A/N: I am so sorry for the delay, the end of the semester took more of my free time than I thought it would, but that's physics for you. Finals are over now and without summer classes I should have plenty of time to write. (I hope.) I really did not intend for this chapter to be so late. As always, I own nothing but my OC.

December 14, 1870, Leesburg, Idaho Territory

"At least they've got a post office," Candy muttered under his breath. "Go on and mail that letter, Griff. If we're lucky, Emily will get it shortly after Christmas and send Wade on to Los Robles."

"If he's home when she gets the letter." Annie couldn't stop the words from spilling free. Here it was, almost Christmas, and they were still running like animals before a fire on the prairie. Where was justice? Where was the "grand plan" that Padre Javier insisted was there?

She didn't regret it, she'd never regret it, there was no doubt about that in her mind at all. No, the only thing dragging her down was knowing the preparations taking place five hundred miles away, for the first time in her life, wouldn't include her. And poor Candy … his first Christmas as her husband wouldn't be in the home he'd grown to love, surrounded by his family. Annie wanted to scream until the icicles shattered off the tree branches.

"She'll track him down." Candy watched as Griff tied his horse up at the hitch rail and scurried inside. "I know it isn't easy," he said softly. "This isn't how I wanted to spend our first Christmas together either." He reached over and took her hand. "But we are together, and that's all that matters to me. When this is behind us, we'll spend every Christmas of our lives in front of that fireplace."

"I wish we were there now."

"Me, too, sweetheart," he said on a sigh. "Me, too." The door closed and they looked up as Griff hurried back to his horse and scrambled into the saddle, his face grim as he handed over a folded piece of paper.

"You were right, Andy." The kid shook his head. "I sure wouldn't be leaving a trail if I was him." Candy unfolded the page and skimmed the few lines of script.

"Sending for the marshal?" he read in a low tone. "Have fun trying, but they'll never believe you, and I'll never be caught." Candy glanced around. "Leesburg isn't exactly what I'd call bustling, so why … uh-oh."

"What?" She whipped around in the saddle and froze at the sight of an all-too familiar pinto standing at the hitch rail outside the saloon. How they hadn't noticed him immediately, she'd never know. Guilt ate at her stomach. Why couldn't he have just let her leave? Candy turned his horse.

"Let's ride." He pushed the chestnut into a lope. "I'm thinking they figured out who helped Andrews."

"And he ignored Pa's warning to leave it be." They pushed their horses as fast as they dared in the snow, a warning humming through Annie's veins. If Joe realized just how close he'd been … she loved him, even if he might only want to find them so he could yell at her for locking him in the pantry, but she just didn't believe he could keep a secret of this magnitude. All it would take was one word or a careless look in front of the wrong person expressing their sympathies for his lost sister and the hunt would be on again.

"Fastest way to Los Robles takes us through Nevada," Annie reminded him outside town.

"With your brother on our tail we haven't got time," he said with a sideways glance. "Besides, he starts asking around, he's gonna find out Whitaker was here and then he'll never go home until he figures out who he's tracking. We need to get Whitaker first, Joe is liable to hesitate on the off chance it could be me."

"Your brother's back there?"

"Yes." The kid looked around, seeming to be at a loss for words. Then he shook his head and she guessed he'd accepted there would be no help from that quarter.

"What about bounty hunters?" Griff questioned. "Won't they be everywhere?"

"Yes," Annie said shortly. She hadn't shown it to either of them, but there'd been a notice in the paper back in Bozeman about his reward increasing to $2,500 and thank God it was still live delivery only. That her price had also increased bothered her far less than it should have. McPhail had been right when he said Sheriff Weston was boiling mad. "It's nothing we haven't handled before." Her chest tightened as she said it; how much blood would they have to live with? So far as those bounty hunters knew, Candy was guilty, and they were just doing their job. How could she fault them when they had no way of knowing he was innocent?

