(Untitled)

[sir_samuel]

Where's my cow?
Is that my cow?
It goes Baa!
it is a sheep!
That is not my cow!A lot had changed on the island for Sam Vimes and Sam Vimes, Jr. No longer was the time father and son spent together severely limited by the elder's Vimes' work. No longer did Young Sam have to wait patiently for the 6 o'clock hour to arrive. Mornings were slowed and

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[pokerplayereyes]

Ned stood in the doorway, arms crossed across his chest, and he listened, and he didn't interrupt. It was interesting, seeing this other man, this other man that Sam Vimes was, and trying to reconcile him with that bloody, terrible individual that Ned had been face to face with that day in Treacle Mine Lane.

Or maybe it explained everything perfectly; that these were the things that a man would do for the son that he might one day have. Ned wasn't quite sure.

Either way, he didn't interrupt.

[sir_samuel]

When it was time to read Where's My Cow nothing else was important. Vimes didn't notice Coates come into the rec room, and even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered. There were farm animals to seek out.

But finally the cow was found and everyone lived happily ever after, as they did every day. "Cow!" Young Sam cheered, and Vimes looked up from the pages with a grin.

And saw the Lance-Corporal watching. He raised hie brows and did his best to look dignified under the circumstances. "Evening."

[pokerplayereyes]

Ned bobbed his head.

"Evenin', Sarge." He didn't smile. He didn't even look amused. To a man such as Ned Coates, a man discharging a responsibility, no matter how ridiculous it outwardly seemed was never a laughing matter.

He bobbed his head in Young Sam's direction.

"Evenin', Sam."

[sir_samuel]

"Lance-Cor-ral-Coates!" Young Sam declared with careful precision. He brandished his action figure and grinned.

"We were just finishing up," Vimes added.

[pokerplayereyes]

Ned smiled despite himself, nodding his head again.

"That's me, little man. You can call me Ned, if you want." Grey eyes flickered from the child to his father. "So I gather, Sarge."

[sir_samuel]

"Ned," Young Sam echoed thoughtfully. It was much easier to say, but it rather lacked a certain... something. But it was do for now.

Vimes smiled a little, rueful, and shifted Sam onto one knee while the younger Vimes cheerfully marched her action figure across the air. "Mmph. Yeah. Y'know."

[pokerplayereyes]

"You do what you gotta, Sarge," said Ned, walking over and sitting on the far end of the couch, on the other side of young Sam. "Me, I'm hiding out from girls and wedding dresses."

[sir_samuel]

Vimes snorted in sympathy. "She'll find you anyway," he warned. "And then she'll ask you to choose and do her best not to look too disappointed when you choose wrong."

[pokerplayereyes]

"We've done that three times already," said Ned, crossing his ankles and looking up at the ceiling, his expression an odd mix of desperation and amusement. "And gods only know when we're actually getting married."

He turned his head to look at the small child between them.

"Never get married, Sam."

[sir_samuel]

"Mmph. Then she's already got you well trained, huh?" Shouda run away when you had the chance, Coates."

Young Sam took the lance-corporal's suggestion with a wide-eyed thoughtfulness that made you almost - almost - wonder if he had maybe understood it.

[pokerplayereyes]

"Couldn't have, Sarge. Not with the best will in the world."

He smiled a crooked sort of smile and leaned back against the couch with his arm curled behind his head.

"What's your Watchman named, Sam?"

[sir_samuel]

"Then you are doomed," Vimes said ruefully and shook his head, sharing a despairing look of one condemned man to another.

Young Sam looked thoughtfully at the toy and then held it out to Coates. "Comm'nder Vimes. Like Da."

And if you looked closely, you could even see the resemblance.

[pokerplayereyes]

"Very good, Sam," said Ned, with an approving nod of his head. "Very good. Though I might've said he even looked like a Keel."

He glanced at Vimes over the child's head.

[sir_samuel]

This was a new word for Young Sam. "Keeeeeeeeeel?" he suggested thoughtfully.

Vimes glared pointedly at Ned.

[pokerplayereyes]

Ned gave Vimes a smile that was both blithe and completely full of shit.

"Part of a boat, sarge."

[sir_samuel]

'Boat' was a word that Young Sam was familiar with. There were lots of boats on the island. He looked at his miniature copper and then back at Ned, downright skeptical.

"Huh," was all Vimes said.