Opening the back door to his little Civic, he let Dunham hop in and gave him a big, cheesy smile.“Who’s a good boy?”
Dunham growled at him, “Will ye quit?”
“Absolutely never,” Ross assured him brightly before shutting the door.
As he climbed into the driver’s seat, Dunham grumbled, “At least ye figured out where I was and came to get me.Oh, ye brought clothes too!Ye have me thanks.”
“Please, as if that took a detective to work it out.Early morning, you in dog form near the apartments?Of course someone called Animal Control and had you picked up.”
“But ye came to get me yerself, lad, that’s what makes me happiest.”
“Dunham, you are an irreplaceable gash in the fabric of reality.Your keening howl is like no other.If it faded from the world, the void left behind would be unfillable, and the mansions of silence would forever fill with our laments.”
A digestive silence lingered in the back seat.“Lad, be there coffee or spirits in that cup?”
“Sadly, only coffee.”Ross started up the car to get hot air flowing, then took a moment to text everyone in the group:The rescue party can go back home.I’ve got him.
Chloe:What?!Where was he?
Ross:The pound, where else?
Chloe:XDDD OMG that is priceless.He okay?
Ross:Just fine.And no, he’s never living this down
Heather:of course he isn’t
Dunham paused in changing in the back seat.“Ye’re not telling them where ye found me!Ross!”
Ross cackled openly as he backed out of the parking lot.
“I thought we be friends,” Dunham mourned as he pulled jeans on.
“Oh, we’re friends.Which is why I didn’t ask you to roll over and do tricks for me in there just to prove the point.And you owe me a case of beer.”
Dunham sighed again, at least a decade’s worth.
Ross’s phone rang again.He cheerfully slid to accept and punched the speakerphone option, as his car was too old to have Bluetooth capability.“Fuckery department, please hold.”
There was an audible hiccup.“Ross?Are you well?”
Oh dear.It had said Glenn was calling, hadn’t it?Now, why hadn’t Ross picked up on that?He must be truly past his limits.He meant to say something professional in response, but what came out of his mouth was, “I can’t decide if I want a hug, need an extra-large coffee, six shots of vodka, or two weeks of sleep.But hey, I found our misadventuring werewolf, so all’s peaches and cream, right?”
“That is very excellent news, yes,” Glenn responded carefully.
“There’s something wrong,” Ross whined at him.“Isn’t there?Why is there something else wrong?”
“I didn’t say—”
“It’s in your tone!You always sound like that when something’s on fire, or going to be on fire, or may be on fire tomorrow, and I’mtiiiiired.Am I whining?I’m whining.But you don’t understand, I don’t have any fucks left to give.I had a full bag of them yesterday, but those are exhausted.I don’t have any more left.Today’s Ross has no more bandwidth, okay?Whatever is wrong, I need you to tell it to Tomorrow Ross.He has bandwidth still to spare.Today’s Ross, nope.”
“Ross, I need you to slowly pull over to a curb and park.Alright?And then I need Dunham to finish driving you home.”
Ross found himself following the suggestion before he really even thought about it.“Okay?Why am I doing that?I can drive.”
Dunham’s heavy hand gripped his shoulder.“Actually, lad, you’re slurring a bit and bouncing between the lines.It’s giving me nausea.Let me drive.”
Oh.“Am I slurring?”
