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"Okay." Lawrence said, and he felt good, clean in a way he hadn't felt in years, the age he'd felt seeming further away than it had, as if by washing him, some of his years had been washed away too.

Lawrence enjoyed the time they spent reading and discussing for hours, giving away a little more about his life with the other man than he had with anyone else in his life. He found the room strangely meditative, the rain soothing him while he read and the sky overhead while he slept. It was almost sad he couldn't stay longer, he found himself thinking, though not with any real seriousness. The time was set and he wasn't about to argue with it.

"A dog?" he asked the other man curiously. "I used to be a vet you know. Before everything."

He shrugged. "A lot of animals get put down. Are you going to keep it?"

"No reason why not." he said. "Might as well put all that university to some use." He didn't question too far into "involved in a death", apparently everyone here was a murderer of some description.

"Are you going to airlift it down?" he asked with a chuckle.

The irony of having to be collared when the dog probably wasn't wasn't lost on Lawrence but he complied anyway, carefully setting out the key where Rodney could see it before fastening the collar around his throat.

The dog was full of excitement at the place she found herself in, her tail was long and undocked with thick bone like an eager bat she waved around as she circled Rodney over and over, her tongue eagerly lolling from her huge jaws. Her tiny strangely set eyes in her shark-like head watched the man keenly and interrupted her facination only long enough to let out a boofing bark down into the room below where she smelled other new things she wanted to see.

The dog made its way eagerly over to the new and exciting human and set about licking his face, Lawrence moved as far away as his collar let him and took hold of the eager animal with a confidence that had a clear impact in calming her down. She whined keenly as he checked her eyes, ears and with care about her reactions to being poked and prodded, her teeth.

"Butch is actually a b***h, and she's probably only a few years old, not very old really, her teeth are in good condition. She's almost certainly been bred, scars too, probably other dogs, maybe people." He rubbed the dogs throat and she made an awkward face as he hit an itchy spot. "Horrible chain collars too it seems like. She's got a good temprament to people in spite of it."

He didn't seem to care the dog had been involved in a murder, taking cues from her of when to back off. "Is she on limited time too?" he asked. "Because euthanasia is much kinder than blood loss, on a dog, believe me."

"She's in good condition, her coat is good, she's got energy, as long as she's eating well I don't think you have anything to worry about." He patted her head and she wagged her big silly tail.

"You won't need to be alone if you have her." he said. "I don't think you'll upset her, you are calm and patient, she probably got beaten a lot if some of these healed injuries are anything to go by." He just assumed that she would stay with Rodney.

"And they are, they feel intentions. If you are honest with them they'll be honest with you. You can fool a dog with something as simple as throwing a ball but you can't fool one you like it." He sat down properly himself and the dog moved to sit on him. He let it.

"Don't let her do that." he said, exasperatedly but not able to do much about it. "It's a dominance gesture." And as if to prove it he reached to one side to pull himself free and she growled warningly at him. 'Lead her off of me, if you would." he said.

She's not you. It stung a little to think that there was anything worthy of him only to realise it wasn't enough to change anything. It wasn't the kind of thinking he entertained for long though, Rodney was what he was just as he himself was exactly how he was and did not readily change.

"I'll write you a care guide." he said. "In between everything else. From what I know."

She responded well to Rodney's confidence and left Lawrence alone, sitting down in a relaxed sort of way. "She'll keep you safe too, when you least expect it."