Heather was nearly overwhelmed by the flurry of activity that surrounded her as she and her new husband exited the church. It really did seem the whole town had turned out to wish them well. More than once the constant barrage of hugs and congratulations as well as what seemed like an endless stream of people nearly drove her to run away. But then she would look to her side and there was Billy. She might not be fully accustomed to dealing with this many people all at once or many people at all but as long as she had Billy by her side, she could face anything and she knew she would be safe.

At long last there was only the family to face and she allowed herself to be pulled into hugs by each of them and officially welcomed. Jimmy was the last to embrace her and he squeezed her tighter than the others whispering, "I meant what I said about him minding his manners. If he don't, you tell me and I'll make him."

Heather hugged tighter to Jimmy for a moment. She had been so long in her life without anyone really caring or looking out for her and now she had brothers and a father and even a husband. She would never again be hurt like she had been.

"I love you too," she whispered in reply before releasing him and turning to her Billy. Her breath was taken from her once again at how handsome he looked in his suit. His eyes sparkled blue at her and the smile he gave her made her blush. It was a sweet smile and loving but something behind it spoke of something deeper and something that was only between the two of them.

The others headed toward the party that was being held in their honor but Cody lingered on the steps of the church with Heather.

"Shouldn't we follow?" she asked.

"We will," he assured her, "I just wanted a minute alone with you before we headed over. You're beautiful, you know. I don't just mean today or in that dress but all the time. Though I will say that is one pretty dress."

He offered his arm but she paused before she took it.

"Have I ever told you what a handsome man you are, Billy?" she asked, "Have I said how kind and dear and how much I love you?"

Cody was taken aback. While he'd never lacked for confidence in his appearance, Heather had never really put anything in those terms. He tenderly kissed her and then smiled.

"I guess it's a good thing we got ourselves hitched then. I can't figure anyone else is going to make me this happy."

They strolled arm in arm to the party where they were greeted by Teaspoon.

"I wondered what was taking you two so long," he said with a smile, "Thought maybe you decided to skip the whole party. Wouldn't blame you if you did. You're only young and beautiful for a short time."

Cody offered up his most disarming smile.

"We might only be young a short time, Teaspoon," he replied, "But Heather and me, we'll be beautiful forever."

The rest of the night they danced, they ate, they laughed and Heather didn't want it to end. But in time it did end. The party wore down and she looked to see Billy once again offering his arm to her.

"I don't even know where you're taking me," she said.

"The hotel for tonight," he told her, "We'll go home tomorrow. I'd rather you see it in the light of day. Trust me; it will be better that way."

"I always trust you, Billy."

"And you always can," he smiled at her.

About halfway there Cody stopped and turned to Heather. There wasn't another soul on the street.

"I need to tell you some things, honey," he said, "Don't get that worried look. Ain't none of 'em bad but I got to say them all the same. I know that you know I love you. But I don't think you understand how much or why and I can't even explain it all but you were the thing I was looking for when I didn't even know I was looking for something. I also need to tell you that what I am most looking forward to tonight is how it will feel to not have to run off and sneak back into the bunkhouse. I know I can take all the time I want being with you and I can hold you in my arms while you sleep and in the morning we'll still be together. I can't think of anything better than that, than knowing that I don't have to leave you and that I don't ever have to let go of you."

The pair reached their room and Cody ushered Heather inside. It hit her almost immediately that there was something more profound in this encounter. They were married. She was his wife.

"Billy," she said softly, "I'm frightened."

He took her hands in his and pulled her to sit next to him on the bed.

"Why, sweetheart?" he asked, "What's scaring you?"

Heather felt suddenly shy to explain but his eyes were so soft and caring.

"Well, we haven't…I mean not since the first time and then…well, it hurt then, Billy."

"I thought all those times we were together that you wanted this like I did and we were just being careful," he said, "That wasn't all it though, was it?"

She shook her head feeling terrible for not being more honest with him.

"Honey," he said pulling her tight to him, "It's okay. It really is. I'm surprised you even want anyone touching you at all after what happened to you. I don't think it hurts like that after the first time but I ain't a woman so I don't know. I know I'll do everything I can to make it not hurt. I had my fill of seeing you hurting. I never want to see that again."

Her eyes rose to meet his and the look there told him she wanted to believe him, she wanted to think that there would only be pleasure but that she was still uncertain.

"Look," he said, "We're married now and I know that we'll be together for the rest of our lives. Tonight we take things slow and if you're too scared or something don't feel right then we stop. It's alright, Heather. Right now all I want to do is kiss you though. Think I can do that?"

