Hello again, my faithful friends! (and new ones; I'm not picky) Due in part to a conversation with a devoted reader, I'm finally getting this chapter published. It'll be the first multi-part story in "What's Love Anyway" to speak of, and I'm not sure just how many chapters it'll be although the initial plan was two.

So, without further ado, Part One of Good for Evil.

Van Helsing: "I am here to help you. You understand that, do you not?"
Renfield: "Why of course, and I'm very grateful. … Keep your filthy hands to yourself!"

Dracula (1931)

"Eat my dust... Dust!" shouted Kodi as he pedaled madly.

Close behind him, Dusty shifted gears and fought to gain ground as the wind whipped at her purplish-gray fur. "Seriously? That's your A material?"

The teenage canines, seeing the opportunity of a clear day with no pressing homework, had decided to go on a bike date to the nearby lake. As was usual for the speed-loving dogs, it turned into a race. Kodi, who had been training for triathlons, had held the lead most of the way, but his girlfriend was giving him a run for his money.

He glanced back over his shoulder to throw another playful taunt at his girlfriend. "You know, your face looks pretty good in-"

"Kodi, look out!"

He turned to see a car coming around the next bend in the road, veering to and fro like the driver was either drunk or being attacked by hornets. Panicking, Kodi swerved his bike to get out of the way, shooting onto the gravel at the side of the road. The change in direction and sudden shift to loose terrain had exactly the result one would expect: with a yell, he flipped over the handlebars and crashed into a patch of burdock plants as the car plowed through the spot where he and his bike had been moments before.

Dusty, narrowly avoiding a similar fate, dismounted and raced to him. "Are you okay?!" she cried.

"Ow..." he groaned.

She quickly helped him up, getting a good many of the burdock pods stuck to herself in the process. "What do you think was-?"

CRASH!

They both whipped their heads around. Apparently the car had finally gone off the road, pitched into a ditch, and collided with a light pole. Ignoring his bruises, Kodi rose to his feet and dashed toward the car.

"Kodi!" yelled Dusty.

"Call 9-1-1!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Hopping off the pavement and sliding down an embankment like he was doing a rail grind on a skateboard, Kodi came to a stop on the driver's side of the car. The extent of the damage was clear when the door came off in his hand and forced him to jump back before it could crush his foot.

As Dusty came up behind him, Kodi leaned down to get a look at the driver. "Sir, are you alright?"

It was a pretty easy 'no.' The driver, a schnauzer with plenty of gray around his muzzle, slumped against the steering wheel with blood spattered over his face.

"Not good," Kodi groaned. "Not good, not good, not good." He frantically tried to remember that first aid class he had taken when he was a camp counselor. Gotta update that more often, he thought. Okay, check for a pulse. He did that; it was faint, but definitely there. He was trying to figure out how to check the guy's airway without moving him when Dusty grabbed his shoulder and shouted in his ear.

"Kodi, the phone pole!"

In his haste to get down there, he had forgotten one of the first rules of any emergency: scene safety. Leaning back from the car, he realized that the phone pole had been damaged in the collision... and was beginning to teeter.

"Aw, nuts," he groaned, reaching into the car again. Unbuckling the seatbelt, he hastily grabbed the old dog and rushed to drag him away from the car. "Go! Go!" he called, pulling the limp figure backwards up the incline.

Dusty did scramble up far enough to grab a bush. Then with her free hand she reached down and caught the back of Kodi's shirt, pulling him up with every ounce of muscle she could muster.

"Come on!" she shouted as together they managed to crest the embankment.

The light pole toppled onto the car, and in moments the electricity found the gas tank as the two teens and their limp rescuee retreated up the road.

Hours later, Kodi and Dusty wearily pedaled back up to his house. Kodi was drained mentally from almost getting clobbered, and physically from desperately following the instructions of the dispatcher over the phone. Against all odds, he had managed to get the old dog breathing again shortly before the ambulance crew arrived. One of them had also given him a quick exam, found no sign of serious harm, and gave him leave to return home.

"Is the other guy going to be okay?" Dusty had wanted to know.

The medic had answered with a shake of his head. "We'll do all we can, ma'am, but that's all I can promise."

