"Damn it guys!" Sarah yelled, putting her hands on her hips and looking very much like a disappointed mother, "How many times do I have to remind you to stop calling me 'Mom' or 'Mama Sarah', some of you are half my age! I'm not old enough to be your mother!"

"But we love you Sarah!" one of the dark-skinned girls called as both jumped to their feet and rushed to hug Sarah in a dog pile as Tosh, Pep, and Poe nearly tackled her to the ground. "You're like our second mom!"

"But I didn't adopt you all!" She protested loudly, trying hard to stand up and hug each kid in turn before they backed off. "You're going to give everyone the wrong idea, and I look like a huge liar when I say I don't have any kids!"

Jesse felt a wave of relief wash over him, so they weren't all her kids—she didn't have any at all. Then he felt dumb for being jealous at all, but he couldn't help himself. He laughed softly but was still heard by Sarah because she smiled and waved him over, telling him to come meet the giant brood.

"Sorry they gave you such a runaround," She laughed a little uneasily. "I'm very good friends with their mother, and they have known me since she adopted them, so they think of me as a second parent." She pointed to each kid in turn and told their names, introducing Maple and Jubie. Clover was apparently with the mother to the litter of adoptee's, and they were running late. "Speaking of that hussie," Sarah growled, "Where is she?"

"Oh get your panties out of a twist!" A voice yelled, everyone turned to see a woman with hip length bright blue hair walk up with a dish in her hand and a young brown haired girl behind her. Jesse's jaw dropped before he could stop himself—she looked so much like Rosa from that distance as a teenager he had to remind himself not to stare like a creepy old man; but as she got closer he realized the differences.

Her hair was a slightly different color, her skin was clearer and her body was built differently. "We're here, for shit's sake. Not like we didn't have to run all over the place to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything." Jesse focused on the woman he assumed was the mother, and felt a twinge of familiarity. Her sepia colored skin and bright blue hair made him tilt his head just slightly when she caught sight of him and froze, head tilting in the opposite direction. "I…don't….believe it…." Her dark eyes widened as she looked Jesse over from head to toe and back again.

"Ami," Sarah said slowly, reluctantly pulling the woman's attention away from Jesse who felt like he had been smacked with a two by four—it couldn't be THAT Ami, could it? "Are you okay? I didn't think you were into cowboys?" She laughed and glanced at Jesse before Ami shook her head.

"I'm not, I'm fine." She blinked several times and gave Sarah a strained look. They passed several small facial expressions for wordless communication that Jesse nearly missed. An eye narrow that seemed like a twitch, a head leaning forward an inch, eyes widening and a small shake of the head before they seemed to realize they were still being watched by Jesse. "I'm Ami." Ami placed the dish of food on the table and held out her hand to Jesse. "And you are~."

"McCree. Jesse McCree. Pleasure." He took it and shook it once, "Your kids seem rather fond o' me." Jesse glanced around at all the staring eyes, trying to ignore the physical phantom looking him up and down slowly. Her green eyes a shade darker than he remembered Rosa's being.

"WAIT!" Maple gasped overdramatically and pulled out a phone, tapping away furiously at the screen. "OUTLAW Jesse McCree?"

Jesse chuckled softly and kicked the dirt with one boot, a small cloud of dust raising with the motion as Maple began reading off a few of his more famous exploits. Much to his surprise—the ways he had helped people—rather than went against the government and been blamed for everything that had gone wrong with Talon's attacks. Like the train incident.

"Got a reputation do you?" Ami laughed as she ushered the Rosa look-a-like, Clover, to put down her guitar case and messenger bag on a table. "But are you a hard worker?" She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, "I need some help getting some stuff from the car, you care to help me?"

"My pleasure," Jesse reached up for his hat and realized for the first time he was without it, and suddenly felt very naked. "Aw shit." He pat his head with his metal arm, which didn't go unnoticed by Ami, "Forgot my hat, things kinda got.." he glanced from Tosh to Pep to Poe, "Bright and…busy and I forgot it. Don't mind me, just feel a bit necked."

"Uh-huh…" Ami turned on her heel and lead Jesse back through the entrance to where a large black mini-van was waiting, doors open. When they had reached the back, Ami peeked around the edges of the vehicle as Jesse looked inside the back, noticing it was empty for the most part other than a small black trunk that was covered in stamps and stickers of places by name. "YOU!" She punched Jesse hard in the arm, and he yelled out before he realized he wasn't in any real pain. "Oh my god!" She hissed, looking back around the car before glaring at him.

"The hell did I do?" Jesse snapped, flinching as Ami raised her hands and kept smacking him wherever her hands could land.

"You! Didn't! Come! Back!" She hissed angrily with each smack. "You LEFT her there!"

