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© Becca, Dana Simmons and Starbright 2001 The Young Riders is an Ogiens/Kane Production, created by Ed Spielman.
We only borrow his characters for fun. No infringement of copyright intended. There is absolutely no financial gain for the authors. We survive on the feedback, and we need plenty of it.


2313
Chapter 45

The EA hummed irritably on the nightstand, accompanied with the light snores of the man besides her. She smiled as she looked at him, normally a light sleeper it seemed he now struggled to wake up. She giggled as he buried his face deeper into the pillow and mumbled something. Her hand went over to the nightstand and took the EA, it all happened automatically, in fluid movements.

The voice in her ear was Rachel's, and she could hear the tone of amusement in it.

"Lou, it's 10 am and you better come down right away!"

"Huh?" She groaned.

"Your Mom is here."

"What?" She rose into a sitting position so fast that the already unstable bed shook and squeaked. "Oh my God, what's she doing here?" Scrambling out of bed she searched for her clothes, why it bothered her that she had slept in precisely the morning her Mom had arrived bugged her. After all, she was a big girl now. That she just had spent the night with the man now looking at her with bleary eyes, hair standing straight up, and a hickey on his neck bugged her even more. If her Mom came up here now she'd never hear the end of it. "Just keep her down there," she mumbled to Rachel at the other end, while fighting to get herself presentable. "I'm coming!"

"What?" Kid asked, still bleary eyed, "where you off..."

"Stay put!" she ordered him, already halfway out the door, "gotta go!"

And there she was, sitting at Jimmy's side, a cup of cafs in her hand, the valise still at her feet. Lou groaned at the insight that almost everybody was gathered in the kitchen, looking at her amusedly as she stumbled in. Lou crossed the kitchen floor, rubbing her eyes, trying to smooth out her hair that was just in as bad a style as Kid's had been. "Mom?"

"Louise!" The woman rose and stretched her hands out, "My baby-girl, it's been so long!"

Lou smirked at the 'baby girl' and was immediately drawn into an embrace that she answered with warmth. "Mom, what are you doin' here?"

Mary Elisabeth McCloud, smiled even broader and rocked her little girl; "You didn't come home like you promised last time, you have no time to answer my calls, you won't be home for Christmas, did you ever leave me any choice?"

"But Ma! You could have told me!"

"I'm telling you now, I'm here to spend Christmas with you." Finally she released the slightly embarrassed daughter and held her at an arms length. Scrutinizing her, just like Lou remembered she always did when she visited.

"Mom," she smiled at the familiarity, "you gotta stop springing these surprises on me!"

"Lou?"

A familiar voice behind her back had her turn. What was standing in front of her had not bothered to put on any shoes, or comb his hair, or button his shirt. The collar of his shirt was half tucked into the whitish T-shirt underneath, the hickey on his neck shining like a red, fatally misplaced, Christmas-tree decoration. Lou groaned inwardly.

Jimmy laughed at the table.

"Mom, this is....I mean this is somebody I've been meaning to tell ...."

"Mom?" Kid asked, taking a step back. His eyes wide as they darted back to Lou.

"Uh, Mom, this is Kid, and we're, well we're kinda..."

"This is him?" Mary Elisabeth McCloud asked, leaning forward to get a better look.

"What?" Kid huffed, glancing at Lou, trying to simultaneously button his shirt and straighten out is hair. "Your Mom?"

Lou looked between the two of them, the glare warning her Mom not to be too harsh. "Mom, Kid, Kid, Mom." Her finger pointing rapidly between the two of them at her introduction.

Kid looked like he wanted to run away. And he didn't even know about the hickey that was glaring at Lou. She took a step up to him and adjusted the collar so it would cover it. It just refused to do so, and Lou sighed. Kid looked at her, clearly wondering.

"Well," Mary Elisabeth finally broke the awkward silence; "Nice to meet you."

Kid wiped his hand off on his trousers, an old habit that Lou now wished he had forgot, before he took the outstretched hand.

Jimmy's badly concealed snort of laughter reached her from the table and Lou turned to send him the proverbial dagger. What she saw was Amanda and Rachel slumped over the table, their shoulders shaking. Noah stood at the counter, a cup of cafs in his hand, a leer on his face. Teaspoon in the office door, sadly shaking his head. Sam's frenetic avoidance of her glare very talkative. She frowned.

