"I can't believe y'all kissed! You've known each other for what like just over two weeks?!"
"Kelsey, I know! It was crazy and probably stupid, but we were both in the moment and he was the one that said 'I can't keep from kissing you anymore'."
"Well, I'm happy for you, I guess. I just don't wanna see you hurt like last time when things moved too fast."
"I know. I agree." I will admit the kiss last night was pretty crazy, but also perfect. I just hope that this kiss didn't make things awkward with us. Especially now since I was on the crew. Today was a new day and I'm working out my last week at the hospital. I'll be sad to leave everyone and not work with Kelsey, but I'm sure she'll be invited along on some investigations. Surprisingly, she took the news quite well when I told her that I will leaving here and joining the GAC. I will miss working as a vet tech. I worked my ass off for this degree and the national exam to get my license. At least I'll still have that to fall back on in case things go south with Zak. "So how was your night with Aaron?"
"Oh goodness. It was amazing!" Ding "I'll tell you in a sec."
A customer walks in the door to the hospital. Suspected to be our 3:00pm appointment, I walk back to treatment area and start looking over the patient's chart. Annual vaccines. "So exciting," I mutter to myself. Same old shit every day.
"You okay, Shawn?" Bailey, another technician, walks around the corner.
"Hmm?"
"You're just talking to yourself?"
"Oh, yeah." I smile a little and grab the check in sheet off the exam room tray that Kelsey had just placed there seconds ago. I can feel Bailey's eyes on me as I glance over the chart again.
"You sure you got this room?"
"Yeah, I'm good." I grab my pen and enter the exam room to find the cutest little golden retriever puppy getting his vaccines. That, I will say, is one perk of the job. Being a vet tech isn't always puppies and kittens, but when it is it's great. I go through my normal script of asking the owner questions to get a history before leaving the exam room. As I'm asking my last couple of questions I hear the words I never want to hear in this profession.
"We have an emergency!" The muffled words coming from the other side of the door almost make me jump. I try to stay calm in front of the puppy's owner.
"We'll be back in shortly." I throw the puppy's check in sheet back on the tray and run back to the treatment area. "What is it?" I try to stay calm. As my coworkers move out of the way I see an all too familiar black and white dog lying motionless on the treatment table. So sweet in the face with a black patch over her eye.
It was Gracie.
She was almost cyanotic and she wasn't breathing. My eyes grow wide and I instinctively take charge over the situation. "Make sure oxygen is on! Bailey get an ET tube. I'm intubating right now! Someone start placing an IV! Get the monitor and start hooking her up!" Since I had grown close with Zak I felt like Gracie could very well be my own and I wasn't going to let anything, and I mean anything happen to this pup. "What did Zak say happened?" Everyone looks at me confused that I even know who this is. "What happened?!"
"The pool!" Crystal finally speaks up. "She drowned."
"Shit!" After placing the tube I immediately start compressions. "Doc, what's your next plan of action?"
"Continue CPR. Is the cath placed?"
"Yes!" Bailey interjects.
"Give 0.5 mls of atropine IV."
I start to get tired of performing chest compressions and ask Crystal to switch with me so I'm now giving Gracie breaths while Crystal does compressions. We continue for another minute and stop for the doctor to listen for a heartbeat. "It's faint. Continue CPR and give another 0.5 mls of atropine." I switch back with Crystal and continue compressions. Another two minutes. "The heartbeat is stronger. See if she's getting pink." I lift up her lips and find that her gums are no longer blue, but a very pale pink. "Stop compressions." I follow the doctors orders and wait to see if Gracie takes her own breath.
"Come on girl." Finally she's does. That breath made a few tears roll down my face. It was the most amazing breath I had seen in my life. Gracie continues to breath faster and her ECG is showing a normal heart rate. I extubate her before she chews her ET tube but I continue oxygen with a mask.
"Give her a bolus of fluids. I think she'll be alright." The doctor smiles at his team in appreciation. I take a second to go apologize to the puppy's owner that it'll be a couple more minutes due to an emergency and he was very understanding. Now I had to see Zak. I rush back to Gracie to make sure everything was okay before going to the lobby to confront him.
"Oh my god, Shawn! I'm so sorry. I didn't know where else to bring her. Is she okay? What happened back there? Can I see her?"
I grab a hold of his face in my hands gently and try to console him. "She's okay. We got her breathing again. Babe, she'll be alright."
Zak looks down at me with red, watery eyes and nods. "Thank you," he whispers.
"Gracie will be okay. We will have to keep her here for the rest of the day on oxygen just to be sure." The doctor comes to the lobby to let Zak know the news. "You can come pick her up at 5:30."
"I'll bring her home," I offer.
"Yeah, that'll work. Shawn can take her to me."
"Okay, great. Shawn was amazing back there just so you know."
"I'm very thankful for her," Zak smiles at me. The doctor then proceeds to go in the ever so patient puppy's appointment.
"I'll be outside for a sec," I whisper over to Kelsey and take Zak's hand. I bring him out the side door so he can tell me what happened.
"She was by the pool. She always goes near the pool. She doesn't like the water, but I guess she just fell. I don't know. It's never happened before." Zak explains, letting his eyes get watery all over again.
