(no subject)
Title: Keep Coming Around
Author: Miss Kitty E.
Fandom: SPN RPS
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: 90% PG-13 for occasional language, with NC-17 in the last part.
Word Count: 26,403
Disclaimer: I did not dream Jared and Jensen into existence, but I would have had they not already been running around being real people.
1-2-3-4-5
Jensen spent a week or two looking up every time he heard the jingle of the bells on the front door, but it was never Jared. He refused to make it a big deal, and Kristen (for the most part) let it alone, especially when Fifi was scheduled for yet another appointment, giving her something to gloat about.
"It doesn't count," Jensen insisted, "Unless Fifi actually physically makes it across the threshold of the door."
Things were pretty much back to business as usual, when Kristen came into the clinic in a funny mood.
"Oh my God, it's a beautiful day, right?" She was wearing lipstick and scrubs with, no fooling, lollipops and peppermints.
Jensen squinted blearily at the world outside. It was dark. Because it was six in the morning. "Yeah," he said, sipping his venti red-eye even though it hadn't yet cooled off. "Gorgeous."
She chose to ignore his sarcasm and bustled about the waiting room, tidying magazines that were two years old and watering a plant Jensen had always assumed was plastic.
"Who do we have lined up for this morning?"
Kristen's smiled suspiciously big. She flicked her eyes on her desk calendar. "Mrs. Atkinson is dropping her cat off to get spayed at seven, Joe Arenella is bringing in Elmo to get his nails trimmed at seven-thirty, and you've got an eight o' clock appointment with Sadie and Harley Padalecki."
Jensen frowned, the names rang some vague bell. "Sadie and Harley? Have they been here before?"
Kristen shook her head, "First timers. Coming in for heart worm pills, and apparently Harley has 'really, really, really bad breath.'"
Jensen sighed, "Great." He wondered what excuses this Sadie Padalecki would have for feeding her dog Harley table scraps.
Kristen started humming and it sounded vaguely like that oldies song, "Goin' to the Chapel" by the Dixie Cups. Jensen sipped his coffee and prayed she wasn't going through another one of her music-related phases. The last one had been Euro Pop and if he never heard another ABBA song again it would be too soon.
Eight-ten rolled around and Kristen's good mood was a little deflated. Jensen was looking at the pre-surgery bloodwork for the cat he would be spaying and wondering how many times the average vet did that one procedure in his career. Two thousand? Three?
The door jingled and Kristen made that noise that girls make when they're excited to see someone, the high pitched steam whistle cooing sound plus some excited clapping. "You're late!" she chided, like she and Miss Padalecki were old friends.
"Yeah, sorry," came a deep, friendly, and quite obviously male voice. "These guys get kind of stupid excited about car trips."
Jensen looked up from the paper in his hand and yeah, that was Jared. Two honey colored dogs on leads were turning circles around his legs, ears alert, sniffing the ground. Jared looked just as good as Jensen remembered. Actually, possibly better.
Jensen knew he should say something, possibly something funny and flirtatious, but really anything would be better than just standing there, clutching a clipboard, dumb grin on his face. Which was exactly what he did until Kristen swept past him, 'accidentally' bumping his shoulder as she passed.
Jensen shook his head. "Jared, it's uh, it's really nice to see you again. These are Sadie and Harley, huh?" He came into the waiting room and knelt down in front of the dogs. The larger male, Jensen guessed it was Harley, came right up to him, friendly, heavy and wow, it had to be Harley. His breath was so bad it was practically visible with every exhale. Sadie hung back, sitting next to Jared, her back fully pressed against his leg but her expression curious.
"Yeah, these are my big babies."
Jensen put his hand out to Sadie and she sniffed at it easily enough, but when Jensen touched the top of her head she didn't respond, just kept looking up at Jensen with a vaguely worried expression.
Jared laughed and scratched her neck. "Sadie's not the biggest fan of the vet. She was just as wary of Dr. McGehee, I promise."
"Well," Jensen said, standing up again. "Maybe she'll find out she likes some more than others."
Jared smiled, looking down at Sadie again. "Yeah."
Jensen took Harley's lead and motioned for Jared to follow him with Sadie. "Right here," he said, opening the door to the examination room. "Kristen will come in and get their specs for the file in just a sec. I'll be right back."
Jensen ducked out of the doorway and saw Kristen over by her desk, grinning. Jensen pinned her with a serious glare but she refused to look even a little bit guilty. She picked up her clipboard and did her best to look very professional as she made her way towards the back.
"You're going down, I hope you know that," Jensen told her quietly.
"Yeah, whatever," she whispered. "Wipe that gobsmacked look off your face when you say that and I might believe you."
Jensen was going to threaten her quite a bit more but she whipped into the examination room before he could say anything else. She shut the door saying, "Alright, pups, let's see where you're at."
Jensen rubbed a hand over his face and tried to calm down a bit. Yes, Jared had agreed to become a client and yes, thank God, that meant that Jensen would be seeing Jared more, but more probably only meant about four times a year. Also, switching to a closer vet did not necessarily qualify as a declaration of courtship. So, he nodded once to himself, just take it easy.
He had his professional smile on when he came back in the room but it quickly slid into a real one when he found Sadie flat out refusing to get on the scale.
"She's all girl," Jared said, laughing. "Doesn't want anyone to know about her weight."
"Sadie," Kristen wheedled. "I promise we keep the strictest confidentiality."
Jared once again picked Sadie up and set her on the scale and once again she scrabbled backwards and succeeded in getting half off before the number could pop up.
"Here," Jensen said, coming further into the room. "Kristen, take Harley outside and give him a milkbone for that breath. I'm not getting anywhere near his mouth until he does."
"Come on, boy, let's get you a treat, huh?" She took up Harley's lead and he left with barely a backwards glance at Jared.
"Alright, now we'll just let Sadie chill out a bit and then try again."
Jared nodded, got down on one knee next to her and started rubbing her neck. "Silly girl."
For a moment Jensen was at a perfect loss for what he should say. There was a ton of stuff he wanted to say, like "That shirt makes your eyes look green," and "You walking in here today pretty much makes my entire month," but he really didn't want to seem quite that psychotic.
"So um, been busy?" Thirty seconds of awkwardly searching for something to say and that's what he came up with.
"God, yeah. Been working a lot." Jared answered, apparently not noticing the sheer lameness of the question.
"Yeah?" Jensen asked, sounding friendly, interested, and ridiculously overeager. "What is it that you do?" Obviously not a nine-to-five, because it was a Wednesday and going on eight-thirty.
"Well, I work part-time at a bank as a teller," Jared said, shrugging. "But really it's been finishing up my degree that's been taking it out on me."
"What are you going for?"
"Masters in Engineering. I've got a job lined up with Toyota when I'm done."
