A/N: This is a chapter I've been waiting to write. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 5: The Second Chance

As the next couple of weeks went by, Courage strongly took what Computer said to heart. He'd let Noel win for now and let him and Muriel bond together. He'd do all of this with a great attitude too and continue to be nothing but sweet to Noel regardless of how he was treated in return. He will admit, the first couple of days were tough. Noel would get more mean to try to get a negative reaction out of Courage, but Courage held on tight and didn't fight back. Also Muriel wouldn't seek him out much as she was probably constantly overwhelmed by Noel. But as time went on, Noel instigated less and Muriel seemed to pity Courage, knowing something was wrong.

As more time passed, it became a little harder to keep going again because Courage realized that it's been some time now, and he seems to be getting no results. His good attitude was fading, but he kept on. He'd suffer long days of isolation no longer positively hoping that results were just right around the corner. He hoped that Muriel would refuse Noel's presence so much and would eventually come to seek him out instead.

But he also hoped almost more than anything that Noel would eventually start treating him right. He just wished he had someone to talk to and even hang with that wasn't Computer. Computer wasn't the worst, but he wanted someone that would actually be genuinely interested in him and spending time with him. No one would fit that better than a fellow dog. And the more Courage thought, the more he wanted that friendship with him.

-o0o-

It was a cold and cloudy day at the farm and it was no different from the past ones. Still no new encounters (besides Noel) occurred and still no results from his actions were made. It was later in the day and he sat in the dining room alone, picking at a plate of spaghetti. Muriel and Noel were in the kitchen, being a happy dog and owner duo. As much as it killed Courage, they were so happy and peaceful and who was he to disturb that.

"I guess I'm free," he said to himself with a sniff. "Free to be alone for the rest of my life." His lip quivered, almost crying for the first time in a while. With zero results, that was too much for him. He slowly slid his muzzle down onto the table and silently wept.

Before he even knew it, somebody put a hand on his shoulder. It was Muriel, who was all alone. He didn't know when she got there, but she gave him a slow pet when he kept crying.

"There there, Courage," she said gently, but emotionally too. Then she sat down next to him and faced him. He raised his head to face her too, but kept both paws up to his eyes as they were still releasing tears.

"You've been trying to tell me something for a while now, haven't ya?" she questioned. "Well, I think I finally understand you now, Courage." She paused as she looked down at the ground. "It's that other dog, isn't it?"

Courage weakly nodded.

Muriel held her hands together. "I'm very sorry about him," she said with meaning. "I just hated seeing him the way he was and thought he'd make a good friend for you. After all, y'all are the same breed, size, sex, and age according to the vet." She referred to a week back when they took Noel to the vet for vaccines. "But it turns out he's a lot of trouble for you, now isn't he?"

Courage nodded again with a pitiful whine.

"Well, I know I've been giving him a lot of my attention, but he will never be my little Courage!" she smiled at him, grandly.

Courage could not take it anymore. His face formed into the saddest smile a dog could muster, and the tears were falling again. He stood on top of his chair and hugged Muriel, tighter than he's ever done before. She returned that hug and squashed him in her massive arms.

"I love you Muriel," he whispered in her ear, not caring anymore if she could hear it or not. Then when Courage thought it was over with, Muriel did something that Courage could only dream of her doing.

"I love you too, Courage," she said with all of her heart.

She responded to his words! She can hear dog English after all! Although not well, but it was possible! This was the first time EVER that she responded directly to his words alone!

More than a little overjoyed, Courage hugged her tighter somehow. He gave her LOTS of dog kisses and his tail was wagging a mile a minute.

"Oh my Courage!" Muriel was uncontrollably laughing. He hadn't heard her laugh that hard in ages. She held onto him for a very long time before finally breaking the hug.

"I've got to return to the kitchen," Muriel said with a smile. "When you're done, bring that plate in." Then she left with a bigger smile than usual and humming her usual song.

Courage, who was now the happiest dog on the planet, finally found the stomach to actually eat. Spaghetti has never tasted so good! In fact, he didn't realize how hungry he was until just now.

Upon finishing his plate of pasta, he felt very full and VERY content. He re-entered the kitchen to find a happy Muriel washing the dishes and Noel sitting at the table by a half-eaten plate of spaghetti. He turned around to face Courage, but without a glare. Courage accidentally dropped his plate. He then picked it back up and laughed while facing Noel. Noel just continued to stare at him. Courage then gave his plate to Muriel and left the kitchen.