"We'll avoid them if we can," Candy replied in a monotone. "And if we can't … we do what we have to do. Griff –" A gunshot rang out and Candy reeled in the saddle. A scream ripped its way up her throat and she yanked her rifle from its scabbard even as she spun in the saddle, desperately searching for the shooter. Griff snatched up the trailing reins and booted his gelding to a wild gallop, leading Candy out of range.

There.

A thin curl of smoke twisted upward from a cluster of snow covered trees about two hundred feet away. Flakes danced in the air, settling on the covered ground, and Annie saw red. She cocked her rifle and drove the pinto into a gallop, firing wildly to keep the shooter's head down. One answering shot rang out, then nothing. The pinto spun like a cutter as they raced past the trees, sending plumes of snow flying into the air, and she pulled the trigger again, then again. Jim Sullivan's startled face filled her vision, then all she could see was the blood spreading over his shirt as he lay sprawled in the snow, the sea of red spreading with every second.

Was it wrong to have hoped it was Whitaker? Blood roared in her ears. That was one ass who'd never hit anyone else at least, even if it wasn't the one she'd wanted to see. The man's eyes closed and he lay still. His horse blew out a breath and she collected the animal's reins, then wheeled the pinto and galloped after Griff.

She caught up quickly and Griff slowed the horses. "Candy!" He groaned in answer and she reached for him, heart pounding. Her hand on his shoulder came away sticky with blood and her stomach flipped.

"That's his horse," Griff said softly, gaze locked on the bay.

"He doesn't need it anymore," she said in a rush as she searched frantically for an exit wound. Please … Her fingers touched the raw edge of a trickling hole and she swallowed hard. "Of all the times for Joe to show up. Damn it." She looked around. "Candy needs a doctor but if we go back to Leesburg …" Her throat closed. She was not going to lose her husband.

"It went through," he panted in a thin voice. "Didn't we have this discussion before … about your brother's … rotten timing?"

"We did. Griff, get the extra shirt out of my saddlebags, hurry." She heard the kid jump down and scramble through the snow, but only just. All of her attention was held for Candy. He drew in a shaky breath and clutched at his shoulder with a wince.

"I'll be fine," he said hoarsely. "He's about as bad at shooting as he is lying."

"That's not funny," she said through her teeth as Griff handed her the wadded up shirt. He needed a doctor, but if they went back to Leesburg, Joe would find them, she had no doubts about that. And once the secret was out, all it would take was one greedy man in that soon-to-be ghost town and all would be lost. "Get the sewing kit." Griff slapped it into her hands a moment later and she dug for a needle and thread.

"What if someone heard the shots?" He asked quietly. Her eyes met Candy's and he shrugged awkwardly.

"Could be taken as hunters."

"I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one," she replied. "Watch the trail, holler if you see anyone coming."

"Yes, ma'am." Griff scrambled for his horse and took off in a flurry of snowflakes.

"He's a good kid," Candy said softly as she went to work on his shoulder.

"He is."

"He's got a chance now." She nodded agreement and he flinched at the bite of the needle. Before she could even open her mouth, he was shushing her. "Don't apologize, sweetheart. It's a sight better than the alternative." He seemed to have regained control from the pain and was looking more alert, but it didn't stop her heart from pounding hard enough to hurt. She'd seen men die from lesser wounds. "Your stitches are crooked," Candy insisted with an off-kilter grin.

"That's not funny either," she protested and he brought his good hand up to cradle her cheek.

"It made you laugh."

"No, it didn't."

"Yes, it did." He sighed heavily. "I should have expected him to come after us sooner or later." Her hand stilled and she swallowed hard.

"I hoped he wouldn't," she admitted. "If he knew, all of Virginia City would know. Do you think he knows about Padre Javier?" Candy was silent for a moment while she sewed.

"If he does, we'll ride in to find him sitting on the edge of that fountain." He brushed a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "Don't cry, sweetheart." Her lip quivered and she bit down hard.

"Why is it always us?" she finally managed to get out.

