Page 25 of Hooked on the Otter Doctor
“Are you seeing this?” he asked as we lifted off. “We’re just going straight up!”
I chuckled and waited for him to notice when we lost gravity.
“Halaby!” He pointed at the strap of his bag that was now floating in the air, the rest of it secured in the seat opposite him.
I caught his hand and held it as I laughed again. “Easy. We’ll regain gravity in a moment.”
“A moment? But it always looks like it takes forever for shuttles to dock with things in the movies.”
I kissed his knuckles. “They don’t have our technology.”
“Oh, wow. Norlons are amazing…” His blue eyes were huge, gaze flicking everywhere at once as we approached theZaaqnall. “Look at this ship!”
I couldn’t stop looking at him. Giving him this opportunity warmed my heart and made me want to do even more. Whatever he wanted. Perhaps we might travel to Nor the next time Ghoshamade the trip. I could introduce Tobias to my hometown much the same as he was showing me Kleifar—except we would both be able to swim in the waters off the coast of Daemont. Yes, that sounded brilliant. I started mentally planning our visit as the shuttle settled in the landing bay.
Prince Consort Logan and Owen, the captain’s mate, met us the moment we stepped out of the shuttle, and I made the introductions. The two of them had volunteered to give Tobias a tour while I spoke with their mates, the prince and the captain.
“It’s so great to meet you both,” Tobias said after shaking their hands. “And thank you for being willing to show me around.”
“Of course!” the prince consort waved a porter over to take our bags from us. “We’re thrilled to have a new member of the human mates club.”
Tobias’s cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink as he chuckled.
“They’re waiting for you,” Owen said to me, “in Py’s office, but if you’d like to stop by your quarters first, I’m sure they can find something to talk about until you arrive.”
“I’d like to go to them first.” I looked to Tobias. “I’ll find you for lunch, like we planned.”
Tobias nodded, a grin on his face. “I’ll try not to run around squealing like a little kid.”
Chuckling, I gave him a quick kiss before we went in opposite directions. I didn’t know what Logan and Owen had planned, but if they did nothing more than take Tobias to the observation deck to look out the windows down to Earth, I knew he would be happy.
Focusing on myself, I rehearsed my reasons for resigning all the way to the bridge. I hoped neither the captain nor the prince would push back against my decision, but they might be concerned about it. Hopefully, I could reassure them both and have their support.
Cleared to enter the bridge, I walked toward Captain Langarus standing in the door to his office with just a hint of asmile on his face. Prince Ye Lena stood when we walked in and also offered me a smile. Did they know already what this meeting was about? I got the feeling that I had no secrets with these two, even though I’d only asked to meet without ever saying why.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” the prince said with his hand out to me.
I shook his hand. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
The captain clapped me on the back and gestured to one of the chairs around the small table opposite his desk. After we’d sat down, Langarus said, “So, tell me why you want to resign as ship’s doctor?”
“How do you know?” I asked, looking between them in bewilderment. “The only person I’ve told is Tobias.”
“You asked one of your administrators to remove your access to patient records.” One of his eyebrows hiked up as he stared at me. “That’s one of the first things any of us would do before resigning our positions.”
I blinked at him a few times. “Well, technically, yes, but I wasn’t thinking about resigning then. Or…” Had I been considering it? I’d known I needed to stop obsessing over my patients, but resigning hadn’t occurred to me until I’d talked to Tobias about our future together. I sighed. “Perhaps Ihadbeen thinking about it.”
“As long as you’re certain this is what you’d like to do,” the prince said, “you can, of course, do it.”
The captain spun his tablet toward me. “I’ve already had the documents created. We just need your signature, and then I’ll put a call out for your replacement. I assume you’re fine with Doctor Sitara acting as lead?”
Doing my best to shift from defense to acceptance, I sat up and cleared my throat. “Yes, Doctor Sitara will do well as lead. Give her a probationary period, if you want, but you may find that you don’t need to bring someone out from Nor to replace me permanently.”
I glanced through the document stating my resignation and signed it. When I passed the tablet back to Captain Langarus, I expected to feel more than a strange sense of relief. Sadness maybe. Some regret? But no, all I felt was a desire to move on.
“You do know,” the prince said, “that this only removes you from active duty on this ship, yes? You can still practice medicine anywhere else.”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
