The Burnout

ANA’S EYES NARROWED AT HIS EXPLANATION. Perhaps she was more thorough than the job necessitated, less inclined to tick through a checklist if it meant rushing her patients. Besides, she could hardly be that far behind. A glance at the clock indicated otherwise, but Anastasia Hannay was nothing if not stubborn. ❛ My apologies, next time I’ll be sure to skip the lidocaine. I’m sure a nine-year-old would be happy to forgo local anesthetic if it means my next patient won’t think I’m ‘taking forever.’ ❜

As the man brushed past, he stirred the air about the room such that she was able to sift through the metallic overtones to identify a new scent. Far fainter than that of the blood, she caught an earthy musk. She might have missed it were it not for her years of practice. A wolf at the door. ❛ Just a full physical and a note, got it, ❜ she repeated, already reaching for the faucet to wash her hands. Were she feeling difficult, she might have dug her heels in, created an emergency in the waiting room, taken her time collecting a fresh pair of gloves. But no, the sooner she finished his exam, the better. So, once her hands were dry and gloved, she set to work on what would be the most efficient yet thorough exam of her career.

Anastasia tilted her head at the question. ❛ I might if this is the extent of your pleasantries. ❜ Regardless, she advanced, gently turning his wrist to locate his pulse and take a rate. ❛ What are you avoiding at work? ❜

Gabriel watched her wash her hands. He wondered if dry skin was more common in healthcare workers for how frequently they are washing their hands. Thankfully, wolves were naturally more healthier than humans. Small things like eczema or skin problems rarely ever plagued them.

Despite needing to go to the doctors often; Gabriel was very calm inside them. Doctors were trained in the art of making patients calm. It was relaxing to him. He cracked a small grin at her comment in hopes to disarm her.

"My manager keeps scheduling me with this new hire. I work as a bartender," He said. "We have to pool tips if we share the bar, but she does absolutely nothing. Her drinks suck, always on her phone, and doesn't know recipes for shit. They won't get her off my shifts or let me work the bar myself. So I'm claiming I'm sick." He explained. "I'm supposed to be working with her for 3 days in a row. I hope they drown."

After a momentary pause he turned his focus onto her. It wasn't every day that he sees a vampire working in a hospital. Then again, it was must have been more common than he thought. "So...Why are you a doctor?" He questioned.

Mars had finished getting Libi ready for her after-school adventure group. It had been a struggle, as she wanted to wear the princess dress, and he knew that she needed to wear pants. So, they compromised and she had picked the princess dress, with leggings underneath and combat boots. He was sure he was going to get a phone call from her teacher about how children didn't need steel toed boots but in Mars' mind -- there were a couple of kids that could be taken down a peg, and he had taught Libi how to defend herself.

Of course, as he was reminding her the importance of a strong defense, he heard Gabriel yell for him, and that was it for Libi listening to him. She tore down the stairs, ready to launch herself into the arms of her "Uncle Gabe." His family, his mother and sisters and brother, had stayed with the pack after Meredith's death. Gabe was the only one that he had left to be a family for Libi.

Mars walked down the stairs after her. "Language, Gabe. Libi already knows how to swear in English and Spanish. If you're going to teach her new words - we're working on German now." He said. Swear words had their place and time -- and ideally it would be when Libi was out of ear shot. Mars walked to the cabinet over the fridge and opened it, pulling down the tin of coffee. "You make the coffee, I'll make you something to eat. You look like you're one gust of wind away from breaking something -- or yourself. It's been a couple of weeks - I was about to start looking for you -- glad that you decided to visit of your own accord."

Honestly, Gabriel hated kids. He loathed them with a passion. He remembered his days working at a coffee shop. They would terrorize the establishment and work up every last nerve. With that being said he tolerated Libi. He gave her the attention she needed, but it was clear that it made him awkward and uncomfortable. The past two years were a major adjustment for him becoming an uncle, but he tried his absolute best. He still understood that kids were innocent and that was something that needed to be protected and nurtured. Even if he messed up a lot.

"German?" He scrunched up his nose as he looked between Libi and Mars. "Why does she need to know German?" Gabriel didn't know any language besides English. He slightly knew Spanish, but that was from school exclusively. Gabriel placed Libi down, eager to get to work on making the coffee.

Gabriel shrugged his shoulders half-heartedly. "I've been picking up hours." Which was true, but the other half of the time was his him stuck in his thoughts. He hated he had no idea where his mom was, or the fact he had to start anew. "It's a good thing I'm going to work." He got the coffee pot to start up as it began to boil the water. "No one can say shit if I need to knock a few heads around." He grinned. "How's uh...erm-" His eyes flickered all around the room trying to think of a question, "-life. How's that going for ya?"

