Evening at the Vet (Damien)

[Josef Muller]

It was late, very late, and Josef was up, as he’d been for the last week. Normally he would’ve been sound asleep by this point, especially as he taught the morning yoga classes. Plus, he was a very sound sleeper. But tonight he was up because he could hear NPH very quietly sneezing. He’d first heard it earlier this week, when he’d been home making dinner and Damien had been working late on a challenging case that he had to finish the work for before the holidays. It had kept him up most of the night Christmas. Later, the dog had begun hanging out elsewhere in the house, but Josef could still hear him. At first, he’d kept his worrying to himself. Damien was busy, and it was the holidays, and besides, he was probably worrying about nothing. Right?

Well tonight, he wasn’t sure he could abide by that. NPH was still sneezing, and Josef could’ve sworn his eyes were watering earlier. He got up, moving with surprising quietness, and went down to where the dog was. He had gotten big, but he was still young, and he automatically wagged his tail and leapt up onto his knee as he knelt down to rub his ears and examine him. He sneezed three times, but the tail never stopped wagging. Still, there was definitely some runniness about the eyes.

And that was it. Josef’s mind leapt to the conclusion that the dog was sick, and had been sick for a while, and that clearly the only thing to do was to take him to an emergency vet at least twenty miles away. He got the leash on NPH, then hesitated.

It was late, and it was the holidays. The clinic was closed. Damien would want to know what Josef was doing at one in the morning, and where he’d gone. He sighed, softly, then climbed the stairs and very gently rested a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Damien?” Once the man’s eyes opened, he offered him a reassuring smile. “Neil Patrick Harris doesn’t seem to be feeling well, so I am gonna take him to a vet. Just wanted you to know so you wouldn’t wonder where I’d gone.”

[Damien Tremblay]

Unfortunately for Josef, Damien really hadn’t been ‘all there’ recently. Casework had been tough going lately, and more often than not the law clerk had had his nose in a book, or was glued to his laptop trying to help Josh. It was proving harder than usual, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. But needless to say, he was distracted. So much so that unlike Josef, he hadn’t noticed NPH’s sneezing.

In the evenings it was all Damien could do to stay awake during dinner before more or less crashing to bed. Tonight had been no exception. Though he’d kept himself awake enough to help put dishes away after dinner and spend a little time with Josef, he’d ended up more or less stumbling to bed. Hopefully the case would be wrapped up soon, and everything would go back to normal.

Unlike his partner, Damien was usually a light sleeper, but the past few weeks had forced him into deeper sleep cycles. As such, he didn’t even stir when Josef got up to check on the dog.

It wasn’t until he felt Josef’s hand on his shoulder and his name that he slowly came around to being awake. Blinking, he stared almost blearily at his boyfriend. What woke him further was the news about NPH. Damien pulled himself to a sitting position and rubbed his face with his hand. “What’s wrong with him? Hang on, I’ll go with you.” If something was going very wrong with NPH, he didn’t want Josef to have to deal with it along. Yes, he could worry, but if it was enough to spur him into a trip to the emergency vet services in the middle of the night, it had to be bad.