Hello guys. I'm sorry for leaving such a cliffhanger last time, and then leaving you hanging. I wish I could come with some good excuse of why but I really don't. I've just been trying to concentrate on stories that have been ending- including Oneshots that I've started yet not finished.

Since I updated last I've finished a light in the dark, we're coming home and the moment I needed the most. Since New Year's night I have as usual been working on all of my chapters to have all stories updated in the new year.

It's going very slow. But so far I've gotten up only a oneshot (For the night shift) and each chapter for every store except this one and how they ended up in care.

With that I'm currently working on six multi-chapter stories and a oneshot for Harry Potter, so hopefully there won't be as long in between the updates as there have been before.

…"There was a burglar"….

."He kicked and kicked and kicked. Then he grabbed all my things and only ran away.":…

:"Please Ariel. Please wake up"…

A few very long seconds, the longest seconds of my life Burt Hudmel had driven past me where I was down on my knees next to Ariel. Or rather her body I shook and hoped she would look up.

He had ignored what he was going to do with Lex and Carole tonight, then lifted Ariel into his car and hit the gas so hard to go to the animal hospital I had barely had the time to get into the car.

And I really couldn't say that I knew what had just happened.

Everything had just been going so fast in between being on that street when this was just another day, until now when I could barely even figure how X-ray and ultrasound had gone so fast. Before a vet named Dr. Lawrence had shooed me away and taken Ariel with him and I was in the waiting room, where Burt had called Lex and Carole to show up and I started pacing back and forth.

"He just jumped out of nowhere…." I said in a shaky voice. "…And he spoke so calmly… I could have yelled or anything at all. But then Ariel started barking and he started kicking and he just kicked and kicked and kicked…." I slumped down on one of the plastic chairs again and put my head in my hands. "I just didn't do anything, Neither then nor when he reached down my pockets and grabbed my phone and my wallet- everything."

"Leah…" I heard it as Lex sat down next to me and felt her putting her arm around my shoulders. "It's not your fault… There was nothing you could have done and who knows what would have happened if you had tried and intervened."

"Lex is right Sweetie…" Carole sat down on the other side from Lex and stroke my back. "If you had tried to fight against whoever that guy was… he could have had a gun. Things really could have been much worse. The most important part is that you're safe. And I'm sure Ariel will be fine too."

Maybe worse for them, for them Ariel was just another dog. To me she was my best friend and after everything that had happened, I didn't know what I could have done without her. I didn't know what I was going to do if she didn't make it through tonight.

"Dad went to call your parents." Lex told me. "They should be here soon…. But is there anything I can do for you? Are you hungry? Then I could go and buy something." I shook my head- how could I have been supposed to do anything right now? Let alone eat? "Isn't there anything? Anything at all I can do?"

"No."

I wished that it had felt better with Lex and Carole there, and with mum and dad when they came around. But the thought that Ariel could be dying, and the pictures on the insides of my eyelids of the burglar and how he had kicked and kicked and kicked until she wasn't moving anymore, it was like it all stopped any other feelings and knowing.

Neither one of us six had any thought that maybe we should ever leave this place. That nothing could change even though we weren't right here, at least I had to stay, but I probably didn't act as grateful as I should have that day Everything I could do was to wait, and every time the door opened to the waiting room we all looked up, maybe this time it was Dr. Lawrence, maybe this time it was him coming to tell us Ariel would be alright- but what if she wouldn't.

Then, when it finally was and mum, dad, Lex and her parents all rose to their feet while I stayed sitting as if I had frozen in my place.

"Leah?" Mum spoke up, and not until then I flew up and turned with the others to the vet. "So… what are the news?"

"As you already kno…."

"I don't care what we already know." I said shakily. "I just want to know if Ariel will be alright."

Please tell me the one word I want to hear.

"I've done all I can now but her state is still critical. Now we can just wait…. I think, that if it has changed in the morning there will be more chances for me to do more. But if not…"

The whole world seemed as quiet as if someone dropped a feather we could have heard it falling to the floor. I felt it in my heart, I knew in all of me what it was the vet didn't tell us and how he didn't finish the sentence. But of course someone was ought to ask and that someone was dad.

"Then what?"

The vet didn't have to speak it out loud. We all knew…

"Can I see her?"

I could hear my own voice but wasn't aware that I was talking. And it was like I heard it from another side of a wall. It was actually as if I was watching and hearing everything like that when he nodded, and barely had led me two steps away from the others when dad suddenly grabbed onto my arm.

"Would you want me to come with you?" I hesitated for just half a second. "I understand if you don't want to be alone in everything you've seen."

"No." I answered at last. "I'm not alone… I need to be with Ariel and Ariel only."

Without wasting another look towards any of them I turned my back against my parents, Lex, Burt and Carole and followed the vet through the door, through a hallway and into another hallway. Where there were several cage doors for each dog (or cat or any other animal little or big enough to fit) who needed time alone to heal. And just as we came in a yellow Lab looked up from behind the door and barked at me.

"That's just Beau." The vet explained to me. "He's been castrated so his owners should be back any second and get him. So if they come then you're going to be hearing someone hear. You don't need to care about them… Ariel's over here." He lead me to the cage door at the bottom of the hallway and opened it to me. "You can pet her and stroke her neck or paws if you want to. Just be careful so you don't touch any of the bandages…. Is there anything more I can do for you?"

