Teaspoon followed the faint wheel ruts that veered off from the deeper ones, confident this was the route to Lou and Kid's place. He'd asked several people along the road about the "feller who raised horses in Serenity Springs" and they'd all given him the same information; take the road east out of town and then look for the tracks heading south. After a week and a half of riding, he figured he had about an hour remaining on his journey.

The trip from St. Louis had been less tiring than he'd expected. He'd worried that four years of easy living in Amanda's hotel had sapped his stamina and trail-savvy, but he'd found the old instincts were still there. Taking his time, pushing neither himself nor his horse, he'd actually enjoyed the ride. Yes, he'd woken a few days with a stiff back, and beef jerky didn't compare to the hot meals in the Black Diamond hotel, but there was a freedom to being on the trail that erased time and made him forget his seventy years. Not that he would ever tell Amanda that. He was delighted to live with her in the hotel and he didn't want her thinking any different.

The wheel ruts led to a valley, and he soon spotted a house with two barns. Curious now, he urged his horse into a lope and was eventually able to make out a couple of figures sitting on the porch, barely moving in the late afternoon heat. The figures became women, and when he was a hundred yards away he decided there was a good chance that the women were Lou and Rachel.

The women didn't rise as he approached. They studied him from their chairs, neither appearing alarmed. Teaspoon wondered if visitors were a regular occurrence. He pulled his horse to a stop in front of the porch.

"Good afternoon, ladies."

They stared. He would know either one of them in a heartbeat. Rachel's figure was a little fuller and Lou's hair was longer, but the years hadn't changed them all that much.

"Teaspoon?" Rachel asked, her voice rising sharply on the second syllable.

Lou said nothing. Her brown eyes were large.

He dismounted, grinning. "I hope I'm not too late for supper."

"Teaspoon!" Rachel said again, then leapt out of her chair and dashed down the steps to engulf him in a hug.

After a short pause, Lou followed, her skirts swishing with the movement. Teaspoon found himself with an arm around the waist of each woman.

"I can't believe it's you," Lou said. "We ain't heard from you in more than a dozen years."

Teaspoon gave her an apologetic smile. "I ain't much of a letter-writer, I know. And I kind of lost track of things, over time. But when I got a letter from Rachel a couple of weeks ago saying she was going to be staying with you, it sounded like a good chance to see the family again - well, as much of the family as is here. I'm not sure how many more years I have left to do this. It felt...important."

Lou stretched up and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm glad you came. They boys are going to be so surprised...and pleased."

"And what boys might those be?"

She grinned. "Kid and Jimmy. Jimmy's the sheriff in our town."

Teaspoon nodded. "Rachel might have mentioned that."

"He's doing good, Teaspoon. You'd be real proud of him."

Teaspoon patted her back. She sounded the same as she had when she was a girl - that improbable mixture of grit and softness that made him marvel that it took so long to discover that she was female. He wondered whether her sons took after her or the Kid. "Rachel's letter also mentioned that you've got some young'uns, Lou."

She smiled, almost shyly. "Three boys - and not so young anymore. The oldest is fourteen. The youngest is eight."

"Are they around hereabouts?"

She waved a hand. "I can't keep track of 'em. Jimmy came by a couple of hours ago and I think he took 'em fishing. But you'll meet 'em soon enough. It's getting near suppertime and they're never late for a meal, not since Rachel took over the cooking."

"And your daughter, Rachel? Is she fishing, too?"

Rachel smiled. "Grace is doing a good job adjusting to life away from Boston, but she's not up to putting worms on a fishhook yet. She's in the house reading."

Teaspoon cleared his throat. "I was mighty sorry to hear about your husband."

"Thank you, Teaspoon. I still miss him, but it's good being here and feeling useful. I'm more myself these days."

"I can understand that. Nothing like family to help a body heal."

The conversation fell into a lull as the three of them regarded one another. Teaspoon guessed that the women were doing what he was doing; assessing what fifteen years had done, and thinking about the past and how many times they'd talked like this outside the station house. It was amazing how easy - how comfortable it was to slip back into the same pattern.

Lou looked over his shoulder and her eyes lit up. "Here's the boys coming now," she said. Then she added, "All the boys."

Teaspoon turned and saw two men approaching. They were accompanied by three boys of various sizes, the tallest walking next to the men as if trying to be one of them, and distinguish himself from his more juvenile brothers. The younger boys had no such care. They were running around, throwing dirt clods at each other. The adult men paused as they noticed Teaspoon.

"Can I help you, mister?" one of the them asked. He shifted his hand to rest lightly on his holster.

Kid, Teaspoon thought. Always ready to protect Lou.

"I was just wrangling a supper invitation from these lovely ladies," he replied. "I hope that suits you."

