A/N I've already got four chapters of this written and I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the month. The plan is to update weekly. Hope you all enjoy! Feedback is always appreciated :)

Desperately needing sleep, Paige McCullers found the closest chair to her and collapsed on it. She had past tired days ago. Her whole week felt like one double shift after the other. She loved what she did, but today she longed for a nine-to-five job that didn't require her to live on caffeine and her ability to drive her body to the brink of breaking down.

It wasn't just the long hours that got to Paige. There was the emotional aspect as well. Most of the time she was able to compartmentalize and shut off her feelings, but that didn't mean she was immune to the toll that caring for sick and abused animals took on her. Some days were easier than others and some days she wanted to stay in bed and ignore the ugliness of the world that she too often saw.

"God, you look like shit."

"And hello to you too, Hanna," Paige replied, her eyes closed. She was trying to muster the energy to get up so she could head home, but had, so far, been unable to do so.

"We hurt the ones we love," Hanna said in a voice all too cheery for Paige's liking. "And because you are the very best at what you do, I love you the most."

Paige's eyes flew open. "Oh no, don't even try and suck up to me right now. I've been working for fifteen hours straight, and I am done. Did you hear me, Hanna? Done!"

"I didn't think you did anything straight," Hanna smirked. She laughed at her own joke before continuing. "You know I wouldn't ask this of you unless it was absolutely critical." Her voice changed to a tone that Paige knew all too well. It was the tone that got her to agree to things she should never agree to do. "I just got a call about a litter of puppies coming in—"

"Please don't," Paige begged.

Hanna continued, paying no attention to her friend, "They found the puppies with their mom—"

"Please, Hanna, this isn't fair."

"They were abandoned without any food or water. Nobody knows for sure how long they've been on their own—"

Paige couldn't take it anymore, it was time to admit defeat. She held up her hand and let out a big sigh. "Stop, just stop. How long until they arrive?"

"About an hour," Hanna replied, the relief was evident on her face. She didn't doubt that her friend would do the right thing, but it made her feel a lot better now that she had confirmation that Paige would stay. "You know you're my hero, right?"

"That's what keeps me going," Paige deadpanned. "Now leave me alone to nap so I can be somewhat coherent when they get here."

"I'll fire anyone that disturbs you," Hanna promised. She flashed her friend a very sincere smile before she closed the door behind her to leave Paige in peace. "You're the best!" she called out when she was on the other side of the door.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Paige muttered to herself. She had been looking forward to going home and having down time, but that was no longer in the cards. Luckily she was on good terms with her neighbor, so she sent a text asking her to check in on her two cats and give them food. When that was done, she closed her eyes again in hopes of catching a little sleep like she so desperately needed.

But sleep was nowhere to be found. Even though her body and mind were functioning on autopilot, she was suddenly wired. Her thoughts were no longer on not getting to go home; they were focusing on litter of puppies and their mother that she was soon going to be tasked with looking after.

It didn't matter how many cases she worked on or how many times she'd been told that she couldn't take things to heart, Paige's love for animals ran deep. She could never accept that there were people who treated their pets badly and could never quell the rage that she felt every time she had to take care of a neglected or abused animal. If anything, it only reinforced her desire to take care every sick animal she could personally take on.

When Paige came to work for the shelter, she knew it would be a tireless and, at times, a soul crushing job. Sometimes she'd come home after a particularly bad shift and cry until she had no more tears left. Other times she'd come home and immediately head to the basement of her house to go a couple of rounds with the punching bag she'd set up down there. She would hit that bag until she had nothing left inside of her.

No matter how bad things got or how badly her insides hurt, there was nothing that gave Paige more satisfaction than seeing one of the animals she nursed back to health get adopted. It made every bad thing she had to see feel worth it. Once her swimming aspirations had ended due to injury, Paige had known that becoming a vet was what she was going to do for the rest of her life.

It helped immensely that she was close with Hanna – her boss and defacto closest friend due to Paige's insane work schedule – because it made days like this, days where she had nothing in the tank left to give, more tolerable. When Paige would reach the edge and be close to a breakdown, Hanna was there with a joke or, after hours, copious amounts of alcohol.

The downside to being friends with her boss was that when Hanna would pry into Paige's personal life – or lack thereof – Paige had tell Hanna to mind her own damn business in a nice way. Not that Hanna paid attention to Paige's push back. She blissfully ignored her friend and attempted to set her up with any woman that she felt could be a match for Paige.

Although Hanna would never admit to this, Paige was almost positive that she visited the one lesbian bar in town to try and pick up women under the guise of doing it for her friend. It was annoying to keep having to say no to getting set up, but she did try and appreciate that Hanna was looking out for her. Even if that meant constantly having to defend her decision not to date.

