[A/N]
Disclaimer(s):
1 - I do not own the characters from Chicago PD. Some characterizations/personality traits remain canon while others are created solely for a fictional purpose.
2 - After doing some research, I learned that it's actually more common in K9 training to use the language from the countries the dogs are from. The dogs are taught in the language spoken in their country of origin and are imported from them as well. All words in German used in their work will be italicized and noted in author's notes in the chapters where they will be used. I personally haven never had a German lesson so if any of the pronunciations are incorrect, feel free to correct me!
Websites I used for the K9 commands in German:
. (1 & 3)
schutzhund-training-commands-german/(2, 4 - 8)
All Commands, Translations, and Pronunciations used in this chapter:
1. Sit - Sitz - (zits)
2. Pay Attention - Achtung - (ah-tung)
3. Heel - Fuss - (foos)
4. Kennel/Cage - Zwinger (zwin-ger)
5. Good Dog - Braver Hund - (braffer hoont)
6. Bring - Bringen - (bring-en)
7. Wait - Warten - (va-tin)
8. Go - Gehen - (gay-hin)
3 - All spelling and grammar mistakes are my own.
Basic. That's the only way Hailey can politely describe the training course - it's called Basic Training for a reason and Hailey's finding it to be boring and dragging. Yes, it's important for both the handler and the dog to know the commands and signals used for each. Repetition in the field, as well as in everyday life, is also important to keep the dog's mind engaged because they can unlearn things just as easily as they can learn them. It's especially important for any type of working or service dog because things can become dangerous.
Going into this with a different dog, Hailey made the mistake of deciding that she was going to got through these classes the same as before with Xena. She quickly had learned just after two classes that she couldn't teach Bruno the same way. It's not her choice to make.
And Hailey probably should have asked questions and read into Bruno's file that was handed to her three days after being paired up with him.
Bruno learned commands in German because that's where his training began. Training in different countries, such as Germany and France, is very common for the K9 programs in the US. Hailey wishes she was told this when she was first introduced to him because it took Bruno more time to respond to her in English. So, Hailey's been brushing up on the German commands, hoping she'll be able to remember them once they're actually in the field together. She can't be the reason Bruno fails or put in any type of danger that could easily be avoided.
Hailey's also learned Bruno's favorite "reward" toy is a stuffed chipmunk with missing eyes and a torn tail. Apparently, his history with stuffed animal toys is quite destructive. When she finally read his file she couldn't help but chuckle at this fun fact because she could just imagine what Bruno might be capable of on a suspects' eyes. His previous handler made a note that Bruno enjoys tearing the eyes off of all stuffed animals. Thankfully, Bruno doesn't eat the sewn on beads but if Hailey ever buys him one she might just remove them herself as a precaution. His care and safety is important, not only because he is owned by the police department but because he's a living breathing creature.
The pair only have a couple days left of the Basic Training course. Hailey can't help but wonder if Bruno is just as ready to be done with the basic training as she is. When she allows herself to look into his dark brown eyes without thinking about working him, she almost catches glimpses of his eagerness.
The narcotics portion of Hailey and Bruno's training is taught by Captain Dallas McKenzie - Captain Mack for short - and his Belgian Malinois K9 partner, Axel. The pair have classified narcotics experience and Axel even has a couple K9 Hero Awards for his work. They're a "dream team" and Hailey is honored to be taught by someone of this caliber.
For now, they'll finish out the week with Sgt. Becker. Sgt. Becker handles all of the obedience training class and courses for the K9 Unit. She's been part of the team for as long as Hailey can remember. She's the one who taught her and Xena, the one who told Hailey that they had so much potential together, and the one who gave her a pep talk a week after Xena passed away that she'd be seeing her back in her classes soon.
She must have joined in with Captain Donaldson to convince her that it was time that she put Xena in the past and start new with Bruno.
"Officer Upton," Sgt. Becker waves her over.
Before taking the first step towards her, Hailey glances down at Bruno and wraps his lead once around her wrist, "fuss."
