Wally was the first in the group to notice them standing there. The deer nodded at Diego first before glancing once at Peaches and jerking his head to tell them to come closer.

Diego walked a little in front of her as they approached, wordlessly keeping Peaches just behind him. Buck wasn't dangerous – Diego doubted he'd ever even used the "dinosaur tooth" he had fashioned into a human-style knife – but if any of them were going to get any coherent information in a reasonable amount of time, the weasel needed to focus. This wasn't the time for introductions.

The sabers, all from the local pack, seemed to be the most upset, and when Leia saw him, she stepped forward with a look of panic that reminded him of when Gutt and Co. were still making unexpected visits. "Diego, it's Merle."

Oh, great. "What happened?"

"Dino birds!" Buck whirled around with his paws thrown in the air as if this were already the agreed-upon answer.

Diego glanced at him for half a second and then back to Leia. "Okay, what actually happened?"

The information was jumbled, and the base facts that they absolutely knew, were minimal. As they filled him in on the attack, fear seemed to be pushing the boundaries of actual evidence quite a bit. Because if it was true that it had been a stranger – because who else would be dumb enough to attack an experienced pack leader and expect to win? – then the attack wasn't targeted. That meant the animal was a threat to anyone they came across, which was more than cause for panic.

He wasn't sure he believed the part about Merle being prey, though. That was almost too far-fetched. And it didn't help that Buck's answer – dinosaurs, always, always dinosaurs – was the only one that made any logical sense. Of course, dinosaurs weren't real which made his entire case fall apart. But his thoughts were more cohesive overall than the other guesses.

Just as the weasel in question was getting into an argument with a mammoth from Brian's herd about the seasonal patterns of dino birds and the likelihood of them "coming to the surface," Diego turned back to the four sabers. They were currently an almost-amusing mix of stress and annoyance. "Has anyone told Isaiah yet?"

All four of them looked at each other. Obviously not.

"You guys need to let him know. More than likely whoever it was has left the area, and if they went east, his pack is directly in their path."

"Unless the creature went back underground," Buck added, popping into their conversation just as the mammoth was saying, "…are you suggesting that dino birds migrate?" He ignored that and looked at them grimly. "In that case you won't catch him; I'll have to see what I can do."

"Your creatures aren't smart enough to get through Merle's territory without being spotted, genius," a glyptodon snorted.

"They're not mine," Buck quickly corrected him. "I just live with them. And they did, that's the problem!"

Diego rolled his eyes and glanced at Peaches to make sure she was still doing okay in light of this news, but beyond the pervasive worry building between all of them, her expression was impassive.

"Do what you need to do Buck," Wally cut in before the argument could get worse.

The one-eyed weasel straightened in determination. "I will. I promise."

"…Okay, well, thanks in advance for your effort. Let's go Peaches." Diego turned, nodding for her to follow. She did, with one last look at Buck who was already on to saying "It could have been a different kind of dino too…"

"Who is that?" She whispered as they made their way out of earshot.

"Buck. He thinks he lives underground with dinosaurs."

"Wait, really?"

"He's crazy, just ignore him."

"Oh, well actually Diego I don't know if he's actually all that…"

"This is definitely not what we needed right now." There were so many variables, it was hard to plot through options without going off on a million different tangents.

Meanwhile, Peaches was stumbling along behind him. In the back of his mind she sounded out of breath as she said, "Shouldn't we at least hear him out?"

"What? Oh, Buck? No, a dinosaur didn't attack Merle. It's not possible." But he'd hand it to Buck for recognizing how dangerous the creature had to be to take down an established pack leader.

That brought up another point that he didn't really want to think about. Merle had purposefully chosen a young second in command to train up, and now the entire pack was about to be on Jackson's inexperienced shoulders.

"I'm really not sure that you should just…"

For all of Diego's feelings about packs and leadership, there was no upshot to this situation. "Jackson didn't send anyone to Isaiah. That kid… I mean, don't get me wrong he's got a lot of potential. He'll be a good leader someday, but this affects everyone in the area. Isaiah is a massive pain, but he's close enough that someone should have told him immediately."

"Diego!"

"Huh?" He blinked, stopping as Peaches reached out to get his attention. She huffed, glancing around like she wasn't sure how they'd gotten there, and then shook her head at him.

"In plain language, what do we need to do?"

