"Mr. Sanders, the doctor will see you now." Josh shook his head and stood up from the waiting room chair, taking a few moments to stretch his arms over his head before following the white-garbed nurse into the hallways of the office. He'd been waiting for nearly 40 minutes, and wasn't incredibly pleased to be there in the first place to begin with. His doctor had left him a message on his answering machine saying he needed to see a specialist, but had apparently forgot to mention what the specialist was for, precisely. His records didn't mention it, and the doctor was on sabbatical, so Josh wasn't able to find out what this visit was about. He had decided to come anyway since, after all, Doctor Jeffries was a great guy, and had always treated him right.

The nurse stopped just past one of the hallway's doors and motioned with her hand. "You can wait in here, Mr. Sanders, and the doctor will be with you shortly."

"Thanks," he responded, trying to show a semblance of courtesy, considering that the nurse herself didn't make him wait for more than a half-hour. Sitting in a chair beside the standard examination table the room held Josh reached over and pulled a magazine to himself, idly flipping through it without really looking in it. He had no symptoms he could think of, was only a few pounds heavier than average, and didn't even have the sniffles at the moment. His last exam with Dr. Jeffries had gone fine, so he couldn't figure out what was going on.

Fortunately for him his doctor stepped into the room before he could be forced to wait for another frustratingly long period of time. Since Josh was expecting another male doctor the young, strikingly beautiful woman who stepped through the door was a surprise. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm Doctor Gaeimi, but I know how wonderful that is to pronounce. So, you may call me Mary." She actually sounded like she was sorry he was forced to wait so long, and Josh found himself nodding a few moments before blinking and clearing his throat.

"Uh, yeah, I'm Josh. Josh Sanders. Dr. Jeffries referred me to you." As the doctor flipped through a clipboard of information, Josh got curious. "Don't doctors usually have a nurse come in and find out some info before..."

"I find that almost impersonal, in my opinion, and I try to make sure there is enough time in each appointment that I can do that myself. Don't worry, you don't have to pay extra for more of my time, and that's fewer nurses I have on my payroll." Mary was apparently one of those people who talks with their hands as well as their mouth, and Josh had to wonder how she could still be reading the charts and waving the clipboard around so much at the same time.

"Well, Josh, it appears you were sent here because you have had relationship troubles your entire life." Josh nearly fell out of his chair. He wasn't expecting that, and his mind was suddenly full of questions. As he opened his mouth Mary waved a hand at him. "Oh, no, let me explain. Blood tests show that you have insufficient levels of pheromones to attract a mate, were we still animals rather than sentient beings. However, these do sway those of the opposite sex toward us subconsciously. With a series of injections over the course of two weeks we will have your pheromone production levels back up to normal, and a little better than that, for about eight months."

Josh shook his head and blinked but listened with full interest. He was only 24, but he himself knew that the only two girlfriends he'd ever had had left him after only two weeks, finding his life of web page management and comic collecting dull, even lifeless. "But, how can... you're saying that..."

Mary smiled warmly at him, finally pulling her face up from the clipboard. "This isn't a magic wand. You won't be suddenly swamped with girls. However, when we're done, you'll seem that much more attractive and interesting to them. I will give you a few pieces of reading material with recommendations on how to be more socially outgoing while staying comfortable doing so, and with that combined with my treatment you should find yourself with much more success in the relationship department." Josh shook his head yet again. This was something that doctors can help you with? Mary patted the examination bench. "I know you just saw Doc Jeffries a week ago, but it's standard procedure."

While giving him a cursory examination, Mary explained all of the risks involved. Nausea, mild headaches, and slight chills at night were the only side effects ever shown, and only in five percent of all cases. It would be painless and be covered under mental health through a loophole in his insurance. He only had to pay ten dollars a visit to come here, and would only be making four visits. As Mary told him he could put his shirt back on, Josh said, "Well, forty dollars doesn't sound so bad. If it doesn't help then I'm not really going to have lost much."