The men stared at him, then glanced at each other.

"Teaspoon?" Jimmy asked, sounding much as Rachel had sounded moments earlier.

Teaspoon bowed his head. "Good to see you, Jimmy."

"Teaspoon," Kid echoed, and broke into a jog. When he reached the porch, he grabbed Teaspoon in a bear hug, slapping him on the back. "I can't believe it's you."

"That's what your missus said," Teaspoon replied. "I hope all this not believing don't mean I can't stay for supper. I keep hinting at it, but I ain't been formally invited yet."

Lou rolled her eyes. "Of course you're invited. And you're invited to stay, too."

"Well, now, I don't want to put you out."

She waved a hand. "We're a little more crowded than we used to be, but we got a small room upstairs that Buck uses when he's not working. It ain't fancy, but the bed is comfortable."

So, they saw Buck as well as Jimmy. More of the family together. Teaspoon felt his heart lift.

"Are you expecting Buck anytime soon?" he asked hopefully.

Kid shrugged. "We're never sure when he's going to be here. He's out on a cattle drive. Depends on how the drive goes and how quickly he gets signed up for another one."

Teaspoon nodded. "Well, maybe I'll get the chance to see him, too."

"Pa?" The smallest boy had stepped next to his father and was tugging at Kid's sleeve. He had Lou's big brown eyes. Teaspoon figured this had to be the eight-year-old.

"Yes?" Kid looked down at the boy with the same patient expression he used to use with his horse Katy. Kid had always been happy to make time for things that needed his help. Teaspoon was willing to bet he was a good father because of it.

The boy shuffled on his feet. "Who is this man, Pa?"

Kid ruffled his son's hair. "This, Little Buck, is Teaspoon Hunter. You've heard your ma and I talk about him plenty of times."

"Teaspoon Hunter?" the tallest boy repeated. "The marshal in Rock Creek? But he's too old to be a marshal."

Jimmy laughed and shook his head.

"James Ike!" Lou corrected sharply. "Where are your manners?"

Teaspoon grinned. "I wasn't always this old, son. Rock Creek was before you were born. And I can still sit a horse, mind you, just as well as anybody here."

"Hmm." James Ike appeared doubtful.

"I wouldn't sell him short," Jimmy said. "Back in our Express days, he rode harder than any of us."

James Ike didn't argue, but the expression on his face said that he didn't believe it.

"Why don't you all clean up for supper," Rachel suggested. "It'll be ready soon. We can catch up as we eat." The young boys groaned, but dutifully shuffled off toward what Teaspoon presumed was some kind of sink and water pump. Rachel wagged a finger at him. "That you means you, too, Teaspoon. It looks like you've got half the trail on your pants."

"Yes, ma'am."

"C'mon." Kid waved his hand. "We'll show you the room and where you can wash up."

"I'll see to your horse," Lou offered.

Teaspoon nodded and grinned.


Serenity Springs was smaller than Jesse had imagined it would be. In fact, it reminded him a little of Rock Creek, with a single main road through the middle of town and only a handful of streets running parallel on either side of it. Keeping his hat tipped forward to shadow his face, he rode slowly down that main road, glancing at the buildings on either side.

He could use a doctor. The whiskey he'd been pouring on his wound hadn't stopped the infection. The upper arm was swollen now, hot to the touch, and the fingers on that hand were becoming stiff. It wasn't his gun hand - which was good - but Jesse had seen men in the war with similar infections eventually lose the limb. If the flesh starting turning black, he knew there was a chance things could really go downhill.

Jesse also knew that by the end of the war, doctors had begun treating such wounds with strong, foul smelling solutions. The solutions didn't always work, but they managed to arrest the infection some of the time. For the life of him, he couldn't recall what the stuff was called, but any competent doctor should know. He just needed to find a doctor and ask for some, without risking the exposure of being examined or talking about how he'd gotten the wound. He hoped to God the town wasn't so small that it didn't have a physician - or at least a knowledgeable barber. Barbers were almost as good as doctors when it came to cuts and such.

He searched the signs in front of the buildings, looking for either Doctor or Barber. Instead, he saw a sign that made his heart skip a beat: Sheriff. So, the town had a lawman. Did that lawman have Jesse's wanted poster displayed on the wall of the jailhouse? That would make him less inclined to show his face and seek out the doctor. Noting that the door to the sheriff's office was closed, Jesse rode toward the building and halted his horse to examine the bulletin board by the door. And there he was, along with Frank and the Younger brothers. The drawing of him was a pretty good likeness, too. Apparently nowhere was safe these days, not even the small towns. Still, just because this place had a sheriff, didn't mean it had a competent sheriff. It was the kind of town where a tired, older lawman might come, right before retiring.

