I've Made a Grave Error w/OxBellows

[IdleChatter]

Spoiler: Felix

Spoiler: Pepper

He was not panicking.

First and foremost, before anything else was said, Felix just wanted everyone to know that he was not panicking. No matter what his cackling asshole of a roommate said as Felix raced out the door. After all, he was majoring in bio-engineering science, a subject that came with loads of stress with just the sheer amount of studying required. Therefore, there was no way he could be panicking or "freaking out" or any other synonym there of. If he may have rushed out of the house in sleep pants, a long sleeved shirt riddled with holes, and no shoes, well it was because his dog was dying. His brand new companion, who he had adopted merely weeks ago, was soon going to be dead if he didn't act fast.

Parking haphazardly in front of the vet's clinic, he jumped out as soon as the car had been slammed into park and raced around to yank open the passenger side door. Pepper laid there motionlessly, whining when he snatched her up as carefully as possible while trying to hurry. Cradling her to his chest, he rushed into the clinic and straight up to the receptionist desk. For once in his life, fate seemed to have smiled upon him and he looked to be the only one there. "I need help," he gasped, slightly out of breath from rushing and not panicking. "My dog ate an entire tray of brownies. They have have had marijuana in them. I'm not sure. My roommate is an asshole, so they most likely did have some in them, and they were put up on the counter where she shouldn't be able to reach them, but apparently Pepper can jump onto the table and then to the counters. And I guess she knocked the tray over and then ate them all, and I read online that chocolate can kill dogs!" The last part came out in a rush, words blurring together the longer he talked.

The vet tech sitting at the desk, Stacy by her name tag, simply nodded and calmly motioned for him to follow her. "I only caught about half of tha-"

"Pepper ate chocolate with marijuana in it and is going to die!" He interrupted, something he rarely did, but this time it felt justifiable.

"But!" Stacy continued, giving him a look as she led him into a room. "Chocolate isn't toxic to dogs, so there is a good probability that your dog won't die."

Felix stared at her, eyes too wide and still breathing a little too fast. "Are you sure? She seems really sick." Pepper hadn't reacted to anything going on around her so far, just quietly panting and drooling excessively while staring into space.

The vet tech smiled reassuringly at him, reaching out to rub Pepper behind the ears gently. "I'm sure. I'll send the vet in as soon as possible to giver her a look over, okay?"

He nodded, mumbling out a quiet okay as she left, shutting the door behind her. Still not reassured in the slightest, he sank down to the floor to sit cross legged with her curled in his lap. The place where her head had been on his arm was completely soaked through with drool, and he could already feel his pants leg starting to grow damp. Another spike of adrenaline shot through him with the thought that she was probably dehydrated at this point, considering he wasn't sure how long she had been like this. He had woken up to her sprawled in the middle of the kitchen floor with the empty pan of brownies lying a couple of feet away. His roommate had been no help, simply laughing and lumbering into the living room.

 

[OxBellows]

Spoiler: Isaac Daniels

Slow days were good days at a veterinary clinic. Maybe not the best for his paycheck, but Isaac didn't really mind eating ramen a little more often if that meant the pets in his area were healthy. If he only ever did routine checkups, flea collars, and births for the rest of his career, he would be broke as hell and happy as a clam. Unfortunately, the world was filled with all kind of thing small enough for dogs to swallow, so he stayed busy.

He couldn't really feign surprise, then, when he heard the door to his clinic burst open and a young man's voice, high and tight with stress, frantically yelled an awful lot of words that he couldn't make out from inside his office. He didn't really have to hear the words though- Isaac had heard enough panicked "my dog ate something and is surely dying" speeches to know them by tone alone. Isaac stood quickly and started bustling around his office, grabbing the relevant paperwork for the frantic owner and his standard checkup instruments.
Stacy knocked lightly on his door just as he was pulling himself together to go greet to new patient. Isaac opened his door with a slight smile.

"I heard a good chunk of that," he told her quickly, pulling on his sanitary white coat. "Dog ate something and now the world's ending?"

Stacy nodded sympathetically, but there was an uncharacteristic glint in her eyes. It made Isaac nervous. "What?" asked apprehensively. "What else?"

