"I don't know if it's an animal or a person, but we keep seeing evidence of suspicious activity from the north end of the forest at night," Tink said, showing Slightly the video footage of the area. "I can catch movements here and there, but I can't figure out what's causing it."
Slightly studied the video, watching leaves and bushes seeming to move of their own accord. It was almost as if a ghost were in the forest.
"I'll have Jack patrol the area," Slightly said, sitting back. "But it might just be a stray squirrel or something."
Tink chewed on her lip. "It seems to be more than that, but we'll see."
Slightly sat back in his chair and glanced at all the feeds coming into central control. "How are you doing?" He asked. "Do you like being the eyes and ears of Neverland?"
Tink gave him a sheepish grin. "I love it, actually. It's fascinating to watch all the people, and I love being in control."
Slightly laughed. "Well, you've always been good at bossing people around."
Tink threw one of her desk plants at him, but she was smiling. Slightly was glad that with everything else he had on his plate, he didn't have to deal with Tink being angry about opening Neverland up to the public. To say he was overwhelmed at the moment was an understatement. It seemed they were getting more and more visitors every day, which was great, but it meant that they were constantly short on personnel, and it really elevated Slightly's stress level. Plus, in two days they were hosting a big donor luncheon for everyone who had helped open the park. On top of that, he'd had multiple media requests to interview the mermaids, and he was running out of excuses.
"Hey, what do you know about the mermaids?" He asked.
Tink made a face. "They're annoying."
"No, I mean, do you know anything about how they got here, how they got... tails?"
Tink leaned back in her chair. "Oh. Well, I assume the Crocodile brought them. Other than that, I really don't know. Although, I did find this file-"
She was cut off by loud screaming coming from one of the feeds. Slightly stood and walked over to a screen showing the animal arena where a young girl was holding her hand and crying.
"You better go check that out," Tink said.
"Yep," Slightly answered, already heading out the door.
He ran to the arena and found a crowd gathered around the girl. Before he even entered the arena he could see that her hand was bleeding. The twins were trying to restrain an overactive kangarabbit and keep Lamar away from the crowd at the same time. After checking on the girl to make sure the wound wasn't too serious, he turned to the twins.
"What happened?" Slightly asked.
"This kangarabbit bit that girl's hand," one of the twins responded. "Her mother claims she didn't provoke it," the twin lowered his voice, "but I'm pretty sure she was feeding it some cheese puffs."
"Did you call Smee?"
"Yeah. He should be here any... oh, there he is."
Slightly saw Smee come loping through the arena, taking off his apron and putting on some sterile gloves.
"I was in the middle of a sushi demonstration," he said breathlessly. "Where is she?"
Slightly led Smee to the girl and watched the old pirate hastily put a bandage around her hand.
"You should probably use a disinfectant for an animal bite."
Slightly turned around and was surprised to see Lily right behind him. "Lily, where did you come from?"
"I just got off work, so I thought I'd come down."
"You're off work this early?"
"They changed my shift," she replied, not quite meeting Slightly's eyes.
He knew she was lying, but he didn't really have time to delve into it at the moment.
"Disinfectant, you say?"
"Yeah. Do you guys keep any antibiotic ointment on hand?"
Slightly winced. He knew they should have an assortment of first aid supplies, but he just hadn't had time for it.
Lily read his expression and nodded. "How about raw honey?"
"We've got that!" One of the twins piped up. "We just started beekeeping last week!" The twin ran to get the honey and came back a few minutes later with a cup of it. Lily took the honey over to the girl and soothed her as she undid the bandage and applied it to her wound, then expertly tied the bandage up again. The girl and her mother expressed their appreciation to her and left the arena.
"How did you know to do that with the honey?" Slightly asked Lily when she walked back over.
"My mother taught me," Lily replied. "There are a ton of plants and natural substances with healing properties."
Slightly stared at her, amazed by her knowledge. "Wow, do you want a job here?" He asked jokingly.
"Yes, I do," Lily replied quickly.
Slightly's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really? What about the hospital?"
Lily shrugged. "Oh, I'm pretty sick of that job. Plus, it'd be a lot better if I could be helping people instead of cleaning rooms."
Slightly nodded. Right now Smee was the stand in medic, and he was sure he wouldn't mind being relieved of those responsibilities so he could focus solely on his cooking demonstrations.
"Okay," Slightly said, "do you need a couple weeks to notify the hospital?"
"No, I can start tomorrow," Lily replied, practically stumbling over her words. "My position can be filled easily," she added.
"If that works for you, that'd be wonderful."
"Great! I'll work on getting some supplies together," she said with a wink that made Slightly's breath catch in his throat. She gave him a quick hug and then ran off towards the entrance.
Slightly couldn't help smiling. He was excited at the prospect of spending more time with Lily. Plus, with her being around more often, he thought he might be able to figure out what she was hiding.