(A/N: I don't own Paw Patrol, Enjoy!)
Chapter 5: Good Morning and Good Bye
Everest slowly awoke, hearing the birds start to chip. She smiled as she felt herself still in the warm cuddle of her crush. She glanced at the clock on wall and instantly froze, it said 06:45 am. Her mind freaked out, she had meant to sneak out over an hour ago and give herself plenty of time before other pups woke up. But instead, she had less than 300 seconds as she saw her crush had set an alarm for 06:50am. And she was still trapped in his warm embrace!
Everest took a deep breath in and out, freaking out now was not the right answer she scolded herself as she tried to think of a way to get out without being caught. She decided to try and stretch and see what happened. She slid her legs and paws under his, mirroring his cuddle. Then she slowly stretched out her back, pressing it gently against his tummy, while simultaneously stretching her legs. It was working! Everest stretched out to her fullest, her crush mirroring her stretch. Then she felt him start to return to their previous cuddle. Quick as a flash, she rolled out from between his paws and stood their staring at him. He still had the cutest smile on his face as his paws tried to wrap around where she had been. Finding nothing, they curled up around him like he was hugging himself. *He is so dang cute* Everest thought to herself and she gazed at him. But then she saw his eyelids flutter indicating he was about to wake up. Everest leaped to the door, sparing one last look over her shoulder at her crush as he started to stir more before silently sneaking out. She raced around to her pup house and quickly shut the door.
Everest was breathing really hard as she tried to calm her racing heart down. She had done it! She snuck her present into her crush's pup house, slept cuddled up to him all night, and managed to do all of it without getting caught! And not a moment too soon as she heard two pup house doors open. She peeked out the peep-hole in her pup house door and saw Chase and Marshall walking towards the edge of the cliff to watch the sunrise. Everest breathed a sight of relief and laid on her bed. She checked her tag as she laid down and realized what had happened; when she changed the time, she had forgotten to switch PM to AM. She smacked her paw on her forehead for her silliness and laid her head down to be properly woken up in a few minutes.
"Good morning, Marshall" said Chase as they walked toward the cliff together.
"Good morning, Chase," replied Marshall. "I thought you wouldn't make it this morning on account of being a pillow" he teased.
"Ha ha, very funny" Chase laughed back. "Hey, why do you smell different this morning?" asked Chase as he turned a questioning eye toward his best friend.
"Probably from Everest," replied Marshall "she was my volunteer patient all day yesterday and she had on a scent"
"By the smell of you, she was your patient all night too!" grinned Chase.
"What? No!" exclaimed Marshall "I think I would remember if that happened. But I did sleep amazing last night, I dreamed I had this lovely pillow."
"I'm sure you did" teased Chase with a smirk. Both pups turned to watch the sunrise, enjoying the view and feeling of the sun warming their fur.
"Chase! Marshall! Can you please wake everyone up for breakfast!" Ryder called down from the top of the lookout.
"Sure thing Ryder" they replied in unison as they started toward the pup houses.
"Nicely! That means no megaphone!" yelled Ryder.
Both pups laughed as they started around, walking into the pup houses to wake up their teammates.
Everest heard her pup house door open but pretended to still be asleep. "Rise and shine" she heard a voice lovingly whisper. She rolled over away from the voice and pulled her ears down with her paws, feigning pretending to try and stay asleep. Then she heard an angel start to sing:
"Good morning, good morning, good morning, it's time to rise and shine."
"Good morning, good morning, good morning, I hope you're feeling fine."
"It's time to get up, get out of bed, you gotta get up you sleepy head."
Everest groaned in mock grumpiness.
"The day is only just for you and all your dreams are coming true, doodle-e-do, doodle-e-do, doodle-e-do!"
*I'm going to kill him* she thinks.
"Good morning, good morning, good morning, it's time to rise and shine!"
She turned one eye toward to pup who assailed her hears. "Skye said you had an amazing singing voice but I never thought the first time I would hear it would be you awakening me from the best dream ever!" she faked grumped at him.
"Guess we'll have to do a karaoke night then now won't we," laughed Marshall in a sing-song voice.
Then the pups heard another voice outside, "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"Well, Rubble is up now" said Marshall, "better hurry if you want breakfast" as he turned to walk out.
Everest jumped up and leaped on top of Marshall, flattening him to the ground. "Last one there is a rotten penguin egg!" she called as she jumped off of him and ran out the door.
Marshall howled with delight as he ran out the door after her.
Everest skidded into the kitchen in the lookout with Marshall hot on her heels. They didn't have time to stop before they crashed into the other waiting ups and into their waiting bowls. Everest landed on top of Marshall Backwards with Chase and Skye on top of her.
"So, is this Pup-Pup-Bowling?" asked Marshall as all the pups laughed and got themselves re-situated.
Ryder filled their bowls and everyone started to eat. "I had the weirdest dream last night" said Rubble between bites. "I dreamt I was a hog dog bun cuddling a hot dog, I even could smell it!"
The other pups laughed before Zuma chimed in "I had the same dream but mind smelled like salmon."
"Me three" said Tracker, "except mine smelt like carnitas."
"Did we all have the same dream?" asked Marshall and all the pups nodded and started listing off what it smelled like for them.
"Pine Forest"
"Flowers"
"Snow"
"Bacon"
"Blueberries"
"Cinnamon" Ryder finished.
"Wow, I thought only pups had shared dreams" said Rocky, "I didn't know you could too Ryder."
