A/N: Sorry no chapter yesterday. I had a busy day and evening, I couldn't start this chapter until after midnight and I did most of the work today.

Okay, enough angst for the time being. How about a nice lovey-dovey, sexy chapter? Y'all have been so patient with me and my t00by pathos.

This chapter was HARD. Well over half of it is just pure, plot-free, Jack & Ennis gooshiness, and you know how I dread going overboard with it. I tried to write it so you didn't have to dive for the insulin when you're done.

"Watcher step there, now..."

"I c'n walk up fuckin' stairs, Ennis."

"Here, take my arm."

"For God's sake, quit hoverin'! You're gettin' on my nerves!"

"I'm jus' tryin' t'help."

"I don' need no help. It's my head, not my legs."

"What if you trip 'n fall 'n bust it wide open again?"

"What if a giant meteor falls from the sky 'n crushes us both?" Jack exclaimed, having successfully reached the top of the porch stairs without incident.

Ennis shot him an exasperated look as he went past him into the house. "Well, at leas' I wouldn' have t'put up with your bellyachin' no more."

Jack followed him in. "Oh, that's nice, just when..." He stopped short. "Holy Christ," he muttered. There were flowers everywhere. He could see six or seven arrangements in the living room alone, on every available surface.

Ennis was looking at the cards. "This one's from Fred 'n Arlene," he said. "And this one's from the mayor! Well shit, that's awful nice 'o him."

"Are all these for me?" Jack said, wonderingly.

Ennis shot him a look. "Anyone else 'n this house been in the hospital lately?"

Marianne came out of the kitchen, smiling, and hurried over to embrace Jack. "Welcome home," she said. "I'm making your favorite dinner."

Jack could smell it. His mouth was already watering. "Pot roast?"

"You bet."

Ennis was still looking at the cards. "These're from Gus 'n Nora...hey, this one's from Councilman Cooper!" He returned to Jack's side, looking around with a shamefaced expression. "Now I kinda feel bad I didn't get you none."

"You ain't the flower type, cowboy." Jack smiled. "Besides, you gave me somethin' better."

Ennis returned the smile and leaned in to kiss him. "Now, will y'sit yourself down? Lemme get you some tea or somethin'."

Jack sat down, rolling his eyes. "You c'n stop treatin' me like my head's gonna fall off at any time, y'know. I'm okay." Jack rubbed his temple. His head did hurt, and even the prescribed painkillers only took the edge off. Ennis sat down next to him and took his hand, lacing their fingers together. Jack let his head fall to Ennis's shoulder and closed his eyes. "I do feel a mite woozy, though."

"Then you just rest yourself."

Jack sighed, contentment spreading through him. "Did you call Junior?"

"Yep. Last night. Lizzie, too. Both of 'em sends their love 'n wants you t'call when y'feel up to it." Jack wanted to ask, but he didn't dare. Happily, Ennis seemed to read his mind. "I called Lureen, too."

"Y'didn't have t'do that," Jack said, quietly.

"I thought she'd want t'know. Anyhow, ain't that behind us?"

"I sure hope so."

"And I called your folks."

Jack sniffed. "The old man actually took the call?"

"Your ma answered, or else I wouldn'ta got two words out. I lef' out the details. I jus' said you'd had an accident, but you was okay." Jack felt Ennis hesitate. "Your ma sends her love."

Jack knew what was coming. "Ennis, we been over it 'n over it..."

"It ain't her fault your pa's such a bastard. She'd love t'see you."

"I ain't settin' foot in that house again. Not after what he done."

"We c'd wait till he left, then go see her..."

"He don't never leave! He's like the fuckin' Buddha, he jus' sits there 'n waits for Armageddon!" Jack sighed. "I know you think my ma's some kinda saint just 'cause she don't denounce us as doomed sinners, but she never stuck up for me nor tried t'stop him from doin' what he done t'me, or what he done t'you."

"He didn't do nothin' t'me. Damn, but you overreact sometimes. He wasn't really tryin' t'hit me."

"I ain't so sure. He's a lousy fuckin' shot. Ten yards wide wouldn't surprise me none."

