"Cereal is not healthy breakfast food." Nick said as he wandered into the kitchen early the next morning. Justin snorted. "Like I give two shits what you think." he rolled his eyes and continued to shove spoonfuls of Apple Jack's into his mouth. Nick bent down to grab his sneakers before settling into the kitchen chair to lace them up. "You should listen to me, after all, I am a doctor." he grinned at Justin as he finished one foot and then moved onto the other. "Well as soon as I grow two more legs and start walking around on all fours I'll be sure to come to you for medical advice. Until then, I'll get my health tips from a people doctor, thank you very much." he smirked at the blonde and then tilted his cereal bowl so he could slurp up his leftover milk. "Don't blame me when you're jacked up on sugar and can't finish your training sessions today." Nick finished tying his shoes and then reached into the fridge for a protein shake. "They ever come up for air?" he asked, gesturing towards the spare room where Alex and Brian had slept the night before. Justin shook his head. "I got up at five to run and they were still there when I left. Both of their cars are still outside so they must be bushed." Nick laughed. "Yeah, I'm sure they are tired after they were up half the night fucking." Justin's eyes grew wide. "Is that what that noise was? I thought you were having a dream and I was too tired to roll over and see what the hell you were doing." Nick choked on the shake. "Dude, I would so not do that shit with you lying right next to me." he coughed a couple of times trying to clear his throat. Justin laughed. "Wouldn't be the first time." he said with a smirk. Nick's cheeks grew pink and he shot Justin the finger. "That was years ago, asshole." Justin gave him a small smile. "Heading into the office?" he asked. "Yeah. Saturdays are a half day. Then I have to pop over to the shelter to help give vaccines to the puppies waiting for adoption. Don't you have your big training session with Mr. Rich and Famous today?" Nick asked as he slipped a hoodie over his scrubs. Justin nodded and stood to put his bowl and spoon in the sink. "Yeah, at 2. Want to have dinner tonight at Joe's and I can tell you about how sexy he is?" Nick laughed. "We'll see. I’ll call you later. Leave the lovebirds a note to lock up would ya?" Justin waved as Nick stepped out the door and went back into the bedroom to change. He kept extra clothes on Nick's closet and knew he would have something he could wear for the day. Once he was showered and dressed, he grabbed a pencil and paper by the door and scribbled a note for their two friends and locked the door behind him. -- "How is it that our shortest days are also the worst?" Nick asked as he leaned against the main desk of the clinic. Howie smiled up at him from where he was inputting patient data into the computer. "Don't ask me. I can't quite figure it out and I only have to do it every other Saturday. I don't know how you do it every week. " Nick shrugged. "I don't know how to do anything else but work. I'd just sit at home in my underwear and play video games and even that gets too boring after awhile." Howie shook his head. "You know, if you got yourself a nice boy…" he was cut off by the glare Nick shot him. Howie chuckled. "We can't all be as blissfully happy as you D." Nick said sadly. Howie smiled as he thought about his wife, Leigh. "She's pretty great isn't she?" he asked blushing. "Of course she is. She sent you in with muffins this morning. That makes her phenomenal in my opinion." Nick said, smiling. "I barely had time to drink a shake this morning before I had to run out the door. Alex and Brian stayed in the guest room last night and let's just say that they haven't mastered the art of being quiet." Howie laughed. "Why didn't you just go in there and send them home?" Nick blanched. "No fucking way I was going in there with the two of them going at it. I've seen Brian naked enough times in my life and I'd like to hope I never see Alex, least of all see them naked together." He shuddered at the mental image. "Mrs. Paxton is next with Lilly, routine checkup." Howie said handing him a clipboard. "She's waiting for you in exam room 2. Don't go into 4. Rocky had an accident before he left and with the phones ringing off the hook this morning I haven't had time to get back there to clean it up. I'm hoping I'll get to it next." "Sounds good D. I'll catch up with you in a little bit." Nick nodded and grabbed the clipboard and a palm full of sanitizer before heading back down the hallway for his next appointment. -- Two hours later Nick was already dead on his feet but pushed through as he locked up the clinic for the rest of the weekend. There was a mountain of paperwork on his desk he was trying really hard not to think about but it was no use. He had already convinced himself he would come back after going to the animal shelter to start trying to make a dent in it before the puppy adoption. As much as he loved Mount Pleasant and it's residents, he wished like hell they would be more responsible pet owners and get their dogs spayed and neutered so the amount of puppies needing to be adopted every few months started going down, rather than up. It was a constant battle he'd been fighting for years. He headed to his truck and took off the short distance to the animal shelter and rescue. All puppies that would be available for the adoption events were sheltered at the animal shelter about five minutes away from his practice. He popped in every weekend to do routine vaccinations, offer medical attention and help with cleaning and walks. There was one full time employee, Cristiana, but everyone else was on a strictly volunteer basis, so Nick