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Lexi wasn't really sure what to tell Ryan when she got home that evening. She had texted that she was going to be late, that she had to stop by the hospital. After a quick call to Laramie, she planned to donate the money. She knew Ryan would be fine with that; it was seeing his dad in the first place that she knew would upset him.

"Hey," she called as she entered their room, hearing him in the shower.

"Hey baby," he called back as she heard him turn off the water. He came out a moment later, towel around his waist. He came over and kissed her once. "Something happen at the hospital?"

"Not exactly," she hesitated and he looked at her curiously. "There's two patients I stopped to donate too. One is gonna be in physical therapy for months, she got hit crossing the street by a drunk driver."

Ryan wasn't sure where she was going with this.

"And the other is a mom who couldn't work because of her cancer treatment but then her insurance lapsed because she wasn't working and," she shrugged now. "You know that cycle."

"That's…really kind of you baby," he assured her, not sure why she seemed uncomfortable telling him about her charity. "Where did you get the money for this?"

They weren't struggling, but they did have a new baby coming. He figured money might be the only reason she felt weird talking to him about it, even if she made more than him.

"….your dad," she admitted and he looked like he had whiplash.

"He came to your office?" Ryan asked, turning towards the door.

"Easy cowboy," Lexi said as she caught his hand, glancing down to note he was still in his towel. "Your dad isn't going to hurt me."

"How do you know that?" He seriously asked.

"I don't know everything," she reasoned. "But I do know the look of a man that's about to hurt me. He's not it."

Ryan couldn't argue with that.

"What did he want?" He asked now.

"You broke his nose," she reminded him. "Someone had to reset the damn thing."

"And that someone had to be you?" Ryan asked. Why wouldn't his dad just leave him alone?

"He knew you and Laramie wouldn't take money from him," she explained.

"Money for what?"

"Child support," she gently reminded him. "Money he owed both of your mothers."

"And you-"

"Gave it to women like them," she finished for him.

Ryan said nothing, moving instead to kiss her.

"I wish she got to know you," he said of Delilah.

"I wish I got to know her too," she agreed with him. He didn't saying anything else as he pulled her close to hug her, kissing her head.

"How was your day?" She murmured into him while he was still holding her. He kissed her head as he let go, going to get dressed now as she sat on their bed.

"Had to deal with that guy Morrow again," Ryan explained as he changed into his clothes. "The one with the bison."

"What's that for again?"

"Tourists," he shrugged.

"Freaking figures," she muttered as he pulled a t-shirt on.

"Your dad really seems to hate this guy," Ryan went on. "You really don't remember him?"

"If it's who I'm thinking of, he hasn't been here since I was ten," she shrugged. "Like back when my mom was still here."

"Mmm," Ryan nodded as she clearly didn't remember him. "I was gonna head down to the bunkhouse for a little bit," he changed the subject. "Wanna join?"

"Watching you all get a buzz going isn't quite the same," she said slyly, hand resting on her stomach. "We had a long day, I think we're gonna get some ice cream with Tate and turn in."

"Love you," Ryan smiled, giving her another kiss before heading out, passing by Jamie in the kitchen then John and Beth outside as he went for the bunkhouse. Lexi went down the hall where Tate's room was open.

"You want some ice cream?" She asked him and his interest was piqued.

"For dinner?" He asked seriously.

"Is your mom home?" She asked and he shook his head. "I'll be back then," she grinned as she went to the kitchen, only having a few more months of "fun aunt" time left before she would be a mom. She encountered Jamie in the kitchen, sitting at the bar working.

There had been little thawing between them as she was still upset over how he acted at her wedding. She found out when they got back from the honeymoon that he chose that night to confront John about all of it.

"Jamie," she nodded at him as she opened the freezer door. "If that's what you still go by," she tacked on.

"This has been hard enough without," he started off then stopped as John came through the door, looking furious. He didn't notice Lexi behind the refrigerator's freezer door as he started in on his son, Jamie moving quickly to get away. He circled around the counter, yelling at his son when Lexi closed the door, abandoning the ice cream plan.

"Dad, what's going on?" She asked worriedly. Jamie was on one side of her while John was on the other.

"You wanna tell her, Jamie?" John asked. He knew Lexi was probably the sibling Jamie was closest to. "It could have just as easily been her that you did this to."

Jamie realized what Beth must have told him, about why she couldn't have kids.

"She came to me for help, we were both scared," Jamie tried to reason.

"You took that away from her," John continued angrily.

