AN: Just like the first chapter of this story, this one also includes parts of my story "The New Doctor". Most of it, though, is new material.

Enjoy!

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The bandits and their prisoners rode some six miles, during which time Diego had fallen asleep again, and only woke up for a few moments as they forced him off the horse he was riding. Their captors laughed and let him sleep, but both Victoria and Felipe were worried about him, as his condition seemed to be getting worse.

After making camp and gathering some wood for the fire, the thugs spend some time discussing their plans for the following day then ate and drank. A few hours later, as if only then remembering their prisoners, their leader neared Victoria.

"So, you are Zorro's woman." He said, cupping her chin and tilting her head upwards to look at him. "Pretty… Perhaps I'll see for myself what he likes about you." He uttered, licking his lips.

He forced the young woman to her feet and was about to lead her away from the camp when, as she was struggling, Victoria caused him to fall rather awkwardly onto a small boulder. The impact of the fall caused all thought of forcing himself on her to leave his mind, as he felt a sharp pain through his groins, and he folded in upon himself, letting out a painful groan.

His men, who had been laughing thus far, hurried to help their leader.

As for the taverness, taking advantage of their captors' distraction, she started running, not only to, thus, save herself, but hoping she might be able to find help.

"Stop or he dies!" One of the bandits said as he pointed a gun to Felipe's temple.

She looked back and stopped, then slowly made her way towards the men.

The bandits' leader stood up slowly and, as she returned, looking defiantly at him, he slapped her, causing her to fall down, then ordered his men to take her to the other prisoners.

"I'll have my way with you later, you wench!" He threatened as his men were tying up her legs. "And then each and every one of my men will do the same." He smiled maliciously, then returned to the campfire and asked for more tequila.

Fortunately for the taverness, in order to fully numb his pain, the man drank so much that he soon fell asleep, and none of his cohorts dared touch her before their leader. Instead, they all fell asleep, as well, after making sure that their prisoners had no chance of running away during the night.

ZZZ

In the meantime, Jessie had spent over an hour at the medical office, checking the injured men's wounds, then re-bandaging them, while Pilar cooked all of them some food and opened the tavern.

About an hour later, after eating, realizing Diego wasn't coming back, the thought crossed her mind that he had probably found Zorro. Hurrying to gather the medicines she needed to take back with her to the Indian tribe, she left some instructions for Mendoza, and headed for the hacienda.

It was around that time when De Soto woke up from his afternoon nap, and finding out that his injured men were not being cared for by any of the pueblo's doctors, he quickly became furious. In truth, nothing was wrong. The lancers truly seemed to be doing well, as Jessie had concluded a while earlier. The Alcalde, however, was upset with his wife for not waking him up during the siesta when she had come to the pueblo, and found that taking it out on Diego was as good an idea at any at that point.

"Mendoza!" He called at arriving at the medical office and finding his Sergeant telling his wounded men about how he had fooled the bandits who had come to the pueblo that morning. "I want you to go to the De la Vega hacienda and inform Diego that, unless he returns at once to take care of his patients, I will have him put in the pillories for negligence! Are we understood?" He didn't really know how to threaten the caballero who wasn't actually a doctor, nor paid to act as one, and that was the only thing that came to mind.

"Si! Si, Alcalde!" The man answered and, minutes later, he was already on his way.

He arrived at the hacienda just as the old caballero and Jessie were mounting their horses, headed towards the Indian tribe.

ZZZ

Felipe and Victoria woke up at dawn and started silently working on freeing themselves. Their captors and Diego, though, kept sleeping, which the taverness noticed with relief, hoping the thugs would keep sleeping at least until noon so that they wouldn't have the time to keep their promise of hurting her before heading to the bridge for the exchange. The young man fully shared her feelings when it came to the bandits, but was becoming quite worried about his adoptive father, considering he had read a few things in Diego's books about head injuries and knew that not waking up after one was a very bad sign.

About two hours they spent unsuccessfully trying to free themselves before they started hearing noises, and turned to see several very familiar men heading their way. Moments later, the thugs were awakened by the cracks of muskets pointed at their heads.

"Diego?" Don Alejandro called as Victoria and Felipe, their knots untied, were just getting up. "Can you hear me? What's wrong with him?" He wondered as he frantically started to check for injuries at seeing his son wasn't waking up.

