No one could seem to get through to Toby after that. Luna, Arrow, Terry, and Rex all tried, but to no avail. Even the humans began to see a change in him. He wouldn't play, wouldn't go near the sled he and Charlie used for errands, and barely even ate or drank. The doctor looked him over but confessed he could find nothing wrong with him. Terry was especially worried―she'd seen a dog act this way once before.

It was weeks before Toby dared to go back. He hated to go anywhere near the place, but he wanted to see if Pete had at least been given a decent grave. Yuke's cross had been replaced just a few days after Pete's rampage, but no one knew about Pete. Toby was pretty sure he knew what had happened, though. Pete's owner wouldn't go to the trouble of burying him while the ground was still hard. At best he'd put him in a box or something outside until the thaw.

As he crept into the yard, Toby felt the full force of trepidation his late brother had gone through entering Terry's back yard. Gazing around, he saw no cross, no rock, no sign of digging. The only thing that caught his eye was a box by the corner of the house, just the right size for a dog. He walked over, his entire body made of lead. So it was true. He knew Pete was dead, but the sight of his coffin brought it home afresh, like violently tearing open a wound just to rub salt in it.

He walked up to the box and sniffed it. Tears beaded in his eyes. It smelled like Pete. "Hey, bro," he choked. He was silent for a moment. How did one talk to one who couldn't hear anymore? "I just want to say I'm sorry…for everything." Images passed through his mind, not flashing but shifting through torturously slow. Images of the times he'd been cruel to Pete, believing it to be justified because the husky himself was so cruel. From little ones, like taunting him over his countless romantic failures, to severe ones like setting him up to fail on the sled team after he himself lost the position.

Choking back sobs and blinking back tears, he recounted them to the lifeless corpse inside the box. All supposed justification and self-righteousness was gone, replaced by one question: If he had done a better job of being the good guy, would Pete be dead right now? "Are you with your dad?" he asked. "I hope you are. I want you to at least get something good out of this, because you went down doing the right thing." He sniffed. "I guess the reason I came here is…because I wanted to say goodbye."

"And if I say no?"

Every hair on Toby's body instantly stood up and saluted. "Pete?!" he squawked.

"The one and only, in the flesh, and right behind you. I always wondered if you had something to do with that boot camp Kodi put me through."

"Pete!" cried Toby, whirling around. He jumped at his brother, laughing and crying all at once. He forced himself to back away when Pete winced. Bandages still adorned his body like a canine mummy, and Toby could tell by some that Pete would bear scars for the rest of his life. But he was alive! "How?!"

Pete shrugged, wincing at a pain in his shoulder as he did so. "I don't know, really. The boss was about to blast me when there was another bang that startled him and threw his aim off. He must've taken it as something like a sign, 'cause he didn't try again."

"Huh," Toby huffed. He could see how the second explosion from the second gun going off could have been hidden in the echoes of the first. "Wonder what it was?"

"Probably just a tree branch blowing," Pete guessed. Both he and Toby knew this often happened, when it got so cold that sap froze and expanded inside a limb until the branch exploded entirely. "Whatever it was, I'm not complaining."

"Me neither," laughed Toby. Then something else hit him. "We've got to tell Mom about this! I'll go let her know." He started to dash off, but Pete stopped him.

"Don't tell her," he said with a look of kind-hearted mischief on his face. "I want to see her reaction when she finds out."

Toby could barely keep from laughing, until a problem hit him. "How will I get her to come here?" he asked.

"Easy, just blindfold her like you did that time with Luna."

"Gotcha."

"Toby, what is this?"

"Just follow me, Mom," Toby urged, tugging gently on the rope. "It's a surprise."

She sighed. "I appreciate the thought, honey, but I'm really not in the mood for surprises right now."

Oh, you will be, thought Toby. Beneath his calm exterior, he was shaking with energy as he led her into Pete's yard. Pete gave him a wink as they walked past him. "Okay," he whispered.

Terry shook the cloth from her eyes and looked around. "Toby," she asked, sounding like she was going to cry, "why did you bring me here?"

"Because I asked him to," replied a voice. "Real nice like, even."

Terry jumped and spun around, staring at what she evidently took to be a ghost. "Pete?" she gasped.

Pete didn't wait for her to come to him. He trotted up to her and rubbed his face in her fur just like a puppy. "Well, I'm not the Easter bunny."

"Pete!" Terry cried, nearly toppling him over in her excitement. Her tears soaked his fur as she threw herself upon him, frantic to assure herself that her son was really back. "You're alive!"

"Yeah," he agreed, "but not for long if you don't give me some airspace." Once he got her calmed down, he explained about the shot. "I don't really know how it happened," he admitted, "but it did."

"Who cares how it happened?" asked Terry. "All I care about is that you're okay."

Pete hung his head. "A couple weeks ago I would've thought you were lying," he confessed. "Mom, I've been a jerk."

"Pete," she told him, nearly weeping at the sound of that one wonderful word, "forget about that."

He let out a sigh. "I just want to say, well…"

Terry cut him off with one of those looks only a mother can give. "Pete," she told him in as stern a voice as she could muster, "I've been waiting years for this, so please don't spoil it by bringing up the past."

Pete couldn't help laughing, and Toby discovered for the first time that when it was sincere, Pete's laughter could sound very nice. "Okay, Mom."

Toby smirked. "I hate to interrupt, but I've got a question for Pete. How soon will you be up to walking around town again?"

"A few days. Maybe a week."

Toby nodded. "A week, then," he decided. "We start lessons again―if you're ready."

Pete got that old look on his face again, and Toby would have worried if he hadn't known that this time Pete's intentions were for once in the right direction. "Oh, I will be."