He went outside through the living room to go dig up some old toys and items to go through and play with. This was something he'd do even before the encounters stopped to entertain himself. And quite frankly, he'd have a good time as he often felt nostalgic going through old items he completely forgot about.

He dug up his first hole which had an old dog whistle. Eustace bought it to use on Courage but didn't think it worked because it wouldn't make a noise. He then threw it out calling it junk and Courage decided to keep it, knowing fully well that it did indeed work.

Next he found a CD with a bunch of weird looking black and white eyes on it. Upon seeing all of the eyes, he suddenly remembered what this was. Shirley had given him this CD and another one (which he lost and it looked almost the same, only the eyes circled around just plain blackness) to listen to to try to "open up his third eye". He listened to both of them more than once (also because the music itself was MAGNIFICENT) until an actual third eye appeared between his eyebrows. Shirley, who was even amazed herself, said that she meant it figuratively and not literally. After she fixed his condition, he buried both CDs and was terrified of them. That was years ago though and he wanted to carefully give the music another shot because it was so good.

The last thing he found in that hole was a VERY old and hardened peanut butter and jelly sandwich that was half-eaten. He took a bite (against his better self) and even though it was old, he remembered why it wasn't eaten and was instead buried. It was from the time he played his tuba (which he found in a hole the other day) and the not so little worm would dance to him. Muriel made him that sandwich, but put vinegar in it. He buried it behind her back to make it look like he ate it. And after all of these years, he could still taste the vinegar. After spitting it out and throwing it, he couldn't help but throw up violently inside of that now empty hole. Then he continued to dig up more holes and find more nostalgic items.

When Courage was on his third hole, he spotted Noel. He was just outside of the farmhouse and was walking towards him.

"Oh, great!" Courage groaned. "He literally has EVERYTHING already, and there is no need for him to keep following and pestering me." He then reburied everything from this hole and made his way to the barn to "tend to some things". He nabbed a padlock and hid in a haystack behind the stall door closest to the giant front door, entirely out of sight. He knew Noel would never find him and he'd probably never even been in there before.

When he heard Noel finally enter, he walked right past the stall and deeper into the barn. Courage peeked out of the stack at him and knew that he definitely did not know where he was going. When Noel eventually made it up the ladder and into the loft, Courage then rose up out of the haystack, exited the barn, and shut the giant front door. He locked the door with that padlock, trapping Noel inside alone. He then ran back to the farmhouse.

He laughed like an evil maniac as he knew he trapped that fool in there. "Now he'll stop following me," Courage laughed.

As he entered the farmhouse, Eustace and Muriel were sitting in the living room watching a movie. He ran up the stairs, down the hall, and up into the attic. He shut the door and sat on the bed to think.

"God, that idiot just keeps making things worse!" Courage grumbled to himself.

"What did that idiot do to you now, twit?" Computer asked.

He spooked Courage, as he didn't know that he was on and listening to him. Not necessarily replying to Computer, he continued.

"Aren't things good enough for him and bad enough for me already?!" Courage groaned.

"Seriously dog," Computer tried to talk to him. "How's your 'way number 1' working?"

"It's not going well!" Courage finally fired back at Computer. "He keeps following me to tease me and rub his fortune in my face!"

"Well, he's not here right now," Computer pointed out.

"That's because I locked him in the barn," Courage said bitterly.

"Dog!" Computer exclaimed.

"What?"

"Well is he still breathing?"

"Yeah, probably, why wouldn't he be?"

"Argh!" Computer cringed. "Fool! You don't realize how close you were! You could have burned the whole damn thing down and your problem would have been over!"

"I told you already, I'm not going to kill him!" Courage snapped.

"Why not?" Computer asked.

"Well," Courage said. "I guess-," he paused seriously at a loss of words. "I-, I don't want him to die," he said slowly.

"Idiot! He is the source of your problems! Get rid of him!" Computer scolded him.

"You told me to pick a choice, and I picked one, you twit!" Courage gave him a taste of his own medicine.

Computer gasped. "How DARE you?!" he cried. "Oh, the AUDACITY!" He paused again. "Oh, the INDIGNITY!"

Courage then remembered something positive to change the topic.

"So Muriel understood me," Courage said.

Computer stopped. "Oh, so I guess she isn't totally dumb or deaf after all. Whoo hoo," Computer said unamused.

"At least I thought I'd share," Courage said.

"I really don't care anymore dog. Really, I don't," Computer whined.

"Fine," Courage said. And then they were both silent.

