A/N: Another filler chapter this time, but the next one we'll be back to canon with Customs of the Country, though it won't be as humorous as the original. As always, I own nothing but my OC and original plots.
Also, I am now cross-posting this on AO3 with the Young Guns fics soon to follow. They won't be going anywhere, so don't worry, I intend to keep posting here as well.
August, 1870, New Mexico Territory
"Have you seen our brother? He's the spittin' image of me," Candy asked the bartender in the Santa Fe cantina. "His real name's Jake, but I don't know what he's calling himself now. Haven't seen each other since we were kids." Annie kept her back to the polished bar, watching the men watching them. The trip down into the territory had been almost too easy considering their faces occupied wanted posters from California to Texas. One person with too sharp eyes or too good a memory and they were potentially done for, the only thing they'd have left a short fall and a sharp stop. Her skin crawled at the thought and she held back a shudder. They had to make it, she wouldn't accept any other outcome.
"No, senor, I have not seen this man." The man wiped a glass with his apron and placed it back on the shelf. "Another beer?"
"No, thanks." Candy raked his hands through his hair and sighed. He tossed a coin on the bar and straightened. "Guess we'll keep looking. Buenos dias."
"Buenos dias, senor, senorita." She pushed off the bar and tailed him out the door, a spot between her shoulder blades itching. They mounted up and reined their horses around, eyes locking, an entire conversation ensuing in just a few sideways glances.
Far corner, buckskins and battered hat.
Table to his right, mustache and greasy hair, yellow bandanna.
Together? Annie frowned, debating, then nodded.
One man would be stupid to take on both of us.
If we can't lose 'em …
I know. She'd rather not shoot anyone, but she'd made her choice that day outside Reno and there was no going back, even if she'd wanted to. "You've got sand, girl, but if a man's shooting at you, you damn well better shoot to kill. Otherwise, you're gonna end up on the wrong side of the ground." A shiver ran down her spine as Campbell's warning drifted out of the past and her hand went to the scar hidden under her shirt. He'd almost been right.
They rode out, heading due south, no discussion needed after three years riding together. With all the rocky ground, confusing their trail was easier than normal. But it wouldn't be enough to stop them, not with $3,000 on the table. All it would do was buy time. She darted a quick glance over her shoulder, catching the briefest glimpse of two bay horses before the land swallowed their pursuers. They'd had far worse odds, but this time, they couldn't wire for help and bring down hell courtesy of the Ponderosa. She'd never realized just how valuable that was until it was gone.
"Don't get lost in your head back there, sweetheart. Look up ahead." Her head came up and she searched the horizon, finding an out of place spot of color merged with a rocky outcropping off to the southwest.
"How'd they get a man ahead of us?"
"They're good," Candy grudgingly admitted. "But he picked a bad spot to hide. I'm thinking we've got maybe another five or ten minutes before they close in. Thank God that kid sheriff demanded live delivery." He glanced around, his eyes haunted. "God, I don't want to do it anymore than you do, sweetheart, but it's us or them if they won't ride away."
"Your call." A bitter taste filled her mouth. What choice did they really have – explain if the men would let them and hope for the best? She hadn't been that naive since she was a teenager. She was out of her element and she wasn't too proud to admit it. It was unsettling to realize just how often her plans had relied on the Cartwright influence.
"We're in this together, Annie."
"But you've been out here before." She'd given him free rein at Los Robles, and this time was no different. They shared a knowing look and booted their horses into a dead gallop up into the mountains outside Santa Fe.
Three hours later, they made a mistake, or their pursuers were just that good, and the four of them came face to face on the narrow trail snaking along the edge of the ridge line. She and Candy reacted first, drawing pistols in unison. "Ride away," she said in a voice hard as diamonds, even as her mind noted the absence of the third man. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she fought the urge to turn and look. If he was back there, there was nothing they could do about it right now. "It ain't worth your lives." One of the men – the one in buckskins – chuckled and scratched his head, seemingly unconcerned that he had two guns aimed at his chest.
"I'd say it is."
"How you gonna spend that reward if you're dead?" Candy sounded like he was discussing the weather. "We ain't got no quarrel with either of you fellas unless you give us one." His voice sharpened in warning.
"Three grand is more money than we make in several years unless we luck out and bring in a big name bounty," the second man added. Annie backed the pinto a few steps, Candy mirroring her move in unison.
"You got a big problem we don't have, friend: you can't kill us if you want that money, and we're not going in alive," Candy's voice was harsher than she'd ever heard him sound and a shiver ran down her spine. If she didn't know he was acting, she'd believe it. The man in buckskins heaved a sigh and lowered his hand to his leg.
"If she goes in alive, they may be merciful, after all, she ain't killed no one. You really want your girl to die for you?"
"Carson City wants me swinging from a noose," she said bitterly. "I've already lost everything that matters, what are you next to that?"
"Like the lady said, ride away, friend." The man sighed again.
"I just don't think we're gonna be doing that, friend." His hand came up, gun clearing leather incredibly fast. Annie booted the pinto off the trail to the left, Candy diving to the right as they opened fire within split seconds of the bounty hunters. By the time she got the pinto turned around and back on the trail both men were dead on the ground.
Bile rose in the back of her throat and she had to force herself to pull her attention away to search for the third man. Candy shook his head. "Doesn't make sense." He looked around. "Maybe he wasn't with them at all."
"Or he's out there waiting for us to ride into his sights." She jammed her gun into her holster and looked down at the men on the ground. "Why couldn't they just ride away?" Her chest tightened and she turned her head, staring out at the barren land. Her stomach flipped and she reined the pinto around sharply, booting the animal into a trot down the trail out of the mountains, picking up a lope as soon as the ground leveled out, one eye scanning the terrain for signs of an ambush. She stopped the horse next to a scrubby tree and jumped down, her throat closing.
