Chapter fifty-six: Silent Bright Night
"Chase, your suit is ripped!" Rocky gasped, noting the torn seam of the left shoulder.
"Guess we're really breaking them in today," Chase responded, earning various looks from the vast group of pups.
"Is the pup okay? Any injuries?" Snowflake asked Chase. "Yes, I mean your passenger too."
"I think I'm ok, but.." Chase breathed, still trying to get it back. "I'm not sure about the little guy."
"We better check on the pup Chase brought," Snowflake said as she turned to Rayla and the PUP Pals.
"*sigh* And maybe me too.." Chase sighed, moments before stumbling to the ground with a shiver.
"Chase!" Skye gasped, as several pups jumped forward toward him. However, the Prescott siblings reached him first, wrapping him with a blanket and detaching him from the sleigh one after the other.
"We need to get them inside and warmed up quickly," Maggie announced, taking the burrito pup through the doors briskly.
Without missing a beat, Rayla and Chester worked together to push the sleigh up the last step and into the open door so everyone could follow and close the doors behind them.
xxxx
Laid down by the hearth, a bowl was offered to him that he drank from right away. But when the blanket was pulled back the influx of cooler air sent chills down his spine.
"Sorry," Billy apologized. "Lemme take a look real quick." The man fingered the rip in the seam of his snowsuit, and Chase half dreaded to feel pain from it, but when nothing, but normal pressure happened he was relieved to be right for once about being fine.
"No blood and no reaction," Billy finally said, withdrawing his finger and shifting gears to release one of the straps. "I think we're in the clear. How's your shoulder? That run likely put some pressure on it."
"I actually, I feel better than I ever have.." Chase replied, and though he wavered a little, he certainly appeared genuine and maybe even a little surprised to think about it now.
Billy released the last strap so he could fit both hands around the connection point of the chest strap along the shoulders. And since Chase was practically laying on his back, he could pull the harness straight toward himself to release the pup from it, but had to remove the blanket further to get the rest of it. Then Ryder came forward to unzip the suit so he could remove it. As soon as the material came off, Chase's whole body shuddered with a shake. Then Maggie covered him with the blanket and he laid down again and snuggled into it for extra warmth.
"Let's dry you off a little bit," Maggie suggested running a dry, warm towel across the young shepherd's cheek. "Looks like you got a little wet."
"Just my face.." Chase replied. "But I sure am glad I had a visor to keep my vision clear."
"Just your face? What about your tail?" Brian asked in disbelief. "And your paws?"
"He did have layers on, but I forget if he had boots or not," Melody commented casually.
"Our suits are built with grips that cover our paws and keep the snow out so we don't get cold as fast," Rocky clarified.
"Need a hug to get warm?" Ned asked kindly.
"Haven't you bothered him enough?" Snowflake asked her brother.
"Though he does have a point. With that tear in your outfit, I'm surprised you aren't more cold," she added.
"Well I was running through the snow.." Chase reasoned, as a hot water bottle was eased in under the blanket. "And I was working hard to keep moving, which kept me warm, but that doesn't mean I didn't kind of feel the cold."
"I'm just glad you made it back in one piece," Tiny mentioned.
"How was the trek?" Ryder asked. "Run into any trouble out there?"
"A couple.. but nothing I couldn't handle," Chase replied, hoping this honestly wouldn't set anyone off. "Getting there was hard, and getting back was harder.. But retrieving the pup was easy."
The cage clicked and squeaked as it was opened and the pup calmly hopped out into Maggie's arms.
"And I think this little guy also made it back in one piece," she said, taking a brief scan of him. "Well done."
"Thanks.." Chase smiled.
"Gotta hand it to ya, bro, you really came through tonight.." Chester complimented.
"Yeah, but.. I don't think we're going anywhere with that blizzard out there," Chase sighed. "If we'd have known that we probably would've brought our gifts here to do our exchange."
"That's ok.." Ryder said. "We'll clear a path for everyone tomorrow, and then do our gift exchange."
"Sounds like a plan to me.." Skyler piped up. "Oo, so what do we do, instead?"
"We give our hero some hot cider to celebrate," Madge announced, setting a bowl next to him. "You saved Christmas for a special little boy, tonight. Well done, love."
"Thank you, Miss Madge," the shepherd responded graciously.
"Drink up, darling," the old woman beamed, when she straightened up. "You've earned it.. and it'll warm you up."
Chase bent down to drink, soaking in the warm frothy steam that filled his nostrils with the pleasant holiday drink.
"Congratulations, Chase. You deserve it," the husky all said happily, tails wagging.
"Well, I suppose now's as good a time as any to get this little cutie over to his new person," Madge supposed, as Chase sent a thankful look over to the huskies, so he could keep drinking.
Madge took the little pup when Maggie handed him to her and cradling the tiny shepherd in her arms, she ruffled the hair of its head and booped its nose as she walked off with him.
"Alright love,.. time to go to your new home.." she said. "Where you'll be loved and cared for and looked after just as you should be." Holding the pup toward her under the forelegs, she pressed her nose to the pup's and then her forehead to his, then turned him in her hands to set him down where he could see the boy and his parents. And even though the boy didn't see him, he immediately ran from the elderly woman's hands to hop his paws up onto the boy's folded leg to lick his hand.
