Disclaimer: The characters of, "Sons of Thunder" and "Walker Texas Ranger", are owned by Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and whoever else was involved with the creation and production of these two shows. Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fanfiction intended for entertainment purposes only and no money is being made off of it.


Chapter 4: Return

She opened the door and stepped into the bar Uppercuts, pulling on the strap of a tote bag that hung off her shoulder. It only contained a few books, but it felt as though she was carrying twenty bricks. She didn't know if it was the books that made her feel that way or if it was because she was starting a new life.

As her eyes adjusted to the slightly darker environment, she was still amazed at what the impression the bar had made on her the first time she had stepped through the door. Of course, when she had first walked in, there had been a bar fight going on.

She glanced around noting that it was quite interesting to see the bar decorated like a boxing ring, with boxing ring ropes used as a guardrail between the first and second levels of the bar. There was a giant blue star for the Dallas Cowboys blazing behind the bar. She was getting a bit distracted taking in the images when someone stepped into her line of vision.

"Hi, Nancy," a man with dark hair greeted with a wide grin as he motioned with his arms to take a seat at a table that already had two people sitting in the booth. One was a blonde haired man the same age as the one with dark hair, and a woman with reddish hair placed in an intricate hair design that Nancy had no idea how it didn't get tangled into knots.

"Oh, hi," Nancy replied with a smile and a thoughtful crease in her forehead as she tried to remember his name. It had been several weeks since she had seen him. She felt terrible that she couldn't remember his name, but she hoped that he wouldn't be upset. A lot had happened to her in the past month.

After her mother had died from cancer, she had discovered a letter that her mother had written revealing the identity of her father. Her fiancé Lyle had been transferred from California to Texas where her father lived. It seemed like it was a sign, but there were circumstances surrounding the transfer. Lyle had discovered that the company he had been working for had falsified reports that would put soldiers at risk. He had made copies of the reports and was going to bring down the company by giving the information to the FBI.

Unknown to Lyle, his company discovered that he had made copies and had made certain that he would not bring them down. They had intercepted his call to the FBI and sent their own agents to kill him. They had not only killed him, but they had erased his identity as quickly as a flash flood. Then, they had come after her seeking the disk that contained copies of the reports.

She returned to the present, deciding that she didn't want to go through those painful and frightening memories again. She returned to the man standing before her, trying to remember his name, but it would not come.

The man returned the smile and nodded his head. "You don't remember my name, do you?"

"Yes of course I do. Your name is Carl, right?" Nancy's grin faded into an apologetic look.

His grin faded. "It's Carlos."

Nancy looked at the man and woman sitting in the booth. "Right, sorry. And you're Trent and Kim."

She heard Carlos mumble something which she knew figured had to do with forgetting his name, but remembering the names of his friends.

Butch McMann, owner of Uppercuts and Nancy's father walked over to them and stood before his daughter. It seemed strange to Nancy that she now had a father when she had just her mother for all those years. She could feel the sadness creeping to her heart once more, but she pushed it away, weary of the loss of loved ones.

"Sweetheart, I didn't realize you'd be coming by today," Butch said as hugged her.

Nancy returned his hug. "I can't come and see my father?"

"Of course you can. I just didn't expect you for a couple of days until you settled into your apartment."

"Why don't you sit down?" Kim said as she took Nancy's bag from her hand and motioned for her to sit next to her.

"So, you decided to stay in Dallas?" Trent asked as he took a sip of beer from the bottle.

Nancy turned and looked at Trent who had large shadows under his eyes which distracted her from the bruise on his cheek.

"Trent, are you ok? What happened?" Nancy asked concern filling her for a man who had saved her life more than once.

"Yeah, I got this from making a citizen's arrest," Trent said as he brushed his fingers over the dark bruise.

"Oh." Nancy sensed that there was something bothering Trent and she knew that it had nothing to do with the bruise.

"Did you find a nice place?" Kim asked as she twirled her straw in her glass of Sprite.

Nancy couldn't help but notice that Kim was looking at Trent with concern and what she believed looked like disapproval. "Yeah, Butch helped me find a place. I didn't have too much to bring in so it didn't take very long."

"That's great. You'll just have to let us know what you need when you throw a housewarming party," Kim said with a beaming grin.

Nancy returned a smile, though it wasn't as large as the one Kim had given her, but she tried. She wasn't used to having this much attention focused on her and she didn't know how she felt about it. She knew that it would take some time to adjust to this new life in Texas with a father and new friends.

Nancy looked at Butch noticing that he didn't seem a little bit fazed from having called him Butch and not Dad. She didn't know how she felt calling him Dad just yet. After all, she had only found him a month ago and he had only found out that he even had a daughter. She knew that it was going to take some time for both of them to really get used to the idea.

She joined in the conversation now and again, but she mostly listened trying to discern if any of them knew what was going on with Trent. It didn't take long to realize that they were all concerned for Trent and they had no idea what was bothering him. As she took a sip from her glass of water, she wondered if Trent would let one or all of them in on the mystery before he became even more withdrawn.


guardianM3: Please review. I apologize for the wait and I hope that my writer's block is over.