Author's note: I'm delighted to hear some positive reviews left by a few of you, and I'm glad there are those who find this interesting. Thank you to all those who fav'd and followed me and my story, and to my friends for supporting me. I especially want to thank XJ16 for shouting me out in the latest chapter his own 101DS story, High Paw High.
Secondly, I have a question for some of you. You all know by now that Dawood is a mixed man of two different cultures. I was wondering if you guys would be fine with me adding some Arabic dialogue at some point in the future (translated of course), as to let me expand the story of Dawood. I'd love to hear your feedback and criticisms for this chapter, and I hope you all enjoy!
For a while, Dawood could only see spots. The number of puppies that are currently covering his body were too much to count. He knew it was a fruitless endeavor. He could barely lift an arm due to the mass of canine crushing his very being. Eventually, the man was able to slowly drag himself our of the pile, releasing him from his puppy prison. He takes a couple of deep breaths, slowly getting back. After his breathing returned to its normal rate, he turns around to inspect this mass of Dalmatians he sees in front of him.
He was amazed by the number of puppies; he couldn't believe all of these came from that one mother. No, they must be adopted, it made more sense. He didn't what to say, and simply stared at them. "Huh… I… My aunt didn't tell me about this." He says aimlessly, wondering why his aunt left out this key piece of information from him. Not that it's a problem… Well it could be a problem, but he was here already, so he gotta make the most of it.
Eventually, the puppies realized that the man was no longer in their hug pile, getting of each other and looking up towards the man. Almost all of them had a curious and/or a happy look on their faces as they looked to the new Human in their home.
Dawood looked back at them awkwardly, putting his hands in his jacket pockets. Eventually, he spoke up, "Uh… Hello there." Immediately, he gets a chorus of barks. Now imagine this, a few dogs barking wasn't a big deal, but when around a hundred are barking at once… You could say that scared the hell out of him. The man jumped at the high-pitched barking, letting yelp of surprise. Behind him, he can hear snickering, laughing at his expense. The man sighs and turns around. He looks down towards the older Dalmatians. "What's so funny?" He asked the dogs, only to get more laughter.
Dawood couldn't believe that he was being fun of by dogs of all species, he never felt so humiliated. He sighs, already feeling a headache coming. He simply walked past the trio and proceed to check out the rest of the house. When he walks in, he immediately notices an unconscious man on the couch. He practically slaps and holds his head in surprise and worry. 'The hell did these dogs do this guy?' He thought, as he approached the man, wanting to see if he still had a pulse, which he thankfully does. He notices the man had a stethoscope around his neck, and then noticed the Doctor's uniform he was wearing. He needed to wake the man up.
With a plan set, he first starts by shaking the Doctor's shoulder, which practically did nothing. The man was thoroughly knocked out. Dawood merely sighs, already fed up with the situation he was in already.
"Well, if you're not going to wake up that easily, then you've left me no choice" Which was a lie, he could try other methods, but he was already too tired to even attempt them and needed the Doctor awake as soon as possible. With that he enters the hallway again.
As he does so, the dogs entered all entered the living room, curious at what he was going to do. The older female dog being more suspicious of the man than curious. Her equally aged brother seemed to think the same way. The mother Dalmatian however, instructed her pups to go play in the backyard, wanting to deal with the matter of the Human herself before her mate returns home from work.
As Dawood enters the dining room... well what he thinks is supposed to be the dining room, he notices long rows of dog bowls, presumably where the pups and their parents eat. He was extremely impressed at how organized these dogs were, they really seem to be one cohesive family unit… a large one at that. Inspecting the room further, he notices a makeshift machine made from an… accordion?... with bags of sacks of dog kibble next to it. He'll have to do some testing with this machine at a later point, for now he needs to get that Doctor awake. With that, he continues to the next room.
As Dawood entered the kitchen, he noticed how much of a mess it was. It's almost like this house was only run by do- wait a minute. Are these dogs self-sufficient? His aunt has a lot of explaining to do when he next sees her. The man continued to inspect the kitchen, seeing mountains of dog bowls that have yet to cleane- wait a minute, how do the dogs clean their bowls? That has stumped the man, how were they able to keep this house from, barely, falling apart, especially without a Human for so long?
As Dawood stood there, having a mental break from realizing that these dogs were basically living on their own for a long time, the Dalmatian mother enters the kitchen and sees the man in this state. She wondered if he was alright, unsure about what was bothering him. She didn't have too much time to herself before she notices her two eldest pups enter the kitchen, and stare at the man with a confused expression.
"So, what happened to him? Is he broken or something?" asked the female one. Not happy with their situation but is going to make the most of it anyways. Then the male one pipes in.
"Maybe he realized something, he has that sort of look." He replies, moving a bit closer, trying to get a good look at his face. He sees that the Human was staring aimlessly, as if he was in deep thought.
"Pfft, you'd know." The female replies with a laugh. The male one could only give her an annoyed look, not wanting to start anything at the moment. Then, their mother sighs, already seeing where this was heading.
"Dolly, Dylan, stop it and behave. Didn't I tell you two to go to the backyard with the others?" The mother asked, a but peeved that they went against her request.
"But Mom, we are dealing a new Human here! We didn't want you to deal with him alone." The female replies, ending her banter with her brother and looking between her mother and the Human.
