Not leaving you and Found

Previously: "What have you done with my horse?" He glared at the man sitting on the rock.

An amused chuckle escaped the stranger's lips. "I have done nothing to your animal. She wandered away while you were out." The man answered as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

…..

"Your horse has a very high chance of being found by those looking for you." The man answered bluntly. "It will tell others you are in the vicinity; I had to stay here, with you."

~oOo~

Heath opened his eyes and groaned. Once again, it took him a moment to remember what had happened. He told himself he must have passed out from all the pain he was in, and that he had imagined the old man and their conversation. That is, until he turned his head and saw the bearded gentleman sitting on a nearby rock watching him.

"If you're not going to force your help on me, why don't you just leave!" Heath snapped as he tried to sit up only find an enormous amount of pain shoot up his back and arm. That muscle he had pulled must have been pulled worse than he thought. It might not have been so bad only he sure felt warm all of a sudden, almost to the point of making him wonder if his wounds were already infected.

"I told you before; I'm not leaving you. Even when someone finds you, I will stay with you. That is, on and off I will. Though, I will say that if it was up to me I'd never leave you until things went one way or the other." He then urged Heath to allow him, the gentleman, to actually go for help…and not to rely on someone finding the horse and having to continue to search for him.

Again, Heath was adamantly refused, saying all he wanted was the man to leave.

"I can't do that." The stranger shook his head and fell silent. It infuriated Heath and he, Heath, turned his eyes away from the stranger.

~oOo~

The sun was beating down upon Jarrod something fierce, as his and Nick's paths crossed again. It had been twenty four hours since Heath Thomson rode away from Sample's farm, and neither brother looked very happy. Both men were close to accepting that the cowboy claiming to be their brother and the man to save Jarrod's life,-had left their lives for good. "Well, I guess he…" Nick started to speak only to have Jarrod's eyes widen as he pointed off to Nick's left. Nick turned his head and looked in the direction Jarrod was pointing, and his eyes widened too.

"Isn't that Heath's horse!" Jarrod exclaimed pulled on the reins in his hands and turned his horse in the direction he, Jarrod, wanted him to go. Nick was right behind his older brother and he sped off towards the animal in the distance, wondering if Jarrod was right when it came to who the horse belonged to. Sure enough, once he and Jarrod drew closer, they both recognized Gal.

Jarrod and Nick's eyes went to the blood on the side of the saddle and the horse. "Fool's probably lying out there somewhere, but where?" 'And why the blazes do I care enough to keep this search up?' was a question Nick asked only to himself.

Jarrod, who still had a very clear picture of a young man pushing the money he had given him into a glass and then, later, pushing Jarrod out of the line of fire, looked around. He and Nick had searched this area when Heath Thomson had first left the fight; how far had the horse traveled? He was startled to have the thought 'you only search the area where tracks could be seen; you never searched the rocks' attached itself to his inaudible question.

"Jarrod?" Nick, who saw Jarrod stiffen and pale slightly, leaned forward in his saddle and asked, "What's wrong? Do you see something?"

"We never searched up there." Jarrod said nodding toward the few boulders that lay approximately two hundred yard up the hill, and then pushed Jingo up the same hill.

Nick swore silently before doing the same. How could an experienced tracker like him not think of looking up here? 'You didn't think about it because you didn't want to', a firm, but gentle rebuke came with such force into his mind that Nick was extremely startled; he almost fell off his horse.

"Nick!" Jarrod, who had reached the rocks first, flew off Jingo and called his brother's name. "Up here!" He ran towards where Heath lay on ground, muttering and cursing…saying things like 'why don't you just leave me alone, old man' and 'I never lied to them!"

"He's burning up with fever." Jarrod said as he knelt down and felt Heath's forehead while looking over the blonde haired cowboy's arm and leg; he could see infection in both of them.

"He had to have been hurt worse than we thought for him to be in this bad of shape already." Nick growled as he knelt on the other side of Jarrod and looked at Heath's leg and arm. It was then that he and Jarrod realized that the injured arm had been more than creased, and the bandages around Heath's leg were not as tight as they should be. "He's lost quite a bit of blood too."

Heath heard his brothers' voices, and managed to opened his eyes. While he could barely tell who was there, he knew who he was looking at. He glared at Jarrod and Nick as he turned his head towards the direction the old man had been sitting; the gentleman was still there. "So, you wouldn't leave me, huh? You shouldn't have brought them here!"

"I never left." The older man spoke quietly while looking straight at Heath.

Confused, Jarrod and Nick looked over in the direction Heath was yelling; they saw no one, though they did feel a sudden quiet breeze brush against their faces. "Not only is he running a fever," Nick snapped as he looked back at Heath and then back at Jarrod, "Thomson's delirious as well."

Jarrod nodded towards Coco and told Nick to ride like the wind to go, get help and a wagon. "We got to get him out of this sun and back home." He wasn't surprised when Nick growled again, but took off to do as his older brother asked.

"Go away! I don't need your help!" Heath was speaking to the man only he could see, but Jarrod, naturally, thought the remark was meant for him.

Jarrod shook his head as he heard Gene once again state that he, Gene, believed the blonde haired cowboy's claim. "If Gene's right, and he is yours father, I'd say you passed your stubbornness on to all of us." He stood up, hurried over to where Jingo stood, and retrieved his canteen. Heath Thomson might not want any help… only he was going to get some all the same.

"What…" Heath, who had shut his eyes back up, managed to open them once again as Jarrod slid his arm under Heath's head and lifted him up just enough to put the canteen up to his, Heath's, mouth.

"I'm not going away and, whether or not you want to admit it, you need our help." Jarrod said as he looked with great concern upon the wounded cowboy. As much as Heath wanted to turn the drink away, he was far too thirsty to do such a thing. He gulped down a few swallows and then, turning to look at the stranger who had been with him for hours, muttered, "Why are you stickin' around? Why do you care?"

"I have my reasons." A small, weary smile appeared upon the man's face as he answered the question.

Once again, not being able to hear or see anyone but Heath, Jarrod thought Heath was talking to him. That being the case, Jarrod went to reply only to realize that Heath was totally unconscious once more. Jarrod laid Heath back down and, taking off the bandana he'd been using while searching for the blonde haired cowboy, poured some water on it and laid the material across Heath's forehead. Jarrod then began looking over Heath's wounds once more.