Chapter 17

Shane was still sleeping when he was leaving for work the next morning. Anna was drinking coffee in the kitchen. "How is she?" Anna asked watching him fill a travel mug.

"She slept better last night. After everything she went through, she was afraid she let me down," he said in disbelief shaking his head.

"It's easy to go there when you start running through all the what if's in your head. Yesterday she was doing better physically but still gets tired quickly. She mentioned the bleeding has lessened considerably."

He winced remembering the car ride and ER visit. "I need to pick something up on the way home. I may be later tonight. The dogs are in the bedroom with her. I let them out back but overslept. I'll take them for a walk later tonight."

"Every time she gets up you can see their herding instinct come out. They try to herd her back to a chair. They're very protective. Your friends are very generous but must think we eat like a football team. There's still plenty of food." Anna said smiling.

"It's their way of trying to help," Oliver said smiling faintly.

"I'll take care of things here. Try not to worry."

Shane woke up shortly after Oliver left. After eating breakfast, Shane suggested taking the dogs for a walk. Her mother gazed at her seeing the stubborn look and realizing Shane probably wanted some semblance of routine and control back capitulated. "A short one."

Anna had difficulty not laughing. Every block the dogs would stop sniff around and try to herd Shane back in the direction of the house. "Even they know you shouldn't be going far Shane." Anna said finally leaning against a mailbox laughing and ruffling the dog's fur.

Shane looked at her mother ruefully. "You're certainly not helping."

"It depends on your point of view."

Shane gave up heading back to the house. They sat in the backyard throwing toys for the dogs and talking.

Oliver called to check on them while Anna was putting food together for lunch. Since Shane was sitting on the porch swing, Anna filled him in on the attempt at walking the dogs. He chuckled, "I'll have to bring them a treat home for doing such a good job."

After sleeping most of the afternoon, Shane was reading on the couch while Anna was working at the table when Oliver got home from work. They could hear him talking to the dogs. "I heard you guys did a great job taking care of mom today." The dogs came running in with bones to show Shane.

She looked at her mother who was avoiding her gaze but smirking. "Tattler."

"I'm going to start getting dinner together," her mother answered.

"Evening ladies." Oliver kissed Shane on the top of her head.

"How are Norman and Rita?"

"Missing you."

"Regarding that how about …"

"No," Oliver cut her off.

"But you don't even know…"

"You were going to ask about going back to work tomorrow."

"Just in the morning," Shane said trying to negotiate.

Very calmly he replied, "That is not going to happen."

"But you can't…"

"You're not ready." He said quietly while picking up the dog's leash.

"Oliver, you can't…"

Putting the leash on the dogs he said even more definitively in a biting tone, "I can. Not only as your husband but as your boss." He walked out the door.

"Oliver." Shane got up to follow him and made it as far as the front door.

"Shane McInerney O'Toole." Years of hearing that tone of voice with her full name made her stop instantly with her hand on the door. Although the O'Toole was a new addition. "I know you're having a hard time and you want things to be back to normal." Anna put her hand on Shane's shoulder. "He watched you laying in pain, bleeding in a hospital bed helpless to do anything and not knowing what was wrong. He's had you less than a year as his wife and he had to face the thought of losing you before he found out what was happening. It's bound to make him protective. You've both had a loss. Give him some space before trying to talk to him."

Shane laid her head against the door. "I can't keep sitting around with too much time to think about things."

"He's not wrong. You're not physically ready to go back to the office. Might I suggest a compromise. See if he can bring some work home. Surely you can use the hive to help from here."

Shane shook her head. "You've been spending too much time with Oliver. You're starting to sound like him."

While Anna finished getting dinner ready, Shane went outside to wait for Oliver on the swing. When he returned, he looked at her warily as she patted the swing. "My mother suggested a compromise."

"Did she also explain the meaning of the word to you?" Oliver asked sarcastically.

"I was vaguely aware of the premise. She was wondering if there was work you could bring home that I could do in the morning. That way I could rest when I need to but still help the DLO." Shane sighed leaning her head against his shoulder knowing it was time, "Oliver having too much time to think about what happened has been hard."

He wrapped his arm around her drawing her closer. "Are you ready to talk?"

"Oliver I was scared. I was in so much pain. When the doctor told me what happened, I felt like I'd been punched on top of everything else. I couldn't breathe. It was gone before it had a chance to live."

As they talked, the sun set, and the stars began to shine. Knowing she was finally ready he felt the box in his pocket. "I wanted so badly to fix things and take the pain away," he said. Picking up the necklace she wore around her neck, "You wear this to remember your family from the past."

"Yes."

"There's a verse. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name. Even though we never got to name our baby, I'd like to think God did." He pulled the box from his pocket. "I got you an addition to your necklace." He opened the box showing Shane a charm in the shape of a gold star. "We won't forget a life cut short and neither would God." He took off her necklace and added the star before putting it back around her neck.

"Oliver it's beautiful. I'm not sure what I ever did to deserve you." She laid her head on his chest.

"I'll remind you of that next time you get annoyed with me," he said grinning and running a hand down her back. "Should we join your mom for dinner before she thinks we forgot about her."

When they went back inside, Anna had everything ready to go on the table. Glad to see they'd settled things at least temporarily, they sat down to eat. "Joe called and asked if you'd want a change of scenery tomorrow. If you're up to it we could go for an early lunch, sit, and look at the mountains. He mentioned we could bring the dogs so they could run around."

Oliver cleared his throat, "As long as you come home before you get worn out, it may be good for you to get some fresh air Shane." He took her hand and extended an olive branch, "I'll have Rita go through what's in the office you could work on from home and bring a list home. Also, Becky called asking what the doodles had planned for Thanksgiving. Maybe Anna and you could brainstorm with Audrey."

"You're friend Becky from DC? Why would she want to know about the dog's plans for Thanksgiving? Since when did the doodles have plans?" Anna asked curious.

Oliver laughed, "She didn't tell you. They went to the office with us on Halloween and turned into internet celebrities. They have their own hasher thing. It turned into complete chaos. Becky is up for anything that brings good will towards the postal system."

"Hashtag Oliver Hashtag." Shane corrected smiling slightly. She pulled out her phone and showed her mom some of the pictures from Halloween.

"Of course, they have their own postal outfits." Anna said laughing looking through the pictures.

Towards the end of the meal, Oliver ran his thumb over the back of Shane's hand. "Can you try to eat some more?" She was still moving more food around her plate than she ate, and he was worried about the weight she'd lost between the flu and events from the week.

Anna started cleaning up the kitchen while Shane finished eating. "I know it's last minute, but if you could organize it, what about having the doodles take kids on a tour of the post office. I wouldn't mind seeing where you both work while I'm here. If you set limits on the groups, it would be easier crowd control than Halloween."

"Speaking of the doodles, I need to take them out for a longer walk." Oliver said getting up satisfied Shane had finally eaten a meal. "I just took them around the block earlier since it was almost time to eat dinner."

Anna noticed the new addition to Shane's necklace since she'd been playing with it all through the meal. After he left Anna asked, "Did Oliver get you something?"

Shane told her what he'd said when he'd given her the star. Anna hugged her, "I'm sorry you're both going through this. He really is an amazing man."