BEGINNINGS
15 - The Strongest Power of All
Muldoon's attention kept darting between Pet and the slowly easing down leopard. He didn't want to leave the dangerous cat unattended, tranquilized or not, and was torn on what to do. Slowly, he started sidestepping over to where the hybrid laid to get a better look at her, his mind racing with a worst-case scenario. He could see bleeding claw marks on her left arm and figured that was the extent of her injuries until he saw her bloodied right shoulder beneath her hair matted with pieces of grass.
"Oh hell!" Not caring about the leopard anymore, Muldoon tossed aside the restraining pole's handle and ran to the hybrid. "Pet!" He quickly tugged off his half buttoned down shirt he wore over a white tee shirt and pressed it firmly against the free bleeding bite. "Talk to me, Pet. Say something."
The hybrid moaned and winced in pain. "Next time, you get to run after the escaped attraction."
Muldoon shook his head and breathed in relief. "Damn it Pet, you wanker." He grabbed her left hand and placed it on the shirt he held over the bite. "Hold this." He took a final look at the now unconscious leopard and ran to the Jeep. His trembling hands fumbled with the radio and even had trouble cueing the mic. "This is Tracker Team One calling to Base!"
Hammond sat in the warden shack, staring blankly off into space when the sound of the radio startled him. "Robert, tell me you have the target..."
The game warden squeezed the radio mic in anger. "Yes, yes I have the target."
"Excellent! And Pet? Where is she? Is she alright?"
Muldoon paused in shock when he heard the true concern in the other man's voice. "She needs medical attention. She's been beaten up pretty good."
Hammond's face went bright red with anger. "Get your ass back here! I will have a medical team waiting." He tossed the mic aside and wasted no time returning to the zoo's main complex via a golf cart.
In the animal treatment lab, Jophrey and a medical team sat on standby, waiting to hear something of the chase. A part of that team was Liz. Everyone knew when Muldoon and his sidekick went out on call, the animals usually sustained some injuries and would need medical care. When they heard it was Pet needing medical attention, the team gathered their cases of supplies and rushed to their van parked in the back.
Liz grabbed the radio in the van and called over. "Tracker One, what is your location?"
Muldoon was going back to tend to Pet when the calling out on the radio got his attention. He would have ignored it, had it not been such an important question regarding his location. He relayed his coordinates and on seeing Pet struggling to get up again, dropped the mic and ran towards her. He shot another look at the unconscious leopard, knowing that leaving the animal unrestrained was a hazardous thing to do. He always nagged people about leaving a dangerous animal laying around, that doing so was like leaving a loaded gun laying around a convict.
But at that exact moment in time, the leopard was the last of his concerns. He rushed back to the hybrid with a first aid kit. Muldoon cracked it open and began to study the severity of the damage done to the girl's shoulder the best he could with shaking hands and a flashlight shoved into his mouth. He grabbed the small six-ounce bottle of water and twisted the cap off. He lifted the shirt and poured it on the wound to wash it off. Pet shrieked in pain and grabbed at the bite, inadvertently scratching Muldoon's hand in the process.
The warden jerked his hand back, yelping in pain. "Shit!" He popped the girl upside her head, momentarily forgetting about her bite.
"Asshole!" She grabbed at her shoulder again and rolled over in pain.
"Oh, shut it, you pansy." The warden then grabbed a gauze swab packet and tore it open as well. He spoke to the hybrid as though she cared. "You've had worse than this. This is nothing!" Another pair of spotlights came over the rise where his Jeep was parked and soon, heard the voices of three more people and of Liz.
Jophrey saw the leopard lying in the open, asleep and unrestrained. His attention quickly fell on his good friend huddled over a bloodied Pet and fell just as worried for her fate as the senior warden. Jophrey yelled back to the medical team, "Alright let's get this cat tied up and back to base." The junior warden then went to where the other man was to offer assistance. "Where can I help?"
Muldoon dabbed at the bite, making note of one of the teeth punctures that wasn't stopping or slowing in bleeding. "Ready a needle."
Pet whimpered. "Not a needle, not a needle..."
Jophrey promptly did as told. Once Pet's bite was washed the best it was going to be, Muldoon started to stitch up the more severe puncture wounds to quell the bleeding. "Get me a packing pad." Once more, Jophrey did and handed the requested item to the man. "Tape." Muldoon applied the thick packing to the washed and stitched up wound as Jeffrey taped around the bandage. "Alright, Pet, try to sit up so I can get to the other side."
