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I wake up what I suppose must be several hours later, I realise that my mouth is as dry as the Sahara Desert, I reach for the call button and give it a press, moments later a male Labrador dressed in a nurses uniform enters the room.

"Hello Mr Banks, what can I do for you?"

In a hoarse voice, I make my reply.

"Sorry to be a bother but I was wondering if I could get a drink of water please?"

A small smile adorned the Labrador's muzzle.

"Oh my, it seems as though your table has been accidentally moved out of reach, well we can't have that now can we?"

The Labrador gently moves the table back to within my reach and then filled my glass with water from the jug and then slowly handed it to me. I take small sips from my water and then in a much more fluid voice, I thank the nurse.

The nurse is about to leave the room when he looks over his left shoulder.

"By the way, Mr Banks, the guy from The Salvation Army is still sitting in the waiting area, do you feel up to taking visitors now?"

I guess now is as good a time as any to find out what this guy wants from me, and so I give a gentle nod of my head.

The nurse leaves the room and I am alone again for all of thirty seconds. I watch the doorway as a vision of loveliness enters the room, he is a Rottweiler dressed from head to toe in the uniform of The Salvation Army, normally I have to admit that I find most folks that work for the organisation to be pompous stuffed shirts who look down on gay guys like me.

Obviously, at the moment he knows nothing about me, but I have to wonder why he has waited in the hospital for me all this time? I mean normally I'm sure he would have just called the Ambulance, waited until they got there and then discharged me into the capable paws of the Paramedic and then been on his way.

The Rottweiler pulls a seat up to the left side of my bed and then he parks his butt down and begins to speak.

"Hello sir, my name is Baxter Allen, and as you can see I work for The Salvation Army, I was the one who found you face down on the pavement, I was just wondering how you are feeling now that you have been patched up?"

I give the Rottweiler my full attention as I give him my reply.

"Hello Mr Allen, first of all, thank you for what you have done for me, if it wasn't for you I know for sure that I would have breathed my last out on that cold, wet pavement, as for how I am feeling now, I'm still a little sore and my mind is still a little foggy about what happened but otherwise I am fine, I am just a little confused about you though, that I must admit."

I reach for my water jug and pour another glass of water, I take a few sips before I continue.

"Now forgive me for saying this, but I usually don't believe in any kind of religion and yes there is a reason behind that, but from what I know about The Salvation Army, sure they stay with folks through the bad times or until other help arrives and then they usually head off to find another soul to save, and yet here you are sitting at my bedside having waited in the waiting area for a number of hours."

I am not totally sure but I think I see the inside of his ears turn a little pink in colour, almost as though he is embarrassed by his very presence there.

"Well Sir, yes you normally would be right on the money but I am a little different, I seem to get a little deeper invested in those that I try to help."

I feel my whiskers twitch a little which usually means that someone is hurling a load of bullshit my way. Because of the fact that I feel as though I have just been lied to, I decide to tell him a little more about myself, including the part about my sexuality, there is nothing like finding out that I am gay for getting rid of unwanted do-gooders.

"Okay Mr Allen I have to ask you this question, what does The Salvation Army think about gay guys? Because my friend, that is what you have here."

The pinkness of his ears deepens a little more.

"As an organisation, they look out for everyone who is in need, young and old, black and white, and yes even gay and straight, they don't make judgements, however, most of us who are in the field doing what we can to help are of the Christian faith."

I try to stop it but I can't, my nasty, spiteful side raises its ugly head.

"Well then Mr Allen, you had better run for the hills because I don't want some Christian do-gooder trying to change my sexuality or my religion, you have done your duty for which I am thankful, now please leave."

It is at that point that I can see that he is positively shaking and I am pretty sure that he is on the verge of crying. I had forgotten just how much of a nasty temper I can have at times, I wanted to take back everything that I had just said but that is the thing with real life, there is no delete button.

The Rottweiler slowly begins to stand, my heart breaks as he heads towards the door, he then looks over his right shoulder at me.

"Yes Sir, I do consider myself as a Christian, but I do not follow the as you say do-gooder lifestyle, I do not hate gay folks, in fact, some of my best friends are gay, I'm just sorry that you cannot get passed your hatred of the Christian faith, I was hoping that I might gain another friend."

I close my eyes and then I utter under my breath.

"I'm sorry Mr Allen, please come back, I need all of the friends that I can get at the moment."

Baxter slowly turns around and I can see that he has now started to cry, oh gods why do I have to be so fucking nasty?

