Chapter Text
SARAH IS NOT FAT!!!
Oliver busted out laughing when he read Meghan’s offended, if all caps was any indication, response to his email, no “dear Oliver” no “all the best Meghan”, just pure anger in an email. He had noticed in the most recent pictures, that Sarah had lost her “tuck”. He had been used to seeing her at working weight, which was, by most civilian standards “too skinny”, and he knew that she would put on a few pounds, as she was no longer working everyday. But Sarah was truly pudgy now.
Oliver did a quick search and sent a few links in a return email to Meghan, along with some words of encouragement.
Meghan,
Yes she is. Look at the links I sent. Sarah is easily a 7/9 on the BCS. She should be a 4-5. She needs to lose about 8lbs. Sorry, but seeing as how we are friends now, I figured I could be honest with you. Cut her food back 20% and any treats she gets, cut them in half. She won’t know the difference. Remember, she is training now; you are using food as a reward, so those calories are adding to her waist line. You can also try running with her. She loved to jog next to us. Walking is great, but not nearly enough of a cardio boost for a dog like Sarah, even at a good clip.
Also, I want to thank you, you were right (I get the feeling I am going to be saying that a lot to you) I talked to Digg. He does have his own demons; I just never bothered to ask. Not sure what that says about me, but my therapist will figure it out. But now I can try to help him.
So thank you.
Oliver
He stood, stretched a bit and then headed downstairs to “greet the day”. He found his family in the kitchen, the laughter, mixed with the clanking of pans was relaxing, even in its noisiness. He stood, watching them work for a minute before his sister caught sight of him.
“What? Are you just going to stand there and let them ruin my classic banana pancakes?” Thea ‘s voice rang out.
Oliver held up his hands in the universal sign of “surrender” and entered the room. He saw Digg sitting at the kitchen table, unable to meet his eyes. Oliver knew that his friend was most likely embarrassed about showing weakness last night, and so he did the opposite of what he wanted. He said nothing and moved next to his sister and hip checked her, pushing her out of the way.
“YOUR classic banana pancakes, you must have amnesia Speedy, because they are MY recipe, now back off little miss and let the master take over.” He smiled at his sister’s look of false offense and laughed as she moved away, opened the fridge, and grabbed the Orange Juice.
“Fine, it may be your recipe,” using fake air quotes around the word your, “But don’t come crying to me when they suck” She took a swig of the OJ, right from the container and turned away.
“Thea Queen!” his mothers outraged voice, laced with humor, broke through. “In this house we don’t drink straight from the carton!”
“Sorry mom,” clearly not an ounce of sorry in her voice. Thea pulled a glass from the cabinet and filled it.
“So boys, what’s on your agenda today?” his mother asked.
“Well, seeing as it’s Sunday, nothing.” Oliver answered looking to his friend.
“Actually, I am meeting with an old buddy of mine.” Oliver tried to hide his surprise; he had no idea that Digg had any friends in Starling City. He tried not to be offended, and told himself that he had no right to be offended.
“Oh really? That’s nice. Tell me about this friend.” His mother gave John no out.
John took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts for a second, “Roy was a guy that I knew before I was deployed, the first time. He worked in the kennels at Lackland, just starting his time in service. Apparently he is out now and is doing some civilian dog training here in town. This is where his family lives.” Digg tried to leave it at that, but Moira, as every mother is, was insistent to know more.
“That’s wonderful John! How did you two reconnect?”
“Uh, actually through a support group. He posted that he was looking for some former handlers to help him with some dogs that he has in house to train for other people. So I messaged him.” Digg looked up at Oliver and he could see that his friend was unsure how he was taking this information.
“Oliver, if you want, you could come too. I am sure he could use some other help.” The offer was an obvious ploy to be polite, and Oliver knew John did not want him to accept.
“Sounds cool, but I cant. Not yet. Plus, I got so much going on at QC, I couldn’t commit to anything. But you go. You are amazing with dogs, maybe you can whip some of those civilian handlers into shape.” Oliver gave a genuine smile in his friend’s direction and saw the tension leave his shoulders, and knew he had made the right call.
“Yeah, it will be good to get out of my head for a bit and concentrate on something else, but if you ever want to join us, let me know. Roy is a good guy.”
“Obviously, or you would not have even reached out to him.” He trusted his friend implicitly, and needed to let him know that. “Do you need a driver?”
“Uh, actually yeah. I guess I do. Not allowed to drive yet.” Diggle seemed embarrassed to realize that.
