A whistle but not how I know it... (2)
When Abby Anderson goes on patrol and accidentally steps on her dogs paw, what better way to see a positive in the situation than use it to talk to the pretty dog trainer?
Cw: Abby anderson x dog trainer!reader, fluff, Alice gets "hurt", Manny being a bad wingman, gaggle of gossipers (your coworkers), abby is a mess, authors note at the end (lmk if I need to add anything here)
Wc: 2,4k
Part 1
Another patrol it was not. Abby couldn't fully commit herself to focusing on actual patrol when she knew you were "counting on" her coming back to chat. Sadly this was very obvious to Manny, who couldn't keep a smirk off his face even if he tried.
Abby's distracted state was further stated when she accidentally stepped on Alice's front paw. Which caused the hound to yowl before snapping at the woman's ankles in retaliation.
Now that the patrol had officially come to its slow end, Manny and Abby are heading back to the stadium in that rusty old Jeep that screeched every few miles. Abby in the bed of the truck and Alice taking her rightful place in the passenger seat. Even though the sweet dog seemed completely fine Abby couldn't help but stress over fact she stomped on Alice's paw. What if she broke one of her toes? Or worse, dislocated her nails?
Okay to be fair Abby clearly knew nothing about dogs but you never know what could happen. So of course the next best course of action was carrying a hyper Alice back to the cages like she was a damsel in distress. To anyone outside Abby seemed to be doing something dutiful— carrying Alice like a wounded soldier. However on closer inspection they will see how the dogs tail wags with an intensity that makes Abby's arms struggle to hold her as she pants excitedly and realise that said dog is infact, perfectly fine.
Abby's determination is not easily smothered by Manny's boisterous cackling, but her pride is ever so slightly wounded.
As the two approach the cage Abby can see how your coworkers crowded around you with sly smiles as you slap one of their chests annoyed. When the gaggle of gossipers see Abby walking closer with Alice in her arms they quickly disperse to do the jobs they were actually paid to do. Quickly looking up to see what the hoarde cleared for, you lock eyes with Abby and jump up in concern for the apparently injured Alice.
"Oh my god, Abby!— what happened to her?" Abby frowned and gave the dog a sad look, Alice however perked up at your voice "I stepped on her front paw on patrol and I think it might be… Broken or— or dislocated. I'm not sure" As you speedily jog to the pair and rush out of the cages, Alice wriggles out of Abby's protective hold. She then sprints to you before happily jumping up and licking your face.
Your face morphs from concern into pure confusion.
"Uh, she seems perfectly fine to me?" Abby is quick to disagree, "No ways. I heard something crack when I took that step. She even snapped at me to try break my foot as revenge— she's not okay" she surges forward to scoop up the dog once more. After throwing a puzzled look at Abby you turn to Manny, silently asking what's up with his roommate. He, of course, takes up the opportunity to make Abby look even worse than she already does.
"She is fine— Alice was chasing a squirrel right after Abby 'broke' her foot… and she was nowhere near as worried as she is right now." Manny grinned and slung his arm round Abby's shoulders. Abby huffed and shook Manny off her shoulders "Oh shut up. She's literally hyperventilating from pain, she needs to get checked." Abby turned to you and motioned with her head to follow her into the open cage.
You shake your head but follow anyway, "Abby I really think she's fine— she's wagging her tail." Abby puts the dog down with gentle precision and looks up at you expectantly. With a sigh you kneel down, putting out both hands for Alice to give her paws for inspection. After a few tense moments Abby hears you gasp.
Snapping her head over she lunges to look at the pup's paws to see what's wrong.
Thunk!
But accidentally butts you in the head— hard.
Dropping Alice's paws you clutch the side of your head. "Holy shit Abby! I think you just gave me a concussion!" "Shit! I'm so sorry— are you okay?! Are you bleeding?!" Abby frantically tries to get a good look at your head completely forgetting about Alice. She then freezes when she sees your body shaking and panics even more.
"I'm so sorry! Um, do you need me to take you to the infirmary? Do you need—" Her sentence abruptly stops when she hears the little chuckles spilling from your lips and the wide smile that covers your face. Even Manny was giggling from where he was watching with the bundle of your colleagues. Abby of course assumes the worst, "Oh god, I hit you so hard you got brain damage! Shit you need a medic—" She's stopped by a warm hand that settles on her tense forearm "Calm down Abby! You… pfft— need to slow down, and breathe!"
