Everyone was huddled around a thoroughly crestfallen-looking Chase, who currently had his eyes glued to the floor with one of the saddest faces imaginable from him. Some of the pups surrounded him from the front with expressions of sympathy, while others were nuzzling him and some had their arms over the shepherd's back and shoulders. Though curiously, Jake and Carlos were nowhere in sight. Not that anyone deigned to notice, given the miserable-looking shepherd in the middle of the room.

"Pups? What happened?" Ryder asked, stepping off of the elevator.

The group jumped at the voice, before looking at Ryder and wincing. Something told him that he wasn't going to like what he heard.

"Well..." Marshall began apprehensively, with a paw on Chase's back. "...we asked Chase about… if he really felt like leaving the Paw Patrol… We, er… got a little angry..."

"'A little'?" Ryder replied with a suspicious look.

"OK, some of us yelled..." Rocky admitted sadly from Chase's other side. "But what did you expect? Where would Chase have gone?! Where would he have lived?! How would he have eaten, gotten enough water?! Who would he talk to?! A-And how could we go on without him?! W-We lost Marshall a couple days ago, so how would we go on if we lost Chase, too?!"

"Rocky, ease up!" Ryder shouted, before taking a gentler tone. "Getting worked up like this isn't helping anyone."

With a whimper, Rocky obliged. Ryder then walked over to Chase and kneeled down in front of him, giving Rocky a reassuring pat on the head for good measure. Ryder then took a more gentle tone, even though he knew he was about to reprimand his pup.

"But Rocky's not wrong, Chase." he began. "Ignoring the fact we lost Marshall all those days ago; we all love you, and saying things like that… well, that scares all of us!"

"B-But-!" Chase stammered.

"Hey, hey, shhhh..." Ryder soothed.

The pups stared at him in astonishment, amazed that the Ryder of old was showing once again.

"…I know how terrible it felt to lose Marshall. Trust me, I really do. But running away would NOT have been the answer. If you left us, you wouldn't have anyone to feed you or take care of you. And we'd struggle to find you, too. And where would you sleep every night? Chase, you would've been totally alone."

Chase remained silent, looking as morose as ever.

"But more than that, how do you think the rest of us would've felt? It was bad enough that we lost Marshall, but if we lost you too..." Ryder swallowed hard. "...OK, there's no nice way of saying this: the team probably would've fallen apart completely… The Paw Patrol would've been finished off."

Ryder felt his heartstrings being pulled at by the sad whining coming from all around him. And from in front of him.

"We all depend on each other way more than you might think. I know I'm probably the last person who should be saying that right now, and the last person who should be saying not to run away, but thanks to Skye, I can see that way more clearly. And when Marshall fell into the river… it broke all of us. Now imagine what would happen if we lost you, too?"

Chase was feeling extremely guilty. Now that he was imagining how things could've been with him disappearing from the group, too, Chase was audibly sniffling.

"I… I-I… I never thought of that…!" Chase whimpered, obviously trying to hold back the tide as best he could.

"Because you weren't thinking straight." Ryder replied. "But you've gotta remember: If you ever left us… It'd hurt way more than you think. And it wouldn't just hurt you. It'd hurt all of us. I hope you remember that."

Chase sniffled. "G-Guys, I… I-I… I'm so sorry..."

Marshall moved in for a hug. "Don't ever say stuff like that again, Chase! You hear?"

"And don't even THINK about leaving us, mister!" Skye added.

"What would we do without you, Chase?!" Rocky asked.

"And there you go." Ryder said calmly. "You mean too much to everyone to run away. So promise you won't even do so much as think about it?"

"I won't! I promise!" Chase shouted immediately, his eyes noticeably wet.

"Hey, hey… C'mere..."

Ryder didn't waste any more time, and nor did Chase. The moment Ryder started reaching towards him, Chase jumped straight into Ryder's arms, clinging to him for dear life and sniffling slightly. And the remaining pups quickly followed, crowding around the boy and the shepherd and hugging them both.

The warm fur surrounding him stirred up memories of the previous night for Ryder, where things had been put into perspective for him. He was more than just an owner to his pups. For the longest time, he was the one who would take care of them, cheer them up and help resolve any problems they may have had. But he never thought that the roles would be reversed last night. For the first time, Ryder realised that he needed the pups as much as they needed him. A tear leaked forth from Ryder's eye as he basked in the warm embrace of his family.

"Pups..." Ryder whispered tearfully. "I… I love you so much..."

"We love you too, Ryder..." Skye whispered.

"Heck, we love you more..." Marshall added.

Ryder smiled even more widely. "I love you even more..."

Chase gently licked Ryder's cheek. "...we love you times infinity."

For a long time, the group hug between the entire Paw Patrol went on uninterrupted, until Rocky felt the need to speak up.

"Ryder? Are you… feeling OK?"