"Wow," Jensen said dumbly. He wasn't used to feeling intimidated, especially not by people younger than him. He couldn't say that he'd had the most well rounded education, too much science, not enough arts. But eight years in school and a doctorate meant he was usually pretty confident that, even if he wasn't the smartest person in the room, he had some kind of trump card up his sleeve. Engineers, though, they were supposed to be half-genius, and they weren't supposed to look anything like Jared.
Jensen licked his lips. "Let's um, let's see if she'll go for it now. But try and coax her up on it, instead of just setting her down on it."
Jared nodded and Jensen watched as Jared took Sadie's collar and put a little pressure on her neck in the direction of the scale. Sadie was clearly torn between being stubborn and doing what Jared wanted but Jensen was sure eventually Jared would win out. Sure enough, Sadie put a hesitant paw on the scale and when nothing too terrible happened, she let Jared persuade her all the way onto the scale.
The examination went pretty smoothly after that. Harley and Sadie were young and clearly well cared for. Harley fell for Jensen's usual pill-administering fake-outs but Sadie turned out to be much smarter than he initially gave her credit for. He got her to take it eventually, pumping a fist up in the air in triumph, while Jared expressed his approval. Jensen told Kristen to get a copy of their files from Dr. McGehee's office sent here and to set Jared up with bag of specialty food to help Harley's wicked plaque build-up. He stepped outside to wash his hands while Kristen went to ready the bill and tell Jensen's nine o' clock that he would be right with them.
Jared followed him out, both leads in one around one wrist, when a black streak whipped in front of the dogs and set them to barking.
"Hey Jensen? I think you got an escapee."
Jensen craned his neck around from where he was standing at the sink. "What?"
"There's a little- shut up, Harley. There's a little black cat loose and- wait."
Jensen sighed, busted.
Jared had both dogs by the collar now, grip firm on the leather though he was just using his first two fingers to hold back two excited dogs. He crouched down and peered at the cat beneath the hallway table.
"Is that- That's Tiny, isn't it?" He sounded thrilled.
Jensen turned off the water, "Well, uh, technically it's not Tiny anymore."
"Nope," Kristin called from the front. "We re-christened her when Jensen decided to keep her."
"When we decided to keep her. She's like our office mascot. Normally she just stays in my office and breaks stuff, but I guess she got out today."
Jared pulled the dogs back towards the door, and Jensen got down in front of the table. He waved his hand underneath and eventually the ten-week-old kitten forgot she was frightened and pounced right on it. He scooped her up easily with the hand she was so bravely trying to attack and took her back to his office, set her down inside, and shut the door.
"What did you name her?"
"Dinah." He could quite look Jared in the eye. Jared didn't seem to think there was anything out of the ordinary about Jensen adopting Jared's favorite stray kitten, but Jensen thought the implication was sort of embarrassingly plain.
Jared grinned. "Jeez, that's so cool that you adopted her. I can't wait to tell Sandy."
"Sandy?"
Jared nodded, "My girlfriend. She was there when I found them, but she had to stay back and get ready. We were driving out to her parent's place in Canyon Lake that afternoon."
"Oh," Jensen said. He wasn't so shocked that he couldn't keep the smile on his face but he was disappointed enough to admit he didn't really have much more to say on the subject of Jared's happy, heterosexual relationship. "Well, listen, I'm glad you decided to start coming here. Let us know if they need anything, okay?"
"Yeah!" Jared said, heading for Kristen's desk. "And I'm telling you, if this food doesn't work I'm hunting you down. You shouldn't give a man false hope."
"It'll work fine if you just make sure Harley doesn't 'steal,'" and here he used air quotes, "any food off the table anymore."
Jared did his level best to look innocent but really he just sort of looked ridiculous pouting out his lower lip like that. Jensen's gaze dropped down but he caught himself, rolled his neck from side to side, and went out to greet the forceful looking older woman in the waiting room who did not seem happy at all to have been kept waiting.
Jared chatted breezily with Kristen while they waited for his credit card to go through and Jensen took it upon himself to show his next patient and owner into the examination room. When he came back out for Kristen, Jared was gone.
"See?" she said, smiling and slapping his arm with the patient's file. "He came back."
"True."
"And let me guess," she said. "You didn't ask him out again?"
"True."
She made a big show of sighing. "Doesn't matter, though. He'll be back."
"Doesn't matter," Jensen agreed. "He's got a girlfriend."
---
Kristen, bless her, knew when to push Jensen (which was ninety-five percent of the time) and when to let him do whatever he wanted. That night, she pushed him to go out with her after work until he relented. Once in the bar, though, she left him to do what he wanted, which was down too many beers and turn some other guy's straightness into the perfect example of why Jensen's life sucked out loud.
"I can never just want something and get it."
Kristen gave a sympathetic nod and poked at the cocktail in front of her with her straw.
"I decide I want something, and then I just," he sighed. "End up with the next best thing. Try to be a doctor and end up a vet. Aim for the sweet life, the big house, the wife, the kids, and end up gay and single in San Antonio."
"Oh honey," Kristen said, and Jensen cringed. The only kind of pity he liked was self-pity.
"It's not so bad," he said, trying to put Kristen off the scent. "San Antonio is, you know, it's okay. And I don't hate being a vet. And, all right, Jared is straight, but that's not even a big deal anyway, because he was too young and too good for me anyway."
"Oh my God, Jensen," Kristen burst out. "You need to shut up. Too good for you?"
"Well," Jensen said, frowning. Logical arguments weren't really within the realm of his capability right then, but he made a vague gesture that meant something like, 'isn't he?'
"I can't believe it." Kristen shook her head and stabbed at her drink more viciously with the straw. "I can't believe that you, of all people, are doing the low self-esteem thing."
"Me of all people?" Jensen asked. "Wait… does that make sense?"
"Do you even look in the mirror in the morning?"
Jensen rolled his eyes. People, especially women, seemed to view his appearance as some sort of 'get out of jail free' card when it came to life's hardships. "Yes, the hours I spend at the gym and the eighty dollar haircuts clearly prove that I don't care a thing about my looks."
She sighed and finally sipped at her drink. "Well if it's not that, then what? What's got you convinced you're not worth getting exactly what you want?"
He never put it into terms like that, words like worth and deserve. When he thought about why all the things he wanted never came to pass he was sure that it wasn't because he lacked the ability, just the follow-through. The opportunities, though, once missed were gone forever, and that left him here.
"You need to quit with the 'woe is me' routine, I'm telling you." Kristen insisted, all sensible concern and well-meant meddling.
Jensen just drank his beer in answer and no matter how hard she pushed him, he kept doing exactly what he wanted to do, which was ignoring her.
---
Jensen waited secretly (he hoped) for a few weeks for Kristen to announce an appointment with Sadie and Harley but eventually he got over it. He kept staying in and Kristen kept harassing him about it. Fifi kept coming for visits and Jensen's bet with Kristen kept getting higher. Jared sent a Christmas card to the office, one of those photo deals of him, his two dogs, and a dark haired, dimpled beauty Jensen assumed was Sandy.