"My folks is dead, Jack. I don't got no regrets 'bout my dad but I miss my mom sometimes. I jus' think it's a shame, you got two parents livin' 'n you never..."

"I don' wanna talk 'bout this no more."

He felt Ennis sigh. "All right, darlin'." Jack felt him turn his head, then Ennis's lips in his hair. He smiled a little. "I'm jus' glad t'have y'home safe."

"I'm glad t'be here."

Ennis disentangled himself and stood up facing him, holding out his hand to pull Jack up off the couch. "We got some business t'take care of."

"We do?" Jack said. Ennis was leading him down the hall to their bedroom.

"I made a promise t'that bastard Forrester, 'n I aim t'keep it." He shut the bedroom door behind him, then pushed Jack up against it and kissed him deeply, planting his hands on either side of Jack's head. Jack grabbed Ennis by the shirt and yanked him closer, his lips wanting to grin but prevented from doing so by Ennis's tongue in his mouth. Ennis pulled back.

"Damn. What kinda promise'd you make?"

"I told him I was gonna bring you home 'n then have a whole bunch 'o sex with you, 'n there wasn't nothin' he c'd do t'stop me."

Jack was almost too stunned to reply. "You told him that?"

Ennis nodded, a self-satisfied half-smile on his face. "You're goddamned right I did. And that ain't all I told him. I'll tell y'all about it. Later." He leaned forward and buried his face in Jack's neck, his lips and teeth worshiping the skin and muscles there, his hands going to Jack's buttons. Jack's head fell back against the door with a thunk.

"I cain't b'lieve y'wanna fuck me now," Jack murmured, his hand rising to tangle in Ennis's hair. "Marianne's in the house..."

"Big fuckin' deal," Ennis muttered, pulling Jack's shirt off as Jack's fingers started in on his buttons. "She ain't stupid. She knows we do this. Besides, she's way over in the kitchen. Who cares?"

"Who cares? Well, you used to..."

"Lots 'o things I used t'do," Ennis said, pulling back and drawing Jack forward to the bed by his hands inside Jack's waistband. Jack let himself be pulled along without resistance. Ennis whipped Jack's belt out of its loops, grabbed his hips and yanked him tight against him. "And lots 'o things I didn't used t'do. I didn't used t'tell you that sometimes jus' lookin' at you gets me hard."

Jack grinned. "You doin' a bit more 'n lookin' now, stud."

"And I aim t'do even more 'n that." Ennis turned him around, his hands busily undoing Jack's fly and shoving his jeans down to his knees, then pushed him down on the bed. Jack watched in amazement as Ennis knelt in front of him. "You gotta stopwatch?" Ennis said, winking.

Whatever smartass answer Jack would have offered turned into a groan as Ennis ducked his head down and took him in his mouth. Jack leaned back onto the bed, fighting to keep his eyes from closing because he wanted to be able to see Ennis's head buried in his groin, he wanted to watch. "One thousand one…one thousand two…" he moaned. Ennis chuckled around him, the movement driving all thoughts of timekeeping out of Jack's mind. The effort soon became irrelevant as Ennis left that five-second mark well in the dust.

Jack wondered what Lizzie's apartment looked like. She'd once described it to him as sterile. He wasn't rightly sure what that meant. All his mind could imagine were some glass-walled rooms with white furniture and chrome coffee tables like in "2001: A Space Odyssey." He doubted that was what she'd meant. Still, he wished he could imagine her there as he heard the phone ringing and pictured her walking to answer it.

"Hello?"

Jack smiled to hear her voice. It was the first time they'd spoken since that morning she'd left, that awful morning of shirts and departures. "Howdy, swee'pea," he said.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, sounding relieved. "Are you home?"

"Yep. This mornin'."

"Are you okay? Ennis didn't tell me much."

"I'm fine. Gotta helluva bruise on my head 'n a few t'match elsewheres, but I'll mend up in a few days."

"I can't believe such a thing could happen in Farmingdale," she said. She sounded a little choked up.

"Wasn't the town, it was that sonofabitch Forrester," Jack said.

"What's being done about it?"