"'We?'" Diego repeated, pulled from his thoughts to Peaches' anxious face. Right. The two mammoths he was suddenly in charge of.

No, they're Manfred's kids. And grown adults.

"I suggest we look for our mates," he answered after a quick reevaluation of the situation and a simultaneous attempt to figure out exactly how to put his paw down in a way that would make her listen to him. "And there is no 'we' right now. You two are staying out of this."

They weren't his kids, but Manfred would kill him if he let anything happen to them.

"We can be helpful," Peaches muttered as they resumed walking, but after a few minutes, asked. "Do you think they're okay?"

"Of course. Shira is the toughest saber I've ever met. Even after she left the crew and decided to stay here, she didn't lose her edge." Not like him. He'd still maintain that he was a remorseless assassin when it came right down to it, but the steps to get to that point had stretched over the years. Anymore, it took a lot to make him spring unthinkingly to action. He'd paid for it too many times in the past.

Shira was all about brute force though, and even after years of marriage, he was still amazed at how she was able to channel that pure action into making sure her will was done.

But this wasn't their fight. At least, not yet. "We're going to stay out of this as much as we can."

"You're not going to go after this thing?"

"We know almost nothing about this situation. And I'll bet you anything that it's not a thing or a dinosaur. It's a someone, more than likely a predator. And it's not our business. It happened to Merle's pack, and they'll deal with it."

"They'll find them," Peaches confirmed, but she seemed to be searching for something besides reassurance. Diego wasn't ready to ask what it was.

"Yes, in a few days this will all be over," he said instead, adding, "Don't worry."

"I'm not," she murmured, and they walked in contemplative silence until there was the heavy sound of mammoth footsteps, and Julian was bounding his way out of the trees towards them.

"There you are!" He exclaimed, looking at Peaches first and then to Diego. "Um, did you hear?"

"Yeah, and Buck is here," Peaches answered before Diego could. There was something significant about the way that she said Buck's name, and a few moments later, Julian's eyes took on a bit of a knowing look that Diego didn't like.

"Okay, anyway," he said flatly as the two mammoths stared at each other in not-so-subtle understanding. "Julian, I'm assuming Shira stayed with you this morning?"

The mammoth immediately dropped Peaches' gaze and turned to him. "Yeah, she went to go see the guy who got hurt, and I went with her."

"You did?" Julian was in the know then, and no doubt knew the status of the situation better than he did. "Is he still unconscious?"

"No. And he wants to talk to you." Shira's voice proceeded her as she stepped out of the trees Julian had just emerged from. Her blue eyes were serene, self-assured. Much different than the tenacious, end-of-her-rope glint that used to sit behind them during her pirate days. Maybe the situation was more under control than Leia thought.

She gave him a We'll talk later look, and he nodded. "I'll meet you back at the clearing then."

"Good, you can tell me who Isaiah is." Peaches said as he began to walk away.

"Oh." Shira laughed to herself, smiling roguishly at him as he walked past. "That sounds like a perfect idea."

000

The woods surrounding the pack's main sleeping area were dead silent, and Diego kept his ears perked for sounds. While the parameters of the pack's deal allowed him to come and go in their territory so long as it was on friendly terms, he didn't trust all of them not to take it into their heads to haze him a bit.

It hadn't happened yet, but some of the wilder sabers were tricksters at best, full-blown forces of nature at worst. Then again, that's what happened when membership reached high levels: control unraveled quickly.

He could only imagine what Merle wanted. The two of them had butted heads enough times in the past to justify permanent animosity between them. Diego hadn't been able to keep himself silent about the absurdity of having a pack this big, and Merle half-heartedly pretended as though Diego's betrayal of Soto was an overarching betrayal of all pack leaders, everywhere.

But the older saber didn't really mean it.

In fact, much to Diego's petty annoyance, he'd been nothing but a good neighbor these past few years.

When Diego hit the edges of the clearing, he raised his head a little higher. Merle didn't generally demand formalities from his own pack underlings, and Diego had all-out refused to be obsequious when they'd first met, so he wouldn't take a bowed head as submission. But habit still made him conscious of the fact he was approaching a pack leader. One he didn't want getting even the hint of an idea that Diego was beneath him.

His posture stiffened as he stepped into the clearing. Merle was watching for him from the other side with his head already raised and waiting. A few feet away, Jackson was laying facing his leader. When he turned and noticed Diego, he stood with a look of relief.