The hybrid snorted a whimper and with the assistance of the two men, was brought up to a slouched over seated position. After tending to her injuries, Muldoon gathered the hybrid up in his arms and took her to the Jeep where he carefully laid her down in the backseat. He called to his co-worker from over his shoulder. "Get the leopard back to base. I'm going to the clinic." As he drove off, chunks of dirt and grass flew up from the back tires spinning.
Jophrey returned to where Liz was, kneeling over the wounded leopard and tending to its injuries. "He never leaves an animal unrestrained, no matter how harmless."
Liz wiped away the blood from the leopard's neck where a piece of furry skin flopped around. "The strongest force in the world is the power of love."
The Jeep was now a distant glow only to completely disappear once lost around a turn. "Like a master and his faithful hunting dog."
Liz smiled. "Or a father to his daughter."
When Muldoon arrived, he was greeted by Hammond as well as Dr. Jacobs and an assistant with an animal stretcher. Hammond bellowed, "Would you please tell me what the hell happened?"
The game warden watched Jacobs, and his assistant lift the whimpering and groaning hybrid from the Jeep and gently place her on the stretcher. Muldoon responded. "Cut the crap, John. There's no one here to impress with your false concern. Everyone knows how much you hate her."
Hammond grabbed the warden's sleeve and pulled him closer. "Let me tell you something right now, Robert, she might not be my conceived daughter but she is still my blood and damn it all to hell if I'm not going to stand around and watch you toss her to the lions!"
"Leopard" Muldoon curtly corrected. "It was a leopard I threw her to. Get it right." Hammond's expression contorted in being offended, the warden continuing. "And why not? If I recall, it was you who was so desperate to have me destroy her when she was born."
Muldoon jerked his sleeve out of the other man's grasp and shoved his way past the rich man. Hammond remembered all too well that day and wished more than anything he could go back in time to do things differently.
Jacobs cut away the hybrid's shirt as his assistant started to prepare the girl's arm for an IV and painkiller. The doctor peeled back the bandage to assess the severity of the injury and properly clean it, frowning. Pet barked in pain and clawed at the examination table, not wanting a repeat of hurting anyone accidentally.
The assistant, a woman in her mid-forties, studied the stitches done to the bite mark punctures. "Should I remove those?"
Jacobs took a careful glance at the work and shook his head in reply. "Leave them. Robert knows what he's doing when it comes to first aid." The doctor carefully started cleaning away the shallow cuts on the hybrid's left arm, thankful her skin was as thick as it was.
Standing outside the surgery room was Muldoon, watching what the medical team was doing through the viewing window. Hammond soon joined him. "When she was born..." Hammond began, "I didn't know what she would become. A ravenous, emotionless monster or something with more medical trouble then what it would have been worth." The two men were silent as they watched Jacobs finish bandaging the hybrid's arm. Hammond sighed, there being a slight quiver in his breath. "As I watched her grow up, I realized that she is more human than most people I've encountered. She is always showing a lot of selflessness to everyone around her and even to me occasionally, which amazes me. "
Muldoon crossed his hands over his chest and watched Jacobs wipe away any residual blood on the hybrid in an attempt to search for more injuries. Just as Pet's humanity surprised Hammond, the geneticist turned medical doctor surprised him. It was something Jacobs chose to cross train into, given his responsibility for her.
The game warden spoke. "She wants no enemies. She's like a child, seeking acceptance from those around her and just like an animal being more afraid of us than what we are of her."
Later that night, Pet woke up in a dimly lit room as the steady beeping of a heart monitor echoed what she felt in her body. She half expected to wake up to find her best friend next to her in the chair he had been occupying, but he wasn't. He hadn't been gone long seeing how she could still smell his scent.
Partially hushed voices outside the room grabbed the hybrid's attention. She honed her heightened hearing onto the conversation as she heard Hammond speak. "Robert, this is a great opportunity for you, and you were my first choice for this!"
There was a moment of silence, Pet hearing her best friend next. "And what about Pet? A large percentage of what I have done could not have happened if it wasn't for her!"
"I'm working on that. I'm meeting with the executive board of InGen on Thursday in Palo Alto, California and will propose the idea of her transfer then." The older man patted his most trusted game warden on the shoulder. "She is more than qualified for the job, given the specimens that will be worked with. There is no way they could refuse her."
"Let us hope so."
