Sorry 'bout the delay, guys!
Thanks to:
Chub: Ah, but you did wait to see what happened, did you not?
piperleo4eva: Sign in? What are you talking about? Which drugs are you on? Um...You're right about the LN thing...Good job! Don't tell! Nobody's said anything about it but you, so i don't know if anyone else is right...I doubt it...Maybe...A on the test!
jenny: Oh, they didn't meet yet...And add another few cherries, a spoon, and some sugar, and you got yourself an update to Payback.
anjana: Wow, you had a whole advertisement for your story up there. Anyway, Leo gets better. He gets sarcastic, but then he has to get emotional...Ah, you'll see. I'm flattered by the remark about my talent, by the way. Now I know I'm talented, and I can prove my therapist wrong when she tell me it's just an obsession!
Magical Princess: I love it, too!
The first thing that he noticed was the headache. Then the pillow and the bed beneath him. He tried to think of why he was there. Why was he even in a house? Everything was fuzzy.
He looked around the room, eyes darting from place to place. It looked like a doctor's office. There were no doctors, though.
He quickly tried to sit up, but a burning sensation in his side kept him from getting far. He fell back down and took in a breath. His chest hurt, too, near his shoulder.
That was when he realized his coat was gone. Shirt, too. There was a bandage around his side, another near his shoulder.
He glanced around the room. His coat and shirt were both hung on a coat rack.
He tried to piece it together…He remembered getting to a town and making it into the saloon, but that was it…Why was he there, again? Okay, so he was at a doctor's office now…
Still no doctor.
Slightly nervous to sit up, not ready to risk it, he stayed down on the bed. It wasn't very comfortable…Still, it wasn't too bad. He closed it eyes and tried to remember what had happened the night before.
It all hit him without warning. He remembered everything. It was like a puzzle that put itself together.
Those bandits. They shot him.
"Damn it…" he grumbled. How'd I make it to a town? he thought. He remembered how long the ride had seemed. It was very late when he'd gotten there. He remembered being carried off, and he remembered fainting.
What town was he in?
Piper walked down the street quietly. The streets were buzzing with wondering people. It seemed the entire town knew about the man who appeared the day before. The Sheriff came through and took a few statements, especially from the doctor and the three men who carried the stranger off.
No one knew who he was or where he came from. They figured bandits shot him and stole his money and belongings, but he had guns. And a horse. The sheriff's son had taken the horse away and fed and watered her.
Piper had gone home soon after the stranger was carried off and went to bed. She hadn't really cared much, but his face kept haunting her.
She shrugged off his memory now as she walked back in her house. She grabbed a biscuit and took a bite out of it. Prue and Phoebe came downstairs.
"Hey, did ya hear--"
"Yes, I heard. I know all about it. I was there when he got carried off," Piper cut Prue off.
"What are you talking about? I was gonna ask you if you heard the dog Daddy got howlin'," Prue said.
"Oh…Yeah, I heard the rascal," Piper answered.
"He's not a rascal."
"He's a mutt, then. A scoundrel."
"He is not!" Phoebe defended the dog Jack had bought the week before. He'd come home with a furry mutt. It was a protective dog and more loyal than any, but he smelled funny, And he howled all night.
Prue shushed Phoebe, then turned to Piper. "What were you talking about?"
"That, uh…Never mind."
"What?"
"That man that came through here last night. The one who was shot."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that."
"Yeah."
"Does anyone know who he is?" Phoebe wondered.
"I don't know…I was outta there real quick."
"Where's he now?"
"Doc's I reckon."
"So what'd he look like?" Phoebe asked.
"Why?"
"Curious."
"Didn't that kill the cat?" Prue teased.
"Hey, that was a good cat! It got under the horse on mistake."
"Whatever…And it's 'by mistake'."
Phoebe shook her head. "Who cares?"
Jacob came downstairs. "Morning."
"Morning."
"Hear about that stranger that blew in?" Jake asked.
"Yeah…"
Jake nodded, mostly to himself. "Yup…Hear he was shot."
"Yeah."
"I'll be in the stable." Jacob grabbed a biscuit and went outside.
"So you never answered my question," Phoebe said as soon as the door closed. She sat on the edge of the table and Prue slapped her arm. She stood up.
"What question?"
"What'd the stranger look like?"
Piper didn't answer. She just laughed and ran outside after Jake.
A young nurse walked into the room. "Oh, good…" she said quietly. "You're awake." She walked up to him and felt his forehead with the back of her hand. "Fever's gone down…I'll tell the doctor when he gets back."
