It was extremely late when Mae walked into the house. She was dead tired after getting an emergency call about a dog accidentally being run over. She couldn't save it. It was already malnourished and dehydrated, that drunk fucking asshole probably only put it out of its misery. She cried every time she couldn't save an animal but it seemed like something about this particular one, she couldn't shake. She barely could contain her tears long enough to get home and the longer she was alone, the deeper this sinking feeling went. She showered at the clinic and cried her eyes out but it doesn't feel like it's going to end any time soon. Usually, she would go to Ryan or Rip but it was already so fucking late and all she really wanted at the moment was her dad.
Mae walked up the steps and saw that her dad's door was open and the light was still on.
"Daddy!" She called out from the hallway, she didn't want to walk in on anything she wasn't supposed to see.
"Come in, Sweetheart," John replied and Mae walked into the room to see John sitting in bed and Beth standing next to him with a book in her hand. It hurt when she saw her big sister refusing to turn around and look at her. Beth's been avoiding her for weeks and it has been absolute hell for the youngest Dutton.
"Am I interrupting anything? I can come back later," Mae asked as she fiddled with her thumbs. John immediately noted the deflated and anxious look in her eye and shook his head, "You're never interrupting. Are you okay?"
That question made Beth turn around to look at her little sister. It was the first time that she noted how skinny and worn out she was. These weeks after she had been found, Beth didn't even want to imagine how Mae must have looked right when they found her.
"You look like shit," Beth stated.
Mae snorted as her eyes set on the scar on Beth's cheek, "So do you."
John shook his head at the two. Everyone on the ranch could see something going on between the two sisters, but nobody could quite figure out exactly what it was.
"Alright cut this bullshit right now. What the hell is going on between the two of you?"
Mae shrugged," I would also really like to know because she's the one who's been avoiding me."
"Beth?" John asked as he turned to look at his oldest daughter.
The girl shook her head, her eyes glazing over with unshed tears, "I can't fucking do this right now. Goodnight Daddy." Beth walked past Mae and practically ran to her own room, down the hall.
Mae sighed as she ran her hands through her hair.
"Come here," John patted the other side of the bed and Mae walked over before literally plopping herself down on it.
"I don't know what I did wrong," Mae exclaimed as she threw her hands up in frustration.
"You did absolutely nothing wrong. It's just your sister being in one of her fucking moods. You two will get over it, you always do," John assured.
"I hope so," Mae muttered, clearly irritated by the whole situation.
"You will. Now what brought you in here all upset?" John asked.
"Bad surgery. Some drunk ran over a dog and I couldn't save it, it died on the table," Mae explained.
"I'm guessing it's not just that?" John asked, he knew it wasn't her first bad surgery and it wouldn't be her last, so it couldn't just be that.
"I'm just questioning if I'm good enough. I mean I couldn't save myself any of the times I've been hurt and now I couldn't save this poor defenseless animal and I'm just- what if I'm losing myself? Losing the only thing I've ever been great at. Hell, I'm even losing my sister and I don't even know why," Mae groaned as she stared at the ceiling.
"You're a Dutton and above that you're the best fucking Dutton this world has ever known. You hold the best traits of all of us. None of what happened determines your worth, in fact, it makes you even more valuable because it makes you stronger. I can count the number of bad surgeries you've had on my fingers but the amount of successful ones? Hell, Sweetheart, I would need a calculator and I'd still probably be off. As for Beth, she'll get over whatever the fuck has her in this mood. You two will be thick as thieves again in no time," John reached out and pulled his youngest into a side hug. Mae smiled as she reached up and kissed John on the cheek.
"I love you, Daddy," she smiled at him in gratitude, he always was there to calm her anxieties.
"I love you too, Sweetheart. We're going to get through this, always."
"Yeah I hope so," Mae smiled. It was quiet between the two of them, Mae could tell that John wanted to say something.
"What is it?"
"You need to stop getting kidnapped, Sweetheart, you're going to give your old man a heart attack."
"Gee, I'll try since I have total control over the situation."
The two laughed and Mae sat up as she climbed off of the bed," Thanks for cheering me up, old man."
"Anytime, Sweetheart."
"Goodnight, Daddy."
Mae greeted as she left his room for her own and heard him call goodnight after her.
xxx
The next morning Ryan walked up the stairs of the house to go greet Mae before he and the rest of the wranglers started breaking in wild horses. He knocked on her door and heard a muffled "Come in".
"Morning, Darlin'," he greeted as he walked over and kissed the side of her head. She was sitting at her vanity doing her makeup.
"Hi," she smiled up at him but he could see that her smile didn't fully meet her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Mae shook her head as she started with her mascara.
Ryan raised an eyebrow at her as if to say that he didn't believe her.
Mae huffed as she turned to look at him, she lifted her legs to sit criss-cross on the chair, the mascara still tightly clutched in her hands.
"It's just this thing with Beth," Mae groaned out.
"She's still not talking to you?" Ryan asked.
"No! I've been giving her time to get over whatever this is but last night Dad and I both asked her and she basically ran out of the room away from me. It's like she couldn't even look at me," Mae ranted, her hands moving animatedly as she spoke.
"Whatever it is, it's her problem. You have absolutely nothing to do with it," he assured her.
"You sound like my dad," Mae chuckled.
"Well he's always been a smart man," Ryan shrugged and Mae smiled.
"I just want my sister back, especially now! I mean she's engaged, we should be celebrating, planning their wedding, and getting absolutely drunk at her bachelorette party. We shouldn't be doing whatever the fuck this is," Mae groaned out.
