Hey, people. The only real delay with this chapter was coming up with the people Leo met and when he met them and how old he was...You'll understand later. I had to do some research on the Wild West...
Anyway, I don't have much to say, but thanks to:
scullymulder1234: Yay, I updated again! I love horses...A horse is a someone, too, you know! They have feelings! Like, once, this Appaloosa (like Spade, Piper's horse...Only this horse was soooo beautiful!) I was riding literally played a trick on me. She ran in the barn and I went in there to get her, and then she ran off...She faked me out! I chased her for so long! Then when we were riding, I steered her away from this log, and she ignored me and jumped it! Anyway, I'm rambling, so...
Magical Princess: Oh, she makes a lot of money off the the horses. When Dan took her money, he took like three hundred dollars, which doesn't sound like much, but in 1832 it was. All together, he actually stole like $1,000 from her, but I don't think I actually wrote that...
piperleo4eva: A vewy, vewy smawt horsey!
AsherSmasher: Glad you love it...And obviously, the puppy eyes worked, lol.
melodieeidolem: Oh, trust me, they'll meet...
anjana: I've been picturing Leo in a white or tan Stetson myself...(if you spelled it wrong, then so did I) Oh, and no--Piper wears kind of like what Prue wore in The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed in Season 3. You know, a hat, boots, long coat kind of thing.
Piper xox Leo: I'm workin' on it!
Two days later, he found himself in the saloon. The sheriff was talking to him, asking questions.
"Where'd ya come from?"
"All over…" He figured he needed to get used to talking anyway, so this was…practice. Sure. Practice.
"Like…"
He sighed. "Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, and all over the West."
"You part of a Caravan or something?"
"No."
"Then how'd you travel the country?"
"I uh…I hooked up with Kit Carson about six years back and he led me around…When I was on my own, I stayed in New York a couple weeks, then I followed a woman down south and all over the Carolinas."
"You followed a woman?"
"She was a hell of a woman." He shook his head to himself, almost in disbelief. "I followed her south, then west. She took me from New York to the Georgia to Louisiana…Then we went back up to Tennessee and she stayed there."
"And you?"
"I went to Missouri. Met Jim Bridger along the way, and followed him."
"What about that woman?"
"I came back for her."
"And…?"
"And she followed me to the West."
"So how'd you end up here?"
"Met up with some bandits. They shot me before I could do a thing."
"Think they followed you? I don't want any trouble in my town."
"I doubt they did."
"What about that woman?"
He didn't answer.
The sheriff let it go. "Lookin' t' settle or somethin'?"
He sighed. "Actually, yeah."
When night came, that woman showed up. Piper Halliwell, he remembered. She sat beside him at the bar. The bartender handed her a drink before she could even ask for one.
"Thanks, Lee."
"Yep."
Piper took a sip of her drink and looked to her left, where this stranger was sitting. She looked him up and down with her eyes. "Yer that rambler, ain't ya?"
He looked over at the woman. Piper. "Yeah."
"How's yer wounds?"
"I'm fine," he said.
Piper nodded. "You lookin' for a home or somethin'?"
"Not yet."
Piper nodded again. She stuck out her hand. "Name's Piper Halliwell."
He looked down at her hand and shook it. "That's nice."
She smiled. "A sense of humor, eh? I like that."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Where's yer horse now?"
"In a stable."
"Hmm…That's a good stable we got over there…"
"She's just a horse."
"So?"
So that's how it went for the next three hours. He soon found it easy to talk with her, but that could've been the alcohol.Either way, he got a small story out of her. She told him a little bit about her parents, but in return, he had to share his past, as well.
"So, yeah, my mom, she died when I was three…" Piper nodded to herself, then motioned for Lee to give her another drink. He handed her another glass of whiskey and she kept talking. The alcohol had been getting to her, and she'd just been rambling on. "'Bout six months after she died, my father left me with the Armstrongs. I've lived with them since them."
"Any relations?"
"No…But Jack and Joanne's daughters are like my sisters, and their son is like my brother…What about you? Any family?"
He abruptly shook his head. "No."