Mary nodded, smiling that smile again. "Of course not. Everyone says that, because it's true. Well, if you'll follow me we'll do the first series of injections today." Josh didn't like the sound of that, though.

"Doct... er, Mary? I don't have a fear of needles, really, but I don't exactly like them... how many injections are we talking about?" Mary walked down the hall, letting Josh follow.

"Oh, don't worry about that. You've watched sci-fi movies, right? Well, we have a hypospray device here. Painless, and very efficient since it uses no needles." Mary took a right, and then was stepping down basement steps. Josh noticed that it wasn't a very big office upstairs, but downstairs appeared to make up for it. He'd never seen a doctor's office with this sort of layout. "And, in here." Mary walked up to a metal door and turned the spherical doorknob, letting Josh into the room before her. It was a large rectangular room, with odd-looking walls and a ceiling that was higher up than the walls were long. They almost reminded him of the padded walls of a psych ward. At first he was nervous, but then Mary put her hand on his shoulder.

"Everyone stops at the door to this room. I know it's imposing, and trust me, I'm going to have it redecorated soon, but after the injections you'll need to be in an atmospherically controlled environment." She pointed up to a fan behind a grate in the ceiling, about twenty feet up. "Now, go ahead and sit on that bench." A softly padded metal bench extended out from under a window in the wall, where Josh could see medical equipment and seats. He didn't feel comfortable being on display like this, but at least it was glass he could see through too.

Mary had stepped out of the room, but she came back in less than a minute later with four glass vials and a small white plastic device. "Here we go. Like I said, this is painless, as long as you sit still." She rolled up the sleeve of his shirt and gave him another smile. "So, don't move." She slipped one of the jars up into the receptacle built into the hypospray, flipped a switch on it, and then pressed it against his arm. "One, two," and she pulled the trigger on it instead of saying three, a slight feeling of pressure and a quiet fsss sound accompanying the injection of chemicals. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Josh visibly relaxed, quite happy that they had come up with such a nice little device. There were four more injections, each placed a few inches away from the last, and none of them caused any pain at all. Mary then collected everything and stepped to the door. "I'll be at that window in a few moments."

Mary had stepped out for barely ten seconds before she showed up there. Her voice came through a speaker he couldn't see as she spoke into a microphone. "Alright, please stand up." Hardly a second after he did the bench behind him retracted into the wall. "Alright, now, please walk around the room. You can jog lightly if you wish, but don't stop moving. We need to have your metabolism moving a little bit." Josh shrugged and started to walk around the room, thinking about where he can go to try and meet someone. He'd not thought about finding a girlfriend in a long time, and with the treatment's little extra bit of help he felt much more confident about things.

He wasn't sure how many minutes he'd been walking, but he realized his toes felt really cramped, as if he had pushed his foot into a shoe that wasn't big enough for them. His fingers felt similar, too, but when he looked at them they were completely normal. Mary noticed this, though, and asked, "Is something wrong?" Josh shook his head.

"Nah, I just need new shoes I guess." He moved his feet around in his sneakers, but couldn't seem to find a comfortable position for his poor digits. "Is it okay if I take my shoes off?"

"Why of course." Josh didn't bother to bend over and untie them, using his toes to pull them off as he usually did. His toes felt slightly better, but not great.

"Um... would swelling of the hands and feet be normal during this?" He looked over at the window and saw Mary writing on her clipboard. When she looked up at him she smiled, in her natural, comforting nature.

"It's normal, and quite temporary. Please continue walking." Josh shrugged and nodded before circling around in the room some more. For about twenty or thirty seconds his mind started to wander off on thoughts of bars and long walks, but then he noticed his vision was starting to blur, just slightly, on the edges. He lost his balance with his next step, suddenly feeling unsteady on his feet. As he fell against the wall he realized that it was indeed padded.

