Author's Note- Hey guys, thanks so much for reviewing my story and I am totally glad you are liking it so far. I am coming out with another American Outlaws fanfic here in a couple of days and anyone who likes Dark Angel, check out my stories over there!! I don't own anything about American Outlaws except Manda and Leanne. They're mine, everyone else as you know is from the movie, so keep RR! And enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!
Manda slowly opened her eyes, feeling very groggy once she woke. She sat up slowly and looked around, her eyes widened. She was lying in a small, small bed with a pillow and quilt. There was a dresser across the floor boarded floor, and a large window with curtains drawn back allowing the sunset to shine in. There was no lamps and the door was open slightly.
{What the heck is going on? No way I am in liberty, Missouri in….}
Manda picked up a small calendar on the night stand next to the bed
{. …1888} she continued her thoughts.
{How did this happen? How did I get here, what if I can't get back!? NO CABLE TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!} the thoughts swirled around in Manda's head and she gasped in fear as she thought these through.
Suddenly someone opening the door, the door creaking, startled her out of her thoughts. Manda recognized her, it was the same girl that she had first come in contact with.
"Hi there. Are you feeling better?" the girl asked noticing Manda was up and she could come in.
"Um yes thank you," Manda answered smiling.
The girl came and sat on the side of the bed and smiled.
"Good, for minute there we were afraid of what might have happened to you. You must have spent too much time out in the sun, you couldn't remember anything and you weren't making sense." the girl said smiling.
Manda grinned sheepishly.
"Yea that must have been it, the sun, thank you so much for taking care of me," Manda said smiling, trying to act as proper as she could, she didn't want any of her modern slang to slip out of her mouth.
"Oh you're quite welcome darling My name is Alison Reigns, what's your name?" Alison asked her.
"Amanda Johnson. Wait….Reigns? Why does that name sound familiar?" Manda asked herself trying desperately to remember her history classes from school.
"Yes, well you hear Reigns a lot lately, my father is the head of the big railroad company going through this town." she said.
{"Oh yea I remember reading about him, wasn't he a bad guy?"}
{"No, he was stealing money and robbing banks to stop the railroad from prowling through their town, he was trying to save his home, he wasn't a bad guy Manda, he was a hero!"}
Manda's eyes widened as Leanne's words echoed in her brain.
"Wow the railroad," she said aloud, suddenly snapping out of it she played along.
"Yea it's heard everywhere here in Missouri, a big thing. Your father takes it rather seriously I bet." Manda assumed.
"Very, he can't wait to get working on it." she said standing up.
Manda stood up as well.
"Yes well father would already have half the railroad done by now, but that criminal Jesse James and his gang has been stopping their building process." she said disgusted.
Manda rolled her eyes as well.
"Jesse James, one name I am sick of," Manda said walking over to the window and looking out referring to her annoying partner, who wouldn't shut up about that guy.
"Yes same here, he's all over the town, all over this country," Alison agreed referring to constant talk about him from her father and everyone else.
Manda got lost looking out the window about the town, it was so simple and somewhat peaceful. Not half as much hectic as it is in her time. She watched people stop and talk and walk about going on with their evening.
"Do you wish to spend the night tonight? To make sure you're ok?" the woman asked.
"Sure thank you," Manda said, liking the idea considering she had no clue where else she would stay.
"Fantastic, you can sleep here and if you get hungry then go downstairs and the maid will fix you something to eat. You shall need to get up quite early, tomorrow there's a hanging and you wouldn't want to miss that." Alison said.
"Who's getting hanged?" Manda asked confused and curious.
"Oh a person who helped hide Jesse James and his gang, Nathaniel Boise is his name and he refuses to tell us where they are and admits to hiding the James Younger Gang, and now he has to pay for committing treason and helping them. See you in the morning. Good night Amanda." she said walking out the room.
"Good night…Alison," she called out and was then alone again to gather her thoughts.
She slowly laid back down and continued to look outside. Until all her confusing questions led her into a deep sleep.
