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Officer Dalton stared dismissively through the window at the motionless figure on the bed. It was clear that the forest had not done the man much good. His hair was caked with dirt and mud and the various deep, painful looking cuts on his body left little up to the imagination. Although Dalton was aware that those weren’t the forest’s doing, but his own. He’d had the whole story printed in his mind, and when he had so much as glimpsed at the guy on the bed, he’d known it was the man they were looking for.

How the mighty have fallen, Dalton thought in dismay.

It had only been little over a year since the initial case made headlines all over the country. And Dalton had stood by, watching closely, longingly. It would have been career defining to be able to solve such a huge case, but alas, it wasn’t his department. But, in all honesty, he believed that the detectives that did work the case, did a fairly poor job of it. It was more by the grace of luck that the Backstreet Boy had gotten found than any real hard police work going on, that was for damn sure. In the end, the coordinates were practically thrown into their laps and still they got all the credit for it. He’d even heard that Crane and Morson made captain after that.

Ridiculous.

And now this was the outcome, it seemed. No happy ending after all, just a pathetic, wounded mess that lay strapped down in a hospital bed once again.

Peter Dalton pitied the poor guy.

Just like he expected, it wasn’t long before his partner John Conkin made it through security to stand next to him. “We sure this is the guy?” he grumbled, the little grey hair that he still had standing at every which direction, like always.

Peter nodded slowly, “The hiker family that found him thought they’d stumbled upon a dead body at first. I can imagine they were quite shocked when he suddenly started moving.”

Conkin scoffed, “Been able to get anything out of him?”

Peter shook his head and sighed, “He was pretty hypothermic when they brought him in, been out of it ever since.”

“What about the family that found him? What were they doing in the middle of the woods?”

Peter looked sideways at the older man, a little annoyed. “You read the file, right? They were hikers, they found a dog, dog led them to Littrell.”

“Where’s the dog now?”

“Why? You wanna interrogate it?”

Conkin rolled his eyes and Peter moved his gaze back to the window. They hadn’t been able to get much out of the hospital staff either, other than the confirmation that the wounds on the man’s body were definitely self-inflicted, like the wife had mentioned. It was a sad story, really, decided Dalton.

“Move,” a low, but very audible grunt came from the back of the hallway and Peter turned to see a tall, dark-haired man march towards them with alarming speed.

“Sir, you cannot go in there-”

The man’s green eyes narrowed dangerously as he swirled around and gave Peter a murderous look. Normally, the young officer would have arrested somebody on the spot for looking at him like that, but this time, he was taken aback by the intensity in the man’s eyes. “I’m here to see my cousin, if y’all don’t like it, y’all can go to hell.”

Without another word, he shoved past and entered the room. Peter hurried to follow him. The room was pretty dark and Peter decided it would probably be better if he stayed in the back. The man that had identified himself as the cousin paced around for a bit, combing his hands through his hair to try and compose himself. “Goddamnit, Brian,” he said, the emotion evident in his voice. The other man didn’t move, sedated heavily from the moment the staff heard about what he’d done. They thought he was dangerous, and Peter didn’t doubt that.

Still, he pitied the guy.

The tall man didn’t speak for a few moments, just looking, sighing, and biting back tears. Peter stepped forward to intervene, before the man started talking. “I know what y’all must be thinking. How could somebody do that to his own family? But it wasn’t him, alright? I’ve known him almost all my life. It’s not him. I mean, technically it was him, but it wasn’t, you know?”

Peter cleared his throat, “Yeah.”

The man turned around, tears brimming in his eyes, “They should have never let him watch those videos. I told them not to. He was fine… you know… not remembering.”

“We should find a place to sit and talk,” Peter suggested.

The man nodded, looking back at his cousin while he wiped his eyes, “Yeah. Yeah. I’m Kevin.”

Peter nodded, “I know.”

----------------------------

The cage was loud and wet and cold and Bonnie wanted nothing to do with it. She shrunk back whenever she heard the loud barks from the dogs around her, which she couldn’t see, but their sounds and smells were overwhelming. And she was all alone.

She wasn’t supposed to be here.

She’d tried to make that clear when the woman who’d taken her had brought her here. She needed to be with Brian. He was in bad shape and he needed his dog. But the humans, of course, never understood. She’d tried to escape when they’d put her on the table, but the man dressed in the white coat had just grabbed her by her neck to hold her steady and she’d whined and barked and even growled, but he wouldn’t budge. He’d poked and prodded her, mumbled things to his young assistant and then finally released her. She’d flailed at him, baring her teeth, but before she could do anything, she’d been dragged off of the table and pulled through the hallway right into this hell hole. Wide eyed she’d stumbled through the narrow path, along the cages. A lot of dogs were locked up here. Some had barked at her, their eyes wild and panicked and some had stayed hidden in the back of their cages, scared and withdrawn.

