Becoming the Luna

"Oh, hey, Shana, here you are." Maria walks in to find the redhead sipping coffee, the sweet smell of the dark liquid permeating the break room. "Laura was looking for you, she said something about a case?"

Shana perks up at this, getting up to rinse her cup out at the sink, having a small clinic like this meant everyone was close-knit and therefore had their own coffee mugs.

"Where is she?"

"Um at the West wing." She replies absently, poking her head in her locker. "At the Help A Were office."

"Sure." Shana huffs, hurrying out of the break room, hiking the pants of her scrubs.

The Help A Were had been made to help out Werewolves in need, it had been in place before but with the disintegration of Werewolf social systems, it didn't take long before it collapsed.

Shana had been working with Laura, a Doctor, and some other nurses and doctors who were interested.

All they've done so far is just lobbying for funds from the Alphas of both Packs, which isn't a difficult thing to do but they needed to show that the department was making progress.

There's were no specifics to what the department was for and Shana wanted to leave it as open as possible so that they would be able to offer help to challenged Werewolves, health-wise or mentally.

She hurries down the hallways, nodding at her colleagues as she does so.

The department was at the furthest end of the clinic which was just fine in the situation that they got cases or patients who needed the quiet atmosphere.

"Good, you're here, my shift is ending in a couple of minutes, it's game night today and my husband isn't going to make it home early so it's all up to me." Laura explains immediately she gets in, white coat swirling as she gets up with a file and adjusts her glasses.

"That's sweet." Shana smiles, leaning against the wall. "Maria said you needed me?"

"Yeah, look at this while we walk." The doctor hands her the file and sweeps out of the cubicle like office.

"What am I looking at?" Shana asks with a furrowed brow, unable to assimilate and walk at the same time.

"Matteo quickly put this together." She explains, stopping in front of a door just down the same hallway. "We've got a patient but you were on duty so I couldn't drag you in."

Shana's eyes grow rounded at this. "Oh my God, we have a patient? Our first patient?" She gasps in disbelief, closing the file unconsciously.

Laura smiles at her kindly and pushes open the door gently. "She's still asleep." She says in a whisper, voice sad.

Shana slowly follows her in the hospital room, where a little girl, looking no older than eight is lying on the bed, white covers were drawn up her body.

Her hair is the first thing that catches Shana's eyes, the black locks stick straight and long, soft-looking and glowing with a healthy sheen.

"Her name is Ruby, at least that's what we're going with." Laura starts to explain.

Shana glances at her at this. "Huh?"

"She's lost her memories from the trauma, from what we got she has been wandering the city for a while, a little wild and a kind old Werewolf couple saw her and heard about our organization so they drove her down here themselves."

Shana just keeps quiet and watches the little girl sleep. "Trauma?" She asks with a frown. "I'm not sure I'm liking where this is going."

Laura sighs wearily. "Me neither, apparently no one knows where she's from, she just showed up in their area one day and every effort to put her in child support system crashed because she would disappear for days at a time, there's a small swamp where they live and overtime people just ignored her, guess they figured she wasn't normal."

"Oh." Shana hums, inexplicably pulled closer to the bed although she hugs the files in her arms so that she doesn't reach out and upsets Ruby's sleep. "So no backstory at all?"

"We're guessing she was an orphan that was thrown into the system and maltreated by human parents because they didn't understand what she was, she has an intense phobia of humans, which would explain why no one had reported her case yet, they simply didn't see her."

"What's her physical state? How old is she? She looks quite young if I could guess, I'd say seven? Eight?"

"She's actually ten." Laura says, shoving her hands in the pockets of her coats.

"No way?" Shana breathes in surprise.

"Yep." Laura nods. "She remembers basic things like that, she knows how to talk which indicates that she has had some basic education but she's about as articulate as a five-year-old, she's a little bit malnourished because according to the old couple she refuses to let them take care of her, little wild thing she is." Laura smiles fondly, although she had just known Ruby for some hours, the attachment was clear.

Shana takes in the liquid running through the tubes that were feeding her with the necessary nutrients she needs.

"Most of the information we have about her is in the file, she's sedated because we can't have her trying to escape when we turn our backs, I'll need to leave soon."

"Okay." Shana nods flipping through the file. "I'll keep an eye on her."

"That's the plan." Laura smacks her lips. "Alicia left earlier but she'll most likely be back for her night shift and will relieve you."

Alicia was an anesthesiologist who was also a member of the 'Help A Were' department.

"We'll keep her sedated for the rest of today for safety reasons."

"That's good enough, thank you, Laura." Shana smiles gratefully, if it weren't for their help and contribution, the 'Help A Were' department wouldn't even exist.

"It's a great pleasure, Shay." She comes over to pay the younger nurse on the shoulder. "Promise me you'll go home tonight, you have that look in your eyes."

Shana fakes a scoff. "Me? No, I don't and I promise to go home." She agrees a longing look in her eyes as she glances down at Ruby. "Say hi to the kids for me and Greg."

"Will do." Laura waves, going out.

Shana pulls up a chair when the door clicks shut, checking over the setup to make sure everything was working perfectly and she settled in to watch over the sleeping child.

•~•

"Really? You got your first case?" Mae exclaims in pleased surprise as she set up the table for dinner.

"Yes, a sweet soul, Ruby who has gone through more than she should have ever had tom."

"This is why Werewolf societies are so important." Mae was saying as Shana explained the details to her. "In the case of situations like this, this wouldn't have happened if she were adopted by Werewolf parents."

Shana's eyes darken at this, a faraway look in her eyes.

Mae just takes one look at her and sighs heavily. "You want to adopt her don't you?" 

Shana startles at this, red splotching her face as she struggles to come up with a lie. "What? What? N-no, I mean... What?" She splutters.

"It's fine to want to you know, it'll be giving little Ruby a home."

"Y-you don't mind?" Shana asks shakily, hope shining in her hazel brown eyes. "I mean, we've never talked about this before, I-I don't even know if you want kids... I-I..."

Mae places a hand on her face with a loving smile. "Deep breaths, babe, and of course who wouldn't want a sweetheart like Ruby." She says, kissing the other.

"But you haven't even met her." Shana mutters lowly, nose red.

"I don't have to." Mae tells her seriously. "Not when I'm seeing the way you already care for her so much, that's it! I'll follow you to the clinic tomorrow and we'll ask how soon we can bring her home."

"Oh wow... That's so... Oh my God!" Shana cuts herself off, hands over her face and eyes wide in a panic.

"What... What's wrong?" Mae asks in concern, tucking a wandering lock of hair back into the knot on her head.

"We don't have a place for her." She says in horror.

Mae gives her a weird look. "There are lots of spare rooms, we only use one and she can have the one closest to us."

"No, no, you don't understand we have to customize her room, I've always wanted to decorate my daughter's room carefully but now I have just a few days or less to do it? Oh my God, I'm freaking out." Shana rambles, getting up distractedly and hurrying up the stairs.

Mae just gives her a done look. "What about dinner?"

"It can wait!" Shana calls down to her.

Mae just shakes her head and gets up to pack up the leftover to place in the freezer, knowing that dinner wasn't happening again, at least not this night.

She hurries up the stairs as soon as she's done, the suspicious sounds coming from up there enough to give her motivation, there was no doubt that her overreactive girlfriend probably yeeting things out the window in her bid to 'decorate'

The pepper plants were still lined up on shelves just beside the stairs and seeing them reminded her of her mom, she knew her mom would be happy about the progress of the 'Help A Were' initiative and she couldn't wait to inform her of the latest developments.