NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! All recognizable characters and plots belong to SM!
I sat in the break room reading the chart that Jane had just handed me. It was a new puppy. To be specific, it was a Labradoodle by the name Jake.
I always loved getting to work with puppies. It gave me a chance to teach the owners ways to show their dog's the rules without having to be overbearing like when owners brought me their dogs that were more than a few years old and had behavioral problems. I sometimes had to send clients out of the room so that they wouldn't freak out while I pinned their dogs to the ground so that it wouldn't try to bite me while I was doing the exam. I'd rather do that than muzzle a dog, but I'd lost more than one client that way.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. It was just impossible to explain to some people that you had to show the dog that you were the alpha and they weren't going to be able to boss you around or get away with whatever they wanted.
Jane passed through the room again, "Ms. Denali and her son are in the room. Do you need me to get anything?"
I nodded, "Get me a stool cup. Wait outside the room. I'll get that out of the way quickly." I got up and began to gather together all the injections that I would need. I took the cup from Jane and pushed open the door to Exam Room 2.
"Good morning. I'm Dr. Swan. How are we doing?" I looked up to see a beautiful woman with strawberry blond hair. Next to her was a little boy with the most stunning shade of copper hair that I'd only seen once before in my life. It belonged to my best friend, or at least he used to be. I hadn't talked to him since High School Graduation. And even before that, things were tense.
I looked at the little boy a little more closely. Green eyes. No, it wasn't possible. I pushed the thought away. This woman's last name was Denali. And I was hundreds of miles from home. He wouldn't have anything to do with this boy. It was simply a coincidence.
I turned and knelt down so I could speak to the dog, "And this must be Jake." The puppy's head popped up at his name and ran over to me, trying to get into my arms so he could lick my face.
The little boy bounced and laughed as he watched the dog assault my face with his tongue. "Well it's nice to meet you too, Jake."
"Sorry," the woman said. "We haven't gotten him into obedience classes yet. He still thinks that he can jump on people."
I shook my head and placed Jake on the tale. "It's really okay, Ms. Denali. I should warn you, though. Labradoodles are very playful by nature. He'll be hard to train because it will be hard to break him of the idea that he's just supposed to play with everyone."
She nodded. I noticed that she was eying me with speculation, but I ignored it. New clients always watched me very carefully. It was actually a good thing. It meant that they wanted to make sure that their vet was giving their animals the best care possible.
I took the fecal loop out of the sugar water and lifted Jake's tail. "What ya gonna do wiff that?" The little boy asked.
I looked up at him, I was used to little kids questioning my every move. "I'm gonna stick it in Jake's butt and pull out some poop."
His eyes got wide, and his mouth opened. I took advantage of his moment of surprised silence and stuck the loop in. I pulled it out and placed it back in the cup. I handed it to Jane before turning back to Jake. "Good sample, Jake."
He was now watching me with a little more trepidation, but he still seemed willing enough to let me pet him. He looked over at the little boy with a 'why did you let her do that' look.
The boy was still watching me. "Why did you do that?" he asked as if he too were able to read the puppy's expression.
"Mason," his mother scolded. "Don't ask her so many questions. She's trying to do her job."
I smiled at Mason. "It's okay. I did that because I need to make sure that Jake doesn't have any worms. I want to make sure that he's completely healthy so you can play with him. It would be a real bummer if he was sick, right?"
He nodded and scooted closer to the table. He watched as I gave each of his shots, asking what each one was and why I gave it to him. I liked when the children were like this rather than running around the room knocking things off the walls. He seemed really into my work. I wondered if he'd be interested in veterinary medicine when he grew up.
"My daddy does this too, onwy wiff peep-oh," he said proudly. He loved his dad. It was obvious.
I smiled down at him, "And do you want to be a doctor like your daddy?"
He shook his head and pointed to Jake, "I want ta wook wiff ami-nohs." He turned to his mother. "Mommy, is daddy comin?"
She nodded and leaned her head against the wall, closing her eyes. "You and Jake are going to spend the night at his house tonight. I have to go to work when he gets here."
The little boy smiled and looked at his dog, "Did ya heew that, Jake? You get ta see Daddy's house."
Divorced. That sucked. Mason seemed to be dealing with it really well. A knock on the door brought me from my musings. Ms. Denali got up and went to the door. She opened it, but I didn't look up. It was probably the boy's father, and I didn't want to watch them interact. I'd dealt with that enough with my parents.
Mason jumped up and down, "Daddy! Daddy! Doctah Swan says Jake is helphy."
I laughed at his word and finally looked up. I froze and so did he. "Edward?"
Ms. Denali looked between the two of us and turned away, "Figures." Edward turned toward the door as it shut. He looked confused, and I'm sure that I did too.
Mason pulled me out of my daze by pulling on my lab coat. "Doctah Swan, you said you'd show me how ta twain Jake. Wiw you pwease?"
I blinked a few times as I looked at Mason. Then I tried to smile at him. I saw Edward step forward, but he stopped and backed away. I ignored him. "Sure let me teach you a few things."
I sat down on the floor with Jake and pulled him into my lap. Now that I was on level with Mason, I began to display some techniques. "If you stick your fingers in his mouth like this," I pulled back his lips and put my fingers between is teeth at the back of his mouth, "it will make it easier to give him pills, and he'll be less likely to bite you. But," I warned him, "his teeth are really sharp, so you need to be extra careful."
He nodded, so I continued. "Since he's really small right now, if you carry him like this," I flipped him on his back and cradled him like a bay, "then he'll understand that you're in charge. When you do this, though, you need to be sitting down." He was so small. He couldn't have been more than three years old. "If you're standing up, you might drop him, and we definitely don't want that."
I flipped Jake back over, "Finally, when he's sitting in your lap, you take his feet and do this," I put my fingers between his toes. "We don't want him to be afraid of you touching his feet, this way he'll know that you won't hurt him."
Mason nodded enthusiastically. I took Jake off my lap and placed him on the floor as I stood up. "Okay, that's all for today. I'll need you to bring Jake back in two to three weeks for his second set of puppy shots." I wrote down everything that I told him on the chart so that Gianna could repeat it to him on his way out. "You can set that up when you're paying or you can call back later. Just don 't let it get away from you."
I turned and pulled a bag of needle less syringes filled with yellow liquid out of a drawer. I placed them on the counter. "These are for worms. Give him one a day until you run out."
I took a deep breath and finally looked up at Edward. He hadn't bothered to sit down. In fact, he was still standing by the door, just staring at me. "Did you get that, Mr. Cullen?"
Mason laughed as Jake jumped on to him. Edward finally looked away from me and down to his son. His son. Something major that I had missed in his life. I wanted push away the pain I felt in not knowing this part of him, but it wasn't something that I could do. He had moved on with his life, and I wasn't a part of it.
He picked his son up from the floor. "Did you tell Dr. Swan thank you for taking care of Jake?"
He shook his head before looking over at me. His toothy smile was slightly crook, though not as pronounced as his father's. They were going to have to lock girls in their rooms to keep him away. But then they'd have to lock the windows too if he was anything like his father. "Fank you, Doctah Swan."
I watched as he tugged on his father's shirt until Edward leaned forward so he could whisper in his ear. Though, he hadn't learned to whisper yet. "She's pwetty, Daddy."
Then I saw something that I thought I'd never see again. Something I hadn't seen since Junior year. Edward blushed. "Do you know how you say beautiful in Italian, Mason?"
Mason shook his head and looked up at his father in wonder. Edward locked his gaze with mine again. "Bella."
