A/N: Here's a nice long (Well, kinda long, at least. I thought it was long!) chapter for you guys...

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Two weeks later, a man rode up on a horse and found Piper in the barn, brushing down Spade.

"Piper."

Piper whipped around. "Taylor… I'm sorry, I don't have your payment."

"Piper, you've never missed a payment."

"I know, but I have to wait until the next sale for money."

"When is that?"

"…A little more than half a year…"

"Piper, by then I'll have to take my land back."

John Taylor owned a third of the land Piper's horses were on, and she rented it from him. She paid him fifty dollars every month and a half to keep the land. If she didn't have the land, she would have to sell the horses. But no one was ready to buy, so they would go cheap and the money from selling them wouldn't last long enough to breed the leftover horses and prepare the foals to sell. Horses were as good a profit as cattle if you knew what you were doing, and Piper did. But not being able to make this one payment would screw everything up.

Then when another man came buy for his payment--he had built one of the barns for Piper--and she didn't have it, she may have to take the barn down. The man who built the barn seemed to be angry at the world and felt no remorse for tearing down a barn a client couldn't pay for.

Then she'd be short land, money, and shelter.

Great. Just great.

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Jacob found Piper sitting on her horse behind the house. There was a huge hill just in front of her, dropping to reveal a valley of grass and flowers, horses dotting the land, in groups and alone.

The sun was setting beneath the horizon, a giant orange glowing semicircle by now. Piper was watching it fall, tears silently making a path down her cheeks.

Jacob rode up beside her and looked at her. He couldn't believe that someone as strong as Piper could be reduced to so little. He was about to say something when Piper spoke, not looking at him.

"I loved him, Jacob… I loved him like the world… And he just…" She looked over at him. "How could someone do something like this?"

Jacob didn't respond. He wondered the same thing as Piper. How could someone fake love for so long and turn around and hurt a person as much as Dan did? Piper wasn't a naïve person, but he still took advantage of her. Dan hurt everything by doing what he did. He hurt Jacob's family, Piper's heart, her soul, her trust. Jacob thought for a moment before saying anything.

"…We can still get by. We just have to be careful."

"How do you know?"

"…I don't."

"I'll kill him."

"You can't, Piper."

"Says who?" Piper shot. "He took the money, and he has to pay."

"Crime bestows crime."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that in making him pay for his crime, you're committing a crime that you'll pay for. His crime is only giving you a reason to commit one, as well."

"I don't care."

"You should."

"I don't, Jacob! He took everything from me, and he has to pay!"

"So what are you going to do, Piper? Go over to his house and shoot him?"

"Yes."

"You'll go to jail. Be hanged."

"I'll be fine."

"You won't!"

"I can take care of myself!"

"Piper, you deal with Dan how you want, but you cannot kill him."

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The next day, Piper combed the town, looking for Daniel Gordon. In one hand was Spade's reins, in the other was the double-barrel shotgun Piper had gotten the previous year. She thought about what Jacob had said. If she killed Dan, would she be hanged? Did she have a good enough reason? Or should she just hurt him? Maybe scare him. If she only shot him, but didn't kill him, she wouldn't be hanged.

Right. She could shoot him. She couldn't kill him, but she could damn well shoot the bastard.

Piper walked into the saloon, her shotgun in one hand. "Anybody know where Dan Gordon is?" she shouted.

A man stood up, and by the way he did, Piper was intimidated by him. "I know where he is, but I ain't tellin' no woman."

The man wasn't old, but he wasn't Piper's age, either. He had a rough beard that needed to be shaved, an old cowboy hat, and spurs on his boots. His clothes were dirty, mostly brown and tan, and he had a few layers on.

"And who are you?" Piper demanded.

"That's none of your business. What do you want with Daniel Gordon?"

Piper shifted her hand to point the gun straight up, facing the ceiling of the saloon. "That's none of your business. You know where he is, and I need to know. It's as simple as that."

"Yeah, I know where he is, and you're not gonna. It's simple as that."

Before the man knew it, the shotgun was being pointed at him. "Tell me where he is," Piper demanded as quietly as she could.

Other men in the saloon were also standing up, ready to defend whoever they had to. The man held his ground, though.

Piper took a few steps forward, until the end of the barrel was pointed at his heart. "Tell me."

The man glared at Piper before answering. "He left town two hours ago."

"Which way?"

"I don't know."

"Which way?" she yelled, threatening to pull the trigger.

"West."

"Now… That wasn't too hard, was it?" Piper asked, lowering her gun. She left the saloon, jumped on her horse, and galloped down the road. A horse flew by her and she stopped suddenly. She knew that horse.

Whirling around in a circle, Piper made Spade run as fast as the horse could go, chasing after the man on the horse. She caught up to the horse and instantly recognized it. Without having to think twice, she pulled the shot gun out of the saddle with one hand. Still galloping at full speed, she let go of Spade's reins, trusting her horse. She steadied the gun with her other hand, aimed, and fired.

The bullet went right where she wanted it to; into the ground just in front of the horse's hooves. The horse stumbled and reared up. She lost her balance and fell over, taking the rider with her.

