A/N: YAY! BONANZA TIME! This makes me joyful, joyful. So… I'm gonna stop talking and write; that is my job. Yours is to review and make me so happy I dance in the den. However, I'm sorry to say most of you are slackers at this job and not getting pay raises any time soon! So. I'm going to REALLY stop talking now and REALLY write. Where was I? By the way, the italicized words (that aren't thought-quotes) are stories from the past. Enjoy!

Chapter Four

Riley paced outside the house. He wanted to be the first one to see the doctor when he drove up. Also, he didn't want to reveal to the Cartwrights how nervous he was.

Another good reason was that, if he got sick like the coward he was, he didn't want anyone to see.

What in the world was Paige Anton doing here? Why was she so… bruised? Where was her brother? They were usually together.

Riley couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible had happened to Paige since he saw her last, something a lot worse than a fall down a flight of stairs. Joe had mentioned a gunshot wound...

Someone had shot his Paige. Part of Riley wanted to laugh nervously and say that not only had she probably had it coming, she'd probably pushed the attacker to it. Another part of him wanted to find the shooter and kill him.

The last time he'd seen Paige, he'd been a different man. A braver, stronger, but less wise man. He remembered talking to her before the fallout, kissing her and asking her what he should say to Jacob.

Being Paige, there had been no good advice, no pep talk on how he was totally capable. No, all she'd said was, "You're an idiot for wanting to leave me and the money, but anyone's who's an idiot should at least be a brave idiot. So if you're going to leave, just tell him, stupid."

One of the reasons he'd been so in love with her.

But she'd cried when he left. He felt bad for her, and whispered advice in her ears: "Get out now. Get out now, Paige."

When the Sherriff came to arrest the cattle rustlers, Paige and her brother had been mysteriously missing.

But then there was jail. Then there was the change within Riley. Now he was quieter and less opinionated. She probably wouldn't like him anymore.

The doctor and Adam rode up to the house, Adam on his own horse and Doc Martin on Riley's. Riley hadn't even noticed his was gone.

The doctor slid off his horse and looked at Riley. "Is she upstairs?"

Riley nodded. "The same room as before, I think. That's what Hoss said…" He shrugged helplessly.

The doctor nodded and scrambled (well, he waddled) into the house, holding his black bag tightly. Riley watched him go.

I should follow him up, he thought, biting his lip and staring at the house nervously.

Adam was looking at him funny. "You seem really worried. Do you know her?"

What should he reply? He had nothing to hide, but maybe Paige did. "No, I don't know her. She's your guest here? What happened to her?"

Adam shrugged. "She just stumbled into the yard one day, bleeding from all these cuts, a bunch of bruises. I would've thought she'd fallen from the cliff, but there was a gunshot wound in her side."

Yeah, killing the shooter was looking better every moment.

"She won't tell us what's going on, and she sure is ornery," commented Adam.

"Didn't you call her a terror when we rode up?"

"Yeah. She is a terror. She looked ready to fight me when I told her to lie back down. She pulled a knife on Hoss."

Yeah, that sounds about right, he wanted to say, but held his tongue. "You said she wouldn't tell you what happened to her?"

Adam smiled a little, pushing back his hat. "Technically she's told us that she was hit and shot. And then she smiled evilly and shut her mouth."

Riley laughed, but inwardly he seethed. He would kill whoever did this to her. Perhaps she wouldn't talk to Adam, but she would talk to Riley if he had to break all of his set personal rules to get her confession.

He looked up at the window, though it wasn't her room he looked at. "I hope she gets better. She sounds like an interesting little thing."

Break

If Paige hadn't wanted to see Riley because of the past, now she didn't want to see him because she was humiliated. She hadn't meant to turn and run like a guilty child, but she couldn't help herself. All those years, and suddenly he was standing in front of her, staring like she'd grown three heads. No doubt he would tell the Cartwrights everything about her just as soon as he got the chance, too. No doubt he thought she was crazy, a coward.

No doubt they'd put two and two together and be looking for Jacob by midday. She and her brother had come into this region only recently, but Jacob was determined to sell as many heads of cattle as he could steal. But she'd heard the Cartwrights talking, and she knew that no more cattle had disappeared in the last few days. Jacob was probably looking for her.

Which, she thought to herself glumly, probably meant he wouldn't be watching his own back well enough. Anyone would be able to sneak up behind him; she would be willing to bet on it.

Paige would have to leave then, she thought, making herself more comfortable on her bed. She would have to sneak out.

Especially if Riley was spilling his guts. She would have to leave very quickly indeed.

There was only one problem. When Paige had woken up, that imbecile doctor had been glaring at her and declaring that she would not walk for at least a week. Knowing the wisdom behind this, she hadn't argued. She was not in any shape to get up and walk around.

However, she was going to have to get in that shape pretty quickly, because Paige Anton had no intention of waiting a week. Three days, she decided. Three days at most.

Paige sighed and looked at her window, frowning. She was glad they had left her alone so far. Pretty soon, she was sure, someone would come in and the interrogation would commence.

But no one came.

She waited ten minutes.

Still no one.

By the end of the hour, she finally stopped waiting. No one was coming, she decided, or they wouldn't take so dad-blamed long about it.

