Jensen's Tiny New Friend Part 3
Jensen wasn’t sure this was the best idea. He had already been apprehensive before they even got here. Now that he’d had a chance to look the place over, well let’s just say he wasn’t feeling any better about it.
It was a nice enough park. An immense field of green grass with a small pond on the far side. Jensen narrowed his eyes at the sight of all the labs playing in the water, because eventually they’d come out of the water. Which meant they’d be on dry land. The same dry land he was on. And Jensen and wet dogs didn’t mix. Not just because of the wet, but also because of the smell. Jared, the big weirdo, actually liked the smell of wet dog. Obviously the air up by his head was too thin.
Jared was already halfway to the metal gate that allowed entrance behind the tall metal fence that separated the animals from those people who didn’t prefer to be covered with dirt and slobbered on. And here he was. About to become one of those dirty, slobbery dog people. His life was a true tragedy. Just like Hamlet. Well except for the fact that everybody wasn’t dead.
He cautiously followed Jared into the fenced off area clutching Mr. Wiggles to his chest Sadie and Harley were both off like a shot as soon as they were unclipped from their leashes and started bounding around like disoriented hummingbirds.
“Come on Jen,” Jared grinned at him. “Mr. Wiggles isn’t gonna make any friends if you never put him down and let him introduce himself to the other dogs.” A sympathetic look crossed his face. “Look, I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s little, but so are a lot of the other dogs here.”
“I’m not worried about him,” Jensen snapped as he glared suspiciously at a large untidy mutt not too far from them. “I just don’t feel like chasing after him all afternoon. I should be napping right now you know.”
“Whatever man, you know you wanna be here.” Jared grabbed Mr. Wiggles away, unclipped his leash and set him on the ground.
Jensen gasped and gaped at Jared’s temerity. “What the hell Jared?”
“Sometimes loving means letting go Jen.”
“Are you really actually insane or is it all of the sugar making you act crazy?”
“Eh, a little of both probably.” Jared took off and loped over to where Sadie and Harley were tugging on a stick. He whipped out a frisbee as he ran and flung it into the air while whistling to his dogs.
Jensen huffed and hurried over to where Mr. Wiggles was sniffing intently at a tree. After about ten minutes he finally decided it was worth peeing on. Well, Jensen thought, at least it isn’t my rug this time.
Mr. Wiggles sniffed his way from tree to tree trying to mark his territory even when he was running on empty. Jensen figured it was good that at least one of them was having fun.
He’d glance over at Jared and his dogs occasionally to make sure they hadn’t gone too far away from him and Mr. Wiggles. If some vicious dog attacked he wanted Jared, Sadie and Harley to hide behind.
Speaking of vicious dogs, there was a Rottweiler headed for Mr. Wiggles. Jensen froze for a second then swept Mr. Wiggles up into his arms. Just because he didn’t want to get his clothes dirty if there was a fight. That was the only reason. Really.
The Rottweiler’s owner came rambling after him seemingly unconcerned with her dog’s imminent attack. “Hey,” she waved at Jensen as she came closer. “I’m Carol and this is Babe. Don’t worry; he’s not nearly as dangerous as he looks. He’s actually a huge baby,” she laughed.
Of course she may have thought that, but Jensen didn’t know her from Adam (whatever that actually meant) and he wasn’t about to trust her judgment. “I’m Jensen,” he offered while keeping a steady eye on Babe, “and this is Mr. Wiggles.”
“Oh, isn’t he just the cutest,” she reached out to pet him only to have Mr. Wiggles growl at her warningly.
Jensen jerked him away before he could nip at her and immediately apologized. He had no idea what had come over Mr. Wiggles. He’d never growled at anyone before. Although to be fair the only ones who interacted with him on a regular basis were Jared, Becky and himself. No one else had ever even petted him before.
“It’s alright,” she assured him. “I should’ve known better. The Min Pin breed is known for being really protective towards their ‘pack’ and aggressive and suspicious toward strangers. It’s just the way they usually are.” She shrugged.
“Really? How do you know that?” Jensen had owned Mr. Wiggles for over a week now and he didn’t know that. Actually the list of things he didn’t know about Min Pins was probably pretty long. Hell, before this conversation he didn’t even know that they were called Min Pins for short.
“I’m a vet tech and one of our clients breeds Min Pins. They’re cute, but you’ve gotta be a little careful when they meet new people. You can try giving people treats to give to him. That should get Mr. Wiggles to at least tolerate them after awhile. Min Pins are total food hounds. They’ll eat ‘till they burst if you let them.” She smiled and absentmindedly scratched Babe’s head. He leaned his large square head into her leg so hard that she lost her balance for a second.
