"Dad can we go bike riding?" Lucy asked the following week after basketball.

"Kid, there'a work to be done around here. I've got fences to fix and the cows need checking on."

"Whatever." She said walking off.

"What's with the attitude!" Rip looked at Beth who had a smirk on her face. "What?" He asked.

"Nothing." She said.

"Come on."

"She's been asking for weeks. There is always going to be something for you to do for work. Always has been at this fucking place. Made me hate it when I was her age."

Rip thought about what Beth said. "I'll talk to her. But the attitude has to stop."

Beth ignored him from her place on the porch.

He knocked lightly on Lucy's bedroom door before poking his head in. "Let's have a chat."

Lucy looked at him and Rip could read her like a book.

"There is work that must be done on the ranch."

"Yeah yeah, I've heard that before. No weekends on the ranch." She said dryly, knowing it would annoy Rip.

"Hey! I just told you to cut the shit."

"I have nothing to do!"

"There are plenty of things to do. You live on a ranch Lucy." He told her. She mumbled something under her breath. "You want to repeat that?"

"I said I wanted to spend time with you!" She pushed past him, going downstairs.

"We haven't finished Lucy." He said loudly watching her walk off. "Just like her damn mother." He mumbled. He grabbed his own hat going out the front door.

"You come talk to me when you're ready Lucy. Leave the damn attitude here." He told her from where she was standing on the porch with Beth.

"Looks like you managed to piss him off pretty good, kid." Beth said.

"Not fair. He's always busy with work and I just wanted to hang out with him." Lucy grumbled to Beth who sat there with her arms crossed.

"Your dad is a working man. He rises with the sun and rests as it sets. Most of his life all he has ever known is working. This place isn't just work to him, it's his whole life."

"But I thought he would -."

"He's trying. He's learning how to be the best Dad at the same time for you."

"But he is good." Lucy said.

"Rip didn't have a great childhood. He doesn't want yours to finish the same way his did. We know it wasn't good to begin with but we're trying."

"I think he's angry at me." Lucy said slumping down against the porch railing.

"What did you say to him?" Beth asked.

"I told him I know that there are no weekends on the ranch and that I had nothing to do and I just wanted to spend time with him and then I walked off."

"Were you being a smart arse?"

Lucy shrugged.

"I think that's your answer there." Beth told her. "Both of you need to cool off before you go and chat to each other."

"I'm going to play basketball." Lucy said grabbing her ball from inside the cabin. Beth could hear the repetitive bouncing of the ball as she worked.

Rip looked at his watch. They had been fixing the boundary fence for a few hours. Most of the cattle had been moved to the paddock over. "You lot keep going. I've got some stuff to do back at the ranch." He told them before riding his horse back.

"I think I'm going to go see Dad." Lucy said holding her basketball.

"You want me to come with you?" Beth asked as Lucy nodded. "All right. Let's go."

Beth and Lucy walked down the gravel road from the cabin to the stables. Rip wasn't around, nor any of the cowboys. "I'll just wait here." Lucy told Beth pointing out the wooden bench seat.

"You don't want to check on Betty?"

Lucy shook her head. "I'll just wait." She gave Beth a half smile. "Reckon he will still be angry at me?"

"Don't know baby." Beth told her truthfully. Rip rode in on his horse seeing Beth and Lucy sitting on the bench. "I'll talk to him, you stay here." She said getting up and meeting him where he got off the horse.

"Beth."

"I think she's sorry." She said tilting her head.

Rip looked over Beth's head at where Lucy was sitting looking glum. "Yeah well, can't fix a problem if she's going to keep fighting me. She is you through and through, darling." They walked over to Lucy together before Beth suddenly found herself busy so they could talk.

Lucy wasn't sure what to do, she instead fumbled with her hands.

"How are you doing now Lu?" Rip asked calmly.

"You're not still made at me?"

"I'm not, but I am disappointed that you continued to show me attitude and then walked away. That is not how you deal with a situation Lucy, especially if you don't get your way."

"Disappointment is so much worse! Mom doesn't talk about anything when she doesn't get her way."

