Jeweldean woke and looked around her. She was back home and in her bed, and she was no longer shivering, but now she felt hot, instead of feeling cold.

       Jeweldean had no recollection of what happened earlier that day, except that she was taken into town. Then, she remembered the voice that she heard while in town. She could've sworn it was Sonny's. Looking beside her in bed, she saw no evidence that Sonny had been there. One thing she did notice was that her two babies and their cribs were not in the room. This worried Jeweldean; with all the strength she could manage, she sat up in bed, said a quick prayer, and made her way downstairs. Halfway down the stairs she also remembered that today was Cody's fifth birthday. She continued her way downstairs.

        Jeweldean was greeted by staring eyes once she made it downstairs, and into the kitchen. All of the ranch hands were sitting at the table, eating their noon-day meal. Cody and Suzanne were on either side of Porter. Cody was sitting in a regular chair, while Suzanne sat happily in a high chair, with mashed potatoes all over her little hands and face. She smiled when she saw Jeweldean and smacked her hands against her high chair.

      The men all looked surprised when they saw Jeweldean downstairs. It seemed like several minutes before Cooper said,

      "What are you doin' down here?" Then looking to Clint then back to Jeweldean he said, "Ain't you supposed to be sleepin'?"

        "Yes she is." Clint said, wiping his mouth, then stood up and walked over to Jeweldean.

       "Why are you down here? The doctor said you are on bed rest." Clint asked.

       "Where's the baby?"

       "She's sleepin' in Cody's room."

      "She needs to be fed." Jeweldean looked into Clint's eyes.

      Clint blushed, and shifted his weight. "You can't. You're too sick."

       "I'm fine. She needs fed." And with that Jeweldean pushed her way past Clint. She didn't make it very far when Clint grabber her arm.

       "You need to rest. You can feed her later." Clint demanded.

       "Just- let me see her." Jeweldean demanded.

      "You will get her sick. Please stay upstairs." Clint said.

     Jeweldean looked at Clint. "What happened to your eye?"

     Clint looked over to Carver who looked away. "Let's get you upstairs." Clint said to Jeweldean.

      He bent down to pick her up, but Jeweldean swatted at him. "I came down here on my own. I can get upstairs on my own." Jeweldean said and slowly walked upstairs. Clint stayed right where he was at.

       "Nice one, Clint." Carver mumbled. Clint turned around.

      "What did you say to me?" He asked and walked over to Carver.

      Carver refused to look Clint in the eye. "Nothin'." He said and took a bite of his potatoes.

      Clint clenched his fist, but Porter said to Clint to try to distract him, "Clint, please pass the taters."

       Clint turned and handed the bowl of taters to Porter, who then said to Carver, "Butter, please." Both men grabbed for the butter, but Carver got to it first and when he reached across the table to hand it to Porter, Clint swatted it out of his hand. This caused the butter dish to fall on the floor and shatter into many little pieces.

      Carver stood up to block Cody from the line of fire when it looked like Clint was about to hit Carver, but instead, in the blink of an eye, Clint grabbed Carver by his shirt collar and threw him against the fireplace wall. The noise caused Suzanne to start crying. Carver looked over at Suzanne and was about to go to her side when Clint came and pinned him against the wall, and punched his already brushed cheek.

       "I've been thinkin' about what you said last night, and guess what? You're wrong." Clint spat out, still holding Carver's hard against the wall by his shirt collar. "I see the way that you've been playin' with the kids. I think you're the one who wants to be the father. It ain't me that's got the crush on Jeweldean, it's you right?"

       Carver refused to stoop down to Clint's level, and was about to tell him that when Cooper and Austin came over pulling the men apart.

       "That's enough Clint!" Cooper demanded.

      "You okay man?" Austin asked Carver.

      Carver nodded and pushed Cooper out of the way, and walked to a still crying Suzanne's side. He picked her up and held her close.

      Carver looked at Cody who looked terrified by Clint's actions. Cody had always looked up to Clint, but right now he looked like an abused puppy, just wanting to get away from the source of the pain.

       Carver clenched his jaw. It killed him to see these children scared. "Get Clint out of here." Carver demanded to Cooper, who was still holding onto Clint's shirt. Clint pushed away and stomped out of the house, slamming the door hard behind him before Cooper could say anything.

       The whole room was silent, except for the sound of the new baby crying in Cody's room, and a crying Suzanne, who was still in Carver's arms.

       Carver looked at the other ranch hands, and then he looked at Cody. Cody still looked terrified, and he looked as if he wanted to cry, but not with all of these men around.

       "Come here, bud." Carver said, motioning to Cody to follow him. Cody got up and followed Carver into Cody's room. Once inside, Carver closed the door and set Suzanne in her crib and rocked the new baby in her crib. Carver looked up and saw Cody staring at Carver's face where Clint had punched him.

      "Carver, your face is bleedin'." Cody spoke softly. He couldn't seem to draw his eyes away from Carver's face.

        Carver lifted his hand to his cheek, and sure enough, he was bleeding. "I'll be right back." Carver walked out of the room and back into the kitchen where he saw the three remaining ranch hands still standing in the kitchen and at the table. He saw Cooper with his hands on a chair, and his head was hung low. All three men looked up at Carver when he spoke.

