Not much to say. . .

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For a moment, the two pups were frozen in shock at the shape there newest friend was in.

But Marshall shook his head slightly to bring himself back into focus. He placed a paw on the wolf's neck and closed his eyes. After a moment, his blue eyes flew open and focused on Everest. "He's got a pulse, but it's weak. . . He's bleeding from everywhere though, and we need to stop it until we can get him the hospital. My ambulance is parked outside; can you go drive it closer to the door?"

She nodded and ran out the door as Marshall activated his communicator. "Ryder, are you there?"

A second later, his leader's familiar face appeared on the screen. "Marshall, what's wrong?" He said noticing the Dalmatian's urgency.

"Drake's been attacked by something and bleeding a lot. His pulse is weak and he's breathing is irregular." The Dalmatian took a breath, and then continued. "Everest and I are going to load him into my ambulance and come down to the hospital." Before the human could speak again, Marshall's ambulance pulled up outside the door "gotta go Ryder." When the husky came back in the door, he said. "Can you stay with him for a minute and monitor his heartbeat and breathing while I get the gurney." After she nodded, he ran out the door

About a minute later, Marshall pushed the pup sized gurney to the door and walked past it inside. "How's he doing?" The Dalmatian pressed a paw to Drakes neck and was relieved to find that his pulse hadn't gotten worse. The problem was it hadn't gotten any better either. He quickly put his ear to the wolf's chest. "His breathing is slow and shallow." He turned to the husky. "We need to get going, now Everest."

She nodded, "what do you want me to do?"

The next few minutes were full of instruction for the husky as they put the wolf on the gurney, and then into the ambulance. Finally Marshall fixed his blue eyes on hers. "You have to drive, because now, I have to monitor Drakes heartbeat and breathing." He spoke with a matter-of-fact tone. "Are you okay with that?" A while back, Ryder had insisted that all the pups learn how to drive each other's vehicles in case of an emergency.

Now they were going to be putting that training to the test.

Everest nodded, "as ready as I'm going to be."

"Good," he said as he climbed into the back with Drake. "Let's go." The Dalmatian shut the door, and then turned around to face the monitors that were now connected to the wolf. His heartbeat was low and weak, but it was steady. As the vehicle started to move, he put an oxygen mask over Drakes muzzle to help the pup breath.

Once he could see that Drake was stable, and would likely be okay for the rest of the trip, he focused on something wrapping the bigger cuts tightly with gauze in an effort to stop the bleeding. That finished, He sat on his hind legs and gently placed his front paws on the wolf's front right left paw, and started to massage the appendage that had worried him earlier.

What he felt made his stomach churn.

Underneath the wolf's think fur and skin, were bone fragments that felt like splinters of broken wood. "That doesn't feel good." He said as he reached over and grabbed another roll of bandages. "I doubt this will do anything," Marshall sighed as he started to wrap the limb, "but it's better than nothing."

Once that was finished, the Dalmatian closed his eyes and sent a silent 'thank you' to whatever force made him decide to drive his ambulance to Everest's cabin. Had he decided to take his firetruck, Drake wouldn't have much of a chance. As he opened them again, something else caught his attention. The wolf's torso seemed to be expanding slightly, so he narrowed his blue eyes and felt around. After a moment, his eyes flew open in alarm. "Everest, how close are we?" He asked in almost a yell.

She thought for a moment. "About ten minutes, why?"

He didn't answer; instead he grabbed a trashcan and set it next to the wolf's torso. Then, as he grabbed a scalpel, Marshall took a deep breath and made a small incision making sure to go all the way into Drakes body cavity. As he expected, a sickening stream of blood and other fluids poured out into the trashcan.

"Marshall," the husky said in surprise, "what are you doing?"

He focused his blue eyes on her. "I think his one of his kidneys is busted and one of his ribs poked a hole in his stomach, step on it!"

The man was tapping a pencil on his chin and pondering the crossword puzzle in front of him when he heard the door to the cabin open. He cast his cold grey eyes up to see two of his men. As they walked towards him, one of them threw a bloody baseball bat towards the cage in the corner of room, waking up the sleeping dingo inside.

"Did you take care of the wolf?" The man asked, looking back down at the puzzle.

One of the other men nodded, "just like you said boss."

The man at the table gave a small nod as well, "good."

The dingo let out a growl that could be heard through the thick black muzzle that covered his mouth. The man at the table looked at the ginger pup. "Shut up mutt. . . You know what happened last time." He motioned at a tool in the corner, making the dingo quiet. "That's what I thought."

"Now what boss?" one of the men asked.

The man at the table looked back at his crossword puzzle. "We wait for instructions."

Jake gently ran his fingers over the charcoal grey leather collar and the metal pup tag and sighed. The tag had a dark green pine tree on the front, and on the back were several words engraved on the back, one of them being a new but familiar name. I look almost the same as when he had first wrapped around Drakes neck and secured it for the first time.

The only difference was now the collar and tag were both splattered in blood.

Marshall had taken the collar and tag off when he and Everest had gotten the wolf into the Dalmatians ambulance. When Jake had arrived at the hospital after Drake had gone into surgery, Marshall had given it to the human.

He was stirred from his thoughts when the sliding doors to the waiting room slid open, and Ryder with the rest of the pups came through the door. "Hey Ryder," he spoke in a monotone voice.

"Any word on Drake?" he asked. When Jake shook his head, he fell silent. As the teen tried to find something to say, he heard Katie and Chase talk to Marshall.

"Marshall," Chase was saying, "are you okay?" Ryder watched for a few moments and Katie snapped her fingers in front of the Dalmatians blue eyes with no luck. Then then the shepherd narrowed his eyes and gave a small smile. After a moment, he gave his mate a small peck on the cheek.

The Dalmatian shook his head slightly and looked at the shepherd. "Chase. . . Sorry I was thinking about Drake."

Chases amber eyes held concern. "Will Drake be okay?"

His mate shook his head. "I don't know."

The room fell silent again until Katie walk towards them even though none of them had seen her walk away. Ryder gave a small shake of his head, "Where did you go?" he asked.

"Just to the desk," she said pointing to nurse at the nearby station.

"Why" the husky spoke for the first time.

The teen focused he blue eyes on the husky's own. "I asked if there was a place I could give you and Marshall a bath."

Marshall and Everest exchanged looks at each other and involuntarily shuttered at the same time. They were both had Drakes blood all over their fur. Katie gave a small smile, "that's what I thought."

"What about Drake?" Everest asked.

The Dalmatian gave her a small smile. "From what I saw, he'll be in surgery for a while. . ." He walked closer to her and spoke softly. "I don't think he would mind if we got cleaned up."

After a moment, she smiled. "Your right," she turned to Katie. "Lead the way."

Before they left, Marshall turned to Ryder. "Let us know if anything changes."

The teen gave a small smile and teen nodded, "I will." As he watch the three of them walk away, it occurred to him that Marshall probably knew more about the wolf's condition than anyone. He also couldn't help but wonder if the Dalmatian wasn't telling them how bad off Drake really was.

Well, there it is. . .

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