"How do you feel?" Diego asked as he came to a stop in front of them.

"Terrible," Merle answered steadily. He was strong as mountain rock though and stared back coolly as Diego momentarily took in the damage. Gashes were just about everywhere along his body, and his bright orange fur was almost completely red around his sides and back. The whites around his mouth and paws were much the same.

"What was it?" Diego finally asked because he honestly had no idea what could do this kind of damage. He'd been half-sure it was just a saber that had gotten really, really lucky. Now, he couldn't imagine Merle sustaining this much damage from any carnivore that he knew of.

He could see the answer on the older pack leader's face before he said it. "I don't know. It was dark, and the…thing was dark too. But it moved fast, I know that. It's long gone now. There's no reason to believe the area isn't secure, and I don't think it will return." With that, he cast a glance at Jackson that was clearly meant to be point-scoring from whatever conversation they'd been having earlier. Then he looked back to Diego with a different, more curious, expression in his eyes. "We're all safe. Including the young mammoth that arrived with your mate."

He nodded once. "She has a shadow right now."

"An incredibly loud shadow." Merle obviously knew something was up, but Diego could also tell that he wasn't exactly sure who Julian was yet. For all the rampant feelings and opinions that this area saw on a good day, Diego didn't see any harm in keeping it that way for now. It wasn't like Merle would have cause to meet them in the near future; more than likely they'd continue east once this was cleared up.

Which reminded him. Diego looked to Jackson. "I told Leia that somebody needed to warn Isaiah. He should know this happened."

"Did one of them go, then?"

"I'm assuming so."

Jackson nodded, and after a moment of thought, Diego added, "Let me know if you need help with tracking. I want to know sooner rather than later exactly what's going on. And I can't imagine it would be difficult to pick up a trail."

"We will." Jackson answered immediately, his open, earnest expression reinforcing the likelihood that they'd be taking that offer soon. "Thank you."

Next to him, Merle was nodding slightly with the appraising look he got when he was about to make an Important-Pack-Leader-Decision. Diego just quirked his eyebrow in annoyance. Soto had been self-important too, but he'd had the decency not to be quite as obvious about it.

"Jackson, go check on rounds. Diego and I need to talk alone."

"We do?" Diego drawled as Jackson looked between them in surprise for a few seconds.

"Are you su-… I mean, yes sir." The younger saber pulled himself together rather quickly and nodded submissively. They watched him steal into the trees immediately afterward.

Diego looked back to Merle. "Need I remind you that's your second in command you just sent off? I've had enough of repeating information for the day."

"I want you to lead my pack."

"You…you want me to what?"

Merle looked him dead in the eye, completely serious and completely un-self-important. "I want you to take over my pack while I recover."

"…Are you insane?"

"I need your help." Merle was still giving him that serious, and unnervingly sure, look that meant that everything he'd left behind him was suddenly making a reappearance and there was nothing he could do about it. "There's no way that I can lead right now."

"You barely even lead when you're completely healthy. Your pack is too big to…" Diego cut himself off with a frustrated growl. Now wasn't the time to get sidetracked. Not while all the reasons, the good reasons, why this was a no-go rushed his mind. "You know exactly why I left – didn't have a choice but to leave – the first time. I'm not going back to that. I don't want to."

"So run it the way you want." Merle started to shrug and then winced slightly. The expression was gone almost as soon as he did it. "I know you'll do a good job. And I know you'll do what's best for my packmates."

"This isn't about them. Or you." The practical part of his brain kept trying to get his attention, insisting on telling him that Merle was hiding how much pain he was really in. That he was well aware that Diego wouldn't like this but was asking anyway. And now that he thought about it, one of Merle's front paws was lying at a weird angle, as if broken. He desperately tried to ignore all of this. "I don't appreciate the offer, and I'm not taking it."

"I need a leader."

"So get Jackson to do it. It's his job."

"Jackson is still in training." Merle answered, the calm confidence had eroded slightly into patient anticipation. "You're right, this pack is big. Too big for him to handle by himself right now. I need someone who has the experience to take over completely. We both know it's you."

"This isn't a good time." Diego said before he could stop himself.

"Do you really want to get into that right now?"

"No…but it's still true." He could barely keep up with Peaches and her questions. At the moment, making sure that those two were shepherded safely on their way was too important to brush aside.

