Chapter 10

Upon arriving at Running Fox's place, Jesse and Cody had left her to talk with their old friend as they rode the horses over to the Ranger Station to stable them for the day or two this endeavor would take. They had promised to return with a truck, horse trailer and an extra set of hands to help begin loading furniture. But until that time, she had been left alone with a man she barely remembered from the few times he'd visited Jake when she had been staying with him those long ago summers.

Clara stood next to Running Fox in front of his old storage shed, staring at the large plastic sheet covered mounds inside of the doors. All thoughts of revenge upon Cody for the rude awakening that morning had been forgotten when the old man had opened the doors and she'd realized slowly what she was looking at. With one final sideways look at Running Fox she moved forward and grabbed the first sheet of plastic and carefully began to pull it off. Dust and bird feathers, along with old droppings puffed up from it as she pulled it out into the open. The next couple required her to cut the tape away that held them together.

Within a few minutes she caught the first glimpse of furniture and things she hadn't seen in fifteen years. When as much of the plastic as she could reach was removed she turned and looked at Running Fox with a guarded expression.

"Why would you haul all of his stuff down here and store it all these years?" she asked him carefully.

Running Fox turned his weathered face towards her. He hadn't helped her pull the plastic off, only stood there and watched her, his arms crossed over his chest, looking pleased about something. "Why indeed," he responded. "Jake Rodgers was my friend and his death was a great loss to these mountains. It was the least I could do to honor his memory."

Raising an eyebrow, she looked at the large amount of stuff packed from floor to ceiling in this storage shed. "Uh huh...and hauling everything down off the mountain and storing it for God-knows-how- ever-many-years-it-might-be, taking up valuable storage space and getting nothing in return is a way of honoring his memory?"

The old Indian smiled at her in an almost cryptic way. "I knew you would return to us some day. I promised Jake before he died I would keep his things safe for you until that day. I keep my promises."

She chewed on her lip for a few moments as she turned and looked back at things, seeing the seat of an old favorite bench that used to sit by the back door where she would sit and take her shoes off...the top of the hutch where he would store the candy jar out of her reach. The memories at the sight of things surprised her as she got little glimpses within the darkened interior.

Dreading the answer to her next question, she still had to ask it. "So how much do I owe you for storing all of this stuff? I mean, it's taken up all of this space for these last eight years. I'm sure you could have been using this space for other things." She didn't have much cash left but she could probably make a deal with him or sell off a few pieces of the furniture to cover the cost. It was her experience that no one ever did anything for free. There was always a hidden cost to everything. Even with Jesse and Cody; she might be learning from them and they might be feeding and housing her to an extent but she was working as she learned, lending an extra set of hands … or trying, at least, to help with chores and projects around their cabin. It may never be enough to truly repay them for all they had done but she knew that everything came at a price...even 'free' advice.

Running Fox turned to look at her with those deep set brown eyes. He studied her face for a very long time and then exhaled slowly. "There is no cost, no fee, no charge. I did this because I said I would, because Jake was my friend and because he wanted to leave something for you to have. Life must have been very hard where you came from if you look for the cost of something that is given freely."

She frowned slightly. "Where I came from, nothing was for free. There was no such thing as free. If someone said they were doing something for free, there was always a hidden cost somewhere." She flushed then, realizing her words sounded bitter even to her own ears and that she had, in a way, snapped at the old man. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude...," she tried to apologize.

He held up a hand to silence her and there was a sad look on his face. "Clara, you will learn soon enough that in these mountains, we do things differently. We take care of each other and do not count the cost of favors. Help is always there for the asking so long as the asking is not abused and the offer to help is extended in return when it can be. We have all been on hard times once or twice in our lives. It is not shameful to ask for help. It's only foolish when help is needed and not asked for."

She would have said more but Jaime came out of their trailer holding several steaming coffee cups, followed by a handsome Native American woman who held a coffee cup of her own. Jaime came over to hand her one of the steaming mugs of rich brown liquid and began to make introductions to his mother.

Jimmy hefted up an end of an end table with Clara picking up the other end as she stifled a yawn. "Oh come on!" he said as he grinned, "I'm not 'that' boring am I?"

Clara flushed a little, embarrassed she'd been caught in the act. "No! Sorry. I had a late night and a rather early 'wakeup call' this morning."

"Ooo she blushes so prettily. Hey Cody! Why didn't you tell me she blushed such a nice shade of red," he called out as he teased Clara mercilessly while they walked the end table over towards the horse trailer. He laughed a little harder as he was rewarded with a brighter shade of pink to her cheeks. He'd been chatting Clara up all morning, flirting with her on and off as they worked and she'd met most of his flirting with exasperated smiles or rolled eyes.

Cody looked over from the back of the truck where he and Matt were working to get a bed frame strapped in. He grinned over at Jimmy but looked down to see Matt frowning towards his fellow Ranger. "Is someone jealous?" he teased his brother in a quiet tone meant for Matt's ears only.

Matt started a little and swung his head around to glare at Cody, "What? No. Why would I be?" He went back to securing the ropes to the truck bed, giving the frame a shake to see if it would move. When no reply came from Cody he looked upward at him only to find him grinning slyly down at him.