"I can't be sure," she warned, "but, um. The dog got ahold of the roommate's 'special brownies'."
Isaac blinked. "Well that's good, the chocolate thing's a myth. What's wrong?"

Stacy seemed like she was actually suppressing a giggle, of all things. "Doesn't seem to be the chocolate that's causing a reaction," she said evasively.

It took a second before the implication hit him. "The dog is high?" he asked incredulously.
Stacy held her hands up in surrender. "I don't know, Doc, all I can tell you is that the dog looks exactly like my roommate when she's watching cartoons at 3 am. Check it out yourself."

And thus did Isaac stride into his waiting room to discover one genuinely adorable puppy, high as a fucking kite, in the arms of a young man who had clearly not had time to get fully dressed this morning. "Hi, you two," he greeted, doing his best impersonation of a real grown up vet who had finished school more than six months ago. "Sounds like you had a busy morning, eh?"

The young man looked up for the first time and Isaac had to blink. Okay, two genuinely adorable puppies. Not a slow day after all.

 

[IdleChatter]

Felix was too busy trying to get Pepper's attention to look up when he heard the door open. Just seconds before, she had finally looked at him, tail thumping weakly twice before her eyes slid out of focus again. There was still a worrisome amount of drool drenching through his pants, but just the fact that she had made eye contact allowed for his anxiety to settle down a couple of notches. However, at the sound of a man's voice, he raised his head.

The small, single part of his brain that wasn't completely occupied with trying not to freak out stuttered to a halt for a brief second and then began loudly pointing out that the veterinarian was ridiculously attractive. At a staggering 6'4", most people were shorter than him, but sitting on the floor gave him a new angle. The only thing he noticed for a time was that the vet's shoulders looked surprisingly good in scrubs. Which was weird, he acknowledged absently before starting and scrambling to his feet. "Hi, yes! It's been busy," he stuttered out, still a little blindsided. He wasn't aware that veterinarians could be this pretty. He always imagined an elder person with gentle but gnarled hands and thick glasses.

There was a pause where Felix realized quite abruptly that he should probably explain exactly what had occurred. "Um, Pepper ate some brownies earlier with marijuana in them, I'm pretty sure," he started hurriedly. "My, uh, roommate left them on the counter, I think, a-and I look it up online, using my phone, that chocolate can kill dogs. But the lady-I don't remember her name, I'm sorry, she said that it won't kill my dog. Chocolate, that is. She didn't say if marijuana would kill her though." The lines wrinkling between his eyes grew deeper the longer he talked, voice going higher as his anxiety came right back. "Is it toxic to dogs? Oh damn, I didn't even think of that. I should have. I mean, it would make perfect sense if it is. Oh my god, I'm such a bad pet owner. Is she going to die?"

He stared at the vet with wide eyes. Pepper was clutched tightly to his chest, head back on his already wet sleeve with her eyes shut. A bubble of panic surged up in the back of his throat, but he swallowed it down as he waited with held breath to be told that he had condemned his companion to death. He wouldn't be surprised if they took her away from him right there and then.

 

[OxBellows]

Isaac rubbed the back of his head as he searched for words, and then regretted his hesitation immediately as the kid's eyes widened, clearly expecting the worst.

"No," he reassured quickly, "No, cannabis isn't toxic to dogs. It's actually more or less the same kind of effect you might expect in a human."
The young man stared at him blankly, panic still etched around his eyes. Maybe the direct approach was best here. "I'm gonna ask you to come in back so I can do a proper examination but, from what I can see and what you told Stacy, I think it's safe to say that your dog is just really, really high."

The young man's mouth opened slightly in surprise, and though it would probably take a moment or two to formulate them Isaac could see a million questions bouncing around in his head. "Right," Isaac sighed, "Why don't you come in back with me now?"

The kid nodded mutely and followed him into the exam room in the back of the clinic, and Isaac saw for the first time that he was really tall. Isaac wasn't exactly short himself, at a comfortably average 5'10", but the difference between their heights was easily six inches. His long arms were still protectively cradling the little terrier mix. Isaac noted that, on the bright side of things, the dog didn't look panicked or even uncomfortable. On the contrary, she looked positively Zen. Certainly more relaxed than any human in the vicinity. Whatever had been in those brownies, apparently it was the good stuff.

