This is the second story in the Thousandth Man arc.  It will make more sense if you read Following the Light first.   In the intro to the first story I indicated that I would give credit to any author whose fanon concepts I might have included. It was pointed out to me that some of the ideas that I included in here sounded like those presented in Susan Foster’s GDP series.  I did some research and found that while I can not remember ever reading these stories before (a situation I have since rectified ☺), her work inspired a lot of other writers who used her concepts . Therefore, I want to give credit where it is due and say a big thank you to Susan Foster.  I also wanted to say thanks to Kathy for letting me snitch one of her Homespun Wisdom Quotes from her website.   It is still under construction, but already has a lot of fun and interesting material.   Go. Check it out. http://www.cowboysmarts.com.   

I also want to thank all of the lovely people that wrote me such nice emails trying to motivate me to post this next story in the arc. Your ongoing support and patience was and  is deeply appreciated.  The last couple of years have been so very hectic and overwhelming due to my job and the massive...no make that, crushing... increase in my workload.  Long hours everyday and working on weekends did not leave much time for writing, and I was too tired to concentrate anyway.  I just got a new promotion this week to a position that is a lot less work for better pay so I am hoping things are going to improve at last. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to carve more time out from my schedule for writing.  We'll have to see what the year brings.  I live in hope. ☺ 10/21/07

Growing Into It

By Purple Lacey

Part 1

The Guide looked over his shoulder and cringed slightly at the staring blue eyes that were boring a hole into him.  He gave a weak, diffident smile, and quickly turned back around to avoid the hawk-like orbs.  His stomach still felt tight and nauseous from tension.  It had all gone to hell-in-a-hand-basket, and for the life of him he couldn’t quite absorb it all.  The day had started out with so much promise.  How could he have known it would take such a wide left turn and end up in the Twilight Zone?

Earlier that day

Buck Wilmington was in a great mood.  His life was near as perfect as one man’s could get - and still leave room for dreams, that is. Buck considered that a requirement for a good life.  His mother had always told him that a wise man did not let so much reality into his life that he left no room for dreaming.  The man that stopped dreaming became as stagnant as the old duck pond that had been behind the crumbling apartment building Buck and his mother had lived in before she had gotten a foothold in her business, and started moving up the economic ladder.  Buck hoped he never reached that point.  He couldn’t imagine anything closer to being dead without actually being dead. 

Buck still had plenty of dreams to pursue even though he had already been granted his biggest one : he had finally found his Sentinel, his bondmate for life.  No dream could ever exceed that one.  Buck looked across the breakfast table at the ten year old boy busy shoveling pancakes and bacon into his mouth, and felt that thrill of happiness that was becoming so familiar run through him. Life was so very good!

Ten year old Vin Tanner paused in his eating to grin at his Guide as he felt their bond thrum with the feelings his bondmate was unconsciously projecting as he sat lost in his thoughts.  The contented and happy emotions that were returned by the child were enough to snap the mustachioed man from his reverie and focus his full attention back on the child that had become the other half of his soul.

“You about ready for some more pancakes?” Buck asked the boy, eyeing his slim figure.

As quick as a springtime flashflood, his serenity was swept away to be replaced with sheer panic as his brain suddenly reminded him of all the child had endured to get to this place and time. He looked at the child busily consuming his breakfast while an overwhelming tide of anxiety crashed over him. 

Was Vin eating enough? Was he too thin?  Was he in danger of succumbing to some malnutrition-caused illness as a result of the deprivation that he had endured on his way to Buck?

In spite of what the average observer might have thought was a carefree and self indulgent existence, Buck had always been a responsible person. He was a caring and kind individual, ready to aid anyone who needed his help without a moment’s thought, but when it came to this particular little boy’s welfare he had a tendency to be more than a bit obsessive. 

Wilmington could be going along fine for hours at a time then would suddenly find himself worrying about the slender waif who had come to them only a week ago after escaping from an evil man bent on enslaving him and his new friend, Ezra Standish. Worrying about if he was eating enough, or sleeping enough, or on the verge of getting sick, or in danger of losing himself in his enhanced senses.   

He could not help himself.   The boy was now his world, his very own Sentinel, and he had waited all of his life to find him.  The thought of losing him now...an involuntary shiver ran up his spine as he willfully beat the thought back.  That would NOT happen!  Buck would not let it.  He would happily give his own life to ensure this little Sentinel lived.  He would do anything, anything, he had to in order to see to Vin’s welfare.  Non-Guild people might find the total commitment behind that concept difficult to grasp, but it was a no-brainer as far as Buck, or any other Sentinel or Guide, was concerned.