She nodded and leaned her head to him lost in the feeling of waiting for his lips on hers. It was an electric sort of thing like the way the air was before a lightning storm. When his mouth touched hers, it sent shivers through her. They had been together a few months now and still he had that effect on her. Heather felt herself melt into him, into his embrace, his kiss. Her hands moved on their own and began to work at the buttons on his shirt and by the time the kiss ended she had the garment dispatched with.

Cody smiled at how efficiently she had gotten him out of his shirt and thought it might be time to return the favor. He turned her so that he could reach the buttons down the back of her dress and with each button undone, he placed a small kiss on her neck. He could already see that by the time he got to her corset that she would be near to desperate for him to loosen it. As the buttons on the dress got lower, he trailed his kissed onto her shoulders. Then he pulled her to standing and let the dress fall in a pool around her feet. Cody continued to kiss at every motion he made in ridding her of her underpinnings. In time she stood before him completely nude and he stepped back to admire her.

Heather felt embarrassed a little for Billy to look at her like he was right then. He had seen her naked before but usually it was in a dimly lit barn loft. This was a well lit hotel room with a real bed next to them that made this seem so much more real than anything between them ever had before. She was just about to lift her arms to try to cover at least some of her nakedness but Billy's hands stopped her and he shook his head slightly.

"I think this is the first time I have had a good look at you since you healed," he said with a hint of sadness, "This is what you ought to look like…not like you was before. Let me just look at how beautiful you are."

Heather blushed but then felt slightly emboldened by his words and appreciative looks.

"Maybe if things were more fair then I wouldn't feel so shy."

Cody looked down and realized he was still wearing trousers.

"Oh I see the problem," he smirked, "That makes sense."

He quickly stripped and stood before her naked.

"Is that better now?"

Heather giggled but nodded biting her lip. She reached to him and ran her fingers over the muscles on his chest. She tried not to look sad when her hands ran over the bullet wounds which no longer looked quite as angry.

"They look better," she said trying not to cry, "I'm sorry. It was my fault."

"You know whose fault it was and it wasn't yours," he told her taking her hand and placing it on his hardness, "Now that is your fault."

"I guess that means I have to take care of it," she said impishly and while Cody wouldn't have thought it possible before, her words and they way she said them made him even more aroused.

Heather's hand closed around Cody's manhood and she led him back to the bed. They had never actually been together in a bed since he had recovered from his wounds and there was only the one night when he had woken up that they were truly together. The thought of sharing a real bed with him, not a hayloft or the shade of a tree, made Heather's breath come even quicker.

She climbed onto the bed and just looked at him her eyes an equal mixture of fiery passion and uncertainty. Cody reached his hand to caress her cheek. He bent to kiss her and with that kiss he was pulled onto the bed and onto Heather. He could feel Heather's hands rubbing all over his body and allowed his own hands to rove over hers. Her breath caught and her nails dug into his back when one of his hands found its way between her legs.

Her hands were all over him and her hips were moving in a dance that needed no accompaniment. Cody knew what he needed but he held off until she was barely coherent except for these words: "Billy…please."

He hoped that he understood her request as he lined himself up to enter her and slowly began to slide inside of her. He watched her face through half opened eyes as he pushed deeper into her. Her eyes flew open for only a second and then drifted closed as her mouth dropped open slightly and a moan escaped her. Her hips bucked upward rolling into him and pushing him even deeper. He tried to move at a slow pace and make this last but it had been so long and she was so tight around him and it felt so damned good to be inside her. And then she dug her heels into the mattress to join in his thrusts as her hands gripped his back. She was panting and nearly growling and was like some animal possessed by pure instinct for pleasure. He could hold back no longer and moved more rapidly, the need and desire and passion building within him as flood waters behind a dam. There was no holding back and he didn't want to. When he heard her cry out his name and God's, that was all it took for him to let everything go. He collapsed only barely bracing his weight until he could catch his breath enough to roll off of her.

Heather lay there with her very being vibrating as a bell that had just been rung. Never had she thought she could feel like she did right then. She could feel Billy softening within her and then slowly slide out. It was an empty feeling she didn't anticipate. She couldn't speak as he rolled from atop her and pulled her tight to him to rest her head on his chest. His hands stroked through her hair and he pressed a kiss to her head.

"Are you alright, Heather?"

She nodded and kissed his chest. She could feel his release seeping out between her legs and a part of her wished that she would find herself with child but then she knew she wouldn't and that it wasn't right anyway.

"I probably should've asked before," Cody said, "But is this one of those times when you can't get in a family way?"

She nodded and felt his arms tighten around her, his fingers ghosting up and down her back and across her shoulders.

"Maybe we should make the most of that then."

Heather's eyes widened as Billy pulled her onto him and guided himself into her. His hands guided her hips at first but the friction of their bodies felt so good that her own desires quickly took over the pace.

