Wandering Off

Prologue

John zipped two of his big coleman double wide bags together and gave one to Roy, shared a few pillows and slid the sleeping Cassie in along the inner seam of one bag. It wasn't cold enough to close it but he slid in behind her and pulled the child into his arms, settling them both down with one corner turned back so neither of them overheated. "There now, she doesn't wake up alone and she gets the arms she needs...and so does her big sister." John said quietly. "She's still hitching once in a while."

"I know. See if you can start getting closer her. You're going to be spending a lot more time at our house. She needs you too, clearly. I'm glad I never told her you're our best finder, she would have been hell to find if she'd been hiding, small as she is. Besides, you're better at rough housing than I am."

John snorted. "What will Cassie be doing while I keep the older ones busy playing baseball and stuff?"

"Probably with us getting it through her head that she is absolutely our real daughter...and that just because we adopted her doesn't mean she's second best. You need to talk to her. She promised to let you be if we agreed not to..." Roy choked.

"Caught that. Wait, toss a blanket over the dogs and get Crystal in that bag first, temps dropping faster and lower than the forecast called for." Once they got the kids settled again, John picked up the thread of their low voiced conversation. "Anyway, I heard. We'll talk. Might take her hiking or something...just us. I know, Roy, I love her too, same as I all your kids.

"Better tell her, I don't think she understands that."

"She will." Gage promised. "She needs an Uncle, a good, solid Uncle. One that's mostly her's and the station can spare one of us for that...I think I'm the best one for that doing that, you're my partner and you've got a kid having a hard time. After all, she came to me, too. My hands dealt with the knee, yeah? My hands gave the shot. I just need to be a lot more aware of her body language than I normally bother with for little kids. Mostly they don't need me to be, Cassie does. She seems to make an ongoing list of everything that's going wrong and then work out how it's all her fault, which I bet we can lay right at the feet of her biological parents. And the kinds of 'how to' lessons she got on the free beach didn't help."

"More than likely. It's going to take a while to get her sorted."

"Yeah, it's okay though. I'll just swing by when whenever I can and pick her up for some time with Redux and her foals."

"She'll be up there loads anyway with her horses...Salted Mama Redux, big name for such a lttle pony, that."

"That it is." John yawned.

"See you two in the morning."

"mmmm...mid-morning."

"true"

"She's gone Daddy."

"What?" Roy stared at Crystal. She was sat wrapped half way around her dog. He'd asked his eldest where her sister was, not having seen the girl that morning. Having not seen John either, he'd assumed the other man had led her off on the promised hike.

"Cassie's gone. She said she was going for a walk but that was hours ago...Uncle John was cleaning some trout he caught. He told her not to go far and he'd find her when he put the fish in the cooler. He went after her, but they're not back yet, he took Holler with him and told CatchIt to stay with me."

"Okay, so...how about we use the shallow water stream where pike won't fit to fish and a normal pole, each, sound good to you?"

"Yes, Daddy."

By nightfall, he was getting worried. No, scratch that, he was way past worried and edging into panic. What the hell had happened? He swore then and there never to come camping in this direction again.

"Dad? Can we go somewhere's else for camping next time? I think this place is bad luck. Where's Cassie and Uncle?"

"In order, yes, I agree and I don't know." He used the handset to call the park warden and fill him in, letting forestry do their jobs. He was off duty but that was seeming less and less of a good thing.

Two hours later his radio crackled and a different voice was heard, sounded old and rasping, broken English and full of picturesque language, "We gots them, yer gal gots her a busted leg and arm, but he's dealing with it. She won't let your other boys anywhere near her...told them flat that her Uncle John was worth any ten of them and to let her be. We're sending a couple of park rangers up to get you two packed up and get his Morgans to bring you down. They'll be there close ter sunup tomorrow. John said he's had enough of the location and ya'll can do the rest of it at his house or at home. He said to just 'tell Roy, it's the same knee the same arm and that knee is way past cracked this time, I'm going in with her, I've already called Jo and Dix, he said transport's already here so he's takin' it with her, whatever that is, we got some choices, river craft, plane, chopper, but nothin' on wheels fit for nothing longer than a runway. And he says will see you at the hospital'. " The speaker paused, sounds like your vacation went down the tubes pretty fast."

