BOAB CH45

The men pulled up in the non-descript van and unloaded, each of them looking around the heavily wooded area for signs of other people. Satisfied with their cursory inspection, they walked over to where Jesse was standing, his back towards the direction he'd sent Clay. "It's about damn time you guys showed up," He growled. "We're on time." The lead man said as he walked over to the truck. The other two that had arrived with him crawled onto the flatbed and checked the barrels over. They conferred with each other briefly and then came down and spoke to the man standing in front of Jesse. "It's all here." Were the only words spoken, nodding at them one of them got back in the truck and the lead turned to Jesse, "Keys?" Jesse reached into his pocket and pulled them out, "Tell that bitch I want my money." He snarled at the man as he handed them over. The man laughed and said, "I'll pass that along chump, thanks for the ride." He climbed into the cab and the other man joined him as the van led the way out of the clearing, backing the big flatbed down to where he could turn it around the man waved out the window as Jesse watched the taillights flash briefly before the rise of the dirt road prevented him from seeing the truck at all. Sighing he walked over to where Clay was hidden, "You ready kid?" He asked.

Clay stood up and said, "Who were they?"

Jesse looked back down the road, "Nobody kid, that was nobody." Clay shrugged and got on his horse as Jesse loaded Spider up and came over, "Let's go." His terse command made Clay feel a little unsure, but history overrode his fear, Jesse had been in his life since he was a little kid, he wouldn't do anything to get him hurt. Turning Scott to follow Spider, he soon realized that conversation wasn't on Jesse's mind as the first couple of questions got brusque one word responses, deciding to let Jesse be, Clay settled in silently behind the big horse and tried his best to keep up.

The rest of the group stopped at the top of the butte and spread out to rest their horses and grab some food. Commenting on the spectacular view of the valley and the nice morning ride, some of them were rolling their heavy coats up and changing into cooler shirts. It was still fairly cool, but the further up they went the less tree cover they would have, so it would rapidly begin to warm up. Dogs were watered and the first beers of the day were cracked open as everyone enjoyed the day. Roxie and the rest of the girls arrived along with their escorts about 20 minutes after everyone else had already dismounted. They groused along with the good natured teasing about the reasons why they were late. Curtis and Tony endured the good natured ribbing as well as they headed over to where some of the other cowboys were standing. Chuck and Tug, Doug, Dirk, Jayson and Mal were standing around, an open beer in their hands when they trotted up. Tony noticed there was one person conspicuously absent, "Where's Jesse?" He asked looking back over his shoulder to see if he could spot him in the crowd. Chuck spoke up quickly, "He had to run an errand this morning but said he'd join us later. Why?"

Tony cocked his head at the aggressiveness of the answer and raised his eyebrow, "No reason Chuck, I just wondered where he was." He said lightly.

"Afraid you may have some competition for your girl?" he sneered.

Again Tony raised his brow, this time though it was a little harder to keep his voice light as he responded, "I'm not afraid of anything Chuck, let alone your little buddy Jesse." The two of them began to square off when Jayson stepped in and said, "Hey, l l lets all j j just c calm down here, g g guys." Curtis stepped over towards Tony and Tug towards Chuck and the situation was diffused slightly. A couple of the other cowboys looked over at their huddle and then turned back, laughing it off as just a schoolyard tussle. "Come on Tony, let's go get some grub," Curtis said as Carrie waived a sandwich in his eye line. "Yeah, that's a good idea." Tony said as the two of them headed over to the girls. Mal, Jayson and Dirk also left with them, "What the hell was that about?" Doug asked Chuck as they turned back to each other.

"I just don't trust that guy," Chuck said.

"Well, keep it in your pants Chuck, he's a damn fine cowboy and nobody wants to referee a pissing match this weekend," Doug said as he turned to walk over to where his wife had set up lunch for them. "Whatever Dougie." He sneered under his breath when he'd walked away. "How much longer do you think Jesse will be?" Tug worried as he lit a cigarette and crushed the can in his hand, tucking it absent mindedly into the pocket of the vest he wore. "Not too much longer," Chuck said looking at his watch, "If you hadn't of pussed out, he'd be here now and we wouldn't be talking about it." He turned away and walked over to his horse and grabbed some beef jerky out of the pouch. He hoped that Jesse had it all under control, he wasn't as sure that this was going to go off as smooth as Jesse thought it was, something just didn't feel right. Tug watched him walk away and said under his breath, "Asshole."

The guys came over from their little meeting of the minds and sat down on the blanket the girls had spread out, each of them taking a beer and a sandwich, they all talked about the ride and what else was expected. They had all been resting for about an hour when Jayson said, "W we well we should all g g get going, we d d don't want to be setting up t t too late." The girls agreed and Carrie started gathering up the trash, Danni, Stefanie and Roxie went over to the other people gathered on blankets or stumps and got everyone up and started them all repacking. Once there was no sign that they'd been there and they were all mounted up, Doug stood up in the saddle and yelled, "Regulators Ready!" Before yelling and spurring his horse on, waving his hat in the air. Everyone laughed at the movie quote and turned their own horses to follow. Once again Carrie and her girls and guys bringing up the rear, Jayson moving over to ride beside Stefanie.

