Chapter 228

"Mae? Baby?" Shana pokes her head into their bedroom. "My God, you're still asleep?" She demands in disbelief.

Mae groans and snuggles into the warm covers. "Wha... It's morning already? That's not right."

"Yes, it is." Shana stomps in to gently pull back the blankets. "And you need to clean up, we're going to the clinic together, remember?"

"Ugh!" Mae moans unhappily, keeping her eyes closed although Shana is helping her sit up. "It's like what? 3 am? I remember now why I don't have a job." She complains, letting Shana pull her off the bed.

"No, silly." Shana shakes her head, wondering if she should just get undressed and hop in the shower with her girlfriend who's still half asleep. "You do have a job."

"I-I... I do?" Mae blinks blearily.

"Yeah, every Werewolf Pack has a witch, you know the neighborhood friendly witch that doesn't really contribute anything."

Mae glares at her which is very cute because she's still sleepy. "Don't make me curse you." She mock hisses.

Shana coos under her breath, batting away at her girlfriend's frizzy hair. "I love you too."

Mae rouses sufficiently enough to find her balance. "You'll change your mind when you're tumbling over the banister into the pepper plants." She grumbles, stomping into the bathroom with a huff.

Shana smiles again, although there's a niggling fear that Mae actually did curse her - hazards of living with a witch, you're never sure if they're kidding or not - she helps her girlfriend pick out clothes before carefully going down the stairs to try and sidestep the possibility of a curse.

Shana sighs in relief when she gets to the bottom of the stairs, hurrying to the kitchen to make a quick breakfast.

Her nerves are strumming, alive as she thinks of the possibilities laid open.

Mae had finally convinced her to fall asleep by saying that what if they got to bring Ruby sooner and they all decorated the room together.

It sounded like the most beautiful plan ever and she didn't hesitate to drop everything she had been doing to go to bed.

Wishing for sleep to come fast so that the next day would come quickly too.

"Don't rush me, for heaven's sake." Mae scolds as she tries to braid her hair in two parts, halfway so she could gather them up in a sort of partially braided pigtail.

"Sweetheart, you're pretty but if you don't braid faster I'm bringing out scissors." Shana paces behind her.

"Fine, I'm done, you're lucky I adore Ruby." Mae rolls her eyes, snatching up her purse and making her way out of the house to the car.

Absently she thinks about how Ruby would adore this place, the street was quiet and there were woods just down the street, she couldn't wait for her and Shana to become home to the little girl.

"The sun has barely risen." Mae complains as soon as Shana gets into the car and puts it in gear. "I can't believe I got up before the sun."

Shana makes a face. "That never mattered before when you had to mix potions in the hours before dawn."

"That's different." Mae sasses, applying gloss on her lips.

"Uh-huh." Shana agrees, driving down the street.

Mae carefully talks about every other thing but what they were going to do, clearly seeing how nervous Shana was.

Shana reciprocates by following up the conversation, a grateful smile on her face, the distraction was really nice of Mae, she needed to gather her wits about her before they got to the clinic.

The workers over at the clinic were pretty familiar with Mae, considering how much her mom helped out when the clinic was newly installed.

Shana signs in, grateful that she had some free time before she had to get to work, that would be enough to check up on Ruby who was most likely awake.

Alicia walks into the break room where Shana was currently stuffing her things into her locker, Mae holding small talk with Maria.

"Good thing you're here, Laura just got in." The anaesthesiologist smiles at Shana. "Hi, Mae, nice to see you."

"Alicia! What's up?" Shana hurries over, already dressed in her scrubs from home, she had a change of clothes in the case of necessity but cases like that rarely ever came up.

"Laura wants us to try to wake her up and see how she's doing." Alicia informs her. "Matteo isn't coming in till the afternoon shift but he says he'll be fine with a video and we can go ahead and wake her up without him."

"Brad and Sophia?" She prompts, linking her hand with Mae.

"Already there." Alicia grins. "Is Mae coming along?"