Bruno starts walking in step with her, trotting with her strides. His ears are pointed upwards and his body language tells her that he's alert.
"Sitz," Hailey tells him when she stops in front of Sgt. Becker.
Bruno is looking up at her as he sits next to her heel. Then he turns his head to look off to the side.
"Yes, Sergeant?" Hailey responds.
"I can see that you're still having trouble connecting with your partner. It has nothing to do with the training course. You're both excelling at it," she pauses and flips through the daily exercise worksheets each officer fills out for their outside hours of training and if their K9 counterpart understands them, "which is a little surprising to me because I barely see you spend much extra time with him."
Hailey swallows down any emotions that strain in her throat and jaw as her superior speaks to her. She doesn't like feeling like she's a failure. She's the type of person who seeks approval with her ability to be perfect in everything she does. When she can't do that, she beats herself down hard. Hailey's been told by so many people that she's better than this, yet she can't prove it to them - or even herself anymore.
"Do you take him out on walks? Do you take him to the agility course or to the yard for extra practice? Do you reward him when he listens to you? Does he responded to your hand signals?" Sgt. Becker fires the questions at her with a tone that relays that she already knows the answers to all of them. Then she sighs, "I remember when you first joined the K9 Program. You were so eager and excited to work with Xena. You'd sit in the kennel with her for hours after feeding time if we'd let you. You let that dog be part of your life so easily. When are you going to let Bruno in?"
Hailey's grip on Bruno's lead loosens and then tightens. "I can't - I'm sorry, Sarge. I just haven't found the time."
It's a lie. When she brings Bruno back to his kennel, she's quick to leave.
"Then before you leave. Make the time for your partner. He's more than willing to give you the chance. You need to give him one, Upton. It'll be helpful to you in the Narcotics Training Course and once you're both out doing your jobs." Sgt. Becker shakes her head in dismay, her mouth is in a thin line as she takes in a breath. "I'm probably not supposed to be telling you this but I'm going to because I think it'll get your head on straight. The things you're about to face out in the world are going to be a lot different than what you're used to. It's going to be a rough and ugly ride, Upton and the only one who will be right beside you going through it is your K9. You're on a timeline and if you're not ready by the time you're called up, then you're not the handler our program believes you are."
As Sgt. Becker speaks, Hailey's trying really hard to not take the words too personally. It's just tough love, which isn't something all superiors are willing to give others of lower ranks. Each word feels like a punch and clenching her jaw and pushing back at them is all Hailey can do to fight off her self doubt right now.
The topic of the important assignment Captain Donaldson mentioned before still weighs on her mind. What could it possibly be? The only time she ever teamed up on higher risk cases, it was with the other roles withing their precinct or with another district that needed extra assistance. Sure, she knows that Captain Donaldson likes to talk her and Xena up whenever a K9 Unit was needed but, she's not sure if her and Bruno can be held up on that same pedestal.
"You're dismissed. Think about what I said. I'll see you for your final test in a couple of days." Sgt. Becker nods and then looks down at Bruno. "He's a good dog, Upton. Braver hund. He needs to hear it more often from you."
Hailey glances down at him too before turning on her heel and telling Bruno to walk forward with her. When they get back to where they were in the line up, she tells Bruno to pick up his destroyed chipmunk toy. Even with the toy stuffed into his mouth, Hailey can still hear his eager whines as he walks right beside her.
Once they get closer to the where the kennels are, Hailey can hear the mixed sounds of more excited high-pitched whines and barks. The dogs in the outside kennels are either lying down, pacing, or jumping as their handlers walk up to their gates. She feels a slight tug on the lead as Bruno starts to become a bit restless due to their energies.
"Easy," she murmurs to him giving him a small tug back. Hailey closes her eyes and lets out a breath before correcting herself, "Achtung."
Bruno stops pulling on the lead and looks over his shoulder to Hailey.
Hailey stops walking and he copies her. She nods in approval. "Braver hund." She starts walking again.
