*For those of you who would like to refresh Victoria's thoughts/confession, you can reread Chapters 5 (where she is silently thinking about the situation) and 14 (where she is telling her children about it) in the story "Thicker than Water".

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"Tom..." Tom, who was finally sitting up, looked at Leah, Hannah and their friend Rachel. Rachel had been helping taking care of Tom once she learned what had happened. They had just asked him who he was. The moment he said his first name his eyes were on Leah. He was shocked that he didn't want to tell him his last name. If he did, he knew they'd send a wire to Stockton. Still hurting over the fact that no matter what he tried to do Victoria continued to push him away and still grieving for the twins they'd lost, Tom found he didn't want anyone to know what had happened. He wanted more time with this woman, the woman who he'd just been told had saved his life when she stepped out of the hotel's kitchen.

Still, in spite of that, he knew he should answer the question. However, when he went to, Tom shocked himself when he lied and said, "I don't know my last name."

Shock shone on all their face, Leah asked. "You don't know who you are? Do you remember anything else?" If he could even remember the name of a friend, she and her friends could wire them.

Unwilling to admit he'd just lied, Tom shook his head. "Tom is all I remember." He'd only been away from home for a week when he was attacked and the women standing beside the bed he lay in said he'd been attacked two weeks ago. He was sure no one would be looking for him and he was sure Victoria would start looking for him for a few more weeks. In fact, with the way he had left, he would be surprised if she even looked for him at all.

He saw the pity that Leah and the others felt for him. "Well," Leah stood up, "until you are completely healed up, you can stay here." She looked at Hannah as her eyes added; "Please,"

Hannah looked at Rachel, who only shrugged her shoulders knowing it wasn't her home the man would be staying in, and then back at Leah and Tom. "Of course, you'll be staying here. You are not well enough to go anywhere else." She then walked away saying she had laundry to do. Rachel, after giving Leah a concerned look, excused herself saying she had work to do.

~oOo~

Tom sat next to the creek as Leah sat nearby mending a shirt for one of the miner's in town. The two were enjoying a quiet afternoon. Due to the fact that she and Hannah had refused to turn him out, Martha had fired her from the hotel. When Tom had first learned that, he'd felt quite guilty and offered to leave, but Leah would not hear of it. "Ain't nothing wrong with you staying here, it's not like we're alone in the house." Those had been her exact words.

"Charles thought he'd find gold and strike it reach." Leah told him after he asked what brought her and her late husband out to California. "We were never blessed with children."

Tom gazed out over the creek. He had been away from home for two months now. He and Leah were spending a quiet afternoon simply sitting near the creek near her home. He felt a jolt of lightening shoot through him as relived a painful memory. He could see their wagon rolling; the wagon carrying his family, carrying his and Victoria's infant twins. Because the color in his face almost disappeared, Leah quickly put down the shirt in her hands and flew to his side. "Tom?" she put her hand on his shoulder.

Without thinking what he was saying, Tom whispered, "I had children once. My wife and I were traveling, something spooked the horses, they went wild. The wagon…it rolled somehow. I was thrown…I tried to get…" he stopped speaking as the scene in front of his eyes finished playing itself out. Because, he did not finish, Leah made the assumption his whole family had been killed in the tragic accident.

Thinking Tom was 'finally getting some memories' back, Leah said, "I'm so sorry, Tom. No one should have to lose their whole family that way."

His whole family? Tom turned his head and looked into Leah's eyes; full of the hurt she felt for him. Up to that moment, Tom had not fully realized he was talking out loud. "I…" he went to correct the misunderstanding and found himself unable to. Instead he found himself reaching out and pulling the woman who had shown him such mercy towards him.

"Tom…" Leah whispered, as he covered her mouth with his. Her mind told her to insist that he stop only there was such feeling, such need in the kiss. That was something she'd never felt before. The world around her started disappearing as she felt Tom's tongue slide into her mouth and start ravishing it while he pulled her even closer.

For Tom's part any portion of him that started chastising him for what he was doing was pushed aside as the need for someone to accept his affections grew. Only when Leah pulled away did Tom stop. For a moment, neither one of them said anything. "I think I best take my mending back inside." Leah hurried and gathered her things, looked at Tom again and then started for the house. By the time she stepped inside, Tom was right behind her.

"I'm sorry, Leah. I never should have done that. It's just…" Tom struggled knowing that, no matter how one looked at it, he shouldn't have kissed her like that. "I think, maybe, it's best if I do leave. Before… I'm sorry." He turned to leave only to find Leah's hand on his arm. He turned his head and looked into her eyes. He was shocked to see the desire that that was in her eyes.

With Hannah away helping Rachel, Tom pushed away his conscience and took Leah in his arms. "Are you sure, Leah?" Tom's voice was gruff and raspy by the time he stopped kissing her and pulled back just enough to look into her eyes.

Leah, who was a good enough woman, saw Tom up on the roof fixing the leaks. She saw him mending the fences and helping with the horses. She saw him kneel down and give one of the children who happened to pass by a piece of candy. She heard the two of them laughing and talking like a couple of school children. But, she also saw the look of a man who was lost and trying to find his way back. Because he had let her believe the lie he'd purposely told, the one here he said he did not know his last name, and the fact that he had chosen not to correct what had begun as an innocent misunderstanding, Leah naturally thought Tom was simply worried about her reputation. Yet he loved her, she could see it in his eyes and the way he had kissed her… she just knew that sooner or later he would put a ring on her finger. So, even though she'd told herself to wait until that day came, the day he married her to give herself to him a thousand times, Leah now stepped over the line as she slid her arms up his back. "Hannah won't be back until just before dark." She answered quietly and gently pressed herself against him.

That did it. Tom groaned, picked her up and carried her over to the bed.