"So, what you were just created? No mother, no father? No brothers or sisters?" Piper asked.
"No. None."
Piper sighed. "Fine, you don't want to talk about them…I don't like talkin' 'bout my dad, either, but I just told you 'bout him…"
"Good for you."
"I miss my mom," Piper said suddenly.
"I miss your mom, too," he replied.
Piper laughed. "Good for you."
His only response was a smile.
Hmm…She liked his smile.
"So tell me more," she said.
"About what?"
"About you. Your past."
"Oh, it's uh…It's not that interesting…"
"Says who--You?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact--Me."
Piper smiled. "Tell me. I told you about my parents…So tell me some of your past."
"That's not a fair trade. You tell me about your parents and I have to tell you my entire past?"
"No, I said 'some'. And besides, it is so. So tell me," Piper said, gesturing in the air.
He sighed. "I was born in Tennessee…"
"And…?"
"And I was on my own when I was seventeen…So I headed west…"
"How old are you?"
"Thirty-five."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "When were you born?"
"Seventeen ninety-seven…You?"
Without missing a beat, Piper answered. "I'm thirty-two--born March fifteenth, eighteen hundred."
He smiled a little.
"Keep going."
"Uh, when I left Tennessee, I went north to Kentucky, then made my way to New York."
"New York?"
"Yes. I got there when I was eighteen."
"That was fast."
He ignored her comments. "From there I went south to the Carolinas, then to Louisiana, then I made my way back to Tennessee."
"Nice…Right back where ya started."
He smiled, but didn't say anything about her comment. "Then I went to Missouri and to the river. On the Missouri River, I met Jim Bridger."
"You did?"
"Yes. He showed me around and he and his team went south toward Texas," he said.
"I never heard of them doing that…"
"That's because no one knew about it. A year later, we were in New Mexico, the Mexican province."
Piper nodded. She took another drink. "Keep going."
He sighed. "We met up with Kit Carson. I left Bridger and went with Carson. He had hooked up with Caravan in Missouri and went south."
"Mmm hmm…Then what?"
"A year after I met Carson, I went back to Tennessee."
"Why?"
"Because…Never mind."
Piper was pretty much drunk. She didn't care that he didn't explain.
"Anyway…I left there and followed the rivers to the Yellowstone. I was uh…Thirty-one…"
"And…?"
"And I met James Beckwourth."
"Nuh uh."
"I did…That was…That was four years ago. We--I…followed him around the Yellowstone River for a couple of years, then we left…"
"We?"
"Me. I said me."
"You said we."
"Never mind."
Piper shrugged. "Fine." She pounded her fist on the counter. "Another drink," she ordered.
"You sure, Piper?" Lee asked her.
Piper nodded curtly. Just give me my drink."
Lee shrugged and handed Piper another drink. She turned back to her stranger. "Go on."
"With what?"
"Your story."
"That's it. That's the end. I went back to Tennessee, then after…" He shook his head. "I ended up here, is all."
"You really like Tennessee, don't you?"
"I was born there."
"So what about your family?"
"I told you I don't got none."
"No mother? No father? No brothers or sisters…"
"Nope."
"Fine. You'll tell me about them sooner or later."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means just how it sounds." Piper smiled. "Welcome to Wolf Creek!"
Two hours later, still at the saloon, Piper called it a night. She had told him all about her, about her mother, her father, her family…And he hadn't said much, he'd just listened. He'd needed to learn about her if he was supposed to help her…However he was supposed to do that.
"I gotta be going," Piper said. "The Armstrongs will worry about me."
"I'll ride you back."
Piper smiled. "No. I think I can manage."
He nodded.
Piper stood up and put her hat back on. "You never told me your name."
"Leo Wyatt."
"Well, then, Mr. Wyatt. Good to have talked with ya."
Piper shook his hand and left.
Hmm…
Leo Wyatt.
She liked that name.
They finally met! Yay!
Anyway, like I said in the the Author's Notes at the top of the page, I had to do research. Jim Bridger, James P. Beckwourth, and Kit Carson were real people. Fur trappers, if I remember correctly. And the places Leo met them at and the times he met them are all true places that those people had been, too.