"I think you are. You're jealous. You want to be the one to be making Clara blush, not Jimmy," said Cody in a low voice, bent slightly forward to speak to Matt but just far enough away to be out of immediate reach if his brother decided he didn't like where the conversation was going and wanted to retaliate.

Matt's jaw clenched and worked a little. "You don't know what you're talking about Cody," he grumbled under his breath. "Get down out of there and go help dad," he half snapped at Cody as he walked away from the truck, leaving Cody to stare after his brother.

Cody could only watch his brother's retreating hunched shoulders and let a sly smile spread over his face as he thought about how his big brother was falling for Clara, even though he didn't want to admit it. Jumping out of the bed of the truck, he trotted over towards his dad and began helping loading boxes of god-knew-what into the back of the second truck.

From across the driveway came Clara's half mock-growling voice out of the back of the trailer. "Jimmy, I'm gonna kick your ass if you say one more word a…." The rest was lost with the sound of a thud and Jimmy laughing like a mad man followed by the sounds of his feet thudding on the bottom of the half full horse trailer as he ran out the back of it, a huge grin on his face.

That night found the packed trucks and horse trailers sitting outside of the ranger station while the 'movers' milled about the inside, either helping with cleanup from supper or waiting for their turn at a hot shower to soak sore muscles.

"Man, I thought I was fit with all the rescue work and stuff we do around here but damn, I ache in places I didn't know I could ache in," moaned Jimmy from where he lay sprawled on one of the couches.

"Well we know your lips must not be too sore since you're still flapping them," came the scathing retort from the kitchen, courtesy of Clara who was now trying to give back as much grief as Jimmy had been giving her all day.

That brought the work in the kitchen to a near stop as Robin and Avila broke out into howls of laughter at the bark of indignant "Ouch!" that echoed back from the couch.

Matt had taken himself off to bed early after having a quick bite of supper since he would was on-call for the night shift. Cody knew for a fact that Matt could have stayed up later and hung out with everyone but he had been in an off mood since Jimmy had begun flirting with Clara. Cody would have said Matt was sulking but he didn't think a grown man would 'sulk' so maybe it was 'regrouping' for another shot at things tomorrow? Matt had taken the on-call night shift for the next two nights so he could have tomorrow off to help Clara move in.

He hoped Clara realized what kind of sacrifice it was for Matt to be working the on-call night shift just so he could help her out. Cody figured he'd help out by giving her a little nudge tomorrow and let her know that she should at least thank him. At least Jimmy wouldn't be helping out tomorrow so maybe things would be a little less tense with Matt tomorrow and they'd have a chance to have a little fun while they were at it.

As Cody waited for Jesse to get done in the shower so he could have his turn, he sat back in one of the office chairs flipping through a magazine that someone had left out. He idly listened to the others banter back and forth still giving Jimmy grief now and then. Lost in his own thoughts, he didn't hear someone come up behind him until a picture frame holding the best of the three pictures of Clara come into view over the top of his head.

"Care to explain how this picture came to be on your brother's wall?" came a slightly 'neutral' voice.

He swallowed and looked up. Jimmy was sitting up on the couch and looking in his direction with avid interest while Frank and Robin both stood in the kitchen door, wondering where this 'confrontation' was going to lead.

"Uhm…," he stalled. Oh crap. He'd never thought about what she might do if she found out about the photo but apparently she'd seen it on Matt's office wall or someone had spilled the beans. "You didn't tell me I 'couldn't' take your picture…," he hazarded.

There was silence from behind him as she remained standing there holding the picture in front of him. He turned slightly in his chair to look up at her. "I never said you couldn't take my picture but you never asked if it was ok to hand out prints of it," Clara said, schooling her features to look 'unreadable'.

Cody swallowed, "Well, if it's any consolation, he's got the only print…," he said, hoping his goose wasn't cooked.

"…so far," she finished for him. She took the picture away from in front of him and looked at it for a few moments. Finally she raised an eyebrow slightly, "You know, it's not half bad. Your shutter speed was set just right and the angle wasn't bad. Personally I'd have gotten it from a bit of a higher vantage point but then again, that's just me." She looked back down at Cody from around the picture frame with a slightly 'amused' smile then quickly scowled, "But don't let me catch you giving this out to anyone else…especially Jimmy. He'd ruin it with drool marks alone."

It was all Cody could do to keep a straight face and shake his head 'no' in promise to her request. The look on Jimmy's face alone was priceless as Availa and Robin had to scuttle back into the kitchen before bursting out into another round of laughter. Jimmy scrambled up off the couch and went into the kitchen to get in on the 'gossip' that would inevitably start up the moment the other two Rangers stopped laughing.

As soon as Jimmy was out of sight, Cody felt an arm snake around his neck from behind and felt Clara's lips next to his ear. "Don't think I have forgotten your little 'wakeup call' this morning. Along with this…," she said, wiggling the picture frame, "…you are soooo going to get it one of these days," she said before she kissed his cheek and then walked away to put the picture back on Matt's office wall.

He turned and looked after her, swallowing a little in nervousness as he wondered just what she might do to him some day to get even.