Abby glances at you, her heart beating in her ears. "Calm down?! I nearly just killed you!" Quickly shaking your head you grab her by both her shoulders. "Abigail. I'm completely fine— same with Alice." Abby flusters, realizing she abandoned the original reason she was here. "You are the one that needs to calm down, so breathe a little— please…"
Alice trots up next to Abby taking a seat next to the mess of a woman and puts a paw on her shoulder.
Again, probably out of pity.
With a couple grounding breaths Abby glances up to you who got up off the floor and is looking down at her puzzled. As she opens her mouth to apologize, you interrupt her "im so sor—" "next time you wanna talk to me… maybe don't try diagnose my favorite dog?" With a soft smile and a shake of your head you offer a hand to help her up. Abby sits in shock for a few seconds before taking your hand and getting up. Alice barks at the two and gives Abby's hand a big slobbery kiss before running off to chew on a broken tennis ball.
Abby offers you a crooked smile, her hand scratching at the back of her neck. After a few moments of silence Manny speaks up from the gaggle "Abs! Isaac still wants that report!" He stands with his hands on his hips, an impatient look on his face even though he was the one who earlier encouraged Abby to talk to the trainer. With a soft curse and a shouted "I'll be there in a sec!" She turns to face you again. "I guess that's me…" "yea I guess so…" but you weren't focused on her— instead you were watching as your coworkers were smacking Manny on the head and yelling hushed words at him. Abby was oblivious to Manny's abuse, too busy trying to soak up the last few seconds of your presence she has.
"Act— Actually, I'll just go see him myself!" Manny yells back, flinching as someone nearly hits him again. Luckily they stopped just before Abby could see it.
Just as Abby turns around to see Manny leave she also sees the group of dog trainers scatter into their tasks… again. Without a word she turns back to you, the skeptical look on your face quickly dropping to not alarm Abby. "So… since you're free now, wanna do general checkup on Alice with me? Yknow considering…" you throw her a teasing look "you seem to know a whole lot about caring for dogs…" Abby flushes and sheepishly offers a shrug before she nods "Yea sure, sounds like that could work"
You hum, happy with the response before turning around and doing that damn whistle. Once again goosebumps roll up Abby's arms and she feels her senses lock into the sound that she's come to fear on patrol and now suddenly appreciate in the cages. Alice sprints over, her ears flopping around happily before she sits obediently to wait for her instruction.
"Okay, for starts how much do you know about dogs?" You kneel down infront of Alice and wait for Abby to do the same. "Um, they walk on four legs and they're canines…?" Abby felt spiteful that she never tried to listen when her dad went on rants about animals.
With hidden giggles you nod slowly, pretending to think about what you just heard. "Okay there's a bit more to dogs than that, but I'll tell you that along the way" Putting out your hands Alice puts her paws into them like before.
"Okay so, first I'll check her paws since that's what you originally brought her in for…" Using both hands you push her paws up to look at their undersides "if you look— carefully this time— you'll see that both her paws look normal and they aren't bruised or injured." Abby nods slowly "so she's okay?" With a nod, you respond "she's perfectly fine. Also she was sprinting and running around earlier, dogs don't put their full weight on injured legs or paws." Abby hums thoughtfully and observes Alice's paws before you put them down.
"Always remember that an animal will always do its best to not get injured further. They will stop using a limb if it is already harmed."
"That makes sense…" Damn. Why didnt she think of that earlier when Alice chased a squirrel? Guess Manny was right for once…
Abby watches as you tap under Alice's jaw to get her to open her mouth before cringing when you slip your fingers under her upper lip. "Why are you doing… that?" Pulling your eyes away from Alice you glance at Abby "Dogs gums often give people a good idea of the dogs condition— gums that aren't healthy and pink often point to issues like dehydration or illness."
Flipping up Alice's top lip you pushing slightly on the soft flesh to get a good idea of her health. "So… is she okay?" "Yea if you look, you'll see she's perfectly fine— maybe just a little dehydrated but that's normal for after patrols" with a shrug you let the dog go.