“No problem John, what time do you need to be there? I can have Harry drop me at my appointment and then come back for you.” Oliver had never loved his mother more; she was so willing to help and thought nothing of it. Now that she considered Diggle family, she would end the world for him.
“I told him I could meet him around 1.”
“Well that’s perfect, my appointment is at noon and I won’t be done until 5 or so, is that enough time?” Oliver walked over and gave his mom a one armed hug, she looked a bit confused at his show of affection, but she didn’t tense up.
“That’s perfect actually. Thank you.”
“Oh no need to thank me dear.” And Oliver knew that she meant it. He kissed her cheek and walked back to the stove to check on the pancakes.
“Crap, Crap, Crap!!!” they were all burned. He could hear Thea cackling and decided to throw the spatula at her.
“OLIVER!!!!” screamed his mother and the four of them burst into laughter, which was made worse by Thea spewing OJ across the room.
Felicity had spent the rest of her night trying to focus on her movie and stewing over Oliver’s rude, very rude, email. How dare he say Sarah was fat, she was NOT fat. Ok well, maybe she had put on a few pounds, but she was in no way FAT.
After the movie, she got online and started researching “canine weight” and “fat dog” and “how can I tell if my dog is fat” and came to a realization, Sarah was fat. Dear God, her dog was chubby. Felicity hated being wrong. I mean really hated it. Now she had to admit to him that he was right, and that ticked her of even more. Felicity continued her research into canine nutrition and realized she was easily feeding Sarah too much. She needed to immediately cut her portions by at least ¾ of a cup. Dang, it just did not seem like enough food.
The next morning Felicity woke up to a Malinois completely molded into her side. She smiled, gave her girl a quick squeeze, and got out of bed. She slipped on her slippers and made her way to the living room and turned on her computer and checked her email. Seeing a response from Oliver, she read through it and clicked on all the links he sent, even though she had seen all of them last night in her research. She decided to not respond right away. She was actually happy that he had spoken to Diggle, but she still felt a bit foolish for her “heat of the moment” response to his observation. She decided instead to grab Sarah and go for a hike.
Three hours later she collapsed on to her couch. Apparently both she and Sarah needed to get fit. It was embarrassing how tiring a simple hike could be. She looked to her dog, expecting her to be passed out on the floor, but she wasn’t. Sarah sat a few feet away, a toy in her mouth, tail wagging, ready for more.
“Oh hell no, that’s enough for one day, heck, maybe for a week.” Sarah cocked her head, took her toy and went into her crate. Felicity took a nap.
When she woke an hour later she set about to tidy her apartment and do some work on the Applied Sciences project. Yes, she knew it was Sunday, but it still had to get done. And if she was honest with herself, she wanted something to show Oliver, if he asked to see the progress again.
The day quickly turned to afternoon and Sarah was asking to go out again. This time Felicity capitulated, knowing that she most likely needed to use the bathroom. After their brief walk, she decided to respond to Oliver’s email.
Oliver,
Ok, so maybe I was a bit brash in my defense of Sarah. Maybe, just maybe, she is a bit on the pudgy side. I can’t believe I am fat shaming my dog. But I will endeavor to pull a couple pounds off of her. In fact today we went on a nice long hike, not long enough for her, but long enough for me. It will be a work in progress.
Glad to hear that you had a talk with your friend. But it’s not up to you to fix things. It’s only up to you to be his friend, in whatever capacity he needs. If he wants your help, and asks for it, great. But it’s okay for him to not ask for it. Don’t shove it down his throat. If he is anything like you, I doubt he would appreciate it.
I hope you had a great weekend, talk soon
Meghan
The following week at work was crazy busy. Felicity was not only in charge of setting up the new Applied Sciences building, but had been tasked with revamping the network security in two of the overseas offices, in Milan and Paris. This came with its own unique difficulties, seeing as how she was not in either Milan or Paris. But she was making due with lots of Skype, and lots of time on the phone. But by the end of the week, she realized she was going to need to go to Europe.
Now normally, this would have not been a big deal, except now she had a dog. What was she going to do with Sarah? She did not have enough time to get her the requisite paperwork to come with, so she was going to have to board her somewhere. The thought of leaving her anywhere made her heart race. No one could care for her the way she could. The brief thought of asking Oliver was quickly squashed, she was not ready for that yet, but maybe Roy?
“Hey Roy”
“Hey Felicity, what’s up?”
“So, I have to go away for a few weeks on business unexpectedly. Any chance Sarah can stay with you? I am going to miss a few classes, but maybe you could work with her in my place?” Felicity spurted it all out, scared he would say no.
