A Friend In Need...

"Are you sure this is the place?" Mike whispered to Peter. "It doesn't look like much."

"Appearances can be deceiving," Peter managed to whisper. He was looking fairly green at the moment, though it wasn't too obvious in the dark. "This is it. This is where Theresa and Joel last lived."

Mike nodded. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Peter took a deep breath and nodded. "I hope I can do this," he muttered to himself, too low for Mike to hear. He stepped a few feet away from the others.

Mike and Thomas watched with wide eyes as Peter began to glow. Though it wasn't actually him that was glowing. There was just a glow that surrounded him. A light blue glow that surrounded his entire body and seemed to come from within.

More slowly than ever before, the changes began. Mike and Thomas watched in silence. Mike and Peter had been cured of the full-moon disease by Mari during the last tour, but Peter had discovered shortly afterwards that he could still transform if necessary. Mike hadn't tried. He didn't see any reason to. But Peter was comfortable being a puppy dog, and had done so several times. One stipulation remained - that if he transformed, he would not always be able to transform back before the full moon had changed. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. But no one was worried about the full moon at this point.

Thomas was more interested in the transformation than Mike. Though it had never been spoken of or denied, he had known about his parents' "condition" for as long as he could remember. It was not a mere coincidence that the once a month he was left at the Pad to hang out with Micky and Davy was always during the full moon. But he had never seen it before, and he was eager to watch.

It was nothing like he had expected. Thanks to Micky's science fiction love, he had watched quite a few werewolf movies during those once-a-month outings. During those, the change always seemed fast and painful. The afflicted person would scream in terror or pain as fur broke out over their body, teeth grew longer, and muscles grew so large as to rip or tear clothes. The end result was sometimes only a man with large ears, bad dentures, and much fur on his face. But this was real life.

Peter's ears were, strangely enough, the first things to change this time. They grew longer at first, and then so long that they flopped over and dangled. Thomas didn't hold back the audible gasp that escaped him as he watched. Then the face changed. The nose grew longer, the teeth changed shape, the eyes transformed. Then the arms and legs began to change shape. Thick, blondish hair covered the face and body. Organs re-arranged themselves. A tail sprouted out.

Thomas let out several shocked gasps. His eyes grew wider and wider. He looked at Mike when it was all over, and was surprised to see he was looking quite calm. Then he remembered that surely Mike must have seen this several hundred times already. That would be why it was boring.

"Feel any better?" Mike asked out loud, and Thomas wondered how his father was going to respond.

'Not in the least,' Peter replied, and the boy heard his voice in his head. It should have occured to him, somehow, but it hadn't. ' Weak, nauseous. I think something's really wrong.'

"Probably," Mike replied quietly. "Usually a change would have cured you." He sighed and looked down at Thomas. "Ready?" he asked.

Thomas nodded. They had formulated the plan on the way over. Mike would play the concerned uncle (which he was anyway) whose visiting nephew's (Thomas') dog had suddenly taken ill. Having heard from some friends with dogs in the area, Mike decided to bring the dog here. But the boy was so terribly concerned that he insisted on bringing him now, at about one in the morning.

None of them were willing to wait until the sun came up, so that was at least true.

Mike bent over and lifted the rather heavy animal into his arms with a grunt. "I hope they don't kill us for bringin' a dog around after midnight," he mumbled to himself. "It ain't exactly business hours."

"They're vets," Thomas reminded Mike. "They're probably concerned about animals. Even at one a.m."

Mike had to agree with that. Vets (at least the very small amount of vets he had met) were usually dedicated.

Thomas tried his best to look worried and anxious as they made their way towards the front door.

"Ugh," Mike groaned as they climbed the three steps to the small porch. "You ain't exactly a puppy any more, Pete," he reminded him.

"A name!" Thomas realized suddenly. "The dog needs a name!"

'How's about Peanuts?' Peter suggested wearily.

Thomas shrugged. "That works," he replied. He took a deep breath, put on his most pitiful child face and pushed the doorbell.

The resounding ding-dong seemed to fill the neighborhood, and he winced, stepping back.

It took a while, and another two ding-dongs before the lights in the house came on.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'," Thomas heard someone say on the other side. A few moments afterwards the porch light came on and the door opened.

A thin man with light hair and blue eyes opened the door. He squinted in the bright light at his visitors. "Wha-?" he managed to mumble through his sleep.

"Please sir," Thomas said in his best imitation of a helpless child. "My dog is sick."

The man blinked.

"He's very sick, and I'm...I'm afraid he won't make it until morning. Someone told me you were a vet. Please, help me."

Thomas finished his speech with a few large puppy dog eyes that he hoped the man would be able to see.

"Sick dog?"

Thomas nodded. Mike nodded also, even though you couldn't see it behind the large dog.

"Why didn't ya say so? C'mon in." The man opened the door and stepped aside to allow the visitors to enter.

"I'm sorry it's so late," Mike managed to mumble without getting a mouthful of fur.

"Thank you so much for letting us in," Thomas agreed.

"Right," the man replied. "Wait here."

Mike groaned slightly as the man disappeared up the stairs and shifted the dog's wait in his arms.

"Man, your dog is heavy," he commented to Thomas.

Thomas shrugged. "He eats a lot," he replied. Silently he asked, 'Want some help with him?'

Mike nodded eagerly. Thomas narrowed his eyes, focusing, and Mike felt the weight ease on his arms. "Thanks," he replied.

"Have a seat," their host

called from upstairs. "It takes a while to get her to wake up."

Her? Thomas and Mike both wondered at the same time. They sat down on the shabby looking beige couch, and Mike set the dog down on the floor.