"Kaycee!" Lexi called, not making sense of any of what they were talking about. She couldn't break them up and she thought John might actually hurt Jamie this time. Kaycee came in quickly, taking in the scene. Lexi looked panicked as John looked ready to lunge at Jamie.

"What's going on?" Kaycee asked.

"Ask your brother," John said as he turned to walk away. That's when Jamie broke down, turning and punching through the glass of the door, yelling that he hated John. Kaycee grabbed him to stop him, pulling him close to hug as Jamie stopped fighting and started crying. Spotting Beth outside through the window, Lexi went to go talk to her.

"What the hell did I just witness?" She asked Beth as she approached her.

"You don't want to know," Beth told her. She knew what John knew: Jamie was closest to Lexi. And while she didn't care about hurting Jamie, she wanted to protect her little sister.

"No, I do," she insisted, stepping in her sister's path. Beth sighed heavily as she debated what to do.

"You remember how I said I couldn't have kids?" Beth started before telling her what happened when she was sixteen.

…

When Ryan got back that night, Lexi was asleep. He was glad she was finally getting some rest. That, and he wouldn't have to explain his appearance after he and the others took turns riding the bison Wade Morrow was tasked with all night.

As he got into bed, he didn't realize Lexi was actually just pretending to be asleep. She was too upset about everything with Jamie, she knew it would show and he would ask. What Beth told her though wasn't her secret to share. She preferred to sleep it off and go on tomorrow how everyone else would: stiff, but otherwise like nothing happened.

They still had the ranch to fight for afterall.

It wasn't just the land, but the actual cattle. Kaycee and Ryan were off early the next morning as they investigated cows that had been stolen. Their investigation took them all the way to Billings and, while they ultimately found what they wanted, they did take some fire, with Ryan getting hit; thankfully, it was in his bullet proof vest.

Kaycee helped him take the vest off, where it looked like he had a pretty nasty bruise already forming. Ryan insisted he was fine and that they get back to town. As they got closer though and he was still acting off, Kaycee took the turn to go to the hospital.

At least Lexi won't be working, Ryan thought as her friend he had met, Rob, was checking him out in the ER. Kaycee stood alongside as the curtain to the bed was closed, watching and making sure his brother in law was ok.

"What bed is he?" They heard Lexi's voice from somewhere in the ER.

"You told her?" Ryan asked.

"And have her come after me when she notices the bruise?" Rob quipped as Lexi came and whipped the curtain open. She immediately punched her brother in the arm.

"The hell was that for?" Kaycee asked.

"I can't hit him," she motioned to Ryan as he stiffly pulled his shirt back on. "I told you two to be careful!"

"We were!" Kaycee said now.

"It's just a bad bruise," Rob cut in. "And the mildest of concussions from getting knocked back, he'll be fine," he assured them all as he left.

Lexi turned to hit her brother again but he caught her hand this time.

"Are you two trying to give me a heart attack?" She asked.

"You trying to break your water?" Kaycee asked back sarcastically.

She felt Ryan's hands on her shoulders.

"Easy," he said gently.

"I can't," she said, blinking back tears. "Not with this place, not with all of this." Kaycee's annoyance towards his sister softened.

"Let's just get you home," he said calmly, knowing she needed to relax if for no other reason than she was pregnant.

Rest would be short lived though when Ryan came rushing into their bedroom that night.

He had been hanging out at the bunkhouse again with the others, minus Colby and Teeter who seemed to be taking their time getting back from fence repairs. He made a mental note to give his friend a hard time later. Colby came in through the door moments later though, carrying Teeter whose head was bleeding. Ryan took off for the house to get Lexi as soon as he saw her.

"What happened?" Lexi asked as she came into the bunkhouse. They had Teeter laying on the couch, the wound on her head to the outside so Lexi could see it.

"That guy Morrow went after us in the river," Colby was explaining. "Damn near killed us."

"Are you ok?" She asked him as she sat on a chair she pulled over next to Teeter; he just nodded, wanting her to focus on Teeter.

"Ok," she said, taking a breath. "I'm glad you stopped the bleeding, but I'm going to have to pull these staples out so you don't get an infection, then stitch it back up, ok?"

Teeter nodded.

"I'm sorry, I know it's really raw," she was saying as she prepared to pull the first staple. Colby had already come behind the couch and was holding Teeter's hand. Lexi moved as quickly as she could to get the pain over with. Once Teeter was stitched up, Lexi did her routine concussion check and told her to expect a prescription when she got back from her shift.

