A Red Leaf & Ten Orchids

**I thought I'd put this up while I'm working on the next part of "The Sighs of the Priestess".

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'll just say that while they don't loathe each other, there are still uh, issues hiding here and there for Joshua and Kayla. ~grin~ They're just not in this chapter.

As always, I welcome comments and constructive criticism. O_o

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Between them, Kayla and Josh had a coat of primer on in little time. Kayla had to go around touching up small spots that Josh had missed. He apologized, but she wasn't having any of it. "I can't go as fast as you. I don't mind it if I have to get a lick of paint in on some of those spots."

Josh admitted that he missed some on purpose because he liked watching her get all ballerina-like to get at them. He retracted the statement when she threatened a paint fight.

Rosie had pulled out the stops for dinner, and for desert she brought out the birthday cake that they'd bought. Jilly was thrilled. She didn't think she was going to have a birthday this year because of the move and all. She also knew that her aunt was struggling to keep everything together, and had to watch her money until they got settled. It was tough for her, but she did it anyway, and told herself that meeting Daisy had been a pretty good birthday present all by itself.

Jillian was talking to Rose when she noticed that Kayla and Josh were gone. She looked around, and asked Rose where they went. Rose smiled and suggested that they go look for them in the bunkhouse. So they went together, and Jillian opened the door.

Josh and Kayla stood smiling side by side in front of the bike. Jillian could see something behind them, but she wasn't sure what she saw until Kayla and Josh stepped apart. Jillian shrieked and since Josh was new to little girls, he hadn't braced for it. He was amazed that there were no broken windows. They wheeled the bike outside for her, and she stared at it for about 3 minutes. Kayla gave her the helmet and got it adjusted for a slightly loose fit. Jillian noticed, and asked her to tighten it a bit, but Josh said that a tiny bit of room would be needed.

He took the helmet, and showed her the ball cap. Kayla told her that it was the "real deal", and pointed to the logo, explaining that the name stood for a kind of motorcycle. Josh put the hat on Jillian, and fit the helmet over top. The fit on everything was perfect. The little girl took about eighteen seconds to get settled on the bike, and she was off riding around the big yard, with Daisy in pursuit. The three adults had as much fun as the the two of them.

Jillian hugged and thanked them all. She'd never dreamed of a better birthday. When she hugged Josh tightly and kissed him, he thought he'd gotten a glimpse at something that he'd never experienced, and it was an epiphany to him. When Kayla sidled up to him and whispered "Way to go, Josh," he admitted that he'd never felt anything like that before.

Later on, when the Jillian was out on the couch, the grownups sat on the porch and had a beer. Kayla noticed the binoculars on the table. She glanced at the driving shed windows and thought about how they could prove useful out here.

Joshua looked over at Kayla and said cautiously "I've been thinking about some things that the two of you said to me at different times today. Rosie told me that Jilly needed a place for a childhood, and you mentioned that Jilly wasn't very girly, and I'm taking that to mean that you might have a bit of a tomboy on your hands."

Both women listened expectantly.

Josh sensed that he might have entered a minefield, so he proceeded cautiously.

"I don't know a thing about raising kids, ladies, so put down the war clubs.

Jilly should be whatever she wants to be, and it's none of my business anyway. It's just that if she's very active, you ought to be prepared for a lot of skinned knees and chipped teeth in a place like this, that's all I'm saying. I've only known her for two days, and I think she's the greatest kid I've ever met. I'm just saying that she's got a bike now and I know what'll happen at some point.

If she falls down in front of me, and doesn't break anything, I'm going to look everywhere but at her to give her time to suck it up. I won't make a fuss over her. Once she's got it together, we'll carry on with whatever we were doing."

Kayla looked at him over the neck of the bottle. "Joshua, that's how I've been trying to handle it since Aunt Rose told me that was the better way. I've seen for myself that it works over the past year. Now I don't doubt your intentions, but I think that if you saw her go down in a cloud of dust, you'd break the world speed record to get to her. Let's just see, shall we?"

Josh looked over with raised eyebrows and an indignant smile. "Rosie, what does she mean by that?"

Rose smiled and said, "It means Joshua, that she thinks you're full of crap, and I agree with her." she laughed.