Not finding any explanation, he poured some cold water on his face and the younger caballero finally opened his eyes. "Father!" He uttered. "What's… going on?" He asked at noticing his surroundings with some puzzlement.

"It's alright, Son. Grey Wing helped us find you. You're all safe!" The don told him.

"Grey Wing?" The tall caballero asked, wondering what the tracker was doing there.

His head was still throbbing, but the sleep was more than a little useful to him as, to Felipe's relief, at waking up, his amnesia seemed almost gone. There were still events he didn't remember, such as most of what had happened the previous day, including how he had gotten to the meadow. Almost everything else was rather clear to him, though, and he was smart enough not to let others realize that some parts of his memory was a little foggy.

"I was worried about you, Diego!" Victoria uttered as they were slowly making their way towards Los Angeles. "For a few moments, when Don Alejandro tried to wake you up and couldn't, I feared something might have happened to you without us noticing."

"Oh, Victoria. I was just tired. I sleep like a log sometimes." He explained.

"Right! Well, I guess a day and a night of keeping vigil would have that impact on a person used to sleeping late." She said, half-serious, half-joking.

"Indeed." He answered with a sly smile.

ZZZ

During the following days, Diego's memory returned in full, and the cactus tea he started drinking like water helped him get over the side-effects of the second and third hit to the head, both of which he had incurred just a little over a week after the one caused by Don Manolo.

The first of them he remembered he had suffered during the attack on the Indian pueblo. The other, at hitting his head on a rock when the dizziness caused by the previous hit, and the tiredness finally got to him, and he fell off Tornado. He thanked God that nothing worse had happened and that it had been Jessie to find him knocked out, instead of the Alcalde or any of his men.

The bandits who had abducted Victoria, Felipe, and Diego after previously attacking the Indian tribe and Los Angeles, were tried, sentenced, and executed for their crimes. As for the injured lancers, being deemed outside of danger, they returned to their quarters just a few days after they had been wounded.

Jessie, however, had remained with the Indians. She was relieved when Grey Wing informed her that her friends had been found and were safe, yet kept worrying about the masked man, despite reasoning that he must have had somebody to help him and a refuge where his horse was more than capable of taking him.

ZZZ

As several more days had passed and Jessie didn't seem inclined to return, De Soto one day decided to invite Diego to lunch in the hope to persuade Diego to accompany him to the tribe and get her to come back.

"What makes you think I can convince her? If her help is still needed, I doubt she will agree to return, Ignacio." The tall caballero wondered as Victoria brought them both their lunches.

"She always listens to you." The Alcalde said, rather reluctantly. "Besides, we had a… big fight just before all this happened."

"Yes, I think she mentioned something. I believe it had to do with you wanting to take her and return to Madrid, if I'm not mistaken…"

"It's not public knowledge, Diego, so I would appreciate it if you kept that to yourself!" De Soto stated, looking around with some concern.

"But I believe it's everyone's right to know something that impacts all our lives in such a considerable way!" Diego said innocently, not bothering to lower his tone. "Besides, I believe you are forgetting I am the town's newspaper editor. It is my duty to keep the people informed."

"If you publish a word of this, I might be tempted to put you in the pillory!" De Soto threatened, then remembered he was there to ask for his former schoolmate's help. "Look..." he said, doing every effort to calm down, "help me with Jessie, and I will tell you everything you want to know. Well, everything I know… You can publish it in the next edition of 'The Guardian'. It's not like I can prevent such news from becoming public knowledge for much longer."

"I believe we have a deal, Alcalde." Diego answered, seeing that many in the tavern had turned their attention towards their table at overhearing parts of their argument. "Very well. I'll come with you to the Indian camp, but you must also promise to let Jessie make up her own mind about what she wants to do. She was meant to be a doctor, and I doubt there will be any place for her to practice medicine in Madrid. Besides, this pueblo needs her, Ignacio!"

De Soto sighed and agreed.

The two of them, accompanied by Mendoza and two other lancers, made their way towards the new Indian settlement that very afternoon. The Alcalde got them lost twice on the way there but, after three hours, they finally arrived and found Jessie tending to a teenager, the only person there who was still in a bad state.

"Why are you even bothering with him," her husband questioned at recognizing the young man. "He is to be executed, anyway. In fact, I'm surprised he was allowed to live this long."

