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The thing was, keeping a secret from his entire family was hard. Doing it for weeks was near impossible for him. And during the holidays?
A bona fide nightmare.
But it was working in Buck’s favor, thankfully. With the help of his best friends, Audie the German Shepherd was learning more and more every day. Her training was progressing well enough that she would probably be able to be qualified as a certified therapy dog once the holidays had passed. Audie only had one more major hurdle to get through before everything would be perfect.
She had to get through her first Christmas. And what better way to do so was to have her crash the 118 Christmas party.
Buck and Eddie would both be working on Christmas again this year, so they teamed up with Carla and Christopher to have Audie come to the 118. They were planning on surprising everyone during their early dinner, when the 118 would be taken out of service for about an hour so that they could have a decent meal. Most of the families were planning to stop by around the same time.
Buck had gone out and bought Audie some adorable antlers, which she was tolerating wearing, at least for a bit. Hopefully she would wear them for a bit on Christmas before shaking them off, which she usually did after a few minutes. At least she didn’t mind the Christmas collar Christopher had found for her. They all joked that she was dressed for the holidays when she wore it.
Now, all there was to do was wait.
Their Christmas shift started as they always did, with saving people from cooking mistakes that they never should have attempted in the first place. Eddie spent an entire hour complaining about why technology was a horrible thing, and that TikTok recipes should be banned. Buck had just replied that he was impressed that Eddie was even aware of what TikTok was.
Eddie had ended up giving Buck a look that flat out told him that if they hadn’t been in a moving vehicle, he would have been pushed out of the fire truck, embarrassment be damned.
They’d arrived back at the 118 after nearly twenty back to back callouts to find their families all waiting patiently, dinner waiting on the table. Christopher was practically bouncing in his seat in excitement, especially with what was going to happen within just a few minutes.
After the team quickly washed up and sat down, there was a sound of an excited woof that seemed to echo throughout the entire station. One by one, all of the guests and firefighters started looking for the source of the sound. Just as Bobby was starting to stand from his seat at the head of the table, Carla popped into view, leading a very happy Audie, reindeer antlers (somehow) firmly on her head. She made a beeline for Christopher, coming to a stop right next to him to put her head on his lap.
Everyone let out a collective aww at the adorable sight, especially when Audie’s tail started wagging. Christopher buried his hands into her coarse fur, before giving her a quick kiss on the forehead and whispering something to her.
“When did you get a new dog, Eddie?” Bobby asked, glancing from Christopher’s table with the other kids, who were all gathered around to meet the dog, to the boy’s father, watching the scene with a grin firmly on his face.
“She’s not mine, Cap. She belongs to one of my friends though,” he responded, just as Chris turned around to give the man a million watt smile. Just from one glance, it was clear that Chris was keeping the secret even when becoming the most popular kid at the table.
“Who would adopt such a beautiful dog?” Hen asked, watching as Audie slowly made her rounds with the kids, getting a hug from her own son. “Anyone we know?”
Audie greeted the last child (Jee-Yun in her booster seat, sneezing on her feet which left her giggling) before turning and moving quickly across the loft, coming to a stop right next to Buck’s chair. She mirrored her greeting to Christopher, plopping her head on his lap.
“Oh I see how it is. The adorable kid gets all your love first, not the guy who feeds you and trains you and gives you a wonderful home. I feel betrayed, you furry brat,” Buck said. The sarcastic words were covered up by the fact that he couldn’t stop petting the dog. For her part, Audie didn’t seem to really care what her owner had to say. She was in furry heaven.
Once she got her fill of Buck, she turned to Eddie and started pawing at his hands. “She’s just like you, Buck. Always demanding my attention. Good think I like you both,” the man snarked, giving Buck a good natured smirk to show that he didn’t mean anything bad behind the statement.
For his part, Buck just rolled his eyes.
“Buck, you adopted her?” Maddie said, sitting next to Chim, giving him an almost worried look. “You’ve never had a pet before. Are you sure-”
“Let me stop you right there, Maddie,” said Eddie, interrupting. “He’s had Audie for a month or so now.”
“She’s sprinting around like she’s never had a day of training.” The worried look was getting harder.
Buck glanced between two of the most important people in his life, before sighing and interjecting. “She’s wearing her everyday collar. She is trained to know that she can play when she’s wearing that. If she was in her harness, she’d be sitting right next to me, working. I do know what I’m doing, Mads.”
He let out a low whistle. Audie, who was over receiving praise for her beauty from Abuela and Carla, immediately moved to sit next to Buck. For his part, he just turned to face his sister with a raised eyebrow.
“Why did you get her Buck? She’s beautiful,” Bobby asked.
Buck carded his hand through the fur on her head, before making a different whistle sound. Audie trotted over to sit between Bobby and Athena, giving the classic ‘puppy eyes’ at both of them to get more love.
“Dr. Copeland recommended that I get a pet of some sort. She said it would be good for me. Audie was in training to be a service animal for someone, but when she started growing faster than they’d expected, the deal fell through. She has most of the training to become a therapy dog, so I’ve just been completing that with her.”
“And it helps that she likes Christopher and I,” Eddie said, watching as Audie practically started preening over the attention.
“Does that make her a good judge of character? Liking you, I mean?” Hen snarked, which sent all of the 118 into hysterics.
Just as they calmed down, Christopher snuck up behind his dad and said, “It’s okay dad. Audie likes me more.” That set everyone in the loft off again.
As the hour counted down, everyone visiting got to spend time with the pup. Audie circled around to stay by Christopher’s side when she wasn’t demanding pets from her owner. It made the hour go by fast.
Slowly, the families cleaned up, packed up their designated leftovers, and made their way back to their homes. Audie made a point to personally say goodbye to every kid (including May, who was joining Maddie in having an evening Christmas shift at the call center).
The last to leave were Christopher, Carla, and Audie. Buck took a few moments to run Audie through a few pieces of training, but he knew immediately that she was tired and overstimulated. Instead, he just gave her some calming pets before sending her home with Carla. He’d see her in the morning, probably curled up around Christopher, which had become her go-to sleeping location when he wasn’t around to curb it.
It had been a long day for the pup, but it was clear that Audie had an amazing first Christmas with Buck and his family. They all hoped that it would only be the first of many.