There's No Going Back

She’d only kind of seen the dog disappear under the tractor, and she was always a softie for animals, dog in particular. It would be eating at her all day if she didn’t at least ask if she could help. “Are you doin’ alright down here?” Eleanor asked, crouching down next to the man by the tractor.

Bruno was going deeper and deeper to where Liam couldn’t reach him. “Bruno come on, it’s just a check up bud.” He started having a conversation with himself before Eleanor joined in with her question. “Um.. define alright?” He questioned back as he turned to see the woman. “My patient looks cozy where he is and not following me” 

“Uh– maybe– just a bit of an off day.” Laura looked around, making sure her boss wasn’t nearby to have seen the mix up. “I woke up late, my other job needs me to come in early, but I already don’t have enough hours here…” She continued on, before trailing off and looking down. “I’m okay. Yes. I am okay.” Laura repeated– more for herself.

The sight of the struggle of the veterinarian talking to the dog and trying to catch it under a table made her forget her own struggles for a second. The whole difficulty she had been having for the past few days, which had taken her there in the fisrt place. She smiled. “Uhm, hello.” Nina said, while knocking lightly on the partially closed door. “Sorry to interrupt. My name is Nina, I think I talked to you over the phone. I’m here to check out the empty office space that’s for rent.”

Trying to stand up fast when he heard Nina’s voice, he soon banged his head on the table. Soothing it with his hand, he looked in her direction to answer her question. “Right oh my god. The office space just next door. Mr Wilkers thought he needed two offices but I figured he could rent it out. Give me one second and I’ll show you. I just need this lil’ guy to follow me to the room. Ain’t that right Bruno?” He questioned the dog but it seemed Bruno was not having it. 

Romeo’s curiosity flourished as he watched with fascination at the exchange between the man and— whoever Bruno was. Part of him was mildly concerned at the well-being of this Bruno fellow beneath the tractor, but his deduction skills concluded it had to be a small child or an animal. He favored the latter. Walking over quietly to stand behind the man, he tilted his body slightly to peer under, spotting the canine.

“Is that a beagle?”

It was dangerous that Bruno was under the tractor, thankfully construction wasn’t happening at the moment but if anything happened to the dog it would be on Liam’s time and he would feel heart broken himself if Bruno got hurt. He started to snap his fingers, making small noises and calling for the dog some more. But Bruno was too scared to move. He didn’t feel the man approach the tractor so it took him by surprise when he heard the question. Almost scaring him until he registered what he said. “Oh yea, it is a beagle. He gets scared of vets. Last time he was in, he bit the other vet.” 

Esmerelda held her son’s hand, walking him to a play date before she went off the work. It was one of those rare days when everything seemed to be going smoothly as her schedule had fit both with her son’s father and with the woman who had a child the same age as Jagger. However, when the faint barking got a lot louder as it approached, she couldn’t help but raise her child in her arms in panic when a dog shot by and ran away, followed by a man. Her son, however, squealed and fought against her hold to go pet the dogs. “Jagger, you can’t touch the puppies, maybe later.” She told him with a kiss pressed to his temple before she moved forward to the male. “Is everything okay?”

With a stretch of his arm, Liam tried again to reach for the barking nervous dog but there was no luck for him at the moment. Standing up straight to talk to the woman, he tried to fix his posture and the wrinkles in his uniform. “Yea- yea totally fine. Just a nervous patient. You know” Liam tried to act cool about it. The barking continued as if to taunt Liam at this point. “He’s just in for a follow up after he broke his leg. He had a cast on for the longest time but guess those legs are in good use” He laughed lightly. 

Finn watched the dog and the man chasing after with mild amusement, a cigarette between their teeth. They watched him get on the ground and try and coax the dog out, raising an eyebrow and keeping their distance but still paying attention—it was more interesting than anything else Finn had seen that day, so might as well enjoy it, right? But after watching the man struggling for a little longer, Finn decided to take pity on him, walking up and crouching next to him. They put their lips together and whistled with a birdlike sound, trilling between their lips before the dog lazily started to trudge out from under the tractor. “Always worked on my dogs,” they said by way of explanation, tonguing the ring in their lip lightly. “Don’t know what it is.”

