Catching Tavo - 2. Chapter 2

Content/trigger warnings: Injury, rape mention, medical, ouchie pitiful kitty

I didn’t know if it was half an hour or an hour before he stopped to look me over. From the little I could see, we were parked at the far end of a rest stop. He popped the trunk, rummaged for a minute or two, and then slammed it shut. My eyes felt sandy and crusted, but I tried to blink them clear. I couldn’t move to get away from the bear, but I could be aware of what was happening so the bad things wouldn’t take me by surprise.

The door opened and my eyes slid to the side to watch him kneel on the seat next to me. Lifting my head seemed like more effort than I was capable of. He set a small plastic tool box by my head and opened it. I tried to stay calm, but I felt my breaths coming faster. It was hard to breathe, though. The tape around my muzzle made it impossible to get a sip of air through my mouth, and the pressure left me feeling stuffy. I felt a panicked flutter in my chest.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop earlier, buddy.” The bear’s voice was deep and deceptively gentle. “I didn’t want those guys to catch us. I think we’re in the clear now, though. Let me give you something for the pain and then I’ll see what I can do to make you more comfortable until we get to the clinic.”

Strangely, I felt myself relaxing, the breaths through my nose coming easier. The bear, Benji, rifled through the toolbox and came out with a syringe and a small glass carpule. He yanked the cover of the needle off with his teeth and plunged the sharp tip into the rubber diaphragm and drew out a dose.

“This’ll sting a bit.” Ben spoke around the needle cap between his lips. “But then you should feel a lot better.”

He rubbed gently around the back of my neck. I had no idea what he was looking for, but he must have found it, because he pinched my scruff slightly and stabbed the needle home. It did sting some, but it was nothing compared to my other pains. The bear tugged the needle out and massaged my nape gently before recapping the syringe.

The syringe and carpule went back into the toolbox. A pair of scissors came out. They were small, but looked ridiculously tiny in Ben’s big hand.

“If you can bear it, try to open your mouth as much as you can,” the burly brunet requested.

I huffed a little breath through my nose and tried to force my jaws apart. It wasn’t much, but it seemed to help the bear have enough room to wiggle the tips of the scissors so they could cut along the line of my open mouth. He snipped carefully, avoiding cutting my lips or cheeks. I lost a few whiskers, but it seemed a small price to be able to open my jaws and breathe. My tongue felt thick and dry, but I tried to keep it still, not wanting to risk it getting cut. I let out a little sigh as he finished freeing one side of my mouth. I was able to open a little wider for him after that. Freeing the other side went faster. I immediately stretched my jaw, letting out a small mewl of pain. My tongue lolled out of my mouth uncomfortably, but it was nice being able to get a full breath even if it did make my ribs ache.

Benji reached into the front and grabbed a half-empty bottle of water and a coffee cup with a picture of a dairy cow wearing an eyepatch. He poured the water into the cup and held it just under my mouth. The first few attempts to lap up the water ended up with more liquid on my face and Ben’s hands than in my mouth. I eventually got enough to make my mouth feel less like a cotton ball factory. When the bear pulled the cup away I didn’t try to stop him. I laid my head down, exhausted.

Whatever he’d given me was definitely doing something. The cottony feeling that had been on my tongue seemed to have migrated to my head. I felt foggy and sleepy. The pain seemed to be slowly draining away, which was amazing. I blinked drowsily at the bear as he pulled a pair of big wire cutters out of the tool box.

The wolves had wired my front paws tightly together and had done the same to my back paws. Fur could only cushion so much, and the metal had cut into the flesh. I twitched as Ben cut the wires between my front paws, little spikes of pain pushing through whatever the man had given me that dulled the pain. He didn’t try to pull the metal out of my skin, just set my paws gently on the seat before he repeated the process with my back paws. I whined in pain. At least one of my back legs was broken.

My stomach roiled thinking of Sig gripping my leg tight and twisting it until it snapped. The sound had been sickening and the pain made my vision get all black at the edges.

I’d like to see you fucking run now, you little bastard…

I felt a soft touch on the top of my head. My eyes were squinched shut, they slowly relaxed and then opened as the bear gently petted the top of my head. It didn’t hurt… It felt good. Someone was touching me, and it felt nice, even if it was a bear.

“I’m sorry, bud.” Ben stroked me softly. “I know it hurts. It’s going to be okay.”

