“Okay.  What do you want?”

“Anything with meat.”

“I’ll be back,” I told her.

Heh, of course she wants meat.

She didn’t reply, leaving me to make my way through the crowd of dogs to the front door.  I stuck my shaking hands into my pockets and headed off to grab our lunch, leaving Bitch with the monster in chains.

See you soon!

I waited a minute, watching as Sirius got the strength to struggle again, nearly standing up, before the weight of the other two dogs pressed him down again.

“Bitch- Rachel.  I’m getting the impression you might be here a while, to keep an eye on Sirius, give him some attention after he’s back to normal so he knows everything’s okay?”

Makes sense.

“What about it?”  Her voice was hard, and she didn’t look my way.

“Do you want me to pick up something for lunch, so you can stay here with him?”

“…Fine.”

And thus, Taylor ended up finding a non-degrading way to help.

“You know this area better than I do.  Where-” I stopped.  I needed to convey more self confidence than simply asking her for the info.  She might even see it as begging.  I told her, “Tell me where to go.”

Small changes can make a world of difference to how you come across.

I was crossing my fingers she wouldn’t go nuts over me giving her an order.

She was too preoccupied with watching Sirius to argue with me.  “There’s a Greek food stand if you walk in the direction of the Boardwalk.  You’ll smell it before you see it.”

Headcanon: Despite the Protectorate HQ providing excellent food (made by a parahumanly skilled chef or five, with tinkertech kitchen equipment), and there otherwise being plenty of good restaurants in Brockton Bay, Dauntless likes to go to this food stand in the Docks for lunch from time to time.

“We’ll give it fifteen minutes,” she reached for the chain and held it.  “Takes about that long for it to wear off.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t need you here.  If you want to be useful, there’s a shovel by the door.  You can go pick up the shit in the short grass over there.”

I guess it’s something to do while waiting for a huge dog to get smaller.

“Fuck you,” the words spilled out of my mouth before I could censor them.  I wasn’t positive I wanted to censor them, but it bugged me that I’d done it without thinking it through.

Hehe.

Honestly, I think there’s a decent chance Rachel isn’t going to take offense here. This is Taylor not showing weakness – Rachel might appreciate that.

“What?” she growled at me.

“Fuck you,” I repeated myself, “I came to help.  Thought maybe I was helping, by pointing out what was wrong with Sirius.  That doesn’t mean I’m going to be your slave, or that it’s an excuse to give me the worst jobs.  You want me to pick up the poop?  Cool, but I’ll do it when you’ve got a shovel in your hand too, and you’re working beside me.”

Ehh, fair enough.

“You told me I could hit you, free and clear, if you pissed me off,” she threatened me.

I think Taylor’s cool with that, Rachel.

“Yeah, but if you do it here, for this reason, I’m hitting back,”

Heh, nice.

I didn’t move my eyes away from hers, even as every awkward part of me twitched to look away and leave.  If she really did default to interpreting social interactions in dog terms, then eye contact was important.

Yes, keep doing this. Standing up to her might actually get her to respect you more.

I didn’t know much about animals, about dogs, but I did know that it was the submissive dog, the dog lower on the totem pole, that backed down.

“I’ve got Brutus, you wouldn’t win the fight,” she told me.

Can she actually assign Brutus to a different task right now? He might be stuck keeping the other dogs at bay.

Almost definitely true, I thought.  But I couldn’t give in.  I resisted the urge to look at Brutus and told her, my voice low, “You want to go there?  Try it.”

Man, I hope this ends in Rachel laughing, to Taylor’s surprise.

She set her jaw, stared at me for several long moments.  Then Sirius made a noise, a smaller version of that whimpering howl he’d made earlier, and she turned her head.

Ah, or she can get distracted. Fair enough.

Sirius let out a long, mournful noise, somewhere between a whine and a howl, loud enough that I had to turn my face away and cover my ears.

When I was sure he wasn’t about to do it again, I dropped my hands.  I asked Bitch, “Have you done this before?”

She shook her head.

Hm… but she also said this was the second dog that came with this from that shelter. Did she treat the other one via the mundane means, without thinking of the possibility of using her power to do it? Or did she… find out too late?

“I’ve used my power on most of them, but only a little, to keep them healthy.  Sirius is the only one I’ve made this big since Angelica, Brutus, Judas and Rollo.”

…there’s one name that sticks out here. Was Rollo the dog she empowered when she first found out about the power, the one who killed someone?

I almost asked who Rollo was, but I kept my mouth shut.  It was a habit of mine, I found, that I usually pushed a conversation with Bitch too far, gave her an excuse to get pissed at me.  I could prioritize other things over my curiosity.

Guess we’re not finding out right now, unless Rachel herself decides to elaborate. But she’s not exactly the elaborating type.

Besides, as I thought on it, I realized Rollo might’ve been the first dog she used her power on.  The one with the body count.

