You Had Me at Cougar by Terry Spear

Chapter 7

Ava returned to bed, glad her premonition, which she had thought was just a nightmare, had stirred her from sleep so she could check on poor Chet. She'd been through the same thing when she'd been shot while running as a cougar. Once she'd been patched up—as a human—she had thought she would be fine. But wouldn't you know, she ended up with an infection and she'd experienced the same symptoms as Chet. She didn't want him to have to feel as bad as she had felt that time.

She wanted to keep him here, truth be told, as long as he was feeling unwell, and not have to send him to the clinic. She guessed his job with the other CSF agents to help them with the bear situation—if they needed his assistance with that—was out.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and let it out. She'd really had fun with him, yet hadn't expected this at all, but at least everything else had been great.

The next morning, she woke and hurried to get dressed and check on her guest. He was still sound asleep, but when she checked his temperature, loving how she could do that without touching the patient, she found his fever must have broken during the night. She left the room and made herself some hot lavender tea in the kitchen, threw the sheets from the washing machine into the dryer, and got a call from Florence.

"Are you up?"

"Yes. Chet's still asleep. He had a rough night with fever and chills, but the fever broke, thankfully."

"Do you want me to wait to bring over the breakfast?"

"No, you can bring it. Then when he gets up, we can eat. I'm going to work in the garden for a while until then."

"All right. I'm on my way over."

It didn't take Florence long to get there and she handed Ava a box of baked goods. Ava knew she was giving them to her for free, but she was going to offer to pay for them anyway.

"No, it's one of the perks for working at the bakery. If I get sick, you can make a special delivery for me."

"You know I will," Ava said.

"Enjoy your day off."

"Thanks, I sure will."

Then Florence left, and Ava set the box of fresh baked kolaches in the fridge, grabbed her garden gloves out of a drawer, and headed outside to work before it got hot. Right now was the perfect time to pull weeds and maybe even dig up some plants that weren't getting enough sun or water and move them. That was the thing about a garden. When she planted everything, the plants were tiny. Then other plants volunteered, appearing out of nowhere—bird dropped, or wind driven. And then plants that needed sun, suddenly weren't getting enough of it.

She puttered around in the garden for a good hour, then noticed movement in the kitchen window and saw Chet looking out at her. He smiled. He looked well-rested. She hoped that he was all right. She pulled off her gloves and went inside. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

She went straight to her drawer that had the thermometer in it and whipped it out.

"I was going to say fine, no fever, but it looks like you're not going to take my word for it."

"You're right. I'm not." She checked his temperature, and it was normal. "Okay, you're fine. How do you feel hungry-wise? Could you eat something?"

"Yeah. The baked goods smell great."

"Kolaches. And I suspect you want some coffee?"

"Yeah, that would be great."

"Did you sweat anymore in the night?"

"I might have, but if I did, the towels helped to absorb it. I stripped the bed and threw them and the towels in the wash. I hope you don't mind, but when I saw you outside, I went ahead and started the wash."

She shook her head. "I would have done that. Can I check out your wound?"

"This is getting to be a regular thing between us."

She smiled. "Only as it pertains to me either keeping you here with me or taking you to the clinic and seeing the doc again."

He pulled down his pants so she could check out his wound.

"I don't know. I'm calling Doc anyway. I don't want to have to worry about you if it's not any better."

"All right." He sighed. "But I'm hungry and can't wait any longer to eat." With coffee in hand, he sat down at the breakfast table, and she warmed up the kolaches and set them on plates for them.

After she made more tea for herself, she called Dr. Kate. "Hey, I'm calling about a patient of yours."

"Chet? Is he worse?"

"He was running a fever last night and had chills. His fever is gone this morning, but I checked his wound and I'm not sure about it. Maybe you should check it again?"

"I would be happy to. Just bring him over."

* * *

Chet was goingto drive himself over to the doctor's office, but Ava wanted to go with him, he figured so she knew that he truly was okay, not trusting him.

She was going to sit out in the lobby of the clinic though, but he told her to come back with him. He figured she'd seen enough of his butt not to be shocked and if she was going to watch out for him, what the heck.

Dr. Kate had him pull down his pants so she could check the wound, and he smiled at Ava.

She smiled back at him.

Then Kate said, "It looks much better than it did to me last night. Ava tells me you were having fevers and chills last night."

"Yeah, but then they were gone, and I slept well after that."

