"OK, OK, CHASE, YOU WIN! I GET IT! THAT WAS HILARIOUS!"

While both pups had now gone into full-blown hysterical laughing fits over the memory they shared, Marshall was laughing far harder to the point of shedding tears and frantically slamming his paw on the floor. Chase's brain had shut down for laughing so hard as well. That memory never failed to make him laugh, but fully reminiscing on it with Marshall somehow made it way funnier. The sense of relief Chase felt in hearing Marshall laughing his head off didn't help. After seeing him so depressed and scared, hearing his old self come back felt like a massive weight had been lifted.

Marshall and Chase being paralysed by laughter rang out across the whole of the Lookout. Even Rocky woke up upon hearing it, and while he didn't get much in the way of sleep himself, his energy returned very quickly upon realising that Marshall was coming back to them. All four pups heaved a collective sigh of relief. After a long few hours of worry, things finally seemed like they were looking up.

The two had been reduced to coughing as they desperately tried to recover from the laugh they shared. Wheezing and gasping filled Marshall's house as they caught their breath, yet continued to giggle as they spoke.

"Good times, right?" Chase began.

"Heh... guess so..."

Chase hesitated before speaking again. "You know... I'm really happy you're coming back... I hate seeing my baby brother like that..."

Marshall froze up, briefly, before grabbing on to Chase and hugging him tightly. "Chase... I'm sorry I dreamed you'd do that to me..."

As embarrassed as he was to be called Chase's baby brother, the reminder of their fraternal bond hit hard. They were the first members of the Paw Patrol, after all, and Marshall was the first pup that Chase had the luxury of meeting when he came to Adventure Bay with Ryder. After so long together, it was only natural that they'd grow so close.

"What did I say back there, Marshall? It's not your fault." Chase whispered.

"Still... I know everyone has my back and I have theirs... but being called useless hurts, you know?" Marshall replied sadly. "I know it was only a dream, but..."

Chase groaned as he got a dose of reality. Marshall may have been feeling better, but the aftershocks of a dream like that were going to be tougher to shake off.

"Not done yet, then..." Chase thought. He broke the hug and stared Marshall in the eyes.

"Nobody's. Perfect." Chase told Marshall, frightening him slightly with the intense look he was giving him. "Not me. Not you. Not Ryder. Nobody. Nobody expects you to be perfect, either. I've said it before, we all have our flaws. And we each cover for them. That's why we're a team- no, a family."

Marshall continued to stare at Chase with eyes wide as the latter's stare softened.

"Look, you're acting like we've never made mistakes at all." Chase continued. "We know that you're clumsy, and we don't care. You've been clumsy for years. And we've had our flaws for years, too. You can't say that Rubble's the perfect pup when he charged ahead and got stuck in the tunnel, say. Heck, my allergies got me thrown in Barkingburg's dungeon! Does that make me the perfect pup?"

Marshall blinked. "But... you and-"

"No 'buts'. I'm a lot of things. A super spy. A cop. Even..." Chase paused. Even now, it still seemed a little too silly to be true. "...a Mer-Pup. But if there's one thing I'm NOT, it's 'perfect'. And nobody is. You aren't perfect. And we don't expect or want you to be."

Marshall felt himself welling up again. But not because he was upset. Because he was realising that he'd been working himself up over a dream that his friends were practically crawling over barbed wire to prove wrong.

"I... y-you... Ch-chase..." Marshall sniffled, looking at him with a small, tearful smile.

"Shhhhhhh... don't worry, Marshall... Your bro's here for you..." Chase whispered. The two embraced quietly as Marshall sniffled a little and quietly nuzzled Chase in gratitude.

The two had done nothing but lie in Marshall's house in each other's arms in total silence. How long had Chase been lying there with Marshall? Half an hour? Longer? Shorter? It didn't matter. As long as Marshall needed him, Chase swore to himself that he'd be there. And Marshall certainly needed him right now after Chase was forced to leave him partway through the day. Chase still cursed the awful timing. Of all the times for an emergency to come in, this had to be among the worst. Being summoned while he was in the bushes? In the middle of the night? While being given a bath? Nothing compared to this.

"Hey, pups... is this a bad time?" A familiar voice jolted Chase out of his thoughts. He'd somehow failed to notice Ryder's footsteps as he left the Lookout and moved to Marshall's house.

"Ryder!" Marshall cried. His face lit up and he sat up quickly. Ryder kneeled down and cupped Marshall's head in his hands.

