Change (Kitsune) (14 page)

Chapter 10

It was mid-morning on Saturday and I'd already spent over an hour in the pool doing laps, my main form of exercise in the summer. I was lounging in a chair next to the pool enjoying the nice day when I heard my PCD signal an incoming call. I picked it up, checking the screen when saw that it was Izzy. I hit the accept button put the device to my ear.

"Hey, Girl, how you doing?" I said.

"Pretty good, how has your week been?" I heard her voice on the other end.

"Busy. I had some stuff come up and I ended up taking the week off. I thought I'd have a chance to get together but I swear, I've done nothing but run around like a chicken with my head cut off all week. I'm gonna need to go back to work to get some rest. How's your week gone?"

"Busy as always. You interested in going out tonight?" I scrambled for an excuse. What could I say that wouldn’t sound like a lame excuse to ditch her? She’d know if I outright lied to her.

"Sorry, I'm just gonna relax tonight. After my crazy week, I don't feel like going anywhere, or being social with anyone." I felt guilty for not going but I knew I couldn't handle another club, not this soon.

"Okay. Maybe we can get together for lunch one day next week?"

"That sounds like fun. If I forget to call you, can you call me near the end of the week and see what my schedule looks like?"

"Sure, no problem. I guess I'll catch you later then."

"Later, bye"

"Bye" she said, I heard the click of her disconnecting before could hit the button myself

Sunday morning I was in the kitchen working on putting together a couple of casseroles when I heard a knock on my apartment door. Walking into the living room to answer it I realized I could smell Brandon. I felt a smile form on my face as I opened the door.

"Hey, how you doing?" I asked, happy to see him.

"Good, I thought I'd stop in and see what you're up to this morning."

"Come on in. I'm getting a couple put together for during the week. So that when I come in from work, and I don't feel like cooking something I can just pop them in the oven. That way I'll get enough to eat and not be tempted to just do without, just because I don't feel like cooking."

"That's a good idea. Why is it that women have all these great ideas, and exe
cute them too and men have take-out and frozen pizza?"

"We got the brains and beauty both, I guess." I quipped, grinning. He just shook his head at me and let the smart remark go.

"So, how did the rest of your week go?"

"Pretty good I guess. I spent Wednesday morning working with Bill, and then I met his enforcers. That evening I had dinner with Bill and Karen, and I met the Lysandros and Harmonia, after we discussed what happened with you on Tuesday, it was decided that I should start spending time at the clinic on Fridays so that hopefully I can learn to call animal forms. Thursday morning was mine but I spent the afternoon with Karen working on shielding. That evening I went to dinner with Gabriel and he told me more about the Kindred. Day before yesterday was my first Friday at the clinic and I met Caden. We didn't do much of anything but from what Alexis told me, we just kinda have to be there in case someone shows up. And yesterday I did a whole lot of nothing... A little swimming, a bit housework but yesterday was the most normal day I've had since we went hiking."

"I'll bet. You've had a lot of changes to deal with in the last week, are you really okay with it all?"

"A lot is just a bit of an understatement..." I laughed.

"Did you say you went out on a date with Gabriel?" Brandon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"No. I said I went to dinner with him. I made it clear to him that I've got enough to deal with in my life and I'm not interested in a relationship right now. My whole world has been turned upside down and I am still trying to decide if it was in a good way or a bad way, the last thing I need is to try to juggle a romance right now."

"I guess that makes sense. And which way are you leaning right now?" He seemed to relax some.

"To the good, I guess. I mostly try not to think about it too much. I deal what what's in front of me right now and try not worry about what might happen later. I’m sure it's gonna all hit me sometime, but I'll deal with it when it happens. Other than not being able to tell my family and most of my friends I don't see a whole lot of bad in the whole thing, but I expect I'll find out some of the more negative aspects soon enough."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Are you capable of rewinding time and making things not happen?"

"Nope, sorry,"

"Then, no, I just have to learn to deal with what comes my way. And I will, eventually. It's just going to take some time. I'm certain I'll manage, you know I'm not one to give up."

"A truer statement was never said," Brandon acknowledged, "What are your plans for tonight, do you wanna go do something?"

"Dinner with my family."

"Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten that Sunday nights are your mandatory family dinner. How are you dealing with keeping a secret like this from them? I know you guys normally share everything."

"Well, Bill's told me I can tell my parents, if I want to, but not my siblings. I just haven't decided if, or when, I'm going to tell them yet. I'm having a hard enough time dealing with it, and it's me it's happening to. I don't know how well they'll take it, and if they'll be able to deal with it all, especially while I'm still trying to deal with it all."

"They'll probably take the news better than you think."

"I don't know, and I think for now at least, I'm gonna keep quiet. Hopefully tonight'll be better than last week, especially since I've been practicing my shielding; I shouldn't be getting bits and pieces of their thoughts. That was more than a little disturbing."

"I'll bet it was, especially when you had no clue how to stop it."

"But I do now. I haven't picked up anyone's thoughts on accident for several days, so I'll see how it goes."

"But you don't have to be there till late this afternoon. Do you want to do something between now and then? We could go for a run, see if we could get together enough to play a game of basketball, or we could go for a swim if you want?"

"Nah, not today. I'm gonna finish this and get it in the fridge. Then I'm gonna work on finishing the laundry I started yesterday and never finished. And then about 3:30 or so I think I'll head over early and help Mom make dinner. I like that extra bit of time I get to spend with Mom and Dad when I have the time to go help. Plus this way, Mom doesn't have to make the whole meal by herself."

"I understand, I guess I'll go find someone who wants to go have some fun. I'm looking to get out for a while. I've been feeling a bit restless."

"Sorry that I have other plans. I hope you find someone to play with, good luck." I said, washing my hands so I could walk him to the door. "I'll catch you later this week sometime, and we'll get together. Okay?"

"Sure, I'll catch you later." He said turning to head down the stairs from my front door. I went back inside and finished what I was doing.

Chapter 11

I'd only been off for a week when I decided that I was ready to go back to work. I had pretty good control of my new strength. After quite a bit of practice and a couple dozen broken eggs, I'd gotten to the point that I almost never broke a glass item I was handling, or crushed a doorknob in my hand as I tried to open the door.

I got up early Monday morning and was sitting at my desk getting started for the day when my boss arrived.

"Nickie! How are things going?" He asked.

"Good, I got everything that needed my attention taken care of. Are you ready to have me back, Mr. Willowby?" I asked.

"I sure am. I've missed you, and even if I was able to survive without you it wasn't easy. I appreciate what you do for me all the more now that you've spent a week gone. And don't think that it hadn't occurred to me that if I had such a hard time now with school out, how bad would it be if I had to do without you while school had been in session."

"Maybe I'll have to take a week off during the school year and then you can really appreciate what I do for you." I teased.

"No, please, I'm not sure I would survive such a thing." He said, his tone pleading, before breaking into a laugh.

"Then maybe now is the time to approach you about that raise I was hoping for…" I grinned.

"Hmm… I'll see what I can do; I certainly know you deserve one." He said, taking me seriously.

"Sir, I was teasing."

"You may have been, but I still think you deserve it, and I'll see what I can do." He said with a smile. "I would hate for someone to come along and steal you away from me simply because I failed to recognize your value to me."

"If you insist, I won't argue. Let me see what we have here. I'm sure there's a back log of things to get done and I'll be busy all day getting caught up and earning that raise."

"I'll let you get to it. I'm now quite certain that I couldn't live without you long term." He said. I just smiled at him and waited for my computer to finish its boot sequence as he walked into his office and closed the door. It took me most of the day to catch up on everything that had come in since I had last been in the office, but I soon had things in order and was back to my normal routine.

When I arrived at the clinic on Friday morning for my second shift with Alexis and Caden I was far more comfortable than I had been the week before. I felt like I had some idea of what to expect, and what was expected of me. If there had been anyone come in with serious injuries or injuries they just couldn't heal well enough to go home they would be staying at the clinic. I parked my car on the street in front of the house again but this time I bypassed the front door and went directly to the gate at the side of the house and followed the stone path around the house to the building in the back yard. I walked in the unlocked front door and headed into the kitchen to put my purse in the cabinet Alexis had shown me, noticing that hers wasn't there yet. I was closing the cabinet door and turning to leave the room when the door on the other side of the room opened. Turning to see who had opened the door, I saw Caden entering the room through the door behind him I could see a small parking lot that I hadn't known existed.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "You startled me." I held one hand flat against my chest and could feel my heart beating fast beneath it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." He stepped inside and closied the door behind himself. "Is Alexis here yet?"

