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chase_acow
Cowboy Reputation
SPN RPS Jared & Jensen (and Jeff)
PG-13 for naughty words
~ 3,500 words
Disclaimer: NOT MINE NOT REAL! Also, what I know about horses is not a lot.
A/N: This started out to be my big bang fic for this year, but it was a little more than I could take on. I had planned for more riding and roping (of the Jensen/Jared variety), and maybe an actual cow, but I don't know if I'll ever manage to write it.
“Goddamn it, Jeff,” Jensen cursed, beating his hat against his thigh again. He hated hospitals, the smells, the sounds and the fluorescent lighting all served to put his teeth on edge the moment he stepped into the front door. He’d rather patch himself up with bailing wire than have to spend one second more than he had to flinching at the smell of antiseptic.
Jeff grimaced up from the newly set cast encasing his arm and shook his head. “Sorry, Jen-boy, looks like I’m out for the next several weeks at least,” he said tiredly, shifting in an unyielding metal chair as they waited for the nurse to come back and with another round of release forms. “Piss poor luck’s been following me all year. Stupid little filly.”
The filly Jeff had been gentling had started up at a piece of ribbon curling across the ground and thrown him. Normally it wouldn’t have been that big of deal; Jeff knew how to take falls, but bad luck and an inconveniently placed stack of lumber sent them to the emergency room. Jeff’s arm was busted in three separate places, and the cast went almost from shoulder to wrist. There was no way he’d be able to take the cattle out with Jensen this year.
“Fuck,” Jensen said for probably the hundredth time since the accident had happened. “Fuck.”
“Stop cussing so much, Jensen,” Jeff growled, snatching Jensen’s hat from his fingers with his good arm and swatting Jensen upside the back of head with it. “It makes you sound like a redneck idiot. You’ve got to keep the contract, we can’t afford to renege.”
They’d been doing okay together, drifting between the massive ranches situated through the north and west, picking up jobs wherever they could. The annual gig they’d contracted with the Padalecki Circle Ranch was scheduled to start early the next week. It was two months of riding herd on a moderate head of cattle bringing them in from winter pasture back to the main house for counting and sorting. It was an easy job that financed a goodly portion of their year, and neither their pocketbook nor their reputations could afford to lose it.
“Easy for you to say,” Jensen grumbled, taking his hat back and soothing the brim back into shape before he slapped the cowboy hat on his head and pulled the front down. He hated sounding like a mulish teenager again, but for the last two hours, he’d overwhelming felt like slamming every door he walked through. “You’re not the one that’s going to have to baby-sit.”
“We’re getting paid extra,” Jeff reminded him, picking at a bit of the plaster that hadn’t quite settled right. The lines around his eyes were carved deep from a lifetime in the weather, and showed pain and laughter equally if not usually together. “All you gotta do is make sure he doesn’t break his head and try to talk him out of his foolish college ideas.”
Jensen had been against the idea from the beginning. He and Jeff had been partners for the last six years, they knew how each other worked. Jensen knew what Jeff was thinking just by the way he cocked his hat and turned his eyes. It had saved their lives on more than one occasion, and adding a greenhorn to the mix was just asking for disaster. They hadn’t really been able to say no though, not when Mr. Padalecki offered them twice their usual wage.
They’d be able to set a sizable portion of that over to their savings, and in a couple more years they’d have enough to buy a spread of their own back down south. A bit of a ranch and enough animals to keep them busy, it’d been Jeff’s dream and Jensen had been happy enough to go along with it.
“Right,” Jensen drawled, rolling his eyes and putting his hands on his hips. His boots scuffed on the pristine floor, and he could see a fine level of dust to trace the line of where he’d been pacing. “All while getting the cows off the mountain, keeping the lions at bay, and not losing a finger to frostbite. What could be easier?”
Just then, the nurse walked in with a professional smile plastered on her skin with another handful of papers for Jensen to sign for Jeff. Her little starch-white hat was perched jauntily on her perfectly coiffed blonde hair, and the scent of jasmine invaded the air. She’d kept her eye on Jensen the entire time, making him regress to sixth grade nerves and edge over to keep the bed between them at all times. She had that predatory look of feral cat in heat.