He managed to mumble a few words. "Where am I?"
"Doc Richmond."
"How'd I get here?"
The nurse moved around the slow room a little to walk to his other side. "Apparently, you made it into the saloon last night, but you collapsed in there. A few men carried you here."
"My horse?"
"With the Sheriff's son. They have a small stable back there. The mare's in there with the horses."
He nodded.
"So what happened to ya?"
"Bandits." He tried to sit up.
"Oh, no. Stay down. Tomorrow, maybe, but you can't sit up yet."
A long five days passed and the doctor finally let him out. As soon as he walked outside, he noticed some men and women on the wooden sidewalk and a few in the street watching him. A young boy--about seven or eight--held out the reins to his horse.
The mare snorted at him. He glared at her as if to say, "Shut up. I know I got shot."
He turned to the nurse and doctor. "Thank you," he said.
The nurse smiled. "Anytime."
"What do I owe?"
"Just don't get shot again."
"Thanks."
He almost smiled. It was the second time in a row he had gotten out for free--not to mention alive. He took her reins and slowly eased himself into the saddle. He leaned forward for a few seconds, contemplating what to do next.
He sat up straight and backed the horse up, then trotted down the street. He looked around the town. He hadn't realized it when he'd ridden in half-dead, but this was the town.
He made it to the woman's town.
He didn't recall the name…He hadn't looked the first time he was there, or when he came in the week before.
He rode up the street before finding a hotel. Not the best and brightest, but at least he could afford a room there for a while.
The truth was that he hadn't thought about what he'd do when he actually got to the town. In the week he'd been stuck to that bed at Doc Richmond's, he had thought about it, though.
First, he had to get a hotel room.
And that was all he had.
He figured maybe he could find little jobs in this town or in neighboring ones and make enough money to buy a tent and supplies. He'd rather camp than stay at a room, as strange as it sounded.
The bandits who robbed him didn't take all of his money, and he had enough to get by for a little while.
The next day, he took his horse out of the stable she'd been at all night. She didn't seem to mind the other horses--in fact, she enjoyed the company--but she didn't like it when he left.
That was why she made such a fuss for the stable boy, and the was very verbal--whinnying and neighing and snorting--when he showed up. She refused to listen to him at first, but he soon had control over her again.
He figured she felt he betrayed her for leaving.
He kind of understood…Betrayal was nothing he'd never felt before.
He rode her around town and around the outskirts of the town. Wolf Creek, it was called. He rode back into town and stopped in front of a store, watching the town go by.
He sat on his horse, letting it drink from the trough in front of a candy and food store. He looked up behind him and watched a young woman ride her horse down the road. She had a horse that held itself proudly, just as she did. She trotted down the road in the very middle, and quite a few men on their horses or walking on the road moved out of her way, being sure to steer clear of her.
That was her--that was the woman who was fighting in the street.
"Shouldn't be lookin' at Piper Halliwell that way, Stranger," a man said, coming out of the store. He had a glass in one hand and was cleaning it with a white cloth.
"Oh yeah?" he asked the man. "And why might that be? She certainly is somethin' t' look at."
"She may be, but there's so much danger under that pretty face and sharp attitude… She's a deadly investment, considering she let's you invest."
"Meaning…"
"Meaning that there girl is brining in more money with her ranch than I make--and she's selling horses. She's filthy rich…But she protects herself quite well. Take my word for it--she's no lady, just some kinda woman."
"She can't be that bad."
"You'd be surprised. Best to stay away from her."
"I'll take your word for it…" he said absentmindedly, watching her slap the reins of her horse and gallop down the road.
He flicked the mare's reins and gave her a little kick in the flank. "Let's go," he told her sharply. She galloped after Piper Halliwell and her Appaloosa.
She seemed too into speeding off on her horse to notice him trailing behind her. He stayed far enough away and off to the side for her to even be suspicious if she turned around.
He followed her to a house just outside of town, but stayed a good two hundred feet away from her still. When the rode into the barn, he turned his horse away and rode around the fence, a little closer to it now. He found that there was a lot of land that she lived on--or at least he assumed that's where she lived. The house was a good size, and he saw another two barns. Horses dotted the land and grass. He stayed on the outside of the fence and circled the huge ranch. By the time he got back to town, the mare was tired.
He put her up in the stables, ignoring her protests, and went back to the hotel to think.
This was gonna take a while.
Ooh...I wonder what happens next...
I think I made Leo's horse sound more human than I meant to. Horses have feelings, too, and this one's a smart horse to boot.
Now click that pretty little box a review, please!
