Bubba had been watching the Rangers and Firefighters perform the rescue of the family of six. He helped pull the victims up the hill and carried them to the waiting ambulances. He moved back to the edge of the road and watched as Cutler and Matt climbed, reeling in the rope as they ascended.
He reached down a hand as Jimmy came over the top, grasping the Ranger's hand and helping him up over the top. Then they both turned to watch Matt traverse the final twenty feet. Just as Matt reached a hand up to grasp Bubba's, he shifted his weight, which caused the final strands of the rope to split. All three men realized what was happening in the same split second, as Matt started to slip backwards.
Bubba leapt forward and wrapped his hand around Matt's left wrist, but lost his footing and fell, almost losing his grip as he slammed onto the ground. Matt slammed against the rock face, grunting from the impact, further causing Bubba's hold on him to falter.
.
"Matt!" Cutler yelled, getting the attention of the others still loitering in the area. He dropped down next to Bubba and reached out, managing to get a hold on Matt's harness just as Bubba lost his grip. Matt slipped several more inches, until Bubba was able to also get a grip on the harness.
Cutler and Bubba pulled together, dragging the Ranger Commander up and over the top to safety. All three men collapsed, breathing heavily. Hart and Frank got there just as they got Matt to safety.
"What the hell happened?" Tim asked as he slid to his knees next to the panting trio.
"Rope...split..." Matt managed. Tim grabbed hold of the line and pulled it up, staring at the frayed end.
"Hawkes, you are one lucky, lucky man," he declared.
After taking two or three deep breaths, he nodded. "Yes, I am," he replied, simply. "Bubba, Jimmy...thanks."
"Not like it's the first time one of us saved the other, Matt," Cutler remarked as he sat up.
Bubba got to his feet. "Wouldn't do to let you drop," he drawled. "Wouldn't be very hospitable, and we Southern folk are known for our hospitality. Not to mention-that niece of mine would have killed me for letting her man take a one-way plunge down a mountain."
Still on his back, Matt looked up at Bubba. "Well, I appreciate the effort," he said, amused. He lifted both hands into the air. Avila and Hart each grasped one and helped him to his feet, Matt grunting with the effort of moving his battered body off the ground.
"You okay, buddy?" Frank asked.
"Yeah," Matt assured him. "Bubba nearly pulled my arm outta the socket though and I slammed against the rock face. Gonna be sore for a while, but it sure beats the alternative."
Hart took a glance over the edge. "Yep, it sure is a long way down," he teased, drawing out the word 'long' for emphasis. He chuckled when Matt slapped him on the shoulder. "Let's get you back to the Ranger Station, maybe we can find Laura and have her administer a bit a TLC."
Grinning, Matt turned toward their vehicles. "Now, how can I argue with that?" Suddenly remembering Bubba's relationship to Laura, he glanced over toward the big man, only to see a smirk on the man's face. He sighed, realizing that at least he wasn't about to be pushed back over the cliff by an irate uncle.
/
The next morning, Matt stepped out onto the porch of the Ranger station. The bright sun was just peaking over the horizon, the snow glistening as the light touched it. He carried a steaming cup of coffee, sipping on it occasionally as he watched Teagan chase after a rabbit that had dared to show its furry little tail. He laughed as his canine friend was thwarted, the tiny furball darting into a tiny hole in a downed tree.
He called Teagan back, allowing the rabbit the chance to get away. Heading back inside, he rinsed out his glass, then headed down the hallway. He trotted up the stairs and down the long hallway, to another, smaller and steeper stairway, his four-legged sidekick at his heels. At the top of those stairs, he opened the door and pushed, coughing as the movement unsettled the light layer of dust that covered the floor.