Kristen offered to cut her face out of the picture and replace it with one of Tom Cruise but Jensen just shook his head, still looking at it. Beneath the stock phrase printed on the card ("Happy Holidays from Jared, Sandy, Sadie, and Harley!") Jared had written, "Thanks! Sadie and Harley totally say hi!" in Sharpie with a little doodle of a dog paw beneath that. They looked like the example photo you saw in front of portrait shops in the mall, sweet and wholesome, riding the line between real people or paid actors. He took a tack out from the bulletin board and put it up with the others, close to (but not intruding upon) Fifi's place of honor in the center.
Then it was New Year's and Kristen took down all the cards and put up fake Valentine's about heartworms and Jensen didn't even go searching for it in the junk filing cabinet drawer she used to hide all the stuff she couldn't bear to throw away. They got drinks but didn't talk about it and he came home to discover that Dinah had managed to bring down the blinds from his bedroom window. Her impish face stared up at him, clearly confused (though not at all bothered) by his frustrated cussing, but Jensen didn't look down at her and immediately think, Jared, sopping wet and holding kittens, so he figured he was probably over it.
---
Kristen did Jensen the small favor of warning him the second time around and told him that morning that Jared would be coming by in the afternoon. Apparently something was up with Harley. He didn't exactly know what he should do to prepare for seeing Jared again, but he kept it in the back of his mind all day. He was pretty sure at some point he'd figure out a way to achieve maximum Zen the very moment Jared Padalecki walked in with his dog. No pangs of regret, no being struck stupid. He'd just say hello, shake Jared's hand, crack a few jokes, and check out what might be wrong with Harley and send him off with a hearty, "Y'all come back now, ya hear?"
Easy.
Eleven minutes after the hour, the doorbell rang and Jensen didn't let himself look up right away. He felt his shoulders tense up, felt his whole body suddenly ping to fact that Jared was somewhere close by.
"Oh Jared," Kristen sighed. "You've finally come back to us."
Jared laughed and Jensen took a deep breath and turned. Jared's hair was longer, Jensen could tell that even though Jared had it tucked under a beanie. Maybe thanks to the winter season, his skin was a little less gold, a little less a perfect match to his tawny colored dogs. The smile, though, was still big and bright and maybe even still a little stupefying.
Jensen was quicker to recover from it than before. "Nice to see you again, Jared. Wish it was for a better reason though."
He could tell right away that something was wrong with Harley from the way he was sitting, not even tugging on the leash or trying to get over to the metal shelving where they displayed the pricey dog foods they sold.
"Yeah," Jared said. "Big dumb idiot had me up the whole night worrying."
"Let's get a look at him right away," Jensen said, gripping his clipboard.
Alone in the examination Jensen suddenly remembered that he and Jared were little more than strangers, that this was only the fourth time Jensen had even spoken to him, and as if on cue, he clammed up. The rote dialogue he'd usually be reciting right about now ("How are you? How's the family? Schnookums still digging up the yard?") was meant to put people at ease, keep them at a distance. But distance wasn't exactly what Jensen wanted between him and Jared.
"So," he said, skipping over all of it and getting right into the nitty-gritty. "What's going on with old boy here?"
"We went on a run yesterday and he seemed fine the whole time. When I went to work and he was still cool, but when I got home that night, he didn't really want to eat, or even get up off the couch. Sometime last night he woke me up by trying to throw up on the floor right in front of my bed. He didn't get anything up though."
Jensen frowned. He got down next to Harley and did some poking. Harley's stomach looked distended and he whimpered when Jensen put any pressure on it. "I'm going to have Kristen take an x-ray."
Harley was pretty unimpressed with the x-ray machine but was also too listless to really put up much of a fight. A few minutes later, Jensen had a diagnosis.
"Missing any bottle caps?" Jensen put the x-ray up on the light board.
Jared blinked at the plastic outline, clear as day. "Oh, Harley."
Harley, upon hearing his name, thumped his tail weakly.
Jensen spread his hands. "Wish I could tell you it was just gas, but-"
"Yeah..." Jared said, sighing. "Well, what now?"
"We're going to have to take that out, which means surgery. It's a really common procedure, actually. Believe it or not Harley isn't the first dog to not get that plastic isn't quite the same as kibble."
Jared nodded, too tense to even give a cursory laugh at the joke. "Yeah, of course. Do you have to do it today?"
"I think that would be for the best, yes. We'll keep him overnight for observation. Luckily we caught this early. It's still in Harley's stomach. If it had made it to the intestines it might have caused some damage, sometimes we even have to remove tissue so damaged it became necrotic, but this?" Jensen made a face and waved his hand. "Not such a big deal. Harley will be back home by tomorrow."
Jared nodded and buried his fingertips into the loose skin around Harley's neck. "How much do you think that would cost?"
Jared asked the question while looking Harley and Jensen didn't wait for him to look up before he answered it.
"It's not exactly cheap, but we'll take it on credit for the time being." Jared looked up and Jensen looked him right in the eye, "It's no big deal. If you want to pay us in five dollar installments, we can do that."
"It's not as bad as all that exactly but um-" Jared flushed. "It won't take me long at all to get the money, I promise, but." Jared pressed his lips together, stopping himself. "Thanks."
Jensen felt a warmth spread up the back of his neck and into his cheeks. He coughed and turned back to the light board. "So, I'll get Kristen to do the blood work and we'll keep him comfortable until later this evening when we can put him under for the surgery."
Jared nodded and looked back down at Harley, apparently missing this as his chance to make an exit.
"Jared," Jensen said gently. "Not to say that I'd mind you sticking around but you really don't have to stay. We'll put Harley up in the back, give him a pain shot after we take his blood. He'll probably sleep the whole afternoon."
"Oh," Jared said. He huffed. "Right." He stood up, but still looked reluctant to leave, shifting back and forth from one foot to the other like he was psyching himself up for something.
Jensen dug his teeth into his cheek but it still wasn't enough to stop him from saying, "You could take him to Dr. McGehee if you're worried."
Jared stopped shifting, looking down at Jensen in surprise. "What?"
"If you wanted to take Harley to Dr. McGehee, I'd understand."
Jared furrowed his brow. "Are you saying you can't do it?"
"No!" Jensen could do it, had done it, done it a few times in fact. "No, it's not that. I just, I know we must seem like sort of a shoestring operation, just me and Kristen, and Dr. McGehee has that big practice. You'd probably feel more comfortable if she did something like this. I completely understand."
Jared looked at him a moment and Jensen waited for him to nod slowly and agree that yeah, that was probably for the best.
Instead Jared shook his head. "Dude. I trust you. You're gonna take care of my dog, right?"