Piper stopped her horse and jumped to the ground. Dan was trapped under his horse. Just as the animal stood up and staggered away, Piper knelt down to the ground and straddled Dan by the stomach, sitting on her knees. She pushed the barrel of the shotgun into his mouth.

"If I pulled this trigger, I wouldn't have any more problems," she whispered.

Dan couldn't answer. He could barely even move.

Men and women were coming out of their shops and homes to watch the event, but no one dared to go near.

"But I won't. Because I need one more thing from you." Piper pulled the barrel out of his mouth. "Where's my money?"

"It's gone, Piper."

"Liar!" She punched him in the face. "Where is it?" she yelled.

A beautiful all-white mare stood outside a shop, seeming to be watching the fight. Problem was, she was caked with mud, so she looked like a tan and white mess. Her rider didn't look any better. His clothes were no better than the man Piper had nearly fought with earlier in the saloon. A dark brown coat with a couple layers underneath and old pants, but no spurs. His hat hid his face, and for him, that was a good thing. The bandana around his neck helped when it was covering his mouth and nose from dust, but he knew that in a town like this, he'd be mistaken for a bandit, so he let the dust pick up from the road and run into his face.

He watched the show with his horse, wondering what had gotten into that woman who had a man pinned down to the ground with a shotgun to his head.

He shrugged to himself. It wasn't his business, and he didn't want to make it his, either. He turned his horse so that she could drink out of the trough, but he still turned his body to watch the fight.

His hazel-green eyes followed every punch the woman threw at the man, and when she finally gave up on punching him and reverted to the shotgun once more, he laughed to himself. He knew she wasn't about to kill the man. She didn't have it in her. It took more than a nice gun and some words to kill a man.

He turned back to face the store like his horse when he heard the shotgun fire. He whirled around in the saddle, nearly falling off as he did. The man on the ground had yelled in pain, but it looked as if she had only shot his hand. She needed to be more careful. A shotgun like that could blow his hand clean off.

And she nearly done just that. When the stranger looked again, he found that the man on the ground had three fingers. He smiled. Women.

He looked around, thirsty. He was slightly interested in the fight, but water was more on his mind than seeing a woman beat the living daylights out of a man twice her size.

The owner of the goods store came out to watch the fight, a glass of water in one hand. He looked up at the stranger on the muddy horse.

"Thirsty, Stranger?"

He nodded.

"Well, here."

The owner handed the man the water. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't the hot water he had been drinking the past few days and had run out of the day before. He drank it all in a few gulps, and could feel it go down his dried throat. He handed the empty glass back to the shop ownner. "Thanks," was all he said.

"Just comin' through town, or lookin' for a place to stay?"

"Just passin' through…" He didn't like this. Watching the fight was okay, but he had to keep the conversation low. Low or nothing at all was good.

"Where from?"

"All over."

"Got any place in mind that yer goin' to?"

"Not at the moment."

The owner nodded to himself. He looked at Piper Halliwell, demanded for her money from Dan Gordon. "They've been fighting for a while now."

The man nodded.

"Over the woman's money. He took it all, and her business is gonna go under now 'cause of it. Damn man just can't get the greed out of his mind. He married that woman for her money, and left her with it, too."

He nodded again, his eyes watching the fight. He looked down at the store owner. "Look, I need some supplies, so if you could stock me up--"

"Sure. Come on in."

The man tied his horse up to the post and followed the store owner inside. A young woman came out from the back. "That there's my daughter, Elizabeth," the owner explained.

The man tipped his hat to Elizabeth. She offered him a warm smile and watched him walk up to the counter. She smiled to herself. She had never seen him before, but he was definitely something she could be interested in. She watched him for a few more seconds. Well, he could have used a shave, but she immediately fell in love with his eyes and his features. He looked tired enough, beaten up, and half-unconscious by the way he moved about, but still…

He took his hat off to brush it off, but put it back on, covering his dirty blonde hair. He looked at the store owner. "I need enough to get me to the next town."

By the time he had left, the fight was still going. The woman still had the man pinned, and she was roughly wrapping a piece of his shirt she had ripped over his hand to stop the bleeding, still demanding for her money.

The stranger packed up his horse and untied her. He mounted her just as the owner's daughter came out of the store. "You forgot this," she told him, handing him his hat. He reached down and took it, and his hand brushed across hers. She smiled.

"Thank you, Miss." He smiled back at her, put the hat on, and tipped it again. He stole another glance at the fight, shook his head, and with a sharp kick to his horse's flank, ran out of town, all the while wondering if maybe his life was there, or if it was in the town before, or in the next one.

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A/N: I won't pretend you guys are stupid like I am. You all know who that is, there's just one problem: I screwed up his personality. If our favorite guy goes through some mood swings, it's my stupidity, not his fault. Don't blame him, blame me. I have sought help to fix my error, but I still need to fix him. Bear with me, people. Bear with me.

PS: My carrot things stopped coming up on here! What are they gonna take next? First the stars and squigglies, then the carrots... What is this website coming to?!?