Chapter: Unimaginable Grief Hits Home

A month after Renee returns from helping Ollie through his girlfriend's hospitalization, Nae starts to see Charlie acting completely different.

Charlie was approaching sixteen years old, and that is older than most Malinois live. Renee just knew in her gut that her time with Charlie was coming to an end.

Knowing that Charlie would not be around much longer, she picked up Charlie and laid her on Renee's bed. James could see it too, so he never asked why the dog was in their bed. He gently kissed the old dog's head and walked around to his side.

Renee spent the night holding her old partner close. Nae, let the old dog know she was loved. As the sun rose on a beautiful early summer morning, the old dog gave Nae a soft lick and laid her head down in her partner's lap.

Closing her eyes slowly, the dog lets out a quiet sigh and takes her last breath. The dog knew she was safe and loved. She also knew that her partner was safe with James.

Realizing that Charlie was gone, Renee woke James up as she cried. She knew it was time, and she knew that Charlie was not in pain. She knew that her rock, her anchor, was gone. It took hours for Renee to process Charlie's death enough to call in an End Of Watch on the long retired Police Canine. Renee needed to call a 10-42 into both the police radio and to the Marine base.

Knowing that Nae would not be able to call and give death notification James did it for his wife. He knew that most of the people Nae would want there would find out from the Marine radio news. The funeral and death would be announced through the armed forces radio. James also knew that one person would mean the world for Nae to see would not hear since he left the military on emergency leave. He needed to call Ollie, their Navy Medic friend.

"Ollie, It's James. It pains me beyond words to tell you that Charlie died this morning. The Marines will be having a full honors funeral for her in the next day or so. I know it would mean the world to Nae if you came." James tells their old friend.

Ollie responded after a few minutes of silence. "Oh, James, she must be devastated. Charity and I will be out on the first flight. I will have my mom watch Abby if you don't want her to come with us."

"Ollie, Abby is more than welcome to come. I know that Nae would really like to see her."

"Do you think that Abby will remember Nae? She was pretty young when she met her the first time" "Abby might remember Nae since she lived with Abby and me while she recovered from her second kidnapping. I'll tell her to pack a bag and that we leave in the morning."

"In that case maybe, but Piper didn't recognize Nae when we saw her at the crime lab. Piper was older than Abby was when she last saw Nae."

Over on the Central Coast of California

Later that morning, Ollie gathers his daughter Abigail and his girlfriend to head to Miami. As always, he brought Misty, his PTSD service dog, with him.

"Abby, Sweetie. You need to pack for a trip." Ollie tells his twelve-year-old.

Ollie then tells his girlfriend about the last-minute trip.

"Cherry, Nae needs me over in Miami. It doesn't matter why Nae just needs me there."

Charity would follow Ollie to the edge of the world and back without question. "Okay, Oliver. I'll come. You don't need to explain. I know that if it involves Nae, it is important to you."

The three people and one dog then jump on the first flight to Miami in the morning.

During the four-hour flight, Abby played games on the phone, and Charity took a long nap. Ollie, however, couldn't rest. His mind was racing with thoughts about Charlie and about Renee's other dogs that saved his life.

All of Nae's canines had saved his life at least once. Charlie saved him more than once.

Ollie then silently turns to the right to gaze out the window of the plane. Gazing out the window, he allows his mind to wander back to how Nae saved him.

Nae or her canines saved his life more often than he would like to admit to anyone. The first time one of Nae's dogs saved him, he was just a kid at eighteen. They were riding in a long military convoy. James was in the gunner's hummer in the back. Nae was situated in the middle, and Ollie was towards the front. Without warning, the first hummer explodes, followed by rapid gunfire. Some of the bullets entered the hummers like the hummer was butter. Those bullets entered the soldiers in the vehicles.

When the shots slowed down, just about everyone has been hit by either a slug or shrapnel. Ollie was knocked unconscious for a while. Coming to while Atlas was dragging him to safety. Getting Ollie to the rocky outcropping, Atlas turned and went back to get another wounded. While Atlas was pulling the injured to safety, Renee had pulled James gunner's hummer around to be between the convoy and the Taliban. To buy Atlas time to save the injured, Renee laid down suppressive fire. Atlas returned, dragging James, who had minor shrapnel wounds all over. By the time Atlas got back with James, Ollie was standing. Seeing all the injured around him, he started with the closest one. The first one he tended to was James. Slowly with the help of Atlas and corpsmen or two, he tended to the injured.