Jared look him in the eye and set a broad, warm hand down on Jensen's shoulder and it wasn't like Jensen hadn't already been planning to do just that, but now, now he'd pretty much do anything Jared asked. "Of course I will."
Jared grinned. "Good. I'm gonna go grab some lunch, I guess. Get some stuff done. Kristen's got my cell number, will you call me when you're done? I want to know right away."
"You'll know the very second I snip the suture," Jensen promised.
Jared's palm was still resting on his shoulder and he lifted it up now to clap it down twice on Jensen's back and give him a friendly nudge before turning to go.
Harley whined, seeing Jared leave, and Jensen kind of knew how he felt.
---
Harley's surgery went off without a hitch and while Jensen didn't call Jared right after he snipped the last suture, he did call him the second he finished washing his hands. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number on the file. He felt strangely giddy, like this was a far more intimate call than just a "Relax, your dog is fine" check-in with a client. Which didn't make any sense because that's exactly what it was, but hey, Jensen had to get his kicks somewhere.
"Hello?" Jared voice over the phone was hushed, like he was worried he might be overheard.
"Jared?"
"Yeah, sorry, I'm at school. I had to sneak out into the hall. Is it already done?"
"Yeah, and Harley's just fine. Not a single problem."
Jared breathed a sigh of relief over the receiver. "Good. I'm really glad to hear that." He sighed again. "Thank you for calling."
"It's no big deal," Jensen said. It wasn't. Just a phone call between doctor and client. The fact that Jensen's smile was about as wide it could go and that his stomach was tight with nerves and excitement was really nothing to pay attention to.
"When can he come home?"
"Three o' clock tomorrow is the earliest I'd feel comfortable allowing. He'd be happier at home with you but I want to make sure the side effects from the anesthesia aren't too bad and keep eye on his stitches. I'll give you all the information about how to take care of him."
"Yeah, okay," Jared said, voice low and quiet, and Jensen did not close his eyes. "Thank you again. Thank you so much, I owe you big."
"It's nothing," Jensen said, warm from head to toe. "Take care, Jared."
"Okay," Jared said, sounding happy and excited and Jensen was sixteen again, pressing the phone to his ear and wanting to crawl through and be with the person on the other end of the line. "You too."
---
Jensen actually smiled all through work the next day, his clients seemed surprised at first, but they warmed to it quickly. He found himself actually enjoying the conversations he had with them. Kristen said nothing about his good mood, though she clearly wanted to. Jensen shrugged it off. He was just looking forward to Jared coming in, to telling him all about what he'd need to do to keep Harley's stitches clean, knowing that Jared would crack up about the plastic cone he was going to have to make Harley wear.
The clock ticked closer and closer to three and even though Jensen knew that Jared would be late coming in, he felt like a spring getting coiled tighter and tighter.
Around four-fifteen the bell at the door rang and Jensen was in the room with a patient. He listened with only half an ear, waiting for Jared's voice, waiting for Kristen to call him.
It wasn't long after that Kristen stuck her head in. "Sorry to interrupt, but Harley is getting picked up now and-"
Jensen popped up out of his chair. "I'll be right back."
He brushed past Kristen before she could say anything more. Outside there was a short, pretty girl in jeans, heels, and an expensive looking sweater. Her hair was dark, straight and smooth, pulled away from her face by big sunglasses and her lips were the perfect shade of dark red. She looked familiar.
"Hi! You must be Dr. Ackles," she said, extending a slim, cool hand out to him.
"Uh, yes," he said, taking it in his own. He glanced towards the waiting room but there was no one there but Mrs. Salazar and her vaguely sausage-shaped boxer, Lula.
"I'm Sandy, Jared's girlfriend. He's at work and he won't be getting off until seven. He asked me to come and pick Harley up, is that okay?"
Jensen looked at her with new eyes. This was Sandy. This was Sandy existing outside of a few offhand comments and one picture. This was Sandy looking him in the eye and waiting for him to say something. He felt something deflate inside him but still he tried to smile. "Yeah, of course. Let me get you the hand-outs you need and tell you about the medication he's going to have to take for a while."
---
Kristen tried to get him to go out with her again but the level of wallowing Jensen had planned for the evening was really not something anyone needed to see.
He microwaved dinner and ate it on the couch, one hand maneuvering the fork, the other keeping Dinah away from his plate. He could make any amount of noise, pick her up and set her down a hundred times but it never clicked; she still went for his food. It was as if the ability to connect one thing to another was almost completely beyond her. So far the only concept she'd figured out was that the sound of can opener equaled food. Jensen was still working on "counter equals no" and "my foot does not equal toy."
He had the television on but it was pretty much just background noise to his careful and thorough examination of why his life was screwed up.
His cell phone rang and Jensen sighed. It would be one of two people: his mother or Kristen. He resolved to find out exactly which overbearing blonde it was and to refuse to answer either. He checked the read out and answered it immediately.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jensen? It's Jared."
"Is something wrong with Harley?" he asked directly. He'd told Sandy they could call if Harley had any trouble, and while Jared didn't sound panicked Jensen guessed that even in a panic Jared was probably still ten times more good-natured than the average person.
"No!" he said quickly. "No. He's sleeping it off in my bathroom. Sadie's too curious about him, but if I put the cone on him she freaks the hell out. I think the whole thing bothers her more than Harley."
Jensen relaxed. And then tensed again. If Jared wasn't calling about the dog, he was... calling Jensen at home for some reason other than a veterinary emergency.
"I know it's a little much, calling, but I wanted to thank you again," Jared continued.
Jensen sighed and shook his head; all this was just about being polite. Patients sent him thank-you notes sometimes, even tucked a gift card or something inside from time to time. Of course he appreciated them, but in a way he didn't really see the point. "Really, Jared, it's my job. It's no big deal."
"No big deal? Dude, this is my dog. This is my big, dumb boy. He could have died, I totally wikipedia'ed this and freaked myself out. You saved my dog's life, okay? And the least you can let me do is take you to a Spurs game."
"A Spurs game?" That was a bit more over the top than the usual.
"Yup," Jared said, making that one syllable so deep-fried and country Jensen couldn't even attempt to gloss over the good-ol-boy quality of the invite, just two men and a sports game. "Tomorrow night."
Jensen calmed himself down, forced himself to crack a joke. "I saved your dog's life and you're going to torture me with tickets to a Spurs game?"
"Oh God, what are you? A Mavs fan?"
"Damn straight." Which was plenty fair because the Mavs had totally owned the Spurs just two years ago.
"Okay. Lame. Anyway, my parents have season tickets but they've got a dinner party Friday night, so they gave 'em to me and Sandy but Sandy's got a thing and listen, you're just coming with me, okay? That's just final."
For a second, Jensen thought about saying no but he had a healthy streak of masochism and a night out with Jared sounded like a pretty awesome kind of torture.
