AN: A different take on Paul Murray's comic,Mickey Mouse in The Mystery of Double-Cross Ranch. Instead of Mickey traveling with Goofy, he goes at it alone and figures it all out much quicker and even gets the job done faster, and Minnie is much more helpful, and Mickey got there by train here rather than horse in the comics.

Don Julio is from Floyd Gottfredson's comic Mickey and the Bat Bandit.

"I don't trust 'im." Mickey told Minnie plainly as the topic of Minnie's ranch foreman Poncho came into conversation.

Minnie had been left her Uncle Marmaduke's ranch, and unfortunately every night a big, but random, number of cattle were getting stolen. Thus, she sent a letter to Mickey to help her solve the case of what was happening to the cattle as they were in a hard to reach gorge and shouldn't be getting stolen very easily in the first place. Her foreman, Poncho, was always the one to tell her the bad news, though even in these tough times he was ever the gentleman with her, constantly complimenting her in how at least she's doing the best that she can for the ranch and the cattle. Thus her response to Mickey's observation.

"Getting jealous are we?" She teased him with a bat of her eyelashes, to show that she was flattered if he was, as she rode her horse to be even with his. They were both on horseback heading to the scene of the many crimes, to the gorge where the cattle were being kept.

"Pfftt! Ya sure yer usin' the right word, Min? I ain't worried 'bout losin' ya ta that big lummox! I'm envious of the affection he's given ya 'cause I'd rather be in his shoes in that instance sure, but I ain't even close ta bein' jealous about it." Mickey scoffed back, and then decided to admit his reasoning. "He's way too nice ta be acting normal, especially with all the cattle goin' missing. He just… gives me the creeps….I wouldn't trust him even with a ten foot pole."

"You're over reacting dear, my Uncle Marmaduke trusted him and so do I, now please focus on the real problem by helping me figure out how these cattle are getting stolen." She assured him, as she rode a little ahead of him.

"He flinched when he found out that ya brought me in the picture, Minnie." He pointed out, and almost smirked at the fact that it got her attention as she stiffened on her horse. "Not ta mention he reminds me a lot of Don Jollio, who you didn't trust 'cause he was too nice, and then what happened? He turned out ta be the Bat Bandit. Well, I don't trust Poncho 'cause he's a little too nice, an' I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's even partly behind all this."

"What do you mean by partly?" She asked him as they reached their destination. She wouldn't admit that she was somewhat giving into his little theory, even with the irony of the similarity between Poncho and Don Jollio.

"Ya said ya lost fifteen last night, right?" He asked first. At her nod he continued. "Well, just look at his place, Min. There's no way in Hades' hair that he's doin' this alone, he's the inside man if anything, and whoever he's working with has gotta have a helicopter ta get any of the cattle out of there in this big ol' hole of a gorge. Somebody's got ta spot too in order ta maneuver around those rocks without a hitch." He explained as they looked on in the gorge below at the remaining cattle.

There were indeed rocks that were practically pillars in their own rights with oddly shaped boulders practically balancing on them. The gorge itself only had one steep and crumbling path for the cattle to go to and from but only if they went single file, but with the amount going missing each night there was no way that was the method used to steal so many, as it would take up too much time, enough to get caught by daybreak. With all of that figured out, all that was left was to prove it and call the authorities to catch them in the act, though because they were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, the help wouldn't arrive for quite some time, and that was too much time to waste. Thankfully Mickey was completely capable of handling something like this by himself as is, and even Minnie was capable of helping too if need be.

"Alright, I'll agree that the thieves have to be using a helicopter… now all that's left is to prove it." Minnie admitted, and then decided that she couldn't help but ask since he made her paranoid with the previously discussed topic. "Mickey, be honest with me, aside from the ten foot pole analogy, how much do you really not trust Poncho?"

He gave her a look that was almost smug but was understanding more than anything, before he answered genuinely, blushing a little even as he said it. "Honestly? I'd rather sleep on the floor in yer room just ta be safe an' make sure he doesn't do anything ta me in my sleep." He gave her a pleading look for good measure to show that he was serious without verbally asking.

