Meadow looked up at the charming two storey redbrick Victorian Inn, and smiled affectionately at Mrs. Britta Turgenev, who stood with the white screen door wide open. She and her husband, Ivan, were more than twenty years her parent's seniors, and had known Noora and Niko before the two married. In many respects, the Turgenevs were like substitute grandparents to Meadow and her bothers. They even called them Mummo Britta and Ukki Ivan.

"Meadow," the older woman called out with joy. "It's such a pleasure to see your beautiful face. I can't believe you are here and we aren't knee deep in snow!" The woman laughed merrily as she embraced the younger woman.

Looking over Meadow's shoulder she asked with surprise, "Is your mother not coming up?"

"It's a long story," Meadow replied on a sigh. "But, not this time."

Noora honked her horn and waved enthusiastically at the two of them as she slowly pulled away from the curb trying to pretend like it was entirely normal for her to drop her daughter off at the local Inn. Britta smiled and waved back, though, she felt a pang of sorrow for Noora, who was likely  caught in the middle of a father-daughter conflict. No one had to tell Britta that those two were at it again. Everyone in town knew that Niko Rask and his daughter had a turbulent relationship. And, it wasn't the first time Meadow had ended up at her door.

Sensing that Meadow was not in the best of spirits Britta didn't bother to press her for the story. The girl would confide in her if she felt like it. For the time being, Britta only took hold of her arm and lead her inside.

"Lets get you settled, shall we?"

Meadow nodded enthusiastically despite having mixed feeling about being there.

A shower, a change of clothes, and a few minutes browsing the stack of tourism brochures Britta kept at the little antiquated reception nook by the stairwell, put Meadow in a calmer mood and a better mindset. She was here in Arrowfield to relax and that was still her goal, even if she'd gotten sidetracked with her father.

It wasn't lost on here that she was never going to have another chance like this to play tourist in her own home town. The timing and weather were ideal.  Only a handful of tourists were milling about, and the days were warm rather than scorching. Thinking about how much the place had changed since her teenage days,  she realized it would be a bit like seeing the town and it's attractions for the first time. With nearly two weeks leave, Meadow was sure to get to just about everything there was to see and do locally this time of year.

"Now, where are you off too this afternoon?" Britta inquired when she saw Meadow putting her sneakers on by the front door.

"The botanical gardens," Meadow answered with a smile. "I haven't been there since my university days. I'm sure there's plenty of things in bloom right now."

Meadow didn't have any particular interest in the gardens. It's just that, in a town of only seven hundred locals, it wouldn't take long before people recognized her familiar face, stopped her on the street and wanted to talk small talk with her. But, right then, Meadow just wanted time alone, time to relax, to just be in the now.

Lucky for her, locals didn't frequent the garden. They complained that the admission was too high. Consequently, hitting the botanical garden first, where she wasn't likely to run into a single soul she or her family knew, just made sense.

"Oh yes," Britta agreed. "There will be tulips, Irises, the early lilacs, quince and the late magnolias too. I'm sure it's be a pastel paradise out there," she declared happily. "Should I expect you back for dinner?" Britta inquired as she walked her out onto the little veranda. Though the Inn did not make meals for its clientele, Meadow was like family, and Britta always had enough Solyanka to go around to feed another mouth.

"No, I'll get something when I'm on Main Street. I saw there are some new places I might like to try." Meadow didn't want an intimate dinner with the Turgenevs just yet because they would undoubtedly ply with a great number of questions she was in no mood to answer at the moment.

"Well, that sounds good. You enjoy yourself and I'll see you when you get back," Britta said with a warm smile while giving Meadow's forearm a gentle squeeze.

Meadow nodded and then tread down the stairs. It was just about 2pm, which gave her most of the afternoon to kick around. Walking the extensive Botanical Gardens and then maybe the neighbouring town park would give her plenty of time to unwind and just enjoy the sunny weather. She was determined to make up for time lost stressing over bears and her father.

After paying for her ticket into the gardens, she took the little map guide, which the operators offered her, and struck out for the herb garden, which was the first garden on the winding trail. Like Britta had thought, the gardens were a mix of blooming bulbs and flowering spring shrubs that wound their way around a series of man made ponds, water features, and strange garden sculptures all designed to catch the eye and photograph well. The garden also hosted a series of song birds, a few wild hares and some elk, which had found their way into the place and were munching away on many of the new green shoots.

By the end of her leisurely stroll, and her determination to stay in the present moment, she found her mood had improved and she hadn't sighed once in the last half hour. But, that all changed when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Pulling it out she braced for a call from her mother, but it was instead from her boss' boss - the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Lycanthrope Affairs.

Meadow cringed. The call could only be about the incident, which she had been trying very hard to just put out of her mind. However, she couldn't very well ignore a call from the DD. With a wealth of dread, she swiped the screen and answered.

"Hello?"

"Meadow Rask?" a feminine voice asked in a short, curt fashion.

"Yes," she responded though with a great deal of hesitancy.

"Ahh," the caller voice perked up instantly. "Hi Meadow, this is Astrid Karlsson, the Deputy Director."

"Hello Deputy Director," Meadow replied in her most professional tone.

"Oh, just call me Astrid. This is not a formal call," the DD explained.

Her friendly and upbeat intonation took Meadow a bit by surprise. Astrid Karlsson was not a cheerful woman. She was direct, blunt and impatient with everyone from her superiors to the least of her subordinates. Meadow didn't even know the woman could modulate her voice to sound amicable. Her immediate thought was, 'what does she want?' But, instead of asking, Meadow just waited anxiously for Astrid to continue.

