Please see chapter 1 for warnings and disclaimers.

A/N: This is a short chapter...quite honestly it is NOT the whole chapter... but I've been very busy and I thought a short update would be better than no update.

Chapter 5

Vin made his way down the stairs, unsure where he was headed. He wanted a drink. Even more he wanted to jump on his horse and ride, to feel the wind whipping at his face and the freedom of the wild land stretching out before him. With a heavy sigh he shook his head. True lay upstairs miserable and inconsolable. There was no way he was taking off and leaving her alone, even though she wanted nothing to do with him right now.

"You've a caller, Vin," Mrs. Whittaker said brightly. She had of course heard the commotion upstairs. It was not exactly an uncommon occurrence since the mischievous young Tanner girl had arrived. The proprietress of the boardinghouse knew that True had a good heart. The girl was just spirited. She felt the seven peacekeepers did a good job offering a balance of love and discipline to both the girls in the household, but she knew that it could sometimes be hard on the men.

Vin turned to see Lauren and his face lit up. With a smile, Mrs. Whittaker shooed the two into the parlor with a promise of refreshments to come. Once the couple was alone, Vin pulled Lauren into his arms and held her close, taking comfort in her presence. He inhaled her feminine scent and wondered if it was a soap or perfume that she used. It was subtle but oh so nice.

Lauren returned the embrace, well aware that something was deeply troubling the man she'd come to love. Finally, she stirred, aware that Mrs. Whittaker would be returning soon, and clasped his hand to lead him over to the settee so they could sit down. "What is it, Vin? Is it True? Is she okay?"

Vin gave the young teacher an incredulous look, wondering how on earth she knew what was going on. Lauren smiled, "I saw her after school. She sat on the lowest branch of that big tree just at the edge of town for the longest time all by herself. Seeing True that still for such a long time when no one was making her definitely raised my suspicions."

Mrs. Whittaker bustled in then with a tray of refreshments. She'd included both tea and coffee, some cookies, and a shot of whiskey for Vin. One didn't live under the same roof with the seven peacekeepers without picking up a thing or two and the kind woman could tell when Vin came down the stairs that he needed a drink. Understanding that the young lovers wanted time alone, she was quick to leave the tray and hurry off to continue her supper preparations.

Once the Mrs. Whittaker had returned to the kitchen, Vin continued, "So ya saw her this afternoon then? She weren't nowhere near the bathhouse?"

"No. She sat alone in that tree for the longest time. Why?"

Vin picked up the whiskey and downed it in one shot then explained about the fight with Casey.

Lauren shook her head. "Well, it wasn't True and though I can certainly feel for Casey – honestly I cannot imagine the humiliation – she still should have known better than to go attacking, True."

"Yeah, we done discussed that. She's mighty upset. I tanned her hide an' tol' her she'd have ta stay in tonight."

Lauren gasped. "Her big date with JD." It was a small town and Lauren knew of the special plans. She and Mary had even discussed some different styles for the teenager's hair for the occasion. Interestingly enough, the news of the spanking didn't so much as cause the teacher pause. Her own father would definitely have offered similar discipline were she to have been caught brawling in the streets at sixteen.

"Ya thinkin' I was too harsh?" Vin asked miserably, certain he was failing on every front.

The young teacher tilted her head and it was obvious she was giving serious consideration to Vin's question. Something Vin had learned in his time spent with Lauren, though she could be ever so tactful at times, she was always honest. "No, no I don't think so. How long is she restricted?"

"I tol' her they could reschedule fer tomorra night."

"Then I think you were fair. If she wants to be a young lady, and benefit from the privileges of that status then she should conduct herself accordingly. Picking a fight with a younger girl…a family member really… is unacceptable. She should have found another means to deal with her frustration."

Vin's lips quirked at all of the fancy words. Sometimes Lauren sounded just a bit like Ezra when she went all 'teachery.' He easily understood her sentiment, however, and was somewhat relieved at her confirmation of his actions.