The contrast of my pain and fear with the drugs and the bear’s kindness muddled in my head. I found myself reacting to both with a purr rumbling through me. It was strange, a reaction I couldn’t control. It came on when I was happy or content, but also when I was terrified or in a lot of pain. I thought maybe it was a self-soothing thing.

For whatever reason, I was rumbling like a lawnmower.

When I peeked up at Ben, he was smiling. He gave my head one last pet before latching the toolbox and getting out of the car. The door shut, followed by the sound of the trunk closing. Ben got back behind the wheel and we were on our way again. I didn’t whimper with every bump, though. Whatever the lumberjack had shot me up with, it was doing a very good job. In fact, it was making me extremely sleepy.

===

When I woke, the pain was back full force. A desperate purr rumbled in my throat even as I whined. The bear looked over his shoulder with a frown.

“We’re almost there,” he said as he turned back to face the road. “I’d hoped you’d sleep until we got you inside and got some better pain meds going for you. Hold on just a little longer.”

I tried to stay quiet, but I whimpered with every bump and pothole. I didn’t know how long it took, it seemed like a long time, but it probably wasn’t. I opened my eyes when the car stopped. There were tall evergreen bushes all around and the back of a building. A very pink building. It looked stucco, I thought that’s what it was called, like fancy plaster only on the outside of the building. The pink building… with burgundy shutters.

Benji opened the door next to me and carefully scooped me up. I mewed in pain and tried not to wriggle too much.

“You’re okay, I’ve got you, buddy,” the bear soothed. “I know it hurts. We’re going to take care of you.”

He kicked the back door twice. “Ina!” Benji called. “Let us in.”

After a moment a young woman with pretty brown eyes, a heart-shaped face, and shockingly purple hair pulled into a ponytail opened the door. She smelled like Benji, like bear.

“I’ve got room two set up for… Shit, like everything.” She peeked at me as Benji stepped inside. “Poor baby. Somebody did a number on you, huh?”

She led the way through the backroom filled with boxes, bottles, shelves, and cabinets. The next room was the kennel, with a wall of cages of different sizes on one side and several Dutch doors on the other. There weren’t many animals in the cages. Some barked or meowed as we passed them by. I found myself wishing I was in my human form and not hurt. I wanted to stick my fingers through the little bars and scritch behind ears and let them lick my fingertips.

But I wasn’t human and I was hurt, and we moved on.

When the door closed behind us the noises of the animals was dramatically muffled. We went down a short hall and into an examination room. I was so afraid. They had all kinds of things in medical offices right? They could do so many things to me here. My heart stuttered with dread.

“Zero out a board on the scale. Put a pad on it too. Then start a chart on the tablet,” Benji told Ina before looking down at me in his arms. “We’re going to get a weight on you so we know how much pain medicine you need.”

Ina moved out of the way and the bear laid me gently on something soft that was rigid and flat underneath.

Benji took half a step back. “15.2 kilograms,” he announced then took hold of handles at the top and bottom of the board so he could lift me.

“Poor guy, he’s all fluff,” Ina commented. “He’s so pretty though. Do you think he’s a snow leopard shifter cub? They’re gray with spots.”

“I don’t know.”

Benji set me and my board on a metal exam table. Its disinfectant smell made my nose wrinkle. He put on a pair of latex gloves and gently peeled back my lips. He looked in my mouth with a little flashlight.

“No oral injuries visible and no broken teeth that I can see,” Benji said. “And he can’t be too young, he doesn’t have any baby teeth left. Maybe an adolescent.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe we can call Quincy and have him take a look. I know my domestics, not exotics. Give me a cow, a Labrador, or a tabby. At least I know how to take care of him, though.”

“You want a BP?” Ina asked.

“No, his legs are too torn up. I’m sure it’s elevated anyway.” Benji turned to a counter full of supplies. “Go ahead and prep me a spot so I can get a line in. He needs a saline drip and pain meds.”

“Way ahead of you, boss,” Ina said as she waved a set of wireless clippers in his direction.

She gently felt around both by front legs, cooing nonsense at me. I think she called me “ickle kitty-kins” at one point. Then the clipper was buzzing and she shaved a rectangle on my leg. Ina rubbed something cold and wet over the spot. I didn’t like how it smelled. It made me wriggle my nose, which Ina noticed and announced that it was the most adorable thing she’d ever seen.