Minnie knew he really was asking without saying it directly, she could indeed see it in his eyes, and now it was her turn to blush as she agreed to it. "Alright, but only for tonight," she did practically put a target on him by dragging him into this if Poncho really couldn't be trusted. Then she decided to quietly add in a whisper "…and you're not sleeping on the floor."

Mickey nearly fell off his horse and into the gorge at that. And naturally they argued about it in hushed whispers for the rest of the day, since there really wasn't anything to do about the real situation at hand until sometime in the night. Mickey insisted that he'd be perfectly fine on the floor and even safer there if he was up against the wall where the window was in case Poncho or anybody else peeked in through that window. While Minnie insisted that no one could even look into her window because she'd have the window shade down, and at least he'd be comfortable for however long he intended to stay asleep until he went out to go follow Poncho or whoever was stealing the cattle.

"Besides," Minnie started her winning argument. "You wouldn't be necessarily in the bed, you'd be on top of it since you have to leave at some point in the night anyway. And you're more than welcome to bring the blanket from the guest bedroom so at least you're not cold for however long it takes."

Of course she won the argument, it made sense, he'd be safe from any sort of sabotage, and she was offering, no reason to turn it down…even if it was a very clever excuse for her to cuddle against him for a few hours.

Taking her advice he brought the spare blanket from the guest bedroom, as well as the spare pillow for good measure. She was behind her changing screen when she called for him to come in after he knocked, he nearly tripped as soon as he briefly noticed that that's where she was, but somehow he managed, and being the gentleman that he was, did not look in her direction in the slightest as he made his way to the window side of the surprisingly queen sized bed. Sitting down on the edge of it he put his pillow next to hers, took off his boots and settled himself on top of his side of the comforter and had his spare blanket on top of him, facing the window and away from Minnie of course.

Since he'd be checking on the cattle some time later in the night, he was fully clothed aside from the boots, newer clothes of course, and not the clothes he had been wearing all day for the obvious sanitary reasons. He also obviously didn't need his hat, so he used it to help make a convincing decoy in the guest bedroom with the rest of his luggage serving as the body underneath the sheets and comforter.

It didn't take long before Mickey felt the weight shift behind him, and Minnie's arms snake around him even under his blanket. He took a deep breath and sighed through his nose, and then turned around in her arms to face her.

"Missed me that much?" He teased her cheekily. She chuckled at him and then kissed him for several seconds.

"Does that answer your question?" She asked him after she eventually pulled away.

"Ah-huh." Mickey replied rather dazedly. Minnie chuckled at him again, rather proud of her handiwork of making his mind go blank after a kiss. Her smile fell though as she thought about what she had to ask him next.

"How long do you intend on staying?"

"In general?" He asked back, because she could've also been referring to right now, but a couple hours was the unspoken agreement. She nodded though so he gave her his best answer at the top of his head since he hadn't really thought about it. "Well, lessee…If it is Poncho, then I guess I'll be stayin' ta help ya out here until ya can hire somebody else really. So I'd say about a few weeks if not the whole month depending on this whole cattle thieving issue."

Minnie sighed in relief and cuddled closer to him, nestling her head against his chest, and angling herself so that her nose was near his neck, taking in the scent of his lovely natural musk. Oh how she missed him and his wonderful scent.

In response to her relief, he wrapped an arm around her to return her embrace, keeping the other one free in case he had to get going fast to prevent any more cattle loss, and kissed the top of her head.

"I missed ya too, Minnie. And I ain't leavin' anytime soon…aside from tonight I guess, but that's beside the point." He reassured her soothingly, rubbing her back for extra comfort, and felt her practically melt into him in the process.

It had been a month or so since they had last seen each other, so Minnie felt immensely justified in enjoying as much of Mickey as she could as she played catch up with him.

"How is everything back home?" Minnie asked him after a little while.

"Well, Goofy's still goofy, Clarabelle an' Daisy miss ya terribly, an' poor Horace an' Donald can't keep them from cryin' every time they think about ya. And it's kinda hard ta tell, but I'm pretty sure Pluto misses ya too." Mickey recounted from the top of his head.

