Chapter fifteen: Heads Up!
Chase kept silent when finishing. His anxiety of their reaction churning within him, yet he refused to let himself show it. As he sat there quietly waiting, he watched their faces as the thoughtful family that stood across from him pondered their words carefully for their formulating response.
"So.. all that happened last night?" Mariana spoke up finally, her demeanor unreadable at the moment.
And Chase just nodded sheepishly, his eyes wandering down away from them.
"Well.. I can't say we're happy about all that.." Frank mentioned loosely, sighing. "But I am glad that you fessed up anyway."
"Yeah.. you've really grown up little brother." Chester smiled, coming up to nudge Chase's good shoulder easily. "Ryder must've trained you well."
"Took the words right out of my mouth, Big C." Billy grinned. "Come here you two." He added, opening his arms for the two pups to climb onto his lap for a hug.
"Now then.." the man spoke up again as their embrace ended. "Who's ready for the beach!?"
"Us!" Both German Shepherd pups announced.
"Come on, Chess!" Chase called, taking off from Billy's lap, Chester not far behind. "I'll give you a ride in my truck. Betcha we can beat them there."
"'Bet you'll be too slow." Chester joked, as their voices faded away beyond recognition, Billy rising as soon as they'd left.
"It's amazing how freeing the truth can be." Frank mentioned. "You could hardly tell anything had happened just a few moments ago."
"Yeah.. but he still seems a little off to me.." Billy noted, a hint of suspicion hanging onto his tone.. and expression.
"He's probably just still working through his injury." Maggie's guessed. "And coping with his experiences while at Mrs. CorDan's mansion. I can't imagine he's not still struggling with that."
"Yeah.. maybe." The man thought, still staring after the two brothers clambering up into the blue police vehicle.
"Don't worry, Bill." Marcus reassured him, with a hand on the shoulder turned toward them. "If he needs you.. you'll know beyond a shadow of a doubt, he'll come to ya for that."
"Yeah.." Billy trailed once again. "..I guess so."
XXXX
Dust flew as it was upset by padding paws. The two fastest pups soon screeched to a halt.
"First!" The two German Shepherd pups shouted.
"What?! No way! I was a nose ahead of you!" Chester complained.
"No.. I was a neck ahead of you." Chase returned obviously in a playful protest amongst the two.
"Or not! I think we should rematch. Prove for sure who's faster." Chester countered.
"Alright you two, chill out." Marcus interjected, easily. "Remember we're trying to fix Chase, not break him all over again."
"*sigh* we know." The two German Shepherds sighed.
"Come on, guys, I'm not that easy to break." Chase sighed. But only moments later, he jumped at something dashing the sand next to him.
"Oops.." Said a voice, bringing their gaze up from the frisbee that lay next to the pup, to the boy racing toward him to get it.
"Alex?" Chase asked.
"Hi." The boy waved, now holding the frisbee in front of him with the other hand.
"Oh, hi, Chase!" The perky border collie accompanying him said.
"Skyler? What'ch you guys doing here?" Chase wondered, obviously happy to see them.
"Same as you,.." Sklyer replied easily. "Enjoying the amazing weather. Water's great, but I prefer the rush of running across the sand the most."
"Ha! Me too." Chase chuckled. And the two pups giggled together.
"So what'ch you doing here?" Sklyer asked. "How's the recovery going?"
"Ok I guess." Chase shrugged. "Kinda over all this.. cautious.. Training."
"Well, you can't get back on your feet without being just a little bit careful, right?" The sheepdog reasoned, seeming unaware of the genius behind her remark. "At least it means someone cares about you."
"All too much, more like." Chase answered dryly, subtly peeking back at the group of his friends and family, and then at Chester.
"Hey, I'm on your side." Chess responded quickly, in a way of surrender.
"Right." Chase sighed, sarcastically rolling his eyes, even though a smile still lingered. "Well anyway,.. Enjoy your beach day, Sky." He finished, looking to the border collie.