Merle sighed wistfully and looked away a little too dramatically. "I understand. I'll just have Jackson take over then. Like you said, it's his job. He's still young and inexperienced, but he wants to do a good job. He'll probably rise to the challenge. Besides, I can't imagine there will be any more unforeseen disasters happening in the next few weeks, what with more and more animals coming to the area and the weather getting worse. I'm sure it'll be fine. He knows what he's doing. Kind of."

There was a heavy moment of plummeting silence as the truth of it all sunk in.

No.

No.

NO.

NO!

Diego laid his ears back in frustration and glared at Merle.

For as much as this situation horrified him, the older saber was right. Diego had, of course, been in the same position for years and knew how hard being second in command was. It was effectively a pack leadership position that was never completely able to take charge. It came with less respect and more uncertainty. There was always the threat of a challenger, always the threat of losing the pack leader's favor. Most of all, it came with unreasonable expectations and near-constant headaches.

And Merle knew darn well that he'd understand that.

Jackson couldn't do this by himself, and even though Diego hated knowing that he was agreeing to this under manipulation, he couldn't not do it. It was true that Jackson would keep the pack together if he had to, but he needed help. He wasn't ready to take full control. And Diego, in good conscience, couldn't abandon him. He couldn't imagine having to take over when he'd first been named second, and this situation was so much worse. He just couldn't do it to him.

"Fine," Diego said in a dramatic half-growl, half-sigh.

"Excellent." Merle smiled smugly back at him. Before Diego could begin complaining about the underhandedness and lack of respect he was currently being shown as a newly-appointed pack leader – ugh, gross – Merle added in a much more serious tone, "I imagine that whoever that young mammoth was, it's important. I'm not sure what's going on, and I know you'll eventually tell me so I won't waste time on it at the moment, but perhaps you should consider keeping him in the loop. Like I said, scouts are coming back with more weather news, and it's not looking good. We're in for a ride very soon, I think. I know that you can feel it."

Diego just rolled his eyes. But he could. He could feel it. His "bad" shoulder rarely hurt during his day-to-day activities, but it always let him know when weather was coming in. It was getting increasingly stiff and achy, and he just wanted it to stop.

"I'll see you tonight then," Merle said in his most smug pack leader voice.

"I'll be here," Diego growled. "And I will be telling Jackson you have no faith in him."

"Please do," he hummed as Diego turned his back on that stupid little content smile.

000

Shira was laying by herself back at the clearing, obviously waiting for him.

"Merle wants me to lead his pack." Diego said before he'd even completely crossed into their area. The mammoths had apparently found another place to be for the afternoon. He was grateful that his mate had pushed them out to do their stupid exploring or whatever.

"I know," she answered, a little smile forming and dying a couple of times before she gave up and grinned. Before he could growl something about it not being funny, she added, "He asked me to do it first."

"What?" That stopped him in his tracks. The temper he'd been nursing the entire walk back also fled into the oblivion of surprise.

"I told him no," Shira went on lazily. "I have no interest in dealing with all of that nonsense."

"You'd be better at it than me!" He snapped through the shock and betrayal that had formed in the last few seconds. She'd whip them into shape faster than they could blink. Of course she was the better choice! How had all of this not occurred to him when Merle said she'd been there?

"That's what Merle seemed to think too," she shrugged, looking around their clearing with a thoughtful expression. "But I certainly wasn't high up in my pack, and Gutt only named me first mate because I was the most useful of us. Besides, he was such a good leader, how could I refuse?"

Diego rolled his eyes once at this but continued to frown at her. "And you thought I was a better second choice?"

"Merle was already going to ask you if I refused. I didn't suggest it." She was more than enjoying this, but there was something serious in her eyes, too. She knew this was so much more complicated than stepping in for a few weeks. "I left my pack because I wanted independence. You know that lifestyle never suited me. Not the way it did you."

"I lived alone for years."

"And you hated it." She countered, good humor slipping away into seriousness. "Face it Diego, one way or another, you like being in a community. That's just you. But it's not me."

"You still could have warned me."

"You're the one who accepted it." She shrugged as if it wasn't her problem. But they both knew that she had known this would happen. And that she was well aware that no amount of foreknowledge would have changed that. Still, he wanted to be angry that she hadn't said anything before they'd parted ways earlier. "Diego."

She didn't go on until he looked her in the eye.

"Your friends aren't going to be upset with you because you went back into pack life. They wouldn't expect that from you or be disappointed in you for helping Merle out. They'd understand."