A large crowd gathered around the gallows. It was around 8:30 in the morning, dew upon everything and the sun was just rising giving the town a soft warm glow. Manda stood next to Alison and her father fidgeting with her fingers, not sure if she would be able to handle to watch someone get hanged. A lot of Pinkerton's men stood behind him, protecting him, just in case.
Manda looked over at Alison who just stood there with a small smile on as they brought the old man up on the platform. Alison wore a beautiful pink dress with lace and her hair up in a bun. Manda who wore a hunter green dress with cream lining and her hair halfway up, looked around, seeing nervous faces on all of the other folk watching as well. She could tell each and everyone of them wanted to jump up there and free that man, but she also knew each and everyone of them were afraid too.
"What are you doing! HOW could you do this!? This is nothing but a harmless old man and you want to hang him!" a voice screamed as she walked up in front of Mr. Reigns.
Manda looked at Alison who rolled her eyes in annoyance. Manda grinned and then looked at the woman, she was young, maybe around 18, blonde hair, skinny, and beautiful.
"Miss Mims, I do not think it is your choice or your place to decide Mr. Boise's fate." Reigns warned.
"Yes, he deserves what he gets." Pinkerton agreed walking up next to Reigns, his Irish accent heavy.
"You are ALL a bunch of monsters to kill a helpless old man!" Zee screamed at them almost in tears, she knew the reason why too, they wanted Jesse and the others.
"Do you want to be next young lady? If not I HEAVY suggest that you hold your tongue!" Reigns shouted at her.
Zee didn't say anything but just turned and walked away. Manda then saw a figure in a light brown leather trench coat like coat on and a matching colored hat who stood a little ways in front of them, it's back to them.
"Psst! Hey!" a voice said.
Both Alison and Manda looked over and saw a boy, around Manda's age, motioning them to come here. Alison looked at Manda, both shrugged and walked over to him.
"Were you speaking to us young man?" Alison asked.
"Yea, I just wanted to get you 2 away from those guys." the boy said.
"Why?" Manda asked.
Suddenly the figure turned around, pushed his trench coat like jacket behind his hips, grabbed his guns from their hoisters, and started shooting at Reigns, Pinkerton, and all of the men behind him. Both girls startled looked over and saw the man shooting at them.
"Because we didn't want you caught in the middle of that." Jim answered, grabbed his gun and ran off into the crowd.
Alison glared at the boy as he ran away.
"Jesse James," Alison said in anger as she glared at the figure shooting.
"That's Jesse James?" Manda asked suddenly a little scared.
As Jesse started shooting the others rode in town, causing the whole crowd to cheer and shout. Cole shot the person who was about to hang Nathaniel and rode up beside the platform and cut him free of the gallows. Manda watched Cole carefully help the man on his horse then got on himself and rode off. Jesse glanced over his shoulder to see if Cole got the man out of there, seeing that he did.
"Get outta there Jesse!" Frank shouted over the gun fire as he turned and followed Cole out into the woods.
Jesse looked at the people he was shooting and realized that he shot every single one beside Pinkerton and Reigns, who both were on the ground ducking. Jesse lowered his guns as he walked a little closer to them.
"Jesse James, curse you!" Pinkerton hissed.
Jesse looked at them angrily and raised on of his guns and shot it once, warning him. Both men jumped and returned the angry looks on him. Jesse pointed both his guns at them and clicked it, ready to shoot.
"No, we got to stop him!" Alison said taking off towards them. "
Alison!" Manda yelled as she ran after her.
Alison then tackled Jesse, causing him to miss both Pinkerton and Reigns, the shot scaring both men. Jesse tumbled, with the girl on top of him. Suddenly he stopped, him on top of her. Jesse clicked his guns and pointed them at her head as she was between his legs. Jesse then realized it was a girl underneath of him, not a man, not a solider. Alison looked at him horrified as Jesse stared back at her, glaring at her, struggling with his emotions. Jesse slowly rose and stepped over her.
