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When Reggie’s alone, he plays the piano. He thought it might be a good way to keep his skills sharp, seeing as he doesn’t get to play nearly as much now that Julie’s their resident pianist. It helps that he’s alone a lot. He’s getting really good at piano.
He’s not lonely, just alone. He hasn’t felt lonely since the Molinas started being able to see him; since they basically adopted him as one of their own. It’s just that there are days like today when Julie and Luke and Alex and Willie are all out on dates, and Ray is with Carlos at a doctor’s appointment, and Tía is at pilates. Even his new lifer friend Kayla is busy with Dirty Candi rehearsal, and Flynn said she had too much homework this weekend. So sure, it would be really nice to have someone to hang out with now, but he has his piano and a notebook full of country songs he’s never going to work on with Luke around, so he might as well enjoy it.
He flips to a random page in his notebook, landing on a half finished song he started before he died. He takes a deep breath and starts playing through what he has, mostly to remind himself of the melody.
“From the bums on the street
To the prisoners inside
From the losers cast out
To the runaway child
And the wandering slave
Through the wilderness fog
They're all lying in wait
For the day of the dog.”
He stops and scribbles a possible change to the melody, then continues.
“I came up in the world
With a pain in my back
And I never could run
With the wolves in the pack
But I been using my teeth
And I've sharpened my claws
And I'm lying in wait
For the day of the dog.”
The lyrics stop there, but he keeps on playing, trying to remember where he wanted to go with the rest of it. He doesn’t exactly recall when he started writing this; just knows it was the product of a dysphoria-and-sadness-filled night.
He makes a note of the teeth and sharpened claws lyric; maybe he can continue the theme of fighting. He starts jotting down a few ideas when he hears a tiny sneeze from his right.
“Uh, bless you?” Reggie says, putting his pencil down.
When there’s no response, he stands and looks around the studio. He was one-hundred percent sure he was alone. “Julie?”
There’s another sneeze, more aggressive this time.
Reggie frowns and moves around the piano towards the couch. “Hello?”
He hears a little yelp from somewhere near the floor. He freezes and glances down before letting out a soft gasp at the sight of the intruder.
It’s a puppy.
It’s sitting in front of the coffee table, staring up at Reggie with one wide, bright eye, and Reggie practically melts as he kneels down to get a closer look.
“Hi there,” he coos, putting out a hand for the dog to sniff. It’s clearly a mutt, a mix of a golden retriever and something else Reggie can’t quite identify—a yorkie, maybe? Whatever it is, it’s scrappy-looking, with part of its left ear missing and its right eye squeezed shut.
The dog trots over to him and sniffs his hand before giving it a lick. Reggie giggles and pats its head. “No collar, huh? I wonder where you came from.”
The dog wags its tail and gives another little bark.
“Wait,” Reggie frowns. “Where did you come from?”
He scoops the dog up and stands, glancing around the studio to confirm that all the doors and windows are closed, just like he left them.
“How’d you get in here, little girl?” Reggie asks, quickly checking to make sure he got the gender right. He walks over to the door and pushes lightly to see if maybe it wasn’t latched all the way, but it stays firmly shut.
That is until Julie pulls the door open, and Reggie jumps back with a yell, squeezing the puppy tighter to his chest.
“Sorry, Reg,” Julie says. “Didn’t realize you’d be right there.”
Luke follows her in, his eyes immediately landing on the dog with a concerned frown. “Whatcha got there, buddy?”
Reggie holds the puppy out for Luke to see. “I just found her by the couch. I have no idea how she got in here.”
“Who got in here?” Julie asks, glancing between the boys and Reggie’s hands.
“The puppy,” Reggie says, furrowing his brow.
“What puppy?” Julie asks. “Cause to me it looks like you’re holding nothing.”
“You can’t see her?” Reggie asks, and Julie shakes her head. He turns the puppy so he can look her in the eye. “Are you a ghost?”
“Woah, ghost dog,” Luke laughs, leaning in to examine her. “I bet she phased through the wall.” Luke reaches out to pet her and the puppy growls. Luke quickly retracts his hand, a flash of fear in his eyes.
“You have to let her sniff you first,” Reggie chuckles, rubbing behind the dog’s ear.
“That’s so weird to look at,” Julie mutters. “Does she have a collar?”
Reggie shakes his head. “She must have been a stray. I’ll be she was wandering around all by herself, poor girl.”
The puppy yawns and tucks her head into Reggie’s arms. Reggie pushes down a surge of affection. He knows he can’t get too attached, but this dog is just so damn
cute.
Reggie very carefully asks Julie, “Do you think we can keep her?”
