We All Grow Together

Chapter Five - We All Make Mistakes

"What are you guys doing?" Lincoln asks.

"It's a new wheelchair for Rex." Ryder says.

"Why?" Lincoln asks as he sits next to the two.

"We thought it would be nice to make him a new one." Ryder says, tightening a screw.

When Rocky saw Lincoln come into the garage, he immediately remembered last night and went super quiet, just nodding and looking away,

"What wrong Wocky?" Lincoln asks, seeing the mix look away.

"N-Nothing..." Rocky mumbled.

"You sure buddy?" Ryder asks, giving his attention to the current uprising situation. "Do we need to talk in private?" Ryder whispers.

"Um...well...s-sure, yeah..." Rocky mumbled after thinking about and shuffling his paws uncomfortably.

"Will be right back Lincoln. Stay right here, and don't touch anything." Ryder says as he and Rocky leave.

The two decided to go to Rocky's room so that they would have complete privacy.

"Hey are you ok? Did something happen between you and Lincoln?" Ryder asks.

Rocky nodded slowly, still shuffling his paws uncomfortably and looking down.

"Do you want to talk about it? This is a safe place, and you won't be judged for what you say." Ryder says looking at the pup.

Rocky thought about it a little more, then nodded again, looking up at Ryder with big sad puppy eyes.

''What's the matter? You can tell me." Ryder says.

"...w-well...you see..." Rocky started slowly, and then told Ryder about how Lincoln was making a small fuss about going to bed; how he was a big boy like Chase and could stay up later; how he had told him otherwise, but that Lincoln didn't believe him, so he decided to take him to Chase's room to show him

"...but then he got worried that he was going to get in trouble since you had told him not to go in the other pup's room without permission, even though he wouldn't have since I was with him. And it's not like we were going to go fully in there, I was just gonna crack the door a little to show him that Chase would be sleeping, then leave. I was only doing this because he didn't believe me, but...but he decided not to, and...ran away...from me...like he was scared...scared of me..." Rocky finished softly, head down and sniffling as a tear ran down his cheek.

"Oh Rocky. Please don't feel like he's scared of you. I'm certain that I know that he wasn't scared of you. I'm not sure if you remember but Lincoln and Chase have spent a lot of time together, and that Chase has been teaching Lincoln to do what feels right, and not to do the wrong thing. And with how private we've said the rooms are, and not to go into them, Lincoln probably felt that this was the wrong thing to do and didn't want to get in trouble. Do remember that even though he is still very young, he is very clever. I know that he loves you with all of his heart, and that all it was is that he didn't want to get in trouble, or get you in trouble." Ryder says as he pets Rocky.

"But he wasn't going to, not as long as I was with him, and I told him this, I promised him. Why...why didn't he believe me? I guess that's what got me upset, the fact that he didn't believe me. I'd never lie to him, or try to get him in trouble, or anything like that." Rocky said softly.

"Maybe he got scared. Remember he's also afraid of the dark. I couldn't tell you exactly why, you can ask him, but I know that he loves you no matter what." Ryder says as he hugs Rocky.

Hearing this made Rocky feel even worse about what had happened last night, and as he hugged Ryder back, he buried his face into Ryder's shoulder and cried softly.