Chapter 6

Kid banked the campfire and settled into his bedroll. He had ridden hard all day, anxious to get back to Rock Creek so he could convince Teaspoon to let him have some more time off soon. He had kept going until it was too dark to see the trail anymore, only stopping to make camp when he absolutely had to. He quickly fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from his long day.

The sound of a horse woke him up. Someone was approaching his camp. Silently, he crept toward the bushes behind him and waited for the intruder to appear. A figure walked into his campsite and headed straight for his bedroll. When the figure knelt down to move the blanket aside, Kid jumped out and tackled it.

"Gotcha," Kid said, pinning the intruder to the ground. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Ow! Kid, get off me!" A muffled voice sounded from beneath him. For the first time, Kid got a look at the intruder's face.

"Lou? Oh, I'm so sorry, Lou! What are you doing here?"

"Trying to catch up to you," Lou smiled. "I got to Sweetwater not long after you left. When Hack told me I had just missed you, I rode as hard as I could to catch up."

"Lou, I have to tell you something."

"Kid, I have to tell you something."

They both laughed. "You first," Lou smiled. Looking into her eyes, Kid realized no words needed to be said. He took her into his arms and leaned in to kiss her.

Epilogue

When they finally broke the kiss, Lou smiled. "Is that what you wanted to tell me?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Kid grinned. "I've been waiting a long time to say that."

"I've been waiting a long time to hear it," Lou said softly. "Kid?"

"Yes, Lou?"

"Where do we go from here?"

"I've still got a few days before I have to be back in Rock Creek," Kid smiled. "And I think Sweetwater will be safe in the capable hands of The Kangaroo Kid for a few more days."

"What are you suggesting, Kid?" Lou smiled.

"Well, there is a little town not too far from here. There's a nice restaurant there, where you can get a fine meal. The kind of place where folks can take off their hats. The kind of place where you don't have to worry about how folks will feel about you being a marshal."

"But I didn't bring anything to wear," Lou feebly protested.

"You don't have to wear anything," Kid blushed when he realized what he said. "I mean, I don't care what you wear. I just want to be with you is all. Come on, Lou, please?"

Lou pretended to think for a minute before agreeing. "Alright. What's the name of this town anyway?"

"Davenport."

The End

A/N: Thanks for reading! I had forgotten I even wrote this trilogy until recently, when I found several of the old TYR fan sites and read back through all of my stories that were posted on them. This series was one of my favorites.

I haven't written any fan fiction in probably at least 15 years, but I have a few stories swirling around in my head and have started trying to get one of them written. For now I'm just going to focus on archiving all of my old stories here, but hopefully I'll post some new stuff soon too.