Yeah, that’s my theory too, Taylor.

“Time?” She asked.

I found my cell phone, fumbled with it to press a button and display the time.  “Nine minutes past eleven.”

As it happens, it’s currently about five minutes past eleven here. Although that’s PM for me, and AM for Taylor and Rachel.

Not for us, I thought, as Sirius pulled back.

Heh.

Don’t worry, Taylor, I’m sure Rachel knows what she’s doing.

Bitch pulled him closer to her, shifting her grip to the chain at his neck and chest to feed the slack through it and give Sirius more room to grow.  His ears were pulled back, his face etched in fear and rage, teeth bared.  I would have been terrified he would snap at me, given how easily he could take half of someone’s face off with a single bite, but Bitch never flinched or broke eye contact with him.

Rachel knows how to act towards Sirius here. Eye contact, no signs of weakness, etc.

Something moved to my right, and I saw Brutus pacing.  The other dogs, the ones I didn’t know, stayed back a fair distance, kept at bay by Brutus’s watchful presence.

A reminder to Taylor and the reader that the usual trio of dogs is here too. And apparently Brutus is doing his best to keep the other dogs safe.

There was a sound of shuffling chain as Bitch adjusted the chain again.

“Judas, Angelica!” she called out, releasing Sirius and backing away.  “Hold!”

Good plan. 🙂

Sirius, pupils narrowed to dots, lunged at her.  Judas stepped between them, while Angelica struck at the lab from the side, knocking him to the ground.  In a moment, the two dogs were on top of him, Judas holding Sirius’s throat in his jaws, while Angelica lay astride his hindquarters.

“Bad boy. Stay down.”

Even with two full size dogs piled on him, Sirius managed to put up a struggle.

“The heartworm?” Bitch glanced at me.

I felt out with my power.  Whatever was going on inside Sirius’ body, the worms were being churned up, disintegrating and dissolving.

Oh, I see. We don’t even need to get the worms out via the lungs, the power takes care of that too.

“Almost gone.”

She nodded.

She turned her attention to Sirius, who was lying prone, his chest heaving.  “Heartworms have a bacteria inside them.  When they die, the bacteria gets released into the dog.

Oh yeah, I read something about that in the Wikipedia article. Apparently this can cause inflammations?

Having a vet treat it is a long process that involves injecting arsenic into muscles and lots of antibiotics.  Like this, his body won’t just kill them, but it can kill the disease.  He’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

Niice.

“Yup.”

I felt my heartbeat speed up a notch.  “So this is really dangerous.”

“Yup.”  She tugged on the chain at his neck.

“Okay.”  I exhaled slowly.  “What can I do?”

Hehehe.

Yup.

“Keep out of the way for now.”

Sirius started to grow.  Muscles rippled underneath his black coat, and he yelped, pulling away.

“Couldn’t we maybe get him tranquilized, first?” I asked, watching the lab try to get away, despite the chains binding him.

Who knows how tranquilizers would interact with the power? Anyway, I’m fairly sure that even if it went without a hitch, Sirius would wake up shortly after becoming a hellhound, unless they used a dosage that’s probably lethal to regular dogs.

Bitch held the length of chain in her hands, keeping him in place.  “No.  My power would burn away the drugs.”

Ah, yeah, fair enough.

“He doesn’t like it.”

“It takes getting used to. But this is better than what he’d go through if a vet took care of it.  Safer.”

“If an animal is diagnosed with heartworms, treatment may be indicated. Before the worms can be treated, however, the dog must be evaluated for heart, liver, and kidney function to evaluate the risks of treatment. Usually, the adult worms are killed with an arsenic-based compound. The currently approved drug in the US, melarsomine, is marketed under the brand name Immiticide. It has a greater efficacy and fewer side effects than previously used drug (thiacetarsamide sodium, sold as Caparsolate), which makes it a safer alternative for dogs with late-stage infections.

After treatment, the dog must rest (restricted exercise) for several weeks so as to give its body sufficient time to absorb the dead worms without ill effect. Otherwise, when the dog is under exertion, dead worms may break loose and travel to the lungs, potentially causing respiratory failure and death. According to the American Heartworm Society, use of aspirin in dogs infected with heartworms is no longer recommended due to a lack of evidence of clinical benefit and may be contraindicated. It had previously been recommended for its effects on platelet adhesion and reduction of vascular damage caused by the heartworms.

The course of treatment is not completed until several weeks later, when the microfilariae are dealt with in a separate course of treatment. Once heartworm tests are negative, the treatment is considered a success.” (source)

Yeah, doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience.

“What are you going to do with him?”  I tried to ignore the dogs milling around me, to keep moving forward and follow Bitch.

Judging by your luck moving through the dog swarm so far, this might be difficult.

“We are going to help him.”

Ooh. I like how Rachel is very pointedly including Taylor here. So do you have a plan involving Taylor’s power?

