Chapter 17: The Balance Of Things

Bandit asked his brother if his kids could spend the night at his house since it was Friday so he could spend some time alone with just Chilli. Stripe said it was fine with him. He also told Bandit about how Bingo was feeling down earlier but she was doing better now. The blue Heeler returned home and shortly after, Chilli arrived as well. She walked inside and Bandit greeted her with a kiss.

"Hey babe, how was work?" he asked, ending the kiss.

"Exhausting, but I'm glad to finally be home, are Bluey and Bingo asleep already?"

"No, I asked if it was okay for them to spend the night at my brothers. It's just us for tonight."

"How thoughtful, I love my kids, but we hardly get time to ourselves."

"I know, me too. Want me to put on the movie we have been meaning to watch?"

"Sure thing, Hun." Chilli replied kissing him on the cheek.

Bandit grabbed some snacks and drinks and the two sat down on the couch, cuddling each other while watching a movie called Repo Dog.

The next day, the Heeler kids were back home, and Shaun was about to head back home too. He said his goodbyes to Wendy and Judo, standing at the front door about to leave.

"Wait, Shaun."

He turned around to look at Judo who seemed to have a lot on her mind. "Hey Judo, did you need something?"

"I just wanted to say that I enjoyed our time together last night." She said, looking away from Shaun.

"Aww, I'm happy Jules, I had a lot of fun too" He replied, smiling. "Are you okay? You look nervous."

"I-I also want to say I like how funny and sweet you are. You care about me, your friends and family so much." Judo took in a deep breath. "Shaun… I love you."

Shaun's eyes widened, and Judo looked into them, waiting for his response. He stepped closer and locked eyes with hers. They stood there for a second in silence, Judo started to worry, but Shaun kissed her on her cheek and felt her body relax. Shaun ended the kiss and looked back into her eyes.

"I love you too." He put his hand on her cheek and rubbed it gently.

"Shaun, will you be my boyfriend?"

"Of course I will."

The two smiled and hugged each other and then Judo kissed his cheek, making Shaun smile even wider.

Eventually, the hug ended, and Shaun walked over to his house next door. When he entered, he was hugged by his sisters.

"Shaun, I have something for you!" Bingo said holding out a paper card.

Shaun took it and opened it. It said, "Love you Shaun!" signed by Bingo, Bluey, Muffin, and Socks.

He smiled as he read it. "Thanks, you guys, I love you all too." He hugged his sisters back.

Shaun then spent the rest of the day playing with Bluey and Bingo, Judo also stopped by and played a few games with them all.

"Hey Shaun, did you have a good time?" Chilli asked him as he tucked himself into bed.

"Yeah, I did Mom!"

"I'm glad you did." She replied as she kissed Shaun goodnight on his forehead.

"Oh, and something else too."

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"This morning, when I was about to come back home, Judo said she loved me."

"She did? And what did you do?"

"I kissed her and said I love her too, and now we are dating."

"Wackadoo! I'm so happy for you!" Chilli ruffled the fur on top of his head.

"Thanks, mom." Shaun replied while yawning.

"You're welcome, Shaun. Have a good night, love you."

"Love you too."

Chilli left his room and quietly shut the door and turned off the light. She walked through the hallway and peered into her daughters' room and saw them both peacefully asleep. She walked inside and gave them both kisses before heading to her and Bandit's room. She looked at her husband who was sitting on the bed with a grin.

"Uhh… what?"

Chilli put out her hand. "Pay up."

Bandit realized what she was talking about, he sighed, took out a $20 and gave it to her. "I take it he told her?"

"Well, it was Judo who said it first, but he said it after. Shaun said they are dating now."

"Really? I'm proud of the kid. It was rough for him in the beginning but he's been doing these past years."

"Me too, do you think he'll tell her? About what he is and where he is from?"

"I don't know, but I don't think she'll care. Judo will still love him the same."

"Yeah, you're right, my big blue dog." Bandit rolled his eyes and he and Chilli got in bed and went to sleep.

It was now Monday, and Shaun was sad because Judo had gotten sick and couldn't go to school. Most of the school day was uneventful but he cheered up when he talked with Millie and Adrian during lunch. School was almost over, and Shaun went to use the bathroom during his last class of the afternoon. He turned the corner and saw Lance enter the bathroom, but he didn't notice the Husky. Shaun decided this would be a good time to talk with him and followed him in. He walked up to the stall he was in and knocked on it.

"Hey Lance? Can I talk to you for a second?"

Earlier in the day at another school, Bingo, Mackenzie, Bluey and Dougie were all playing a game called Pirates. The four had formed a group and they were all close with each other. Mackenzie was the Captain, Bluey was the Navigator, Bingo was the Surgeon, and Dougie was the Shipwright.

"Navigator!"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Plot a course for New Zealand! We have a long journey ahead of us."

"Aye aye, Captain!"

Dougie came up to the two and started signing to Mackenzie.

"Hey Bluey, what's he saying?" He said, breaking character.

"Uhhhh. Hey Bingo! Can you tell us what Dougie is saying?"

Dougie signed to Bingo, and she did some back. "He says he finished the repairs on the ship Captain!"

"Good work Shipwright!"

Bingo relayed what he said to the Cavapoo. He smiled and went back to finding more things to fix.

