Trading Responsibility

Isabella awakes to sunlight peeking through a gap in the canvas of Leon's tent, her back to his broad chest and his lips on her bare shoulder. His skin is warm against hers and his voice a pleasant rumble next to her ear as he wishes her a good morning, and she twists around to her opposite side with a smile on her face.

She'd never known peace like this, the comfort of spending a night next to someone who would still be there when the sun came up. Cradling the side of his face in her palm, she strokes his cheekbone with her thumb and presses the softest of kisses to his lips.

"Morning," she whispers back to him.

It had been a long time since he'd woken up beside somebody, even longer since he'd woken up feeling truly content. He offers a fond smile as she whispers her 'good morning', his hand smoothing over her hip and edging her just that little bit closer to him.

Nestled under a blanket made of soft furs, he returns her greeting with his own. Nuzzling her shoulder and kissing her neck, he hears her sigh happily and strokes his hand down along the graceful curve of her back, to gently grasp the cheek of her ass.

It makes her giggle almost coyly, and he chuckles deep and low against her skin.

They could hear the rest of their little community waking up around them. The kids washing up outside the barn and bickering with one another. Someone getting the main camp fire stoked and the iron kettle boiling for coffee.

They should join them. Show their faces. Get on with the chores around the place and start figuring out just how in the hell they could actually make something of their lives here. But neither of them wanted to move.

Groaning, he pulls back and places a kiss on her lips and then her brow, then flops on to his back where she nestles up beside him and draws patterns with the tip of her finger upon his chest. Sharing a comfortable silence.. it felt nice.

Eventually she lets out the smallest breath of a laugh and he tilts his head to look at her curiously.

"Just realized I barely know anything about you." She explains with a small shrug. "You're not an axe murderer or anything, are you?"

His turn to laugh, softly. "No, nothin' like that." He rumbles and lets his gaze drift back to the roof of his tent. He supposed he had to tell her sooner or later, and the words drift from him like he was speaking of a bad dream. "I was in the army though. I guess that means I've done some things I wish I hadn't."

She frowns, propping herself on her elbow to look at him. Like she was studying him, trying to figure out which question to ask him first. Eventually, she settles on one.

"You must have been real young when you joined, if you were discharged already."

He swallows, nodding. "I was... soon as I got out of that house. Signed up. Thought I'd be doing some good, but.." he lets out a heavy sigh and shakes his head. "Don't feel like it. In fact.. you should know.."

She braces for it, and so does he. Worried that this may fracture something so new, that he was already so fond of.

"I wasn't discharged. I left."

"Left?"

"As in.." he clears his throat, finding the words. "They're likely lookin' for me. But I couldn't stay, not with the things they were doing. The things they were orderin''us to do. I was supposed to be a goddamn doctor, but they wouldn't let me help people. I wanted to, but they said our supplies, our medicines, weren't to be wasted on 'savages'... those people weren't savages. They were just men and women with families and we we're drivin' them out of their homes."

Trailing off, he rubs his temple and he stares at the canvas above him. "Things got bad, to the point I couldn't do it anymore. So I stole a wagon of medical supplies, took it to a reservation.. and I ran."

Isabella braces herself for the worst, her mind running away with all the things he could tell her that would spoil this fledgling relationship. She asks herself just how much she's willing to excuse, if it's worth it, if she's gone and shot herself in the foot yet again.

But the blow she's waiting for doesn't come. A military doctor, a brave man who stood up to injustice and did what he thought was right, even at the cost of great personal risk.

Her expression softens instantly, but his doesn't. He looks at her like he's pleading for forgiveness, for what he had done, for not telling her sooner. She doesn't offer it because there's nothing to forgive.

Cradling his face between her hands, she kisses him to convey her admiration, letting action speak for clumsy words that would only fall short.

When it breaks, she smiles down at him, resting her forehead against his. "I'm beginning to think you're too good to be true," she murmurs.

Relief releases the tension in his shoulders, and a smile flickers across his face, too. "Don't know that I'd go that far."

She grins and pats his chest, a wordless instruction to get up and get dressed so they can face the day. "Don't make me change my mind, now."

Stepping out of his tent and into the sunlight, Isabella stretches her arms high above her head and gazes around the ranch. Yuliy is busy breaking up a fight between two of the kids, one sniffling and clutching a scraped elbow, the other sullenly toeing at the dirt beneath his feet and sulking. Ripley sits near the fire cleaning one of her guns, and Valerie is sitting in her tent, her ever-growing collection of trinkets spread out across her cot while she inspects each one.