Pet closed her eyes when she heard the door handle jiggle. There was a momentary flash of light through the darkness before it disappeared behind the door closing. Muldoon saw the resting hybrid exactly how he left her and quietly tiptoed back over to the chair he had previously occupied. He looked at his watch to see it was four-fourteen AM.
Pet silently asked, "You're not going to leave me are you?"
Muldoon sighed. "Not if I can help it." The two were silent for a moment, Pet feeling her friend's strong hand embrace hers. "How are you feeling?"
"I've felt better."
"It's just a flesh wound," the man chuckled. Pet heavily signed and groaned on exhalation, closing her eyes and going back to sleep from the medications.
When nine in the morning rolled around, Hammond came to check on Pet to see how she was doing and smiled upon entering. "I see you're awake."
The hybrid snorted. "I'd rather be dead."
"Your personality remains undamaged as usual."
"Why are you here, John?" Pet narrowed her eyes on the man. "And don't tell me you're here to check on me, either. I won't believe you."
"Actually..." the man started, sitting down near the bed, "I'm here to inform you Robert was approved for transfer to the new park."
Pet dug her clawed hands into the bed sheets in anger. "So, I heard." She attempted to relax her subconscious and unintentional attack on the sheets. "What about me? Will I be going, too?"
Hammond swallowed and glanced down at the floor. "I, uh, I don't know, yet. So far, the way the executive board is talking, no."
"The executive board?" The hybrid shifted her white-knuckled grip from the sheets and to the bed railing as she pulled herself to sit more upright.
"Yes, they're the ones in charge of making the decisions regarding the best interests of InGen." Hammond nervously looked to the yellow eyes solely focused on him.
Pet spoke behind a partial, carnivorous toothed bared snarl. "Aren't you the one in charge of InGen?"
Hammond stammered. "Y-yes, but I-"
"But you're letting your company run you, John." The wealthy man seemed taken back by the girl's comment. "You're letting them turn you into the Alpha Bitch instead of you being the Alpha Prime."
Hammond leaped to his feet when he heard the offending jab and felt his face burn hot with anger. "I was going to try and convince them during the next meeting to have you transfer, as well, but with that attitude, you can stay here and deal with being alone!"
Pet barked a screech and swung a clawed hand at the man, only to fall short of striking him. It's like he knew she would attempt an aggressive act against him and knew just where to stand to avoid getting hit. He gave her a final sneer and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
5 - The Strongest Power of All
Muldoon's attention kept darting between Pet and the slowly easing down leopard. He didn't want to leave the dangerous cat unattended, tranquilized or not, and was torn on what to do. Slowly, he started sidestepping over to where the hybrid laid to get a better look at her, his mind racing with a worst-case scenario. He could see bleeding claw marks on her left arm and figured that was the extent of her injuries until he saw her bloodied right shoulder beneath her hair matted with pieces of grass. "Oh hell!" Not caring about the leopard anymore, Muldoon tossed aside the restraining pole's handle and ran to the hybrid. "Pet!" He quickly tugged off his half buttoned down shirt he wore over a white tee shirt and pressed it firmly against the free bleeding bite. "Talk to me, Pet. Say something." The hybrid moaned and winced in pain. "Next time, you get to run after the escaped attraction." Muldoon shook his head and breathed in relief. "Damn it Pet, you wanker." He grabbed her left hand and placed it on the shirt he held over the bite. "Hold this." He took a final look at the now unconscious leopard and ran to the Jeep. His trembling hands fumbled with the radio and even had trouble cueing the mic. "This is Tracker Team One calling to Base!" Hammond sat in the warden shack, staring blankly off into space when the sound of the radio startled him. "Robert, tell me you have the target..." The game warden squeezed the radio mic in anger. "Yes, yes I have the target." "Excellent! And Pet? Where is she? Is she alright?" Muldoon paused in shock when he heard the true concern in the other man's voice. "She needs medical attention. She's been beaten up pretty good." Hammond's face went bright red with anger. "Get your ass back here! I will have a medical team waiting." He tossed the mic aside and wasted no time returning to the zoo's main complex via a golf cart. In the animal treatment lab, Jophrey and a medical team sat on standby, waiting to hear something of the chase. A part of that team was Liz. Everyone knew when Muldoon and his sidekick went out on call, the animals usually sustained some injuries and would need medical care. When they heard it was Pet needing medical attention, the team gathered their cases of supplies and rushed to their van parked in the back. Liz grabbed the radio in the van and called over. "Tracker One, what is your location?" Muldoon was going back to tend to Pet when the calling out on