The hiatus lifts!
To those who were kept waiting during the hiatus: Welcome back. To those who were not, well, welcome anyway. I usually put these author's notes at the bottom of the chapters, but I felt that after an absence, it'd be important to have one of these greet you upon coming back.
The upload schedule for this fic goes back to normal from here on out. The next upload after this one will be Tuesday. We're over halfway in, now, and there are still plenty of loose ends to tie.
Not much to say beyond that. It's time to get back to it. On with the show!
Neither pup had wanted their moment to end. After a long period of pain and sadness, a long period of wondering if they could ever speak to each other again, finally Chase and Skye were able to air their grievances and get back on speaking terms, both lying on the floor in each other's arms.
"I… I really thought you'd never speak to me again, you know?" Chase whispered.
"Hey, same here." Skye replied. "And it all would've been because of me."
"Funny. I was thinking it would've been because of ME."
"That's because you blame yourself for everything… Even when it's not your fault..." Skye whimpered in Chase's arms. "...this time it was mine… All mine..."
A period of silence passed as Chase rubbed Skye's back. "Hey. You know yesterday when I apologised to everyone? I didn't come up with all of that. I had help."
Skye blinked. "'Help'?"
"Yep. Marshall helped me come up with the speech. I don't think I would've gotten through it without putting myself down otherwise." Chase recalled fondly.
Skye chuckled lightly. "Are you saying you want to help me apologise to everyone?"
"Good catch. But only if you want me to, OK?"
Skye finally broke their hug and looked Chase in the eye with a sad smile. "Oh, don't worry. I REALLY want you to."
For the pups outside the Lookout, the time had slowed to a crawl. They all listened keenly, but none were listening harder than Tracker. All of the pups had wanted to know if Rocky and Marshall's plan to reunite Chase and Skye had worked, although it was slightly hard to ignore Chase's agonised shouting, with Marshall being particularly haunted by his brother figure airing how he truly felt over the last few days. But that was all that was particularly clear to anyone. Everything else was too garbled to make out. But it had been at least 15 minutes since the shouting had finally died down, and the pups were starting to get nervous.
"Hear anything, Tracker?" Rocky whispered.
"Its… too tough to make out." Tracker replied. "They're saying something, but I can't pin down what."
"Maybe… it worked then?" Marshall asked quietly.
"I REALLY hope you're right, Marshall..." Everest whispered back.
It was then, however, that everything fell quiet.
"Huh? I can't hear anything, now!" Tracker said worriedly.
"They stop- AH!"
Rocky jumped at hearing his Pup Tag go off, which, in turn, caused everyone else to jump.
"AH-! Easy, Wocky!" Zuma cried.
"You scared us!" Rubble added.
Rocky opened his mouth to retaliate, only to close it again, knowing that this was no place to argue. Instead, he slowly raised his paw to his Tag and tapped it in silence.
"Chase." Rocky greeted.
"Hey, Rocky..." a sheepish voice came from the other end of the line. "Er… Sorry about er… yelling at you like that..."
Rocky didn't reply. He just waited to hear what else Chase had to say.
"C-C'mon, Rocky… I didn't mean it… I just got a little angry..."
"I don't care about that, Chase. You know what I'm gonna ask you, right?"
"E-Er… Right…"
Suddenly, a female voice came from the other line. "Yes, Rocky. We made up. Everything's OK now. Well, er, kinda."
"'Kinda'?" Rocky replied, unconvinced.
"Well… I've got something I wanna say… To you and… well, everyone. But I wanna say it in person. Could you er… move your truck and let us out so I can do that? Pretty please?"
After a pause, Rocky cut the communication between himself and Chase and Skye and silently walked away from the group towards his truck. Hopping in, he did as Skye had asked and moved it away from the doors, parking it in the middle of the road and hopping out to see that Chase and Skye had already made their way out and were sitting just outside the doors, waiting for Rocky to come and join the group, who were all staring at the pair of them in silence.
"First of all..." Skye began. "...I've not been a good pup the last few days… as I'm sure you all know… I mean… I should've been so much happier when Marshall came back… But all I did was act out… I bottled up how I was feeling until it all just… well, exploded!"
It was plain to see how guilty Skye was feeling. She was obviously trying to keep her head from lowering to stare at the floor the entire time, but seemed to be failing.
"I know you all needed someone to look up to… Someone to lead you. Someone who could help you all feel better… But I realised that I'm not that someone… I mean, yeah, when it comes to air rescues, THAT I can handle… But when we lost Marshall and I had to step up… All I wanted to do was cry. Marshall's my brother too, y'know? And I didn't know what it was like to lose someone you love so much until a few days ago… But now that I know, I never ever never NEVER want it to happen again..."
