dot.

3: Hidden Link

  When a company wishes to create a new drug, there are many different stages of testing. The drug is thought through, each ingredient considered carefully even before it is made. Then it may be tested on small cultures of living cells, and the effects monitored. Next, animals. Lab rats, mice, dogs- they are the next stage in many drug testings. Now, most people would say the drug would then move on to being tested on humans.

  This is not the case.

  A hidden link in this process; an animal-human hybrid used to study the effects of the drugs in greater detail without any risk to human life.

  At first, they had studied everything about him, learnt how his body functioned, made notes on his intelligence, tested his response to pain and different emotions. But now they knew everything about him that there was to know, so they began to 'lend' him out to different private companies in exchange for money. Sometimes they would reevaluate the studies previously done on his anatomy, other times it would be drug or product testing.

  This time, it was definitely a drug test.

  He was tied down yet again, with a section of skin peeled away from the front of his thigh in a neat rectangle. It stung a lot, but the bleeding was kept to a minimum due to a previously administered injection that appeared to slow down his blood flow to the area from a gushing river to an oozing stream.

  At least my neck is finally healed, he thought, trying to look for positives as a scientist finished preparing the drug they were testing. I can fly again.

  The scientist bent down towards his thigh with a cotton swap dipped in a white substance, contained in a small bowl he was holding. He looked nervous, trying his best to not look Dot in the eye as the hybrid braced himself for the moment when the swap touched his leg.

  Dot squeezed his hands against the unforgiving plastic arms of the chair he was strapped to as the scientist began rubbing the substance over his wound.

  "Sorry." Dot heard him mutter under his breath. "I'm so sorry."

  Ah. This man was clearly a new hire then. The sympathy was appreciated, but Dot found his incessant apology with no effort to actually help or stop causing pain incredibly frustrating. He stared the scientist down as the cotton swap continued to drag up and down the wound, leaving a trail of stinging pain behind it.

  The pain was bearable- he had certainly had worse. Whatever they were testing here was clearly not causing much irritation to his wound, and that combined with the scientist only lightly touching him with the swap made for an experience significantly less painful than he had anticipated. He guessed the scientist's fearful, gentle strokes of the swap stemmed from a fear of hurting something so human-like. It was refreshing, having someone being scared of him. Usually it was the other way around.

  Apart from a little stinging, this round of testing was okay.

  Once the paste had sat on Dot's leg for a few minutes with little effect, the scientist got up from the floor with a grunt and picked up a clipboard and pen.

  Dot turned his head to face him, taking pleasure in how he awkwardly shied away from his gaze. "I didn't realise you were going to be so...so..." He stuttered.

  Dot raised an eyebrow, as if to ask: 'So what?'

  The scientist itched the back of his neck nervously before continuing. "So...intelligent? They did say you were very human-like, but...this really feels wrong."

  The hybrid shrugged, keeping up uncomfortable eye contact with the scientist. He was just like humans, on the inside at least.

  The scientist gripped his clipboard harder and bit his lip. "Does it uh- hurt?"

  Dot shook his head. He guessed that what they were testing was probably some type of shampoo or soap, and wanted to make sure it wouldn't irritate a wound. It did hurt a little, but the pain came from the fact that had an open wound, not the paste.

  The scientist finished taking the notes on Dot's wound before gently running warm water over it to clean off the paste and putting the skin that had been cut away back where it had been taken from. He began to stitch it back on, much more gently than the Doctor had.

  Once he was finished, he stood up again and mumbled a final 'sorry' before leaving the room and taking his clipboard with him.

a/n: a shorter chapter this time, sorry.