the radio got his attention. He would have ignored it, had it not been such an important question regarding his location. He relayed his coordinates and on seeing Pet struggling to get up again, dropped the mic and ran towards her. He shot another look at the unconscious leopard, knowing that leaving the animal unrestrained was a hazardous thing to do. He always nagged people about leaving a dangerous animal laying around, that doing so was like leaving a loaded gun laying around a convict. But at that exact moment in time, the leopard was the last of his concerns. He rushed back to the hybrid with a first aid kit. Muldoon cracked it open and began to study the severity of the damage done to the girl's shoulder the best he could with shaking hands and a flashlight shoved into his mouth. He grabbed the small six-ounce bottle of water and twisted the cap off. He lifted the shirt and poured it on the wound to wash it off. Pet shrieked in pain and grabbed at the bite, inadvertently scratching Muldoon's hand in the process. The warden jerked his hand back, yelping in pain. "Shit!" He popped the girl upside her head, momentarily forgetting about her bite. "Asshole!" She grabbed at her shoulder again and rolled over in pain. "Oh, shut it, you pansy." The warden then grabbed a gauze swab packet and tore it open as well. He spoke to the hybrid as though she cared. "You've had worse than this. This is nothing!" Another pair of spotlights came over the rise where his Jeep was parked and soon, heard the voices of three more people and of Liz. Jophrey saw the leopard lying in the open, asleep and unrestrained. His attention quickly fell on his good friend huddled over a bloodied Pet and fell just as worried for her fate as the senior warden. Jophrey yelled back to the medical team, "Alright let's get this cat tied up and back to base." The junior warden then went to where the other man was to offer assistance. "Where can I help?" Muldoon dabbed at the bite, making note of one of the teeth punctures that wasn't stopping or slowing in bleeding. "Ready a needle." Pet whimpered. "Not a needle, not a needle..." Jophrey promptly did as told. Once Pet's bite was washed the best it was going to be, Muldoon started to stitch up the more severe puncture wounds to quell the bleeding. "Get me a packing pad." Once more, Jophrey did and handed the requested item to the man. "Tape." Muldoon applied the thick packing to the washed and stitched up wound as Jeffrey taped around the bandage. "Alright, Pet, try to sit up so I can get to the other side." The hybrid snorted a whimper and with the assistance of the two men, was brought up to a slouched over seated position. After tending to her injuries, Muldoon gathered the hybrid up in his arms and took her to the Jeep where he carefully laid her down in the backseat. He called to his co-worker from over his shoulder. "Get the leopard back to base. I'm going to the clinic." As he drove off, chunks of dirt and grass flew up from the back tires spinning. Jophrey returned to where Liz was, kneeling over the wounded leopard and tending to its injuries. "He never leaves an animal unrestrained, no matter how harmless." Liz wiped away the blood from the leopard's neck where a piece of furry skin flopped around. "The strongest force in the world is the power of love." The Jeep was now a distant glow only to completely disappear once lost around a turn. "Like a master and his faithful hunting dog." Liz smiled. "Or a father to his daughter." When Muldoon arrived, he was greeted by Hammond as well as Dr. Jacobs and an assistant with an animal stretcher. Hammond bellowed, "Would you please tell me what the hell happened?" The game warden watched Jacobs, and his assistant lift the whimpering and groaning hybrid from the Jeep and gently place her on the stretcher. Muldoon responded. "Cut the crap, John. There's no one here to impress with your false concern. Everyone knows how much you hate her." Hammond grabbed the warden's sleeve and pulled him closer. "Let me tell you something right now, Robert, she might not be my conceived daughter but she is still my blood and damn it all to hell if I'm not going to stand around and watch you toss her to the lions!" "Leopard" Muldoon curtly corrected. "It was a leopard I threw her to. Get it right." Hammond's expression contorted in being offended, the warden continuing. "And why not? If I recall, it was you who was so desperate to have me destroy her when she was born." Muldoon jerked his sleeve out of the other man's grasp and shoved his way past the rich man. Hammond remembered all too well that day and wished more than anything he could go back in time to do things differently. Jacobs cut away the hybrid's shirt as his assistant started to prepare the girl's arm for an IV and painkiller. The doctor peeled back the bandage to assess the severity of the injury and properly clean it, frowning. Pet barked in pain and clawed at the examination table, not wanting a repeat of hurting anyone accidentally. The assistant, a woman in her mid-forties, studied the stitches done to the bite mark punctures. "Should I remove those?" Jacobs took a careful glance at the work and shook his head in