He turned as Teagan started sneezing, smiling as he ordered her down the steps. Flipping the light switch, he moved toward the back wall. It was darker there, the overhead light not quite reaching that far, so he pulled the small mag-lite flashlight from his pocket and turned it on. Checking the dates on the boxes, he grabbed the two boxes with the oldest dates on them and carried them over to the door. He silently thanked the organizational skills of John Harper, knowing his father would have been more likely to just dump everything in the boxes haphazardly, with no regard for order.
Amazing, considering Jesse was a former Marine, who were all about order and following rules. But his father was a prolific note-taker and Matt hoped to find some of his early jottings of his thoughts while he was forming the Rangers. Jesse often told 'war stories' about the problems and issues that came up while putting the first team together. He'd laugh about the shoestring budget they'd had to deal with back then, when the Rangers all supplied their own gear and often borrowed radios from the Sheriff's Office and scrounged for parts to fix their vehicles.
As he dropped the boxes by the door, he heard a voice. "Hey, girl, what are you doing down here?" That was followed by, "Hey, Matt, you up there?"
"Yeah, Izzy. Give me a hand." The tall Ranger moved up the steps. "Take these downstairs. Then grab that big tarp out of the cabinet and lay it on the floor next to the fireplace. We'll stack the boxes on it to keep the floor clean."
"Cleaning house?" Izzy teased.
"Actually, more like a history lesson." Matt's voice was muffled as he returned to the boxes and pulled down two more, moving them to the door as well. Soon, he had all the boxes stacked up by the attic door. Izzy had been joined by Cutler and Hart, and the three men were ferrying the boxes downstairs, all of them curious about what they held.
Once all the boxes were on the tarp on the floor of the great room, Matt grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and handed them to Izzy. "Print neatly," he ordered, before plopping himself down on the tarp and pulling the oldest box to him and lifting off the lid. Teagan lay down beside her human, which set off a sneezing fit as he dropped the lid down onto the tarp.
"Matt, what exactly am I writing here?"
"We're gonna inventory these boxes. I want you to note the date of each box and what's inside."
"Why?" Hart asked.
Matt had started to reach inside the first box, but stopped and looked at the Rangers around him, just as Robin and Frank Avila walked in the front door and wandered over to see what was going on. He smiled. "This, boys and girl, is the history of the High Mountain Rangers. From the very beginning," he said, lightly tapping the box in front of him, setting off another round of flying dust. Coughing, he waved his hand in front of his face, as Teagan grunted and moved further away.
"But, what are we gonna do with it?" Robin asked, keeping far away from the dusty boxes, her nose wrinkling in disgust.
"We are going to document the creation and the ongoing history of this unit."
He reached back into the box and started pulling out everything inside, oblivious to the odd looks being sent his way. A stack of folders and manila envelopes went into one pile; old pieces of equipment went into another. Photographs, letters, and even pieces of notepaper filled with notes and doodles, went into another pile.
He handed the equipment to Avila. "See if you can figure out what all of that stuff is." Handing the photos to Cutler, he gave further instructions. "Make a list of the photographs, who's in them and the dates. Some might not be marked, but between you, me and Frank, we should be able to identify most of the people in the photos, since we were all raised around here and probably knew all of the early Rangers."
The stack of folders and envelopes, he handed to Robin and Hart. "Read them, see what's there." Hart took half of the pile, giving the other half to Robin, who just stared at the old papers in her hand.
"Matt, what is going on?" she whined.
Matt froze while reaching for another box, looking up to find all of his Rangers staring at him, confused looks on all their faces. He smiled, then started laughing. "Sorry, got a bit carried away." He waved his hand at the boxes stacked around him. "These boxes contain a lot of High Mountain Rangers history. Files, letters, photos, equipment. It's all here. I want to document it, see what's important, see what's trash."
"Why?"
In answer, Matt jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the big space to the left of the fireplace. "I want to get a cabinet or case, display some of this stuff. Maybe get some of the old photos framed and hang them on the wall. Show off our legacy. We get a lot of visitors who don't know a lot about what we do or how we got started. I want to show them."