I shook my head.  “I don’t think I can get the worms out without hurting him.  I mean, they’re in his bloodstream and the closest thing to an exit would be his lungs, and I think they would bleed too much.  I’m not even sure I can move them.”

Hrm. And I’m guessing there’s no good way to get the worms to kill themselves off.

“Grab that chain.”  She pointed across the room, still holding on to Sirius.

I saw several lengths of heavy chain, spotted with rust, looped up and hung on the wall above a pallet of weather worn brick.  I hurried over and hauled it down.  It was heavy enough I had to drag it on the grass to bring it to her.

Hm. What are you thinking, Rachel? Is this just to keep Sirius from running off, or do you have something else in mind for the chain?

“Backpack,” she told me.  I took it off and handed it to her.  She opened the front and handed me a carabiner, a metal loop with a locking hinge.  “Go tie the chain to something solid.”

I did, looping the chain around the base of the crane that was bolted to the concrete pad, toward the center of the room.  I fed the length through the carabiner  and headed back to Bitch.

Fairly basic chain usage so far.

Judas, Brutus and Angelica were already halfway to full size.

Huh? Why?

I just, really don’t see what the plan is here if hellhounds contribute to it. Unless… Is she going to tie Sirius on one of their backs… wait, no, that doesn’t make sense with the attachment of the chain to something solid, nevermind.

Bitch took the chain and began extending it around the struggling dog, winding it through a half dozen carabiners so it extended around his neck, body and stomach, and between his legs.

“What’s going on?”

Hm… keeping him from flailing too much?

“I’m using my power on him.  And he’s not trained.”

“Wait.  Didn’t a dog kill some people, back when you first had your powers?”

Ohhh, I see! There may not be a good way to get the worms out of a normal dog without hurting him too much, but a hellhound isn’t going to let something as trivial as a punctured lung kill him.

The other three powering up would be a precaution in case he gets out of the chains. Three trained hellhounds to counter one untrained one.

Hm… from a Doylist perspective, a good alternate name for Sirius, given this situation, would be Fenris.

The dog resisted until Brutus moved forward, then went along, though he still pulled and twisted against the grip on his collar.

“I don’t know dogs,” I said, following her into the herd of dogs just inside the building.  “I never had a pet, so I’m clueless here.”

Worth getting that on the table where they can both see it, I suppose.

“It’s heartworm.  Something dogs are supposed to take medicine to prevent, every month.”

“The owners didn’t, then?”

Ahh.

And hey, unlike flatworms, the roundworms responsible for heartworm infections don’t have eyespots. (Some aquatic roundworms do, but it’s unclear whether they can actually sense anything through them.)

Hm…

“Dogs show no indication of heartworm infection during the six-month prepatent period prior to the worms’ maturation, and current diagnostic tests for the presence of microfilariae or antigens cannot detect prepatent infections.” (source)

Sounds like this might’ve been in Sirius’ body for months, but is still being detected earlier than it normally would.

“The shelter didn’t.  Lazy, cheap-ass motherfuckers.

Oof. People who are supposed to know what they’re doing. Those fuckers.

This is the second dog I got from that place that wasn’t taken care of.  And people who do adopt get a sick dog?  Fuckers, fuckers, fuckers.”

Damn it, shelter!

“Bitch,” I spoke, cautiously.

“What?” She sounded… annoyed was the wrong word.  She sounded ready to kill me, for interrupting her from setting the dogs up with fresh water.

“I think one of these guys is really sick.”

Her head snapped in my direction.  “Show me.”

Oh yeah, now that’s certainly gonna get her to care.

The dogs stopped fighting as she stalked toward us.  I took the opportunity to gingerly take hold of Sirius’s collar as she ushered the rest away.  She glowered at me, “Explain.”

It was hard to organize my thoughts, even without accounting for her intense scrutiny.  “Worms.  But not, like, tapeworm.  I-I can’t see through their eyes or anything.

I suppose they don’t have eyes, then. Flatworms (tapeworm being parasitic flatworms) do have simple eyespots, so I guess that’s what Taylor is using to rule them out.

Um.  I don’t know what they are, so I can only tell you what I know.  They’re mostly juvenile, only a few adult, um-”

“Above the heart, here?”  She pointed to a spot low in his chest.

I nodded.

At least if the worms are young, that might mean this is a recent development.

“And the arteries?  There’s one from here,” she pointed at the lab’s shoulder, “To here?” she traced her finger along his spine.

“That’s where a lot of them are.  But they’re not just there.  They’re everywhere inside him.”

Rachel seems to have some idea of where things are not as they should be. She might be able to tell based on something that is visible to the outside, but which Taylor wouldn’t be able to identify just by sight.

“Fuckers.  Those fuckers,” she growled.  “I warned them.”

Taking hold of the lab’s collar, she ordered the dog, “Come along, Sirius.”

Which fuckers are we talking about, specifically?

I suppose it’s off to the vet.