As soon as the dog dragged the last soldier alive to Ollie. Ollie clearly heard Nae tell Atlas to stay. The next thing Ollie knows, an airstrike hits right where Renee was. When the smoke cleared, all gunfire ceased. It takes several minutes before anyone felt safe to investigate. Ollie and Atlas cautiously approach the closest crater. At the bottom of the crater, they find a seriously injured Renee. She had called in an airstrike to take out the Taliban with no thought to her own safety.

"Renee… Nae…. Come on, stay with me. I need you to stay with me, Nae."

Ollie had no idea he was audibly mumbling. Again his mind was remembering the sensation of Atlas dragging him.

Hearing Ollie mumbling, Charity instinctively ran her fingers through his hair. The feeling of Charity doing that, to him, gently brought him back to reality.

"Oliver, are you okay? You were mumbling Nae's name repeatedly in a sort of begging manner."

Ollie doesn't say anything. He just looks back out the window. He didn't want his mind to start to wander again, so he started to figure out what he would say at the funeral.

Back in Miami

It took the Marine Corps a day to arrange the funeral for their Canine. Charlie was a Marine for most of her long and illustrious career. Serving the Marines for eight years, CBP for three years, and MDPD for six months, she was given a send-off fit for any human war hero. The procession leading to the South Florida Memorial Cemetery was long and full of every MDPD squad car, CBP agent, Marine Corps Hummer, and Navy vehicle in the city. The local ZNN reporters were there too. Even the MDPD and CBP canines were there.

There was a beautiful Mahogany casket draped with an American flag. A large portrait of Charlie was on an easel surrounded by a wreath of holly.

As the guests started to arrive, Ollie and two of the most important people in his life get settled into the chairs set up. At about that time, his girlfriend Charity noticed the small flagged draped coffin.

Seeing the size of the coffin, she was a little confused. In an attempt to figure out what was going on, she asked her boyfriend a question. "Was Charlie a child?"

Ollie doesn't respond. At that moment, she saw the large photo of Charlie and rounds on Ollie. "We came to Miami for the funeral for a dog?"

Ollie does respond to that in a rather cold way. "Charlie was not just a dog. She was a Marine through and through." He then sits down.

When Abby, too, notices the photo, she quietly asks him a question.

"Daddy, is this the dog you told me about?"

In a very subdued tone, he answers his daughter's question. "Yes, Baby. This is the dog I told you about."

The first person to come up and talk about Charlie was Renee's dog

trainer.

"Hi, I'm Colonel Laura Braxton. I was Renee's dog trainer. Charlie was one of the first dogs that Renee trained as the head trainer. I had told the base that Renee was teaching me more about dog training than I could ever teach her. The base gave her my job, and I had no problem with that. Renee had a different approach to training, and to be honest, hers worked better than mine. Renee let the dogs choose their partners. She initially trained the dogs, then she let the dogs out with the dog training recruits to mingle. The dogs would go up to everyone and sniff. They all eventually singled out someone that they liked. That person was their new partner. This resulted in the dogs having a closer connection to their handlers and better job performance. That batch had Charlie, Champ, Chism, Chessie, Chip, and Chaos. All the dogs were highly trained and sought after. All the dogs won at least two Lois Pope Medals for Courage. Charlie herself earned five. Two on the same tour of duty. She earned a medal both times that her handlers got killed. Her attempts to save her handlers and other soldiers more than warranted her receiving the Lois Pope Medal for Courage.

Sergeant Tobias McGraw goes up next. Getting to the podium in his wheelchair, he quietly adjusts the microphone's height. Charlie is the only reason I am here. Twelve years ago, I was on patrol with Charlie and her first handler Sergeant Hope Renegade. Charlie and Hope were on point, and James was doing oversight. As we cleared a large building, we see this tiny six-year-old little girl standing up against the wall. As Charlie and Hope got even to the girl, Charlie starts to bark. Before we could do anything, the suicide vest that was on the girl went off. Charlie alert allowed the SEALs behind her to dive for cover. Unfortunately, her partner was not so lucky. Since I was the closest SEAL to the blast, I ended up with shrapnel in my back.

As you can see, it paralyzed me. I should be dead, but Charlie alerted us to the bomb." Tobias rolls back to sit with his sons Lukas and Jamison.

James goes up and talks about an ambush where Charlie gets stabbed, taking out the shooters.

"I'm Master Sergeant James O'Shea. There were two times that Charlie saved my life. The first time she saved a lot of us when we were ambushed. Her partner was Sergeant Renee Hope Kerrigan, who is now my wife. We were on patrol with several SEALs and Marines when we were ambushed by several shooters. With us being pinned down, Renee gave Charlie the command to return to base to get reinforcements. On the way back, Charlie turned around. She must have seen a way to take out the shooters since she reversed direction and jumped into the bunker the shots were coming from. She took two shooters out, sending the third running. The third shooter shot at us one last time. Renee ended up taking the shooter out but was hit with three between her vest. With Renee injured, the rest of us investigated the bunker only to find Charlie had killed two of them. The shooters stabbed Charlie several times. Bleeding from the stab wounds, Charlie continued to attack until they were dead. Everyone there knows that the only reason we are here is her courage.