Julie bites her lip. “I don’t know, Reg. You know Dad’s not really a dog person.”
Reggie nods, looking down at the puppy and doing his best to bite back the tears that spring up in his eyes.
“Well, Ray can’t see her, right?” Luke says. “And it’s not like she needs to be housebroken or fed or anything...”
“I guess you’re right,” Julie says. “And there’s not really a ghost shelter we can take her to...”
Reggie looks up at two of them, not daring to get his hopes up. “So...?”
Julie shifts between her feet, pointedly avoiding Reggie’s puppy dog eyes. She lets out a long sigh. “Okay.”
Reggie’s face lights up. “Really?”
“Yeah, but don’t tell Dad yet, okay? Let me figure out how to explain it to him.”
Reggie shifts the puppy into one arm and uses the other to pull Julie into a tight hug. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!”
He rushes over to the couch and places the puppy on his lap. The dog sits up and looks at him through her one good eye.
“I’m gonna take such good care of you,” Reggie beams. “You won’t be lonely anymore.”
Luke shoots Julie an Are-You-Sure-This-Is-A-Good-Idea glance, but Reggie chooses to ignore it and focus on the little bundle of fur in his lap.
“Can I use some of the busking money to get her some toys?” Reggie asks.
“I guess we could spare a bit,” Luke says. He takes a seat next to Reggie. “What’re you going to name her?”
“Dolly,” Reggie answers immediately. He had decided when he was eight years old that if he ever got a dog he’d name it after Dolly Parton, and this will probably be his only chance.
Luke rolls his eyes, but Julie grins. “That’s a great name. I wish I could see her.”
“She’s looking at you,” Reggie informs her. “Try sticking out your hand.”
Julie holds out her hand, and Reggie beams as Dolly sniffs it before trying to nuzzle her head against it. She phases through, but her tail still wags.
“She likes you,” Reggie says, and Julie smiles.
“I want to try again,” Luke insists, holding his hand out. Dolly sniffs it, then growls even louder than last time. Luke brings his hand back to his chest, looking wounded.
“Well, it’s nice to know Luke isn’t everyone’s favorite,” Reggie laughs.
“I’ll get her to love me,” Luke pouts. “Just watch.”
Julie reaches over to pat his arm sympathetically. “It’s okay, babe, you’re still my favorite.”
“Rude,” Reggie says, but Luke perks right back up.
“We should go to the pet store when Alex and Willie get back,” he says. “Make a day of it.”
Julie rolls her eyes. “Yeah, that won’t make Dad suspicious at all.”
Of course, her protests are ultimately dismissed, and a few hours later the five of them find themselves wandering down the aisles of the local pet store while Reggie struggles to hide the fact that he’s holding an invisible puppy. It doesn’t help that Willie hasn’t stopped fawning over Dolly since they met her, and Alex has to remind them they’re in public at least twelve times.
It turns out the store has a small section of Star Wars-themed items, and Reggie goes ballistic. He grabs several Chewbacca and Yoda plushies, a leash and collar with TIE fighters on them, and an R2-D2 shaped dog bed. Alex insists they get a small bag of dog food just in case it turns out Dolly can eat, and Julie helps Reggie figure out the machine that makes custom engraved dog tags. Luke doesn’t see why it’s necessary, but Julie argues that with a puppy who can walk through walls, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
That’s Reggie’s big worry, the first few days, that he might wake up to find that Dolly has wandered away out of the studio, but it quickly becomes clear that she’s just as attached to him as he is to her. She follows him everywhere.
In fact, he barely has to train her. She’s content to lie down on her dog bed while the band rehearses, and when he takes her for walks on the beach he doesn’t even need to bring the leash. Bringing her to gigs is a bit hard at first, but luckily she loves Willie and is happy to spend the concert with him backstage. Every night she curls up on Reggie’s chest, growling at Luke when he tries to cuddle with the bassist. That’s probably the one behavior he needs to train out of her, because as fun as it is to see Luke’s annoyance, he does miss the cuddles.
The only real challenge is figuring out what to do when she tries to follow him into the house. He tries to train her to stay in the studio, but the first couple weeks are filled with panic-inducing moments where Reggie will be talking to Ray only to see Dolly wander through a wall out of the corner of his eye, and then he has to figure out how to get her out of there without letting Ray catch on. It involves a lot of half-assed excuses about forgetting something in the studio and the thankfully correct assumption that Dolly will realize Reggie has left and follow him back. Eventually she seems to catch onto the fact that she’s only allowed in the house if she sits very still at Reggie’s feet and doesn’t expect pets or cuddles.
