"James Hickok is another one of the riders. He is an ace of a shot and sometimes let's that go to his head. He has the reputation of an outlaw after a man named J.D. Marcus wrote a book about him and called him 'Wild Bill Hickok'. But anyone who knows Jimmy can tell you he is nothing like Wild Bill. Jimmy may not want the world to know the kinda man he is but we see it.
I remember when Ambrose Meriwether came here, he was trying to get the Indians to agree to let us ride through there land. Well his Uncle made matters worse. Ambrose challenged Jimmy to a fight and at the end I think we all respected him more. He tried to ride a horse and break it but was almost trampled. That's when Teaspoon gave him the nickname Bulldog. Well after the fight with Jimmy we made him an official cowboy, even got him a gun with the name Bulldog on the grip. He wasn't a good shot but we sure made him think he was, he was shooting his gun at some cans and missing badly so Buck and I hid behind him and shot the cans for him. He thought he was doing it. When the day came that we had to defend the land the Indians needed protecting, I got shot in the leg, but Bulldog jumped out and pushed Jimmy out of the way of some explosives. It saved Jimmy but Bulldog was seriously injured and as Jimmy was checking on him he died. I think that was one of a few times I have seen Jimmy cry."
Jimmy had to defend the tears that day by saying "I was just beginnin' to like him too." A few understanding nods and Rachel continued.
"Jimmy may seem all tough but when his tooth was hurting, he was a big baby. We all surrounded him and tried to take him down so Teaspoon could look at his tooth but he pulled a pitchfork, I finally tackled him Teaspoon got to look at the tooth. Well we finally got him to a dentist but he fought us all the way. We literally had to drag him into the man's office. Once he was in the chair the dentist convinced him that the tooth didn't need pullin'. He pulled a machine over and started to work on Jimmy's tooth but didn't get to far when Jimmy pulled the gun on the man. Needless to say that when the man passed out, Jimmy got to leave the dentists office. Later on that day though, me and Cody were sitting on the porch when we heard the bunkhouse door close and Jimmy yell. He came out several seconds later with the bad tooth hangin from a string. Cody said "It's a wonder he didn't shoot it out." I would have to agree."
Rachel laughed at the thought of Jimmy tying a string around his tooth then the other end of the string to the door.
Jimmy chuckled " I didn't wanna waste a bullet" He rolled onto his side and looked over at Buck who was still staring out the window, lost in thought.
"What's it say in there about Buck." He asked knowing it would get the Kiowa's attention.
Rachel handed the book back to Buck. Buck looked at the book in his hands. So many things ran through his head as he flipped to the first page of the book. Buck walked back over to the table and sat down. He needed to sit down, his heart and his body was weak. He wasn't sure what his brother had written about him. He looked around him at all the people that had become quickly become their family. He didn't know what the others were feeling right now but all these memories were causing a few broken pieces of his heart to find away to mend them selves. He didn't think his heart would ever be whole again but he was going to put on a brave face and force a smile as he read the words that were on the page.
"Buck Cross. I consider him a brother in every since of the word..." He wasn't expecting those words to be there and as he read, he realised how much he meant to his silent brother.
" I remember the day he came to the Mission school. He was different, but we all are different, aren't we. But we are also a lot alike. He was scared and alone and so was I, he was names like bastard and half-breed, I was called freak and dummy. But one day when we went into town with the Nuns and the other children, I saw Buck walk toward a corral but as he passed the saloon, some big guys started callin' him half-breed. One of them threw a punch and before Buck could defend himself all four of those guys were on him. Well I couldn't just let him handle those bullies alone, so I ran over and started throwing my own punches. Don't get me wrong now, we were just a couple of scrawny boys against four big drunk guys, and yes we got our butts kicked, but as we laid there bruised and bloody- we laid there as friends. He taught me Indian sign. He gave me more then I could ever thank him for. A voice and a brother."
Buck stared at the page almost in awe. He knew Ike was grateful but this was Ike, in his own words, saying Thank You.
A/N: Thank you for sticking with me on this story. It has been hard to write. I will try to update agaiin soon. Just a couple more chapters. Thank you.