Diclaimer: Credit for characters and dialogue goes to their respective creators.
Author's Note: I am not a native Spanish speaker.

It was five o'clock in the evening when I noticed Chavez and Steve were going at it again. For the past two and a half years the two had never gotten along, it never really occurred to me as to why, even if Steve was a prejudice ass.

I sighed and stepped out on to the porch, noticing that John Tunstall and Josiah "Doc" Scurlock were coming up over the hill in the wagon.

"Enough," I clapped my hands, "John's back. Wash up and get into your dinner clothes."

No one moved.

"Now! All of you!" I yelled and the present Regulators scattered.

I went back inside and finished up the dinner and set the table. By the time I had done all of that John and the Regulators had cleaned up and were readily sitting at the table.

"This meal looks delicious, Samantha." John smiled and gave a small gesture towards the new boy sitting next to me, "Samantha, this is William Bonney; William this is the honorable Samantha McMalley. This wonderful young woman is the only female in this county that can put up with our bunch, she deserves your respect."

I sat down, "Thank you, John. Now, we should eat before the food is cold. It is very nice to meet you, Billy." I held out my hand for him to shake, and he did.

That night was Charley's night to say grace. Dinner was relatively quiet, not much was discussed; just a little babble about the cattle on the ranch and of Billy's job on the ranch.

-----

The next day I watched as Billy went to feed Big Bruce, the two-hundred pound male hog. I sat out on the porch patching a pair of Doc's pants and Chavez's coat. A smirk crawled onto my face as Billy tripped into the hog pen and came face to face with Bruce. Billy quickly recovered and quickly moved out of the way of the charging hog, pulling and cocking his pistol.

Chavez threw several knives into the post next to Billy, a warning not to kill Bruce. He walked from his spot in front of me, staring at Billy all the way, to retrieve his knives; Charley followed his warning by lassoing the very same post, he then struck up a conversation with Billy.

"Chavez." I threw my Mexican-Indian friend his newly patched coat as he walked up to the porch.

"Gracias. You should probably help him. He'll listen to you, you aren't a threat."

"What does that mean?" I stood with my hands on my hips, staring Chavez down.

"It means he doesn't believe a senorita like you can retroceso el suyo asno." Chavez smirked at me.

I sighed, "Right. Thanks, pendejo."

I picked up the bucket of slop Billy had left behind and headed over to the hog pen.

"Regulators!"

"You ain't a Regulator, boy. Stay with the pork and maybe you'll learn something." Charley gave Billy a shove and waddled off to where Dick and the others were.

"Don't worry about them, Billy. They'll clue you in sooner or later." I poured the slop easily over the fence and into the trough, "Besides, you aren't ready for the trouble those five will get you into."

"You don't know me." The blue eyed chivato crossed his arms and leaned on a post.

"You're right, I don't. But you don't know me either." I winked and turned to go back to the house.

"What does that mean?!" Billy called after me, I just raised my hand in a wave and kept walking. It was almost time for lunch.

-----

I never spoke much at dinner; I never really had anything to say that really pertained to the ranch. Most of my conversations centered around managing money, the list of groceries needed, and who had been sneaking food and abandoning their house-duties.

After Tulio died, I didn't speak much of personal things, though occasionally John and I did speak of them. Mainly I kept to myself when it came to my brother or letters to or from my family in Spain, most of the time I thought about these things during dinner.

It was during one of these moments when I was snapped out of it to learn more about Billy Bonney,

"Yeah, I worked a little out Fort Sumner way- Pete Maxwell's place. I've got a way with cattle."

I glanced at Steve and Charley as they laughed, then at Billy as he gave them a dark look.

John put down his glass and stared at Charley and Steve, "Is that so jolly funny, Master Stephen?"

Charley and Steve snickered again, "Got a way with hogs." Charley mumbled.

"Congratulations, Charles; you and Stephen will be doing the dirty crockery alone this evening." John waited for the two men to apologize.

Charley was first, "Sorry, John, struck me funny."

"And to William, both of you."

"Apologies, Billy." said Charley.

"Just hackin' on you is all." said Steve.

The table was quiet for a few moments, I glanced around the table over the edge of my glass.

Dick was the first to break the silence, "Rumor has it, you killed a man, Billy. You don't seem the killin' sort."

That caught the whole of my attention.

Steve swallowed his mouthful of beef, "Yeah, what'd you kill him for?"

Billy smirked, "He was hackin' on me."

I snorted a laugh, "Sorry, excuse me."

John gave me a look and I smiled small.