Fleet sat a bit nervously in the oak chair among potted plants, magazine laden tables, and several empty chairs. His blue eyes roved the walls, nice, white and clean with primly hung frames noting certificates, licenses, and notices. Most were unreadable, as his grasp on the written for of human language was still under improvement.

He shifted, flexed his metal right leg, and fiddled with a long scratch on it. Ammy offered to buff it out for him, but he liked it for some reason. A bored looking receptionist polished her short, useless fingernails for the umpteenth time and looked at him like he was some stray that wouldn't leave.

"I told you, uhm, Mr. Fleet Wolf, the director of the Rhydin Health and Medical practice board, is busy today. NO OPENINGS." She said firmly, but with a bored tone.

"That is fine, mam. I will wait here until he has time today." blue eyes held a note of steel resolve.

"I have a community in dire need of medical services and I want to be sure that Rhydin officials will have no reason to shut me down." He stood and walked over to her.

A clipboard thick with forms dropped on her desk. He leaned over and looked at her.

"I have filled out all your forms. I am here, and have seen no one enter or leave that office for 2 hours. Now, then, let's skip the 'Let's not deal with this freak niceties', and let me see him or her."

She looked down at the forms, and thumbed through them. She pulled out a fat red sharpie and started circling and X'ing things.

"Sir, you have half of the forms unfinished. The directions are simple. Do you not know how to read?"

He looked her right in the eyes. "Yes, I do not know how to read your written language completely. Do you know how to triage five battlefield wounds and keep the one with only a scrape to his head alive when he goes unconscious from the blunt trauma that shock is just now giving in to?" His muzzle actually wrinkled a bit.

"I just want to talk to the director to get advice about how to proceed." He said a bit tersely, then remembered. "Please?"

The receptionist looked to have lost a few shades of white and was pale.

"I, I....will get this to him right now. Excuse me." she nearly bolted for the directors door.

Fleet could smell that he had rattled her and closed his eyes silently cursing himself. When he opened them he was facing a rather elderly looking male that was just as short as himself.

"Ah, Mr. Fleet Wolf. Candy here just told me you are next on my appointment schedule. Hear you have questions on how to start off right and proper with a clinic?" The man riffled through the forms and clucked to himself as he saw the sea of red.

"Mhm, mhm. I see. Okay, Mr. Fleet, I can answer your questions easily by looking at your forms. You'll need four things before granted the right to approach the Board of Review for a license. 1. Your clinic must be housed properly. I see your running from inside your own home. This will not do in the future. I know it's hard to get buildings, but you will. 2. You need to learn to read our language more so you can fill in all of the forms as well as communicate and understand our forms of medicine. 3. You need valid, recordable experience from a facility in this realm. You have none, even though I note you have impressive on the job training. I would suggest you intern for a few years. Says here your affiliated with Dr. Maranya. She may be your hope. 4. Your clinic needs to be under an established hospital until all these needs are met. Do you understand Mr. Fleet Wolf?" He asked with a smile.

Fleet nodded slowly, making sure he had it down pat. The man handed him a purple folder. Fleet looked at it. He opened it and looked at the papers, some he was not able to read.

"Keep these with you until you find a place of internship. Hand them to your supervisor, or chief of staff, and they will keep track of your progress. Once you have interned for a minimum 4 years, bring the folder back and we can talk more." The man said with a kind voice.

Fleet took the folder, and walked out of the office.

2 hours later, about 3 pm in the afternoon, he found himself walking into Riverview Clinic. It felt odd. The last time he came here, he was in a wheel chair with no right arm or leg. Now he was walking back in, on his own to ask for work. A padded case was under his metal arm. He walked up to the receptionist.

"I need to speak to your Director Maranya. I have some medical treatments promised, and a request for internship."

The receptionist just waved him over to the lobby and picked up a phone. She paged Director Maranya's office and left a message. Then she looked over to Fleet.

"She is out for a late lunch, sir. She will be back in one hour."

Fleet just nodded to her. "I have waited all day on things, I am not going anywhere in a hurry. I can wait another hour." he said kindly, hoping not scare or show any signs of anger or moodiness. He sat back, set the case on his knees, and picked a Dog Fancy magazine and waited.

Fleet smiled as he saw Anya come over to him. He sat the magazine down, stood, and bowed to her. Then, as she walked away, he followed. He was surprised to here that he was already accepted for residency.

As he walked, an inaudible clink was heard from the padded case. "I am honored, and thankful to be allowed to work with you. I am a bit surprised I am to be taken on board so quickly. I will work hard to make you proud. Oh, I do have two things for you Dr. Valkonan." He addressed her formally as he was not sure what her protocol for resident to chief director addressing should be.

He handed her the purple folder first. "These are the papers to be kept and filled out for me as I work under you."

Then he held up the padded case and opened the to for her to view the contents.

"36 doses of the LNC nano treatment that Ammy created. They are for your staff and facility to use for experimental treatment for cancer." He smiled and closed the case back up and kept walking with her.

