He didn't even know it happened till it happened. Nicholas Rye, current owner of Rye & Sons Aviation and with a heavily pregnant wife at home had fallen in love with another woman. He couldn't look at himself in the mirror - hell he avoided his own wife and stuck to flying all the time. It disgusted him - how on Earth could he have started to notice the same things in another woman which he had once noticed in Kim? Kim . . . his lovely wife - ever so faithful and supportive and far more courageous than him - how could he have betrayed her?
For so long he looked for reasons for his odd behaviour. Why did he crave her company next to racing home to meet his wife? He wondered if Kim had changed or if things around him had - well, heck they had. John Seed had destroyed his life, taken his plane and bombed down his house on multiple occasions. He would sometimes stay up at night guarding his wife as she slept swearing to God that he would hightail them out of this place once he had his plane back. But Kim was not a coward like him. She would stay and so would he. She was still the same and had not changed. He had.
When John Seed whispered in his ear the first seed of doubt, he had changed. That child . . . it is mine. I took your wife then and I can take her now. The agony in his chest and worry for Kim had forced the words from his lips. Yes, yes I will atone. The pain that came afterwards was a blur - his skin with the word GREED tattooed on was stapled to the wall like a certificate of achievement for John Seed. He thought of nothing then, but to rush home to Kim and beg her to be honest. She confirmed the story - the child was John's.
It wasn't her fault and he knew that. He understood that and yet, a part of him couldn't. John Seed had destroyed his life and had taken away the one thing that had kept him going. He told Kim nothing would change, but then suddenly everything did. He fell in love with another woman. The Deputy.
He still remembered the first time he had laid eyes on the famous deputy - peggie hunter. She had come rushing in, her brown hair in a disarray and a wound on her pale cheek with Grace Armstrong hot on her heels. He had been immensely disappointed - a woman of her stature could not be the one he kept hearing about from Dutch or Pastor Jerome. But then she had easily gunned down all the peggies - taking bullets to protect his airfield and awe had sprung within him. It still wasn't enough to make him fall in love with her.
She had brought his plane back from the lion's den itself. It still wasn't enough to make him fall in love with her.
She had defended his wife with her own life, taking bullet scratches left and right. He still didn't look at her any differently.
But then after liberating Holland Valley, she stood there injured with a poorly woman wrapped around her shoulder. She shook hands with Mary May, Pastor Jerome Jeffries, Grace Armstrong, Kim and then she had reached him. Punching into her small walkie talkie, she wrote him a message that her tongue could not convey. Stay strong, Nick. Kim loves you and so does the baby. It takes more than an act of conception to be a father. And then she had smiled, a small dimple darkening her cheek and her hazel eyes shining in the sun. He felt his worries fly out the window at her words and almost packed up to follow her into the Henbane River.
And just like that she was gone - leaving behind a powerful advice that kept him by Kim's side. The intimacy between them rapidly decreased - he still tended to her other physical needs, but she had understood that he desired space. And on a day like this when he was flying up in the air, he realised he had crossed into the Henbane River again hoping to catch a quick glimpse of the deputy and then fly back home. It was so wrong, but he was desperate at this point.
He spotted her fighting a bunch of peggies at Joseph Seed's statue. He watched as she was shot in the shoulder and went ploughing down on the ground, her parachute just about saving her from a crash landing. He saw her roll down the hill and then fly into bushes to avoid the reinforcements on her tail. His heart stopped and he was firing aggressively with his machine gun - rage blinding him more than the sharp sunlight. He saw bodies fall and then a small figure emerge from the bushes looking bemused. She spotted his plane and a blinding smile lit up on her face. His heart stopped for the second time.
When he landed, he didn't care if she thought he was too eager, but he had rushed at her quicker than the cougar that was circling her worriedly. He could already see her punching digits into her walkie talkie, but it was unnecessary. She was in his arms in the next second and he heard her breath hitch. The awkward silence lapsed on for a single minute, before she relaxed and encircled her strong arms around his back. He had sweated like a pig from worry for her, but she was bloody all over. Fury nearly engulfed him and he was so ready to follow her to the showdown, but she was stepping back and waving her device in his face.
Is everything okay, Nick? Why are you here? Is Kim and the baby okay?
He felt bile choking his air supply and shame freeze his heart. She was more worried for his wife than he was. "Deputy, yes, everything is fucking fine."
She frowned and typed another message. He wondered how she could read him so easily, yet Kim sometimes could not. What's wrong, Nick? You are not okay.
Anger engulfed him then. She was the one who was not okay and here she was worrying about the rest of the world, but herself. "You are bleeding all over the fucking ground with a cougar two steps away from you, Dep! I think we shouldn't worry about anything else right now."
The deputy smiled at his words, stroking long fingers on the cougar's head as it growled up at him. This is Peaches. She is a pet - she won't hurt me, Nick. He imagined her running her fingers down his hair and without knowing, he had grabbed her cold hand in his own. Brown eyes met his own with confusion and worry - she probably thought he had gone crazy. Resisting the urge to pull her back in his arms, he led her to his devoted plane watching as the cougar followed like a bodyguard.
"We're takin' you to a medic, Dep. The cougar needs to find her own way."
Her shoulders shook, the dimples ever so prominent now on her cheeks as she typed a quick message again. Silly! Peaches likes to run - she will be there before you and I.
In the air, he flew around looking for a medic watching as the deputy struggled to stop leaning on his shoulder. And then finally, her head hit his arm with a soft thud and she fell in a deep slumber. He allowed himself to observe her then - long brown eyelashes, high arched eyebrows and a small mouth. His eyes lingered on it far too long before he realised he had landed. Virgil Minkler, the mayor was opening the door to her side of the plane and sending him a friendly greeting.
Instead of following them inside, he accelerated and flew out of Henbane River. He had only wanted to see her for a second, but today he had gotten more than he had wished. That night, Kim noticed his relaxed mood and dared to ask him why. He was honest.
I saw the deputy today.
Oh. It was all she said before she retired to bed. He wondered if she understood now. He wondered if she would forgive him. But lastly, he wondered where they were going - He, Kim and the baby - a picture perfect family in which the father was not the true father and had fallen out of love with the mother.