When Coralee opened her eyes, she could see that the world was not spinning and that her stomach felt settled for the first time in weeks. She could turn over without becoming nauseous.

She put one foot on the floor, then the other, and walked to the bathroom to relieve herself. She flushed the toilet and drank some water, then brushed her teeth. The reflection she saw in the mirror no longer showed someone with pale grey skin and black eyes. She looked human again.

She went back to the bedroom and carefully got back into bed. Travis was probably asleep, and she did not want to wake him, they had not fallen asleep until late.

"You didn't get sick," Travis was awake, "How do you feel, are you better?"

"Like a new person. I had forgotten what it was like to not feel sick in the morning. I felt so miserable that I didn't believe the doctor when he said it might go away. Now maybe I can go back to my normal life." She did not have to say what she meant.

"The doctor said no riding, so forget that. You can come down to the barn if you want, if you need something to do you can groom, but let someone else muck the stalls." He turned over and looked at her.

"Travis, I'm not the sort of person who can do nothing. I'm not some spoiled little ranch wife who wants everything done for her. Horses are my blood, my soul, if I can't ride, what good am I?"

He held out his arm and she snuggled up to him. "Listen, Coralee, this is a big change for you. I imagine the idea of motherhood is scary, but you'll catch on. Give yourself permission to do things differently. I like it when you watch me train, I like just having you around. Tell you what, get through this and I'll buy you a new horse, any horse. Just think, you'll get to teach your daughter how to ride, just like we taught you."

"Any horse?" she asked slyly.

"Well, I'd appreciate it if you'd choose a quarter horse, but any horse." He put his arms around her, "Now, we haven't had a chance to do this in the morning for a while." He put his lips down on hers and kissed her.

At least one thing was back to normal. The only thing that had hindered their sex life was her morning sickness and now that was gone. Making love as soon as they woke up was a part of their relationship that both cherished. They didn't know how long they could keep it up but were determined not to lose their sex life if they could help it.

Breakfast was now something to be enjoyed, there was no more toast and hot milk, instead, she ate bacon and eggs, or pancakes, or French toast. She started cooking breakfast, not willing to let Elena monopolize the kitchen. She was feeling more like herself.

The unexpected side effect that pregnancy had brought was homesickness. Travis tried to be understanding, but his family and friends were in Texas. For Coralee, there were no local connections, and Montana was a three-day drive away. She missed her family; she missed her mother and her sisters most of all.

She picked up her coffee cup and sighed. The doctor had told her no caffeine and she missed the energy that it gave her. Most of all she missed her mother's coffee made with the secret recipe that she only intended to pass after she died.

"Travis, can I ask Katie to come and stay with us? I don't know if she'll want to, but Mom says that she hasn't been doing much since she and Ryan broke things off. I get so lonely here, everyone is nice, but I miss having my family around me. It's so hard being so far away from them. Sometimes I'm okay, but since I got pregnant, I feel so, well, isolated sometimes. Not being able to work with the horses leaves me with too much time on my hands. I know I'll have my hands full once the baby comes, and Katie will come in handy then, but I'm feeling lonely.

Travis put down his cup and looked at her. "Is it that bad?"

She started to cry. "I'm so torn, I love you and I'm trying hard to get used to things here, but I miss Montana. I spent half my time at home and half at the Yellowstone. We're a close family, it's almost impossible to separate us. Aunt Evelyn was my other mother, though I always liked Mom better. Now I'm away from them and realize I took it for granted."

"Why didn't you tell me you felt this way?" he asked her.

"I was afraid to. I was afraid you'd take it the wrong way and think I don't appreciate you. Mom was kind of nervous about me leaving and now I understand why. Katie and I never really left home before so I had no idea how I'd feel. Now I realize how hard it is."

"Well, I don't want you feeling homesick. Katie is a troublemaker, but I know how close you are. There's nothing like a change of scenery when it comes to dealing with a broken heart. Katie can come and stay with us for a while, but she needs to behave herself and leave the wranglers alone."

She pushed herself away from the table and went over and hugged him, then kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, I'll call Katie tonight and ask if she wants to come. She'll love the ranch, it's not the Yellowstone, but she'll love it. She'll even work if you ask her. I appreciate this, Travis, it'll help, I know it will." She nuzzled her cheek against his.

"So, come down to the corrals with me, let me show off for you." He took her hand and kissed it, then pulled her around and onto his lap, "I know it's hard for you, but it's not forever." He put his hand on her belly, "Someday our little girl will be showing off for us."

