A Gambling Man // Ryan x OC

36

Beth Dutton walked into the hospital, the fresh scar on her face a harsh reminder of everything that led her to this moment. In a matter of hours their entire lives were turned upside down. Beth's face not only had a scar running down her cheek but her back was covered in burned and scarred tissue from the explosion. 

Kayce, Monica and Tate were barely clinging to their sanity. Tate's last bit of innocence was stripped from him when he shot and killed the man that attacked his mother. Monica's guilt and fear for her child were smothering her and Kayce? Well Kayce's guilt for not being able to protect his family has turned him into a paranoid disaster. He spends most of his time not at the office, patrolling the ranch and armed to the nines. 

Her father was barely clinging to life in his hospital bed, trapped in a medical coma with a blood clot near his heart. She visited him every day, hoping for a change but for the past month she's only heard the same thing. We have to have hope. 

Rip and the wranglers became just as paranoid as Kayce. No one could walk around the ranch without being armed. They took turns patrolling at night and being stationed outside of the main house. All of them suffering with flashbacks from that day of the attack. The attackers injured Jimmy enough that he had to go back to physical therapy. Most of the attackers were killed by Walker, Ryan, Colby, Teeter and Lloyd.

Rip became even meaner and angrier because he felt guilty. He's the foreman of the Yellowstone ranch and he wasn't there to protect John, Beth, Mae, the wranglers or even his own home. He had to watch as his cabin, the only place that he considered home, burned down to the ground. He would not let this happen ever again, he was filled with a deep need for vengeance. He was just counting down the days until he could get it. 

Ryan, scared everyone on the ranch the most. He barely slept an hour or two a day. After he completed his work on the ranch, he spent his time with Mae's animals. It was like they were all trying to comfort each other. Needed each other through this time. When he couldn't take it on the ranch anymore, he got in a truck with Archie and Willow and drove around the surrounding towns. He asked anyone he could about Mae, if they've seen her, if they've heard anything but nobody had any answers. 

Charlie couldn't bare to be on the ranch without Mae anymore and it was like little Evie could sense that something was wrong. The baby would stay up crying most nights. If it weren't for Gator helping her, Charlie was sure she wouldn't have been able to cope. Liam and Charlie were the ones that made sure the clinic was rebuilt and they were the ones running it but each day became harder and harder as they were reminded of the loss of their best friend. 

Mae, who the fuck knows where she could be. Who the fuck knows what could be happening to her right at this moment. The sunshine of the Dutton's were stripped away from all of them and her disappearance hung over them like a dark cloud, a constant reminder that it had been a month and no one was in anyway closer to finding her. They let her down, they all knew it, they all felt the guilt bubbling in their chest but no one knew what to do. 

These thoughts were swimming around Beth's head as she walked towards her father's room, only to stop in shock as she saw him standing in front her. 

"Daddy?," Beth asked shocked as she let the cup fall from her hands and crash on the floor. 

John pushed the nurses that were surrounding him away and walked up to his daughter, he could see the scar and the haunted look in her eyes. 

"What happened to you?" 

"The same thing that happened to you," Beth replied, still in shock. 

"Who else did it happen to?" 

"It happened to all of us." 

Security and doctors pushed past Beth and walked towards John: "Mr. Dutton we need to get you back to bed."