The intervention of the security guard, and resulting moment of clarity, changed at least one guy's tune. He went from strident wannabe day-saver to downcast, self-depreciating mumbler in two seconds flat, and immediately started making reparations by jumping down to help shovel the sword girl out. Noting the little gnome workers, the guard stood by with his arms crossed, allowing Jude his attempt to make things easier on himself. While that wouldn't have flown for a real crime, this scuffle didn't feature any obvious injuries or illegalities, so things were dicey to call—especially from where the guard originally stood. One thing was for sure, though: a grown man didn't need to involve himself with a couple of teens. “You hear me?” he asked Mark, pointedly. “Beat it!”

At that point Jude asked about the others, who hadn't escaped the guard's notice. “They left,” he replied, not indicating where they left to. “Didn't see either of them using epithets or getting hands-on. How about that story, now?”

Penny, freshly extricated from a mightily unpleasant rendezvous with the sand, obliged. What she said lined up with what the guard observed, but he gave no sign whatsoever of what he thought about her explanation. His thoughts lay hidden as his eyes behind those darkened aviators. Her swing toward odd verbiage at the end prompted a raised eyebrow, but after she finished he glanced down at the kid Penny pleaded with for an eyewitness report. However he felt about the testimony of the child, the guard watched her expectantly, willing to entertain what she said.

“Um...” Maggy looked pretty afraid and overwhelmed by everything going on. The guard knew to keep her at a distance so that he didn't scare her, but he couldn't just turn off his imposing appearance. Maggy clammed up, and a few moments passed without anyone saying much of anything. Then the guard sighed, removed hit hat, and knelt. Off came the aviators, revealing a pair of big, watery brown eyes.

“Hey there. I'd be happy if you could tell us what happened. If nothing's wrong I'll be on my way, and you and your friends can keep playing.”

Another quiet second went by before Maggy pointed up at Penny. “Her dwarves built me a new sandcastle! Then...those guys came. A-and then she fell over.”

“Hmm.” Blinking to get a few errant grains of sand from his eyes, the guard glanced at the sword. “What was that for?”

Little Maggy bit her fingernails. “Um...she pulled it out of the ground. Then her dwarves came.”

The guard rose to his feet, glancing between the assembled guests. “So, some sort of command-type epithet. Probably something medieval.” He looked at Penny for confirmation. “Well, it looks like nobody's hurt. I'm going to have to note this incident, so please give me your names and epithets. Once that's done, you can go your separate ways.”

Down by the rocks, Haywood gazed at Jessica with newfound admiration. “Whoa, cool. And you're a captain? Guess that makes you my boss. Or one of 'em. Seems like there's no end to the people who can tell me what to do.” He leaned back on the rock, looking out across the beach to where security was resolving the scene they just left, and farther still to where the volleyball game neared its conclusion and the first few children were starting to finish the kids club race, and the bubble pit getting filled up. “So, what brings you here, Mad Dog? Some kind of mission? Where are your Blasters? I'm here with Milo and Liv just to hang out, but a captain like you's gotta be up to something, right?”

His eyes drifted back to the kid club race, landing on the auburn-haired, glasses-wearing woman standing by the water's edge. While everyone else looked happy or bored, the way she moved suggested some kind of distress. Haywood wondered what she could be thinking.

As it happened, 'distress' was something of an understatement. Noelle paced back and forth in the sand, watching the surf with worried eyes. “He should be back by now,” she murmured, putting voice to what both she and Heath knew. “We haven't even seen him. Heath-”

“I'll take a look.” The vacationing salesman was already on the move. He jogged into the water, more urgently than someone eager for a swim, and pushed through the tide in the direction of Lydia. The actress saw him coming in and waved, blissfully ignorant. “Where's Tucker?” Heath shouted. “Have you seen him?!”

Lydia heard him, but her friend had to repeat himself before she understood him. At that point she started looking around too, scanning the waves from atop her board. “I just saw him,” she yelled. “Just a moment ago!”

Noelle didn't hear her. Kicking up sand behind her as she ran, she made it to the lifeguard's elevated chair. “'Scuse me?” she called to get the long-haired man's attention. “I can't find my son. He swam out on the water for the...for the kids' race. He could have gotten swept out!” She almost choked saying it. Her heart pounded in her chest. “Can you see him?”

“Ma'am, calm down,” the lifeguard said, stony-faced. “You lost your child? That's incredibly irresponsible, ma'am.”

“Excuse me?” Noelle's voice was hard, flat, and incredulous. “I didn't...”

The lifeguard cut her off. “Where'd you lose him?”

“I didn't lose him!” Noelle insisted, pointing out toward Lydia. “He was swimming around that buoy.”

Following her direction, the lifeguard's eyes hit the actress and the nearby buoy, then slid right on toward one of the orange safe zone buoys farther out. “How could you let your child swim that far out?”

Noelle sputtered something, close to a panic, but the lifeguard cut her off again. “Don't worry ma'am, I'll save him for you.” He slid from his chair, hit the sand, and took off toward the water. A moment later he swimming steadily, headed toward where Lydia and Heath searched. Noelle watched for a moment, on the verge of tears, before running in herself.