As the bright sun rolled over Adventure Bay, a young German Shepherd named Chase woke up. He looked up to the sky and figured it was around 7:25 in the morning. "And as usual, we're still on schedule like we always are. Now then, it's time to wake up the other pups for breakfast." Chase thought to himself, exiting his pup house as the automatic door opened in front of him and then closed behind him.
Moving around the lookout, he woke up Skye the aviator pup of the team, Rocky the recycling pup of the team, Zuma the aquatic rescue pup of the team, Rubble the construction pup of the team and Everest, the snow rescue pup of the team.
But as he neared the red pup house that turns into a firetruck, Chase knocked on the automatic door to try and wake Marshall up. "Hey Marshall? It's time for breakfast." Chase called out, trying to get Marshall's attention.
Chase also confirmed Marshall wasn't relieving himself in the common bushes the pups always used. A quick glance over to the bushes revealed no presence in any of them, but he also heard next to nothing from inside Marshall's pup house.
"Alright Marshall, I'll go get breakfast now. If you aren't sleeping right now, good morning and I hope we get to see you at breakfast today like we always do." Chase said, moving away from Marshall's pup house as the other five pups ran into the lookout, deciding to follow them.
As the team of six entered the lookout, they came into the living room to see that Ryder had already set out breakfast, which is what usually happens daily.
But as Chase and the others ate, Ryder could tell something was on Chase's mind with the look on the young pup's face. He had also noticed Marshall wasn't at breakfast. "I'll wait until after they get breakfast done before I ask Chase about what's on his mind. I'm also about to go out and call Marshall to see what's going on. Normally he'd never miss breakfast unless something is going on.
Walking away from the pups as they ate, Ryder pulled his pup pad out and called Marshall's pup tag. This made a soft beeping sound fill Ryder's ears, and quite clearly, the other pups heard it too. They stopped eating and looked over at Ryder, curious looks on their faces as Rocky spoke.
"Ryder, why would Marshall's tag be ringing right now? Is there a mission?" The mixed breed asked, looking around himself to see that Marshall still wasn't at breakfast and the tag ringing wasn't coming from inside the lookout, but slightly outside.
"I called his tag to see what's going on, haven't heard a response though. I'm going to check his pup house, you pups stay here and keep eating for now, I'll be right back." Ryder explained as the pups continued eating.
With that, Ryder walked outside of the lookout and saw Marshall's firetruck in its pup house form. It was simply sitting there doing nothing. The automatic door was closed. However, as Ryder got closer to the door, he could hear a slight whimpering from inside the pup house alongside the pup tag ringing.
That whimpering was of course coming from Marshall, with the other pups all being in the lookout and it coming from inside his pup house.
"Marshall is everything okay?" Ryder asked, knocking on the automatic door as he asked.
"N-nothing is okay Ryder, I just don't get it. Why is it still on my mind after all of these years?" Marshall admitted in between whimpers as the automatic door began to open.
"What's still on your mind after all these years, Marshall?" Ryder asked, wanting to be able to help Marshall through what was clearly making him struggle mentally.
How I left my parents to join the Paw Patrol. My dad always wanted me to be a police dog, but I became a fire fighter when I joined the team. I'm worried they think I'm a disappointment..."
As Marshall said this, he walked out of his pup house and laid down in front of it, Ryder calmly looking at him as he thought of a response. It had been a long time since Marshall joined the Paw Patrol, joining around three weeks after Chase did as the second member, but Marshall hadn't discussed his life before joining the Paw Patrol all that much, but in all of the time Marshall had been with the team to this point, he's proven himself to be an excellent fire fighter and EMT time and time again. In both roles, he was able to use his strengths in life and did what he loved every day.
"Marshall, listen. I'm sorry that you think your parents will be disappointed in you for not following your father's path as a police pup. However, for what it's worth, I'm proud of you, the other pups are proud of you, and so is all of Adventure Bay. We may all play our part around here, but I've always been impressed with how you balance being a firefighter, an EMT and a loyal friend all at once, if not more than just those things." Ryder complimented Marshall, trying to raise the Dalmatian's spirits with what he truly believed about Marshall.