It was so late that when she and Ryan got back up to the house her dad was already awake and getting his coffee.

"What's going on?" He asked at the sight of them, primarily that his daughter's shirt had blood on it. Ryan took him through what happened as Lexi went to change. She was obviously ok with blood as a doctor, but the blood of one of her friends? She threw the shirt in the trash.

…

The next day wasn't off to a great start. While Lexi was glad this wasn't like the Beck situation where she had to get driven to work, she almost wished someone had driven her. Pregnancy took her exhaustion to new heights, never mind being up half the night.

She tried Ryan at the end of her shift but got no answer. She was afraid of that, knowing they were going to be after Wade and his son for what happened to Colby and Teeter. She knew Beth planned on working late, something stock wise she had planned against Market Equities, something way over her head. She ended up calling Laramie to come get her.

"You ok?" Laramie asked as Lexi got in the truck.

"Just exhausted," Lexi sighed, settling back in her seat.

"They're out getting themselves in trouble," Laramie noted after seeing everything with Teeter. "Aren't they?"

"Mmm, trouble they didn't start at least," Lexi said lightly.

"I guess that's something," Laramie said, matching her tone. They were quiet the rest of the way. When Laramie parked by the bunkhouse the guys were just getting back, mostly quiet themselves.

Lexi was surprised to see Walker with them as he had left a while ago.

"Hey Doc," he greeted her like he always did. "Lookin' like congratulations are in order."

"Yeah…thanks," she said and he nodded at Laramie as he went into the bunkhouse.

"Who is that?" Laramie asked and Lexi recognized the glint in her eyes.

"Probably a bad idea," Lexi informed her to which Laramie shrugged.

"Gonna have to just try and see," Laramie said and Lexi couldn't help but laugh a little. When she saw Ryan's face though, she stopped laughing.

"Everything ok?" She asked him.

"Everyone's fine," he said and she had seen everyone trickling around. She noticed Rip heading up to the house, probably to talk to her dad.

"And-"

"It's taken care of," Ryan stopped her about Wade and his son. He looked at Laramie as if to ask to give them a second, which she obliged.

"What's going on?" Lexi asked worriedly.

"They weren't just stirring up trouble to get back at your dad," Ryan explained. That's what it was meant to look like on the surface, that he was hired legitimately by the club to watch the bison and happened to stir things up because of whose land he was next to.

"He got put there for a reason," she realized out loud and Ryan nodded to confirm. "….who hired him?"

"Roarke," Ryan answered.

"It's never going to stop with them, is it?" She asked, voice shaking with the threat of tears.

"I'm stopping it," he promised.

…

At this rate though, he wasn't really sure how they were going to end it. A few more weeks passed and the Morris family and Market Equities always seemed to be one step ahead. It got to where they bought out the place where Beth worked and fired her, so they didn't even have that going for them anymore.

Since finding out he was adopted, Jamie made a complete turn in his behavior towards his family. They had a meeting between the Duttons, the reservation, Market Equities and the governor at Jamie's office. Jamie ended up agreeing to lease the land for the airport in order to save the rest of the ranch.

While Beth had explained all the financial stuff to Lexi and this appeared to be the only way to save them, she also knew that Jamie needed to handle it differently. Instead, he blindsided John at the meeting with the news of the lease. The meeting ended with the reservation planning a lawsuit over the airport but other than that, they looked to be at a loss over all.

The day after the meeting, Beth was packing up her office while Kaycee was taking meetings in his. John was out, probably thinking everything over still. It was Thursday, so Lexi wasn't due to be in Keith's office and had no planned surgeries for the day. She went down to the corral where Ryan and the others were working.

"I'm heading out," she said as she stopped by the fence.

"You don't have a doctor's appointment, do you?" Ryan asked as he usually took her to those.

"Mm-mm," she shook her head. "I've gotta fill out some maternity leave stuff at the hospital, I'm heading to Kaycee's first though for lunch."

"How long do you have left?" Colby asked.

"I'm a little over halfway now." She was twenty five weeks along. "I'll see y'all later," she said, kissing Ryan once.

"Love you, drive safe," he told her.

"Love you too," she called back.

…

Ryan had never experienced such chaos before in his life.

One moment, everything was normal, and the next the ranch was under siege. They had no idea who these people were or why they were there but they knew one thing: they had to protect the ranch.

It didn't seem like much time passed since Lexi had left and Ryan worried if she had a chance to leave at all. Once they had ended the fighting by the bunkhouse and corral, he started for the hill to the lodge. At the same time though, Monica and Tate were running down.

