Title: Lost and Found

Disclaimer: I don't own Manny, Sid, or Diego and/or any other characters associated with them. I do own Nana though.

Pairing: Diego/OC

Summary: What if Sid wasn't the only mammal abandoned that day?

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The night fled swiftly and the rays of the sunrise curled inquisitive tendrils into the morning sky. Manny was first up and he stretched out aching bones, using his trunk to prod the sleeping group awake.

There was no response.

"Wakey wakey, rise and shine," murmured the mammoth quietly.

Sid shifted in his sleep but his snoring informed Manny that he was still in the land of Nod. Seeing no one was waking up he grinned at the baby. He reached his trunk into the snow, which lay strewn on the ground and picking up a handful he warmed it next to the dying embers of the fire. The snow melted forming puddles and the baby gurgled, correctly guessing what the mammoth was about to do.

Manny sucked up a trunkful of water and then power sprayed it at the unfortunate sleeping individuals.

Needless to say, the angry yells could be heard several miles away.

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Manny was in a very good mood all day.

The rest of the group stayed well behind the cheerful mammoth, muttering death threats and growling softly. Sid was slightly more subdued but that didn't stop his endless chatter. Diego was unusually quiet and Nana's eyes looked slightly glazed but Sid didn't notice and prattled on happily in his own little world. Half Peak loomed ominously in the distance. They were getting very close and nervous anticipation filled the air.

Sid seemed to notice something was up and turned his attention to the baby in his arms. He stopped and held him up next to him.

"I think he's starting to look like me!" Exclaimed Sid joyfully. "Hey Diego, what do you think?"

Diego rolled his eyes and ignored the sloth, and then looked up at Half Peak with an odd expression on his face. Nana smiled bemusedly at the pair before gently licking Diego's cheek.

"What's up?" She asked concernedly.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this."

Sid scowled at Diego and started walking again. "Why not?"

"Because if we save him, he'll grow up to be a hunter. And who do you think he'll hunt?"

Nana frowned at his behaviour. "Diego, what's the matter? You're suddenly all jittery."

He shrugged off her concern and continued walking, leaving Nana with a hurt expression.

Sid glanced back at Diego and shrugged. "Maybe because we saved him, he won't hunt us. Ow!" He winced and pulled his head back from the baby who had poked him in the nose.

Diego turned to him with an impatient snarl. "Yeah, and maybe he'll grow fur and a long skinny neck and call you 'mama'!"

Now, the whole group stopped and looked at him in surprise. Nana, who had never heard him use such a tone before stepped back slightly. Flashes of life with her previous pack were starting to make an unwelcome comeback and she viciously pushed down some of the more unpleasant memories.

Even Manny looked slightly troubled. "What's your problem?"

Diego turned away from the herd and looked around at Half Peak again. He shook his head and walked on.

"Nothing," he snapped. "Let's go, I'm freezing my tail off."

The mammoth shrugged and continued walking but Diego stopped after a few steps and just stood there. The rest of the group continued walking but Nana stopped too, picking up a strange scent. She lifted up her muzzle trying to pinpoint the source and Manny turned around, waiting impatiently for Diego to catch up as Nana started to wander over to some hills, her nose down to the ground and sniffing hard.

"Hey, Diego. You frozen back there?"

The tiger looked up at Manny, then suddenly bounded over and skidded to a stop next to him hissing at them urgently.

"Get down!"

"Huh?" Sid and Manny looked at each other, then at Diego, confused. "What?"

"Ssh! Get down and follow me!"

Diego looked up and spotted Nana a fair way up and growled deeply, the vibrations causing Sid's claws to curl up.

Nana's ears pricked and she looked up - at the gestures made by Manny's trunk she came lolloping over.

"What's the matter guys? You know there's the strangest smell, I think it's…" her voice trailed off as she glanced at Diego and then sniffed the air.

"No!" Disbelief stealing over her features she began to back away slowly. Neither Manny nor Sid had the faintest idea about what she was talking about and feelings of frustration rose up within them.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sid glanced at the two tigers nervously not knowing what to do.

Diego sighed and lowered his head looking at the snow. "At the bottom of Half Peak...there's an ambush, waiting for you."

"What?!"

"I knew it," said Nana softly.

Manny glared at Diego, narrowing his eyes. "What do you mean ambush?"

Diego didn't say anything and suddenly it hit Manny, what the crafty tiger had been doing the whole time. All the stuff about being able to track and shortcuts…

"The baby? Please. I was returning him to his herd."

"You don't need this aggravation. Give me the baby. I can track those humans down a lot faster than you can."

"I just know where the humans are going."

"Well unless you know how to track, you're never going to reach them before the pass closes up with snow. Which should be like...tomorrow."

"I found a shortcut!"

"Look, either we slip through there and beat the humans to Glacier Pass, or we take the long way and miss them!"

"This time tomorrow, you could be a free mammoth."

"You set us up."

"It was my job! I was supposed to get the baby, but then--"

"You brought us home for dinner!" Manny cut him off before he could finish explaining.

"That's it, you're out of the herd!" Shouted Sid. But it was Nana's expression that caused Diego to look down at the ground guiltily.

Nana couldn't believe it. She'd thought she smelt other tigers but put it down to her mind playing tricks on her. But when she'd come over to Diego and smelt the same familiar smell on him, the final piece in the puzzle clicked. His pack were tracking them.

The betrayal was sickening.

First her own pack and now this. She'd thought that they had had something, or at least the chance of something. That night at the campfire when she'd lain down next to him, the ice caves… and now it was worth squat. Her self-disgust and disappointment were a bitter pill to swallow and tears were threatening to run down her fur. She held them back, viciously biting the inside of her cheek, concentrating on that physical pain rather than the emotional pain she was in at the moment.

There was no way she was shedding tears over their non-existent relationship.

"I'm sorry," murmured Diego.

"No you're not!" Yelled Manny. Quick as a flash he had him pinned to the side of the rock by the throat with one of his tusks. "Not yet."

Putting his paws against Manny's tusks, Diego looked at the mammoth urgently. "Listen, I can help you!"

Manny ignored the struggling tiger.

"Stay close to Nana, Sid!" He snapped at the sloth. "We can fight our way out!"

"You can't!" Manny applied more pressure and Diego gasped. "The pack's too strong. You have to trust me."

"Trust you?!" Exploded Manny. "Why in the world would we trust you?!"

"Because I'm you're only chance."

There was a moment of stillness as the group waited to see Diego's fate, and there own. Finally Manny reluctantly dropped him. The tiger slowly got to his feet and glanced at the mammoth warily. His gaze shifted to Sid who glared back and then to Nana who wouldn't look at him.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do…"

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