"He's not going to be executed!" She retorted, mostly to assure the frightened young man who was looking at the new arrivals with wide, frightened eyes.

Offering him a kind smile, she pointed towards the tent's exit and she, Ignacio and Diego headed outside, where Mendoza and the lancers were waiting with the horses.

"He was found innocent of any crime. Unfortunately, your men had shot him, and the wound got infected by the time I was allowed to start taking care of him." Jessie told her husband as soon as they exited.

"Innocent? He's one of those bandits!" De Soto stated.

"He went through 'the river of pain' and survived. The spirits who helped him deem him innocent, and so shall we." Long Feather stated as he approached the newcomers after overhearing the conversation.

"The 'river of pain'?" Diego asked, puzzled, glancing through the tent's entrance towards the young man.

"It's a trial of virtue or something like that." Jessie explained, taking his puzzlement for ignorance. "I tried to convince them to give those men a fair trial, and they subjected them to it. Only he made it out alive."

"The river of pain can only be survived by those pure of heart." The Indian Chief explained.

De Soto rolled his eyes. "Zorro made it through that 'river of pain' of yours with barely a scratch on him…" He said mockingly.

"He did? Why was he subjected to it?" Jessie wondered.

"He volunteered, in order to save the Alcalde, who had trespassed on Indian's sacred ground." Sergeant Mendoza found that moment to remind everyone of his presence. "Or so Angry Eyes told me…" He added at seeing the glance his superior gave him, then returned to the horses.

"He went through that to save you… and you still tried to capture him afterward? What sort of person does that?" She asked Ignacio, shaking her head.

Long Feather also gave him a resentful look before he headed towards his tent.

"But, Dear… He's still an outlaw." De Soto tried to excuse himself, not bothering with the tribe's Chief.

Jessie looked at him with a heartbroken expression on her face, one her husband had seen only once before, and turned away, heading for her patient.

Ignacio remained staring after her, then headed for a log and sat down, pensively looking at the grass.

Diego signaled for Felipe to give the De Sotos some time alone, then, noticing Grey Wing, headed towards him.

"I don't believe I had the chance to thank you the other day." He said, nearing the man. "Something very bad could have happened to Victoria, had you not led the search party to us in time. Probably, not only to her…"

"Victoria? She's the woman Zorro loves…" The man answered.

"Yes. He loves her very much." Diego confirmed. "I believe he is in your debt now."

"No." The Indian tracker answered, then looked towards one of the women there, pointing at her. "She is someone I love very much. Zorro saved her the night the tribe was attacked. Her and others. I would say we… Zorro and I are even."

The tall caballero smiled and nodded.

"Your Alcalde… he's not like the other one." The Indian then continued.

"No. I do believe there is still hope for him." Diego uttered with a smile. "If only he'd wise up and start listening to his heart."

ZZZ

Jessie did return to Los Angeles that day, but not before Ignacio agreed for her patient, to whom she had taken a particular liking by that point, to return with her. The teenager had to be reassured a few times that he was not going to be hung but eventually believed it when his caretaker promised him she'd find him an honest job after he'd get better.

Around that same time, Diego received an answer to the letters he had sent a little over two weeks earlier. Yet, as the De Sotos were still estranged, Jessie still refusing to return to the hacienda or share a bed with her husband, and the Alcalde in a constant melancholic mood, the caballero decided to tell his colleague that his research had had no results, having been unable to procure the new legislation on the appointment of local officials, as he had promised her to do.

She was disappointed but understood he probably needed more time to come up with something helpful.

That very night, after the Alcalde, who had restarted using his quarters at the garrison in order to feel closer to his wife, went to sleep, Zorro made his way inside his office and left him two files. They contained the new rules for the election of the alcaldes, as well as excerpts from the applicable Spanish legislation, the most relevant paragraphs marked with a Z.

ZZZ

The following day, Ignacio de Soto entered his office to find the two folders on the desk, both opened.

"Zorro! In my office… Again! Mendoza already obeys his orders rather than mine. That renegade has taken over this entire pueblo! Oh, what's the point in being alcalde if no one obeys me?" De Soto asked himself as he sat in his chair and started reading the marked paragraphs, then re-read them. When he finished, he pondered them for most of the morning, then ordered Mendoza to have a podium built in the plaza by the following day and inform the people that he was to make an important announcement at noon, for which they should all be present there.