1-2-3-4-5
Author: Miss Kitty E.
Fandom: SPN RPS
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: 90% PG-13 for occasional language, with NC-17 in the last part.
Word Count: 26,403
Disclaimer: I did not dream Jared and Jensen into existence, but I would have had they not already been running around being real people.
1-2-3-4-5
Jensen spent a week or two looking up every time he heard the jingle of the bells on the front door, but it was never Jared. He refused to make it a big deal, and Kristen (for the most part) let it alone, especially when Fifi was scheduled for yet another appointment, giving her something to gloat about.
"It doesn't count," Jensen insisted, "Unless Fifi actually physically makes it across the threshold of the door."
Things were pretty much back to business as usual, when Kristen came into the clinic in a funny mood.
"Oh my God, it's a beautiful day, right?" She was wearing lipstick and scrubs with, no fooling, lollipops and peppermints.
Jensen squinted blearily at the world outside. It was dark. Because it was six in the morning. "Yeah," he said, sipping his venti red-eye even though it hadn't yet cooled off. "Gorgeous."
She chose to ignore his sarcasm and bustled about the waiting room, tidying magazines that were two years old and watering a plant Jensen had always assumed was plastic.
"Who do we have lined up for this morning?"
Kristen's smiled suspiciously big. She flicked her eyes on her desk calendar. "Mrs. Atkinson is dropping her cat off to get spayed at seven, Joe Arenella is bringing in Elmo to get his nails trimmed at seven-thirty, and you've got an eight o' clock appointment with Sadie and Harley Padalecki."
Jensen frowned, the names rang some vague bell. "Sadie and Harley? Have they been here before?"
Kristen shook her head, "First timers. Coming in for heart worm pills, and apparently Harley has 'really, really, really bad breath.'"
Jensen sighed, "Great." He wondered what excuses this Sadie Padalecki would have for feeding her dog Harley table scraps.
Kristen started humming and it sounded vaguely like that oldies song, "Goin' to the Chapel" by the Dixie Cups. Jensen sipped his coffee and prayed she wasn't going through another one of her music-related phases. The last one had been Euro Pop and if he never heard another ABBA song again it would be too soon.
Eight-ten rolled around and Kristen's good mood was a little deflated. Jensen was looking at the pre-surgery bloodwork for the cat he would be spaying and wondering how many times the average vet did that one procedure in his career. Two thousand? Three?
The door jingled and Kristen made that noise that girls make when they're excited to see someone, the high pitched steam whistle cooing sound plus some excited clapping. "You're late!" she chided, like she and Miss Padalecki were old friends.
"Yeah, sorry," came a deep, friendly, and quite obviously male voice. "These guys get kind of stupid excited about car trips."
Jensen looked up from the paper in his hand and yeah, that was Jared. Two honey colored dogs on leads were turning circles around his legs, ears alert, sniffing the ground. Jared looked just as good as Jensen remembered. Actually, possibly better.
Jensen knew he should say something, possibly something funny and flirtatious, but really anything would be better than just standing there, clutching a clipboard, dumb grin on his face. Which was exactly what he did until Kristen swept past him, 'accidentally' bumping his shoulder as she passed.
Jensen shook his head. "Jared, it's uh, it's really nice to see you again. These are Sadie and Harley, huh?" He came into the waiting room and knelt down in front of the dogs. The larger male, Jensen guessed it was Harley, came right up to him, friendly, heavy and wow, it had to be Harley. His breath was so bad it was practically visible with every exhale. Sadie hung back, sitting next to Jared, her back fully pressed against his leg but her expression curious.
"Yeah, these are my big babies."
Jensen put his hand out to Sadie and she sniffed at it easily enough, but when Jensen touched the top of her head she didn't respond, just kept looking up at Jensen with a vaguely worried expression.
Jared laughed and scratched her neck. "Sadie's not the biggest fan of the vet. She was just as wary of Dr. McGehee, I promise."
"Well," Jensen said, standing up again. "Maybe she'll find out she likes some more than others."
Jared smiled, looking down at Sadie again. "Yeah."
Jensen took Harley's lead and motioned for Jared to follow him with Sadie. "Right here," he said, opening the door to the examination room. "Kristen will come in and get their specs for the file in just a sec. I'll be right back."
Jensen ducked out of the doorway and saw Kristen over by her desk, grinning. Jensen pinned her with a serious glare but she refused to look even a little bit guilty. She picked up her clipboard and did her best to look very professional as she made her way towards the back.
"You're going down, I hope you know that," Jensen told her quietly.
"Yeah, whatever," she whispered. "Wipe that gobsmacked look off your face when you say that and I might believe you."
Jensen was going to threaten her quite a bit more but she whipped into the examination room before he could say anything else. She shut the door saying, "Alright, pups, let's see where you're at."
Jensen rubbed a hand over his face and tried to calm down a bit. Yes, Jared had agreed to become a client and yes, thank God, that meant that Jensen would be seeing Jared more, but more probably only meant about four times a year. Also, switching to a closer vet did not necessarily qualify as a declaration of courtship. So, he nodded once to himself, just take it easy.
He had his professional smile on when he came back in the room but it quickly slid into a real one when he found Sadie flat out refusing to get on the scale.
"She's all girl," Jared said, laughing. "Doesn't want anyone to know about her weight."
"Sadie," Kristen wheedled. "I promise we keep the strictest confidentiality."
Jared once again picked Sadie up and set her on the scale and once again she scrabbled backwards and succeeded in getting half off before the number could pop up.
"Here," Jensen said, coming further into the room. "Kristen, take Harley outside and give him a milkbone for that breath. I'm not getting anywhere near his mouth until he does."
"Come on, boy, let's get you a treat, huh?" She took up Harley's lead and he left with barely a backwards glance at Jared.
"Alright, now we'll just let Sadie chill out a bit and then try again."
Jared nodded, got down on one knee next to her and started rubbing her neck. "Silly girl."
For a moment Jensen was at a perfect loss for what he should say. There was a ton of stuff he wanted to say, like "That shirt makes your eyes look green," and "You walking in here today pretty much makes my entire month," but he really didn't want to seem quite that psychotic.
"So um, been busy?" Thirty seconds of awkwardly searching for something to say and that's what he came up with.
"God, yeah. Been working a lot." Jared answered, apparently not noticing the sheer lameness of the question.
"Yeah?" Jensen asked, sounding friendly, interested, and ridiculously overeager. "What is it that you do?" Obviously not a nine-to-five, because it was a Wednesday and going on eight-thirty.
"Well, I work part-time at a bank as a teller," Jared said, shrugging. "But really it's been finishing up my degree that's been taking it out on me."
"What are you going for?"
"Masters in Engineering. I've got a job lined up with Toyota when I'm done."