Isabella hears someone clear their throat to her right, and she glances over to find Jake watching her from the porch of the cabin, casually propped against the banister with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Her cheeks turn red as his eyes bounce between her and Leon's tent, putting together the pieces of a very simple puzzle.

"Get lost on the way to bed last night?" he questions, conversationally.

She mumbles at him to shut up just as Leon exits the tent behind her.

Jake lifts his coffee cup to his lips and rests his eyes on the other man, offering him a steady look that spoke a thousand words. Awkwardly, Leon tugs his hand through his hair, straightening out the ruffled mess it had become overnight and heading across to the camp fire to fetch a coffee of his own.

Crouching, he fills his own mug from the pot and blows steam from it's rim, offering a smile across to Ripley who sat polishing her guns. "Mornin'.." he offers.

She simply grunts her reply.

Leon drums his fingers against the side of his cup, gazing across the plot of land that bustled with life. "So what needs doing round here?" he asks after a few moments and a few more sips.

"You're asking me?" Ripley seemed genuinely amused. "Ask Jake. Or Michael, if you're feeling brave."

Leon's brow arches and he nods. "Jake, right. Guess I oughtta make more of an effort with him."

The young woman just shrugs, placing a shotgun down beside her and picking up a revolver. "Probably. I mean if you like Isabella, he is her ex, so..."

Leon chokes on a mouthful of coffee, spluttering it back in to the cup. He drags the back of his hand across his mouth and does his best to regain his composure. Lifting his eyes back to Ripley, she offers him a pleasant smile.

"You didn't know?"

He clears his throat and shakes his head.

Ripley just whistles and gets to her feet, gathering her arsenal of guns to take with her. "They had a thing. For a while anyway. Kinda morbid if you ask me, sleeping with your dead fiancee's sister. But hey, who are any of us to judge."

"Right." Leon nods absently as she turns away, taking her things and heading for the barn. She leaves him crouched there and gazing in to the fire, lost in thought. Isabella had been right, they barely knew anything about one another, and he barely knew a thing about any of these people Valerie had chosen as her new 'family'.

At least now he knew the reason behind Jake's cold, cautionary stares.

Finishing his coffee he rinses out his cup and catches up with Valerie. She's busily showing him her collection of trinkets from a hunting trip out near Strawberry when movement outside Isabella's tent catches his eye. He watches as she leaves it and heads across the grounds to tend to her horse. Offering Valerie her shell necklace back, he quietly excuses himself, intent on joining Izzy to find out a little more about the entire situation here.

He doesn't get that far, however.

"Hey! New guy!" Jake hollers, catching his attention. "Leon. C'mere."

Groaning to himself, he decides not to make shit even more awkward. Responding with a tight smile. "Whats up?"

"Need you to come in to town with me. Got some things to pick up, could use another strong pair of hands." Jake gestures to a wagon he'd gotten Yuliy to hitch already.

Standoff. The two men eye one another, like they were weighing each other up before a duel. Who could draw faster? Who could hit harder? If they hadn't been wrenched away from one another that night, who would have left the other lying in the mud?

Jake grits a peppermint between his teeth, looking the other man up and down, expecting an answer.

"Alright." Leon concedes eventually.

Jake nods. "Good. I got a favor to ask, actually."

"Besides this?" Leon grunts as he hauls himself up on to the wagon.

"Besides this." Jake smirks, joining him and gathering up the reins.

Sitting beside him felt weird, especially knowing what he knew now. Jake flicks the reins and clicks his tongue at the horses, prompting them in to action. Leon catches Isabella's eye as she watches while grooming her mare. The look on her face one of apprehension.

"Me and Michael are headin' out tomorrow. We might be gone a while." Jake confesses as they get on the road. "Need you and Izzy to take care of the place. The kids. Make sure nobody sets themselves on fire or gets themselves shot.. again.." he rolls his eyes. There's something conversational and almost pleasant about it. Like old buddies having a simple chat. Jake looks across to him as the wagon bumps over stony ground. "Think you can handle that?"

Leon shrugs. "Not like I got anywhere else to be."

Jake just smirks, nodding and reaching across to pat him on the shoulder. "No I guess you ain't."

Leon glances at him, eyes narrowed.

What did he know? Or was he just being paranoid?