This story is for all my Twitter Morganders / Grody friends (Rose, Quentasia, scarlet mercado, April S Kale and Morgory Branders), but especially for leaAmindalan, who suggested I'd include Dax into a story. For those of you who don't know who Dax is: he's Eric Szmanda's real life dog.
So, here we go: a story including Dax, hope you guys like it! :)

Chapter 10 - Dax

"Did I ever mention that I love you?" Smiling, Morgan looked up at Greg. He grinned back at her. "Only thirty times during the last hour! But go ahead, you can say it again!"

With a guilty smile on her face, she looked down.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm just so happy your name got cleared and you can still do your job!"

He gently squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "Me, too."

Both smiling they continued their walk through Morgan's neighborhood. So far, it had been a typical Vegas day with loads of sunshine, but in spite of the heat, they tightly held each other's hand and walked close to each other.

"I love you too, by the way," Greg said after they had walked another fifty feet. "Just so you know…"

Morgan grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I know…"

She then stopped him and looked at him. "I've been thinking about us for a while now, Greg, and there's something I want to talk to you about."

Immediately, a worried look appeared on Greg's face. "You're not gonna break up with me, are you?"

"No, no!" she quickly called out. "Of course not! I was actually thinking in the… opposite direction… You know, spending more time together… I thought that maybe we could… move in together…"

"Move in together?" he repeated.

"Yeah…" she hesitantly nodded. "Unless you think it's too soon…"

"No, I… Oh my God!" He suddenly ran away, leaving her completely stunned on the sidewalk. She turned around to see where he was going. He had run up to a dumpster at the far end of the street.

"You know that we usually search dumpsters during shifts, not after or before them?" she called after him. He didn't respond, he just kneeled down next to the dumpster. When she looked closer, she saw he was touching some blonde hair. She immediately rushed over to him, alarmed as well now, and found him petting a dog.

"Oh my gosh, look at him!" she softly said, tears already appearing in her eyes. The dog seemed hardly able to move, it was obvious he had been beaten up badly. He looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks and his fur was full of dirt and knots.

"We gotta get him to an animal hospital!" Greg said, his eyes on the dog.

"How? We're an hour away from our house, we can't carry him all that way back!" Morgan reminded him. "Did you bring your cell phone?"

"No, I left it at home, did you?" he asked, still not taking his eyes off of the dog.

"No, we left in such a hurry I didn't have time to take it," she said, already looking around to see if there was a payphone somewhere. Of course there wasn't, all she saw, were houses.

"I'm gonna ring a doorbell and ask whoever opens if I can use their phone," she decided. "I'll be right back!"

She ran to the first front door she saw and rang the doorbell. Luckily, the owner of the house didn't mind her using his phone and gave her the chance to call 911. The person she spoke to promised to send an animal ambulance as soon as possible.

"Thank you," Morgan said before hanging up. She repeated the words to the owner of the house and then ran back to Greg and the dog. "How is he doing?"

Greg shook his head. "He's just looking at me without moving, I don't know what to do! He's probably hungry and thirsty, but I have nothing to give him! Maybe we shouldn't even give him anything… What do you think?"

"The animal ambulance should be here soon, let's just wait," Morgan decided. She got up to see if the ambulance was near already. Only a few minutes later she heard a siren and then the ambulance drove into the street. Greg quickly explained the situation to the paramedic, even though Morgan had already told the person on the phone everything.

"We're gonna take him to the animal hospital," the paramedic decided. "If you want, you two can come along."

"Definitely!" Greg said right away before looking at Morgan. "Or don't you wanna come?"

"Of course I do, I'm not leaving him!" she said. She looked at the poor dog, which was being lifted into the ambulance. A little scared, she looked back at Greg. "I really hope he's going to be okay…"

At the animal hospital, they were told to wait while the vet examined the dog.

"He wasn't wearing a collar," Greg remembered. "Do you think he's a street dog?"

"I don't know… He could be, but maybe he used to belong to a family who got tired of having to take care of a dog and they just sent him out onto the street," Morgan softly said. "It's sad how much that happens… People get a dog, but they forget about the responsibilities…"

"I could never forget about them," Greg said. "You know, when I was a kid, I always wanted to have a dog, but my Mum thought it was too dangerous. She was afraid the dog would bite me or that I would get sick if I had to walk him in the rain… I had to settle for a pet goldfish…"

Morgan grinned. "You must have loved that…"

Greg grinned as well. "Yeah, it was quite the thrill…"

He looked carefully at her. "You know, if the dog really is homeless, they're probably gonna need someone to look after him…"

She already knew where he was going.

"Greg, how are we going to take care of a dog with our job?" she protested.