Ryder paused for a moment before answering. "Not completely… but I will be. What about you? I mean, I yelled at you a few days ago when you didn't deserve it at all!"

Rocky snuggled closer to Ryder. "Eh. Ancient history." he whispered. "The fact that you look even a little better is what matters."

Ryder was about to reply, until the beeping of his Pup Pad cut him off.

"Huh? My Pup Pad?" Ryder muttered absentmindedly, breaking the hug and standing up.

"Who could be calling Wyder wight now?" Zuma asked.

"Maybe it's Mayor Goodway?" Rubble posited.

"Well, er, let's find out." Ryder replied, drawing the cracked Pup Pad from his person.

"Whoa!" Rocky cried upon seeing the cracks snaking across the screen.

"Jeez!" Skye added. "Brutal!"

Ryder cringed. He internally reminded himself to get the Pup Pad fixed sooner rather than later. Looking at the icon on the screen, Ryder tapped it immediately, bringing up the image of a blonde-haired girl.

"Katie?" Ryder began. "Something up?"

"I should be asking YOU that!" Katie retorted. "Are you OK? I mean, you totally disappeared a couple days ago."

"Well, no..." Ryder gave a sad smile. "But at this rate… I will be in no time."

"You sure?"

"Yes! In fact… I'm more sure than I have been in days..."

Katie beamed briefly. "You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that…" But the smile quickly melted into an expression of concern. "B-But anyway. I'm so sorry to call you like this, but I've got a big problem! One that I'm gonna need the Paw Patrol's help with! I know you're all probably in no condition to rescue anyone, but I didn't know where else to go!"

Ryder cast his gaze across the group of pups surrounding him. Every single one replied with a nod of varying degrees of enthusiasm. But more importantly, the pups all seemed to be in agreement. And with the memory of last night's disastrous rescue in his head, Ryder found himself more eager to make amends than he thought. A determined smirk flickered across his features.

"We're here to help, Katie!" Ryder declared.

"W-Wait… Just like that?" Katie stammered in confusion.

"Just like that. It's what we do, right?"

"W-Well, yeah… But I don't know if you're gonna like it..."

"What could we not like about it, Katie?"

"Well..." Katie looked very uncomfortable all of a sudden. "I-It… It… It's..."

"C'mon, Katie! Don't be shy!"

"It's Cali! She's stuck in a tree in the park!"

And almost-immediately, what Katie meant became crystal clear. She didn't even get to finish her sentence before Ryder's smile faded. The memories of why he was the way he was for so long quickly bubbled back to the surface and a stern, displeased glare quickly worked its way onto Ryder's face, with the pups, barring Marshall, Everest and Tracker, all looking similarly unhappy to hear who they would be rescuing, with a couple even growling quietly.

"...Cali?" Ryder asked flatly. "Cali. The same Cali who… nearly got one of my pups killed. The same Cali who nearly caused the whole team to fall apart. The same Cali who made me think I was a total failure for the last few days. That Cali. And now she needs OUR help. Again. Katie, you can't be serious."

"See?" Katie shot back. "This is why I said you wouldn't like it! But there's no-one else who can help Cali down!"

"How do we know that Cali's not just gonna put one of us in danger again? The last time we tried to save Cali, Marshall nearly died, and for three days, we were at our lowest."

"But saving people is what you do, isn't it?"

"You don't get it!" Ryder had suddenly turned angry again. "Katie, we thought our fire pup was DEAD! And we just found out now that Chase felt so horrible about what happened that he was thinking about leaving the Paw Patrol! If Marshall hadn't come back when he did, Chase probably would've been gone, too! Think about what would've happened to us if we lost both our fire pup AND our police pup one after the other! We would've been totally crippled! And do you think the rest of the pups would've been able to keep going after two of their best friends disappeared one after the other?! DO YOU?!"

Marshall glanced around with a frightened expression. None of the other pups had shed their angry expressions, and Ryder was once again looking downright furious. The only other ones who were worried were Everest and Tracker. Little did he know that Katie had the same expression now that Ryder was clearly taking his anger out on her. They couldn't help but find it abhorrent that everyone would have such an abrupt about-face after hearing who they would be rescuing.

Ryder took a deep breath in. "I'm sorry, Katie. But we've already proven that Cali's way too dangerous for us to try and rescue. Mr. Porter will probably have a ladder. In fact, anyone could help. Carlos, Jake, heck, even Cap'n Turbot. Please, find someone who can help. But not us. We're not able."

"But-!"

Katie didn't get to finish her sentence before Ryder coldly terminated the call, making sure to turn his Pup Pad back off before putting it away. With an irritated snarl, Ryder looked back up at the pups. He noticed the scowls and glares of most of his pups before looking at a certain group of three, who looked utterly appalled.

"Ryder!" Marshall shouted scoldingly. "What the heck was that!?"

