Chapter Text
The worst thing is how cold it is.
With the last of his strength, Dirk has managed to drag himself into a partially sheltered alley, but every so often water builds up on the tarp above him and splashes in a freezing torrent.
Doesn’t matter. At least the cold means he doesn’t feel the vicious wound in his side anymore. He has his eyes shut, his tail still. The life of a stray is frequently short and brutal, and Dirk has no fantasies that he deserves better. Dying before the pain hits is more than he would have expected.
He dimly registers the sound of footsteps approaching. What difference does it make? Not like he can run away. If this person wants to hurt him, they will, and Dirk can’t stop them.
Even so, when the footsteps come closer and stop, he hisses weakly. Just to make his opinion known.
Then, sounds of human speech. The voice is one Dirk knows: a young man who occasionally feeds the strays. Talks to them, too, though Dirk can’t understand the words anymore, but the man has never hurt any of them that Dirk knows.
He’s not expecting something to wrap around him: surprise has him freezing for an instant. Once that’s gone, fatigue takes its place. Even sliding his claws out feels like too much work, even though he’s being picked up.
Pain takes that moment to register again, and Dirk mercifully passes the fuck out.
The on-call vet clinic is halfway across town. Jake drives there with his heart in his throat, casting anxious glances at the pathetic little creature bundled up in his jacket. “Not to fret, old fellow, we’ll have you back to rights in no time.”
The cat is still and silent. Jake drives as fast as he dares, lest he hurt the poor thing further.
It’s hard to tell if the cat is any of his regular chums, with the fur so matted by blood and rain. Jake’s grandmother used to feed them, and he’d taken over ever since she’d passed on. It’s something to do, and a few of the more daring ones let him pet them.
Finally, they arrive at the vet. There’s a light on. It occurs to Jake that he’ll have to actually speak to the staff, and he almost turns back when the cat lets out another sad little hiss.
It shames Jake into moving. He leaves the car, opens the other door to take out his passenger, locks it and hurries inside the clinic.
The only person there is reading through a thick novel, but he puts it down when Jake clears his throat.
“I found it on the street.” Jake is proud of how little his voice wavers. “I think it must have gotten in a fight, it’s very badly injured.”
The vet – presumably – is on his feet in seconds. “Let’s get a good look, then.”
“You got here just in time,” says the guy – whose name is Charlie, it turns out, and he is in fact not a full vet but a veterinary technician. “He wasn’t going to make it through the night, for sure.”
The exact difference eludes Jake, except that apparently full vets can cast some spells that technicians can’t; and thus Jake will have to bring back the cat in two weeks’ time, not only to remove the stitches but to see if the cat has a loving family that cast a bring-me-home spell on him.
“I could try out a name divination,” Charlie offers. “I’d like some practice on it anyway, but it won’t tell you much – some strays have names and some house cats don’t, they have to choose the name for it to show up.”
That makes about as much sense to Jake as magic ever did. “It won’t harm him, would it?”
“Wouldn’t offer it if it could! No, worst case, the spell fizzles out.” At Charlie’s expectant look, Jake nods. Charlie frowns over the cat, takes out his phone, pokes at the keys and finally draws a sigil in glowing gestures while glancing at the screen.
The sigil takes shape, then as Charlie says, “Be known to us,” twists into a short word written in cursive.
Jake squints. “Dirk?”
Charlie shrugs. “Your guess is as good as mine, I suck at cursive.”
Jake rents a cat carrier. “Looks like you’re coming home with me,” he tells Dirk, “at least for the foreseeable future. Can’t very well let you out on the streets in this condition, can I?”
Dirk hisses, but Jake can tell his heart’s not in it.