Mae and Ryan heard the backdoor of the house slam shut as they walked down the stairs. Mae spent the previous night with Ryan in the bunkhouse and just came up to shower and get dressed.
"Who the fuck are you?" They heard Beth ask.
"Who the fuck are you?" An unfamiliar voice bit back.
They walked into the kitchen to see Beth grab a knife and stalk after the unknown girl.
"This is our house so now I'll ask, who the fuck are you or should I just let her mutilate you?" Mae asked the woman about Beth's age, only wearing her dad's shirt.
"Aren't you that girl that protested outside of Kayce's office? The protest with all the paint?" Ryan asked as he stood behind Mae with an arm wrapped around her middle.
"I'm sorry I didn't know he was married! Or in whatever quad relationship this is," the girl shouted in shock as she stumbled away from the three.
"Quad?" Ryan whispered to Mae in question.
"Four people polyamorous relationship," Mae replied and he nodded but still looked very confused.
John walked in and slammed his coffee cup on the table, "Here's a situation I couldn't have dreamed up in a month of Sundays. These are my daughters. They can be a little overprotective. That's Mae's partner, Ryan who is finding himself in more and more family drama."
John then walked closer to the girl and told Beth, "Put the knife down, Honey."
"Dad, if you're going to hire a hooker, will you please let me get you a good one?" Beth asked with the knife still raised. Mae and Ryan covered their mouths to stop the laughter that threatened to escape.
"Beth!" John chastised but she only leaned forward and continued to point the knife at the woman.
"Hope you didn't pay full price for that boob job," The woman sneered back.
"Actually, God gave me these for free. Looks like he gave me yours too," Beth grinned.
"We're all-natural, that's more than I can say for your nose," Mae added and Ryan hid his face in her hair to keep his laughter quiet.
"It's seven in the fucking morning! I do not have the energy for this shit. Now put it down! She's a guest in our house." John shouted at all of them and Beth threw down the knife while continuing to stare the girl down.
"I'm calling an Uber," the still unknown woman grumbled as she grabbed her phone.
"No, you're not," Beth replied and Mae added, "You're on the biggest ranch in Montana, about an hour away from any town. Nobody's driving this far to pick up your ass."
"Can you drive me into town, please?" The girl huffed as she asked John.
"Oh just calm the fuck down and have a nice breakfast. And then, yes I'll drive you anywhere you want to go."
"I'll get dressed," she smirked before basically latching her lips onto John's.
"Fucking gross," Mae grumbled and Ryan hummed in agreement as he tightened his hold on her.
"I'm too old for this shit. I'm too old for her. I'm too old for that look you two are giving me. I'm just too old for all of it," John exclaimed.
"I'm going to go warm up your car," Ryan whispered as he took her car keys and left the conversation.
"You weren't too old for some of it," Beth replied.
"You know be nice to her. It doesn't shock me that I must ask you that Beth but Mae? So I'm asking you both, to be nice to her," John asked them both.
Mae crossed her arms over her chest and looked away while Beth sarcastically replied, "Okay, Daddy."
"She held a protest at the Livestock office, threw a rock at your brother, got thrown in jail and I bailed her out for it," John explained.
"And then brought her home and fucked her. Along with your common sense," Beth added.
"We talked 'till late and I offered her a room. Her clothes were covered in pepper spray and paint so I loaned her a shirt. You know Beth, maybe it's best that you don't stay for breakfast," John told his oldest as she walked up to him to pick up her purse.
"Oh Daddy, I wouldn't miss this breakfast for the fucking world," Beth assured him before leaving the kitchen.
"And you?" John asked Mae.
"I have breakfast plans with Liam, Charlie, Avery, and Cowboy at the diner," Mae replied as she continued to look away from him.
"Sweetheart you're supposed to be my good daughter, my nice one," John sighed out.
"Why do I always have to be the nice one? Why does Beth always get a pass when she's mad or upset but the moment I do the same, everyone questions it?" Mae asked.
"Because you're not Beth, you're you. And the you I know wouldn't be so quick to judge someone," John sighed.
"I have reason enough to judge her. She organised a rally to physically attack my brother, threw a rock at him, and then I found her in my father's kitchen only in his shirt. After that when confronted by Beth and me, she immediately turned entitled and made rude comments. As if she has any ground to stand on here. She should be kissing your ass for bailing her out and playing nice with your kids but she struts around here as if she owns the damn place. So yes I am judging her but what pisses me off the most isn't even her, it's you. You let her into this house when it's people like her that are destroying our way of life. They make up this false reality that they so badly want to believe in, make us out as monsters, and refuse to listen to anyone else. I wonder if she even knows how many people's lives have been ruined, and jobs have been lost by her protests. All because she couldn't find anything useful to do with her pathetic life, it's no excuse to ruin the rest of ours."
John didn't have an answer to Mae's speech, he knew that she was right but he also saw something in Summer. There was something different about her.
"Just try to get to know her?" John asked.
"For you, I would do anything even that but I won't hesitate to put her in her place when she even tries to act ungrateful or entitled again," Mae walked up and kissed his cheek before leaving to get to the diner on time.
Neither of the two knew that Summer had been listening to their entire conversation.
xxx
Mae sat down next to Charlie and Liam with Avery and Cowboy across from her.
"So Gator told me about this hippie chick that stayed with your dad last night?" Charlie asked Mae after they all ordered their breakfasts.
"Fucking hell," Mae sighed, "This bitch is one of those activist protestors or whatever the hell you want to call it. Not the type that actually does good, that type I could forgive, but the type that shows up to a place with no permission and makes it violent and chaotic and then has the audacity to be offended when they're called out on their actions."