“I appreciate the advice Carol. I’m a first time dog owner,” he admitted sheepishly, “so it probably doesn’t hurt for me to get a few tips.”
“Don’t worry; I’m sure you’ll be great. Well, I’d better go and catch up to Babe. It looks like he’s gone after Lady Persnickety again.”
“I thought you said he was friendly?” Jensen asked her with rising concern.
“Oh he is,” she replied exasperated. “If anything he’s a little too friendly, if you know what I mean. And he seems to think Lady Persnickety is quite a hottie.”
Jensen’s face lit up with understanding. “Oh. I gotcha.”
“Yeah,” she said ruefully. “So I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. My friend comes around here all the time.”
“Great.” She turned around and ambled after Babe who was indeed nosing around a very pretty little Doberman. Well Jensen thought she was pretty anyway. But then again he wasn’t a dog; their standards of beauty could be totally different from his. Well whatever, she seemed to have at least one ardent suitor. He grimaced. Maybe a little too ardent. Nasty.
“Hey Jen.” Jared came bounding up to him with Sadie and Harley in tow. “How’s it goin’? Who was that woman you were talking to?” He asked with an odd tone. Almost sort of petulant maybe? Weird.
“That was Carol. And Babe,” he added as an afterthought.
“And?”
“And what?”
“What were you talking about?”
“Nothing really,” Jensen replied with a shrug. “She admired Mr. Wiggles, told me a little about his breed. They’re called Min Pins for short,” He informed Jared proudly.
“That’s it?” Jared seemed to relax all of a sudden and his voice changed back to its normal happy tone. “I thought maybe you’d asked her out. She was pretty cute.” He stared at Jensen intently out of the corner of his eyes pretending indifference.
“Huh, you know you’re right. She was pretty cute. Guess I just didn’t think about it. Whatever. It’s no big deal anyway.”
Jared licked his lips and visibly steeled himself. “I was wondering if I could maybe talk to you about something.”
“Sure man, what’s on your mind?” Jensen yawned and stretched.
Jared jerked his eyes away from the line of skin that appeared below Jensen’s t-shirt and blurted out,” I really care about you Jensen.”
“I care about you too,” Jensen replied bemused. Jared could get so bizarre sometimes. They’d be watching TV and all of sudden Jared would be staring at him and trying to get him to talk about his feelings. What a goofball.
“Yeah.” Jared sighed. “That’s not exactly what I meant Jen.”
“Okay, so explain it to me.”
“Alright so um…the thing is… is that I really…well I really feel like we’ve connected. You know?”
“Yeah,” Jensen answered. Jared was being especially weird today. He better not have been using that throat spray again. It may have kept him from getting a sore throat. But something in it also made Jared loopier than a moth on May Day.
“So what I’m trying to say is that I think we should take our…um…connection to the next level. Try to strengthen it.” Jared looked at him nervously.
“So are you saying you do wanna take that ski trip together?”
Jensen watched as Jared’s face turned bright red and his lips pursed together which he only did when he was trying to hold back a scream. “Is something wrong? ‘Cause you know if there is you can tell me. Right?”
“Yeah there’s something wrong Jen,” Jared burst out. “You have got to be the densest person I’ve ever met in my entire life!”
“Hey!” Jensen replied offended. “Just ‘cause you’re having issues with someone else doesn’t mean you have to take it out on me.”
“I’m not,” Jared paused and blew his bangs out of his eyes. “I’m not having issues with anyone else Jen.”
“So you’re mad at me?” Jensen looked hurt. “What did I do?”
“No,” Jared assured him rapidly, “I’m not mad at you and I shouldn’t have yelled. You just aren’t really getting what I’m trying to say.” He was definitely getting frustrated. Despite the fact that he was an excellent actor Jared had never been good at hiding his emotions.
“Alright, so maybe try explaining it again. I promise I’ll really listen, okay?” Jensen hoped his contriteness appeased Jared, because that kid needed to settle before he busted a nut.
“Okay, so here goes.” Jared braced himself and began to speak right as Jensen cut him off.
“Hey. Where’s Mr. Wiggles? Oh my God. Where’d he go? He was just here a second ago.” Suddenly Jensen had trouble breathing and he started to feel panicky as he glanced frantically around the area. Not because he cared about Mr. Wiggles, just because um...because…well because of some other logical and valid reason. Shut up.
“There he is!” Jared pointed over a few yards away where Mr. Wiggles was playing with a lab. An almost full grown lab who was like a zillion times his size.
Jensen took off running towards Mr. Wiggles with Jared, Sadie and Harley not far behind. “Mr. Wiggles,” Jensen shouted with a trace of hysteria in his voice. That lab was huge and black and everyone knew black was the color of evil and other bad stuff.