"That's better," he breathed, shaking out his arms. He noticed that "Peanuts" had fallen asleep.

A few minutes later, the man re-emerged, now dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a sweater. He was followed by a thin woman with long hair and green eyes, who had slipped on a similar outfit. Mike was startled for a split second. He had seen them before.

Thomas and Mike both stood up as the couple came in the room. The woman smiled and yawned a long yawn before greeting the visitors.

"Dog's sick?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," Mike replied.

"Yeah," Thomas agreed. "I-I don't know what's wrong with him. He was okay until last night. Now he won't eat, and he just kinda lays there. I think he's real sick." He was attempting to sound hysterical, something he rarely was in real life.

"Don't worry," the man said, slightly more awake. "We'll see what's wrong with him." They both lifted the dog from the floor and set him on the coffee table after brushing a few scattered TV guides on to the floor.

The man proceeded to do a preliminary examination, looking at the dog's eyes and placing an ear to his stomach. The woman disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a stethoscope, which she used to listen to the heartbeat.

Thomas watched the woman's reactions. She laid her stethoscope on the dog's stomach, and listened to its heartbeat for a while. Then she moved to the other side. She frowned. Then she frowned again. After listening for a few moments more, her frown grew deeper.

"I'm not sure what I can do from here," she told the man in a low voice. "We may have to take him in."

"Is it that bad?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied.

Thomas' eyes grew wider and wider. He looked at Mike, who had an equally worried expression on his face.

The woman listened to the heartbeat for a while longer. Then she lifted the ear flaps and looked at both ears. She peered with a small flashlight into the dog’s eyes and nose. Then she opened its mouth and peered in there.

Her frown grew deeper after every spot.

Finally, she turned towards Thomas. "I'm afraid I'm not sure what's wrong with your dog right now," she told him. "I think we're going to have to take him to my office in order to do some more tests."

Thomas nodded and looked up at Mike, who nodded as well. Both were silent.

Micky had collapsed on the couch, and Davy was sacked out across the ancient garage sale armchair. Both were fast asleep even at noon the next afternoon.

Nicole, however, had work to do. She got up and managed to get Joanne off to school and called to let the school know that Thomas had come down with a bad cold and wouldn't make it today. Then she had to tend to the three not yet even a year old babies.

She set them down in the playpen and worked on washing the floor...a good stress reliever. It wasn't until ten thirty that she received a call from her son.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Thomas! Where are you?"

"At the vet's."

"Vet's? Which vet? Where is it?"

"I dunno Mom, it's just a vet," he replied in a tense voice. "They're gonna do some blood tests."

"Blood tests?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure what they think is wrong with him but they said they'd figure it out."

"How's he doing?"

"I dunno. He's been asleep since we got here."

"When did you get there?"

"'Bout one thirty in the morning."

Nicole heaved a sigh. "Is Mike still with you?"

"Yeah. He's talking to the vets."

"Ok. When are you coming home?"

"Be there in a half hour," Thomas replied. He paused. "Mom," he began again, and she sensed something strange about his voice.

"What?"

"I think we might have to tell them."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Nicole's heartbeat raced faster. Tell someone?

"I don't know. It might be connected. Look, I gotta go, okay? We'll miss the bus. We'll talk about it when we get home."

"Okay. See you soon."

"Bye Mom."

Nicole hung up the phone and began to fix some lunch. Micky and Davy would awaken eventually and then they would be hungry. She fixed some sandwiches and woke them up. Then she filled them in on the situation and the three of them waited for Thomas and Mike to get home.

"I dunno, Mike, I'm not sure it's a good idea," Micky stated between bites of his liverwurst-cheese-and-salami sandwich.

"I think you should at least talk to Petah about it first," Davy agreed as he downed a glass of soda. He, Micky, Mike, Nicole, and Thomas were all gathered in Nicole's kitchen to eat lunch.

"But we can't," Mike pointed out. "He's been unconscious since last night."

"It might have something to do with why he's sick," Nicole agreed, scratching her head thoughtfully. She turned to Mike. "Do they have any idea what's wrong with him?"

Mike shook his head. "Not a clue," he replied. "They're doing a bunch of blood tests to see if it's a virus or a bacteria or whatever."

"Do you think it's contagious?" Davy suddenly asked. His eyes grew big at the idea. "What if one of us gets it?"

"I don't know," Mike answered with a serious frown. "I don't think so."

"You think we can trust these people?" Nicole asked. "I mean, you guys are famous now. What if they tell someone? It would be all over the tabloids before morning. No one would believe it, of course, but you'd be hard-pressed to explain where Peter is."

The idea hadn't occured to anyone else, apparently, because Micky, Davy, and Mike all suddenly frowned. Micky appeared worried enough to even put down his sandwich momentarily.

"I think we can," Thomas spoke up then from where he stood, leaning up against the refrigerator. The others turned to him in surprise. He hadn't spoken before then, and they had almost forgotten he was there.

"Why?" his mother asked.

Thomas was silent a moment before he replied. "Dad seemed to trust them," he said then.

There was another silence as the rest of the group digested this information.

"That's true, he did," Mike collaborated.

"'Ow did Petah meet them anyway?" Davy asked.

"I don't know," Mike answered. "He just said it was a long time ago, and they might not even remember him if they met him, but he trusted them."

"Enough to tell them his secret?" Micky asked, eyes wide.

"I don't know," Mike admitted.

There was another long silence.

"I think we should tell them," Thomas stated. "I think it might be important to help him get better, and I think we can trust them."

The others slowly nodded their agreement.

"We'll tell them then," Mike decided. "And we'll see how they take it." He looked at Thomas. "We'll go back in about an hour, the two of us."

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