Jesse then turned and pointed his guns at Manda, noticing she was running at him. Manda stopped dead in her tracks, frozen as she got the first up close look at his face. It was stern, and dangerous looking, yet boyish. Jesse then slowly lowered his guns and put them back in their hoisters, Manda felt a heavy burden lift off her, thankful she didn't have guns on her. Jesse turned from Manda and looked at Reigns and Pinkerton.
"These your girls?" he asked.
That was the first time Manda heard him talk as well, again it was stern but yet young, she acknowledged that he wasn't much younger than she was.
"She is mine, the other we don't know where she came from." Reigns said truthfully.
Jesse looked at the girl still lying on the ground then at Manda.
"Now how would you feel if I just shot her right here and now? Make you feel what I feel when you killed my ma?" Jesse asked getting out a gun and pointing it at Alison.
Reigns tried to hide his fear but it wasn't working very well. Jesse grinned a little, liking to see Reigns in discomfort.
"But you know what, I'm not, because I am not as cold hearted as you are. I would never kill let alone hurt a woman." Jesse said putting his gun away.
Manda and Alison relaxed both a little. Jesse head perked up a little seeing more army men running his way.
"You see that Jesse James, they're comin' after you, we'll have you behind bars yet!" Pinkerton threatened.
"Oh, yes whatever you have to tell yourself, but just remember I have a bullet in here with your name on it, so I would watch your back. Now if you excuse me, I got some of OUR banks to rob." Jesse said grinning and then turned around, jumped on his horse and rode off.
Manda then ran over to Alison and knelt down beside her.
"Alison are you ok?!" she asked breathlessly.
"He's………..HORRIBE!" she shouted crying into Manda's arms.
"Well……he could have killed you!" Manda pointed out.
"daddy, did he hurt you?" she asked in between sobs.
"We're fine." Reigns said. Manda looked up around at the people, none helping or comforting them, instead all went about their business.
Manda then locked eyes with Zee who only stared down, smirked a little and turned and walked away.
Manda spent the whole day trying to calm Alison down and by time it was 6:30 in the evening Alison was back to normal, a little. Manda decided that she wore out her welcome and they would suspect something if she didn't get back to her 'home' so that evening she said good evening to everyone and said she would visit Alison tomorrow.
Manda walked down the dirt rode, the sun has set minutes ago and it was now dark with the moon and the candles on poles used as street lights were the only light around the town. Suddenly a horse blazed by, the wind taking her by surprise.
"Who the heck was that!?" she asked herself.
She watched the horse then stop further up the road and saw someone jump off. Manda as quietly as she could ran up further and hid behind a tree. Manda's eyes widened as she saw Jesse James standing there in the moonlight.
"Jesse James! What are you doing here, Pinkerton's men are everywhere!" a voice said.
Manda's eyes widened even more, she recognized that voice. She then saw that woman, Zee, who was frightening with Alison's dad earlier run into Jesse's arms.
"I had to see you, I see you once in a couple weeks and that's not enough for me." Jesse answered touching her face.
Manda covered her mouth.
"I knew you would save the Boise man." she said as Jesse touched his forehead with hers, placing her hand on top of his.
Jesse smiled a little.
"Then why did you go over to Mr. Reigns and try to test his patience?" Jesse asked then kissed her.
"There was a 50 /50 chance I might have lost you." Jesse added after breaking from the kiss and then kissed her again after saying that.
"Because someone had to tell him what he was doing was wrong." Zee answered when she could.
Jesse just smiled at her.
"Don't tell me your becoming a rebel too." Jesse said.
Zee laughed at that comment.
"I am glad you managed to restrain yourself from hurting that girl. I thought you would kill her." Zee admitted.
"I couldn't bring myself to kill her or anyone, it's not her fault that her dad is the one wants me dead, why kill her when she has no say in it?" Jesse asked.
Zee shrugged.
"We leave tomorrow and be back in 3 days, we can meet back then." Jesse said then kissed her passionately.
Manda slowly stood up and ran as fast as she could back into town. She supported herself up with a pole, hunched over trying to catch her breath.