As the others asked more questions about Matt's vision, Izzy sat back, putting pen to paper. Five minutes later, he held the pad out to Matt. "This what you have in mind?" he asked.
Matt frowned, but took the pad. His face lit up. "Izzy, this is perfect!" Matt moved to sit next to his youngest Ranger. On the pad, Izzy had sketched a buffet style cabinet, with long pull-out drawers, and three shelves above. It was just the kind of thing that Matt was thinking of. "I don't suppose you do woodworking?"
Izzy grinned. "You find me a place to work and I can have it done in a month or two if we don't get really busy."
"You have hidden talents. I don't remember seeing that on your resume," Matt remarked.
Izzy shrugged. "Not much call for it."
"On the contrary," Jimmy interjected. "There are numerous odd jobs to be done around the station. Maybe you could even talk Matt into a raise to go along with your extra skills."
"Oh heck no," Matt insisted. "But I will pay for the wood. Maybe look into purchasing a saw. I'll take a look at our requisition list, see where I might be able to squeeze a few extra bucks." Turning to Izzy, he said, "Maybe you could check around, see what the cost would be for what you need."
"How about two hundred dollars for gas, and the use of one of the Blazers for a week." When Matt raised a questioning eyebrow, he continued. "I have all the tools I need at my folk's house in Idaho. Just need to go get it."
"Your dad won't mind you taking it?"
"Heck no, he doesn't use it, so it's just taking up space in the garage. He'll be happy to get it out of there. He keeps threatening to sell it all."
Matt grinned and looked around at the others. "You guys think you can hold down the fort while Izzy and I take a road trip?"
Hart looked at the others. "I think we can handle that. If we need assistance, we can call the Sheriff."
"We'll leave tomorrow morning then," Matt told Izzy, slapping Izzy on the shoulder. "You think the shed will be big enough to store everything?"
"Should be," Izzy replied with a nod.
"Good. Tim, while we're gone, you guys can clean that out, get it ready for Izzy to set up a workshop."
"Cool," Izzy grinned. "I can't wait to get started. It's been awhile."
/
June -Father's Day
Matt got into the station early that Sunday morning, wanting to make sure everything was finished before his dad and Cody got there. Izzy had done some great work on the display cabinet. The heavy oak case fit perfectly beside the fireplace, filling up the six-foot space. The bottom portion was a buffet-style cabinet. It had two shallow drawers with glass tops, so that when you pull out the drawers, the items displayed could be easily viewed, but preserved as well. The bottom portion of the cabinet was secured storage.
On the top of that portion of the cabinet, two slanted display case sat at each end, with space in between that held several photos albums. Above the cabinet were three shelves, each of a different depth, with the narrowest shelf at the top. Each of the two bottom shelves had a couple of glass-front niches, plus some smaller mini-shelves for artifacts. It was truly a work of art, as Izzy had added decorative touches like pine trees, animal figures and in a larger center area of the center shelf, a carved version of the current High Mountain Rangers logo.
Robin had taken up the task of going through all the old official documents, including the copies of the letters from Jesse to the officials in Washington, D.C, and the official authorization from the Department of Justice giving the Rangers full arrest and enforcement authority. Those had been hung on the wall, in frames also built by Izzy, from wood left over from the cabinet build. Others had been interspersed in the photo albums, along with letters from some of the victims they'd rescued, thanking the Rangers for the work they did.
Frank and Cutler, with input from Matt, had selected a dozen photos from the hundreds found in the boxes, which were also framed and hung on the wall adjacent to the display cabinet. Two of them held a special place of honor. Photos of Earl Jones and Merlin Pierce hung side by side in the center of all the others, the frames slightly larger, with nice plaques underneath explaining how they'd died. Interspersed around and between the wall of photos were old style skis and snowshoes, and some of the other larger pieces of out-of-date equipment.