"I thought I'd call while I had a minute and check in with you personally. How are you? You doing okay?" the older women asked.

"I'm fine, I think," Meadow offered lamely. She didn't know what else to say given that she wasn't sure how she was feeling or how much the DD really wanted to know. 

"Yes, yes. I'm sure you are," the woman said almost dismissively. "I want to just reassure you that we've been briefed and have seen the closed circuit video. We are convinced you handled the case according to policy and are satisfied with your conduct."

Meadow didn't reply. She hadn't even considered that the Bureau might find fault with her handling of the situation. It left her feeling a little bewildered and nauseous.

"You aren't thinking of quitting, are you?" Astrid asked when Meadow was silent. "These incidents happen so rarely and we are looking into making some changes to better ensure staff safety. So, in future, this sort of thing is even less likely to occur."

"That's good to hear," Meadow offered but no more.

"Look Meadow, the Bureau has invested a lot of time into training you and we have high hopes for you," she told her point blank. "So, don't let this unfortunate situation derail you. You have a bright future with us here at the Bureau."

"Good to know, " Meadow replied after a moment passed. She shouldn't be startled to realize that this was not a wellness check, but rather the DD trying to assess whether Meadow was thinking about quitting or more likely suing the Bureau for not protecting her more adequately.

"Alright then, well, if everything is okay," Astrid said slowly as if giving Meadow time to add more, to expound, to tell her exactly how she felt about the agency. When nothing was forth coming, the woman just ended in the same curt tone she'd used when she began the call saying, "We'll talk when you get back to work."

"That sounds good, Astrid. Thanks for the call."

There was no response though. The call simply ended. Meadow looked at her screen for a moment and frowned. Had the Deputy Director really just called her, out of the blue, to check in on her? What was going on at work?

Was someone's head going to roll over the incident? Was the DD was just trying to hedge her bets or pad her fall by pretending to care? Meadow wished there was someone she could ask at work, but the Bureau experienced so much turn over among the clerical and managerial staff, that she couldn't think of a single contact who had been there long enough to have some idea about the inner workings of the Bureau. 

It wasn't a wonder, after that phone call, that the good mood Meadow had been cultivating all afternoon petered out and died. She'd been avoiding thinking about work since before she stepped foot in the Botanical Gardens. But now, she had to ask herself, was it time to give the job up like her parent's wanted? Or, was it still worth sticking with the Bureau even after the close call she just had with a berserk Mr. McBride? 

Meadow had gone into the Bureau hoping to make a difference, but five years later it was all still the same old thing. Relations between lycanthropes and the Bureau were strained as always. Clients were still coming in ticked off and leaving unsatisfied. And, no matter how hard Meadow worked to straighten things out for each lycanthrope who appeared frustrated with the Bureau or the paperwork, it was all the same fight the very next day for someone new. If she was being honest, Meadow had to admit she was a bit tired of it – of the constant thankless struggle.

While stewing in her thoughts and oblivious to the beauty of the gardens now or the few tourists milling about, Meadow was brought around by the sound of a slightly familiar male voice asking, "Any chance a nymph needs to eat?"

Surprised, she spun to see Ranger Seppanen, walking across a patch of grass toward her, still in his work uniform. He was so devastatingly handsome, casually striding toward her like this, that she felt a little breathless. It was kind of comical when she thought about it. How could the standard grey button-down shirt, forest green trousers, and straw colour Stratton hat of a forest ranger give her butterflies all over again? What was it about men in uniform that made them so attractive?

"I heard from the staff that you have been walking around here for hours. I figure, after all that walking you must have worked up an appetite," Hale offered while smiling softly at her. 

Meadow was so taken aback by his unexpected appearance that she could only stare at him with her heart fluttering and her cheeks blushing. Why was he here? How did he know she was even in town? Did he come upon her by chance?

Even though she did not respond to his request, the warm look in his eyes did not falter. Instead, his grin increased the longer she kept silent until he finally said, "Well, since you aren't objecting, I'll take that as a yes."

"A yes?" she asked, feeling momentarily confused. She been so caught up in trying to figure out how he found her that she'd forgotten the original question. 

"A yes to dinner with me," Hale explained.

His voice was so soft and sincere that Meadow was captivated by him all over again. It was like his smile, his eyes, his very presence, cast a spell over her. He transformed her into a blushing bundle of ghostly goosebumps and heavenly heart flutters. It was not lost on her that she had never crushed this hard on anyone - human or lycanthrope - before, or that her impulse was to jump at the opportunity to dine with him when normally she would shy away from any kind of intimate contact with a lycanthrope. 

But what about her father? What would he say when he found out, and she was sure he would. The whole town was likely to talk if they saw her out eating with a lycanthrope. Normally, Meadow would be too concerned about riling him up and making trouble for herself at home to think about Hale's offer seriously. However, hadn't she just witnessed her father eating companionably with a lycanthrope in their own home?

What was there to worry about? If her father could have Eddie over to the house for lunch and dinner every night for the past three weeks without the world coming to an end, surely she could have an evening meal in some local restaurant here in town with Hale without creating a disaster.

Besides, it was just dinner, she told herself. And where was the harm in one dinner? It's not like she was going to fall head over heel for him after a hot meal. She was sensible enough not to let a crush become anything more.

Mind made up, Meadow simply replied, "Dinner sounds wonderful."