KNOCK !KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Alison opened the door seeing a breathless Manda.
"Amanda, is everything ok?" Alison asked concerned.
"No…………..I think there is something you need to know about Zerlela Mims." Manda said.
Manda slowly opened her eyes, feeling very groggy once she woke. She sat up slowly and looked around, her eyes widened. She was lying in a small, small bed with a pillow and quilt. There was a dresser across the floor boarded floor, and a large window with curtains drawn back allowing the sunset to shine in. There was no lamps and the door was open slightly.
{What the heck is going on? No way I am in liberty, Missouri in….}
Manda picked up a small calendar on the night stand next to the bed
{. …1888} she continued her thoughts.
{How did this happen? How did I get here, what if I can't get back!? NO CABLE TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!} the thoughts swirled around in Manda's head and she gasped in fear as she thought these through.
Suddenly someone opening the door, the door creaking, startled her out of her thoughts. Manda recognized her, it was the same girl that she had first come in contact with.
"Hi there. Are you feeling better?" the girl asked noticing Manda was up and she could come in.
"Um yes thank you," Manda answered smiling.
The girl came and sat on the side of the bed and smiled.
"Good, for minute there we were afraid of what might have happened to you. You must have spent too much time out in the sun, you couldn't remember anything and you weren't making sense." the girl said smiling.
Manda grinned sheepishly.
"Yea that must have been it, the sun, thank you so much for taking care of me," Manda said smiling, trying to act as proper as she could, she didn't want any of her modern slang to slip out of her mouth.
"Oh you're quite welcome darling My name is Alison Reigns, what's your name?" Alison asked her.
"Amanda Johnson. Wait….Reigns? Why does that name sound familiar?" Manda asked herself trying desperately to remember her history classes from school.
"Yes, well you hear Reigns a lot lately, my father is the head of the big railroad company going through this town." she said.
{"Oh yea I remember reading about him, wasn't he a bad guy?"}
{"No, he was stealing money and robbing banks to stop the railroad from prowling through their town, he was trying to save his home, he wasn't a bad guy Manda, he was a hero!"}
Manda's eyes widened as Leanne's words echoed in her brain.
"Wow the railroad," she said aloud, suddenly snapping out of it she played along.
"Yea it's heard everywhere here in Missouri, a big thing. Your father takes it rather seriously I bet." Manda assumed.
"Very, he can't wait to get working on it." she said standing up.
Manda stood up as well.
"Yes well father would already have half the railroad done by now, but that criminal Jesse James and his gang has been stopping their building process." she said disgusted.
Manda rolled her eyes as well.
"Jesse James, one name I am sick of," Manda said walking over to the window and looking out referring to her annoying partner, who wouldn't shut up about that guy.
"Yes same here, he's all over the town, all over this country," Alison agreed referring to constant talk about him from her father and everyone else.
Manda got lost looking out the window about the town, it was so simple and somewhat peaceful. Not half as much hectic as it is in her time. She watched people stop and talk and walk about going on with their evening.
"Do you wish to spend the night tonight? To make sure you're ok?" the woman asked.
"Sure thank you," Manda said, liking the idea considering she had no clue where else she would stay.
"Fantastic, you can sleep here and if you get hungry then go downstairs and the maid will fix you something to eat. You shall need to get up quite early, tomorrow there's a hanging and you wouldn't want to miss that." Alison said.
"Who's getting hanged?" Manda asked confused and curious.
"Oh a person who helped hide Jesse James and his gang, Nathaniel Boise is his name and he refuses to tell us where they are and admits to hiding the James Younger Gang, and now he has to pay for committing treason and helping them. See you in the morning. Good night Amanda." she said walking out the room.
"Good night…Alison," she called out and was then alone again to gather her thoughts.
She slowly laid back down and continued to look outside. Until all her confusing questions led her into a deep sleep.
A large crowd gathered around the gallows. It was around 8:30 in the morning, dew upon everything and the sun was just rising giving the town a soft warm glow. Manda stood next to Alison and her father fidgeting with her fingers, not sure if she would be able to handle to watch someone get hanged. A lot of Pinkerton's men stood behind him, protecting him, just in case.
