Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Patient Soul

Daphne Job was not the type of person who got rattled easy.

A few months earlier—when charlotte and Daphne were little more than strangers—some local scrap metal yard went under. Several of the company’s guard dogs ended up at the shelter. They weren’t bad dogs really. Heck, Charlotte thought they were the smartest, most obedient dogs she’d ever worked with.. Brady—a brawny Doberman sat up perfectly still on the examination table while Charlotte removed his microchips. She was In the middle of doing this when…it happened. Charlotte heard the backdoor open and Annie came in leading another Doberman with a loop pole.

In Annie’s defense, she was only 15 years old at the time and had been volunteering with the shelter for less than a month. She couldn’t have known what would happen.

With a crash and a flurry of snarls the examination table toppled over and Brady charged the other dog before Charlotte could even make a sound. In an instant the two animals connected in a clash of teeth. Then came the confusion. Snarling. Fighting. Ripping. Annie was the first to let out a scream. She tugged on the pole trying to pull the enraged dog back. But with all the jerking and thrashing, it was all the poor girl could do to keep ahold of it. Charlotte ran for a spray can and doused the dogs with water. They hardly seemed to notice they were so enraged. Panicking now charlotte ran into the back room to fill up a water bucket. But then out of the clear blue she heard a yip and a scream from Annie.

Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks. Was all her frantic brain could manage. They bit someone. They bit someone! But when she turned the corner she found…Daphne.

Daphne grabbed Brady by the scruff and wrenched him away from the other dog—effectively separating the two animals. In an instant she had pinned Brady on his back. Her legs straddled his sides to keep him in place. She had some kind of hold on the dog’s neck and seemed to be using all of her weight to keep his chomping, foaming head pinned to the ground. The other dog strained at the pole, still all teeth and growls, but Annie—bless her—had somehow managed to keep ahold of his pole, keeping him out of mauling distance from Daphne and Brady. Brady thrashed and foamed, white visible all around his wild eyes, and Daphne seemed to be having trouble keeping him down.

“Put him in the kennel.” Daphne grunted. She didn’t raise her voice, But Annie and charlotte flinched and stumbled to obey as if she had. Working together they heaved the dog back towards its cage. All the while Charlotte heaved with terror. The dog grappled with this pole still trying to get at Brady, but they had a good 6 feet of pole separating them from his jaws. Daphne had nothing.

Charlotte forced the animal into the kennel. She dug a tranquillizer from Dave’s desk and went charging back into the room.

Remarkably, Daphne had kept her position atop the enraged dog and somehow managed to keep him pinned to the ground with all ten fingers intact. And even more amazingly, she had managed to get a muzzle onto his face. Charlotte fumbled with the tranc, but Daphne raised a hand.

“He can’t bite. Don’t waste it.” she grunted. “Just wait.”

That was easier said than done, Charlotte hovered over the scene. But Daphne just kept her position holding the dog down, waiting. Completely calm. After what seemed like ages the dog let out a tired snort and calmed, its glossy black fur shining with sweat. Daphne then scratched his ears and stood up, clipping a leash onto his collar.

“Hey. He get ya?” Daphne grunted. Her impassive voice taking on a slight edge. “The dogs. They bite either of you?”

“N-no..” Charlotte breathed. Annie, who was shaking from her toes to the end of her little blonde braids shook her head. Daphne’s shoulders relaxed.

“Good.” She grunted lugging Brady towards his cag. “Means we don’t have to put either of em down…”

To say that Daphne’s performance caused a stir around the shelter would be an understatement. Dave was positively scandalized when he heard about what happened, and he scoured all three of them for injuries. Annie was considerably rattled, and she took some time off from her volunteer work. It would be weeks before she could go near Brady’s kennel again. But no one took the news with more alarm than Trish—the day manager.

For more than a quarter of an hour, she ranted and yelled at Daphne for being reckless and stupid. At times her voice grew so shrill and loud that some of the dogs began to howl.

