Sitting in the early evening sun, drinking watered down rot gut, outside a hotel that had seen better days, with about eighty dollars between them, Heyes still thought life was pretty good. It was certainly much better than it had been just over three months ago, when they'd been stuck in the hell of Wyoming Territorial Prison, facing another three years of a five year sentence. But somehow they'd been gifted a miracle in the shape of a new Wyoming Governor, who was good friends with C. Meyer Zulick and had a conscience. He'd quickly secured them a pardon, on the grounds of service to the union, and their ordeal had been over, quicker than either of them could have hoped.

Heyes stared over at his partner, who was studying his whiskey as if it held all the answers in the world, and cleared his throat bringing his friend's gaze up to him . Sighing at the lines on his face and the hint of grey at his temples, Heyes took a drink out of his glass to cover his discomfort. The Kid had always looked young for his age, but prison had aged them both, and he now looked every inch and more of his thirty four years. But when his lips quirked up into a smile, which then widened into a grin as he kept Heyes' gaze with no difficulty some of the years dropped away. Heyes could then easily see both the boy and the man in that gaze, and he quickly found his expression softening, before he felt his face break into an answering broad smile.

Prison had been every bit as bad as both of them had feared it would be, worse in some ways, but they'd faced it together. Their joint ordeal had only reinforced their bond, so much so that sometimes Heyes swore it was a physical thing between them that he could reach out and touch. Prison had left them both with mental and physical scars, that would probably never fully heal, but Heyes had every faith that they'd manage to find a place to thrive. They just needed time, and that was something they hopefully had in abundance now they were free men. After a few more moments of quiet, Heyes curious as to what was going through his friend's head asked quietly. "Whatcha thinking about?"

The Kid laughed slightly. "Just wonderin' if I'd known where we'd end up, whether I'd still have chosen to take the path we did."

Heyes swallowed, that thought had crossed his mind frequently, especially when at his lowest in prison, but in the last month, he had finally concluded that for him at least, the decisions he'd made would have been much the same even knowing the outcome. He somehow dreaded that his friend would have come to a different verdict, and it was with a sudden lump in his stomach that he asked. "And what did ya decide?"

The Kid sipped his drink then laughed softly. "While I'd sure like to change the middle, I ain't going to regret the beginning, and I'm hoping for a good ending."

The knot in Heyes' stomach eased and he found a smile creeping back across his face as he raised his glass in a toast. "Now I can drink to that, Kid."

The Kid took a sip out of his own drink before asking seriously. "What about you Heyes? Any regrets?"

"Just the one really, Kid...that we got caught, before the many Governor's of Wyoming got their collective heads out of their asses."

The Kid midway through taking a drink snorted, before laughing so hard that he nearly fell out of his chair, before the laugh turned into a cough. He eventually wiped his streaming eyes, waving Heyes away as he stood a little anxiously. Prison hadn't been good for either of them on any level, and the Kid always a little prone to colds, had suffered more than one bout of the grippe during their time in jail. He'd been laid low by one such incidence not long before they'd been released. Prison had made it hard for him to get over any of them, and even now, he still hadn't fully recovered his stamina and was prone to prolonged coughing. But after a final clearing of his throat, he showed no more sign of needing to cough and said firmly. "I'm fine, Heyes, I'm fine. But next time warn me!"

Heyes laughed, relieved and amused by the gleam in his friend's eyes and barely suppressed grin, before saying lightly. "It's a deal, Kid." While it felt good to laugh out loud again and to be able to talk freely with no fear, they soon lapsed back into comfortable silence, not needing conversation to be content. So they sat quietly, happy to watch the townsfolk hurry home as the sun began to set around them.