Sighing and perplexed, she decided not to worry about it and let her mind wander, absentmindedly massaging her arm, which she was pretty sure she had sprained. It had been aching since she woke up…

She thought about Riley. It had been so long since she'd seen him. She didn't even know what had happened to him since that night those years ago… when she had just ran away. She hadn't even looked for him, too angry that he'd left. So angry that he'd betrayed the group.

The anger faded with the years, until she found that she was proud of him. Proud of the man who'd broken up the rustlers… because he'd found the strength to go when he got sick of it. She wished she could find that strength.

Because Paige didn't want to steal anymore. She didn't want to run anymore. She wanted something simple and sweet, a house, perhaps a husband and kids. Every day she wished for the chance to tell Jacob that she was leaving, getting out.

Only two things stopped her. One, her fear of being alone. Where would she go if she left? There would be no man to help her along, to protect her. Paige wouldn't have admitted that feeling for the world, though. The Brick Wall That Was Paige Anton did not need help. She was just fine alone.

At least, that's what everyone thought. But Paige was smart. She knew that no woman was going to make it alone if she started in the middle of nowhere. She needed that perfect chance, those circumstances. She needed companionship.

Turns out, even Brick Walls need someone to lean on.

Paige scoffed as she thought about that. She had no one to lean on now except these stupid Cartwrights. But the Cartwright couldn't stop death itself, they might not even want to once they found out about Jacob. (It was just another reason she needed to get out of here. If the ones who put the bruises on her face and the bullet in her side discovered she was still alive… then she was dead.)

Shuddering, Paige forced herself to think about her other memories. The ones that weren't potentially life-threatening.

The second thing that stopped her from leaving was the love she had. The love of Jacob, her idiot of a brother who couldn't make it without her. He wasn't smart enough. He was too mean and too short-sighted. She couldn't leave him if he was going to stay an outlaw. And he had no wish to go straight.

So Paige waited for the chance. She secretly hoped (though, again, wild horses couldn't have dragged it from her) that she would meet Riley again. He would see her one day and smile, and then her heart would melt again. She would be just as in love with him as he used to be, and he would have a perfectly reasonable explanation for being gone and sending the Sherriff after the group…

He would take her away and marry her. Hoss…

Hoss? What? No, she was thinking of Riley, wasn't she? She didn't even like Hoss. That man was like too-sweet candy, turning her stomach. She was definitely thinking about Riley…

Only… was she? If so, her dream had turned to nothing, just dust in the wind. Because when she'd seen him standing there, tall and (in her opinion) handsome, she had felt lightheaded. Nowhere amongst the alarm at being seen was there a spark of joy, a bit of pleasure or a feeling of intoxication. There was no warm emotion.

She didn't love Riley. That had died with her childhood, long before she learned to hate stealing. It was gone before her face had been punched and her side pierced with a bullet.

And so, of course, it was gone long before she tumbled down the stairs and humiliated herself.

Seems like Paige needed a new daydream to dream about.

Suddenly overcome with pain and emotion, Paige did the most embarrassing thing of all. She burst into tears.

Oh! she thought, putting her face in a pillow. I don't like this place! I just want to go back to Jacob now!

Being alone was scary.

She cried as though her heart was breaking, the tears doing her a world of good.

The second time in so many days… how humiliating! How was this being a Brick Wall, strong and brave? This… this was just being a girl.

Still sobbing, she eventually dropped off to sleep.

When she awoke, the day was nearly spent, and Riley was standing above her, looking concerned.

"Hello, Paige. I think we need to have a talk, no?"

She was a bit alarmed. "No."

He blushed. "Nice way to say hi."

She shook her head, trying to clear it. "What are you going here?"

"Working. I said I'd stop by and see if you were awake and hungry. I think you scared the rest of them out of wanting to come up."

She sat straight up in bed. "Why? Did you tell them…? What did you say?"

"Of course I didn't tell them anything. I thought I'd wait and talk to you first. Where's Jacob?"

Stubborn as always, Paige answered a question with a question. "Where have you been for six years?"

"I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours," he answered. No more "Um"s from him. He was determined to be just as strong and unbreakable as she was.

She looked him up and down. "No," she muttered at last, settling back into her comfy bed. "I'm not telling you anything when I haven't seen you in ix years. I don't trust you."

"Who do you trust?"

"Me."

His face softening at her childish, angry tone, so like the Paige of old, he leaned down and touched her bruised cheek.

"Paige?"

No answer.

"Who gave you that? Who was it, Paige?"

She didn't answer, and he felt himself beginning to crumble under her immovability. But he took a look at her injury, and found that he could wait forever if he found out the truth.

Pulling up a chair and sitting in the dying sunlight, which was prepared to fade into moonlight, he said, "You cost my five years of my life, Paige. I'll let you have a few more hours of it. I can wait. If someone comes up to check on me, I'll just say I'm waiting for my old girlfriend to spill the beans. I think the Cartwrights will side with me…"

Frustrated, she glared at him. He wasn't going to win this one! She wouldn't tell him a thing… probably.

A/N: Okay. That's not very exciting, I know, but next chapter I will explain all of her background, what she's doing here, who beat her up… AND, if we're lucky, we'll finally meet Jacob.