He had been around the Sentinel and Guide Guild long enough to recognize the classic symptoms of New Bonding Anxiety in himself.  He had personally helped talk down countless Sentinels and Guides struck by it in his career as a Guild Trainer, but recognizing it and dealing with the feelings himself were two entirely different things. 

He mentally apologized to all those suffering from the condition that he had dealt with in the past.  For all his pacifying lectures, he had not really known what he was asking them to do when he had coaxed them into letting their bondmates out of their sight, out of their sphere of protection.  Argued them into letting go of their tight-fisted control of the other.   Cajoled them into believing the doctors who stated their bondmate was well and healthy.  He had always been careful to keep his secret amusement at their antics hidden away. 

He now understood, all too well, the deep driving fear that had motivated some extremely bizarre behavior from people that were normally as grounded as Mount Rushmore.   He felt that fear in spades; felt the absolute terror that filled him at the thought of losing that mental link that bound his mind and soul to the willowy young Sentinel seated across from him at the kitchen table.  He felt the panic at the thought of being left alone, abandoned, and cast adrift to float through the rest of his life without feeling the unstinting love and total devotion that his Sentinel reflected back to him over the empathic bond they shared.

Oh, yeah, he definitely got it now.

Vin Tanner, Sentinel Elite, jerked his head up quickly and sought his Guide’s face, scrutinizing him closely on hearing the raised heartbeat and increased rate of breathing that indicated that something was disturbing his Guide. He smelled the tinge of fear that marred his Guide’s scent, and his own internal alarm system went on alert. His posture straightened and muscles tightened in readiness, and he cocked his head to one side in the classic Sentinel listening position as he monitored his new bondmate, then swept the immediate vicinity trying to figure out what was causing the Guide distress. 

Mentally, Vin tuned into their bond to gain more information at the same time he twisted the handle of the faucet image he mentally used to control his senses, and threw out a sensory net to search the surrounding area for anything that might be responsible for his Guide’s agitation.  He really gleaned more details from his heightened senses though, because their bond was so new that he had not learned how to interpret all the subtle nuisances that would one day allow him to know what his Guide was thinking and feeling just as if he could read his mind.

“Buck?” the boy questioned anxiously, “What’s the matter?   You okay?”

 Wilmington deliberately regulated his breathing, and made a conscious effort to slow down his accelerated heartbeat, knowing from his many years of dealing with Sentinels that it would help Vin to start calming down faster. 

“I’m just dandy, son,” Buck assured him with one of his infamous grins. “Nothing’s wrong.  Just being silly is all.”   

He willfully pushed his fear into the back part of his brain and determinedly locked it away.  He might be suffering from New Bonding Anxiety but that did not mean he had to pass it on to his Sentinel.   Buck would protect the boy even from his own Guide’s phobias.  Vin had enough issues of his own to deal with as it was.

“You didn’t answer me.  You want some more pancakes?”  Buck asked to change the subject, and he worked hard to instill his voice with his normal cheerful calmness.

“Nah,” Vin replied still watching him closely, on guard for any possible threats to his Guide.  “I’m full.”

 Buck nodded once, still smiling determinedly, and reached over to remove the boy’s plate and take it to the sink to join the other breakfast dishes waiting to be washed.  Buck reached for the bottle of dishwashing soap on the counter and squeezed some into the sink then turned on the water.  As he waited for the sink to fill, he practiced one of the relaxation techniques he taught to new Guides. 

Buck could feel the little Sentinel eventually stand-down as the normalcy of watching his Guide perform the mundane, everyday task of washing dishes soothed his last concern, and allowed him to slip back into his newly found role as happy ten year old.  

“Hey, Buck,” the boy said eagerly now that the mini-crisis had passed.  “I was thinking that today would be a good day to take the horses and give ‘em a good work out. They’ve been stuck in the corral and barn for the last couple of days since we was so busy. What do you say to us taking ‘em and riding down to the lake?  Maybe borrow Chris’s fishing poles and seeing if we can catch us some fish for dinner?”

 Buck looked at the too innocent face and laughed.  “Nice try, Hoss, but you have school today, and you know it.  We’ll have to save the thought for this weekend.”

