Mal Reynolds (ex_aimtomisb682) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-05-26 12:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, malcolm reynolds, merryweather |
Who: Merryweather and Mal Reynolds (and Oscar)
What: Vet appointment!
When: 5/24
Where: Said vet's office!
Warnings/Rating: PG, Mal's a flirt.
Status: Complete
Oscar was due for a checkup, and Mal had looked up the closest vet. He’d try anyplace with decent reviews once. They were there now, with Oscar sitting placidly on his leash, whuffing out a sigh as he laid down. Mal appreciated that he was calm.
Sorting through her charts, Merry came out into the waiting area to call the next person in her queue. “Malcolm Reynolds?” She looked around to see if anyone’s head perked up.
Mal’s did. He nodded, rising and gently pulling at Oscar’s leash so he would follow. “C’mon, boy.” They walked through the big steel door, and only then did Mal look up at the vet. Well. Assistant, he figured; she looked about twelve. “Are you the doctor?”
Merry appreciated his being subtle in asking if she was the vet. Some people accused her outright of being too young, or worse, of women not being able to be vets. Which made her eyeroll. “Yup, that’s me, Doc D’Azur. But call me Merry. What’s their name?”
“Sorry, you look a little young. Had to ask. This is Oscar.” Oscar knew his name, and perked up a little bit, curious as to what this place was. Mal wondered if he’d ever been in a vet’s office before. “He had really bad fleas, but those should be gone now.”
“I’m twenty-two.” Grinning, Merry crouched down to rub Oscar’s ears. “Just got him?” She helped pick him up to set him on the table, moving to take a small skin scraping for flea larvae. “His muscle tone’s great.”
“I picked him up hanging around a truck stop in Arizona. He was lying on the ground, and nobody seemed to be watching him.” Mal shrugged. “Figured he’d do better with someone who’d, I don’t know, feed him.”
Merry’s blue eyes went wide. “Jesus tapdancing Christ,” she murmured, then winced. “Sorry. I’m a resident - I’m a vet, but I haven’t been practicing long, so I’m here, learning. Tableside manner’s where I need to learn the most,” she sighed.
Mal didn’t mind. Detachment in the face of terrible things bothered him. “Jesus tapdancing Christ sounds about right to me.” He looked down at Oscar. “But he’s gained weight since he came with me.”
“That’s good, he probably needed it.” Merry couldn’t help it, and she gave the dog a hug, burying her nose into its neck. “You’re lucky, little guy.”
“You could see his ribs before; you can’t now.” Mal was kind of amused, but also appreciative, that she seemed to be a bleeding heart. It was a good thing in a vet. “He shouldn’t give you any trouble in terms of looking him over. He’s pretty mellow.”
“Oh, even if he does, I have a secret weapon.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bag of beef jerky.” Handing one over, she started her exam, looking over Oscar’s ears first.
That got a smile out of him. “Aw, now he’s your friend for life.” Oscar was indeed happily chewing on the jerky.
And while he was still chewing on the jerky, Merry quickly gave him his booster shots, winking and grinning at Mal. “Is there anything you want me to look at on him specifically while I’m here?”
“See if his fleas are gone?” Mal asked. “Had a pretty bad case. I had to do the baths and everything. That was fun.” Not.
“I can do that now. Here, you give him some more jerky.” Merry tossed the bag to him, assuming he’d catch it, and went to get out a microscope.
Mal reached forward, fumbling it a little, but he picked it up from the floor. “Nice throw.”
“Good catch,” Merry retorted. She put Oscar’s skin scraping on a slide, sitting down to examine it. She hummed to herself for a few moments before pushing away and nodding. “Nope, no fleas. But it’d be a good idea to put him on some Prevention once a month, since I assume you walk him sometimes.” She was smiling at how the dog and the owner interacted.
“Prevention. Is that a prescription thing? Oscar, get out of there.” The dog had found the bag of jerky in Mal’s hand. “He’ll get a taste for this. I hope he doesn’t start whining for it at home.”
“It’s one of those things you can only get at the vet. You just put it between his shoulderblades, and he won’t even notice it. So much easier than a flea bath, and it prevents ticks and heartworm too.” She motioned for Mal to toss her back the jerky.