Now, Kodi parked his bike in the garage and sagged. "That... was nuts," he sighed. To top the climax, the call to 9-1-1 had finished off Dusty's cell phone battery, and he had left his at home, so nobody even knew what had happened.

Dusty patted him on the shoulder. "You okay?"

He sagged a bit. "I guess. I just... need a little time."

She smiled. "Yeah, well, you did a good job." She kissed him on the cheek, then picked up her own bike. "I'd better get home. Call me, okay?"

Despite his fatigue he managed a smile as he held up his hand in a phone gesture. "Count on it."

Taking a moment to watch her pedal away, he turned and went inside. "Hey Mom!" he called. "You home?"

"In the living room!" she called back.

Fudge. He had been hoping she might be in the kitchen so he could take an alternate route up to his room and get cleaned up before he told her about the mishap. The living room wasn't so easily dodged, though, so he shrugged and went in looking as nonchalant as possible.

Seeing that his mother was sitting on the couch reading, he decided to only speak when he was almost out of her line of sight. Maybe he could still dodge the bullet.

Naturally, he had forgotten that Aleu might be about. "Yeesh, what happened to you?" asked his sister, who was just coming out of the bathroom. "Did you run into a tree or something?"

Before Kodi could answer, Jenna was at his elbow. "Kodi! Look at you!"

Kodi was still trying to figure out what Aleu was doing home. "I thought you had a play-date at Bobbie's house."

"He got a stomach bug," Aleu replied.

"Forget about that. What happened to you?!" cried Jenna. She touched a wet area on Kodis arm. "You're bleeding!"

"It's just a scratch, Mom. It's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" echoed Aleu, surveying a large rip in his shirt. "You look like you got hit by a truck!"

Kodi had had about enough of this. "First off, it was only a car..."

In retrospect, that had probably been the worst way to begin. After what felt like ten minutes of arguing, he decided to just take a shower and let his mom calm down (and his sister stop dramatizing every little bruise she could find) before he told them what happened.

"Okay!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "Mom, can I please just-?"

"No, no," she cut him off, pointing to the bathroom. "You get cleaned up – now."

Kodi sighed. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed, he thought. As he went to get a change of clothes, though, he remembered something one of the EMTs had said to him: "This old guy wouldn't have a chance if you hadn't been there."

Okay, he thought. It was worth it.

Seeing her son cleaned up and with most of his injuries tended did a good deal to mollify Jenna, though she admitted with some embarrassment that she had called Balto at work about the mishap.

"I didn't actually get hit," Kodi explained, taking a seat on the couch. "The car just came swerving along, so I had to take a dive into the ditch to get out of the way. My bike's probably hurt more than I am."

"Was the guy drunk?" asked Aleu.

"No, I think he was having a heart attack or something." Kodi related how Dusty had alerted him to the phone pole hazard and helped him get both himself and the driver to relative safety. "The medics checked me over, said I should be fine, and took the guy to the hospital. That's really all there is to tell," Kodi assured them.

"Fudge," Aleu muttered. "Picking you up at the hospital would have been way more exciting."

"Aleu!" Jenna exclaimed.

The pup withered. "Well, it would have."

Kodi shook his head. "I've had enough excitement for one day myself. The shower helped, but to be honest, I'm wiped out."

Jenna patted him on the shoulder. "Why don't you go rest?" she suggested. "You could use it – and by the way, you did a good job. A lot of dogs your age would have just hung back and watched."

Kodi shrugged. "Well, I had to do something."

The following day after church and lunch, the family settled into the living room to get in a little R&R. It wasn't until Balto looked at the newspaper that the previous day's incident came up again.

"Well, looks like our hometown hero made the news," he remarked. "Listen to this."

The article, naturally, was about the action the day before – and the writer had apparently decided to zero in on the 'daring rescuer' aspect for flavor. The piece was short, and although the writer dramatized Kodi's courage a bit – or so Kodi thought, anyway – there was little about it which would have stood out to anyone outside the family.

"They'll probably send someone to interview you once you find out where you live," Jenna teased her son as he rolled his eyes. Then she noticed her husband looking dubiously at the paper, and her laughter died away. "Balto, is something wrong?"

