Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. of Yellowstone are the property of Taylor Sheridan. I am in no way associated with Taylor Sheridan, any creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended. Some descriptions of characters that previously existed may be altered to fit the vision of this story.

Author's Note: If you haven't watched the show yet, I can't recommend it enough. But if you haven't and you decide you are going to read this story, please note that from the very first chapter there are spoilers to every episode.

Heavy Lemons and adult themes to follow. This story is dark, mature, and heavy with details so please be forewarned. Please be aware of potential triggers, and enjoy!

Chapter 1: Daybreak pt. 1

My eyes opened as his breath tickled my cheek. I could hear gravel crunching under tires and the squeak of metal as a truck came to a stop outside my window.

I abruptly sat up, his arm sliding from my chest and into my lap.

"Fuck!"

I shoved his limp limb off as I scampered around my floor, snatching loose items that cluttered it.

"He wasn't supposed to be home until tonight— goddammit, get up!" I threw the clothes at the man as he groaned.

"Wut—" he rubbed his eyes.

"Unless you want my daddy to string you up by your balls out on the flag pole, you better get the hell out of here," I spat, glancing at my naked self in the mirror.

"Oh, shit," he suddenly realized the severity of his situation as he peered out the window.

I heard Daddy's boots clunk on the front porch as I calmly pulled my jeans up.

"How do I get out of here?" he whispered as he pulled his shirt over his head, grabbing his boots on the ground.

I didn't actually care if he made it out unseen or not. Honestly, it would've been entertaining if Daddy had found him in my bed. It would be the most exciting thing to happen on the ranch since God knows when. I shrugged, unphased. "Most of 'em just jump out my window."

He looked from the window then back to me. "Are you serious?"

I didn't bother to return the glance. "Well, how do you think your balls would hold up on that pole?" I blithely asked as Daddy slammed the front door, his boots thudding into the study.

"Goddammit, Marley," he groaned and pushed my window out until he had enough room to jump down onto the roof of the side-porch, gingerly squatting so that he didn't slide down the shingles. "Can I call you later?" he asked as I shut my bathroom door.

Why the hell is he home so early? I groaned in my head as I pulled out a shirt to throw on.

I heard the front door open and shut again, this time hollow thuds clunking into the office.

Jamie's home, I sighed and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. And here I thought I was going to have a relaxing day where I could fuck Travis— or was it Dustin?— in peace.

I carefully opened my bedroom door and leaned out, listening to their voices coming from downstairs.

"Allan asked me to mention it, so I will..."

I padded across the hallway and lightly floated down the stairs, knowing exactly which steps gave away my position.

"They would allow us to harvest the timber before the—"

"No," Daddy cut him off as I hurried through the living room. "The answer's no."

"Can I do this?" Jamie insisted. I heard a metal clinking as I tip-toed to the study doorway.

"When you say no, it must be the death of the question," Daddy hadn't raised his voice but, it evenly echoed through the room as it reverberated off me. No wonder he never let me beg for anything.

"If there's even a hint of a maybe, the question's won't stop until they can find something you can't say no to."

I'll keep an eye out for hints of maybe then, I sneered, leaning against the doorframe. Daddy's back was to me as he sat in front of Jamie, who was holding a pair of scissors to his forehead.

"You gotta learn when to think like a lawyer, you understand? And when to think like a landowner," Jamie's tools clinked as he swapped out what looked like bloody gauze. "Or a lawyer's all you're ever gonna be."

Daddy looked in the mirror for a moment, studying Jamie's work. "Well, I'll say this, you've got your mother's hands."

My chest tightened as I grit my teeth before sweeping into the room. "What are you doing home so early?" I played dumb. "Daddy, what happened?" I halted, staring at the gash on his forehead.

He turned to me and sighed, caught off guard by my entrance. "Nothing, sweetheart. Just an accident," he smiled in the corner of his mouth before turning back to his desk.

Jamie, on the other hand, eyed me cautiously. He was right to do so, but I wouldn't let him in on how much I heard.

Daddy grabbed a coffee cup before turning to leave, kissing me on the forehead before pulling his jacket on and heading out the front door.

I watched as Jamie followed him, muttering to himself as he struggled to keep up. I trailed both of them into the living room, observing from the front porch as Daddy headed to the helicopter that had started up on the front lawn.

I pitied Jamie. He always got a hard time from everyone else— not as bad as me by a long shot but at least he didn't deserve it. He was never really mean to me, though. But he was always too polite as if he never felt that he could be comfortable around me, like when a kind stranger occupies your house for longer than you invited them. And there he was, chasing Daddy yet again for the same approval that I coveted. At least I didn't have to grovel for it.

