For Good or Bad

Jude waited all afternoon for Tommy to return. The best she got was a phone call just before five. The call was short and to the point. He was going to pick her up at six and take her to the Running Deer to collect her things. For lack of a better way to put it, he was essentially evicting her until further notice.

Only she wasn't ready to leave her uncle's ranch for good, not until she found the metal box or at least remembered what was in it. She feared it was the key to finding out who wanted her dead and why. And if that were true, running away would not solve her problem.

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"No." Tommy stood in the small kitchen at the Running Deer and glared at Jude. "Absolutely not."

"Aren't you even going to listen to what I have to say?"

"Not on this subject. You are not staying at the Running Deer as long as there's a lunatic on the loose around this place."

"It was okay before. What happened to change your mind?"

"My conversation with Dr. Silvers. The stabbed and bloody dummy hanging in the bunkhouse."

"When did you talk to Dr. Silvers?"

"This morning. He's concerned about you."

"That's his job. He's a doctor."

"And it's my job, too, while I'm working for the sheriff."

"I'll be fine, Tommy. I wasn't thinking of staying by myself."

"Well, you're sure not staying out here with Jamie. I haven't ruled him out as a suspect. He had the opportunity. He was on the property." He turned his back on her and stormed into her bedroom. "Get your things, Jude. You're moving to the Burning Pear."

"Did you check this out with the rest of your family?"

"Why should I? We have plenty of room. Besides, Kwest and Mom are crazy about you."

"I have a better idea."

"Then spit it out, but the answer is no."

"I'll sleep at the Burning Pear, but I want to be here in the daytime."

"So you can play host to a madman? Perhaps you could have him over for coffee. The two of you could chat about why he tried to kill you."

"Just hear me out. All you'd have to do is lend me one of your hands to be my bodyguard. You're doing that anyway."

"One man can't patrol this whole ranch."

"He won't have to. All he has to do is stay with me during the day."

"Why is being here so important to you? You've admitted more than once that you have no intention of living out here permanently."

"I have to be here so I can look for the metal box."

"Be reasonable, Jude." He leaqned against the door frame, his thumbs hooked in the front pockets of his jeans. "You can't search three thousand acres for a small box. You said yourself the only hope of finding it is for your memory to return."

"And that might never happen."

She walked to the window and stared out at the gathering twilight. Tommy couldn't see her face, but he could read the slump of her shoulders and sense the turmoil raging inside her. He longed to do something to ease her pain, but he was good at this type of thing. He was good at running things the way he ran the Burning Pear, but she obviously wasn't accustomed to taking orders.

"You're just upset tonight, Jude. Not that you don't have every reason to be after what happened this morning, but I'm doing everything I can."

"And I have to do the same." Frustration tore at her voice. She turned to face him, her eyes wet with un-shed tears. "I have to do something, tommy. or go crazy. I have to have a past. I have to know who I really am."

"You're Jude Harrison. And you're alive. That's enough to know for now."

"It's not enough for me. We haven't been able to locate a birth certificate for Jude Harrison. I have no record of my existence." She trembled and hugged her arms about her chest. "I talked to your mom today, and I ached to remember my own mother. I see you with Kwest, and I wonder if I have family anywhere who care about me."

She stepped toward him, and he could read the quiet desperation in her eyes. He opened his arms and she stumbled into them. He held her close, her head tucked under his chin, as her body dissolved into spasms of shuddering sobs.

He tried not to think of the way her hair smelled, all flowery, like a summer day. He tried not to think of the way she felt in his arms, warm, supple. But her gentle curves melded against him, and he could think of nothing else.

This wasn't what she needed, wasn't what he needed. Complications. Attraction so strong it took his breath away. She'd stopped crying, but she still clung to him, and for the life of him, he couldn't make himself let her go.

She tilted her head and met his gaze, and he knew something was happening between them. This wasn't about the argument anymore. It wasn't about going or staying. It was about a man and a woman, and need so real it stripped him of the inhibitions he'd lived with all his life.

He wasn't sure who made the first move, but he knew the second her lips touched his. the kiss was salty sweet, warm, and moist. the taste of her consumed him, as if the world had stopped. As if they were the only two people who mattered.

Finally, she pulled away.

"I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Neither did I, but it certainly felt more right than the other things that have been going on around here."

"I know." She backed out of his arms. "And I know my request sounds stupid to you, but it's important to me."

"I have to admit that I don't fully understand the connection between your finding the box, and your getting your memory back, but if being on the ranch to look for the box is that important to you, then we'll do this your way. You can spend your nights at the Burning Pear, and Kwest, I or one of our hands can go with you during the day to search for the box that we're not even certain exists."

"Thank you, I don't understand it, either, but it's something I have to do. The only family tie I have in my life right now is with a father i can't remember. The only thing I know about him is that he wants me to find that box. I have to do that for him. And for me."

Tommy thought about what she'd said while she gathered her few belongings. He wished he knew more about amnesia, but how could he grasp it when Jude's medical doctor and her psychiatrist hadn't even come up with the same reasons for her inability to remember her past.

But for some reason, she'd become almost fixated on this metal box. A strange legacy Stewart had left his daughter.

Jude tucked a paper grocery bag under her arms and slung her backpack over her shoulders.

"Okay cowboy, I think I have everything I need. Actually, I have everything I own."

"Then let's get out of here."

She walked to the front door and stopped.

"Was it only two nights ago I walked up these steps for the first time?"

"Up the steps and into chaos."

"Funny, it seems like months ago. But then I guess when your whole life has been condensed into two weeks of memories, two days is a really long time."

"Yeah. Only two days with you, Jude Harrison, is like no two days I've ever known."

And now he was taking her home to sleep under the same roof as he did. If he thought the days were long, imagine what the nights would be like. This one would definately start with a cold, cold shower.

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A/N--- I hope this holds you for awhile i've only just began the next chapter so it will be awhile.