Chapter 15

Arriving at her apartment, she dumped her bag and went to collect Chris. It amazed her how he was always glad to see her, no matter what mood she was in or what time of day or night it was. Opening her neighbor's apartment, Chris was once again happy to see her but he didn't do his usual jump an dance, which struck Sarah as odd. Mrs. Milligan had already gone, but she had left a note for Sara on the inside of her door saying that Chris had not wanted to eat the night before. That in itself wasn't that odd. He sometimes went a day without eating as he wasn't a very food driven dog. Sara had contacted a vet about it once before, who had said that as long as the dog seemed healthy and in good condition, there wasn't anything to worry about. Nevertheless Sara decided against taking him for a jog, as he seemed reluctant to jump. She took him outside for a call of nature, and although he stood straining for a while didn't do anything significant. Sara thought he might not need to urinate after all, so she took him back inside and took a shower. She wasn't hungry herself so got into bed and asked the dog to join her. Normally he loved getting on the bed with her, he was a bit of a mattress hog. But now he seemed reluctant to jump but finally made the effort.

"What's up boy?" She asked him stroking his fur as he lay cuddled against her.

He had the most beautiful long black and white coat. Sara never got tired looking at it, the silky soft hair, the sudden change from black to white. The black rings around his eyes and running down his snout making him look like a panda, and his long fluffy black tail with the white tip, like he dunked it in a bucket of white paint. Sara listened to his breathing and how it changed once he fell asleep, the slight forceful expression of air through his nostrils as he entered REM sleep. She soon joined him, happy for the company.

It was late afternoon when Sara woke as Chris got off the bed. He yelped when he jumped and then stood very still with his back slightly arched and his head lowered.

She got off the bed and kneeled before the dog. Taking his head in her hands she tried to figure out where his pain was coming from.

"Right, we're going to the vet".

She quickly pulled on some slacks and grabbed her wallet and cell-phone. Chris tried to follow Sara but walked with stiff legs and kept his head down.

"It's OK boy. I'm right here".

Gently leading him out of her apartment, they took the elevator down. She was unsure of how to pick Chris up to put him into the car without hurting him as it was clear that he won't manage it by himself. She ended up scooping him into her arms, one arm supporting his chest and the other his bum. He whimpered and fiercely whipped his tail in circles as if to gain balance but it worked. Sara rushed to the driver side and took off. Very rarely in her life had she felt as helpless as she did just then. Fortunately there was a vet just one block away from her apartment. Chris and Sara often passed the practice on their runs and it dawned on Sara that she had never bothered asking who his usual vet was. She stopped at the practice and left the dog in the car, rushing inside to get help.

There was people waiting in the reception area and a man in a white coat and stethoscope around his neck was just coming through the consultation room on the other side. The receptionist started saying something to Sara but she looked at the vet and said "My dog's very sick. He's in my car."

The vet put the clipboard he was holding down. "Nadine please check on Brutus, he's in recovery"

One of the reception staff got up to go and the vet followed Sara outside.

"What's wrong with your dog?"

No hello or introductions, the vet got directly to the point. Sara was very grateful.

"I don't know, he seems to be in pain but I don't know where. He's reluctant to jump and didn't eat his food last night."

They reached her car and Sara unlocked it. The vet opened the back door to have a look at Chris. Before the vet had even touched Chris, he started snarling and growling fiercely. Pulling his lips back, exposing his teeth.

Sara stood back surprised.

"I'm sorry, he doesn't like strangers but he's never reacted like this before."

While Sara had been talking, the vet had gotten completely into the car with the distressed animal. He was talking soothingly to the dog whose growling had subsided somewhat. Chris kept lifting his lip every now and again but actually allowed the vet to touch him. Everything seemed to be going well when there was a yelp followed by a vicious growl and snap. Sara heard Chris's jaws snap shut and imagined all sorts of bloody horror transpiring in her car. Yet when the vet got out, he seemed calm and collected, without any apparent injuries .

"He has a urinary obstruction, probably caused a stone that has blocked his urethra. In other words he can't pee. I'll have to sedate and catheterize him to relieve the blockage and the flush out the bladder. There may also be some stones in the bladder as well. He'll have to stay the night with us. I'll go get the sedative, I'll give it to him in the car, he'll be calmer that way."

Without saying anything else or even looking her in the eye, he turned around and walked back to the practice. Sara stood perplexed. She had just met someone with worse people skills than Grissom.

The vet returned promptly with a syringe. He asked Sara to open the other back door and hold Chris's head while he injected him. The vet put the used syringe in his coat pocket and, before Sara or Chris had time to realize what was going on, scooped the dog into his arms and set off towards the practice. Still baffled by the man's lack of people skills, Sara slammed the door shut, locked her car and hurried after the vet. She was just in time to hurry into the swing-door of one of the consult rooms before it swung shut.

"He'll probably get nauseous," the vet said as he carefully placed Chris onto a steel table covered with a gray blanket. "That's just a side effect of the sedative. The sedative also act as a muscle relaxant and can sometimes relieve the urethral muscle spasm on its own; so he might pee by himself. I'm going to check on another patient and will be back shortly."

He only glanced at Sara occasionally, but kept looking at Chris, almost as if he was hoping to see something more to help him assess his patient. The vet turned around and left.

Sara was left alone in the room with the dog and could do nothing more but stroke his head gently as she spoke to him softly. The dog, a little dazed, kept looking around – clearly confused by where he was.

