Chapter five: Apology?
"I beg your pardon, young man, but.. who are you?" Frank asked quite politely.
"Please, I beg of you to hear me out." The man replied. "I'm looking for a pup named Chase. Is he here?" The German in blue froze at the mention of his own name, as though he'd just been splashed with ice water. But nonetheless he approached him until he stood at the front of his entire group of friends and family, ending up between Marshall and Rocky. The man's green eyes lit up at the sight of the young German Shepard, the ragged bandages ravaged by the events of the day making it look worse than it was. Chase was both surprised and concerned by the look of regret and guilt in the stranger's eyes. He sat down before him simply, silently waiting to see what he'd do next. To his, and everyone's, surprise the man dropped to his knees, his breaths becoming unsteady to show that he was upset.
"Please.. I beg your forgiveness." The man cried sadly. "My name is Malachi CorDan.. and I am completely horrified by what my mother; Vignette, has done to you.." At hearing this Chase lit up and slowly began to step back, and Marshall and Rocky prepared for him to run away scared. But this didn't happen, instead he stopped. When hearing Malachi force back a sob; tightening his jaw to keep from crying. When Chase heard this he couldn't help but stare for a moment; the look of complete and utter remorse flooded from his eyes. He shockingly noticed a patch of blackness staining his face with a shadow, which he could see was not one of evil; but of sorrow. In that moment time froze; the look in the man's eyes pulling him in, as the memories of the mansion came flooding back to him. Yet as he stared, he could feel a withdrawal happening; from what, though, he couldn't quite pinpoint in the moment. Malachi broke his gaze to drop his chin; closing his eyes firmly in shame. His hands lay at the edge of his lap hanging off his knees to the ground. They clasped nothing but air; until a warm paw came to touch them tenderly. Malachi look up quickly as a tear snuck down his cheek; stunned to see that Chase had come forward to place a comforting paw on his hands; a genuine look of anything but anger, fear or resentment displayed on his face. Everyone watching was also surprised by this, but a few of them felt nothing else but pride just the same.
Malachi gave a thankful, gasping sigh; dropping his head to the ground so his back was exposed. Chase hopped his front paws up on to his back and laid his head down in a tender hug, as Malachi finally began to cry all his emotions out in front of the whole group.
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"I apologize for my earlier meltdown." Malachi sighed sheepishly, as Ryder handed him a cup of water to drink.
"No worries." Ryder smiled. "We understand how bad you feel for what happened to Chase."
"I'm just amazed that he doesn't resent me because of who I am." Malachi admitted. "I know I had nothing to do with what happened.. but.. somehow I feel just as much at fault for it."
"You had no control over anything your mother did or didn't do, Malachi." Frank assured him intently. "Vignette did what she wanted to do regardless of what others around her thought or felt. You couldn't have known if you wanted to."
"But I should have,.. ya know?" The young man protested. "I mean, she's my mother. How could I have let this go on for so long? If I'd have known I would've done something!"
"I'm sure you would have." Billy stated understandingly. "But not even your father knew of it… he said so himself."
"He didn't?" Malachi realized. And the Prescotts all nodded, while Maggie continued to stroke Chase's back; as the pup continued to snooze away on her lap. Malachi then dropped his gaze into his lap, processing this information slowly.
"I understand you feel guilty for what Chase went through." Frank continued. "But you must know that nothing you would've done could've prevented it."
"How can you say that?" Malachi replied hurtfully, staring up at him again.
"Because I've known your mother for years…" The old man returned simply. "And I know that she'll do anything to get her way.. I didn't realize just how far she was willing to go, until she took Chase." They all looked to the sleeping pup once more, the German Shepherd remaining under his deep slumber as if nothing was happening.
"He's resilient.." Frank went on again. "He'll heal from his wounds and go back to being as normal as he can be, given the circumstances."
"Exactly." Ryder put in surely. "If Chase has made it this far; I know he'll be ok."
"I suppose I must trust you.." Malachi surrendered. "Since you know better than I how he is... or.. was. But how do I get rid of this guilt? Why do I feel like I must rectify my mother's actions, as if they are my own?... How do I stop myself from feeling this way?" The hopelessness tore at his heart and it showed.. remorse and sadness cast its shadow upon him once more. Chase shifted his position, gingerly irritating his sore shoulder as he did so, and fell silent once he'd found a better position to lay in.
"You can do your best to put right what you can change about your mother's decision." Frank told him. "But some things are out of your control. Though.. I'm sure there are many little ways you can set right some of the damage that has been done."
"But what if it's not enough? And I still feel this way?" Malachi protested, fearing this to come true; like some bout of bad luck.
"Then you find a way to ignore it." Frank told him, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "We all have regrets in life; and we all need to learn how to deal with them. Though,.. I admit, it's not always easy to do. It took a lot of nerve to come here, you know. You had the guts to stand before the pup who's life is forever changed by what someone you cared about had done to him. And yet you didn't shy away, even when you got to the part where you sincerely begged for forgiveness."
"I guess I just knew it had to be done." Malachi shrugged earnestly.
"And it is the same principle with this." Frank finished wisely; and Malachi began to think very deeply on this realization. Then Billy, having been in deep thought this whole time too, realized something that ignited a small glimmer of hope within him.
