Luca crawled back to Euphrates Base with her tail between her legs, chest burning with the slow, awful feeling of failure. They’d had her guarding a man this time, short and green and covered in enough medals and pins that he looked almost as chromed as Luca really was, and he glinted bright and annoying whenever the sun came up. It had made him an easy target for the Rebellion guerillas, but they’d all been human, and Luca wasn’t, so it should’ve been easy to deal with them, but they’d… done something, or she hadn’t tried, or maybe she’d tried and failed. Luca wasn’t sure. It was hard to remember much once her combat stims kicked in.

But either way he'd died, so she’d failed, and so she’d run the hundred miles back to Euphrates Base on pure nervous energy, desperate for Handler to set her right. It had only been a day and already Luca could barely think around the awful, horrible knowledge that she’d been bad, and without Handler to deal with it she’d just think and think and think and then, well, no more Luca, probably. They’d done this to her around when they’d put in her metal teeth, twisted her brain up around biting and hunting and watching out for their little green men, and if Luca stopped now she’d just break from stress like one of those big herding dogs with nothing to do.

So: get to Handler, quickly, and don’t get seen. That was easy enough, even with the meter of height she had over the army men in Euphrates Base, because Luca was half dog and three and a half billion dollars of military cyberware. It was hard to tell if she was weird because of that or because of the brainwashing, but it didn’t really matter at this point, and it let Luca cloak through the gates and head down the hallways without a sound. Handler had wanted her to keep away from the rabble, her words, because every other soldier was a communist spy at this point, also her words, although Luca figured if that were true they were kind of screwed anyways.

She felt another pang of anxiety at the thought. It had been almost a month since she’d talked to Handler, long enough that Luca was getting ideas again. She made her way to the offices, then the mess hall. No Handler, which meant they were probably in the training rooms, which meant Luca’s punishment would hurt. She whined under her breath and curled halfway in on herself, cloaked in the corner of the mess, checking again for Handler just in case. Two handlers, fifty green men, ten whitecoats, one plump black whitecoat with big round eyes. Oh! Mel!

Luca watched her doctor sitting awkwardly at the table with the other medics, fascinated by the way Mel picked at the curry all the humans were eating today. She looked even more anxious than Luca and she hadn’t even let that man die! Luca let out a little huff at the sight and watched her a bit more, heartrate slowing as she took in all the little ways Mel had changed over the month Luca had been away. With her augmentations, it was easy for Luca to pick out the eyebags against her dark skin, the weight she’d lost a bit too fast for comfort, the oily look of her curly black hair in that messy bun… she really hadn’t been doing well. Luca watched her until she got up and left with the other whitecoats, blinking at the woman’s back in a bit of a daze. She should’ve left to find Handler an hour ago, but it was her job to watch the Euphrates people too, wasn’t it? So without thinking about it too hard Luca padded down the hallway to follow her doctor.

All the whitecoats were walking down to the medical wing, but Mel split off from them almost immediately, pushing through a door and down some stairs and into the cramped passage to the biotech labs. This part of Euphrates Base was almost deserted, so when Mel turned and squinted back up towards the stairwell, Luca decloaked and let herself ripple back into view. She was large enough to take up the entire width of the hallway; she was terrifying, objectively, but when Mel saw her all the tension went out of the doctor’s face, and she spread her arms wide to welcome her, and Luca knew she was supposed to be getting punished but Mel was right there, all plush curves and soft smiles and warm skin, and Luca was enough of a dog to run up and bowl Mel over at just the sight of her open arms.

Mel let out a soft huff as Luca bounded up and knocked the breath out of her, pinning her under half a ton of chrome hound and rubbing against her with her arms, thighs, throat before Luca remembered not to put quite so much weight on her doctor. She shivered happily as one of Mel’s hands went up to stroke the nape of her neck; the other hand went down to pet her stomach, running steady circles on her washboard abs. Luca hadn’t been allowed to touch anyone for a month, not on the mission, and it had been even longer since Handler had rewarded her properly, and somehow Mel was even better, wow, which was impossible because Handler wasn’t – she couldn’t –

Luca flinched away from the doctor’s touch and practically leaped backwards up the hallway, heart pounding with fear, crouching on her hands and knees a safe distance away from where the woman was lying on the ground. She was supposed to be human around the Euphrates people. “Doctor Jones?” she said, and when her voice came out low and husky she flinched again and stood up into a proper military posture. “Doctor, I didn’t mean–”

The doctor sighed. “I told you to call me Mel, didn’t I?” Luca let out a low, pained whine at the little frown on the woman’s face. That was unprofessional, Handler had said, but Handler had also said to play nice with the doctors so Luca was probably supposed to use the name Mel liked, and Mel had said Luca hadn’t been punished for it so it was fine, right? Right.

