Betina Krahn - Soldier's Rescue

“Can I help you?” She sounded a little breathless to her own ears as she tried to take refuge in hard-won professionalism. “Trooper Stanton, right?”

Before he could respond, a young boy stepped out from behind him with widening eyes. Beautiful golden-hazel eyes, just like Nick Stanton’s. The trooper laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder to halt him.

“Yes. Nick Stanton. And this is my son, Ben.”

“Are you the doctor who took care of the hurt dog?” Ben asked eagerly. His brown hair stuck straight up in front, and a few new teeth were fighting for space with ones he hadn’t lost yet. He had on a green shirt sporting the number 7, matching shorts and shin guards beneath padded knee socks.

“Yes. I’m Dr. Everly. Nice to meet you, Ben.” She covered her surprise by extending her hand. With a glance at his dad, who nodded, he gave her a very grown-up handshake.

“I told him about what happened to the dog, and he made me promise to bring him to see her.” Stanton released Ben’s shoulder and shoved his hand into the pocket of his jeans. “I didn’t realize your Saturday hours ended at noon. He had soccer practice this morning and—I don’t want to keep you—”

“It’s no trouble,” Kate said, focusing on Ben. “The dog is doing fairly well. Want to see?” She motioned for them to follow her through the doors and into the surgery, where she stooped in front of the boy to match his height and draw his gaze to hers. “Now you have to realize, Ben, she was hurt pretty badly. We had to shave some of her hair in places and stitch her up. And she’s not exactly frisky, okay? She’s still a pretty sick dog.”

Ben looked thoughtful and then nodded. When they reached the shelf where the golden lay, the boy stood for a moment, taking in the dog’s condition. His expression sobered, and she could see his mind working behind his eyes. Edging closer, he instinctively reached for the dog before he caught himself.

“Would it hurt her if I petted her?” He looked at Kate and then at his dad, who remained silent, deferring to the professional.

“I think she’ll be fine with it.” She was aware of Nick’s gaze on her and slid naturally into teacher mode. “Just be gentle. I think she likes people.”

He gingerly touched the dog’s head with a couple of fingers, then seemed to relax and moved closer, using his whole hand. “That’s where you had to do the surgery?” He pointed to the bare lines of stitches on her leg and hip. When Kate nodded, he frowned. “Did it hurt her when you cut her?”

“No,” Kate said, seeing where his logic was taking him, “we wouldn’t let that happen. We put her to sleep, so she wouldn’t feel anything while we fixed her leg. You want to see how?”

He nodded, and she pulled over the portable gas bottle and the mask attached to it. “We put this over her muzzle, and she breathed in gas that made her go to sleep.”

“What kind of gas?” he said, coming to look at the mask and touch it. “Like what they give to kids when they take out their tonsils?”

“Oh, so you know about that.” Kate smiled, understanding a little more about this boy from that statement. “Did you have your tonsils out?”

“No, but Wyatt did, and he told me all about it.” He headed back to the golden, more confident that he wouldn’t hurt her, and gave her a careful stroke that rated a tail thump. Then she raised her head to sniff him and look around. “Look, she’s smelling me!”

“I think she likes you, Ben.” Kate smiled. “That’s the most interest she’s shown in anyone since she’s been here. Try talking to her.”

“What’s her name?”

“Well, that’s a good question. We don’t know. She was a stray—no collar or tags. But that’s a funny thing about dogs—if you love them and are good to them, they’ll start to answer to any name you want to give them.” She knelt beside the shelf to give the golden a few strokes and meet Ben’s thoughtful gaze. Having him give the dog a name might be a bad idea at this point; she still had a lot of recovery ahead of her. “She’s a golden retriever, so for now, why don’t we just call her Goldie.”

He muttered “Goldie” a couple of times, as if getting used to it. “We’re going to get you well, Goldie.” Then he looked up with a determined expression. “Can’t we make her better faster?”

His use of “we” was not lost on her. He was a sensitive kid, and she could tell he was already invested in this dog, for good or for ill. She hoped he would take away a positive lesson from this, and then realized with a mental groan that making it positive was probably up to her.

“Okay, let’s talk about healing.” She sank to a seat on the edge of the shelf beside the dog she had just named Goldie. “We doctors—people doctors and animal doctors alike—can’t make our patients well. Their bodies have their own special systems for doing that. What we do is put things back in place and give them medicines that will help their bodies heal themselves. You know how when you get a cold, it takes a couple of weeks to get better?” He nodded, so she continued. “Well, during that week or two, your body has to figure out which viruses are making you sick, then round them up and lock them away. Your body has a kind of virus police already in place. They just need time to get to work and then repair anything that got damaged.”

She gestured to Goldie. “It’s the same with her. We set her leg bones so her body can knit them back together in the right places, and we stitched her up so her cut will stay together while her body grows new tissue to keep it together permanently. All of that takes time.” She smiled. “One of my old professors always said ‘Time is the best healer there is.’”

Ben nodded earnestly and then put his face close to Goldie’s.

“You take your time, Goldie. We’ll be here to help you get better.” Then he looked up at his dad. “Won’t we, Dad?”

Kate bit her lip to keep from grinning as Nick struggled with that.

“We can check in from time to time,” he conceded, “and see how she’s doing.”

Kate smiled at Ben, who was already on to the next topic.

“What about the other dog? What happened to him?” Ben looked around the surgery as if hoping for a glimpse.

“The shepherd?” Kate rose from the shelf and looked at Nick. “We took him over to the shelter yesterday. It was all my partner and I could do to get him into the Jeep.”

“Can we go there and see him, too?” Ben said in a tone that was clearly a prelude to full-blown wheedling. Kate saw a muscle twitch in Nick’s jaw and enjoyed watching this formidable man made defenseless by his son’s plea. “He’s probably worried about his friend.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, Ben,” Nick said, visibly uncomfortable.

“Why, Dad? His friend is here, sick, and he may be scared.”

“Plus, there are puppies who need to be played with and socialized,” Kate said on impulse, batting away guilt at supporting Ben’s begging when Nick clearly didn’t want to go. “And there aren’t always enough volunteers to spend time with them.”

Nick paled, caught in a perfect pincer movement. He seemed to be working hard not to squirm; cords were visible in his neck.

“Okay, we can go to the shelter.” He sent Ben a stern look that didn’t seem to impact the boy’s grin, so he added, “Just for a little while.”

She smiled. “I just have to check on the dogs in the runs and then lock up. I guess I’ll see you there.” As the Stantons headed for the front door, she heard Nick’s deep voice rumble.

“Just to be clear, we are not taking any puppies home.”

And she grinned.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE PARKING LOT was nearly full that afternoon when Nick and Ben arrived at the Harbor Animal Rescue. Nick took in the rambling farmhouse. He could see people in the fenced side yards, playing ball with some dogs. Ben climbed out of the back seat and headed straight for the fence. His face lit like it was Christmas morning as he climbed on a fence rail and watched the dogs romping and enjoying all the attention. Nick hung back for a while, but then made his way to Ben’s side and leaned on the fence to soak up his son’s enthusiasm.