"I don't think so, I just got here myself but her purse isn't in the cabinet."

"That means she's not in yet, but she'll be out soon, I'm sure."

"That's fine." I said, and then it occurred to me to ask, "Do we have anyone here this morning?"

"You mean overnighters?" he asked, when I nodded, he continued, "Not that I know of, there was no one when I left last night and the Lysandros probably would have called and let me know if someone had come in overnight."

"Alright, if you don't mind I think I'll make a quick walk through, just to be sure."

"Knock yourself out." He said, "I'm gonna start a pot of coffee. Do you want some?"

"Don't make it on my account, but if you're gonna make it anyway, I'll probably have a cup."

"I'm making it anyway, I make it every morning. It's good to have around, whether for me, or anyone who might come in."

I nodded again stepping out of the room and starting my walk through, "Makes sense." I said over my shoulder as I stepped down the hall and looked into the bedroom at the end of the hall. The bed was neatly made, and nothing appeared to have been moved in the week since I had been here, but everything was clean, not a spot of dust in sight. 

I quickly walked through the rest of the building, looking into each room as I passed it, but I didn't seen anything obvious that needed to be done. I was walking into the front room, where the small reception desk sat, when the door opened and Alexis walked in.

"Hey! You beat me here!" She said with a smile.

"Yep, been here maybe five minutes."

"And I can tell by the smell of coffee brewing that Caden's here too."

"Yeah, he came in just after I did. He startled me, I was putting away my purse when the door opened."

"That's right; I forgot to tell you last week. We have a small parking are in the back if you want to park your car there, then you can either use the back door like Caden does or you can use the rear gate and this door, your choice."

"Thanks, I'll remember that." I said, we walked together toward the kitchen where we sat down and visited while we drank coffee.

It was just before noon and I’d already dusted all the rooms and emptied the already almost empty trash in the whole place just for something to keep me busy, when something finally happened. A teenage boy brought in his younger brother, another teenager, with a compound fracture in his left arm. He was obviously in pain, but he was surprisingly silent.

"Nickie, I'm going to need you to come help me if you can," Alexis said, calmly maneuvering the two boys into the closest exam room. I followed her with Caden close behind but he stayed outside the room, "We need to set his arm first," She instructed.

"I have no clue how, so tell me what you want and I'll do everything I can to help." I said, moving close so I could help her.

"It's the humerus that's broken, that's better than it could be, only one bone to set rather than two," She said, "I need you to get behind Jason here, and wrap your arms around him, pin his upper arm against his body, I'll pull down and set the break. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I can do that." I said, turning to Jason, "I'm just going to hold you and your arm still so we can get in back in place, okay?" I waited for an answer, and when he nodded I stepped behind him and carefully moved my arms around him, holding him tightly so that neither he nor his arm moved as Alexis pulled the lower half of his arm into place.

I could feel the tug of Alexis pulling and not knowing where else to look I watched the brother who had brought Jason in, he was standing calmly across the room watching me just as I watched him. Caden stood quietly just outside the room, not interfering with what was going on, but making sure nothing happened to Alexis while she worked. I felt the pop and heard an audible snap as the two pieces of bone lined up against each other.

"Good, you can let go now," Alexis said, "I need a basin of water and some gauze out of that cabinet there," She pointed her bloody gloved hand at a cabinet and I moved to get what she needed.

Working together we cleaned up the wound, making sure there were no bone chips left and that no blood vessels had been cut or nicked, but we didn't bandage the wound.

"Lay your hands on top of mine, close your eyes and try to feel the energy, see if you can get a sense of what I'm doing. I'm going to call his wolf. It'll help stop the bleeding, and at least mostly close the wound as well as start the bone healing." Alexis instructed me.