Courage, feeling a little better after talking about Muriel and embarrassing Computer, returned his thoughts to Noel. His positive emotions then went overboard again. But instead of getting replaced with anger, they were replaced with sorrow. He looked out the window and to the barn, which still had its door locked, and thought about Noel locked up in there. He was probably crying or howling hoping somebody would find him out there and let him out. That formed a pit in Courage's stomach. Then he noticed that it was getting darker, and soon it would be pitch black for him. Computer then read his face.

"What now?" Computer whined. Courage did not respond. "Dog, I can see right through you," Computer claimed.

"Leave me alone," Courage said before laying down in the bed to pull the covers up to his eyes and face the wall.

"You couldn't ignore me if you tried," Computer challenged. "You are SUCH an emotional wreck and anything anyone ever does gets under your skin."

Courage continued to ignore him for at least 15 more minutes. He was SO pissed off at Computer right now, which in turn made him pissed at Noel again. But then he thought of the things that Computer "diagnosed" him with a few weeks ago and tried to quell his anger. Without success, he just continued to lie there and stare at the wall, feeling utterly lost.

Then the door swung open, and he didn't even bother to look up. But he knew it was Noel because of what Computer said to him as he walked in.

"Ohhhh," Computer said with raw amusement. "So you must be the husband?"

Noel unplugged Computer to shut him up and Computer's screen went black. Courage then felt Noel's eyes staring a hole into his back. He knew he was probably pissed at him for locking him in the barn and he's probably up here to confront him. But Courage was just going to ignore him, not knowing whether to take his punches and remain "humble", or try to kick his tail in back.

"Courage," Noel said in his true, gentle voice.

Even though his voice surprised Courage immensely, he wore his best poker face and continued to stare at the wall. He wanted to see what Noel would say.

Noel put a paw under his muzzle to try to think of what to do now.

"Courage, can we talk?" he said again in his careful voice.

"What do you want?" Courage spat nastily.

"Courage, I-," Noel stopped. "Ummmm," he hesitated. Courage then finally knew that for this to end well, then Noel needed some help from him. So Courage presented an apathetic look on his face and sat up to face him. Noel, averting his eyes for a second, sighed and popped a squat right next to him.

"Look," Noel finally said. "I know you hate me, and I hate you. Well, no, I don't really hate you. I mean, kinda not anymore so much anyway," he barely choked out before scratching the back of his head. Courage, trying to refuse to believe what Noel was saying, stared at the ground so that Noel could say exactly what he wanted to say. And with that, he continued.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that something is clearly bothering you. I don't want to play dumb and pretend like I don't know what it is. I do know what it is, but what I want to do is see if there's anything I can do to help make my presence more bearable for you. I am now permanently part of this family and I'm not going anywhere, but I realized you've given me kindness, space, and time with Muriel. And I haven't given you anything in return. It's not fair for you. And I want to change that, and to make you happy when you see me."

Noel's tail moved a little bit right after he said that and both he and Courage turned to stare at it. He quickly seized it under his paws and turned to look at Courage, who was still too shocked at his genuine change of heart to care. Noel then nervously giggled and apologized with a slight blush before he shoved his tail underneath his bum to sit on.

Courage, still in disbelief, finally responded.

"Noel," his lip trembled. "How do I know you are not going to turn around and hurt me again." He pulled onto his ears as he recalled those horrible memories.

"It's because you can trust me this time," Noel responded wholeheartedly.

Courage, completely overwhelmed with emotion, then full force hugged Noel, tightly. Noel half hugged in return.

"Ahh," Noel said as he sat there rather awkwardly. "This is all very nice and all, but didn't I tell you about my sensitive fur?!"

Courage broke away with watery eyes and a genuine smile. "Sorry," he said with emotion. And even though he knew the "sensitive fur" thing was a load of garbage, he now wanted to respect his new friend's boundaries.

"That's alright, Courage," Noel said with a smile. He then put a paw onto Courage's shoulder. "And I am SO sorry for EVERYTHING. I didn't like you at first because I thought you were mean. But then I realized that you were very sensible in your actions against me and that everything you said was correct. And when you still didn't completely kill me after I destroyed your life, I then noticed how wholesome you are and felt TERRIBLE about my actions. I actually really like you Courage, and I hope you can forgive me."

Courage then looked down at the paw on his shoulder and back at Noel. "Hey, why do you get to touch me?" Courage asked playfully.

"It's because you clearly don't have sensitive fur," Noel grinned.

A/N: And just like that, Courage and Noel were FINALLY friends. Noel finally grew up a little and Courage got control over his emotions. Also we are FINALLY getting very close to the ending of the very first arc. Hurray!