That night, the moment i lay eyes on the worn leather cut and those piercing blue eyes i was a goner. Alexander Tragger, Tig, was my downfall from suburban housewife to old lady. It was a hard fall but in the end i landed where i belonged.

Ever since i was little all I had ever wanted to do was work with animals. Momma was too poor to send me to college so instead of becoming a Veterinarian i became the next best thing, a Veterinary assistant. I found a job at a local place and i thought i was content. A good job, a home and a husband but i came to realise it just wasn't enough. Oh sure i loved my work and my home but after momma died it hit me that my life was missing something. My husband was not the man i married and besides coworkers i had no real ties to the only real reason i stayed in Charming was my work. We bordered on a lot of rural areas so the surgery was busy and always had something interesting and different. We saw anything from exotic parrots losing feathers, dogs hit by a cars, horses with broken legs to animals hurt in farm accidents.

The day i meet Tig was a strange day. The surgery had been flat out all day and Bob, the Veterinarian had been called away to an emergency on a farm miles out of town. He had left me in charge of a dog that had been dropped off at the surgery the day before. The owner had given some bullshit story about the dog being hit by a car even though it was clear the injured dog had wounds consistent with fighting. We had known there was dog fighting going on in the region and had approached the police, the problem was we could never get enough information or proof to help them catch those sick bastards that ran the rings.

That was until Tig walked in. The MC had practically ran Charming my whole life and even though I never had much to do with them I knew who he was. Tig was an odd one, had a dangerous reputation as the club enforcer. One evening, late, after everyone else had gone home for the day i was cleaning up the surgery and prepping for the next day when i heard banging on the front door. We had no overnight patients besides the one dog i was watching and as Bob had been called away to the farm i knew this was some type of new emergency. When i opened the door Tig was standing there in the rain cradling a badly injured Dogo Argentino. I had never seen one in real life, they were beautiful dogs but also a breed that was rarely seen except on the dog fighting circuits.

"What happened?" I asked as i ushered him in.

"I saved him from some fights the MC came across. Can you help him?"

"The Vets been called away to an emergency outside of Charming but i will do what i can."

I assessed him and rang Bob. The wounds were nowhere near as bad as i first thought, Bob explained Dogo's have so much muscle on them that even such deep wounds would not normally kill one. It was the blood loss and infection i had to look out for. He walked me through what needed to be done and i set to work.

Tig paced, looking helpless. For a man with his reputation i was truly surprised.

"I need some help."

"What can i do doll?"

"I think he'll survive, Bob said we just have to get him cleaned up and stitch all of these wounds. As long as he hasn't lost too much blood he should be ok."

Once i sedated him Tig helped clean the wounds. Watching him made me think he had some experience with injuries like this. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

"You been a medic?"

"Na just been through a lot of bad shit."

"You seen action?"

"Military, club, my whole life's been one big fucken battle."

"How did you find him?"

"Club stumbled across a dog fighting ring. We broke it up but we were too late to stop this."

We worked for well over an hour. Tig never once faltered. Doing everything i asked him to by the end not only was he soaked from the rain, his clothes and leather vest were splattered in dirt and blood. When i put the last stitch in the relief on Tigs face was clear. I got the dog hooked up to an antibiotic IV and Tig carried him to the recovery cage. When he was all settled we both looked at each other and smiled. Looking up at the clock it was well after midnight and we were both a right mess. It was then that i noticed that Tigs jeans had a blood soaked tightly wrapped bandage over them.

"You're soaked. The dog is settled i think its time we got you cleaned up."

Gesturing to his leg "What happened?"

"Just a scrape, nothing too bad. Bastards who fought him, one of them got the jump on me and cut me."

"Alright, up on the table and let me have a look."

I cut Tig's jeans leg open all the way up to his hip and unwrapped the bandages and the gauze that had been packed under it to stop the bleeding.

"Bloody hell, doesn't this hurt." I was looking at a knife wound. Maybe 5 inches long and half an inch deep.

"Course it does but he was more hurt than me. Our medic wrapped it so i could get him here."

"Right this needs to be seen to straight away, i need to get you to the hospital."

"No hospitals!"

"Why not?"

"They'll call the cops."

"And?"

"And they'll ask too many questions. Lets just say we broke up that dog ring in a not very law abiding way." That wasn't the first time that night he had hinted at violent means of dealing with the dog fighters.

"Ok, but this needs urgent medical attention, actually I'm surprised you are still standing."

" I've had worse doll. Right now you're all I've got, i need you to do it. Please."

"Me! Im just an assistant and I've never worked on a person before."

"Doll I've been stitched up so many times i could probably do it myself. Just get some saline, flush the wound and stitch it."

I was hesitant, i knew in theory i could do it but should I. I wont lie, the mention of police involvement scared me but the club had broken the dog fighting ring. No one else had been able to touch them.

"Alright, but only because you stopped the fights."

I couldn't give Tig anything for the pain so he asked me to go grab his bag from out of his van. Nondescript black van,seriously what had i gotten myself into, it screamed trouble. I quickly grabbed the bag and headed back inside. Tig pulled out a bottle of Jack and started swigging from it.

"Im ready."

I slowly cleaned and stitched his wound. It was pretty easy because it was a clean cut. He watched me the whole time and it was clear he was in pain. Afterwards i looked at him and realised how bad he looked.

"We have to get you dried and cleaned up. There is a shower in the back and i can give you some scrubs to change into."

While he was gone and i was cleaning the surgery I thought about calling the police, i really did. In the end i decided against it, Tig and his club had done something that the Charming police had failed to do for years. Sure if the cops had bothered to find the fights they would have shut them down but what would that have done? The ringleaders would have just moved on and restarted some place new. The vibe Tig was giving is that those guys would never be starting another fighting ring again.

It was awhile till i saw him again, i was actually starting to worry he may have passed out, when he finally came out he looked so much better. The blood the dirt, all gone. And he scrubbed up pretty nicely. He walked towards me drying his wild hair with only a pair of scrub pants hanging low on his waist.

"How long till we know if the dogs gonna be ok?"

"Bob told me if he's ok in the morning then he should make it."

"I have to head back to the clubhouse but i'll be back first thing."

"Im gonna stay and keep an eye on him, if you give me your number i will call you if there's any change."

Tig grabbed my cell and put his details into my contact list before grabbing his vest, boots and bag and heading out.