The other time was when she helped take down a suicide bomber that had managed to get onto base. As Renee tells it, they were settling in after doing a security sweep. Charlie heard something, so Renee let her out and followed close behind. Renee found Charlie with her mouth around the hand of a suicide bomber's hand. He was holding a dead man's switch. With Charlie's mouth around it, he was not able to open his hand. The bomber was right outside the barracks. One hundred soldiers were sleeping inside. Renee knew they were too close to the others to safely take out the bomber without anyone else getting hurt. Charlie helped Renee pull him to a safe distance. Getting far enough away from all the other buildings and personnel Renee took the bomber out. The explosion shook the buildings. Ollie and I were the first out it investigate the blast. Getting there, we see Charlie bleeding from shrapnel. She still had her vest on, so the injuries weren't too bad. We find Renee twenty yards away with shrapnel in her head. She was walking and talking, so Ollie just left the metal in her head. If Charlie hadn't alerted Renee and had Renee not trusted Charlie, the death number on that particular incident would have been at least a hundred sleeping soldiers. As it was, the death toll was only one suicide bomber. Charlie was awarded a Lois Pope Medal for Courage both times she saved my life." James goes back to Renee. He wasn't even trying to hide his tears.

Quickly another soldier went up to talk about Charlie. "Hi. I'm Master Chief Mark Mason. I am a Navy SEAL. I was there when Charlie's second handler was killed. Again Charlie saved a lot of soldiers with her early warning. We were out on patrol when Charlie started to freak out. By this time, I knew something was up. I was there for all the times she was awarded a Medal. I trusted the Canine when she started to bark. I got my soldiers behind me to stop and take cover. I dove for cover right when the bullet hit her partner. Watching her partner drop to the ground. I knew she was dead because I could clearly see a single entry wound between her eyes." Wiping away the tears silently, Mark goes back to sit with his wife and son.

Ollie quietly gets up and talks about when his best friend and the base C.O. was taken out by a shooter. Renee and Kenneth had left to walk the base canines. Kenneth had found a little stray puppy and brought her back to base. Renee was the base canine unit and helped Ken train the pup and hide it when visiting higher up's. Stray dogs were against regulations to have on base. Since the bases, C.O. kept the dog and Ken as loved as he was, nobody was going to say anything. Well, as they were walking, a car almost runs them over. Ken protected the puppy, and Charlie started to bark like crazy. She was trying to alert Renee and Ken of the bullet flying in their direction. Not able to alert in time, Ken got hit. Unfortunately, Kenneth died from his injury. If it was not for Charlie, Renee, too, would have died. I loved Kenneth like a brother, and he died protecting his puppy. I have that puppy now. Charlie helped raise her. That Canine was an excellent role model for my pup." Ollie dabs the tears from his eyes as he sits back down with his girlfriend and daughter.

Walking up to the front, Horatio approached the microphone. "I'm Lieutenant Horatio Caine. I found out that Renee Kerrigan was my half-sister, which was surprising enough. Then I met her canines. Charlie was clearly an older dog who had seen a lot of action. Renee, Charlie, Echo, and I were just finishing watching T.V. I went ahead of her as we started off to bed. Charlie must have heard the car coming and sensed something was wrong. She jumped on Renee, knocking her down. She then stood over Renee shielding her partner bullets started to fly through the wall. One of the bullets hit Charlie in the right front leg. It shattered her shoulder. She ended up losing the leg, but she protected her partner. Charlie is the only reason I have my sister still." Horatio sits down before anyone could see him crying.

Shorty walks up, wanting to tell about when Charlie again saved Renee. "Hi, My name is Shorty Gorham. I have been best friends with Renee since we were in Preschool. Last year Renee came home for the first time since she joined the Marines. She came home for our twenty-year high school reunion. She came with James and a tripod Charlie. The connection between Renee and Charlie was clear the instant I saw them together. During our reunion, Renee got grabbed. James and I want to find her. James let Charlie go and told her to find Renee. That dog took off like there was no tomorrow. Quickly Charlie found Renee tied up and beaten in the boy's wrestling locker room. James found her. Apparently, her attackers dosed her with Heroin since Charlie was alerting to an empty drug bag, and Renee was overdosing. If Charlie didn't take James to where Renee was, we would never have found her in time." Shorty sits down in tears. He was mainly crying because he knew how much Charlie means to Renee.