Ennis had recounted his conversation with Forrester after their impromptu afternoon bed-romp. Jack had pictured Ennis in Forrester's office, his unloaded shotgun held over his shoulder for effect, reducing the man to a submissive lump of quivering flesh with his flinty stare and his gravelly voice. Ennis had chuckled over his parting shot to Forrester, but Jack had been too turned on to laugh about it. "My fuckin' hero," he'd growled, grabbing Ennis and pulling him over on top of him. "For that, you get t'have your way with me." Ennis had taken him up on the offer with gusto. Despite Jack's occasional discomfort with playing the so-called "feminine" role, sometimes the rewards of letting Ennis be the manly man were well worth it.

But that probably wasn't what Lizzie wanted to know. "Well," Jack said, "the sheriff cain't charge him, 'cause he ain't got enough evidence that Forrester arranged the attack. But Ennis went 'n paid him a little visit."

"Oh no, he didn't…"

"Naw. Didn't touch him. But he made it real clear that he ain't welcome, and that folks around here c'd make his life real uncomfortable. I think he got the message. We'll see."

"Is everything okay between you and Ennis?" Lizzie asked. Jack smiled at her typical directness.

"Yeah. Had a real bad few days, there. But we're back t'normal now. Better, even." He hesitated. "He asked me for a ring, Lizzie," he said, smiling again at the thought of it.

"He did?"

"Sure did. And I gotta say…he's been different. He kissed me right in front 'o the nurse this mornin'. He ain't holdin' back like he used t'do."

"Maybe he's tired of being afraid of what people might think or do."

"I ain't gonna question it. I just wonder how long it'll last." He cleared his throat. "How're you? How's the city?"

He heard her sigh. "Honestly, it's hell. I feel like I'm in prison."

Jack didn't know what to say. "I expect it'll feel normal again soon. Give it time." Lizzie said nothing. "How's Charlie?"

She let out a harsh laugh that sounded more like a choke. "Oh, he's just brilliant. Didn't even bother to make sure all his girlfriend's underwear was out of the apartment before I got back. I've barely seen him."

Jack shook his head. "Ain't right, swee'pea. Special girl like you, he ain't worthy. I've half a mind to…"

"He isn't so bad. I have been kind of focusing on the negative recently." Her voice got quiet. "I guess living with you and Ennis, and hanging out with Fred and Arlene, well…it just made me see what I don't have." She sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing. I've thought of leaving him, but…it's all so exhausting. This is his place, I'd have to get one of my own, and I'd still have to see him at work, and…that probably sounds incredibly stupid to you."

"Naw, it don't. Practicality ain't nothin'. It's like inertia. Hell, that's part 'o what kep' me 'n Ennis with our wives for so long." Jack twisted the phone cord around his fingers. "Well, we miss you, Lizzie."

"I miss you guys, too."

"Think you c'n come up for a visit soon?"

"I don't know. I hope so."

"How's that book comin' along?"

She hesitated for too long before answering. "I don't know where I'm going with it, to tell you the truth."

"Well…you'll figure it out."

"I'm so glad you're okay, Jack. I was worried."

"I'm jus' fine. Takes more 'n a few goons in a parkin' lot t'get me down."

"Give Ennis a kiss for me."

"With pleasure."

"Bye, Jack."

"Bye, Lizzie." He hung up, frowning at the phone.

Ennis walked in, looking around with an irritated expression on his face. "Jack, you seen my glasses? I coulda swore that I…" He paused, seeing Jack's face. "What's wrong?"

"Jus' talked t'Lizzie."

"And?"

"I dunno. She don't sound too happy t'be back in the city. And that asshole husband 'o hers…"

"You ain't never met the man. Not that I'm disagreein', I'm just sayin' we makin' judgments awful quick."

Jack shrugged. "I guess her personal life ain't none of our business. And no, I ain't seen your fuckin' glasses. I swear, I'm gonna put 'em on a chain round your neck one 'o these days."

"They're prob'ly in the bedroom. C'mon, dinner's ready. Reckon we both c'd use some protein after the afternoon we had."

Jack had, on more than one occasion, asked Ennis what his favorite position was. Ennis had never had a good answer for him. Seemed like every position became his favorite while they were in it.

