“When?”
He laughs and smiles. Then he presses his lips to my cheek.
“Tomorrow,” he says. “Same time. Same place.”
“It’s a date.”
Chapter 6
Robert
The next day can’t come soon enough.
Work seems to drag by. My patients are all pretty easy to take care of and my nursing staff are all wonderful. A couple of my team members are a bit stand-offish, but they’ll warm up to me. I’m certain of it. It’s nearly closing time when I walk into an examination room and see a familiar face.
“Why, hello Miss Foxy,” I say. The redheaded barfly looks up at me in surprise.
“You’re a doctor.”
I glance down at my white coat and stethoscope, and then back up at her.
“Well, look at that. I suppose I am. And who is this?” I walk over to the table where a little redheaded boy is sitting. He looks up at me, blinking in surprise.
“This is Max.”
“Hello, Max,” I hold my hand out to him.
“Hi,” Max says, but he just looks at me. He turns to Foxy, who nods encouragingly.
“It’s okay,” she tells him.
“Nice to meet you,” I say to Max.
He takes my hand and shakes it carefully.
“Nice to meet you.”
“My name is Doctor Rob,” I say. I sit down on my chair and swivel in a circle. Max laughs. Good. As a pediatrician, I’m used to dealing with patients who are a bit timid and shy. Shifters tend to be even more shy than most. Before I moved to Claw Valley, I worked in a large hospital in a big city. My patients were a mix of human and shifter, but the shifters always were a little bit harder to connect with.
Shifters have to be careful.
The world we live in caters to humans. Not us.
“Hello,” Max says.
“What seems to be the problem today?”
I’ve already had a quick glance at his chart. I know that Max has asthma, and that he’s having trouble controlling it. I’m not surprised. There wasn’t a pediatrician here before and sometimes, managing a cub’s health isn’t as simple as just treating them the same way you’d treat an adult patient. Nothing against my fellow physicians at the Claw Valley Medical Clinic, but tiny shifters have tiny bodies.
Sometimes the way we treat them is going to be different.
“Um,” Max looks to Foxy again, and she once more nods.
“It’s okay, Max. Go ahead. Tell Doctor Rob what’s bothering you.”
“It hurts when I run,” he says quietly.
“Where does it hurt?”