"T-Thanks Ryder... I'm gonna go in and get some breakfast now." Marshall began to stand up and walk to the main doors of the lookout as he said this, before stopping as Ryder cleared his throat.
"Marshall, before you go inside, I had a question. Is there a reason you're thinking about the possibility of your parents being disappointed in you right now? I'd love to be able to help you out." Ryder asked, that thought having just entered his mind.
Marshall took a moment to consider how to word this, even though he knew exactly why he was thinking of it right now. In a few days, it would be the anniversary of Marshall leaving his home town to join the Paw Patrol. He had written a note in the middle of the night before he departed, but didn't remember what he wrote anymore. When this anniversary rolls around, it will mark three years since Marshall moved away from from his home town, where he had grown up.
"The reason is because three days from now... it's about to be the anniversary of when I left our home town to head to Adventure Bay, which led to me joining the Paw Patrol as you know." Marshall explained as quietly as he could.
"I... I see, well I'll get in contact with your family and they can come here and be there for the anniversary of you joining the Paw Patrol if you'd like. It's in a week as I'm sure you're aware." Ryder offered, rubbing the fur on Marshall's back as he did.
As Ryder said this, Marshall looked up from his laying down position and looked into Ryder's eyes, a genuine smile on the Paw Patrol leader's face. "That would be nice, Ryder, to finally spend time with family and bury the hatchet a little, or at least to talk about my siblings, both of them were about a year old at the time I left."
Ryder stopped rubbing Marshall's head after Marshall said this, a serious but kind look on the young leader's face. "Thank you for telling me what's been troubling you Marshall, I'll see what I can do in asking your family if they're interested in coming up for the anniversary of you joining the team."
Marshall wanted to be happy about this, and in some ways, he is, but there was a nagging thought in the back of his head that this wouldn't go as well as he hoped it would, but at this point, it was better to risk that than have an open wedge driving Marshall and his family apart for the rest of their lives over Marshall's choice to join the Paw Patrol as a firefighter and leave their home town.
In any case, Marshall followed Ryder back into the lookout to catch up with the other pups for breakfast.
Once the doors to the lookout opened once more, Marshall followed Ryder to the kitchen, where his red and white food bowl was still untouched. The other pups were relaxing around the lookout too: Zuma, Rocky and Rubble were watching Apollo the super pup, Rubble clearly being the most invested in the show as usual. The other pups liked it as well, but Rubble was basically a diehard fan. Everest was walking around, her face down to the ground as she walked all over the first floor of the lookout. And the sounds from the top floor of the lookout told Marshall that there was currently a pup pup boogie match going on. In any case, Marshall went into the kitchen, finally getting his breakfast down and preparing for what was to come, despite how uncertain he was about everything.
Marshall knew his parents coming back could go poorly because of how the wedge between him and his parents formed, but from what the young dally could remember, he had a good relationship with Cookie and Kai, his younger siblings.
He just hoped that when they did come back, his parents would respect the pup he has grown into on his own and allow him to continue what he was doing.
But that was the future, right now, he wanted to just eat his breakfast and worry about what was to come in the future later.
And there's chapter 1 of A Dalmatian's Reunion! I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! I'm extremely excited for this story now that it's finally kicked off, and I hope you're all excited for what's to come in the story! Before the first question of the chapter for this story though, I'd like to apologize for the short first chapter, I had a larger one planned but decided to cut the second half of this chapter and put it in the second chapter to improve the pacing of this story and so I could kick the story off sooner! The first update will take a bit longer because of this, but I'll have it ready as soon as possible!
Question of the chapter: Why do you think Marshall didn't want to follow his father's footsteps and be a police pup?
That's all for now, see you all next time for chapter 2 of A Dalmatian's Reunion! This is Storm signing off, catch you all next time!