Yellowstone - John Duttons daughter

The sting of wisdom

"You're pretty young to be in the bar." A familiar voice said sitting down besides Tessa.

"Yeah well I need a beer." The 18 year old replied not bothering to look at the person besides her.

The boy held up a bill, the bartender coming to get him a drink. Tessa finally glanced at him as the beer was placed on the bar.

"Kash." The girls mouth dropped open, she stared at him for a minute, unsure how to react. "I don't know weather to punch you or hug you?"

"I'll take the hug." He replied holding his arms out."

pushing aside all her anger and hatred she'd built up for him over the past two years vanished.  She jumped up pulling him into a hug.

"Where the fuck have you been for the past 2 and a half years?" She questioned stepping back.

"I had twins you know." He changed the subject, "there with Eliza at my mamas, you'll have to come meet them."

"Kash, answer the questions."

The now adult sighed; "after they were born, their mum left. We were bringing them home from the hospital, she said she had left something inside, I waited and waited and she never came back, didn't answer any of my calls. Haven't heard from her since."

"Why didn't you come home?" Tessa asked, unable to stop herself from staring into his blue eyes. He'd changed in the last two or so years, she watched Kash's eyes look up and down and she knew he was Annualizing her too.

"Because I'm a coward." He admitted, "if I came home, everyone was going to give me the I told you so speech. I joined the military, Eliza watched the twins."

"How's Bodhi?" Tessa asked cautiously

"A year and he's out." Kash sighed, his older brother had shot a wolf with a collar from the national park after he had been killing there calves.

The two talked and talked as beer after beer was placed in front of them. Next thing you know Tessa found herself between Kash and the wall in her bedroom.

***

"Your dad offered me a job." Kash states as he sat up slightly rubbing his eyes.

"What?" Tessa asked rolling over to face him.

"I spoke to your dad in Helena, offered me a job."

"A job?" Tessa questioned again, "you forgot to mention that last night?"

"There were other things in my mind." He smirked, "Said it was Rips idea." Kash shrugged

"Have you spoken too Rip?" She asked, Kash nodded

"Pull your shirt off." She ordered

"Why?" Kash questioned

"Take your shirt off and let me see the goddamn brand."

Kash stood up unbuttoning his shirt, a newly branded Y on his chest. Tessa shook her head in disbelief.

"The ranch isn't an easy way out." Tessa told him, "you can't leave."

"I know." Kash nods, Tessa sighed, "you didn't notice it last night?" Kash adds

"No, It was dark, and I wasn't exactly focusing on your chest. Your kids can't be raised the way I was." Tessa adds, "I knew way to much stuff, there's a spare room in the house. They ain't staying in the bunkhouse."

"Spare room for me?" Kash smirked

"Depends on if you like sharing a bed or not." Tessa replied "so you've left the military?"

"I got medicaly discharged, lost most of my hearing in my left ear after an explosion." He explained.

Tessa nodded, letting her head rest on his shoulder,  "if we're going to do this, it can't end the same way."

Kash nodded understanding; "it won't."

***

"Got 'em." Ryan muttered, him, Colby and Tessa were lying in the bushes watching a few wolfs as the came up to a dead cow to feed on. "Fire on three, two, one. Three, two, one." Ryan repeated, the three of them began firing. "Safe."

They pick up there bags and ride down to we're the wolves lay.

"Oh, fuck." Ryan muttered as he shone his torch on the wolf.

"Uh, these wolves are from the park." Colby muttered as he climbed off horse.

"You know Kash's brother did 5 years for killing a tracked wolf." Tessa thought it would be a good time to share this information.

"fuck!" Ryan yelled

"What do we do?" Colby questioned

"If those radio collars are motionless for twelve hours they send out a distress signal, then there's Game Warden standing in this field in the morning and we are on the fucking news tomorrow night."

"So what do we do?" Tessa questioned

"We gotta get these collars off and keep them moving until I figure this out." Ryan snapped

"So what you wanna do is jog them around in a fucking circle?" Tessa questioned

"These wolves have fucking Facebook pages." Ryan yelled, "People walk around in t-shirts with their pictures on them. People find out that we killed them, on the Governor's ranch?"

"We have tags. It's legal." Colby tried, Ryan didn't say anything

"Son of a bitch." Colby shook his head in disbelief.

***

"Why in the hell did you shoot the ones with the collars?" Rip questioned as he rode over to them.

"We were using thermal. We couldn't see the collars." Tessa defended

"Is that right?" Rip muttered, "Well, start taking the collars off. We're taking them with us. These things record every step these wolves make, So we're gonna have to move like a wolf pack." Rip ordered, "I want you to take one and put it in your saddle bag and I want you to take the other and put it in front of you while you ride."

"Where we going?" Colby questioned as the began taking off the collars.

"Back in the park." Rip replied

***

"That's good." Rip tells Tessa as she slips the collar onto the lead. "No, no, no, Ryan. Not that tight." Rip snaps, "They need to come off somewhere. That's good." The three of them toss the branch's into the lake.

"Listen up, you don't tell a fucking soul. Ever." Rip orders, "This never happened."

"Who am I gonna tell?" Ryan questioned, "That could put me in jail for a fucking decade."

"Ryan, next time don't shoot the ones with the GPS beacons on them." Rip tells them before climbing back on his horse.

***

A little girl came around the corner of the barn, Tessa had a tube of worm paste in her pony's mouth. She glanced over to the toddler, who smiled.

"Want to give him a pat?" Tessa asked, the girl nodded, taking a few steps closer. "He's called Teddy." The girl reached out rubbing his nose gently. "I'm Tessa." She introduced herself, "are you Hallie?"

The girl nodded, as Tessa glanced over as a little boy came running over, his short brown curls peaking out the back of his backwards ball cap.

"Which would make you Hugo?"

"I'm two." The boy proudly told Tessa, As Kash appeared behind him.

"You still have Teddy." Kash smiled noticing the small Shetland.

"Yeah." Tessa nodded, rubbing the head of the pony she'd had since she was two.

"Your daddy's girlfriend." Hugo stated

"Who told you that?" Tessa asked with a smirk.

"Daddy." Both two year olds point to Kash.