I waved him off, still smiling. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
Twenty minutes later, I was in the exam room with my doctor. He sat on his little stool at the mobile desk, laptop open. His glasses were balanced at the tip of his bulbous nose, eyes darting back and forth across the screen as he studied Don’s notes.
At last, he pushed back and took off his glasses, his attention turning to me.
“Well, Lane, everything looks great. How do you feel?”
“Ready to go back to work.”
He smiled. “Consider it done.”
Fucking finally.
Two days later—thetime it had taken the city to clear my return—I walked back into the department in my uniform for the first time in over two months.
“Welcome back, boss!” Bertie, my desk sergeant, crowed when I appeared.
“Thank you,” I said with a wink as I passed by, buzzing myself in.
I’d expected the bullpen to be buzzing with activity, but it was eerily silent, not a single one of my deputies to be found.
Odd.
“Oh, hey, boss,” someone said from behind me, and I turned to find Johns, looking at me like today was any other day and not the occasion of my triumphant return.
Maybe he was pissed he’d have to go back to answering to me instead of calling the shots.
“Hey. I’m gonna drop my stuff off,” I said, indicating my bag and coat. “Then I’ll be in for the morning briefing.”
Johns nodded. “See you there.”
I made quick work of setting my things in my office then headed to the conference room we used for briefings.
The moment I pushed on the door, I was assaulted by a chorus of cheers. My entire department had crammed into the room. The whiteboard at the front was covered with a sign that read WELCOME BACK, SHERIFF. Two tables had been pushed together and off to the side, laden with an assortment of pastries, coffee, and juice from The Spout, our local coffee shop.
“Aww, you missed me!” I grinned.
A young deputy named Lee approached me first, clapping me on the shoulder, then pulling me into an awkward, one-armed, back-slapping hug.
“Good to have you back, Sheriff.”
“Uh, yeah. Thanks. Good to be back.”
Every man and woman in the room eventually came up and welcomed me back, and by the time we all got some food and I’d settled everyone into their seats, warmth had suffused my body.
Goddamnit, I’d missed this.
“Alright, catch me up. What’s active right now?”
“Not much, honestly,” Johns piped up. “These break-ins are taking the bulk of our manpower.”
“Have there been more?” I asked.
I should’ve known the answer. But the last few weeks had been so chaotic with my unexpected houseguest and ensuring I was ready to return to work that I’d been a bit out of touch
“Two more,” Johns confirmed.
“And we don’t have a line on this little shit?”
