"Nervous?" Sully asked Kay the next morning when he'd turned around just after finishing tying his tie so that he could see how she looked, and sucked in a ragged breath and held it for a moment as he looked her over.

She'd decided to wear the pink dress that she had finished yesterday. And though he had known how well it had turned out just by looking at it, it looked striking on Kay. Or rather the girl herself looked striking in it.

Honestly he'd never seen a child so lovely before in his life.

The soft, off pink was set off by the interwoven and complex pattern of mint green and aquamarine embroidery along the front of the bodice of the modest dress, along the pink ribbon sash, and the sleeves. Kay's dark hair had been thoroughly brushed and the top part of her hair carefully pulled back and woven into an intricate knot that was held in place by a ribbon with a folded and sewn satin flower, while the rest of her tresses hung loosely down her back.

She had taken off her bracelets and choker necklace and looked a little bit uncomfortable, underneath his gaze.

Her small right hand occasionally going to the long sleeve of her dress to try and tug it down around her wrist a little bit more, before going to her throat in a subconscious gesture that was all too endearing as Sully gave her a slow walk around to check her out at all angles before finally saying, "Wow. Just...wow. You look- I mean- Wow." It wasn't often that he was at a total loss for words.

Really it wasn't, but he certainly was right now.

Christ almighty! He could barely take his eyes off of her! And she was still just a little girl, he had no idea what he was going to do once she started budding into a woman. He'd probably take to shooting any young boys or men who came all the way out to try and woo her.

"Please say something more than wow." Kay pleaded in a slightly shaky tone that caught his immediate attention and caused him to frown at her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing is wrong, nothing at all- can we go now?" She said quickly as she brushed past him to collect the tins of cookies that she had made for the church social event today. She had already picked up three and was in the process of reaching for the last one when she saw Sully reach out and stop her by laying his hand on her own before she could finish snatching the cookie tin as he asked again.

"What's wrong? You're acting funny."

"Nothing. Let's just go." She said quietly as she snatched the tin and piled it on top of the others in her arms and then made a beeline straight for the door, leaving Sully standing there wondering what was going on.

The ride into town was a tense and uncomfortable one, mostly because Sully couldn't get Kay to tell him what was wrong with her. He was sure that she had been fine earlier. Excited even. And now...she didn't seem to be excited anymore. She didn't even seem to really care to be outside.

Much less going to church.

Sneaking another glance in her direction, he noted that she wasn't even paying attention to anything. She was just...staring ahead blankly. Frowning, it was on the tip of his tongue to try and coax her into talking to him again. But at the last moment sighed and simply left her alone knowing that she would likely speak up later.

The moment that they were in town, sully drove the wagon straight to the church and parked it along the fence and then climbed down and then moved around the wagon after tying off the horse's reigns and helped Kay down. Once down, she took a moment to smooth out her skirt before noting that he was waiting on her and then walking over to him and shifting the tins so that she could free one of her hands, and slipped it in his own and waited.

Sully gave her hand a light squeeze to reassure her that whatever was bugging her- he was right there if she needed him, and together the two of them walked across the little wooden bridge leading to the small path that they would have to walk to get to the church.

Sully greeted some of the other people that had gathered there. While Kay merely tried not to fidget under the scrutiny of the young girls and the rest of the people present.

It wasn't until they had reached, Reverend Tim that she seemed to snap out her funk as Sully finally let go of her hand so that he could shake hands with the man before the pastor looked down at her and gave her a friendly smile before greeting her and telling her how pretty she looked. And then asked her where she had gotten her dress.

She was so embarrassed that she couldn't seem to find the words to speak. So Sully took pity on her and placed his hands on her tiny shoulders and said proudly, "She made the dress and the ribbon with the flower in her hair, herself."

"Oh? Did she? Well she does such pretty work. Maybe one day to help raise funds for the church she can make us a few things to sell." Tim said as Sully lightly squeezed her slender shoulders and merely said,

"As long as she remembers to rest and eat properly I have no problem with that. She told me that she'd like to start making some jewelry next. I'm sure that the ladies in town would like some new baubles."

Tim chuckled as he commented that Lorne would just love that. He was making money hand over fist from selling her stuff as it was.

Not long after the conversation ended, the church bell rang and Sully carefully tugged her along behind him as they went inside along with everyone else.

They were inside the church for about an hour and a half when the reverend decided to stop preaching and said that he wished that they could have someone play the piano while they said final prayer, but there was no one with any musical talent present as of yet- causing Kay to sigh and raise her hand, drawing several people's attention as the pastor zeroed in on her and asked her if she had a question.