With all the talking, or barking to Dawood, it has knocked the man out of his though process and turning his attention to the trio.
Dawood didn't notice the three enter before, they were probably curious about what he was going to do. The man looked around the kitchen, and found what he was looking for, a large bowl. The man smirks as he takes the object. He goes to the kitchen sink and proceeds to fill the bowl with extremely cold water. He turns around and looks towards the three Dalmatians.
"You're curious about what I'm doing, aren't you eh? Well, I'm going to get some answers." With that he closes the tap and walks back into the dining room, and out into the hallway. The Dalmatians quickly followed behind, wanting to see what the man was going to do with the bowl of water.
As the man enters the living room again, he goes towards the still knocked out Doctor. He begins to try and shake him awake with his leg, but to no avail. "Well I tried, I apologize in advance bruv." He then proceeds to splash the cold water all over the Doctor's face. Instantly waking the man up from his deep slumber. This action shocked the Dalmatian mother and the eldest male, but the female was laughing hysterically at the Doctor's reaction. Dawood smirks and addresses the Doctor.
"Had a nice kip, princess?" He asked, slipping into his native Cockney accent instinctively. The Doctor could only shake himself out of his rude surprise. He didn't expect to be woken up in such a way at all. After gaining his bearings, he looked to the man.
"Wha- Where am I?" The Doctor asked, before looking around and spotting the Dalmatian mother. "Delilah?" The mother barked at the mention of her name. Dawood looked back to the Dalmatian. 'So that's your name, huh? Well that's good to know.' He then looks back to the Doctor. "So, you know my aunt's dogs?" He asks the doctor, wondering how the man knew the name of the Dalmatian.
The Doctor shakes his head in the negative, "Only Delilah, she works at the hospital with me." He replies, almost as if that's a normal thing a dog can do in a place that's supposed to be a sterile at all times.
"She works in the hospital?... Is that even sanitary?" Dawood asked, getting an angry and offended bark from the dog herself. He held his hands up in apology before turning back to the Doctor.
"So, you said that these are your aunt's dogs, correct? You are Mary's nephew, aren't you?" He asked him, which Dawood answered with a nod. "Well, the Smiths were the ones who set up Delilah up with a job at the hospital. Don't worry, she's cleaner than most people at the hospital, she's a gem at work." He said, getting an appreciative bark from the mentioned dog. "She has another half, Mary mentioned his name was Doug I believe, I'm not sure what sort of job that one was set up with I'm afraid."
Dawood was more confused than when he first started, "How did my Aunt and Uncle set up their dogs with jobs?" He asked, curious how his family were able to get away with this.
The doctor smiled and happily answered, "You see, the Smiths are some of the biggest donors to the borough, helping with its development and all. With that, they were able to win a couple of favours here and there, including with the hospital." He explained, which made sense to Dawood. It wasn't a secret that his Uncle was stinkin' rich, a billionaire even, but he didn't think his influence went that deep. Honestly, he should've realized this from the get-go, it was the most obvious reason to why these dogs were left to their own devices with their own system of things.
Dawood only nodded, taking in all that information. He then looked to the Dalmatians, in deep thought. "So, my aunt and uncle want me to look after them? They seemed alright without me… Why?" He asks to no one in particular, mostly wondering on why they decided to put the responsibility on him.
The Doctor notices this, and places a hand on his shoulder, "Listen kid, I'm sure Mary had her reasons. Maybe you should give her a call if you're still unsure." He says. Dawood sighs and nods. With that, the Doctor begins walk to the door. Dawood sees this and quickly tries to stop him.
"Hey you're still drenched, mate. You sure you can go out there like this?" He asks the middle-aged man, who only smiled. "Eh, it's no problem. I've been through worse, I'm a doctor after all." He says, and simply goes out of the door. "Have a good day…" The Doctor realized he didn't get his name and turns around. "Sorry, I didn't get your name."
Dawood smirks, and replies, "The name's Dawood." Saying his name with a slight Arabic accent, which almost never comes out due to how rarely he speaks the language.
That confused the doctor for a bit, 'Such a foreign name', he thought. However, he was not one to judge and gave him a warm smile. "Have a good day, Dawood. Welcome to the neighborhood." He then walks off.
With that, Dawood closes the door and turns back around, seeing the three Dalmatians once again. He gives them a smile and sighs. "Well, I'll need to call my aunt at some point. I think we both deserve to know why she wants me here." Delilah and her pups barked in agreement, or at least he thinks it's in agreement. He then focuses on Delilah. "We just need to wait until Doug gets ho-" With that, the door opens suddenly, hitting the man hard enough to knock him out.
Today has been a great day for Doug, nothing major happening at the fire station. Now he couldn't wait to see his little pups! As he goes towards the front door, he doesn't notice the lone luggage back that was left outside. He went up to the door and placed his paw on the scanner. When it unlocked the door, he just couldn't wait to see his children and thus proceeded to push the door open with all his strength and say his daily phrase. "I'm ho-ome!" He bellows out. However, the first thing he sees when he enters the home were Delilah and his two eldest pups, eyes wide looking at the space between the open door and the wall. Curious, he looks over, and sees a human slumped on the ground and knocked out. The dog could only say one thing at that moment.
"Oh dear."