Wild Things

The New Employee

About twenty minutes later, a young woman with long, auburn hair came in through the door. Ashley was struck by how beautiful she was with her large, slightly slanted green eyes and warmly tanned skin. Ashley couldn't help but be jealous for a split second, but then she saw the fear in the young woman's eyes and she relaxed.

"Um... hello?" she said nervously, reaching out to shake Ashley's hand.

Ashley took her hand and squeezed it slightly before she shook it to hopefully instill some confidence in the young woman. Indeed, she seemed to perk up slightly, though she still looked nervous. "Hello. I am Ashley Midway. And you are..."

"I'm Rowan... Smith. I was sent here from Yamota to temporarily fill in. Do you still need me?"

She just sounded so nervous and helpless that Ashley decided she couldn't send her back. "The place was filled, Rowan, but you can stay on for a few days. We just got two new faeries and they'll probably need a lot of attention, especially the adult male we've picked up. He's showing signs of stress and nearly died from tranquilizer overdose."

She nodded, obviously taking mental notes on the situation. Ashley then showed Rowan around the office and when she felt like Rowan had a handle on things, she took Rowan to the infirmary.

"This is the faery I'll need you to keep an eye on," Ashley told her, indicating the dark-haired faery that lay on the hospital bed. "That's okay with you, right?"

"Yes," Rowan breathed, and Ashley chanced to look at her. For an instant, Rowan seemed like she was sad, angry, and happy, but her face changed to shy innocence almost immediately afterwards. This faery means something to her, Ashley observed. She considered denying Rowan, but then she decided not to. After all, she shouldn't make choices for the woman, even if they were bad ones.

"Okay, cool. Just keep an eye on him. Try to not touch. He's very ill. I've put him to sleep because he was complaining of pain, so when he wakes up, be ready with the morphine. It's in that clear phial by his bed in the correct dosage." Ashley then left the infirmary and went to sit at her desk. She could only hope that Rowan wouldn't do anything stupid.