"Thanks.. You too." Skyler replied brightly, then she and Alex took off across the sandy floor.
"Ok Chase, ready to get started." Marcus wondered as he, Daniel, Billy and Ryder came up to them, Ryder and Billy holding Zoom-it frisbees in hand.
"Thought you'd never ask!" Chase sighed finally, taking off across the sand and sitting down where he stopped, facing them patiently.
"Alright,.." Marcus smiled, straightening up to spin a Zoom-It on his finger. "Then let's get started." He decided, smoothly taking it in the same hand and sending it flying right towards Chase, who caught it easily and tossed it aside.
"Come on,.. show me whatcha really got!" Chase demanded proudly, a smirk on his face as he crouched down in a ready stance.
"Ok.. let's see what you can do." Daniel smiled.
xxxx
Simple tosses with easy catches became more difficult as he seemed to able to handle it better,..
"Alright, here comes a harder one,.." Marcus called, readying the Zoom-it in his hand. Letting it catch the air with his throw, Chase watched it weave back and forth as it came closer to him a fair distance from them. And in seeing it's path in his mind's eye, he slowly stepped back in preparation to jump up and catch in a backflip to land him firmly on the ground; only slightly off balance in his landing.
"Alright, dude!" Zuma barked. "You did it!"
"Of course I did." Chase grinned. "That was too easy.. When are we gonna actually get back into something more challenging."
"Alright,.. You got me.." Marcus sighed, holding a bright red Zoom-it up in his hand; earning concerned glances from those around him. "We'll see how you handle this next one… and then we'll talk."
"Ok.." Chase sighed, his gaze wandering up over his head, then down his other side. Marcus' finger curled toward him, signaling Chase to follow. And the pup shadowed him out a ways from the group until Marcus halted and held a finger out to him to stay put. Then turning back, he walked back to where the team stood and turned around so that they were all behind him,.. and Chase was far out in front of him.
"You sure you're ready for this?" Marcus asked one last time, when standing ready to launch the Zoom-it from his right hand. And Chase just nodded. Marcus obliged with a throw that was hard and high. A bit of a shock came at this realization, but he raced forward anyway, to which he timed himself right enough to catch it head on, but landed hard on his paws and tumbled over his wounded shoulder.
"Chase!" Marshall gasped.
"Dude, what're you thinking?!" Daniel hissed to his brother.
"He's gotta learn somehow,.." Marcus murmured gently back, watching Chase immediately stir where he'd landed. "Why do you think I didn't go any harder on him? He won't know he's going too far, until he feels it for himself. That's how he's built, remember?" Then with that he strode forward, with Daniel not far behind.
Chase grunted as he picked himself up off the ground again, and shook the sand from his coat.
"Ugh,.." he groaned to himself, even with the coming footsteps beyond him.
"You ok, dude?" Zuma wondered, when arriving at his side.
"Yeah,.. I'll be fine." The German Shepherd sighed.
"What exactly happened there do you think, Chase?" Marcus quizzed tenderly.
"*sigh* I know I know,.. I'm not ready for that yet.." Chase sighed, as if reading his mind. And an exchanged look from Marcus to Daniel nodded their understanding of this reasonable question.
"Hey,.. listen, Chase,.." Marcus began again, coming to sit down next to the pup, with Daniel taking one at his other side. "We don't wanna discourage you,.. but you really are progressing.."
"Maybe not as quickly as you'd hoped,.." Daniel reasoned, with a light shrug. "But we're still making progress."
"We just gotta keep working at it, is all, ok?" Billy added, kneeling down to place a hand on Chase's shoulder softly. And at this, the pup just lifted his gaze to reluctantly nod.
"Ok then.." Billy nodded, with his trademark smile. Standing up, he turned to the rest of the group.
"Let's take a break,.." He decided. "Can't push too hard you know."
"Good idea.." Maggie agreed. "And in the meantime…" her words trailed off with the slow shake of the frigid item she held up in her hand.
"Aw man!" Chase groaned.
"Oh-.. Now Chase.."
