Chapter Text
His paw pushes down hard on the accelerator, his fire truck tearing down the road at speeds he knew better than to be going under the early morning lighting conditions, yet was anyway. Tears stream down his face as he tries to blink and clear his vision, never even once slowing down, even as he went around some tight turns that would even have F-1 racers second guessing themselves.
But eventually the tears blur his vision too much and he accepts that he needs to stop for a moment, and finally pulls over to try and get himself under control. The last thing he wanted was to end up crashing and killing someone or worse, himself. So, as he sat there on the side of the road, he lifted up his pup tag from where he'd previously dropped it on the floor of his truck. Ryder should be awake by now, and he surely would've noticed his truck was gone.
He listens for a few minutes until he hears Ryder's voice come over the tag, seemingly unaware that he was being heard. "So, he finally decided to leave, did he? I hope you know that this is only helping the team, Marshall. The truck may be harder to replace, but you're easy to." The Dalmatian growls and slams his pup-tag into the ground beside his truck, watching with satisfaction as the hunk of metal and wires shatters into countless pieces and slides down the embankment and into the river. But, unfortunately, the satisfaction is short-lived and he quickly returns to tears, pressing a paw to his hastily bandaged face, remembering why he ended up in the situation in the first place.
The day before Marshall left, things had been completely normal. Marshall had been extremely happy with his friends, his family. They had been called out to a rescue, Alex had gotten stuck in his treehouse again, shocking, I know. The only problem was that the tree had been struck by lightning in a storm the day before, which left the tree extremely unstable and liable to fall at any time. Marshall would never truly understand what compelled that kid to do the things he did.
They arrived quickly, only to find the tree buckling under Alex's added weight. Marshall wasted no time in getting his truck and ladder into place, like he had before when Alex had been trying to get out of going to the dentist. Alex quickly got onto the ladder, placing his complete trust into Marshall like he had so many times before.
Marshall grimaces as he remembers what comes next.
He moved down the ladder to give Alex more space to get out of the opening in the treehouse, it shifting as he did so. Just as Alex was settling himself to sit on the ladder, Marshall did his trademark ladder screw-up and started falling off the ladder.
He'd seen his friends grimacing as he fell, knowing that this one would definitely hurt, which it had, but not nearly as much as it ended up being for Alex.
You see, this fall was very different than any of the falls that came before it. He hadn't comedically bounced down the steps of his ladder with strange noises. No, instead, he'd practically jumped off the ladder and did a backflip... and was now coming down on the cockpit of the truck.
He didn't land in his seat upside down, miss the thing entirely and land on the hood of his truck, or bounce out of either side of the truck as he normally did... but boy did he wish that was the case.
It pains Marshall just to remember what happened.
He landed right on the gas pedal and was thrown to the back of his seat as the truck lurched forward. His head lands on the back of the truck, leaving him in the perfect position to see what his mistake led to.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as Alex fell off the back of the ladder and screamed for help as he fell towards the ground. He could see Chase try and ready his net to little success, (In hindsight, why the hell were their pup-packs so slow to open?) and Mr. Porter let out a gasp and tried to run and catch his son to equally little success, because for as powerful as hysterical strength could make someone, they weren't covering a solid 15 feet in less than three seconds.
In the end, Alex landed on the roots of the tree with a sickening crack coming from his right side. He let out a shrill scream as Marshall could clearly see from where laid that both Alex's right arm and leg were broken. Marshall quickly changes his truck into its ambulance form and rushes over to lend a paw, already cursing himself.
Unfortunately, Marshall was only an EMT, not a doctor. The best he could do to help was put Alex's leg and arm into braces to stop any further damage from occurring.
"I'm so sorry, Alex." Marshall said with utmost sincerity, only for the boy not to respond, or even look at him, seeming betrayed, and he was in some ways.
He looked to Mr. Porter with a sorrowful gaze. "Those should hold until we get him to the Hospital." Marshall didn't know what he said, but Mr. Porter looked extremely, pardon his french, pissed off at that statement. "I believe you've done quite enough already!" Marshall flinched at the sheer volume and cowered back a step. Mr. Porter then picked Alex up and marched to his van to take him to the Hospital himself.
Marshall just watched him walk off, the guilt in his chest seeming to increase tenfold as Mr. Porter's words ring in his ears. He let out a sigh and backed up from the tree, looking to figure out how he'd be able to help with getting it taken down safely, while also potentially managing to save Alex's treehouse, lest he want to hurt the boy even more. "How do we want to go about this?" He asked, only to receive silence as an answer.