All the other pictures had been either placed in one of the photo albums on top of the cabinet, or placed in a photo box, and put in the storage area underneath the cabinet. There had been only a couple of people that Matt, Jim and Frank couldn't identify, but Cutler's Uncle Jack was able to fill in the blanks.
The others had been surprised that Jack Cutler had been a High Mountain Ranger-for all of about three weeks. But he was in some of the pictures during the third year the Rangers had been in operation, before the man had decided that he'd rather be a firefighter, stating once that it seemed a less dangerous occupation!
They had made a list of all the photos, tried to date the few that had no dates marked on them, noting who was in the photos and if possible, where the photo was taken. Tim Hart had also taken all the photos to a local photo shop and had them all copied and downloaded onto a computer disc, then created a computer file to keep them all in. He would add any new photos to that file.
The last major item that had been added to the display hadn't been found in any of the boxes. Matt had long been aware of its existence, but needed to secretly remove it from his father's cabin. For that, he'd enlisted Cody's help, and his younger brother had been able to get the item to him last week. Now, his father's Ranger parka, complete with hand-sewn patch on the left front, hung in a frame above the fireplace.
Matt dropped down onto the sofa, Teagan lying down beside him with her head on his thigh. Absentmindedly, he scratched her ear as he took in the changes to the room. This place had always been important to him, a second home since he'd been a kid and spent time here with his father, and his father's Ranger teams.
Now...now the ghosts of those early Rangers were in the room...in a good way. He saw the faces of those men...and a couple women...and felt a camaraderie with them that he'd never felt before. He knew that, without them, without his father's vision, he wouldn't be here today. He'd likely be bored stiff in some law office, rather than doing a job that he loved, in a place that he treasured.
He looked down at Teagan as she dozed against him. "We sure are lucky, girl," he whispered. "We sure are lucky."
"It sure turned out nice, didn't it?" Matt turned as Cutler came further into the room.
"Yeah. You guys did a great job. I think dad will like it."
"Are you kidding? He'll love it!"
The others tromped in through the door, laughing and joking with each other. Izzy dropped his radio onto the desk and hurried over to sit on the sofa across from Matt and Teagan. "So when is your dad gonna get here?" he asked.
"About noon. They have a Father's Day tradition of going fishing at some little place they found when Cody was seven. He got lost the day before Father's Day and dad found him curled up in a cave near this tiny lake. Cody had started a fire and gathered some leaves to use for a bed, and had a fishing line all ready to catch dinner."
"He was self-sufficient even at that young age?" Robin asked, amazed.
"Oh, yeah," Matt said with a grin. "Anyway, when dad found him, he told Cody that it was the best gift he ever got on Father's Day, knowing that Cody was safe. They decided to stay the night. The next morning, they went fishing again, cooked the fish for breakfast, and then came home. It kind of became a tradition for the two of them to go out the night before and camp out somewhere, fish for their breakfast, then come back home."
"Do you have any Matt-and-Jesse traditions?" Izzy asked.
"Yeah, a couple," he replied, although he didn't elaborate. "Cody generally gets his mornings, and I get his afternoons, then we all get together in the evening to play some board game or a game of poker or something. Dad's choice what we do all day."
"That's cool," Izzy said.
"Yeah. Only time we haven't been able to get together like that was the year Mom died. Wasn't sure we ever would again after that. But last year, Dad made a point to get back to it. He said he missed it and he knew that once Cody and I married and started having kids of our own, it would probably never happen again."
"I bet it does," Robin said, "and you just add the kids to the mix."
Matt glanced her way and nodded. "We're gonna try. Cody and I vowed to ourselves that we would do our best to keep at least part of the traditions alive, even if we couldn't manage all of it."
"So was it hard for you to convince your dad to come down to town this year?" Cutler asked.
"No, not really. The traditions that he and I have can be done anywhere." He stopped as he noticed a frown on Avila's face. "Frank, something wrong?"