"So you ARE that Ami!" He hissed back, blocking his face as she continued her assault on him.

"How many black women with blue hair named Ami you know! Idiot!" She stopped hitting him and huffed, her face started to glow with anger. "Yes, and what the f—" She leaned back around the car and Jesse peeked around his own side to make sure no one was listening or looking. "You haven't told her, have you." Ami narrowed her eyes at Jesse, and he shook his head, tensing up as she started hitting him again.

"Cut it out damn it!" Jesse barked, finally having enough of being smacked and punched. "I wasn't sure it was even her till you showed up! Like you said, I got a reputation—lots of folks want my head—I can't trust everything I hear." He drew himself up to full height and glared, making Ami back off a step. "Girl I was nuts over as a youngin' shows up when I'm in town? We meet in a bar? Seems a bit to damn convenient…And I ain't gonna tell her, seems like she's had a good life till now—no sense in bringing up a teenage fling now that we're grown." He saw her shoulders sink a little.

"You don't know what she went through cause of you." She sighed heavily and looked sadly at the trunk. "She never really got attached to another guy after you. Yeah, she dated—got a few proposals…but no guy was like you. We came back every year we could and looked for you. Wasn't often, but…Santana had moved away when his wife got sick—so we couldn't see him until we came back now…She tells me he can't even remember her." She shook her head slowly. "She kept every, single, thing she could from that time." She reached in and flipped the metal clips on the trunk and opened it. A metal can with holes in it, a faded blue cowboy hat meant for a girl, several outfits that were dated and dingy with age and lots of photos were in the bottom. Tapped to the lid was a CD in a case that read 'Don't Play But Keep' "She was OBSESSED with you cowboy…she thought you died that day." She flicked her hand at the trunk of items that slowly Jesse began to recognize. "She kept them in your memory, she thought she got you killed, and it has stuck with her ever since then. She's looked for you in hopes of proving herself wrong. That you lived." Her brow furrowed and Jesse reached inside the truck, picking up the blue hat and turning it over in his hands slowly. "Why?" Jesse stopped turning the hat and looked up, "Why didn't you come back for her like you said you would?" Jesse could see the accusation in her eyes, as well as hear it in her voice, mixing with the irritation and sadness. Pity. Jesse just held up his metal arm and flexed it.

"Got hurt pretty bad…got rushed out on med-vac…before I could tell anyone my name and what happened, I was in a different state, being operated on. Got fitted with this and was rushed back to Switzerland for rehab and training to use it. I couldn't come back to Santa Fe for over a year…because of what happened. Not cause I was hurt. But it was never her fault," Jesse looked back down sadly at the hat before putting it in the chest on top of the outfits that had been meticulously folded Jesse had noticed. "To be honest," Jesse picked up a photo and looked at it, it was from when they were teens, some moments he hadn't even realized had been documented. Like their first dance together, Apparently, Ami had decided to snap photos with her cell phone camera to keep for Sarah. "I came back lots when I could, hoping to run into her again. Never forgot her…" He smiled at the photo and picked up another. "But I figured she'd forgotten about me, you know how teenage summer crushes go…"

"But—" Ami started to argue, but the sound of Sarah's voice shocked both Jesse and Ami.

"Don't tell her," Jesse demanded, as well as pleaded, putting the photos back in the trunk where he had found them.

"I won't, but YOU need to outlaw." Ami snapped as Sarah appeared beside Ami.

"Hey, did you bring that trunk?" She looked inside and noticed it was open, "There it is!" She grabbed the blue hat and ran around the vehicle as she shouted, "I got it, Clover!"

"I mean it, Thief," Ami sighed heavily when she was gone. "Tell her. You can't let her go on thinking you died to save her, it's killing her."

Jesse felt a twinge of guilt, he hadn't thought about the possibility of her thinking that he had died. He didn't like that. Jesse eyed the disc and started to ask about it, but Ami had walked off, leaving him alone. Jesse picked up a few more photos and looked them over, feeling his heart ache as he saw Rosa as he remembered her. He remembered the tender touches, the kiss that was stolen from him, and how they had parted.

It's not like telling her will pick up where we left off. He thought to himself, Telling her that the boy she remembers didn't die…ain't the same as telling her I am that boy… Jesse put the photos down with more difficulty than he wanted to admit to. He wanted to keep them, so many more memories came back to him when he looked at them. But how do I tell her without seeming like I'm lying, or talking out of my ass? Not like I can say, 'yeah, that guilt you been packin' around the last twenty years was for nothin'—that boy went on to make an ass outta himself many more times—trust me he's fine.'

He sighed heavily and shut the trunk slowly, reluctantly closing the clasps and closing the doors to the minivan. Part of him wondered what would happen if he DID tell her who he was. If she blamed herself and thought him dead because of what happened—then she had to remember what the last thing he told her was.