Afterward, Josh brought the empties inside, and returned with Sam's pistol. "Well, I'm going to take my wounded male pride and go clean this old cannon out. I'll lock it back up when I'm done Rosie." he said, walking toward the shed.

Rosie and Kayla watched him walk away. Kayla said quietly "Bart was right about the girls at the market."

Rose smiled and said, "I know it. Josh never says anything, but I know it embarrasses the heck out of him to go shopping there. He says it takes forever for him to get clear of those hens. And most of them are married, too. You could do needlepoint by the glow of their smiles. It's disgusting."

Kayla laughed and said that once she'd figured it out, she was looking for the non-stick pan spray in case she needed to hose him down. They both laughed.

Kayla said, "There's no need now that I know roughly where it is, but if you want, I wouldn't mind going grocery shopping with him again sometime. Those ladies are a mile off, but I've got to admit I enjoyed the ego boost."

Rose nodded. "I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall just after the two of you had left. But don't sell yourself short, Kayla. You two look really good together. It might not be quite a mile, I think. You're not looking like you want to kill him quite as much."

Kayla smiled at the ground for a moment and Rose said that it felt great to have all of them there. It had been so lonely over the last year.

Kayla said, "I want to thank you for what you're doing to help us. This is just wonderful. Jilly's having a ball, and I feel a lot better too. I never realized how seldom I've laughed until now. You just have to make one comment and I'm at least chuckling, and just watching Jilly and Daisy is usually good for a laugh before too long. I think Joshua had me laughing most of the day... well except when I almost fainted in the bunkhouse from the heat in there. But Josh was on top of it right away and cooled me down with water and wet towels. He was so concerned and serious."

Rose stared, "You almost fainted? Kayla ..."

"My fault," she shrugged. "We just didn't want any dust blowing in while the paint is wet, so the windows are closed up. Josh seems to be able to work just fine in the heat, but --"

"But you're not, because you dress like it's not summer in New Mexico?" Rose's face was revealing a little of what she thought.

"It won't happen again Aunt Rose," Kayla said, "now that I know what to watch out for. Josh showed me where the thermostat for the air conditioning is, and after the painting is over with, he'll make sure that all of the windows will open and close easily. There's one that even he can't budge. He was talking about trying to replace the whole thing at some point, but the rest work, he's pretty sure. He told me that if he sees me get like that again, then he won't let me in there until the painting is finished and the windows will open."

She smiled, "He's a really great guy. He thought that I was uncomfortable because of him. He tried hard to put me at ease because he took it personally. I'll admit I was a bit put off of him the first time I met him, with that lightning bolt face tattoo of his and all, but -- "

"Scar." Rose said quietly.

Kayla's eyes widened..

"What?"

"That's not a tattoo," Rose said, "It's what's left of a scar after a lot of plastic surgery. He fell against a hot steam radiator when he was two. He was wedged against it and couldn't move. By the time his mother got to him, his face was burned on the left side from his forehead to his cheek. His folks took him to a plastic surgeon, and he had some operations during his childhood. The surgeons could only do so much with the grafts every time because he was growing and allowances had to be made for that. That's why it's that shape, to allow for his facial movements.

The final operation to graft it closed it was supposed to be done once he reached eighteen or twenty years of age, but by then his folks didn't have the money for it. Since he'd had the disfigurement for his whole life, he's just accepted it and it's been like that ever since.

A lot of people are put off by him at first. They think he's crazy, or trying to look like a hard case. He's been shy his whole life because of it. He jokes about it though, says it 's kept him humble."

Kayla was stunned. "You mean he went through childhood with a burn scar on his face?"

"Pretty much the whole left side," Rose nodded, "From what he told me - the one time that he told me the whole thing, the way that it looks now is how it's been since he was almost sixteen. He said it looked a lot worse before that. That was the last operation that he had, and it was done that way to prepare for the final one that never happened. He let me touch it once, and you can't really feel the edges. He jokes that he can get a lot more mileage out of a razor because his beard doesn't grow there."

Kayla shook her head, "That must have been horrible. And kids can be very cruel. I can't even imagine what that must have been like for him. He must have really suffered through adolescence. I feel terrible for him..."

Rose got up to bring them each another beer. They sat for a few minutes in silence until Kayla spoke up.

