(A/N: I do not own Paw Patrol, thanks to 18 for the idea for this chapter, enjoy!)

Dangers of the Night

Marshall had a feeling that it was going to be a long night. He, along with the night shift crew of MEDIC 25, consisting of Samantha (Sam) and Alan, were currently sitting in the booth of a café drinking warm beverages. Sam had a cup of peppermint tea while Alan had a Tuscan Latte. Sam would always tease Alan about the frou-frou coffees that he would order and in turn, Alan would tease Sam about her fancy teas and tonight was no different. Marshall sat between the two Paramedics, enjoying the show while he drank his dog-safe hot cocoa with marshmallows.

The three of them had just come off of a Life Alert call. The monitoring center had detected that the heart beat on the patient had stopped so MEDIC 25 had been dispatched to the last location of the patient. They had found the elderly man sitting on his couch, peacefully watching TV. After checking him out, Marshall had determined that the gentleman's pacemaker had died which the Life Alert device had though was his heart. The gentleman's daughter lived nearby so she came over to watch him for the night until he could see his doctor in the morning. On their way back, the trio had decided to stop off at the café.

Suddenly, the radio on Marshall's shoulder shrieked to life, "All units, Dispatch, we have an active shooter incident in progress in vicinity of Broadway and Park, shooter last seen headed towards the waterfront, Patrol units converging on suspect, all units remain clear, BREAK, officer and civilian down at Park and Elm, patrol units enroute to secure scene, available units advise ETA"

Sam was already out the door of the café with Marshall hot on her heels as he keyed the radio, "Medic 25, Pine and Fern, responding code 3, ETA 3 minutes!"

"Medic 25, Dispatch, copy ETA, report on conditions upon arrival."

Alan, having been slightly slowed down by throwing a couple bills on the table on his way out, barely made it into the ambulance before Sam had MEDIC 25 flying down the street, lights and sirens piercing the night.

MEDIC 25 was only 5 blocks away from the scene, but because of the layout of the streets, Sam had to dog-leg the route. As Sam brough the Ambulance around the last corner, Marshall could see a police car with its lights on three-quarters of a block away. The police car was stopped at an angle, partially blocking the street. To the right of the car, Marshall could see one person laying in the street and another curled into a ball on the sidewalk.

"Dispatch, Medic 25, On scene investigating" Marshall reported over the radio. He didn't listen for dispatche's response as he was already out of the ambulance. Alan threw open the back doors and unloaded the stretcher to be ready for anything. "Sam, check the patient on the sidewalk! Alan, check for any other patients!" Marshall yelled as Sam ran around the front of the ambulance. Marshall dimly heard other sirens approaching as he reached the patient in the street, it was the down police officer. Marshall could see two bullet holes high on his chest. Since the officer was still breathing, Marshall did a quick visual check to make sure there weren't any more obviously life-threatening injuries. Seeing none, he started on the gunshot wounds. "Ruff, Scissors!" Marshall barked and a pair of auto-scissors extended out of his pup pack. Marshall carefully cut an opening in the officer's uniform so he could access the wounds. "Ruff, Bandages!" Marshall carefully pulled the cut uniform back to give himself room to work, pulled the supplies he needed to clean the wound and got to work.

Alan tapped Marshall on the shoulder, "no other patients" he reported.

"And the scene is secure" a police officer who had arrived on scene right after MEDIC 25 reported.

Marshall acknowledged them both with a nod before activating his radio, "Dispatch, Medic 25, scene secure, two patients, assessment in progress"

"Dispatch copies, Medic 23 and 827 enroute to assist, ETA 5 and 8 minutes."

"Medic 25 acknowledged" Marshall acknowledged as he finished cleaning the two bullet wounds and applied a fully sealing occlusive dressing to each hole.

"Sam, status?" Marshall yelled as he performed a quick check on the officer to ensure there were no wounds that would prevent Marshall from rolling him over to check the probable exit wound.

"Minor cuts but catatonic" Sam yelled back.

"Alan, get the fluffy!" Marshall ordered as Alan ran back to the ambulance.

Finding no additional injuries, Marshall had the police officer help him roll the injured officer onto his side. Marshall cut the back of the officer's uniform to expose the bullet exit wounds. Marshall then carefully cleaned and dressed the exit holes. As he was finishing up, Alan retuned with a big plastic bag.

"Get a blanket over him until MEDIC 23 arrives and can transport him to the hospital. We'll use MEDIC 827 for the other patient." Marshall directed as he took the bag in his mouth from Alan who nodded his acknowledgement.