 Vin sighed deeply and let his shoulders droop in disappointment.  It had been worth a shot.

Vin may have been a Sentinel Elite, but he was also a little boy and had a little boy’s discontent with being stuck in a classroom all day when the whole wide world was waiting out there for him to explore, and adventure was calling his name.  It  tough to be forced to sit still for hours at a time while his instructors tried to pound math and spelling into his head - and all kinds of things he did not see why he had to learn.   

The only bright spots in the whole school day were the Sentinel classes he took in the late afternoon because Buck, as his Guide, got to attend most of those with him.   Ezra’s presence in his class also helped to ease his boredom with the regular academics. 
 
Classes in the Guild School were different from most found in the mainstream in that everything was completely self paced.  The children were assigned a home room and rotated between different subjects in the course of their school day, but the age range in a class was anywhere from five years to thirteen.  Each child worked on his subject with the help of a group of teachers and - more importantly- other students.   It was felt that this helped the children to learn to work together as a team.

Each class was also a carefully maintained balance of Sentinel and Guides. It had been found out early in the Guild’s history that putting only Sentinels in one class and Guides in another led to disaster.  

Sentinels and Guides though they were, they still behaved like normal children with all the graces and faults that implied...with the heavy duty territorial/possessive instincts of a Sentinel/Guide thrown into the mix to make life for their teachers REALLY interesting.  The Guild school had its share of playground bullies, but the truly interesting difference with Guild children was that while a Sentinel child would attack another Sentinel child, he or she would not deliberately harm a Guide child either physically or verbally.  It was hardwired into their Sentinel brains that Guides, all Guides, were to be protected.  The reverse held true for Guide children. While it might be open season on another child Guide, Sentinels were sacrosanct.

The instructors had learned that by having an equal mix of Sentinels and Guides in each class things ran smoother, and trouble was usually deflected by the children themselves -- Sentinels playing peacemaker in Guide quarrels, and Guides doing the same for the Sentinels.  

It was a system that worked exceptionally well...once the pecking order had been established.

That was an instinct that no one had ever been able to breed, talk, or condition out of Sentinels.  Wherever two Sentinels gathered for any appreciable length of time, one would always be dominate.  Where there were multiple Sentinels they would always have an internal ranking system; sometimes falling naturally into that order but usually by battling it out, especially if their skills were too close a match to each other’s.

The Guides, to a lesser extent, seemed to fall into the custom as well.   It was a system that non-Guild people found confusing, and more than a little barbaric, but was just another fact of life to a Sentinel or Guide.

Ezra and Vin, both being classified as Elite on the Sentinel/Guide rating scale, had naturally enough risen to the top of the pecking order.  It had taken all of five minutes for the new social dynamic to form, aided by a confrontation between Vin and the previously dominant Sentinel in the class - a thirteen year old girl by the name of Ester.  The girl had stormed over to Vin when he and Ezra had first entered the room and attempted to force his submission, but a quick leg sweep had put the girl on the ground in less than a second and assured Vin the top spot in the school.  

Ezra’s own elevation had come within moments of Vin’s as Hank, the heretofore dominate Guide, had attempted to crash through his mental shields.  It had been, literally, child’s play for Ezra to deflect the assault and turn it around on his attacker, although the boy had been a very strong empath.  The other Guide had whimpered his surrender, which Ezra graciously accepted.

The teachers, knowing the conflict was inevitable with the admittance of new students to the setting, had been poised for intervention if it looked like someone was going to be injured, but had not otherwise interfered in the confrontation.  They had quickly restored order to their class room as soon as the tiny drama had played itself out.

Ezra and Vin had been put in the same class, a fact that they owed to Chris Larabee.  Larabee had known how their cross country flight had connected the two boys – in the more conventional emotional sense - and felt they would feel more secure in their new surroundings if they were allowed to remain together. The Guild Master had simply stated he wanted the two to stay together, and the instructors had practically fallen over themselves arranging it. 

Vin was unaware of Chris’ decree, but would not have cared if he had known.  As long as Ezra was with him, he was content.   Well, as much as he could be while stuck indoors all day.

Ezra and Vin had become as close as brothers on their frightened flight from the mysterious man they had known only as Mr. Smith.  The man had arranged Vin’s kidnapping and bought Ezra from his mother so that he could bond them with each other and have his own personal Sentinel/Guide pair to do his every bidding.   The two boys had joined forces to escape the man’s forest compound and fled into the woods.  They had run far and fast, and had eventually stumbled across their current bondmates.  The friendship they had forged on that harried journey was still stronger than steel, and came second only to that between their own Sentinel or Guide.

