Chapter 24: Bedridden

Darkness.

A familiar black void enveloped the Shepered completely. Cradling him in its comforting arms. Something else was there, something he could feel, but couldn't identify. Something inside of him, affecting him greatly. His head feel sluggish, his body felt immovable, like a semi truck had parked on top of him. The only thing connecting him to the outside world was the noisy enviornment surrounding him, his sensative ears picking up various sounds around him, machines of some sort consistantly beeping in a steady rhythm. The rustling of papers, the quiet tapping of shoes against the floor. Suddenly, seemingly further away from his location, raised voices could be heard, familiar voices.

"You didn't even give him a chance to decide for himself! You just forced this change upon him!" a female voice called out.

"He wouldn't have been able to walk without it, This is what's best for him." A male voice retuned.

A low growl echoed against the walls of the room. "How would you know what's best for him? Your not there for him anymore, I am! I've been the one taking care of him, worrying about him, comforting him when he's scared. Your supposed to be his owner Ryder, he needed you, needs you, and yet your just now finding out about this. About how bad Chase actually is. It's to late to try and act like the hero now !"

'What is going on? '

This thought continually swirled around the shepered's tired head, and still under the influence of whatever was inside of him, there was nothing he could do to try and answer the question.

"That's enough Everest!" Ryder yelled, silencing the fuming husky.

With a huff Everest turned away from the cross-armed pre-teen. As much as she wanted to stay, she knew she couldn't continue to bite her tongue with him in the room. Sighing, she took one last look at the sleeping Shepered, and turned to head out the door; stopping at a concerned dalmation in full uniform mid way their.

"Call me if he wakes up, I need to clear my head."

The dally simply nodded in response, giving her a small smile as she passed him, exiting the small recovery room.

With one slow breath Chase felt an overpowering feeling of drowsiness hit him like a truck, he didn't fight it, in fact he welcomed sleep at this point. Not feeling physically able to do anything else. Another breath, and he was out, succumbing to the growing fatigue in his body, letting the darkness consume him once again.


Inside a neighboring room to Chase's, sat a cockapoo, intently listening to an older man in a white lab coat explain to her how a team of surgeons and himself had managed to sow up her boyfriend's neck, that they were able to save not only his voice, but his life. Skye focused on the doctor's moving lips as he practically regurgitated a medical book into her ears.

" The laryngotracheal reconstruction was a complete success, and his voice will be fully functional, but we will need to perform a microlaryngoscopy in the coming days to reassess the damaged vocal chords and trachea. Furthermore, we will need to monitor his sutures overnight for possible abscesses.. for the remainder of the week actually."

As the doctor finished, Skye blankly stared up at him trying to find meaning to the foreign language she has heard. She smiled timidly, nodding her head and whispered out a thank you before refocusing her attention to her sleeping boyfriend, unaware of the new pup entering into the room, sitting at the doctor's feet and looking up to him for instructions.

"Follow normal procedures, nurse. Redress his wounds and monitor his vitals, see that he is comfortable and stable ." The doctor siad beggining to leave the room, the pup glued to his side. " Answer any questions his mate might have." He finished, leaving the room.

"Right away." The pup said watching him leave the room before turning around, grabbing the chart on the end of Rocky's bed and briefly scimming through it.

Skye kept her gaze on Rocky, taking in every detail of his face, every imperfection in his fur, everything she would otherwise look over under different, normal, circumstances.

'Why would you lie to me? Don't you trust me? How could a pup as smart as you do something so foolish? '

letting out a sigh, she rubbed her face with one paw, hoping to alleviate the headache of unanswered questions and bottled up anger and disappointment building in her head.

"He will be ok, give him some time to recover, six to eight weeks at the most, and he should be back to normal."

Skye looked up to the pup beside her, taking him in fully for the first time. Blueish green eyes met her gaze, a gray fur coat covered him with a black patch over his right eye, gowning a pair of blue scrubs over his torso, strapped down with a black belt with two pouches on either side of his hip, containing various medical supplies. He smiled at her, with the same look in his eyes that she had seen before in Marshall's when he was dealing with patients; love and compassion.