When everyone was done telling stories, someone stands up and plays Taps on the bugle. Hearing Tap's everyone, including the Marines and SEALs, loses it. You could hear the attendants just sobbing. With TAP's played the CBP Honor Guards Marching Band, then play Amazing Grace on the Bagpipes.

The Bases C.O Thomas Macon hands Nae a folded up flag and quietly says, "On behalf of a grateful nation." The flag ceremony was quickly followed by a twenty-one gun salute. As the guns rang one last shot, it felt like a bullet to Renee's heart.

There was not a dry eye in the house. Renee had long ago lost it and was inconsolable. If someone didn't know, they would think it was a human. The fact the Charlie was a canine was entirely irrelevant for all involved.

After the funeral was done and the attendants slowly filtered out, Renee and James approached an old and dear friend.

Renee greeted her friend with a hug, "Ollie, you came." She says to a very supportive friend.

Ollie responds to his friend, "There is nothing that could stop me from coming. That dog saved my life. Remember, I was one of those sleeping soldiers in the barracks when the suicide bomber attacked the base."

Renee then notices the beautiful woman on Ollie's arm. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" Renee asks Ollie.

"Oh, this is my girlfriend, Charity." Ollie shyly introduces Charity to Nae.

Renee looks at the two obviously in love people before she makes eye contact with Ollie. "I see you listened to my advice. She's beautiful. I wanted to tell the truth about what really happened when and how Ken died." Renee whispers to Ollie, so Charity cannot hear.

"Let's talk over here," Ollie says as he leads Nae to seats away from everyone else.

Renee then tells Ollie some information that he didn't know. "Ollie, I want to tell you the truth about what happened to Ken. I never told you the bloody details. I just told you what happened vaguely. I was with Ken when he was killed. I was walking both Charlie and Delta, Ken was walking Misty. Not too far from the base, we were nearly run over by a vehicle. Ken got between Misty and the car, he almost got hit. With our backs turned, shots start flying to where we were. Before Ken or I could get to cover, a bullet hits Ken, and he goes down. I pulled him to cover and called the canines over. Getting the dogs in a down, I tried to stop Ken's bleeding. James was at base when he heard gunshots. He knew we went out in that direction, so he grabs his M40A and runs in our direction. Getting to me, James spots a tiny glint of metal. He saw the sights of a gun. As the base sniper, he takes the shot and drops the other shooter. With the shots stopping, I got James' attention. James helped me carry Ken back to base. I was still desperately trying to stop his bleeding."

"Getting to base, you see James and I carrying someone. Running to see it was Ken. Grabbing Ken, you race to the medical tent. Once in the tent, you realized that the bullet had nicked Ken's Jugular vein, and he had already lost too much blood, so you wouldn't be able to save him. Ken died in your arms with James and I watching. When Ken died, it sent the base reeling. He was a very loved and respected C.O., who developed close relationships with several of the lower-ranking soldiers. When Ken died, they sent his body stateside. I sent Charlie with Ken so he wouldn't be alone. I needed to stay with Delta since the base's last handler had been killed by a sniper bullet not long before Ken died."

"The replacement C.O. everyone resented. I was taken shortly after the replacement got there. Another suicide bomber got onto the base. The bases C.O. didn't want to bother looking for me. He ordered you all to stand down. I remember making it back to base five months later. I remember you telling me that Delta was dead. I remember you putting Misty on my stretcher. You sent her stateside so I wouldn't be alone. I kept her safe and trained her to surprise you. I needed to thank you for all you did to help me. I didn't regain consciousness until I got stateside. Misty and Charlie were the only reason I survived what the Taliban had done to me. I had to undergo twenty-five surgeries in an attempt to reconstruct my back. I have no feeling on my back since the burn is a third-degree acid burn."

Renee then kisses Ollie on the cheek. "Thank you," Nae whispers to Ollie.

Nae could hear James talking to Ollie's girlfriend. "You all are more than welcome to come over. I know the girls would love a chance to get to know each other."

"I might just take you up on that offer," Ollie tells his brother.

"You better follow us home. It can be a little complicated to find our house." James says, smiling at Ollie.

The group then load into their vehicles and head to Nae's house.

With James taking Nae's truck since it sat more, they all had to climb up into the cab. James needed to use the step. Everyone else just literally jumped into the cabin, including Nae.

As they opened the truck's door, Echo and Indy launch themselves out and race around doing zoomies all over the front.

Seeing Nae's canines running around, Misty Ollie's dog took off too. It was too much temptation for her to resist.