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Healing Hearts (Love Inspired)

By Margaret Daley

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Abbey Harris climbed the stairs to the third floor at Cimarron City Hospital with Gabe, her black Lab, on a leash next to her. This was the only exercise she got all day. She worked long hours as a medical social worker at the hospital as well as volunteering to bring her dogs to see patients here to make them feel better.

At the door to the third floor, Abbey knelt and rubbed her Lab behind his ears. "Gabe, we've got a little girl who needs your love and care. Are you ready?"

He nudged her with his head, and she hugged him before standing and opening the door. The antiseptic smell and brightness from the fluorescent lights hit her as she stepped out onto the busy surgery floor in the middle of the day. A patient with a portable IV was strolling the hall, and she paused to let him pass.

When Abbey stopped at the nurse's station to check in with the head nurse on the floor, Gabe sat beside her. "Hi, Caron. I got your call about a patient you think Gabe can help."

Dressed in blue scrubs, Caron Wyatt looked up from reading a chart and smiled, her brown eyes twinkling.

"I'm so glad you and Gabe are here. If anyone can help, it'll be you and your dog. I've seen what you've done with other children on this floor."

"Which girl is it?"

"Madison Winters. She lost both her parents in a plane crash six months ago."

"I remember hearing about that. Greg and Susie Winters. What an awful story." Abbey patted the top of Gabe's head. She knew what it was like to lose someone close. She'd always miss her daughter, Lisa.

"Madison has come in for yet another operation. Hopefully it'll be her last one, and she'll be able to walk after it. That is, with physical therapy."

"Has she spent a lot of time in the hospital?"

Caron nodded, smoothing her short auburn hair back from her face. "Over the past few months I've seen the child grow more depressed, which really concerns me. You know how important a patient's attitude is to the recovery process."

"That's why I started bringing Gabe and my other dogs here to visit. It goes hand in hand with my job."

"I'm hoping he'll work his wonders with this little girl."

"Which room?"

"Three forty-five."

"How old is Madison?"

"Eight."

Abbey's breath caught for a moment before she released it. Her daughter, Lisa, would have been eight if she had lived. If only she hadn't died from leukemia… She couldn't go there now, not when someone needed to be cheered up. "We'll try our best."

When Abbey arrived at room 345, she stood in the doorway to the little girl's hospital room, decorated in pink with purple accents and Disney characters painted on the walls. It was bright. Cheerful. Yet Madison sat in a wheelchair staring out the window with the saddest expression on her face.

Abbey tried to contain her emotions at the sight. She racked her brain, trying to recall what the reporter had said about the child and her situation. She had been the only survivor in the plane crash that killed her parents. Her half brother, Dominic Winters, had returned to Cimarron City to be with his little sister. Was he still here? Or was someone else looking after Madison?

Gabe nudged Abbey's hand as though he knew instinctively he could help the child. If any animal could comfort and cheer up Madison, her black Lab would.

Abbey took a deep, fortifying breath, then plastered a smile on her face and entered the hospital room. "Gabe, look who I found. Madison."

On cue, Gabe barked.

The girl glanced toward Abbey and her dog as they crossed the distance between them. The child's blue eyes grew round. "You were looking for me?" she murmured, her attention fixed on Gabe.

He stopped at the side of the wheelchair and sat, looking up at Madison. She was a fragile-looking child, with short brown hair and long dark lashes. For a few seconds she just stared at him.

"You can pet him. He loves kids."

"How did you get a dog in here?" Madison asked as she laid her hand on the top of Gabe's head. Tentative at first, she then began scratching him behind the ears.

"That's one of his favorite places to be rubbed. I'm Abbey, and he's Gabe." Abbey squatted down next to her dog. "I've been bringing him to visit different people in this hospital for a while now. I work here, and friends of mine let me know when there's someone special he should meet. One of them thought you might enjoy getting to know Gabe."

"Who?"

"Nurse Caron."

"She didn't say anything to me." Madison leaned more toward them, now using both hands to pet Gabe when he put his head on the arm of the chair.

