Part 6
Warm air touched Lucy’s face as she followed the technician inside. The lights had been lowered, and a small lamp near the counter shone across a stack of folded towels.
Ranger lay on a padded surface instead of bare metal. A wrap covered part of his shaved body. Lines still ran to his leg, but his breathing no longer seemed to catch halfway in.
Lucy approached on the side the technician indicated.
She put her hand beside his paw first, letting him feel it before she began to stroke.
“Hi. It’s me again.”
His ear moved.
She pressed her lips together and drew a breath through her nose. She had promised not to get him excited.
“I’m doing it gently,” she whispered. “Look.”
One finger moved between his toes. His eyelids fluttered, though they didn’t open.
Owen remained at the foot of the bed. Rachel and Daniel stood near the wall, making room for the technician to check a line.
Lucy glanced back.
“You can say something, too.”
Owen came around and laid his hand against Ranger’s shoulder.
“Well,” he said, and had to stop. He tried again. “Next time you want a day off, use the proper form.”
A tail moved beneath the blanket.
One soft tap sounded against the padding.
Owen laughed abruptly, then wiped his cheek with his sleeve. Lucy grinned at him through eyes that were filling again.
“He heard you.”
“Yeah.” Owen bent closer. “I got the message.”
Voss watched from the door long enough to check the monitor, then moved on to another patient. Staff passed the window throughout the evening. More than one slowed to look in, and a young technician who had brought blankets to the waiting room stopped with a clean towel held against her chest.
Lucy took the chair nearest Ranger’s head.
When her parents suggested a break, she shook her head. When they suggested stretching her legs, she moved her feet beneath the chair and looked at them as if that ought to count.
At last Rachel draped a blanket over her shoulders. Daniel pulled another chair close and settled beside her.
Checks continued around them. A nurse recorded readings. Dr. Voss listened to Ranger’s chest, examined the wrap, and altered medication. Each time he left without hurrying, Lucy let her shoulders lower a little farther.
Rourke came to the doorway and pointed at Owen’s phone.
“Your wife has been waiting for you to call her yourself.”
“I sent a message.”
“Go call.”
He looked toward Ranger, reluctant.
Lucy nodded solemnly. “I’m watching him.”
Owen went into the hall.
The ribbon had been returned to her in its plastic pouch. She opened it and laid the violet strip across her knees. The frayed end caught on her thumbnail, and she carefully freed it.
Near midnight, Ranger’s eyes opened.
Lucy leaned forward without touching anything new. His gaze drifted across the dim room, past Daniel’s chair and the counter, then settled near her face.
“There you are.”
His breath came out in a long, tired exhale. The paw nearest her shifted toward the edge of the bedding.
Lucy slipped her fingers under it.
“I saved your spot,” she told him.
Owen stood on the other side of the bed, watching until Ranger’s eyes closed again. Then he pulled up a chair.
Morning brought the smell of pastries from the reception area. Lucy had dozed in pieces, waking whenever a nurse came in. Her sweatshirt sleeves were wrinkled from being used as a pillow.
When Rachel took her down the hall to wash her face, she saw cards spread across the reception counter. Several had come from children in her class. On one, Ranger wore a red cape and stood beside a girl with braids. Large, uneven letters said, COME HOME, RANGER.
Rourke studied it while the receptionist found tape. Then the captain stepped away to answer a question nobody had asked her.
A firefighter brought a folded station blanket after his shift. An older woman arrived with homemade dog biscuits and stood twisting the bag when she learned Ranger couldn’t have them yet.
“Can you keep them for when he can?” she asked.
The receptionist found room behind the counter.
Calls came from the mayor’s office and from a reporter. Rourke took the second one herself.
“No interviews today,” she said. “No photographs in his room.”
She ended the call before the person on the other end had finished asking.
Late that morning, Voss gathered the family and officers in the hall. Owen stood beside Lucy, his uniform creased, his face gray with fatigue.
“The overnight readings have stayed stable,” the doctor told them. “His breathing is easier, and his rhythm is much stronger.”
Owen rested one hand on the wall.
“He stays here?”
“For now. He needs monitoring and medication. After that there will be restricted activity, wound care, and a gradual recovery. I don’t want anyone mistaking a good morning for permission to put him back to work.”
Rourke looked at Owen.
He lifted his free hand. “I heard him.”
Voss nodded. “If he continues this way, I’m optimistic.”
Lucy raised her hand.
The doctor looked down at her. “Yes?”
“Is that the word for when I can sit with him?”
A smile reached his tired eyes.
“It’s the word for being encouraged. And yes, he can have a visitor. One at a time, quietly. Your parent can accompany you.”
“I’m very quiet.”
Patrick coughed into his fist. Owen turned his face away.
Lucy looked from one to the other.
“I know how.”
“I believe you,” Voss said, and opened the recovery-room door for her…
To read the rest of the story – CLICK the NEXT button 👇👇👇