Lending a hand

Carson chuckles and shakes his head. “Once I get home, I’ll be three blocks from work. Hardly worth you picking me up. But if you see me sprawled out on the shoulder or something, you can stop.”

He throws Misty a wink. “See you in a while. And…thanks for coming along this morning.”

Turning around, he takes off in a dead sprint, aiming for his apartment.


Scott’s face reddens a little from embarrassment as Katie tells him to accept help. Preferring not to argue around the topic of using the bathroom in front of her, he relents. “Alright, fine.”

Rick nods to Katie. “Thank you. At least he’ll listen to somebody.” He moves to put Scotts arm over his shoulders to give himself as a crutch.

Scott tries not to wince as he moves slowly, his one arm around his side. It was slow going, but at least he’d made Rick halfway happy with a compromise.

Not much later, he’s being helped back into bed. Just the short walk had made him exhausted, and though he didn’t really want to be here, he had to admit that lying back down felt good.


Reese heads down the hall to the infirmary, a notebook in hand. Upon entering, he finds Katie. “Hey, good morning. Got a favor…” He glances to Scott, then back to her. “When he feels up to it, would you mind taking notes on all that happened? Any information he’s got? I have to run some errands, and since you’re here already… Can you do that for me?”


Luke opens his eyes at the sound of Angel at the door. He doesn’t want to disappoint her…but he knows he will.

Sitting up, he starts to try standing again, but his legs just don’t want to handle it. Instead of stepping forward, he slides down onto the floor, his back against the foot of his bed. So much for the day he’d planned. Frustration fills his veins as so many times before, but there was absolutely nothing he could do.

Sighing, he gives up trying. “Angel, you might as well come on in,” he calls.


Mick sees BJ in the rearview mirror and grins to himself. Soon…he’d have a family again. There wasn’t any other feeling quite like it.

Heading down the road to the other ranch about half an hour away, Mick sees debris from last night’s storm. It had come up fast and caught many people off guard. Today though, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Almost all the way to Jerry’s, Mick spies a car in the ditch. From the look of things, it had swerved to miss part of a tree that had been in the middle of the road, but was now moved. He’s about to pass on by, when he realizes there is still someone in the car.

Pulling off to the side, Mick parks his truck and trailer. He gets out and carefully makes his way down into the ditch, heading for the car. His pulse quickens when he sees a woman slumped over the steering wheel.

Arriving to the car, he taps on the window.

The woman looks up quickly and seeing someone, her eyes widen, and she points to the door. “I can’t get it open!” she shouts.

Mick realizes there is a dent in the side of the car – apparently it had rolled a time or two. “Hang on,” he replies loudly. “Sit tight.”

Going back to his truck he finds a crowbar before returning, and within ten minutes, he’s got the door open.


Clint perks up, getting a grin on his face at the mention of lunch with Wendy. After Wes has gone, he tinkers for a few minutes longer, but finally wipes his hands on a rag and pokes his head into the office. “Hey, I was told there was a pretty girl in here who might be waiting for some lunch… you wouldn’t happen to know anybody like that around here, would you?”


Cindy sets the table for Wes, glancing at the clock and knowing he would be back soon. He was always on time – she could almost set her watch by him. Getting things ready, she doesn’t set a place for herself, but sits down without food, not really hungry after the little episode earlier.