Marshall started walking towards the other patient. As he got closer, he could see it was a young woman who was still curled up tightly into a ball. Sam had her hand on the patient's back and was gently rubbing her, trying to keep her calm. The patient was shaking uncontrollably. Marshall stopped about three feet away and quietly opened the plastic bag and pulled out a stuffed dalmatian about the same size as himself. Marshall had a theory was that having something to hold and hug as tight as they wanted would help reduce the stress of a patient. The stuffed animal also was lightly coated in Lavender and Roman Chamomile to help the patient relax. Third, Marshall theorized that if the stuffed animal looked like the rescuer, it would build on that bond and provide further comfort to the patient. But this was all just a theory, never before tested.

I really hope she isn't afraid of dogs Marshall thought to himself as he circled around in front of the woman so she could see him. Startling her would not be a good start Marshall laughed to himself before speaking to the patient. "Hello there," Marshall gently started, "my name is Marshall and I'm a Paramedic. I'm here to take care of you." Marshall saw the woman's head turn up slightly and her eyes focused on him, so far so good. "I need to do a quick exam on you to make sure you are ok, but before I do that, I have something for you." The woman's eyes were still locked on Marshall and he could see the fear and pain and the hurt in them, but he could also see a glimmer of curiosity. "Here, hold onto this, it will make you feel better" Marshall said as he held the stuffed dalmatian out to her. Quick as a flash, the woman scooped up the stuffed dalmatian and Marshall into a hug and was hugging the stuffing out of him. Sam was just as surprised as Marshall as the woman had gone from being curled up in an unresponsive ball to sitting on the curb and responding. Marshall nodded to Sam to do start a more thorough check on her.

"Oh, thank you Marshall!" the woman cried as she continued to hug the stuffing out of Marshall and the stuffed dalmatian. "I lost my dog earlier this week and was walking to clear my head when that man attacked me. I just didn't know what to do. And now here you are, like a guardian angel sent to keep me safe tonight!" the woman cried into Marshall's fur. Marshall was listening very intently but also sneaking his way out of the crushing hug. As the woman cried into him, he delicately swapped his position with that of the stuffed dalmatian before deftly sliding out of the hug. The woman didn't even notice until she felt Marshall's paw on her back and a gently lick on her cheek. "We've got you now and we'll take care of you" Marshall softly whispered to her.

Sam finished her check and gave Marshall the hand signal that there were no other injuries. Marshall stayed there, holding the woman until MEDIC 827 arrived. The EMTs came over with their stretcher and all of them helped the woman onto the stretcher. The woman continued to hug the stuffed dalmatian while Marshall kept his paw on her hand while they loaded her up.

"You are coming with me, right Marshall?" The woman asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Marshall replied. "My place is here, keeping people safe. But part of me will be with you the whole time, keeping you safe" Marshall said, placing a paw on her arms that were still wrapped around the stuff dalmatian. The woman nodded in understanding, "thank you Marshall" she softly said. Marshall hopped down and out of the ambulance before closing the doors and waving goodbye as MEDIC 827 took her to the hospital.

After they lost sight of the departing ambulance, Sam, Alan and Marshall quickly and efficiently cleaned up the gear they had laying around, loaded it up into MEDIC 25 and got ready to head back to the station. "Dispatch, Medic 25, incident clear, available, returning to station" Marshall reported via the radio as Sam guided the ambulance through the gaggle of police cars that had shown up.

"Dispatch copies Medic 25, BREAK, all units, dispatch, active shooter neutralized, no further response required." Marshall, Sam and Alan let out a collective sigh, while they had only played a small part in the overall incident, it had been very important and thankfully, they didn't have anyone else to race off to and save at the moment.

"You know, I didn't think that was going to work Marshall" Alan said from the back.

"Yeah, that was incredibly effective" Sam added.

"Thanks, I'm glad it worked out so well" Marshall replied with a blush. It always embarrassed him when he got complemented by his teammates.

Marshall looked out the window and smiled as a light rain started to fall.

(A/N: Couple quick notes. First, in case you are wondering why Marshall is giving all the orders to the qualified Paramedics, it is because he is being evaluated not just for his own medical capabilities but in his ability to lead an incident response. Second, in case you are wondering about the differences in ambulance numbering, the MEDIC 8XX series are the Basic Life Support, or BLS, ambulances and the MEDIX XX series are the Advanced Life Support, or ALS, ambulances. The last two digits are always the station number where the ambulance is based out of. ALS ambulances are staffed by paramedics while the BLS are staffed with EMTs. While in a perfect world, every ambulance would be an ALS unit, in reality, that is impractical for a number of reasons. Ultimately, not every emergency requires ALS capability so the BLS units are there to handle those emergencies that do not require the ALS level of care based on the severity of the injury. Third, I know I'm jumping all over the place between shorts here and on Everest's Recovery, please bear with me as I'm writing the stories that are in the front of my head. As always, I welcome ideas. For those of you who want to skip to the part where Cinder joins in this story, please be patient as I'm not quite there yet but it will come in the future.)