Disclaimer: Yup dont own nothing. Just enjoy taking the characters for a ride.

A/N: This is a sequel to my story Beginning of Friendship, Brankel1 thought it deserved a sequel and I have to admit I liked the idea of a sequel. Hope ya'll enjoy it.


Chapter 1 - Buck's POV

We've been working for the Express for around three months. A lot has happened in that time. Jimmy and Cody no longer seem to get into it anymore. I think Cody finally realized that pulling jokes on Jimmy is a good way to get shot. It's Kid and Jimmy now that seem to get into it. They had a knockdown drag out that Teaspoon had to put a stop to after Kid had decked Jimmy in front of Tompkins' store to keep him from fighting a gun for hire by the name of Longley. In the end Jimmy ended up killing Longley anyway.

After that Ike witnessed a stage coach massacre. When he identified the man to Sam Cain, the town marshal and Emma's beau the station was attacked by his gang. Ike tried to leave and make Blue Creek on his own. We wouldn't let him do that. We again stuck together like a family. It was a good thing too because Ike would never had made it if he had gone on alone. Of course once we got there I ended up in a little bit of trouble when I was trying to be a gentleman by helping a lady I had bumped into with her packages. It had been a trap and I walked right into it. If it hadn't been for Lou realizing the lady fainting in the courtroom was the same one that I had walked off with the night before I would have been shot when Ike took the stand. But thanks to Lou, Cody was able to kill the man before he could pull the trigger.

It wasn't long after that that the Kiowa started attacking Pony Express riders and way stations. My brother Red Bear left a message for me at one of the way stations. I met up with him to find out he wanted me to return to the Kiowa. I tried to explain to him that I was not welcome among our people. I might as well be white in their eyes. Red Bear just did not see it. I told him I had found a place among the riders, that we were as one that we were family. He cut me and said he would grieve for me; I was dead in his eyes for choosing my white family.

The next day I got into a fight with Jimmy and the other riders. They thought I had betrayed them to my brother. I decided to leave the Pony Express. I asked Teaspoon to give Ike my silver bracelet that my mother had made for me and to try to make him understand. When I came back for my stuff the next day after praying to the rising sun, Kid rode into the yard to tell me that Ike had been taken by the Kiowa. I left to rescue my brother.

When I saw Ike tied to the wooden structure I jumped from my horse and rushed to him pulling my knife from my boot to cut him loose. Red Bear stopped me before I could free him. He tried to tell me that Ike was the enemy. I told him he just carries the mail, that Ike wasn't even a warrior. I told my brother that if he released Ike I would ride in the war parties. I just would not ride against my brothers in the pony express. Red Bear said I had to prove I was worthy. I asked him how I was to do that.

Red Bear took me to see the man of dreams. He made me go on a vision quest to see what I must endure to be recognized as a true Kiowa, to be a warrior. I was tied to the same structure that Ike had been, hot coals placed under my feet. I don't know how long I hung there. After I was cut down I was beaten with reeds by the other warriors, they were beating out my white demons. And then in order to prove my spirit was Kiowa I had to cross a pit of rattle snakes and climb to the top of a large rock before the sun set. If my spirit was true Kiowa my spirit guide would protect me. It did and I proved myself to my people. I made my brother proud. I was Kiowa, I had proved it. But Red Bear still sent me away; he said the love of my white family was still too strong in my heart. I would always be Kiowa but I must live in the white world; that is where I belonged. Red Bear told me to never look back. And as I rode from the village I didn't.

Ike's POV

The past three months have been great and terrible at the same time. Buck and I have found a family, a place to belong. But we also have come close to being killed on several occasions. I almost got Buck and the rest of our family killed after I witnessed a stage coach massacre.

I could've prevented the whole thing if I had just shot Nickerson when I had the chance, but he hadn't been armed and I just didn't think it right to shoot an unarmed man. I should have, he was pure evil. I couldn't even tell Buck what I had seen; even when he asked me to, he told me he couldn't help if he didn't know what was wrong. It wasn't until I literally ran into Nickerson in Sweetwater that I finally told what I had saw. Sam arrested the man after I made the identification. Sam was going to transport him to Blue Creek to stand trial.

But before we could leave Nickerson's gang attacked the station. They killed one of Sam's deputies and seriously wounded the other. I couldn't let my family suffer because of me, so I tried to leave and make Blue Creek alone. While I was saddling my horse my 'brothers' walked in and began saddling theirs. I tried to tell them this wasn't their fight, but Jimmy said that when someone shoots at him it becomes his fight. I tried to tell them they didn't want them, they wanted me. Kid said then they come after us all. There was no arguing with them.

It was a good thing they came with me. I would never have made it on my own. When we stopped to rest the horses at one of the express rely stations, I was taken captive by a couple of mountain men. If it hadn't been for Lou's quick thinking to cut their cinches they would have gotten away with me. As we were tying them up we spotted a group of men heading our way, Cody stayed behind to pick some off with his long rifle.

After we got cornered in a box canyon, Kid gave us some cover fire with the volley gun that Jimmy just had to bring along so we could get away. We rode into Blue Creek just after dark. The look on Nickerson's face when I walked into the jail was worth it. The town marshal put me in another cell for my protection while Sam took the boys out for dinner on him. He was going to bring me back a plate.

The next morning I found out that Buck had been taken hostage the night before. Nickerson's men had him; the note said that if I took the stand Buck was dead. We had no guarantee that he was even still alive. I told them I wanted to do the right thing; I wanted to see Nickerson hang. I told them that I had seen my parents and sister killed and that was when I lost my voice. I told them I would testify. Kid promised they would find Buck before I took the stand.

Inside the courthouse I was scared to death. When the judge called me to the stand I looked over at Lou, she just shook her head. They hadn't found Buck but I took the stand anyway. That's when a woman fainted and was led outside. Lou fought her way out of the courtroom and followed her. I tried staling as long as I could. When I heard the shot I knew Buck was dead. But then I heard a commotion in the doorway of the courthouse. I looked up and saw Buck as he rushed in. He told me to tell them so when the judge asked one last time if the man I saw was in the courtroom I stood up and walked over to Nickerson, standing right in front of him I pointed, someone took a picture of it.

Shortly after that there was some trouble with the Kiowa. I knew Buck felt torn. He belonged to both worlds; he could see both sides of the issue. When he got into a fight with Jimmy and the others, and I hate to admit it even I doubted his loyalties, Buck left. He told Teaspoon he was going to quit, that he just would cause problems for the riders as long as he was here. Teaspoon told me just before I left on a run with Kid. When we stopped to talk for a moment I told him that Buck had quit, that's when we were ambushed by a raiding party.

Kid managed to get away but I was captured. I thought I was going to die. I kept signing the sign for friend over and over. They beat me and tied me to a strange wooden structure. I wondered how long they would torture me before I was killed. But then Buck was there and he was freeing me. I don't know what was said between him and his brother because Buck never taught me Kiowa but whatever it was it earned me my freedom. I was sent from the village. Kid met me not to far away. He wanted me to go back to Emma's but I couldn't leave Buck. So we stayed and watched as Buck was tortured. At first I thought they were going to kill him and then I realized what was going on. Buck was going through his trials. He was proving he was Kiowa.

After the trials were over I saw Red Bear speaking to Buck, when the conversation was over Buck looked devastated. Then Buck simply stood up and put his black vest on before going to his horse and mounting up. As he rode from the village a young girl gave him an eagle feather, the symbol of bravery. Me and Kid met him as he left the village. Kid handed him his belongings and said let's go home and we did.