"The stage should have been here by now." Lily said impatiently as she looked up and down the road. Hawke smiled at her excitement from where he sat on the bench waiting.

"Have patience. It will be here soon." he said, though he knew that telling her to have patience was pointless. She had been jumping up and down with excitement all day. He just hoped that she had done the math right and that Allie did arrive today because if she did not Lily's disappoint would be huge.

Hawke realized that Lily was picking up his habits as she paced back and forth across the stage office porch.

"Lily!" Doc Mason called out as he crossed the road and walked toward them.

"Good afternoon, doctor." Lily replied with a friendly smile as she forced her feet to stop pacing.

"Good afternoon." Doc Mason replied and the he nodded at Hawke. "How are you, Hawke?" he asked. Hawke rose from the bench and shook the Docs hand.

"I am well." he replied eyeing the doc suspiciously. He could tell something was on the old mans mind.

"Lily, can you come to my office for a minute. I need to speak with you about something." Lily threw a worried gaze over at Hawke who was quick to mask his own worry and nod at her.

"Go on. I'll keep an eye out for your sister." he promised.

"But what if you don't recognize her?" Lily asked uncertainly. Hawke shrugged.

"How many thirteen year old girls will be traveling alone by stage to Great Valley?" he asked. Lily rolled her eyes and nodded.

"Fine then." she said. "But Allie will have no idea who you are."

"Quit worrying so much." Hawke scolded and this caused Doc Mason to chuckle.

"Telling a woman not to worry is like telling a cow not to moo." he said. Lily crossed her arms over her chest and glared over at him.

"Did you just call me a cow?" she demanded. Doc Mason cleared his throat and pulled on his shirt collar.

"No, of course not." he said. Hawke grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her to him.

"Leave him alone. He is old." he said. "Now go. I am sure the stage will not arrive until you are back." Lily sighed and followed Doc Mason down the boardwalk toward his office.

Hawke looked across the road to the hotel and saw three women standing outside. Two of them were not familiar and he knew they must be either new in town or just passing through but he recognized the third as the head maid at the motel named Miranda Wallace. He knew that Miranda was a gossipy woman who felt it was her duty to fill every newcomer in town in on every scandal that she could. It didn't matter to her if she knew the truth about the scandal or not. Whatever she knew everyone else would learn if they held still long enough.

Hawke watched her painted, bright red lips moving. He had taught himself a long time ago how to read lips because it was a good way to pass time when he had to sit in town and wait around on something. The three women looked at Lily walking arm in arm down the road with Doc Mason and then over at Hawke and Hawke saw Miranda's lips form the word 'whore'. Hawke's temper flared and his eyes narrowed as his jaw clenched and he glared across the road at the women.

Instantly the women's looks of superiority faded and they looked afraid as Miranda quickly ushered them back into the hotel and away from Hawke's murderous gaze. He sat down on the bench, crossed his arms over his chest and stretched his long legs out in front of him. He realized that holding his head high and ignoring insults was only an option when the insults were directed at him. Hearing people say things about Lily caused him to see red.

888

"What's going on?" Lily asked doc Mason once they were sitting at the small table in his sitting room.

"My friend sent me word this morning that he was mistaken about the divorce. You see these things don't happen very often because they cause such a scandal and so he has never actually had to do one before…"

"What was he mistaken about? Can I divorce Nathan or not?" Lily demanded feeling panic rising in her. If she couldn't divorce Nathan then she did not know what she would do. Doc Mason nodded quickly.

"Yes, you can divorce him but he has to sign the papers too." Lily felt her heart fall to her feet. Nathan would never agree to that. To Nathan Lily was a possession and she knew that he would not give her up willingly. Tears filled her eyes as she dropped her head into her hands. Doc Mason rose from his chair and walked around the table to her. He rubbed her back comfortingly.

"It will be okay, Lily. Do you know when Nathan will be back?" Lily sniffed but kept her face in her hands as she replied.

"About two weeks. I think he is going to send word to Hawke when he reaches Helena."

"Hawke will keep you safe, Lily. Just let me know when you hear from Nathan and I will contact my friend and have him head this way too. He and Nathan may even end up getting here on the same day and we can get all of this taken care of." Lily nodded and dried her face. She did not want Hawke to know that she had been crying.

"Thank you, doctor Mason." Doc Mason nodded and poured her a cup of tea.

"Now drink this and take a few minutes to get yourself pulled together. You don't want your sister worrying about you as soon as she arrives."

888

Hawke looked down toward Doc Mason's house as the stage pulled up to the stage coach boardwalk but Lily still had not come out. He stood and walked toward the stage as the driver jumped down and opened the door.

Hawke had a strange feeling of déjà vu as a mass of pink skirts and dark hair came tumbling out of the stage. Hawke caught the girl just before she struck the ground.

Allie couldn't believe how clumsy she was as she tumbled head first from the stage. She saw the wooden boardwalk getting bigger by the second as her face neared it and she braced herself for the impact. She nearly screamed with surprise when two rock hard arms caught her and pulled her into an equally rock hard chest. She lifted her head to see her rescuers face as he sat her on her feet and this time she did scream.

She was being held by an Indian. A dangerous looking Indian with dark skin and intense green eyes that were currently locked on her.

"Allie?" he asked, his voice just as hard and scary as the rest of him. Allie started shaking and tears of fear filled her eyes. She tried to back away from him but had one big hand wrapped around her arm. Before she could ask him how he knew her name Jack came bursting from the stagecoach.

