Part 10:

Shilo exited Jax's tent as his alarm blared in her ear. She hated waking up early and had every intention on going back to her side of the girl's cabin and sleeping an extra few hours in her bed, "O-Okay... See you in a few, Shy." Jackson yawned and got up out of bed to gather his things for the shower. As soon as he stepped out, he was bombarded by children, yelling something or other about Harrison being in trouble, "Hey. Whoa. Wait! One at a time! Nurf. Explain." He demanded.

The bully had his hands in his hair, clearly freaked out with the rest of them, but he was always the most rational speaker of the group, "Harrison said he needed a fucking bear or some shit for his act and just like went in the woods to look for one!" Nurf explained. Jackson appreciated him being concise and quick with his explanation, even if it wasn't news he wanted to hear.

"Nurf! Great explanation! Go find another counselor and send them in after me. I need to go get him before he does anything dumb." The man commanded again, placing a hand on Nurf's head, "We really need to get you into public speaking or a debate team." He said softly before turning and running off into the woods after the little boy. Harrison had always been his favorite, after all.

The kids ran in the opposite direction towards the camp, Nurf running up to Campbell who was having a discussion with David, "Harrison went to look for bears in the woods and Jackson chased after him alone!"

"WHAT?!" Yelled both men before exchanging a glance and booking it in the direction the larger boy pointed to.

"Harrison!!" Shouted Jackson as he ran over to the boy that was currently trying to coax a baby bear out of a cave, "Are you insane?! You cannot have a pet bear!" Jackson scolded.

"I think an animal in my disappearing act would make it that much more tantalizing." Harrison explained.

The man was about to explain why that was a dumb plan as gently as he could, but his peripherals caught a movement in the cave. His eyes went wide at the large shadow approaching them, angrily growling. Jax gulped, taking the now quaking boy into his arms and holding him right against his body for protection, "Shhhh. Keep calm. Let's back away slowly and-" he was cut off by a roar from the mama bear as she reared her back legs and got ready to charge, "Oh... fuck..." he whimpered.

Next thing Jackson knew, he was running, the large creature at his heels and Harrison holding tightly onto him. Jackson had the advantage in only one way, holding out his free hand to tightly swivel his way around small trees and giving him a much sharper turn than the bear. The only issue with this method were the cuts on his hand and arm forming from gripping and spinning on rough bark, breaking his skin and getting worse with each tree. Another disadvantage was that he couldn't run towards camp and put other children in danger. He was stuck running deeper and deeper into the woods and getting more and more hurt.

Jackson ended up near the dock with just a second or so to spare. With this time, he threw Harrison into the boat at the dock and shoved it away with his foot so he could be further away from the bear, not even having enough time after this to turn around before the creature lunged and landed on his shoulders. Harrison watched from the boat, shaking and tearing up.

Just as the claws of the bear began to partially dig into Jackson, the weight of the creature leaving him in a fair amount of pain, he suddenly felt its body jerk off of him, claws scraping down his back and ripping his shirt before there was a splash in the water. Jackson realized as he lifted his head that it had slammed pretty hard into the dock when he was knocked over. He looked at the lake and saw Campbell with the bear in a headlock, fighting for the bear to submit in the shallow end of the water.

After a moment, David was helping Jackson up and a wet Cameron Campbell was trudging out of the water behind the soaked bear as it ran back to its cave. The man had a few scratches on him, but nothing deep. He was an expert at taming bears, after all, "What the fuck were you thinking?!" Campbell shouted at Jackson who was leaning on David and panting.

"E-Excuse me?" The young man leaned forward, squinting.

"You ran after some kid?! When you knew bears were involved?!"

"He would've died, Cameron! I saved that kid's fucking life!"

"And then I had to save yours! What makes your life worth less than his?!"

"I'm an adult, Cameron! We protect children!" Jackson's face was turning red as the two yelled. David's eyes darted back and forth between them.

"I forbid you from doing anything like that again!" Yelled Campbell, louder than he probably intended. He opened his mouth to say something else before stopping. The look on Jackson's face told him he'd fucked up. He fucked up bad.

"You.. what me? Forbid?"

"I-.." Campbell gulped, "I should've worded that differently, I'm-..."

"Are you my fucking keeper?! My father?!" Jax's vision filled with tears. He was shaking. His eyes were wide and his brows were scrunched together in the worst and most angry scowl that could ever cross another person's face. Campbell had definitely fucked up with his word choice, "Go fuck yourself!" He spat at the older man, moving away from David and helping Harrison to the deck, picking him up in his bloody arms. His face softened as he began talking to the boy, calming him down and walking him back to camp. He left the two men behind, David feeling extremely uncomfortable and Campbell realizing he had a huge mess to fix. He wasn't sure if he'd ever seen someone so angry before.