"Where have we smelled cinnamon before" asked Marshall with a knowing wink at Ryder.
"Hey Wyder, isn't cinnamon what Kaaa-ug-um-ph" Zuma started to say.
"Here you go pups, breakfast sausage balls!" said Ryder as he shoved one into Zuma's mouth and tossed them to all the other pups.
All the pups cheered and laughed at Zuma trying to gulp down the whole sausage ball in one bite.
Zuma finally got the sausage ball down with a big burp. "I feel stuffed" he groaned.
"You look stuffed too" laughed Rocky, pointing at the sausage ball shape in Zuma's tummy.
"Man, I wish I could get that full" lamented Rubble.
"Looks like we've got a chocolate volley ball" laughed Chase "Ready to play, Zuma?"
"No thanks, I'm good dudes" said Zuma as he wobbled over to lay down.
The pups all laughed as they finished their breakfast. Soon, they heard a vehicle drive up.
"I wonder who that could be" wondered Chase as the pups all headed outside. Once outside, the pups saw a white truck with a red and blue diagonal stripe on the side and a blue paramedic symbol on the door. A man stepped out of the truck. "Hi Ryder" he called as he waved "hiya pups!"
All the pups howled in response as they walked up. "My name is Dan" he said.
"Hi Dan" said all the pups. Then, they turned and saw Marshall walking over with his bag. All their ears drooped when they realized what that meant.
"Don't be sad pups" said Ryder, "Marshall will be back soon."
"Yeah, and I'm sure he'll call all the time" chimed in Dan "right Marshall?"
"Right Dan" replied Marshall as he threw his bag in the back "I'll call and send pictures all the time."
Chase could see all the pups were getting sad. Fortunately, he also knew the best remedy and shouted "dogpile!"
All the pups jumped on top of Marshall to get their last hugs and tickles in before he left. Everest used the confusion to give her crush a big kiss on the cheek, causing him to turn bright red. As the laughter died down, the pups and Ryder formed a hug circle around Marshall. They held the hug for what seemed like forever. "Sorry to break this up pups, but we do have to go," said Dan.
The pups all said their final good byes. Skye jumped up on Marshall's back and gave him a tandem hug with Chase. "Be safe bro," said Chase.
"Always" replied Marshall "take care of each other."
"We will," said Skye.
Then Rocky, Tracker, Zuma and Rubble all gave Marshall a high paw and their words of encouragement.
Finally, Everest walked up to Marshall. Before she could say or do anything, Marshall wrapped her up in a big hug. "Be safe fluff ball" he whispered in her ear.
"You too spots" she replied.
Marshall released her and then ran over to give Ryder the last hug.
"You can do it Marshall" said Ryder "We believe in you and can't wait until you come home to us!"
Marshall brushed back a tear as he nodded.
"Ready Marshall?" called Dan as he started to climb into the truck.
"I'm Fired up for some Ruff Ruff Rescues!" barked Marshall as he hopped into the truck and the door closed. Marshall leaded out the window and waved to his team mates as they howled more good-bye as Dan drove them off.
Later that afternoon, Everest was in her pup house with Skye while they filed their claws.
"So, how was last night" fished Skye with a knowing look.
"Amazing" replied Everest with a dreamy look in her eyes.
"Gave him a night to remember, did you?" teased Skye.
"No, not like that!" blushed Everest.
"Don't lie, I saw how fluffed you were this morning" replied Skye, "and I happen to know it only gets that fluffy when you …" Everest put her paw over Skye's mouth.
"I snuck in once he was asleep, cuddled him all night and then snuck out this morning" Everest said, keeping her best friend shushed. "And I know you are going to say I should have told him but I just couldn't. But it was just perfect just the way it was. Oh, and I left him a little present to find later."
"You need to stop torturing yourself already girl" Skye said as she shook her head.
"I can't" groaned Everest "I just don't have the courage, and I never will."
"You're telling me that you had the guts to sneak into his pup house in the middle of the night and snuggle him all night and then sneak out before anyone caught you but you can't just say 'I really like you and I want to be your girlfriend'" said Skye.
"Yup" nodded Everest "What if he doesn't like me that way or likes someone else?"
"Pu-lease pup, he does, I can see it" reassured Skye "Chase sees it, everyone else sees it, heck I bet even you see it."
Everest had to admit that she could see the hints, the glances out of the corner of his eye, the secret smile he would flash her on a rescue when she got scared. Everest let out a heavy sigh.
Skye knew what her friend was thinking and left her to it. Her two friends were going to torture each other for a few more months before they finally go around to telling each other what was on their hearts and stop tap dancing around it. "Oh, I forgot to ask you what you got him."
Everest got a dreamy look in her eye, "nothing much, just something to remember me by." Skye smiled as the girls chatted the rest of the night away until Everest had to head home.
As Everest parked her snowcat at Jake's house, she noticed a little string hanging out from the glove box. *I wonder what that could be* she thought to herself as she opened the glove box and drew out a small pouch. She gasped as she carefully examined the contents and held one of the items to her cheek. *You silly pup* she happily thought as she put it back inside the bag and walked inside.
Marshall and Dan arrived at the school house late that night. The first month or so would be classroom work before moving on to practical practice. Marshall had his own room and bed and started getting settled in. Once everything was put away, he called and let everyone know he had arrived safely. As he settled down to sleep, he took a deep breath in, relaxing in the scent of the first winter snow in a forest as he drifted off to sleep, dreaming about the pup he loved.
