Virginia, 1864

"Alright, Kid. I'm gonna speak my piece. No interruptions." The barest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Lou's mouth then fell away as silence met her statement.

"You know me, probably better than anyone else in this world. And you loved me, even when I was pretty hard to like." She gave a weary sigh. "But for the longest time, I felt like you wanted to change me. Wanted to make me something I could never be."

Lou started to turn away, but forced herself to face him and the truth head on. "It was hard for me. Part of me wanted to be the lady you wanted me to be. Soft. Gentle. I guess I always felt like that part of me was stolen away by Wicks. What he left behind weren't no lady." She held her hand up, as if to silence any arguments. "But you... You made me want to be that woman, a better woman. But as much as I wanted that, I wanted it to be okay for me to be who I was. To know that it was okay for me to be independent and maybe a little wild."

She chuckled and shook her head. "Okay, okay! Sometimes I could be a lot wild. But after Davenport, well, everything changed. That's when I felt like you really accepted me, all of me. I could be Lou or Louise, and you would love me either way. You promised to never ride on without me." Lou drew a deep breath to calm herself, realizing that she was shaking like the last leaf in an autumn breeze. "You lied to me, Kid! You let me fall in love with you, promise my whole life to you, and you lied! Dammit! And now you went and made me cry."

Wiping away her tears with a handkerchief, Lou continued as if afraid of being interrupted. "You were always so good, so sure of what's right. But how could this have been right? After all that happened to our brothers, our family... After you and I talked, and even Teaspoon... You still thought you knew better."

The handkerchief now clutched in her fist, Lou spoke with a fire that lit her words and flushed her cheeks. "Virginia. Maybe I was a fool to believe you loved me more, I mean, that's what you told me. But it was all about Virginia in the end. You just had to go and fight for a place that never held any real happiness for ya." She laughed, mirthless and angry. "I thought love was what you would fight for, that I was what you would fight for! But you left me behind to fight someone else's war. So you lied. You told me how much you loved me, how special I was. What's wrong with me, Kid? Why ain't I worth it? Why can't anyone love me enough to fight for me?"

Lou dropped to her knees sobbing. "I'm sorry, Kid! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry for yellin' and carryin' on, for not making you stay somehow. But why did you lie? Why did you ride on without me?" She cried until she ran out of tears, exhaustion almost claiming her in sleep.

Finally she sat up, absentmindedly smoothing her hair. "I'm sorry, Kid. I didn't mean to go on like that. That ain't what I came here for. I, I came to tell you I'm leavin.' I came to Virginia to be with you. And I know I made my vows to you... But I promised you until death do us part." She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off the chill of the gathering darkness. "I can't do this anymore. I'm a stranger in a strange land, and I want to go home... I never thought I'd part from you, but I reckon the army had other ideas. You've been in the ground for six months, two weeks, and four days. And I've been right here for almost all that time. I fulfilled my vow to you, now I have to do this for me. I 'magine I'll still talk to you wherever I am, but I can't be tied to this stone with your name on it. In Virginia, you'll always be gone from me. This was never really 'our' home."

As the sun slipped behind the hills, Lou placed the handful of wildflowers she had picked on the stone bearing the Kid's name. "I'm going back to Rock Creek. I think it's time I tried to live again, and that's the only place I can even imagine trying to."

Rock Creek, one day later

To: Teaspoon Hunter

From:Lou McCloud

I'm coming home.

Teaspoon stared at the telegram he's just been handed.

"What is it, Teaspoon? Bad news?" Rachel gripped her hands together. It seemed that the telegraph that brought the end to the Pony Express only delivered bad news since the war between the states had started.

"I don't rightly know." He sighed and handed to paper to Rachel. "But I reckon we'll find out soon enough."