Hey Everyone! I wrote this little short awhile ago and then forgot about it, until I'maMePanda inquired about it. (She's awesome like that) It only needed a little bit of polishing to get it ready. It's a little look into Jess and Danny (my favorite!) sometime after the events of Wild West Show (in I'maMePanda's YP 'verse), but not exactly sure when. I think it speaks to Danny's character a bit and how he and Jess are kind of wading cautiously through their new standings with each other. :)
**YP**
The bunkhouse was quiet. As any hard working ranch's bunkhouse should be at near ten at night. But, Jess mused, this was a different quiet. This was the quiet from nearly half the hands taking their pay into town. The quiet that could grate on one's nerves if you let it.
The quiet that came from one red headed teenager's absence.
Shaking his head, and muttering to himself about mother hens, he turned back to the book that lay on the table in front of him. The candle light lit up an otherwise blackened room and he tried to focus on the third chapter of Shelley's Frankenstein. After reading the same line four times and it making less sense than it had the first time, the book was slammed shut, dust from the table blowing upwards and then settling back down, tiny crystals that sparkled against the candlelight.
"Jess?"
His head jerked up and he met Danny's eyes across the shadowed room.
"Hey, Danny."
A soft grin lit up the boy's face at the gentle words and he stepped fully into the bunkhouse, not, Jess noted, inebriated from what he could tell. Kicking out the chair opposite him, Jess motioned for Danny to come sit.
When Danny plopped into the chair, grinning almost bashfully, Jess couldn't wait a second longer.
"So, what'd you think, Danny?"
Danny shrugged, picking at a loose thread on his sleeve. "Was alright. Loud."
Grinning, Jess nodded. The saloon did get pretty raucous on Friday evenings.
"I bet. What'd you do, son?"
Another shrug and Danny looked at him, red hair hanging over green eyes.
"Nothin', Jess."
"Nothing?" Jess echoed, looking down at his watch, then back at his boy. "You did nothin' for four hours?"
"Yessir. Just had a drink." Danny paused, gauging Jess's reaction to that before stumbling on, "A-and watched."
Fighting back a chuckle, Jess nodded sagely. He should've known the kid wouldn't get himself into trouble. Should've known the boy wanted nothing more than to at least appear to be one of the hands. Studying the teenager a moment longer, he grinned and stood up.
"Sounds like a good night, Danny." Jess set his hand on the teen's shoulder and squeezed gently.
"It was good," Danny agreed softly, Jess grinning at him before moving towards his bunk.
"Jess?" Danny's voice called quietly just seconds later, and Jess paused, nearly at his bunk.
"Yeah, kid?"
"Thanks for...Well, thanks for waiting."
Jess grinned across the shadowy room.
"Go to bed, Son."
Nodding, though he wasn't sure Jess could see him, Danny shoved his chair back, taking the candle with him as he made his way towards his own bunk.