Charlotte didn’t much like Trish at the best of times, but listening to her rave and lecture Daphne just rubbed her the wrong way. Trish and Daphne were both managers. Trish didn’t have any right to boss her around like she did with Charlotte and Annie. But true to form Daphne didn’t seem to care one way or another and just stood there and listened. Her eyes half-mast as if she was ready to fall asleep in spite of the screeching.

It wasn’t until later when Charlotte was mopping out the kennels with Daphne that she worked up the courage to say something.

“How did you do that?” Charlotte muttered. Daphne grunted.

“Eh. I used to work at a Doberman kennel back home. Some of those dogs can get a little loco.”

“But you just…grabbed him…What if he’d bitten you?”

“Sometimes when they start seein’ red like that, spray bottles don’t cut it. When they fight like that—it’s not something you can just ignore. Dogs like that will fight until they kill each other.”

Charlotte considered this. But decided to let the matter drop. They worked in silence for a good while. When Charlotte went to fill up the mop bucket Daphne called her back.

“Hey. Chara.” Daphne grunted causing Charlotte to pause. “What I did back there was real stupid. Don’t you ever try something like that yourself. Ever. Ya hear?”

Charlotte nodded.

Daphne wasn’t the type to get rattled easy. She was probably the bravest person Charlotte had ever met. But it was more than just bravery. She never raised her voice, never got irritated with anyone. She sat there and listened to Trish verbally rip her a new one without so much as a word. Charlotte wasn’t sure she could have stayed so calm with the ice queen breathing down her neck like that. How did Daphne do it? No matter what happened, Daphne was always filled with Patience.

******

“So Daphne, what do you think of monsters?”

Charlotte felt more than a little anxious asking. And she watched Daphne’s face. Looking for some kind of reaction. A scowl of disgust, a frown—anything. But Daphne just glanced at Charlotte and blinked slowly in that ‘too tired to care’ way of hers. Charlotte played with the hem of her shirt as Daphne looked her up and down.

“They’re big” Daphne grunted.

“Big…?”

“Yeah. Like friggin huge.” Again Daphne shrugged. Charlotte studied her, sucking in her cheeks. That’s one hell of a poker face…

“And…? What else do you think of them?” she pressed Daphne turned her body till it was facing Charlotte.

“Some of em look like furries” Daphne nodded. “And others look like they belong on the cover of a meatloaf album.” A smirk ghosted across Daphne’s face and Charlotte huffed.

“Anything else…?”

“My mom and dad think they’re a sign of some biblical apocalypse thing. All fire n’ brimstone.” Daphne mused. “Started filling our storm cellar with water and  MRE’s  like it’s the friggin cold war.”

“I’m serious Daphne.” Charlotte groaned.

“Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?” Daphne grunted impassive as usual. Charlotte started backpedaling

“uh…”

BIIIIING! Charlotte’s phone buzzed cutting her off. saved by the bell. Charlotte fumbled to get it out, thankful for the distraction. She answered without even glancing at the id.

“Hello?”

“HUMAN! IT IS I THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” The voice came out so loud that charlotte jumped and drew the phone away from her ear. She cast a mortified glance towards Daphne. The green haired girl raised a brow. “ I KNOW THAT WE AGREED THAT YOU WOULD CALL ME WHEN YOU REACHED YOUR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT, BUT I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS! I HAVE FINALLY DECIDED ON A NAME FOR THE DOGGIE!”

Charlotte rubbed her temples. “That’s really great Pap—“

“OH OH! PERFECT! HUMAN, SANS HAS JUST ARRIVED HOME FROM WORK, LET ME PUT YOU ON SPEAKER PHONE.” There was a shuffling sound then a click. “IT’S THE HUMAN, SAY HI SANS.” The

“Hi Sans.” smaller skeleton’s deep voice rumbled in the background. Papyrus made a noise.

