Page 55 of Doctor Wolf's Human Nurse

Abby

Abby was exhausted and happily crashed into her bed when she finally made it home. She had splurged on her bed and it was like one a person would find at a luxury hotel. It enveloped her, and she felt like she was laying on one of the big fluffy clouds that floated overhead on warm sunny days.

Her heart fluttered when she thought about Sawyer and how tender he was with the younglings. They were clearly terrified and suffering from shock. However, they immediately bonded with Sawyer.

He never talked down to the kids or downplayed their experiences. Sawyer listened intently when the younglings talked to him and responded to them with respect, dignity, and tenderness.

The younglings that Rory and Savvy took in said how much they liked Sawyer. Of course, in their eyes, he rescued them, but they knew that he genuinely cared about them.

Sawyer is going to be an amazing father someday. His pups will never doubt that he loves them.She smiled at the thought.

She closed her eyes and pictured the two of them, living in their house, with two or three pups running around, playing and laughing.

That’s a bit premature, don’t you think? He just recently made their relationship official.Then, she told herself,Fantasizing and dreaming never hurt anything. I know I’m falling in love with him, and I sense that he’s feeling the same.

Wrapping her arms around a huge pillow, pretending it was Sawyer, she fell into a deep sleep.

Two hours of sleep wasn’t nearly enough. Her alarm had been going off for at least five minutes before the piercing sound finally penetrated through the fog. Growling, she slammed her hand down on the table, feeling for the phone.

She forced herself to roll out of bed, get dressed, brush her hair, and stumble into the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

Abby was pretty sure that Sawyer would understand if she called in too tired to work, but she didn’t want to do that to him. He would be there, and he was probably more exhausted than she was. She had been able to sleep before the raid at the laboratory and probably went to bed a lot sooner.

“Suck it up, Buttercup,” she muttered to herself.

She downed two cups of coffee and ate a couple energy bars before brushing her teeth.

After peering at herself in the mirror, she groaned. “I’ve never been one for makeup, but I might need to stop off at the store and pick up some foundation to hide these dark bags under my eyes. I look like I’ve been on a three-day bender.”

Abby fished out some migraine medicine and took a couple of tablets, hoping to fend off the massive headache that was creeping up the back of her head.

Sawyer pulled into the parking lot at the same time that she did. She grabbed her purse and rushed over to hug him.

“You look like hell, Rambo,” she said. “Did you get any sleep at all last night?”

He shook his head and grinned at her. “Nope. But I’ve had two pots of coffee, a ton of sugar, and some energy bars.”

“How are you going to get through the day?”

“One patient at a time,” he replied, draping his arm over her shoulder as they walked inside together.

Georgia, Martha, Jennifer, Cindy, and Brent were already in the lounge when they walked in. Everyone started talking at once, asking questions. Word got around quickly in Angel’s Creek, and they knew that something had gone down at the lab the previous night.

Sawyer sat down in one of the chairs, and Martha handed him a cup of coffee and a cherry cheesecake Danish, which happened to be his favorite. Abby’s respect for the woman increased immensely at the simple gesture.

Abby sat next to Sawyer, and Martha gave her a cup of coffee as well and offered her a smile.

Abby smiled back. “Thanks.”

Sawyer told everyone as much as he knew. “A child, whom the head of the laboratory had kidnapped, managed to escape. He was able to give us a description of the facilities. The captors had allowed him and the other six children to go outside and exercise so he was able to see about how many guards were on duty. We raided the lab at three this morning and shut it down. Everyone who worked at the lab has been arrested.”

He looked pointedly at Brent, who gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously in his throat. Abby knew that Brent had been given the same offer that she had because he had bragged about it and said that he was thinking about accepting the position.

“Are the children okay?” Martha asked, her voice almost a whisper.

“Physically, yes. I imagine it will take a while for them to deal with the emotional trauma. Authorities are in the process of locating their families now,” Sawyer reported.

The day went by excruciatingly slowly. They were busy with their usual patients and barely had time to sit down, but it seemed to Abby that every time she looked at the clock expecting an hour to have passed, only five minutes had gone by.

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