"I know.." The young German Shepherd sighed to cut Frank's sentence short. "Gotta be done.."
"That's right." The old man nodded, certainly.
XXXX
"Ahn..ugh.." shifting positions was a struggle with the icy bulge strapped to his shoulder and it annoyed him quite plainly.
Someday this'll be over. He told himself dryly, thankful no one could hear his thoughts.
"Don't worry, this'll be over someday." And Chase's head shot up to stare at Billy with shocked eyes.
"How did you know what I was thinking?!" The pup gasped, dumbfounded at how accurate his response was.
"Heh..e..um..well.. it wasn't really that hard." Billy snickered lightly. "It shows across your face.. still pretty obvious in that area, I guess."
"Ugh.. of course." The pup cursed softly.
"It's still true, ya know.." Billy mentioned, bringing the pup's focus back up to him. A crooked smile bending one side of his lips up, to give off the tender expression of love completely. "You know it's only a matter of time before you'll be back on your feet as long as you stay focused."
"Yeah.. I know.." Chase sighed.
"And I think you believe it up here.." Billy went on, pointing to his head. "But now you need to start believing it.. in here.." And at this, he pointed to Chase's chest with his thick, sturdy pointer finger, then rose to wander off and let that thought sink in.. to which it succeeded as Chase began to think again.
xxxx
"Hey Chase! Come catch the frisbee with us!" Alex called eventually, pulling the pup from his thoughts as the boy wandered back over to him.
"Um, I don't know, guys.." Chase wavered a bit, his gaze rising, then falling to his left. "I'm not supposed to overdo it."
"Oh come on, Chase." The boy coaxed, with begging blue eyes. "Please?" Chase hesitated and began to wonder again.
"Well.. as long as it's not too hard.. ok." Chase gave in finally.
"Yay!" Alex cheered, leaping excitedly.
"But make it an easy one.." Chase followed up again, as he rose from where he lay. "I can't get hurt again. Chester and Billy'll kill me if something goes wrong."
They all would. He thought to himself.
"Ok.. I'll try!" The boy said, as Chase tried and somehow succeeded in removing the ice pack from his shoulder. Strolling out a ways, the boy took up his other frisbee while facing him.
"Ready?" He asked, holding a red one up.
"Ready!" Chase called, crouching down a bit to show he was.
Alex threw it hard and Chase took off after it when it sailed over him.
"I'll send this one over a different way for you, Skyler." The boy said, preparing a blue one to throw.
"Alright, I'm on it!" The Border Collie smiled, her tail wagging vigorously. But unbeknownst to him, the footsteps behind him were approaching for a purpose.
"Alex?" The boy's throw released awkwardly and he turned around, as Skyler took off running.
"Where's Chase?" Billy wondered. "He was just here.." Looking down, the man found the ice pack laying on the sand.
"Oh, um…" the boy began, looking up and back around behind himself again.
xxxx
I've almost got it! Chase thought excitedly. Skyler smiled, catching a glimpse of him ahead of her through her peripheral vision. But as she jumped up to reach the blue Zoom-It, she realized its curved trajectory and anticipated her failure to catch it. But an even more horrible realization came, when she hit the ground again.
Oh no!
"Chase!"
At this moment the rest of the group had arrived by Billy, as Chase went up to catch the red Zoom-It.
"No!" Skyler screeched. But the blue Zoom-It zapped right into Chase's shoulder and they could hear him grimace, as he dropped the red Zoom-It mid-flight and tumbled across the sand for a short ways.
As soon as Chase hit the ground, though, Mariana and Chester had taken off, easily followed by those among them.
Hey guys I FINALLY back! Yes I know it's been forever, but hey.. I hope it was worth it! Fingers crossed.. I'll try to do better with this but again, unfortunately, with my schedule.. no promises.. anyway though, this chapter was fun especially since that end scene I've had on my mind for a while. Figuring out the best way to orchestrate it was the biggest challenge, I think. But anyway. ;D
Enjoy this next chapter and I'll see you next time! Thx!