"Nick has a dog, he's doing fine," Greg reminded her. She immediately fell silent. Yeah, Nick was doing great with Sam… She loved the ex-police dog, he was great and every time Nick brought him to work, it made her smile. But having her own dog…

"I think Dax would be a nice name," Greg continued. She raised her eyebrows. "Dax? How did you come up with that?"

"Well, I was thinking that if we have a dog together, it should have a name that is both yours and mine," he started. "And whenever I think of you, I still think about LA. LA's airport is called LAX, but then I would change the first letter into a D, because we're talking about a dog's name. So, LAX becomes Dax… Get it?"

"Yeah, I get it," she slowly nodded. "It's… well… interesting…"

"Oh, come on, Morgan, our own dog!" He gave her his best begging look, the one he knew she couldn't resist. "It would be so much fun! Walking him together, having him with us in the kitchen to eat his meal while we're eating at the table… It could be the start of our own family…"

She groaned, knowing she had no choice but to give in.

"Fine, we'll get the dog!" she said. "You're right, it'll be fun! I love dogs too, it would be nice to have our own."

"Yes!" He lifted her of the ground and turned around with her while holding her tightly. Exactly at that moment, the doctor entered the waiting room.

"Should I come back later?" he asked with a smile. Blushing, Greg put Morgan down. "No, it's fine. How is he doing?"

"First of all, the dog's indeed a he," the doctor said. "And he's going to be fine! He does have a broken paw, several bruises and he hasn't had anything to eat or drink in a while, but I can see he's strong and he won't give up easily. Give him a few weeks and he'll be as good as new!"

Greg and Morgan both smiled at each other.

"That's great to hear!" Greg said. He looked at Morgan and then back at the doctor. "Actually we decided we'd like to keep him and take care of him. If that's possible of course. We noticed he wasn't wearing a collar."

"That's right, but I'm afraid it's not gonna be that easy," the doctor said. "The dog has to stay in an animal shelter for at least two weeks so his rightful owner has the time to pick him up. We'll send out the dog's information and then his owner can report to the shelter."

Greg's happy smile disappeared. "Oh…"

The doctor shook his head. "I doubt it'll happen, though, especially if we include our bill in the information."

"The bill?" Morgan repeated.

"Yeah, since we had to operate, the owner will have to pay us quite a few dollars," the doctor nodded. "Which means if you two adopt him, I'll have to hand the bill over to you…"

Hesitantly, Greg looked at Morgan.

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "I already have an idea!"

"Hey Dad, you busy?" With her biggest smile she stepped into her father's office.

"Always, but for you I've always got time," he smiled back. She grinned a little. "Aw… Thanks, Dad! Hey, is that a new suit? It looks great!"

Her father narrowed his eyes. "Alright, what do you need and how much is it gonna cost me?"

Still grinning she sat down. "That was a bit obvious, wasn't it? Alright, I'll tell you. You see, Greg and I have been talking about adding someone to our family, but there's a bit of a price tag attached to it…"

Her father sat up a little straighter. "Adding someone to your family? Are you trying to tell me that you are… You two have only been going out for a few months!"

"No, Dad, I'm not pregnant," she reassured him. "But it's nice to know where you stand… No, we're thinking about adopting this dog we found…"

She told him everything about Dax, including his medical bill. Her father sighed. "A dog? Really? You sure that's gonna work?"

"Nick has a dog, he's doing fine!" she reminded him. "Greg already talked to him and he gave us some great advice. Come on, Dad, it's our choice, we wanna adopt him! We just need a little financial support now, that's all."

Her father sighed again. "You're right, it's your choice. Just don't call me in the middle of the night: 'Dad, it's raining, can you walk the dog?', okay?"

She smiled at him. "Deal! Thanks a million, Dad, it really means a lot to us!"

"I'm sure it does," her father nodded. "Now let's just hope his owner doesn't show up!"

That was exactly what Morgan hoped as well. She and Greg spent two weeks waiting, scared of every phone call they got. Every minute seemed an hour and by the time the two weeks were nearly over, they both felt like they had been waiting for over a year. They had visited Dax every day and luckily, he was doing much better already.

Finally, the two weeks had passed and the vet called them.

"No one reported him- or herself as the dog's owner," he told them. "Congratulations, he's yours!"

"Yes!" Greg pulled Morgan into his arms and hugged her tightly. "He's ours, Dax is really ours!"

She started laughing, mostly because of his enthusiasm.

"If you put me down now, we can pick him up before shift starts," she then said. He immediately let her go and grabbed his car keys. "Well, come on, let's go then!"

Smiling, she followed him to his car. She loved seeing how enthusiastic he was about the dog coming to live with him. She really liked Dax moving in with them as well, but she loved seeing Greg this happy even more.