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He’d been seeing Dr. Copeland for three months when she first brought it up.
“A pet?” Buck said, confusion clear across his face. He didn’t have time for a pet. He wasn’t home enough to really take care of any sort of pet, unless it was a pet rock. Besides, right now he just needed to focus and work through his (many) issues.
“I think it’s something to consider. Animals have a way of helping their humans. Especially in ways you never anticipate.” She gave him a reassuring smile and moved on to focus on his next issue.
The short conversation had stuck with him for weeks. He had really never considered getting a pet. He never had one growing up. In fact, requests for a pet were always shut down so firmly that it was surprising he ever asked a second time.
That’s not to say that he didn’t like animals. He absolutely did, especially dogs. Taking care of Hen’s dog Paisley (which he was still confused about, as he thought the owner had survived the earthquake) was something he did every once in a while when the Wilsons needed a quiet family break.
They weren’t the only ones in their fire family that had an animal. Two months after moving into her apartment, May had happened to find a tiny calico cat outside in a box. She’d adopted her and they lived semi-peacefully in her apartment. Well, unless your name was Buck and the cat didn’t like that you have the same favorite seat in May’s living room.
It got Buck thinking. Both Hen and May seemed to be doing better when they adopted their animals. May had someone to come home to, and Karen and Hen had a furry friend to help bridge the divide that some of their foster kids felt when joining them in their home.
So Buck did what Buck did best: research. All the research. As much of it as he could.
He did his best to not let anyone know what he was debating, instead sharing those thoughts only with Dr. Copeland. She was absolutely supportive of him eventually getting a dog, especially when he started to share some of the specific details of his research. She was able to connect him with a shelter that had many young dogs just waiting for someone like him, someone who was willing to put in the time and effort to train one.
And so he did. He took a half day about six months after Dr. Copeland had first mentioned a furry adoption, and went to the shelter as recommended. Immediately he fell in love with almost every dog there, and they all tried to use him as a jungle gym. Once the puppies had calmed down enough, he took notice of all the dogs that had come to greet him, and noted the lone pup off to the side.
He quickly inquired about the pup with the shelter worker, who gave the pup a pitying look. “That’s Audie. She was being trained to become a young girl’s companion, before the family decided that she was going to grow up to be too big, which would have been unfortunately too dangerous for their daughter, and ended up cutting the contract. She’s been here ever since.”
“She’s beautiful,” Buck said. Audie was a German Shepherd, with a coat of almost pure black fur. The only light brown fur was on her paws, the tips of her ears, and a mark over right eye, almost mimicking his own birthmark. She was sitting at attention, staring at him without approaching, but keeping an eye on him nonetheless.
Buck quietly got up and approached Audie, sitting with his legs loosely crossed next to her. It took a moment, and then she slowly crawled over to him. Her body curled around his hip, while his head landed firmly in his lap. She looked up at him with intelligence bleeding through her eyes, along with what had to be a plea to bring her home with him.
He carded his hand through her thick coat for a moment, watching as Audie slowly relaxed completely. Once she was content with getting pets, Buck looked up to catch the worker’s eye. “Audie picked me. She’ll do amazing.”
The worker smiled widely. “I’m so happy for her! She knew exactly who she was waiting for. I’ll get the paperwork and bring it over to you, alright?”
Buck nodded, before looking down at Audie and whispering, “You want to go home with me? The more the merrier Audie.” For her part, Audie answered with a quiet but happy woof. Buck took that as a firm yes.
By some sort of luck, no one immediately knew that Buck had adopted Audie. He had gone to work starting to train her, and discovered that she took to it like a duck to water. Every day he taught her something new, and every day she seemed to nail it.
It was actually three whole weeks before anyone found out. Three weeks of Buck training the pup, interviewing and hiring a sitter for his overnights, and keeping his mouth firmly shut when he was around the team. He knew that it would only take a few words before he broke and told them about Audie.
The thing was, he was totally hiding her. He wanted to walk into the station with Audie around Christmas, with her well on her way to being the perfect firehouse dog, as well as a therapy dog. She’d had a lot of training in the latter from before, and she’d excelled when it had started up again.
Buck wanted to surprise everyone. They had all joked that he was a golden retriever in a past life, and he wanted to prove that he was more than that. Audie was proof enough.
The day that someone discovered Audie had been a normal one. The shift had been fine with a minimal amount of callouts, which meant that they had ended up with a lot of chores and holiday prep. The only reason that anyone even thought about it was because Eddie knew Buck like the back of his hand. He’d been hiding things from him.