Skye couldn't help but notice Marshall looking down and whining softly, prompting Tracker to place a paw on his back.
"It felt like everything I was doing was for nothing… Like nothing I did would make anyone feel better. Like everything I did would only make me feel worse and worse. And the whole time, I just forced myself to keep it together… And all it lead to was me lashing out at the two people who probably got hurt the worst by the whole thing..."
Skye gave Chase a sad look, and he responded by patting her back and smiling reassuringly. Whenever Chase stepped up to reassure someone, they rarely managed to stay down for long. For as stubborn as Chase could be, he was still the patient big brother through and through. Especially now that he'd finally managed to get his own pain off his chest. Skye took a deep breath in after smiling back and prepared to speak again.
"...so… Right now… All I've got to say is: I'm so sorry… I'm sorry to Chase most of all for blowing up on him the way I did." Skye cast her eyes back across the rest of the group. "I'm sorry to everyone else, too. Rocky, Rubble and Zuma, none of you should've seen me go after Chase the way I did. All of you basically watched me turn into someone I'm not because I can't keep a lid on my anger..."
Skye froze as she felt Chase nudge her, regarding her with a knowing look. "Er, well, it's actually BECAUSE I kept a lid on my feelings that this happened, but anyway..." Skye looked towards Everest and Tracker next. "Everest and Tracker, I didn't even TRY to help either of you. I basically just left you two to it, and heck, Tracker and Carlos I basically just gave up on! So I'm sorry to you both, too..."
Marshall was looking around at the group the whole time, trying to get a read on their expressions. But aside from Chase, everyone's expressions were blank and impossible to get a read on.
"...and Marshall."
The dalmatian jumped at the mention of his name and looked Skye directly in the eyes.
"You deserved to come back to something better than this. The last thing you should've heard about when you got back here was about how bad I felt and about how I ended up lashing out the way I did. You shouldn't have to take care of us after you nearly die and spend three days hiking back here! WE should've been taking care of YOU!"
Skye gritted her teeth and swallowed. "So… in other words… I'm sorry, Marshall… I'm sorry, all of you… I know I'm not a good leader… But right now, all I want is to start over with all of you… That is, if any of you want anything to do with me."
Everyone waited for a while after Skye finished her sentence. Obviously everyone save for Chase had something to say, but wasn't sure who wanted to speak first. But the first one to seize the moment was Marshall.
"Don't you think I like taking care of people and pups?" he asked. "I mean, if you were sick, had a broken bone, or heck, even if you were all at each other's throats! I would've jumped on any of those problems right away if it meant I got to see you all again. And hey, if I'd swapped places with any of you the day I fell, I'd probably feel the same way you did. So there's no need to apologise to me at all."
Almost as if by magic, Skye felt some of the weight being lifted off of her heart, giving a small sigh of relief.
"...thanks, Marshall..." she whispered.
"Same here!" Everest interjected. "There's no need to apologise to me, either! I was so lost that Jake couldn't help me, and he spent DAYS trying to get through to me! If Jake couldn't help me, all you would've been doing is making yourself sadder! I know you're not a bad pup, and so does everyone else! You just gotta learn that keeping it all in isn't good for you!"
"I'M the one who should be apologising to YOU, Skye!" Tracker added. "Me and Carlos both knew you were only trying to talk to us and we totally ignored you! You might've given up, but we didn't even try. So hey. Let's call it even, huh?"
Slowly, but steadily, Skye's hopes were building.
"Skye… I wish I knew that was how you were feeling… Zuma began quietly. "I mean, I knew you must've been huwt, too, but I didn't know how much you were holding it in! If you ever feel like that again..." Zuma suddenly adopted a serious expression and jabbed a paw in the cockapoo's direction. "...then don't even THINK about holding it in like that, ya hear? I… I don't ever wanna see my sister like that ever again..."
"Neither do I..." Rubble added. "I'm not gonna lie, you scared me yesterday, Skye. But… I know deep down, you were feeling as rotten as I was… Don't think I didn't notice you crying yourself to sleep when you slept in my Pup House with me a couple nights ago."
Skye whimpered in guilt, seeing how Rubble had seen right through her.
"Basically, like Zuma said, don't hide your feelings from us just because you wanna keep our spirits up… There's only so much one pup can take, after all."
Skye looked back up. "I won't, Rubble. I swear."