"Guys?" He looked around, only to find everyone was glaring sharply at him. He flinched every time he caught a new gaze, feeling worse and worse with each one. And to make matters even worse, he suddenly felt a new glare being to bore through his back, making the other pups glares seem like dolls by comparison.
Ryder, it seemed, had a different plan in mind.
"Marshall." He felt a shiver go up his spine and his fur stand on end. It had been a very long time since anyone, especially him, had heard Ryder use such a disappointed and angry tone. "Y-yes, Ryder?" He practically whimpered, unable to even try looking at his owner, lest he want to see his disappointed gaze. "Just... Just go home, Marshall. Mr. Porter was on the nose with his statement. You've done quite enough already. I want you parked right outside the doors." It wasn't a request, it was an indisputable order that Marshall doubted even Mayor Humdinger would be able to deny.
Marshall then slowly walked over and climbed into his truck, turning it into a Firetruck again and driving off back to the lookout with a heavy heart.
He parked right outside the door as Ryder told him to, and from there took the initiative and confined himself to his doghouse. He stayed there for three hours before Ryder and the others came back. Ryder didn't speak to him, nor did the other pups. They simply went inside, while Marshall continued to stay in his pup-house.
Everything was just eating away at him, this was the worst mistake he'd ever made! And as a result of him making it, Alex was now in the hospital with a broken arm and leg, and everyone seemed to hate him.
After so much time had past, he couldn't help himself from calling into the hospital. If Alex was hurt worse than he thought, then he needed to know, so he could have enough knowledge to at least do something for Alex!
Dialing in, his pup-tag beeped a few times before a woman picked up, answering with calmness and professionalism that Marshall wished he could have. "You've reached the Adventure Bay Hospital, Karen speaking." He couldn't help but imagine a certain type of woman in that moment.
'FOCUS MARSHALL!' He scolds himself. "Hi, Karen, it's Marshall from the Paw Patrol, and I'm calling to check in on the current condition of Alex Porter." There was no response from Karen. "Um... Ms. Karen?" Again nothing. This went on for almost a minute, during which Marshall even pushes up his pup-tag to ensure the call didn't accidentally fail, it didn't, leaving Marshall extremely confused as to why she wasn't speaking...
...only to realize how much of a blessing that was.
"You have some nerve, don't you, Marshall?" A shiver goes up his spine at the venomous tone she spoke in. "What? I-" "You injured that kid so badly, in a idiotic accident that never would've happened if someone intelligent was at the controls—or maybe you secretly like to watch kids suffer—and then have the nerve to call in asking about his condition?! HIS ARM AND LEG ARE BROKEN! HE'S GOING TO BE IN A CAST FOR WEEKS! THERE! YOU HAVE HIS CONDITION, NOW REFRAIN FROM CALLING AGAIN!" and the phone was promptly hung up with a loud click.
After hearing that, Marshall just had to sit there for a moment and gather himself. And after several minutes of that, he came to two conclusions. One, that woman absolutely fit the description Marshall initially thought about, which was somewhat funny. Two, she blamed him for the accident happening, which was fair, because it was his fault for not being more careful. On the other paw, it wasn't fair for her to treat him like that, as if he'd done the things he did because he was an idiot, or because it was malicious.
By the time he had managed to recover from hearing that, it had since become dark out and Marshall quickly realized his hunger. He didn't think Ryder would mind if he came out to get some food before going back in, so he slowly crawled out and went into the lookout. However. as soon as the doors opened he heard Ryder's voice, as he'd expected to, but he never could've expected what Ryder was saying in there...
"I... I don't even know what to say anymore. I mean, Marshall has never been very useful at all. Usually I have to get one of you top cover for him, which is annoying, but it usually works out well enough in the end, hence why I keep him around, and because we need to have a fire-pup to continue operating legally. But this... THIS is the biggest mistake that the Paw Patrol has ever had to take responsibility for, and it all happened because of Marshall. I'm about ready to get rid of him and find someone else to take his place!" Ryder's words are met with all of the pups agreeing in different ways, ranging from simple acknowledgements, to full on slandering of their own. Marshall has to work really hard to keep himself from crying as he slowly pads back out of the doors.
He sits right outside his pup-house, because he's getting too stiff to continue laying inside of it, and stares up at the sky. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard, was he really just a tool to Ryder? A way for the Paw Patrol to continue operating without issues? The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes just how true that is. Even before he was having issues on almost every mission, Ryder was always sending either Chase or Skye with him, usually both, to keep everything safe.