“…Mel,” Luca said, voice still low and a bit whiny, and the doctor smiled at the sound of her name. It sent a little jolt of pleasure down Luca’s spine. “Sorry. Do you know where Handler is? I’m supposed to get punished.” The punishment would be even worse now that she’d rubbed herself all over her doctor, but Luca didn’t want to think about that.

“I don’t, no.” The doctor sighed. She looked a bit frustrated, but she wasn’t staring at Luca right now, so she wasn’t mad at her. “Have you checked her office?”

Luca grunted out a yes, and Mel pursued her lips, thinking to herself. Luca watched her for another long moment, taking in the way her face scrunched together in concentration. Humans moved their faces around a lot, but Mel was especially good at it, and the expressions showed up on her round face like little waves on a water globe. Eventually, though, her face settled, and her body firmed up with it. She was posturing, but it was less like Handler and more like an army man. “What are you being punished for, anyways?”

Luca blinked. “…that’s confidential?” Humans said a lot of nonsense stuff, but Luca wasn’t used to Mel doing that. She had to know Luca couldn’t just tell her.

“It is,” Mel agreed, and Luca relaxed at the approval in her voice. “But your Handler said to play nice with the doctor, didn’t she? I’d like to know. For my records.”

Luca shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not… that doesn’t seem relevant?”

“I’m the doctor here, aren’t I? Isn’t that for me to decide?” Mel said it like a command, sharp and cutting, and Luca flinched before she even heard the words, whimpering under her breath until Mel hushed her and waited for her to settle again. “It’s alright, Luca. Does it have something to do with General Bastilia?”

Luca let out a sigh of relief. If Mel knew, she had clearance, and that made things easy. “The man with all the medals? Yes, he’s dead, very dead, I’m not sure why. But I failed, so I need… I’m supposed to go to Handler?” Luca smiled weakly, eyes a bit watery, and Mel hummed softly and ran one arm up Luca’s muscled bicep from where they were sitting on the floor. When had she gotten so close? But this time there was nothing soothing about her touch, and Luca felt another pulse of anxiety and squirmed in place. She didn’t know how she’d forgotten. She couldn’t feel good from something like this when she hadn’t even been punished yet. She needed Handler, not Mel, even though – especially since it felt this good, and so Luca smiled weakly down at her doctor and tried to stand up to leave.

She had barely made it to her knees when Mel frowned, reached up to her throat, and pinched at the ports on the back of her neck, scruffing her and making her slump back to the ground as her inputs went slack. “Leaving for your punishment?” Luca let out a soft noise in agreement. She couldn’t really think with Mel’s hands on her like this. “I know, hound. I’ll take you to Her. But I’ll give you a check-up first. You want to look good for your Handler, don’t you?” She ran one nail along the rim of Luca’s main data port, and the hound whimpered as the pleasure brought another jolt of anxiety. She wasn’t supposed to feel good–

“I have to go to Her,” Luca said desperately, “I shouldn’t – I could ask her? About you?” She’d been bad just for letting Mel pet her, and usually Handler would just get rid of anyone Luca touched like that, but maybe if she took her punishment well Handler would let Mel see her again…

Mel smiled. “But She knows already, doesn’t she? She knows everything.” Luca groaned out a yes. She does, She does, and the thought felt even brighter with Mel scruffing her. It made her feel so much more malleable, made her squirm and rub her thighs together like a bitch in heat, and she whimpered pitifully at the confident look on her doctor’s face. “Then you don’t need to ask Her at all, do you? She knows what you want, and She hasn’t punished you, has She? So She approves.” Luca blinked at her, confused. She didn’t really get it? “She approves, Luca. And She’s been very stressed these last few months, hasn’t she? She doesn’t want to see those scratches on your legs. You want to look good for Her.” She reached up and combed her fingers through Luca’s short, scruffy hair, and Luca felt the anxiety bubble up, but then it slipped away because right, Mel was doing this for Handler. It was all for Handler, the touching and the check-up and the petting and all, and Luca couldn’t stop being a good hound just because it made her feel things too. She panted happily, hot breath rumbling out against Mel’s face, and when the doctor brought her hand down to Luca’s cheek she leaned into it with lidded eyes. “There we go. Good girl.” Luca let out a little bark, and when Mel hummed with approval and got to her feet she took her doctor’s arm and scanned for spies or traps or something, she didn’t really know, holding her like a seeing-eye dog as they walked towards the biotech lab.