"Well, someone's looking better!" Ryder said with a mixture of excitement and relief. "How've you been?"

"Getting there. The others really looked out for me."

"Yeah, they all told me just now. I was wondering, though. Why's Rocky in your bed?"

Marshall and Chase looked at each other before bursting into giggles and telling him what happened.

"Oh, you silly pup!" Ryder playfully scolded, reaching over and tickling Marshall's side.

"HEY! S-st-stop it! Kn-kn-kn-knock it off!" Marshall laughed helplessly, wriggling around in place. Chase smiled warmly at the sight.

"The others were meant to be looking out for you, not the other way around!" Ryder grinned down at Marshall. Not only had he made a turnaround, but he was still looking out for others despite being so depressed earlier on. Somehow, Ryder wasn't surprised that Marshall would do this.

"Was I... not supposed to...?" Marshall asked, worriedly. Ryder placed his hand back on the side of Marshall's head.

"Well, it wasn't the plan. I know Rocky seems really beat up over his own dreams, but you didn't have to turn it around like that..."

Marshall grinned widely. "Yeah. I didn't."

Ryder couldn't have been more proud. "Same old Marshall..." he thought.

He only wished he could've been there to help his pup through it, but it seems like he wasn't actually needed after all, as the rest of the Paw Patrol had clearly done such a good job. He made a mental note to reward them all somehow later on.

"What a good pup... Always putting others first..." He always trained his pups to put others above themselves, but he didn't think Marshall would take it this far. He moved his hands up and scratched Marshall behind both ears, causing him to freeze up and drop limply to the floor with an utterly dreamy expression on his face.

"So what's been happening here?" Ryder asked, placing his hands in his lap.

"Well... I... uh... I was just telling Chase earlier how useless that dream made me feel, actually..."

"Pfft! 'Useless' you say..." Ryder scoffed. Marshall's eyes widened in response to his owner not taking the suggestion seriously in the slightest.

"But I felt like... I was only dragging everyone down... Wondering if I was good for anything..."

"This from our fire pup?" Chase piped up. How do you think the team would do without you, hu-"

Chase quickly clasped his paw over his mouth. Without thinking, he'd brought up the very thing around Ryder he'd told himself he wouldn't last night. He barely had time to curse himself before Marshall responded.

"Maybe a little better..."

Ryder flinched back in shock, his smile evaporating in an instant. "Marshall! How could you say that?!" he yelled with an expression of abject horror.

"Well, I'm such a screw-up. I just fall off of stuff and need rescuing all the time... I'm kind of a burden..."

"No! That's wrong and you know it!" Ryder barked, his horror shifting to a rare look of anger, causing both pups to retreat to the back of Marshall's house in fright. "Every one of you pups has an important role to play, and you all have a place with me! Nothing's going to change that! How could the team be better off without you?!"

All it took was those four words to shatter Ryder's normal demeanor. The idea of losing a single pup made him feel utterly sick, to the point that Rocky recounting his own nightmare drove Ryder to tears along with him. What Ryder failed to notice until he stopped talking was the tearful look of terror that Marshall was giving him.

"R-Ryder, I-I'm sorry! P-please don't hate me!"

As he regained his temper, Ryder wondered if the feeling in his stomach was what it felt like to be stabbed. Marshall looked like he was finally over the hump, and now he was yelling at him? All of his pups had been working their tails off to bring him around and here he was smashing that hard work to pieces with nothing but an emotional knee-jerk. Ryder took a little while to respond as he swallowed back overwhelming guilt.

"Marshall, I couldn't hate you if I tried... I'm so sorry I yelled. But you know how much I love you pups. I don't want to think... about losing a single one of you..." Ryder whispered, himself trying his hardest not to cry.

Marshall had entirely forgotten how much each of them meant to Ryder. He was with Rocky when Ryder started crying over the thought of losing one of them, but this thought hadn't even crossed his mind for the past day or so. All he'd thought about in that moment was the furious, hateful Ryder from his dream. He felt guilt building in his stomach at upsetting his owner, and took a few steps towards Ryder.

"I- I'm so sorry-!" Marshall sobbed.

"Marshall, Chase, come here..." Ryder opened his arms, and Marshall and Chase wasted no time in running into them. The three embraced once more.

"Shhhh, it's OK, I've got you. Don't cry..." Ryder whispered. "Ugh, who am I trying to convince, here?" Ryder continued internally.