"Yes, I hope that's fine?" Shana asks hesitantly.

"Sure! The more the merrier." Alicia gestures over her shoulder, white coat swirling as she spins around and leads the way. "Laura is thinking that maybe just you and I would be in there before the rest comes in so as to not overwhelm her."

"W-What?" Shana splutters. "Me?! Why me?"

"Why not you?" Alicia smiles kindly.

"Oh wow." Shana gasps, overwhelmed.

Mae supportively squeezes her hand, keeping close.

They bump into Laura who was coming from another hallway.

"Well, hello." The doctor greets cheerily.

Greetings get passed around.

"How did game night go?" Shana asks conversationally but Mae can see right through to her anxiety.

"Wonderful, Greg was able to get off early too so we shared the preparations, it was fun."

They meet a blond haired man leaning on the wall outside the door, obviously a doctor if his coat is any indication.

"Hey Brad, I found them." Alicia quips.

"And more, hi Mae."

Mae waves at him with a smile.

"Well, Sophie is currently inside, we'll all wait out here." He explains.

Everyone agrees to this and Alicia and Shana walk in, Sophia coming out with a beaming smile to reassure everyone, although her worry is shining brightly in her hazelnut eyes.

Mae could easily see how they wordlessly supported and comforted each other and she was proud of her mate - yeah, she's definitely going there with Shana - she's so proud of her strong mate for starting all this.

Shana constantly wrings her hand in anxiety as the door clicks shut and Alicia gets to work, she's too distracted to even pay attention to what the anesthesiologist is doing, pacing slightly.

"It'll take a while for her to wake up." Alicia explains. "Come on, come sit." She invites Shana, indicating the other side of the bed.

Shana does as she says, aware that while Werewolves recovered faster from anesthesia than humans, there was the chance that it might take a while with Ruby. Being a little weak and quite young.

Alicia constantly checks her vitals and breathing, everything seems steady enough and without the plastic cup over her face, she almost looks like she's peacefully sleeping.

"Five minutes." Alicia mumbles to herself, checking her watch.

Shana finds it hard to keep still, occasionally stopping herself from tapping her feet, the time seems to pass slowly and after the fifteen-minute mark, Shana is starting to get worried, most Werewolves woke up by the five to ten-minute mark, although they were usually groggy for some time after that.

She stares down intensely at Ruby's relaxed face like she could mentally will her to open her eyes.

She shares a look with Alicia who tries to not let her panic show as she meticulously goes over checking the little girl's vitals when it gets closer to twenty minutes.

Just when Shana is about to crack and panic, there's movement in Ruby's eyelids.

This freezes even Alicia's well-practiced movements and they both watch when carefully, hoping shining in their eyes.

Ruby's eyelids flicker and her hands twitch hut they are still in the blanket so the ladies don't see it, her eyelids finally flip open to reveal the most beautiful pair of eyes Shana has ever seen.

It's like staring into the desert, with honeyed rivers and mountains made of sunshine, big beautiful brown eyes stare back up at her and she has to blink rapidly a couple of times so that the tears building up in her eyes don't fall.

Ruby glances up at the two weird people staring down at her, her thoughts are still mushy and it makes her want to panic but her body isn't on board with this plan.

Her thoughts moving slowly, she tries to move her hands and legs but gets no response, and the niggling thought overwhelming everything else even how she got to this strange place and can't move slips out of her mouth.

"Y-you are... l-like Ruby?" She says slowly, eyes wide.

The only other people that had been like her were the nice grandparents but she stayed away from them because she was scared they would give her back to the humans, she wasn't sure how she knew that the two ladies staring down at her also turned into big wolfies, she just did.

Shana claps a hand over her face, stunned that Ruby recovered quite fast even though it took her so long to open her eyes. "Oh my God, yes, baby, we are."

"Ruby?" Alicia calls softly to get her attention. "I would like to check you over, do you mind?"

Ruby cuts her a suspicious look but nods hesitantly, the people like her would never hurt her.