"Enchanted," Kid answered while taking her mother's hand. His eyes downcast, the other hand going up to his hair, in a last effort to make the unruly strays stay out of his face.

"You need a haircut," Mary Elisabeth McCloud admonished the young man in front of her.

"Yes Ma'am, " the aforementioned admitted.

"Mom!" Lou protested.

"And you should really cover that hickey up with something." Mary Elisabeth McCloud let go of the young man's hand and pointed to his neck.

Lou wanted to die.

"E-Excuse me?" Kid stammered and looked over in Lou's direction. A clear plea for some kind of life saving action from her side.

"Doesn't look very professional," Mary Elisabeth McCloud smiled at the fidgeting young man.

"It's not a hickey Mom," Lou hissed, "it's a...it's a..."

"Well, you should know," Mary Louise McCloud calmly pointed out. "Aren't your feet cold?" She asked, pointing down at Kid's bare feet.

"I'm sorry Mrs. McCloud," Kid got out, seeming to excuse the woman in front of him for his mere existence."I wasn't prepared ..."

"I'm sure you weren't," Mary Elisabeth McCloud smiled."Who was? But please, call me M.E, and go get some shoes on before you catch a cold, we have a Christmas to celebrate you know."

"C'mon," Lou turned back to the man left alone under her mother's inspection, gripping the sleeve of his shirt hard and turning him around so fast he almost stumbled over his own feet. "I told you to stay put," she winced.

She dragged him up the stairs, mumbling to herself at the outburst of joy in the kitchen. Reaching the top of the stairs she turned to him. "I'm sorry Kid!"

He draped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder, letting out a rush of air. Lou patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"Lou, do I really have a hickey?" he asked in a muffled voice.

"Yes," Lou replied and started giggling wildly. Leaning into him she buried her face at his neck. Bubbling. His hair tickling her, reminding her of her mother's words. Mary Elisabeth McCloud never missed a thing. "And it's huge too."

"Wonderful," Kid sighed and Lou embraced him tighter, having to hold onto him so she wouldn't fall into a laughing heap on the top of the stairs.

"So when did it happen?"

Lou threw a glance at her mother, but her eyes were pointed out the window, watching the somewhat messy scene of a vet and a protor trying to get horses used to the sound of ringing bells.

"It, what?" Lou replied, bent over the noppo, trying to decipher the codes on the screen, counting buffalos off a satscan, a job Kid had weaseled out of because of the training. He'd have to pay for it with interest later.

"They're spooking that poor animal," her Mom shook her head sadly, "they'll never have that one trained in two days."

"Jimmy and Kid'll get the job done," Lou declared trustingly. "And Duchess is a bit jumpy at first, she'll calm down later. Problem is we need more than one horse if we're having two sleighs, and we have only one truly trained pulling horse."

"You sound so confident, sweetheart, you've changed so much since you came out here."

Lou glanced back at her mother, letting the noppo rest on the table as she rose and walked over to the window, joining her mother in watching the process outside.

"Things changed, Mom, not me."

Her mother pulled her into an embrace; "I know."

"About Pa..."

"Shhh, Louise, I've done some soul-searching since I found out all the details. It wasn't his fault, they were tampering with his mind. How could he have fought that? How could we fight something we didn't know about?"

Lou leaned her head on her mother's strong shoulder, "I'm sorry for all the things he did to you."

"Oh baby-girl, I was big enough to do something about it, what I hate is the fact that I didn't see what he did to you. I still hate him, and I hate those who did it to him for what they made happen to you. How it formed you, I saw it, I also know now that much of your feelings towards men in general came from me. And that was wrong."

"No Mom, it wasn't, it taught me take care of myself, it taught me independence and self-reliance, how could that be wrong?"

"You flaunt that self-reliance a little too fiercely at times, girl."

She turned to look at her mother's stoic face; "What'ya mean Mom?"

"You might have missed out on life."

"Because I'm not about to let anyone trample all over me? No, Mom, thanks to you I know who I am, what I want and I don't need anybody to....?"

"Because when you look at Kid your eyes glitter. I have never seen that before."

"Mom!" Lou felt her cheeks blush.

"You love him don't you?"

"Well yeah, kinda..."

"Well you always had a soft spot for wavy hair and intense eyes." Her mother chuckled, "guess it runs in the family."

