Disclaimer: I do not own of these characters; they are the property of Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television. I acknowledge gratefully the hard work of the creators of the series who brought to life characters we like so much we can't let them go.

Dedicated to my long-suffering beta, Lanie Sullivan, who let me take two words and somehow expand them into 20,000 and then kept me on track and in fits of laughter until I was done. Any errors that remain are all mine (and possibly also Microsoft for messing with my files during a transfer).

Daddy Long-legs

"Oh my gosh, this is going to be bad" was one of the last coherent thoughts Amanda had as the car launched into the air. She was right. The rented sedan cleared the flimsy fence that ran down the median of Interstate 80 and landed almost upright in the eastbound lanes. For one brief moment, she thought they'd had a miraculous escape until she realized they hadn't stopped moving, as the car bounced off the ground and began to roll until it went off the far side of the highway and rolled into the shallow irrigation canal that ran parallel to the highway. When all the motion and noise finally stopped, the car was on its side, every window smashed and Amanda could feel the cold water slushing around her body. Even underwater, she could hear Lee calling her name as she struggled to undo her seatbelt. Finally managing it, she sat up and took in a huge gulp of air, then tried to get her bearings and realized Lee was hanging above her, still trapped in his seatbelt, wriggling to get free and swearing ferociously at the taut straps that were keeping him from getting to her.

"Shit! This is why I hate wearing these things! I can't believe I let you talk me into it!"

"And if you hadn't, you'd probably be dead on the side of the road right now so just hush up and let me get at the release button." She reached up, finding it difficult to balance in the lopsided car.

"Stop! Let me brace first or I'll fall on you."

"Good thinking, Batman."

Lee grabbed the window frame and the steering wheel to lift his weight off the seatbelt enough to let her force open the jammed release. Twisting his body, he dropped until he was standing over her as she knelt in the waist deep water. She was feeling around in the foot well before finally hauling her purse out of the water with a crow of triumph, "Got it!"

"Microfilm still in there?" asked Lee and then as she nodded, "Okay, come on, we need to get out of here." Lifting her by the arms, he pushed her out of the shattered windshield before following her out and scrambling after her out of the water and up onto the bank.

"Are you ok?" He was running his hands over her, trying to find any injuries on her but hampered by the dark of the night. "Can you keep moving? Those goons are probably coming back."

"I'm fine, I'm freezing but I'm fine." She was mimicking his actions, but unlike her, he winced in pain when she ran a hand over the left side of his head. "You're hurt! You're bleeding! Let me see."

"Amanda! I'm fine, I just banged my head on the window frame a little while we were rolling. Come on, we need to move before they come back."

"We're in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere Nevada – where do you think we're going to go?"

Just as she asked that, they could suddenly hear a voice calling from the highway. "Are you folks alright down there? I saw that maniac run you off the road." A figure scrambled down the embankment and ran towards them. Lee tensed and pushed Amanda behind him, reaching into his jacket for his gun before recognizing the voice was too old to belong to one of Reynolds' thugs. He also realized that this witness may have been the reason they hadn't stopped immediately to come after him and Amanda.

Pulling his hand back out of his jacket, he called back a greeting as the man approached. "We're fine, but the car didn't come out of it too well."

"I can see that." Now that he was closer, they could see in the dim starlight that he was a jean-clad man of about 60, with a cowboy hat in one hand, peering at them with a worried expression. "Are you sure you're ok? You've got a lot of blood on you."

"I do?" Lee lifted his hand to touch his head and then pulled his bloodied hand back to stare at it, realizing the wound must be worse than he thought. "Yeah, I guess I banged my head pretty hard."

"Can you make it back up the hill? I can drive you into Reno to the hospital."

Lee and Amanda exchanged a look of relief. If they could get back to the highway and underway quickly, they would be gone by the time Reynolds' men could get turned around and come back to check on them. "We sure can. Thanks so much for stopping."

With a regretful glance back at the car, knowing they didn't have time to grab any of their belongings, Amanda let Lee guide her back towards the highway. Their new friend took her hand to help her up the hill, Lee scrambling behind them, first up to the eastbound lanes, then up the small hill to the westbound pickup was pulled quite far off the road and as Lee helped Amanda to climb in and watched her slide into the centre of the bench seat, he could see the car that had run them off the road moving slowly along the other side, obviously looking for them. He hoped that the height difference between the lanes on the divided highway might be enough to keep them hidden but as the pickup pulled out, Lee could see the heads in the car swivel in their direction, their attention attracted by the sudden movement of headlights.

Shit, he thought to himself and frantically tried to remember where the last interchange had been that would allow their pursuers to turn around. A shock of pain ran through him and he became aware Amanda had turned towards him and was prodding his head, trying to see how badly he'd hurt himself. "Amanda! I'm fine – stop fussing!"

"You're not fine! You have a huge bump and you're bleeding like a stuck pig – it's going to need stitches."

"Head wounds bleed a lot – I'm sure it's not as bad as it looks." Actually it hurt like hell and he was having problems concentrating but there was no way he was going to tell her that. They'd be in Reno soon enough and he'd worry about it then. He began doing the math in his head, trying to remember what the last mileage sign had said. He was pretty sure they only had about 30 miles to go, but that might give Reynolds' men time to catch up and now they knew what they were driving.

