Page 9 of Doctor Wolf's Human Nurse

“He’s a great guy. You could do worse.”

“I need my job,” Abby groaned. “I can’t let my feelings get me in trouble.”

“Wait and see what happens,” Xyla said.

They talked for a while longer. Xyla told her how it felt to be a human pregnant with a shifter’s child. It was definitely different than being pregnant with a regular human child. Xyla talked about how great Sean was, and it was easy to see how much she loved her new mate.

I hope I get to feel the same someday.

4

Sawyer

Sawyer ran his fingers through his hair, sat back in his chair, and sighed heavily. His stomach twisted and a sense of dread filled him. He just went through inventory again and several drugs were missing. On top of several morphine and fentanyl pills missing, there were also oxycodone, some medication that is typically used to treat ADHD, and even antibiotics that were unaccounted for. All of those had high street value.

There wasn’t a lot of one drug missing. Just a little bit of each.

I guess they are easily overlooked if someone isn’t paying close attention.

He blew a long breath out of his mouth and tapped his pen on his desk. He had gone far enough back to see that the drugs had started disappearing almost a year before Dr. Leonard left. According to what Sawyer could figure out, it started with a pill or two of the fentanyl and morphine every couple of weeks or so. Then, a couple pills of another drug would go missing.

It wasn’t enough to make someone a millionaire, but the thief was probably making a couple hundred each time something went missing.

Although Sawyer had been positive that Abby had nothing to do with the missing drugs, he was gratified to know his instincts were spot on.

A number of scenarios ran through his mind. He thought about asking Abby if she would help him do an investigation, but he didn’t want to stress her out too much, especially since she was new.

He thought about investing in one of the computer systems that would force people to log in with their individual code to access different drugs. They would have to put in their code, the name of the medication they were trying to withdraw, and the patient code who would receive the drug. However, he was pretty sure that certain staff members would find a way of getting others’ codes. Plus, he wanted to catch who was doing the stealing, and putting in the computer system would only hinder the thief.

I’ll figure something out. I just need to do it soon. This situation needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later.

A knock on his door startled him. “I’m sorry to startle you,” Abby said. “Barbara is ready to see you. I think she has a thing for the new doctor in town because this is her third time here in as many weeks.”

Sawyer groaned and shook his head. “Heavens to Betsy, I hope not.”

“Who’s Betsy?” Abby grinned.

“No one knows. I looked the phrase up once because my grandmother used it all the time. The term was first used inBallou’s Dollar Monthly Magazine,in 1857, by Maturin Murray Ballou. No one knows who Betsy might be or even if she was a real person.”

“Interesting. My grandmother used to say it a lot, too. I guess that was her way of swearing because she never used those other bad words. I’ve never even heard her say damn or hell, unless she was talking about sending someone to the place.”

Sawyer stood up and walked with Abby to room three. Their arms brushed against each other, sending a flash of heat through him.

Barbara had a little cold.

“Go home and get some rest. You can breathe in steam, with eucalyptus oil, if you feel like you are congested. You should drink honey and lemon tea to relieve coughs and boost vitamin C. Gargling with salt water will help relieve sore throats. There really aren’t any prescription medications that help with colds.”

Barbara reached out and touched his arm. “Can I come see you if it gets worse?”

“Sure, but there’s not anything I can do about it. Just take care so that it doesn’t turn into pneumonia.”

They left and Abby smirked at him. “I told you so.”

Laughing, she went into the next patient’s room to get him prepped, while the doctor finished taking notes.

Later that afternoon, he was going into the supply closet to check on the logistics of putting in a locked drug cabinet so that only he and Martha had the key. He would make sure that he was the one putting the drugs into the cabinet, so he would have a full count of them and would be able to check them off the order sheet. He didn’t think that Martha was the thief, but then he got a good vibe from all of the staff.

His mind was a million miles away when he opened the door, stepped out of the room and slammed against Abby, almost knocking her down. He automatically reached for her and a bolt of electricity exploded inside of him. His heart thundered in his chest and he struggled to breathe.

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