Sully made his way over to the clinic to speak with his sister. Luckily Dr. Mike was out of town checking up on a few patients so he wasn't forced into an awkward exchange of pleasantries with her. Strangely though, Kat wasn't holding down the fort at the clinic either. In fact, the first floor was empty of doctors, patients or anyone else. So Sully headed upstairs and knocked on his sisters' door.

"Oh, It's you." Kat mumbled when she opened the door.

"Sorry, we're ya expecting someone else?" He asked. Something seemed off. Kat was often sarcastic or short with the other folks in and around Colorado Springs, but she usually went out of her way to be nice to Sully.

"Well," She sighed. "I'm half expecting Mr. Jake Slicker to come on over here and shout at me for scaring away all his customers."

"What did you do to scare away all Jake's customers?"

"He did it to himself really. See Dr. Mike and I lost a patient today." Kat sighed again. A shiver went up her spine just thinking of the trembling, dying man who had passed that morning. "A man named Harry Barton." Sully nodded. He knew the man that she was speaking of. "He got cut while Jake was shavin' him a few days ago, which isn't deadly. But Jake ain't been cleaning is razors right like he's s'ppose to. So Mr. Barton got poisoning of the blood from the dirty razor."

"And you went over to have a talk with Jake and your temper got the best of ya?" Sully guessed the rest of the story.

"I tried to talk to him all level-headed like you wouldda. But when I got there, an' I saw the shop was full...And of course ol' Loren Bray was there, he rushed to defend Jake. An' Jake was just so smug! He wiped his razor on a rag an' told me it was clean! A man died Byron. He's gone and it's all because of Jake." Kathryn shook her head. "I don't who he is anymore."

"Now no peeking!" Jake insisted. He had his hands on Kathryn's face, trying his best to cover her eyes from the surprise he was leading her to. Of course Kat wasn't peeking, she trusted Jake, but wherever they were smelled like Hay and grass so she assumed it was a field. "Okay. Okay." Jake mumbled nervously before she felt his hands pull away from his face. "Open your eyes."

Kat did as he said and was truly surprised when she opened her eyes. They were in fact standing in a clearing not very far from town. Tied up to a pair of trees at one edge of the clearing were two horses. Kat recognized one of them as Jake's own horse which he had refused to name despite her urging him to. Standing next to old no-name was beautiful painted black and white mare. Smiling Kat reached out and stroke the nose of the creature. The horse snorted in response and nuzzled her hand with its velvet soft snout.

"You like her then?" Jake asked nervously.

"She's gorgeous." To be honest the saloon girl didn't know much about horses, except that the one in front of her was the finest she'd ever seen. "Where'd you get her?"

"Ray got a bunch of him in an auction while he was out of town." Jake shrugged. "Gave her to me dirt cheap. And now, she's all yours."

"Mine?" Kat gasped. "What on earth would I do with a horse?"

"Well ride it o' course!" The apprentice barber scoffed. "What else would ya do with it?"

"Jake, I ain't got no need for a horse!" she laughed. "I don't even know how to ride one!"

"Well, I'll teach you." He promised. "Starting right now. C'mon I'll help you get up there. See what you're going to do is just hook your foot through here..." He pointed to the stirrup on the side of the horse closest to them. How could she say no to him? He'd gone through so much trouble and he was grinning back at her with such a goofy smile.

"Oh alright." She agreed at last. "But if it's my horse, I get to name it." She insisted. "And you'll have to keep it boarded up with your horse. If Hank finds out I've gotten one of my own he'll think I'm trying to run off or somethin'."

"I'm sure I can find room somewhere."

"And if you're going to teach me to ride, I want to learn the proper way like a man, not sidesaddle. " Jake opened his mouth to argue. She wanted to name the thing, fine lots of folks named their animals. She didn't want Hank to know he'd gotten her a horse. He could understand that, Hank had a tendency to overreact about small things. But she wanted him to teach her how to ride like a man? That didn't sit right with him."

"Don't you go looking at me like that!" She huffed, her hands now resting on her hips."Who cares what the people in down think! You sure didn't last week when you told of Jimmy Olsen. All they'll say is that it's indecent!" Kathryn laughed. "My whole line of work is indecent!" Jake shrugged. He couldn't very well argue with her when she was right. Besides maybe he wanted a girl who was a little indecent. A little wild.

"Kathryn, I don't think Jake is the same person he was before." Sully supplied. "People think things 'round here never change. And while some things stay the same, we still get changes. lots of 'em. It's easy to lose who you are and over time it's possible to believe you're better off leaving your old self behind. And I think maybe that's what Jake's been doing. Then you came riding into town an' you keep reminding him of a life he'd forgotten about. Barging into his place of business every other day probably hasn't helped neither."

"I 'spose you're right. Maybe it would've been better if I'd never come back here in the first place."

"Now I didn't say that." He shook his head. "You done plenty of good since you come back! You helped Dr. Mike a lot. Given her a friend, someone she can confide it, trust. You help her with the kids all the time. Brian and Colleen have taken a special shine to ya. You're helping Myra and Horace by working fer Hank. An' you helped me a lot too. So don't say we'd all be better off without ya."

" I guess you're right." Kat shrugged. "But even if I wasn't here, Michael would always have you." She elbowed her brother playfully.

"What are you talking about?" He questioned with crossed arms.

"C'mon I see the way ya look at her. The way you protect her, an' how you always seem to be 'round when there's trouble."

"What? I...I'm just being neighborly. Tryn' to be a good landlord." He fumbled for words. What was with everyone today? Sure he and Mike were friends, but couldn't a man an' a woman be friends without being harassed? Then again this was Colorado Springs. "Have you been talking to Brian Cooper? He seems to think I should be his new Pa."

"You would make a great Pa." Kat said. She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and kissed him on the cheek. "I gotta go, Hank needs me to work tonight. Think about it, Byron Quinn...Or Mr. Dr. Quinn. Has a nice ring to it." She teased before heading out the door.

"What do you know anyway?" Sully waved her off as she sauntered down the hall.