Rubble gave Skye a small smile in response. It felt like a massive load had been lifted from her shoulders. It was almost enough to make her laugh with relief. But there was still an odd one out. One who hadn't responded to her. One who was giving her a blank expression. It was hard to get a read on how Rocky was feeling right now, but Skye's nerves started to return as Rocky slowly approached her and sat down in front of her. Only to raise his paw and gently rap Skye's temple with it.
"That was for acting like such a butt yesterday." Rocky said firmly, before throwing his arms around her. "That's for doing such a good job making up with Chase..."
And now the load was entirely gone from Skye's shoulders. And her heart. Now Skye was feeling relieved enough to laugh with joy as she hugged Rocky back. Like Chase, she was afraid that after her outbursts the day before, she had entirely burned her bridges between herself and the pups. But after finally airing out all of her grievances with Chase, and apologising to the others, nothing made her happier than seeing that in the end, her fears and sadness were ill-founded.
All of the other pups looked on, smiling at the sight. After her spirits were brutally stamped into the ground by the loss of a friend and brother, Skye was on her way back. But despite everything, somehow, to all of them, the whole thing felt incomplete.
"Thank you, Rocky..." Skye whispered, nuzzling Rocky as the two held each other close.
"Hey, you came to your senses again. I should be thanking YOU." Rocky replied blissfully.
The pups all giggled softly.
"I guess everything's gonna be OK after all, huh?" Rubble asked.
Marshall's face fell as he turned to face the bulldog. "Er, not to be that guy, Rubble, but for some reason… I… still don't feel totally better… Something's… missing."
Chase frowned in response. "Let me guess: Ryder?"
And just like that, the mood plunged. Rocky and Skye broke their hug and gave each other sad looks.
"Bingo..." Marshall sighed.
"Oh, gosh…" Skye whined. "I just remembered, I blew up at Ryder, too… I've gotta go apologise to him as well!"
"Not so fast, Skye." Chase interjected. "Remember that Ryder's probably still feeling like garbage. We haven't seen him all day, remember?"
"Carlos and Jake have been trying to talk to him all day." Tracker offered. "How about we go ask them?"
Rocky sucked in air through his teeth. "Err… You're… gonna have to hang on until I can fix the elevator..."
"Huh? Wocky, what did you do to the elevator?" Zuma asked with a quizzical look.
"Er, Marshall? Could I borrow your ladder?" Rocky hastily tried to steer the conversation away from the topic.
"Er, yeah, coming right up!" Marshall stammered, bolting to his truck with Rocky close behind, leaving a pack of confused pups behind them.
A few minutes later, the elevator was back in action, with Jake and Carlos quickly taking it down to the lobby of the Lookout, where the pups were waiting.
"Dudes..." Jake began with an unimpressed expression.
"I know, I know..." Rocky replied sadly. "I'm sorry..."
"Well, I guess if it worked, there's not much to complain about, right?" Carlos sighed.
"I guess..." Jake replied. "But seriously. Don't trap us up there again, ya hear?"
"Yes, Jake..." Rocky whimpered.
Jake responded by comfortingly patting Rocky's head.
"So, amigos." Carlos said. "I guess you're wondering how Ryder is, right?"
"Right." The pups all replied at once.
"Is he… doing OK?" Marshall asked hesitantly.
Jake sighed. "Not good, dude. We've spent almost all day sitting around his door trying to talk to him. But he's had the door locked almost the whole time, and he's barely speaking to us."
"The only times he's come out are to use the bathroom..." Carlos added. "He's been so… quiet… And whenever we've seen him, he looks really pale and… well, kinda sick and tired."
The response, predictably, was met with collective whining.
"He's not better at all..." Chase said sadly.
"Well, actually..." Jake interjected. "...he's eating. We're passing bags of food and bottles of water to him through the dog door, and we can hear him eating and drinking. I know it's not much, but it's something."
The pups all looked at the two hopefully.
"Hey!" Rubble shouted happily. "Maybe he IS getting better!"
"Maybe." Carlos replied. "But it's muy lento. Really slow. Ryder's gonna take time. He won't be better today. All we can do is keep trying."
"But..." Skye stammered. "I've still gotta apologise to Ryder! I've acted like such a bad pup to him! I can't just let him suffer up there! He… He probably thinks I hate him!"
"Slow your roll, Skye." Jake said firmly. "Ryder's in a delicate place right now. Anything could send him right back over the edge. We've GOTTA take it slow, or else he'll probably just go right back to not eating and shutting himself off. You don't want that, do ya?"
Skye opened her mouth, only to close it again after a few seconds, lowering her head defeatedly. "No, Jake..."