"Hey." Candy cradled her face with his good hand. "Maybe it's us because we can handle it."

"I wish we could have another of those weeks when the wildest thing that happened was that yellow dog getting into Mrs. Smith's flowers." She was trying to sew faster; she knew her brother and if he'd heard those shots, he'd be headed their way soon enough if he wasn't already. Annie prayed with everything she had that Joe was oblivious, that the distance had been enough to quiet the shots, that he wouldn't find out Whitaker had been in Leesburg.

She finished the hurried stitches with a sigh. Who was she kidding? Joe would track them and they would have to run, hopefully not faster than Candy's shoulder could take. There wasn't time to explain, much less press upon him the need for silence. She didn't dare attempt to use their lifelong connection; all that would do was confirm that he was on the right track and he'd never give up.

Hoof beats pounded closer and she looked up, hand on her Colt, as Griff slid his horse to a halt a few feet away, sending snow flying every which way. "Someone's coming, he's on a black and white pinto." Candy lurched to his feet, clutching his shoulder, and made his way to his horse.

"Let's go." He managed to climb into the saddle. "Annie, lead off. Forget tracking Whitaker, just get us into Nevada. We'll head for one of the main trails and try and confuse the tracks. Leave that horse behind, it might slow Joe down some."

"What about dragging a branch –"

"Kid that's dime novel stuff. The very act of removing everything tells anyone tracking that something was there and someone else wiped it out. That's why we ride down the middle of streams and across rocky ground, it's easier to not leave tracks in the first place than it is to remove them in a manner that doesn't tell everyone what happened. Besides, it takes too long."

"Come on." She urged her mount to a slow lope, not daring to go much faster in case there was ice under the snow. The last thing they needed was to lose a horse or one of them get hurt if an animal went down. If they rode south to Elko, they could join the main stage roads and make it that much harder on Joe to track, then turn west to Winnemuca and keep Pyramid Lake to the south … if they passed between that and Honey Lake, they should be far enough from home to avoid unwanted attention, but with over eight hundred miles to ride, she wasn't about to count on anything. Best case scenario, they should reach Los Robles by the end of January.

If he didn't get close enough to really look at the horses, they should be fine. There were thousands of chestnuts running around and without getting up close you wouldn't know her mount was actually a pinto, but the brand was unmistakable. Maybe they should have sold the horses before now and bought new ones, but the thought left her uneasy. Technically, they belonged to her pa and selling them could be construed as theft since the bills of sale were forged.

Of course, they could only be hung once … the thought was enough to make her want to laugh and she almost did. But those eight hundred miles stretching out in front of them silenced it in her throat.

"Why aren't we letting him catch up so he can help out?" Griff called over. "Couldn't he gather information we can't?"

"He can't keep his mouth shut," she and Candy replied in unison. "If Joe knows where we are, the whole state will know, along with any bounty hunters who hear that cackle of his," he continued. Annie couldn't speak past the lump in her throat. If he even wanted to help. He was probably still mad about getting locked in the pantry at gunpoint, which Candy still did not know about. There just hadn't been a good time to bring it up.

"If he ran into that fella back at the mine, he knows we're out here somewhere anyway."

"Better for us if he can't point to a spot on a map and say 'right there'."

"From what I've heard, I can't see him turning family over to the law."

"He wouldn't, not on purpose. But if he knew, he wouldn't be able to keep from being too happy, if that makes sense. He'd give it away by not acting the way he should with his only sister out there on the run. Most bounty hunters, all they need is a starting point, and some of 'em don't even need that."

"I think it's half stupid, but what do I know?" Griff huffed. "Only one trail down out of these mountains so I don't know how you think we're gonna avoid him forever, especially with snow everywhere."

"We don't have to avoid Joe forever," Annie said, her voice thick. "Only until we reach the main trails." Griff smothered a snort, but didn't say another word. He didn't have to. She knew it wasn't likely they could evade her stubborn brother that long but they had to try.