"I'm Amanda by the way and this is my fiancé Lee," he heard Amanda say. "Thank you so much for stopping. I don't know how long we'd have been out there if you hadn't seen us go off the road."

"Pleasure to meet you Amanda. I'm Cledus Reed. I couldn't believe it when I saw those darn fools run you off the road – what the heck were they playing at?"

"Lee cut them off by accident a few miles back and I think they got mad. I got a licence plate at some point so we'll be reporting them to the police after we get Lee to the hospital."

The story just rolled off her tongue; Amanda's ability to lie on the fly had improved by leaps and bounds over the years, thought Lee ruefully. As Cledus and Amanda continued to chat, Lee felt himself getting more and more nauseated. I must have hit my head harder than I thought, he mused to himself. I hope we can make it to Reno before those goons catch up because I'm not in any shape to fight them now.Suddenly, out of the darkness he saw a sign appear in the beam of the truck lights and his heart leapt.

"Did that sign say Rowley was up ahead?" he asked out loud.

"Yep – it's the next turnoff. It's a pretty small town though – it doesn't have a hospital to get your head checked out." Cledus gave a short laugh. "It's really only got one reason to visit, two if you count the truck stop."

"What's that?" asked Amanda interestedly.

"We've got a reason," interrupted Lee just as Cledus started to stammer an answer. "I've got family near there."

Amanda turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. "Family? You have family there?" She knew what that usually meant but it didn't make a lot of sense that he'd have contacts out here.

"Yep" he nodded for emphasis and couldn't hide the wince of pain caused by that movement. "Cledus, if you could just drop us by a payphone, we could be out of your hair and let you be on your way."

"I can do better than that; I can drive you right to your family's house," answered the cowboy readily.

Lee really didn't want him to know where in town they were headed, just in case the goons caught up with him. "No that's fine. It's late and I want to call to let them know we're coming instead of just showing up on the doorstep. Ringing a doorbell this late at night can get you shot around here."

Cledus gave a bark of laughter as he pulled off the highway and onto the main street of Rowley. "You ain't wrong there, boy. But are you sure you don't want me to wait?"

"No, we'll be fine. Look, the all-night truck stop is open, so we have somewhere to wait until my, uh, relatives can come get us. Thanks again for stopping, Sir." He was breathing deeply now, trying to control the dizziness. Amanda had gone very quiet; she knew he was up to something but would wait until they were alone for him to explain.

They waited for the pick-up to disappear back up towards the interstate and then Lee turned his back on town and began walking along a dark road headed out of town. He was having to concentrate to stay in a straight line and it took him a few seconds to realize Amanda was talking to him.

"Lee? Lee, sweetheart, where are we going? We're both soaking wet and it's freezing out here and the town, such as it is, is back there." She sounded concerned and he knew she could see he was having trouble.

"They saw us get in the truck. They're probably following us. We need to find a place to hide." Every step was becoming a battle.

"But where are we going? It's too cold to just hide out in the desert."

"Maggie's" he managed to say, "The Tin Roof"

"Maggie? That's your family? Why do you even have family out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"I'll explain later." He couldn't remember how far past the overpass The Tin Roof was and hoped he hadn't made a mistake sending Cledus on his way. Then, just as he was starting to panic, he saw the painted sign at the end of the driveway. "Thank God," he breathed to himself and started up the familiar path.

The building didn't look like much from the outside, a long low building stretching back from the parking lot with a false front reminiscent of antebellum southern architecture. Now with the end in sight, Lee began to stumble with fatigue and blood loss. Amanda stepped closer, taking some of his weight on her slim frame as they approached the front steps.

The porch lights were off so Lee knew they weren't taking any new customers, but the low lights coming from every window told him that business was still going strong. He walked unsteadily up the steps and swung the front door open. The exterior of the building had given no hint of the luxury of the interior. The lobby was decorated with several comfortable chairs and sofas. Strategically placed screens and plants gave some privacy between the groupings of seats. There was low lighting from the dimmed chandeliers and a roaring fire in the marble hearth gave the room a warm glow. A few men seated around the room looked up disinterestedly as they walked in. Amanda gave a shiver as the warm air hit her and she realized how cold she was. Lee gave no sign of noticing but just continued to lean heavily on her as he walked towards the reception desk. A young girl, no more than 20, looked up as they approached and put out a hand as if to stop them. "I'm sorry, sir, but we can't let you in if you've been drinking. It's against ranch rules." A large young man, obviously working security, started to step out from the office behind the desk.

Lee stopped dead and put his hands out to rest on the counter before lifting his head to look blearily at the girl. Amanda watched as the receptionist leapt to her feet with a look of shocked surprise. A heartbeat later, she was certain that same expression must be on her face as the girl exclaimed, "Oh my god, Daddy, what are you doing here?"

Amanda turned to look at Lee, who smiled faintly at the greeting before saying "Hey Tinkerbell. Where's your mom?" before sliding down the counter and collapsing in a dead heap at her feet.