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Bernie had a normal day at their office until they gained two
unexpected new patients after one of them attempted murder in the waiting room.

“There you go.” Bernie’s paw gently brushed over the knee of a human child as they applied a bandaid over the remains of their wound. “Doesn’t hurt anymore, right?” They flashed a soft smile at the kid, throwing away the paper trash of the bandaid.

It was their tenth patient for the day, a casual day, not too slow and not too hectic. Not many patients have needed their healing for the day so when a small child came in with a huge wound on their knee and tears streaming down their face Bernie could handle it without a problem.

They wrapped up by a bit of small talk to get the kid to cheer up again, finding out that they had been playing close by and came over without their parent when the loud clatter of a chair hitting the floor next door snapped them out of their conversation.

An unusual sound, but accidents like that can happen from time to time. With the thought of it being someone who fell over Bernie got a little worried and walked towards the door to go check. Just as they were about to send the child out the loud yelling of their receptionist got them fully alarmed. “Bernie!! Help!!”

Now deciding that the kid should stay back, Bernie made their way to the waiting room where they could already hear a familiar voice screaming at the top of its lungs, profanities being flung into the room accompanied by heavy threats of violence.

Nobody had prepared them for the sight they saw when they rounded the corner of the waiting room door, nobody in this office had been prepared for any of this.

The first thing they saw was one of their patients, laying on the floor gasping for air with an obvious wound on their head. It was Mr. Jenkins, a friendly little opossum that had been visiting Bern for a long time now. The next thing was Mitzi, their receptionist trying to grab onto Martin as best she could to hold him back from lunging back at the opossum. They only had a fraction of a second to take in the scene before Mitzi’s grip loosened on the cat-like and almost let it loose in the room again, they had to act quick.

Just as Martin was about to grab onto the poor fellow again, Bernie threw themselves around him and heaved him up from the ground to stop his advances.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, pathetic trash, I’ll split your goddamn head in two!!”

It felt like Martin hadn’t even noticed that he was picked up, still screaming at their patient, still thrashing about, its eyes still wide and frantic, flashing its teeth and his claws already digging into Bernie’s arms.

It’s voice rang harshly in their ears as they stumbled and stepped back from the scene, they knew Martin was never the calm type and had always been prone to violence, but this? This was different, this felt different. They shot Mitzi a look and saw how distraught she was. “What happened?! What’s going on here?!” Feeling Martin kick into their abdomen, they struggled to keep a tight grip on it. "I-I don't know, he came in here… and all of the sudden he throws Mr. Jenkins to the ground a-and starts to slam his head into the ground, I-I don't know what…" Stuttered their receptionist, clearly nobody had expected to watch an attempt at murder on this day.

Bernie would love nothing more than to calm her down more, but the creature in their grasp was getting dangerously close to slipping out of their hold and the pain it caused didn’t help at all.

They couldn’t help it now, tightening their grip once more their own claws now held onto his torso to keep him from slipping. “Martin, calm down!” As Bernie’s arms pressed against its abdomen there was a sudden stop in its screaming, a pause caused by the large amounts of blood being pushed up its throat and being vomited out just moments after.

Martin was left to wretch and heave as everyone stared at the pool of blood in horror. The tension and aggression in its body didn’t let up and shortly after it picked up where it stopped. “You’re dead… DEAD!! I will kill you, I’ll make sure your body will be rotting by the morning, I’ll fuck you up so hard even your mother won’t fucking recognize you!!” That was it. As Martin's paw reached out to grab the poor opossum again, Bernie heaved him away, the new amounts of blood made them acutely aware of the dire situation that Martin’s body was in as well. With every word leaving it, it spat new drops of blood everywhere, leaving a trail towards the nearest consultation room in which Bernie threw it into.

Mitzi closed the door behind them, although she wasn’t sure about leaving the two in one room, worried that something might happen to Bernie, but Martin would never hurt them to a dangerous extent, would it?

Closed in the room, Bernie fell to their knees, trying hard not to let Martin fall too hard onto the floor as they put him down. “Please, try to calm down!” Even with the situation at hand Bernie still tried to be as gentle as they could, even as they pushed Martin against the ground. They needed him to stop its frantic and aggressive movement as it was already losing too much blood, yet it didn’t let up at all. Its yelling of profanities turned into incoherent screaming, a frustrated and awful sound clearly straining its voice past its capabilities. “Martin.. What’s wrong? What’s going on with you?” With their need to be careful, Martin was able to slip out of their grasp and leap up and away from them. Immediately it made its way to the first window he saw, jumping up on the desk, but stopping short before it could get to it.

On the desk it sat on all fours as if contemplating its actions before rising onto two legs, kicking everything in sight out of pure aggression. Bernie watched as it made a complete mess of their desk, things being thrown in their direction, paper being torn and shredded into pieces. Nothing they would say or do was reaching him, clearly nothing they did could help, so Bernie hoped it would tire itself out at some point.

The rampage didn’t last too long before Martin hurdled itself off the desk towards Bernie, gunning for the door that they were blocking. The landing was quite rough as it couldn’t keep its balance anymore, Martin didn’t mind, it didn’t care, he needed to get out of the room.

“Let me OUT OF HERE!!!”