"It's OK boy," Sara said with a sigh. "I know about as much as you do."

A woman with untidy bushy hair caught in a band stuck her head in the door and blinked when she saw Sara.

"Oh I sorry. I thought Dr. Becks might be in here."

"He was here just a moment ago, but then he left." Sara felt stupid saying it.

"Right. Sorry about that," the woman smiled and came into the room "I'm Lucy. One of the nurses. Did Dr. Becks give you some papwerwork to fill in or book you into the system?"

Sara shook her head. Lucy shook her head with a rueful smile.

"Dr. Becks doesn't have the best of people skills, but he's an excellent veterinarian. Gets on better with the patients than with the owners."

"Yeah. Reminds me of my boss." Sara smiled at Lucy who glanced at Chris and then moved to the door again.

"Let me check what he wants done and I'll be right back." She bustled out.

True to her word the nurse came back promptly with a clipboard.

"What's your dog's name? Have you been with us before?"

"It's Chris. And no, we haven't been here before."

"Ok, will you please fill out this form for me so I can update our system? Dr. Becks says Chris has an obstructed bladder. He should be back shortly."

Sara missed more than half of the sentence as Chris half got up and then started to heave.

"Don't worry," Lucy said quickly before Sara could raise the alarm. "It's the sedative kicking in. Here, I'll get it." She passed Sara the clip board and grabbed a hand full of paper towels from the nearby roll, quickly cleaning up the mess.

Chris lay back down and Sara could see he was becoming woozy. She quickly filled in her details, that of Mrs. Milligan and that of the dog and handed it back to Lucy just as Dr. Becks came back into the room and went directly to Chris again, checking him over.

"Has he vomited yet?" He asked to no one in particular.

"Yes, just now." Lucy answered.

"Good, bring me a gurney and we'll take him to the theater".

"The theater?" Sara asked alarmed, looking from Dr. Becks to Lucy.

"The procedure and prep room really. We might need to give him some general anesthesia and we will have to put him on a drip. We just like to be prepared should we have to proceed to surgery". Lucy explained and then dashed out the door.

It felt like an iron vice had clamped over her heart "Can I come with him?" Sara asked "Please?"

The thought of leaving Chris was excruciating.

"No," came the curt reply as the vet continued to listen to Chris's heart.

Lucy came back into the room with a gurney.

"Please. He's a rescue dog, he was badly abused and he doesn't easily trust people."

Finally the vet looked up from his patient to consider Sara.

"Please?"

"I don't take owners with me into the procedure room or OR. I don't need them keeling over. Then I have two patients to deal with."

"I won't keel over I can promise you. I'm a crime scene investigator. I have a pretty strong stomach."

Chris whined and Sara stroked his head. The vet eyed them both through narrowed eyes.

"Fine, but if you hit your head when you pass out, I'm not stitching you up."

Sara's relief was almost like a rush as she nodded and steeling herself as she did when dealing with a particularly grizzly crime. She had faith that she wouldn't pass out but the way her week had been going, there was no way of telling how the universe might decide to ruin her day even further.

Despite her alarm, Sara had found the procedure fascinating and could not help but draw similarities between how things worked at the veterinary hospital and a normal human one. She had watched silently as Dr. Beck dealt with the blockage in Chris's bladder and treated him for the infection that he had. He performed an ultrasound of Chris's bladder and it did indeed show numerous small stones. But they were thankfully small enough not to warrant surgical removal. His crew was very efficient and Lucy had explained what he did every step of the way. When they were done, Dr. Beck disappeared without much ceremony, leaving Lucy to deal with the post procedural care. Sara watched wordlessly as the nurse dealt with the indwelling bladder catheter that they had placed in Chris and injected medication into his IV line.

"Will he be okay now?" Sara asked as Lucy started cleaning the equipment that they had used. The woman smiled at her and nodded.

"Yes," she said. "We're giving him a broad spectrum antibiotic to deal with the infection and quite a lot of fluids so that his system can produce a lot of urine. Dr Becks will analyze the urine we collected and hopefully the stones are the common kind that can be dissolved with medication and a special diet. He will also send some of the urine to be cultured to see exactly what type of bacteria we are dealing with. He may change the antibiotics based on those results. Later we'll remove the catheter to see whether he can urinate by himself. We'll keep on monitoring him, don't worry."

She transferred Chris's IV bag to the stand of the gurney, and then she and Sara moved Chris back onto the waiting gurney. He was starting to wake up, and lifted his head weakly.

"You did great boy. Feeling better?" Sara spoke to him as they wheeled him to the recovery room.

Once there Sara and Lucy put Chris into one of the waiting cages and Sara crawled in next to him, kissing him on his head. He quieted down immediately.

"Is it ok if I stay with him for a while?" Sara asked Lucy who smiled and nodded encouragingly.

"I can't see why not. You're the first person Dr. Becks had ever allowed to watch a procedure, so I doubt that he will object to you staying with him now. I'll be back to check on Chris in a bit. Dr. Becks has a soft spot for rescued animals."

Sara lay down next to Chris who licked her face and even wagged his tail feebly.

"It's ok boy, get some rest."

She used her jacket as a pillow and watched the dog's breathing even out, thinking that this was a fitting way to spend her night off considering how absolutely terrible her week had been. Her mind turned first to Dr. Beck and then, inevitably to Grissom who shared such similarities with the veterinarian. Not wanting to think about her boss, Sara closed her eyes and tried to relax and force her mind to silence.