Of course Liam was a threat in the dog’s eyes and when the other person came up, he noticed how calm the dog was. How they slowly shuffled to them with the birdlike noise made. The dog eventually got up to Finn and started to lick their hand as a test of what the person would do to the dog. “It’s like a whistle that gets them alert. I can’t whistle though, sadly. So I should call you the MVP of the day” 

Today was Andi’s free day, her brother had her daughter watching the minions movie, she was so obsessed with. Whilst Juno needed to go for a checkup. She was paying more attention to her pup than to anything else until she saw a man crouched next to a tractor, with her curiosity peaking, she wandered over. “Are you alright?” she questioned, her brows furrowed into one until she heard the bark. “Dog on the run?” she questioned, crouching herself to see the beagle.

With a few more tries to reach out and get the dog under the tractor, he heard a voice and soon lifted his head. Hitting it on the edge of the tractor with a bang. Making a deep groan from the sudden pain, Liam saw the girl and nodded. “Yea dog on the run. Guess he knows he’s in for a check up” 

The second someone else got involved, the man holding onto Eva gave a laugh and let go. He held up both hands—sarcastically defeated with a smile on his face. Eva, of course, took her chance to get out of his hold and off his lap, moving closer to the stranger helping her out. “Hey, it’s okay.” She assured, not wanting a scene to break out. “It’s all good now. He’s just being dumb.” 

“oh hell fuckin’ no.” june murmured under her breath, stopping short on the street and watching it all unfold as the dog rushed passed her. she wasn’t about to be a hero and lunge for the thing, that’s for damn sure; not in her heels. almost lazily, she followed the owner after the beagle — more out of curiosity than anything else. as the young vet appeared breathlessly at her side, the blonde stifled a small laugh. “too fuckin’ funny.” she whispered to herself, quietly enough that he might not have heard. a cup of coffee in her hand, she crossed her arms and bent down at the waist to spot to the dog for herself. “here, puppy puppy!” she cooed, a poor attempt at being helpful. “hey, mister vet man —” june tried catching his attention with a snapping of her fingers, before searching through her bag. “… do dogs like half eaten donuts, or what?” she asked, waving her rather pathetic breakfast in front of him; a slightly more helpful offer.

It was mostly comical of a vet chasing after a paranoid dog that soon ended up under the tractor but at the time it was stressful for Liam. He didn’t hear the woman’s murmurs and as she got his attention he turned. As if he was retreating like a dog himself from the snap of her fingers. “Yes, Ooo..“ He mad a face as he reached for the donut. “This will definitely work.” As Liam just snagged it out of her hand and bent down once again to try and get Bruno. Waving the sugary treat in front of the dog, and soon enough Bruno was up close and snatching the donut from him. But Liam had just enough arms reach to grab the dog up. “Got ya!” He exclaimed before turning back to June. “Hope you didn’t want that. I can pay you back with another donut, or coffee.” 

“That’s so great to hear” she said sincerely, Anastasia couldn’t help but be proud of her cousin who had gone through the hardest more than anyone she’se ever known and still managed to succeed. “As long as you’re doing what you love”she told him, as she had a mouthful of her sweet and sour pork before humming in motion as to how good it taste. “you know I only have Chinese whenever you’re here, I love it”she commented with a small chuckle and shrugged her shoulders when he had asked how she was. “Same old same old, been doing extra shifts in the police department they’ve been breaking my neck recently”she complained enjoying the fact that she had someone to vent too. “I did go speed dating though awhile ago, it was horrible I don’t understand how people even stay for the full session? some guy kept commenting about this other girls profile and wasn’t paying attention to me and another told me he didn’t want to be there so I left” she mumbled on and finished with a huff at the end of her sentence, “have you gone out to the dating world recently?”

It had definitely been a struggle for Liam after his family kicked him out. He had pawned off some of his stuff in order to get money, to go to school and finish college. All the shitty jobs he had before were mostly faded memories at  this point but it showed the hardship that Liam was able to get past. Luckily he had at least one person in his corner and that was his cousin. “Even if it’s a pain in the paw sometimes, I do love my job. Oh so you use me for good Chinese food? I see how it is” LIam joked with a hearty laugh while eating some more of the chicken. “Jesus, that sounds like a snooze fest to me. I would rather use Tinder than go speed dating event. If you mean by random hook ups, yea totally into the dating world.” Shaking his head with that sly smile to his lips as he answered to Ana’s question about his dating life. He hadn’t been in a serious relationship since college really, and even then that didn’t last long. 