"Get your hands off her, you damn injun!" he shouted angrily as he reached for his revolver. Hawke released Allie's arm and took a step back as he looked at the boy.

"Who are you?" Hawke asked. Jack stuck out his chest and grabbed Allie's arm, pulling her back behind him.

"I'm the man that's gonna put a bullet in you if you attack her again." he replied meeting the Indians eyes. Hawke raised a brow and looked the boy up and down. He was wearing stained, worn out clothing, a sweat stained cowboy hat and though he was tall; judging by the smoothness of his cheeks he couldn't be much older than fifteen.

"You are no man. You are a boy and I did not attack Allie. She fell." Jack looked back at Allie who nodded.

"Sorry I got so angry then…" He said removing his hand from his gun. "Ya just can't never be too careful."

"Can you three move this down the boardwalk a ways. I have more passengers needing to get off." The driver said in a bored voice. Jack grabbed Allie's suitcase and the three of them took several steps down the wooden walkway.

"How do you know my name?" Allie asked her rescuer as she kept herself pressed firmly against Jack's back and peered around his shoulder to look at the tall Indian.

Hawke was still focused on Jack. The boy did not seem to be the least bit afraid of him.

"You are either very brave or very foolish." Hawke said to him. "Jumping from a stage and going for your gun the way you did. How did you know I would not pull my knife and kill you where you stood?" Jack felt his knees wobble a little at the question but he wasn't going to back down now. Not when Allie was clinging to his back like she believed he could really keep her safe and protected. Her confidence in him made him feel like the toughest man in the world. Okay maybe that wasn't entirely true because this injun definitely looked like he could kill him without batting an eye, but he certainly felt like the second toughest.

"What makes you think you would have had time to pull that knife before I put a bullet through your chest?" he asked, doing his best to make his voice sound just as hard and dangerous as the other mans. Allie stepped between them then.

"That's enough." she said sternly and both men looked at her as if she were a crazy person."Now how exactly do you know my name?"

"I know your sister. She was waiting here for you but had to go down the road for a minute."

"Are you Nathan?" Allie asked before she could stop herself. Hawke shook his head and there was no mistaking the anger that flashed through his green eyes at the sound of that name.

"No. My name is Hawke." Allie looked at him suspiciously.

"So Hawke, how do you know my sister?" she asked. Before Hawke could reply Lily's shouts filled the air.

"Allie!" Allie looked to her right and saw her older sister running her way. She felt tears fill her eyes and happiness fill her heart as she ran toward her sister. They met in a flurry of hugs, squeals and greetings that had Hawke and Jack shaking their heads and sharing a look that clearly said 'women are weird.'

"I missed you so much!" Allie exclaimed once the initial excitement wore off. Lily smiled.

"I missed you too."

"I never got to say goodbye when you left home and then Nathan brought you way out here and I thought I would never see you again!"

"Yes well Nathan did a lot of things that hurt people." Lily replied with a shiver. Allie's eyes narrowed as she looked at her older sister.

"Where is Nathan? Mother and father said that he was a good man and that you liked him." Lily shook her head.

"They lied… But we can talk about all of that later when we get home." she said and then she put her hands on her hips and gave her sister a stern look.

"What about you? What are you doing coming all the way out here alone?" Allie shifted her feet and bit her lip. Hawke was struck by how similar the two sisters were. They had the same hair, same eyes and same tiny nose and they both bit their lips when they were uncomfortable.

"I'll tell you why I left later. And I was only alone until I got to Helena… That's where I met Jack and he has kept an eye on me the rest of the way." Allie replied. Lily looked over at the boy standing next to Hawke and gave him a friendly smile as she walked over to him.

"Thank you very much for looking out for my sister." she said holding out her hand. Jack removed his hat and shook her hand.

"My pleasure, ma'am." he said giving her a nervous smile that revealed the dimples in his smooth cheeks. Lily stole a glance over at Allie and saw that her sister was looking at Jack with what could only be described as stars in her eyes.

"Jack, would you like to come home with us and eat supper?" she asked.

"Huh?" Both Jack and Hawke said at the same time. Lily ignored Hawke and kept her attention on Jack.

"The least I can do is feed you a good home cooked meal after you helped my sister." Jack put his hat back on his head and nodded.

"I think a home cooked meal would be pretty darn good, ma'am." he said. He had not had a real home cooked meal around a family table in five long years.

"Call me Lily, please, I'm not that much older than you." she said and Jack nodded before moving to the side so that he was standing closer to Allie and Lily smiled knowingly before turning to Hawke.

"Let's go home." she said and he nodded and held out his arm for her. She slipped hers through his and then turned back to her sister and Jack.

"The wagon is parked down by the stable." she said. Allie looked from Lily to Hawke accusingly.

"You live with him?" she demanded. Jack reached in his pants pocket and pulled out a piece of dried up jerky. He stuck it in his mouth and began to chew on it. Chewing jerky had always been something he had done in awkward situations. He supposed it was because he couldn't afford chewing tobacco.

"Yes I do." Lily replied.

"But you are married to Nathan." Allie stated and Lily felt Hawke tense against her.

"For now." Lily replied. "There are things you do not know about Nathan and I. Once you know those things then you will understand." Allie looked hard at Lily for several moments and then she hugged her older sister tight.

"As long as you are happy that is all I care about. I can tell that you love Hawke and I know how much you always dreamed about finding love" Lily wondered when her younger sister had gotten so mature as she pulled away and laid her hand on her cheek.

"Let's get home so we can get caught up! It's been so long since I've seen you." Lily said. Allie nodded and the four of them started down the road toward the stable.