(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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[likes_to_bite]

Sunny watched Sam and his daddy read together, and something in the general vacinity of her chest, where her heart pumped blood and did all sorts of important things, shifted uncomfortably. This feeling was one Sunny couldn't describe, being only three years old, but someone older, wiser - someone with a larger vocabulary - might have called it longing.

Sure, she had her brother and sister, and she had Geoffrey and Duck, and she was very, very fortunate for once in her life. But that didn't mean she didn't miss having a daddy and a mommy always there for her, to read to her, and everything else.

[sir_samuel]

Few things would stop Where's My Cow once it had begun. There was something almost ceremonial in the telling, after all. But it turned out that the small girl standing timidly in the doorway was one of them.

"Sunny!" Young Sam called, bouncing in his father's lap. "Come help!"

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Sunny inched forward, uncharacteristically shy now that she had been Noticed.

"What you need help with?" she asked, pulling at one of her pigtails.

[sir_samuel]

"Hafta find the cow," Young Sam answered seriously.

Vimes just watched them, expression uncharacteristically fond. You had to wonder, really. How much did the childish mind really mean that, and how much was a pure gesture of kindness?

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"The cow's in the barn," Sunny answered, just as solemnly, and stood on her tip toes to have a look at the page they were on.

[sir_samuel]

"Nonononono." Young Sam shook his head vehemently. "Story cow."

You could almost hear the despairing sigh.

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Deciding that such a mystery could not be solved by her position on the floor, Sunny pulled herself up on the couch next to them to have a look at the page. She studied the hippopotamus page very carefully before declaring, "Not there!"

[sir_samuel]

Young Sam sent Sunny a chiding look. "Listen," he instructed seriously.

"...do I get to continue now?" Vimes asked dryly, addressing both children now. Young Sam only repeated is command to Sunny. "Take that as a yes, then."

"Where's my cow?
Is that my cow?
It goes 'Hiss! Hiss!'
It is a goose!
That is not my cow!"

[likes_to_bite]

Sunny listened as instructed.

"Goose make a honk honk sound too," she shared with them.

[sir_samuel]

"That's true-" Vimes began, but Young Sam turned a very Vimes look on her as she spoke. Some things could be interrupted. But Where's My Cow was not meant to be embellished.

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And Sunny turned a very Baudelaire look on him. It looked something like: baby, please.

[sir_samuel]

Young Sam sighed. It was a pretty dramatic sigh for an almost-three-year-old. Oh sure, she was allowed to share. But it was still his storytime.

Vimes watched the two children bemusedly, eyebrows raised. "...You two finished?"

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Sunny looked up at Mr. Vimes with large, innocent eyes. "I finished," she said, even though she kind of wanted to pull Sam's hair.

[sir_samuel]

Young Sam watched Sunny suspiciously out of the corner of his eye. "Finish'," he agreed.

Vimes just blinked at them for a moment or two. He had been chased by vampires, and outwitted tricksters and thieves*, he had arrested an army and survived meetings of the Ankh-Morpork guild council. But he would never, ever understand what went on between kids.

He continued reading and waited for all hell to break loose.

*The unlicensed variety, of course.

[likes_to_bite]

Sunny stuck her tongue out at Sam, though she listened quietly this time to the story, adding no more facts about animal sounds.

[sir_samuel]

Young Sam made a face at Sunny and pointed at the book. Storytime.

But the two of them had either decided that Where's My Cow was more important than fighting or had gotten bored with it. Vimes made his way through the rest of the story's menagerie of animals until the cow was found and order was restored.

"The end," he finished helpfully. "Now you two can fight all you want."