Thank you to M. Riley and BCW for betaing and much more.

This story was inspired by the children's book, "Guess How Much I Love You," by Sam McBratney. It was recommended to me by Gillian Middleton and I recommend it as well. It's absolutely charming. Thank you, Gilly, this is for you!

Also, I want to dedicate this story to my beloved husband of seventeen years, "The Cowboy," as BCW dubbed him. He is from Texas, so it's rather fitting. He's also a terrific father to our two children. The last part of this story is based on my favorite picture of him with our son.

Warnings: This is an AU set in the 1870s. Blair is a boy of eight and Jim is. . . Jim. If you haven't read any of this series, here's a brief summary to get you up to speed. This story occurs very early in the timeline. Jim is Blair's guardian and they live on a horse ranch. Not much sentinel mystic stuff in this one, just lots of
sentimentalism.

Comments are accepted at: Klair@postmark.net

The rest of the series is here:
http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/Gallery/3393/Klair/klairnonslash.html

Mud Pies
by Klair

Wyoming Territory, Prospect Creek Ranch, September 1873

With cracking joints, Jim Ellison finished cleaning the last stall in the barn. He stretched, reaching for the roof, producing more popping sounds, and felt better. His stomach growled reminding him it was well past lunchtime. As the rancher headed towards his snug, little cabin, he wondered why his ward hadn't been in pestering him for food. Now that they had gotten to know each other better, and the initial grief of losing his mother had passed, Blair ate much better than he had the first couple months since Jim found him and his dying mother alone, far out on the open range. Jim paused in his progress across the yard as the realization hit him that the usually underfoot boy had been uncharacteristically quiet for much too long.

Thinking of his little, eight-year-old, curly-headed imp, the sound of the boy's voice came to him. Blair seemed like he was somewhere by the creek. Following the animated chatter, Jim found the boy playing happily in a large pool of thick mud. Mud covered the child from neck to foot, smudges on his face and random globs in his hair.

"Help us, Cap'n! We can't get back!" Blair said, imitating a deep male voice. Little sticks were dancing in one hand and he brought a handful of mud down on them. "Quickly, men. We must save the Nautilus!" he continued in another pseudo adult, commanding voice as he took a foot-long, fat stick and pushed it under the water around his knees.

Jim stood transfixed watching the imaginary catastrophe unfold before him. An amused smile came unbidden to his face as Blair continued his game, oblivious to his guardian's presence. After a few more minutes of intense calamity - when it appeared to Jim the whole of Captain Nemo's island paradise would be destroyed by a mud-slide - Blair turned and saw Jim standing there.

"Hi, Jim! Want to play, too?" the beaming, muddy boy asked enthusiastically.

With only token thoughts to the hours it would take to get their clothes clean again - to say nothing of themselves - the rancher replied, "Sure, Little Bit. Just give me a minute."

Jim undid his chaps, took off his boots, socks and shirt, rolled up his pant legs and stepped with bare feet into the cool, gooey mud. He was instantly transported back to the days of his childhood when he and his brother Steven had similar adventures.

Man and boy played for another hour or so, laughing and romping in the muck. Catching his breath after a particularly tough "rescue mission", Blair became still and quiet. He gave his guardian a side-glance, watching the man rebuild the island so they could attack it again.

In a shy, conspiring whisper he said, "Want to know a secret?"

Jim grinned, wiping mud from his face only to leave more than he mopped away. "Okay, shoot."

"I love you."

The matter-of-fact statement plastered a huge smile on his face. He whispered back in the same conspiring tone. "Do you want to know a secret?"

"What?" Blair asked, leaning in closer.

"I love you more because I'm bigger than you." Jim touched the tip of Blair's nose with a muddy finger, leaving a dollop of mud behind.

The boy smiled from ear-to-ear, wiping the tickling mud from his nose before continuing their game. After the final "battle" to save their ship ended in a mud fight between the only two real people present, Jim called the game to a halt.

"All right, Blair. We need to get cleaned up and get supper ready," Jim said, wiping his hands on the nearby grass to get most of the filth off.

"Supper? We never had lunch!" Blair protested as he noticed his hunger for the first time.

Sloshing out of the mud bog, towing Blair behind him, Jim swabbed the excess muck from their clothes with his hands. Next, he ordered Blair to strip out of the mud-caked garments while he did the same. That accomplished, he took the sodden heap of fabric down to the creek side, tied them to a rope, kept there for that purpose, and tossed the whole mess into the middle of the briskly moving water.

Taking Blair by the hand, Jim began wading into a calmer part of the cool stream up to his mid-thigh. The rancher quickly rinsed off a protesting, goose-bumpy Blair before submerging himself under the cold water to get the mud off of his head.

When he surfaced, Blair was intently watching the now-dirty water being carried by the gentle current out to the main body of the creek and beyond. The boy turned back toward his guardian.

"Hey, Jim, guess what?" he asked in the same manner as before.

"What?" Jim answered, although, he had a pretty good idea where the question was leading.

Blair pointed downstream as the water flowed out of sight, saying somewhat boastfully, "I love you as far as the creek runs."

"That's pretty far, Little Bit." The rancher gathered his blue-lipped ward into his arms, taking them to shore. He pointed down the little river, as well. "I love you as far as the creek runs to join the Green River and then out to the sea."

That statement drew a wide-eyed stare from his ward, and Jim chuckled, holding the slightly trembling boy tightly in his arms as he quickly walked them back to the cabin.

As soon as he opened the door, Jim grabbed the blanket off the end of the bed and wrapped Blair up in it before sitting the shivering child next to the smoldering fireplace. In no time at all, Jim had the banked coals igniting another blaze to ease the chill in both of them.

Jim dried himself, dressed, and then helped Blair do the same. Setting a quick soup on the stove to simmer for supper, Jim moved Blair out of the armchair he was curled in. The rancher took the boy's place before setting Blair in his lap.

Jim propped his feet up on the hearth and relaxed as the warmth from the fire reached him. Blair snuggled into his side.

"That was fun, Jim," the boy said before yawning. "Can we do it again tomorrow?"

"I didn't think you liked to get dunked in 'ice cold' water, Little Bit," Jim teased.

Blair wasn't fooled for a minute. "You know what I mean, Jim. Playing. Will you play with me tomorrow?"

After thinking a minute, Jim answered. "After chores. . .And we need to find a game that doesn't need so much clean up."

"Awww--"

"Unless you do like taking a bath everyday. Because if that's the case---"

"No, Jim. I don't want that. . .Maybe we can play tag or something."
Blair yawned again.

"Or something," Jim said around his own yawn.

They sat there in companionable silence, watching the smoke go up the chimney, until in a sleepy whisper, Blair said, "Jim? I love you all the way to the Sun."

The rancher stared into the flames. "That's very far, indeed." Blair relaxed against him, Jim feeling more than hearing the rhythmic breathing of his sound asleep ward. Jim petted the boy's curls, his own eyelids becoming quite heavy. He kissed the top of Blair's head and murmured, "I love you all the way to the Sun – and back," before joining the son-of-his-heart in slumber.

The End