The others looked up, to see Avila staring at the new cabinet. "It's lopsided."
Izzy jumped up and moved to stand next to Frank. "What do mean, it's lopsided!?" he asked, taking offense. "It's perfectly level."
Frank turned a shocked face to Izzy, not understanding at first, then smiled. "Sorry, Iz, not the cabinet, the room."
"Say what?"
"It looks...off balance, now. With the great cabinet and shelves on one side," he said waving his arm at the left side of the fireplace, "and...well...a bunch of empty space over there," he added, pointing to the right side. The others stood up and moved to stand next to the two Rangers and one by one, nodded their agreement.
"You're right, it looks weird," Hart said.
"We need something over on the other side too," Robin concurred.
Matt, the only one who'd stayed seated, not wanting to disturb Teagan, didn't bother looking up. "So, we have Izzy build another cabinet for the other side," he said, simply.
Izzy's face lit up. "I can do that!"
Matt shrugged. "Problem solved."
Cutler laughed. "I guess that's why they pay you the big bucks!" he declared.
"On to the next issue," Matt said, the others alert in anticipation. "Who has breakfast duty?"
They all turned to look at Robin, who frowned and trudged off to the kitchen. "Something more than pancakes, this time, Sweetcheeks," Jimmy yelled after her.
"I'm gonna lace your eggs with laxatives," she replied.
He jumped up and ran after her, frantic. "Say, Robin, could you use a hand? I could scramble those eggs for you. No need to dirty those pretty little hands..." his voice faded as he left the room, laughter following him out.
/
"Matt! Jesse and Cody are here!" Izzy called. The Commander walked out of his office and nodded to the others, who hurried over to stand in front of the display cabinet. They didn't hide it completely, since it stood about seven feet tall, but they did their best.
Matt met his dad and brother at the door, nearly getting tripped up by Dingy as the dog raced inside to play with his new best friend, Teagan, the two dogs tearing around the room chasing each other. Matt hugged Cody, even as he watched his father, whose eyes immediately noticed the changes to the room, and the odd behavior of Matt's team on the other side of the room. His eyes stayed on the group for several long seconds, before he looked around and noticed the new addition above the fireplace.
"Is that my jacket?" he asked, walking over the get a closer look. Not taking his eyes of the item of clothing that had been such a major part of his life. "Mathew, something you want to tell me?"
Matt and Cody approached their father. "Actually, Dad, something we want to show you," Matt said. "We've been sorting through all the boxes in the attic and realized that there was a lot of history in those boxes. And we didn't think that being stuffed in boxes in a dusty old attic did that history justice. We, all of us, are very proud of the job we do, and the people who came before us. Proud of you and everything you've done."
Jesse turned to face his son, never taking his eyes from Matt's, as the big blond continued. "So, we decided to pull all those relics out of mothballs, and put them out here for everyone to see and appreciate. We want people to know about the men and women who came before us, who led the way for us to become what we are." He nodded to the others, who stepped aside and allowed Jesse his first look at the display.
The dark wood had been polished to almost a satin finish and the glass inserts sparkled under the sunlight that streamed in through the large windows on the opposite wall. Jesse's eyes darted here and there, trying to take in everything at once.
Speechless, he walked over to the cabinet, his hand reaching out to run along the smooth wood, eyes resting briefly on each photo, knickknack and item displayed on the shelves. He wandered over to the wall of photos, stopping in front of the picture of his long deceased Ranger.
"Jonesy," he whispered, reaching a hand up and tracing the man's name on the plaque below the photo.
"Son," his voice faltered. "This..."
Matt walked up behind his father, having heard the crack in Jesse's voice. "Dad?" he asked, somewhat cautiously. He noticed his father hand trembling slightly as he dropped it back down to his side. He thought he knew what his father was thinking and leaned in close. "Izzy does great work, huh?" he asked.