The alone days are a lot better now that he has someone to spend them with. Most days, Reggie plays with her, or takes her for a walk, but on the days where he wants to play the piano she just jumps onto his lap and listens, licking his face occasionally and forcing him to stop playing so he can giggle and pet her.
It’s one of those alone days when the first change happens. He’s playing the piano while Dolly lays on top of it, her eyes closed as the music vibrates through her.
Reggie starts to sing, working on the same song as the day he found her.
“If we get in a fight
I won't take out my gun
And you can go home tonight
And you can think that you've won.”
Dolly sits up, cocking her head and watching Reggie with interest.
“But I'll see you again
And I'll prove you dead wrong
And the sun will be high
On the day of the dog”
As Reggie sings, Dolly starts to howl along. Reggie bursts into laughter, hands leaving the keys to pull her into a tight hug.
“I love you so much,” he gasps through his giggles. He presses his forehead to hers and she licks his nose, tail wagging.
The studio doors open and Julie and Luke walk in, hand-in-hand.
“That sounded great, Reg,” Julie begins, but she freezes when her eyes land on him. “Is that Dolly?”
“You can see her?” Reggie asks.
Julie nods, rushing over to the piano. “She’s so cute!”
Dolly wiggles out of Reggie’s arms and jumps onto the piano to get closer to Julie.
Julie reaches out a cautious hand to pet her, face lighting up with a brilliant smile when she actually makes contact. “Aw, what a sweet baby,” she coos.
“She’s not sweet,” Luke scowls. “She’s a demon.”
“I can’t believe this is what you’re so scared of,” Julie teases.
“I’m not scared of her!” Luke insists. Reggie kindly doesn’t comment on the fact that he’s still standing six feet away and eyeing the dog with extreme distrust.
Julie continues to fawn over Dolly, and a thought occurs to Reggie.
“Do you think this means Dad can see her now?” he asks, hands finding the sleeves of the flannel wrapped around his waist.
“I don’t know,” Julie says. “It’s not like we can really test it out.”
Reggie’s nerves must be showing on his face, because Julie puts a kind hand on his shoulder.
“Well, hey,” she says, “as far as we know, ghosts only become visible to Dad when I say I love them out loud. So I just won’t say it about Dolly.” She stops and frowns, pointedly looking away from Dolly. “Even if she is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.”
Luke lets out a wounded whine and Julie laughs before pulling him in for a quick kiss. “Besides you.”
Reggie looks back to Dolly. “So just don’t do anything that will make Julie love you. Easy.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s not easy.
Now that Julie can see Dolly, she’s getting irreversibly attached. Reggie can see it happening before his very eyes. It reaches a point where she has to force herself to stay as far away as Luke does. Reggie catches her jealously eyeing Alex and Willie when they play with Dolly, and he honestly feels bad about it, but he can’t risk exposing her existence to Ray.
Reggie had a dog once before, when he was thirteen. It was a stray who followed Reggie all the way up and down the beach, and by the time he returned to his house he had decided he would bring it home. He asked his parents if he could keep the dog, but they were too distracted by whatever they were fighting about that day, so he just took their dismissive wave as approval. Two days later they found the dog in Reggie’s room and made him get rid of it. They didn’t even let him take it to a shelter; just insisted he kick it out.
He can’t let that happen again. He hadn’t even named that dog yet, some part of him knowing the other shoe would drop eventually, and even that destroyed him. He can’t even imagine what he’d do if he lost Dolly. In the few weeks she’s been with him, she’s filled a hole he didn’t even know was there, but if it was suddenly empty again he’d never feel complete for the rest of his existence.
Unfortunately, Julie is only so strong.
It’s a Sunday afternoon, and Willie and Alex are playing fetch with Dolly, so Reggie decides to leave her in their care and go talk to Ray for a bit. He’s been spending a little less time with the man since Dolly came around, and he thinks Ray’s starting to notice.
Reggie finds him on the sofa in the living room watching a football game.
“Hey Dad,” Reggie says, plopping down next to him.
“Hey mijo.” Ray wraps an arm around Reggie’s shoulders in a sort of half-hug. “Whatcha up to?”
Reggie shrugs. “Just watching the game with my dad, I guess.”
Ray chuckles and presses a kiss to Reggie’s temple. They spend the first quarter of the game chatting, with Ray telling Reggie all the changes that have been made to the team roster since he died. At the end of the quarter, he gets up to get them some snacks.
While Reggie waits, he notices a small shape coming towards him out of the corner of his eye. He turns to see Dolly trotting towards him, tail wagging. He tries to shake his head at her, but she ignores him and jumps onto his lap, curling into a ball.
This is fine, Reggie decides. As long as he stays very still and doesn’t pet her, Ray shouldn’t be able to tell anything’s amiss.
