The early morning sun slanted sideways through the wooden blinds and cast dappled shadows across the piled paperwork Vic had scattered across the desk . Feeling like she was always losing the war against the paper, she had come in extra early this morning. The meds were helping some, while there were ongoing headaches, they weren't as bad, and a solid breakfast had laid the foundation for a day started slogging at her desk.
Still, it was draining and timeconsuming and she had no idea how Walt had managed to fit it into his day, given his days were so often spent out on calls, driving the endless roads of the high plains in all weather.
Her coffee was mostly empty and cold, but she was uninspired to get up and make more, whoever was the coffee fairy wasn't here and she couldn't quite face the sludge left in the bottom of the pot. It was early for the Bee to be open so her coffee free state was to continue indefinitely. Vic sighed and shuffled some more paper around after signing in the appropriate places. She had to do that a lot as Sheriff and wasn't always entirely certain quite what it was she was authorising on some pages.
Any ideas she might have had about being promoted to Sheriff were long gone now, far better to be a grunt, out in the field, enjoying the highs and lows of real police work with the occasional bonus of rounding up stray livestock or other critters. Wyoming had more than its fair share of crazy but it kept her entertained and you couldn't put a price on that.
A light tapping at the office door caught her attention, and she smiled at Ruby's familiar face peering round the door frame
"Need me for something Ruby?"
Ruby padded quietly in on her crepe soled shoes and looked down at all the piled up papers on the desk before asking
"How long are you going to keep trying to do everything Vic?" her voice was concerned, and also slightly critical in her maternal way. Vic sat up straight for a moment in surprise then narrowed her eyes in suspicion
"I knew it! I knew he couldn't manage to do all this and sleep as well!" she paused for a moment "Why did you let me try?"
Ruby smiled sadly at her as she walked round to Vics side of the desk and patted her gently on the shoulder with one hand
"You were so determined to do the best job, you wanted to see everything and be in control of everything to make sure it was right and proper. Eventually I thought you would figure it out and ask me to help. Now lets see what you have here….. yes I can take care of this, and that, and those over there. " Between them, the piles were redistributed with Ruby taking away a very large proportion of the total amount.
Before she left the office she turned and said quietly
"You ARE doing an excellent job Vic, its hard for all of us without Walt here, but its so much harder for you. Let us help Vic, where we can" and she hefted her armload of papers meaningfully and nodded firmly.
"Thankyou Ruby, that means a lot, and I need all the help I can get."
Her smile felt like the first real smile she had had in days if not weeks and it was good to see a smile from Ruby in return. It made her realise how isolated she had become, and Vic rose with renewed energy, time to walk down to the Bee and have a proper conversation and some good coffee and maybe a random conversation with a local. And bring back a sweet treat for Ruby, she would like that.
A short but hopefully sweet update for my lovely readers, I haven't forgotten you. Its been so cold here lately, had snow falling but not settling on the ground over the weekend. Good news is the cold weather seems to be keeping the ants away so thats helping. Hoping for another couple of updates this week to get a big chunk of story out of the way - stay tuned!