Whenever Vin found himself getting bored with his lessons, Ezra was always there to liven things up for him with a wisecrack, or a story, or just a commiserating shoulder to unload on. School would have been completely unbearable without Ezra there, too.

“You have all your things together for school?” Buck asked over his shoulder as he set the last plate into the dish drainer. 

The man rinsed the sink out, and then dried his hand on a paper towel that he then sent sailing into the trash can at the end of the kitchen counter.  Vin sighed heavily as he nodded, causing Buck to laugh. 

“Let’s get a move on then,” the Buck told his bondmate.  “We wouldn’t want you to be late.  It would look bad on me as a Guide,” he teased.

Vin’s feet were dragging as he left the kitchen in advance of his Guide and headed for the door that led into the garage. He swiped his backpack up from the chair where he had stashed it as he passed.  Buck hit the button to raise the garage door then made sure the door into the house was locked.  The pair climbed into Buck’s low slung, silver sports car, and reached for the seat belts in unison.  Buck stuck the key into the ignition then pulled his hand back and waited in what had become something of a ritual for the newly bonded pair.

“Start ‘er up, Bubba,” Wilmington ordered with a grin that the boy matched.

Vin leaned over and twisted the key, bringing the loud, rumbling engine to life.  Both laughed for no other reason than that they were both males and the powerful sound triggered a weird kind of guttural response from each of them.  It was a male phenomenon that Buck had tried - and failed- to explain to his Mother once.   She had eventually walked off mumbling something about toys and testosterone under her breath.

Buck slipped the car into gear and backed out of the garage.  Vin waited until the front end of the car cleared the garage door then he hit the button on the door opener that he had pulled out of the glove compartment.  Vin tossed the opener back into the compartment, pushed the little door shut, and settled back into his seat to enjoy the ride, still grinning like a loon.

Usually Buck and Chris took turns driving the four of them to the Guild every morning, but Chris had an overseas conference call scheduled and had to leave an hour early.   He had given Ezra the choice of rising early and driving in with him, or leaving at his normal time and going with Buck and Vin.  Naturally enough, Ezra had chosen to drag himself from his bed and accompany his new bondmate.

Buck had the car turned around and headed down the long drive from Chris’ house to the highway when a bright yellow taxi turned into the end of the lane and blocked his exit.  Buck sighed and stepped on the brake, wondering who this could be and how late it was going to make them. He mused on how quickly he could get rid of whoever was riding in the taxi.

All thought of dumping the unknown guest disappeared in flash as the back door of the taxi flew open and a whirlwind in a red Chanel business suit flew towards the sports car.  Recognizing the woman running toward him on three inch heels, Buck threw the gearshift into park and bounded out of the car. 

Vin followed quickly. He was not alarmed as the feelings his bondmate was projecting were warm and loving.  For a moment, the child was jealous that his Guide was having those feelings for someone other than him.  Curiosity soon pushed against jealously insistently, and the boy stood watching closely as Buck swept the squealing woman up in a hug and spun her around and around.

“There’s my baby boy!” the woman cried out and wrapped her arms around Buck’s neck and hugged back.

“Mama!  You should have let me know you were coming!  I would have picked you up at the airport.  You didn’t need to waste money on a taxi.”

The woman laughed and placed a big, smacking kiss on the grinning man’s cheek before saying, “It was a last minute thing.  I was supposed to be closing a deal in New York, but it fell through, and I decided that since I was so close anyway I would grab the chance while I had it and come see my baby boy and meet his new bondmate.  I caught the redeye last night, and here I am!”  Sharee Wilmington said gaily and rubbed her nose against her son’s playfully.

Buck threw his head back and laughed out loud in delight over his irrepressible mother and he gave her another spin.

“Buck?”

The little voice calling his name reminded Buck of his watching bondmate. The Guide carefully set his mother back on her feet then held out a hand to his Sentinel.

“Come here and met my mom, Hoss,” Buck said with a grin. 

