Chapter 13

Oliver was surprised Shane seemed to have difficulty bouncing back from having the flu. Over the next couple weeks, she went to bed earlier and slept more on the weekends. Relieved to see her doing better, he helped her decorate the house for fall. By October Halloween decorations were slowly infiltrating the house and the DLO. Rita and Shane seemed to be going all out this year. Halfway through the month Oliver went to put sugar in Shane's coffee for her and found a massive fake spider resting on the jar. "Shane are we done decorating for Halloween?" He asked as she entered the kitchen with the dogs.

"Yes, why?"

"I was wondering if I should expect any more friends to join the house?" He asked gesturing to the spider.

She laughed slipping her arms around his waist to hug him while she picked up her coffee. "He's cute, isn't he?"

"Not the word I would have used." Oliver responded still examining the spider running his hand along her arm. "Are you ready for work?"

"I need to find my phone and shoes."

He'd gotten used to the last-minute searches before he managed to get her out of the house.

When they arrived at the DLO, they had difficulty getting in the door as Otis from shipping and Norman were trying to maneuver a coffin into the office. "Please tell me there's not anything in there." Oliver commented as Shane held the doors open and Oliver helped the guys finish getting through.

"Already checked Oliver. All clear." Norman answered. "The crate it was in got damaged. They think it might have been part of a huge shipment that came through a couple days ago for a Halloween themed magic show. We're storing it while we try to contact the group."

Shane started researching where the show was in Denver after getting the information from Otis. Oliver left for a department meeting after helping Norman find a place for the coffin. On his way back to the DLO after the meeting, he was stopped several times by other staff telling him how cute his dogs were. By the fifth person, he started to get suspicious that there was something going on he should probably investigate. Entering the DLO his eyes rested on Shane talking with Audrey, the front desk manager. When Audrey saw Oliver, "Thank you the kids are going to love them."

"What may I ask are the kids going to love Mrs. O'Toole?" Somehow knowing Shane had to be at the bottom of the mystery.

"You know a couple years ago they started handing out Halloween candy at the front desk and now it's become a regular event. Audrey saw the pictures of Gryffin and Raven's postal carrier Halloween costumes and thought it would be a great idea if they wore them to help hand out candy on Halloween up front." Shane was grinning. "They do great with the neighborhood kids. They'll have so much fun."

"When exactly did we get them Halloween costumes?" Oliver asked in disbelief.

Shane bit her lip, "They arrived last night when you were at choir practice. Did I forget to tell you?"

"Why yes. Yes, you did Mrs. O'Toole." Oliver said stiffly knowing arrangements were a done deal at this point and any attempts to object would be brushed aside.

Shane finished arranging things with Audrey watching Oliver working with Norman on a package. When Norman left for his lab and Oliver returned to his desk, Shane approached him leaning against his desk and laying a hand on his shoulder. "Oliver are you upset?"

"No, resigned." He said resting his hand on top of hers and running a finger over her ring. Shane found it tugged at her heartstrings when he played with her ring.

"The doodles are only carrying on the O'Toole family tradition of working in the postal service." Shane teased trying to hide a smile.

Oliver chuckled only slightly annoyed, "I knew you'd have a readied argument." Mostly relieved she was back to herself he temporarily forgot where they were. Picking up her hand he absently brushed his lips against her wrist, her breath caught. Hearing it he looked up at her, watching her lips part while she exhaled, a look of tenderness flashing across her face.

"Every time I hear you call me Mrs. O'Toole; I fall in love with you all over again." Shane said cupping his cheek with her hand.

"Shane," he said looking at her tenderly. "I…"

Rita walked in seeing them she was uncertain whether to stay or go. At the same moment there was an announcement that someone from DLO needed to come to the front. Rita took the opportunity and turned around to head up front. Shane squeezed his hand, broke away and returned to her desk. Oliver leaned his head back on his chair watching her walk away. Rita returned shortly with a crew member from the magic show Shane had contacted earlier. Oliver took his jacket off, found Norman, and they helped him load the coffin into his truck.

