(A/N: I do not own Paw Patrol, enjoy!)

"Oh look, this one involves snow!" Everest said happily as she flipped the page.

"In a manner of speaking" Marshall replied evasively.

"What do you mean?" Everest asked, "I can see it right here on the page."

"Guess you'll just have to find out," Marshall said with a smile.


A Marshall Snowland - 69

Jake was sitting in his favorite chair, sipping a cup of coffee when suddenly he was spinning around like a top.

"HiJake,ByeJake,I'mofftogosnowboardingI'llcatchyoulaterbyeeee!" Everest barked in a hurry as she ran towards the door to grab her gear.

Jake's eyes were still pinwheeling as he came to a stop. "Whoa there girl" Jake stammered, slightly surprised that she had managed to not spill his coffee, "you may have to adjust your plans."

"Whhyyy?" Everest whined plaintively, she had been looking forward to hitting the slopes today for several reasons, not the least of which being that Marshall would be joining her.

"We have a big storm coming in" Jake said, gesturing to the weather report he had been perusing. "I'm closing the mountain down and we need to ensure everyone gets off safely."

"Oh, ok" Everest said with a hint of sadness.

"Don't worry girl" Jake said kindly, giving her a scratch behind the ears, "once everyone is off the mountain, I have a surprise for you."

"Oh, what is it?" Everest asked, suddenly intrigued. Jake just grinned in reply.

"Marshall!"

Marshall went to lift his head up and whacked it on the engine on his truck. "Oww!" Marshall yelped. Then he felt his back legs being dragged backwards out from under his truck on the rolly cart he was laying on.

"Are you alright?" Rocky asked as Marshall emerged, rubbing his forehead.

"Are you kidding?" Marshall said, "it will take more than a little whack on the head to hurt me."

"Good," Rocky replied, "but we should probably check the engine block for a new crack."

"Probably" Marshall agreed ruefully. "What's up Ryder?" Marshall asked the source of the startlement.

"I'm glad you are taking care of your truck now," Ryder said, patting Marshall on the head, "because we have a big storm coming in."

"Full blizzard?" Rocky asked, cocking his head to the side.

"More than a full blizzard" Ryder replied, "Jake is closing the mountain."

"That's pretty serious" Marshall said gravely, inwardly groaning at the turn of events, "will they be alright up there?"

"As a matter of fact," Ryder said with a grin, "they will be joining us once they have everyone off the mountain."

"Oh, ok" Marshall replied, his tail starting to wag faster. "We better finish up before the storm hits then."

"I'll let you pups get to it then" Ryder said before walking away.

Rocky watched Marshall insert himself back under his truck. "You ok Marshall?" He asked as he slowly joined him.

"I'm good," Marshall replied characteristically, "no crack in the engine casing from my head.

"That's good," Rocky replied, "but why do I get the feeling you are not fully happy with this turn of events?"

Marshall paused and sighed. "The reason I asked to start this early was because I was going snowboarding with Everest later today and now we can't so she'll be super bummed. And we'll be stuck inside with no snow to cheer her up with."

"So come up with something else to do that she likes," Rocky said as he continued inspecting Marshall's truck.

"That's just it" Marshall said, "nothing she does inside can compare to playing outside in the snow. And snowboarding is her favorite thing ever."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Rocky replied. The two pups kept working, with Rocky teaching Marshall about everything he was doing. They were almost done when Rocky heard an unexpected clang.

"Everything alright Marshall?" Rocky asked.

"I'm good," Marshall replied, "I just had an idea and forgot I was under my truck again."

"Is the truck ok?" Rocky asked with a grin.

"It's just a small dent," Marshall replied sheepishly, "nothing serious."

"That does it then" Rocky said happily as they both pulled themselves out from under the truck.

Marshall jumped up into the cockpit and started the engine. Rocky jumped up next to him and the two of them checked all the gauges for any anomalous indications. "So far so good" Marshall said before barking commands to his ladder. It responded immediately by raising, spinning around fully to then stop at a 90 degree offset from the truck body.

Marshall jumped up to the top and barked again, causing the ladder to shoot up to its full height. "Whoa, that might work a little too good," Marshall said.

"We can fix that when you come down," Rocky replied.

Marshall barked again and the water cannon on the top activated. Rocky stayed put so he would stay dry while Marshall worked the water cannon through its operational checks before shutting it off with another bark.

"Ok, now for the last part" Marshall said before barking another command, making the ladder start to turn in a circle. While it started slower than before, it quickly accelerated to a dangerous speed. "AHHH!" Marshall yelped as he held on for dear life.

"I've got you!" Rocky barked up as he hit the emergency stop button. The ladder slammed to a stop, and Marshall's momentum flung him off the ladder.

"AHHH!" Marshall shrieked as he flew before crashing into the top of a nearby tree.

