Part 5
Warren left his hand where it was. The puppy’s paw scarcely covered two of his fingers.
A few more tears fell before he could get a full breath. He wiped them with his sleeve, then gave a quiet, embarrassed laugh that came out unevenly.
“You don’t miss much, do you?”
Gus’s tail tapped his wrist.
Warren looked toward the bed. Leah had not stirred. He shifted into the chair the nurse had left for him and settled the puppy across his lap, close enough that Leah’s fingertips could still reach the blanket.
“Thank you,” he said, barely above a breath.
Gus turned twice, tucked his sore shoulder against the folded edge, and lay down.
The breakfast carts were moving in the hall when Warren woke.
His neck hurt. One leg had gone numb beneath the puppy, and pale lines of daylight lay across his trousers. He was trying to move without disturbing Gus when the bedclothes rustled.
Leah’s fingers lifted from the sheet.
Gus was upright immediately.
Warren put a hand beneath him before he could scramble off the chair. The puppy made a small, urgent noise, staring at Leah’s face.
Her eyes opened. For a few seconds, she looked at the unfamiliar ceiling and the rail beside her. Then Gus wriggled in Warren’s hands.
“Gus.”
Warren placed him carefully on the clear part of the blanket.
The puppy went straight to her, his whole back end moving with his tail. He licked her chin, backed up half a step, then pressed forward again as if he couldn’t settle on how to greet her.
Leah laughed once and winced. Tears ran down her face as she brought an arm around him.
“There you are. There’s my boy.”
Gus pushed beneath her chin. Her tears dampened the fur along his muzzle, and his little cries softened as she stroked him.
Warren moved the call button within her reach, then stepped back to give her room.
“I kept thinking…” Leah stopped and held Gus closer, as far as her injuries allowed. “I didn’t know if I’d ever get to do this again.”
The puppy’s tail beat against the blanket.
“He kept checking on you all night,” Warren said.
She looked up at him. “You stayed?”
“I had a supervisor.” He nodded toward Gus.
Her smile trembled.
A nurse came in with a small cart and paused at the foot of the bed.
“So this is the famous fellow.”
Gus lifted his head, considered her, then returned to Leah’s neck.
“I see I’ll have to work around him.”
Warren gently shifted the puppy while the nurse checked Leah’s blood pressure and temperature. Leah kept one hand on his back throughout.
The nurse reviewed the chart, then met her eyes.
“You’re stable this morning. That’s good. But you were in serious trouble when they brought you in. Another hour out there could have killed you.”
Leah’s hand stopped moving.
Gus nosed her wrist until she began stroking him again.
“When we first got to you,” Warren said, “he tried to put himself between you and my hand. Then he wanted us moving faster than we could.”
“He’s always noticed things.” Leah rubbed the soft place behind one folded ear. “Even when he was smaller. He’d know I was upset before I sat down.”
The nurse finished adjusting the blanket and reminded her to call before trying to get out of bed. At the door, she glanced back at Gus.
“I suppose you’ll make sure she remembers.”
The puppy answered with a short bark. Leah laughed carefully this time.
After the nurse left, Warren stood to straighten the chair. His back protested, and he failed to hide the small grimace.
“You should go home,” Leah said.
“In a minute.”
She studied him while Gus settled against her side.
“I don’t even know what I could do for you.”
Warren folded the spare blanket over the chair back.
“Get better. He’s got plans for you.”
“And you?” she asked.
He looked at her, uncertain whether she meant the dog’s plans or something else. His hand remained on the chair a second too long.
Gus saved him by rolling onto his back and catching the edge of Warren’s sleeve in his teeth.
Warren eased the fabric free.
“Apparently I’m still under orders.”
Leah smiled down at the puppy and let the question go.
Over the next two days, the room acquired signs of ordinary use. A half-finished cup of broth stood on the tray. Leah’s phone charger arrived with her replacement belongings. The bed controls no longer seemed to surprise her, and she learned which movement pulled at a bruise before making it.
There were statements to give and questions to answer. Vance came by when Leah was strong enough, keeping the interviews short. Warren brought what he remembered from the woods and left the investigation where it belonged when he entered the room afterward.