"Ma, I need you to promise me one thing, don't go having a talk with Kid or something. Like you had with Sean, please don't do that!"

"I don't have to," Mary Elisabeth McCloud responded softly. "I can see he loves you, if he came this far he'll stay forever, he's that kind of man."

"I hope so," Lou answered wholeheartedly.

They remain for a moment in comfortable silence, looking out the window. Watching Jimmy and Kid walking Duchess round and round the yard, till finally Jimmy seated himself in the sleigh and took the reins. Kid alone walking the horse, then he let go of the reins and stepped aside. Duchess continued calmly and Jimmy flicked the reins and Duchess fell into a calm balanced trot.

"I told you they'd do it," Lou smiled.

"Sam, we're never getting this thing done in time," Buck moaned and picked out the umpteenth splint that had found its way into the tender flesh between his thumb and index finger

"Buck, when a woman says she wants somethin' done, what do you do?" Sam groaned.

"You run?" Ike muttered, "pay someone else to do it? Pray?"

Buck laughed, "it's that why you promised Em she'd be picked up with a sleigh?"

Automatically Ike glanced at his watch.

"Another hour, bro," Buck leered.

"Just don't be late," Sam muttered, "that'll put you in the dog house for sure. Buck, are those side bars done yet?"

"Yes, and so am I!"

"Hold on a minute, you have to help nail them too, young man." Sam muttered while turning a sturdy piece of wood in his hands, squinting as if that would make him see where it was to be put.

"Driver's seat," Buck advised, "I don't even celebrate Christmas!"

"Is that why you had me hauled through all the shops in town looking for the perfect present?" Ike wondered innocently.

"Ike," Buck warned.

"So he knows?" Sam threw a glance in Ike's direction.

"About 'what a woman wants a woman gets'? Big time."

Sam chuckled.

"I hate Christmas," Buck declared. "Sam, hand me that hammer, this thing over here is coming loose."

The crash from outside the door had them all turn their heads. The invectives that followed had them snigger.

"Cody?" Sam asked.

"I hate Christmas!" was the prompt answer from outside.

"What now?" Buck laughed.

The door opened and a disheveled young man appeared, silver glittering decorations draped over his hair. "Would somebody get the beast?"

"Huh?" Sam furrowed his brow.

"Belle!" Cody spat out in frustration and sheer disgust, "it's the third time she attacks the ladder. It's not funny any longer."

"I thought you locked her in?" Ike said with a knowing grin.

Cody shot him a deadly glare.

"Oh let me guess," Buck intervened, "she finally took to your 'open the latch' training?"

Cody turned around and stalked away, leaving a trail of irritated mumbles behind. "I am a fully trained logger in the respectable HuRec organization, I should not have to climb ladders and put decorations up in a freaking barn! I should be allowed to have some dignity and ...Belle!"

All three left in the shed jumped at the sudden increase in volume.

"If you don't start behaving I will feed you Jimmy's gluey porridge for your entire existence!"

"Ah, the peace and understanding around the holidays," Buck leered and drew the last nail into the driver's seat.

It was two nights before Christmas, the night was still. Snowflakes fell softly through the air, dancing in the cold air, illuminating the night. The house threw rectangular light out on the drifts, diffusing with the haze of the apple-tree in full candlelight blossom. Straining your ears you were able to hear a melody seeping out from the house, a solemn tune of joy and festivity.

Inside the dark shed six men sat huddled up on bales of hay. They all stared at the house with fear in their eyes, like it was the stairwell to hell. The air was so cold that their breath formed clouds of mist, still nobody moved. Occasionally you could hear a sigh as someone shifted position, or see a brief flash of light as someone took a glance at a watch. They had been sitting there for a very long time.

"I'm hungry," the one who dared break the silence was met with glares and desperate shushes. Cody glared right back and his stomach added weight to his utterance.

Another long silence followed.

Suddenly one of the mean straightened himself and looked around in panic. His mouth opened and the cloud of mist grew around him as he defended himself of the verbal attack on the other end of the EA. "I'm sorry...yes I know....I'm still trying to. Yes, I know.....It's very late, I know....yes I should have called....but you see.....yes, of course.....will not happen again I assure....tomorrow, yes.....I promise......of course I do......yes honey.....why I'm whispering?...Well I'm kind of in the...no,no.no, nothing like that! It's just that ....I'm in the henhouse feeding the...I am.....it's told that if disturbed....I swear, the vet told ....of course....miss you....I swear.....yes, honey, I will, of course....goodnight."