"Hm?" The wolf-dog looked up from the paper. "I don't think so. Why?"

"You have an odd look on your face."

Balto let his ears back up. "Eh, probably nothing. The newspaper has a shot of the dog Kodi saved, and I feel like I've seen him before."

Jenna walked around behind him and leaned over his shoulder. Kodi came over too as his mother read, "Roger D'Nollah, retired physici..." she trailed off, and her voice took on a tense edge. "I remember him."

Although Jenna was normally pretty self-controlled, Kodi could feel waves of hostility coming off of her like heat from a woodstove. "Mom, what's wrong? Who is-?"

Her eyes blazed at the paper as if to set it on fire for a moment before she sharply turned away. "I'm not going to talk about it!" she snapped, promptly leaving the room.

"Oh," said Balto while his son's eyes were still on Jenna. "Now I remember."

Kodi turned to his dad, only to find that his hands had involuntarily clenched into fists, crumpling the newspaper in a silent contrast to his calm voice. "Dad, what was that about?"

Balto took several deep breaths, then closed the paper, folded it, and put it on the table. "It's a long story. D... he used to be our doctor – Jenna's and mine – back before we had you. We stopped seeing him when... well, let's just say it wasn't a happy goodbye."

"Why? What'd he do?"

The wolf-dog stood up. "Son, I think I should go talk it over with your mother before I tell you anything else. Trust me; you might just be happier not knowing... especially after you saved his life."

Kodi waited for his parents to open up on their grievance with the old dog, but they didn't say a word that night at supper... or the next morning... or the rest of that day. He asked Balto after lunch if the discussion with Jenna had happened yet.

"I talked about it with her," Balto replied reservedly, "and to be honest, she doesn't want his name mentioned in this house again."

"Wow," mused Kodi. "What'd he do to her?"

Balto's expression fell into a yet deeper state of sadness. "It wasn't anything he did," he replied, "but that's all I'm going to say. I'd tell you more, but I respect your mother's wishes."

Kodi's mind spun with questions. Did the guy rip them off on a bill? No, no way Mom would be this ticked off over anything like that. Maybe he prescribed an unnecessary surgery to pay for his car, or made a pass at Mom or something.

He decided there was only one way to get the answer, right after school the next day.

He didn't tell Dusty what was on his mind, and when she asked in the hall if he wanted to meet up for homework later he said he needed to run an errand first. He pedaled over to the hospital and asked at the front desk for Mr. D'Nollah,

"Are you a relative of his?" asked the receptionist, a trim female dog whose breed he couldn't pin down, though she had bright orange fur on top of her head and short brown fur on her delicately pointed face.

"No, but if he asks you can tell him I'm one of the pups who saved his life the other day." He held up the front page from the Sunday paper.

Her eyes brightened. "Oh, I see. Well, I'll try to get a call through to him and see if he's accepting visitors. You can wait over there."

It was several minutes before she called for him and gave him directions to the room Mr. D'Nollah was staying in.

"He's not up for a long visit," she advised, "but he said he could hardly refuse a follow-up call after what you did for him."

"I won't take up too much of his time," Kodi promised. He felt he had to say something about his reason, but he hedged the facts just a little. "I'm just curious because it seems like he used to know my parents."

She looked like she was inclined to ask more details, but the presence of two dalmatians – one very pregnant and breathing hard – diverted her attention. "Well, what a small world. Ma'am, are you alright? Who's your doctor?"

Kodi had half a mind to stay and help, but a trio of orderlies quickly appeared and left no room for him to help even if he had known what to do. His first-aid training, perhaps mercifully, hadn't covered childbirth anyway.

It took a few stops for directions and one or two wrong turns before he found the room and knocked.

"Dr. D'Nollah?" he called out in a decent indoor tone, knocking twice and opening the door a crack.

A gruff voice called. "C'mon in. You're that Kodi kid they told me about?"

Kodi nodded as he stepped inside. "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't recognize me. You were out cold last time." It struck him that was probably the weirdest introduction he'd ever make. He hoped so; it was hard to imagine anything odder.

The grizzled gray dog nodded. "True enough. Heart attack. I guess you didn't notice the DNR bracelet."

At this last remark, Kodi's stomach tightened. "You have a DNR?"