"It's okay. We don't have to talk about it." I keep his hands in mine. "Are you going to be okay today?" He nods not saying a word. "Okay, well, go home. Try to relax. I'm off at six so I'll bring her home." He nods again, leaning forward and engulfs me in a hug. His arms wrapping around the small of my back and he buries his face in my neck.
"Thank you." Zak stands back up, resting his hands on my hips. As much as I don't want this moment to end, it has to.
"I should get back to work."
"Okay. Thanks again." He releases me from his grip and follows me back inside to pay for the services we used on Gracie.
"I'll see you tonight, Zak."
"Bye." We share smiles and he's out the door. I look at the clock and it was already getting close to 4pm. Only two more hours to go.
"Poor Zak." Kelsey looks over to me with worry in her eyes.
"He'll be okay. And so will Gracie. I'm gonna go check on her." Back in treatment, Gracie is resting peacefully in the oxygen cage. Her gums are nice and pink and her breathing seems back to normal. I take my stethoscope and listen to her heart. "Sounds good, girl. You'll be back to normal in no time." I stroke her head between her perked up ears as she listens to me talk. Stepping away and closing the cage Gracie lets out a little whimper. "It's okay, I promise." She lets out a sigh and I walk into the doctors office. "Hey doc. Do you think she has pneumonia from the water?"
"I listened to her lungs and they were a little crackly. I put her on an antibiotic. She'll probably cough for a little while, but hopefully it'll subside."
"Thank you."
"Hey, Shawn." He catches me before I turn to leave. "Amazing job. You saved that dog. It really sucks your leaving."
All I can do is give a small smile. I truly was sad to leave this hospital, but it didn't mean it was fully over. "Thanks, doc. But I'm sure I'll be back here one day."
"Good."
I walk back up to the lobby to make sure there were no customers. This afternoon was pretty slow. Besides that one puppy appointment and Gracie's emergency we didn't really have much going on. "You never told me about your night with Aaron." I sit myself in the rolling chair next to Kelsey so she can tell me all about it. We didn't get very far before a customer walked in to buy dog food. "Okay, continue." I nudge her once the customer leaves.
"So, I was saying he took me to this super cute park that's really close to our apartment and we just talked and hung out. We played at the playground and swung on the swing."
"He's such a kid at heart."
"It's cute! And it was a really fun night. Perfect for just really getting to know each other."
"That's awesome. Did y'all kiss?"
"No!" Kelsey exclaims surprised that I would ask such a thing.
"What? No kiss?" Bailey comes to the front desk joining our conversation.
"Well we've only known each other a couple weeks. I'm not crazy like Shawn here and kisses the guy two weeks after meeting him."
"Oh, Shawn! Who? You didn't say you were with a guy!" Bailey scoots closet to me all excited.
"Well I didn't really know if we were actually together. I still don't really know."
"Who is it?!"
"The owner of that dog back there," I smile referencing to Gracie.
"Oh my god! That extremely hot guy that was up here?" I nod with an uncontrollable smile. "Isn't he old?"
"Not that old!"
"How old??"
"Like 43, I think."
"Damn, Shawn!" I can tell Bailey is getting a kick out of the entire situation.
"Wait! You're with that guy?" Crystal now joining the conversation.
"Okay, okay. We were talking about Kelsey's amazing date from last night which, by the way, was with Zak's friend who is also around 43 so I'm not the only one here."
"Get it girls!" Crystal jokes. We all get one more good laugh before getting back to work.
"I'm glad you had a nice night Kelsey."
"Thanks."
It's now getting close to closing and everyone starts the closing duties. Bailey starts sweeping the floors with Crystal behind her with the mop. I take out the trash and make sure the exam rooms are cleaned up for tomorrow. I get Gracie ready to go by snapping her collar back on her. I confirm with the doctor that she can go home and he believes she's good to go. "You ready?" Kelsey asks, coming back to treatment.
"Yeah, I think so. Bailey, Crystal y'all good?"
"Yeah, we're good. Go get your man." Crystal laughs.
I hook Gracie's leash to her collar and she very gingerly steps out of the oxygen cage. I coax her to keep walking with praise and we eventually get to Kelsey's car. I throw her bag of medications in the backseat and Gracie curls up on the front seat. "No, Grace, that's where I sit." She looks at me with those sweet puppy dog eyes that are so hard to resist. "Okay, fine." I climb in the backseat and we're off to Zak's.
Zak was already standing outside his house since I had texted him that we were on our way. Realizing where she was, Gracie perks up in the front sit and starts crying. I get out of the backseat with her little bag of medications in hand and open the front passenger door for her. She runs out and goes straight to Zak. It was such a sweet sight. They cry together and she licks on his cheek. I walk slowly up to them not to disturb their reunion. "Thanks, again," Zak's says slowing coming back to a standing position.
"You're welcome. Here are her antibiotics. She won't need another dose until the morning." Zak takes the bag and grins. Things were suddenly super weird between us and neither of us knew what to say. This is what I was afraid of. Things were now awkward. "I'll let y'all go. Goodnight."
"Okay, goodnight." Really? That's all he could muster to say? Maybe he was still distraught over Gracie, which I understood, but I was worried he didn't actually like me. Maybe he realized that the kiss we shared last night was a mistake. I erase the thought from my mind and head back to Kelsey's car.
"Let's go."
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah, I guess." I stare out the window at his house as we drove off wondering what happened between us.