Abby can't help but admire how knowledgeable you are, it was one of the things that made her so attracted to you. "How'd you learn so much about dogs?"
You pause, thinking deeply. "Uhh, I used to have a dog before I joined the WLF so I kinda picked on their habits" Abbys eyes shimmer in interest as you explain.
"Whoa, that's so cool" what followed was a child-like smile over taking her face.
"Uh, I'm glad you think so?" With a slightly bashful smile you quickly stand back up to fetch a water bowl.
"Checkups are normally really fast because dogs kinda just do well on their own. Not that I don't care about them— it's just dogs know when to come to you if something is really wrong." Putting the water bowl down and calling Alice over to drink.
"How do the dogs tell you something is wrong?" You glance at Abby "Their body language." Abby looks confused but keeps her thoughts to herself as you closely observe Alice. Once the dog finished drinking she resumes her questioning "What does that mean?"
Alice didn't trot away from the two this time and instead made her way to Abby to lay her head on her firm shoulder.
"So you see how her ears are relaxed and she's leaning on you like that? That's her body language." Abby furrows her brows still slightly unsure "so what's it telling you now?"
"That she's relaxed and that she likes you." A sweet smile is thrown at the two. You slowly walk over to ruffle your fingers through Alice's coat.
"Oh" Abby isn't quite sure how to react to that— nor the fact that you're standing so close to her. Especially after she's realised she's held a proper conversation with you for so long and can feel the warmth of awkwardness clawing its way back into her posture.
"It's honestly impressive" You add in after a few seconds. Abby tilts her head "Why do you say that?" She waits patiently for the answer.
"Alice has high standards, like me" a teasing smile takes over your face and Abby sits stunned at that answer before letting out a short chuckle. For a couple minutes the two of you just sit in silence, comfortably basking in eachother presence.
Until you hear a few badly hidden giggles behind you and the clicking of a camera. Throwing your head over your shoulder you see that not only are your coworkers gossiping to themselves— but they decided to take out a polaroid camera and waste film by taking photos of you three.
With a sharp glare you mouth to them to "Find something better to do with their lives" and quickly turn back around to make sure Abby didn't see the absolute fools your colleagues were making of themselves.
With a tap to her shoulder you break the light silence "Okay Abs, I think it's time I start getting back to my usual work…"
Abby glances up with a solemn expression "Uh— yea, I should also probably… start going…" she slowly rises from where she was kneeled and drags her eyes from the ground to meet yours. "Um… thanks for checking on Alice, I was really worried about her…" shaking your head you wave her off "Making sure she's okay is my job. Rather I should be thanking you for sticking around so long"
Abby shifts her weight slightly, "It was no problem really…" She takes a sad step, getting ready to leave.
With a roll of your eyes you shove her playfully "C'mon Abby, don't look like a kicked puppy. I really enjoyed the bit of time we spent together today." Abby smiles slightly "Yeah, me too… um—" as she struggled to find her voice you cut in, deciding to answer her before she asked.
"Just know you can stop here whenever you want, I enjoy talking with you Abs"
Abby perked right up, her stunned face holding a giddiness she hadn't felt in ages. She nodded enthusiastically "Yea— yea, totally" she started walking backwards out of the cage, throwing a last smile and a soft "Bye, bye" before walking out of the cage. Giving a final small wave while making her way out of the dog cages.
Smiling softly to yourself at the courage you managed to gather, you start to feel rather proud of yourself. Till you turn and find your colleagues waving about a photo of you, Abby and Alice standing together.
"Ugh come on guys! Can't you just mind your business for once in your life?!"
"Nope, we need something to keep us going during the week"
"Yea we might even post this little pic up on the duty board!"
"Like hell you will— gimme that!"
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Authors note:
Marie here ^^
Thank you so much for all the support on part one. I really hope you guys enjoyed this fic cause I've been writing non stop for the past 5 hours😭😭. Um I didn't want to jump straight into them having a date or whatever— I thought it would be a good idea to feel out the two characters and have them grow something better than just "Abby has a crush". Again if you have anything you wanna share you can comment or ask me anything, I'll happily answer!
Lots of love </3
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