“May I make a suggestion?” Cap has been watching for a good minute or so now after happening upon the scene, his lunch in his hand and his mobile currently being slid into one of his back pockets. He takes a couple of steps forward, hoping that the sound of his voice gave him away enough to not make his sudden appearance startling. “Well, less a suggestion, more an offer.” Dropping down into a crouch next to the tractor and the apparently desperate vet, Cap carefully picks a piece of chicken out of his sandwich and holds it between his thumb and index finger. “Bribery works pretty well in most situations, I’ve realized. Specifically with frightened animals. Sometimes with frightened humans, too. Not that I would know anything about that aside from secondhand. You want to try to give this to them? Not the most sanitary, but that job will hopefully get done.”

Elyse had spend most of her night at the hospital, she’d been called in for assistance with emergency surgery and being the kind of doctor that she was, she’d insisted on staying around for as long as possible to keep an eye on her patient and to help with rounds. However, her colleagues had eventually insisted that she head home for some sleep, after all she did have to be back again the following night. At that moment she was walking home, the thought of finding herself a coffee beforehand was the only driving force behind each of her steps. What she hadn’t been expecting was for a seemingly distressed dog to rush past her, followed by an equally distressed man. Naturally she followed until she came across the man crouched beside a parked tractor, overhearing him calling to the animal beneath it. Crossing to the other side, she copied his motion and crouched down, spying the dog beneath it. “He’s not the most obedient dog in the world, is he?” She commented in a teasing tone, laughing softly under hear breath. “Come here boy, let’s not make this man’s day anymore difficult than it needs to be.”

“No he’s not, and he’s mostly scared.” Liam had stated as he looked over to the girl that crouched down next to him. Then again she was cooing and trying to get the dog to listen to her. Then of course the dog quivered. Soon shuffling up to the girl’s direction rather than his. “What the?” He questioned but then shut his mouth at the same time. The dog got to her arms as he stayed quiet. “Looks like you got the magic touch” 

Anastasia had been getting her house ready for her cousin; it had been awhile since the two had last seen each other. They had kept in contact after they had both left their family home, when Liam’s family had kicked him out Anastasia had been lucky enough to have her house of her own and had offered Liam a place to stay until he found he’s feet or even offered him to live with her if that’s what he had wanted. She was excited to have him over for a few hours and catch up on what’s she’s missed. When he arrived a grin had appeared on her face when he had mentioned the food. “Well look what the cat dragged in,” she said as she had grabbed the chopsticks he had offered and grabbing her take out container that had her order on the box. “So sit and tell me what’s been happening cousin” she said as she sat down and began eating her meal.

Holding his take out container in hand, Liam opened the box and already took a piece of the orange chicken to munch on. Letting Anastasia ramble on and tease him like normal. “Uh, the happening now. Good Paws is going well, besides some of the pets getting stage fright and running off on me. One ran out and got under a construction tractor.” He told her as he dug in with his chop sticks some more. “What about you? How’s it going?” 

“Wait, wait, wait!” Laura ran over to the other person at the bar and grabbed their drink before they could even touch it. “Not yours.” She scurried off and came back with another, placing it in front of them and collecting herself. “Yours…” She breathed out, pushing her hair behind her ears. “Can I get you anything else?”

Before Liam could pick up the glass, the bartender came up scrambling while picking up the drink. He was about to question her before she ran off again and then came back. Soon the actual drink was in front of him. “Um.. no” He answered her question politely. “I think the real question is, are you okay? “ 

“Should I consider myself honoured for capturing your attention?” He inquired with a soft smile. “Or should I consider myself a little gullible for feeding on such a line?” As his finger circled the rim of the cup, he searched for the other’s eye colour absentmindedly. “Nolan, if you were wondering.”

“It’s more from that line you landed. I was about to further ask if you were a big or little spoon?” Liam quipped back to Nolan as his finally set his coffee cup down on the table. His green eyes lingering until they locked onto the gaze of Nolan’s. “Pleasure to meet you Nolan. I’m Liam,”