"I thought we were here to help?!" Everest added.

"How could you just ditch someone in trouble like that?!" Tracker demanded.

Ryder could barely fight the tidal wave of guilt that hit him at that point. The Paw Patrol never refused a soul in need. Even when it was a longtime enemy like Mayor Humdinger or Sweetie, if they needed help, he would always spring into action alongside his pups. But here he was directly refusing to help someone. Someone who hadn't even caused their problems on purpose. They would always help someone who had done far worse, after all.

"B-But… Cali… almost killed you..." Ryder whispered, looking at Marshall.

"If it wasn't for Cali, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Chase shouted.

"How can Katie expect us to rescue Cali when last time we tried doing that, you nearly died?!" Skye added angrily.

"And what about when Sweetie pupnapped Chase and tried to frame him for stealing Barkingburg's crown?" Marshall retorted. "Sweetie fell out of the sky a little while later. Did we just leave her to it?"

"And what about Mayor Humdinger? He trapped Rocky on an island once, and you guys still have to rescue him all the time." Everest added. "Have you ever just left him to it?"

"Cali didn't even do all of this on purpose, so why is she less worth saving than anyone who's actually caused trouble?" Tracker asked.

"Because none of them have done anything that nearly gets one of us KILLED!" Rocky snapped.

"Accident or not, the last time we twied to save Cali, she caused an accident so bad it looked like we were all gonna bweak up!" Zuma added. "How do we know Cali's not just gonna mess evewything up again?!"

"...I WANT to save Cali..." Rubble said quietly, causing everyone to look at him. "...but it's like Zuma said… I'm scared that Cali might cause an accident again… And the last time she did that, we thought Marshall was dead for three days… And now that I know what losing family is like… I never EVER wanna go through that again… So… we can't. We can't rescue Cali after she did something like that… Who knows if she might do it again..."

Marshall couldn't help but whimper. He looked across all of the pups. All of them still looked thoroughly steamed, with the exception of Rubble, who instead looked strangely sad. Ryder looked hugely conflicted. He didn't seem to know whether to leave Cali be or try and rescue her anyway. A clash between head and heart that showed no sign of resolving itself any time soon. He then looked back at Everest and Tracker, who both looked upset at the rest of the group's stubbornness. Everest then gestured to the two boys to come closer. For a few seconds, they huddled together, whispering indeterminately to each other before turning back to face the rest of the group with strangely-serious expressions.

"But when has danger ever stopped us before?" Marshall began. "Ryder, when we joined the Paw Patrol, we each promised to do our best to lend a paw whenever we're needed. Look, I get it: It's way scarier going on rescues after it nearly killed one of us. But we've always helped people no matter how dangerous things were gonna get. We never know how dangerous a rescue's gonna be, but we've never given up or chickened out or anything like that before! And I don't know about all of you, but I'm not ready to start now!"

Everest then stepped forward. "We can't just turn down someone in need, even if they've hurt us in some way. Even then, what Cali did was an accident! I'm not saying that makes it OK, but Cali needs help just like anyone else. Even if we all can't forgive Cali, we can at least get her down from that tree like we always would! Because, well, if someone got hurt just because we chose not to rescue them, what kind of rescue team are we?"

Some of the pups glanced around uncertainly. They had to admit that Marshall and Everest both had points. Rocky and Zuma both seemed a little less apprehensive and Chase and Skye, while they both still looked disgruntled, didn't look anywhere near as angry at the prospect of saving Cali. Rubble's expression of sadness, however, remained unchanged.

"But… What if… What if we lose Marshall again? I can't go on a rescue if it means we might lose someone again..."

"Don't you trust Marshall?" Tracker replied. "An accident like that could've happened to anyone, verdad? We've been saying that the accident wasn't his fault, after all. He's been wanting to get back into rescuing for the past couple days, so if he thinks he's ready and he's not injured or anything, what's the point in saying no? He's tougher than you think, you know? Marshall says he's ready to do his thing again. And I think all he wants right now is for you to let him."

All of the pups looked unsure of themselves. All of them exchanged looks between each other, as well as at the floor. Now Chase and Skye, the angriest pups among them at that time, looked completely lost.

"Guys… please… do you trust me?" Marshall asked quietly.

"It's not that we don't trust you, Marshall..." Chase replied. "...but we're all scared to death of something happening again..."

"Then I'll just have to make sure that nothing happens, won't I?"

A few seconds passed before Skye sighed with a sad smile.

"You're a stubborn pup, Marshall..."

"Tell me something I don't know..." he replied lightheartedly, to scattered laughs from the group.

The silence from then on didn't last much longer before the pups started to shed their looks of uncertainty and replaced them with looks of seriousness.

"...Marshall..." Rubble began. "...I trust you."

"Me too, dude. Just… please be caweful out there?" Zuma continued.