"Wow," Jensen said dumbly. He wasn't used to feeling intimidated, especially not by people younger than him. He couldn't say that he'd had the most well rounded education, too much science, not enough arts. But eight years in school and a doctorate meant he was usually pretty confident that, even if he wasn't the smartest person in the room, he had some kind of trump card up his sleeve. Engineers, though, they were supposed to be half-genius, and they weren't supposed to look anything like Jared.
Jensen licked his lips. "Let's um, let's see if she'll go for it now. But try and coax her up on it, instead of just setting her down on it."
Jared nodded and Jensen watched as Jared took Sadie's collar and put a little pressure on her neck in the direction of the scale. Sadie was clearly torn between being stubborn and doing what Jared wanted but Jensen was sure eventually Jared would win out. Sure enough, Sadie put a hesitant paw on the scale and when nothing too terrible happened, she let Jared persuade her all the way onto the scale.
The examination went pretty smoothly after that. Harley and Sadie were young and clearly well cared for. Harley fell for Jensen's usual pill-administering fake-outs but Sadie turned out to be much smarter than he initially gave her credit for. He got her to take it eventually, pumping a fist up in the air in triumph, while Jared expressed his approval. Jensen told Kristen to get a copy of their files from Dr. McGehee's office sent here and to set Jared up with bag of specialty food to help Harley's wicked plaque build-up. He stepped outside to wash his hands while Kristen went to ready the bill and tell Jensen's nine o' clock that he would be right with them.
Jared followed him out, both leads in one around one wrist, when a black streak whipped in front of the dogs and set them to barking.
"Hey Jensen? I think you got an escapee."
Jensen craned his neck around from where he was standing at the sink. "What?"
"There's a little- shut up, Harley. There's a little black cat loose and- wait."
Jensen sighed, busted.
Jared had both dogs by the collar now, grip firm on the leather though he was just using his first two fingers to hold back two excited dogs. He crouched down and peered at the cat beneath the hallway table.
"Is that- That's Tiny, isn't it?" He sounded thrilled.
Jensen turned off the water, "Well, uh, technically it's not Tiny anymore."
"Nope," Kristin called from the front. "We re-christened her when Jensen decided to keep her."
"When we decided to keep her. She's like our office mascot. Normally she just stays in my office and breaks stuff, but I guess she got out today."
Jared pulled the dogs back towards the door, and Jensen got down in front of the table. He waved his hand underneath and eventually the ten-week-old kitten forgot she was frightened and pounced right on it. He scooped her up easily with the hand she was so bravely trying to attack and took her back to his office, set her down inside, and shut the door.
"What did you name her?"
"Dinah." He could quite look Jared in the eye. Jared didn't seem to think there was anything out of the ordinary about Jensen adopting Jared's favorite stray kitten, but Jensen thought the implication was sort of embarrassingly plain.
Jared grinned. "Jeez, that's so cool that you adopted her. I can't wait to tell Sandy."
"Sandy?"
Jared nodded, "My girlfriend. She was there when I found them, but she had to stay back and get ready. We were driving out to her parent's place in Canyon Lake that afternoon."
"Oh," Jensen said. He wasn't so shocked that he couldn't keep the smile on his face but he was disappointed enough to admit he didn't really have much more to say on the subject of Jared's happy, heterosexual relationship. "Well, listen, I'm glad you decided to start coming here. Let us know if they need anything, okay?"
"Yeah!" Jared said, heading for Kristen's desk. "And I'm telling you, if this food doesn't work I'm hunting you down. You shouldn't give a man false hope."
"It'll work fine if you just make sure Harley doesn't 'steal,'" and here he used air quotes, "any food off the table anymore."
Jared did his level best to look innocent but really he just sort of looked ridiculous pouting out his lower lip like that. Jensen's gaze dropped down but he caught himself, rolled his neck from side to side, and went out to greet the forceful looking older woman in the waiting room who did not seem happy at all to have been kept waiting.
Jared chatted breezily with Kristen while they waited for his credit card to go through and Jensen took it upon himself to show his next patient and owner into the examination room. When he came back out for Kristen, Jared was gone.
"See?" she said, smiling and slapping his arm with the patient's file. "He came back."
"True."
"And let me guess," she said. "You didn't ask him out again?"
"True."
She made a big show of sighing. "Doesn't matter, though. He'll be back."
"Doesn't matter," Jensen agreed. "He's got a girlfriend."
---
Kristen, bless her, knew when to push Jensen (which was ninety-five percent of the time) and when to let him do whatever he wanted. That night, she pushed him to go out with her after work until he relented. Once in the bar, though, she left him to do what he wanted, which was down too many beers and turn some other guy's straightness into the perfect example of why Jensen's life sucked out loud.
"I can never just want something and get it."
Kristen gave a sympathetic nod and poked at the cocktail in front of her with her straw.
"I decide I want something, and then I just," he sighed. "End up with the next best thing. Try to be a doctor and end up a vet. Aim for the sweet life, the big house, the wife, the kids, and end up gay and single in San Antonio."
"Oh honey," Kristen said, and Jensen cringed. The only kind of pity he liked was self-pity.
"It's not so bad," he said, trying to put Kristen off the scent. "San Antonio is, you know, it's okay. And I don't hate being a vet. And, all right, Jared is straight, but that's not even a big deal anyway, because he was too young and too good for me anyway."
"Oh my God, Jensen," Kristen burst out. "You need to shut up. Too good for you?"
"Well," Jensen said, frowning. Logical arguments weren't really within the realm of his capability right then, but he made a vague gesture that meant something like, 'isn't he?'
"I can't believe it." Kristen shook her head and stabbed at her drink more viciously with the straw. "I can't believe that you, of all people, are doing the low self-esteem thing."
"Me of all people?" Jensen asked. "Wait… does that make sense?"
"Do you even look in the mirror in the morning?"
Jensen rolled his eyes. People, especially women, seemed to view his appearance as some sort of 'get out of jail free' card when it came to life's hardships. "Yes, the hours I spend at the gym and the eighty dollar haircuts clearly prove that I don't care a thing about my looks."
She sighed and finally sipped at her drink. "Well if it's not that, then what? What's got you convinced you're not worth getting exactly what you want?"
He never put it into terms like that, words like worth and deserve. When he thought about why all the things he wanted never came to pass he was sure that it wasn't because he lacked the ability, just the follow-through. The opportunities, though, once missed were gone forever, and that left him here.
"You need to quit with the 'woe is me' routine, I'm telling you." Kristen insisted, all sensible concern and well-meant meddling.
Jensen just drank his beer in answer and no matter how hard she pushed him, he kept doing exactly what he wanted to do, which was ignoring her.
---
Jensen waited secretly (he hoped) for a few weeks for Kristen to announce an appointment with Sadie and Harley but eventually he got over it. He kept staying in and Kristen kept harassing him about it. Fifi kept coming for visits and Jensen's bet with Kristen kept getting higher. Jared sent a Christmas card to the office, one of those photo deals of him, his two dogs, and a dark haired, dimpled beauty Jensen assumed was Sandy.
