Still Waters Run Deep

Chapter 17: Skin Deep

Chapter 17:

Skin Deep

As Emily flew down the road hoping there were no cops around to pull her over she fumbled around for her cell phone. She usually didn't call the bar on her phone, but she wanted to find out if Donnie was working, because the animal hospital where he worked wasn't that far from the jogging trail. When she got ahold of Maurice she rattled through the explanation, trying not to panic. She explained that her dog had been hurt protecting her from an attacker.

"He's there. I'll call it in," Maurice said. "What about you? Are you hurt?"

"No. Not really. He got away though." Emily glanced at the blood on her shirt. She wasn't sure how much of it was Jett's and how much of it was hers.

"I told you not to go anywhere." Maurice huffed.

"When?" She asked in confusion.

"Right after you told me you had something you needed to talk to me about."

"Jesus. I wasn't paying attention and I must have...sorry, I-I got distracted." And by "distracted" she meant that her daughter almost caught her hauling a weapon out of the garage. "I didn't..."

She tried to calm herself down. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Her adrenaline was wearing off and the severity of the situation was hitting her. Her hands were trembling against the wheel. Her breathing was unsteady.

"Hey, take a breath, Fields. You're fine. I've got Manny on the way and you're not far from Donnie's place. We've got you covered."

"Yeah, I know."

"Did you see any distinguishing marks?"

"No. Just a knife plummeting towards my face."

"A knife?" He sounded surprised. "That's new." He mulled it over in thought. "They're getting really personal with this. Hits are usually clean and precise. Whoever this is isn't playing by any rules I'm used to. It's really starting to piss me off."

She could tell that despite his advice to calm down he was unnerved that she was still by herself. So she pushed the gas pedal closer to the floorboard, constantly checking in her rearview mirror, worried about Jett's blood loss. He'd stopped licking at the injury and was just lying on his side panting. He was going in to shock.

She wasn't sure what to expect when she pulled into the parking lot of the animal hospital during daylight hours. The last time she'd been out here it had been night and she'd been fuzzy from being unconscious.

As soon as she pulled up and got out of the car she lifted him out of the back seat. Before she could get two steps away from the car, Donnie and a tall man dressed in light green scrubs met her, which was a good thing because she was close to collapsing underneath Jett's weight. She was sure it wasn't helping her own injuries, but she wasn't thinking about herself in that moment. Jett was a part of her family, and because of her he was hurt. She'd been so worried about Ali and Lily getting hurt. She never dreamed their steamroller of a dog would be in danger.

"We got him," the man with Donnie assured her. She handed her dog off to him and then followed them into the building. They walked into a room that had a large metal table, two chairs, and a stool next to a computer. The man carrying Jett put him down against the table, which was hooked up to a scale. He quickly jotted his weight down while Donnie opened the cabinets and started pulling supplies out. The man helping him started getting everything ready to put an IV catheter in. Donnie gave Jett some kind of injection and then tossed the needle and syringe into the medical waste bucket. He glanced at the blood covering Emily's shirt and something dawned on him.