This is a bonus ficlet I wrote because of my Five Times Manny Hugged Diego series. This is one moment that I have always thought would've happened; Manny insisting they stay with Diego until dawn came, and lighting in the film seems to suggest it and because it's my own personal headcanon. Writing this made me cry! If it makes you cry as well I have no regrets. Also, much thanks to cahaya sidur for her review on the last chapter!

"You didn't have to do that," Manny said. He found himself wishing, as he uttered the words, that they could somehow undo Diego's actions that had led to his sacrifice for him.

"That's what you do in a herd," Diego murmured, managing a small smile – for Manny.

He stared into Manny's eyes as his head slipped onto the pillow of snow underneath him. His eyes fell shut.

The words echoed through Manny's mind as he smiled back, his eyes full of unshed tears. Diego's smile had been genuine despite his pain. Manny knew that Diego's smile was his attempt to tell Manny not to worry about him, that he'd be okay. He knew it was a lie.

The baby reached out towards Diego, beginning to cry. Manny wrapped his trunk around the child, pulling him close. The tiger lay still on the ground, unconscious again.

The wind whistling was the only thing Manny heard as he stared down at Diego. The tiger's breathing was so shallow that it scared him. The only thing that brought him any relief was seeing the slight rise and fall of Diego's chest.

Pinky whimpered from within his trunk, his gaze fastened on the tiger. Manny's eyes welled with tears that he strove to blink away as they fell and froze on his cheek.

For a moment, he wasn't even able to express what he was feeling. The realisation hit him that he was just numb. Seeing Diego collapse in front of him brought back the horror of seeing the spears fly into the hearts of his mate and child all over again.

He blinked hard. Memories swirled in the snow of his return to his family, placing his trunk over the bodies of his mate and child. He recalled the feeling of seeing their life ebb away… and that had been only a few weeks before… now he was experiencing the same pain again.

Tears filled his eyes. He hadn't realised how much Diego meant to him – until this moment.

This wasn't part of the plan, an icy corner of his mind whispered as he stared down at the tiger. He noted the flecks of red providing a lurid contrast to the purity of snow on the ground. This wasn't part of the plan!

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sid begin to move away in the direction towards the opening that led out of Half Peak.

"Come on, Manny," Sid said in hoarse, teary voice. "We've gotta go… it's what Diego would've wanted."

Hearing Sid's words brought on a new wave of emotion for Manny. Long icy fingers of grief encircled him, trapping him in an embrace he couldn't escape from as the denial began to settle in.

Too late, too late, the words swirled around in his head like so many freezing snowflakes biting deep into his fur. He felt cold despite the thickness of his coat. Too late, too late, and because of that you lost your family – and now – and now - your friend.

Manny shook his head, his gaze landing on Diego's still form again. The only thing stirring on him was the wind as it bristled through his stiff fur. He was so still that it looked like death had visited him. Manny refused to believe it. This can't be happening… he's my friend… this wasn't part of the plan.

"No," he told Sid. "We're not leaving. Not yet."

He placed the baby on the small part of his neck. After a moment, he extended his trunk to touch Diego's chest. He frowned as he noticed the blood pooling underneath the tiger.

His mind shot back as he watched Diego fall to the ground, time slowing down for both him and the tiger. Rooted to the ground, he stood, wide-eyed.

He saw Soto's incisors rake across Diego's upper body and abdomen. He gasped under his breath, completely unable to intervene in that horrible moment. He stared, eyes wide with disbelief, as the tiger took the blow meant for him.

He hoped that his injuries weren't too deep, but how could he know? The tiger was lying in such a way as to conceal them.

Manny had seen that from the moment he'd glanced his direction once the battle was over. It worried him upon reflection. It was almost as if Diego didn't want him or Sid to know the gravity of his wounds.

Manny winced. He saw again, vividly, in his mind Soto slamming Diego against that boulder, Diego's head striking against the rock with sickening clarity. Diego slumping to the ground upon impact, insensible to the world.

Manny hadn't even thought to consider that Diego might have serious internal injuries killing him inside. He'd been too focussed on the blood drenching the sabre's fur underneath his side to notice.

Manny's trunk trailed down Diego's chest, noting how the tiger was still warm. His body's warmth was seeping from him fast. The snow beginning to fly above their heads in flurries was not helping his situation.

Manny took a deep breath before glancing over at Pinky and Sid. Pinky cooed at him. Sid's expression was baffled misery.

Manny walked around to the back of where Diego lay. He lowered himself to the ground next to him. He used his trunk to pull Diego up alongside him, almost cradling the tiger in a brief hug as he sought to provide him more warmth. After a moment his grip on Diego slackened. The tiger slumped onto the snow again.

Manny edged his foreleg out underneath Diego's head, trying to cradle Diego closer to him with his trunk. He hoped that his warmth would transfer to the tiger, who he noticed was becoming colder every minute.

