“I know,” Kara said as she calmly read over the orders Daniel had sent.
Beth stared at her openmouthed. Shock and rage mixed on her face. “When were you going to tell us?”
Kara let out a sigh and folded up her orders. “I just found out last night,” she explained. “There was an emergency at headquarters that needed a specialist. Daniel called me.”
“An emergency?” Beth squeaked in outrage. “You’re a therapist! What kind of emergency can you handle?” She paused as the accusation in her words hit her and she saw how insulting that statement could be. “I mean,” she backpedaled, “you deal with long-term treatment, not emergencies.”
Kara chuckled. “I thought the same thing. But it turns out, they really did need a specialist. Let me introduce you to Byrd.” She turned to where the little dragon had been, but he was gone. “Byrd?”
Beth looked around the empty lobby. “I didn’t see anyone.”
“He was here just a moment ago,” Kara said as she walked over to the spot where she’d last seen him. “He’s stuck in his lesser form.” Standing where he had been, she scanned the room, looking for where he might have gone. “I swear he was just here.” Heading back to the stairwell door, she pulled it open to see if he had gone back in. “Where could he have gone?” The sound of a toilet flushing answered her question. Kara let go of the door and turned towards the sound.
“Is that him?” Beth looked towards the hall that led to the bathroom.
Kara joined her to wait for Byrd to come back. “I sure hope so.” Anxiety held her until the door opened and Byrd came out. She sighed in relief as he headed her way. “That’s him,” she said in relief.
As he drew closer, she watched to see if she could tell what part of his personality was dominant. The bounce in his step and out-of-tune song were gone, but that wasn’t much to go by. Her heart dropped when he stopped at the end of the hall to sniff at the carpet. Noah wouldn’t enjoy sniffing the floor. Byrd had to be back in charge. “Byrd,” she called.
His head popped up at the sound of her voice, and his eyes focused on her.
“Come here. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
It took him a moment to respond, but he nodded his head and came over.
“Byrd, this is Beth Ranchester,” Kara said, introducing her coworker.
Beth bent forwards and held her hand out to the small dragon.
Byrd sniffed at it and recoiled. “Stinky woman!” he hissed and backed up.
Straightening quickly, Beth jerked her hand back, surprised by Byrd’s outburst.
Kara grabbed Byrd as he backed away from Beth. “Stop, Byrd!” she cried. His tail was already between her legs, and if he went any further, they were both going to end up on the ground.
With her hands on the dragon, she looked up at her upset coworker. “Sorry.” She smiled to ease her explanation. “Byrd has issues right now,” Kara warned Beth. “It’s your perfume. It’s very strong, and you know how sensitive dragons can be.” Kara’s hands ran over Byrd’s scales, soothing him.
Beth stood there and glared at them, insulted.
Letting out a frustrated breath, Kara stood up and gave Beth a sharp look. “Byrd’s experiencing a major separation right now. His instincts are in control, and he’s likely to react without thinking.”
The indignant look on Beth’s face was replaced by shock. “Complete separation?”
Kara nodded. “That’s why Daniel called me. He needs Byrd whole again. He’s…” she let the rest of the sentence hang, unsure how much of Noah’s story was classified. The expectant look on Beth’s face pushed her on. “…important.”
Beth nodded slowly. “That might explain the package that was sent with your orders.”
“Package?”
“Yes.” Beth turned and started towards Kara’s office as she spoke. “The orders came in with the morning mail, but an agent dropped something off a little while ago. He also asked how Noah was.” She glanced back to Kara and raised her eyebrow in question. “Who’s Noah?”
“Noah Byrd,” Kara said, nodding to the dragon at her side. “Who was asking?
Beth made an appreciative noise. “I’m not sure, but he was fine! Tall and handsome. Although he looked like he recently had a bad day.”
“That might have been Laurence,” Kara guessed as they reached her office. “Did he have several bad bites on his arm?”
“Could have,” Beth said, thinking back to the man. “I didn’t see anything obvious, but he might have been favoring it a bit.”
“That was Laurence,” Kara confirmed, opening the door to her office. “Come on, Byrd,” she called to the dragon, ushering him inside.
Byrd stopped just inside the doorway before wandering over to the outside wall to check out the view.
Kara shook her head and headed to her desk. Right in the middle was a lumpy manila envelope.
“Who is he?” Beth asked as she followed the pair into the office.
Kara looked up in question.
“The man,” Beth said, nodding to the envelope.
“He’s a friend of Noah’s,” Kara explained as she sat down at her desk, letting the subject go. Having just met Laurence yesterday, she really didn’t have any answers to give. “When’s your first appointment?” she asked, looking up at Beth with imploring eyes.
“Not until after lunch,” Beth replied, taking another step into Kara’s office.
“I don’t know how long Noah’s case is going to take. Could you help me sort through my patients? I’ve got to decide what to do with them until I can get transferred back.”
Beth nodded. “Sure. Let me go get my laptop.” Turning around, she left.
Kara let out a sigh and looked over at the dragon who was the source of her problems. He’d sat down in front of the glass-and-metal wall and was staring down, watching the cars in the parking lot. He looked so serene sitting there with his tail curled around his feet. Kara closed her eyes to block the sight out. Her dragon was much too content to have him close. He was her patient, and she shouldn’t let herself get attached to him. She didn’t even know anything about his human side.
Opening her eyes, she looked down at the envelope on her desk. Laying her hands on the heavy paper, she could feel hard objects within the hefty file. Everything I want to know is right here. For a moment, she considered ripping it open and sating her curiosity, but she pushed the file to the corner of her desk, out of the way. Right now, she had to deal with her current patients, and dividing them out could take a while. But, once done, she would have all the time she wanted to delve into the enigma that was Noah Dove.
The sun skimmed across the surface of Kara’s keyboard as she sent the last of her files off. She hadn’t intended to take so long, but getting her patients organized had proven to be a challenge. Each of the therapists in her office specialized in a different field of mental health. There wasn’t much overlap, so finding people willing to take on her patients was harder than she’d first realized. It had taken a fair amount of finagling and a little bribery to get everything covered. What took the most time was updating her patients’ portfolios. She was pretty good about documenting everything, but she took a little extra time fleshing out the files. Separation could be a tricky subject, and sometimes the smallest detail could make or break a case.
Pushing her keyboard back, Kara glanced over at her new project. Byrd had been amazingly tolerant as she’d worked. He’d started out staring out the window but got bored with that after a while. Kara thought she was going to have an issue when he started poking around her office, but he quickly settled down on her couch for a nice nap. She watched as his sides rose and fell gently in his sleep. His tail wrapped up between him and the back of the couch to drape over his nose. The tip of it hung over the edge of the cushion and twitched as he dreamed. He was adorable, and she couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face.