Vin studied the woman with care as he hurried around the side of the car and joined them.    She was at least a foot shorter than her son, with a build that an older male might label as attractively voluptuous, but Vin thought was kind of cuddlely-looking.  She had the same silky dark hair as her son, and her eyes were the same incredible blue although they had a slightly more exotic shape and were rimmed with lush, mascara-darkened lashes.  Her cheek bones were high and glowed softly with just a touch of blush. Her skin was surprising young and smooth for a woman in her early fifties.  Her lips were full and shiny red from the colored lip gloss she used and were stretched in a warm, welcoming smile that seemed to light up her whole face.

She wore no perfume, but her own natural scent was clean, with a sweet/tart tang that reminded him of Buck’s. He smelled happiness on her that mixed very harmoniously with the happiness smell that was pouring off Buck in waves.  That harmony made him edgy.

Vin stepped over to Buck’s side and reached out to take his hand in a move that was so blatantly possessive that even the most oblivious viewer would have had no problem reading it for what it was: a declaration of ownership. 

Sharee Wilmington was anything but oblivious.  The woman had started out as an unwed teenage mother forced to sell her body to feed herself and her child, and then worked her way up until she had become a force to be reckoned with in the business community. She was sharp, shrewd, and a very keen observer of human behavior - both the Guild and un-Guild kind. 

In the years since she had first realized her son was a Guide and set out to learn exactly what that meant for him, she had become quite knowledgeable about the mores of the Guild.  She knew newly bonded pairs were often very possessive and protective of their new bond, sometimes excessively so.  Any other emotional bonds, even those between family members, could possibly be perceived as menacing to the newly formed Sentinel/Guide bond.

She recognized at once that, to a possessive Sentinel, the loving greeting that she and Buck had just given one another could very easily cause the Sentinel to see her as a threat to his claim on his Guide.   She immediately took steps to avoid it. She knew the next few minutes could very likely set the whole tone of her relationship with her son’s Guide for the rest of all their lives.

Careful to maintain a bit of space between herself and her son, she slowly knelt in the grass by the lane, never taking her eyes from the little Sentinel and deliberately not looking toward Buck.  Her smile never wavered as she stared back at the boy watching her with suspicious eyes and a blank face.  The tense muscles and the way he was balanced on his toes let her know that the boy was poised to attack if she bungled this introduction.

“You are just exactly like Maris described you, honey. I’m so happy to finally meet you.  I just know that you are going to take good care of my baby boy.  I feel so much better leaving him in your hands, Sentinel.”

She reached out her right hand slowly.  The slight hesitation she deliberately allowed when it was about a foot from Vin’s face was barely noticeable, but it was enough to let the Sentinel read her scent and listen to her pulse so he could gauge her truthfulness.  She continued the movement and gently cupped the boy’s cheek then leaned forward and placed a tender kiss on his forehead.

“Welcome to the family, Vin.” 

She did not even try to conceal the emotion in her voice as she whispered this softly. 

For a very tense moment Sharee thought she had botched it all when the child just stood stiffly under her hand.  Then she felt the boy’s small body relax, and a smile begin to grow on his face with her acknowledgement of his connection with Buck.  Vin took the half step that closed the distance between them and wrapped both arms around her neck and hugged with care.   

Tears of joy began to build in her cobalt blue eyes as she felt those arms tighten around her, knowing it meant that Vin had accepted her into his little tribe, into his family.   

The Sentinel pushed back to stare at her in confusion as he smelled the saltiness of her tears.  She smelled happy, but she looked like she was about to cry.  He didn’t understand it at all.

“Buck?”  He called out to his bondmate almost desperately.  Buck just laughed and patted his shoulder in reassurance.

“She’s okay, Hoss.  You remember when Ezra met Chris’ mom for the first time and she told him that sometimes when a person is really happy it builds up inside until it has to find a way to get out to keep a person from exploding? Well, Mom here is just trying to keep from going boom.”  Buck joked and ruffled the boy’s hair.

Looking uncertainly at the woman who still had her arms wrapped loosely around him, Vin thought about that for a moment then shrugged and accepted it.  Grown ups could be really weird sometimes.  His grin returned and he hugged Sharee again.

Buck looked regretfully down at his mother then said, “I’m sorry, Mom.  I can let you into the house, but then I’ve got to get to work and Vin to school.  If I had known you were coming I could have arranged for someone to take my nine o’clock Sentinel Care class, but...”

Sharee gave Vin one last squeeze before letting him go and rising gracefully to her feet.

“That’s okay, Sweetheart.  I don’t expect you to rearrange your whole schedule just because I show up unannounced.  I managed to carve out a whole week to spend with y’all so we have plenty of time to catch up.   And for me to get to know my new grandson, of course.” 