Paige had almost no time for a personal life. She gave so much of herself to the animals that she looked after that she didn't see how she could give anything to a girlfriend. Hanna had pointed out that she could just get herself a "fuck buddy" as she had put it, but that was of no interest to Paige. She had tried the friends with benefit route a few years back and that had ended with the girl she was sleeping with calling Paige a "cold, aloof, workaholic who was too closed off to realize that what she was looking for was staring her right in the face."

That face had been angry and after Paige had managed to avoid getting hit in the head with a beer bottle, she had ended things immediately. Ever since then she'd avoided dating and the perils that came with inviting another person into your life.

"Fuck this," Paige said to herself. She couldn't get her mind to shut off and had no desire defend to herself her decision to stay single. She didn't have the energy or desire for introspection. Instead, she stood up and stretched her body out to get rid of the stiffness that was already taking over. Whenever she managed to get home she was going to soak in her tub for hours.

She poured herself a big mug of coffee to help prepare her for what lay ahead. Paige's nose scrunched up at how cold the coffee was. She didn't have time to make a new pot, so she was forced to warm up her drink in the microwave that resided in the staff room. She texted Hanna to inform her of this travesty.

Paige downed the much needed caffeine in two big gulps once it was done warming up. Just before she left the room she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror by the door. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair was all messed up. Paige shrugged with indifference. The dogs she would be saving wouldn't care that she looked like she hadn't slept in a week. All they'd care about is how she was going to get them healthy again.

That was the great thing about animals, they didn't judge you like people did. OK, that wasn't exactly true, her cats did often look at her with disdain and exasperation. But they also loved her, even if they weren't exactly showy about it.

"You know," Hanna said as she joined Paige walking down the hall, "If you actually had a social life, I wouldn't also count on you like I do. Really, this is all your fault."

"You are pushing me, Han," Paige replied with an exaggerated eye roll. "I don't think you realize how close you are to ending up on my ex-friends list."

It was an empty threat and both girls knew that. "Please, like you could find anyone else to put up with your sarcastic remarks and total disregard for hygiene." Hanna laughed as she dodged an incoming hit from Paige. "Besides, I'm the only exciting thing in your life right now, you'd never get rid of me."

Paige shoulder checked her friend, she was unwilling to let the other girl get away with her snarky comments without some kind of payback. "Thanks, Hanna, for offering to order the whole staff dinner because we're staying late. That's really sweet of you."

Paige had spoken loud enough for everyone still at the shelter to hear. They reacted immediately with clapping and remarks of "yes!" and "I'm starved." Paige smiled widely at the shocked and dumbfounded expression on her friend's face.

"Nicely played, McCullers," Hanna said through gritted teeth. She wasn't going to back out of Paige's promise of free food. Her staff was underpaid and overworked and she knew a gesture like this would go a long way with them. But that didn't mean she had to like it. "I wouldn't enjoy your pizza too much; you have no idea what I'm going to do to it."

Paige shrugged. "I don't really care. Free food is free food."

Hanna left to go order the pizza, so Paige used her so-called free time to go check on all the animals in the hospital wing of the shelter. Most of them were on the road to recovery. Paige had a hard time when she couldn't save an animal, but thankfully those cases were few and far between.

When Paige was done her walk through she decided to tackle the mountain of paperwork that had built up over the last week. If she didn't get a handle on it soon, Hanna would start bothering her about it, which was never fun. Hanna had creative ways of dealing with her staff when they fell behind on their administrative tasks. The last time that Paige had been backlogged on case files, Hanna had created an alarm on Paige's phone – it was basically an alarm but, instead of a beeping sound, the alarm was Hanna's voice reminding her to get her work done and loud chirping sounds. Paige couldn't figure how to turn it off and it drove her so crazy that she had the paperwork completed in no time. The look of satisfaction on her friend's face when she handed in all her reports two days later was almost nauseating.

"Why do you look annoyed?" Hanna asked as she sat down beside Paige. "Dinner should be here soon. By the way, I'm taking the tip out of your next paycheck."

Paige didn't have the chance to respond because one of the shelter's vans pulled up right as she was about to fire a witty remark back at her friend. Hanna was on her feet almost as quickly as Paige was. The two of them were all business as their new patients were brought inside by one of their colleagues and a couple of volunteers.

When Paige's eyes fell on the mother of the litter of puppies and she saw how under nourished the dog was, Paige forgot all about how cranky and tired she had been mere moments before. She blocked everything else out.

It was time to get to work.