“SANS NO JOKES!” Papyrus groaned.

“Okay. so sans no Sans jokes is…” Sans hummed thoughtfully. “You’re saying you want me to make more jokes? I’m not too good with the whole double negative thing.”

“YOU’RE IMPOSSIBLE!”

“I thought I was sans?”

“So um, papyrus..” Charlotte interjected before the tall skeleton could spiral into another wave of bickering. “What did you decide to name the dog?”

“AH YES! I HAVE FOUND A TITLE TRULY BEFITTING OF HER GREATNESS.” Papyrus declared, instantly forgetting his squabble with sans. “I HAVE DECIDED TO NAME HER DOGGIE. WHAT DO YOU THINK?”

Charlotte squinted. Daphne who seemed to catch every other word thanks to papyrus’ volume paid her a measuring look.

“Doggie… Gee paps, I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s a little strange?”

“STRANGE?”

“You know, naming a dog ‘doggie’.”

“I DON’T FOLLOW.”

“I don’t know. It’s just, not really a name.” Charlotte tried to explain. “I mean you’re just calling her what she is, right? Isn’t that’s like calling a human ‘human’? I—wait…”

Oh…

Sans laugher roared in the background. Charlotte folded her arms self-consciously, well aware of Daphne’s eyes on her. Bollocks. She had only known sans for a few hours, but it still seemed like he laughed the hardest when she—herself was the punchline.

“SANS! GET UP OFF THE FLOOR AND STOP LAUGHING! I CAN’T HEAR THE HUMAN!—SORRY HUMAN, WHAT WERE YOU SAYING?”

“Nothing pap. I think Doggie’s a perfect name. Very…fitting.” Charlotte said hurriedly trying to pat the blush from her cheeks. Sans, though he’d quieted a bit, made no attempts to stifle his laugher. She cleared her throat.

“So uh, speaking of Doggie, I’m just waiting on the resident Vet to come into work so we’ll know what our options are. You’ll probably need to come drop Doggie off at the shelter.” Charlotte explained.

Sans stopped laughing abruptly.

“Not a good idea.” He grunted. “See if you can get the Doc to make a house call over here or somethin”

Charlotte shifted. Dave probably wouldn’t go for that…

“Oh, eh maybe… but would it be y’know…safe..?” Charlotte cringed at how awkward that sounded. “…for y’know…people like us..?”

Sans chuckled. Not his ‘I just made a joke’ laugh. Not his ‘poking fun at Chara’ laugh either. This one was humorless. Deep. Cold.

“Kiddie…we’ve got more to worry about on your streets.” He chuckled darkly. “Trust me on that…”

Charlotte felt a cold finger of chills trace down her spine.

“I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOUR DOCTOR FRIEND HUMAN” Papyrus threw in. “YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE WELCOME TO OUR HOME ANYTIME.”

“Thanks paps…” Charlotte took a deep breath. “Listen I’ll text you once I know what’s going on. Take good care of Doggie in the meantime okay?”

“YOU CAN COUNT ON ME!” papyrus declared, seemingly giddy with joy. Charlotte smiled weakly.

“Talk to you later?”

“OKAY! BYE BYE SMALL HUMAN!”

“Bye…”

Click.

Charlotte slipped the phone back into her pocket. Daphne was leaning against the wall, looking tired as always. Charlotte twiddled her thumbs. Bollocks. How she was even supposed to begin to explain all that?

“So…” Daphne began.

“So…”  Charlotte repeated rocking on her heels. Daphne quirked a brow, looking charlotte up and down.

then she snorted.

“So. what kind of monsters are they, these friends of yours?” Daphne asked . “Meatloaf or Furry?”

Charlotte felt the tension leave her body.

“Meatloaf…” She said shyly. Daphne grunted again, her smirk returning. She headed back to her desk.

“ friggin sick.”

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So, here's what we know so far...

dunno. Pictures help me keep it all straight. ;)