He walked back slowly to the dining area where he saw her reach back into her pocket and produce her wallet. He watched her remove some pins on the applique and remove it, putting it on something on the table before turning and handing it to Clover who wrapped it around her neck and turned her back to Rosa. Jesse felt his heart do a stutter in his chest, that's why he had recognized it when he saw it. It had been the same choker he had stolen from her when they met.

Would she hate me? That was the thought that stopped him from telling her. I did tell her I'd come back for her, and I didn't. She was probably scared outta her wits after everything that happened… He hesitated as he watched Rosa and Clover speak to one another, he could just make out what she was saying.

"Take care of it during the performance okay? It's not the original chocker material, but the rose is the same one.."

"It's so romantic that you kept it all these years Aunt Sarah," Clover sighed dreamily and touched the choker, "I hope you find him again." He could see a shadow pass over Sarah's face as if the thought pained her.

"I could hope to Clover, but…" She shook her head very slowly. "I'm giving up…My thief died a long time ago…a life cut short…" He could see her shrink a little, like a withering plant that was slowly dying, she was turning in on herself. Her shoulders turned inward, she slouched a bit and her eyes seemed both distant and tired. "I just never found out where he was buried."

"What if he isn't dead?" Poe asked from the table, pulling everyone's attention as Jesse slowly got closer, "What if, like…" He blinked slowly, as if the words took a while to form in his mind, "He just got, really busy and you guy have…like…just missed each other?" This made Sarah look up into the sky, as if it would answer her. "Would you like, still love him?"

"I…dunno Poe…" She answered slowly. "It was so long ago, we've both grown a bit—if he did live…and if he did, I would have some questions…Like why he didn't come back -or making it easier for me to find him…Why didn't he find me…like he used to…" She looked back down and sat at the table, picking up a fork and knife as Clover looked over and noticed Jesse's expression.

"Mr. McCree?" She asked, making Rosa look over her shoulder at him. "Are you going to stay and eat with us all?" All eyes turned on him and he shrugged as Santana just then recognized him, seeming to come from a place in his own mind.

"Jesse! Come sit with me," He pat the table in front of him, smiling happily and leaning over to plant a shakey kiss on Jesse's temple as the younger man sat close beside him, helping him with his plate of food. "Jesse mijo, Rosa has kept me company today." Jesse gave a half minded 'mmmhmm' as he cut up some of the larges pieces of food for the elderly man. "Isn't her family lovely." He looked around at all the kids and their smiling faces before looking sadly at Jesse, "I want to see that for you before I go."

"You ain't dyin ya old badger." Jesse sighed, not really wanting to fight.

"I am son," Jesse looked up at this, it was a tiny whisper, off hand and firm. A truth that didn't need reason or thought, like saying the sky was blue and the grass was green. Jesse put his hands on the table and watched as Santana's milky eyes found Rosa and a very faint, tiny spark lit up the once brown eyes. "She's a good girl mijo…" Jesse looked over his left shoulder to where Rosa was sitting with Clover and Ami, eating and chatting away like a happy family. "She's waited for you, even though she thinks your gone…" Jesse felt Santana's old, feeble hand pat his own and it made Jesse's eyes sting. He looked down into his plate of food and heard the elder man sigh softly. "Young or not, true is true." He pat Jesse hand once more before shakily picking up a fork and began to feed himself.

"What?" Jesse asked, stabbing the food on his own plate as a distraction.

"True is true." Santana repeated when he had chewed and swallowed with some difficulty. "Amor, chico…" Love, boy

"Might do more harm than good if'n I tell her who I am." Jesse grumbled sourly, "She didn't recognize me, she's hurt over what happened when we were just kids…might not be able to get over it…"

"No subestimes el amor, mijo…" Santana waved a gnarled finger at Jesse who shoved a forkfull of food into his mouth to keep him from saying anything else. He was halfway through his plate when Tosh sat down beside him and eyed his arm suspeciously. Don't underestimate love, son

"Somethin' you wanna say boy?" Jesse asked around the food in his mouth.

"How'd you get it?" Tosh nodded to his arm.

"Same as most folks," Jesse grumbled, "Accident. Lost muh arm, got this to replace it."

"What kinda accident?"

"Getting caught doin shit I shouldn't have been." Jesse hadn't meant it to sound like a threat, it had been the truth. He cleared his throat and felt the chill of the wind, "We better get this preformance outta the way, Santana be ready for bed soon." He got up from the table and left Tosh with Sanatna, who was asking in that elderly way—about his hair. Jesse went inside the kitchen and found the old breaker box where it had always been, he hadn't counted on being followed.