Chase got up as he and the other pups drew near to Madge, watching as the boy turned to look and exploded with happiness when he realized, who had licked him. Then snatching the small puppy up, he gave it a hug while the wagging tail and licking tongue kept expressing his excitement for the new situation he was presented with.
"Awwwww," the four huskies cooed as they watched the interaction.
"Be careful, he's small and has lots of growing to do," Snowflake cautioned gently.
"He'll be ok,.." Chase decided, watching the boy and pup with pride. "He's a tough shepherd."
"Just like someone else we know," Chester smirked, nudging his brother playfully.
"Well, everyone it looks like we'll be staying here for the night, but don't worry, Town Hall is well stocked with plenty of blankets and sleeping materials. So I hope we can all make do for this Christmas Eve with what we've got, heh.." Mayor Goodway's dampened tone nervously dropped with a light chuckle, but recomposing herself she decided to maintain her brave mayor face all the same. "What's more. We were hoping to do a good old-fashioned tree lighting outside on the front lawn, but since we're all stuck in here, we'll make the best of it with our first ever tree lighting.. inside."
"Sounds like a great idea!" Skyler gasped. "Come on!"
Chase and several others chuckled as they wandered after her.
"Really glad you're back to your old self, Chase," Rayla mentioned. "You've really come a long way again.. And I'd like to think you're even stronger because of it."
"I sure hope so," Chase replied. "Otherwise, I feel like I went through all that for no reason."
"Yay! Old fashioned Christmas!" Snowflake, Ned, Melody and Brian cheered as they followed the other pups. The boy and his new pup gathered with the other guests around the unlit tree in the corner of the large Banquet Hall, the mayor took her place next to the prepared switch, the PAW Patrol and their company nearby, then all the other guests next to them.
"Three.. Two.. One!"
Christmas music began to steadily play once the lights went up on the tree and the walls around them.
Something soft was set on Chase's head and he looked up to find Ryder standing there with one last Santa hat that he placed on his own head.
"Merry Christmas, pups," he said.
"Merry Christmas, Everyone!" Chase added.
xxxx
"I can't wait to do our gift exchange tomorrow!" Rocky squeaked excitedly. "I'm curious to see what everyone got for each other.. And even more curious to know what I got."
"I just hope everyone likes what they got," Kylie mentioned.
"Merry Christmas everyone," Snowflake, Ned, Melody and Brian cheered happily.
"Merry Christmas!" The rest of the team responded happily.
Snowflake smiled as she took a quick look at Chase.
'Merry Christmas Chase. Thank goodness you're back to your old self. You deserve to be happy,' she thought to herself.
xxxx
Dimmed lights and hushed voices.. bed rolls and blankets fluffed out and furry bodies started to lay on them.
Skyler yawned deeply, stretching out on her back from laying on her side and went back to that once the yawn had subsided. Kylie snuggled in next to her and Tiny and CiCi found a place nearby to hunker down together, where Rayla closed the gap with Rocky, Zuma, Skye and Rubble.
Snowflake, Ned, Brian and Melody all cuddled together as they slept, dreaming of the festive fun the next day would bring.
Marshall chose a spot close to Ryder also sticking near the central cluster of the pups which happened to be near Chase and Chester who were preparing a place to lay down as well. Chase watched the various members of the collective family he was surrounded by.. that be including the Prescotts and Boomer nestling down not far to his left, and also Ryder sliding into a sleeping bag behind him. This sight felt far more dominant to the negativity he'd been putting up with as of late. And though before it was suffocating, it was now so weak it didn't even exist, which he was thankful for.
So when the beckoning call to sleep came from within, he followed the waving prompt of his brother to lay down with him and putting their heads down next to each other it seemed to be only moments before sleep infiltrated their midst and took them into their dreams with the most peace the PAW Patrol German Shepherd had had in quite a long time.
~A Carol For Christmas~
Hey guys! Guess what! We've finally reached the end of our journey.. and WOW was that last few chapters a doozy! Doozy in the sense of how long it took to get them done. Apologies for the slacking, but honestly the break was actually exactly what we needed to push through to the end.. but.. don't worry this is not quite the end.. and here's why..
So you know that gift exchange we had the characters working on?
Yeah, about that.. don't freak out and say 'hey you missed this!'
No, we didn't, but.. we felt it was deserving of its own story. A one-shot to complete the final fun.
The second reason behind this is we felt that adding this in at the end of this story would take away from the personal victory of Chase's journey through healing coming to a close by his rescue of the little pup.
So that being said.. we will get on that right after this chapter goes up, which, if you're reading this, then it obviously is. Lol. ;D XD
So stay tuned ya'll just one more tidbit of fun to close out this long standing series with some shenanigans. Hope you have enjoyed this journey cause we certainly did.. and we hope you'll tune in once more for the Pups Secret Santa one-shot titled: Gift Pups.
We appreciate all your support and as far as more stories after this we're not sure yet. We have concepts, but nothing has been finalized yet. So till then, we'll see you next time. Thx!
