The Cowboy Hostage (A Laramie Fanfiction)

Disclaimer: I do not own the cover picture or any of the characters of Laramie. They belong to John C. Champion and associates.

"Bye Jess!" Miss Daisy shouted after Jess Harper as he rode off. She and Mike waved until they could no longer see him. "Mike, now that Jess is gone, you're going to have to do a few more chores to help Slim out. You hear?"

"Yes, Aunt Daisy," Mike replied, nodding his head.

"Get to them, then. Slim will be home soon enough, and it would be a nice surprise if you already had them all done."

"Yes, ma'am," Mike said as he hurried out to the barn.

Miss Daisy busied herself with the making of supper after uttering a quick prayer for safe travels for Jess.

Half an hour passed and Slim did not appear, so Daisy decided that he would just have to eat leftovers. "Mike, come in for dinner and wash up!"

"Do I hafta, Aunt Daisy?" Mike asked.

"Yes, Mike you do. You're all dirty, and a person must be presentable when sitting at the supper table. Isn't that right?"

"I guess so," he said.

"Well, go on, then."

When Mike returned and took his seat at the table, Miss Daisy was just serving up the meal. "When do you think Slim's gonna be back? He's out awful late, ain't he?"

"Isn't he?" Daisy corrected. "And yes. But I'm sure he'll be home any minute now."

After a few minutes of quiet eating, the sound of a horse galloping could be heard coming closer and closer. "Slim's home!" Mike shouted and bolted up from the table, upsetting the gravy dish. "Slim!"

"Mike, you get back here right now!" Daisy shouted. But Mike was too far away and too excited to listen. Daisy sighed and began to clean up the spilled gravy. As she was doing this, she heard someone enter the house. She turned around and was immediately swept into a hug. "Oh, Slim. I'm so glad you're back. Mike's been driving me crazy."

"Yeah, he's quite a handful, isn't he?" Slim replied rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"You had us worried," the older woman said softly.

"Worried? What about?"

"We expected you back hours ago. It's after dark now."

"I'm sorry. I intended to ride back and be here a good while before supper. But Mort had some rowdy prisoners that needed handling."

"Rowdy prisoners?"

"Yes, but it's all fine now. The lawmen from Cheyenne are taking care of them now."

"Well, that's good. Maybe now we can have some peace and quiet."

"Peace and quiet? If you're looking for peace and quiet, you came to the wrong town," Slim said very seriously.

"Slim Sherman! I may not have known what kind of a town this was when I came, but I certainly wouldn't have stayed if it didn't suit me," she paused. "I know it's a good town with good people, and I know that sometimes there's going to be criminals and gunslingers passing through. It's just the ones who hang around that bother me," Daisy said softly.

"Miss Daisy, you outta know Jess and me better than that by now. If anyone tried to hurt you or Mike, we'd protect you."

Daisy lifted her head and looked Slim in the eye, "I know you'd both protect us. But I worry about you and Jess."