"It might take him longer to recover by the time I'm done with him." She joked

The pup nodded at her, before looking over his shoulder, as if something or someone was calling him away.

"Is there's anything elss I can do for you? Any questions I can answer?" He asked looking back to her, tilting his head slightly.

Skye let out another sigh, looking over her sleeping boyfriend.

"Only questions he can answer, unfortunately." she said bitterly.

"But thank you anyways, um...?" She paused waiting for the pup to fill in the blanks.

"Cody, I'm a nurse here at the hospital, and it's no trouble. I have other patients to attend to, including your friend next door. If any questions do come up, I'd be happy to answer them." He said smiling, turning away from her, padding out of the room silently.

Skye mouthed a thank you as the nurse left. Besides the heart monitor machine attached to Rocky and the light traffic of nurses and patients walking across the doorway, it was quiet. The silence made Skye uncomfortable, and the absence of any concious friends or family made her all the more anxious. All of the other pups were in Chase's room, feeling that he would need more of their support after the fight, and what changes said fight forced onto the already unstable Shepered; and although none of them would openly admit it as of yet, the pups had taken sides, Chase's side; seeing Rocky as the enemy, the one that started the fight, the one that caused this nightmare they were now living. All except Skye, who knew that Rocky was not the sole catalyst of this growing storm. Chase, Everest, and herself,

all had equal shares of blame, whether the others were willing to accept that fact was another matter entirely. She was willing to own what she had done to feed into the fire that was now burning out of control, but she and Rocky were not the villains in the story the others were depicting them as. They didn't know enough about it, about all of the details inbetween, they only saw what they wanted to.

Rubble and Zuma taking Chase's side without hesitation, not once coming into Rocky's room to check on him, and had whispered harsh words amongst themselves on the way to the hospital regarding him. Zuma's words surprising Skye considering the close bond between the water and eco pup. Marshall was the only neutral party, not caring about who started it, who was more in the wrong, he just wanted his friends back, and the team to come together in one piece. This left only Skye in the Rocky's corner, who had yet to be chewed out for the reckless coarse of action that he had taken despite her. Ryder was the only one concerned for the well being of all of his beloved pups, but in his lack of supervision and involvement in the pups growing and underlying problems with eachother and themselves, he felt more like an outsider than their owner, sifting through the wreckage that the pups had left behind in their attempts to fight through the pain and disfunction that they were all dealing with, some better than others.

The remainder of the day went by without any further outburst of anger or arguments between anyone, letting the hospital staff work effectively and without any interruptions. This allowed both injured pups to get the attention they needed that would ultimately aid in their recovery time. Neither pup had yet to wake up.

Rocky was still fast asleep in his room, Skye right at his side, stroking the top of his head, attentively waiting for him to come to. Ryder and Marshall had filtered in and out of his room, where they asked about his condition and if there was any knew information that his doctor or nurse passed on to her while they were away. But a shake of her head was all the answer they needed, discouraging any further questions.

Ryder was the first to leave, his face flustered, frustration etched into it. Marshall stayed behind, checking up on Skye herself and how she was handling all of this, when he was satisfied that she was as ok as she could be, he embraced her, whispering to her how proud he was for the strength that she was showing in the face of this adversity. They broke apart, smiling at eachother hopefully. Before the dally left he told Skye that Ryder, Rubble, Zuma, and himself would be leaving, needing to head back to the lookout. After insisting that she would stay with Rocky, Skye gave Marahall one last hug goodbye, and returned to her place at her boyfriend's side, wanting to be present when he opened his eyes.


Hey guys! life has been crazy between updates, and I am managing accordingly, but I plan to be updating more regularly with the amount of time I have on my hands now following the pandemic and quarantine. I hope everyone is staying safe and sound at home! I hope you l enjoy the chapter. The next chapter is already in the works, until next time.—W.P