But now, he thought he might really and truly have found the winner. It was just so damn fine to see Jack as he was now, his torso rising off the bed, the moonlight silvering his skin and outlining every muscle in shadow. Although he usually favored having more control of things, Ennis was quite happy to be underneath him, buried inside him as Jack leaned back, his hands braced on Ennis's thighs, his neck arched as if offering his jugular as a sacrifice. Ennis hung on to Jack's ass as he rocked his hips back and forth, grinding himself down onto Ennis's shaft, the grip and squeeze of it making Ennis's throat convulse and his jaw tighten till his temples ached. He watched the muscles in Jack's stomach roll and clench with the motion of his hips.

That urge to control coming upon him again, Ennis pulled up his knees and braced his feet so he could thrust upwards, pitching Jack forward a little. Jack moved his hands from Ennis's thighs; Ennis let go of his ass and laced his fingers through Jack's, settling his elbows on the mattress so Jack could lean on his hands. Jack's head fell forward and a helpless groan escaped him. "Y'like that, baby?" Ennis murmured.

Jack grinned and released Ennis's hands. He leaned forward to lie against Ennis's chest and kiss him. "Sure is more fun t'ride you than any 'o them bulls, lover," he whispered. Ennis wrapped his arms around him, arousal and liberated joy mingling inside him and swelling in his breast. "Leas' I know you ain't gonna throw me off," Jack said, chuckling against his mouth.

Ennis kissed him hard, grabbing at Jack's lips with his own. "I c'n sure's hell try," he growled, redoubling his efforts. Jack's breath hitched, ecstatic grunts and gasps escaping him, his head dropping to Ennis's shoulder. Ennis grinned, victorious, as Jack gave a yell and Ennis felt the warmth of his climax bloom between their bodies. He shut his eyes and let Jack's pleasure lead him to his own, his legs shaking with the effort he'd just put forth as he let them sag down to the bed again.

He exhaled as Jack rolled off him, staying close tucked against his side, one arm across Ennis's chest. A light dew of perspiration shone in the center of his chest; he felt dampness under his fingers as they combed through Jack's hair. "Damn," Jack finally breathed. "Is that what they mean by 'rode hard 'n put away wet?'"

Ennis laughed, full from his belly, surprised into it. Jack joined in, his shoulders shaking under Ennis's arm. "Maybe so, but I ain't puttin' you away yet," Ennis said, once his laughter had died down. He turned on his side to face him. Jack laid his hand on Ennis's face. "Got somethin' y'might like t'know."

"What?"

"The whole time we were apart, when I was up at Dave's, 'n then when you was in the hospital?"

"Yeah?"

"I didn't have one cigarette."

Jack smiled. "And how did it go?"

"It fuckin' sucked. But I figured, if I c'd resist while I was so stressed out, I c'd resist anytime."

"Good. I'm glad t'hear that." He sighed. "That means a lot t'me."

"Well…I know it's important t'you, so it's important t'me."

"I jus' want you around for a real long time."

If Ennis had been a different man, he might have been able to tell Jack that he wanted to be around for a long time, too. That the idea of spending the rest of his life here, with him, made him want to live to be a hundred and then die an old, old man, hopefully in Jack's arms, at the same moment that Jack himself died so that neither of them would be left alone to grieve. If he'd been the man he sometimes wished he was, he could have artfully and poetically expressed himself to Jack, but in this he was inadequate. He kept finding new depths to the wells of feeling inside of himself, wells he'd been brought up to cap over and ignore, but the deeper he dove, the less he was able to describe what he found. All he could hope to do was live so that Jack would somehow know.

But now he couldn't think about much else except the fact that Jack was kissing him, and pressing himself closer, and that his well-exercised nether regions were, apparently, still up for the challenge. "Hey," Jack murmured, moving down to Ennis's neck. "How much sex is a 'whole bunch,' anyway?"

"I dunno."

"Hmm. Well, I don' think we're there quite yet." Ennis chuckled as Jack clambered over him again. "We don' wanna disappoint good old Stan now, do we?"

"Oh, y'know that'd just break my heart."

Jack had never told him so, but when they had sex, sometimes Ennis got this look on his face like he'd forgotten who he was. The first time Jack had seen it was on Brokeback. That second night, the night that had gone beyond Jack's wildest hopes or imaginings. Once Ennis let himself be taken away, a remarkable look of peace and need had come over his face. He'd looked like he'd found another version of himself, one that fit, one that felt natural.

