Chapter 6

"Stevie!" Alex yelled and ran outside.

Stevie was lying on the ground and didn't move. Alex quickly looked around him to spot the old man. He had tears in his eyes when he kneeled down beside Stevie, but felt a little relieved when he noticed she was crying. Stevie didn't move because she was in shock, in fact she was unharmed. The old man had killed a cow right before her eyes, just to scare her even more. He turned around to face Alex and in panic he shot again. Alex moaned and then sank to the ground. Stevie's heart skipped a beat when she realised the man shot Alex! She jumped up and limped towards him as fast as she could. He held his hands on his chest.

"Alex no. Oh no...You're fine, you're going to be fine, just fine, you hear me?" She said while she crawled next to him and gently held his face. Then she caressed his cheek and lifted his upper body to hold him in her arms. He moaned again because of the sharp pain.

"Ssshh, it's ok." She gently and slowly rocked him like a child. His breathing was abnormal and he stammered. "It..it hurts..Stevie."

She looked at his chest and saw the blood that was on his shirt, he got weaker.

"You better not talk Alex, try to safe you energy. Hang in there mate." She kissed his forehead and stroked his hair.

Stevie knew his woundings in combination with hypothermia could be fatal very quickly. She lifted his shirt to find out where he was shot exactly. Luckily it was his shoulder, but that didn't mean he as out of danger. Stevie looked up and noticed the sun was finally showing it's first light. Alex got very pale and stared into Stevie's eyes. He had to completely surrender himself and trust her. But Alex couldn't help thinking about the fact that Stevie wouldn't be able to get them home.

Although he hoped. "Y..you should g..get help." He said to her. He was thinking maybe she was able to climb up on Banjo somehow, so he might ride her home to get some help.

The old man was stunned with what he saw. But Stevie and Alex didn't pay attention to him, things couldn't get worse anyway. He let his gun fall and lowered himself to sit on the ground. In fact he was exhausted and confused. He looked in their direction and rubbed his face, then he made eye contact with Alex. With the small amount of daylight Alex only needed one glimpse to knew who he was. Although he was in a lot of pain he memorised the old man and the expression on Alex' face changed. There was even a tiny little smile, Stevie was flabbergasted to see him smile at his 'killer.'

Then he looked at Stevie again. "It's C...Connoly. He's been l..living here for years." Alex explained, he had tears in his eyes because of the pain.

Stevie looked so worried, she didn't give a damn about the old man. Sid Connoly -the old man- immediately stood up when he heard his name and grabbed his gun again. He observed Alex and walked towards them.

"You think you know me?"

All Stevie cared about right now, was Alex. She stared at Sid for a moment and then looked at Alex again, his condition made her so frightened. At the same time she was mad and didn't give a damn if he wanted to shoot her too.

"Oh shut up, please. I've had it with you! What do you want from us?! If you want to kill us then what are you waiting for?"

The old man looked confused. "I want you both gone."

Stevie sighed and shook her head. "That's exactly what you want, right? But we're not going anywhere like this and that's all your fault!" She struggled to hold the tears and looked at Alex, who was shivering. She whispered. "You're loosing blood, we should get you inside and try to stop the bleeding."

"I can't..I can't get up."

The old man walked around them a bit, he looked even more confused.

The man came even closer towards them. "I want you both gone. This is my property."

Stevie didn't hesitate to reply. "No it's not, it's Harry Ryan's!"

The man pointed his gun at Stevie. "That was before he took it from Jack! What do you know about it! Your not even a McLeod."

"You don't know anything about me!" Stevie yelled, but Alex tried to say something too.

Sid responded even more angry. "There was no one around here with red hair back then!"

Alex looked up and said with all the courage he had left in him. "I'm...Alex...Ryan."

The angry expression on Sid's face changed into a smile. Stevie couldn't believe what she saw. That old bastard!

Sid laughed. "Yeah right! And I'm Santa Claus!"

Stevie. "You bet he is, he is Alex Ryan!" She hoped the old man would get scared, because of Harry's status. He just shot his son, maybe that would make him leave.

"You're kidding. Alex Ryan is just a kid...You guys just try to confuse me, so I'll let you go. I may be old, but I'm not crazy."

If the situation was different Stevie and Alex would've burst out in laughter, he was really really crazy!

"So if you're Alex then where is Claire? I know you two liked to play hide and seek here." The old man suddenly sounded a lot calmer. His state of mind seemed to change constantly.

Alex tried to answer. "Claire's go...Claire's home." Alex answered, tears were running down his cheek, Stevie tried to calm him down while she couldn't fight her own tears any more too.

After a moment of silence Stevie said exactly the right thing. "Yeah and soon her sister Tess, will come look for us."

The man's face lightened up and he smiled. "Tess." He sighed and looked up. "Such a sweet girl."

Alex whispered at Stevie. "She, s..she once I..invited him over." Stevie couldn't believe it and just stared at him. Then he moaned and took a deep breath, trying to ease the pain.

"Alex. I'm so scared." She cried.

He looked up and tried to smile. "I will make it. P..promise." he pretended to act like he felt better then he did. But he was in serious danger.

Sid Connoly walked away from them and after a few minutes he returned, this time he seemed very emotional. "You are Alex Ryan."

Stevie sighed and shook her head again...
Sid added. "You were about to marry Claire, just before she...You know, I was happy Jack was already gone. It would've tore him apart if he had to bury his own daughter. He would've died because of the grief."

Alex was weak and just nodded. Talking about death and hearing Claire's name -strangely enough- made him feel calm and peaceful. He looked up, at his best mate.

Stevie got very angry. "And you shot him! How could you? Just put that stupid gun down and help us out!"

The man looked sad and started to feel guilty. "It...it was self defence...Ok? I don't want to leave this place. Jack said I could live here, so did Claire. I will never leave this place." He stated and finally put down his rival.

"We never said you'd have to leave." Stevie said, as she looked at Alex to check how he was doing.

Stevie felt relieved when the sun was finally warming them up. She was still holding Alex in her arms as she stared in the distance. Sid Connoly finally left. He was supposed to get some help, but with him most likely suffering from dementia, Stevie felt very unsure if they could rely on him. Although he went in the right direction and looked like he couldn't wait to see Tess again, but his state of mind could change very quickly...Unlikely he was still going in the right direction, but unfortunately he was walking, because he wasn't able to ride any more.

Meg was very restless and started to get worried about Stevie and Alex. She decided to go over to Killarney and talk to Harry.

"I don't know what's taken them so long Meg. The redhead probable slowed him down."

Meg got mad. "You know she's doing a better job then most man around here. I heard you were the one sending Alex out there all by himself. You should be happy she's helping fixing your problems."

Harry laughed and turned to walk away from Meg, saying. "And he's to stupid to bring the damn sack phone, so no one can reach him."

Meg gave him an angry look. "If I were a man, I would've gone out to find my son!" She yelled and walked away.

Harry got pissed off and mumbled. "I would if he was my son. Bitch."

Meg quickly turned to face him again. "I heard that." She rolled her eyes and shook her head, then she took off.

When Meg was driving home she passed Kate. "I'm going out to find them." Kate said.

"You're not going alone." Meg stated. Tess was still to busy dealing with the problems she had with Nick and Sally and someone had to stay at the farm. Jodi was working at the Truckstop. Kate couldn't take it much longer and wanted to do something instead of waiting.

Meg told Kate about her chat with Harry.

"Can you believe it!? That man has no heart...He didn't even seemed to care where they might be."

Kate looked worried. "I don't know Meg, but it doesn't feel good. It's just not them, they're always working hard and should've been back by now. Something must have happened."