"I don't make Hank's rules, my guy -- I just go along with whatever his dog-mom wants. I'm pretty sure she's fae -- she keeps asking for my name and trying to give me shit. Still, Hank's a good dog." The kitten in his hand didn't seem like it wanted to go anywhere, and neither was it luring Hank back to them. He looked down at the kitten and shrugged. "Dunno. There's a couple others back behind me. I was about to pick them up when you showed up." He was tired -- too tired to point out that cats were an invasive species that wrecked havoc in the environment, killing birds and other small animals for the thrill of the hunt. These kittens were cute now -- but would be a menace later. Just like he had been.

"Hey - I did my job. Honest fuckin' truth. You can look at the dog park fence all you want. There's no hole. The gate was latched. He didn't slip out between when I was getting another dog back to their owners. He was in the park and the next second, he was out of the park. Tellin' you - there's more to that dog than meets the eye."

He wasn't going to turn down Gabriel's offer for help, so he walked to the curb and sat down. The two other kittens he had mentioned tumbled out to climb on him and re-join their sibling. "Fuck, I'll give you today's rate for Hank if you grab him. That's me being amicable. Grateful. Whatever."

He hadn't even thought of payment. Honestly, he was going to chase the dog around to be nice. It was his grand plan to make plans, and settle down for a bit. He had joined the pack anyways. It would do him no good to go back home, alone. "I'll get back to ya on payment," Gabriel smirked. He didn't plan to ask for payment but if this dog gave chase for 5 hours, maybe twenty bucks wouldn't hurt.

Gabriel jogged backwards for a moment before taking off. The good thing about being a werewolf he was naturally faster than the average human. He moved with better grace and agility. It made maneuvering through crowds and obstacles with ease. It took Gabe close to 45 minutes before he grabbed ahold of Hank.

With the dog in his hands, Gabriel hauled Hank back to Beau. He had hoped Beau was still in the vicinity. At worst he would drop Hank off in the dog park and ring up Beau. By the time Gabriel even thought about giving Beau a heads up he had the dog in his hands. It wasn't worth potentially losing the dog for a second time.

FOR A PERSON WHO AVOIDED TALKING to most people, Francesca surprisingly like group. Maybe it told her somewhere deep inside she wasn't alone. Maybe it was just a place away from most prying eyes. It was probably the only place she let her guard slip, even just a little. The presence & friendship of Gabe was also a bonus. Francesca didn't have a lot of friends in Hexmore, but she preferred the people who only knew her after. Thinking about what her life was like before she left or right after she returned... it was too hard most days. That's why Gabe was perfect. He knew enough not to talk about it, but he'd listen if she needed. Not that she really took him up on that.

She followed after his silently, a few seconds after his own departure. Francesca had a cigarette ready before her hands even hit the door. While she always told herself she was going to quit, in the past five years she'd made no effort to do so. Lost the motivation. She lit her cigarette as Gabe started going off and waiting for her turn to speak.

She let him rant a little before finally blowing out and speaking. ❝ Practice. ❞ She gave a half-hearted shrug. ❝ Childhood & beyond taught me the skills to deal with, ❞ she motioned vaguely toward the group, mimicking his action, ❝ all that. Besides, ❞ she took a drag from her cigarette, ❝ we get enough tourists that you can pretend no one really knows you. And if you only sit in your house and go out to work and drink, you forget that everyone knows you and talks about you. ❞

Francesca was right. In reality who gave a fuck if Martha attended every session. She was a body filling up a seat. She was somebody to someone. The fake empathy only compounded onto the fact he was forced to attend the meetings. Therapy must've been a lot easier to swallow when your a willing participant. "Yeah I'm in." He stood up quickly, ready to run from that place.

"If we go to Pete's I might be able to comp us a few drinks, depending on whose working." Gabriel was one of the bartenders who worked at Pete's. He pulled up the schedule app on his phone to check to see who was working. Sure enough, it was Matt. He was chill putting a couple of drinks on the house. "Hell yeah, let's hit Pete's."

As Gabriel walked he tucked his hands deep into his jacket pockets. He played around with a lighter that was forgotten in there. "You should stop by on a few of my shifts. I'll get you a free drink or two. Especially on a Tuesday night. No one ever comes in except for a few beer drinkers. What's been going on with you, though? Anything new or exciting?"

"I am definitely looking for a dog," came Beau's immediate answer. "So far, I found a cat --" he hefted a kitten which he was now carrying in one hand. A young black cat with a white bow tie, barely old enough to be free of its mother. "And I was thinking of trying to bribe Hank with a new friend." The kitten meowed, and Beau sighed. There went that idea. Now he had a kitten and a missing dog. "Have you seen a large, black dog with a head the size of a small boulder and the body of a lineman on steroids? He answers to Hank."