“He’s set, Uncle Benji,” the girl called.

“Great.” When he turned around he had a needle in his hand. A big one. “Just a quick pinch and then we can give you something that will make you feel a million times better.”

I clenched my eyes shut, refusing to look. I pretended to myself that I was dead, that Sig had killed me when he’d wrapped his fingers around my throat.

You little bastard, I should squeeze the life out of you. I’ll make sure you never run again.

I imagined that everything now was just the last sparks in my brain before I died. The needle going in was just a final neuron flashing its last. It was easier pretending I was dead. The dead can’t feel pain, any kind of pain. Dead, I can’t feel them cut me or break me, couldn’t feel fear or shame.

Benji wrapped something around my leg and I couldn’t stop myself from peeking. I make a terrible dead person. Bright blue stretchy gauze was wrapped around to cover the IV. A thin tube ran up to an IV bag with clear fluid in it. The bear shot something into a plastic part of the IV and smiled at me gently.

“That should help with the pain,” he told me. “And I’m giving you fluids too. We’re going to check you over to see where you’re hurt.”

I closed my eyes. Time to be dead again.

“Ina, you look him over for anything that might need stitched or glued then check his tail for breaks,” Benji told her. “I’ll look over his legs and check for any other breaks.”

I felt careful hands on my body, but I was dead, so it was okay. The pain medicine he gave me must have been kicking in because the pain was seeping out of my body like water from a leaking faucet. I felt foggy, too, my head all muzzy and weird. I kind of liked it. I liked not hurting, not thinking. There was hardly any pain as they touched me. I was floating nicely until I heard a gasp behind me.

“I was checking his tail, and there’s blood around his… his…” Ina stammered to a stop.

I felt the air shift as the big bear moved to join the purple-haired woman behind me. He palpated around my asshole and I felt liquid seep out of me.

“The white stuff… is that…?” she sounded horrified. “Even if he’s an adolescent, he’s still practically a baby. What kind of monster could do that to a cub?”

A low growl filled the room before abruptly cutting off. I told my heart not to speed up, reminding it that I was dead.

“He was raped, probably in this form and not his human one from the blood and semen clumping in his fur.” Benji’s voice was low and rough, like he’d been gargling rocks. “He’s going to need some stitches here.”

I grit my teeth when he said the R-word. I didn’t want to hear it, any of it. I wanted to tear off my ears and fill the holes with tar. I wouldn’t have to hear anything again, like the things they said… I wished I’d been deaf then, too.

If you don’t fucking shift don’t think I won’t take you just like this, you little shit!

It’s going to take more than a day to get home. That means we get to do this again tomorrow night.

Teach the little bastard a lesson!

Hit him while you fuck him!

Does it hurt, bitch? You fucking like it, don’t you?

My eyes snapped open in panic. I had to get away. I didn’t want it anymore. I wasn’t dead and it hurt and I felt everything. I yowled in terrified frustration as I tried to get my feet under me. They wouldn’t hold me, sliding right out from under me and causing me to land on my face. I tipped to the side nearly falling to the floor. I pushed with my useless feet, trying to make myself fall. I couldn’t run, but if I made it to the floor I might be able to find something to hide under. My eyes darted around the room as I felt hands on me.

Not again. Please, not again. Please please please…

“Shit! He’s freaking out!” I heard a woman exclaim while big hands held me down.

“Get me one mil of Xylazine, and hurry!” a man’s deep voice ordered.

He had me. Oh shit, he had me. He was the one holding me down. I cried out, sounding more like a frightened kitten than a full grown ocelot.

“Shh, cub,” his voice said gently. “You’re going to hurt yourself more.” He turned his head. “Ina, come on.”

“Got it!” The woman flew to my side. “One milligram Xylazine. Correct?”

“Correct,” the man said sharply. “Get it on board.”

A needle went into the IV and I felt something burning in my vein.

“How long will it take?” the woman asked.

“Not long at all, especially with the Ketamine already in him.” Tense seconds passed before the hands on me relaxed slightly. “Look. He’s starting to fade. Hopefully this will put him out for long enough that we can get him fixed up.” I felt something cool and hard press on my side. “Heart sounds good.” The man started to sound far away as my body slumped on the table. “Once he’s out we’ll start with the embedded wires then get… x—ray… sedative… kennel… mother…”

And then I didn’t hear anything or feel anything. It was wonderful.

Like being dead.