       "Sorry about that, y'all." Was all Carver said then walked over to the sink and cleaned off his face. He felt a welt forming and he figured that he had a nasty looking bruise.

       "I don't know if I should ask or not, but," the newest ranch hand, Porter, started, "I noticed that both you and Clint had shiners when y'all came in this morning. What happened?"

       Carver turned around to face Porter and leaned back on the counter. "We had a disagreement about some things."

       "About what?" Cooper asked, now joining in on the conversation.

      "Just pray for Clint." Was all Carver said, then he made his way back into Cody's room.

       "Hey. What's wrong?" Carver said, sitting next to Cody on Cody's bed.

       Looking Carver in the eye he said honestly, "I'm scared." Then he began to cry.

     Carver hugged Cody and tried to calm him. Once Cody calmed down enough Carver said,

     "One good thing about today is that it's your birthday." And with that Cody's face lit up.

      "You're right! But," Cody's smile faded, "my daddy's not here, and ma is sick, and Quint almost killed you and-"

      "Clint didn't almost kill me. He was just mad at me, that's all."

       "Why is he mad at you?"

      Carver took a deep breath and asked God to help give him words. "Because...he thought that...I lied to you, and...I also said some hurtful things to him."

       "But you didn't lie to me."

      Carver just nodded, unsure of what to say to that.

      "Carver, do you think my ma is goin' to get better?"

       "Yes, Cody. The doctor said that she just had a fever, and he gave her some medicine and he said as long as she rests that she should start to feel better in a day or so."

      "Oh. Well that's good. Can we go play in the snow?"

       Gosh, Carver loved Cody. He could be sad one second and the next he wants to go outside and play in the snow. Carver laughed at Cody's ability to change the subject so quickly.

       "Maybe. The other guys and I have some work we have to do and then we might go outside and play in the snow, okay?"

       "Okay. When are the babies goin' to get out of my room?"

       "When your ma is better."

      "I hope she gets better soon, cause babies are annoying."

        Carver couldn't help but laugh. "Happy Birthday, Cody." Carver patted Cody's shoulder, then started to walk out of Cody's room to go do some mid-day chores. He turned back around and said to Cody, "How about we don't tell your ma about what happened at lunch, okay?"

       Cody did a motion showing that his lips were sealed. Carver smiled, and walked out of Cody's room.

                                                                     ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

       Sonny figured that he and Tucker had been riding for over three hours when Tucker finally pulled his horse up and looked around.

       "This way." Tucker said and turned his horse in that direction, then a second later he turned his horse the other way. "No, it's this way."

        "Okay." Sonny replied and turned his horse in the same direction that Tucker was now going.

        "Hey, what is today?" Sonny asked Tucker.

        "Friday, November 19. Why?"

        "Cody's birthday." Sonny whispered more to himself then to Tucker.

       "What?" Tucker asked.

        Before Sonny could answer, Bronco side-stepped and nickered. "What's the matter boy?" Sonny asked his horse. Then Sonny heard a twig snap behind him, he looked and saw a blur that looked like a horse behind them. Bronco nickered again.

         "Tucker, we're bein' followed." Sonny whispered to Tucker.

        "You sure?" A worried look came on Tucker's face.

      Sonny nodded. "Positive." As soon as he said the word, Sonny heard gunshots behind him.

       Daybreak reared, almost throwing Tucker, and Bronco crow-hopped.

        Sonny turned back around and made eye contact with the man that shot the gun. He saw the man reloading and took the time to yell, "Go!" to Tucker, who spurred his horse into a gallop. Sonny did the same, only Bronco didn't seem to want to gallop.

         "Come on Bronco, we don't got time for this. We need to go." Sonny looked back over his shoulder and saw two men approaching on their horses, both with pistols aimed at Tucker and Sonny.

        "Come on, Bronco. Hyah!" Sonny said, and spurred Bronco, this time Bronco took off, and caught up with Tucker in no time.

        "Where to Tucker?" Sonny asked, looking over his shoulder at the men who were approaching quickly.

       "Dadgumit, that's Butch, and...Fulton?" Tucker said, sounding surprised to see Fulton with Butch.

        "Tucker, where to?" Sonny repeated, getting agitated. The idea of being shot at didn't really appeal to Sonny very much.

        "Over here." Tucker turned his horse to the right, and then turned back around to Sonny.

        "There's a cliff up here. I'm goin' to ride really close to it, then turn away real quick to make them go off the cliff and into the ravine below it. You go on and ride ahead." Tucker shouted.

       They approached the cliff quicker then expected, and when Tucker tried to pull Daybreak quickly to the left, the horse spooked and reared again, this time sending Tucker straight into the snow. Daybreak took off running. Sonny saw Daybreak then heard Tucker shout Sonny's name. Sonny turned around and saw Tucker being held by Fulton with a gun to Tucker's head.

       "Lord, please protect us." Sonny prayed and turned Bronco back towards Tucker. Sonny didn't see Butch to his right, but he heard the cocking of a gun that sounded very near to him, then everything around Sonny went blurry as he fell to the ground and into the cold snow.