Pinky realised what he wanted to do. Manny felt the baby climb his way down his fur, gritting his teeth when the baby pulled his fur for a handhold.

Once he was down, Pinky slipped, sliding onto Diego's chest, earning a dark glare from Manny. The baby understood his mistake. His dark eyes asked forgiveness.

He reached out to wrap his arms around Diego. He situated himself on the tiger's shoulders, a little below Manny's trunk. The baby's eyes were misty with tears.

He gurgled sadly as he looked down at the tiger. He placed his hands over his eyes and then lifted them, crooning at Diego. When the tiger remained unresponsive, Pinky's flow of tears began afresh. He tightened his embrace around Diego's shoulders, sobbing. The sight made Manny's heart break.

Sid trudged over at last. He chose to encircle his arms around Diego's sides. The tiger remained motionless. His breathing grew so shallow that it wasn't audible. Fear gripped Manny's heart.

"Will Diego be okay?" Sid kept asking him over and over, to which he had no good answer. Overhead, the clouds formed a cluster, escorting the sun as it set. Darkness ushered upon the motley group ministering to their dying friend. Fate would never let them know if their sacrifices were worthwhile.

In time, Sid and Pinky fell asleep on top of their tiger friend. Manny resolved that he would stay awake to keep watch and check on Diego, but the stresses of the day wore him down. He surrendered to sleep, fighting against it. Diego needs me! I can't sleep!

Grey morning light pierced his eyelids. Manny groaned as he awakened, taking in the soft grey hues of the light at dawn. He realised that they were behind on their schedule, but also that he didn't regret staying the night with Diego.

He looked down at the tiger – Diego's head was still resting on his left foreleg – but there was still no sign of life from the tiger. The morning light fell upon his motionless face.

Manny noticed that he looked as though he was asleep. But there was a sort of peacefulness in his expression that Manny hadn't seen in it before.

Manny looked forward, looked down again, before staring ahead. He wasn't aware that his trunk was tracing the outline of Diego's cold body, in one last attempt to urge his friend awake.

He blinked away tears as he gathered Pinky into his trunk, placing him behind his topknot again in the small of his neck. He glanced at Sid, who looked as despondent as he felt.

His legs were stuck in the tar of his pain; it hurt like hell to move, but he knew that he had to. Pinky's return to his father and his herd had to happen.

He had to do it for Diego's sake. He refused to let the tiger's sacrifice for them all be in vain. He found himself missing Diego already. He wished he could hear Diego's banter or see his crooked smile again. Manny blinked away tears.

Manny led them out of Half Peak, glancing back to see if Diego was following them sometimes, but he was always disappointed.

His grief was too deep that words – his own words – couldn't ease the pain. He was grateful that Sid was content to prattle, almost to himself, about what he liked best about the tiger. Sid was young, more able to rebound from grief, but Manny was not.

His pain was now not only one loss, but two. First, he'd lost a mate and a son who he'd loved more than life itself.

And now, he'd lost another, and it was someone who he'd come to regard as a friend. He wasn't even sure how to articulate what Diego was to him, and then the answer came to him like a lightning bolt. He almost stopped short, stricken by the revelation, but forced himself to keep walking.

Diego is like a brother to me, he decided, my brother.

He swept Pinky into his trunk, his eyes glimmering with tears as he looked at the child, who smiled up at him.

"Because of you, I have two brothers now," he whispered. "And one of my brothers, Diego, he gave his life for us…"

Pinky saw his face crumble, wrapping his arms around his trunk until his sobs quieted. After a moment, Pinky cooed. He covered his face in the "where's the baby" game. Manny emitted a strange noise that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob.

"He meant a lot to me… Diego did," Manny murmured. Images of Diego's still body lying at his feet collided with memories of blood and watching his family die in front of him, helpless to do anything.

His eyes misted over with tears that he didn't bother to try blinking away; too lost in the miasma of his grief. He'd never expected Diego to die - in the midst of their plans for the infiltration of Soto's pack the idea had never come up.

Manny regretted his failure to recognise how Diego's plan implied that he'd die for the mammoth, the baby, and the sloth, if it came to it. The revelation awakened a new wave of emotion.

This loss was too much. It reopened the still fresh wound of his family's deaths. He'd just grown close to Diego… it was too much to bear, all of it.

He hugged Pinky close to him. He hoped that the child would always remember the tiger who'd proven himself a true friend.

Because he was, despite a few misgivings in the beginning and making a few huge selfish mistakes along the way, but what mattered was that they'd all forgiven Diego. He was one of them now, a member of their herd. It hurt that he didn't live to see it.

Manny knew that he always would remember Diego. Diego was more than just his unlikely friend. Diego, to him, was the brother that he had always longed for but had never had, even if it took him too late to realise it.

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