Saving Grace (Narry)

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Six

It turned out that Grace was a bit cautious around the therapy dog. When I had spoken to Louis the other day he said that Grace should be fine because one of his sisters had a dog, which Grace couldn't stop crawling after whenever they visited her. We had high hopes that Grace would brighten up when the dog did come into her room. When Happy, a very fitting name for a therapy dog, came into the room, Grace was a little frightened of the labrador, making a whining noise that wanted to turn into a cry.

Niall was the one who stood up to show Grace that the dog wasn't scary and he was here to make Grace feel better. He stood up from is chair and knelt beside Happy, stroking his fur and talking to him like he would do with Grace. The golden dog sat down as Niall pat his head, his mouth opening and his tail dragging across the ground as it began to wag.

"See? He's not so scary. He wants to be your friend." Niall told her, looking up to Happy's owner and thanking her for coming in. He stood up and sat on the side of Grace's bed, carefully placing her on his lap.

The dog remained sitting, slightly panting while waiting for Grace to get used to being around him.

"You want to give him a pat?" Niall asked as he ran his hand up and down Grace's arm, the one that didn't have her IV in it. His fingers lightly held her small wrist so he could help her pet Happy.

Grace expressed quite the pout and it looked like she was lost in thought about whether or not she trusted Niall about the dog. Her whining continued as her hand, now curled into a protective fist, got closer to Happy's shoulders. As soon as her knuckles touched his soft fur she shook her head a drew her hand back.

"Not yet, huh?" Niall asked her as he looked down to her.

Grace was now studying her hand and then reached out by herself towards the dog. A struggling cry coming from her throat when she couldn't reach Happy.

Happy's owner instructed him to stand up to sit closer to Niall, leaving his shoulders close enough for Grace to touch.

After that, Grace came around to the idea that Happy wasn't so bad after all. She watched with giggles as Happy did some tricks for her. The funniest thing to her was when he raised his paw and rested it onto Niall's knee.

I filmed a bit of it on my phone to send to Louis later. He would love to see how cheerful Grace was today and that she seemed to really like Happy. Hopefully, after this Louis wouldn't have to buy Grace a puppy of her own.

When it was time for Happy to move onto the next room, Grace was upset again, shouting 'no' and 'mine' as she pointed at the puppy.

"Sorry, Little Lady, Happy has other people to make smile and laugh just like you." Niall told her, waving to Happy to see if Grace would do the same. "Tell him 'bye'."

Then Niall thanked Happy and his owner for coming in to see Grace, the owner wishing Grace the best during her recovery before leaving.

Once the therapy dog left I stood up from the chair, the same time that Niall was placing Grace back down onto the hospital bed. He smiled at her to make sure she was still in a good mood even though Happy was now gone.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" I asked nobody in particular as I sat next to Niall. I let out a yawn and rested my head onto his shoulder.

"I think she enjoyed it." Niall commented, his arm moving so it was behind us so he could place his hand on the opposite side of my waist. "They've got to do something to keep the patients from getting bored of just being in bed all day."