Jake moved over to Skye and patted her head. "You'll get your chance, girl. But you just gotta be patient. OK?"
"...OK..." Skye whispered sadly after a brief pause.
It had been a hefty downer on their day to hear that Ryder hadn't gotten much better. Hearing about his condition had set the pups worrying about him yet again, but none moreso than Marshall and Skye. Clearly, the trauma of losing one of his pups had rooted itself deeply in Ryder's mind, and it was going to take an awful lot just to get him to talk to them.
To this end, Chase had offered up the idea to take their minds off of Ryder by subjecting them to a couple of episodes of Ultra Rescue Squadron. No-one was really in any position to refuse at this point, and everyone had quietly settled down to watch the show. Rocky was happy to finally see an episode of the show fully, and he had to admit, he found himself drawn in. As did Skye, who'd expressed a passing interest in it. Though aside from Chase, Marshall, Rocky and Skye, the rest of the pups were mostly unenthused, but the rest of them at least found the show goofy enough to make fun of while Chase and Marshall weren't paying attention.
Their attempt to distract themselves lasted until 8:30PM, about half an hour before the pups' usual bedtime. Just enough time for the pups to eat their dinner. The rest of the day had passed with barely a word from them all. Hearing that their beloved owner was still in a deep depression had hit them all hard. Wasn't Ryder supposed to have gotten better from getting Marshall back? In the end, though, all of the pups had retired back to the pillow pile from last night, all falling asleep one by one. And although they took comfort in each other's close presences, none of them could deny that Ryder's predicament still weighed heavily on them all.
Marshall eventually found himself in a cold, dark, black void. He looked around, only to find the same inky blackness greeting him no matter which way he turned. Marshall opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. No words, no sounds, nothing. It was as if his voice was gone. Marshall moved to take a step forward, but his paw impacted nothing. And before the pup knew it, he was falling fast.
Down he fell, unable to scream or cry out, falling for what felt like an eternity. Until he came to a painful stop by hitting a freezing torrent of water below him. It wasn't long before he felt himself being violently jerked every which way underneath the water, unable to open his eyes after closing them upon hitting the water.
But when Marshall finally broke the surface of the water, he opened his eyes to find a familiar sight. The river that he'd nearly died in. Naturally, Marshall panicked. How in the world did he end up back in the river?! Marshall was able to cough and splutter as the freezing water tossed him around, dragging him helplessly along with the current. But still, he was unable to scream. Unable to cry for help.
Rocks raced past him as the current dragged him along, and he quickly felt his chest tightening as he struggled to keep his head above the water, repeatedly getting mercilessly dragged beneath the surface. His hopes for survival were rapidly diminishing, but Marshall was too confused to even know what was going on. But soon, he breached the surface again, only to see the image of a familiar-looking german shepherd staring at him from a rock with a blank expression on his face.
"He was useless anyway… Good riddance..."
Marshall barely processed that Chase had vanished thanks to his words stabbing him in the heart. How could Chase say something like that about him? Worse is that Marshall couldn't even say anything to him. But it didn't take long for Chase to be replaced with Skye, who wore a similar expression.
"I don't know why I got so upset… We don't need someone that clumsy..."
A further blow to Marshall's emotions. The pups weren't even trying to help him! Did they really hate him that much? Again, Marshall was dragged below the surface, the air in his lungs growing even more scarce. And again he surfaced, this time revealing Rocky.
"Just let him drown… He'll know how it feels when he keeps getting me wet..."
Rocky, too?! Once more, he was dragged beneath the surface, and his surfacing this time revealed Zuma and Rubble.
"Just as well I couldn't swim that cuwwent… All the bettew for getting wid of that stupid idiot..."
"Why did he even think he was funny? Now maybe we'll get some peace and quiet after he drowns..."
It seemed the pups had shown their true colours. They all despised Marshall and wanted him to die. They were happy that he'd drowned in the river and they couldn't wait to get rid of him for good. Did his friendship with them all mean nothing? Once more, Marshall went below the water's surface, and once more, he surfaced, his lungs feeling like they were about to collapse. But there was but one more of his family who had yet to disown him. A familiar young boy was now standing on a rock, glaring at him.
"About time that bad pup learned his lesson… Serves me right for having such awful taste… I won't adopt a pup that useless ever again… We're better off without him..."
