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Aisha Campbell dodged two Great Danes running toward her. "Whoa!" she cried out.
"Sorry!" her co-worker exclaimed, running after them.
"It's okay, Cole," Aisha said. She watched him run down the hall, following the two large dogs. His floppy hair was waving around and the red vest he wore seemed to trail after him. "Just be careful!" Aisha called.
"Always am!" Cole yelled over his shoulder.
Aisha shook her head and looked down at her clipboard for her next patient. She opened the door to the lobby. "Oliver?" she called. Aisha looked around and saw a tall man with dark, closely cropped hair stand up. He wore kakhis and a green short-sleeved buttoned down shirt and gestured to two little girls who were sitting next to him.
"Come on, girls," he said, pulling the leash of a pure white Siberian husky.
Aisha held the door open for them and directed them to a room. "So, what seems to be the problem?" she asked. The man told the two girls to sit down in the only two chairs in the room. One of the girls, the one with short, dark-brown hair, was dressed in a yellow shirt and jeans while the other one wore a pink dress with her blonde, bouncy curls surrounding her face. The man picked up the dog and placed it on the exam table.
"Saba's hair is falling off and he keeps scratching," the girl in pink said. She held a stuffed elephant in one hand while the other was holding the hand of the man. "What's your name, anyway?" she asked, curiously.
Aisha smiled. "I'm Aisha Campbell. What's your name?" She leaned down to look at the girls in their eyes.
"Sydney." She held up her elephant. "This is Peanut. And that's my best friend, Z," she said, pointing the elephant to the girl next to her.
"Hi!" Z said, grinning and waving. "Are you going to fix Saba?"
"I'm going to try," Aisha said with a smile. She liked talking to kids.
"Sorry," the man said. "My daughter's a talker. She gets it from her mom."
Aisha grinned. "That's okay, Mr..." She quickly glanced at her clipboard. "Oliver."
"It's actually Doctor," Sydney said. "Daddy has a PhD." She rolled her eyes. "Whatever that means." She and Z laughed amongst themselves as if they were sharing a private joke.
"Oh. My mistake Dr. Oliver."
Dr. Oliver waved his hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm just a simple science teacher living the quiet life."
Aisha smiled and nodded before she started to examine the dog.
"Is Saba going to be okay?" Sydney asked after a moment.
Aisha nodded and looked at Dr. Oliver, who had sat down and now had Sydney in his lap. "Yes, Saba will be fine. This is something that is very common in Siberian huskies. Saba has a condition called ZRD, which is zinc responsive dermatitis."
"Huh?" Syd and Z looked confused.
"It means that Saba doesn't have enough zinc in his body. It can be treated with a simple zinc pill. I'll write a prescription for you."
"Thank you," Dr. Oliver said. He leaned down to speak to his daughter. "You hear that Lux? Saba will be fine."
Sydney smiled up at Aisha. "My dad calls me Lux sometimes." Her dad stood up, forcing her to stand. He helped Z off her chair as Aisha clipped the leash on Saba. She handed the prescription to Dr. Oliver.
"Thank you," Dr. Oliver said, again. He took the leash from Aisha and manevered his hands to shake her hand. "All right, girls, say thank you."
"Thank you," echoed Sydney and Z. Sydney was holding on to her dad's hand while Z held his other hand. Saba's leash was wrapped around Dr. Oliver's wrist.
"You're very welcome!" Aisha exclaimed with a smile. "Come on, I'll show you out." She led them out to the waiting room and waved to them as they walked past her.
"Daddy, do we really have to drop Z off at the flower place?" Syd was asking.
Dr. Oliver nodded. "Yes, honey. Her dad's probably missing her right now. If you were gone from me for so long, I'd be missing you. And besides, we could pick up something pretty for Mommy." He looked back and smiled at Aisha before walking out. "Thank you," he said again.
Aisha smiled after them. She went back inside and walked over to the front des. "When's my next appointment?" she asked.
"Not for a few hours," answered Maya, the front desk receptionist. She had wild, crazy hair and liked to wear yellow, just like Aisha.
"So, I have time to go for a quick run?"
"Yup."
"Can you take these two with you?" Cole asked, out of breath. He held up two leashes. Aisha looked past him and saw the two Great Danes.
She laughed, taking the leashes. "Sure. I'll just head down to the beach." She took of her white coat, revealing her casual clothes underneath. She wore yellow shorts and a white tank top.
A few minutes later, she was at the beach and noticed how crowded the boardwalk was. She held the dogs in front of her, trying to keep them there. A woman, dressed in pink, quickly dodged Aisha as she tried to disentangle the leashes.
"Excuse me," Aisha said.
"No, I'm sorry." The woman briefly looked up at Aisha and smiled before looking down at her phone.
Aisha moved around them and set up a steady jog on the beach. She almost ran into two teenage surfers, running down to the beach, but managed to keep the dogs out of their way. She and the dogs continued their run until the Great Danes started lagging. She stopped jogging and started walking at a steady pace on the boardwalk, amid the large number of people. Aisha took her eyes off the dogs and glanced briefly down at the volleyball courts. She saw a large crowd and wished she had enough time to play a quick pickup game. As she took her eyes off the dogs, Aisha didn't notice that the Great Danes started to get tangled with one another and looked down at them to see the dogs nearly knock over a Hispanic man in black slacks and a red shirt.
