Danny nodded, "Yeah. We'll meet my partner up at the cabins. When I left to grab grad Jack she headed for the camp site to get things set up." He grabbed the strap of the smaller backpack he'd packed for Jack and a few solid tugs had it pulled free from whatever had been on top of it. "I got a text after we left Tim's that another woman should be meeting us here. I'm betting that's her." Jerking his chin in the direction of the fully loaded station wagon.

He'd noticed her when they'd pulled in, but Danny thought it'd be a good idea to let her approach on her own time. From the look of things she was alone, and lone women could get antsy when approached by a group of men.

"A guy I worked for once, we kept in touch. His niece headed this way and he sent her friend to us. She's probably in the same situation as you and Jack...but Landon didn't say." Danny knew that was awfully scarce on info, but to be truthful he didn't have much else. Landon had retired years ago, and wasn't the greatest texter, so their conversation had been short and sweet. Besides, Danny had had to relate his half through Jack, since he was driving and his brother would have killed him if he found out Danny had texted while driving with Jack in the car. Bad role-model, unsafe, ect. Danny half grinned to himself just picturing the lecture he'd have gotten.

~~~

Jack had grabbed his pack off the tailgate of the truck and set it down by the rear passenger wheel, out of the way. His uncle was shoulder-deep in the truck bed, fishing for his own pack, and he'd said they weren't going to take any extras tonight...so Jack wandered around the edge of the brush that came right up to the edge of the concrete. kicking stones, scuffing his feet, and generally being glad he wasn't cooped up in the truck's cab anymore.

He felt a now familiar push against his shoulder as the squirrel lept into the nearest tree. Jack heard scratching and scraping as the red blur raced into the canopy. Shortly, the climbing noises were followed by the piercing shrieks of an angry squirrel. The 'Chit-chit-CHIT' kept right on repeating and Jack looked over his shoulder, a bit sheepishly, at his uncle who was glaring at him. Jack lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug and made a face. It wasn't as though he could control the little guy.

It was another 10 seconds of squirrel-chattering later that TWO red blurs spiraled down from the top branches of a pine three trees over from where the squirrel had entered. Jack moved close enough to the tree and his particular red blur launched back to his shoulder and re-buried himself in the hood of the sweater.

When Jack looked back at his uncle he was just quick enough to catch the end of an obvious eye roll. The larger of the two squirrels had retreated from the humans to a higher branch and was still loudly expressing his displeasure. Before the squirrel in his hoodie could start screaming back Jack made a tactical retreat to the rear of the truck.

Shrugging again, he stood silently, waiting for Danny to decide what would happen next.

~~~

It had taken Mellie a good 10 minutes to screw up her courage enough to start across the expanse of blacktop. Even then, the owl clearly sensed her anxiety and was matching her pace from the relative safety of the sparse underbrush. She could hear the occasional sounds from him, and was becoming more and more certain with every step that he was trying to soothe her.

Even more oddly, it was helping. She felt her shoulders relaxing and her breath coming more smoothly. Although she'd never had any men truly threaten her she still found herself very aware of how isolated they were and that there were two men and a boy, and no one else. The presence of the boy settled her a bit to, he looked like he was young enough to be in one of her classes, and if the men had taken on the care of a boy surely they wouldn't do anything...

This time she forced herself to take a deep breath, settle her shoulders, straighten her back, and walk right up to them.

"Hi. I'm Mellie. I think I've been waiting for you?" She felt her voice raise a bit more than usual on the last word, her anxiety peeking out, but the calm stance of the older man, and the fact that she had now read the 'Canada Parks' decal on the side of the truck, had eased her mind a bit more. She smiled, a little forced, but mostly just from the discomfort of meeting new people without any real introduction. She felt the lest of her anxiety melt away when the boy grinned back, obviously unaware of the squirrel peeking at her from the hood of his sweater.

Now a true grin broke her face, and she sent a welcoming tug towards the owl still hiding in the brush. He hooted softly, and cautiously sidled out from under the bushes. He didn't come more than three feet out, but there was no way the men could have avoided seeing him.