There had not been ample time to prepare and it seemed that they were at odds with an act of God. What was worse was the knowledge that he knew he had to let Finn go out, let him go face the storm, and he had. Oh there had been a fight. But Riley knew that ultimately his fiancé was the only one really capable of combatting the worst of the storm and lessening the impact. He’d begged and pleaded, but Finn had gone regardless and now Riley was stuck there, indoors, trying to find anything to keep himself occupied with.
As if his prayers were answered, he spotted a guard nearby who was trying to help a little girl find her mother. Usually wary of the guards Riley hung back until he could no longer watch the little girl cry and the guard look around as if he was lost. “Hey man,” Riley called, hoping that some of the color was going to come back to his face. Ian would look up and over in the direction that the greeting had come, and the once-soldier would straighten as the shorter, dark haired man approached.
Riley made himself smile, nod. “Hey, sorry, I couldn’t help but notice that you were looking for her folks. Yeah?” The guard nodded, “Yeah, she is lost. Do you know them?”
Nodding, Riley smiled, “Yeah, sort of. This girl is in one of my classes here,” he explained, waving a hand at the child. The girl did seem to recognize him. She smiled and moved toward Riley, arms going around him. “Mr. Kip,” she sniffled.
Ian would nod at the pair of them. “Maybe we can find her parents together. There are a lot of people here, but with a storm like this I bet they’re frantic to find her.” Riley nodded, scooping the little girl into his arms and up. She wound her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder. “You’re taller so, yeah. You see anything up there?” It was meant to be a joke. Ian sighed and shook his head. “Cool, cool. Just checking, man,” Riley quipped. He took a quick glance around and then began to move, carrying the girl around.
Slowly, and carefully so as not to disturb the other people taking shelter in the Facility they made their way around to look. “Excuse me, do you know that little girl?” Ian would pause and inquired. Most of the residents were hesitant to talk to him, but after a bit of stressing that she had lost her parents they opened up a little bit more.
“Sarah!” Came a shout. Frantic. Riley swiveled around in time to see a woman rushing toward him, arms outstretched. Ian walked quickly back to where the mother was just meeting the shorter man. Riley offered the child to the woman. “Don’t thank me,” he said, thumbing over at the guard, “He found her. I just knew who she was.” Ian couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride in that, but he didn’t let it show. “Glad she’s back with her parents.”
With that, Ian shuffled off to see if there was other things needing tending to. Riley sighed and went back to pacing. It was going to be a long day.