"Well, tell all of them that they're more than welcome to visit when you get the chance." Minnie said after a small giggle for hearing expected reactions from the gang back home.

"Sure thing, toots." Mickey replied with a small chuckle of his own for her being tickled pink at how their friends were doing.

"And what have you been up to lately?" Minnie then asked curiously, the way she asked almost sounded seductive and that was physically emphasized by the fact that she was feeling the muscles in his free arm's bicep. He had been up to a lot, and she could tell, as his adventures always gave him quite the work out and beefed up his muscles in all the right ways, and she was the only one who could always notice such a subtle change since she was this close.

"That's a set of stories fer another time, Minnie. If I started tellin' ya now, ya'd lose more cattle than ya did last night fer sure." Mickey teased with a wagging finger. He couldn't help but chuckle again when she pouted at him for his answer.

"You better not have done anything too dangerous." She replied in a low voice while still pouting. Even though she was contradicting herself because Mickey was most likely going to do something dangerous tonight, she never did like the thought of him putting himself in nearly fatal situations. It was bad enough that she almost had a heart attack when he almost fell off the cliff and into the gorge earlier today.

"Aw, Min, ya know I can't guarantee that. I'm a magnet fer danger, plain an' simple." He told her with a small smile that gave away that he had indeed been in many dangerous situations. He lost the smile just as quickly as it was the only reason he hesitated in asking to marry her. He didn't want to widow her if anything that bad happened to him so quickly, even though he was already keen on writing a will that would bequeath everything to her and allowed her to do what she wanted with his stuff, as there was the off chance that she wouldn't want much of it.

In any case, because Minnie saw his smile fall, she assumed that something he'd rather not talk about had happened recently and put a hand to his cheek sympathetically. "If there's anything that you don't want to talk about, then I understand."

Mickey then looked at her with an utterly perplexed look on his face as he half wondered if she had read his mind. But realizing that she was talking about something completely unrelated to his thoughts and more on the loss of his smile, he felt the need to reassure her. "Huh? Oh, no, no. Nothing like that, I was just thinkin' about something else entirely. Like uh….What exactly I should put into my will and who ta give it to…" Well, he did feel the need to put some truth into his half explanation for his frown even if it wasn't all of it. Then he thought of a brilliant way to add onto that statement so she wouldn't worry about why he was already thinking about making a will. So putting a finger to her lips to keep her from screeching at him, he continued. "Aup, bup, bup! Ya never know when I may have ta fake my death fer some reason, and I need ta make it look good. I promise that you'll be the first ta know that I'm even faking my death fer whatever reason that may come up." He finished with a genuine devious smile at his own cleverness and removed his finger from her lips. Thankfully she smiled too and giggled because it was something he would do for the sake of all and any of the situations that he ends up in.

"Oh-ho Mickey, you would do that." She leaned up and kissed him as soon as her giggles subsided, though she giggled again as she pulled away and saw the happy dazed smile on Mickey's face.

"There now, no more worryin' about li'l ol' me, I'll be fine." He teased after he came out of his daze.

"I have every right to worry if I want to." She huffed at him teasingly in defiance.

"Have it your way then." He sighed with an amused smile, not wanting to argue with her. "How 'bout we get some shuteye, huh? We're gonna need it."

"Alright, goodnight, Mickey." She kissed him one last time and then nestled herself into his chest.

"G'Night, Minnie." He let out one last chuckle and kissed her forehead before finally shutting his eyes.

Two hours later, Mickey woke himself up knowing that it was enough time to wait to go sneak down to the gorge to see what was what.

He carefully slipped out of the bed, making sure not to wake Minnie and even put the extra effort of illusion that he was still there by scooting his pillow closer to her and putting it so that it substituted his body. Then he put his blanket over her comforter for extra warmth in her favor, all the way up and over her shoulders for good measure. Finally he snuck out of her room and put on his boots when he was near the front door, and then headed to the gorge.

