Disclaimer: The characters of Walker do not belong to me.

A/N: So this story is based on something that actually happened to me once. My mom brought it up and it sounded like a good Lulu story. The only basic difference is that in the story here, Lulu is seven, and when it happened to me, I was nine. My mom gave me permission to ride my bike, and I was nearly attacked by a dog. While the dog didn't actually jump on me, the only thing I had between me and him was my bike.

Warning-if you're afraid of dogs, this story might not be the one for you. The dog doesn't injure Lulu, but does jump on her and terrify her.

Lulu had never seen her daddy so mad.

She was just happy that he wasn't mad at her.

The day had started on a good note. It was a Friday, but Lulu was out of school, so she was spending the day at her grandparent's new house. She really didn't like this house too much, but everyone was so upset at having to move that Lulu hadn't said anything. Her grandmother was busy unpacking the house, so Lulu decided that she wanted to practice riding her bike.

Her new bicycle was beautiful. It was pink and purple with streamers coming from the handlebars. Her daddy Liam had gotten it for her two weeks earlier, the day after her seventh birthday. Lulu had overheard him tell her grandfather later that night that he'd planned to buy Lulu a bike for Christmas, but he felt so bad at forgetting her birthday that year that he'd decided to do it early. Lulu had made sure to show Liam she was thankful for her present every chance she'd gotten since then.

Lulu had been surprised but pleased when her grandmother gave her permission to ride her bike by herself. She'd always been told she had to have someone with her when she went for a walk or to play outside. Abilene gave her strict instructions to wear all of her safety gear, stick to the street they lived on, and to pedal straight home if any strangers tried to talk to her. Abilene promised that if she didn't do as she was told, it would be a long time before she was trusted enough to go outside alone again, along with the talk she would be having with her father and grandfather that night if she were caught not following the rules. After being convinced Lulu would listen to her, Abilene kissed Lulu's cheek and sent her out on her adventure.

Lulu started out with no particular destination in mind. She pretended she had been sent on a quest by her grandmother to locate some buried treasure, and before she knew it, she had ridden the length of their road twice. Since the day was a hot one, and getting hotter, Lulu decided to head back to the house to get some water and maybe run through the sprinkler in the backyard instead of riding her bike.

Lulu turned back towards the house when something caught her eye. Off in the distance ran two dogs that Lulu had never seen before. One of them looked big and was running sort of slowly. Lulu would later find out that the slow dog was old, much more interested in sleeping than running around. The bigger dog approached the porch of one of their neighbors that Lulu hadn't met yet, and Lulu thought that the smaller dog would do the same.

She was wrong.

The smaller dog kept running towards Lulu. Lulu pedaled as hard as she could, trying to get back to the house before he caught up with her. Lulu wasn't normally scared of dogs, but this one was barking and snapping its teeth at her. As he got closer, Lulu saw that while he was smaller than the big dog, he was still bigger than she was and could hurt her if he jumped on her.

Lulu was almost halfway home, but her little legs were getting tired from pedaling so fast. She continued to push as hard as she could, but the dog was slightly faster. Just as Lulu got slightly ahead of the dog, that's when she felt it.

At first, she couldn't tell what it was that had jumped on her back. Whatever it was, it hurt, and hurt a lot. Only when she heard the sound of the dog's jaws snapping did she know.

Lulu's fight response kicked in. Her tiny fists punched at the dog to try and get him off her. She screamed to try and grab someone's attention, and finally Lulu gained some purchase and was able to get on her feet. She continued to try and scream to get someone's attention, but no one appeared to be around.

Lulu didn't know how long she stood there, nothing between her and the big dog but her bike. She kept her eye on the dog, afraid that if she turned and couldn't see him that he'd be able to jump on her again. Lulu screamed until she was hoarse, continuing to thrust her bike towards the dog every time he got close to her. Lulu tried not to cry but couldn't help it. It blurred her vision and made it that much harder to defend herself.

Finally, after what felt to Lulu like hours but had only been closer to three minutes, Lulu heard a loud popping sound, and she was swept off her feet. She heard the dog squeal and someone else scuffling with it. Without looking up, she knew right away that the person holding her was her grandfather. He held her close and stroked her hair while whoever was fighting with the dog continued.

"It's alright, sweetie. We got you, okay? You're safe now."

"Is she okay?"

So the person that had been fighting with the dog was her uncle. He and her grandfather had gone out earlier that morning and must have come back. Lulu clung tightly to her grandfather as he pulled her into his truck. Her uncle, who was normally a stickler for having a seatbelt on, even for short trips, pulled her into his lap in the front passenger seat and held onto her for the short one-minute drive home.

"Come on, kiddo. Let's go inside, okay?"

Finally able to speak for the first time since she'd been picked up, Lulu turned her teary eyes on her uncle. "Is the dog still out there?"

"I chased him away. We're gonna call the police inside and they'll look for him. Okay?"

"I didn't do anything. Why'd he come after me?" Lulu asked.

"We don't know, darlin'." Gramps said, a slight growl to his voice. "But we're gonna find out, all right?"

"Promise?"

"Promise." Uncle Cordell said. He reached over and wiped Lulu's face for her, pulling the strands of hair that were sticking there out of her eyes. "Come on, let's go inside."

"Can you call Daddy? I want my daddy."

"We sure will. Go on inside, darlin'. I bet Mama'll give you a snack."

Lulu didn't know what the adults talked about after she was brought inside, but she couldn't stop shaking. She knew that she was safe, but the memory of the dog's teeth coming at her and the feel of his claws on her back made her start crying again. Abilene pulled out the ingredients to make cookies, hoping to calm Lulu down, but it didn't work. Lulu continued to shake, wanting nothing more than her daddy.

Liam ran in like a whirlwind. He opened the front door and ran to Lulu, looking her up and down and pulling her into a tight hug. Lulu normally pulled back from Liam's hugs after a few seconds, but not that day.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, Daddy. Jus' scared." Lulu said.

"Lulu bear, what happened?" Liam asked.

Lulu finally told her family the story. She could feel Liam getting tense the more she spoke, and when Lulu told him that the dog had jumped on her, he checked her over again. Seeing her free from injuries, he relaxed a little, but Lulu could tell that he was mad. Fearing Liam was angry with her, Lulu shrank back and almost cried again.

"I'm sorry, Daddy."

"Sorry for what?"

"I didn't do nothing to him, I swear." Lulu said tearily.

"Hey. Hey. Calm down. I'm not mad at you." Liam assured her. "Gramps just called the police. They're on the way here. You're probably gonna need to tell them what happened again. Can you do that?"

Lulu sniffled. "I can do it."

Liam smiled warmly, kissing Lulu's forehead and hugging her again. "That's my brave girl."

As time passed that afternoon, and her family members took turns cheering her up and helping her to feel better, Lulu stopped shaking and her fear slowly started to fade away. She talked to the policemen that showed up, who assured her they'd put a note out to the other officers of the area to find the dog and that he wouldn't be able to go after anyone again. Later that night, before going to bed, Lulu thought it was odd that her grandfather came out with a big black trash bag and his hunting rifle, but she was too sleepy to ask what it was he was doing. As Lulu fell asleep that night, next to her daddy who was singing her to sleep, she heard a faint popping noise in the distance.

The dog was never seen again.