Around three o'clock, the volume of patients started at last to ebb, giving Zecora the first chance she'd had all day to sit down without having to chart. Just enough time to grab a granola bar, the first food she'd had since some microwaved oatmeal this morning.

So many walk-ins and 'emergencies', especially among the people who knew what she knew. Like someone kicked a supernatural hornet nest, and now the sting victims all needed help. And as much as she wanted to believe it was coincidence -- or just a full moon -- her introduction to the hidden worlds of the shadows had proven to her that 'coincidence' was more often than not a convenient lie.

Swallowing the last bite of granola, she got to her feet with a little groan of weariness, then paced over to open the door to her waiting room.