"Did you mean that?" Candy asked quietly, his voice thick as he dismounted. She spun around, her heart pounding.
"I'd have said anything to get them to ride away. It's not what you do, but what they think you'll do, remember?" She flung out a hand to the north. "Nothing back there in Virginia City was worth anything if you were dead. I made the only choice I could live with and I'll never regret it." She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his back. "I –" He shushed her and smiled sadly.
"I guess I'm not used to being wanted, yet." He sighed and pulled her closer. "A part of me was afraid that after a while, you'd change your mind and I'd be alone again."
"I could lose anything but you," she whispered against his neck. He drew in a breath and rested his cheek against her hair, his hand rubbing circles on her back.
"All we can do now is play the hand we were dealt." He drew back and met her eyes. "You know I never wanted this for you, right?"
"I knew what I was getting into," she said softly. "I just … I guess I stupidly thought they'd listen to us and leave. It's never happened before, I don't know why I thought it would now." She swallowed hard and buried her face in his neck. "How much blood are we going to have on our hands at the end of this?" His face twisted and he glanced back at the mountains.
"I don't know." She was glad he'd been straight about it instead of pretending they'd never be backed into this corner again. Would they even be welcome should they prove his innocence and be able to go home? "How much can we live with?"
"It ain't that bad." They jumped, hands diving for pistols as they separated. "Even now you hesitate." Wade McPhail slipped out of the rocks ten feet away, a rifle draped over his arm. "Soon as you headed up into the mountains, I cut a trail around and waited."
"You wanted us to see you," Candy said slowly. He turned, looking back at the mountains, face ghost white. "God … they weren't –"
"We're not that desperate. Yet," he clarified. "Don't lose any sleep over them, they both had paper on 'em, outlaws that branched out when the pickin's got thin. I was actually tracking them myself when you wandered into the middle."
"They shot first," Candy said. McPhail raised an eyebrow.
"Don't know why you bothered wasting breath to tell me something I already knew." He leaned back against the tree. "I know the both of you, and while I don't doubt you can kill, I don't see cold-blooded murder." He shifted his weight. "That's why I didn't believe the papers, even before I got home and Emily told me she'd seen you in Virginia City."
"You believe he's innocent." Annie's head spun. Finally … even if it was just one man, it was one man who wasn't in town that still believed them. McPhail raised an eyebrow again.
"I do believe that's what I just said. Finding his look alike is your only chance and it ain't gonna be easy, but if there's anything I can do to help, I will."
"Blow a hole in that lying bitch and I'll be happy," she snarled.
"Believe it or not, she might prefer that to her current situation. Her husband filed for a divorce the day she testified and last I heard she was sleeping back of the livery stable cause no one would give her so much as a ride out of town. For all I know, she's starved to death by now."
"She deserves it after what she did."
"Annie." Candy touched her arm. "She didn't win," he said softly. "If anything, she gave us each other." He swallowed hard. "I can't regret that."
"She wanted you dead."
"And because of you, she failed."
"Now that, I didn't see coming." McPhail adjusted his hat with a low chuckle. "I rode home expecting to find you dead and buried and instead she'd busted you out. Sheriff Crowley rather enjoyed that kid sheriff's reaction, by the way. The man was smirking through his tobacco for three weeks. And Roy made sure to rub it in." He looked her up and down, almost like he was debating something and decided against it, his gaze flicking to Candy. "Before I collect those two, is there any way to tell him apart from this look alike running around?"
"The Judge," Candy said softly. When we were held prisoner, I was whipped pretty bad. Scars all over my back."
"You'd better hope your double doesn't have any, too." McPhail pushed off the tree. "Or that slim chance you've got is gonna turn into nothing. If I find anything, how can I get in touch with you?"
"Padre Javier in Los Robles, California. He'll get it to us." McPhail grinned.
"He the one that married you?" Candy's arm slipped around her back and she could hear the happiness in his voice even from one little word.
"Yeah."
"Congratulations." His smile faded. "Or should that be good luck instead?"
"We'll take both," Candy said.
"Right now it feels like we need a miracle," she added.
"Those have come along now and then. If that woman ever admits she lied, you may get one."
"Carson City wouldn't care." Her voice was thick. "They convinced themselves he's guilty and they'll never change their minds until they see both of them side by side."
"You sure that'll do it?" Annie drew in a breath.
"We have to try." Candy squeezed her hand.
"I've been drifting since I was nineteen, McPhail, living everywhere, belonging nowhere. I'm not letting this guy take away the only real home I've ever had." Annie wanted to cry. Just when he felt safe enough to admit it, the rug had been yanked out from under him again. "If we can't prove it, or they won't listen, we'll … we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. Tell Mr. Cartwright when you see him, I didn't want this for Annie, and I'll never let anything happen to her, not as long as I'm alive."
"He already knows, but I'll tell him anyway. There any messages you'd like me to pass along, Anne?"
"Tell Pa I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye," she whispered. "He'd have tried to talk me out of it and there wasn't time." McPhail nodded and she wondered if he knew what she'd done to Joe.
"Watch your back trail and don't leave an empty chamber. It's liable to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. The longer you evade them, the madder that kid sheriff is gonna get, and the higher that bounty is gonna climb." McPhail ambled away to collect his horse, then turned the bay towards the mountains. "I'll be watching for you." He rode away at a trot and they mounted up, turning their horses the opposite direction.
"I'm glad he's on our side," Candy said softly. "I don't ever want to have to draw on a lawman. I don't know if I could pull the trigger."
"Me neither." They sat their horses in silence for a long moment, watching the breeze play with the dust. Candy finally sighed.
"Let's ride, sweetheart. We've got a long trail home."