"So what of True then? I suppose it was necessary to reinforce her need to keep a hold on her temper?" Lauren asked with a sad note in her voice. True had seemed so dispirited this afternoon.

Vin sighed heavily and then explained what he had discovered when he returned to deal with True as well as his response.

"Vin Tanner you didn't!" Lauren exclaimed her eyes glinting with fire as she came to her feet. "You switched her without even allowing her to explain her side?"

"I reckon she done tol' me enough lies in the last week or more. I didn't need ta hear no more," Vin replied in frustration.

"And what if they weren't lies?"

"The evidence was sittin' right there. What other explanation could there be?"

"After a certain mishap in school, the girls suggested that someone was trying to frame them. I don't know who, but in that circumstance at least I believed them – the evidence supported their story. Maybe this was something similar."

Vin's brow furrowed. It still didn't make sense. Many of the pranks, particularly those here at the boardinghouse, would have taken the stealth of a Comanche warrior. Besides some of the items in that box had obviously come from True and Rhianna's world. That pretty much ruled out everyone in town except the girls. Vin's eyes narrowed. "Ya never mentioned this afore."

Lauren's cheeks reddened. That's right she hadn't. She'd promised True she wouldn't tell Vin that his sister had been in trouble that day. Sometimes it was rather difficult juggling her roles as teacher and lady friend to one of the town's peacekeepers. "No, I didn't choose to mention it at the time," Lauren replied tightly, refusing to defend her choice. "But you should have at least listened to True. You said yourself she was acting oddly, couldn't you have waited, maybe talked to someone? Maybe talked to me? Courting is more than sunset walks and horse rides, Vin. Couples share things. True must be devastated!" Lauren spun on her heal and headed up the stairs leaving a dumbfounded Vin sitting on the settee.

As the young woman stormed up the stairs, Vin noticed Chris walking in with a firm hand on Rhianna's collar. The set to the gunman's face left no doubt as to what Rhianna's fate was going to be when they reached her room. Briefly Vin wondered what the girl might have done since he'd seen her, but honestly, he didn't really want to know. Holding his head in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees he replayed the afternoon's drama in his mind, trying to figure out the day's strange events.

M7***M7***M7***M7***M7

"Do we even need to talk about this?" Chris demanded coldly, tossing the ink stained shirt and metallic type pieces on the bed.

"Yes, I rather think we should," Rhianna replied, causing Chris's eyebrows to shoot straight up into his hairline. Not giving her guardian a chance to respond to what he obviously considered impertinence the girl continued. "You cannot honestly believe I would be so stupid as to leave such damning evidence in my own room for Mrs. Whittaker to find when she collected laundry? Do you really believe me to be so utterly devoid of intelligence or reason?"

"Oh, she said it was stuffed back behind your bed like were tryin' to hide it," Chris informed the girl with an edge to his voice that could probably cut through rawhide.

With a heavy sigh, Rhianna rolled her eyes. "Why wouldn't I just burn the evidence and what reason could I possibly have for keeping those pieces of type?"

"You tell me," Chris answered with a dangerous glint in his green eyes.

"Because I – did – not – do – it!"

"So you want me to believe someone just snuck in here – without Mrs. Whittaker or anyone else taking notice – took one of your shirts, covered it with printers ink, and put letters from Mary's printing press in it, then stuffed it behind your bed?"

"Yes."

Chris just cocked his eyebrow at the girl's flat response.

"Look, I realize that since coming here I have not exactly given you tremendous cause to believe in my honesty, but I did not reset the type on Mary's printing press."

"You're right. You haven't given me much reason to trust you. I've tried time and again to get across to you how wrong lying is, but it seems to be a hard lesson for you." Chris's hands were going for his belt now. "Unless you can give me a better reason to believe you now, we're done talkin'."

Rhianna met Chris's eyes and read his thoughts. Trust. This came down to trust and she had to admit her tendency for obfuscation had not allowed for much trust in her relationship with Chris. Time and again she'd shown her willingness to bend the truth or just plain lie in order to manipulate a situation and now she was facing the fallout for that. Perhaps for the first time in her life, she actually did understand why honesty was so important at least among family.