He scrubbed his free hand over his face. Haggard, he looked like he was one step away from falling into the gutter and passing out. He had been pushing himself to the extreme since Hazel disappeared. He didn't sleep well not knowing where she was, knowing that she could be hurt or --... To the left, he saw Hank peek his head back around the corner and woof at them to draw their attention. He pointedly ignored the dog. "If I had my choice, I'd just let him run home -- but his owner would be heartbroken if she knew his delicate little paws touched anything but the path she normally walked him on. He's one of those pampered pooches. I still don't know how the hell he got out."

"God forbid the dog is actually treated like an animal," He sarcastically replied. He never understood owners who babied their pets. Domesticity took away the animal's innate instincts. Which Gabriel equated to freedom, and such the owner sounded stupid.

He noticed Beau's dark eyes and rounded shoulders. He looked like shit. "You probably forgot to do your job." Gabriel pointed out. It came off cruel, but it was just a matter of fact. Beau barely looked like he held himself together. Which meant he probably made a lot of errors at work.

"Can you even run?" Gabriel questioned. "Should I just get Hank and you hold onto that cat? Is that cat even meant to be outside?" Gabriel rubbed his brow already taking a few steps back ready to take off after the dog for Beau.

❛ YOU WERE SO BRAVE, MY DARLING, ❜ Anastasia smoothed the girl's hair back, her tearstained cheeks finally drawn up in a smile as she followed her mother from the room. The smell of blood still hung in the air, a vestige of the chaos that had first befallen the exam room. Melanie's scrape had appeared worse than it really was, a mishap with the sharp end of a knife bringing her and her frantic mother into Anastasia's waiting room. Five stitches and she was as good as new.

As she threw away the soiled gauze, the coppery odor rested as little more than a dull ache in her throat. It was paired with something else, she noted then, a presence lingering in the doorway. ❛ It’s rude to linger. Especially, in doorways. ❜

He stumbled upon the room as Anastasia was throwing out the soiled gloves. The blood had him scrunching up his nose as it slowly acclimated to the odor. Gabriel knew she had to be a vampire. He couldn't hear her heartbeat. It didn't perturb him unlike others who were more ready to have a species war. "Sorry, but you were taking forever." He pointed out. "I just need to do a full physical exam and a doctors note so I don't have to work tonight." He explained.

Gabriel sauntered into the room, hoisting himself up onto the exam table. "Got a problem doing that for me?" Gabriel knew his actions were annoying. However, he had mostly asked to see if she had issues with wolves. A lesson he learned far to well growing up back home.

"Hazel would be able to answer this," he muttered as he dug his cellphone out of his pocket, flipped it open, pressed the down arrow repeatedly so he could select her name and was a second away from hitting the call button when he remembered -- while Hazel would be able to figure out the answer to his problem, she wasn't here.

He hit call anyway. As if that was going to make it so he would get through to her this time.

It rang and rang and rang.

and rang.

Unlike his phone which was currently nearly full with voicemails he didn't bother deleting, Hazel Mora's phone seemed to have a limitless amount of storage capacity.

(it'd have to -- he called her at least twice a day).

"Heya Babes, it's me -" he paused, waiting to see if she'd pick up. He sighed and finished with "ya boy" as he had done forever. It had started as a joke and then ... stayed. "So, believe it or not -- Hank got out. There's no hole in the fence, or under the fence and unless he climbed a tree ... Scout's honor - I didn't leave the gate unlocked or nothin' - and he's a big dog, ya know? Like 130lbs of muscle. I'd see him if he was out running around--" the tell-tale beep as the limit was reached for the message. He hung-up, redialed and continued. "So now, this cane corso is runnin' around. Any ideas? Love you, bye."

Now, he hung up for real.

The biggest reason Gabriel walked, during the day, was to help aide his mental health. Sources claimed sunlight was the best way to stay happy and healthy. Sunlight was hard to come by when he was a night bartender.

Out between two bushes he spotted a dog. He didn't know the breed but the playfulness suggested it was a domestic dog. Gabriel quirked his head to the side. He took one step in its direction and the dog barked and bounced around. It wanted to engage with him to play. However, playing meant chasing an unleashed dog throughout the town. When the dog ran out of sight, Gabe continued to walk. He had only walked around the corner to spot a dog park, and one man without a dog.

"Hey man, you looking for a dog?" Gabe called out as he walked closer to the guy. Gabe pointed behind him, "I think I spotted your dog around the corner. It's playful and ran off." At first, he wasn't going to offer his help to retrieve the dog. However, he remembered the time his Aunt's dog booked into the street. It took a village to snag the rascal. "Do you want some help?" He asked after a momentary bout of silence.