Kristen offered to cut her face out of the picture and replace it with one of Tom Cruise but Jensen just shook his head, still looking at it. Beneath the stock phrase printed on the card ("Happy Holidays from Jared, Sandy, Sadie, and Harley!") Jared had written, "Thanks! Sadie and Harley totally say hi!" in Sharpie with a little doodle of a dog paw beneath that. They looked like the example photo you saw in front of portrait shops in the mall, sweet and wholesome, riding the line between real people or paid actors. He took a tack out from the bulletin board and put it up with the others, close to (but not intruding upon) Fifi's place of honor in the center.
Then it was New Year's and Kristen took down all the cards and put up fake Valentine's about heartworms and Jensen didn't even go searching for it in the junk filing cabinet drawer she used to hide all the stuff she couldn't bear to throw away. They got drinks but didn't talk about it and he came home to discover that Dinah had managed to bring down the blinds from his bedroom window. Her impish face stared up at him, clearly confused (though not at all bothered) by his frustrated cussing, but Jensen didn't look down at her and immediately think, Jared, sopping wet and holding kittens, so he figured he was probably over it.
---
Kristen did Jensen the small favor of warning him the second time around and told him that morning that Jared would be coming by in the afternoon. Apparently something was up with Harley. He didn't exactly know what he should do to prepare for seeing Jared again, but he kept it in the back of his mind all day. He was pretty sure at some point he'd figure out a way to achieve maximum Zen the very moment Jared Padalecki walked in with his dog. No pangs of regret, no being struck stupid. He'd just say hello, shake Jared's hand, crack a few jokes, and check out what might be wrong with Harley and send him off with a hearty, "Y'all come back now, ya hear?"
Easy.
Eleven minutes after the hour, the doorbell rang and Jensen didn't let himself look up right away. He felt his shoulders tense up, felt his whole body suddenly ping to fact that Jared was somewhere close by.
"Oh Jared," Kristen sighed. "You've finally come back to us."
Jared laughed and Jensen took a deep breath and turned. Jared's hair was longer, Jensen could tell that even though Jared had it tucked under a beanie. Maybe thanks to the winter season, his skin was a little less gold, a little less a perfect match to his tawny colored dogs. The smile, though, was still big and bright and maybe even still a little stupefying.
Jensen was quicker to recover from it than before. "Nice to see you again, Jared. Wish it was for a better reason though."
He could tell right away that something was wrong with Harley from the way he was sitting, not even tugging on the leash or trying to get over to the metal shelving where they displayed the pricey dog foods they sold.
"Yeah," Jared said. "Big dumb idiot had me up the whole night worrying."
"Let's get a look at him right away," Jensen said, gripping his clipboard.
Alone in the examination Jensen suddenly remembered that he and Jared were little more than strangers, that this was only the fourth time Jensen had even spoken to him, and as if on cue, he clammed up. The rote dialogue he'd usually be reciting right about now ("How are you? How's the family? Schnookums still digging up the yard?") was meant to put people at ease, keep them at a distance. But distance wasn't exactly what Jensen wanted between him and Jared.
"So," he said, skipping over all of it and getting right into the nitty-gritty. "What's going on with old boy here?"
"We went on a run yesterday and he seemed fine the whole time. When I went to work and he was still cool, but when I got home that night, he didn't really want to eat, or even get up off the couch. Sometime last night he woke me up by trying to throw up on the floor right in front of my bed. He didn't get anything up though."
Jensen frowned. He got down next to Harley and did some poking. Harley's stomach looked distended and he whimpered when Jensen put any pressure on it. "I'm going to have Kristen take an x-ray."
Harley was pretty unimpressed with the x-ray machine but was also too listless to really put up much of a fight. A few minutes later, Jensen had a diagnosis.
"Missing any bottle caps?" Jensen put the x-ray up on the light board.
Jared blinked at the plastic outline, clear as day. "Oh, Harley."
Harley, upon hearing his name, thumped his tail weakly.
Jensen spread his hands. "Wish I could tell you it was just gas, but-"
"Yeah..." Jared said, sighing. "Well, what now?"
"We're going to have to take that out, which means surgery. It's a really common procedure, actually. Believe it or not Harley isn't the first dog to not get that plastic isn't quite the same as kibble."
Jared nodded, too tense to even give a cursory laugh at the joke. "Yeah, of course. Do you have to do it today?"
"I think that would be for the best, yes. We'll keep him overnight for observation. Luckily we caught this early. It's still in Harley's stomach. If it had made it to the intestines it might have caused some damage, sometimes we even have to remove tissue so damaged it became necrotic, but this?" Jensen made a face and waved his hand. "Not such a big deal. Harley will be back home by tomorrow."
Jared nodded and buried his fingertips into the loose skin around Harley's neck. "How much do you think that would cost?"
Jared asked the question while looking Harley and Jensen didn't wait for him to look up before he answered it.
"It's not exactly cheap, but we'll take it on credit for the time being." Jared looked up and Jensen looked him right in the eye, "It's no big deal. If you want to pay us in five dollar installments, we can do that."
"It's not as bad as all that exactly but um-" Jared flushed. "It won't take me long at all to get the money, I promise, but." Jared pressed his lips together, stopping himself. "Thanks."
Jensen felt a warmth spread up the back of his neck and into his cheeks. He coughed and turned back to the light board. "So, I'll get Kristen to do the blood work and we'll keep him comfortable until later this evening when we can put him under for the surgery."
Jared nodded and looked back down at Harley, apparently missing this as his chance to make an exit.
"Jared," Jensen said gently. "Not to say that I'd mind you sticking around but you really don't have to stay. We'll put Harley up in the back, give him a pain shot after we take his blood. He'll probably sleep the whole afternoon."
"Oh," Jared said. He huffed. "Right." He stood up, but still looked reluctant to leave, shifting back and forth from one foot to the other like he was psyching himself up for something.
Jensen dug his teeth into his cheek but it still wasn't enough to stop him from saying, "You could take him to Dr. McGehee if you're worried."
Jared stopped shifting, looking down at Jensen in surprise. "What?"
"If you wanted to take Harley to Dr. McGehee, I'd understand."
Jared furrowed his brow. "Are you saying you can't do it?"
"No!" Jensen could do it, had done it, done it a few times in fact. "No, it's not that. I just, I know we must seem like sort of a shoestring operation, just me and Kristen, and Dr. McGehee has that big practice. You'd probably feel more comfortable if she did something like this. I completely understand."
Jared looked at him a moment and Jensen waited for him to nod slowly and agree that yeah, that was probably for the best.
Instead Jared shook his head. "Dude. I trust you. You're gonna take care of my dog, right?"