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments as Diego tried to get his emotions under control. Finally, he dropped his eyes away and nodded at the ground.

Manfred and Sid weren't his friends, after all. But he still couldn't imagine having to look them in the eye and say that he'd gone back into the very social structure that had almost gotten them all killed. It was fine with him that Peaches hadn't known anything. It wasn't fine with him that after all this time, things hadn't really changed.

Silence stretched for a long moment before he could hear Shira shift her position. "Now then. The kids are going to be out for a while, and I imagine you're needed back there tonight. Maybe we can talk about the next few weeks or…hang out or something?"

Diego perked his ears up, grinning at her despite himself. "Snuggle?"

"Mm, that sounds kind of interesting. Tell me more."

While they were both tough, unsympathetic sabers and all that other pretentious nonsense, these parts of their relationship usually led to a lot of giggling and blushing and general giddiness. And he didn't care because Diego had waited his whole life to meet her.

He settled down next to her, brushing at one side of her face affectionately with his own, and she hummed and leaned on his shoulder.

"Merle didn't look good." He admitted quietly after a minute of snuggly silence between them. "And he noticed Julian."

"He knows what he's about." Shira answered easily, and he had the feeling she meant this whole setup and not just Merle's powers of observation.

Before he could answer, she turned her head and smiled at him. A gentle nose touch, and then she was rubbing her face up his shoulder and neck to press her forehead into his.

The conversation effectively ended with that, and it was time for nuzzles and their own whispered words. Warmth, and closeness, and lovely talk often made up their downtime. And he fell into their routine as easily as always, playfully pulling at her ears and wrapping his paws around her as they breathlessly exchanged empty threats through their laughter.

Eventually, Shira managed to wriggle free and rolled over onto her back, batting a paw up at his face with a smug little smirk that used to drive him insane – and not in a good way. Now he just smiled down at her and nestled his head in the crook of her neck.

He closed his eyes, feeling the sunlit silence ease the taut muscles in his shoulder and heat the fur along his back to a comfortable temperature.

Adverse weather, pack leaders and injuries, unexpected guests with too much light in their eyes; it was all so unexpected and incredibly inconvenient. Settling down with Shira wasn't supposed to be like this, and for the next few weeks, he'd be missing their regular life together.

He'd be missing this.

But for as much as he wanted to be completely annoyed with it all, Diego just couldn't bring himself to feel that way. Merle was right about Jackson, and in the end, somebody was going to have to step in and help out. If it had to be him…he supposed there were worse propositions. Even if the timing was terrible.

For her part, Peaches had been right about him. Diego doubted that she knew he'd picked up on the way she looked at him. Like she wanted them to catch up after a long time apart. Like she liked him already.

He didn't want to like her already, too.

Diego buried his face farther into Shira's fur. He didn't want to get too far into this. Not right then. Not without her input. And his mate was currently dozing underneath his head.

So he breathed in once and forced himself to relax. She'd been so familiar even when they were first together. The way she breathed, her smell, what each of her annoyed looks meant. He could fall asleep next to her almost anywhere.

And he almost was when there were pounding footsteps and skittering laughter. The two of them were just blearily raising their heads when Peaches and Julian came tripping into the clearing…and stopped dead.

"Are we interrupting?" Julian asked after a moment in an exaggerated whisper as Peaches simultaneously tugged at his trunk with an embarrassed, apologetic smile.

"We'll just go."

"Good, we're trying to sleep." Shira yawned. But a moment later she was rolling back onto her stomach and cracking her neck to get rid of any stiffness. Diego pushed himself back to laying next to her and shot the two mammoths his most condemning sarcastic look.

They stared back with barely-concealed grins and a lot of smothered giggling.

"What did you think of the area?" Shira asked in a mock-exasperated tone of voice that said Time to switch topics.

Julian was more than ready to do so. "It was awesome!"

Then the two of them tag-teamed telling them all about their afternoon adventures, and while a part of Diego knew that this was all a bit ridiculous, he would have been lying to say he wasn't enjoying it just a little bit, too.

Peaches had definitely been right about him. He liked the two of them a lot already. And maybe, in the end, there wasn't much he'd be able to do about that.

If you were reading along and went, "Huh, that kind of sounds like a Monty Python reference," you would be correct!

Thanks for reading and please review! I love reading what you think!