"It's...it's beautiful." He turned around, his eyes glistening. "Son...Mathew...this is wonderful. Amazing. Thank you. Thank all of you," he said, clearing his throat. Cody walked up next to his dad, and Jesse reached out and wrapped on arm around his waist, pulling him close. With the other hand, he pulled Matt to him, slipped his arm around Matt's neck and pulled him close.
"Thank you. This is the best gift you have ever given me, aside from your continued presence in my life." After a minute he released them both, wiping a hand across his eyes. "It's right that you know the history of the men and women who paved the way for you. But to see it like this, to give it such a place of honor. I'm overwhelmed."
The others exchanged huge grins. "We thought it was appropriate to do this on Father's Day, since in a way you're a father to all of us Rangers, as our founder," Frank said from where he stood in front of the fireplace.
"We're gonna put another cabinet, just like this one, on the other side," Izzy mentioned.
Jesse eyed the cabinet again, then turned his eyes to Izzy. "You did this?" he asked. When Izzy nodded, Jesse just shook his head, once again running his hand over the wood, his fingers tracing the ornate carvings. "Fine craftsmanship, Izzy. It's beautiful."
Izzy's face lit up at the praise. "I love to work with wood," he said. "And now that I have all my tools here, I can do more. My next project is to repair those two desks," he pointed to the two dilapidated work desks near the front door.
"What? You don't like the nearly hundred year old hand-me-downs?" Avila asked. The others laughed, as the condition of those desks was a running joke, ever since Frank had leaned against one several months before and the leg fell off it, landing him on his rear end. They'd been re-painted so many times, Hart figured the only thing still holding them together was the multiple layers of paint.
"Probably do better to burn those and build new ones," Cutler remarked.
"I can do that!" Izzy said. He hurried over to the desk and pulled a pad of paper and pencil from the desk and started sketching. The others laughed.
"He'll be occupied for a while," Matt commented, before turning back to his father. "There is one more surprise," he said, handing his father a copy of the local Tahoe newspaper. Jesse opened it up to see the headline:
High Mountain Rangers: 25 years of saving lives
Tahoe institution celebrates anniversary
"We've decided that for our open house this year in August, we'd like to see if we can get a reunion of as many of the old Rangers as we can find," Matt told his father. "We've been checking around and have managed to locate addresses for most of them."
"Invitations went out at the end of May," Hart put in. "We've already heard back from ten of them, giving us their RSVP's."
Jesse grinned and started laughing. He nodded. "I think that's a great idea, son. It will be good to see them again. Now, tell me who all is coming and who you couldn't find, maybe I can help," he said as he moved over to sit down.
The Rangers all gathered around and started telling Jesse of their plans. Well, all except for Izzy, who was still sketching plans for his next woodworking project.
/
Summer tourist season was in full swing, so Matt had been trying to give each of his team some time off, staggering their days off during the week, so that all hands were available on the busier weekend days.
Matt finally decided to take a couple of days for himself. Early that next morning, he saddled up his horse and headed out, faithfully followed by Teagan, who would run ahead, then dart into the woods, before coming back to join Matt again. The sun was just coming over the trees when Matt crested the hill. He slid down off his horse as Teagan ran up to his side. He slid his gloves into his pocket and pulled out an apple for himself and a bag of treats for Teagan.
They rested for just a short time before getting back on the trail. He had spent the morning getting some chores done around his place before he headed up to his father's for a short visit and wanted to get their before lunch. Removing his gloves from his pocket and sliding them on his hands, he called out to his canine companion. "Let's go, girl. We have a long way to ride."
Thirty minutes later Matt heard a shot. He reigned in, glancing around, trying to determine where shot came from. When he heard another shot he kicked his horse into a gallop. Thirty seconds later he was on the ground, pain searing through his shoulder. He blinked, staring up at the sky, not quite sure what had just happened. Lifting a hand up to shoulder, he felt the sticky wetness. Pulling his fingers back, he saw blood.