Disclaimer: I do not own The Young Riders or any of the characters. Just taking them for a ride for my enjoyment.
A/N: This is taken from 'A Tiger's Tale' only in this version Ike was not killed and has married Emily.
Louise 'Lou' McCloud entered the bunkhouse after a hard ride, all she wanted to do was get cleaned up and go to bed. As she put her things in their place she noticed a piece of paper on her bunk. Picking it up, she read,
My Darling,
Many are the hours I spent dwelling on your beauty. Many are the sleepless nights I laid awake in bed haunted by the golden music of your voice and longed for the silky touch of your fingers wrapped in mine. Seeing his destiny before him the mighty stag gently approaches the graceful doe watching, waiting to see if she shares the passion burning in his heart.
Lou had no idea who this could be from. She knew it couldn't be Kid; there was no way he could write something like that, so she took the letter to Rachel to get her opinion. After Rachel read it all she said was, "Whoa."
Lou took the letter and giggled, "See what I mean, that don't sound like something the Kid would write." Rachel shook her head agreeing that Kid couldn't have written this, "There is only one person I know who can write like this." Lou looked at the woman beside her, catching the twinkle in her eye, "Teaspoon!" Lou cried in shock, surely the older man hadn't written this to her. Rachel laughed, "Not for himself of course. No he was helping someone, but even so the wording doesn't sound like something Teaspoon would have wrote for Kid." Lou's forehead wrinkled as she thought over the possibilities, "well who then?"
Rachel took the letter back from Lou, "well you see this part right here, 'seeing his destiny before him the mighty stag'. Now that only makes me think of just one person." Lou thought for a minute, a stag was a male deer, another name for a stag was…"Buck?" Rachel grinned as Lou came to the same conclusion she had, "Yup. What do you think?" Lou shook her head in wonder, "well it does sound like Buck, but Buck? I mean I've never thought of him that way. I mean he's a great guy. He's honest, hardworking, loyal, caring, handsome, sweet…"
Rachel interrupted Lou, she could tell Lou wasn't done listing Buck's great qualities, "Sounds to me like you've thought about him more than you think Lou." Lou blushed realizing Rachel was right, "Yeah I guess I have." Rachel looked up as a rider came in and led his horse to the barn. "There he is now. What are you going to do?" Lou bite her lip for a minute thinking then grinning at Rachel she got up and went to the barn.
Buck was brushing down his horse when Lou came in; Buck turned his head at her approach. "Hey Lou, how's it going?" Lou didn't answer but instead walked right up to him and kissed him full on the mouth. Buck was in complete shock, it took a minute for his mind to comprehend what was going on and by the time he had Lou pulled back and ran off.
Watching her leave Buck raised his hand to his mouth in wonder. What the hell was that about? What made her kiss me? Who cares, how do I get her to do it again. Why did she kiss me? I thought she was in love with Kid? Yeah but they broke up and it was Lou's idea remember. As Buck stood there debating with himself over what just happened he decided that he had to talk to someone about what just happened. He knew the only person he could go to was Ike, so he saddled his horse again and headed to the home that Ike now shared with his wife Emily. After Ike had been shot defending her, everybody thought he was going to die, Buck included, but somehow he pulled through. After he had healed he married Emily and left the Express to run her farm. So that was where Buck headed, to the one person who knew him better than anybody.
A/N: The wording of the letter is word for word from the TV show. The first time I heard it, I automatically thought of Buck, so after watching it again, I knew I had to write a different take on that one. Hope you enjoy!