Jeweldean woke up more tired then she had ever been. She couldn't force herself to sit up, so she just laid in bed. Looking to her left in bed, she tried to not be disappointed when she saw there was still no Sonny. To her right, however, what she saw made her smile; her new baby girl soundly sleeping. Jeweldean rolled over so she could look at her new baby fully.

      "Thank you God for this blessin' amidst our hardships right now." Jeweldean quietly whispered the prayer, careful not to wake the baby.

       Jeweldean looked out her window to the right; it was still fairly dark, and she didn't hear the usual noises of the ranch hands working, so Jeweldean closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

       Several hours later, Jeweldean was awoken by the sounds of a crying baby. She opened her eyes to see her new baby crying, and fussing. Jeweldean sat up in bed and bent down to pick up the baby. As she did this, though, a wave of nausea rolled over her. She felt terrible. Putting her hand to her forehead, Jeweldean realized that she had a fever; a high fever.

     Worried about getting her baby sick, Jeweldean just carefully rocked the crib, and whispered encouraging words to her. "It's goin' to be aright. Shh, shh, shh." Jeweldean then hummed a song that her mama always used to sing to her when she was a little girl.

       After several minutes of coaxing, the baby fell back asleep, and so did Jeweldean.

       The sound of laughter soon filled Jeweldean's ears. She slightly opened her eyes, to make sure it wasn't a dream, and it wasn't. She listened to it for a while and soon after, it faded away..

        Jeweldean suddenly felt cold, uncontrollably cold. Her body began to shiver but she couldn't make it stop. She wrapped herself up tight in her quilt, and tried to fall back asleep, but the cold kept her awake. Her teeth began to chatter. Curling up into a ball, she tried everything she could to try to keep warm, but nothing worked. She looked to her right to check on her baby, who was still sleeping soundly, not shivering at all. Jeweldean raised her head, and was able to see Suzanne across the room, who was also sleeping soundly, not shivering either.

       Suddenly the cold came to be too much, and Jeweldean thought she would faint, still shivering.

        "Jeweldean? Jeweldean? Are you awake in there? Is everything okay? Can I come in?" A familiar voice asked, knocking on Jeweldean's door, it wasn't Sonny like she had wished, though, it was Clint's voice.

        Jeweldean was still shivering, but she mustered enough to whisper, through chatting teeth, "Help."

       Just like a bullet from a gun, the male voice on the other end burst through the door, and ran straight to Jeweldean's side. Jeweldean couldn't open her eyes wide enough to see who the face was, but she knew it was Clint and not Sonny.

      "Jeweldean, you are burning up!" The voice said, in a panic. He left the room and shouted, "Somebody go hook up our fastest horse to the wagon and get ready to go into town. Jeweldean's sick."

       Jeweldean could hear the sounds of chairs rubbing against the hardwood floors, and utensils clicking against plates, all coming from downstairs. She heard the door open downstairs, and then shut, then everything was quiet, except for the man beside her, who was praying quickly in muffled words.

      "Oh God, please watch over her, please. Heal her. Help us to get her into town soon, and in time. Please God." Clint then put one strong arm under Jeweldean's legs, and the other arm on her back, under her arms. He picked her up, and began carrying her out of the room.

      "Babies." Jeweldean said, realizing she was leaving not one, but two crying babies behind her in the room.

        "Carver, the babies." She heard Clint say.

       She felt a breeze blow past her as who she guessed to be was Carver going up the stairs.

       In a few minutes, Jeweldean was set into a wagon, and she felt someone put a wet cloth on her forehead.

       Jeweldean was still shivering cold, and she felt someone put a blanket on her, which didn't seem to help anything. She tossed and turned in an attempt to keep warm.

        All around her, Jeweldean heard several muffled voices, all male. She tried to see if she could hear Sonny's voice, but none of the voices sounded like his. Then Jeweldean felt cold drops of water on her exposed face, that she knew was not coming from the wash cloth.

