Lean on Me

"Hey, Roy," Chet said, tone unexpectedly serious, as he all but knocked Roy down as he walked into the station before the start of shift. "Boy am I glad to see you, Johnny's in a bad way right now."

"Johnny? What's wrong with him?" He questioned. It wasn't like Chet to be serious, especially not this early, so whatever was going on with Johnny had to be pretty bad. Surely Johnny couldn't have hurt himself already, right? Shift hadn't even started yet. Then again if anyone could manage it, it was Johnny...

"Well it's like this," Chet continued. "According to Dwyer, Boot was doing real badly this morning, got real sick out of nowhere, you know? By the time the vet opened, it was too late. Dwyer said there was nothing anyone could've done, whatever happened to him took him fast."

Roy froze, letting what Chet had said sink in. Boot was dead. And Johnny... Now things made sense. For as much as Boot seemed to not like Johnny at first, the two had eventually bonded, becoming something Roy could only describe as buddies. Sure, Boot sometimes still had his moments. He still tore up Johnny's pillow or peed on his bunk while they were away, but Johnny never took it to heart. In fact, sometimes he saw Johnny sneaking him scraps of lunch when he thought nobody was looking, almost as if Johnny was afraid to be caught. Why, he wasn't sure, but regardless Roy never said anything, nor did anyone else.

"And Johnny's taking it hard?" Roy finally asked when he found his voice.

Chet nodded. "Dwyer said he got to say goodbye to Boot before they took him to get cremated, said Johnny said he'd pay for the entire thing himself. Man, he really loved that dog didn't he?"

"Yeah," Roy's throat felt strangely dry all of a sudden. "Yeah, he did. Is he in there?" He gestured towards the locker room.

Chet nodded. "He's been in there since I got here. I thought about talking to him but I thought you'd know what to say more than I would."

"Thanks, Chet," Roy said heading to the locker room. For as much as Chet pranked Johnny and gave him shit, at the end of the day they cared a lot more about each other than either would like to admit.

Stepping into the locker room, Roy caught sight of Johnny sitting in his customary thinking place inside his locker. His head was down and he was clearly miserable, and Roy was immensely grateful for Chet not having charged in like a freight train and making things worse, as the man had a tendency to speak before he thought things through fully.

"Johnny...?" He asked quietly, as he approached slowly, almost cautiously. The last thing he wanted to do was scare him off.

"I'm guessing you heard?" Johnny asked simply, not looking up.

Roy nodded before realizing Johnny wouldn't hear a nod. "Yeah. I'm really sorry, I know how much you liked Boot."

"Y'know, I just can't believe it." Johnny said after a couple seconds. "That dog hated me at first and now that he finally got to liking me..."

"Yeah..."

"You know, Dwyer said there wasn't a thing that could be done for Boot. And yet, here I am, thinking that maybe if I would've gotten in in time maybe I could've done something to save him." And there it was, the guilt. It was just like Johnny to somehow find some way to blame himself in something as blameless as this.

"There's nothing you could've done, Johnny. You know Dwyer did all he could and from what I've heard, he was already too far gone, not even a vet could've saved him."

"I know that, I just," Johnny paused and sighed. "I just can't help but wonder, is all."

"I understand that, I just don't think you should blame yourself for something that was completely out of your control. Maybe it was just Boot's time to go and there was nothing you or anyone else could've done to change that."