Rip sighed. "You are not your mother. She is also an adult."

"But you say she was always like that."

"Lucy. It's this talking back behaviour that is going to get you in to trouble." Rip stopped her.

Lucy opened her mouth before closing it. "I just really wanted to ride my bike with you today!"

"And I didn't say we wouldn't. I just told you that I had some things to do first."

"Oh." She said. "Sorry."

"You gotta talk to us Lucy. We can't read your mind." He told her standing up. "You can help me unsaddle the horse." She followed him, doing as he said so she could get the saddle off. It was too heavy for her so he helped her to carry it to the stables to be put away.
"Go and get the horse to put away."

Beth followed Rip in to the stables as he hung the saddle up. "All good now?"

"I don't know what the hell got in to her."

"You know. I think she just wants to spend time with you Rip. She just wants to get to know you away from the work stuff."

"She does."

"No baby. All she see's is your working. She doesn't know you. The you that is kind and gentle." She said giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Show her that."

"Come on Luce. We'll get our bikes now." He told her, letting her catch up to him and Beth on the way back to the cabin. Father and daughter grabbed their bikes and the helmets Beth had specially gone out to buy for them both, forcing them to wear.

She watched as Lucy and Rip rode off towards the tree line before pouring herself a wine and sitting on the couch with the fire going.

"Heard there is a good track this way." Rip said pointing to the right. They rode side by side mostly uphill for a while.

"My legs are on fire!" Lucy said puffing.

"I think we are nearly there." Rip said, not wanting to admit that his legs were starting to hurt too.

There was a knock on the cabin door, Beth opened it to find John standing there.
"Can I come in?" He asked.

Beth moved out of the way letting him in. He took his hat off before moving to the armchair. "I was hoping we could talk."

"About what? I told you to stay away."

"I owe you an explanation. I want to clear the air." He said. Beth waited for him to continue, pouring more wine in to her glass. "I thought giving Lucy away to another family was the best thing to do. I did discuss it with Jamie but I did not know he had threatened to kill Rip. I would never let that happen."

"He threatened us. If I knew then that my husband wouldn't have been killed if we didn't give my daughter up we would have kept her. We would have never let her doubt her worth or that she was loved. We would have been happy."

John closed his eyes. "I was wrong Beth and I am sorry for that. I know I won't be abe to fix this quickly, maybe ever. But I want the chance to try Beth."

"You know, my loyalty is the one thing you never have to question in this life but she will always come first until my last breath. It's up to her."

John nodded, sitting there. Beth got up and poured a whisky for him. "Jamie really does belong in the same place as our enemies."

John said nothing, instead taking a sip of his drink.

"Dad, look over there!" Lucy whispered pointing out an elk calf and it's Mom. "It's so cute!"

Rip smiled and agreed from her from where they sat at the top of the trail looking down. Lucy moved to get closer. "Hold on Lu. They're pretty protective, the Mama's over their babies." She stopped moving, her heel slipping slightly sending some gravel down alerting the elk to their presence.

Rip had always been content to sit and enjoy the silence of his surroundings. After the morning Lucy had, had this far she couldn't tell if Rip was still annoyed at her or not. What Beth had said earlier about Rip trying and learning.
"You're the best Dad." She said not making eye contact.

"Where is this coming from?" Rip asked.

"Uhh.. no where." She tried to lie.

"You been talking to Beth?"

Lucy nodded once, the same way Rip so often did. "But I mean it. Everyone at school always says they fight with their dad's and they don't get along because their Dad's yell lots." She told him thinking about a conversation a group of girls and her had at school last week.

"I'm trying Luce. There will be times I will yell but its because I want you to be better than Beth and I. I want you to have better opportunities. It's me trying to keep you safe."

"I know you say that all the time." She said.

"I'm glad you haven't put me in the same categories as the other shitty Dad's." He said chuckling. "I'm going to do my best to make some time for just you and me. There will come a day when you don't want to be around me anymore." He told her squeezing her shoulder.

"Yeah cool. Wanna ride back now?" Lucy asked, picking up her own bike.