"Well, I like it."

Rose looked over with a small smile. "You do, huh?"

Kayla nodded, "Yup. Scar or not, he's the best-looking man I've ever met, hands down, now that I know him. It sure gives him a bit if an edge when you first meet him, but it really doesn't take anything away from his looks to me."

She stopped for a moment, "I think it even adds to how he looks to me. When I went to look for Jilly this morning, I found her up in his loft there and she was staring at him smiling while he was sleeping. I shooed her out of there quick, but then I couldn't take my eyes off him myself. I'm pretty sure that he was awake while I was looking at him, but it doesn't really matter. If he was awake, he couldn't have been for more than a minute by then.

I was looking at his face, Aunt Rose, and it was all that I could do to keep myself from touching him."

She was a little embarrassed as she continued, "Don't you dare tell him any of this, but I really wanted to kiss his face right there in that spot, and I hadn't even apologized to him yet."

She chuckled to herself, "It was the strangest thing. It's not exactly the way that I am with men, you know? I'm a hell of a lot thornier than that. But with him lying there like that, - and I'll admit this is pretty crazy, even for me, but for just one moment, ... I felt, ..."

She exhaled, deciding just to say it. "I felt like he was mine. I can't even say that it was like a fanciful thought or a wish. It was just something that was there, as though I knew it like it was a fact.

I can tell you, that was a really weird feeling, for damn sure. But it did feel pretty nice.

Then he opened his eyes and we sort of apologized to each other. He wasn't upset that I was there, with me dressed and him, ... well, half-covered by a sheet. I realized that we could likely talk about anything anytime, him and me. It felt good."

Rose looked a little pleased and surprised at the same time, "It was that strong?"

Kayla chuckled, "I'm actually trying hard not to sound like a 14 year-old girl, but I'm telling you, it was that strong to me. For just a few seconds, I knew what it might be like to have a man like that. I've never felt anything like it before. I tried to argue it all away in my head, but after all of that, he was still there, and so was that feeling. I didn't really feel like I was intruding so much as I felt as though I'd just found the right place." She blushed bright red and busied herself with sipping her beer and toying with peeling off the label.

"A long, long time ago," Rose said softly, "I was confused over what I felt for a man. I asked your grandmother about it, and she told me that if I ever found the right one for me, that I'd just know it. I thought about what she told me, and then I ditched the boy that I was seeing that day," she laughed.

"But two boyfriends and a year later, I met Sam and I just knew."

"Well I don't know if what I was feeling was the same thing, Aunt Rose, " Kayla smiled a little, "I just knew that I had to get back here for breakfast, and I have Jilly to think about, and all of that, but if it was just him and me alone there, I'm almost sure that I'd have just crawled into the bed there with him and held him. It was almost all that I could think of. Well, besides the other thing, And the damndest thing is, that I'm almost sure that he'd have let me hold him like that and that would have been it."

Rose nodded, "I think that's what I was trying to say. Maybe the supermarket hens are only a half-mile off?"

Kayla shook her head. "Let's just say that I'm a long way from wanting to shoot him now. I think I can say that we can be friends. I doubt that he felt like I did. He just woke up and found the crazy lady looking at him. It must have been a hell of a shock. I'd bet that he was afraid to move until he'd figured out that I wasn't there to kill him in his sleep."

She sipped her beer for a moment. "And anyway, he won't be here for long, so I'm just going to file that little moment away."

Rose gently prodded Kayla back to herself. "Kayla honey, you're going to have to come to grips your own problem sooner or later. You could suffer through the summer, it'll start to cool off in a few more weeks, but it will still be there. Look, you're out in the middle of nowhere, and you're with people who care about you. Seems to me that ought to be the first place to try."

Kayla looked down. "You're right, Aunt Rose, I know it. It's really tough, you know? What about Josh? What'll he do when he knows I belong in a sideshow?"

Rose put her hand on Kayla's shoulder. "You know that's not true. Stop talking yourself under a rock. You need to make an adjustment in your head, a small one to start, and stop kicking yourself. You need to like yourself Kayla. Don't worry about Joshua. You don't know it yet, but he'll support you in this. It sounds like he was already trying to do that without even knowing what was wrong. Think about that. Am I right or not?"