"Get plenty of rest, lots of fluids, and take it easy. You don't want me to have to confine you to a hospital bed. I hear you plan to help chase down a bear in the woods. I would say no to that. Not for another day or so. If you have no fevers tonight and the wound looks more healed up by tomorrow, then we'll see. But I want to take a look at it again."

He sighed.

Doc smiled. "You guys are all the same. I thought only Leyton made for a bad patient, but I've learned all you guys do. Make sure he comes in to see me before he goes off on any missions, Ava."

"I will. We were going to swim, but I think that is out, don't you?" Ava asked.

"Yes. He doesn't have to wear a bandage now, but I don't want him in any kind of water unless it's to shower."

"Okay, thanks, Doc," Ava said, giving Chet a look that he'd better mind the doctor.

He sighed. "So what can we do?"

"No running as a cougar," Doc said. "You don't want to scratch the area against tree branches and what not. Just heal, Chet, and you'll be all better in no time."

"You can watch me garden some more this morning," Ava said.

"All right."

"You can sit with a cup of coffee at my table on the back porch."

He wanted to help her, and he would, if she would let him.

Then they left the clinic and returned home. He got a fresh mug of coffee and she got a thermos of iced water and her gloves and she went outside with him.

"I guess you don't have another pair of work gloves for me," he said.

"Not man sized and you're not working. Sit," she said, pointing to a chair at the table.

He sat on the patio in the shade then to watch her, but he really wanted to help her. He folded his arms. "You know helping you to weed won't bother the wound."

"You're my guest. You don't need to work. Just enjoy the day. You're not a workaholic, are you?"

"I don't consider myself one, but I hate seeing someone working when I can help and I'm just sitting around watching."

She clipped some shrubs. "You might pull up the wrong plants you think are weeds when they're not."

"Ahh, there's the truth of the matter."

She smiled.

He got a call and she looked up to see who it was from, probably suspecting it was from Leyton, and it was. "Hey, Leyton. I'm on the patio resting."

"Doc said you can't go with us."

"Yeah, Doc said no running after bears in my current condition. So she called you?"

"Yeah. How are you feeling?"

"Great now."

Ava rolled her eyes.

"I have a pretty she-cat to watch while she's gardening and a great cup of coffee I'm drinking while I do it. What a life."

"Kate said you're to be watched at all times. I'm under strict orders not to let you go on a mission until she verifies you're good to go."

"I should have gone to Dr. William."

Leyton laughed. "He would have been under strict orders from Kate too. Just enjoy your vacation. Ava will take good care of you."

"I would rather be helping you guys."

"You will, if we don't catch up to the wounded bear today. We'll let you know how it goes."

"All right, talk to you later." Chet called his mother next. "Hey, Mom, I'm going to stay awhile longer here. I won't be going on the bear hunt today, but probably tomorrow. Or worst-case scenario, the next day. I'll let you know when I'm getting in though."

"Okay, that's fine. Thanks for letting me know. I'm off to get some grocery shopping done."

"Okay, love you, Mom."

"Love you too, honey."

Chet set his phone on the table. "You know I could clip the shrubs back like you're doing. I couldn't make a mistake in doing that. You could continue to pull weeds."

"Thanks, but if you get sick again, I would feel it was all my fault. Just sit and relax."

"I wonder if we could go boating."

She gave him a look that said he couldn't be serious.

"If I stay out of the water."

"No."

"We could take a walk on a hiking trail, no cougar coats. Just as humans."

"The walking could cause friction between your pants and your wound, I think."

"I could call Kate and see if that would work."

"How about we play board games? In a nice clean house, no chance of getting your wound infected."

"Yeah, that could be fun. Sure." He never thought of things like that. He tended to be all about the outdoors, especially in the summer.

"Okay, then it's decided. We can watch movies later."

"You've got a deal." Then he felt better. He wanted to do something and if she had fun doing the things with him, all the better.

Once she was done with her chores, she went inside with him and she got them glasses of ice water and set out a stack of games. One that looked interesting was all about a dragon who was hoarding his gold coins until one of the players put him on a tile and a player could control the dragon with a certain move and force his or her opponent to lose a coin and be sent back to the beginning tile. The dragon could be moved up to three spaces in any direction, and Ava was the one controlling the dragon. No matter how many times Chet tried to move beyond the path of the dragon, Ava kept getting him, via the dragon.

Chet smiled. "You're good at this."

"I just got lucky. If I hadn't picked up that tile to summon a dragon, I would never have been able to control him and sic him on you."

It was an entertaining game and he thought it would be fun to play with even more people. They played several games and then she checked his temperature, even though he said he was fine, just in case. “You’re good.”

