"Any luck anyone?"

Shawn heard the tinny voice coming from the pocket of his coat, and felt like an idiot. He'd completely forgotten about the radio Gary had handed him! He stopped on the trail leading up from the campfire and pulled it out of his pocket.

"Gary? This is Shawn. Have you seen Ian?"

"Not since he left with you, Shawn. Why?"

"I can't find him, and when I went looking for him down here at the campfire area, I had a large chunk of ground wash out from under my feet…"

"Has anyone else seen Ian?" Gary asked, presumably calling to the other people who were searching for Libby.

There were an assortment of negative replies, and then a pause on the radio.

"Everyone come in…" Gary said. "We'll compare notes and see what we have left…"

Shawn nodded, and headed up the trail at a jog, slipping occasionally, but anxious to get reorganized so they could look for Ian, too.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Ian?"

The voice was soft, and accentuated with chattering teeth, and it took a moment for Ian to be able to force his eyes open. He was so tired that he could hardly feel just how much he hurt. Or maybe he was just so numb with cold that he couldn't feel anything?

"Yeah?"

"I'm cold."

Now that he was paying attention to it, he could feel her shivering against him, her jacket soaked completely through and no protection at all from the cold rain.

He ran his hand along her drenched hair, hugging her a little closer to him to try and warm her up, but it didn't do much. He wasn't any warmer, after all.

"Hold on a second…" he said, pushing her just far enough away from him that he could pull his sweatshirt off and slip it over her, jacket and all. Then he pulled her back into his arms and she cuddled up against him once more.

With his hand resting lightly against the back of her neck, Ian closed his eyes, concentrating on a spot in the back of her throat. He aggravated it just a little, bringing to bear her body's defenses, and using the those defenses to raise her temperature just a bit. Her immune system responded almost instantly – with a boost from him – bringing to bear a slightly elevated temperature, and a warm, flushed feeling that even he could feel. She'd feel a little sick, but it was better than her feeling cold, and this way he didn't have to worry about her catching a chill, either. Probably. Besides, she might not even notice feeling sick, since she was aching a bit anyways.

It more or less worked. Her teeth stopped chattering, anyways. It didn't help his whole exhaustion thing, but he was so tired anyways that it didn't add all that much to it, either.

"Better?" he asked.

She nodded, her head once more tucked under his chin.

"We're going to have to get going," he said, wishing that she wasn't there so he could just let himself fall asleep. Of course, if she weren't there none of this would have happened anyways. He couldn't blame her, though. She was a little kid. Little kids were dumb. That was just all there was to it. It was an adult's responsibility to make sure that the dumb things little kids did didn't get them hurt.

"I don't feel good," she told him, clinging to him. "My head hurts…"

"I know."

He did, too. But that didn't change that they had to get going, because he didn't know how long he could make her sick like he had without actually making her sick from it. Besides, hypothermia was a real danger if they stayed out in the cold rain too long – and his teeth were chattering, too.

"Come on."

He pushed her away and staggered to his feet, leaning unsteadily against the tree he'd been resting against and puling her to her feet beside him. Even with the rain falling around them he heard her gasp of pain, and knew that the leg he'd healed wasn't strong enough to support her weight. The bone was healed, but the ligaments and tendons had been bruised as well, and he hadn't been able to take care of everything. And what he had taken care of wasn't enough to get her on her feet.

"Here…"

Summoning all the strength he could, he picked her up.

"Put your arms around my neck, okay?"

"It's bloody."

"Just do it, Libby."

Jesus.

With her arms around him, at least some of her weight was being supported by her, which conserved a little of his own energy. He shined the light back the way he'd fallen, and saw what looked like a mudslide in front of them.

"Fuck."

There was no way he was going to be able to carry her up that, and no way he was going to be able to take her the long way around.

It was a measure of just how miserable she was that Libby didn't even comment on the bad word. She just trembled and held him even tighter.

"Hold on, kid," Ian said, reacting automatically to her response by hugging her a little closer. "I'll get you out of here. Okay?"

She nodded, and he sighed, shining the light up the mudslide. A little to the right of where he'd fallen, there were some roots and branches exposed. Maybe he could use those to climb up.

"One way to find out…"

Shifting Libby so that she was on his back, piggyback style, he reached for the closest branch and shoved his sneaker into the mud, searching for a purchase. Then, once he was relatively certain he had one, he pulled himself up, using the branch to hold their weight. Amazingly enough, it did.

OOOOOOOOOO

"So you think Ian's down in the wash out?"

Shawn shrugged, looking at the other counselors and then at Gary.

"He has to be. He's not anywhere else, and he told me to meet him at the campfire."

"Maybe he went back to bed," Hank said, sarcastically. He was cold and miserable, and just a bit pissed off that Ian had the audacity to come up missing when they were supposed to be looking for the little girl.

Shawn scowled.

"He didn't go back to bed, Hank. I almost fell down that washout, and the only thing that stopped me was that I managed to grab a branch. Ian probably did the same thing."

"Maybe Libby did, too," Ann said, hopefully.

"It's worth checking out," Gary said.

"Definitely," Kelly agreed.

As a group – and with several more flashlights than Shawn had alone – they headed for the campfire trail, following Shawn, who had to search a bit to find the spot where he'd left the trail to go through the brush when he'd been looking for Ian.

"It's over here somewhere," he said, pushing aside a couple of branches and taking a couple of steps into the darkness. "I-"

Yet again the ground under his feet crumbled, and this time when Shawn reached out to catch a branch all he managed to grab was a handful of leaves. He felt himself slipping, and as he started to fall he heard Gary yell his name. And that was it. He tumbled, grabbing for branches and roots and missing, and suddenly crashing into something that grunted, swore, and then fell the rest of the way down the hill with him.

"Jesus Christ…" the voice was tired, pained, and even muffled by the mud they were all sprawled in; he could hear it was disgusted. He recognized it immediately, even in the dark. There was no mistaking that drawl.

"Ian?"

"Damn it, Adams."

"I'm glad to see you, too…"

And definitely glad to see the little girl who was clinging to his back.

"Shawn?"

A half dozen lights shined down from above, although the beams weren't strong enough to really let him see much.

"They're down here!" Shawn called. "Get some ropes."