A/N: Hey, guys! Sorry, I know it's been a hot minute since I updated. I've been fighting off a hellatious chest/sinus infection. But here's chapter three, with more to come soon!

2005

"Come on, Wee. We go!"

"Jojo, honey, I've got work I still have to do…"

Joey huffed. Her brother was always working. She pouted her lips and crossed her arms, the easiest way to get Lee to do what she wanted him to do when she wanted him to do it. Joey turned her back on Lee, hoping that her small tantrum would work, without crossing the line into what Lee considered an actual tantrum. Even at only three, Joey knew that there was a fine line between being cute and being a brat. With one, Lee was like putty in her hands. With the other, he'd send her to her room for the rest of the night.

Joey heard Lee sigh and walk over to her. He knelt down and wrapped her in a hug, making her stony exterior fade away and become replaced with giggles. After a moment, he kissed her cheek and picked her up.

"Let's go ask Daddy, okay? If he's okay with it, we'll do it."

"Yay!" Joey cheered, clapping. "Wet me ask."

"Oh, I plan to." Lee chuckled.

An hour later, Lee was outside the house, setting up a tent to camp out with Joey that night. Joey tried to help, but was more interested in the small stray cat that wandered in and out. A few hours later, after Joey had been fed, read to, and Lee had told her a few stories, Joey had started to whine.

"I think it's someone's bedtime, Jojo."

"Kay. Nite nite, Wee. Wuv 'ou."

"Love you too."

"Wee? I gots to go."

"Go where?" Lee asked.

Joey sighed and pointed to her pants. "I gotta go, Wee."

It took a moment of confused silence, but Lee finally placed the pieces together. "Oh. You want to go in the house?"

"No. I go wite here. Jus' gib me minute."

Lee chuckled. "Yes, ma'am."

Joey lifted the door to the tent and stepped just outside. Lee could still see her silhouette against the tent, so he turned slightly to make sure Joey's sleeping bag was in place. He shook his head once more at his situation. He knew that Joey thought she'd won some great victory, but the truth was that he would have come out with her regardless. Lee had decided years earlier, much to his father's displeasure, that he didn't want to have kids. He was perfectly content for his life to focus on the running of the ranch and assisting in furthering his family's legacy. But Joey sometimes made him reconsider his decision. When she looked at him with that look of absolute love and trust that she seemed to reserve only for him, it made him wonder if he made the right decision.

An all too familiar sound snapped Lee out of his thoughts. The five seconds it took him to register the growling sound, Joey's petrified whimpering, and to grab his pistol from his side and go out the door seemed like an eternity. Standing there a few feet away from the tent was exactly what Lee had feared. A snarling dog, foaming at the mouth, was barking and snapping his jaws at Joey. Lee grabbed Joey, threw her behind him, and fired a single shot into the dog's skull. Without hesitation, Lee threw down the pistol and turned around to pick up the sobbing Joey.

"Shh. It's okay, Jojo. It's okay, baby."

"What the hell happened?"

John had come outside after hearing the shot, followed closely by Fiona. Lee briefly explained, thought John had put the picture together before he even finished. Fiona took Joey from Lee, shushing her gently and rocking her. Joey had calmed to hiccupping cries by the time John and Lee disposed of the dog's body.

"Come on, baby girl. You wanna sleep with me and Daddy tonight?"

"No. Wanna camp out wif Wee."

"You sure?" John asked. "I don't know if there's more of these dogs out here."

Joey lifted her head from her mother's shoulder and looked at her father and brother with a determination John had only seen in Beth at the same age. "Wee keep me safe Dada. Wan' stay here."

Lee smiled and stroked Joey's cheek. "Of course I'll keep you safe, Jojo."

"That's okay with me, honey, but I think somebody needs a change first."

Joey blushed slightly. "I sowwy, Mommy."

"It's okay, baby. It happens."

"Wee? You waits for me?"

Lee smiled. "Always, Jojo. Always."

Joey would never know it, but the memory flowing through her mind at the moment her brother was buried had also gone through Lee's when he was taking his last breath.