Lee pulled the truck and trailer alongside the landing pad before jumping out and approaching the two of them on the grass. I watched on as they exchanged words before Daddy climbed into the chopper, heading off to God knows where; leaving Jamie looking just as frustrated as ever.

"Where are you going?" I shouted to Lee as he marched back to the truck, shaking his head slightly.

He looked to me, acknowledging that I yelled something, but clearly couldn't tell what I had said as the chopper flew overhead, the whirling blades echoing off the valley.

"I said, 'where are you going?'" I reiterated, walking out to meet him at the truck bed.

He shook his head again, taking his badge out of the backseat. "We got some strays loose, gotta get them back before they wander too far."

"Can I come with?" I asked with a grin. I knew he wouldn't say no to me.

Lee squinted his eye as he looked out to Jamie, thinking it over. "You stay in the truck, do you hear me?"

"Jesus, you sound just like him," I grinned, giving him a playful shove as I walked around the front to the passenger side.

Before I could get in, he reached across and snatched his rifle that was propped on the seat, moving it to the back and shutting the door.

As I looked at him with a confused expression, he returned it with a 'don't ask,' sigh before hopping in and slamming the driver side shut.

I pulled my feet up and pressed them against the dash, the dust, and dirt from my boots creating prints on the plastic.

"So," Lee broke the silence as the truck rattled down the driveway.

"So?" I returned, staring out the dusty window.

"Was that Casey or Trenton or Travis that I saw damn near break his leg jumping from your window?" he didn't look at me at first, but when he did he had a huge smirk plastered across his face.

I couldn't help but giggle, half from embarrassment and another half from realizing that his name was Travis. "Don't tell Daddy."

The empty trailer rattled as he carefully drove up the rocky, dirt road. We drove along the barbed wire fence, Lee's eyes scanning the horizon.

"So, what stick is up Jamie's ass today?" Lee asked as he shifted in his seat.

"Same as always, someone offering some amount for something that doesn't belong to them," I replied, twirling a piece of hair around my fingers. "Daddy said no."

"Didn't have any doubts," he nodded slightly.

"When do you think Jamie will start bugging you about selling?" I tested the waters.

Lee sighed heavily. "Don't go there, Mare," he warned.

"Oh come on," I rolled my eyes. "He's got what, five years left?"

"That's enough," he cut me off, looking between me and the dusty road. "What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with you?" I pushed. "There's nothing wrong 'bout you being next in line."

"You know that's not what I mean," his eyes narrowed slightly. "What's your problem with him, Mare? He takes care of you, doesn't he? Feeds you? Turns a blind eye to all the strangers you sneak in."

"I don't even have to sneak around, he doesn't care enough to see me in the first place," I grumbled.

"You know that's not true."

"Bullshit," I spat. "I bet he doesn't even know my eye color."

"Mare," his voice softened. "He loves you."

"I'll believe it when I see it," I rested my chin on my hand that was propped up on the window.

Lee waited a moment, carefully treading what to say. "Well, that's the thing about love, right?" He looked over at me again. "You don't see it. It's a loyalty to someone so deep that you'd—"

"Kill someone for them?" I finished his sentence, leaving him breathless as he tried to read my expression before I giggled.

"You have a sick, twisted soul, Mare," he finally said before we both stared out the windshield. "Oh, what the hell..." he trailed as we took in the scene before us.

It was a mess of trailers, guns, and cattle. The barbed wire fence on the right side of the road that once kept our cows in now proved useless as our herd covered the land on the other side. Cowboys road up and down trying to rein in the chaos and it was at the same time that Lee cursed under his breath that I noticed a line of men on foot, holding large guns, preventing them from bringing them back on our side.

"Lee, who are they?" I asked as the truck came to a stop.

He didn't answer me as we watched old Mr. Walsh on horseback address two of the armed men before dismounting.

"Lee—"

"Stay in the truck," he ordered, snatching his gun from the backseat.

"Lee!" I gasped as one of the armed men wrestled Mr. Walsh to the ground, pinning him by his arm. All guns were drawn on each other, my breath leaving my chest as I stared.

Lee drew his gun, storming up to the man. "Whatever happens next happens to you first," he warned. I felt my heart pound in my neck, praying the man wasn't stupid.

The armed man stared at Lee, making my stomach sick until he stood up and backed away from Mr. Walsh.

I heard the blades before I saw the chopper circle above us and land on our side of the fence. Mr. Walsh limped back to his horse while Lee glanced at me in the truck, nodding slightly before approaching the chopper as it shut down. I allowed myself to breathe again.

Daddy hopped out of the cockpit, taking in the scene. "Boy, you sure made a mess of this," he declared.

