Ailan nudged Rescue again, watching the big stallion laying on the ground shift about gently. His deep green eyes opened and peered up at him.
“You have been here all night.”
Looking over where the colt was sleeping on the bed, Ailan noted Scootaloo and Rumble were absent. In their place was Carrot and Applejack, along with Applebloom, then looking back down at the stallion still gradually waking up.
“Come on, let’s get you home and in bed. No argument, okay? We are all taking shifts around the clock, he won’t be alone.”
Rescue gave a soft grunt and a nod, slowly standing on all fours. He looked over and his eyes again grew soft and thoughtful. Turning to look at his mate, his ears lifted some, seeing something he had not thought he would in them. “I—”
Ailan shook his head. “You don’t need to say it, Rescue. I see it in your eyes. I can tell what you are thinking.”
Looking over at the sleeping paint and giving a exhale before turning back to the draft stallion, speaking in the subdued tone they had kept out of respect.
“I don’t know how we will do it, I don’t know if we can afford it, but... I know I can’t stand to see that look in your eyes. I can’t stand by knowing all I know about you, about your past, about us...” Ailan gave a nod. “We...will find a way to make it happen.”
Rescue’s ears shot up and his eyes grew wide. Looking at the smaller stallion, he found himself lost in his mate's eyes.
“I—oh... Ailan, I—”
Nuzzling the stocky pony, Ailan pressed a hoof to Rescue's lips. “We will figure it all out, okay?”
---
Two days stretched into two weeks. First it was an infection, then a need to once again heal what the infection had destroyed. The little colt lay in bed, fighting for his very life on that bed. The whole time he did not fight alone. His fellow Junior Firefighters stood at his side, flanked always by one of the older ponies that had taken the step to become volunteer firefighters. Without knowing it, Rescue had brought them together in a way no training and no amount of talk could have.
Rescue and Ailan had not been idle in that time. First off were meetings with the princess, then with the Mayor of Ponyville, then Foal Protection Services. Next, it was finding a loan to build another room onto their home. That came in the surprise form of a no interest, no payback time loan from Mr. Rich himself.
The most shocking thing had been as they returned from yet another meeting and more paperwork with Princess Twilight and Foal Protection Services. The two arrived home to find Red and eight other ponies with a foundation laid and walls already beginning to go up. It had been the big red stallion himself that had explained it, meeting them mid way to the house in that odd limp he bore and would for the rest of his life.
“I owed yous both for the way I acted, for my actions. When I heard what was going on, courtesy of a rather blunt and very well-spoken pink filly. Well, the boys and I figured it was the least we could do.”
So it had gone. Every single day they had come to spend time with Little Pip and what ever pony from the Volunteer Fire Department was sitting with him, and Rescue was unsure he could hear they talked to him, praised his brave act, told him of the ceremony that was to come as soon as he recovered.
Rumble, Scootaloo, and the other Junior Firefighters had stepped up as well. Not once did they let the mares and stallions rest vigil alone. Scootaloo and the other two of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, as they referred to themselves, had taken over cleaning duty at the station but 'only tell Captain Pip is back up on his hooves', as Applebloom had put it.
Today was the day they were going to bring Pip up and out. The room was covered in flowers, stuffed little pony toys, balloons, and hoof-made cards. Rescue and Ailan stood off to one side while Doctor Horse and Nurse Redheart monitored the young colt, watching as Pip gradually opened his eyes, looking around him. He winced some from the tightness of the new flesh across his hip and the still-healing scars, yet it wasn’t his own pain that was his concern. His first words, dry and scratchy, were clear.
“Is Scoots okay? What about R-Rumble?”
Rescue touched the colt's head lightly with a hoof. “They are fine, Pip, thanks to the bravery you and Rumble showed,” a pause came. “Stupid, little foal.”
He smiled as the words came out, and Pip offered his first weak smile back.
“After the doctors are done with you, we... have things to talk about," Rescue added.
Pip gave a blink, then a soft nod.
---
It had been a quiet discussion at first. Pip listened carefully to the Chief and his partner. The more they talked, the more surprised he was. Then came that question, one he had watched others at the orphanage be asked and answer. Pip had to really think about it, they were asking him not to just come live with them, they were asking if he wanted them to adopt him! He had asked them to leave for a bit, let him think. Much to his surprise, they had respected his wishes, and so he sat in silence. He thought about the mother and father he'd never met. He thought about the teasing, the orphanage, the kindness there.
When Rescue and Ailan walked back in, Pip was propped up with fluffy pillows behind him. He glanced away and his ears pinned down. However, always the forward and brave one, he looked to meet the Chief’s eyes with his own.
“Chi—Rescue,” as the big stallion had asked him to call him outside of training. “What if you grow tired of me? What if you don’t want me anymore?”
Oh, that had been a long talk. One Rescue had not wanted to have. However, he had it. He told the little paint about his own past. His parents and family, the fire, the loss. He explained to him of the joys growing up loved by his adopted father. Pip had shed tears at his story, and despite his burns and healing leg, he had embraced the draft stallion tight. Ailan had remained close, but quiet. This was about all of them, but Pip clearly needed to know the truth.
“Okay.”
Four letters, one little word, but it brought joy to Ailan’s face. Looking over to see tears race down Rescue’s cheeks, the three hugged close and as gentle as they could so as not to cause Pip more pain.
That was how two souls walking together, found a third to join them and how yet another scar inside a stallion once overwhelmed with them, was healed. There in a stuffy, antiseptic-smelling hospital room, one little word from a rather tiny colt, put paid to the long hidden emptiness in all three of them.