If she thought, even for a minute, that he would be able to keep their whereabouts a secret she'd turn around now and let him catch up, take a chance he wasn't still mad. But she knew him. If he knew there was hope, that they'd found Candy's double and there was a chance they could come home one day, he'd never be able to hide it. All it would take was one smug smirk or a biting retort around that kid sheriff and they were lost. She glanced sideways at Candy leaning on the saddle horn.

She could take anything in this world except losing her other half. If she had to sacrifice her brother's love, so be it. Pa would understand, and maybe Hoss, now that he was married.

"Come on, we're wasting daylight," she spit, and urged her horse a little faster. "It's an easy three day ride to Challis." Maybe by the time they got there, they'd leave the snow behind, making it less obvious when they cut straight over the mountains to reach Leadville and shave off some miles and time. From there, they'd have to fill their saddlebags in Shoshone, since there wasn't another town until Humboldt Wells in Nevada. They'd lived off wild game before and they could do it again, it wasn't that she was worried about, it was infection setting in out in the middle of nowhere. Her heart skipped a beat. She hadn't come this far just to lose him now.

"You need to rest."

"He'll see the fire, Annie," Candy protested weakly about an hour after sunset the next day. "We have to keep moving."

"You can't walk another mile, much less thirty. I know he might catch up, but we need to rest. If the horses play out on us, where will we be then?" Other than somewhere in the Salmon forest.

"We can't stop." But his face didn't match his words; he was clearly exhausted.

"Candy, please." Tears stung her eyes. Why did he have to be so stubborn? "I'm not gonna lose you." He swiped at his face, looked at her, then around at the moonlit night.

"I guess Joe catching up is preferable to walking off the side of a mountain." He slid out of the saddle with a groan and clutched his shoulder as he staggered through the snow and sank down onto a boulder. He might have ridden most of the time, even when they dismounted to lead the horses, but the exertion had still taken its toll.

Tomorrow would see them in Challis, but he needed a break now.

Annie scrambled to undo their bedroll and smoothed out the canvas ground cover after scraping away as much snow as she could. Thank God it was too cold for mud. "Griff, start a fire, but keep it low." The kid scurried around gathering kindling. "Here, Candy, rest and I'll see to the horses." Her heart thumped painfully in her chest when he didn't say a word, only climbed in and yanked the blankets weakly up to his chin. She brushed the hair back from his face and his body relaxed.

"I know you're right," he said softly. "I just hate being weak." He shifted slowly to keep pressure off his wounded shoulder. "I'm slowing you down, maybe you should –"

"I'm not leaving you behind," she spit through her teeth. "Don't even think about it again."

"I'm taking you straight to Hell with me, aren't I?" He said almost too low to hear. "Because of me, you're running away from your own brother."

"I made the only choice I could live with. If I'd let them hang you, they might as well have dug a second grave right next to yours." Tears hung on her lashes. "That life you think I miss wouldn't be worth a red cent without you. Oh, Candy, why can't you see yourself the way I do?" She cradled his face in her hands. "Lila, Anne, Barbara … they might not have thought you were worth anything, but I do. And Pa does. And Joe. And Hoss and Erin. And –"

"If you say Harriet Castor I won't believe it." She choked on a snort and swiped at her face.

"I was going to say Hop Sing. And Roy and Clem." Their eyes met and Candy sighed and shifted position again.

"I know it in my head, sweetheart, but it doesn't come easy, you know? Not to me." Behind them, Griff fanned the fire to life and Candy stared into the dancing flames. "I keep thinking it's all some dream and I'll wake up one day to find you gone back to everything you left behind."

"You're stuck with me, Canaday. Forever." The ghost of a laugh slipped through his teeth and he shifted to look up at the stars overhead.

"Wonder what your ma would have thought," he mused. "I was too little when she died to remember mine and Pa never talked about her."

