Chapter Three

'Hey, good to see you!' 'Glad you you're back to work-even if it's behind a desk!' were just a few of the things that were heard as Jim wheeled himself into the break room. "Thanks," Jim smiled at the other officers, only he didn't stop to talk with them. Instead he headed for the farthest table; it was the one Ed Wells sat at.

"Mind if I join you?" Jim parked his wheelchair next to the table and looked at Ed, who he felt sorry for. He could see the stress Ed was feeling in his eyes.

"Surprised you want to be near me. Don't you blame me too?" Ed asked as he sipped on his coffee and looked at the casts on Jim's legs.

"It's been tempting too, only-no- I'm not. It's like I reminded Pete, rookies don't always listen to their training officer. Besides, I know for a fact not everyone is blaming you, just seems like it at the moment." Jim then asked how Ed was doing. That surprised Ed as well, though gratitude also appeared in his eyes.

"I guess as good as I can be considering all that's happened." Ed paused and surprised Jim when he admitted he was seriously considering asking to be removed as a training officer. "And don't tell me I should wait to see if they are going to let me stay one or not, I overheard the chief and Mac-I'm sure they are going to do it sooner or later. Maybe, it's my pride only I'd rather have it on record I voluntarily gave it up rather than losing it the other way." He then admitted that, as much as he hated it, Mac had been right to get Pete to take a vacation. "I just hope we can at least make peace with each other when he gets back. He's an amazing officer."

"You can be too, when you want to be. For the record, if you do make such a request, I hope they try to get you to try to change your mind. It's not like Jackman was acting under your orders." Jim told Ed before he turned his wheelchair away from the table. "I've got to get to the phones."

"Jim," Ed stopped him.

"What?" Jim turned back to look at his coworker.

"Thanks." Ed said sincerely.

"You're welcome." Jim wheeled himself out of the break room and down the hallway before opening the door that led to the front desk of the police station.

~oOo~

When it came to Pete, he'd gotten a somewhat restful night sleep, climbed into his car the next morning and headed for the Mitchell home. Pete would have called to make sure his old acquaintance would be home only Pete had other plans as well. If Andrew wasn't home, Pete would simply find something else on his list to do.

It wasn't long before Pete was turning off the asphalt road onto what he felt might as well be a dirt path instead of a road. He might have thought he'd misunderstood his parents only he could see the 'road' was indeed leading to the only home in sight. "Think they need to redo this 'road'." Pete spoke to no one in particular as he drove over what felt like a few small potholes. Soon he was pulling up in front of a rather nice looking home-even if it wasn't huge. The front of the red brick home had two windows on the left side of a porch that was long enough to have a table and a couple of chairs; there were two more sets of windows on the right side. Each window had green decorative shutters on each side of its frame. The porch itself had railings attached to the majority of the front porch. The part of the porch that had nothing in front of it allowed people to approach the front door.

Pete started to climb out of his car just as he heard what sounded to be a woman yelling 'LEAVE ME ALONE, CALEB- YOU SCOUNDREL!" Acting on instinct, Pete ran around the corner of the house just in time to see a black haired, brown eyed woman who appeared to be somewhere in her early twenties plant the heel of her boot into a brown-haired gentleman's lower leg and planting her elbow into his stomach. Needless to say, the stranger who was thin and appeared to be slightly shorter than Pete doubled over and let go of the young woman. Though, seconds later he reached for her arm again only to find himself being pulled away by Pete.

"I believe that she said to leave her alone!" Pete glared at Caleb as he put himself between him and the black-haired woman.

Caleb glared back at Pete, and snapped, "I was just trying to get Mandi to listen to reason. The Mitchell family sells horses, and I wanted one. I just wanted her to put a word in for me. After all, she's been working for them for a number of years, and her word is as good as gold."

"First, I told you, I do NOT want you to call me by my nickname! Only friends and family are allowed to do that, and you are neither! Second, No, you do not just want to buy a horse! You want me to convince the family to sell you an animal for far less than it's worth so you can turn around and sell it for twice as much. I know how you work, and so does this family! They'll sell to you as fast as I would if they were my horses to sell! Which means you get nothing!" She folded her arms and glared back. "Now, get off this land! I told last week you are NOT welcome!"

Caleb would have argued only the look in Pete's eyes made him want to run for the hills. "I'll be back later. You might have told me that, only your boss never has." Caleb turned and walked to a jeep that was parked nearby.

The moment he was out of hearing range, the woman turned to look at Pete. "I thank you, sir. I might be able to defend myself to a degree only; I freely admit, the extra help is greatly appreciated. My name is Amanda Butler. You can call me Amanda or Miss Butler, but not ma'am. I work part time on the ranch. May I ask who you are and how I may help you?"

"Name's Pete Malloy; I came to see Andrew Mitchell." Pete replied.

Amanda's eyes lit up. "Andrew and Camilla have been hoping you'd stop by. Andrew has been sharing a bunch of stories about the two of you ever since he found out you were coming. He's not in right now only Camilla and twp of the Mitchell children are; the rest are in school. Come on inside." She motioned for him to follow as she walked towards the home's back door.

Pete didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing when it came to Andrew sharing tales only he followed Amanda inside, eager to meet Andrew's family.