"Captain look! Someone is lost at sea!" Bluey yelled out and pointed to Rusty, who was struggling to stay above water.

Mackenzie ran over to the end of the boat and threw a rope and pulled Rusty in.

"Thank you so much for saving my life! I thought I wasn't going to make it!"

"You're welcome, but what were you doing in the middle of the ocean?"

"Me and Jack were out looking for fish to catch when we were attacked by another ship. They took Jack away and left me to drown!"

"If we come across that ship, we'll get Jack back to you. In the meantime, you shall serve as my Master Gunner!"

"Yes, Captain!" Rusty replied as he went off to take care of the ship's cannons.

They continued their adventure to New Zealand; Bluey had plotted the best course to get there and Mackenzie stood behind the ship's wheel. Bingo was cleaning her station, and Rusty was doing a maintenance check on the cannons. When suddenly…

"What the hell do you want?"

"It's just that… I noticed you haven't doing well, and I wanted to see if you were okay."

"Why do you care about how I am? I'm sure you and your friends are happy I'm leaving you all alone."

"Well, they are, but I'm honestly worried it's because of our fight, and I want to apologize for what I did to you, I overreacted and really hurt you, I'm sorry."

Lance sighed and opened the stall door. "I forgive you, I guess. That fight wasn't really the main reason I've been feeling down."

"Then what is? If you don't mind me asking."

Lance debated on telling Shaun, but after seeing the genuine care and worry on his face, he swallowed his fears. "Look, what I'm about you stays between us, got it?"

"Yes Lance, you have my word."

"The reason is because my dad has been hitting my mom, and when I got home after school that day, he punched me."

"What? How long has this been going on?"

"I don't know, but I found out about four years ago."

"Why haven't you or your mom told anyone? This is serious!"

"I tried asking her to, but she said that dad would k-kill her if he found out she did." Lance started to tear up.

"Lance? Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not! I've been angry all the time for so long and I've been talking my anger out on everyone! Especially you and your friends! I hate it!" Lance was fully crying now and couldn't stop himself.

Shaun felt bad for him, he tried to think of something to say that would cheer the Retriever up. "I think I understand how you feel." He said out of the blue.

Lance wiped his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm sure you noticed I don't look anything like my parents or sisters, right? That's because they are my foster family."

Lance stopped crying and listened to Shaun.

"I used to live with mom, but one day after I came home with my uncle… we found her dead in my house."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and I ran away and found the Heelers and they took care of me and eventually adopted me."

"Hold on, why didn't you live with your uncle?"

"That's hard for me to explain, but I didn't find out until recently that it was my dad who killed her."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Shaun." Lance said, really feeling sympathetic for the Husky.

"I used to get really sad about it to where just thinking about it would make me cry, but I found a family who helped me out so much. I still get a little sad when I think about her though."

The two stood there in silence, until Lance chuckled. "Wow, we are really messed up, aren't we?"

"Ha, yeah I guess you're right. And also, I was thinking, it probably won't help much, but I think I know something that might help with your anger."

"What's that?"

"You wanna be friends?"

"What? You mean it?"

"Yeah, I do. It might be hard for Adrian and Millie to accept you in our group, but I'm sure if you apologize to them. We'll all get along just fine." Shaun put out his hand for a fist-bump.

Lance gave him a fist-bump. "Thank you fre- I mean Shaun."

"It's no prob."

BAM!

The whole ship shook, and everyone fell to the ground.

"What was that?!" Mackenzie yelled out.

"Look! Off port side!" Bluey said pointing to the left of the ship.

Mackenzie looked over and saw another pirate ship. He took out his telescope and looked at who was on it. He saw Snickers, Pretzel, and the Terriers, all attacking them, firing their cannons at their ship. He looked over and saw Jack, who was tied up against the sail post. Rusty, Bingo and Dougie all came up to see what was happening and they all saw the other ship getting closer.

"Ah! What are we going to do!" screamed Bingo.

"Rusty! Go down and arm the cannons! Bingo and Dougie! Go help him. Bingo signed to Dougie what Mackenzie said and the three nodded and ran down to prepare to fight back.

"Bluey, take my telescope and tell me when they are about to fire at us so I can adjust the ship while I get us close enough to board them!"

Bluey took it and kept a close eye on them as Mackenzie steered the ship closer to the enemy.

The two ships fired cannonballs at each other. Some missed and some made contact, but neither hit anything important as Mackenzie got the ship enough to board the other one. Rusty, Bingo, Dougie, Bluey and Mackenzie all took up swords and jumped the gap across. Everyone fought each other. After a long battle, Mackenzie and his crew emerged victorious. Rusty ran over to Jack, cut the rope that tied him down and extended a hand to help him up. Jack couldn't help but blush at the sight of the red Kelpie but shook off the feeling and grabbed Rusty's hand.

"We did it!" Bluey yelled out excitedly and raised her hands in the air.

Everyone did the same except Bingo who took Dougie into a tight hug and started jumping up and down with him. Dougie was taken back a bit by this but quickly smiled and wagged his tail. Even though no one saw his face, Dougie blushed when he was picked up.

"Bluey! Bingo! It's time to head home!"

Everyone was taken out of their game when Bandit yelled out with Shaun next to him, school was over, and the rest of the kids saw their parents coming up to pick them up. The two Heeler kids waved bye to their friends as they walked to the car, got inside, and headed home.