The last sentence was said proudly right to Vin who looked surprised then very pleased to hear her address him so.

“And you don’t have to let me into the house because I’m staying with Maris and Steven.  They gave me an open invitation to come as soon as I could get away.”

“But, Mom...” Buck started to protest her staying with Chris’ parents, but his mother stopped his words by the simple act of placing one red lacquer-tipped finger across his mouth.

“Uh-uh, baby boy,” she said looking at him wisely.  “You and Vin have only been bonded for a week, as have Chris and his new bondmate.  You all still need time alone in your new home to settle in with each other.    The last thing any of you need is another person, even me, intruding while you are still in the process of getting to know one another and working things out in relation to all four of you.   Don’t you worry about me.  I’ll be just fine at the Larabee’s.”

Buck sighed in disappointment, but knew she was right.  

The woman smiled impishly and stroked a soft hand down her son’s face.  “Cheer up, Buck.  I promise next time I’m in town I’ll camp out at your place so long you’ll want to toss me out like bad fish.”

“Like that would ever happen,” Buck said as he swept her back into his arms for another hug. “I could never get tired of having you around, and you know Chris feels the same way. We don’t see you near enough.”

One perfectly shaped eyebrow rose as Sharee archly said, “I believe the airlines still run flights between here and Las Vegas.  You could always come out to see your poor old mother, you know.”

Buck started snickering.  “Poor! Old!  Those are not two words that anyone in their right mind would ever use to describe you. That’s a good one, Mom.”

Sharee laughed and squeezed him tightly saying, “You’re so good for my ego, son.”

“Hey, don’t just take my word for it,” Buck laughingly said.  “Am I wrong, Vin?”

Vin gave a jaunty grin and answered, “Nope.  I don’t think those words do you right at all.”

“See?”  Buck smirked and winked at his bondmate. 

Sharee giggled and reached over to pull Vin into a three way hug.  “I knew I was going to like you, Vin!”

Reluctantly Sharee pulled away and shooed the pair off.  She was planning to visit the Guild Hall after getting settled in with the Larabees so she could catch up with a few old Guild friends there, and arranged to meet them there at six o’clock that evening so they could all have dinner together.  Buck helped her back into her taxi for the return trip to town then hurried back to his car, hustling Vin back in so they could resume their own interrupted trip into town.

For Vin, the time went by way too fast, not only because he was not looking forward to going to school, but also because it interrupted the stories Buck told of his mother after the child had peppered him with questions about the very unique woman he had just met.

Buck expertly whipped his car into his reserved parking space when they reached the Hall.  Vin waited until Buck nodded permission to twist the key back to turn off the engine, and Buck extracted the keys and pocketed them as he climbed out of the car.  

Vin reached into the back seat and grabbed his backpack then carefully shut the door, not allowing the car door to slam.  He used his sleeve to polish his fingerprints off the chrome door handle almost reverently, much to Buck’s amusement. 

To Buck’s absolute delight, his little bondmate had fallen in love with his vehicle on first sight.  The Guide had been overjoyed to discover Vin shared his abiding interest in cars.  Buck had thought Vin’s face was going to crack from the size of the grin on his face the first time Buck had let him sit on his lap and steer the car up the driveway at Larabee’s ranch. 

Since Vin had insisted he was too old for bedtime stories, their nightly bedtime routine now included a half hour of them both stretched out together on Vin’s bed pouring over Buck’s car magazines.  Buck thought he was the luckiest man alive.  Vin could have challenged him for the title.

The pair climbed the many broad steps that led up to the Guild’s main doors - Buck returning the called and waved greetings he received, and Vin instinctively scanning the area for possible threats.  As they entered the grand hall, Buck kept one hand on Vin’s shoulder to help ground the child’s senses while he used them, as well as to provide emotional support to keep the child calm in the early morning hustle and bustle of the Guild.  He had discovered right away that his bondmate did not like crowds and would become tense and easily aggravated when put in a situation with too many people for too long a time. 

“Hey, Buck!”  a voice called over the din of the busy Hall causing the Guide to slow and look around.

A tall, extremely slender teenage Sentinel hurried across the marble floor of the Hall foyer and came to a stop beside Buck.  He was smiling and carrying a book in one hand. 

“I found that quote I was telling you about yesterday in class. I thought you might like to have a look at it,” the eager – and unbonded - Sentinel said as he held it out to his teacher.

