Murdoch stopped in the entranceway, shrugged off his jacket and slowly removed his gun belt. He held his hands to his back and grimaced as he stretched out his tight muscles. These long days in the saddle were getting to him, not that he'd admit it to anyone, especially his sharp tongued sons.

The lights were flickering down low. `Teresa,' he thought and a smile graced his lips. He walked through the dimly lit house to the kitchen and wearily sat at the kitchen table to eat the meal waiting for him.

He picked at his food as his thoughts drifted to his sons. `So different and so alike.' Johnny was the one that set his temper boiling, but his sense of humor and kind nature had won him over. Scott's intellect and calmness drew them together, but he had learned very quickly that Scott could be tough as leather when it came time to defend his convictions.

He had watched them today. Working together to get the job done. More than once, he'd almost growled at them to stop fooling around and get back to work. Teasing and taunting each other, they were testing their new found brotherhood. Challenges were thrown around the branding corrals today but he could see the closeness that had sprung up.

These two sons of his may have been kept apart by circumstance but they were growing closer together by choice and Murdoch was content.

The End
June 2004