TITLE: You Can Run But You Can't Hide
AUTHOR: Kirsten T.
FEEDBACK: robin-t@clear.net.nz
COMMENTS: Second in the Curly series
DISCLAIMER: The Young Riders belong to UA/MGM Television

You Can Run But You Can't Hide

By Kirsten T

The sun cast a blinding ray through the window and onto Amanda's sleeping
face. Amanda groaned and rolled over, pulling her pillow over her head. It
couldn't possibly be morning already, it seemed as though she had only just
got into bed. At least since she had brought the saloon, she had a choice of
who she woke up beside.

Jimmy was still sleeping peacefully beside her. It was as if he could sleep
through anything. They had managed to keep their relationship a secret from
everyone in Abilene and it hadn't been easy. Jimmy would wait until everyone
had left the saloon and then he would come in the back door that Amanda had
left open, locking it behind him before quietly making his way upstairs to
her room. Jimmy never judged her by her past and for once in her life she
actually got some respect in a town, even though the town itself was
somewhat less than respectful.

"Is it morning already?" Jimmy rolled over and wrapped his arms around
Amanda.

"Yes." Amanda's voice was muffled by her pillow. "I vote we stay in bed all
day and just tell everyone in town to behave themselves."

Jimmy chuckled before leaning over to kiss her bare shoulder. "It's a nice
thought but I don't think that's ever going to happen in this town."

Amanda peered out from under her pillow. "I guess you're right. Come on,
I'll make you a cup of coffee before someone comes looking for you."

The morning passed quietly enough, Jimmy even had time to stop by the saloon
for lunch. For once the townspeople of Abilene didn't seem to want to cause
any trouble.

The sun was just starting to set when Jarod Riggs rode into town. Riggs
liked to think of himself as important, but at the end of the day, he was
just a thug. He enjoyed beating up whores. He figured because he paid them,
he was entitled to do anything he liked to them. He had been chased out of
more than one whorehouse despite offering outlandish amounts of money to
turn a blind eye. He had acquired a limp, (which became worse when it got
cold.) when he had tried to beat Amanda O'Connell. She had pulled a gun out
of her boot and shot him. Riggs had, had to be carried out of the
whorehouse. When he was finally able to walk back into the whorehouse,
Amanda was gone and nobody seemed to know where she had gone to. His injury
unfortunately, hadn't slowed him down. He had gone from town to town leaving
a trail of battered women behind him. He had no intention of Abilene being
any different.

It was such a quiet night that Amanda left one of her girls in charge for
the night. She and Jimmy decided to make the most of the beautiful night and
go for a walk. Jimmy still had trouble believing the lovely and smart woman
walking beside him wanted to be with him. There was only one other woman to
whom his reputation made not a bit of difference. But Lou had married his
best friend instead. Looking at Amanda's beautiful face, he could actually
see some sort of future laying ahead for him. "Penny for your thoughts." Her
sexy voice interrupted his vision of a happy and safe life.

"You bid to high, for such idle thoughts." He grinned and wrapped his arm
around her shoulders.

"They didn't look that idle to me." Amanda smiled at Jimmy's blushing face,
but didn't push for any extra information. Jimmy was a man of few words but
he more than made up for it with his actions.

As if reading her thoughts, Jimmy pulled her closer, his kiss like an
explosion of pent-up passion. Love was something that neither spoke of, but
felt for each other. The sound of fast approaching footsteps jerked them
both back to their senses.

"Marshall, Amanda. Thank God I found you both. Some idiot is beating one of
the girls up at the saloon. He's got himself and Katerina locked up in one
of the rooms. The Deputy tried to get in there but he got shot." Adam,
Amanda's barman had run so hard, he could hardly get the words out.

The threesome raced back to the saloon, only to find a crowd of people at
the base of the stairs looking up towards the sound of the petrified
screams. Jimmy's Deputy sat in the corner having his shoulder patched up by
the local doctor. Just as Jimmy was wondering why everyone was at the bottom
of the stairs instead of the top, an arm appeared firing a loaded gun down
the stairs. This was ridiculous. It was only one man, yet he had managed to
keep everyone distanced from him. Jimmy mad his way out side with Adam
following him.

"Do you have any idea which room they're in, Adam?" Jimmy looked up at the
lit windows, searching for the incriminating shadows.

"Yeah, the third from the right." Adam pointed to the one darkened window.
"I'm guessing he's done this before. He's not leaving much to chance."

"That doesn't help me or the girl that he has in there much, does it?" Jimmy
gave his over eager friend a filthy look. If he broke in the window, he
would leave himself open. "Come on, I have an idea."

Adam frowned, but followed Jimmy to the side of the Saloon. "Has Amanda had
the lock on the door to that room fixed yet?"

Adam shook his head. "No, it still falls open after about five minutes. None
of the girls use that room at the moment."

"Well, that's the way we're getting in." Jimmy climbed up onto the roof and
made his way over to the room next door to the room that Riggs was in with
the girl. Climbing in the window, closely followed by Adam, he made his way
to the door. As he opened the door, they heard the door next to them open as
Riggs walked out to fire a few more shots down the stairway. Jimmy got a
shot off, winging Riggs, driving him back into the room. A second shot
knocked him backwards through the window.

"Adam, get the girl!" Jimmy raced to the window, only to see Riggs racing
down the street, out of range for a decent shot.

Making his way downstairs, Jimmy found Amanda tending to the injured girl.
Riggs had beaten her unconscious. "How bad is it?" Jimmy could barely
recognize Katerina, so swollen was her face from the beating. There didn't
appear to be one inch of her that wasn't covered in bruises that were
turning purple by the minute.

