Disclaimer for Scandals books:

Thank you for taking interest in reading my newest Scandals book. The series is composed of fourteen interlocking stories. DO NOT read this story unless you have read the previous parts. Otherwise it will not make sense, because there is a lot going on in every part. The rating is for language, sexual references, mild violence, and adult themes. Some of these stories are based on things that actually happened in history, others are not. Please, enjoy the story, and look for the next part in the series!

"Teaspoon, what the hell have you done?" Emma glared at him. It had been an hour since Lou left, and now that she hadn't come back, the rest of the riders were beginning to worry.

"I was just upset. No, no; I was worried, and afraid."

"And you overreacted…" Emma trailed off.

"Well wouldn't you if someone who is almost your daughter got pregnant with someone who she wasn't married to?"

"I wouldn't kick her out! Now look, I'm every bit as upset at her as you are, but there was no reason to kick her out."

"But Emma, the morally wrong-"

"The hell with morals. You obviously don't care about morals what-so-ever. I mean, you kicked a pregnant woman out of your house!" Emma was red faced and pissed.

"I was just upset-"

"I don't wanna hear another damn word of yours until you say you're going to go look for her." Emma turned sharply on her heel, and walked away from him.

In the barn however, was nothing short of a rural saloon. Two bottles of gin, a large crock or two of whiskey, a deck of cards, and five grown men made for an interesting game of liquor poker. They had began playing almost immediately after Lou left, mostly to try to get her off Kid's mind, but now was the plan for the rest of day, and night. Now it was almost one o'clock, and the majority of them were fairly drunk.

"You dealt me shit, Cody!" Jimmy leaned across the crate they were playing on and grabbed him by the collar, but neither was sober enough to start a fight.

"Hey," Cody said, "You get 'em as they come." He smirked at Jimmy, who burst up from the bale he was on.

"I'm fucking tired of this bullshit. I'm going in to town."

"Again, Jimmy?" Buck asked, questioning the drinking habits of his friend.

"Hell yes. You comin?"

"Nah, I can't Jimmy. Not today." Buck replied. Jimmy shrugged his shoulders, and stumbled to his horse. He mounted, and rode away…

"Jimmy back yet?" Cody struggled to speak.

"Not yet, Cody." Kid replied, who had also had his fair share of alcohol today. It was already seven at night.

"I was kinda wondering where he was at…" Buck mentioned.

"I'll go look for him." Cody volunteered.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon. Besides, Cody, you're more drunk than me and Buck put together." Kid replied.

"Nope, I'm goin," and with that, Cody rose to his feet, meandered his way to his horse, and rode in the direction of Sweetwater…

As Jimmy rode away from the saloon, he kept an unsteady hand over his pistol. He never really knew why, but even when he was sober, he kept a careful hand over his six-shooter…

As the distance between Jimmy and Cody grew to mere feet, Cody also started to hold on to his gun. His horse heard Jimmy's horse rustling through the weeds, and jumped. Cody, not as drunken as before, paid close attention to this noise, and once he heard it again, he dismounted, and walked carefully around the vicinity, handgun cocked.

Jimmy heard Cody rustling around, and started to search the area, too. He peeked around a bush, and saw Cody crawling around on the ground, trying to be stealthy. Jimmy saw this, and immediately went into stand-off mode. Cody had sobered up quite a bit, and heard him coming.

"Draw."

"Jimmy?" Cody tried to see who it was with the little bit of sunlight left.

"Draw."

"Jimmy, it's me, Cody. Remember, I'm your friend." Jimmy put one more shell in his gun.

"Not tonight bastard, not tonight." In an instant, Jimmy pulled the trigger, releasing a potentially leather weapon on Cody. The first shot hit Cody in the upper arm., which sent him straight to the ground. As he clenched his arm in pain, Jimmy jerked his finger again, sending another bullet whirling into his side. As Cody moaned in pain, Jimmy cooly blew of the end of his gun, put it back in his holster, and remounted his horse.

Ten minutes later, Cody lost consciousness, and as the blood poured out of his body, any medical book would tell you this man was to die…

TO BE CONTINUED…