, it was a mission. He stood in Aisle 4, his eyes scanning the shelves until they landed on the familiar bright blue box: .

Elias reached for the box, his fingers lingering on the cardboard. He remembered the last time they’d bought these. It was a Saturday morning in their old house, the sun streaming through a kitchen window that no longer belonged to them. Leo had insisted on giving the "Marshall" cookie to his dad because "dads are firefighters for bad days."

"It’s for a rescue mission," Elias replied, his voice a bit thicker than he intended.

"Green means go," Leo whispered, his first words in three days.

The grocery store was a battlefield of fluorescent lights and linoleum, but for Elias

Back at the apartment, Elias didn't just put the cookies in a bowl. He waited until the sun began to set, casting long, soft shadows across Leo’s bedroom floor. He sat down on the rug and opened the box. One by one, he lined up the pups—Chase, Skye, Rubble—on a napkin.