Jack lived for the moments when he could make Ennis look like that. Didn't happen all the time, but often enough. Sometimes he wondered what he looked like in those moments. Was there some look that Ennis always tried to get onto his face?

At the moment, he didn't much care, because Ennis had that look. That outside-himself look that Jack knew no one else had ever seen. Eyes closed, mouth open, his features lying alongside each other without the chafe of everyday expression. Jack watched that face intently as he lay between Ennis's legs, propped on his elbows, riding and surging with their movements like a buoy on the tide. He wasn't inside him. He'd had him that way once already today and he knew that it wouldn't be comfortable for him again so soon; he just wasn't used to it as Jack was. So they were just lying here, tightly laced together, moving slowly in a way that Jack knew from experience would soon have them both breathing fast and pressing harder into each other. Of all the ways they'd experienced each other, it was this act that, paradoxically, felt the most intimate to Jack. It was so physical, so intensely tactile. They were skin to skin almost from head to toe, twined around each other like climbing vines, straining to get closer, always closer, and achieve that sense of joining without the crutch of penetration to help them get there. The end would come, not with grunts and yells and thrusts and sweat, but with sighs and whispers and a sliding, warm kind of release that would bear their names on each other's breaths. It was this kind of sex, not their more intense, energetic couplings, that made Jack feel like he could see through Ennis's eyes and find his own image there.

He nestled his face into Ennis's warm, damp neck, held close by Ennis's arms and legs wrapped around him, and sealed his mouth over the pulse point under Ennis's jawline. He felt his body climbing higher, straining for that point of release. "Jack," he felt Ennis say, more a puff of air against his ear than a spoken word. He sucked harder on Ennis's neck, feeling Ennis's heartbeat racing under his lips, and then he felt Ennis shudder and his fingers dug into Jack's shoulders. Ennis exhaled and relaxed, and then Jack was there with him, slipping over the crest and muffling a groan against Ennis's throat.

"Jesus Christ," Ennis moaned. Sensing that he needed some air, Jack rolled away and lay next to him, panting. Ennis turned to look at him. "We ain't gone three times in a row since we was twenty-five 'n bangin' each other in a tent," he said, a smirk twisting his mouth. "What'd Marianne put in that pot roast, anyway?"

"Ain't the pot roast. Cain't y'jus' admit that you find me irresistible?"

Ennis turned on his side and propped his head on his elbow. "You're awful pleased with y'self."

"Got you off three times in a row, didn't I?"

"I got you off three times too, y'know."

"Then you ought be pleased with y'self." He reached out and ran one finger down Ennis's cheek. "You handsome devil." Ennis flushed and fidgeted. It amused Jack to no end how self-conscious he got when Jack paid him a compliment.

Ennis folded his arm beneath his head. "So, when do I get my ring?" he said.

Jack mimiced his posture, so their heads were level on the pillows. "Well, I been thinkin' 'bout that."

"Yeah?"

"What if we really did it?"

"Did what?"

"Got married."

Ennis frowned. "Ain't legal. Not unless you got a time machine that'll take us t'some year in the future when folks got some sense."

"So what if it ain't legal? We c'd still do it. I bet Father Mike'd do it."

Ennis was still frowning. "Y'mean…have some kinda ceremony? Walk up the aisle wearin' matchin' suits?"

Hearing it put that way made Jack match Ennis's frown. "Didn't think of it like that. You're right, that ain't us."

"I hope not."

"But it don't gotta be like that t'mean somethin', right?"

"I ain't followin' you."

Jack sighed. "Listen. When I was a kid, my teachers used t'talk about the pioneers what come from out East, and how they didn't have nothin' but what they brought with, could grow or make. She told us about how they didn't have no doctors, or preachers, or lawmen." He took a deep breath. "A kid asked her how folks got married without no preachers. She said that they decided if there wasn't nobody that could marry 'em, that it was okay for people to marry each other through…how'd she put it? Sincere mutual agreement. They'd go to some place that was sacred to 'em and make their promises, and then everybody'd agree that they were married."