"I told her I wanted to surprise you."

Madison grinned. "You did. I used to have a dog. A small one."

Abbey's heart swelled, thinking about what the little girl had gone through in the past few months. A picture of her late daughter hovered in her mind. She couldn't go there, or she wouldn't be able to cheer up Madison. She forced a light tone to her voice. "I have several dogs."

"You do? Are they like Gabe?"

"No, the others are smaller, what I would call lapdogs."

"Like Zoe was."

"Was she your dog?"

Madison nodded, tears welling in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Wet tracks coursed down the little girl's cheeks. "She was in the plane with me when it crashed. I tried holding on to her, but…" The last of the sentence ended on a sob.

Abbey ached at the sight of the child's tears for her dog. That piece of information hadn't been in the news reports she'd heard. She opened her mouth to say something comforting but a booming voice stopped her.

"What's going on in here?"

Abbey shot to her feet and whirled around to face a man over six feet tall with the same crystalline blue eyes and long black eyelashes as Madison. "I'm Abbey Harris, a social worker with the hospital. I bring Gabe here to see different patients. A nurse on the floor thought that Madison would enjoy meeting him."

As though she'd given him too much information to process, he stared at her with a blank expression for a few long seconds before turning his attention to Madison. "You're crying, Madi. What's wrong?" His voice softened as his intense gaze did.

The child swiped her hands across her cheeks. "Nothing. Gabe is a wonderful dog, Dominic."

So this was Dominic Winters, Madi's older brother. For a moment she thought of her ex-husband, who couldn't deal with his own child when she had been so sick. How very different these two men were.

He knelt by the wheelchair and held his hand out for Gabe to sniff. "I'm sure he is. I used to have a golden retriever when I was a boy."

Dominic Winters's commanding presence filled the room. He exuded power. Abbey couldn't imagine him as a child. Maybe because of all the stories she'd heard about him.

"Madison, I need to talk to Gabe's owner for a few minutes, then you'll be going down for some last-minute tests. Okay?"

"Can Gabe stay while you two talk?"

Dominic finally looked back at Abbey. "That's your call."

"He'd love to. You can have him do some tricks while I'm gone. Roll over. Sit. Shake hands. He loves to perform. I think he's a clown at heart," Abbey said, giving the young girl a wink right before she followed Dominic from the room.

The second she stepped outside into the hallway, she knew this wouldn't be a friendly little chat. He frowned as he moved a few feet from the doorway.

"What did you say to Madison to make her cry?" Though whispered, his question was full of forceful steel. His taller frame towered over her smaller one.

Abbey straightened, throwing her shoulders back. She had done nothing wrong. "We were talking about the dogs I have. She asked me if Gabe was the only one. I told her I also had two small ones. She mentioned she'd had a small dog. She didn't exactly say it, but I assumed Zoe died in the plane crash."

Dominic's jaw visibly tightened. "I see," he said between clenched teeth, peering down the brightly colored corridor as a myriad of emotions—first sadness, then anger, then something she couldn't read—flittered across his face. "She's gone through so much lately." His murmured words, spoken so low Abbey barely heard him, held none of the forceful steel now.

In that moment Abbey realized Dominic Winters was hurting as much as his younger sister. "I understand she'll have surgery tomorrow."

"Yes. It'll be her most difficult one to date, but I hope her last."

"I'd love to bring Gabe to see her during her recovery. He's helped a lot of patients, especially some who have been fighting pain and…" She held her tongue. It was only a guess from what she'd seen before going into the room.

"And what?"

Abbey doubted she would be telling him anything he didn't already know. "Before I came in, she looked so lost and sad. I know that depression can be an issue with people who are dealing with the kinds of injuries she has, not to mention the loss of her parents."

"Well, I don't think it would be a good idea to have Gabe visit her. I don't need her upset by anything. She's been dealing with so much."

"But—"

He started for his little sister's room. "Thank you for your concern, but we'll be fine."

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