She shook her head no and pointed at the piano at which time Sully leaned up in his seat and asked her if she could play, and got a small nod in response. Which in the end led to her being pushed out of her seat and partially shoved down the short isle between the rows of pews until she reached the front of the church, and went over to the piano and sat down and looked it over for a second before placing her fingers on the keys and slowly began playing, Amazing Grace while the pastor quickly led everyone in prayer and dimissed them so that they could all go outside and eat.

Once outside, Kay looked around as Sully came up behind her and gently placed his hands on her small shoulders and leaned down to kiss the top of her head before pulling away with a grin and saying, "You know, I knew that you were talented. Being as you do so many things all the time. But I didn't know that you could play the piano too. Can you do anything else that I don't know about yet?"

"Maybe." Was all that she could think to say in response to his question.

He tilted his head to the side a little bit as he wondered what she meant by her somewhat cryptic answer and thought on it for a moment or so before finally shrugging his shoulders and telling her that he was going to go and grab the blanket that he had remembered to put in the back of the wagon for them to sit on while they ate.

As soon as Sully left her side, Kay looked around and felt more than a little bit lost upon seeing everyone socializing and talking together or even in most children's cases- running around and playing. As most children were want to do.

But not her.

She had never been the type to run around and play like a normal kid. She preferred to occupy her mind with other things. Dabbling into arts and crafts was a good outlet. But after doing it since she was five years old, her IQ was considerably higher than that of most normal children.

Making it extremely difficult for her to connect with anyone really. And it wasn't that she didn't try, it was just that most times, people became so intimidated by her and her various talents that they simply either attacked her for being a freak or flat out ignored her.

Which was fine. She didn't really care one way or another.

Though a person would have to be crazy to try and bully her. War games and killing the bear that had injured her aside, despite her age and gender, she was a formidable person. And definitely no slouch in a fight either.

She may be small, but she wasn't weak.

It was while she wasn't paying attention that someone, a man in his mid to late twenties dressed in a white suit with a black tie, walked over to her and startled her by getting into her personal space.

"Hello, little one. I don't think that I've ever seen you before-" The man said as he knelt down a little bit, his dark eyes looking her over in a way that made her skin crawl. "Where is your family? Surely they wouldn't leave you unattended." She gave him an icy look as Sully finally returned and was quick to place himself between her and the stranger.

"James. What do you want?" He asked, attempting to keep hit tone from showing hostility. But it was difficult especially where James was concerned. The man had a bad habit of finding, isolating, and marrying young girls.

The youngest that he had married thus far had been twelve.

And like the four others before her- she had died in childbirth along with the baby. So if he was singling Kay out, especially at a social event, Sully knew that it was for no good reason.

James's smile dropped a little bit upon seeing Sully standing between him and the latest little mite that would become his bride. "Ah Sully, I was just introducing myself to the young lady-" James began to say, cranking up the charm a bit. But Sully knew too much about his past and wasn't the least bit impressed. If anything the man was outright pissed and James knew that he would have to watch himself or he'd be on the receiving end of Sully's volatile temper.

"She's a little girl and you're going to stay away from her." Sully growled out as he glared at the man before saying, "Whatever interest in her that you have, forget it. I'm her guardian and I say stay the hell away from her."

"Now, now, calm down Sully. My interest in her isn't unhealthy-"

"Bullshit. you've buried four wives her age along with their children, I will not let you do the same to her."

"And what if the girl herself is interested? Will you really stand in her way then?" James asked as he caught Kay peeking around Sully and looking at him oddly. Easily mistaking her confusion for interest in him.

Sully balked for a moment and looked down at his girl, wondering what she would say if James proposed to her. He couldn't help himself, he'd seen the man charm children like her before. All of them had been sweet and innocent and naïve to the ways of the world.

However quickly on the heel of that thought had been the reminder that his girl was a little bit on the ruthless side and obviously knew how to make her way in the world far better than any person he'd ever met before. She'd be a millionaire before she was twenty, he was sure.

And she wouldn't let no stinkin man like James turn her head or put her off of her chosen path either. Which was why he allowed her to step out from behind him and let James approach her.

It was obvious from the way that she took a moment to look between the two of them, that she had no idea what was going on. But he wasn't worried, yet.

He stood there with his fists clenched tightly at his sides as James took one of Kay's hands in his and brought it up to his lips and began whispering his sweet nothings in her little ear. And before Sully could so much as do anything other than watch helplessly while hping that she wasn't falling for his nonsense and counting down those damned seconds that the man used to charm his girl, she had yanked her hand from James's grasp and reared back her fist and punched the man in the throat while snarling, "I'd rather be a spinster than marry you!"