𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻, 𝖪𝖺𝖼𝖾𝗒 𝖣𝗎𝗍𝗍𝗈𝗇

𝟒. 𝖲𝗍𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝖡𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀

" 𝖳𝗁𝖾𝗒'𝗋𝖾 𝖿𝗈𝗈𝗅𝗌 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖾𝖺𝖼𝗁 𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋．"
━━━━━━ ☆ ☽ ☆  ━━━━━━

Maggie stood on the bottom post of the paddock next to Rip; they had just finished herding cattle into the corral so they could be transported. "It could've been worse."Maggie shrugged. They only had one straggler, and with a bit of correction from Rip and the new hand, Jimmy, they got her back on track. Rip shook her head with an amused grin.

"Hi! I'm Tate!" Maggie's head snapped to her right, hearing the small voice. Her stomach dropped as she looked at the little boy; he had his father's eyes.

"Hello, I'm Maggie," she greeted him, weakly smiling.

"The FBI agent, my dad, talks about you!" Tate grinned at her.

"Where is your father?"Maggie asked, looking around for the dirty blonde.

"He's talkin' to grandpa." Maggie nodded.

"Guess you're mine for the afternoon," John approached the pair, "What do you wanna do?" He asked, looking at his grandson.

"I wanna go to the river," Tate answered without hesitation; John nodded, picking his grandson up.

"Talk to him, will ya," John demanded more than he asked as he walked away.

Maggie  took a deep breath as she approached Kacey, who stood at the horse's stall, "What are you doing here, trouble?" Maggie pasted a smile on her face; it almost turned genuine when she saw Kacey smile at the old nickname. Then Tate flashed through her mind, and any trace of a genuine smile was gone.

Kacey's smile fell as quickly as it came when she saw Maggie's face, "What the fuck happened?" Anger was the only thing evident in Kacey's voice as he saw the bruise on her cheek and cut on her lip.

"It's already been taken care of," Maggie told him, stepping back to put distance between them, but Kacey only took another step forward.

"Who fuckin' did this?" Kacey gripped her chin harshly, making her look into his eyes.

"Jamie," Maggie answered coldly.

Kacey paused in shock as anger consumed him, "Why are you here, Kacey." Maggie asked, moving away from his touch. 

"I-I couldn't do it, Mags." Kacey stuttered.

"Couldn't do what?" Maggie's tone softened.

"I was takin Tate home the other day, and there was this van in a ditch on the rez," Maggie already knew where this story was going.

"There was this little girl in the back, Mags, she was only sixteen..." Maggie nodded in understanding. "Then, this morning, Sam killed herself." Maggie took in Kacey's guilty face, and she couldn't stop herself from pulling him into a hug, which he instantly gave into wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

"This isn't your fault," Maggie whispered, rubbing his back as he dug his face further into the crook of her neck.

☆ ☽ ☆

Maggie sighed in relief as she sat on the front porch steps to watch the sunset; they'd just finished sorting cows to be hauled off, which should be easy, but it never is. It always ends in long strings of cuss words and yelling, maybe a minor injury or two.

The brunettes relief faded quickly when she saw Kacey storming towards the house with Tate in his arms. Tate wiggled out of his dad's arms when he saw Maggie and ran over to her. "What happened?" Maggie's eyes widened as she examined the cut across Tate's cheek.

"I fell into the river, and Grandpa saved me!" Tate told her, not phased by the cut at all.

"Your dad fell in a river once," Maggie told Tate.

"Really?!" Tate asked, amused.

"Hmm, I'll have to tell you another time. Right now, your dad should take you to get checked out." Tate frowned at the mention of a check-up. "I'll see you around, little man." Maggie smiled.

The woman watched Kacey's truck pull away from the ranch, an ache spreading through her chest as she closed her eyes to fight back tears. Every moment of that night six years ago returned to her mind.