A couple of hours have passed and Chase still weakly lied on a bean bag, he sighed as he coughed a couple more times. The pups have been keeping a look over him while their parents were helping make some comfortable beds for the new guests to sleep on. Ryder, Katie, Jake, Ace, Carlos and the Princess were helping create some food for tonight since they might be staying up a little late due to Secret Santa and Chase's illness.
The German Shepherd coughed again, his throat sounding rough. The pups have never seen him this sick before, he has gotten sick a few times, but this definitely tops them all. Just then, Katie came in to do a check up.
"How's he doing?" She asked.
"He hasn't changed at all." Ella sadly sighed along with the other pups. Katie frowned as she kneeled down next to the sick pup and placed her hand on his forehead, and she frowned a little more.
"He still has a high fever." She sighed, as she said earlier, Chase would be feeling like this for the next couple days. The pups whimpered after she said that sentence.
Then, Ryder walked in along with the rest of the others walking behind him with some blankets and a couple of snacks. Along with some medicine and other things to help Chase slowly get better.
"Well, we can only wait. Let's just enjoy this night for now." Ace said a weak smile and others smiled back, and then looked up at Ryder who held a small box that resembles a usual Christmas present.
"You guys ready to play Secret Santa?" He asked with a grin and all of the dogs began wagging their tails, excitedly as they all cheered in agreement. Everyone placed the stuff they were carrying, organizing the place and sat next to each other, also making sure to let Chase lay along near them.
And they sat in silence as Ryder held the box filled with pieces of paper of everyone's names in the room.
"Okay, here it goes." Ryder said as he was the first one to stick his hand in the box and softly scouted through the pieces of paper while closing his eyes and soon picked out a piece of paper and read the name on it, keeping it close so the others wouldn't see.
Katie
Ryder lightly blushed as out of the entire names he could've picked, he chose his crush. Ryder quickly hid his light red face and placed the box to the dog next to him, Axel.
Edan
Next was Daisy
Bella
Next was Spike
Delilah
Next up Bella
Spike
Next was Dallas
Axel
Next to get the box was Delilah
Daisy
Now it was Penny's turn
Dallas
Then Rusty
Eve
Next was Blaire
Rusty
Up next was Max
Fiona
Up next was Max's wife, Fiona
Max
The box kept getting passed around, Eve got Blaire and Charlie got Penny while Mia got Ace while Ace put her hand in the box and pulled out a name, Mia.
Then, the box was passed to Everest. She dug her paw inside and quickly pulled out a name and read the paper, now smiling.
Marshall
She then passed the box over to Ella who now picked out another name.
Kushina
Ella then passed the box over to her brother and Tuck, with one swipe, picked out a name.
Rex
Tuck then passed the box over to Sweetie and she picked out a name.
Sylvia
After giving the box to Sylvia, the blue German Shepherd pulled out a name.
Sweetie
Then, the box was passed over to Tracker and he picked out a name and the jungle pup smiled as he mentally read his fathers name on the paper.
Charlie
Tracker passed the box over to Rubble who excitedly dug through the box and pulled out a name.
Jake
Rubble then passed it over to Zuma.
Rocky
Zuma then passed it over to his best friend and Rocky pulled out a name.
Zuma
Both the mixed breed and the Labrador smiled at the names they got, not realizing that they're getting gifts for each other.
It was Liberty's turn.
Rubble
Now it was Marshall's turn, he dug through the box and pulled out a name and when he read the paper, he felt like he was going to faint.
Everest
The Princess Of Barkingburg was now given the box and she happily pulled out a name.
Ella
Now it was Skye's turn. She put her hand inside the box and rolled around the remaining names left, she then picked one out and read it. The name made her eyes widen.
Chase
It was Rex's turn, Skye passed the box over to him and he picked out a name.
Tuck
Jake's turn.
Tracker
It was Carlos's turn now.
Princess Of Barkingburg
The box was now passed over to Katie. She pulled her hand out and also began lightly blushing at the name she just got.
Ryder
Katie passed the box next to Edan now. He dug through the box and pulled out a name.
Carlos
Edan smiled and passed the box next to Kushina now. She pulled out a name and was a little bit upset not to get Edan, Marshall or even Chase, but she was still happy nonetheless.
Liberty
The box was given back to Ryder and he looked inside to see a piece of paper with the last name sitting upside down. He looked up at Chase who was the last one to go. Chase coughed a couple more times as he squinted his eyes open to see Ryder walking up to him with a piece of paper.
"Here you go, Chase. This is the last one." Ryder said with a light smile and gently placed it on the sick shepherd's paw. The police pup slightly wagged his tail. Please...Please let it be Kushina. Chase thought, since she was the one who acted like a mother towards him, he wanted to repay her in some sort of way and a good Christmas gift would definitely make up for that.
"Alright, now that everyone's got their names. Is there gonna be a price limit or not?" Kushina asked as everyone looked at Ryder who wondered.
"Hm, I'm not really sure about it. How about, this year, let's have no price limit. You're free to go all out." Ryder said with a grin, surprising everyone, but they grinned at the response as they began getting ideas for gifts.
Without letting anyone see it, Chase flipped over the paper and read the name, immediately deadpanning as he got the one name that he hoped he wouldn't get.
Skye
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Behind The Mask
FanfictionFamily. Something that Chase doesn't know about. Living a life where his parents were physically and mentally abusive. Covering up the past was hard enough, but the worst part is wearing a mask in front of those who you thought would reach their paw...