But even with that knowledge, Marshall didn't want to do anything rash, because then the Paw Patrol would be unable to operate and people wouldn't be safe anymore. Maybe he wasn't in a good situation, but if enduring meant the safety of everyone else in Adventure Bay, then he could find it in himself to endure.
Then the doors opened, and Marshall turned to find Chase walking towards him with a serious expression. Nothing like the Chase he knew before.
"Ryder didn't say you could leave your pup-house." Even his voice has gone completely cold, and Marshall felt intimidated. Still, he figured that he'd better explain himself.
"It's not healthy to stay like that too much, so I wanted to sit up and stretch myself out. I stayed right outside my pup-house, so there shouldn't be any problems." He figured that would be enough, but the universe seemed to really enjoy putting him down today.
"Really, just outside the pup-house? What about when you came inside?" Marshall cursed, but he wasn't overly surprised that Chase had heard him. Still, he owed Chase an answer, so he said, "I was going to get some food, but I second-guessed myself and came back out here." He waited for Chase to respond, never taking his eyes off the stars above his head.
"What did you hear?" Chase suddenly demands, making Marshall look towards him again. "What are you-" "We all thought you came in after we were done talking, did you come in before that? If so, what did you hear?!" Chase is suddenly right in his face.
Marshall tries to stay calm, he really does, but with everything that happened that day, he snapped and got in Chase's face too.
"I heard you all say that I was just a tool! Nothing but a nuisance that you're forced to keep around so that the Paw Patrol can function!"
Chase looked surprised for a brief moment, before settling into a more nonchalant expression. "So, you finally learned? About time! I finally don't have to pretend that you're like a brother to me. That was such a nuisance!"
Of course, that hurt Marshall a lot to hear, even if he was already expecting it. Still that raging feeling in his chest wasn't going down, if anything, this had just poured gasoline on that fire, and Marshall was far past holding everything in.
"You want to talk about nuisances, I can give you a nuisance!" Chase raises a brow, seeming less than engaged. "You're supposed to be the second in command for the Paw Patrol, in the event that Ryder is incapacitated! Yet you're completely useless in that role! Every time Ryder puts you in charge for a mission, you just end up screwing it up, and 90% of the time, I'm not even there for you to blame it on, so don't try to!" At this point, Chase looks genuinely shocked. "Yeah, not so high and mighty now, are you?! You talk about me as if I'm so bad, when 99% of the time, my mistakes are a minor inconvenience, whereas yours jeopardize the missions and require Ryder, or at least someone more capable than you, to fix it!"
Chase doesn't say anything, but Marshall can see him tensing up, his brows furrowing, and his paws twitching. This early warning is enough for Marshall to successfully dodge the first attack and cause Chase to land face first on the concrete. Of course this does nothing but piss him off even more as he attacks again, and again, as Marshall continues to dodge him.
He'd hoped that he could outlast Chase's attempts to hurt him, or at least last long enough for Ryder to come out and stop him, because while he isn't really all that good, at least he's not abusive... right?
Marshall then saw him watching from the doorway, which made him pause, and Chase succeed in tackling him, at which point he claws at several points on Marshall's face and body, all while Ryder just watches it happen. And once Chase's done doing that, he slams a paw onto Marshall's head and holds it down.
"We are NOT the same, and I am NOT worse than you! You are the most useless pup in existence, and you'll never be more than that!" And with that he walked inside, and left Marshall bleeding on the grass to slowly get himself up.
When he is finally on his feet, he finds that Ryder is gone, and that was the moment that he made the decision to leave. Because standing by and being hated and isolated is one thing, being abused without issue is another. A thing he won't tolerate!
First, he went into his pup-house and bandaged his scratches, sloppily, but bandaged nonetheless. Then, he waited for everyone to go to sleep, and ignored the growl Chase sent his way and even mocked the German Shepard as he was walking away, although he was secretly terrified he'd notice and attack again. But, he wasn't noticed, and when enough time had passed, Marshall snuck inside and grabbed some food for the road, making sure to take the good stuff just to spite them, and then hopped in his truck and hit the road.
It had only been after hours of driving that he had stopped and heard Ryder's voice say those things, ending with him destroying his pup-tag. But he was now calm enough to continue driving, this time without a semblance of hope that the team still loved him, or ever did.
Shifting into gear, Marshall shot off down the road, leaving Adventure Bay in the dust for what he hoped would be forever.