She nodded. It was time to face the consequence for her oftentimes economical use of the truth, but at least maybe she could gain back a little ground so far as her relationship with Chris. Conall's voice echoed in her head, "You know, might be best if you just tell him about it…trust is important in a family."

"Fine, but if I am going to get thrashed, I would rather it be done for something for which I am actually guilty."

Rhianna moved to the loose floorboard where she stashed anything that she wanted to keep hidden. She paused, wondering if she were insane for doing this. Not only was she preparing to confess to something that was going to add to Chris's ire and possibly make her punishment worse, she was giving up something precious to her, not to mention revealing her secret hiding place. Only True knew about it. Taking a deep breath and pushing her blond curls away from her face with a trembling hand, Rhianna decided that her bond with Chris was worth the sacrifice so the girl pried up the board and took out the shiny Colt .45 that had only been out to see a handful of shooting excursions with Conall. Coming to her feet she handed it to the dumbfounded gunman before her.

"Not to worry, it is not loaded," she said a bit nervously, not meeting Chris in the eye. Feeling a need to fill the silence she continued, "I stole that from a man the first week that I arrived in Four Corners." Her brow furrowed at the memory. She was in the habit of reading the people that she stole from as it often helped her not to get caught. This man was passing through so no one would recognize the weapon. That had made him a good mark, but wasn't the alone reason she had targeted him.

"He had beaten his wife and taken the money that she'd gotten by selling her mother's wedding ring then taken off and bought this fancy new gun." In Rhianna's mind that more than justified her stealing it from the stranger, though she knew that Chris would not agree. "Nonetheless I did take it from him, and hide it from you. I have also taken it out shooting several times and been less than truthful about those excursions." She lifted her chin, and her green eyes looked squarely into Chris's, though her voice held a quiver when she continued, "And I lied when you asked if I was hiding anything else from you. I knew you would disapprove of me having a gun, even though we had not discussed it."

Chris studied the gun and then eyed the girl intently for several seconds.

"I am an excellent shot. Something that we have in common," she said nervously when the silence grew uncomfortable. Her shields were tightly in place now because the girl wasn't sure if she could bear to know what her guardian was thinking. "At first I felt I needed the protection. I could not imagine being without a weapon. Then I just did not want to give it up. It was was one small way of holding on to my old life and the person who I was in my world."

Chris turned to set the gun aside on the dresser. Then he unfastened his belt and pulled it slowly through the belt loops. Without being told, Rhianna lowered herself across the bed, trying to calm the rapid beating of her heart. The blond gunman didn't make her wait long.

The leather fell hard and fast on her skirt clad backside bringing instant tears to her eyes. Rhianna took the whipping much like she normally did, keeping quiet as long as she could but breaking down into sobs when Chris started laying licks low across her sit spot and upper thighs. One notable difference was her remorse in knowing that her own habit of playing fast and loose with the truth had led toward Chris's inability to trust her.

Chris paused. "You should have told me sooner, about the gun and about whatever it is that you know about who messed with Mary's printing press. I'll be expecting some straight answers later."

Rhianna cried harder at his words. He believed her. Relief washed over her and a warm feeling spread through her middle, one far more pleasant and comforting than the fiery heat in her posterior.

"Just so we're clear. You don't touch a weapon without my permission," the belt fell again right in the middle of her scorched rear. "I catch you stealing again and next time this will be on the bare," the belt came down again. "No more lying." He brought the belt down once more then threaded it carefully back through the belt loops of his trousers before moving to take a seat on the bed.

Rhianna turned on her side, watery green eyes looking up to the man that was father to her in all but name. "I am sorry," whispered.

Chris opened his arms and Rhianna was quick seek the refuge of his lap while the last of her tears subsided. "I'm proud of you," Chris said his hand running through her blond curls. "You didn't have to tell me, but you did."

"Thank you for believing me," she sniffed. His arms tightened around her and the two sat in silence, not feeling the need to say anything else.

TBC...