"What would your Dad be doing with one of those?" Cowboy asked, the distaste clear in his voice.
"I think he's trying to understand her but I don't see much to understand. She threw a violent protest outside of Kayce's office and threw him with a rock," Mae explained.
"Don't take this personally but are you usually so pissed off at his dates?" Avery asked.
"Never. I'm not like Beth, I want him to have a healthy relationship with someone and to one day settle down again. I know that he'll never try and replace our mom. I just don't understand why it had to have been this girl," Mae grumbled as the waitress brought over their food.
"Why don't we change the subject from John's sex life to Charlie's?" Liam grinned as Charlie's cheeks turned bright red.
"Yeah, how's Gator?" Mae teased.
"Fuck you both," Charlie laughed as she threw her napkin at them.
xxx
Mae and Charlie had just finished locking up the vet clinic when Mae's phone rang. It was Ryan.
"Hi, we just locked up," Mae told him.
"Yeah, Darlin' you need to hurry to the ranch."
Mae could hear the anxiety in his voice and felt her heart drop, "Why? What happened?"
"You know how that barrel racer left Lloyd for Walker and how you said you had a feeling they would cause trouble? Well, trouble's finally here. Lloyd threw a knife into Walker's chest," Ryan explained.
"What the fuck! Okay, we just have to grab some things and we'll be right there! Get him seated and whatever you fucking do, don't touch or take out the damn knife!"
Mae hung up and rushed Charlie to open the doors so they could get more equipment. The two rushed everything they needed into Mae's Jeep before speeding to the ranch.
"Fucking hell," Charlie mumbled as she stared at the scene in front of her when the two made it to the bunkhouse.
"Ethan, Jake get our equipment out of the Jeep," Mae ordered as she threw them her keys, "Teeter, Charlie let's move him to sit on that chair."
"What can I do?" the blonde barrel racer asked.
"Nothing just give us some space," Mae replied.
Ethan and Jake entered with everything the two needed and the girls started setting it up.
"It looks like the blade entered just beneath the clavicle," Charlie commented as she looked at the screen that showed them where exactly the blade entered.
"Yeah I'm aware of where it fucking entered, Doc," Walker grunted.
"You don't know fuck all so shut the hell up. We can leave you like this so keep your smart fucking comments to yourself," Mae hissed back. He was the one wrangler that always seemed to get on her nerves.
"Went in just above the lung, didn't penetrate an artery," Mae couldn't tell everyone while Charlie started cleaning around the wound, "Lloyd's got a good aim and you're fucking lucky."
"Can you sterilize the scalpel and get the 0.4 suture ready?" Mae asked Charlie who nodded.
Mae then turned back to Walker, "It looks like the tissue has adhered to the blade. When we remove it there will be a lot of bleeding and discomfort. I'll give you something for the pain."
Charlie handed Mae the shot with anesthesia and she injected him. They waited a few minutes for the anesthesia to kick in.
"Okay you're still going to feel it when we take it out but it's going to hurt a hell of a lot less," Mae assured him.
"Just please get this fucking thing out of me," Walker begged.
"Ready with the gauze?" Mae asked Charlie.
"Ready," she assured as she stood next to Mae with the gauze ready.
"Fuck! Shit, Fuck!"
Mae stopped pulling on the knife when she felt it against something hard, "Shit. It feels like the blade hit a bone."
"Not according to the x-rays!" Charlie panicked as she turned to look at the machine to be sure.
"Just pull it out!" Walker shouted.
"Get it out of him!" the blonde cried from where Mae forced her to stand.
"Shut the fuck up! If something happens to Lloyd tonight don't fucking forget that some of the blame for that and for this is on you! You couldn't keep your damn legs closed," Mae hissed, still fearing what would happen to the old wrangler. Mae took a deep breath before letting go of the knife and turning to the machine, "I need to see the x-ray again."
"Someone pull this fucking thing out of me!" Walker shouted.
Laramie ran over, pushed Mae out of the way causing her to fall, and ripped the knife out of Walker's chest.
"Wow!" Ethan shouted as he and Teeter rushed to help Mae back on her feet.
"Fucking barrel racers," Jake grumbled as he watched the blood pour out of Walker's chest.
Mae got up and immediately started applying pressure to the wound while Charlie got the sutures ready.
"You said pull it, baby," Laramie cried as she attempted to walk over to him again.
"Get out of our fucking way, you've done enough," Charlie pushed the girl to the other side of Walker where she kneeled down next to him.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Just another Monday," Walker grunted out.
Mae started doing the sutures while Charlie held pressure on the wound.
"What the hell was Lloyd thinking," Jake grumbled as he watched the entire situation unfold.
"Can everyone back up, please?!" Mae shouted because it felt like all of them were hovering over her and she couldn't focus on her job.
"Give the lady some fucking space all of you!" Mae heard Ryan's voice shout as he walked back into the bunkhouse after taking Lloyd to Rip. It was like just hearing his voice calmed her down. Everyone backed away except Laramie but Ryan grabbed her and physically carried her out of the way. Mae and Charlie finished their work in silence and then left the bunkhouse.
Mae's eyes landed on Lloyd who was thankfully still alive and she rushed towards him to pull him into a hug, "Please don't ever fucking do anything like that again. I can't fucking lose you too."
"I'm sorry," he apologised.
"You better fucking be," Mae sighed as she let go of him and turned to walk up to the main house. Ryan nodded at him before catching up to Mae.
"Let's get you cleaned up and fed. It's been a long fucking night," Ryan told her.
"I love you," she told him.
"I love you too, Darlin'."