Jaffer greeted Sam, Jack and Shawn like he hadn't seen them in months instead of hours, wagging his tail ferociously and whuffling all of them as if to make sure that none of them had taken any additional injuries without him being there to protect them from themselves. Once he had been reassured – and had been cuddled and made much of by Jack – he moved out of the way so Mandy could greet them as well.
The camp nurse had been sitting in a comfortable chair on her porch with Jaffer, watching the rain stop and then the sun come out and listening for any sound that might tell her Jake was waking up. While it was damp outside, it wasn't cold, so she and the lab had been perfectly content to sit outside and wait for the campers.
"Did he give you any problems?" Sam asked as Jack helped her up the two steps to the porch of the cabin.
Mandy shook her head.
"He was a perfect gentleman."
"He gets that from me," Jack said.
Sam snorted.
Mandy smiled as well.
"He slept all morning."
"He gets that from Jack, too," Sam said, poking her head into the door of the cabin so she could check on her son without waking him. There had been a time when she would have been compelled to pick him up and cuddle him – even if he was asleep – but she was more experienced, now, and also more inclined to let the baby sleep when he needed it so he wouldn't be cranky later.
"He knows what's important," Jack said, coming up behind her and peeking his head in the door, too. Which put him right behind Sam with his body pressed lightly against hers.
She turned; satisfied that Jake was fine, and smiled.
"He's still asleep."
"Want me to wake him?"
"Do you want to feed him, change him and then rock him back to sleep?"
"I wouldn't mind."
He wouldn't, either. Jack was very good about doing his share with Jake, and Sam knew it. But he had other things to do that day, and Sam pushed against his chest, forcing him back out onto the porch.
"You two have campers to wrangle," she told him and Shawn. "Get going, before River ends up tied to the flagpole or something."
Shawn grinned, his annoyance at being out of the loop on whatever was going on with Ian overcome by the fact that Jack and Sam really were his favorite people in the world.
"He'd probably deserve it."
"Go on," Sam said, shooing them off the porch. "And take Jaffer with you."
Jack helped Shawn off the porch, and then looked up at Sam and Mandy.
"See you at lunch?"
She shook her head.
"I'm going to go in town and check on Ian, and then do a little shopping. We didn't bring any extra clothes, after all, and I hardly think we can ask for an emergency airlift to bring us some."
Jack nudged Shawn.
"She just wants an excuse to shop…"
"Just for that, Colonel, you're getting Aqua Man underwear."
Shawn snorted, and turned to head up to the cabin, with Jaffer right beside him giving the young man a supportive shoulder if he should need it. Jack waited just a moment longer.
"Drive safe."
Sam nodded.
"I always do."
He smiled, and turned and followed Shawn and Jaffer up the hill.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Lunch was a noisy affair that had all the campers yelling, trying to be heard over every other yelling camper as they discussed what activities they hoped they were going to be doing that afternoon now that the rain had finally stopped. Most of them wanted to swim, many of them wanted to go riding, and several hoped it would be something up at the ball field which was undoubtedly very wet and muddy and would make for the absolute best game of football ever played.
All of this shouting and laughing was accomplished while the kids still managed to stuff themselves on chili, sandwiches, potato salad, fruit and an assortment of juices and other drinks.
"I don't think that we'll be riding," Shawn said to Chad, who had voiced a hopeful opinion about going out that afternoon for a ride. "The trails are probably wet and slick, still, and they wouldn't want one of the horses or ponies to slip and fall."
The boy's face fell, but River didn't seem heartbroken at all. He was still bearing bruises from his last ride, after all, and definitely didn't care to have a repeat of the experience.
"Yes, we wouldn't want to have a horse fall on anyone, would we?" he said, somewhat sarcastically, causing the boys to laugh, and Jack to smile. The first thing Jack had asked River about were the bruises on the Californian's forearm and chin, and the boys had been more than willing to tell the story to Jack.
"Hopefully, we'll be-"
Shawn was interrupted when Gary got out of his chair and headed for the front of the room, ready to give the announcements and tell them all what they'd be doing that day and ending the speculation – although it was fun to listen to the kids shouting.
"How was lunch, campers?" He asked, smiling at all of them once he had their full attention – which admittedly didn't take too long.
There were all sorts of shouts in reply, and Gary let them run on and on, knowing that Jared and his kitchen staff would be able to hear the praises being shouted at them and figuring it wasn't such a bad thing to let them know how appreciated they were. After a moment, however, he raised his hand for silence, and received it quickly.
"Good! So, since I know most of you are wondering what we're going to be doing this afternoon, I figured it was time to let you know, before-"
He was interrupted by a loud bang coming from one of the outer doors, signaling that someone was coming into the building. Someone who didn't know that if you just let that door go it would slam – loudly. Since all the campers knew this by now – and knew that they weren't supposed to let the door slam – it was a sign that whoever was coming into the main building wasn't someone who was staying at the camp just then. Or ever had.
Sure enough, the door to the cafeteria, revealing a tall, thin man dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, followed by a blonde woman in a pair of walking shorts and a polo shirt. They looked around the room of suddenly quiet campers, and then the man turned and whispered something to someone just outside the door. Intrigued, now, every kid and adult in the place was watching, and a moment later they all saw as a little blonde girl limped out from behind the man. She smiled shyly at them, and there were suddenly several people talking excitedly all at once.
"Libby!"