PAW Patrol: Resurgence || Book One

(S1-C7) Mirrored Heartache

After a seemingly long drive, Ryder finally arrived at Katie's. He had called her ahead of time, but all he said was that Marshall needed to be seen immediately and to be ready for the pups to be there. He pulled up and quickly ran in with an unconscious Dalmatian in his arms. 

He heard the pups gasp in the lobby, but he couldn't bother to stop and notice. He went straight to the operation room Katie told him to go to. The boy walked in and saw her waiting, and her eyes immediately widened once she saw Marshall.

"Oh jeez, ok, put him on the table now." She demanded. Ryder did what she asked and carefully set him down, not wanting to accidentally hurt him more than he already was. "What even happened to him?" She asked.

The boy looked down at the injured dally, knowing he just went through the most painful experience of his life. "J-just help him. I'll explain everything later." He replied.

"Alright then. You can go wait in the lobby while I do what I need to. I think the others are worried, you should probably check on them too." Katie responded. Ryder nodded and left the room.

Once he got back to the lobby, he sat down in chair ana he started to cry softly, which didn't go unnoticed by his pups. Chase jumped up on his lap and nuzzled him. "Sir, what's wrong? What happened?" He asked, pausing to look around for a moment. "Hey, where is Everest?"

Ryder let out a sad sigh before looking back up at the pup's worried faces. "Guys, I have some bad news." He stated, and he could see the looks of worry on their faces as he continued. "Everest, well, s-she was k-killed."

"W-WHAT?! " Skye shouted. Out of the pups in the room, she was naturally the closest with her, being the only other girl on the team. Her surprise was quickly replaced with despair, as she couldn't help but cry at her best friend's death. Chase jumped down and hugged her. He too was crying, as were the others. 

After a while, Skye turned back to Ryder. "W-what happened? H-how did she......die?" She asked, tears still running down her face. She almost wasn't able to force the words out of her mouth.

"I-I really don't know. I wasn't there, but from what I could get from the recording, Everest had an abusive ex who attacked them. That's why Marshall is injured, he tried to protect her." He explained.

"Oh no. What is his reaction gonna be? He's already pretty sensitive, and he was just forced to watch his mate die. That must've been traumatizing for him. I-I can't imagine what that would feel like." Chase said, giving a slight glance towards Skye as he finished. 

As if perfect timing, Katie walked into the lobby. "Good news. Marshall only needed some stitches and painkillers, he'll be waking up in a few minutes now so you guys can go see him." She stated, by then noticed how upset everyone was. "And can someone please tell me what happened?"

Ryder got up and explained to her what had happened, telling her about Damian's attack. Katie was shocked. "Oh, I see. I'm so sorry that happened." She told him sympathetically. 

"Thanks, but I'm a lot more worried about how Marshall is gonna take it. I hope he doesn't take the news too hard, but knowing him, I get the feeling he'll be really upset. " He replied. The girl nodded understandingly, as they all walked into the operation room.

Within the next minute, they all waited for Marshall to wake up. Chase and Ryder specifically were trying to mentally prepare themselves for whatever would come next. As promised, the dally slowly started opening his eyes.

"Ugh. W-what happened?" He asked as he slowly sat up in his bed. He looked around and noticed all the pups looking at him with sympathy written all over their faces. Well, all of them except one. "Ryder, where's Eve?"