Isaac led them to the table and patted it invitingly. "You can just set her down here. I keep a heating pad under the surface so it's nice and warm for her." He was a little proud of having thought of the heating pad. He's gotten it for a particular cat, a regular of his that glared at him with the utmost disdain on the best of days and became nightmarish when asked to cope with the chill of the metal table. Since he's rigged it up, though, he hadn't yet found a creature that wasn't happy with it.

The little dog's owner reluctantly set her down, only relaxing when the dog curled up contentedly directly on top of the warm patch. Isaac was starting to like this guy. Too many pet owners seemed to find their sick companions gross or inconvenient; it was always nice to see someone so invested in their pet's wellbeing. It didn't hurt that he was really, really cute, even with the worried face. "What are your names?" Isaac asked. If he had a reason for wanting to know other than general friendliness, well, sue him. He was a vet, not a priest.

 

[IdleChatter]

When the veterinarian paused to scrub at the back of his head, Felix's breath quicken. He knew it. Pepper was seconds away from death, and it was all because he had poor choice in roommates. The second he got home, Adam would be finding a new place to live. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been. It was obviously that he shouldn't have left his dog alone with that man. Before his mind could truly wind itself up, the vet cut off his thoughts with fast reassurance.

Felix heard the words, but the only item his brain could comprehend at the moment was that his dog was not dying. Relief flooded through him, leaving him weak in the knees. He subtly leaned against the wall for support. His thoughts then began racing again, this time wondering when she would recover, or what he could do to help her make a speedy recovery. Did he need to make up a nice nest back at his apartment for her to sleep in? Did she need a special diet to help over come the effects of the drug? Would this have any lingering side effects? Adam sometimes stopped in the middle of a sentence to stare into space for a few minutes before continuing the sentence like nothing happened. Would that happen to her? She was so small.

When prompted, he followed the vet, who attractive from this angle too, through the doors into the back of the clinic. The underlying hint of bleach as he walked back was reassuring to him. At least he knew the area was sterile. He was surprised to see stainless steel examination tables. His first thought was that they would be chilly. However, the vet laid that concern to rest. He was pleased to learn that a heated pad kept the surface a comfortable temperature for the pets.

He gently placed Pepper onto the table, hands hovering anxiously. If she showed the slightest hint of discomfort, he would lift her back into his arms with no hesitation. There was no need for worry. She immediately curled into a loose ball, snuggling happily into the warmth. Her eyes opened and slid lazily to meet his. Breathing out a sigh of sheer relief when her tail thumped a few times, he bent forward to place his forehead near her. He didn't think himself an overtly emotional person, so the uncomfortable prickling behind his eyes came as a shock.

At being asked for not only his name but Pepper's as well, he gathered his admittedly fragile composure and stood straight. "Yeah, sorry. Um, I'm Felix, and this is Pepper," he introduced them with an sheepish grin. "I was...well, am still a bit worked up. It's nice to meet you...?" He trailed off, having no idea what the vet's name was. He couldn't remember if the vet tech...who's name he couldn't remember. He couldn't remember if she had previously told him the name of the vet. He felt like he would have noticed it, what with the jawline and all, but he had been only steps from hysterical.

His hand absently stroked along Pepper's side. The feeling of coarse hair sliding beneath his palm was a great deal more soothing that he would have thought it would be before he adopted her. Ever since she had come into his life merely weeks ago, she had been a stunning source of equal parts frustration and comfort.

The questions from earlier sprang back into mind, and now that he had calmed down enough, he decided that now would be an ideal time to ask them. "So, uh, how long is she going to be, um, like this? Is she going to be okay? I-I mean, is she going to have any lingering effects from this? Because sometimes, my roommate will do certain things that I'm almost certain are a result of smoking marijuana. I'm just concerned that it might hinder her in the future." The end came out a bit faster, ever present anxiety causing him to speak faster, like he only had a certain amount of time to get the words out.