(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.

[single_digit]

Emmy was just scrubbed clean from the bath when Eddie let her toddle over to join Sam. Their misadventure with paint notwithstanding, Eddie felt they'd had a fairly good day together, giving mum a rest from always having to chase after her. Her shirt wasn't quite buttoned right, and her damp hair was sticking up in all directions, but Eddie wasn't really worried about that. Emmy looked happy and that was all that mattered to him.

He gave Vimes a little wave of greeting and sat down on the couch next to Emmy, keeping her from crawling all over Vimes and Young Sam and the book.

[sir_samuel]

Vimes looked briefly embarrassed as Eddie and Emmy joined them. Though six o'clock was no longer as private as it had once been, the Commander wasn't entirely used to having other people witness his hippopotamus impression.

He shared a rueful look with Eddie and the story continued.

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

[single_digit]

Eddie'd made so many of his own embarrassing noises since having Emmy - and, to be honest, before having her too - that he didn't even bat an eye. Emmy loved storytime, whether he was the one reading the story or not, and apparently she loved storytime with Sam and his dad even more.

"Oink!" said Emmy, imperfectly but recognisably.

[sir_samuel]

Young Sam nodded seriously at Emmy's rendition with an expression that could only be classified as improving. Meanwhile, the search for the cow continued.

The book made its way through the array of animals - chickens, geese, parrots, swamp dragons* - until the poor unnamed protagonist finally found his cow. It wouldn't do for the story to have an unhappy ending, after all. "The end," Vimes finished, closing the book. The daily ceremony was complete.

Young Sam turned to Emmy, triumphant. "We found cow."

[headline_maker]

It was a moment Sacharissa hated to interrupt, but one she couldn't help watching, just a little, from where she stood at the bookshelf. Vimes as a father and not a commanding officer was a sight that still struck her as odd sometimes, something she would never have seen at home. The watchman was also a person; the duke was also a father. It was oddly endearing. She would, however, never have dreamed of interrupting the scene.

[sir_samuel]

Vimes saw her come in out of the corner of his eye, but not many things would have stopped him when he was in the middle of Where's My Cow. Miss Cripslock certainly wasn't one of them, even if she was not exactly the audience he would have liked.

But while Young Sam was too enthralled with his father's storytelling to interrupt it in any way, once the cow was triumphantly found he turned a small grin on Sacharissa. "Miss Sax!"

[headline_maker]

Sacharissa's whole expression softened at that. It always pleased her that Young Sam knew her by name, though she doubted Vimes found it as sweet to hear. "Hello there, Sam," she said, turning to them with a smile. "Did you find the cow today?"

[sir_samuel]

"Da found cow," Young Sam corrected seriously. He presented his action figure. "In the name of the law!"

Where Young Sam had learned the reporter's name, Vimes hadn't the slightest idea, though he would have guessed it to be in some way Sybil's fault.

[doesntdosocks]

As soon as Rosemary Palm walked through the door, happening upon what was happening, she found herself stuck in one spot. Finding oneself inexplicably feeling aged by the sight of the boy who used to be the Lad Around the Corner1, now not only just a lad, but a father complete with son did that to a girl.

She wondered if she was going to go grey next, and shuddered slightly at the thought. It was up there with having gravity take its toll and what not. Still she could not help but stare, and more importantly listen.

1. Figuratively speaking.

[sir_samuel]

Vimes had never seen a gray hair on Mrs. Palm's head. He was pretty damn sure no one had, and that the head of the guild of seamstresses had every intention of keeping that way until the day she died.

When he saw Rosie standing there, watching, Vimes actually faltered just slightly. It was one thing to have people wandering in and out, it was quite another when one of those people was Rosemary Palm, someone Vimes had never in all his life expected to witness this scene.

Young Sam was having none of it, though, and charged on with his recitation. His father took the hint and got back to his reading. No other interruptions were made. When they were finished, he closed the book and sighed a little.

"Evening, Miss Palm."

[doesntdosocks]

It was almost like she'd been reanimated or something similar, and perhaps she had. No one could ever really be certain about these things, and as she cleared her throat, wiping her palms against her shorts, she smiled.

"Evenin Vimesy," she said, perhaps it was a sign of something that The Shades in her came out just a bit thicker as she spoke. "Little Vimesy."

[sir_samuel]

Vimes glared just a little. "This is Young Sam." He looked at his son. "This is a woman you want to stay as far away from as is humanly possible when you're stuck on a damned desert island."

Young Sam nodded thoughtfully and Vimes flashed Rosie a dry smile.

[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!"

[likes_to_bite]

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?