A/N I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this up. I plan on finishing the story tonight, or in the next couple days. I'm so sorry to all the people who really liked the story. And thank you for believing in me. -Anni

Sam had been partly right, things weren't ever going to be back to normal, not the normal she had been used to. But her life started to rearrange itself. Wyatt Forster, Luke Ely, and Jed Kenworthy had been lobbying with the FBI to launch an official investigation into the recent rash of barn fires that had claimed three lives.

It had taken Brynna's impassioned plea to solve her son's murder however for any major action to be taken. A fleet of agent's had descended on Alkali and the surrounding ranches, all there to solve the bizarre multiple murder case. After three months of bugging phones, tailing cars, and high-tech surveillance and one late-night crackdown on a small rental house on the outskirts of Darton, three men had been arrested and charged with the murders of Grace Forster, Cody Forster and Jennifer Kenworthy. The three men had been Curtis Flickinger, Linc Slocum and Ryan Slocum. At the trial in Reno, Sam had sat in stunned silence next to Jake each weekday for three weeks, listening to evidence, the prosecutor's speeches, and the defense's weak response to the heinous accusations. By the end of the unbearably long trial Sam was becoming sick and tired of sitting around while Linc Slocum, a person she loathed more than any other human being, gave his testimony. And with tears in his eyes Linc gave a half-hearted portrayal of a grief-stricken man. Linc's personal testimony took up two days of the trial.

The verdict came on a rainy, drippy day that Sam and Jake knew they would never forget as long as they lived. Linc Slocum would serve three consecutive life terms in the Nevada State Penitentiary for First Degree Homicide and First Degree Arson. Curtis Flickinger and Ryan Slocum would both serve 42 years for their parts in the hideous crime that had stolen the Forster and Kenworthy's family members.

Sam and Jake had returned to their respective ranches after the trial was over. Brynna had resigned as head superintendent of the Bureau of Land Management Mustang Relocation Facility and now tried to fill Gram's shoes. Wyatt and Brynna both had a hard time dealing with the death of their only son, and Wyatt's mother.

The grief Jed and Lila Kenworthy felt proved in the months after their daughters death to be more than they could either handle, and instead of finding strength in each other, Lila had taken her own life. Jed, now irreparably inconsolable, had sold his horses and the land he still owned and had headed back to Lander, Wyoming, where his family lived.

It was a glorious June day that found Jake and Sam headed for the hills behind Gold Dust Ranch, now called the Rocking E Slash Ranch. Jake and Sam had purchased the ranch, when the bank foreclosed on it due to debt and failure to make mortgage payments; Sam and Jake had bought it at the auction. Brynna and Wyatt had given Sam the money from Graces life insurance policy, and combined with the money Jake had studiously saved from breaking horses over the years they had been able to buy it outright. The first thing the couple had done was have the monolithic main house demolished and the huge pile of dirt it had been built on removed. Jake had yet to propose to Sam, he was still waiting for the perfect moment to tell her exactly how he felt about her.

Sam and Jake were riding up to where a memorial stone had been placed for Jennifer. On a small bluff overlooking the ranch, was a small granite memorial with Jennifer Coreen Kenworthy April 15, 1986—June 3, 2006 engraved on it. Below her name was inscribed the following words, "When the trail ends and I'm at the stairway to heaven, I'll will look back on my life and know I knew love." Next to her name was the engraving of a horse's head, mane tossed by the wind.

Jen had been gone for three years now, and Sam still occasionally suffered from what her psychiatrist called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, something common in people who had been in a war, or had witnessed someone's brutal death. Jake did his best to comfort the young woman he loved, but he knew that the person who could stop her crying, was the person she was crying for.

Sam stepped off her horse, and dropped the reins, ground-tying him. Ace had been killed in the same barn fire that had taken Tank, Sweetheart, Cody's pony CocoaBear, and Cody and Gram. Jake had traded for a big black gelding and had trained the gorgeous 4 year-old just for Sam. Sam had named the horse Cowboy, in tribute to the only person that would ever have her heart. Sam walked towards Jen's stone and kneeled before it, resting on her heels. Jake had ground-tied Witch next to Cowboy and walked over to sit behind Sam, she stretched her legs out on either side of Jen's improvised grave. Sam sat silently, Jake behind her, for several minutes, lovingly tracing the engraved horse head.

As her fingers followed the delicate lines she knew so well Jake protectively wrapped his arms around her slender waist and nestled his chin into the hollow between her shoulder and neck. Minutes passed as the couple sat on the windblown hill, Jake murmuring in Sam's ear, and wiping her tears away with his flannel shirtsleeve. Finally, as the sun began its slow descent into the mountains to the west, Sam and Jake stood. Sam turned and rested her head on Jake's broad chest letting her tears fall freely. The two mounted up and headed back to the ranch just as the sun slipped into the cover of the mountains Jake and Sam both held so dear.

At the ranch headquarters Jake and Sam stopped only a few minutes to turn off the lights in the cabin they were remodeling, and feed the few steers they had in the corral behind the barn. Jake persuaded Sam to leave Cowboy in a paddock and ride back to Three Ponies Ranch with him.

Sam whispered in Jakes ear as they entered the ranch, "Thank you babe, I never would have made it through all of this without you. I love you."