Once they're inside the building the noises from the outside greatly increase. The rest of Hailey's class have already put their dogs back into their kennels and given them water. She nods and gives small smiles to all who initiate interactions with her first.
"Zwinger," Hailey waits until Bruno walks inside and turns around to face her.
He drops his favorite toy beside him. He's panting and goes towards the back of his kennel for his water dish. He starts pawing at it while staring at Hailey, letting out a small rumble of a growl before it turns into a full bark.
"I'll get you your water. Be patient." Hailey tells him as she hands his leash up on the hook outside of his kennel's gate.
She sighs and opens the gate with shaky hands. Hailey was never this nervous with Xena. She would go right in without a second thought and now everything she does around Bruno is followed by a second thought.
Hailey doesn't go all the way into his kennel either. She stays close to the threshold and crouches down, extending her arm out slowly, "bringen." She motions with her fingers.
Bruno lowers his head down and doesn't move after that, but he keeps his eyes trained on Hailey.
"Bringen," she repeats, "Bruno."
"I know you understand me. Do you want your water or not?" She raises an eyebrow at him.
He nudges the water bowl towards Hailey. It's not close enough where she can pick it up. He's making her work for it, possibly trying to get her to come closer to him than she's ready to. She can't help but chuckle.
"Maybe you are as clever as your file states." Hailey decides to strain herself as she stretches forward to quickly snatch the bowl from where it is in front of him. "But I'm just as clever," her words come out tight as she leans back into her crouching stance before standing up.
Bruno hunches down, putting his weight towards his front and has his hind side raised up. His tall starts wagging and he barks a couple more times.
"This isn't playtime." Hailey lightly scolds him. She reminds herself that he's still quite young so his puppy side will come out in glimpses.
She closes the kennel gate and locks it before she heads off in the direction towards the kitchen to fill Bruno's bowl with water. As she walks through the kennels she glances to some of the bloodhounds they use for tracking. They're kept further down from the higher energy breeds. Most of them are being calm and keeping to themselves.
After his bowl is full enough she takes her routine walk back to his kennel.
She takes a couple of steps inside this time and says, "sitz." Once he's sat down Hailey lifts her hand and tells him,"varten"so she can set the bowl down in front of him.
Hailey starts to back up and ash she does Bruno gets antsy and starts to stand up.
"Ah, varten," she repeats, correcting him and keeping her hand raised for a few seconds so it clicks in his mind. Once's hes done a good job she lets him have it. "Gehen."
"Braver hund." As she's locking the kennel back up, Hailey remembers that she needs to tell him that he's being good more often. When they first started classes she only said it if he was being textbook perfect. Apparently, Sgt. Becker caught on to this.
She stays still as she starts to watch Bruno lapping at the water. She hears the slapping sound as his tongue hits the water, splashing a lot of in onto the concrete. For a dog who is so well mannered, he's just like any other when it comes to being a messy eater or drinker.
Hailey lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. Her mind goes back to what Sgt. Becker told her about letting Bruno in like she had done previously with Xena. One of those ways was just by talking to her like she was a person. Her eyes peer around to see if there's any other people around because she can't help but feel the awkwardness when it comes to talking to an animal as if it they could actually hold a conversation together.
"So, we graduate soon and I'm ready to move on from Basic. I know we haven't practiced much outside of class and," she pauses, trying to find the right words to say without becoming too emotionally invested, "and there's more pressure on us than you're probably aware of."
Hailey's fingers curl into the chain links of the kennel's gate, as if her words are important and she wants Bruno to hear her out. "Listen, this has nothing to do with you. Well, it sort of does but it's mostly me. They paired you up with someone broken and you didn't have a choice in the matter."
When Bruno finishes his long pink tongue hands from his mouth, water dripping from it as well as from his whiskers. He lets out a small snort before walking over to his bed and lies down on it.
It doesn't feel like they've accomplished gaining a connection. Hailey looks down and her hands slip off of the gate and she feels like kicking it to lash out against the annoyance she feels with herself. Why is this so difficult for her?