"Lexi-"

"She's not at the house," Monica stopped him and Ryan let out a sigh of relief.

"Ok, she's with Kaycee, she-"

"No, Ryan," Monica stopped him again. "I," she started but lowered her voice as Tate was there. "I was on the phone with Kaycee…there were gunshots," she admitted, blinking back tears.

Ryan looked at her in disbelief for a moment, as if he couldn't register what was happening. Thankfully, he snapped back to it.

"All right, come on," he said, leading Monica and Tate to the bunkhouse. As they got closer, Ryan saw his sister sitting behind her trailer, crying. He helped her to her feet and held her hand gently as they continued over to the bunkhouse.

"You three, stay here," he said, thinking it was the safest place now. With what happened at Kaycee's office, who knew what else was going on. "I'm gonna find Lexi and Kaycee, ok? Everyone just…stay here, where it's safe."

He grabbed a set of keys and hopped into the truck, with Colby close behind him as he insisted Ryan not go alone. Ryan drove the fastest he had ever gone on those roads between the ranch and town. He was barely taking in his surroundings.

"Try her again," he was telling Colby who had his phone while he drove like a bat out of hell.

"It's going right to voicemail," Colby admitted, but both jumped when it rang; it was Rip.

"Hello?" Ryan asked as Colby put it on speaker.

"Get your wife, I'm on my way to the hospital," Rip was saying, speeding himself.

"I-"

"I found John," Rip continued. "He was shot on the side of the road, I'm getting him to the hospital now."

"Rip, she's with Kaycee," Ryan told him now. "At least I'm hoping she is, something's going on. The ranch was attacked, Kaycee's office was shot up, now you're telling me-"

"She's not with Kaycee," Rip cut in now. Ryan's heart stopped. "I just talked to him, he's fine but he's after the guys that did this to him and John."

"She said she was going to the hospital for work stuff," Colby reminded Ryan now. "Maybe she went there first instead."

"If she was at Kaycee's office, he would have said," Rip agreed. "And if she was hurt he wouldn't have left her."

"Ok," Ryan agreed, though something didn't feel right. Why was her phone off?

"I'll meet you there, we'll figure it out," Rip promised as he hung up.

When Ryan and Colby got to the hospital he barely parked the truck before they went running in through the emergency entrance. He didn't see Rip, who was talking to one of the doctors about how he found John and what happened while he was rushed to surgery. The first person Ryan saw that he recognized was Rob.

"You guys here for Beth?" He asked, knowing she was Lexi's sister.

"Wait, what?" Ryan asked in disbelief.

"There was an explosion at her office, police said someone mailed a bomb to her," Rob explained.

"I'm gonna find Rip," Colby said as he was sure he didn't know yet.

"Is Lexi here?" Ryan asked. He was at capacity for what he could process. John shot. Beth bombed. Kaycee chasing after the people who shot at him. The ranch attacked.

And where the hell was his pregnant wife?

"No," Rob said, knowing that wasn't the answer he was going to want. A nurse was running by now, saying they had another gunshot victim coming in from the livestock office. "The livestock…what's going on?" he asked as he knew Lexi's brother was the commissioner.

"We have no idea," Ryan explained. "And I can't find her anywhere, her phone is off…" His mind was racing. There was no sign of her. All he could think of was when Tate got kidnapped, that these horrible people had her.

"She's got another brother, right?" He asked, trying to think of other possibilities.

"He's in Helena," Ryan said, though he dialed Jamie anyway as this was all he had to hold on to.

"Ryan-"

"Jamie, hey!" Ryan said, grateful someone answered. "Look, have you seen your sister or talked to her at all? I-"

"No," Jamie told him honestly. "And…I think it's better we don't talk anymore."

"What the-" Ryan started as Jamie hung up on him. Rob looked at him, concerned. "She's not with him…"

As he was going on to Rob about what they should do next to find her, a man came rushing into the ER, carrying a young woman princess style, who was passed out in his arms, her long hair having fallen over her face.

"There must have been an accident," Ryan could vaguely hear the man saying. "Ran off the road and down into the ravine. She must've crawled out and up because you couldn't even see the car…."

While the first part had been vague and distant, he heard the next part loud and clear.

"I think she's pregnant," the man was saying as he laid her on the gurney one of the nurses had brought over and Ryan turned to look just as the nurse moved the woman's dark hair out of her face.

"Oh my God, it's Dr. Dutton!" One of the young residents screamed.

I know this was a lot, please let me know what you think!