Manda looked over at Alison who just stood there with a small smile on as they brought the old man up on the platform. Alison wore a beautiful pink dress with lace and her hair up in a bun. Manda who wore a hunter green dress with cream lining and her hair halfway up, looked around, seeing nervous faces on all of the other folk watching as well. She could tell each and everyone of them wanted to jump up there and free that man, but she also knew each and everyone of them were afraid too.
"What are you doing! HOW could you do this!? This is nothing but a harmless old man and you want to hang him!" a voice screamed as she walked up in front of Mr. Reigns.
Manda looked at Alison who rolled her eyes in annoyance. Manda grinned and then looked at the woman, she was young, maybe around 18, blonde hair, skinny, and beautiful.
"Miss Mims, I do not think it is your choice or your place to decide Mr. Boise's fate." Reigns warned.
"Yes, he deserves what he gets." Pinkerton agreed walking up next to Reigns, his Irish accent heavy.
"You are ALL a bunch of monsters to kill a helpless old man!" Zee screamed at them almost in tears, she knew the reason why too, they wanted Jesse and the others.
"Do you want to be next young lady? If not I HEAVY suggest that you hold your tongue!" Reigns shouted at her.
Zee didn't say anything but just turned and walked away. Manda then saw a figure in a light brown leather trench coat like coat on and a matching colored hat who stood a little ways in front of them, it's back to them.
"Psst! Hey!" a voice said.
Both Alison and Manda looked over and saw a boy, around Manda's age, motioning them to come here. Alison looked at Manda, both shrugged and walked over to him.
"Were you speaking to us young man?" Alison asked.
"Yea, I just wanted to get you 2 away from those guys." the boy said.
"Why?" Manda asked.
Suddenly the figure turned around, pushed his trench coat like jacket behind his hips, grabbed his guns from their hoisters, and started shooting at Reigns, Pinkerton, and all of the men behind him. Both girls startled looked over and saw the man shooting at them.
"Because we didn't want you caught in the middle of that." Jim answered, grabbed his gun and ran off into the crowd.
Alison glared at the boy as he ran away.
"Jesse James," Alison said in anger as she glared at the figure shooting.
"That's Jesse James?" Manda asked suddenly a little scared.
As Jesse started shooting the others rode in town, causing the whole crowd to cheer and shout. Cole shot the person who was about to hang Nathaniel and rode up beside the platform and cut him free of the gallows. Manda watched Cole carefully help the man on his horse then got on himself and rode off. Jesse glanced over his shoulder to see if Cole got the man out of there, seeing that he did.
"Get outta there Jesse!" Frank shouted over the gun fire as he turned and followed Cole out into the woods.
Jesse looked at the people he was shooting and realized that he shot every single one beside Pinkerton and Reigns, who both were on the ground ducking. Jesse lowered his guns as he walked a little closer to them.
"Jesse James, curse you!" Pinkerton hissed.
Jesse looked at them angrily and raised on of his guns and shot it once, warning him. Both men jumped and returned the angry looks on him. Jesse pointed both his guns at them and clicked it, ready to shoot.
"No, we got to stop him!" Alison said taking off towards them. "
Alison!" Manda yelled as she ran after her.
Alison then tackled Jesse, causing him to miss both Pinkerton and Reigns, the shot scaring both men. Jesse tumbled, with the girl on top of him. Suddenly he stopped, him on top of her. Jesse clicked his guns and pointed them at her head as she was between his legs. Jesse then realized it was a girl underneath of him, not a man, not a solider. Alison looked at him horrified as Jesse stared back at her, glaring at her, struggling with his emotions. Jesse slowly rose and stepped over her.
Jesse then turned and pointed his guns at Manda, noticing she was running at him. Manda stopped dead in her tracks, frozen as she got the first up close look at his face. It was stern, and dangerous looking, yet boyish. Jesse then slowly lowered his guns and put them back in their hoisters, Manda felt a heavy burden lift off her, thankful she didn't have guns on her. Jesse turned from Manda and looked at Reigns and Pinkerton.