D'Nollah nodded. "I've been on the decline for years. It was only a matter of time – but I guess I can't complain about you bringing me back for a while. I was a fool to be driving those roads in my condition anyway."

Kodi nodded. He felt sorry for the old dog just waiting to die, but he could never wrap his brain around anyone not wanting to be helped. "Well, I'm not mad about you almost hitting me if that helps," he offered.

"I think we can call that even," D'Nollah agreed with a wry smile.

Kodi sat down in a chair near the gurney and considered how best to start on his real reason for coming. He decided the best approach was to go straight to the point.

"It's kind of funny that we crossed paths out there," he said, paws on his knees, "because I think you used to know my parents."

D'Nollah raised his eyebrows. "Did I?"

Kodi took a deep breath. "Well, they talked like they knew you after they saw your picture in the newspaper. My mom got really quiet when she read you used to be a doctor."

Mr. D'Nollah scrunched his face, thinking hard. "Who are your parents?" he asked.

"My dad's name is Balto; Balto Williams," he supplied, hesitating before dropping the other shoe. "My mom's name is Jenna."

The old dog's expression continued to scrunch, then abruptly opened and then fell. "Oh; that explains it," he said as if to himself. He looked up at Kodi. "I suppose there's no good telling you that you might be happier not knowing."

Of course, that only piqued Kodi's concern in the matter. "Why, what'd you do to them?"

"I didn't do anything," D'Nollah snapped. "I made a recommendation. That was my duty as a doctor."

Kodi sighed. "Can you just tell me?"

D'Nollah scowled. "I shouldn't, under doctor-patient confidentiality," he answered tersely. "But, seeing as you are their son and you saved my life, so be it. Your old dog wasn't doing so well work-wise when your mother found out she was pregnant – with you, I suppose, if you're as old as you look. In fact, I got the impression he was practically unemployed."

Kodi did remember hearing something about his father getting through a rough patch not long before he was born. He didn't recall any mention of a doctor being…

Suspicion began to form in the back of his mind. "So what was this recommendation you made?" he asked, suspecting he already knew.

Evidently D'Nollah guess what he was thinking. "I advised her to put off having pups until later," he answered euphemistically.

Kodi felt as if he'd been slapped. "You wanted her to abort me?!" he demanded, rising slightly.

"There was no 'you' to abort," D'Nollah argued. "You were a pregnancy; a clump of cells, not a person."

An overpowering wave of rage and disgust washed through Kodi. He wasn't sure what upset him more; that D'Nollah could look him in the eye and admit that he'd told his mother to kill him, or that the old cur was so calm about it.

eyed him and pushed the call button.

"Don't bother," Kodi spat, grabbing his backpack and making for the door.

He was down the hall and around the corner before anyone answered the ailing doctor's summons.

"Kindly put it on my record that I don't want any more visitors," Dr. D'Nollah requested. "Absolutely none. I want that very clear – and especially no wolves, huskies, or mongrels."

The Physician's Assistant who answered his summons bristled at this last. Her own kids were hybrids, to use the more appropriate alternative to the patient's slur. Still, debating civility was not in her job description. "Alright," she agreed. "Is that all?"

D'Nollah snorted, and his next instruction put a chill through her. "One other thing," he added. "Please underline the part about my Do Not Resuscitate order. I want to die in peace next time my heart gives out."

So, my good readers, what do you think of Kodi's situation and what he's dealing with? How's he going to handle the discovery that he might never have been born, and what might it do to other parts of his life? While I'm asking questions, how early did you realize the dog Kodi saved was the 'doctor' from the first entry in this project?

I'm curious to see how the reactions to this play out, since it's not going to be the last time I delve into tales of forgiving unspeakable actions and attitudes. So I welcome any feedback on that, and prayers as well since I'm dealing with something of the kind in my own family right now (no medical drama or abortion trauma, thankfully).

And as you might have guessed there are a couple of Easter Eggs here, if anyone wants to take a stab at them as well.

As always, faves, follows, and feedback are greatly appreciated. And if you want more to read while you wait for the next chapter, check out Something Stinks and keep your eyes peeled for a new Zootopia fluff story I hope to post soon (working title: Three Furst Dates).