Love, A Fan • A Tom Hardy fanfic

3:2

The next day Patrick was off from work, so Stella awoke and took her own shower before heading off to the hospital again. Today she was working with Dr. Kinder. He was bald and highly sarcastic but something about him annoyed Stella. It was probably how he always seemed to be lurking, taking notes, and ready to spew it back out at the most random of times.

One time during a an appointment, a euthanasia appointment none the less, he decided then was when he should ask about what kind of drink she had yesterday from Starbucks... he'd never seen such a pink drink before.

Today was hopefully going to be different. She was pulled for another euthanasia since the assistant on today was worried about being in one. The think about euthanasia or putting an animal "down" was that most of the time it was well warranted. The saddest part wasn't the poor animal who would be put to sleep, but the owners who were struggling to make sure they were doing the right thing. Nine times out of ten it was beyond obvious it was the right thing.

Stella enjoyed being there when an animal passed. Most of the animals she knew from when they were healthy or even if she didn't, she loved them. Once the medication was in the animal would drift off to sleep, sometimes they would even snore. Then the second dose of medication was given to make their heart stop. Immediately you could see the animal was no longer Scruffy, or Charlie, it was just a dog now. The animal's essence was gone and that meant the suffering was over. It was always a positive feeling, even if she would sometimes cry with the owners or later on alone at night.

The dog that was brought in was a pitbull owned by an ex employee. The dog had bit her and she wanted it put down. Stella rolled her eyes as the woman told her story that the reason the dog bit her was because the two dogs had a tiff and she had gotten between them to stop it. Disgusted she left the room and beelined it back to the treatment area.

"Casey is here and Rocky bit her because she's stupid and got in the middle of a fight," she explained. "Now she wants to put the dog down."

"What? That's ridiculous," Elisa shouted and took off toward the exam room.

"Why doesn't she just re-home him, I'll take him," Jessica said.

After much back and forth between the techs and Elisa asking Casey about adopting him out, everyone had strong opinions about the woman and her hasty decision.

"Is my appointment ready?" Dr. Kinder asked, annoyed. "It's been here for 20 minutes."

"If you knew that why didn't you come out?" Elisa asked, suggesting there was no need to be angry when he knew about it.

"That's not how it works," he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes and bald head. "What are they here for?"

Stella explained again the hypocrisy of the appointment and how selfish she was for not wanting to just let them adopt it.

"How much does the dog weigh?" He asked, taking his pen out to note his intake form.

"73 pounds."

"Pull up 8mL of Euthosol," he noted. "and 13mL of Propofol."

"No."

"What?"

"No. I am not being a part of putting down a healthy dog because this woman is an idiot."

"Fine," he looked to Elsa, to Jessica, to all the technicians and everyone gave him the same answer.

He went over to the lock box of controlled medications and pulled out the ones he needed, drawing them up himself.

"I need someone to hold the dog," he said. "Stella, you took the dog in."

"I'm not doing it!"

"I was taught in vet school, that if an owner wants to put their pet down, you do it, because there's always a less humane option."

"Like rehoming it."

"Stella, the dog bit someone. It already has people nervous because it's a pittie, now you add in a bite..."

"But we all are fine with that. Any one of us will take him."

"That's not what the client wants and our job is to do what they need," he tried to reason. "Or I can tell Alan that you refuse to do your job."

The threat was unnecessary and made Stella hate Kinder even more so than she already did. She didn't care if she was fired, not really. But someone had to go in there. Reluctantly she followed him in, her eyes red and swollen as she cried.

Rocky was there licking her tears happily and nudging her arms as she went to wipe them away. She held the dog in a hug, kissing his fur as Dr. Kinder gave him the medication to sleep. As soon as Rocky was calm and sleeping, she laid him down on the blanket and left the room.

"What a piece of shit!" she shouted from the treatment area. It was possible they could hear her in the exam room but Stella didn't care.

. . . .

Later that night, after not answering any of Patrick's calls or texts he showed up at her house, letting himself in and knocking on her bedroom door.

"Stel," he called out. "Stella, I know what happened."

She pulled the blankets up over her head and rolled over. She didn't want to talk about it and she knew Patrick would be on Paul's side.

"It's normal to be upset," he said. "If you didn't do it. She would have went somewhere else."

Good, better someone else.

"And that person, doctor, tech, anyone, that person may end up being consumed by guilt and kill themselves. That's what happens," he said. "But I know Paul would reach out and I know you're strong."

Stella knew what he meant. Suicides of veterinarians was the highest of all professions and she definitely didn't help Paul feel any better about it. In fact if he did kill himself she knew she played a role.

"You can come in," she said.

"Stella I know it sucks but at least he doesn't have to deal with a shitty owner now," he sat on the bed and kissed her forehead. "Sometimes they just need a do over."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, now he gets to start over from a puppy and have a better life this time," he said sweetly, stroking her messy hair. "Like kittens who don't make it, that's not fair. So they have to do a do over."

"That's actually really sweet," she said. "That helps me feel better.

"Good," he said, softy. "But fuck that woman."

"Seriously."