"It was a mess when I got here," Lee countered.

Daddy's eyes found me in the truck as he did a double-take, checking to see that it was me that he saw. "What is she doing here?"

Before Lee could answer, a reservation deputy stepped forward, "This is a tribal issue, John. The livestock commission has no authority here."

Daddy ignored him, walking over into the reservation side where the cattle decorated the hills. "Those look like livestock to me," he stated.

Sick of watching through Lee's open door I quietly opened my latch and slid out, careful to shut it behind me so it didn't draw attention. I walked around the front of the truck, watching as Daddy walked up the hillside to join an older man sitting on the back of the truckbed surrounded by our cattle.

"This is bullshit," I muttered under my breath. Lee nearly jumped as he looked from the truck cab to me.

"I told you to stay—"

"They're ours, what's the issue?" I didn't look at him. Instead, I gazed across the hills that were covered in cattle, some grazing, others just standing packed in smaller groups. It was astounding to me that our whole life revolved around an animal that was, for lack of a better term, dull; who couldn't do their one job of staying behind a damn fence.

"It, uh, doesn't work like that here," he, too, watched Daddy as he talked with the older man.

"So how does it work, then?" I asked, eyeing the guns of the men standing on the other side of the broken fence.

Lee shook his head, "I dunno."

As I looked across the chaos, I noticed a cowboy had made it over to the res side without being discovered. At first, part of me was impressed that one of them had made it that far without his brains getting blown out. But as I stared at the wrangler, doing his best to move the cattle by himself, my upper lip twitched slightly.

Kayce noticed Dad at the same time that I recognized him.

What the fuck is he doing? I sneered in my head.

"Why—" I started but was quickly interrupted as Daddy made his way back to our group.

"Lee!"

"I gotta go," he abruptly left my side.

"Clear everyone out," Daddy instructed as he neared the fence line.

Before dismissing the group, Daddy and Lee looked back at our herd and examined the poles lacking the barbed wire.

"You know, there was barbed wire on this fence a week ago," Lee noted.

I could attest to that. Lee brought a couple of wranglers out here last week while Daddy was in Bozeman to fix some of the rusted wire. I had taken particular caution to make sure no one was home that day when I brought Johnathan— shit, was it Trevor?— up to my room.

"I know. Now clear 'em out," he directed. As he passed the truck, he glimpsed at me for a brief moment before heading to the chopper which had started up again.

My eyes were glued to him the whole time. Even as Daddy loaded up in the cockpit my eyes stared longingly. Part of me wanted him to be mad at me for being here. That would mean that maybe, on some level, he cared.

The empty trailer seemed to mock us all the way home. It's loud metallic rattles echoed as it bounced along the road, the two of us sitting in silence.

I only dared to glance at him a few times, watching him work his thoughts out in his head.

"Are you ok?" I finally asked softly.

He played with his beard between his fingers and sighed heavily. "I don't remember it being like this."

"What do you mean?"

He shifted in his seat, switching hands on the steering wheel. "I dunno, maybe it was because I was younger or he kept it from me," he paused as if he couldn't come up with the right words to say. "When did it get to be this way; guns drawn on each other, cutting the damn fences," I watched his jaw clench in frustration. "It didn't use to be like this," he said finally.

I thought about it for a moment. He was right, he had never told me stories growing up of him coming home after a gunfight over our cattle. However, I didn't know much about it first hand, either. "Maybe it's always been this way," I thought out loud. "But maybe now they're getting desperate enough to escalate it."

"Desperate people do dumb things," he replied to the windshield.

"The trick is to not be dumb yourself," I continued. "Don't let them bring you down to their level."

For the first time on our ride back, he grinned and gazed over at me.

"You're not dumb, right?" I asked him, teasing.

His grin widened. "No, I'm not dumb."

"How about me?"

He shook his head. "Nope. You're sure as hell not dumb."

I smiled at this. "Good. So don't be dumb, Lee," I shoved his shoulder gently and finally relaxed back into the seat.

Out of my siblings — well, my entire family — Lee was the only one I could swear on the bible and say I loved without going to hell. Ever since I could walk and talk Lee was two steps behind me making sure I didn't fall. When Mom died, he made Kayce trade bedrooms with him so that he could be closer to me when I woke up with nightmares. I would tiptoe into his room, tap him lightly on the shoulder as I wiped my tear-stained face, and he would scoot over to the edge of the bed to let me crawl in beside him.

"Oh, shit," Lee muttered under his breath as we pulled up to the house.

"What?" I asked, looking at him before I followed his gaze to a car that was parked in the driveway.

"You've got to be shitting me," my jaw clenched as Beth waited for us on the front porch.