Gail didn't bother to look at the chart of her next patient, only reading the owners name as she entered the exam room. "Holly Stewart, what can I-" she was cut off by the sight of a disheveled woman holding a small fishbowl.

"You have to help me, my goldfish hasn't been eating and he hasn't really been moving a lot either. He can't die." Holly rushed out, pleading.

Gail had never really treated a fish before, even at school they just glossed over the whole sea creature species. She slowly approached the examining table, wrapping her stethoscope around the back of her neck, and looked at the unmoving goldfish. She was a doctor, she promised to help save animals and this was no different.

"Okay, I'm gonna do my best to make sure he doesn't." Gail gave the brunette a comforting smile. "Now, how long has"

"Puppy." Holly supplied the vet with the name.

She tried not to laugh, but didn't succeed. "Puppy? You named your goldfish Puppy."

Holly's cheeks grew a delicious shade of pink, which was accompanied by an adorable shy smile. "My nephew named him. He thought it would be funny."

"Your nephew was right, it is amusing." Gail chuckled and bent down to eye level with the fishbowl. Puppy wasn't swimming, only floating around, and his scales seemed a little faded. "So how long has Puppy been acting off?"

Holly paced the small room and ran a hand through her hair. "Three days or so."

Gail hummed in thought. She really wasn't sure what she was supposed to look for, but she didn't want to freak out Holly. She nodded, and pretended to go through possibilities.

"You can take a seat on my stool over there," she pointed to the small stool in the far corner, "and I'll be back."

Holly begrudgingly sat in Gail's seat and watched with sad eyes as the blonde left the room.

Gail immediately went to her office and paged her intern. Then she opened her laptop and began looking up everything she could find on goldfish.

"Yeah, Gail?" Gerald poked his head in the doorway.

"I need you to tell me everything you can get on treating goldfish." Gail told her intern without looking up from the screen.

Gerald laughed. "A goldfish? Can't you just tell the kid to go and get another one for like three bucks, or tell the parents to leave it here and you'll flush it while they go and get a new."

Gail tore her eyes off the screen to glare at the young man, and stayed like that until he backed out of the room. Interns, she rolled her eyes and got back to work.

Fifteen minutes later she went back to Holly and Puppy's room with a few answers she really hoped would work.

"Sorry I took so long, my intern is a clueless pain in the ass." Gail apologized after closing the door behind her.

Holly had her arms crossed over the tabletop with her chin resting on the pile, nose almost touching the glass of Puppy's house. Gail would have given in to smile if it wasn't for how sad the woman looked.

"Tell me more about Puppy." Her words set her back a moment, she never asked about patients beyond the information needed.

Holly gave a half hearted smile. "I originally got him to prove that I could keep something alive, and a fish was easy company. But he kinda grew on me. He comes to the glass when I go near his bowl, and he does this little twirl thing when I feed him, and he never judges me no matter how ridiculous I am."

She nodded along thoughtfully. "Puppy sounds like quite the pet, which is more than I can say for a lot of the animals that come through here."

"Do you know what's up with him?" Holly asked hopefully, sitting up and meeting Gail's adoring gaze.

"I have a few ideas. This is actually the first fish I've ever treated, so I hope you can bare with me here." She confessed and snapped on a pair of gloves. Holly only nodded so she went right to re-examining the goldfish. Now that she had looked up some things to look for she knew his scales looked fine, but the sluggish way he moved wasn't anything good.

As she looked him over Gail decided to yet again break habit and talk to the brunette. "So who were proving this to?"

"My brother. We struck up a deal, if I can keep a goldfish alive for a year he'll stop pestering me about my lack of a green thumb, and he'd take me out for a really expensive meal. If I loose then I have to admit that I can only work with the dead for a reason, and pay for his next trip to Wonderland." Holly carefully watched as Gail looked from her clipboard to Puppy and back.

"So there's a lot on the line for me, huh?" She tried to play.

Holly's mouth twisted up into an adorable crooked grin. "Kinda."

"Would I get dinner out of it?" Gail met her eyes, a small smirk playing on the edges of her lips.

"I guess we'll have to see how you do."

The door suddenly opened, almost smacking into the vet, and breaking whatever it was that was happening between Gail and Holly.

"Doctor Peck, I found something!" Gerald barged in the small room, not a care in the world.

Gail wanted to growl at him, like she usually did, but her stupid intern thought he found something and she really could use whatever it was now that it meant so much. "Yes, Gerald?"

"It's, uh, Duncan, Ma'am." Her intern adverted his gaze and scratched the back of his head.

"What have I told you?"

"That as long as we know who you're talking to it doesn't matter the name. And you're Sir, not Ma'am. Sorry."

She waved him off, urging him to get on with it.

"I found this, and this time I got multiple sites and studies before bringing it to you." Gerald eagerly passed the blonde a few sheets of paper.

Gail took them and scanned their contents, once happy with their results she turned back to her puppy of an intern, who was obviously waiting for praise. She gave him a tight smile, "good job, boy. Now scurry off."

When she turned back Holly was looking at her amusingly, and biting her lip to keep from smiling. "That was mean."

"Mhmm, but he needs it."

"So what does it say?"

"It says that Puppy is probably depressed and needs a buddy or a change of scenery. Maybe a bigger bowl, some new decorations, something he can play in. That kinda deal." Gail gave the jest of the study Gerald gave her. "So try those things, and if he doesn't improve come back."

"And if it does work?" Holly raised a brow.

"Call me with those dinner plans." Gail said in her best professional doctor voice.

The brunette cracked a smile, one that Gail hadn't seen yet, it left a twinkle in those beautiful dark eyes of Holly's. She scooped up the bowl that Puppy called home, and walked out of the room, swaying her hips more than necessary -not that Gail was going to complain. Gail breathlessly watched the brunette leave the clinic, praying to all the glory that was cheese puffs that Holly would call with those dinner plans.