking her to the litter box and then putting her back in her temporary house. I put part of an old flannel sheet in it and bunched it up to make a bit of a nest for her. She curled right up and closed her eyes. I put a small plastic container of water in the carrier and I’d bring some squirrel food up for her later to see if she wanted to eat.

Karen arrived with her family shortly after Alex and I got back. We had a great time and I put all thoughts of Jane and court out of my mind for a few hours. It was a bit cool, so I had Kevin start a fire in the fire pit in the back yard. I could have done it, but Doc would have had a fit if I’d stood on both feet to do it. The wheelchair was awkward outside, so I was on my crutches and I had the ATV nearby if I wanted to go any distance.

Before I had supper, I took some squirrel feed up for Scruffy, along with her pain medication. She ate more than I thought she would, which was encouraging. I know Steve had fed her in the morning but I didn’t know when she’d last ate before that, nor did I know how long she’d been going around with a broken leg before she came looking for me. Steve said by the look on the x-ray, he didn’t think it was longer than a day or so.

Doc and I snuck into the house to have our supper so we could have a few minutes together. “How are you doing, hon?” he asked after we sat down at the far end of the dining room table, hoping we were out of sight and could have some privacy.

“I’m okay, Doc. Tired, but I will be all right.”

“How’s your pain?”

“It’s there.”

“Do you want your pain pills? I know you‘ve been upstairs to feed your squirrel. I saw you and Alex go up.” Alex had carried the squirrel food up for me.

“Yes, I think so. I had to go upstairs to feed her, I don‘t want her down here with so many people around, it would be too stressful for her.”

Julian got up and got my medication and I took it. “I’ll give you the stronger medication at bedtime, if you want it, hon.”

“I probably will. Thanks, honey.”

Just as we were going back outside after eating, Charlotte arrived with Julie Anne. “Oh, I didn’t know you had company”, she said upon entering the back yard. She must have heard voices coming from the back yard and went around the house to find us.

“That’s no problem”, Doc told her. Get a plate and help yourself. There’s lots of food. I think you’ve met our guests before. Don‘t let the dogs bother you. They‘ve been mooching food off people for the past hour, so they have had enough. Just tell them to go lie down and they will.”

Julie Anne squealed with delight at seeing her “Uncle Julian”. She held her arms out to him and he took her from Charlotte. He was just as happy to see her as she was to see him.

“Maybe you can get her to settle down”, Charlotte said to him. “She’s been fussy all day.”

“Is she sick?” Doc asked as he held the back of his free hand to her forehead. “She’s not feverish.”

“No, I don’t think she’s ill, just being a brat. She‘s not teething yet.”

“Are you okay if I take her over to the barn to see the horses?” Chey had brought them in and fed them around the time Kevin started the fire. It was best for them to be in the barn as they did not like fire. A natural aversion, of course.

“Sure, she loves horses.”

“Want to come with us, hon?” he asked me. “You can use the ATV.”

“Okay, Doc. But maybe I should feel *your* forehead.” He laughed.

Julie Anne loved seeing the horses. Doc even put her on Buddy’s back for a moment. I had my phone with me and took a picture. Buddy was so quiet, he wouldn’t harm anyone so I felt safe in letting her sit on him, even though he wasn’t broken to ride. Then he showed her Blossom, the foal, but he didn’t go into the stall as we didn’t know how Lilly, the dam, would react. We didn’t want to take a chance that she would see the stranger as a threat to her baby, even though Julie Anne herself was a baby.

When we went back to the yard, Charlotte said she had to get going to put Julie Anne to bed. Doc and I walked her to her car and Doc put his namesake into her car seat. She was almost asleep and didn’t even notice, thankfully - as she usually screamed bloody murder when anyone, even her parents, took her from Doc.

After she left, Doc told me I had to sit down. “You’ve been on your feet a lot, hon. You need to get off them.”

“I’m not arguing with that, Doc.”

“I know you are in a lot of pain when you don’t argue.”

“Haha, Julian.”

It was getting to be dusk and Doc brought my guitar out for me. Kevin had brought his. We played for a bit, singing campfire songs. The cop at the back door sang along with us. But we were all exhausted, so we put the fire out after a bit and Karen and her family headed home. Deanna and Alex helped Doc clean up and put the leftover food away. None of them would let me help. I was secretly glad of that as I was in a lot of pain, but felt guilty for it.

When they were finished, we all headed upstairs to bed. Doc wanted to sleep downstairs, he didn’t want me walking up the stairs but he wasn’t willing to bring Scruffy downstairs so I could take her out of her carrier to go potty and give her her pain medication.

After I’d tended to the squirrel, Julian insisted I join him for a shower. While I just wanted to fall into bed, I knew I was dirty so didn’t argue. As is his way when I am not feeling well or in pain, he insisted on bathing me as I sat on the shower chair. Afterward, I insisted on letting Scruffy on the bed for a bit while we watched the late news. I was wanting to see if there was anything about the attempted kidnapping on, but there was only a short blurb from the announcer with very little details and no names.

Scruffy was lying on the bed between me and the edge. While she wasn’t “telling” Doc to stay away, I wasn’t taking a chance on putting her between us. I needed to go slow in getting her used to him. Just like when she first invited me to touch her, I wanted her to invite Doc to pet her when she was ready.

When the news was over, I put her back in the carrier and Doc gave me my pain shot and some Ativan, which I agreed to. I didn’t think I’d have a hard time getting to sleep, but we had to go to the city tomorrow to meet with the Crown Attorney, so I wanted to make sure I got a good night’s sleep.

“That was fun”, Doc said as we settled in bed. “We should do it more often.”

“We definitely will next summer. We won’t have Jane and Watters hanging over our heads and I won’t be recovering from surgeries.” Damn, I thought as I went to sleep, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.