"Oh..." he said, losing his balance.
"I'm so sorry," Aisha said, trying to detangle the leashes.
"It's o-whoa!" The guys threw out his arm and Aisha instinctively grabbed it, trying to catch him before he fell.
Suddenly, images ran through Aisha's mind. This guy was smiling at her, but he wasn't wearing the black slacks and red shirt that he currently wore. Instead, he was wearing jeans and a red tank top. Startled, Aisha let go of his arm, causing him to fall to the ground.
"I'm so sorry!" Aisha repeated.
"It's okay," the man said. "Aisha..."
She looked at the man in shock. "You saw that, too?" she asked. The man grinned, nodding before he stood up. He put his hands on both sides of her face. Aisha took a step back in fear. "No..." she protested.
"Yes..." the man said, taking a step closer to her. Once again, he put his hands on her face. "Just let it come to you, you'll understand." He looked deeply into her dark brown eyes. "Just let it come to you..." he said, softly.
In a quick moment, Aisha was overcome with images in her mind. She saw Rocky and her going through school and moving to Angel Grove. She saw the two of them and Adam becoming Power Rangers. She saw herself as the fire chief of the school. She saw her and her friends enjoying smoothies at a local juice bar. Aisha remembered asking her parents if her best friend could live with them so she wouldn't have to move to Paris with her own parents. She saw herself participating in a triathlon and saw herself as a young child in Africa. The last memory she saw was of her wedding day, standing next to her handsome husband with her best friend at her side.
Aisha looked into his eyes and kissed him. "Rocky...I..." Rocky didn't let go of her face, but leaned in for another kiss. She gave him a tight hug as tears filled her eyes. "I'm sorry...I..."
"It's okay," Rocky said, gently. "It's okay. We're here now. That's all that matters."
Aisha laid her head against his chest. "Then you know-"
"Yes," interrupted Rocky. "And I'll be waiting for you tonight. We have a lifetime ahead of us."
Aisha looked up at him and gave him another kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"I'll see you later."
"You better."
Aisha gave Rocky one last hug before putting an arm around Adam and squeezing Tanya's hand. "Tonight..." she said as she walked away, smiling at Rocky.
Adam gave Tanya one last hug. "You do what you have to do," he said. He kissed her and she smiled at him and Rocky before heading into the opposite direction as Aisha. Rocky and Adam waited until Aisha and Tanya could not be seen before they even moved.
"And now?" asked Rocky.
"And now we wait," said Adam. He pulled out his instructions and marked off a couple of things.
Aisha hurried back tot he office. She wasn't exactly sure what to do, but she felt like she needed to be back here. Aisha walked through the automatic doors of the office and slowed her pace as she walked in. She headed for the main desk and saw Maya talking to a woman.
"Oh, Dr. Campbell," Maya said. "You wrote this prescription out." She handed Aisha a small piece of paper. "What's it for?" Aisha furrowed her brow, looking down at the paper. "Do you remember what Dr. Campbell prescribed for your pet?"
"No, I'm sorry. My husband was here earlier. He brought our dog in, but forgot to pick up the prescription. He's forgetful like that." The woman smiled at Maya. "But my daughter and her friend were with him, so I can't blame him for that."
Aisha's head snapped up at the sound of the woman's voice. "Um...I remember. It was the zinc supplement," she said, grabbing a pen to write its name clearer on the paper. "Sorry about that, Maya." She looked up at the familiar face and grinned. "I remember your husband. Your daughter's very talkative."
"Yeah, she gets like that." The woman laughed.
Aisha stared at her for a few seconds, wondering exactly what she should do. "Um, you have a great day, okay?"
"Thank you. You too." Aisha nodded and turned to help another person.
"Here you go," Maya said, handing the woman a small brown bag. "Once a day with meals." She rang the woman out and smiled at her as she walked away. Maya waved before noticing that the woman left her pink wallet at the counter. "Hey, wait. Excuse me! Ma'am! Come back! You forgot your wallet!"
Aisha turned at the sound of Maya's voice. She saw the woman walking out, not hearing Maya's voice. "I'll run and give it to her," Aisha said, taking the wallet.
"But you have another appointment..."
Aisha didn't hear the rest of Maya's statement. She ran out of the automatic doors, shielding her eyes from the sun. She saw the woman walking a few paces ahead of her. "Wait! You forgot your wallet!" Aisha yelled.
The woman turned and saw Aisha running toward her with her hand outstretched, holding the wallet in front of her. She ran back toward Aisha, with her own hand outstretched. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much!" she said, reaching for the pink wallet.
"No problem." Aisha handed her the wallet and their hands briefly touched in the process.
The woman had a confused look on her face and took a step back from Aisha. "What was that?" she asked, putting her wallet into her matching pink purse.
"It's okay," Aisha said, gently, repeating the same thing that Rocky had earlier said to her. "Just let it come to me. I had to let it come to me, too." She stuck out her hand, offering it to the woman.
The woman looked at Aisha suspiciously, but reluctantly took her hand. Immediately, a rash of memories flooded their minds. She let go of Aisha's hand and looked at her with tears in her eyes. "Oh my gosh..." she said in awe, before wrapping Aisha in a bear-tight hug.
There's that chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!
Next chapter: Katherine