"No." I half whispered; half whimpered while I sat down on the floor next to her with my back leaned against the wall. "We need to be alone."

"Just press that button on the wall if you need anything."

I was only listening to what he said or when he left. When I heard someone came to get their Beau I couldn't have cared for it any less. I only had sight and hearing for my Ariel. And there she laid on a blanket upon the concrete floor, with bandages around her whole abdomen and a plastic tube around her neck. Her eyes were closed and the water bowl next to her head hadn't been touched. She had grown quite the bit since we went to get her on my birthday in September. But she had never looked as little as right then.

"Ari…" I sunk to my knees carefully stroking her white, thick fur on her neck. "You shouldn't have done that…. I'm sorry you had to…. I'm sorry you had to."

Lex and Carole were right. Things could have been worse if Ariel had been there protecting me. That guy could have had a gun…

Everything that had changed, everything had changed and now I was okay while my best friend wasn't.

If I could only have gone back in time, gotten into dad's car and went with him home like he had wanted me to instead of being so stubborn as usual and walked and walked and walked like I wanted to do every single day. Or more felt like I had to.

Back when this seemed like a day like any other. With glee club and teachers and I had just wanted to stay away from my parents…

Singing stand by you and keep holding on felt like a million lightyears away.

I couldn't help it though when I suddenly remembered a song I had listened to years and years ago. And the music video to it was suddenly playing on the insides of my eyelids.

For just a moment, I was planning to use my phone and film myself while I could sing to Ariel. If I could show that to the rest of this glee club then I was just making something of tonight. And time would pass by until something happened. Because something had to happen!

Ariel couldn't just lie like this until the vet would return in the morning….

I suddenly remembered that I didn't have anything to film with since the burglar had taken my phone along with everything else….

But I had to do anything.

I saw in front of me how the song and the music video was for the singer's girlfriend. And wondered about what he would think of someone singing his song to a dog.

But then, I knew that- despite only having been with us for half a year, Ariel was my best friend next to Lex. Especially now Jonah was gone. I had wanted a dog for as far back as I could remember, yet I could never have understood what she would mean.

That's what was mattered…

"Ariel…" I whimpered slightly and stroke my hand over her thick, white fur once again. "Please. Just look up, lift your head. That's all I need… I just need one single sign…"

I had never been able to forget the lyrics to that song though. And suddenly- almost like hearing it from outside of myself I found myself singing out loud.

Anywhere you are I am near, anywhere you go I'll be there…

I hadn't listened to this song for years, not sang along for at least as long. But somehow I still knew the lyrics as running water and once I had started I knew I couldn't continue until the song was over. Not even when I heard the door to the hallway open and close and behind me someone came into this stall.

"Leah?" Just as I stopped singing I could hear mum's voice behind me. And when I turned my head for just a second I saw she was holding onto a plastic bag. "I got you a new phone." I shook my head and sternly looked away from her holding it towards me. "Go on. Take it." As if I could have, I looked away even more sternly. "Leah… You can take it. That isn't going to change anything."

But what if I looked away from Ariel to take it and that was when she faded away?

"I don't care for that phone." I could have yelled at the top of my lungs, "I just want Ariel to be alright."

"You have to have a phone…." Mum put the box on the floor. "I'll leave it here so you can take it whenever…" I didn't look back on her. "Do you want me to stay here with you?"

"No. Go away. Leave us alone… We have to be alone, go away." Mum sighed. "Go away."

"I'm on my way."

I didn't turn to look at her now either. But after everything, I could still hear on the tone of mum's voice that she was hurt by my rejection. However I couldn't have cared any less, and it was just a bit of relief when I heard mum get up, then her footsteps leading further and further away from me until I heard a door open and close.

I knew that as little as I had known anything this afternoon and evening, but I didn't get why the thought of having someone with me seemed to be crushing me. Or like, if I had looked to the phone mum had brought me (knowing very well I had needed a new one anyway) and turned my vision away from Ariel for half a second, it would make her break. As if my vision was keeping her together along with the bandages.

But then at last, my own body couldn't keep upright. And I laid down on the concrete floor, carefully lying my head towards Ariel's white fur and almost whispering to her while I just kept crying and almost whispering in her ear.

"Please Ari. Please, you have to be okay. I can't live without you."

Playlist

The song with the music video: What are words- Chris Medina

I was scrolling through the playlist I have for this story and secrets revealed's used songs. And before I did I had actually completely forgotten that what are words was used once there too. Sung for Hayley when her dad was dying. I'm going to keep it now, but I might also add some line in between Lex and Leah about it in future chapters.

Random fact

It's been years and years since I watched it. (I was probably six or seven) but if you have you might think Leah sitting next to Ariel like that reminds you of a movie called my dog Skip. It's not though. If you want to know where the idea comes from, go on Youtube, search for "Horse Paula". There are videos from a member called TaylorSpurgeon. And some of those videos seriously make me cry like a little baby.

Although. That's probably going to spoil how this will go for Ariel… Will it? Or will this end completely different for Leah and her?

I'll just leave those for you to watch though.