Cody was transfixed and nearly pushed over the edge merely at the sight before him. Heather's face was wanton and filled with desire and need. Her cheeks flushed and her breasts bounced with the rhythm that was all her own. It was wild and frenzied. He could only lay back and let her take him with her on her journey to bliss. When he felt her tighten around him, it drove him nearly mad. And then her sweat slicked body nearly fell onto his in an exhaustion born of ecstasy. He held her tight as her body trembled from the waves of pleasure still washing over her.

"Looks like you're not scared anymore," he observed.

Heather kissed him and delighted in how safe she was. They might face hard times in their life together but they'd never do it alone. Billy was and always would be her safe place, her home. Tears fell onto his chest and he tilted her face toward him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm just so happy," she whispered into the skin on his chest, "I just love you so much."

"Well, those tears are fine then," he replied kissing her forehead before reaching over and turning down the lamp. "I'd love nothing more than to do that all night but I'm plum wore out. As I recall you know how to wake a man up so maybe come morning we can get a little more loving in."

They both drifted to sleep then and woke in the arms of the one they loved most. They didn't get up when they awoke and spent all the time they could in bed delighting in being able to have this freedom to explore and pleasure the other. Eventually though they knew they had to get up and they did and dressed and ventured to the dining area for some breakfast.

Soon Heather was following along behind Billy to a buckboard and was helped up onto it.

"It's time I took you home, Heather," he explained, "To our home."

Heather leaned to him and rested against his arm as he drove the wagon but she became tense and confused as the road looked familiar.

"Billy?"

"It's alright honey," he assured her, "You'll see."

Heather saw their tree. It would always be their tree. She had thought it a beautiful tree even before the nights she shared with Billy beneath its boughs. But right next to the tree was a small house, more a cottage really. She strained her eyes for the old farmhouse she had once felt imprisoned in.

"The old house is gone, Heather," he told her, "I tore it down. Felt good to do it too. Was able to use some of the wood to build us this place. It ain't much…nothing like you deserve. It sure ain't no palace. You'll have one of those someday. I swear it to you. You will have the house you deserve."

Looking at the small house, Heather felt enough like a princess. It was painted a crisp, clean white and she could see the ruffled curtains sweeping across the windows.

"Can I go inside?"

"It's your home, Heather."

She ran inside and was nearly brought to tears by the cheerful interior. Although it was only two rooms, he had done all he could to make it a real looking home. The front was kitchen, dining room and sitting room all in one but he had painted the kitchen a sunny yellow while the sitting room was more sedate. It would be perfect for sitting in the evenings and doing needlework or mending while they talked of grand plans for their life together. There was a doorway that led to the bedroom and she gasped at the ornate woodwork on the headboard of the bed. Her fingers traced over it as the tears welled in her eyes.

Cody watched her study every detail of the place and tried to read her responses. He had wanted to give her a proper home, a real house. This was a shack in his estimation. But money had been an object and this was the place he could afford. He at first had thought to clean up the old farmhouse and at least give her that place but he couldn't hardly walk inside it. He still tried cleaning it up to prepare it for paint but when he went upstairs and saw the evidence, pooled and dried into the wood, of the night he failed her, the last night she spent there…he started taking an axe to the place. Jimmy had stopped him. He was as angry as Cody had been but it was his idea to salvage the pieces and try to build something new, something good. Cody had chosen to build next to the tree because it had been a happy place for them, a place where their love was born. Right now though he thought maybe it still hadn't been a good enough plan. She was quiet as she went from room to room.

"This was a mistake," he muttered, "I know it was."

She turned to him with eyes shining.

"It's perfect," she smiled at him, "It's absolutely perfect. I've never had a home so nice."

"But you deser-"

"A palace?" she asked, "It is a palace, Billy. Don't you see that? Where you are is my home and our home is a palace to me."

And then she wrapped her arms around him and he understood her words. He would never lack a home as long as there was Heather. No matter where he roamed, returning to her would always be coming home. They were no longer a princess in disguise and her rescuing knight but a king and a queen and no matter how humble or grand, their home would always be a palace to them as long as it was built on their love.

Okay...now I can tell everyone...I have planned a series of stories that follow Jimmy/Faith, Cody/Heather, Buck/Jenny (as we knew them in Retoring Faith) and Kid and Lou into the future with their children...I hadn't been able to really work on them while this story was unfinished...but now that it is done...we will catch back up with these crazy kids and their crazy kids at some point in the future! Something to look forward to! As always, I am humbled by the kindness of those who opted to take this journey with me and I bow to the depth of friendship offered me by my dear Myrtle. Without you, this does not happen!-J