Deja Vu: The Healer

Chapter 51: Council

KARA/CAROLINE

Late the next morning, Will guided me to council room three for the follow up after Lawrence. I stared around the room, noticing the scratched-up bench and white board drawn out in a quick map.

"Right here, Love." He held a black rolling chair out for me.

He then seated to my left, as I gave a shy wave to all the people around the table.

Will pointed to Garrett and Tarin across from us and introduced me to them. I knew their faces, but never was truly introduced so I gave a forced smile. "Nice to meet you."

Garrett just grunted, but the pretty Tarin smiled back. "Glad to see you. Did you get the bath things? We weren't sure if you'd like the scent, but strawberry sounded pretty universal."

I nodded. "It was lovely. Thank you."

Jeremy was to my right and swiveled close, giving a good wink. "You already know me babe."

"Yeah yeah," I rolled my eyes, then greeted Eric at the head of the table as well.

Jeremy twisted out to see William. "Glad you brought her this time."

His emphasis had me twisting to William too. "This time?"

William scowled at Jeremy. "You don't need to bring that up."

"Bring what up?" I prodded.

Jeremy chuckled and leaned back in the chair, fingers threading behind his head. "Willyboy here kept you at home away from council yesterday because he didn't want you helping out with the werecreatures."

"You can stop now," William growled, but Jeremy just talked over him.

"But it did the exact opposite of what he hoped anyway." He laughed. "If he would have just invited you to the meeting, you would have been close and never been able to run off."

"Jeremy!" Will shouted.

Jeremy's hands came up in the air. "What man? Admit it. If you weren't babying her, she never would have gotten caught."

William growled a low throaty noise. "I know this is my fault. Now will you please drop it?"

Tarin soothed. "Oh William, come on. It's not your fault. We couldn't have known what was going to happen."

Eric sat forward in his chair, hands clasped on the table. "William, this would have happened sooner or later. There's no need to beat yourself up about it. What's done is done."

I patted his arm. "It all worked out."

He fisted his hands, staring at the scratched table surface under his arms. "You aren't angry that I kept you home?"

"Well, a little I guess. You should have trusted me enough to tell me at least. Instead, you made it sound like you were just doing boring pack work. I should have known to be watchful."

He sighed and took me into a hug over the arm rests. "I'm sorry. I know I'm being overprotective."

"Being protected is nice. But knowing why is nice too." I hugged him back, knowing my face was warming in a blush at everyone watching.

"I'll keep you informed from here on out," he promised as he pulled away.

"That's all I ask," I smiled.

Eric let the words pause on the air for a few moments and then cleared his throat. "Alright, now that that is settled, let's get to business."

"Isn't John coming?" Tarin asked, looking at the door like he was bound to appear late.