Behind The Mask

Another Date?

     "No." Chase answered in a deadpan. When Tundra ran up to the two and said that she needed to talk to Chase in private, Wild cat decided to head home which was fine with Chase. But now, Chase wished he would've just left with the cat member of the team.

Tundra was a little surprised, if something wasn't wrong with the shepherd before, their certainty is now since he just denied a hangout with Skye. But there was no way she was giving up.

"Look, Chase. I know you're probably not happy with her, but I think this is a good chance to talk things out with her. Just hang out for a little bit."

Chase only frowned at her a little bit before he looked back down at his paw and saw the strings appear once again. But this time, they were all pink strings which surprised Chase a little bit.

Flash Back

"I mean, I know you guys haven't been here for that long. But he's been like this for some time now and we tried everything to find out what was wrong with him and where did that get us?" Skye asked.

"Exactly." She responded and then Tuck came in to try and defend the German Shepherd.

"Look, I get it. Being abandoned in a large city was hard on him. But that shouldn't be the reason why he changed this much. Especially how he's been ignoring us most of the time." Skye said.

"I say, let's just...carry on but let's not bother Chase anymore, if he wants to tell us, then let him tell on his own. We'll just have to wait for him." Everest then said in a bit of a stern voice and everyone looked at each other and sighed.

"Agreed."

Flash Back Ends

Chase then smirked a little bit as he twitched his paw a little bit with the strings before they disappeared. He looked back up at Tundra who was waiting for an answer.

"You won't take no for an answer so I'll go, but don't expect me to enjoy it." Chase warned which made Tundra smile a little bit. A "yes" was all she wanted.

"Nice, Skye is actually waiting near Mr. Porter's Café." Tundra pointed, which surprised Chase a little bit.

"Wait, we're doing this now?" Chase asked and Tundra playfully began pushing him towards the building.

"Yup, now have fun." Tundra grinned and left the opposite direction towards the Lookout which made Chase frown a little bit.

"Alright, well here goes nothin'" Chase sighed to himself and walked back towards Mr. Porters.

Porters Café

Skye waited outside along the walls, nervously waiting for the German Shepherd to arrive. The plan that Tundra told her actually sounded like it could work if everything went right, but there was still that doubt in her mind.

What if things didn't go as planned? Skye calmed herself down as she shouldn't be thinking about that stuff. The most important thing was to enjoy the time she'll have, but it'll be hard to do that considering their current situation.

"This time though, I'll make sure to get things right." Skye whispered to herself as she was going ahead with the plan but also wanted to learn a little more about the police pup.

"Yo."

Skye looked up to see Chase with an emotionless face walking up to her. Even in their current situation, Chase still managed to look attractive which made Skye blush a little bit.

"Hey." Skye greeted back a little nervously.

"So, Tundra told me you wanted to hang out?" He asked and Skye nodded.

"Yeah, uh...we haven't really talked ever since...well...you know. So I was thinking we could make it up." Skye nervously said with some stuttering. Chase frowned a little bit. So she still hasn't figured it out, huh? He thought, but his tone sounded like he didn't care anymore.

But he mentally smiled. Heh, guess I won the patience game. Chase chuckled and focused back on the Cockapoo.

"Well then, why don't we go somewhere a bit more private?" Chase suggested as he didn't wanna talk about this certain subject in a public place. Seeing their surroundings, Skye agreed.

Adventure Bay Beach

Chase and Skye were sitting along the beach in awkward silence. Both of them were watching the water peacefully flow through the ocean. Skye kept glancing at the shepherd next to her over and over until she decided that she wasn't gonna have it and speak up.

"So...um...how are you? Are you feeling better?" Skye asked.

"Uh, well I feel much better now. Katie said my temperature is back to normal and my body isn't in pain anymore, so I feel fine." The brown pup shrugged it off.

Skye couldn't help but mentally sigh in relief. She won't admit it, but she was glad that he's feeling much better.

Flash Back

"Ryder..." Chase said hoarsely, while trying to keep his eyes open at the worried Ryder. "I...I...It...h-h...hurts...ev...every....every...th...th...thing...h-h-hurts." He silently gasped, even though it was a little hard to understand, everybody heard and immediately became worried.

Flash Back Ends

She's never seen Chase so...so...vulnerable. The pain was obvious on his face, but it was amazing how he was able to deal with it all and treat it like it was nothing. Skye hoped she would never see Chase in that condition ever again, it was a little scary to even think about it.

"That's good." Skye only responded and awkward silence filled the air between them once again.

"So...what did you wanna talk about?" Chase asked as he brought up the fact that Skye wanted to discuss things with him. She slightly winced at that question and tried to find a good place to start, but it was hard to find one.

She only sighed and opened her mouth to speak.

"I just wanna know one thing and...and it's about Jamison." Skye pointed out and Chase frowned at the mention of his name. Skye could already see that Chase seemed a little bothered but then watched his sigh in defeat.

"Alright, go ahead." Chase said with a playful eye roll. 

Silence filled for a couple seconds before Skye finally asked her question.

"What did you mean when Jamison wanted to use you for money?"