       She heard a voice tell the driver of the bumpy wagon, "Faster," and the bumpy ride became even more bumpy.

     After several long minutes, the wagon stopped, and again, she felt strong male arms pick her up and out of the wagon, only this time there were four arms, not two. The arms carried her through a door, and laid her down on something hard. She heard several voices, all commanding something. Then Jeweldean heard someone call her name, just above a whisper, and it sounded like Sonny's voice.

       With all the strength she could muster Jeweldean asked, through still shut eyes, "Sonny?" Before she got an answer, the room went black around her.

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

        Sonny awoke feeling better then he had felt the whole time he had been away from home. Maybe it was the time he spent outside yesterday, or the extra sleep, or his wound that was finally starting to heal now that the majority of the infection was out. Whatever it was, Sonny felt good, and he was very thankful for that. Sitting up in bed, he prayed, "Thank you Lord for lettin' me feel a little better today. Please continue to heal me, and please help Tucker to get me home soon. I'm not sure what he's waitin' on Lord, but whatever it is, please help it to come and go soon so I can see my family again. Thank you, Lord."

         After his prayer, Sonny stood up and put his shirt and boots on. And because it was cold in the ramshackle shack, Sonny started a fire in the dilapidated fireplace. While the fire was catching the wood, Sonny looked outside to a surprising sight. Snow. And lots of it, and snow was still falling from the sky. Sonny immediately began to worry about Jeweldean, and his family, and his ranch. What if Jeweldean went into town to have her baby and they got snowed in, or if they need to go into town for something but they can't? What if the ranch hadn't been prepared for the early snow, and things were getting ruined? What if-

        "Sonny!" The voice caught Sonny off guard, and caused him to snap back into reality.

        Sonny tried to look out the lone window to see who it was, but the ice that covered the window made it hard to see out of it. Sonny grabbed his coat and opened the door. A good six inches of snow came pouring into the shack. He looked around, and saw Tucker and Tucker's horse.

       Tucker dismounted and tromped his way through the deep snow and to the door of the shack.

         "Hey Tucker. Crazy weather. I was not expecting it to snow." Sonny said.

        "Butch is getting suspicious." Tucker started, ignoring Sonny's comment. "We need to get you home. I've been waitin' for the perfect time to get you out of here. I was waitin' until something came up and Butch wasn't at camp, but nothin' has come up yet. And I overheard Butch sayin' he was fixin' to send a man after me to see what was goin' on, so I took a different trail and I went over my tracks again to try to make it hard for them to follow, but I don't think it's goin' to work. There is no way to cross the creek on the way to your place in this snow, so is there another way to get to your ranch from here?" 

          Sonny tried to process everything. "I don't know where we are at, or how to get home or else I would've gone home by now." Then Sonny had an idea. "Could you take us to town? I know how to get home from town."

     Tucker, still standing with his coat and hat on, shook his head and said, "No good. We have to go through Butch's camp to git to town, and even then there are hills and such that the horses could get hurt on in this deep snow."

       "Is there a way to distract Butch and the other men until I get past?" Sonny asked.

         "No way. Look, I know you don't want to hear this, but there is no way to get you home in this snow. One of Butch's men is goin to come lookin' for us any second now, so we need to leave." Tucker turned to leave.

        "Where are we goin' to go that they can't find us, or follow our tracks?" Sonny asked.

        Tucker turned back around and seemed to think hard about Sonny's question then said, "I've got a place. Put out the fire, and get yer stuff. We're leavin'."

        In just a few rushed minutes, Tucker and Sonny had everything packed up, and they walked outside of the shack.

       Sonny looked around and saw Bronco standing beside Tucker's horse, a mare named Daybreak. Sonny smiled when he saw his horse. He was petting Bronco when Tucker mounted Daybreak.

        "You good to ride?" Tucker asked Sonny.

        "Have no choice. I'll be fine." Sonny replied. He mounted Bronco, right beside Tucker.

       "Follow me." Tucker said, and they were off, deeper into the woods.