Jared look him in the eye and set a broad, warm hand down on Jensen's shoulder and it wasn't like Jensen hadn't already been planning to do just that, but now, now he'd pretty much do anything Jared asked. "Of course I will."
Jared grinned. "Good. I'm gonna go grab some lunch, I guess. Get some stuff done. Kristen's got my cell number, will you call me when you're done? I want to know right away."
"You'll know the very second I snip the suture," Jensen promised.
Jared's palm was still resting on his shoulder and he lifted it up now to clap it down twice on Jensen's back and give him a friendly nudge before turning to go.
Harley whined, seeing Jared leave, and Jensen kind of knew how he felt.
---
Harley's surgery went off without a hitch and while Jensen didn't call Jared right after he snipped the last suture, he did call him the second he finished washing his hands. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number on the file. He felt strangely giddy, like this was a far more intimate call than just a "Relax, your dog is fine" check-in with a client. Which didn't make any sense because that's exactly what it was, but hey, Jensen had to get his kicks somewhere.
"Hello?" Jared voice over the phone was hushed, like he was worried he might be overheard.
"Jared?"
"Yeah, sorry, I'm at school. I had to sneak out into the hall. Is it already done?"
"Yeah, and Harley's just fine. Not a single problem."
Jared breathed a sigh of relief over the receiver. "Good. I'm really glad to hear that." He sighed again. "Thank you for calling."
"It's no big deal," Jensen said. It wasn't. Just a phone call between doctor and client. The fact that Jensen's smile was about as wide it could go and that his stomach was tight with nerves and excitement was really nothing to pay attention to.
"When can he come home?"
"Three o' clock tomorrow is the earliest I'd feel comfortable allowing. He'd be happier at home with you but I want to make sure the side effects from the anesthesia aren't too bad and keep eye on his stitches. I'll give you all the information about how to take care of him."
"Yeah, okay," Jared said, voice low and quiet, and Jensen did not close his eyes. "Thank you again. Thank you so much, I owe you big."
"It's nothing," Jensen said, warm from head to toe. "Take care, Jared."
"Okay," Jared said, sounding happy and excited and Jensen was sixteen again, pressing the phone to his ear and wanting to crawl through and be with the person on the other end of the line. "You too."
---
Jensen actually smiled all through work the next day, his clients seemed surprised at first, but they warmed to it quickly. He found himself actually enjoying the conversations he had with them. Kristen said nothing about his good mood, though she clearly wanted to. Jensen shrugged it off. He was just looking forward to Jared coming in, to telling him all about what he'd need to do to keep Harley's stitches clean, knowing that Jared would crack up about the plastic cone he was going to have to make Harley wear.
The clock ticked closer and closer to three and even though Jensen knew that Jared would be late coming in, he felt like a spring getting coiled tighter and tighter.
Around four-fifteen the bell at the door rang and Jensen was in the room with a patient. He listened with only half an ear, waiting for Jared's voice, waiting for Kristen to call him.
It wasn't long after that Kristen stuck her head in. "Sorry to interrupt, but Harley is getting picked up now and-"
Jensen popped up out of his chair. "I'll be right back."
He brushed past Kristen before she could say anything more. Outside there was a short, pretty girl in jeans, heels, and an expensive looking sweater. Her hair was dark, straight and smooth, pulled away from her face by big sunglasses and her lips were the perfect shade of dark red. She looked familiar.
"Hi! You must be Dr. Ackles," she said, extending a slim, cool hand out to him.
"Uh, yes," he said, taking it in his own. He glanced towards the waiting room but there was no one there but Mrs. Salazar and her vaguely sausage-shaped boxer, Lula.
"I'm Sandy, Jared's girlfriend. He's at work and he won't be getting off until seven. He asked me to come and pick Harley up, is that okay?"
Jensen looked at her with new eyes. This was Sandy. This was Sandy existing outside of a few offhand comments and one picture. This was Sandy looking him in the eye and waiting for him to say something. He felt something deflate inside him but still he tried to smile. "Yeah, of course. Let me get you the hand-outs you need and tell you about the medication he's going to have to take for a while."
---
Kristen tried to get him to go out with her again but the level of wallowing Jensen had planned for the evening was really not something anyone needed to see.
He microwaved dinner and ate it on the couch, one hand maneuvering the fork, the other keeping Dinah away from his plate. He could make any amount of noise, pick her up and set her down a hundred times but it never clicked; she still went for his food. It was as if the ability to connect one thing to another was almost completely beyond her. So far the only concept she'd figured out was that the sound of can opener equaled food. Jensen was still working on "counter equals no" and "my foot does not equal toy."
He had the television on but it was pretty much just background noise to his careful and thorough examination of why his life was screwed up.
His cell phone rang and Jensen sighed. It would be one of two people: his mother or Kristen. He resolved to find out exactly which overbearing blonde it was and to refuse to answer either. He checked the read out and answered it immediately.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jensen? It's Jared."
"Is something wrong with Harley?" he asked directly. He'd told Sandy they could call if Harley had any trouble, and while Jared didn't sound panicked Jensen guessed that even in a panic Jared was probably still ten times more good-natured than the average person.
"No!" he said quickly. "No. He's sleeping it off in my bathroom. Sadie's too curious about him, but if I put the cone on him she freaks the hell out. I think the whole thing bothers her more than Harley."
Jensen relaxed. And then tensed again. If Jared wasn't calling about the dog, he was... calling Jensen at home for some reason other than a veterinary emergency.
"I know it's a little much, calling, but I wanted to thank you again," Jared continued.
Jensen sighed and shook his head; all this was just about being polite. Patients sent him thank-you notes sometimes, even tucked a gift card or something inside from time to time. Of course he appreciated them, but in a way he didn't really see the point. "Really, Jared, it's my job. It's no big deal."
"No big deal? Dude, this is my dog. This is my big, dumb boy. He could have died, I totally wikipedia'ed this and freaked myself out. You saved my dog's life, okay? And the least you can let me do is take you to a Spurs game."
"A Spurs game?" That was a bit more over the top than the usual.
"Yup," Jared said, making that one syllable so deep-fried and country Jensen couldn't even attempt to gloss over the good-ol-boy quality of the invite, just two men and a sports game. "Tomorrow night."
Jensen calmed himself down, forced himself to crack a joke. "I saved your dog's life and you're going to torture me with tickets to a Spurs game?"
"Oh God, what are you? A Mavs fan?"
"Damn straight." Which was plenty fair because the Mavs had totally owned the Spurs just two years ago.
"Okay. Lame. Anyway, my parents have season tickets but they've got a dinner party Friday night, so they gave 'em to me and Sandy but Sandy's got a thing and listen, you're just coming with me, okay? That's just final."
For a second, Jensen thought about saying no but he had a healthy streak of masochism and a night out with Jared sounded like a pretty awesome kind of torture.
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