Kayla agreed. "Yes, he tried awfully hard, alternating between trying to make me laugh, and using horse sense."

"Kayla," Rose said, "You need to try. Something at least. Josh can help you fit into this town, so he'd be a logical start to see how it goes. He's not judgmental, so you don't have that to fear from him. Really he's not. He accepts people the way they come, and I think now you can see why. If nobody else can understand, Joshua will. But you need to get him involved for him to help."

Rose looked over at her niece, "There's something else you should know about him. He's incredibly observant. Even if you don't let him in on it, he'll figure it out eventually."

"Well THAT certainly takes the pressure off." Kayla looked at the dirt and sighed. "I just need a bit of time to get our feet down. Then I'll have a clear head for it, ok?" Kayla asked.

"Whatever you say, honey." Rose said. "So you've apologized to each other?"

Kayla looked up. "Yes. We declared a truce before breakfast, and then sort of apologized to each other on the way to town. Right now though, I think I need to thank him for today. He went all out, and I really appreciate it. I think I made my first friend out here through him. He introduced me to Margarita at the cantina."

"Oh, I like her, but after I've spent any time there she makes me feel tired afterward. She's got so much energy, I can't keep up." Rose smiled as she got up to go inside.

Kayla pouted slightly in thought. "Aunt Rose, was Joshua's wife named 'Patricia'?"

Rose thought a moment, and said, "No, I'm almost certain that her name was Janice, why?"

"Nothing, I guess."

Rose went inside, and Kayla walked slowly toward the driving shed. She decided that her aunt was right. Again.

But this was hard for her. She'd made so many mistakes in her life it was a wonder that she'd lived this long. She shook off that line of thought, knowing very well where it was headed. She had gotten herself and Jilly this far, and thanks to Rose she could start over here.

She thought of Joshua. The guy is definitely different, she concluded. He was so caring. He had great looks, even with the scar, she observed. It's a part of him, she thought to herself, and he did seem to have good parts...

She came to a decision. She'd make a small start right now. She stopped as she undid the tie in her hair and shook it loose. Then she undid the collar button on her shirt, and the one below that. Really it was nothing. She didn't do it for anyone but herself. But for Kayla it was a start.

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Joshua had changed his mind. He decided to finish cleaning the gun tomorrow. He'd carefully stripped the old Colt down completely. It was now a jumble of loose parts lying on a few rags on the workbench. The fall into the dust had necessitated this, rather than just a normal cleaning.

He removed the wooden plates from the grip, and set them aside. Everything else he placed carefully into the parts washer. He turned it on briefly just to get all of the parts totally wetted with the solvent. He switched it off again, and then closed and locked the lid. Even completely disassembled, it was still a firearm, after all. He wiped his hands, turned out the light, and stood for a moment in the pitch black, lost in thought.

A small sound outside caused him to look up. After a few seconds, he saw Kayla's silhouette outlined by the moonlit sky in the doorway as she stepped tentatively inside. Josh began to breathe silently through his mouth. If she kept walking forward, she'd walk right into him and probably freak out. If he spoke now to warn her, it would have the same effect, though probably not as pleasant or painful for him if he let her keep walking, depending on how she'd react to the shock.

He decided that it would probably hurt. He stepped to the side on the soft dirt floor, and moved forward, putting his weight on the outside edges of his boots first, and stopping each time Kayla stopped. He actually passed within three feet of her, and slipped outside. He leaned gently on the grill of the Expedition as he thought about her shape and smiled. Even though she was fully clothed, he recognized the unintended effect that she had. The girl was like a dream. He lit a cigarette to let her know that she wasn't alone.

Kayla was definitely getting weirded out. She hadn't really been inside the driving shed since she was a girl not much older than Jillian. It had never seemed so foreboding then, because it was usually warmed by the presence of her uncle. Then again, she thought, she'd never been in it after dark before.

Why were the lights off? Where was Joshua? She kept taking cautious steps forward, afraid that she might fall over some piece of equipment that her uncle Sam had in here. Finally, she'd had enough of it. Rather than call his name, she decided that he must have gone to bed. She was just turning around to leave, when she heard the scratch of a cigarette lighter, and saw a glow reflected on one of the open doors. It was gone with a click. "I'm out here." Joshua called softly.