“Sure, no problem.” He responded without thought. Felicity let out a huge breath, already feeling better.
“Thank you so much.”
“Hey, no worries. Actually I have a new guy here helping me with some training, friend from my time in the service. He would be a great person to work her in class. Former handler, good guy.”
“Sure, I mean if you trust him with her, I trust him.”
“Great when do you leave?” He asked.
“On Monday. Maybe it would be easier if I just left her with you after class tomorrow? I will bring her food, she is on a diet, and her toys and stuff. Do you need her crate?”
“Nope, got plenty of crates. Sounds good, see you at class tomorrow, you been practicing at all?” Felicity ducked her head, even though he couldn’t see it, and mumbled “no”
“Not at all?” he was incredulous.
“Sorry, I know, I suck. But seriously, got assigned to another project, it’s been keeping me up at all hours with time zone differences, that’s why I am going there. To get things in order so I can manage stuff from here.” She was embarrassed, but she did have a good reason.
“All right then, I will do some extra work with her.”
“Thank you Roy, see you tomorrow.” Felicity hung up the phone and started packing. Not her stuff, but Sarah’s overnight bags, Felicities stuff could wait.
Felicity felt her heart drop after class on Saturday, when Roy had her put Sarah into one of the kennels at the training facility. She closed the door and latched it; Sarah jumped up and started screaming. Felicity stood there trying to comfort her when Roy came over.
“She will be fine Felicity, I promise. She is used to living in a kennel.”
“I know, but, but, look at her, she is terrified I am never coming back. She’s not a kennel dog anymore, what if she thinks I am abandoning her.” Tears streaked down her face and she was amazed at how upsetting this was.
“Dogs don’t understand time Felicity. They don’t live that way, she will be thrilled to see you in 2 weeks when you get home, trust me. I am going to work her and keep her busy, and heck, I may even take her home with me. Seeing as how I am dogless at the moment.” His voice was soothing and Felicity DID trust him, she really did, but it was hard, she finally forced herself to walk away, Sarah’s screaming bark haunting her as she left the kennel.
Monday came and Diggle found himself back at Roy’s to help with the dogs. He was having a blast and found that keeping his mind busy kept it away from the pain. He learned a long time ago that when you are working a dog, than you had to be THERE in the moment, nowhere else, or someone gets hurt. Now, maybe with lovely pet Goldens and Labs and little dogs, no one was going to get bit, but a lapse in focus and a dog learns a bad behavior, or does not get rewarded for a good one. And these people were paying a pretty penny for their dog to get trained.
“NO ABSOLUTELY NOT!” he heard Jonas, one of the kennel kids holler in Roy’s direction. Confused, he looked over to Roy, who wore an exasperated expression, with a small amount of humor.
“Seriously, she is not that bad, you go up to her all tense and shit and she is going to feed off of that, if you want to be a trainer you need to get over this fear of being bitten. ‘Cause, my friend, you will get bitten. Might as well be today.” Roy tried half heartedly to reason with his young apprentice.
“Har Har, no flipping way, you get her out.” Jonas responded. Jonas was a nice young guy, not military, but loved dogs and wanted to be a dog trainer. He hung out with Roy most days. Good kid, but not a lot of experience.
“Digg, my man, do me a favor a get the Mal out of run 4 will ya?” Roy looked at him. Now Diggle was never one to back down from a dog, but he knew his limitations with his balance and his leg, well in his head he did, in his heart not so much. He grabbed a slip leash from the wall hook and headed back to the kennel. He cleared his head and went into the zone and made his way to run 4. He could see the light brown fur pressed against the wire of the kennel. He said nothing.
When he got to the front of the run the dog launched at the door, spewing spit and venom and making a God awful screaming noise. He stood with his side facing the door and just let the dog vent a bit. Lots of Malinois and Shepherds were “cage brave”, meaning they would act all big and tough until the barrier was gone and then they would be fine. He was not sure this was the case with this dog, but he wanted to give the dog time to not see him as a threat. He just stood still, normally he would crouch down, but it was hard to do with his leg, so he stayed upright. He placed the flat back of his hand to the front of the kennel, in the hopes the Maligator would take the time to smell it, and he waited. He thought it would take a while, but it only took about 15 seconds, then he felt the cold wet nose of the dog against the back of his hand. Then a high pitched bark, then nothing. He turned his head slightly and saw the dog sitting at the front just looking at him. He looked at the dog closer, not making direct eye contact, and realized he recognized her.
“Sarah?” he asked the dog, knowing she couldn’t answer him, but the wag of her tail and lick to his hand was all the confirmation he needed.