"I know, Darlin', I know," Ryan sighed as he took the mascara out of her hands, placed it on the table, and pulled her into a hug. Mae's hands clutched the lapels of his jacket.
"What are your plans for today? Ranch or livestock office?" Mae asked as she pulled away.
"I'm on call in case anything happens but as of now we're just breaking in the wild horses," Ryan explained.
"You mean I'm going to have a bunch of idiots that complain because of their bruises because they got bucked off a hundred times today," Mae groaned out and Ryan chuckled as he nodded at her statement.
"You just be careful today, please?" Mae asked as she stared up at him.
"I'm always careful, Darlin'," Ryan replied with a smirk.
"That's a lie," Mae replied and he poked her in her side in protest.
"Hey! Stop," Mae laughed as he tickled her sides, "Come on! I've got to get ready for work!"
"Okay okay I'll stop but I have to go now too. Rip's probably already thinking of ways to kick my ass for being late," Ryan chuckled.
"Aww, you'd risk an ass-whooping for me?" Mae teased.
"Yeah so be grateful," he responded with a teasing smirk as he kissed her cheek.
"I'll see you later?" Mae asked.
"Definitely, Darlin'."
xxx
John stood off to the side and watched as Rip assigned the wranglers to the horses.
"Alright, here we go. Jake, you're with the sorrel bald face filly with four stocking feet. Ethan, Bay Colt Blaze. Ryan, Colby, you'll be Buckskin filly and dun colt. And Walker you're red rhone, blaze face."
John turned when he realised that Lloyd's name had never been mentioned and turned to see his oldest wrangler with a bruised face and upset expression. John looked at Rip and asked, "Something happen?"
"I'm working it out," Rip replied.
"Yeah, I see that. So can the whole ranch."
"Well they need to see it, Sir," Rip's eyes flashed over to all of the wranglers.
"I don't want to hear about the wildfire that got away from you, just the one you put out," he didn't feel the need or want to take these matters into his own hands when Rip could handle them himself.
"Yes, Sir," Rip replied.
"Whatever he did, don't forget who he is to you. To both of us," John turned to walk away but Rip stopped him.
"Who he is to us, Sir, is the reason why he's still walking," Rip replied before turning away from John. John looked at the man, not understanding what could have happened between the men when his phone started ringing.
John listened as Kayce told him about the violent protest outside of the livestock commissioner's office.
"Ah jeez. Alright, I'm on my way," he replied before hanging up the phone. He turned and looked at the wranglers and called out to the livestock agent, "Ryan! Let's go work for the state."
"What happened?" Ryan asked confused as he walked up to John.
"I don't even know how to explain it," John grumbled as the two walked to one of the trucks.
While the two were driving off of the ranch and towards Bozeman, John couldn't help but notice the nervous expression on Ryan's face and how his fingers couldn't stop twitching. He watched as Ryan opened his mouth to say something and then closed it, approximately five times.
"Oh for fucks sake, just spit it out, Son," John sighed.
"There's something I want to talk to you about, well more like ask you but I don't think now is the right time," Ryan sighed.
John smirked as he watched Ryan lift his hat and wipe the nervous sweat off of his forehead. There's only one question an in-love cowboy would have that gets him all nervous like this.
"I'll tell you what, after we sort out this mess, we'll go get a drink and you can talk all you want," John offered.
"Thank you, Sir," Ryan replied as they pulled up to the protest.
xxx
"What a fucking shit show," John grumbled as he and Ryan pulled up to the diner.
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like that before," Ryan replied as the two got out of the truck and walked into the diner.
"People are always going to defend what they believe in, even if their logic is flawed. The people today believe that our way of life is archaic and they depict us as these monsters without knowing our story. They're misinformed and the best way to combat it is to educate them."
"Too bad most of them are too stubborn to be educated," Ryan scoffed.
John chuckled, "Yeah, well aren't we the same? We don't care enough to be educated by them either."
"Yeah that's true, I guess," Ryan replied.
John flagged down the waitress and ordered two beers before turning to face Ryan, "So what did you want to talk about?"
"I-I um I've been seeing your daughter for a couple of years now and I've known that she was the one for a long time. I love your daughter and I want to marry her more than anything. I wanted to talk to you today because I want your blessing to marry her," Ryan explained as he fiddled with the label of his beer and looked John in the eye.
"Son, you've had my blessing since the day you asked me if you could date my daughter and you've proved my point every single day since. My daughter has been her happiest with you and even through all of the recently terrible times, you've managed to help her through it and bring a smile to her face. You're good for my daughter and I would be honored to call you my son-in-law," John told him with a small smile on his face.
"Thank you, Sir, so much," Ryan grinned, "I promise I'm going to give her the life she deserves."
"I know you will, Son. Now how many people did you ask this time before you asked me?"
"None this time," Ryan chuckled as he shook his head, "This time I started with the most important blessing."
"That's more like it. Do you have a ring in mind?" John asked.
"Yeah, I do. As you know, I was raised by my grandparents, when they passed my grandma left me her ring with clear instructions to customize it for my future wife," John smiled as he watched how excited Ryan became when talking about Mae and the ring. He never had this with Kayce, Rip, or Lee and he never will have that with Jaime. He didn't know what he was missing until right at this moment and he appreciated that he could have this with Ryan. Ryan pulled the ring out of his pocket and showed it to John.
"It's beautiful but not really Mae's taste," John told Ryan as he took the ring from him.
"I know, I have an idea to customize it," Ryan assured him.
"Oh yeah?"
John asked and smirked as he took a sip of his beer and listened to Ryan explain his plans for the ring.