Chapter 2

"I'll race you to those trees," Michaela said as she and Sully trotted side by side on their horses. As Sully said, the weather had held and it was an unnaturally warm February afternoon. They had been riding all morning, enjoying the sights of the countryside, as well as each other's company.

Sully smiled. "I thought ya said you were hungry."

"We'll eat after we race," she replied.

He couldn't help but smile again. He was glad that she was becoming much more comfortable with him as the days wore on. Sometimes she even shocked him with her girlishness. Everyone in town saw Michaela as an outspoken woman but Sully knew that inside of her was a free spirit that just wanted to have fun, even if she didn't show it nearly enough.

Sully pulled on the reins of his horse and stopped him. Michaela did the same. They lined up beside each other. He reached for her hand and kissed her knuckles.

"On the count of three," he said, staring into her eyes. He still held tightly to her hand while her free hand gripped the reins. "One…" She prepared to kick off, wondering if Sully was going to let go of her hand. "Two…" She tried to wriggle free from his grasp, knowing that he was planning some kind of scheme. As he began to say three, he dropped his reins and reached both arms over to wrap around her waste. Before the word three came completely out of his mouth, he lifted Michaela off the saddle of her horse and she landed in front of him on his own horse. Although she was shocked, she was laughing. Sully kicked off and they went racing towards the trees. Flash just stood where Michaela left him, bent his head down, and began eating the thick grass that surrounded him.

Sully slowed down as he reached the trees that they were to race to. When the horse stopped, Sully slid off and helped Michaela down.

"Sully!" She exclaimed, playfully hitting him on the shoulder. "We were supposed to race."

"Well, this way, we both won." He smiled and kissed her.

"We both could have been hurt," she told him.

"But we weren't." She smiled to herself, knowing that Sully would never hurt her.

"Yes, but all of the picnic food was slung over Flash's saddle. Now someone has to go back and get it."

Without a hesitation, Sully hopped back on his horse and quickly rode back to where Flash was happily eating. He grabbed Flash's reins and led him back to where Michaela stood. Sully stared at her as he approached. Her hair was down and windswept from the ride. He had never thought her more beautiful as when she looked like that.

Michaela began taking the food from Flash's saddle as Sully set up a blanket on the ground. They set up for the picnic in silence, just enjoying each other's company. Sully tied the horses to nearby trees and they happily grazed on the grass. Michaela and Sully sat beside each other on the blanket, Sully's hand protectively over hers.

"It's a beautiful day," Michaela commented, staring up at the blue sky.

"The sky's not the only thing that's beautiful," Sully replied. Michaela blushed and self-consciously looked down at the food that was spread out in front of them.

"The food looks wonderful." Sully had shown up at Michaela's door that morning with the picnic food already prepared and ready. She had a feeling that Grace had helped him out a bit but it was the thought that counted.

"Would you like a strawberry?" Sully picked one up and held it out to her. When she reached for it, he did not let it go. Instead, he brought it to her lips and she bit into it. A dribble of strawberry juice ran down her chin. Sully brushed it away with his finger and then brought it to his own mouth to taste. For a second time, she blushed.

"It's good," she complimented when she finished chewing and swallowing it. Sully pulled a number of sandwiches from the basket that he had brought.

"Planning on feeding an army?" She asked.

"Just not sure what ya was in the mood for." Sully laid all of the sandwiches in front of her. "We've got raspberry jam, turkey, and peanut butter. What's your pleasure?"

"Raspberry please." Sully handed her the sandwich and she thanked him. As she brought the sandwich to her mouth, she heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. She quickly looked at the spot where she heard the sound but she did not see anything.

"Somethin' wrong?" Sully asked, seeing her turn.

"Thought I heard something," she answered.

Sully looked at the same spot. "I don't see nothin'."

"Must have been an animal," she replied, taking a bite out of her sandwich.

As they ate they talked about their upcoming wedding, the children, and some of the townspeople. Even though Michaela had once wondered if her and Sully had enough in common to make their relationship work, she no longer doubted it. They could waste hours just talking to one another about anything under the sun.

"Everything was delicious," Michaela said as she finished the last bite of her blueberry pie. "Grace certainly knows how to pack a picnic." Michaela teased, knowing that Sully was trying to pass off the cooking for his own.

"How'd ya know?"

"Because you live in a lean-to where you don't have so much as a pie tin."

"I seem to recall someone comin' here and not knowin' how to make a pie, neither." Michaela smiled, remembering when she first arrived at Colorado Springs, not knowing how to do anything for herself. She probably would have died, or quit, if it hadn't been for Sully and the children.