"All right, it's a bit narrow so you can either go behind or in front of me on the way down."

Lucy was already pedalling ahead before Rip had a chance to grab his bike and follow her. Both were going downhill fast. Rip could hear Lucy laughing with delight the entire way.
She looked back to see where Rip was, before he yelled out for her to watch seeing that she was about to hit a bigger rock. She didn't have enough time to turn to correct her handlebars instead hitting the rock. Lucy hit her brakes, causing her back tire to spin out as she came out reaching out her hand and foot to try and break her fall.

"You all right?" Rip asked stopping beside her.

"My wrist and my ankle hurt."

"Let me see." He said moving the bike off her. It didn't look like any bones were broken. He looked at her head and saw a small cut on her forehead.
"You're going to have to ride back. We're not far, it's flat from here on."

Lucy nodded, wincing as Rip helped her up. She got back on the bike finding it hard to pedal with her ankle. Rip held the back of her bike seat to help push her the rest of the way to the cabin. When they were within walking distance Rip told her to get off, taking his helmet.

"Ok, now it really hurts." She said trying to walk, tears in her eyes from pain.

Rip picked her up so she didn't have to walk any further. "Leave the bikes here." Rip walked quickly to the cabin pushing the front door open.

"What the hell happened?" Beth asked seeing Lucy in Rip's arm with her helmet still on.

"She hit a rock. Hurt her ankle and wrist." He said putting her down.
John sat there silently, he realised Rip and Lucy had not realised he was there. He watched as Beth unclipped Lucy's helmet and Rip grabbed the first aid kit and a bag of peas.

"You're getting good use out of the peas, Lu." Beth joked.

"Sorry."

"No." Rip said. "Don't be sorry." He got out what he needed to clean the cut on Lucy's head, she shut her eyes at the sting but made no complaints.

John cleared his throat making his presence known to Rip and Lucy. "Want me to look at her wrist and ankle?"

Rip looked over at John and Lucy tried to back away in to the sofa further where she lay. "Sweetheart, let Mr Dutton look, he knows best this stuff and the doctor is not near here."

Lucy nodded. "Ok."
Beth moved to the edge of the sofa. She tapped Lucy shoulder so she would move so Beth could sit beside her. Lucy lay head head back on Beth's lap looking up at her, worried.

John took the bag of peas off her ankle noticing that it was now quite swollen. He gently took her shoe off. "I'm just going to move it around a little bit Lucy." He said before moving it.

"Ow!" She cried out when John moved it in one particular way, reaching for Rip's hand.

"It's not broken, just a bad sprain." He told them grabbing a compression bandage out of the first aid kit and applying it.
He moved on to looking at her wrist, letting Rip clean the graze on her palm first. "Same thing. Just a sprain." He told Beth and Rip.

"I'm gonna let the team down if I can't play!" She cried more upset at the thought of letting the girls down.

"Shh. They'll understand." Beth reassured her. "Don't cry."

"I'm trying not to!" She said making Beth and Rip laugh.

"Thanks for that Sir." Rip said to John, packing up the first aid kit.

John left with Rip who went to collect the bikes they had left earlier.

"This sucks Mom. It was so much fun riding, we saw elks and a baby one too!" Lucy told her now sitting up. "I'm not going to be able to ride or shoot hoops for a while."

"Not if you want it to get better soon. Put a movie on." Beth said handing her the remote.

"Mama? Can I have my blanket?" Lucy asked. Beth went upstairs wordlessly getting it off the end of Lucy's bed.

"Here baby." Beth put her over where Lucy was lying leaving her to watch some movie. She could hear Rip putting the bikes back on the porch with a few curse words.

Beth sat on the porch steps to watch the sun set over the mountains. "She all good?" Rip asked sitting next to her.

"Yeah, she's got a movie on."

"She said I'm a good Dad." Rip said looking out to the mountains. "The best were her words."

Beth smiled knowing Lucy had listened to what she had said earlier that day. "She's not wrong."

"I'm glad you didn't let my doubts stop you."

"Baby, once my mind is made up."

"Oh don't I know it." Rip said pulling Beth on to his lap.