He chuckled and just nodded. "It is a title that suits you well Dr. Valkonan. And by all means, do as you wish with the LNC. If you need more, contact Ammy, and her lab will make more. As for the paperwork..."

His muzzle wrinkled a little and looked down at the tiled floor a bit embarrassed. How did he say this to his friend and now boss.

"I...I...can't read human language well enough. The Board Director at the licensing department said I need to improve that." Small voice. He felt very stressed at letting out this weakness, thank to his wolven genes for hiding injury or vulnerability.

"This Chief of Staff" Will I like her" I will try not knock off the rough edges and not bite anyone." a grin after that. He kept following her like a loyal puppy.

Fleet walked a little taller now and responded to Anya's questions. "Yes, I do have a problem reading common. I was taking lessons when I was still scouting this realm, but when the war and the clinic started, the lessons were forgotten. I will get back into them."

He followed her down the thriving hall ways, and noted how people would react to him. He wasn't sure if many of the people outside of Rhydin had paid any attention to the Lupes running around. His right mechanical paw twitched a little and brushed his right metal leg some as he thought and walked.

"And getting along with Fen is not always easy. He's a good Lupe, but 3,000 years of calling his own shots is not an easy habit to let go of. He's going to make a great healer." he just grinned as he followed Anya.

"Any patients here allergic to dog or wolf hair?" he kept up the small talk to take the nervous edge he kept feeling.

Maranya shook her head. "Nyet, as far as I know, no-one on staff is allergic to either dog or wolf hair. As for the patients currently in house?." Her hazels appeared to focus inward for a moment, as if she flipped through a mental Rolodex card by card. Then she shook her head again. "Nor are any of the current admissions allergic. However, that brings up the need for a new classification on the charts, so that you don't encounter a patient who is allergic in your duties."

She noted the flow of chatter as they walked the halls with a smile.

I do the same thing when I'm nervous. He'll grow out of it in time, once he gets used to the routine here.

The Chief of Staff's attention turned to the wounded children in one of the wards that caught the new Resident's eye. "They were caught in a building collapse," she murmured to Fleet. "We're working on getting them fitted with prosthetics. But, since Star left, we're left with our conventional technologies. Which are still worlds away from what was available on my ho—where I came from, but' I want to do so much more for them."

Maranya's pained hazels met Fleet's eager to help blue eyes. "So much more."

As he followed Maranya, he noted more and more patients in need of tending to. His mind was already classing who needed immediate help, who had what, and how he go about treating them. Then there was the medical equipment he had never seen before and dreamt about using. He couldn't wait to begin helping here.

He chuckled at Anya's implied hint of rough times to come from her Chief Resident. They were passing one of the ICU rooms when his ears picked up labored breathing and a straining heart. His blue eyes glanced through the open door.

His blue eyes watched staff on hand responding. He looked to Maranya. "Uhm, Director. I think they have a situation."

Maranya watched the flurry of activity in the ICU bay with undisguised frustration clearly reflected on her normally placid features.

Before, I'd have jumped in, and handled the situation without even thinking about it. Now"

Her fists clenched and unclenched rhythmically at her sides while she observed the successful resuscitation of the critically injured patient from the sidelines.

Now, I am as helpless as a newborn. Powerless to help those who need me.

Then Maranya turned to Fleet at his whisper, and smiled. "Da, it is a tall order, what I and the Residency program will ask of you, Fleet. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are up to the challenge. You have just taken your first steps into a much larger world."

The Chief of Staff unclenched her fists, and extended her right hand to the Lupinossi for a shake. "Congratulations. Now, let's get down to Humanoid Resources, shall we?"

He followed Maranya to a treatment room, and he had a seat. The attending nurse smiled at them both. He looked like a lively fellow.

"Afternoon Fleet Wolf. I see you're on your way to becoming part of the Riverview Clinic Family. Just need a few shots to guard against anything serious your future patients may have."A tray was rolled over, a 4 syringes were filled with various vaccines.

Fleet gave a slight gulp and looked at them then at the nurse.

"Aversion to needles Fleet' It's okay, same here."He winked at Fleet.

"I am just going to wet down your fur and the skin below with alcohol to prevent an infection from foreign contamination. The shots will go quickly I promise. Just think about your daughter. I hear she is quite the kid."Another smile as the hands go for the syringes.

Fleet decided to try the nurses advice. He closed his eyes, thought of taking Myrlene somewhere nice, and only his ears twitched with each injection. The nurse had him hold some gauze over the puncture site and just smiled.

"Very well done. Now take it easy. You may feel dizzy for a few minutes. But on a brighter note, that was you piece of official paperwork to finish." He checked off the form and left the room with paperwork in hand.

In truth, the shots were most likely the easiest part of the process. The orientation, and the chief of staff was a bit trying. But soon he was standing in scrubs bearing the colors of Riverview Clinic. He bumped into Maranya as he followed the medical tour in the evening, listening to the case reviews and observing the other interns. He gave her a smile, and went back to learning. He was happy to be here.