"I don't seem to be very good at making a pie anymore now than I did when I first got here," Michaela reminded him.

"Well, that makes two of us." He leaned over and kissed her, savoring the taste of blueberries that lingered in her mouth. "Besides, Grace may have cooked the food but I told her what to put in the basket." Michaela smiled.

"Well, you did a very good job," Michaela complimented.

This time it was Sully who felt his cheeks turn red.

"Ya wanna go for a walk?" He asked.

Michaela nodded. Sully stood and reached his hand out to her. She took it and he helped her stand.

"We should clean up first," Michaela decided.

"We'll do it when we get back."

"But the animals will get at it and…"

"Ya need to stop worryin', Michaela." He took her by the hand and began walking into the woods before she could stop him. They began walking along a small stream that Sully said went through the whole forest. He told her that it was the smallest stream he had ever seen with such a strong current. As Michaela looked into the bubbling water, she remembered the thing that she had made herself promise that she would ask him. She couldn't help but think of when she and Sully had jumped from the cliff into the cold water below to escape the dog soldiers. Neither of them knew if they would survive the fall but they knew that if they didn't jump, they wouldn't have survived. The water had saved them then. She wondered if the water of the small stream could save her now.

"Ya alright?" Sully asked. Michaela, snapped from her memory, looked up at him. She realized that she had stopped walking and that Sully had stopped talking about the small stream.

"Sully…I…I have to ask you something."

"Alright." She didn't respond. As she thought about how to word her question, something she had thought about all night, she heard the sound of a twig breaking. Immediately she stared off into the forest.

"Did you hear that?" Michaela questioned.

"Probably just a dear getting' a drink from the stream," Sully answered. Michaela knew that he was probably right but she couldn't help but feeling as if something or someone was out there, watching them.

"What were ya gonna ask me?" Sully asked. When she didn't respond, he took her hand and kissed it lightly. "Ya can ask me anything, Michaela, ya know that."

She nodded. She knew that she could ask him anything but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to know the answer.

"When I was taken, Sully," she began, "taken by the dog soldiers…when…when you found me and took me to the mountain where I woke up…you…you asked me something."

"What did I ask you?" Michaela was almost shocked that he didn't remember. Then again, why should she be shocked? If he didn't remember, did it mean that he wouldn't have remembered even if she had said yes? Or, did it mean that he didn't remember because she said no and that, if she had said yes, it would be the one thing that he did remember about her?

"You asked me…you asked me if they, the dog soldiers, if they hurt me."

Sully wasn't exactly sure what she was getting at and he didn't know how to reply.

"And they didn't," he said.

"No, they didn't thanks to Cloud Dancing's son."

"So, what did you want to ask me?"

"I wanted to ask you…" she paused. "I wanted to ask you what would have happened if I had said yes."

Sully let go of her hand. "Why are you asking me that?"

That wasn't exactly the response Michaela was expecting. Just as he had no answer for her, she had no answer for him.

"Brian told me yesterday afternoon that, when I had been taken, some of the townsfolk were saying that you wouldn't want what was left of me if you found me."

"Who said that?"

"Brian said everyone was saying it. I just…I had to know if…if you were saying it, too."

"Oh Michaela."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did but I…I have to know, Sully."

"Michaela, I love you. I will always love you."

"But what if I had said yes? What if they had hurt me? Would you still have asked me to marry you? Would we be here today on this picnic? Would you still love me in the same way?"

Sully reached for her hand once more. He held it tightly between his own two hands. How many times had he thought about how perfectly her hand fit in his? How many times had he known when he felt her skin that he would love her forever? The moment Michaela had told him that she had not been hurt by the dog soldiers, he put the moment behind him. He never thought about it again. He wondered then if thinking about it would have brought him to the same question that Michaela had just asked him. Part of him wanted to be angry with her for thinking that he did not love her enough but another part of him suddenly realized that he did not have a response for her. He did not know how he would have reacted if she had said yes.

"Michaela, I love you and my love grows everyday. No matter what happens, the one thing that I know is that you will be there right next to me, lovin' me as I love you. Would we be standin' here if you had told me yes on that day?" He sighed. "I just don't know." He could see the tears in her eyes and he kissed her hand. "Michaela, maybe we'd be here or maybe we'd be at the homestead or maybe you'd be at the clinic and I'd be talkin' with Robert E at the livery. I just don't know. What I do know is that I love you. Ya can't think about the past. Ya can't go through life wonderin' what if or it'll just ruin what's right in front of ya. If it had happened, would things be different? Maybe but that's not the point, Michaela. The point is that it didn't happen so we don't ever have to worry about it."

