Vision in Silver(180)

            Jane stepped out of the examination room. “Nathan?”

            “Simon first,” Nathan said.

            Lorenzo may have wanted to see them in order of visible injuries, but leader came before enforcer. So Simon hobbled into the examination room.

            Since he hadn’t seen her leave, it shouldn’t have surprised him that Meg was still there, sitting in a chair.

            He grumbled at Lorenzo and Jane when they cut off his shirt, wasting a usable garment, but he couldn’t raise his arms for them to lift it off, so there wasn’t much choice. He growled about them removing the shoes, socks, and jeans. He would have bitten at least one of them if they’d tried to remove the briefs. No one was taking those while Meg was in the room.

            “Oh, Simon.” Meg started crying again.

            “Don’t cry, Meg,” he pleaded. It hurt in a different way to hear her crying.

            Lorenzo poked and prodded, gently enough, all things considered, but Simon still yelped a few times.

            “Well, even in this form, you’re a lot tougher than a human,” Lorenzo said. “You’re battered and deeply bruised, no question about that. You might have some hairline fractures that I can’t detect without taking X-rays, which I can’t do here. But I’m not feeling any obvious broken bones or anything that’s dislocated. All I can prescribe is rest. Give yourself time to heal.”

            “Once Simon shifts to Wolf, I can tell if there are problems inside,” Jane said.

            “Can’t shift to Wolf,” Simon muttered. “Have to talk to humans about—”

            Meg sprang out of the chair and was in his face so fast, he jerked back . . . and then whimpered because the move hurt, hurt, hurt.

            “You do not have to stay in human form,” she yelled. “You do not have to talk to any humans until you’re better. You need to be a wolfy Wolf! And if you get stupid about this, I’ll . . . I’ll paint your tail orange!”

            He thought of pointing out that he wouldn’t have a tail if he stayed in human form, but Jane nodded and said, “That’s a good threat. Come on, Meg. Let’s step out so Simon can shift and the human doctor can look at Nathan.”

            After giving him an “I whack bad Wolves” look, Meg limped out of the examination room.

            “Let me give you a hand down,” Lorenzo said, bracing a hand under Simon’s elbow. “I won’t offer a painkiller because I don’t know how a terra indigene would react.”

            Simon didn’t know how he would react to human painkillers either, but he thought giving Meg a couple of licks would make him feel better. He always felt comforted when he gave her hand a couple of licks while they watched a movie. But what about Nathan?

            “Tell Jane to have Meg hold one of the chamomile cookies for a minute and then give a bit to Nathan,” he said.

            Lorenzo studied him. “So the sedating quality isn’t just carried in cassandra sangue blood? Just having Meg hold something provides enough contact to transfer some of that calming effect?”

            Cassandra sangue blood had been used to make the drug feel-good, which could make someone so passive he couldn’t respond to any kind of threat. It was easy to argue that taking blood from the girls was a bad thing, especially when the girls were treated like livestock. But Simon was suddenly reluctant to tell anyone, even Lorenzo, that a blood prophet might slip a mild tranquilizer to someone just by handling food.

            After all, the comfort he felt might just be from giving his friend an “I’m with you” lick.

            “The cookies always taste better if Meg handles them,” Simon finally said.