Milo

Chapter 5

Dr. Gautron had a tight grip on Cass' arm. He dragged her through the metal hallways and doors to another medium sized room that was quite dark. Cass could make out that there were counters filled with beakers and flasks - something she hasn't seen since elementary school. Dr. Gautron let go of Cass' arm and flicked the lights on in the room. He lead her to a examination table, much like one you would find at a doctor's office. Cass jumped up and sat on the table, crumpling the thin paper that was placed on it. She sat the cat down beside her.

"Well then, aren't you a strange specimen indeed?" said the doctor, curiously looking at the cat. He pulled at the cat's eyelids with his fingers, shining a small, stainless steel flashlight into the cat's eyes, making the cat's pupils condense.

The cat shook his head after the procedure, then scratched at its ear with the hind foot. Dr. Gautron opened the cat's mouth and observed the inside of the mouth - surprisingly, the inside of the cat's mouth looked normal, with the exception of quite a few more molars than canine teeth, and all of its teeth in pristine condition - it's obviously been taken good care of before it arrived at Helix Gates. The doctor felt the fur of the creature, taking any loose hairs for more reasearch. He grabbed the collar and examined it closely, shining the ruby in the bright lights of the room. The collar flipped over and, like what happened to Cass, a set of sharp teeth were exposed, opened up and out came a slobbery tongue, wrapping around Dr. Gautron's arm.

"Gah! Fiesty, aren't you?" he exclaimed, trying to jerk his arm back from the cat.

"Yeah . . er. . He does that sometimes." Cass muttered.

"I see. . He's quite protective of that collar of his. I must do more research. Mind if I take him in for a day or two for testing?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm not attached to him quite yet, although, I don't think he'll like being away from me for a couple of days."

Dr. Gautron picked up the cat and ran off with him in his arms- he fidgeted around in his coat pocket to find his lanyard with the glossy nametag on the end of it that he got from day one. He arrived at the door and swiftly slid his nametag through the lock, immediately opening the door and almost whacking him in the face. He placed the cat on another examination table in that room - Cass was uneasily pressing down on and rubbing her knuckles, something that she did when she was nervous.

"Now," started Dr. Gautron, walking back to Cass with a slight bounce in his step. Cass noticed that he held a stapled stack of papers in his hand.

"Although I work for the government, it's nessecary for me to have this form filled in before I take in specimens to study from someone. You'll need to fill out the first two pages, and the rest are just agreements that you have to sign, some nessecary, some not." he added.

He handed Cass the package of forms and a black ballpoint pen. She hadn't written anything in awhile, so her writing was a little messy, but she hoped it was still legible by whoever was going to be reading it. She came across the blank that prompted her to enter the personal name of the specimen. She hadn't given the cat a name yet, but now was her chance.

'Milo. Yeah. That sounds nice enough for a cat like 'im.' she told herself.

Cass scribbled through the rest of the form. The date it was found, if it looked ill or not, personal information about her... It all made a small amount of sense to her. Nonetheless, she trudged along through the form.

"Dr. Gautron...?" Cass asked quietly.

"Oh! Filled out the first two forms, did you?"

Cass nodded.

"Perfect! Now, I just have to get you to sign here.."

Cass signed just beneath where Dr. Gautron's finger pointed. Her cursive skills were extremely rusty and they were crying to be practiced. Dr. Gautron flipped a couple of pages, scrolling through them with his finger until he found a blank space where the signature went.

"And here.."

Cass signed again. And Dr. Gautron flipped some more pages, licking his finger to get traction on them.

"Almost done, just about two more signatures." he addressed.

Cass kept on signing. And signing. And finally, it was done. Like her first day at school - it seemed long and unnerving, but before she knew it, she was done for another day.

"Voila!" he exclaimed. Dr. Gautron, having a small amount of French in him that he was patriotic of, loved to throw in French phrases here and there. It sentimentally reminded him of his old home as a child.

"So, now what? Do I just hang out here for the next couple of days?" Cass questioned, looking directly at Dr. Gautron.

"Well, I, uh... I guess. It would be nice to have a lab partner to help me out while studying this specimen. Nobody's ever encountered something like this except for you." he said, reluctantly. Cass' face lit up a little. She was free from the experiments the other homeless were getting, but the goal of getting her father out of this mess was much farther away from her now.

"Now, let's get something for you to eat. Can't work on an empty stomach." he remarked.