"Yeah, you could say that. The bear attack last was my son, flew in with him and my wife while my partner stayed with my other two kids, waited until Chris was out of danger and hitched a ride in copter seven back up to my girls and John. Now this, what happened?"

"Your partner said she saw a bear, panicked, pushed him away and started chucking big rocks at the bear. Given her brother had been attacked by one...what, less than a week ago? Normal reaction for her age. The bear didn't appreciate the rockings and stopped doing whatever it was doing...left, I mean, I'm not sure at what point she fell, but she landed on something hard and pointed. You'll have to ask John when you see him for the fine details. What's this about her bones?"

Roy explained the trashcan incident and the ranger swore. "Kid's got the luck from the hot place, doesn't she? Well, your partner is wearing a Cassie necklace. She won't turn loose no matter what he does. Your boy here said she busted her right arm just a bit above 'er elbow. He said that one be clean, but she had damaged the same knee from before again, but worster. Had him some weird name fer it, alls boils down to nasty lookin'."

Roy winced at the description but reminded himself the guy was a layman. "That much is normal for her. When she does it to me it's more like a deathgrip. Poor girl, that thing! She just got it out of a cast. Who got the run?"

"C shift. She told them flat to they faces she didn't want the 'wrong' people touching her. Thought Gage's eyebrows would get lodged in his hair and stay there...he told her, 'it's just Charlie and Peters, that's still 51, y'know. C shift, they know what they're doing. All she said was 'Daddy's got Crystal and I've got you, and nobody's cooking me, so what I need'em for?' and nobody had a good answer for that, so they ended up jest handin' him things instead of treatin' your daughter." The gnarled old hunter that helped the rangers out once in a while, wheezed laughter at the gal's insult to the other team. Frankly, since Roy was laughing too, he could be forgiven for it.

And I'll tell ya, at furst I didn't half understand most of what had her upset about them other two, short one bothered less than the big one did, mind... but dunno why your kid kept checking the older one for kitchen utinsils and why both Peters and Gage laughed at him every time she parroted something Johnny'd just told the hospital, only yer kid replaced his reported items with a spatcula or an egg timer or something...she waited until he'd keyed up and was actually talking to someone, too. And there was some gal laughin' on the hospitl's end." The old man snorted loudly. "Yer girl had that lad's face as red as yer truck: What both cleared up my confusion and made the lad sa red was that Yer part'er had ter explain ter yer girl that Charlie wasn't gonna mix up his equipment and try usin' kitchen stuff on her."

"Charles moonlights as a top-end chef. And one of our shiftmates talks too much or she wouldn't know that. She only met Chet once." Roy was laughing now too. "Poor Charlie! The laughing lady was either my wife or Dixie, the charge nurse. Depends, could've been both and if my son's in a wheel chair yet, he might just as easily been laughing too."

"Lil gal asked Gage if he was sure and kept givin' yer other station man the stink-eye."

Roy snorted. He wasn't happy about her leg and arm, but at least she was feeling okay, going by the way she was messing with the other shift. "She's messing with his head. He'll have heard about her, but he's never met her so he was sorta defenseless."

"Doin' a bang up job too, from what I could hear."

"Sounds like it." He sighed. "I need to reassure my eldest girl and get supper ready. Once the radio has charged, I'll call John's unit."

"Yup, you got the only radio sa he couldn't get hold of ya."

"Yeah, knew that hours ago. Need to put this back on the charging station. Thanks for the update and all."

"Na, wasn't na problem. Get some rest and yer girl too."

"Roger that. DeSoto Out."

TBC