Leah’s voice grew steadier. She could sit up longer, though fatigue sometimes caught her halfway through a sentence. The doctors spoke to her about rest, follow-up care, and therapy once she left the hospital.
Gus was supposed to be resting, too.
He generally did, so long as Leah was within reach. But whenever Warren appeared in the doorway, the puppy’s head came up before anyone said a word.
On the third afternoon, Warren barely got inside before Gus tried to leave Leah’s lap.
“Hold on,” she told him, laughing. “You’re not jumping.”
Warren crossed the room and took him from her. The puppy licked his chin, then caught the loose edge of his jacket as though checking that he intended to stay.
Leah watched them from the raised bed.
“He does that every time.”
“He’s checking for contraband.”
“No. He’s checking for you.”
Warren scratched behind Gus’s ear and looked down rather than answer.
Leah let him have the silence for a moment.
“He trusted you before you knew anything about me.”
“He was pretty persuasive.”
“I’m glad he was.”
Gus settled in the crook of Warren’s arm. The little legs that had worked so hard on the sidewalk hung loose now, the injured shoulder protected against Warren’s jacket.
Leah gathered a fold of sheet between her fingers.
“Warren, could I ask you something?”
He straightened immediately. “What do you need?”
She glanced toward Gus.
“The doctor says this part will take a while. I’ll have appointments, therapy. Some days I’m going to need help just getting through the day.”
Warren waited.
“And I don’t want to go straight back to my place. Not yet.” Her fingers tightened in the sheet. “I know the men aren’t there. I know that. But I can’t think about being alone in that apartment right now.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
She nodded, looking relieved that he hadn’t asked her to.
“I can’t give him what he needs while I’m like this. The walks, the play, all of it. He’s still a baby.”
Gus lifted his head at her voice.
Leah looked from him to Warren.
“Would you look after him until I can?”
Warren’s hand stopped behind the puppy’s ear.
“You want him with me?”
“I want him with somebody he won’t be afraid of.” She reached across the small space and touched Gus’s paw. “He’s comfortable with you. More than comfortable.”
Warren looked down. Gus lay on his back now, his muzzle tipped toward Warren’s face, waiting for the scratching to resume.
The officer’s mouth opened, then closed. He had expected to take a statement, bring back a lost possession, perhaps stop in once more after discharge. He hadn’t thought beyond the next visit.
Leah began to loosen her grip on the sheet.
“If it’s too much with your work, I understand.”
“No.” He said it too quickly, and Gus startled. Warren smoothed a hand over his side. “Sorry. No, I mean I’ll do it.”
Her shoulders lowered against the pillows.
“I’d like to,” he added.
Gus twisted toward Leah, and Warren brought him close enough for her to kiss the top of his head.
“Thank you,” she said.
Warren nodded, still stroking the dog.
“There’s one more thing.”
He looked up.
“When I can take care of him again, I don’t want that to mean you disappear.” Leah paused, choosing her words. “I want you in his life, too.”
Gus stretched his front feet against Warren’s chest and tried to reach his chin.
Warren caught the little paws in one hand.
“I’d miss him,” he said.
Leah’s smile returned slowly.
“I thought you might.”
The puppy squirmed until Warren shifted him upright, then settled with his head beneath Warren’s jaw. Leah watched them for a moment before reaching for the cup on her tray.
“Well,” she said, “that’s your assignment, Officer Ellis. One undersized shepherd. No experience supervising policemen, but he’s learning fast.”
“He already knows where I’m supposed to stand.”
She laughed, and this time she didn’t have to stop quite so quickly.
Warren stayed until Leah began to tire. He helped move her tray within reach, checked that the call button hadn’t slipped behind the pillow, and gathered the puppy’s blanket.
When he set Gus down briefly to fold it, the dog immediately followed his boots toward the door.
Warren bent and scooped him up.
“Still doing that, huh?”
Gus licked his wrist.
At the doorway, Warren turned so Leah could see him. She lifted her hand, and the puppy leaned toward her, his ears uneven and alert.
“Keep him safe,” she said.
“Whatever it takes.”
Warren tucked the blanket beneath Gus’s sore shoulder. Leah touched two fingers to her lips and held them out toward the puppy. He watched her until Warren turned into the hall, one broad hand supporting him all the way beneath his feet.