The three of them sat in the Intensive Care Unit's Waiting Room at San Diego General.
Karen Yuletide had fallen asleep, her head resting upon the shoulder of her fiance Peter Talbot.
Joanne Howard had fallen asleep from nervous exhaustion too, but was leaning more against the back of her chair than anywhere near Peter, since she didn't know Karen's fiance that well.
Peter himself stayed awake and alert. Although they were only engaged at the moment, the werelion looked out for his future mate and, by extension, the rest of his "pride", considering Joanne was the fiance of Karen's mother.
It was Monica Yuletide they were all worried about.
After being in a very serious auto accident Friday night, Monica had to be taken back into surgery to remove fluid that had been building upon the base of her spinal column.
An operation that they would soon learn how successful it was as Doctor Moria Alexander walked into the room.
"Looking out for them properly?" she asked, knowing Peter was a werelion because she was a weretigress, although both were in their normal forms at the moment.
Peter just nodded his head affirmatively.
"Well, the operation was a success and Monica is back in her room resting comfortably," Moria announced. "You won't be able to see her until she wakes up in the morning. Unfortunately I also can't make any projections as to whether or not Monica will ever regain the full use of her legs, let alone walk again, but I can say that removing the excess pressure does give Monica more of a fighting chance than she had before."
"That is good news. I'll tell the ladies when they wake up," Peter promised.
"It's been a long day for all of us. I'm going to go take a nap in the doctor's break room. The on duty nurse has been instructed to summon me immediately if there's any change, but I'm not foreseeing any. Otherwise, I'll see you three in the morning when I make my rounds and check on Monica again."
"Thank you doctor," Peter said in a quiet voice, so as not to disturb the ladies.
Moria was about to leave the room, but then stopped and asked Peter, "Have you given any more thought to..." and then she made a claw like motion with her hand before pointing at Karen, since she was still a normal human being at the moment.
"Not before we return to Moon Lake at the earliest," was Peter's answer.
"And what about..." Moria wondered, pointing at Joanne, since she was a normal human too.
"Another matter for another day," was all he said, uncertain exactly what she wanted to know.
"Okay then. Night," Moria said, before actually leaving this time.
ELSEWHERE...
The weretiger roared mightily, challenging anyone who dared to harm even a single strand of fur upon his mate's head.
"Don't you dare boy," James Harper Senior said, the lynch mob standing 'bravely' behind him. "You and your kind are nothing but abominations that need to be wiped off the face of God's green Earth!"
"You're wrong dad," John Harper said in return, baring his fangs. The weretiger would fight to his dying breath to protect his family. "Hatred and bigotry are the abominations."
"A lot you know," his father sneered in return. "Besides, if that furry she-devil is your mate, then who's the bastard with her?"
"Huh?" John said, turning to see weretigress Ginger O'Toole standing next to a weretiger behind him.
The weretiger just smiled and blew John a kiss before saying, "Go get them lover!"
"I—" John began, but the sentence would remain forever unfinished as James Harper Senior murdered his own son in cold blood...
John Harper awoke in a fright within the guest bed of the Jenkins household.
He looked around and saw his sister Janice sleeping peacefully in a bed nearby.
"Not again!" John wailed, before he started crying.
TO BE CONTINUED...