It only took ten minutes for Minnie to realize that she wasn't holding him anymore, it may have smelled a little like him, but it didn't feel like him. Waking herself up, she fully realized that he must have already gone to check on the cattle, well he wasn't going to do it alone. She was already dressed to go out as well because she just knew Mickey would need her help with this. Besides, those cattle were technically her responsibility so she had every right to go stop whoever was stealing them.

By the time she got there, Mickey already needed her help as he was being strangled by Poncho, welp, there's the proof that he was at least partly behind it. Now all that was left was to see if he actually had any help.

Minnie then fired a warning shot, skimming Poncho's back. Poncho dropped Mickey after he was startled at feeling the bullet skim him. Because of the way Poncho was startled he actually hunched over even more. As Mickey fell flat on his back on the ground, he used the advantage of leverage by lifting Poncho with his feet and rolling back, flinging Poncho onto a flat rock that was on one of those pillars, the flat rock needed balancing work though so Poncho didn't dare move for the most part.

Mickey was quite happy to see Minnie and thanked her for saving his skin, then he explained that he was right about the cattle thieves using a helicopter as there was one more man down in the gorge now trying to heard some cattle on the little harness they used to carry two at a time. He had only managed to find just that much out before Poncho found him and they got into a heated fight before Poncho finally managed to grab a hold of him, and then Minnie showed up and saved him.

Together Mickey and Minnie took care of the other man who was helping Poncho, hijacked the helicopter for themselves and somehow stuck that man on the same rock as Poncho so now they had to keep moving in order to keep the rock balanced, while the mice used the helicopter to go get the authorities.

As promised, since Poncho was officially fired and headed off to jail, Mickey stayed on the ranch and helped Minnie with everything as her temporary foreman while she looked into hiring a new one. Mickey declined being paid for all his hard work at first but Minnie again won the argument by insisting he be paid since he most likely had a lot of bills to pay when he went back home. It was a sad thought…him having to leave and the two of them having to say good bye to each other again. But it was a necessary evil, as he most certainly did have bills to pay once he got home.

In the weeks that passed while waiting to hire someone, the mice tended to act more and more like a married couple each day, and both noticed, and how could they not? Their chemistry was just that strong for each other. So when it was finally time for him to head home, it hurt them both that they had to say good bye for now all over again as they had originally dreaded when they first thought about it. She didn't want him to go and he didn't want to leave her here in case the new foreman really didn't fit the bill. It was especially hard on both of them because Minnie had no idea when she'd come back to Mouseton.

They cherished each final touch, sweet caress, and chaste kiss they could give each other before finally saying the inevitable.

"See ya real soon."

Saying 'good bye' had too much finality in it so neither ever dared to say it to each other, though Minnie more often than not let 'good bye' slip past her lips on occasion, but not in this case.

After one last long kiss that was hardly interrupted by the blow of the last whistle, they finally but still slowly broke apart, with Mickey walking backwards all the way to one of the closest doors of the train. He even attempted to walk up the stairs of the door backwards just so he wouldn't lose sight of her face. But he had to look away so that he could get a seat, and naturally he got one by the window so he could continue waving at her, and continued to wave until the train finally pulled out, Minnie followed his window seat until she ran out of platform, and they kept waving until each other was out of sight.

Mickey sighed sadly as he leaned back in his seat, he knew he'd see her again eventually, it was just a matter of time, but it would feel like ages. If it weren't for the bills he had to pay once he got back home, he would've used the money she paid him to ironically buy an engagement ring for her.

After all, there wasn't anyone else in the world that he'd rather spend the rest of his life with than her, and these past few weeks already solidified that fact.

It would take ages for him to save up the money for the ring, and then some for the wedding, and even the honeymoon, but for now…it was a lovely thought that he slept on all the way home.

AN2: Coincidentally, I wrote this without remembering much of the little intricacies that make up the rest of the plot, my biggest example is when Mickey nearly falls into the gorge, in the comic he almost does just that but only because his horse, Tanglefoot had hay fever from Goofy accidentally feeding him goldenrod (which Tanglefoot is allergic to) and thus nearly sneezed Mickey off the cliff.