Embrace (Rocky x Chase)

Chapter 13- Family Matter

"Marshall, can you do something for me?" Chase said the following day, hunched over his desk as he uttered the words.

"Depends what it is," came the Dalmatian's reply, sitting on Chase's bed with a can of iced tea. He had been invited into the kennel where they could study the collars in secret, especially after Rocky's now possible involvement. Chase didn't trust anyone else to handle the news quietly after such a discovery.

"Someone needs to talk with Rocky, he's a suspect now," the officer turned to face him. "And I'm the only dog in this entire patrol who he'll speak to."

"Oh really?" Marshall leaned on his paw with a smug expression. "Sounds like you just want time alone with him."

Chase waved off the verbal jab, but a hot feeling was already bubbling through his fur. "Hilarious. No, I'm serious. I'm the only one."

"So what am I doing exactly?"

With great precision, Chase had removed the tags from each collar, producing a small metal pile of dog identification. Swiping them into his paw, he brought it before Marshall and laid them out on the floor. "I need you to go to these addresses and learn everything you can about the missing dogs."

"All of them?" The firefighter looked down at the pile with a disdainful expression.

"Yes, all of them," Chase pointed. "And try to really connect who's collar belongs to whom. I know one of the victims was a retriever, and another was a..." he trailed off slightly. "And another was a... Yorkie I think? Ah hell, let me just print out all the crime scene reports Ryder made. Better than listing them all off the top of my head anyway."

Marshall got up with a stretch, "anything specific I should ask the owners about?"

"Enough to give you a clear picture of what victims they connect with, I'm looking for any possible correlation." Said Chase as he started walking to the door. "I'll meet you outside to give you the reports."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It hadn't been entirely clear when the world started recovering its color in Rocky's eyes, but the difference was more than noticeable as he made his way around town. Every night he returned to his broken mirror, eager to see if the life had returned to himself as well, yet his reflection still remained in its desolate state. He knew he was missing something, he found the key to tolerating his reality again yet he himself still lacked the light to raise him up.

"Still nothing," Rocky muttered as he stared at himself in the mirror. His new blue collar was a noticeable contrast to his darkened grey fur.

The muzzle of a chocolate Labrador emerged on his shoulder. "Flawless observation." Zuma muttered, narrowing his eyes in confusion. "You keep talking to yourself so much, people will start thinking you're batshit insane."

"I think I'm already past that point."

"Maybe," Zuma said with a careless shrug. "And by the way, where do you keep disappearing to? You weren't here yesterday, or the day before that."

A chuckle almost escaped the mixed breed, although he had to conceal it to not arouse any suspicion. Fond memories of running with his brother shined brightly in his mind, the dark echoes of his past barely a whisper for the past few days. "I was walking in an alley," Rocky said, pulling a half-truth. "Trying to find the murderer so he could kill me."

"Truly?" Zuma was appalled. "You'd let yourself die just like that? Have you no self-worth?"

Rocky whipped his head around at the question, a growl emitting through his teeth. "Is that a question you really need to ask, Zuma? I thought you of all dogs would know the answer to that." A strange new feeling emerged within him, one he at first thought was just hostility, but it wasn't that at all.