Page 25 of The Doctor's Wolf: Part Two
“Good day, Dr.Morris.”She smiled, her body language signaling that she was glad to see him.
Which was funny, because Gordon didn’t know her.
Since he’d gotten together with Adler, Gordon had noticed that the werewolves around the Forum generally showed more respect to him, at least to his face.Gordon didn’t understand pack dynamics that well, but he had some kind of standing in Willa’s pack now, even if he was only the mate of her second-in-command.
If the werewolves didn’t like him mated to one of their own, they hid it.Gordon had overheard at least one vampire and one donor talking openly about how sleeping with an animal was…all kinds of derogatory things, though, and by “animal,” they’d meant the man Gordon loved.
Gordon sighed, smiling to the wolf as he walked past her.“Hi.”
I wonder if my two guests had to deal with that kind of prejudice.
Once Gordon got to the familiar corridors outside his lab, the ones he’d tastefully decorated with old creature feature movie posters, his mind settled into the right frame to work with the bodies.
Inside the morgue with its bright light, gray tiles, and abundance of stainless steel, Corinne was busy moving the corpses, and Gordon got ready, donning the forensic lab gear that was the only proper attire in which to welcome the Williamsons to his morgue.
“I’m about to get started on the forms,” Corinne said.“Dictation program is ready to go.”She pointed at the little microphone mounted above their guests.
“Thanks.”Gordon turned to the corpses.“Mr.and Mrs.Williamson, welcome to our morgue.You’ve met Corinne.”Corinne groaned, mumbling something about formaldehyde fumes and soft vampire brains.“We are a modern establishment with all the amenities you might require at this stage of your existence.”Gordon showed them his tools.“We can even send you off for X-rays or an MRI if that is necessary.”
“The only thing we’re missing is a shrink,” Corinne said.
Gordon tsked.“The Williamsons don’t need one.”
She looked up from her clipboard.“You don’t say.”
Gordon turned back to his guests.“I trained her myself.I think having a critical voice around who isn’t afraid to speak up is healthy, no pun intended.”
“How’s that a pun?”Corinne asked.
“Because we’re at a morgue, and you’re past healthy when you get here.”
“That still doesn’t make it a pun, Dr.Morris.”
“Well, fine.You’re very nitpicky today, Corinne.Would you like a cookie?”
“No.And I’m not nitpicky.”
“She is though,” Gordon told Mrs.Williamson.
Corinne moved to her desk to enter the information into the rudimentary system they were using.The Forum loved a hardcopy, and before Gordon had been allowed to hire Corinne, one of the older bureaucratic vampires had examined her handwriting, had lamented every improper curl of her cursive in the hopes of vetoing her contract.
One call to Maxim had taken care of that nonsense.
“I don’t think I need to be part of this conversation,” Corinne said and began typing away.
“Manners, Corinne.What will our guests think?We’re about to get started, Mr.and Mrs.Williamson,” Gordon told the corpses.He turned back to Mrs.Williamson.“I think you’ll go first.And don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.”He centered the bright light on the horror of her chest.“The worst is already over.”
Gordon had his autopsies finished within a few hours, and when he moved the Williamsons to the freezer, his mind was going back to the events earlier in the day.
“It was a long and unusual day, but clearly not as bad as yours,” Gordon told Mrs.Williamson before he closed her compartment.
“What was so unusual?”Corinne asked as she was holding out a finished printout of her incident report for Gordon to look over and countersign.
Gordon turned and removed his gloves and gown and deposited them in the medical waste bin before taking it.“Oh, just…there is this kid in Adler’s pack who’s been living with her grandmother because her parents died.Her grandmother had a stroke this morning.”
“Wow,” Corinne said.“The poor kid.Does she have anyone to stay with now?”
Gordon shrugged, collected his own paperwork, added Corinne’s report to the pile, and headed to his office, leaving the morgue with its once more empty slabs behind.