"These your girls?" he asked.
That was the first time Manda heard him talk as well, again it was stern but yet young, she acknowledged that he wasn't much younger than she was.
"She is mine, the other we don't know where she came from." Reigns said truthfully.
Jesse looked at the girl still lying on the ground then at Manda.
"Now how would you feel if I just shot her right here and now? Make you feel what I feel when you killed my ma?" Jesse asked getting out a gun and pointing it at Alison.
Reigns tried to hide his fear but it wasn't working very well. Jesse grinned a little, liking to see Reigns in discomfort.
"But you know what, I'm not, because I am not as cold hearted as you are. I would never kill let alone hurt a woman." Jesse said putting his gun away.
Manda and Alison relaxed both a little. Jesse head perked up a little seeing more army men running his way.
"You see that Jesse James, they're comin' after you, we'll have you behind bars yet!" Pinkerton threatened.
"Oh, yes whatever you have to tell yourself, but just remember I have a bullet in here with your name on it, so I would watch your back. Now if you excuse me, I got some of OUR banks to rob." Jesse said grinning and then turned around, jumped on his horse and rode off.
Manda then ran over to Alison and knelt down beside her.
"Alison are you ok?!" she asked breathlessly.
"He's………..HORRIBE!" she shouted crying into Manda's arms.
"Well……he could have killed you!" Manda pointed out.
"daddy, did he hurt you?" she asked in between sobs.
"We're fine." Reigns said. Manda looked up around at the people, none helping or comforting them, instead all went about their business.
Manda then locked eyes with Zee who only stared down, smirked a little and turned and walked away.
Manda spent the whole day trying to calm Alison down and by time it was 6:30 in the evening Alison was back to normal, a little. Manda decided that she wore out her welcome and they would suspect something if she didn't get back to her 'home' so that evening she said good evening to everyone and said she would visit Alison tomorrow.
Manda walked down the dirt rode, the sun has set minutes ago and it was now dark with the moon and the candles on poles used as street lights were the only light around the town. Suddenly a horse blazed by, the wind taking her by surprise.
"Who the heck was that!?" she asked herself.
She watched the horse then stop further up the road and saw someone jump off. Manda as quietly as she could ran up further and hid behind a tree. Manda's eyes widened as she saw Jesse James standing there in the moonlight.
"Jesse James! What are you doing here, Pinkerton's men are everywhere!" a voice said.
Manda's eyes widened even more, she recognized that voice. She then saw that woman, Zee, who was frightening with Alison's dad earlier run into Jesse's arms.
"I had to see you, I see you once in a couple weeks and that's not enough for me." Jesse answered touching her face.
Manda covered her mouth.
"I knew you would save the Boise man." she said as Jesse touched his forehead with hers, placing her hand on top of his.
Jesse smiled a little.
"Then why did you go over to Mr. Reigns and try to test his patience?" Jesse asked then kissed her.
"There was a 50 /50 chance I might have lost you." Jesse added after breaking from the kiss and then kissed her again after saying that.
"Because someone had to tell him what he was doing was wrong." Zee answered when she could.
Jesse just smiled at her.
"Don't tell me your becoming a rebel too." Jesse said.
Zee laughed at that comment.
"I am glad you managed to restrain yourself from hurting that girl. I thought you would kill her." Zee admitted.
"I couldn't bring myself to kill her or anyone, it's not her fault that her dad is the one wants me dead, why kill her when she has no say in it?" Jesse asked.
Zee shrugged.
"We leave tomorrow and be back in 3 days, we can meet back then." Jesse said then kissed her passionately.
Manda slowly stood up and ran as fast as she could back into town. She supported herself up with a pole, hunched over trying to catch her breath.
KNOCK !KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Alison opened the door seeing a breathless Manda.
"Amanda, is everything ok?" Alison asked concerned.
"No…………..I think there is something you need to know about Zerlela Mims." Manda said.