"Marshall!" Rocky yelled as he ran over. He stopped at the tree when he didn't see his brother. "Marshall?" Rocky called as he looked up into the tree.

"I'm…good" came a weak reply.

Rocky looked up and saw Marshall splatted flat against the tree trunk.

"Thank goodness" Rocky breathed a sigh of relief, "now to get you down."

"We can wait on that for a moment" Marshall said dizzily as he slid from the trunk onto a branch.

"Ok, let me go get Skye and…" Rocky stopped as he heard a cracking sound. The mix looked up…

Just in time to see the branch Marshall was on snap off the tree. Marshall yelped and kicked himself off the branch but while it got him clear he missed grabbing another branch.

"I've got you Marshall!" Rocky yelled as he ran around in a circle, trying to get into position to catch the falling Dalmatian. As Marshall fell, Rocky ran faster. He stretched out his paws…

And caught Marshall with his body instead. The two dogs splattered on the ground in a gray-scale blob.

"You ok?" Rocky groaned.

"I'm good" Marshall groaned back, "you?"

"Good enough," Rocky replied. The two of them carefully stood up and shook the dust out of their fur.

"We should probably fix that before you take your truck anywhere" Rocky said as they walked back.

"Probably," Marshall said with a smile.

The fix did not take long and a successful operational test later, they were done. Marshall barked and his truck turned back into his pup house.

"So, what is your plan?" Rocky asked as they headed inside.

"What plan?" Marshall replied innocently.

"The plan rattling around in that head of yours about tonight" Rocky replied with a smile.

"I have no plan" Marshall replied, a smile on his face.

"No plan on how to make Everest happy tonight since you didn't get to go on your snowboarding date?" Rocky pressed.

"Oh that plan" Marshall replied, "and it wasn't a date."

"Just keep telling yourself that buddy," Rocky replied with a smirk, "the spare white sheets, cotton balls, and white bean bag covers are in the basement next to the craft corner."

Marshall whipped his head around in surprise to look at Rocky, who merely shrugged his shoulders before walking into the kitchen. Marshall headed to the basement. This will take a lot less time now that I don't have to search the entire basement for them Marshall thought to himself as he walked down the stairs.

Jake and Everest arrived just before the storm. No sooner had the Lookout doors shut behind them when a giant snowball splattered against the doors. "Wow, that was close" Everest said as they made their way into the kitchen.

Everyone enjoyed a warm dinner of creamy pesto chicken and gnocchi bake. Afterwards, Jake and Ryder headed to Ryder's room to play video games while every pup headed up to the control room to play Pup Pup Boogie and watch the blizzard. Almost every pup.

Marshall had whispered to Everest to meet him down stairs at a specific time. The Husky 's curiosity peaked but she managed to stay mostly focused on the game. But she began to lose focus as the time crept closer.

Meanwhile, Marshall was busy turning the ground floor of the lookout into a winter wonderland. First he had arranged the white bean bag chairs into a snowy hill. Then, he has used the white sheets to cover all the other furniture and the walls to give it a snowy look and feel. He even turned the temperature down as low as it could go. He was getting ready for the final touch, covering the floor and everything with cotton balls to simulate snow when all the lights went out. "That's not good," Marshall said quietly. He wished he had hung lanterns to give it a warm glow.

"Rocky!" Ryder's voice echoed across the control room.

"I didn't do it!" Rocky protested.

"I know you didn't buddy," Ryder said gently as he rubbed his tech pup behind the ears reassuringly, "but you and I need to figure out why the power went out and the emergency generator didn't come on."

"Oh, right, sorry Ryder" Rocky apologized.

"Don't worry about it" Ryder said as he grabbed a flashlight. Everyone started talking at once.

"What if a tree knocked out the power lines?" Chase suggested.

"No, the whole city is on underground wires," Rubble replied.

"Maybe the generator is too cold to start," Skye theorized.

"Possible" Rocky replied, "but it is supposed to be able to start in freezing temperatures like this."

Everest decided it was close enough to the time Marshall had said to come down. "I'm going to go check on Marshall" she said to no one in particular.

"Maybe the battewy died" Zuma said, "when was the last time we tested it?"

"A few weeks ago" Ryder replied, "and it was fine then."

"Low oil level maybe?" Jake offered.

"We checked that when we checked the battery," Rocky said.

"Ok, byeee" Everest said as she slipped away. Everyone kept talking about the generator and no one noticed her disappearance.

Marshall had managed to get a single camping lantern lit which gave him enough light to see. I have to hurry, he thought to himself, Everest will be down any minute!

