Hey there, everyone, and welcome to another new story! Yeah, I'm still doing one-shots, but one-shots are pretty cool to write.

You all remember how Brian has been Flanderized with the rest of the Family Guy cast? Once, he was just a talking dog with sarcasm as dry as the martinis he drinks. Now he's a complete jerk, a hypocrite, and...well, a complete jerk! Well, I saw a picture by NostalgiaChills on DeviantArt with Charlie from All Dogs Go To Heaven comforting Brian when the latter goes to Heaven. It got me thinking of what would happen if Brian genuinely regretted every bad thing he had ever done.

Disclaimer: I do not own Family Guy or All Dogs Go To Heaven. They both belong to Seth McFarlane and Don Bluth respectively. And this is a little shout-out to NostalgiaChills on DeviantArt.

Publishing Date: January 26, 2017

Enjoy!

...

Things'll Be Brighter

It all came to Brian as quick as a flash. One minute, he and Stewie were going outside to play street hockey. But in the next, he was crushed and slammed onto the street by a passing car. He hadn't known that the car would come so quickly, but he knew one thing: his life was over.

Stewie had gotten his family to quickly take Brian to the vet, but it was too late. The injuries were too severe to heal, and the family dog's time had come. He looked over at the faces of the Griffin family who had taken him in: Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg, and especially Stewie. Not a dry eye was spotted in the vet's workplace as Brian said his last words.

"Goodbye, everyone..." he rasped, his heartbeat thudding slowly and his breath disappearing. "I love you all..."

And then, Brian closed his eyes for the final time. He was dead.

That was when Brian opened his eyes, feeling a cool winter air flow around him. He looked down and gasped. Either he was standing on cake icing, or he was standing on clouds. A heavenly tone kept ringing in his ears, and Brian followed his ever-faithful ears through the cloudy area until he noticed a large set of gates, giving off a pearly shine.

"It's...wow...it's Heaven!" Brian cheered, running to the pearly gates. "Oh my God, I can't believe it! It's actually Heaven!"

But then, he stopped, his run slowing down to a walk until he stood before them. Had he done good? Brian didn't deny that he did good, but that was when his doubts started setting in.

Now he saw all the flaws and awful things he had done. He had forced Meg to give up her faith in Christianity, he refused to see his human son, he had given Stewie herpes and treated him like garbage when his book was finally published. Other stuff he had done was using Quagmire's old flame to get back at him, scamming Quagmire out of hard-earned money after he helped him fix his nose and jaws, and he had made himself superior to the women he had dated with lies and smugness.

And now Brian was not sure if he even deserved going up here after all he did. Every small doubt he had had when he was still alive came back to him full-force like a strong tornado. He looked down at his feet, unwilling to smear the pearly gates with his appearance.

"I don't deserve it," Brian muttered to himself, stepping away from the gate. "I had a life to live, a full life with several more years to live, and what'd I do? Spent it being a douchebag to everyone. You know, I wouldn't blame the angels for picking me up and slinging me down to Hell."

"I don't think they will."

Brian looked up to the pearly gates, hoping to see someone there. But there was no one.

"Nope. You're not gonna see me behind those gates yet," the voice said again. "Gotta look up."

Jumping down from a cloud was a tall and rough-looking German shepherd. One of his ears was ripped as if he had been in a fight, and there was a sly smile on his face, like a fox.

"Hey, I've seen you in a movie!" Brian exclaimed, backing away a bit. "Y-You're that dog from All Dogs Go To Heaven!"

"So you forgot my name, huh?" the German shepherd asked, but there was still a smile on his face. "But I'll tell you anyway. I'm Charlie B. Barkin, either Charles or Charlie for short, ex-con dog at your service." He looked at the look on Brian's face turn to a frown, and he felt his smile fade a little. "You look down there, buddy. What's up?"

Brian wasn't sure how to tell Charlie what was going on; after all; everyone in Heaven was sure to record every deed in their books. As for Brian's, his record book would probably be filled with more bad deeds than good. Once he was able to collect himself, he came right out and spill the beans.