And now Bonnie was in here too, and it smelled of urine and saliva and fear and she had no idea what she was doing here. And when, at nighttime, an old man came to her with a handful of food, she’d stared up at him, hopefully and he’d knelt down, touching her head. “Poor thing,” he mumbled. “I bet you have quite the pedigree. You shouldn’t be in here.”

She’d whined softly, trying to convince him to let her out, but he just got up and moved on. She started barking, angry now, but he didn’t come back. She cringed when she heard the other dogs picking up her bark and the whole place was flooded with sound again. Bonnie whined, shrinking back into her cage.

By morning time, the dogs got out into the yard. It was small, much and much smaller than Brian’s and Bonnie was unsure about the dogs insisting on smelling her from top to bottom. Especially her bottom. Some were friendly enough, but some were rough and persistent and those got an earful of her angry snarls to leave her alone. They listened fairly well, although there was one large St. Bernard who just didn’t seem to get the message. She had to bite at him several times before he backed off.

She remembered how much fun she’d had with AJ’s bulldogs and it made her feel even more alone now that she was surrounded by countless of dogs she didn’t know. None of them seemed interested in play, all of them were angry and riled up. She wondered how long they had been in here. How long would she be in here?

By the next day, Bonnie had fallen into a routine of barking whenever somebody walked by, desperately trying to catch their attention and convincing them to take her away. Nobody ever did. The rest of the time she stayed hidden in her cage, not interested in the dry dog food they supplied twice a day.

After three days of hell, Bonnie caught a familiar scent. She got up tentatively, her tail wagging slowly as the smell became stronger.

Nick looked extremely tired and disheveled from the last time she’d seen him, but she couldn’t be happier to see him now. She yelped, howled and barked in anticipation as he came closer. He gave her a sad smile, kneeling down. “I’m sorry Bonnie,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all this.”

To much of her delight, Nick opened the cage and Bonnie jumped up at him, which she wasn’t supposed to do, she knew, but she couldn’t stop it. “Alright, alright, Bon,” Nick murmured, “It’s alright now.”

Nick took her to his house, which was spacious and rather empty compared to the stuffed home Bonnie was used to. But anything was better than going back to the shelter again, so Bonnie decided to behave like a good dog. But still, she couldn’t help but dream of her home. Of her life. And she wondered if she’d ever see it again.

AJ came a few days later, but he wasn’t the happy, laughing AJ that always had pieces of bacon on him that Bonnie remembered. This AJ was sad and smelled of the stuff Brian had hidden away in the cupboards, which he used to drink a lot in the weeks before everything had gone insane. The smell made Bonnie angry, to be perfectly honest. And even though some bits of AJ still smelled like AJ, she tried to stay away from him as much as possible.

And then on one day, Nick opened the front door and called her over. He seemed tense and Bonnie was unsure about what he wanted from her. He opened the door to his car and gestured for her to get inside. She stepped back into the house. “No no, Bonnie,” Nick shook his head impatiently, waving towards the passenger seat once again, “You’re gonna love it.”

After a bit of prodding and tugging, Bonnie got into the front seat, panting nervously. What if Nick was going to take her back to the shelter? She definitely never wanted to go back there again. She looked at Nick questioningly, but Nick just stared at the road and drove, not saying anything.

He ended up parking in front of a large building and Bonnie cocked her head once she got out, wondering what they were doing here? Nick took a deep breath before taking her leash and going inside. Bonnie sniffed the floor anxiously as Nick walked up to front desk.

“No dogs, sir,” The woman said in a monotonous tone.

Nick’s hand tightened around the leash and he sighed, “Maria, we’ve gone over this already. Remember me?”

“I remember you,” the woman said in the same tone.

“Right. Now, doctor Bordeau thinks it would be a good thing for her to see Bonnie.”

“Bonnie is the dog?” the woman asked.

“Yes, like I’ve told you already.”

“I didn’t know Bonnie was a dog.”

Nick rolled his eyes and shook his head before tugging on the leash, “Come on Bonnie.”