reply. "Leave them. Robert knows what he's doing when it comes to first aid." The doctor carefully started cleaning away the shallow cuts on the hybrid's left arm, thankful her skin was as thick as it was. Standing outside the surgery room was Muldoon, watching what the medical team was doing through the viewing window. Hammond soon joined him. "When she was born..." Hammond began, "I didn't know what she would become. A ravenous, emotionless monster or something with more medical trouble then what it would have been worth." The two men were silent as they watched Jacobs finish bandaging the hybrid's arm. Hammond sighed, there being a slight quiver in his breath. "As I watched her grow up, I realized that she is more human than most people I've encountered. She is always showing a lot of selflessness to everyone around her and even to me occasionally, which amazes me. " Muldoon crossed his hands over his chest and watched Jacobs wipe away any residual blood on the hybrid in an attempt to search for more injuries. Just as Pet's humanity surprised Hammond, the geneticist turned medical doctor surprised him. It was something Jacobs chose to cross train into, given his responsibility for her. The game warden spoke. "She wants no enemies. She's like a child, seeking acceptance from those around her and just like an animal being more afraid of us than what we are of her." Later that night, Pet woke up in a dimly lit room as the steady beeping of a heart monitor echoed what she felt in her body. She half expected to wake up to find her best friend next to her in the chair he had been occupying, but he wasn't. He hadn't been gone long seeing how she could still smell his scent. Partially hushed voices outside the room grabbed the hybrid's attention. She honed her heightened hearing onto the conversation as she heard Hammond speak. "Robert, this is a great opportunity for you, and you were my first choice for this!" There was a moment of silence, Pet hearing her best friend next. "And what about Pet? A large percentage of what I have done could not have happened if it wasn't for her!" "I'm working on that. I'm meeting with the executive board of InGen on Thursday in Palo Alto, California and will propose the idea of her transfer then." The older man patted his most trusted game warden on the shoulder. "She is more than qualified for the job, given the specimens that will be worked with. There is no way they could refuse her." "Let us hope so." Pet closed her eyes when she heard the door handle jiggle. There was a momentary flash of light through the darkness before it disappeared behind the door closing. Muldoon saw the resting hybrid exactly how he left her and quietly tiptoed back over to the chair he had previously occupied. He looked at his watch to see it was four-fourteen AM. Pet silently asked, "You're not going to leave me are you?" Muldoon sighed. "Not if I can help it." The two were silent for a moment, Pet feeling her friend's strong hand embrace hers. "How are you feeling?" "I've felt better." "It's just a flesh wound," the man chuckled. Pet heavily signed and groaned on exhalation, closing her eyes and going back to sleep from the medications. When nine in the morning rolled around, Hammond came to check on Pet to see how she was doing and smiled upon entering. "I see you're awake." The hybrid snorted. "I'd rather be dead." "Your personality remains undamaged as usual." "Why are you here, John?" Pet narrowed her eyes on the man. "And don't tell me you're here to check on me, either. I won't believe you." "Actually..." the man started, sitting down near the bed, "I'm here to inform you Robert was approved for transfer to the new park." Pet dug her clawed hands into the bed sheets in anger. "So, I heard." She attempted to relax her subconscious and unintentional attack on the sheets. "What about me? Will I be going, too?" Hammond swallowed and glanced down at the floor. "I, uh, I don't know, yet. So far, the way the executive board is talking, no." "The executive board?" The hybrid shifted her white-knuckled grip from the sheets and to the bed railing as she pulled herself to sit more upright. "Yes, they're the ones in charge of making the decisions regarding the best interests of InGen." Hammond nervously looked to the yellow eyes solely focused on him. Pet spoke behind a partial, carnivorous toothed bared snarl. "Aren't you the one in charge of InGen?" Hammond stammered. "Y-yes, but I-" "But you're letting your company run you, John." The wealthy man seemed taken back by the girl's comment. "You're letting them turn you into the Alpha Bitch instead of you being the Alpha Prime." Hammond leaped to his feet when he heard the offending jab and felt his face burn hot with anger. "I was going to try and convince them during the next meeting to have you transfer, as well, but with that attitude, you can stay here and deal with being alone!" Pet barked a screech and swung a clawed hand at the man, only to fall short of striking him. It's like he knew she would attempt an aggressive act against him and knew just where to stand to avoid getting hit. He gave her a final sneer and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