She could feel the tears stinging her eyes but she would not cry. She envied his ability to forget the past and just move on. Hadn't he told her the same thing when David had come back? She had to let him go because he was in the past. She knew that he was right. She couldn't live her life wondering what if and, if she did, she could very well lose Sully.

"Ya alright?" Sully asked her, after a moment of silence.

"Yes," she whispered. "I'm sorry that I asked you."

He brought his hand to her chin and raised her head so that she looked him in the eye. He could see the tears swelling in her beautiful eyes but he also knew that she was too proud to cry. He had seen her cry so many times but he knew that she sometimes needed to hide it from him and he would let her.

"Ya don't have to ever be sorry 'bout askin' me somethin'. That's one of the things I love most about ya."

"What's that?"

"You ain't afraid to speak your mind or ask questions…even if it gets ya inta trouble."

She couldn't help but smiling, unable to count the number of times that her mouth had gotten her, or them, into trouble.

"You can always ask me anythin' that's troublin' ya."

"I love you," she said to him.

"I love you, too." He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head as the sky above them grumbled.

"Sounds like it might storm," Michaela said.

Sully looked at the sky. "The clouds are gettin' awfully dark."

"Maybe we should head back."

He nodded and they begin walking together hand in hand, following the little stream. The sky became steadily darker as they walked, the clouds turning a dark grey. The rumbling of lightning grew closer. The air became significantly colder.

As Michaela and Sully reached their horses, sheets of rain fell and soaked them immediately. Michaela frantically began putting away the contents of their picnic, knowing that they shouldn't have neglected the chore in the first place before they had taken their walk. Sully watched her, amused. As she raced to her horse, her arms full of the soaked blanket and sopping wet food, her feet slipped on the slick grass and she fell forward. Sully couldn't help but laugh out loud as the things she held in her arms flew everywhere. He walked over to her, his wet hair plastered to his face, and held out his hand. As she took it, and he helped her stand, she laughed.

"Ya know what this reminds me of?" Sully asked her as they stood facing each other, their clothing equally soaked and Michaela's newly stained with grass.

"What?" She shouted over the sound of the rain and the thunder that seemed to be getting closer at every moment.

"Thanksgivin'," he replied.

Michaela remembered the moment vividly. It had been one of the happiest she remembered since her arrival at Colorado Springs. Despite the draught, nothing could have been better. Sully standing in the rain, his arms outstretched to her made the moment all the more special.

"We sure could use a drought now," Michaela joked, being to feel the cold that the rain caused on her skin.

Sully saw her shiver. "Come on, we should get goin'." Michaela began picking up the blanket. "Leave it, we'll come back for it in the mornin' when it stops stormin'." Michaela nodded. As Michaela put her foot in the stirrup to boost herself onto Flash's back, a crack of thunder roared directly above them. The horse bucked and Michaela fell with Sully breaking her fall onto the wet ground.

"Ya alright?" He asked her, another thunder cracking above them. The two horses were going wild with fright.

"Fine, you?" Michaela questioned, getting off of him.

"I'm okay. It's too dangerous to try to ride the horses outta here."

"What are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna have to find shelter somewhere."

"Can't we walk?"

"It's too far. You'll freeze before we get there."

"What about the children? They'll be worried."

"They'll figure that we found shelter somewhere. Besides, Matthew's with 'em, they'll be fine." If the thunder could have gotten any louder, it did, this time followed by the brightest bolt of lightening Michaela had ever seen. Suddenly, she was shivering from fear rather than cold.

"What about the horses?"

"They'll find their own shelter. They're just scared. They'll be fine once the storm's over and then we can find 'em. We gotta go find something, Michaela before that lightning strikes down right in fron' of us."

She nodded and he grabbed her hand. Sully tried to remember seeing anything on their walk that they could use for shelter. He couldn't remember seeing any caves and he knew that the forest was not the best place to hide during a lightning storm. He felt Michaela's hand shivering in his and he hoped that they would be able to at least find somewhere where he could build a fire to warm her. The storm had come up fast and he cursed himself for not noticing the signs and getting them home before their time together had been ruined.

"Sully!" Michaela yelled over the sound of the rain. The thunder and lightning had calmed considerably but it had become windier and the sound was deafening. Sully stopped and looked at her. She was pointing to the sky. He looked at where she was pointing and saw smoke rising. "Think it's a homestead?"

"Maybe some travelin' cowboys," he suggested.

"Think they have shelter?"

"Only one way to find out."

Sully began walking to where the smoke was coming from. As he took a step, he heard the sound of something he knew all too well. A gun ready to shoot.