"I have to say I'm glad to see that go." Rita told Shane as they held the doors and watched it exit.

"I'm sure it won't be the last kooky thing that pops up this month."

Waiting for them to return, Shane and Rita started pulling lunch out of the fridge. "How did Oliver take the idea of the dogs coming to work for Halloween?" Rita asked curiously.

Shane smiled slightly, "Oh, he came around."

Rita laughed assuming that was what she'd interrupted. As the guys returned Rita asked Norman, "Did you ask what part the coffin played in their show?"

"It was some type of disappearing trick."

Rita shuddered. "I wouldn't want to be the assistant." They all ate together before returning to work.

Halloween came quickly. Oliver and Shane brought Gryffin and Raven to work. After getting them into their costumes and taking a fair number of pictures, Shane finally left them in Audrey's care reminding her no chocolate. Shaking his head and gently nudging her toward the DLO, Oliver asked, "Are you going to be a helicopter mom?"

"No. How do you even know that term?" Shane asked indignantly. "I was just making sure they looked appropriate for trick or treaters."

Oliver laughed, "Shane they're going to be playing with kids and trying to steal candy all day. They'll be fine." Little did he know how fine.

Shane went to check on them several times during the morning despite Oliver's insistence they were having fun. At lunch Gryffin & Raven took a break sleeping in the DLO. After taking them back to the front desk, Rita steered Shane into focusing on researching a mangled package. Later in the afternoon the front desk called asking if they could come help as they'd been inundated with kids after school. About an hour after Rita and Shane left to help, Oliver found out why. Norman answered the phone in the DLO, "Hi, Becky, how are you? No, Shaney's helping at the front desk with trick or treaters. Oliver's here."

Taking the phone Oliver talked to Becky getting more confused as the conversation progressed. "But the dogs aren't sick." Oliver interrupted at one point. Norman could hear laughter from the phone standing on the other side of the desk. After hanging up Oliver turned to Norman. "Norman, am I correct in assuming going viral doesn't mean what I would think it should mean?"

"It's usually when something on the internet starts trending." Norman answered.

"Becky mentioned trending." Oliver looking increasingly concerned. "I need to find Shane's phone. Becky tried to call her. She must have left it here because she didn't answer." He found it sitting on her chair behind her desk.

"Oliver what's going on?" Norman asked following him out of the DLO as Oliver was hurrying towards the front desk.

"I'm not sure I really know." Oliver answered. When they stepped out front it was wall to wall families with kids in Halloween costumes waiting to have their pictures taken and pick up candy from the Sheepadoodles. The front desk had given up on postal operations and were just working on crowd control. Finding Shane Oliver handed her the phone, "Becky's trying to call you. She said something about the dogs having a virus, but I told her they're not sick."

Norman shook his head, "Shane I think he means they're trending and went viral."

"That would explain how crazy this has gotten. Audrey said they didn't have near this crowd last year." She looked through her phone and saw Becky's texts. "Oh no. They have their own hashtag."

Putting her phone in her pocket Audrey and Shane organized everyone. Norman and Rita helped entertain the kids in line. Audrey and Shane took pictures and Oliver handed out the candy with other staff as the families left. When they finally cleared the lobby and it was time to close, Shane called Becky back. Becky was thrilled with the public relations event. "Becky it wasn't planned. Audrey organized for the front desk to hand out some candy like they did last year. I just happened to get the doodles Halloween costumes and a couple parents posted pictures on different parenting and neighborhood sites. It grew from there." She talked to her some more to catch up before letting her go.

Turning to everyone crashed out around the office. Oliver saw the look on Shane's face. "No. Whatever it is. No."

"Becky's wanting to know what #DLOpostalpups have planned for Thanksgiving?" Shane said with a grin.