He slowly returns to the seat and sits down, there is a box of tissues on my table and he asks if he can take one, well considering that it was my shitty attitude that made him cry the only thing I could say was yes.

He takes a tissue from the box and gently starts dabbing his eyes with it, it is then that I decide to try and lighten the mood a little.

"Mr Allen, in fact, do you mind if I call you Baxter?"

A smile breaks out on his muzzle as he shakes his head.

"Look, Baxter, if you want to be my friend I have to tell you that you will be letting yourself in for a complete bucket of crazy, I also need to tell you that I have started getting a crush on you quite badly, obviously, I know that nothing will ever happen between us but it won't stop me from hoping and probably looking at your butt each time we meet up because you may not want to hear this but man you have the kind of butt that would turn a straight man gay, oh and another thing, if you still want to be my friend, after all, then please, let go of the Sir shit, my name is Karl Banks."

Would anyone like a fried egg? I'm pretty sure that I can accommodate you with the heat that I'm sure that is radiating off Baxter's ears right now.

We are disturbed by the Doctor entering the room, he looks as though he has got something to tell me and Baxter seems to pick up on that as he begins to stand from his seat, I put a stop to that though.

"Doctor, I sense that you have something to tell me, well I have no next of kin to speak of so whatever you have to say you can say with Mr Allen present."

The Doctor gains a slightly sour expression but he begins to speak.

"Okay Mr Banks, first I will take it from the beginning so that your friend here is fully in the loop. Well, Mr Banks, you were brought into this hospital on Friday afternoon having been viciously robbed, you remember that when we were attending to your injuries we also found evidence that you had also been the victim of an anal rape."

A look of shock spreads across Baxter's muzzle and the Doctor continues.

"As soon as we found the evidence we sent some of the fluids to the lab to be analysed for the Police we also then cleaned you up fully and we did a test to see if you had contracted any sexually transmitted diseases, well I am here now to tell you that we have had the results from those tests, it seems that you are one very lucky guy as you are completely clean of any such diseases. I do not know the lab results I am afraid as they would have been passed straight to the Police, but I have no doubt that they will be in touch with you in due course."

The Doctor allows what he has just said to fully sink in before he continues.

"While some of your injuries were severe I do not see any reason why I cannot discharge you from my care, as long as you have a place to stay that is."

At first, I begin to shake my head, that is until Baxter speaks up.

"Doctor, I work with The Salvation Army and so if you would be so kind I would like to offer Mr Banks a place to stay, he will stay with me."

My head quickly spins towards Baxter, so quick in fact, that I gain a slight headache.

The Doctor looks at me and asks if I am okay with the arrangement.

"Well Doctor considering the fact that at the moment I am homeless, if Mr Allen is okay with me staying with him for a while then I will happily accept it."

Both Baxter and I can tell that the Doctor is far from happy with this but after a moments consideration, he just nods and then leaves the room to get the paperwork sorted.

I look back to Baxter and begin to speak.

"Baxter, why are you offering me a place to stay?"

Baxter just giggles a little as he replies.

"Well Karl, you said it yourself, you have a crush on me and so I figure that I am going to help your recovery, besides, I know that it is a little unorthodox but I'm kinda having problems keeping images of a certain Shephard out of my mind."

The male Labrador nurse enters the room again and heads over to the machine that is connected to me, he then begins to unhook me from it.

"Well Mr Banks, it seems that you are going to be leaving us this morning, I would like to wish you all the best, what you have been through is something that no one should have to endure, but hopefully the Police will catch the person responsible and put him away for quite a while."

Once I am unhooked from the machine the nurse leaves the room followed by Baxter, I look around the room for my clothes but then I realise that they will be at the lab being checked for any DNA of my attacker, and so I guess I will be leaving the hospital in a gown and scrubs.

I press the call button once more and the head of the nurse appears around the door.

"Hi, sorry but I don't have any clothes to wear, is there any chance that I can get a set of scrubs to wear please?"

The nurse nods and vanishes, to return a few moments later with a set of scrubs, he leaves them on the chair and then heads back out of the room.

I get dressed in the scrubs and then I make my way towards the front desk where I find Baxter is waiting for me his tail nub wagging a mile a minute.

"Oh you are here Karl, cool, I have been in touch with the Police to tell them where they can find you, I have also signed my part of the release forms all you have to do is sign your bit and we can head out."

I sign my part of the paperwork and then the Doctor hands me a bag full of medications which I need to take, with that done I follow Baxter out of the hospital and to a waiting taxi.

As we begin our journey I am left to wonder, could this be the start of a new life for me or for us?