never knew who or how much help he would have. Since the puppies would be going home, hopefully, the next weekend, they still needed their last round of shots before they would be eligible for adoption. He parked outside the shelter and grabbed his bag and headed around the back to the staff door. The moment he stepped inside he was met with the cacophony of dog barks and whining. He made his way through the back of the building and into the small examination room he kept for medical attention. He tossed his bag down on the counter and began unloading the vaccines onto the counter. Once he was happy with the way everything was arranged, he grabbed his lab coat off the hook on the back of the door and set off in search of Cristiana. He found her hunched over a kennel, being attacked by five or six puppies at once. They moved so quickly in their excitement for attention that Nick couldn't tell how many there actually were. He grabbed the kennel door and helped Cristiana to her feet. "Hey Nick," she said softly, her eyes full of smiles. "Hey Cris, got anyone around here today that can help me administer the last round of shots?" Nick asked hopeful for help but fully expecting to have to do it himself. She shook her head sadly. "Nope. It's just me here. My afternoon girl came in and looked like she could get sick at any moment so I sent her back home. I don't need to get sick the week before an adoption event." Nick nodded. "Good call. I can't get sick either. We've got to get these cuties out of here." he said as he looked around at all the kennels full of puppies eagerly awaiting their new homes. She nodded sadly. "It's such a shame isn't it?" Nick nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinking about offering the first year or six months of medical care for free or discounted if they would just take care of their pets. I mean all these puppies are the result of five or six pet owners not doing the responsible thing and fixing their pets. " "Can you afford to do that?" she asked seriously. Nick shrugged. "I don't know. But these adoption events cost me quite a bit and we've had to do so many more of them recently that I'm just not sure what to do." Cristiana watched the puppies jump and bark as they tried to climb over each other for their turn in front of the kennel door. She watched with a smile as Nick dropped to his knees and shoved both hands in through the bars of the kennel door. In seconds he was bombarded with puppies, all wanting their heads patted and their ears scratched. He played with them for several minutes before he got back to his feet and wiped his slobbery hands onto his scrub pants. He turned and gave her a tired smile. "Since it's just me, I'll have to do them one at a time so I'll yell when I'm ready to switch." Nick said opening the top of the kennel and scooping up the first puppy he could get his hands on. She nodded and watched him take the puppy back to the exam room. She hated knowing he would have to do so much work on his own but she didn't have anyone else to help and she had to finish feeding and watering them before she could even begin to think about helping with the vaccinations. An hour later Nick was almost done with the majority of the vaccinations and was feeling dead on his feet. He'd been bitten, scratched and even peed on once or twice. All he could think about was a long hot shower and then climbing back into bed and calling it an early night. He needed to call Justin and tell him going out to dinner was definitely off the table. He was bought out of his thoughts by Cristiana at the door. "Got the energy for one more?" She asked cradling a wrinkly grey puppy in the crook of her arms. Nick smiled as the pup popped his head up over her shoulder and let out a giant yawn. "For this little guy, of course." She tried to hand Nick the puppy, but he burrowed down against her and refused to let himself be released. She tried again and he still refused. She looked up at Nick, eyes wide and unsure of how to detangle the dog. Nick smiled and moved closer, laying his hand against her arm, right in front of the pup's face so he could smell Nick. After a couple of moments he popped his head up from Cristiana's arms and gave it a tentative sniff. Nick reached with his other hand and gently scratched the back of the dog’s hand, enough to make him pull himself up further and then very slowly reach out and lick the exposed hand. Nick smiled and then continued to rub the dog's head until it felt comfortable enough to willfully go to Nick. Once Nick had the puppy in his arms he gave it several cuddles before taking him over to the counter to give him the shots. "Do you have a dog?" Cristiana asked as she watched him work. Nick shook his head. "Nah. I'm never home. And when I am it's not for long. It's not fair for an animal to be stuck in my small apartment. I just get to love on all the pups that come to the clinic everyday. Like this guy." Nick mumbled as he lifted the dog and snuggled his face in it's fur. Cristiana watched him with the dog and smiled. Nick truly loved animals, all animals and it showed in everything he did. The dog reached up and licked at the side of Nick's face, eliciting a laugh and another snuggle. Cristiana laughed. "Better be careful Dr, or he will expect to go home with you next weekend." Nick smiled wistfully at the little squirmy pup. He was gorgeous and full of energy. For the first time Nick wished he lived a simpler, less busy life where he could actually have a companion like this. Unfortunately he didn't see his life slowing down anytime soon. He gave the dog another scratch and dropped a kiss on top of his head before handing him back to Cristiana. "Take him away." Nick demanded with a