I Was Hoping For A Quiet Life, But You Gave Me So Much More

This Complicates Things

Liam spent a while sitting on the ground, looking out over the water. The wolf laying down by his side, He slowly stroked it's fur, watching as it's eyes closed, relaxed, at peace. This was definitely one of the strangest things that's ever happened to him, yet he couldn't get himself to leave. At least not until he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. The wolf's head shot off quickly looking at Liam as he pulled the phone out of his pocket.

Liam read the text Isaac had sent him and responded-

Izz- Hey I'm heading out soon, you're still alive right?
Li- Yeah, I'm fine, hold on a sec I'll be there in a minute
Izz- k, hurry please

Liam started to stand, and he heard the wolf whine. "Sorry buddy, I gotta go. Plus I'm still not entirely sure you aren't something my brain made,' the wolf's head tilted, "Y'know, PTSD and all, isn't it great." he said sarcastically. The wolf froze for a second before whining. "Sorry, maybe I'll see you here again, y'know, if you aren't a figment of my imagination." The wolf's tail wagged and it barked happily running into the woods in the opposite direction as Liam. Liam just sighed and made his way back down the path.

Liam opened the back door of the house, taking a deep breath, "are you really gonna ask this" he thought, hesitating. He had concluded that it couldn't be a wolf. On his walk back he started googling things, there weren't wolves in the area. A few coyotes were there but not wolves, and that definitely wasn't a coyote. He had landed on 'wolf dog' dogs that were closely related to wolves and could resemble them easily. Which led him to where he was now. He breathed again before stepping inside. Isaac was in the kitchen eating a bagel.

"Hey Li, dude you were out there for like 3 hours." Isaac said.

"Wait really?" Liam checked the time on his phone, Isaac was right, "shit."

"Hey don't worry about it, I'm leaving, you wanna come with?" Isaac asked.

Liam scoffed, jokingly, 'And watch you and Scott uncomfortably try to ignore the feelings you have for each other? Yeah no I think I'm good." Isaac's face turned bright red and his eyes fell on the ground in front of him. "Oh, but, um, there is one thing."

Isaac raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, what is it?"

"Okay so, when I was in the woods I-" he hesitated, "I saw a big... dog."

"What?" Isaac's face twisted in confusion.

"Yeah, a big dog, uh, black fur, patches of white, about yea high," He held up his hand to the center of his thigh, "Maybe you could ask Deaton if someone's missing a dog?"

"Uh, I mean yeah, but are you sure it was a dog, it could be wild or something, a wolf maybe."

"I thought so at first too, but wolves don't live around here, I googled it."

"Weird, yeah, I'll ask when I get there, just, if you see it again be careful, don't wanna get too close, it could be dangerous."

Liam smiled nervously, "Oh, yeah definitely not, nope, that'd be a bad idea."

Isaac squinted his eyes. 'Okay, I know you're hiding something but right now I have to leave and I'm very nervous so I will deal with it later." He picked up his bag and headed towards the door. 'I'll see you when I get back, bye Li."

"Bye," Liam called

Isaac was doing pretty well so far. Deaton's words not his. It was strange getting used to something new, he'd never worked in a clinic before, but he enjoyed it. Liked being around animals all day, even if it made him sad that a lot of them came in sick or injured, he got to help them, and that made him happy.