Choosing Life

Chapter Thirty Six

Jane smiled as she made her way into Carlos' clinic; Dude's carrier slung over her shoulder. She could hear Dude's small whimpers as he normally trotted by her side when they went to visit Carlos but this time was different. This time, she wanted Dude to be a surprise for Carlos.

Or rather, she wanted what Dude was wearing to be a surprise for Carlos.

"Mrs. DeVil!" The receptionist said with a smile. "I hope everything's okay with Dude, Dr. DeVil was rather taken aback when he saw we'd squeezed you in for a last minute appointment."

"Oh Dude's fine but I appreciate the concern River," Jane said. "Is he very busy today?"

"Not at all," River shook her head. "After he saw that Dude was on the schedule, he asked that we move all the other appointments to tomorrow or whenever worked for the client."

Jane smiled as she heard that; glad she wasn't adding to her husband's workload or stress. Normally, there'd be a fear that Carlos might lose clients by prioritizing his own dog but considering the fact that he was the vet to the royal Cerberi of Auradon, Jane knew there was no likelihood of client loss.

Status still mattered to the Auradon populace after all and who would want to say they were going to a different vet than the High Queen of Auradon?

"Go on back, I'll let him know you're here," River said with a small smile that Jane returned as she made her way into the back room. Since Carlos owned his own clinic, there was really only the one room but he made it feel as spacious as if there were multiple vets working out of the clinic.

Jane gently set Dude's carrier down on the table and slipped a treat into the bag. "There you go Dude, just a little longer and you'll be out of the carrier. Promise."

Dude gave a small snort but accepted the treat, so Jane considered that a win.

Sure enough, as if he'd been aware of the promise his wife had given their dog, Carlos rushed into the room. Actually, Jane had to hold back a chuckle from how Carlos seemed to almost slide into the room; grabbing the doorframe to make sure he didn't fall to the ground.

"Jane? Is he okay? What's wrong with—?"

"Carlos, Carlos, calm down," Jane said gently. "I'm sure Dude is fine but I wanted you to look him over because he's important to you. I know if anything happened to him and you had to wait to find out, I'd never forgive myself."

"Hey, hey," Carlos said as he looked over at Jane. "You know I'd never blame you if anything happened to Dude, right?"

"I know," Jane said, giving Carlos a loving smile that she knew he was returning under his mask. Carlos always wore a mask when meeting with his four legged clients, stating that he didn't know what he could possibly pick up and then spread to Jane. "But you might want to let Dude out of his carrier, you know how much he hates that thing."

"I can't imagine how much you had to wrestle him in order to get him into it," Carlos chuckled, taking the mask off and then opening up the carrier. "Come on bud, let's get you out of...Jane, is he wearing a shirt?"

"You had Evie make him a mini leather jacket and yet it's a shirt that bothers you?" Jane shook her head as Carlos pulled Dude out of his carrier. "Read what it says."

"Why would I need to read what a shirt says...?" Carlos asked, his words trailing off as his eyes took in exactly what the words on his dog's shirt said.

Excitedly waiting for my litter mate!

"Jane...are you...?"

Jane nodded and took out a small, pink stick from her purse and showed it to Carlos. "Took the test this morning. And then actually went to the doctor to confirm it via a blood test since the store bought tests can sometimes have a false positive and of course they put a rush on it, what with our relationship with Ben and Mal—."