Jaxon

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     "Ardent and Hace?" The assistant called for them. Hace hadn't really been paying attention to what was going on around him. He looked up quickly and started to collect everything together. He put everything in the backpack and put Ardent on his hip. Ardent grabbed onto him tightly and started crying. This was a different type of crying. Something new must have upset him.

     "Not this again." He said under his breath as he tried to calm him down.

     "Awww, what's wrong with the little guy?" The assistant asked as she lead the way down to the exam rooms.

     "He had a bad night. The storm yesterday did a real number on his nerves. He must still be scared of something." Hace sighed. He felt bad for Ardent and again wondered if he should have even come today.

     "Poor little guy." She sincerely felt bad for him. No one in the office liked to see inchoates sad or in pain.

     They went down a short hallway and soon opened a door. She held it open for him and gave them a smile. "The doctor will be in shortly." She gave Ardent a bigger smile and reached into her pocket. "Can he have a treat?"

     "If he'll take it from you."

     She pulled out a small baggie with what looked like cookies in it. She pulled out one of the cookies and waved it in front of his face. Ardent sniffed a few times and rubbed his eyes. He looked at the treat then looked at the woman.

     "Food?" He asked

     She gave a big smile and nodded. "Food." She repeated back to him.

     He hesitantly reached out and took the cookie. He sniffed one more time and smiled back at her. "Tank ou."

     Both Hace and the woman awed at how cute he was.

     Ardent seemed to calm down once he'd eaten the cookie. Hace gave him another one of his snacks he'd brought along as well. Ardent almost acted like he was going to fall asleep again when the doctor came in.

     The bulky blue man walked in and put on his three lensed glasses. He flipped a few pages on a clipboard before looking up and giving a friendly smile.

     "Hello! I'm Dr. Veriz. Who is this cute little guy?" He's voice was very cheerful as he walked up and gave Ardent a gentle pet on the head. Hace wondered if this guy had to deal with a lot of hard cases since he was a specialist, that's why he was so nice and tried to calm down Ardent first thing.

     "This is Ardent." Hace said returning the smile. "We talked on the phone about his spine."

     "Right. Let's get right into it." Dr. Veriz took a seat opposite Hace and looked at the clipboard again. He set down the device attached to the clipboard and brought up a holographic display of an x-ray. "I've had a good look at this and have found a few interesting things about it. First, this right here..." He pointed to a spot in the lower back that was around his hips. "Seems to be the main problem for his paraplegia. There's an unknown object lodged quite deep into his spine. I've talked with both the shelter and your regular vet; it seems to be some type of metal. But no one has been able to identify what kind. Without knowing that, I have no idea if it's poisoning him any further. The two other pieces that were inside his back have been sent to a lab to see if they can figure anything out."

     Hace gulped and looked down at Ardent. His eyes were wide as he looked at the hologram slowly turn. It was a bright blue color that showed the outline of his entire body. His skeleton was on display, although right now the doctor had it zoomed up on the injury.