A sloppy wetness brought Octavia sharply out of the dream and into full consciousness, she jerked awake with a grunt and automatically pushed the wet nose away from her face. Early morning sunlight streamed into the room, from the large un-shuttered window opposite the bed. 
"Damnit Apollo, you're worse than a bloody rooster." She muttered. "I was having a perfectly good dream before you spoilt it."
The German Shepherd cocked his head to the side at her words and continued to look at her tongue lolling and dark eyes bright with mischief. She sighed and climbed out of bed, rubbing the dog behind his ear as she did so, deciding that since she was awake she might as well get on with her day. Artemis looked up from her position curled up on the floor at the foot of her bed and her ears perked up as she saw Octavia heading for the door. 

"Yes girl, I'm getting up."She glanced at Apollo who was sticking like glue to her side. "Clearly your sister got all of the patient genes."

Apollo yipped at her in response and she chuckled before heading down the stairs, avoiding the rickety damaged one as she did so, she reminded herself to speak to Tinker and see if he could fix it. He owed her one, especially after she had fixed his knee, old fool refused to slow down and if she was going to have to keep fixing him up then the least he could do was fix her broken stairs. Passing the front door she checked that the bolts were still in place and felt a little tension ease. Though it hadn't happened for a while she had had several robbery attempts since she had settled here and the last one had been particularly nasty. If she hadn't had the twins...pushing bad memories aside she went into the kitchen. The house had been someones farmhouse at one time and boasted a large kitchen to the rear with the huge range dominating the room. She was constantly grateful that the original owners had decided to have wood burning range, though resources were scarce wood was still available for now. 

She ensure there as plenty of wood and lit the stove, she had found a pack of lighters in the house's basement, then placing a pot of water on to boil. She missed coffee, whoever had owned this house had not been a fan of coffee as she hadn't found any stored anywhere, but instead made do with tea. At least there was plenty of that. After the water had boiled she made a teapot and carried it and her mug into the second largest room in the house. Her clinic held a metal bed, getting it here had been a nightmare having scrounged it and the other furniture from the local doctors surgery, and a desk and chair. cupboards lined one wall with workbenches, similar to kitchen workbenches, and a sink sat under the window. It looked for all intents and purposes as though she had taken an entire doctors room from a surgery and stuck it inside a house. 

She set the teapot down and poured herself a mug of hot tea. She took a sip and then sighed heavily. Artemis and Apollo wandered into the hallway both having finished the food she had put down for them. She waited for them to settle in the hallway with their heads resting just outside the room, they knew not to enter her clinic, before she approached the corner of the room where she had left it the night before. She hadn't known what she had done to start the thing and so had no idea how to turn it off either, so she had left it on but it hadn't moved yet this morning. She didn't understand one tenth of what the technology was that made up Orb or even truly what it...he was. But she understood that Orb was artificial and intelligent, Orb was a lifeform of a sort perhaps the first of his kind. Initially she had wondered what ,if anything, they had in common and what exactly she was supposed to do with him. But she had spent a lot of time thinking last night before finally falling asleep and she had realised that she had missed intelligent conversation. Oh Tinker and the others were nice enough but she couldn't really discuss in depth medical subjects with them. Orb was smart, incredibly so, and not only could he be an interesting conversationalist, he could help her in the clinic as well.

"Good Morning Orb."She began a little hesitantly. "How was your night?"

She was waiting for a response when the bells outside the back door tinkled indication that someone was outside, she had rigged the bells as a doorbell so people could get her attention when needed. She unbolted the back door which opened into her clinic and saw Tinker, Dunk holding another man between them. He was slumped and clearly unconscious with the other two men supporting all of his weight. 

"Know it's early Doc but Jeff here fell off Mrs Woods roof and hit his head pretty hard."

Octavia rolled her eyes and pointed towards the bed. "Do I want to know what he was doing on the roof, I'm betting he wasn't fixing it."

The two men dragged him to the bed and heaved him onto to it before stepping back and catching their breath. Octavia nodded towards the door and both men went and stood outside grumbling under their breath. They did not speak loud enough for anyone to hear they weren't stupid enough to upset Doc. They waited whilst Octavia examined him. After several moments she turned to them and smiled reassuringly.
"His pupils look good, his breathing is normal and I see no sign of skull damage. It looks like he was lucky this time, but to be on the safe side I'll keep him overnight for observation. He could have a concussion." She cursed her lack of medical technology having to rely on her instincts and basic instruments to judge if he had a more severe injury than first appeared. 

"What I wouldn't do for a CT or MRI right now."She muttered"What about you Orb? You haven't got a CT scanner up your sleeve have you?" 

She wasn't serious but figured that since she was the one to wake him up it was only right that she made an effort to get to know him and include him in her life. Tinker glanced at her eyebrows raised and then he nodded when he saw what she was referring to. 

"Ah got it working did you? Nice."

"I'm not sure much of it was down to me."She shrugged."But now that he's up and running I'm trying to get to know him."

"It's a ball of metal."Dunk said in confusion and Octavia and Tinker shared a look. "It's not important Dunk. Anyway I need to check a few more things with Jeff and as I said keep him in for observation so you might as well come back tomorrow."

"Sure thing Doc."Dunk wandered away and Octavia shared a smile with Tinker, Dunk was an ex scavenger who had settled here after Octavia had saved him from a serious head wound. He was an odd man but worked hard and looked out for her and Tinker as well. 

"So Orb do you have a CT scanner hidden inside there?" Tinker asked grinning.