"Now that I think about it, not being over a deadly river will probably make things way easier." Rocky surmised. "But if you'll be careful out there… well, we won't have any problems."

Marshall couldn't help but smile widely. "Thanks, guys..."

The group's attention then shifted over to Chase and Skye, who still had looks of uncertainty about them.

"Marshall..." Chase began. "Do you PROMISE to be careful out there?"

"Of course, Chase!" Marshall replied.

"You swear?" Skye asked.

"I swear!"

There was another pause, followed by Chase and Skye exchanging looks with each other, before they both approached Marshall and extended their paws to him.

"OK…" Chase began. "Marshall..."

"...we're with you!" Skye concluded at the same time as Chase.

Marshall couldn't contain himself. Now his spirits had been lifted over the moon. Swiftly, he thrust his paw out and high-fived the two pups in front of him.

"I won't disappoint you, guys!" Marshall shouted happily.

Chase and Skye smiled back at Marshall. Now the group was looking only slightly wary of what was to come. Now, they looked mostly confident, and ready for whatever might come. But there was, however, one who wasn't. Ryder was staring vacantly at the cracked Pup Pup that he'd recently put away, with a blank expression adorning his features. The glow from the screen that had been switched back on enveloped his face. Nobody seemed to know what to make of the sight before them.

"No job is too big..."

But slowly, Ryder's face shifted to a determined glare, his grip visibly tightening on the Pup Pad. A small smirk spread over his lips.

"...no pup is too small!"

Immediately, hope spread across the faces of the pups in the room. They never would've guessed how good it felt to hear Ryder's catchphrase after such a long period of absence. Their hearts soared as Ryder pulled the button from the Pup Pad and pressed it with gusto.

"Paw Patrol: To the Lookout!"

"Ryder needs us!" the pups shouted with far more enthusiasm than they intended. Everyone turned to make a beeline for the elevator until Chase froze up and looked back at Ryder with a confused look.

"Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait." Chase called, prompting everyone to freeze and look at him. "Ryder, sir, we're all right in front of you. Why did you need to call us with your Pup Pad?"

"Huh?" Ryder replied, looking down at his Pup Pad. Then looking at the pups. Then back at his Pup Pad.

"E-Err… O-Oh, uh... yeah… Er… Heh heh, oops." he stammered, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish, bashful grin and a visible blush.

The pups all burst out laughing, with Ryder quickly joining in. Somehow, seeing Ryder of all people making a silly mistake was infinitely-refreshing, and an excellent sign that for all of the pain he had gone through, the leader and owner they used to love was returning in a hurry.

Once more, everyone, Ryder included, ran towards the elevator and piled in, feeling more excitement than they thought they would. All of the pups had made their way in with Ryder standing amongst them, ready for whatever would come their way, until a shout was heard.

"Whoaaaaaaaaa-!" Marshall yelled, somehow barely managing to stay upright on a ball that had been left on the floor.

"LOOK OUT!" everyone else yelled back.

"Brace yourselves!" Chase commanded.

But none of the pups had time. Marshall's impromptu circus act quickly barrelled straight into them with a thunderous crash, knocking the whole group off of their feet. Marshall found himself buried underneath Chase while at the same time finding himself on top of Ryder's torso, receiving a lot of amused looks.

"Un-ball-lievable..." Marshall groaned lightheartedly.

And the entire group laughed even more loudly as the elevator closed and ascended to the upper floor. As this happened, Ryder couldn't resist rubbing his pup's head. After so long of thinking that things were never going to be the same again, it surprisingly made the group happy beyond measure to be subjected to Marshall's wipeouts once more. It took a long time, but things seemed to have well and truly gone back to normal for the embattled team.


Long time no author's note. How is everyone? Since we're finally getting something of a breather, I feel it's finally time to start making author's notes again. The last three chapters, I'd argue, were among the fic's most important. It won't be the last time I shut up for an important chapter.

Which brings me to the next point. As of the previous chapter, this fic has officially reached its endgame. Yep, there are now only a handful of chapters (and one Afterword) remaining until this fic is officially done. And sadly, also where I say goodbye. After six months spent writing this thing, this fic has well and truly been my swan song. Amazing how it evolved from a two chapter-long short story into a 100k+ word doorstopper of a story, isn't it?

Speaking of which, I also meant to say a while back that this fic has officially passed the 100k word mark, making this far and away the longest thing I've ever written. To all those who have somehow stuck with me so far… thank you. So much. But then, the real thanks will come at this fic's epilogue.

As for whether I'll come back… I'm still unsure. I don't want to say that I'm never returning, and it's not for a lack of ideas, either. More an attempt to restore balance (and to have to cover up my writing habits a bit less…). As usual, I don't want to say anything definite right now. We'll just have to see what the future holds.

Anyway, that's all for now. For those who have listened thus far, thanks for listening, and I hope to see you next time.