"The one I helped you hunt the present for?" a voice wondered.

"Hmph," was the somewhat embarrassed admission. "Kid, if you get a call tomorrow you know what to say."

Somebody sniggered. A chorus of 'shut ups' followed and the silence was restored.

Then the sighs started, accompanied with grunts and changing of positions.

"How long have we been out here?" Irritation evident in the whisper.

"Why aren't those people going to bed?"

"Think about Sam and Teaspoon, they're still in there!"

"Well at least they're not freezin' their butts off." The irritation somewhat calmed now.

"Getting food poisoning more likely."

"Along with carol overdose."

"Any medication for that Noah?"

"Oh geez!" A rustle as somebody rose and leaned into the door, the squeaking of wood as three pairs of eyes tried to peek through the slit.

"Someone's coming."

"Here?"

"Of course they're coming here," someone hissed.

"How do they know we're here?" Panic setting in.

"Maybe the tracks lead them here?" A slight sarcasm revealed.

"Shhhh!"

"How many of them?"

The answer got drenched in the rustled of grown men retreating and mumbles of 'oh God', 'we're doomed' and various variations of silent praying swept over the group.

The door was flung open and three bright flashlights blinded the condemned.

"What are you doin' here?"

"Where's the wood? I asked you an hour ago!"

"We have guests you know!"

The angered voices revealed the two involuntary elves and the self-proclaimed red-haired leader.

"We...we..we were fixing the sleigh, that's right, Jimmy here remembered something that needed to...."

The flashlight moved and landed on the mentioned face, having him peer into the strong light.

"Jimmy," Amanda's voice was deadly calm, "if you don't get your butt outta here and into the house I'm gonna confiscate the gun, use it on you and have you parade Sweetwater, clad in the present I brought you for Christmas. Understood?"

The look on Jimmy's face told them he believed every word the woman told him and that the prospect wasn't appealing. The man next to him chuckled as Jimmy filed out.

"Kid!" Lou's voice was as accusing as the flashlight on his face, "you deserted me!"

"No honey, I didn't, Jimmy just pointed out..."

"Please don't drag me into this any further," the man held firmly by his collar moaned.

"Oh shut up you fool, you went to feed the horses two hours ago! Didn't find your way back, huh? Well I'm telling you there's a lot of things you'll be missing this Christmas if you don't get yourself in there right now. And Ike, your fiancee is baking a cake for you and pondering on how much rat poison to put in it. I told her to put a whole package of it in there, coz' you guys are pitiful!"

"But Lou, it's all that caroling and..."

"Shut up Kid!"

"Noah, the wood!"

"Yes, ma'am, the wood is coming right up!"

"But Lou, your Mom truly hates my..."

"Don't ma'am me you lazy excuse of a man!"

"Well Kid, if it's any consolation, right at this minute, so do I."

"Buck and Cody! I see you in there, don't even think about it."

"Amanda, I was just...."

"Get a move on!"

The raised voice gave them no alternative, they found themselves trudging up to the house, following the women's lead. Their shoulders sloping, their feet dragging. When the door opened and "O Come all Ye Faithful" almost knocked them off their feet they simultaneously sighed and succumbed to what they feared the most right now, red Santa caps, onslaught of Christmas traditions and the ire of women scorned.

 

TBC

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|Prologue||Chapter 1||Chapter 2||Chapter 3||Chapter 4||Chapter 5||Chapter 6||Chapter 7||Chapter 8||Chapter 9||Chapter 10|
|Chapter11||Chapter 12||Chapter 13||Chapter 14*||Chapter 15||Chapter 16||Chapter 17||Chapter 18||Chapter 19||Chapter 20*|
|Chapter 21||Chapter 22||Chapter 23||Chapter 24||Chapter 25||Chapter 26||Chapter 27||Chapter 28||Chapter 29||Chapter 30|
|Chapter 31*||Chapter 32||Chapter 33||Chapter 34||Chapter 35||Chapter 36||Chapter 37||Chapter 38||Chapter 39||Chapter 40|
|Chapter 41||Chapter 42||Chapter 43||Chapter 44*||Chapter 45||Chapter 46|

* adult material

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