Amanda looked up at him. "It doesn't look good, Jimmy. I'd be happier if she
was awake. The doctor's gone to get some more supplies. He thinks that she
may be bleeding from the inside."

"He can't have gotten far. I got two shots into him, so he's probably
leaving a trail of blood for us to follow." Jimmy was hoping that this was
some reassurance for Amanda, but he could tell by the look on her face that
she knew as well as he did, that this man would leave nothing to chance and
go to great lengths to cover his tracks.

"Are you going to try and follow him tonight?" Amanda was worried. Katerina
was staying unconscious far too long and Amanda wasn't sure that her friend
would make it through the night.

"Yeah. I want to catch up to him before he gets too far." Jimmy hated to
leave her at a time like this, but he would be more use to Amanda if he
caught this guy and stopped him from hurting another woman.

Amanda nodded. This brought back too many bad memories that she thought she
had left behind her long ago.

The night seemed to drag on forever. Jimmy and Adam had found a trail of
blood, but it suddenly stopped and no sign could be found to Riggs'
whereabouts. Jimmy wanted to catch this guy so bad. He had seen something in
Amanda's face tonight that he had never seem before: Fear.

"I'm sorry Amanda. There was nothing I could do. That fellow beat her too
much, she was bleeding inside." The doctor patted Amanda's hand. The old man
had seen a lot of pain in his lifetime, but the blatant cruelty forced on
Katerina left him at a loss for words.

Amanda nodded her head. "I know you did your best Doc." She sadly turned and
walked out of the Saloon. She would not cry in front of them, she was
stronger than that. She would refuse to let anyone see her as weak. As she
stood around the side of the saloon where no one could see her, she let the
cool night air flow over her as the tears ran down her face. Katerina had
been so young and sweet. How could life be so cruel to someone so kind.
Amanda wiped the tell tale tears way with the back of her hand. It was then
that she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She was being
watched. Cautiously, she started to make her way back to the door of the
saloon, when a hand clamped across her mouth and another hand grabbed her
around the waist pulling her back into the darkened passage. "Well, well,
well. We meet again Amanda." The sneering voice from the past echoed in
Amanda's ear.

Spinning her around roughly to face him, Riggs grin displayed everything
evil in him. His eyes traveled down her body slowly, making Amanda feel as
though she were covered in grease.

"It seems I should have aimed higher when I shot you." Amanda would not show
Riggs the fear that she felt. Where the hell was Jimmy.

"I won't make the same mistake twice with you." Riggs ran his hand down her
leg and reached into her boot to retrieve the gun she had hidden there.
"Some things never change." He was laughing at her. The laughter fell from
his face as he pulled back his arm to punch her. But as he swing his arm,
Amanda ducked. Riggs yelped in pain as his fist hit the Saloon wall.

Amanda firmly planted her knee in Riggs' groin before making a run for it,
leaving Riggs doubled over. Riggs' fury was greater than his pain and he was
not going to let Amanda beat him twice and get away with it. It wasn't hard
for him to catch up with Amanda given the fact that she was somewhat
handicapped with her long skirt tangling round her legs as she ran. Just as
she made it to the main street, Riggs leapt for her knocking them both to
the ground. Amanda put all of her strength behind her arm, bringing her
elbow back into Riggs' injured shoulder, knocking him backwards off of her
screaming in pain.

Amanda got up and started to run again when she heard her name being yelled.
Turning she saw Jimmy and Adam running towards her. Just as Riggs got close
enough to jump on her again, Jimmy tossed a rifle to her. As Riggs leapt
into the air, Amanda caught the rifle, spun around and fired. Riggs dropped
to the ground, dead.

Amanda stood over Riggs "You're right. Some things never change. You still
took me for granted." Tossing the rifle back to Jimmy, she turned and walked
back into the Saloon.

Jimmy had a couple of men remove the body from the street. The sun was
starting to rise and he had no intention of having a rotting corpse lying in
the street when the children dame through on the way to school. When he was
finally able to return to the saloon, he found Amanda starring into a cup of
coffee. Silently he poured himself a cup of coffee before sitting down next
to her.

"It's true, you know." Amanda's voice broke the silence although her gaze
never left the cup of steaming coffee.

"What's true?" Jimmy frowned at her. He felt as though he had missed a
rather large part of the conversation they were having.

"You can run but you can't hide. At least not for long anyway." She quietly
sipped her coffee, still avoiding his gaze.

"You knew him, didn't you?" Jimmy's brain was working overtime putting the
pieces of this on going puzzle together.

Amanda looked into the worried brown eyes starring at her, searching for the
answers to unspoken questions. "I wouldn't say that we knew each other. He
paid a lot of money one time to basically do what he did to Katerina. The
only thing was, I had other plans and I shot him and then made a run for it.
Figured if I ran far enough, I'd never see Jarod Riggs ever again. Guess I
was wrong."

Jimmy shook his head. He knew Amanda had, had it tough but this had been far
beyond what he had imagined. "How badly did he hurt you."

Amanda shrugged her shoulders. "Not as bad as he hurt Katerina but a lot
worse than I hurt him."

Jimmy pulled her close. "you know it's all right if you want to have a good
cry. If anyone deserves it, you do."

Amanda's whole body shook as she sobbed into Jimmy's shoulder. She was
exhausted, they both were. Jimmy carefully picked her up and carried her
upstairs. By the time they got to her room, Amanda had fallen asleep. It had
been a long hard day for both of them. Jimmy gently put her to bed and
kissed her on the forehead before settling down in the chair next to her
bed. "Well, tomorrow's a fresh day. Let's hope it's a good one." Jimmy
closed his eyes. "Sweet dreams, Amanda."

THE END