Adventure Bay had completely shut down after the death of Skye. Chase went into a full emotional shut down, not going into work, or when he did, he just sat there. Luckily, Scott was his third-in-command, so h essentially took over the station. Not much happened, thankfully.

The rest of the pups all had their ways of coping, too. Marshall's reaction was similar to Chase's and Scott's both. His emotions shut down completely, but he stayed busy with work. Everest was the stark opposite. She had become a complete and utter emotional mess, not eating, and often sobbing herself to sleep in Marshall's arms at night. Rubble had the same response, just he had Ryder to cry with at night. He didn't even want to watch Apollo anymore, which to everyone was not a good sign on the bulldog's mental state. Usually, whenever he did feel down, he'd binge it. Now? Not even a second helped.

Rocky was now in Barkingburg over ninety percent of the time, and from what the Earl and Princess both said, he was a wreck, too. Apparently Sweetie took the news hard when Rocky told her. That surprised Ryder a bit, after all her little exploits, but he eventually didn't care. Zuma was now just surfing most of the time, trying to forget.

Ella didn't know how she felt. She was sitting in the Lookout, supposedly watching a movie, but in reality was thinking about her best friends death. On one hand, she was happy that Skye wasn't hogging Chase anymore, and she plotted how to make him hers. But the other hand was sad that she even thought that was a proper response. She thought, "What the hell? Why would I ever think that? I just can't do that to him, especially right after that bitch died." She grinned when she thought the next part. "Or can I? I mean, he's vulnerable now? What if I..." Her thoughts were broken when Chase walked in and sat down, not speaking a word to the Retriever.

"H-Hi Chase." She stuttered, not expecting him back until later that night. He grunted, not wanting to talk. Ella didn't get the hint. She questioned him about this. "Why you home so early?"

His response was simple. "Scott yelled at me to get home and sleep. Said I needed to do that before I came back." He shrugged. "I clearly am not a good listener." He chuckled sadly, trying to get himself to laugh as much as he was trying not get Ella. He found it didn't help him at all.

Ella chuckled too. "Yeah, sounds like him. Though I didn't expect you to actually leave. Figured you'd threaten him with his job." She laughed lightly. Chase sniffed, meaning it to be a laugh, but he remained quiet after that.

They sat there for a awhile before Ella tried to break the silence. "So you are you holding up?" She immediately cringed and face palmed herself mentally. What kind of question was that? Of course he wasn't holding up well!

Chase, to the Golden Retrievers surprise, actually responded. "Fine." He sure as hell didn't sound fine to Ella. "Just feels weird that she's not here, you know?" He stated this with a certain sadness in his voice. "Just..." He paused.

"What?" Ella inquired, trying to push him to open up.

Tears started welling up in Chase's eyes. "It's just, we had our whole lives ahead of us. She wanted pups, I wanted pups' we had everything planned out." He started sobbing. T-then she was just, t-t-taken, and it's not fair and I should've told her to..." He started rambling and sobbing, tears streaming down his face like a pair of twin waterfalls.

Ella was quite taken aback by this sudden display of vulnerability. Chase, at least to her knowledge, never cried in front of anyone. Or at all. He was always so emotionally strong. Only Ryder, Scott, Marshall, and Skye had ever seen him cry, and tat was after he'd been shot at Christmas last year. Armed robbery, in case you're curious.

She scooted over to the sobbing Shepherd, still rambling about what he should've or could've done. He felt her next to him, and almost immediately just fell into her, still sobbing and muttering "It's not fair. It not fair." The Retriever comforted him, used to it when Tuck had one of his emotional breakdowns when they were still tracking the Ladybird. The pups was always stressed out about that, which is what Ella suspected led him to the gambling addiction. Granted, she wasn't Marshall.

Eventually, Chase stopped sobbing and started to succumb to sleep. Ella yawned, realizing that she, too, was tired. She put her head on his and slowly drifted off.

A few hours later the rest of the pups, minus Rocky (You know why), Ryder, and Scott walked in. Most of the pups immediately went upstairs to bed, and didn't notice the two on the couch. Ryder and his brother, however, walked over to watch a movie and relax. Saw, they'd planned. Unfortunately, the pair of dogs took up the entire couch, to which Scott groaned in frustration. "Ya know what, screw it. I'm off to get what little sleep I can before the goddamn department calls again." He gave his brother a hug, who was chuckling at him. He walked off, leaving Ryder alone.

He smiled at the two laid out of the couch, but was slightly concerned too. "Why would Chase be lying down with Ella right after Skye died?" His mind went to that possibility of the fact the Chase might've been cheating, but quickly shook off. That's wasn't Chase. He took a picture of the sleeping two before yawning.

All the while, Ella had one thought. "He's mine now."

I have no idea what I'm doing with this story! So, hope this was slightly enjoyable. I, again, don't have much to say. I have no posting schedule and I don't plan shit out. Not a good combination, but who cares. Later, guys