Ryder's words proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Silently, Marshall shed tears as the raging river dragged him along, dunking him under the surface for the final time. Too physically and emotionally drained to keep fighting, Marshall began to feel dizzy. Slowly, darkness began to consume his vision, and the world grew blurry under the waves. But not before a rock came from nowhere, racing towards him, quickly filling his vision, ready for impact…
Marshall woke with a bloodcurdling scream. He didn't notice as he thrashed around that his paws were hitting other piles of fur. Not hard enough to cause pain, but hard enough to be noticeable. But he was so scared that he took absolutely no notice. But his thrashing soon slowed enough to start taking in the environment around him. It was a Lookout shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the light of the moon, visible behind the several pairs of frightened eyes staring at him as he breathed heavily and quickly.
"Marshall… Hey..."
A familiar, sympathetic voice whispered to him. But Marshall didn't bother to listen to who it was.
"STAY AWAY!" Marshall screamed, getting to his feet and barrelling through the pups in front of him, tearing out of the door in a heartbeat.
Marshall knew nothing but to run, not questioning what just happened. All he knew was adrenaline and the tears spilling from his eyes. The entire town was quiet, with no-one around. Marshall didn't know where to run to, he only knew that he had to get to safety somewhere. Anywhere. Adventure Bay's roads provided a lot of running space, but Marshall could only think about the hurtful words that he'd just heard.
But it didn't take long for him to hear the roar of an engine behind him. Marshall could only keep running until it felt like his heart was about to burst, not bothering to look back at the source of the noise that seemed to follow him. But then he was even more frightened when he suddenly saw a net appear over him.
Marshall continued to thrash around in terror, desperately trying to get out of the trap, without any heed for where it may have come from, not noticing the blue truck come to a halt a few feet away from him.
"AAGH! NO! HELP ME! HELP ME!" Marshall screamed.
"MARSHALL! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
A familiar voice screamed at Marshall and something quickly hit him in the face. Only then did Marshall calm down enough to see what was going on, despite the extra adrenaline from what he assumed was a hefty slap. He noticed that the voice belonged to Chase, who was staring him in the face, shaking like a leaf and wearing a tearful, worried glare.
"WHAT IN THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?!" Chase roared waveringly, seeming on the verge of a breakdown of his own. "HOW COULD YOU RUN OFF LIKE THAT?! YOU SCARED THE HECK OUT OF US!"
"Wh… Wh-Wh, I- Ch-Chase, wha-?" Marshall stammered in fright and confusion.
"WE ALL THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA LOSE YOU AGAIN! WE NEARLY LOST YOU AGAIN OVER A STUPID NIGHTMARE?! HOW COULD YOU?!"
Now that Marshall was able to listen, he finally realised that Chase was right. It was all a bad dream. A bad dream which seemed to take possession of him. One that scared him badly enough to disregard everything and run like the end of days itself was behind him. Marshall curled into a shaking ball and began to cry.
"Ch-Chase I-! I-I'm so sorry-!" Marshall sobbed.
Slowly, Chase got his own breath back, although continuing to shake and shed tears.
"...Don't you EVER do that again! Clear?!" Chase shouted in a strained voice that mixed rage and worry together, obviously trying to avoid a breakdown of his own.
"N-Never! Never ever! I'm s-so sorry!"
Chase paused, before barking out a command to his Pup Pack.
"N-Net… r-r-retract..."
Chase barely waited a few seconds before the net freed his friend and brother figure before he ran in and threw his arms around the sobbing ball of spotted fur.
"It was only… o-only a nightmare! Don't… don't cry-! It-it's nothing to… run away for!" Chase sobbed, ignoring his own broken tears.
"B-But… It was… s-so scary!" Marshall sniffled. "I-I mean there was the river, y-you were all there, s-saying y-you… were happy to… HAPPY TO GET RID OF ME-!"
"YOU'RE WRONG! YOU'RE WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONGWRONGWRONG-!" Chase screamed back. "THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN-! NEVER EVER!"
Chase continued to tearfully rant on about how untrue Marshall's nightmare was until both pups ran out of energy, gasping for air on the floor where they both lay.
"Ch-Chase, I-" Marshall stammered. "I didn't… I w-was..."
"Hey..." Chase interrupted, punctuating his speech with hiccups. "I know how bad this nightmare must've messed with you… But… you shouldn't keep it in… Like Skye said..."
"I… I get it..."
Chase slowly got to his paws. "C'mon. I know a good place to talk..."
Marshall soon found the strength to walk behind Chase, who gestured to his truck. Not quite understanding what was going on, Marshall hopped into the passenger seat, with Chase quickly following into the driver's seat. But just before setting off, Chase placed a paw on Marshall's back.
"It's gonna be OK, Marshall… It was only a dream… We're all right behind you… Hang in there."
And although Chase had only just begun to reassure his friend, already Marshall felt much better.