"Maybe there is something you can do to help Chase feel better." He said finally. And everyone awake looked up at him curiously, trying to follow his train of thought.
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Chase wandered out of the Lookout, with his head hanging rather sulkily. But when he looked up his brown eyes lit up in surprise of what they beheld. Ryder and the PAW Patrol stood next to the Prescotts; everyone gathered around Malachi and another strange man. But when he took a closer look, he realized that he wasn't so strange after all.
"Chase, you remember Micheal Whitman, right?" Billy asked, gesturing to the man next to him, with his other hand on his shoulder.
"Um..yeah..uh.. he was the head of the zoom-it… wait." The realization hit him like a brick wall, and suddenly he froze as he thought about what this was to mean. Micheal held in his official clipboard in hand, and a bandanna that he recognized near immediately.
"I'm so excited for this day to come." Micheal smiled brightly. "I used to watch you train with Billy and his team for years. And now that they've found you again, I'm so proud to finally give you this." He knelt down, setting the clipboard aside to tie the blue bandana around the German Shepard's neck; bearing red lettering that read zoom-it dog-in-training. Words seemed to fail him, as he suddenly wondered if he was dreaming. "Congratulations Chase." Micheal beamed. "It's been a long time coming, I assure you."
"Malachi reached out to him for us and brought him here to make it official." Billy told him, as Micheal stood up again. "And he'll be overseeing the first ever Zoom-it dog competition right here in Adventure Bay."
"They'll be hosting it on the beach just like they did back where you lived." Ryder added. Chase turned his shocked eyes on the young man, staring for only a moment; when the boy shot him an awkward smile.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!!" He cried finally, racing forward ecstatically. Malachi knelt down to accept the pup, who could hardly stand still; as he violently licked his face in the pure, blissful joy he felt bursting out of him. His tail wagged like a million miles an hour, as he snuggled up to Malachi.
"Guys check this out!!" He called, racing away to show his fellow pups. Frank came up next to Malachi, as he stood up again.
"Congratulations, young man." He smiled proudly. "You just made a very sad pup.. really happy."
"Believe me, it's the least I could do." Malachi responded, turning his shoulder toward him a bit more. "I just hope he'll be fit to compete by then."
"I'm sure Billy and his friends'll get him back in shape for it." Frank returned. "He's a tough pup. And Chase'll do anything he can to be ready to compete. Besides, he'll heal up just fine. I imagine he's still young enough that it'll be no trouble at all; at least granted he doesn't overdo it."
"I hope you're right, Frank." Malachi said, looking over at Chase again, with a slightly concerned expression.
"It looks great, Chase." Marshall beamed, the pups all grinning at how happy their friend was.
"Yeah, you look way cool, dude!" Zuma gushed with an excited hop.
"Yeah! Glad to see you finally have something to look forward to." Rocky grinned.
"What'do mean?" Chase wondered curiously.
"Well.. lately you've been kinda down." The recycling pup replied. "Ever since you were returned to us.. you've been struggling with recovering and.. what happened to you while you were out there. But finally you've been given something to be excited about."
"Yeah, you can finally focus on something that isn't sad for once." Rubble added, earning him more barks and 'yeahs' of agreement.
"I guess you're right." Chase shrugged loosely.
"Exactly. But, you know, we do have a LOT of work to do in order to get you ready to compete." Marshall pointed out. "And if you want to compete you've gotta do this right."
"I got it." Chase shrugged again, half scoffing.
"It's not gonna be easy, Chase." Marshall informed him seriously. "And it may get hard at some points. You may have to take it easy when that happens, ok."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Chase sighed, almost mockingly. "Nothing about this whole thing has been easy." He stated simply. "I'd be more surprised if it was gonna be easy." Marshall opened his mouth to speak, but realized he had nothing to say; the words he'd intended to form dying in his throat before they could reach his mouth.
"So what do we do now?" Malachi wondered turning back from the pups talking just barely out of earshot of them, to the group of people in which he stood with.
"Well for now, meetings need to be set with Mayor Goodway and the Zoom-It Dog Competitive Foundation's representatives, to discuss the logistics of the competition and work out some details." Frank explained. "And Billy and his training team, assisted by the PAW Patrol, will work to get Chase ready for competition."
"And how long do you think that'll take?" Malachi asked.
"As long as it takes." Frank shrugged. "It all depends on him now. He needs to focus on his recovery.. and we'll make it very clear to him of that; if he wants to be apart of this."
"Do you think he'll comply?" The young man hinted slowly.
"We'll just have to find out." Frank said. "Though Chase's always been a good pup. And he's grown up a lot, since we reunited with him again. He'll know what'll happen if he doesn't comply with the terms set before him;.. but only time'll tell how long it'll take to get him there."
"I just hope I did the right thing." Malachi stated hopefully, dropping his gaze to the ground. "I'd hate to give him something he's always wanted, and then have it turn out that he can't have it after all."
"I'm sure he'll ensure that that doesn't happen. But we'll keep an eye on him just in case." Frank encouraged. "But even if he doesn't, we can always try to either reschedule or have another. Or he can wait another year, when he's really feeling better.. Have him compete at his very best for the first time."
"I hope you're right." Malachi said lifting his gaze up to the cluster of pups again.
Hey what's up guys!! Been a while since I've posted on this site, but I'm back!! Can't wait to see what you guys think of my work! Thx!!!