Author's Note: I had to get all my stuff done before my vacation started, so I might have slowed down on my updates a bit… I didn't think it was too bad, though…

OOOOOO

The three of them were just finishing up the breakfast dishes when a knock at the door sent Jaffer rushing into the living room with Sam right behind him. She opened the door and found River standing there, looking uncertain, and not at all his usual cheerful self.

"I… wasn't sure if…"

He seemed unsure what to say, as if he needed to explain his presence there, but Sam gave him a welcoming smile and gestured for him to come in.

"You're welcomed here any time, River," Sam said.

"I didn't know if I'd be intruding…"

Shawn and Jack joined Sam and Jaffer in the living room, and Shawn couldn't help but be concerned at the change in his friend.

River's normally tanned face was pale, and his lively blue eyes were guarded and worried – and sad. He looked tired – as if he'd had no sleep the night before, and even though he was in jeans and a sweatshirt, they weren't as neat and tidy as he usually looked.

"You're not," Jack said, entering the room in time to hear what he'd said.

Shawn nodded his agreement.

"Did Ian come with you?" Sam asked, looking out the door for the other cadet. All she saw was a taxi pulling away.

The concerned look in River's expression deepened, and he shook his head.

"He's not at the academy…"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, frowning.

River shrugged.

"He got a pass last night and left. I don't know where he went – he didn't tell me he was leaving, and I haven't heard from him…"

"That's odd…"

Sam turned to Jack, her own eyes concerned, now.

Shawn, however, had thought of something else. A statement he had no business making – even though he wasn't completely himself at the time and no one would hold it against him.

"You didn't tell him what I said, did you?" Shawn asked, obviously just as worried. "About…" he hesitated. "…about it being his fault?"

River shook his head, his hand coming out and touching Shawn's arm, reassuringly.

"Of course not…" He didn't add that Ian already blamed himself, and certainly didn't need Shawn's words to add to the guilt he was already feeling. Of course, he didn't need to add that. They all knew it. "I had hoped he was here…"

Jack shook his head; his hand resting lightly on the small of Sam's back where she'd feel his reassuring touch, but the boys wouldn't see it.

"We haven't seen him."

"He's probably off brooding somewhere," River said, shrugging. "That's what he does, after all. He's supposed to be back by 1700 hours, so I'm sure he'll show up. If he doesn't come by here, first."

He didn't sound all that sure of it, though, and he could see the others didn't seem all that certain, either, but Sam nodded, and stepped forward.

"We just finished breakfast, but there are leftovers, if you're hungry?"

River gave her a weak smile and shook his head.

"Thanks, but I've eaten, I-"

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by another knock on the door, and since none of them had moved more than two steps from it, it was a simple matter for Jack to reach out and open it. Standing there were Andrew and Gina, both looking uncertain, and Gina showing visible signs of having been crying.

Predictably, she went for Jack first, even though Shawn was the one she was dating. Tears welled anew as she buried her face against his chest, and Jack hugged her close, comforting her as she sobbed.

Andrew looked at Shawn and the others, visibly forcing down his own sorrow.

"We just heard… and we had to come. I hope you don't mind…"

How could he mind? Shawn's friends were rallying around him, bringing their own presences to bear when he needed them the most. He shook his head, and Sam gestured for Andrew to come in as Jack took a couple steps back, still holding Gina tightly in his arms.

"How did you find out?"

"Teal'c," Andrew said, simply. Of course, that would have been easy to guess if Shawn had thought about it. Andrew was in constant contact with Teal'c, both face to face and over the phone.

"Andrew? Did you meet River?" Sam asked. She wasn't sure if Andrew had gone to Shawn's during the Thanksgiving break or not – which would have probably been the only chance he'd have had to meet the cadet.

Andrew and River both shook their heads, and Andrew stuck his hand out to River as Shawn made the introductions. The little boy who had always been scrawny had managed a couple of rather serious growth spurts the last couple of years, and add to those inches the physical well being that comes from practicing with Teal'c once a week, and by himself every night when he had time, and Andrew was a wiry, muscular young man, now. He'd never be large, but he wasn't puny, that was for sure.

"You're the Californian?" Andrew asked. "Or the one from New York?"

"I'm the Californian," River confirmed. Like he'd ever be confused for Ian. "You're the one who gave Jack Jaffer, right?"

"My parents did," Andrew confirmed, smiling at the black lab, who he was almost as proud of as he was his own dog, Shadow – who was Jaffer's mother. "For services rendered."

"And we'll always love him for it," Jack said, as Gina finally disengaged herself from his arms and turned and hugged Shawn, who found her tears setting off his own – although he didn't sob, he simply wept silently as she held him.

"Why don't you guys go sit down," Sam suggested. "Andrew's going to be going to the Air Force academy next year, so you might as well get to know each other, now."

"What are you going to do in the Air Force when you get out of the academy, River?" Andrew asked as they did what Sam said, and all of them, Shawn and Gina included, went over and sat down.

"I'm going to be a pilot," River told him.

"Like Tom Cruise," Shawn said, smiling weakly as he wiped his eyes, his other hand holding Gina's.

"Yup."

Shawn, of course, had heard this a million times.

"That sounds awesome," Andrew said, admiringly. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he knew it was going to be something cool like that. "Are you learning to fly, then?"

River nodded, flashing a look at Jack, who had put those gears in motion a couple years before they normally would have been.

"I've already gotten my pilot's license for single engine multi-passenger planes…"

"Like a Cessna?"

"Yeah."

"Tom Cruise never flew a Cessna."

Even Shawn had to snort about that, because it was certainly true.

"I'm working on it," River told him, grinning as well. "I have to start slow, and work my way up to bigger, faster engines."

And much to Gina's dismay, that started all the guys – and Sam, who knew a lot more about engines as anyone there – talking about the different engines, and Jack throwing in comments about different planes. It was good, though, because it took Shawn's mind off of other things, and surrounded by his friends, it was a comforting way to spend the rest of the morning.

OOOOOOOOO

He made it about fifty miles west of Denver, heading down Interstate 70, before he absolutely had to stop and get some sleep. He had plenty of money for a hotel, but there was no way he was going to stop that long. No chance in hell. Instead, he pulled into a rest stop, and dozed in the Explorer for a couple of hours, under a sign that told him he was less than a hundred miles from the Continental Divide.

He couldn't sleep long, but even as focused as he was just then, Ian knew that if he didn't take a break he was going to end up wrecking, and risked not only killing himself, but whoever he might tangle with if he collided with someone. He'd already destroyed one family, as far as he was concerned, he didn't want to do it to anyone else.