Ennis was watching his face. He didn't speak for a few long moments. "That what you want?" he finally said, quietly.

"I wanna know what you want."

He smiled slowly. "Yeah, that's what I want. Let's do that. Y'say we need some kind 'o sacred place?"

"Brokeback?"

"Naw. That's the past. That ain't right. That's for rememberin', not swearin'."

"Okay. What about the cabin? Or the high meadow?"

"Y'know what, Jack?"

"What?"

Ennis sighed. "Ain't no place more sacred t'me than right here. Our bed, in our house, the house you 'n me built." Jack said nothing. Ennis's brows drew in, as if he were afraid he'd said the wrong thing. "Unless that sounds simple 'n stupid."

"No," Jack choked out. "You…jus' wait right there. Don' move."

Ennis watched Jack leave the bedroom, bare-ass naked, looking white as a ghost in the moonlight. He jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom, pausing to open the windows on his way. Damn bedroom smells like sex, he thought. He looked at himself in the mirror.

What a sight you are, Del Mar. Y'about t'get hitched 'n you look all debauched. His hair was sticking up, his face ruddy with stubble-burn, and a purple suck mark had risen up underneath his jawline.

He heard Jack's footsteps returning from the office. "Ennis?"

"In here."

Jack joined him in the bathroom. "Didn' I tell you not t'move? What're you doin'?"

"Takin' a shower. If I'm doin' this, I ain't doin' it with spunk all over me. C'mon, get in here. You're takin' one too. And you gave me a fuckin' hickey, asshole! I look like a goddamn vampire's been eatin' on me!"

They ended up changing the sheets, too. Fine sight we mus' make, Ennis thought. Coupla grown men makin' the bed, stark naked, at three in the mornin'.

Ennis got in bed again, the fresh sheets feeling cool against his skin. He felt nervous, for some reason. He didn't quite know what to do. He just sat upright, legs stuck out in front of him, waiting for Jack to hand-hold him through this as he did everything to do with their relationship.

Jack just looked at him for a minute. He took his ring off his hand and handed it to Ennis, then took Ennis's ring out of the little black bag he'd fetched from his office. He got on the bed and sat facing Ennis, cross-legged. He frowned. "Nope. Too far away." He scootched closer, uncrossing his legs and resting them over the tops of Ennis's thighs so they were sitting chest-to-chest. Ennis stared at the ring he'd had made for Jack so many years ago.

"Now what?" he said.

"I dunno. D'you wanna say somethin'?"

He did. Ennis desperately wanted to say something. Something meaningful and profound that would seal everything for all time, something that would warm Jack's heart fifty years from now because it was so moving that he would remember it word for word for the rest of his life. He wished he was a poet, or a writer, or even a damn country singer. Somebody who knew about words and could just reach out and pluck the right ones out of the air and give them that spin of truth and sincerity. His eyes filled with tears of frustration that he couldn't do this one thing, he couldn't manage to say the kind of words this man deserved to hear, this man who'd waited for him and nagged at him and dragged him, kicking and screaming, into a life he never dreamed he'd ever have, this man who'd all but bullied him into happiness. "I wanna say somethin' t'you, Jack…but I don't know how," he finally admitted. His tears spilled down his cheeks.

Jack was smiling. "It's okay," he said. "You're sayin' it with the look on your face."

Ennis sniffed and palmed the tears off his face, then picked up Jack's left hand. "I guess I oughta promise t'be a good husband," he said.

"Y'already are."

"I think we got that 'better or worse' stuff covered."

"Let's not have any more 'worse' for at least a few weeks, okay?"

"Am I missin' anythin'? I only done this once, and I was so nervous I cain't remember shit."

Jack sighed. "Till death do us part?"

Ennis nodded, that image of himself dying in Jack's arms recurring to him. "Right," he said, his tone subdued. The subject hit a little too close to home for his taste right then. The memory of Jack lying unconscious in his hospital bed was too fresh and painful. He couldn't bear to repeat the words. He started to slide the ring onto Jack's finger, but paused halfway down.

"What?" Jack said.