"I guess I'll see you for feeding time." She knows not to say 'dinner' because Bruno will become instantly animated.
She pulls her phone from her pocket to check the time. Once the class is over Hailey is scheduled to work her shift. She has a good 20 minutes to go back to the main building where she locked up her radio and firearm.
Part of her doesn't want to leave because her captain was right about one thing: she is tired of working traffic and patrol. Sure, every stop is different but Hailey doesn't get the same thrill or feelings that she's making much of a difference in keeping the people and city of Chicago safe. This assignment is going to be lasting much longer once graduation day arrives.
Even though she'll be happy once they'll be on their next course, Hailey's more nervous about what happens after Bruno graduates. That's when he'll be coming home and living with her. That's when Hailey will have to fight off the fact that she wishes it was Xena that she'd be coming home with or home to instead of this new dog who has no idea the heartache that lies behind her closed doors. A dog that will probably want to comfort her and she'll just end up distancing herself from him because there's no replacing what she's lost; a dog that isn't a pet and shouldn't have to deal with her and her mess of emotions, her mess of a life.
The day she took interest into the K9 Unit she had no idea that it was going to involve all of this.
When she comes in from the back of the main district building, she sees Officers Kim Burgess and Sean Roman at the front desk. Platt is most likely driving them both crazy. It's not just because she enjoys messing with them but it's also her version of the tough love she'll never admit to handing out. In Hailey's opinion, not really knowing much about them outside of work, Roman doesn't have the best temper and Kim's reaching the point where she's tired of the way others treat her.
As she rounds the corner, Kim catches her and excuses herself from Roman trying to arguing with Platt to speak to Hailey. Kim wears her usual low ponytail and the same blue traffic uniform that Hailey is currently wearing.
"I miss you out there. I know you haven't been on traffic patrol for too long but it's nice having another woman to talk to every once in a while." Kim smiles at her before motioning to where Roman is still standing in front of the desk. "I swear he finds a way to pick a fight over everything anyone tells him. It's getting beyond frustrating at this point. I really hope my application for the Intelligence Unit goes through this time. I'm so ready to move upstairs."
Hailey's automatic response is to smile back after she also looks back to Officer Roman. Then her gaze flashes over to the stars that lead up to where the Intelligence Unit works.
Kim crosses her arms over her chest and shakes her head, her low ponytail graces her shoulder. "So, I heard you're back in K9 training. You're probably really excited about being a handler again."
Hailey nods even though she's the opposite of excited. "Yeah, I got a new K9 partner so I have to take the training classes from the beginning. There's only a couple left, thankfully."
"Yeah, but I'm sure you rock at it! They way you worked that missing person's case last fall was phenomenal. I swear Xena picked up the scent quicker than our hounds did. That's saying a lot."
Hailey closes her eyes and takes in a breath. Being praised about her work use to be something Hailey found joy in. Now it's only a reminder of what use to be.
Officer Roman walks past them, keys to a patrol car in hand and a scowl on his face. "Burgess, we've got to go."
Kim glances over to him and nods.
"Hey, you should to come to Molly's with us after shift." Kim suddenly says to her, sounding extra excited as if she already thinks Hailey will agree to the invitation.
Hailey bites her lip and slightly shakes her head, "I don't know."
"It'll be fun! We can celebrate you finally getting out of patrol Hell. And," she exaggerates the word, "you can stop me from being too close to Adam and as far away from Roman at the same time."
When it comes to having girl friends, she doesn't. She'd be lying if she said it wasn't because it was her choice not to. Hailey's just never really been able to form friendships with other girls. Growing up, Hailey was more of a tomboy. Shopping, gossiping, and talking about boys weren't things that she was interested in.
It was Kim who was the one to initiate their communication - because Hailey doesn't think her and Kim Burgess have something solid enough to label it as a friendship. She had been thrilled to see Hailey, yet very understanding about what had happened that brought Hailey to traffic and patrol. Kim let her know if she ever needed someone to talk to about it, she was there for her. When Hailey was just being complimentary to Kim, saying she was there too, that was when she learned about Kim and Adam.
