"'When you don't find her playing Captain Ahab on a canoe or sailboat, come find me in the woods around the fire pit,'" Shawn muttered as he wandered through the dark, his flashlight giving him the only light on the way to the tiny stream that fed the lagoon from the lake. He knew the area well enough that he didn't need any more than what he could – although he would have preferred that the rain stop. It was cold and hard and as much as he normally liked rain, he didn't like rain when he'd been dragged out of his bed to go looking for a lost girl. He would have liked a shining sun and plenty of daylight.

"Libby!"

He listened for an answer, but if the little girl was around him, she wasn't answering, or couldn't hear him.

Walking around in the dark, he could hear other voices calling for her from the other end of the waterfront – where the ski boat was – but they were muffled in the rain, just like his own was.

"Too bad Jaffer isn't here," he muttered to himself as he reached the far edge of the lagoon where the canoes were stored upside down when they weren't in use and started to check under each one. He assumed she'd come out when she heard him calling her name – assuming she was there – but you never knew with little kids, and it was always possible she was hiding from the searchers. Although Shawn couldn't imagine why she would.

OOOOOOO

"Fucking stupid kid…"

Ian was just as wet as Shawn was, and just as chilled. And far more annoyed. Leave it to some little kid to have him dragged out of his bed in the middle of the night – okay, 11PM wasn't the middle of the night, but that wasn't the point.

"Libby!"

While the other voices he heard were concerned and worried – and almost frantic – Ian's was more angry than anything, and he couldn't help that. He was annoyed by his spat with Shawn, the constant nagging of the boys in his cabin, and why the fuck was it still raining? It wasn't like they were in Seattle or something, right? It was Colorado for shit's sake, and the rain was really pissing him off. And of course, there wasn't anything he could do about it, which just annoyed him that much more.

He listened for an answer, but wasn't surprised when he didn't hear one. Moving towards the seating area – and glad that they hadn't taken down the canvas covering – he leaned down and shined the flashlight under the benches to see if maybe the girl had somehow fallen asleep or something under them. Faint hope, but it was as good as anything, right? He wasn't surprised not to find her, but he did find something else.

Frowning, he moved to the other side of the benches and leaned over once more, reaching under one of them and pulling out a rock, brightly painted in reds and yellows with a green happy face on it. When he turned it over, the name "Rocky" was crudely painted in green. Not the most original name, but he'd seen a lot worse during the day. More importantly, this was Libby's rock – how many times had she brought it to him during the creating stage asking whether it was done right? Seven. And the finished product wasn't really all that bad, once you got past the fact that it was so bright. River's was far worse, and much gaudier.

He put the rock in his pocket, and shined the light around the area once more.

"Libby!"

Again, no answer.

Ian wasn't really surprised, but he couldn't help but think that it wasn't a coincidence that it was Libby's rock down here and Libby who was missing. It wasn't a tough connection to make, after all. He moved out into the rain once more, shining the light as he walked through the trees and brush around the area, but staying off the main path since there was no way anyone could have missed her on the path.

"Libby, Goddamn it!"

He tripped over a root, swore again, and got to his feet, thinking that if he found the little brat he was going to give her a piece of his mind. A great big piece. He tripped again, swore again and decided that if they were going to check this area thoroughly, he was going to need some help. Since Shawn was closest, he'd go get him – by now he was probably on his way anyways – since there was no way the brat was down at the water.

Heading straight through the brush, backtracking a little towards the campfire area but more towards the opening of the lagoon, which was just down only about thirty feet below the fire pit, although it was several hundred feet away going the direction Ian was going. The going was a bit tricky since there was a lot of water running downhill towards the lagoon from somewhere close by where it was pooling from all the rain, and it was making the mud slick. The only reason Ian didn't fall on his face more than once was that there were a lot of tree roots to catch his slipping feet. Which wasn't much better, really.

"Fucking rai-"

The muttered curse was cut off suddenly when Ian felt the ground under his slipping foot crumble. One minute he was sliding slightly downhill, the next minute there wasn't any ground under his feet at all. He tumbled tail over teakettle, hitting every tree and rock on the way down without a chance in hell of stopping.

"Sonofa-"

The curse was cut off when he slammed into a tree and came to a crashing halt, stunned but stopped. The flashlight went flying out of suddenly numb fingers, and the darkness was lit up by a blinding grouping of stars and light when he hit his head.

OOOOOOOO

"Hey, kiddo… don't you know you're supposed to be asleep…?"

Jack's voice was soft as he looked down at his son, who was wide awake and not at all ready to sleep.

"Jack?"

Sam's voice came from the living room, and he smiled again.

"Mommy's going to come rushing right in here if you start crying, you know? So you don't want that, because she'll probably fall down again."

Jake watched his dad, one hand holding his foot as he debated gnawing on it instead of the hand that was in his mouth just then. Jack knew the infant's looks well enough to know that the baby wasn't going to cry – unless he had a reason suddenly – but that he also wasn't going to go to sleep. He sighed, and shook his head, and then reached down and picked up Jake, blankets and all.

"Come on… let's go see if mommy can rock you to sleep."

Sam looked up from where she was stretched out on the couch, her leg up on a cushion with fresh ice packs around it, and Jaffer playing pillow. She smiled when she saw Jack come

"Woke up?"

Jack returned the smile, but then buried his face in Jake's belly, blowing a raspberry that made the infant squirm.

"Never went to sleep, I think," he said. "Want to give it a try?"

She nodded, and took Jake from him; careful to put him in the arm that wasn't sporting a cast.

"You've been fed, changed and rocked… what could you possibly need?"

Jaffer reached around and swiped the infant's cheek with his tongue, making Jake gurgle happily.

Jack frowned in mock indignation.

"I could have done that…"

OOOOOOOOO

"-bitch…"

Ian hurt. His head was killing him, his leg was throbbing, he felt like one huge bruise, he was lying in mud and God only knew what else, and he was still being rained on. He lifted his head, groaning at the surge of pain that coursed through his skull at the motion.

The darkness was almost absolute, and the rain was pounding on the leaves and ground around him. Still flat, he turned and looked the other direction, and saw the light from the flashlight close by. Illuminated in that faint beam were the raindrops falling and a shock of soaked blonde hair.