Buck started to reach for the volume but it never made it to his hand. Vin suddenly exploded into movement, dropping his backpack, and knocking the book out of the Sentinel’s hand onto the floor before it ever made contact with Buck’s flesh.  A feral growl emerged from the little throat as Vin roughly pushed his way in between his Guide and the other Sentinel.

“MY GUIDE,” he said harshly, baring his teeth at the older boy.  Before Buck could react to stop him, Vin acted with the superior reflexes of a Sentinel Elite and had kicked out his right foot, catching the Sentinel in the side of his knee thereby causing the boy to instinctively bend over as he clutched at his suddenly painful limb.  This bought his face down low enough for Vin to give him a mighty uppercut to the chin that sent the teen crashing to the floor.  Vin stood over his fallen adversary with fists at the ready and weight carefully balanced for quick movement, obviously prepared to dole out more and greater punishment to the Sentinel who stared back up at him in shock. 

“My Guide!” Vin repeated with a heated passion.  “Not yours!  You can’t give my Guide things!  Only ME!”  

The unbridled emotion pouring off the little Sentinel slammed into hastily erected walls of the Guides that loitered in the lobby with a force that made several wince.   

The teenage Sentinel was only a Beta Sentinel, and having the full force and power of an enraged Sentinel Elite - even this small one- focused on him was enough to have the bigger boy cowering before his attacker in submission.

“Y..y..your G..g..guide, Sentinel,” the other Sentinel stuttered out fearfully.  “No challenges made!  No challenges made!”

“Vin...” Buck began as he moved closer to his Sentinel to begin calming him down.

Vin whipped his head around to look over his shoulder at his Guide and frowned.  “You’re my Guide!” he declared fiercely.

“Yes, Vin,” Buck agreed in a calm, sincere voice as he assured his incensed bondmate. “I’m yours and you’re mine, and no one will ever come between us.  He wasn’t challenging your right to be my bondmate. He was just letting me borrow a book we were discussing in one of my training classes yesterday. Do you understand, Vin?  He wasn’t trying to...uh...court me, and it wouldn’t matter even if he was. I know who my bondmate is, and I don’t ever want anyone else but you.”

Buck became aware of the silence that filled the hall, and cast a quick glance around to see that all movement in the large hall had come to a full stop as the crowd watched the little drama unfold.  Buck got quite a few commiserating looks from the bonded Guides in the crowd.  Their Sentinels all seemed to be smiling at Vin with looks of amused remembrance on their faces.  They obviously recalled just exactly how it felt to be newly bonded.

Buck told himself that Vin’s possessiveness was perfectly normal for a recently bonded Sentinel.  It would eventually pass...at least he hoped it would.  This was the fifth time this week that he had to calm his bondmate down after another Sentinel had gotten too close or too friendly with his Guide for Vin’s comfort, and the child had immediately gone into the Sentinel equivalent of DefCon 5, launching an all out, no-holds-barred attack in defense of his bond.   

There was one Sentinel – a big, three hundred and fifty pound brute of a man - that cringed and would instinctively try to cover his crotch protectively whenever he saw Buck or Vin.   Vin had slammed his fists into the man’s groin after the Sentinel made a joke to Buck about throwing the little fish back until it grew a little more. That had been on Monday, the first day of school for Vin and Ezra, and the first incident. 

It had happened again on Tuesday – this time Vin had slung a potted plant around by its stem - like an Olympian athlete doing the hammer throw - and loosed it at the offending Sentinel’s head.  The poor woman had gone down like a concrete airplane.  Buck had been forced to drag the struggling Vin away from the scene leaving the dazed woman in the care of the Guides that had instinctively homed in on her pain and swarmed in to help.

Buck had sighed with relief when Wednesday had passed without a repeat, only to have to deal with two similar, if not so spectacular, events on Thursday.   The older, more savvy Sentinels were good about keeping their distance from Buck, but the younger, or newly on-line ones lacked the experience necessary to recognize the ticking time bomb of the newly bonded Sentinel, and continued to make themselves targets to Vin by their proximity to his Guide.

At first, Buck had found it rather flattering.  Now it was starting to get increasingly embarrassing because, while obsessive possessiveness was common for newly bonded Sentinels, Vin did not show any signs of getting over it anytime soon.  In fact, his possessiveness just seemed to be getting worse.  For once in his life, Buck was not sure how to handle this particular Sentinel crisis.