Reggie hears him approaching from the kitchen and silently wills Dolly to fall asleep and stay asleep for the next two hours.
“Reggie,” Ray stops behind the couch. “Why is there a dog in my house?”
A wave of panic floods through Reggie and he leaps to his feet, squeezing Dolly tight to his chest.
“I’m sorry,” he blurts out. “I’m so so sorry I didn’t tell you but I know you don’t like dogs and I was scared you’d make me get rid of her and there’s nowhere else she can go ‘cause she’s a ghost and I know I’m not supposed to keep secrets from you but please please please don’t kick her out, I really really love her and—“
“Reggie,” Ray cuts in. “Breathe, mijo. I’m not mad, okay?” He slowly puts the food down and sits on the couch, knowing better than to approach Reggie when he’s panicked like this. “Why don’t you sit down, and we’ll talk about this?”
Reggie cautiously perches on the opposite end of the couch.
“Deep breaths,” Ray says softly. “It’s okay. You’re okay. How long have you had her?”
“Almost a month,” Reggie says with a shrug. “She wandered into the studio while you were out with Carlos.”
“And you said she’s a ghost?”
Reggie nods, keeping his eyes locked on the curl of Dolly’s fur he’s playing with.
“Does she have a name?”
“Dolly,” Reggie says, fiddling with her music note-shaped name tag.
“After Dolly Parton?”
“Yeah,” Reggie nods, a small smile forming on his face.
“Mijo, look at me.”
Reggie forces himself to make eye contact with Ray.
“I’m not going to make you get rid of her,” he says.
“Really?” Reggie asks, and Ray nods.
“I can tell she means a lot to you,” he says, “but I am a little upset you didn’t tell me. I thought we agreed to no more secrets.”
“I know,” Reggie says, hanging his head once again. “But you also said no dogs, and I just… I couldn’t risk losing her. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, mijo. I just want you to realize you can trust me with these things. We could have talked about it and avoided this panic now.”
Reggie nods again, and Ray spreads his arms.
“Can I give you a hug?”
Reggie scoots closer and lets Ray envelop him in a hug. Dolly sniffs Ray curiously before deciding he’s okay and curling back up in Reggie’s lap.
“You’re really gonna let me keep her?” Reggie asks. “Even though you don’t like dogs?”
“I am more of a cat person,” Ray admits, “but I mostly said no to getting a dog because I’m raising five kids on my own. I guess a ghost dog is the perfect solution, huh?” He gives Dolly a little scratch behind the ear. “Besides, you seemed so much happier these past couple weeks. Now that I know why, I could never take that away from you.”
“And you’re sure you’re not mad?”
“I’m sure, mijo.” He presses a kiss to Reggie’s hair. “Although I think I have to have a chat with Julie about adopting stray ghosts. I’m pretty sure we’re at capacity.”
Reggie laughs and leans further into Ray. They watch the rest of the game curled up together, with Ray asking occasional questions about the logistics of keeping a ghost dog hidden for almost a month. Reggie answers then all happily, a sort of peaceful contentment settling in his chest that he hasn’t felt... maybe ever. Not this completely, anyway. He decides he likes the feeling.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“A little warning would have been nice,” Reggie tells Julie when he and Dolly return to the studio that night.
Julie looks up from her piano with a confused frown, then glances around frantically before her eyes land on Dolly in his arms and she relaxes.
“I didn’t even know she left,” Julie breathes. “I sort of got into the zone and lost track of time.” She gives him an apologetic smile. “So Dad found out?”
“Yeah, but he’s gonna let her stay,” Reggie says with a soft smile. “What was your breaking point?”
Julie laughs. “She started howling along while I was playing the piano.”
“Yeah, that’s what did it for me too,” Reggie giggles. He tucks Dolly under one arm and wraps the other around Julie. “You should go get some sleep. You’ve been working awhile.”
Julie nods and gives Reggie a kiss on the cheek and Dolly a pat on the head. “Night. Love you guys.”
“Love you too,” Reggie says, returning her kiss.
She shuffles off towards her room and Reggie puts Dolly down before going into the bathroom to change into his pajamas. When he comes back out, Luke and Alex are already asleep on the pull out, with Dolly snuggled up between them. Reggie grins and lays down next to Luke, cuddling close to his side. Dolly steps over the guitarist to curl up next to Reggie, letting her head rest on Luke’s shoulder—probably the first sign of affection she’s ever shown the boy.
Reggie runs a hand through her fur and lets out a contended sigh. He really did luck out, he thinks. He has the perfect friends, the perfect family, the perfect band, and the perfect dog. He drifts off to sleep with a smile, finally feeling his afterlife is complete.