Ennis looked up and met his eyes. For all the things he wanted to say but couldn't, one would have to substitute. "I love you, Jack." Jack nodded, and Ennis slid the ring home. It fit neatly into the narrow band of paler, indented flesh that it had left behind when Jack took it off. Ennis felt suddenly jealous of that band of flesh, and wondered how long it would be before he had a ring-shadow of his own to match Jack's.

Jack took a deep breath, and picked up Ennis's left hand. "Well, I promise t'be a good husband, too."

"That'll be a nice change."

Jack smacked his shoulder. "I'm bein' heartfelt, asshole. Didja hear me makin' fun 'o you?"

"I'm sorry, you're right. Go ahead."

He took a deep breath. "I'll be true 'n faithful." He flicked his eyes up to Ennis's, and Ennis saw in that glance another apology for Lureen, one he didn't need but still appreciated. "Sickness, health, honor 'n cherish, all that stuff. I ain't gonna swear t'obey, though."

"Wouldn't ask y'to."

"Well, not unless we're doin' that thing when I'm the naughty stable boy 'n you're the strict stock boss…"

"Shush, this is s'posed t'be serious!"

"Right, sorry." Jack cleared his throat. "Thing is, Ennis, I jus'…" He looked away for a moment, and Ennis saw his throat working. "I can hardly b'lieve we're doin' this, that you wanted it. You wanted us." He forced a shaky smile. "I love you, cowboy." He slid the ring onto Ennis's finger.

Ennis looked at his hand, the ring gleaming and looking right at home on his finger. "I been missin' that," he murmured, turning it around a few times. He turned back to Jack. "So…what? Is that it?"

"Unless you wanna go outside 'n let me carry you over the threshold, I guess so."

"We're married, then?"

Jack sighed. "As much as we can be. I don't know if we are any more than we were before."

"I feel like we are."

"Me, too." Jack smiled. "And we'll have t'make do with it 'till such time as the state says they're gonna honor us with their almighty blessin'," he said, bitter sarcasm lacing his tone.

"I wonder," Ennis said, still staring down at his new ring.

"What d'you wonder, darlin'?"

"If we'll live to see it."

"I bet so." He nudged Ennis's arm. "Hey. There is one thing we forgot."

Ennis looked up. "What's that?"

"Ain't we s'posed t'kiss?"

"You ain't had enough kissin' for one night? My lips feel swelled up like a bee stung 'em."

"Humor me."

Ennis feigned a long-suffering sigh and kissed him, sliding his arms around Jack's waist. "There. Happy?"

"Very," Jack said, his own arms going around Ennis's chest. "But I ain't takin' your name, y'know."

"Good, I ain't takin' yours, neither."

"It's a shame, though."

"What's a shame?"

"I'm too spent t'consummate."

"God, me too. Let's jus' get some sleep, we gonna be wrecked enough in the mornin' as it is." They disentangled from each other and stretched out on their respective sides. Ennis curled on his side facing away from Jack, his left hand feeling heavy and newly-adorned. "G'night, baby," he murmured.

"G'night, Ennis. Sweet dreams."

Ennis felt sleep hurrying to catch up with him, having been put off for far too long already. He didn't think he'd have any trouble conjuring some sweet dreams this night.

Post-script:Ok. I spent some time thinking about whether I did or did not want Jack and Ennis to decide they wanted to make some kind of concrete commitment ceremony, prompted by Ennis's request for a ring. I worried that I'd covered that ground back in chapter 4 when Ennis gave Jack the ring in the first place, and they signed their power-of-attorney agreements. What I came to conclude was that the chapter 4 moment was less a marriage and more of Ennis deciding that he wanted to confirm to Jack that he was invested and committed to their new life together. He didn't ask Jack for a reciprocal commitment, and it wasn't something that was particularly mutual. I decided that it would be okay for them to do what they've just done, and that furthermore, they needed to do it, that it had been something they'd been missing, and that Ennis's new commitment to "living it with" Jack, voiced in the previous chapter, was just the impetus they needed.

I'm sure you'll all let me know if it seemed extraneous!

Oh, by the way, I actually borrowed Jack and Ennis's entire impromptu marriage thing from a gay friend of mine (with his permission), who told me that this was how he and his husband married each other. I also borrowed the whole pioneer story from him. No idea if it's true, but if it isn't, it ought to be.