"Damn, there's another," said Walker and chased after yet another stray steer they had found. The Yellowstone did not often use the pastures that bordered the park, but because they were so often left fallow, the grass grew green and rich. This group of steers had grazed down their pasture and so Rip had decided to store them here for a while. The pasture was isolated and the chance that the steers would be disturbed was unlikely.

How come there were so many who had broken out of the fences? That's what Rip wanted to know. Cattle sometimes got loose, but the fences here were fairly secure and no one was there to bother them.

"How many is that now, Ryan?" Rip turned to him, "We're lucky that we're nowhere near a main road, they'd be scattered all over the highway."

"That's twelve," Colby, the only African-American working on the ranch answered for him.

"Looks like we need to ride the fences, something is going on." Rip spurred his horse, more out of frustration than need.

Walker came back, driving the steer he had found, and it joined the others. Something was wrong, the fences should be secure and this area was nowhere near any reachable area of the park. So many steers loose meant the fences had been damaged, maybe not by the cows but by human hands. That meant that someone had deliberately cut the barbed wire.

If it had meant to result in dead cows the perpetrators had miscalculated. This area was far enough away from the road, even if a second gate had been cut...

"Damn," Rip said and urged his horse into a gallop, heading to the gate that blocked the road that ran along the pastures. Sometimes they would use it to drive cattle, but not often, they wanted to avoid giving the cattle access to the road. That might result in dead cows if the cattle escaped and made it to the highway.

The wire had been cut and the gate was open. Rip got off his horse and looked carefully at the ground. He could see the tracks of a small vehicle, maybe a small pickup, or an ATV. Whoever had done this knew what they were doing, they just hadn't figured on the steers wanting to stay near a pasture with good grass. With any luck, most of them would be safe at the other end of the pasture, and the fence could be repaired.

He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jacket and breathed a sigh of relief when he got a signal. He pressed the button that would dial John Dutton's phone and waited.

"Sir," he said when he got an answer, "We found a group of steers loose and it looks like they had help getting out. This is the second time this has happened this month. I think someone is trying to send you a message."

Coralee sent a carefully worded text message to Katie. She had only spoken to her a few times, since her wedding and it had not gone well. Katie was not herself, in a big way. The breakup of her relationship with Ryan and her doomed impulsive marriage had changed her outgoing sister into a sad shell of herself.

She sat at the table, staring at the phone as she waited for Katie to return her call. Travis came in and saw her, chin in her hands, and asked her what was going on.

"Waiting for Katie to text me, I guess I'll try calling my parent's landline if I don't hear from her soon. I talked to Mom, and she says Katie's not in good shape, she thinks that coming out here would do her good. She wants her to be as far away from the Yellowstone bunkhouse as she can get. My parents were hoping that we'd meet nice boys at college, preferably sons of ranchers who decided not to go into ranching. Instead, we both fell in love with cowboys."

"Yes, but you fell in love with a cowboy who runs a successful horse trading business and can provide for you," said Travis, "Katie keeps falling in love with wranglers and they don't make good husbands. Most of them will never own their own homes, there's no room for a wife in the bunk house."

"Well, can we figure out a way to keep her away from the bunkhouse here? All she needs is to fall in love with another wrangler and crash and burn. Maybe she's not in the mood to fall in love right now, what do you think?" She looked at Travis, her eyes asking him to lie to her.

"We'll keep her busy. Her reining skills could use some work. You can't ride but you can coach her. And there is baby stuff to buy and shopping to do. We'll find out things the two of you can do, and when I can spare it, I'll take a day off when I can and the three of us can do something."

Her phone rang and she picked it up and answered it. "Hi, Katie," she looked at Travis and smiled. "You'll come? Really? Well, let me know the time of your flight arrival."

"She's coming," Coralee told Travis, "I'm not sure if she wants to, but I'm sure that Mom is encouraging her to come. She's my sister, we've always been close, but I didn't pay attention to what was going on with her. I should have tried harder, Travis, maybe I could have helped but she was so angry with me and I still don't know why."

The men were trying again. Their pay was contingent on results but none of the steers had strayed far. It was risky, but tonight they would choose another pasture, one closer to the road.

Black cows were hard to see against a black night. There might not be much traffic now, but by morning, if their luck held, there might be cattle that had met with an accident on the highway. They had chosen a pasture that was too remote out of fear of being caught, this time they wouldn't make the same mistake.