salute [h.s]

the one with the dogs

Piper could hear music playing in the house when she stepped out of the car in the garage. The voice of one of her daughters (Sara? Probably Sara) was shouting out an approximation of the words and Piper could hear Harry's deep laugh breaking through as he tried to sing along himself every time Sara went for a high note. It brought a smile to Piper's face, thinking of her family dancing and singing in the kitchen while they made dinner. Sometimes Piper missed being a proper international spy but moments like these made up for that.

The smile slid right off her face when she heard the single bark from the backseat.

"I'm dead," Piper muttered to herself as the blood drained from her face. She ran her fingers through her hair, tossing the shoulder-length red locks back away from her face. "Harry is actually going to kill me this time."

There was another bark from the back and the little Jack Russell Terrier that had been walking back and forth along the seats for the whole ride, probably getting hair on every available surface, jumped up to prop his little legs on the door handle, panting heavy breaths against her previously clean window. His tongue lolled out of his mouth in a way that felt almost teasing and Piper narrowed her eyes at him.

"Don't look so smug, mister," she said, wagging a finger at him. "If I end up dead in a ditch tonight, it'll be your fault."

The dog stared at her for a long minute and then quirked his head playfully.

"Ugh, let's go," Piper said as she opened the back door, letting the dog jump down and circle around her feet twice before he ran off to explore the garage. She slammed the back door shut and hiked her bag up on her shoulder heading for the door into the house. "Come on, let's go. Oi!" she called out when she saw the dog had his head stuck in a bag of potting soil. "Get out of there!"

She kept a foot out to hold the Jack Russell back as she opened the garage door, calling out a serious "heel" before she pulled it away. The dog took a couple of excited steps forward and then stopped himself, backing it right back up and repeating the pattern. It was as close to a proper 'heel' as he could get but it was better than what he'd been able to do earlier in the week when he and Piper had first met.

"Is that you, petal?"

"It's me," Piper called out and, assuming that he'd been included in the greeting, the Jack Russell let out a single bark that said 'I'm here!'

And just like that, the whole house descended into madness. The barks and scrambling footsteps of 6 dogs racing through the house nearly drowned out the loud music (Bowie, as it turned out which somehow didn't surprise Piper at all, knowing Harry's taste in music). Harry's head craned around the doorway to the kitchen, a curious furrow in his brow. He let out a groan when he saw the little dog at her feet nearly shaking with his desire to go and play with the other dogs.

"Piper," he said shortly as he stepped into the hall, "What did I say about the dogs? We can't –" He was interrupted by the puppy brigade skidding into the hall, practically galloping toward the new friend standing at Piper's side. Harry tried to sidestep the pack but ended up getting butted in the leg by all of them at least once and was nearly upended right onto his bum by the Great Dane who always forgot he was a big dog. He only just managed to right himself before he ended up sprawled on the floor and Piper grimaced apologetically when he pressed his lips together reproachfully.

But she didn't have time to do much else because she was suddenly covered in dogs coming to greet her and she crouched so she could pet each of them. Bertie, the tamest of the group as the oldest and the unquestionable leader of them, bumped his nose against her cheek in greeting and then circled to sniff around their new friend.