And then she went to fix lunch.

"What can I do to help?"

"I've got a roasted chicken in there and I'm going to make homemade chicken soup with the chicken from that, shredded carrots, rice, onions, cook it all together, and we'll have that. We can figure out dinner later."

"Okay, sounds good to me."

He helped her while she pulled all the chicken meat off the whole chicken and he shredded carrots and cut up the onions. She made the rice and then they put all of it in one big saucepan, added spices, and finished cooking everything.

She heated up rolls and once the chicken was done, they had lunch.

"This is great. I’ve only eaten chicken soup and rice that came in a can," he said.

"Yeah, it's great when you're sick, or it's cold out. Though it's not cold, I thought it would be nice because you're—"

"Not sick."

"Well, true, just under the weather."

When they finished eating, she started to clear away the bowls. Then they sat down to watch a movie, but he said, "You really don't have to stay with me and watch over me the whole time."

"I know, but I'm enjoying your company. When you're gone, I'll be alone again. So this is nice for a change. Oh, I need to get the stuff out of the dryer and dry the sheets."

"Here, I'll help you with that." Chet wasn't about to sit around while she worked, especially after he was the one that caused her to have all this extra laundry.

She didn't seem to mind his help and when she pulled the clean clothes out of the dryer, she handed them to him. "You can take them into the bedroom, and I'll help you make the bed again."

"You don't mind me staying another night?"

She shook her head. "I know you want to help the other guys with the bear issue. If they don't resolve it before you can join them on the hunt, you're welcome to stay here at my place."

"Okay, I appreciate it."

"That means you get to grill chicken tonight if you're up to it."

"Oh, yeah, I can do that." He would love to do anything to help pay Ava back for all that she'd already done for him. He noticed she’d put the stuffed cougar on one of her chairs in the living room as if she were showing it off. He smiled.

"So what did your mother think about you staying with a she-cat she didn't know in Yuma Town?" Ava asked.

"She's already getting ideas. She has hoped for a long time that I would settle down. So I'm sure she's dying to meet you, even if there's nothing to it."

"What about with Bridget?" Ava threw the wet linens from the washing machine into the dryer and started them.

"I was Bridget's partner, but Travis was the one who charmed her into mating him. Bridget and I were a great team together, and we are great friends, but we didn't have what it took to make a couple. Of course, my mother wanted to meet her, and I had to tell her that there was nothing going on between us, as much as I had hoped for more. If you didn't know, both my parents were CSF special agents."

"Aww, so your mom probably is more interested in you hooking up with another CSF agent and not someone who just works in a bakery."

"On the contrary. She would be worried about a mate of mine who was in such a dangerous occupation. Now for Bridget and Travis it works out great. They work together on missions, see each other all the time, but then again, they have kids now and that makes it harder. She's at home while he's on missions, and she really wanted to go on them too."

"I'm just a baker and I enjoy learning how to make new treats. Sometimes I create really unusual stuff, to challenge myself like they do on those cooking channels. I made the coolest zombie girl for Halloween that actually glowed in the dark. Florence loved it so much, she wants me to make a whole bunch of different ones to put on display in the windows for different occasions. That one sold right away for the Halloween party the town was putting on. But I can see making more for individuals who have a thing for zombies. Or, really, anything that I can paint with florescent icing for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays."

She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture of the zombie.

"Now that is cool."

"Thanks." They made up his bed then. "I'll leave a couple of towels out for you on your bedside table, once they have dried, in case you have any night sweats this evening."

"I appreciate that. It really did the trick last night. I probably would have been freezing again, if I hadn't used those to help absorb the moisture."

"I've done that before, when I finally realized I was sweating in the middle of the night and making my sheets and nightshirt all wet repeatedly after drying them out."

While they grilled chicken that night, they enjoyed the cooler air and listened to the cicadas and crickets in the woods. She rarely sat on her back patio but with Chet it was really relaxing.

"You didn't tell your mother you were injured and feeling poorly, did you?" Ava asked then as they looked up at the stars sparkling and the full moon all aglow.

"No. There's no sense worrying her unless I had to be hospitalized."

Ava scoffed. "Even then, you probably wouldn't have told her."

Chet just smiled at her.

They finally cleaned up after dinner, and she had been halfway considering allowing Chet into her bed, but instead, she came to her senses and kissed him good night and they retired to their own beds.

But in the middle of the night, she was being chased by a bear and she woke with a start. She rubbed her forehead. Was it a nightmare? Or a premonition of things to come?