Then Jesse's eye caught sight of another sign, tucked in the bottom corner of the window. Sheriff: James Butler Hickok.

Jimmy? Jimmy was a lawman...the lawman in this town?

Well, that complicated things; it took incompetent right off the table. Fifteen years after Jesse left the Express riders to go with Frank, he still hadn't seen a man better with a gun than James Butler Hickok. And assuming Jimmy, Lou and Kid hadn't had some falling out over the years, there was a decent chance that Jesse could run into Jimmy when he was trying to find Lou. That would really mess things up. There was no way he could appeal to Jimmy's sympathies the way he could with Lou - or at least the way he hoped he could with Lou.

Jesse peered anxiously through the window of the jailhouse and saw the the room was empty. Wherever Jimmy was at this moment, it wasn't sitting in his office. Jesse turned his horse and once more began walking it down the street, more nervously this time, pulling his hat lower over his eyes. He still needed to get to Lou, he decided. He didn't have much choice. He was bone-weary and his arm needed tending. He just had to find a way to get to her when she was alone.

The street was quiet, with only a handful of townsfolk walking about; probably, Jesse guessed, because it was near suppertime. He watched a boy dart out from between two buildings and run as fast as his short legs would carry him. Jesse almost smiled. Doesn't want to be late and make his ma angry. He guessed the boy to be around eight or nine; old enough to know something about the town but hopefully too young to look at wanted posters. Jesse nudged his horse into a jog and caught up with the boy.

"Excuse me, son," he called down to him.

The boy stopped running and appeared grateful for the chance to catch his breath. "Yes, sir?" he gasped.

Sir. A polite boy. Jesse smiled. "I'm looking for a man who raises horses. Folks 'round here might call him the Kid. Do you know where I can find his place?"

The boy frowned and looked at his shoes, shifting uneasily. Then his eyes lit up. "Oh," he said, raising his head. "You mean Buck's pa."

Buck. It had to be. Because, of course, Lou and Kid would name their children after their Pony Express family.

Jesse nodded at the boy. "Yes, that's right. Buck's pa."

The boy grinned. "You're going the wrong way, mister. You want to head that way." He pointed east. "There's another road that breaks off, right by some really big trees. That road goes to Buck's house."

"Do you ever visit Buck?"

The child shrugged. "Sometimes my pa takes me there to look at the horses. They got a lot of them. The babies are real cute."

"How long does it take you to get there?"

The boy shrugged and his grin faded. "I dunno. I can't tell time. It don't seem that long."

Vague, Jesse thought, but probably the best directions he was going to get. It couldn't be too far if the boy's father took him there just for the fun of seeing horses. He touched the brim of his hat. "Thank you, son. Now get on home before you're late for supper and your ma is mad."

"Yes, sir." And the boy began running again.

Jesse turned his horse and started loping east. It was mid-summer - still plenty of daylight left. The big trees shouldn't be hard to spot. This was Nebraska and the landscape favored prairie, not forest.

Sure enough, less than an hour after leaving town, Jesse saw a set of wheel ruts veer off by two straggly trees (not really all that big). The ruts headed south and he followed them, going slower now, conserving his horse's energy. He didn't want the animal completely spent if something went wrong and he needed to sprint out of there. He followed the ruts for a couple of miles, and then spotted three buildings - mere dots across the valley. He halted and pulled a spyglass out of his shirt pocket. It had once belonged to his captain and Jesse had appropriated it when the man died on the battlefield.

He extended the spyglass to its full length, then raised it to his eye. The dots became a white house next to two brown barns. He thought he could detect movement around the house and decided to risk riding closer. After all, if he needed a spyglass to see the buildings, then no one there was going to be able to spot a single horse and rider.

He rode another quarter mile, then raised the glass once more. This time he was able to see that there were people sitting on the porch. Five people, all adults. Two of those people had to be Lou and Kid. This was their house, after all. But who were the other three? Was Jimmy one of them? He risked another hundred yards and saw that two of the people were women, the remainder men. He noted that one of the men had white hair.

It was as much detail as he could make out from this distance, and he didn't dare ride closer. The valley offered little cover, other than tall grass and a few small hillocks that he could hide behind. He would wait until dark, he decided, after everyone had gone in the house. Then he would approach.

In the meantime, he pulled the bottle of whiskey out of the saddlebag and poured what was left of it over his burning arm.


Many thanks to the people who are reading and commenting. It's always a labor of love to write for an old series, but the Young Riders was a very good one. It's great to see that other folks still like it, too. If anyone knows where you can find the COMPLETE season 2 on DVD, please feel free to PM me or comment. I've got the series on DVD, but S2 is missing a few episodes and I haven't been able to find them.