Seeing how Martin tumbled and trembled as it got back up Bernie knew the blood loss was taking its toll on him, yet the loud yell still made them clench their fist, trying not to flinch back. Bernie could still see how furious and wild its expression was, so full of aggression that it scared them.

They still didn’t know what was going on with it, they knew something must have triggered this response and they knew they still had to get it to calm down or else it wouldn’t last much longer with the internal bleeding.

Martin raised both its paws, getting ready to try and go through Bernie, a small moment which they used to grab him again. “Get the fuck out of my WAY!!” Its incessant hissing bared its teeth and before Bernie would let its teeth sink into their skin, they turned him around and grabbed both his wrists with one paw.

“That bastard needs to die! I’m going to rip his skull apart! Let me go!”

Bernie wasn’t going to answer to its screeching, Martin still wasn’t calming down and so they had to call in their receptionist for help. Pinning it down and drawing the medication for sedation wasn’t something only one person could do, they needed the help.

As Mitzi walked out the door again, Bernie assured her that they were able to handle the rest now, even if Martin was still screeching at full volume while they sedated it.

“You fucking bitch, LET ME AT HIM. I will tear him to shreds!” Its frustrations got the better of him and now he started to turn its words against them. “You fucking pathetic freak!!!” Hollow hateful words of a cornered animal trying anything to get out of this. Bern knew that, surely they knew, still each word still stung even if just slightly. In a short moment where Martin needed to take a breath Bernie tried to get some words in, asking how it knew their patient.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, huh?! Stop your disgusting clinging already!"

As they guessed it would avoid the question as if he didn’t even hear them. "What the fuck could you possibly enjoy by doing this huh? You call me a masochist?! Heh, you have to be absolutely braindead."

His breathing was still erratic, but his voice went low, the screaming stopped and its trashing lessened as well, still Bernie couldn’t relax yet, he could easily trick them to just escape once again.

“Martin.” Seeing how Martin got calmer Bernie knew the sedatives would take their effect soon and wanted to take their chance. “How do you know Mr. Jenkins?!”

“Jenkins?!” Is screeched once again. “Who the hell is that?! Shut up with your stupid lies, you won't fucking stop me!” It tried to shove Bernie off once more, even trying to turn to them to bite them. Knowing that a bite like this would definitely end with a wound that would leave a hefty scar, Bernie was more than cautious while pressing it into the ground.

"Peter Jenkins, the opossum in the waiting room? I've been his doctor for five or six years now. He's married, got two grown-up children. Are you sure you know him?"

It's possible that Peter Jenkins has lived a life of adventure where he got on the wrong side of Martin, but for how long Bernie knew him, it was a rather unlikely scenario. Martin still thrashed around, shoving his shoulders around to try and throw Bernie off when its ears started to twitch, indicating he for once heard their words. Then it stopped. Its breathing grew increasingly erratic, its body tense as a solid brick underneath them, Bernie was utterly confused by its behaviour, but the breathing was rather worrying. "How do you know that guy's name has always been peter?! How… how are you so sure?!?" As it spoke the whole tension started to leave its muscles, his head turning to them in pure curiosity and turning away again in confusion.

As his breath calmed, Bernie let their small relief leave an opportunity for Martin to slither and slip out of their grasp, rolling over the floor a few feet away from them. Bern was now more confused than before with its words, but they knew and saw that the energy was slowly leaving its body. Still cautious, they grab some gauze for their arms and sit opposite of him, tending to their scratch wounds on their arm. "He's been Peter for as long as I've known him… Why? What makes you think he's been lying to you?"

They watched Martin lay on its back, facing away from them as it scoffed loudly. "Lying to me?! HAH! Hahahahaha!!" An awful loud cackle rolled off his lips, together with a drip of blood. “He’s got you right where he fucking wants you doesn’t he?”

Martin starts to mumble to himself, mixed with his erratic state and his wide eyes it sends shivers down Bernie’s body, not knowing what to think of it, but Martin cuts them off before they can speak again. “Fucking dumb guillable idiot, you’re so naive its fucking pathetic, who are you trying to fool here?!” It has managed to stem itself up, looking bern right in the eyes, while it gets back up. 

“Get. Out. Of my FUCKIGN way.”

His voice gets loud again as he darts for the door, his body dragging behind with barely energy left in it. Instead of lunging another attack on Bernie, they needed to catch him before he hit the ground again, clawing into their already bloody arms. 

“Haven’t you done enough to me…?” Bernie's heart sank as Martin stared right into their eyes. “Look what you’re fucking done to me!” 

Bernie notices that Martin is now staring past them, the aggressive curl still in its face. “You goddamn fucking prick!” It’s voice is starting to get soft, breathing faint, Bernie knew it was about time and a wonder he was still awake. “An early painful grave is what he deserves…” Bernie watched on, struggling, as tears emerged on its face before it passed out on them.

Lulling in their arms, Bernie knew they didn’t have much time for him, in their waiting room was still their other patient, probably fighting for their life still with the wounds Martin had left on him. It was unconscious and yet the tears still dropped down its cheeks and Bernie couldn’t help but embrace his body tightly before carrying him to a small annex to their consulting room; little more than a nurse's office, but it has a bed, and it saves dragging him upstairs and getting blood all over the sofa. Bernie sets him down and strokes his head. The stress of the day wasn’t over yet, they had to move fast to stabilise both of these patients quickly.