Marshall went to scatter the cotton balls but instead tripped. "Whoa!" he yelped as he flipped head over tail to land inside the giant bag of cotton balls. "Pleh!" Marshall spat cotton balls from his mouth. Squirming his way out of the bag, Marshall noticed that the cotton balls were sticking to his fur. "Ugh, worse than real snow" he said as he began to scatter them about. "Hopefully they don't stick to Everest as bad as they do to me."

Another side effect was that the cotton balls made the floor slightly slippery. Marshall was almost done when he slipped again, tossing the bag up in the air and crashing into the bean bag mountain. Marshall picked himself up and surveyed his 'winter wonderland'. It looked more like an exploded marshmallow factory than a fun time waiting to be had. Then he heard Everest's paws on the stairs, indicating that he had run out of time. "Oh biscuits" Marshall groaned and smacked his paw against the nearest bean bag. He didn't see it, but a white sheet began falling…

Marshall?" Everest hesitantly called out as she stepped off the stairs and entered the ground floor lounge area.

"AH!"

Everest recognized Marshall's shriek of terror and turned towards the sound. Her blood ran cold as she saw a ghost pup running around crazily. Everest was terrified of the idea of a ghost, but Marshall's shriek told her he was just as scared. "I'm coming, Marshall!" Everest barked, determined to do something against the ethereal threat.

Everest charged the ghost head on, fully expecting to pass right through it. She was completely surprised when instead of passing through the ghost, she head-butted it across the room with a yelp. Then she realized that the 'ghost' was actually Marshall…

"Marshall!" Everest yipped as she ran across the room to the pile of bean bags and frantically dug down until she found him.

"I'm good?" Marshall asked himself, pausing to spit more cotton balls out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry" Everest apologized, "I heard you scream and thought a ghost had attacked you" she said sheepishly.

"A ghost did attack me" Marshall said, a smile spreading across his face before being replaced with a sad look.

"What's wrong?" Everest asked, cocking her head to the side.

"I tried to make you an indoor winter wonderland to play in since we didn't get to go snowboarding today" Marshall said with a sigh, "but instead I made a ghostly white mess."

Everest picked her head up and looked around, seeing everything in its entirety for the first time.


"You are ridiculous, you know that right?" Everest giggled.

"How so?" Marshall asked quizzically.

"I mean who plans to throw a winter wonderland together on random short notice?" Everest giggled, "and to get head-butted into a mountain of bean bags?"

"I don't know if you could say I plan that way exactly" Marshall replied with a smile, "but I think that it is a likely scenario."

"You are a goofball," Everest said, bopping Marshall on the nose.


"You did all this for me? Everest asked slowly, "to make my day better because we didn't get to go snowboarding like we had planned?"

"Uh huh" Marshall said uncertainty.

Everest's reply was to pounce and tackle him into the 'snow' drift. Cotton balls flew everywhere as they landed, a bean bag fell on top of them, leaving only their tails exposed. Marshall noticed none of this as Everest's lips connected with his own.

Ryder and Rocky had finally extricated themselves from the debate in the control room and were walking down the stairs. "What's all this?" Ryder asked, gesturing to the gigantic white mess.

"I think I know," Rocky said with a smirk, pointing his paw to two wagging tails sticking out from the pile of white.

"Oh good grief" Ryder said as he recognized the two tails.

"I'm sure they'll clean it up later" Rocky said as he pulled the stunned Ryder onward and downward to the still non-functional generator in the basement.


"Your ideas may be ridiculous" Everest cooed, "but they are never short on inventive sincerity."

"I take it that means you liked it?" Marshall asked.

"Marshy, anything you do for me will always bring me joy" Everest continued, wrapping her paws around Marshall's neck. "Do you remember when you made the snow half pipe for me in the middle of summer so I could enjoy the sports day too?"

"Of course" Marshall replied, "but Rubble came up with the idea and built the frame, Rocky made the machine to make the snow, I just sprayed the snow on it. And you and Rubble did cool tricks on it."

"Way to spoil my memory" Everest pouted, "I prefer to remember it as 'my dashing Dalmatian selflessly sacrificed his summer fun for my pleasure'. That makes it much easier to justify what happens next."

"Daring Danny X crashing in the snow?" Marshall asked, confused.

"Me taking advantage of you" Everest replied, tightening her grip on Marshall's neck.

"But Eve, that's not what…" Marshall started to protest when he was silenced by Everest kissing him.

"It's what I wanted to happen" Everest whispered lovingly in Marshall's ear, melting any resistance remaining in the Dalmatian as she did exactly that.

(A/N: Special thanks to Bluewolfbat for the idea for this plan. Got an idea for a plan? Let me know!)

A/N: guest review reply to "this is amazing". Thanks for the review, yes I will keep working on this as time permits (read my note at the end of chapter 9 of "A Cause For Every Fire" for the full details on my current projects. And despite the back log, I would love more ideas so please send them my way.