“The Prevention or the jerky?” So Mal felt like being a wiseass. He tossed the bag back to her in one fluid motion.
She caught it one handed, opening it and popping it into her mouth. “I think the jerky just helps with muscle tone,” she joked, mouth full. She had a hummingbird metabolism, she couldn’t help it.
“Careful you don’t eat more than the dog.” Mal chuckled. Oscar whuffed a noise, looking up, clearly hoping for more jerky. “You turned my dog into a monster, Doc.”
“I’m hungry!” Merry plunked down onto the floor with Oscar, writing out a note for Mal to remember to get Oscar some Prevention from somewhere that sold it, handing it over. Then she gave Oscar some jerky before nibbling some more herself.
“They work you too hard? Or do you go out a lot?” He was just curious, really. She was young enough to be the type to party hard.
“For why I’m hungry? Nope, just have a hummingbird metabolism. And my cousin’s going through a bad divorce, so she moved in with me and I’m up with her eight month old a lot of the time.” Merry was grinning, though. She did love tiny baby Zelda.
Mal was never particularly into children. “Rough,” he commented. “Glad she didn’t ask me to take the case.” Divorces, especially when there were kids involved, were emphatically not his cup of tea.
“Are you a lawyer?” Merry cocked her head to the side.
“PI.” Mal scratched the dog’s head. “Half the calls I get are housewives wanting me to camp out and take pictures of their men diddling whores. No thanks.”
“Oh, no, it’s not like that.” Merry took a deep breath and then said everything that had happened in one word. “Her husband did wet works CIA type stuff and then he retired and they moved to Oregon with their kid to live a more boring life only one day she woke up with him strangling her and trying to grab a gun so she kneed him in the balls and hit him with a lamp until he passed out and ran with the baby.” Exhaling, she chuckled. “I think she’s got pretty good grounds for divorce.”
Mal stared. “Um ... wow.” What the hell? “If that’s true, I’m kinda expecting some NSA guy to pop out of somewhere and tell you you can’t talk about it.”
“I’m sure I’m not supposed to, but what the hell ever, I’m more worried about my cousin than whatever group he was in. He was a clone or a sleeper agent or some shit anyway.” Merry put her hands over Oscar’s ears so he wouldn’t hear her swearing.
It was oddly endearing that she did that. “That is ... beyond fucked up.” If she could swear, so could he.
“Right?” Merry shook her head. “Thank god I’m single. Life’s way easier when you’re married to ice cream, isn’t that right Oscar?” The dog was giving her kisses, which made Merry scrunch her eyes and laugh.
Mal laughed at his dog. “Ice cream? You don’t look like that type. I mean. You’re skinny.” That was smooth.
Snorting, she shook her head. “Hummingbird metabolism, runs in my whole family. My cousin’s the same way, only she got boobs from somewhere.”
“Hey, boobs aren’t the key to everything.” Who was he kidding? They usually were.
“That’s true, sometimes it’s butts.” Merry hopped up, smiling when Oscar plunked his butt down onto her feet. “Hey, you’re on that network thing, aren’t you? You just moved here. You get the first visit discount.” She looked through her pockets until she found a card that the clinic was using as a coupon.
“Thanks.” Mal looked surprised. “Appreciate it.” He hadn’t expected anything like that. He’d mostly just irritated her and made stupid jokes.
“Oh, no worries. You’d better bring Oscar back to see me, you know, I’m going to miss him.” His owner was funny too, not a huge pain. Good patients were hard to come by some days.
“I can’t use him to pick up women if he’s got fleas, so I’ll make sure we keep him in tip top shape.” Mal winked.
“Totally makes sense,” Merry chuckled. “I’m sure that’d work, he seems to be a cuddlebunny.”
“He’s a good guy.” Mal couldn’t help but be serious for a minute. He really was getting fond of Oscar. But he smiled at the doctor. “Well, thanks, Doc; he’ll be back when he needs to be back, I figure.”
“Six months, unless you see anything out of the ordinary. They’ll give you a shot schedule up front.” Merry smiled and waved to the little dog. “Be good, you hear?”
Mal saluted. “You heard the pretty lady,” he told Oscar, who just whuffed quietly as they headed out the door.