"It's just...I thought I was a good dog my whole life," Brian said. "Peter took me in when I was a stray, and I repaid him and his family by being a jerk. Like when Stewie helped me get a book published, and I treated him like crap. I even went after Lois, and she and Peter are married! Not to mention me always wanting to hook up on a date and acting smug when I could easily go alone and better myself." With a bitter laugh devoid of humor, he added, "And who can forget Brian, the Democratic left-wing liberal atheist who always talked down on people for having a faith in their religion? Hell, I bring a bad name to Democrats, liberals, and atheists."

Brian sat down on a cloud, looking very sad. "I don't deserve to be up here in Heaven," he muttered, his eyes very tired. "I've been a bad dog, and I'll always be a bad dog."

This made Charlie feel bad for Brian. The German shepherd had rarely felt bad for his actions when he was alive in the 1930s, but it was thanks to the orphaned girl named Anne Marie that he had slowly started having a change of heart. Being in Heaven had started changing his heart more, transforming him from a coldhearted gambler to a compassionate dog.

"Hey, buddy," Charlie said, holding Brian close. "You look like you could use a hug there. I don't always do hugs, and I don't give these to just anyone except some friends. Like Itchy, for example."

"How can you and Heaven forgive me?" Brian asked. "I did a lot of bad stuff in my life!"

Charlie let him go and said, "Yeah, we know. But everyone's done bad stuff in their life, and I'm not gonna deny that I'm one of 'em, ex-gambler that I am as I said. We're not perfect, and the world's never been perfect. And you are sorry for everything you've done, right?"

Brian nodded. "More than you ever know."

"Then you're most likely going to be forgiven," Charlie replied. "I already know you're sorry, but that's for the big guy up here to decide, not me. Just have some faith, and things will be brighter." Then he smiled and said, "Reminds me of that song called Ooh Child, huh?"

"I thought you lived in the 30s?" Brian asked, surprised. "How could you know about 70s songs?"

Charlie chuckled. "When you've been up in Heaven for around eighty years, you get to see a lot of stuff come and go. And that song got me thinking: even though you're down in the dumps, a little hope can make things feel a bit easier and brighter. Hope can be scary too, but it's something that's kept all of us going until the end."

Brian could now feel a positive feeling well up inside of him. Charlie was right. Even if he himself would probably not go to Heaven, at least he felt hope now. No matter where he could go in the afterlife, he had decided to make up for all he had done. But before he could say it out loud, Charlie was already getting up.

"I'm gonna go see if they're okay with letting you in. Book of Life and all," the German shepherd said as he started walking away. "Until you do and if you're still unsure if you can be up here, why don't you try out Limbo? It's nothing fancy like Heaven, but at least you're not in Hell." He shuddered as if trying to get rid of a bad memory.

"Limbo?" Brian remembered what he could about afterlifes. "That's when you don't go to Heaven or Hell. Is it really bad?"

Charlie nodded and said, "Nah, just nothing fancy. But hey, at least you're not chased over glass, having to move heavy rocks, or reading Twilight books. But hang in there, Brian. Things will always be brighter."

The pearly gates opened, and Charlie stepped through, giving him a small smile before the gates closed.

Brian looked away from the gates and to behind him. There was a gray mist hanging over the line between Heaven and this mysterious place called Limbo. It did not look anything like Heaven would be, but at least it did not contain any tortures he was sure Hell would have. He shuddered at the thought of being chased around by a vacuum cleaner for eternity.

"Peter, Stewie, and everyone else..." Brian murmured as he stepped closer to the fog, "...you won't find me in Heaven when you guys die one day. I'll meet you again, many years from now. It's like Charlie said: things'll be brighter."

And with that, he took a deep breath and walked on through.

The End

...

Wildstar93: There we go, folks, I hope you all like it. If there is anything wrong with this FanFic, let me know, and I'll do my best to fix it. I always appreciate constructive criticism as long as you're polite about it. And if there are people out there who won't like this story, that's completely fine. That's their own opinion, and I'll respect that.

I'm not excusing Brian's recent actions at all. I still believe that he's a big old jerk. But what I'm saying here is a different scenario of what would happen if Brian does repent for his actions. Here, he'd be a bit closer to his season 1 personality, back when Family Guy was actually pretty good.

Plus, since one of my dogs had died last month (Jack was most likely poisoned, he shouldn't have died!), I had wondered whether to publish this or a SpongeBob story similar to what happened. But since this one had been around first, I'll upload this first.

See ya next time!