"That woman!" He uttered just to himself while watching his wife exiting the office and heading towards the tavern. "Why does she always have to win? Even Zorro is clearly on her side!"

ZZZ

The Alcalde had barely closed his eyes that night, considering how his decision was going to probably destroy his life and (certainly) his career. When he eventually fell asleep, it was an agitated one as he dreamt of Mendoza and Zorro laughing at him, Diego and Don Alejandro looking at him with superiority and refusing to even talk to him, and his wife leaving him for the next alcalde.

In the morning, Jessie came to his room bringing him breakfast. It was her own way of showing her gratitude towards her husband for having accepted to hire the former teenager bandit to work on their hacienda, an idea he much disliked but agreed to in the hope he'd thus gain her forgiveness. Even if she didn't say a single word to him, somehow, his decision suddenly seemed right.

ZZZ

"Citizens of Los Angeles!" De Soto started from the podium. "I gathered you here because I have an important announcement to make, and it concerns us all!

"As many of you must already know, Mexico has declared its independence from Spain and the Californias belong to the new state. This change in status comes accompanied by important legal changes. One of those changes refers to the appointment of the alcaldes.

"As you may know, I was named Alcalde of Los Angeles by Royal Decree. Such nomination no longer applies under Mexican rule.

"For this reason, I have decided to step down from the office…"

Cheers were heard as he reached this part of the announcement. De Soto frowned and continued.

"… and organize free and fair elections." More cheers followed.

"Since the Spanish laws allow the leaving alcalde to nominate his successor, and the Mexican laws request for the local officials to be elected, I hereby appoint three leaders of this community out of which the people of Los Angeles will be asked to choose one to become our new alcalde, thus conforming to the rules of both states, a necessary aspect, considering our current predicament."

The spirits calmed a little after he said that since the people didn't know what to expect in terms of nominations. They would have much rather decided for themselves who the candidates should be.

"After much consideration, I have decided that the three nominees should be three of the most respected, well-educated and able people in this pueblo. I, thus, nominate Don Sebastian Santana, Don Alejandro de la Vega, and Don Matias Morales.

"As direct nominees, any one of them you elect has the duty to take office and serve as alcalde for the next three years. The elections will take place tomorrow and the new alcalde will take over the day after his election when I will also sign his appointment as my successor."

With that said, Ignacio looked defiantly at his wife, whose big, happy smile made him feel he had made the right decision. The note she sent him a while later, informing him that she'd like for the two of them to return to living in their house, convinced him he had.

Don Alejandro, his two friends, Don Sebastian and Don Matias, and mostly everyone else, were more than a little surprised by their nomination. The only one who was not surprised was Diego, the one person who had already guessed De Soto would nominate them since they were known as fair and reasonable men.

"I have to say I am a bit worried, Diego," Don Alejandro mentioned after a brief discussion with some of the other dons. "If I win these elections, you will have to take care of the ranch almost all by yourself, Son. What do you think prompted De Soto to nominate me and two of my closest friends?"

"Well, Father, maybe he genuinely wants Los Angeles to finally have a good ruler. After all, if he does decide to remain here, it is also in his own advantage for the next alcalde to be a better man than he is." Diego replied with an almost unperceivable smile. "As for the ranch, don't worry! Between the three of us, we'll manage." He uttered, winking at Felipe.

"Yes, you are right, Diego. We'll be fine, especially if we will no longer need to worry about De Soto's actions. And he does have the vineyards. He doesn't need to be alcalde. All he needs is low taxes!" Don Alejandro agreed. "If I would have known giving him those lands would get him to step down, I would have done it long ago!"

"I do think the timing also has something to do with that decision. I doubt it would have had the same effect a year or two ago." Diego replied.

ZZZ

The next day, Don Alejandro de la Vega was elected to be the new Alcalde of Los Angeles. The result of the election left the people happy with the idea they finally had a leader who would not oppress them, and the old don was honored to be chosen for the job.

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AN: Story no. 15 is thus over. Hope you enjoyed it and let me know if you did. I will do my best to publish the next chapters as soon as possible. Since they are yet to be written, you can tell me what you'd like to read: comedy, family, angst, drama, romance, adventure? The choice is yours but will be mine if you don't make it:P