"Joe and I were five when she fell off her horse in the yard. To this day I don't know exactly what happened, just that she died. But she married twice for love and didn't care what others thought of her so I can't see her getting upset." Annie smiled and clutched his hand. "She'd have liked you, I'm sure of it."

"I just don't want to think about what'll happen if we can't prove it was Whitaker. You deserve better than hiding under a rock for the rest of your life."

"I'd rather have fifty years under that rock than a day without you."

"The way you say that makes me sound like some prize at a church bazaar."

"You're the only man who looked at me and saw me. I think you claimed a piece of my heart the night you came slinking out the desert."

"Makes two of us, sweetheart." He turned over carefully. "Wake me in a couple hours and we'll get back on the trail." She sat beside him as his breathing evened and he fell asleep in minutes.

"I've never seen a love like that before," Griff said softly from the other side of the fire. Annie looked up. "Ma said she loved my real Pa like that, but I was too young to know for sure. All I know is if I had family looking for me, I wouldn't be running away." His fingers played with his jacket sleeve and he wouldn't meet her eyes. "I still think he could help us."

"He could." If he wanted to. "But he wouldn't be able to hide that he knew. It wouldn't matter in Virginia City, but if that kid sheriff in Carson City ever found out … I never gamble with lives."

"He could have killed you yesterday."

"He missed, I didn't."

"What if we can't?"

"Kid, you jump around like a bullfrog, you know that?" Griff shrugged. "If the worst comes, we'll find some town far away from Nevada and start a new life." She wouldn't even consider the thought of losing him.

"You really don't care about what you had to leave behind."

"If you had one chance at love, wouldn't you take it?"

"Love ain't done me no favors, Annie."

"It didn't do Candy any either. Or me. Frankly," she said softly, "you'd be hard pressed to find somebody with a perfect life no matter how long you searched. Everyone in this world has problems, all we can do is figure out how to handle them. I made my choices and I don't regret a one, nor will I."

"Maybe one day he'll stop being too scared to see it." Griff's voice was so low she could barely hear it. He finally looked up and she wondered if he wasn't talking about himself as well as Candy.

"They say you can't pick your family, but they're damn liars whoever they are. You're our brother now, just as much as Joe is."

"I'm an orphan."

"So's Candy. And I'm half one if you get technical about it. There's no difference, Griff." The kid hugged his knees to his chest.

"You wouldn't say that if he'd killed Candy." So that was it. Annie left her husband and took a seat beside Griff, looping an arm around his lanky shoulders. They needed to get some more food into the kid.

"I would. You aren't responsible for his choices and he can't hurt you anymore. Candy isn't mad at you and neither am I. We knew what we were doing."

"But you could have lost him, right in front of you."

"I could lose him any day out here and he could lose me just as easy. Rattlers bite, rivers flood, cliffs erode, buffalo stampede, horses slip … all we can do is make the most of every day and live it like it's our last."

"But if it was, what was the point?" Annie sighed.

"I'd rather lose love, than never have loved at all." He didn't say anything else after that, nor did she let on that she knew he was crying until his tears ran dry and she handed him her handkerchief.

"Thanks." He wiped his face. "He might have been all I had, but he was a … a jackass. I guess I was crying for the stepfather I could have had."

"It was his loss." She squeezed his shoulder and stood up. "Don't give him another thought because he sure as hell wouldn't have given you one. We'll give Candy another few hours to sleep and then we'll move on around daylight."

"You think we'll prove it?"

"Whitaker doesn't know who he's playing games with and that's gonna be his fatal mistake."

A/N: The towns mentioned are real places in Idaho and Nevada but I did take some creative license. Challis wasn't settled until 1878 and Leadville was the early name for modern day Ketchum, founded in the 1880's. Shoshone also wasn't founded until several years after this story takes place. Humboldt Wells on the other hand, did exist in 1870. It was a railroad town on the route of the Transcontinental Railroad. Its name was changed after the town burned in the late 1880's and is now known as Wells, Nevada. Leesburg itself is now pretty much a ghost town.