Adam Ruzek is an officer who works in Intelligence and a man that happens to be already engaged to another woman. Hailey can't quite remember her name, not that she really wants to because she never wanted to know all the details. Apparently, Adam's been helping Kim get Trudy to not be so degrading towards her all of the time and he's also started including her into his circle of friends both inside and outside of work. They've been hanging out more often and Hailey wonders if Adam can tell that he could be leading Kim on if he's not completely transparent with her that they're just friends.
Based off of only what Hailey knows, she can't help but assume that Adam is another reason why Kim wants to be upstairs in Intelligence. Kim is an excellent officer and Hailey's sure she could be granted the assignment without Adam being a reason. She's pretty certain that if word got out about her feelings for him, that she'll never make it upstairs with Intelligence because the district can be strict when it comes to romantic relationships in the workplace.
In all of the scenarios, Hailey can only picture Kim being heartbroken. Hailey doesn't wish that feeling on anybody.
Hailey also really doesn't want to play as a buffer between Kim and Adam. She shouldn't even have to because he's already committing his life to be with somebody else.
Kim laughs. "Besides, how often do you just put work aside and hang out?
She practically never goes out. She's a work until it's time to go home and stays at home until she has to drive into work again. There aren't any stops in between.
"Kim, now!" Officer Roman's irritated voice sounds out again.
Kim rolls her eyes and gives Hailey a 'see what I mean?' look. "Just think about it, okay? I'll meet you in the locker room after shift!" She calls out before turning back to follow Roman outside.
"Yeah," Hailey says, unsure if Kim even heard her.
"You should go." Trudy says without even looking at Hailey.
Hailey walks over to the desk and rests her hands on top of it, giving Trudy a look.
Trudy puts her pen down when she finishes writing and mirrors Hailey's stance, leaning forward to speak with her closely. "Yes, even with Sean Roman thinking he can get me to change my mind, I heard what the two of you were talking about. Not about the Adam thing." She makes a face of disgust and dramatically rolls her eyes, "I've know about that for ages because she's way too obvious and watching her try not to be isn't as entertaining as it use to be."
Kim would not enjoy the fact that Trudy Platt of all people knows about her crush on Adam, even though Trudy is right about Kim being easily readable at times.
"Why?" Hailey asks. "Why should I go? What is possibly the best reason you can think of why I would want to go out?"
"Aside from the fact you need to socialize with people, as much as you hate that Xena isn't the one you're going home to anymore, you know you'll never want to leave Bruno there alone out of the fear that you'll lose him too. That's not the way to live."
Hailey shakes her head because that's just preposterous. Trudy doesn't know anything about how things are going with Bruno. Hailey can't even stand in Bruno's kennel for more than a few minutes so she's sure she'd think of some excuse to start going out more once Bruno lives with her. The avoidance is childish but every image of Bruno in her apartment is void of Hailey being there with him.
"And how do you live? Exactly what is it that you do once you leave station?" She inquires, wanting to leave her future living situation at bay for a little while longer because it's still a couple of weeks away.
"That's none of your business." Trudy picks up a stack of papers and taps the bottom of it on the desk, straightening them out before placing them aside. "Go out, have a damn drink, maybe dance on top of a table or whatever. Just don't let your grief, sadness, and fear take you over from going forward."
Hailey lets out a sigh and grumbles to herself before continuing on her way, always annoyed yet amazed of how Trudy Platt's nosy ways can make her realize things about herself she wouldn't have given a second thought to.
Hailey does know if she was able to let herself stay with Bruno a few minutes longer or practice with him like she should be, then she could have avoided this entire situation.
[A/N2] Thank you for all the love and feedback on the first chapter! I have so much fun writing the scenes between Hailey and Bruno and I can't wait to start up on the ones between Hailey and Jay!
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