"Thanks f f for the s s sandwich Stef." He said and she looked over and got a full glimpse of his blue eyes and wide smile. She felt her heart lurch in her chest and forced the millions of memories out her mind, "You're welcome Jayson, I'm glad you could come today. It seems that everyone else is glad to see you too." Once he'd arrived, all of the cowboys and most of their wives had all come over to shake his hand and welcome him home, he was the local home town hero having gone and done what so many of them had wanted to do themselves, before talent, real world responsibilities and injuries had forced them to admit that they weren't going to make it to the top. Jayson was glad to be back among his childhood friends and slipped easily into the small town mind set, he had liked being on the pro tour but had really never been close to anyone, it was pretty cutthroat on the road and everyone was out for themselves, himself included. "Yeah, its n n nice to be b b back." He said quietly. He could see that she was holding herself at a distance and although it hurt, he understood that she was just protecting herself. She smiled and urged her horse to go a little faster, leaving him behind as she pulled up alongside of Jake, "How you doing pretty lady?" He asked as she pulled alongside him.

"I'm doing fine Jake, how're you?" She asked giving him her full attention. Last night was another mistake in a long line of mistakes with this man, but she tried to care about him as much as she could. "Oh, you know, just waiting for the night to fall." He smiled at her and the two of them fell into an easy banter. Jayson slowed down and fell back to ride with the others, "Well, th th that went w w well." He said to no one in particular. Danni said, "Jayson, you can't expect that she would just fall all over you, it's been a long time and a lot has happened since you two were kids." Jayson nodded in agreement wondering if Danni knew just how much, "You're right D D Danni, so, what's been g g going on in P p payton place since I've b b been gone?" The girls all began to chat at once, with the occasional aside from the guys as they filled him in on the small town drama. Mal and Roxie rode side by side and he leaned over, "Having fun Rox?" She looked over and said, "Yes Mal, I'm enjoying myself very much. This has been a real eye opener for me and I've learned a lot, it's going to be hard to leave it all behind."

He nodded and said, "Do you know when you'll be heading on Temperance?" They were far enough behind the rest that they could speak freely, "I don't know, it doesn't seem like much longer now." She didn't want to elaborate on the case and her connection to Booth, especially since they were effectively stalled on the case as it were. "Well, for however long it ends up being, I for one will be sad to see it end. You're a really neat lady Dr. Brennan, I hope that you decide to come back sometime and see us all again." She smiled and agreed that she'd like that too. "How are things coming with Cordelia?" She asked and grinned at the flush that appeared on his face, "Things are good, you know I'm just taking one day at a time. She's ready for more, but I'm still a little gun-shy. What about you, Tony seems like a nice guy, anything happening there?" He watched her mouth open slightly and her eyes widen as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, "I don't know what you mean." She finally said, although without any conviction. Mal just laughed and said, "Okay." The drifted into more relaxed conversation and continued on the trail.

"Jesse?" Clay asked timidly. He'd tried to get his attention a couple of times now and hadn't gotten anywhere, but he needed to stop and he couldn't wait anymore.

"What?" Jesse turned and looked back at the kid.

"I have to stop for a minute, my leg hurts and I have to pee." He said wanting to sound less like a little boy and more like a man, but no matter what, he was still just a little boy with a bum leg.

Jesse stopped Spider and Scoot stopped with gratitude behind him, he wasn't used to long rides either and it was showing, he had flecks of sweat on his sides and his breathing was labored. "Alright we'll stop for a minute or two, we don't have a lot of time to waste, and it's getting late and neither one of us wants to be up here after sundown." Jesse had been paralleling the rest of the group for about an hour or so now, they were about 6 miles south of them and he anticipated merging with them shortly. He'd been riding these game trails his whole life, and knew that this one would eventually drift down towards the bonfire pit. Clay slid carefully out of the saddle and had to sag against his pony when his legs touched down, his twisted leg wasn't able to bear a lot of his weight right away and he had to let the horse hold him up. He poured some water from his canteen into his hat and held it out first to Scoot and then Leo, both of them slurping loudly while he tried desperately to get some feeling into his leg. Slowly, the cramp that had settled into his thigh loosened and he was able to stumble behind a tree to relieve himself. Coming back around, he grabbed another granola bar and started to share it with Leo when Jesse came out from behind another tree and handed him a bag of trail mix and beef jerky, "Here kid, eat this instead, let the dog have the granola bar." He watched the kid sit down, his legs outstretched and said conversationally, "So, Clay, why this bonfire? What's so special about it that you'd want to ride all the way up here and go?" he took a swig from his own canteen, "Especially since your aunt is not gonna like having you there."

Clay chewed the handful of trail mix and jerky and swallowed before saying, "I wanted to hang out with the cowboys, and Aunt Stef says that I'm too young, but I'm not. I like being with them, Tony and Mr. Jayson, they're cool. Tony's been showing me some stuff, and he's gonna let me go behind the chutes when the rodeo opens, and Mr. Jayson was really nice to me." Jesse listened to the kid go on about the cowboys he was enamored with and felt his blood run cold, to his way of thinking his brother coming back couldn't have happened at a worse time, and he didn't trust Tony at all. Once Jayson found out this brat was his kid and that the other one was dead, then all hell was going to break loose and he didn't think that Tug and Chuck were smart enough to keep their mouths shut. On top of it all, that dumb Canadian cowboy Tony Scallion was making himself a pest, always around and asking questions, not to mention he was pretty sure he'd been hitting that sweet little piece of ass Roxie and Jesse wanted that all to himself.

"Well, yeah they are pretty cool cowboys; I'll give you that kid, you ready?" He wanted to get a move on; he'd had enough of babysitting.

Clay nodded his mouth full of trail mix, grabbing his dog, and signaling Leo to stand he hobbled over to the horses, Scoot wasn't breathing as heavily and accepted another hatful of water before Clay climbed carefully back into the saddle. His leg protested slightly at being forced back into the same position, but he knew that it wouldn't be much further and he'd be able to rest. The two of them took off, Leo following morosely behind them for once not eager to stray ahead, instead wanting to be as close to his boy as he could.