Part 8

Sitting the little boy down, Bruce slid into the booth beside him and picked up the menu that lay on the table, he perused it for a few moments, pausing to grab the boy by the back of his shirt and pull him off the table as he attempted to climb over it. "You have to learn to sit still." Bruce said firmly.

The boy looked at him carefully. "Where's Bossman?" he asked.

"Bos...Oliver will be here shortlyBruce replied, keeping one hand on the boy's shoulder to make sure he didn't attempt any further table climbing.

"Oliver?."

"Yes, his name is Oliver, not Bossman..though I'm sure the later name is feeding his already over inflated ego." Bruce replied.

The little boy struggled against the hand on his shoulder for a minute, before giving up and sitting still..he looked back up at Bruce. "I'm hungry man." he said.

"Bruce..my name is Bruce..not man." The dark haired man replied firmly.

"I'm hungry Bruce."

Bruce signalled to a waitress who approached the table.

"What can I get ya?" the woman asked..then spotting Roy peaking around Bruce from the other side she added "Well hello there cutey."

Ignoring the irritation he felt at the way the waitress was chomping on gum as she spoke, Bruce ordered. "He'll have milk..plain not flavoured..and french fries...maybe some fish sticks as well... Nothing for me just yet, I'll wait until my friend arrives before I order."

"No probs hon." the woman said as she scribbled the order down..then walked away.

"Bruce..I want to go home now." the boy said.

Bruce cocked an eyebrow, not only on realising the sentence was the longest he'd heard the boy say since he had first laid eyes on him..but because they'd only just ordered. "I thought you said you were hungry?"

"Yes."

"Well, then we'll eat first, wait for Oliver and then we'll go back..."

"Back to Anisehi?" the little boy asked, his green eyes gleaming hopefully.

Bruce looked at the boy in puzzlement, realizing the word was Navajo.."Anisehi?..I don't understand?"

The little boy stood on the seat and placed his hands on Bruce's cheeks to turn his head towards him. "Home..to Anisehi..Raymond." he said carefully, intent on making sure Bruce understood.

Bruce resisted to urge to remove the boy's hands from his face..realising that whatever the child was saying seemed to be of great importance to him..He searched back through his memory trying to piece together what he had known about Harper's early history, finally finding one piece of information that seemed to make sense. "Raymond?..Raymond Begay?...Brave Bow?" he asked to confirm his suspicions.

The little boy's face lit up with a relieved small. "Yes Anisehi." he said happily, dropping his hands to Bruce's shoulders.

Bruce frowned slightly..of course the child would want to go back to the only home he could really remember..It had to be confusing for the boy to suddenly find himself living with what really amounted to a bunch of complete strangers to his young mind. He sat deep in thought for a moment, trying to work out the best way to explain the situation. "Raymond..Anisehi isn't able to look after you at the moment..he has asked Oliver to take care of you for awhile."

The boy looked disappointed, his green eyes clouding with confusion. "Soon?"

"Yes soon..Soon you'll be able to go home." Bruce replied, unable to think of a better response.

The answer seemed to satisfy the boy, who smiled a little and nodded before sitting back down..Just as the waitress arrived with the milk that Bruce had ordered. "Here ya go tiger..I'll bring your fish sticks out soon." she said, before walking away again.

"I like fish sticks." the boy declared.

Bruce found himself smiling slightly in spite of himself. "Well I'm glad that you do." he replied.

Roy knelt on the seat and reached towards the milk in front of him, he stumbled slightly and clumsily knocked the glass over..gasping in surprise as cold milk poured over the table and ran over the edges, flooding over one leg of Bruce's trousers and dripping onto the seat and floor.

Bruce dived out of the booth and swatted at his soaked trousers...grabbing all the napkins off the table and dabbing uselessly at the milk. He looked desperately towards the counter of the diner to see if he could catch the waitresses attention..the woman was deep in conversation with another woman..quite oblivious to what was happening around her.

"You got wet Bruce." Roy declared..before bursting into delighted laughter.

Bruce was sure he could hear a devilish tone to the childs laughter...he was certain the boy had knocked the milk over on purpose..a child or not, this was still Harper he was dealing with. "Wait there." he grumbled, scowling at the boy..feeling a small amount of satisfaction as the childs laughter faded away as the little boy absorbed the angry scowl...He stomped off towards the waitress..becoming irritated as he stood waiting for her to finish talking. He eventually was able to gain the woman's attention and explained the situation..requesting a cloth to dry his pants with and waiting tolerantly as she walked away, then returned with the item and a mop and bucket, which she headed towards the table with.

Bruce wiped down his pants as best he could, before returning to the table where the waitress was finishing cleaning up..He stopped dead as he approached..looking around the booth then bending to look under the table. "Where is he?" he asked..an element of concern creeping into his voice.

"Who?" the woman replied, chomping on her gum.

"The boy..the child I was looking after." Bruce elaborated..as the concern turned to worry.

"Well ya couldn't have been looking after him too well..he wasn't here when I came to clean the mess up." The woman replied, turning back to the table and continuing to wipe it down totally unfazed by Bruce's obvious concern with the situation.

Bruce swallowed..breathing deeply to push the concern away so he could concentrate on finding the boy..He carefully looked around the diner..then out the door to the busy street outside..it was peak hour and people milled shoulder to shoulder on the crowded sidewalk..the sudden realization that the little boy could be somehow lost in that crowd made his eye's widen and his heart rate increase as he raced towards the doorway.

end 8