They walked past the front desk, the woman staring at them as they went towards the elevators. Bonnie had been on lots of elevators before, but this one had a very unpleasant smell. In fact, the further they went into the building the more it smelled and looked a suspicious lot like the office with the man in the white coat that had grabbed Bonnie by the neck and poked and prodded her. She didn’t like it one bit. Nick’s foot was tapping nervously along with the music in the elevator and he had shortened the leash once again.

“Leighanne’s gonna be happy to see you,” he mumbled.

Bonnie’s head shot up, the smell of the elevator entirely forgotten. Did he just say…? Panting she tugged on the leash, frantically turning in circles around Nick’s legs. She smelled her as soon as they got off the elevator and broke free of the leash in a matter of seconds. She raced through the hallway, a few women dressed in white yelping in shock as she stormed past them. She skidded to a halt and turned into the room, barking in relief and joy.

Leighanne’s face lit up immediately when she saw her. Bonnie jumped onto the bed and started licking her hands. She was skinny now, the big belly completely gone and she was a lot paler than Bonnie remembered. The sobs invaded her laugh as Bonnie started crying in long yelps. “It’s okay Bonnie,” she said, wrapping her arms around her, “It’s all over now, it’s okay.”

Nick came into the room panting. “I’m sorry. She was so excited, I couldn’t hold her.”

Leighanne smiled, the tears streaming freely over her cheeks, “I could tell.”

“She’s been really down lately,” Nick muttered.

Leighanne nodded slowly, her hands tightening in Bonnie’s fur like Brian’s used to do whenever he got tense. Bonnie wondered when they were going to see him next. “I’m getting out tomorrow,” Leighanne whispered.

Nick bit his lip, turning his gaze to the floor, “I heard. Where you gonna stay?”

“At my parents. It just… it feels really weird leaving without him, you know?”

Nick nodded, “He’s gonna be here for quite a while longer.”

“He’s still so small,” Leighanne sniffled and Bonnie laid down her head on her arm, “I just don’t want him to feel alone, you know?”

“I’ll ask the nurse if we can go and visit him.”

“What about Bonnie?”

“She can come too.”

They went to another room, another elevator. All the while Leighanne sat in the wheelchair, not saying a word. Bonnie was a good dog, keeping pace right next to her while Leighanne laid her hand on her head every once in a while. When they got down two floors, they went into another room. Nick pushed Leighanne towards a big box and Leighanne peered inside with tears in her eyes. Bonnie looked at Nick, who nodded at her before she jumped up to look. Inside the glass box was the tiniest baby Bonnie had ever seen. Granted, she hadn’t seen many babies in her life, but this one was a lot smaller than the ones she had seen. Its tiny arms flailed around and its head moved from side to side. Bonnie cocked her head, completely still as she observed the small human being.

“He’s beautiful, isn’t he, Bonnie?” Leighanne whispered next to her. Bonnie didn’t react, totally mesmerized by the tiny human in the glass box. Bonnie wanted to smell it, but when she moved forward, Nick pulled her back.

“Can’t get in there, Bonnie, that’s not fit for dogs.”

The tiny human reached up and waved its hands about in the air, its chest moving up and down rapidly while the tube in its small mouth puffed air into it. Bonnie looked at Leighanne, who gave her a sad smile. “You’re a good dog, Bonnie.”

“You want to take her home with you tomorrow?” Nick asked softly.

“I think I’d like that, yeah.” Leighanne wiped her eyes carefully, “Although my mom isn’t too fond of dogs.”

“She’ll have to adjust then,” Nick muttered.

Leighanne nodded, “Thank you.”

Nick looked at the ground again, “You know, it’s the least I can do.”

Leighanne sighed heavily, “Again, it’s not your fault, Nickolas.”

“You know how I think about it,” Nick mumbled back.

“And you know how I do,” Leighanne answered, grabbing his hand. “You had no idea this was gonna happen.”

“I should have never showed them to him.”

“No. But he would have snapped one way or another. Sooner or later. It was inevitable, that’s what his doctor said.”

“You’re handling this exceptionally well,” Nick said quietly.

“I have to,” Leighanne replied, looking back at the glass box, “For him.”

“Are you gonna go see him?” Nick asked.

“Every single day,” Leighanne said, not moving her gaze.

“I meant Brian.”

Leighanne turned her eyes back to Nick’s slowly, biting her lip. “I don’t know. Have you?”

Nick shook his head. “They’re still keeping him sedated, so there’s no point.”

Bonnie whined as Leighanne’s face turned to grief, “It’s not right.”

“No,” Nick said, “No.”