I silently did as she had said; standing close beside her so that I could reach both hands as I gently laid my hands on top of hers where they were hovering slightly above the shoulders of the injured boy. I closed my eyes and felt for the power. I could feel her power reach deep inside the boy and softly pet the wolf inside. She used the energy to coax the wolf to the surface. I opened my eyes again and for a moment it seemed like the air around the boy shimmered, blurring him from our view for just a moment. When the shimmering blur faded, there was a gray wolf lying calmly on the exam table in his place.

"There." She said, peeling off her bloody gloves before gently rubbing the top of his head,  "We'll let you rest for a few minutes and then we'll see if you can shift back on your own or if I need to help you with that." Alexis turned and motioned for me to follow her out of the room, leaving the wolf and his brother alone in the room. Once we stepped out in to the hallway she pulled the door closed before asking me, "Did you feel it?"

"Yeah, it was surreal. It was like you reached your power inside him and petted the wolf and then convinced it to come to the surface."

"That's exactly what it's like. If the wolf is resisting for some reason you can also grab a hold of the wolf and drag it out. But that's usually either reserved for punishment or emergencies, as it can be shocking and very painful."

"All right" I said, paying close attention to her words.

"Calling the human form is similar, the main difference is that you are coaxing or pushing the wolf back inside, instead of pulling it forward."

"So, what you're saying is it all revolves around the wolf. You don't call a human form; you either call, or push back the wolf."

"Yes, exactly. That’s why we call it restricting someone’s wolf. Only it's not just the wolf, it's the same with any animal form. Once you learn to call one, you should be able to call any animal form you can sense, be it wolf, cougar, whatever."

"I guess that makes sense." I said.

"Now, I'm gonna go make a sandwich for him to eat once he shifts back. Why don't you two keep an ear out, in case they need anything, while I'm gone?"

I agreed and turned back to Caden, who was still standing next to the door where he had watched the procedure.

"Do you have anything to add?" I asked him.

"Not really. I don't have any of the Talents for healing. I'm here partly because I tend to sense violence before it starts, and as a talent, it's one that's well suited to protecting our Harmonia."

"I can see how it would be a benefit," I said, "Do you mind if I go back in?"

"Go for it. I'll be able to hear if there's trouble from here."

"Thanks." I said with a smile. I knocked on the door and waited for and answer. Once I heard a voice call out that it was open, I carefully opened the door and stepped inside before closing it softly behind me again. I took a seat in the room as I considered what I had just learned. I watched the wolf lying relaxed on the exam table as I thought about what we had just done. He seemed content to lay there a while, as though exhausted, but I could also see that there was far less pain in his eyes than there had been when he came in.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him. The older boy looked back and forth from me to his brother, still in wolf form, looking at me as though I had lost my mind.

He opened his eyes and looked at me; I opened a small window in my shields so that I could hear if he tried respond.

*I can't talk. How does she expect me to answer her?* I heard him think to himself.

"I can hear you just fine. You just have to think your answer at me and I'll hear it."

*How handy is that for a doctor?*

"I'm sure it would be very handy, but I'm not a doctor. I'm just here to learn to be able to call animal forms and helping out where I can while I'm at it. But you didn't answer me, how are you feeling?" I asked again.

*Much better, but tired* He responded.

"I'm glad you're not hurting, at least as much as you were."

*Thanks for your help.*

"You're welcome, I'm just glad to be of help, I hate seeing people in pain, especially if there’s something that can be done." I sat quietly after that, watching the two boys while we waited for Alexis to return.

A moment later we heard a soft knock on the door and I got up and opened it. Alexis came back into the room carrying a plate with a sandwich on it; my nose told me it was a ham and cheese. She set the plate down on the counter and turned back to the wolf on the table.

"Well then," She said to Jason, "Are you feeling better?" He lifted his head from the table and nodded once. "Good, do you think you can shift on your own?" Again, he nodded his assent. We waited there for just a moment and the shimmering blur returned fading again after just a moment to reveal the blond teenager that he had started out to be. He was still sitting on the exam table as he had started out, only now his clothes were just shredded bits of cloth lying on the exam table under him. They had been hidden under his fur when he was in wolf form.

Alexis pulled a set of gray sweats out of the cabinet next to the sink and handed them to him.

"Here you are, we'll step outside until you're dressed." And she turned and followed me out of the room, closing the door behind us once again.