Chase had felt like crying himself as he got up and joined Marshall and Ryder in yet another group hug. He knew that Ryder loved them all dearly, but he didn't think that Ryder would outright lose his temper over the matter. And so abruptly, at that. He couldn't help but see the similarities to last night.

More time had passed. The other pups watched on from behind the walls of the Lookout, but none of them dared to step closer. None of them could believe what they were seeing. Not only did they rarely ever see Ryder get that upset, but they all felt distinctly disheartened at seeing that Marshall was still feeling useless despite their efforts. All they could do was pray that Ryder could set things right as they saw them all calm back down.

"What are we gonna do with you, huh?" Ryder sighed, smiling sadly down at the dalmatian. No reply. Marshall didn't even look up.

"I'm... such a bad pup..." Marshall whimpered.

"Huh?"

"Not once... did I think about... how you... y-you..."

"You're not a bad pup at all, Marshall. Actually, you're too caring sometimes. You're worrying too much about what other people are thinking of you. This silly nightmare? Thinking we'd be..." Ryder could barely bring himself to continue his sentence. "...b-better off... w-without you?" Ryder paused and took a long, slow breath. "I repeat: you're worrying too much. And don't get me started on this whole 'useless' thing..."

"W-well... what have I done for the team lately?" Marshall almost spat those words. Seeing how much this was eating away at his pup, Ryder trawled his mind for answers.

"Well, let's see, huh? For starters, we left you alone at the Lookout once, right? You got an emergency from Katie, and you could've come right to us. And what did you do? Used everyone's Pup Packs and got all those kittens back by yourself! Yeah, 'useless', right?"

All that greeted Ryder's retort was a quiet sigh. "Should've known that wasn't gonna be enough..." Ryder thought.

"Alright, that not enough for you? How about when the Sea Patroller got stolen by Sid? Who helped get it back? You did. I mean, yeah, you got pup-napped and all, but you managed to not only tell us what was going on, but free Robo-Dog and distract Sid and Arrby long enough for us to get it back and stop them from stealing the Sea Patrol vehicles! If it wasn't for you, we might've been too late!"

Still no reply. But still, no sounds that could be construed as sadness, either. "Alright, go big or go home..." Ryder thought.

"And what about just recently? Humdinger hijacked the Gigantasaur a couple of weeks ago!"

This one seemed to do the trick. Marshall slowly craned his neck upwards to meet his owner's gaze, his eyes wide, if still wet with tears.

"Let me ask you: Who was it who rescued Chickaletta? Who was it who put out the fires it was causing? And most importantly: Who was it that took charge? Who was it that led all you pups in stopping Gigantasaur's rampage? Who was it that helped everyone save the day?!"

Marshall stared at him, mouth agape. "Uhh..."

"I'll give you a hint, buddy. It wasn't me." Ryder smirked knowingly at Marshall, who turned to Chase.

"Heh, don't look at me." he giggled.

"Well? Who was it?" Ryder said.

"Uhh... I don't know..." Marshall replied haltingly.

"I guess... me?"

"That's right. It was you. Our little ball of energy. So with all that in mind, do you still think you're useless? Do you still think the team's better off without you?" Ryder asked soothingly.

Marshall had no idea how to reply to that. His friends hating him? He'd managed to write that off as silly not long ago. But the feeling of uselessness eating away at him was a lot harder to shake off. He'd just spent so long thinking that he was just a burden that day and here Ryder was throwing a huge amount of evidence to the contrary at him.

"I... guess... I'm not that bad?" Marshall whispered.

"Oh, come on, give it some more feeling than that!" Chase interjected.

"I'm... not that bad..." Marshall said, a little louder this time, his spirits slowly beginning to lift.

"Come on! More! You know you're a good pup, don't you?! Say that you are!" Ryder yelled, smiling widely.

"I... I'm a good pup!" Marshall felt a huge amount of energy building up inside him from his friends' encouragement. A huge grin began to spread across his face.

"Louder!" Chase yelled beside him.

Marshall couldn't hold it back any longer. "I'M A GOOD PUP! I'M A GOOD PUP!" he screamed at the top of his voice, his smile coming back in an instant.

"YOU ARE, MARSHALL! YOU ARE!" Chase screamed back, followed by a joyful howl from the pair of them.

"THAT'S IT, GUYS! THAT'S IT!" Ryder joined them in yelling as loudly as he could before he hugged them both tightly, all three of them laughing uproariously.