Time seemed to stop for Joey as the funeral proceeded. She knew nothing of the few mourners, what was being said or done. She felt her father's hand on her shoulder, but it didn't comfort her as it might have done on other days. She was vaguely aware that everyone was starting to move, and Joey simply waited. She normally would have pulled herself around, but today she simply wanted to stay right where she was. Finally, as the last person began to leave Lee's graveside, Joey felt her wheelchair start to move.

"NO!"

The shout startled everyone, her father included, who Joey was surprised hadn't been pushing her. Joey looked up and found Rip, her father's right hand and the person that Joey leaned on the most other than her father and oldest brother. Joey, who hated being the center of attention for any reason, shook her head and fought off tears.

"No." she pleaded with Rip, barely above a whisper, before giving in to her grief and starting to sob into her hands.

Joey was vaguely aware of some conversation behind her. She heard her father walk back towards her, felt Rip release the back of her chair and say to her father I got her sir, and knew that he'd walked back and was kneeling in front of her. She felt Rip take her hand, though the normally calming motion didn't comfort her. Instead, it made her weep even more. Once she was down to sniffles, Rip put a callous yet gentle thumb to Joey's cheek and wiped her tears away. It was something he'd done multiple times before, a side of himself that Joey knew he saved for her and her alone. She didn't know what it was about herself that Rip cared about so much, but at the moment she was glad he did.

"Talk to me, Sunny. What's going through that head of yours?"

Joey sniffed and explained, "I don't want to leave him."

"I know. I know you don't. But we gotta head back home."

"Does it ever get easier?" Joey asked.

Rip didn't need to ask what she meant. He had shared with Joey when her mother left years earlier that his own mother and brother were dead, though he'd left out the details of what exactly had happened. He sighed, wanting to comfort her but at the same time wanting her to know the truth. He wished he could tell her that yes, one day she'd stop hurting, that it would get to the point where she wouldn't ever know anything bad had happened to her at all, but that was an insult to both Joey's strength and intelligence.

"I wish I could tell you it did, kiddo. I wish I could tell you it won't hurt anymore, but it always will. But you'll find a way to live with it."

"I don't wanna live with it." Joey said, sounding more like a child to Rip than she had in years.

"I know, Sunny. I know. But there'll come a day when you'll be able to think about Lee without it hurting so much."

"You promise?"

"Promise." Rip said. He chuckled and asked, "Did you know Lee was there the first time I ever called you Sunny?"

Joey let out her first smile in days. "Really?"

"Yep. See, your mom and dad were gone for some kind of business meeting having to do with the ranch. You were about seven, maybe eight months old at the time. You had colic, and you would scream for hours. Usually, Lee would take you out for a walk and that would calm you down, but that night for some reason you just decided you wanted to sound like a wailing cat. Lee brought you down to the barn to look at the horses. I was in there cleaning the stables and getting ready for the next day. Lee was bouncing you up and down, trying real hard to get you to calm down. I think he was damn near close to tears himself."

Joey laughed at the thought of bringing her brother that close to tears.

"I asked Lee if I could try, and I held you, bounced you a little bit, and I sang to you. Can you guess what song?"

Joey nodded. "You are my sunshine."

"That's right. You calmed right down. I sung it to you again and you went right to sleep. I think Lee was a little jealous of us that night."

"I wish I could remember that. It sounds like a nice memory."

Rip smiled. "It is. But I can promise you this, Sunny. Lee loved you so much it hurt. He died loving you. But I can also promise that he wouldn't want you sitting here being miserable 'cause of him. That would break his heart. Let me take you back up to the house."

"I don't want to face all those people…"

"I'll be right there with you. Okay?"

Joey nodded. "Okay. Can you give me a minute to say bye to him?"

"You got it, kiddo."

Rip walked a few feet away, and Joey turned towards the place Lee was to be buried. She swore for a second she saw her brother standing there staring at her, smiling. Joey simply blew him a kiss and turned back towards the house while whispering,

"Bye, brother."