Buck had even gone so far as to ask Chris to speak to him as one Sentinel Elite to another, but that had been a complete bust.  Vin had looked the older Sentinel in the eye and challenged him to honestly say he would stand by and do nothing if it had been Ezra who was drawing the attention of the other Sentinels.  Hadn’t the Guild Master let it be known that he would take a very dim view of any Sentinel approaching his Guide without Chris being present or okaying it first?  The look the child had given had dared the older Sentinel to deny it.   A very sheepish looking Chris had come back out of the den where he had taken Vin to talk, and shrugged at the waiting Buck, mumbling that the Guide was on his own.

Now Buck did the only thing he could think of to do.  He scooped Vin’s backpack up with one hand while he grabbed Vin up with his other arm - plopping the child across his shoulder like a feed sack - and left in a hurry.  He threw an apologetic glance to the cringing teenager who was still lying on the floor.  Disappointingly, the young Sentinel never saw it.  He was too busy watching the younger Sentinel with the apprehension and the wary respect of a lesser Sentinel for a more dominate one. Said dominate Sentinel was just as busy was glaring at his fallen foe with feral menace from over his Guide’s shoulder. 

Buck knew he would be doing some major apologizing later.  Again.

Buck hustled his bondmate through the large doors that led into the Guild Hall proper, giving an embarrassed nod in return of the greetings he received from the pair of grinning guards that opened the doors for him.

Even though they were already running late, Buck carried Vin over to one of the benches that encircled the large trees growing in the atrium of the Guild Hall.  He dropped Vin’s backpack to the ground then sat down and pulled the youngster to sit straddling his lap so they were face to face. 

“Vin,” he said shaking his head at the little boy staring back at him with intractableness, “You can’t keep attacking people like that.  It’s not right, son.  You need to learn to control yourself.”

“HE should learn to keep his hands and his books to himself,” Vin maintained obdurately.

Sighing heavily, Buck leaned over until his forehead was touching Vin’s, wondering how to get it across to the little boy with a warrior’s heart and instincts.  

“Every time you do that you make me think you don’t trust me,” Buck told him, deliberately infusing his voice with sadness and sending it over the bond to reinforce the idea.  He had finally decided that if reason wouldn’t work then maybe guilt would.    “That hurts, Vin.”

The little Sentinel immediately cupped the older man’s face with both hands and moved his head back to stare into his bondmate’s eyes.

“I DO trust you, Buck,” he answered with unmistakable sincerity, blue eyes drilling into blue eyes.  “I trust you completely!”

Buck gave a sigh of relief which changed in mid-exhale to one of frustration as Vin continued with a menacing growl, “Its THEM I don’t trust.”

Buck wished there was a convenient wall close by so he could bang his head on it for a while.  He settled for pressing his forehead to Vin’s once more as he gave up on the whole thing for the time being knowing that he had a class of new Guides waiting for him and Vin needed to get to school.

“Come on,” he finally said pulling back with a resigned smile.  “We’ll have to talk about this later. Let’s get you to class before they send the Sentinel Truant Officers out after you.”

Vin looked intrigued as he said, “There’s actually Sentinels that do that?”

Buck laughed with rueful affection - not able to stay upset with his bondmate even if he wanted; not when confronted with the boy’s innocent wonder of the new world in which he now was a member. He grasped Vin by his waist and slid the boy off his lap and back onto his two sneaker-clad feet.  “Nope, but I’m sure they would do a heck of a job when it came to hunting down kids playing hooky.  Maybe we ought to suggest it, huh?”

Vin grinned and laughed with him, acting as though the earlier incident had never occurred.  The boy slung his backpack over one shoulder, grabbed his Guide’s hand, and began leading him forward.   The pair walked down the main corridor in silence for the five minutes it took to get to the wing where the Sentinel school was located. 

Buck hugged his bondmate goodbye and was hugged in return.  The man stood watching as Vin hurried down the hall to the school entrance, and slipped inside the big glass doors with a last wave.   After the first day, Vin had insisted that he was too old to need Buck walking him to school everyday, but Buck always stood and watched from the main corridor until Vin was inside, feeling more secure by seeing for himself that the child was safely under the protective eye of the school’s staff.  He had to ignore the powerful tug of emotion that made him want to run after the boy and keep him close.   Buck turned away and hurried to the nearest elevator so he could get to his own waiting students.

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