A detour on the way home

Lucy was looking forward to returning home with these new assurances that she'd be taken care of. But on the way out of the vet's, her sister and dad started talking about what to do with her next. To Lucy's dismay, they decided a brief trip to the park wouldn't hurt her.

That was probably true if they stayed on the grass, but the thought of being paraded around so publicly again was anything but fun for Lucy. Still, there wasn't much she could do about it. Nor did she want to risk her dad thinking he had to be strict with her after all. So she allowed herself to be pulled out of the car and lead into the park by her leash.

As expected, all eyes were on them. None of them appeared shocked or concerned to see a naked girl get dragged around a public park on a leash.

How had so many people gone insane at once, to all believe that she was meant to be a pet? Lucy doubted she'd ever get an answer to that question. She tried to ignore the people, who luckily weren't crowding in to ogle her. This was so normal to them that they were treating it more like a mild curiosity than a spectacle. She could almost pretend they weren't there. She had to if she wanted to avoid a panic attack.

Of course Abby and Tom were unconcerned. Like this was the most natural thing in the world to them. They even interpreted Lucy's heavy breathing as panting, remarking that she must be excited to play. She would have shaken her head to set them straight, but then Tom pulled out a bag of treats. "You've been behaving better since that scene with our neighbor, Lucy. If you can keep it up for half an hour you'll have earned these."

Lucy grimaced when she saw the packaging. Those treats didn't taste good! But she knew it wasn't just about them. This was her chance to prove herself, hopefully earning some more leniency from her dad. And so she sat up, waiting for him to unclip her leash. Tom gave her a pat on the head, grabbed a stick, and threw it.

With no way to tell time Lucy had no idea how long they were at it, but she carried that stick back to her dad or Abby again and again.

The game was only interrupted for occasional pats and treats, and a break during which Abby held a water bottle for her to drink from. Abby giggled when some of the water spilled on her, and Lucy had to stop herself from grumbling. It's not like she didn't know how to drink from a bottle, it just wasn't easy when she had to crane her neck with someone else holding the bottle over her!

Once in a while people would come up to them when their curiosity got the better of them, but Tom fielded their questions while Abby kept playing with her pet. They only stopped twice so someone could get a closer look at her, and nobody tried to touch her.

Eventually Lucy started to ache from all the crawling. Mewing softly, she rubbed where it hurt and made puppy eyes at Abigail. Her sister got the message and the game was over. After a final treat the leash was clipped onto her collar again and she was lead back to the car, where she stretched out on the bench with her head on her sister's lap.