laugh. She smiled and reached for the puppy. Cooing and scratching him as she led him back to the kennel. Nick leaned against the counter while he washed his hands. He glanced at the clock and realized he'd better call and cancel on Justin before it got too much later. He just wanted a shower and his bed. He wasn't even sure if he would surface for air before Monday morning. He hadn't slept that long in a long time, but the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. He reached for the phone as he tore off his lab coat and gathered his things. -- Kevin woke up to the alarm sounding noisily on the nightstand. He rolled over and slapped at it, confused. He hadn't remembered setting an alarm and wasn't sure why he needed to be awake right now. His eyes lowered slowly as he blinked away the sleepiness before finally registering the bright red numbers displayed. It was noon. How had he been lucky enough to let JC sleep this late. He blinked a few more times and realized there was a piece of paper tucked between the alarm clock and his water glass. Forcing himself up into a sitting position, he retrieved the paper and opened it up. He scanned it quickly and sighed. JC had called a cab and let him sleep instead of making him get up early and taking him to the airport. He'd set the alarm, giving Kevin enough time to eat something and shower before he had to meet Justin at the gym for his fitness test. He rolled over and put his head back in the pillow for a few minutes. He really needed to be nicer to JC, maybe give him a raise. That was if he could keep his contracts long enough to keep his own job. He tossed and turned until he was laying on his back, staring up at the slow moving ceiling fan. Everything seemed to move so much slower here, like time got stuck. It made sense the fan would be circling lazily as well. What he'd seen of the town hadn't been that bad so far, but he still wasn't happy about being stuck here. He supposed he should make the best out of it though. Continuing to be angry about his circumstances wasn't going to get him out of here any quicker, in all actuality it could end up with him losing everything. The label didn't even want to have a conversation with him until the end of his imprisonment. He’d tried to have JC reach out once to schedule a meeting before he moved to Mount Pleasant, but they didn’t even return his calls. He should probably call JC and make sure he landed okay. He rolled back over to check the time. It was already after 12:30. He groaned and threw back the covers. He would have to hurry if he was going to get everything done before he had to be at the gym. -- Kevin walked into the gym at 2pm on the dot. He was already dressed in basketball shorts and a t-shirt, opting not to wear the gym provided apparel. There were more people in here now and Kevin wondered if working out in the middle of the night when he wasn’t having training sessions would be a more productive option. No one seemed to notice him however and he stood at the counter for close to five minutes before Justin came wandering in from the back. “Hey Kevin. Sorry to keep you waiting. Are you ready to get started?” the blonde asked with a bright smile. Kevin nodded, choosing not to comment on his lateness. “Lead the way.” They made their way to the back corner of the gym to begin. Justin led him through several warm up exercises and then allowed him to begin his usual routine while Justin took notes and offered suggestions. “You need to engage your core more.” Justin commented, “Suck in your abs and you’ll get more power.” Kevin glared at him but did what he said, immediately noticing a difference. The afternoon went quickly and before Kevin knew it Justin was clapping him on the back. “Great work man. I’ll go through my notes and then we can discuss a plan at your next session. Is there anything particular you are looking to get out of this or just wanting to stay in shape?” Justin asked as he folded the clipboard into his arms. Kevin shook his head. “Mainly just looking for a way to channel my frustration. JC mentioned something about boxing. I might be interested in that too.” Justin nodded. “Yeah we have a boxing class every Tuesday and Thursday from 6pm-8pm. There’s a great group of guys that come out. Might be a good way for you to meet some other people in town.” Kevin wiped the sweat from his face. “Maybe. I’m not really sure what I’m looking for yet.” Justin gave him a warm smile. “Well, I was born and raised here. I know pretty much everyone to some degree. Most of the people in town are amazing. You’d be hard pressed to find nicer people. If you ever just want to grab a beer and talk, give me a call. Most of us grew up together, or have been friends for a long time. Someone is always hanging out somewhere.” “Justin! Nick’s on the phone.” someone yelled from the front desk. Justin’s smile widened. “We good here? I have to get that.” Kevin nodded, fighting down the sudden irritation of the name again. His mind was already drifting to the blonde and was now immensely curious of his relationship to his new trainer. “Yeah sure. When do you want to meet next?” “How about Monday? That will give me the rest of the weekend to work out a plan.” Kevin nodded and watched the younger man bound off towards the telephone. Kevin had half been hoping that the blonde man would have been inside the gym working out when he’d arrived and had to fight back his disappointment during his entire workout. Now he’d learned from the sound of it, that the man and Justin were possibly an item if the bright smile on the other man’s mouth was any indication. He sighed. He did not move here to get involved with someone, he moved here to find himself. He just wasn’t sure how to.