Buck hadn’t noticed Eddie following him home until they met up at the elevator. Buck visibly tried to not swear at the man, but seriously. Couldn’t he have just waited the six days until Christmas? So much for the surprise.
“Alright, man, out with it,” Eddie said as they walked off the elevator on Buck’s floor. “What’s going on with you. You’re secretive. And I don’t like it.”
Buck sighed. “I have my reasons. But since you’re here…” He let his voice trail off while unlocking the door. Hearing the sound of quiet movement, a small smile slowly formed across his face.
He knew that Audie was alone. The pet sitter had left twenty minutes prior due to a family emergency (which meant that Buck told her to go and that he would cover the hours she was going to miss while she was gone, because it was the holidays). Knowing Audie like he already did, she would be sitting on the rug he’d set out for her by the kitchen island, waiting patiently for his return.
Buck opened the door and carefully blocked his best friend from seeing the dog. “Just so you know, this was supposed to be a Christmas surprise, so you’re spoiling yourself,” he said, before stepping aside and letting Eddie see Audie for the first time.
He knew the moment that Eddie realized that Audie was there, an actual dog, not just a plush toy or something. A big grin broke out on his face, and he moved quickly to sit down next to the dog, offering his hand in greeting. As he had privately suspected, Audie immediately fell in love with Eddie, bypassing his hand and practically crawling onto his lap.
Buck quickly took a photo of the two of them before shutting the door and dropping his bag. “So, I
guess you two need an introduction. Eddie, meet Audie, who is my furry friend and is in training to become the best firehouse dog possible. Audie, this is my best friend Eddie. You’ll love his son when we bring you over to meet him.”
Audie gave a woof and licked Eddie cheek in greeting. Eddie, in turn, laughed and buried his face in her fur.
“When did you get a dog, Evan? She’s lovable,” he asked, not taking his eyes off of the dog in his lap.
Buck settled down besides him, ignoring the multitude of places to sit like a normal human being. “About a month ago. Dr. Copeland actually recommended that I get a pet of some sort. She felt that it would do me good to have someone to come home to and depended on me, but wasn’t a human. I almost got a cat, but then I realized that I could get a dog and also train them to be a therapy dog.”
He reached over and gave Audie some scratches behind her ears. “Audie already had some training when I adopted her. She was unfortunately not a match with the human she was training for, and hadn’t matched with anyone else, unlike the rest of her litter. She was sent to a really good rescue that is mostly for first responders, and that’s how Dr. Copeland found out about her. I went to hopefully find a dog and she was the only one that didn’t initially rush me. Instead, she watched the scene and waited for me to approach. I fell in love instantly.”
Eddie gave him a big smile. “Well, I think you picked well. And I know a ten year old boy that will love to meet her. Up for a drive?”
Buck snickered. “Just waiting on you.”
The two firefighters had a few hours yet before Christopher needed to be picked up from school, so they spent the time getting Audie acquainted with Eddie’s house. She had immediately clocked Christopher’s bedroom and made herself at home next to his bed, taking a nap while they went to go pick up the boy.
Christopher had been ecstatic to see Buck standing next to his dad in the pick up line. Buck, in turn, was so happy to be there to see Christopher’s smiling face. It was always a good day when they got the chance to spend some time together.
On the drive home, Christopher filled them in on all the fourth grade drama that was happening. Buck encouraged him every step of the way. Eddie was content to sit back and play chauffeur, letting his two favorite people chat away the drive home.
Of course, the best part was when they actually got there.
Christopher didn’t immediately notice the dog sitting on his floor when he first opened the door to his room. But all it took was a woof from beneath his bed for him to get with the program.
“A dog?” His voice was filled with wonder as he looked around for the source of the sound. Audie crawled out holding one of Christopher’s toys in her mouth and plopped down in front of him, looking proud of herself for finding it in the first place. “Dad! Bucky! There’s a dog in my room!”
Both men poked their heads into the room, almost identical smiles on their faces. Buck chuckled at the sight of Christopher and Audie sitting almost exactly the same way as she’d been with Eddie only hours prior. Audie had curled up next to Christopher and was looking very happy with being surrounded by people who seemed to love her.
All evening, Christopher refused to leave Audie’s side, and Audie was basically the same. He wanted to be there when Buck ran Audie through her training, which she was able to do completely successfully. Eddie’s phone was already starting to fill with all the photos of his son with the dog, and he knew he was going to be in for it when Buck and Audie returned to Buck’s loft.
But at the same time, he was okay with it. He’d just use this as an excuse to have Buck stay over more often.
Now to help surprise the 118 on Christmas…