Mr. Wiggles, the lab, the lab’s owner and everyone else in the vicinity stared at Jensen and his entourage as they raced across the lawn causing even more ruckus than was usual at the dog park. Mr. Wiggles failed to notice that unlike everyone else in the park the lab was still playing, even though he himself wasn’t. The lab pounced and Mr. Wiggles fell to the ground with a pained yip and didn’t get back up.
Intellectually Jensen knew he was still running, but it felt as though time had slowed down after Mr. Wiggles fell. And even though he wasn’t aware of saying anything out loud, in his head he was screaming with worry. A few seconds later he got to Mr. Wiggles and Jensen launched himself onto the ground by him.
“Mr. Wiggles?” Jensen gently stroked his side and almost cried with relief when Mr. Wiggles opened his eyes and looked up at him. Of course he then proceeded to whine with pain while trying to lick Jensen’s hand.
He quickly assessed Mr. Wiggles and found that one of his little legs looked broken. Without even thinking about it Jensen picked up his dog and carried him back to the car as quickly as possible without jostling him.
Jared, who seemed almost as concerned as Jensen, opened the passenger door for him so he wouldn’t have to shift Mr. Wiggles. Then he hastily herded Sadie and Harley into the back before tearing out of the parking lot towards the nearest emergency animal clinic.
*********************************************************
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod,” Jensen chanted repeatedly as he paced back and forth in the waiting room. He hadn’t even noticed the annoyingly loud buzz of the fluorescent lights. Normally he would have been grinding his teeth in irritation. But right now all of his attention was focused on one thing. Mr. Wiggles.
It was a slow night, so he had been taken directly to one of the operating rooms as soon as they arrived and Jensen hadn’t seen him since.
“Jen man, just sit down okay,” Jared said soothingly. “Freaking out isn’t gonna help anything.”
Jensen looked at him and collapsed down into the chair next to Jared with a huge sigh. “Yeah, I know that. I just…I’m just kinda worried I guess,” he admitted reluctantly.
“That’s totally normal; anyone would be worried in your situation.” Jared reached with one of his long arms around Jensen’s shoulders and pulled him into a half hug. Jensen felt some of his tension release as he leaned into Jared’s solid and comforting warmth.
“Mr. Ackles,” a doctor called out questioningly in the spacious waiting room.
“Yeah.” Jensen immediately jumped up and walked over to the man with Jared following behind. “How is he?” Jensen asked anxiously.
“Don’t worry Mr. Ackles; your dog is going to be okay.” The vet smiled reassuringly at the two of them.
“Really?” Jensen felt a sense of relief sweep over him as he heard the news, which was weird, because he hadn’t even wanted Mr. Wiggles in the first place.
“Thank god,” Jared added as he squeezed Jensen’s shoulder.
“Can I see him?” Jensen asked tentatively.
“Sure, but he’s still asleep from the anesthesia we used when we set the bone.” The vet looked down at his clipboard briefly. “It was a clean break, so it should heal up fine. Though you should try to keep him off his feet as much as possible.”
“Sure. Yeah. Definitely.” Jensen nodded his head agreeably.
“Alright then, why don’t I show you and your friend back to your dog’s room.”
“Uh, is it alright if my dogs come with?” Jared inquired as he pointed to Sadie and Harley who were both lying quietly on the floor.
“I suppose so, they seem relatively well behaved.”
Jensen entered the room tentatively with Jared and his dogs following close behind. Mr. Wiggles was laying on his side on the table with his right front leg in a tiny cast. For some reason Jensen’s lip started to quiver and his eyes got a little watery.
He figured it was a nervous tick and maybe animal allergies. Ooh or onions. Maybe they used those homeopathic treatments that involved onions. That was it. It had to be.
Because the only other possible reason for him to be doing those things would be if he was incredibly upset that Mr. Wiggles was hurt. Which was impossible since he hadn’t even wanted him in the first place.
I mean sure, he didn’t like seeing dogs hurt. Who did except for sociopaths. But he didn’t get all over emotional when he saw other dogs in casts. Thus he could not be emotional to see Mr. Wiggles in a cast.
Even though he had kind of gotten used to sleeping all snuggled up with him. And he kind of enjoyed playing tug of war ‘cause seeing Mr. Wiggles act all ferocious and growly was hilarious. And it was nice to have someone to keep him company when he was hanging out at home.
But that didn’t mean that he loved Mr. Wiggles or anything. Right? Because that would just be ridiculous. Except they had just left the vet’s and his eyes were actually watering a little more, which wouldn’t make sense if it was because of animal allergies or onions.
Part 4 : http://nilequeenpatty.livejournal.com/3401.html#cutid1