"Wha's goin on hea?" He put a hand to his lips in shock, not sure if that was his voice or not. Josh couldn't be sure, but it seemed that his lips were extended from his face, an inch or more. He swung his head to look at the window across the room, but his eyes no longer seemed to be able to take such quick head movements and he felt very dizzy for a few moments, falling to his rump on the floor, eyes closed tight.

As he opened his eyes slowly he noticed his vision wasn't blurry anymore, but disjointed, as if he was crossing his eyes. Despite that, though, as he looked down at himself he could see that his hands weren't exactly normal anymore. His fingernails seemed to have taken over half of each of his fingers, which were curling up into fists that he couldn't seem to open. While noticing that his clothes were feeling a little too tight he realized that he himself was growing, either just horizontally, or in both directions. The thing is, he felt almost calm about all this. Somewhere in his mind he was screaming, but it seemed more like another person was screaming while he dispassionately watch the poor guy cry for help.

"You should probably shrug out of those clothes, or you might feel a little pinched in a few minutes." Josh didn't really feel it was abnormal for him to be taking his shirt off without even considering what Mary said. He had some trouble getting his pants off, with his hands becoming large and solid shapes, no longer with fingers, but with some work he did manage it, even pulling his boxers off without a second thought. He saw that his legs' hair was very coarse, as well as that on his arms, and the hair on his head was growing thinner on the edges while growing longer down his back. Soon he felt very uncomfortable sitting on his rear, squirming a few moments before flopping down onto his side.

"I wonder why the floor isn't padded," he thought, brushing the newly grown fur of his cheek against the ceramic floor-tile, noticing that his cheek felt pretty fat and that his eye was really close to the floor for some reason. Josh was fortunate he couldn't feel any pain as his elbows and knees reformed, only feeling odd rather than hideously uncomfortable, old muscles forming new attachments, ligaments and joints following suit. He started to feel quite tired, so he just closed his eyes and dozed.

When Josh woke up he was standing in the middle of the room. The first thing he realized was that his sight was comfortable, and yet, different than it had ever been. He could see more at one time than he ever could before. The next thing he realized was that he could feel his tail. He swung his head, feeling the new weight of his massive head, and looked through the window. No one was in there. However, with his head moved, he could see down some of his body. It wasn't his body, though; it was a horse's! He didn't know much about horses, and really had no idea what breed he was, but he didn't care either. Completely and totally baffled, his brain going through loops of, "No way! I must be dreaming! This can't be real!" over and over again, Josh started to turn around.

His muscles felt normal to him already, as if he'd been a horse his whole life, but he couldn't seem to lift his ankles. At first, in a morbidly fascinated sort of way, he thought his legs must be too heavy for his legs to be used to yet. However, as he tried again he felt tightness around his ankles, or around there. He couldn't be sure anymore, and had a hard time seeing that much of himself. Starting to get desperate and panting, he panicked, not having any idea what was going on or if he was going to be back to normal again soon, or if this was just some sort of hallucination induced by the drugs injected into him. Then Mary stepped around in front of him.

"Josh is an okay name for a horse, but I think I like Joshua better. You don't mind if I call you Joshua do you? Alright, good." She idly stroked her hand along the fur between his eyes and down his snout, though he still mentally referred to it as his nose. "You're lucky, you know. Our last stallion badly broke his front legs when he was trying to hop our fence. We only keep one male at a time, you know. And with old Rusty retired, pretty soon you'll have all the women you could ever want. Even if they're all horses, they used to be women, and when they are in heat... why, they could never resist a stallion such as you! You stud!" Mary laughed and smiled again, which no longer seemed to be particularly warm or comforting, and Josh shook his head, opening his mouth to speak. As nothing but nonsense sounds issued from between his lips Josh shook his head again and tried to move, but again his ankles wouldn't answer him. Mary laughed. "Oh, hold on, I've hobbled you. You can't get to the ladies just yet, but soon. Now be a good boy and maybe I'll get you some sugar cubes!"