Some news, Nick felt, needed to be celebrated and this certainly fell in that category. So he waited until almost all of his hands were a good two hundred acres away working on the herd, asked Heath to cover for him, and returned to the house to pack up a basket and take Jordan and Angela to his favorite spot under the old tree in the meadow near the house.

Had he known it was his Mother's favorite spot as well, he would have been distinctly amused and possibly concerned that she might head over in that direction, but he likely would still go to that spot. It had a sort of poetic charm, with the stone fence bordering three sides and the tree that provided the perfect amount of shade.

He carried Jordon on Cocoa and Angela rode Easy with growing confidence, proof that the lessons were paying off. It wasn't until he hung his gun in the tree branches and laid the blanket on the ground that he broke the news.

"I found it."

"Foun' wha?"

"Where we can go." He felt like grinning until his face split.

Angela was stunned by the news. "They's ah place we can go?"

"Yep, Ontorio, Canada. It's home to numerous communities of ex-slaves. Negro's have the right to vote, own property, run for office. It's not perfect, I won't promise it's perfect; but it's a lot better than anything we'll find here."

Jordan toddled away with her newly learned and adored skill of walking.

"Vote?" It seemed such a foreign concept.

"Every woman can vote for school trustees. There are whole communities made up from runaway slaves. Here…." Nick took a stick and started sketching in the ground. "I've already bought some land…it's right here." A jab into a grass mound. "That'll be the ranch. It's close to three good sized communities.." the stick came dangerously close to lopping off the fluffy heads of dandelions. "We'll have our own water source for our herd-"

"Cow" Jordan said.

"That's right sweetie. Only not just one cow; we're going to have whole herd of them. And the trick is this part of town right here." He stabbed the ground with a stick. "The railroad line ends right here. We can ship part of the herd to market straight from here. And since I bought all this land around it, we can rent it to any other herds coming to market. They'll pay top dollar to be able to let their cattle graze for a few weeks before loading them up."

"Cow."

"Yep. And the other part is a matter of year round cash income. There is a large population of jewish immigrants in this area."

"How duz tha' help?" Angela asked, peering at his crude map.

"Jewish diet has strict requirements. Meat has to be prepared a certain way; it's called kosher. I can set up my own meat company and hire some of the immigrants to make certain it meets requirements to considered kosher for their diet. This would be the year round market for our cattle. I'm not saying it won't take a few years to build it up_"

"Cow!" Jordan said loudly, and Angela looked over her shoulder at her daughter and screamed.

The Brahma bull stood less than 20 feet away from the little girl, head lowered and muscles tensed. It had bloody gashes on its neck and chest from where it had broken through the fence, and to Nick's utter horror, it broke into a charge heading straight for the toddler.

"JORDAN!" He screamed, going from a cross-legged sit into a dead run in a staggering step. The little girl was clutching a handful of dandelions as she stood frozen at the approaching bull She released the flowers and turned her face to Nick.

"Papa." She whispered.

Then the sharp hooves sliced through the dirt where she had been standing a tenth of a second after Nick hurled himself over the girl, catching and cradling the petite form to avoid harming her. He felt a horn slice into his leg and miraculously landed on his feet, running towards the panicked ponies. He saw with relief that Angela had seized the reins of Easy and was already in the saddle, arms outstretched to catch the girl that Nick practically threw in her grasp. He felt the earth shudder beneath his feet and he slapped the horse on the flank, startling it into a run before rolling to the side again, the bull just missing the frightened pony and the man afoot.

Furious, the bull charged again, striking Cocoa in the shoulder and bowling him over. The horse scrambled to his feet with a squeal of pain and galloped towards the ranch and the brahma turned his eyes on the pony carrying Angela and Jordan.

Nick moved away from the big oak to pull the bull's attention to him, aware for the first time of the bloody gash on his thigh. He pulled his vest off and waived it, but saw the bull swing his eye to the bigger target.

Damn. Nick picked up a good-sized rock and hurled it at the animals' face and felt both better and worse when his missile landed sorely on the tender nose. The bull gave a startled bellow and turned his attention back Nick.

"Hey Toro! Viva! Viva! Come and get me, you stupid bag of bones."

The Brahma charged toward his tormentor and Nick rolled out of reach and reached into the tree branches for the gun, moving fast, too fast and slammed his hand against a tree branch. Numbness shot through the damaged nerves as he pulled the pistol clumsily from the holster and he swore as the muscles in his finger spasmed.

The bull was deadly close and Nick threw himself to the ground again, trying to stumble to his feet while he adjusted to the awkward new firing stance his stubborn fingers didn't want to use. He finally cocked the gun and tried to slide his middle finger through the trigger guard only to have the muscles spasm again and the gun tumble out of his hand. There was a moment of thought:

"Now I'm helpless."

Before he saw the bull spinning, turning to charge the terrified riders who had almost reached the fence.

They had a chance. If the horse didn't balk, if they didn't slip off the pony, if the stones didn't give way under their feet, they could just make it over the wall and out of reach of the bull. It would be slim but they had a chance, and Nick was under no illusions about how he'd come out against the bull.

If he jumped right now he could pull himself into the tree and stay there until help came. If things worked out perfectly, everyone would be fine; Angela and Jordan would get away and bring help quickly and he would come out of this with nothing more than a sore hand. If he stayed put the powerful beast could cut him down in seconds.

It was a remarkably easy choice and he hurled himself at the bull, his left hand fumbling to grasp the tender nostrils and force the animal's attention away from the running pony.

He yanked the ring in the bulls' nose and it gave a bellow of pain, turning on him and savagely digging horns into his gut before hurling him through the air. Nick landed awkwardly and felt a snapping sensation in his leg before the furious animal attacked again, grinding him into the earth. The cowboy wheezed as the air was squeezed out of his chest, feeling ribs break and his collarbone crunch under the assault. The bull backed up again and charged, the horns sliding, cutting and flipping him around into the air before he fell bonelessly to the ground.

Idly, Nick wondered why he wasn't shrieking in pain before deciding it was because the pain wasn't all that bad. It hurt but it didn't hurt as much as the time he'd broken his arm; a true... He groped for a Jarrod type word...conundrum. There was another furious snort from the bull and Nick could see it lowering its head for another charge. This one, he supposed would kill him and he watched it stampede toward him, deadly horns pointed at his throat.

Then, uncomprehendingly he heard what sounded like a crack of thunder and saw it stumble and crash to the earth, it's left eye vanished in a splash of gore. Foggily he wondered what had happened, then saw a rifle drop to the ground in front of him and felt familiar arms wrap around him.

"Nick? Come on, little brother talk to me."

Nick smiled. Pappy to the rescue; just like always.