Taking On The Cowboy

Part 4 - Chapter Three

Bill hung the keys on the little hook inside the kitchen door. When Gage was released from prison, the Parole Officer had asked him to make sure his son had no access to Ranch vehicles, and for the first few months Bill had taken his keys with him in to the bedroom for the night, keeping them close by on the bedside cabinet. He'd known even then that Gage wasn't at risk of breaking his parole. Gage seemed hell bent on eeking out every last drop of his punishment. Sticking to the absolute letter of the law in terms of his parole conditions. Even the Parole Officer agreed that Gage was extremely hard on himself. Gage had turned down the option of psychological counselling and the Parole Officer had nothing else to offer, saying that an offender who complied with his parole almost too diligently was a good problem to have. It looked like it was going to be up to Bill and Liz to work out how to get their son to ease up on himself enough to enjoy life again. The quiz night was a start.

"You handled yourself well tonight. It's easier to avoid fears then to face them." Bill gave Gage's shoulder a squeeze on his way past.

"Thanks Dad." Gage smiled a bitter sweet half smile that barely raised one corner of his mouth. "It was good having you there. It wasn't how I expected it to be."

"Things never are. Was it better or worse?"

"Just different." Gage shrugged.

He didn't seem to have anything else to say on the matter, so Bill headed for the stairs.

"I'm off to bed, you turning in too?"

"On my way." Gage looked out across the ranch towards the little cabin. The windows glowed a golden yellow, the light passing through the yellow fabric of the curtains. He wondered what she was doing, Tara Delaney. He'd enjoyed teaming up with her tonight, even though there had been moments when he'd caught her looking at him funny. At times she would relax and really seem to enjoy herself. Then it seemed like she would realise she was having fun and pull herself back. She seemed to be working hard not to like him. She couldn't still be hung up on the head injury thing could she? Not after they'd aced the quiz together and he'd answered his fair share of questions.

Gage switched off the lights, and climbed the stairs in the dark. It didn't matter to him whether the hallway lights were on or off. He knew exactly where his feet needed to fall in order to reach his bedroom. He'd lived here his entire life, apart from the two and a half years he hadn't had a say in the matter.

Tonight had been good. It had helped that he'd had his father with him, and Tara's pretty face to distract him from bad memories. Nobody had looked at him funny, or made any snide comments, and he hadn't had any flashbacks. He was willing to call it a success, despite Tara's odd behaviour. He hadn't managed to crack that particular nut but it was high on his list of priorities and he enjoyed a challenge.

For a long time he'd thought he'd never go back to the Restless Wrangler - the bar he and Dan had been drinking in the night of the accident. But it turned out his father was right, avoiding the bar made it bigger and uglier than it actually was. Now the bar had shrunk back down to bar size again. He didn't have any plans to make it a regular hangout, but it didn't need to be somewhere he shied away from either. He hadn't had any problems sticking to his parole condition not to drnk. When Walt had offered him that beer he'd had no desire to accept.

Gage wondered how Dan's family would feel about him going back to The Wrangler and kind of enjoying himself. He doubted they'd be impressed. They were the ones that mattered now. The Blakes were the ones he needed to protect from anymore hurt.

Unfortunately though it was getting harder and harder to work out the right thing to do. The truth was that getting on with his life couldn't help but hurt them. Moving forward when Dan couldn't was always going to hurt. Hell, just being here when Dan wasn't was always going to hurt, both him and the Blake's. Doing the right thing had got pretty complicated since he'd been released from prison.