“Here you go, Mr. Ackles,” she purred, her eyes only for him as if he was the patient. She kept her hands on the file even as he went to pull it away. “Just a few more papers to sign and then you and your dad can get back out on your horses.”
Jeff snorted and scowled at both of them, his slightly peppered grey eyebrows curled low over his eyes, “Honey, if that rascal came from these loins, then he’d be a hell of a lot handsomer.”
Jensen rolled his eyes and started signing over all the highlighted blanks.
Jared was sulking in his bedroom. Not that it was going to do any good, but it wasn’t like there was anything else to do the night before his exile. He looked wistfully at his stack of college textbooks and half-filled notebooks lined up on the shelves of his bookcase. If he thought that he could get away with packing one or two he’d have tried, but at best his father would have thrown them out of his packs, and at worst, they’d be tossed into the stove.
Sighing, he paced the confines of his bedroom again; his bare feet sank into the plush carpeting as he walked from window to closet. His cat Jelly watched him from her safe perch on top of the wardrobe, licking her whiskers and flicking her tail. She was a sweet cat, very affectionate, and probably his best friend on the ranch. Maybe even she was his only friend on the ranch.
Most fathers would have been ecstatic that their son had won a full ride to a prestigious university, but Jared’s dad had never wanted anything but for his son to follow in his barely high school graduate footsteps. What would Jared need with a college degree in order to run the ranch? That of course was the base point of their disagreement. Jared wanted nothing to do with the backwards ranch life, and had spent his adolescence dreaming of being somewhere - anywhere else.
He even graduated from high school a semester early so that he could get on with his life. Stanford had accepted him with scholarship over a year ago, and he could have started in January, except that his dad hadn’t let him. He was still a month shy of eighteen, and his dad had decided to try one last attempt to convince Jared to embrace the ranch lifestyle.
That was why, his bags where packed, and in the morning he was setting out on a two month trip with a couple of redneck cowboys off into the wilderness, away from his cat, his books, and any trace of civilization. It was going to be torture. His dad thought that the trip would convince him of the value of hard work and honest living instead of pushing paper and wearing a tie everyday. Jared thought the whole thing was a terrible waste of time.
What he knew about riding horses or herding cows would fit inside his date book, which was also embarrassingly small. The ranch was over an hour and a half away from the nearest major city, and his high school was just a tiny spot in the road that catered to all the farm kids in the area. Jared had taken Kelsey Brooke to his junior year prom, but only because his dad had made him. He felt like his life was on hold already, and this enforced work trip was only making it worse.
Jared sat down at his desk and let his head fall into his hands. As if she was just waiting for him to settle Jelly leaped down from the wardrobe and in three hops managed to get herself up on his lap. She trilled and butted her head into his chest demanding a petting. Jared picked her up with one hand wrapping around her belly and the other running down Jelly’s head.
“Hey girl,” he said holding the cat up so that he could look her in the eye. “Why can’t anything good ever happen to us?”
The cat rumbled in answer, her purring finally bringing a smile to Jared’s face.
Jensen pulled past the main ranch house, a sprawling affair three stories high and more expensive than all the places Jeff and Jensen had stayed at in the last year combined. Standing out on the front porch watching him drive by was his employer Padalecki and a sullen faced boy who Jensen prayed, without much hope, wasn’t the kid he was getting stuck with.
He pulled his truck and trailer around the side of the barn where they always left their rig. Originally the contract said that the Padalecki kid would furnish his own horse, but Sadie and Harley where a cattle herding team so the kid would have to take Jeff’s place on the horse. Both mares knew their jobs better than some of the vaqueros that Jensen had ridden with. It wouldn’t matter what the kid did or didn’t do, the mare would get the job done. That was the only way that Jensen was going up there by himself and be sure to get the job done.
The gears grinded slightly as he clutched down into park and he patted the steering wheel comfortingly. The Chevy had been in Jeff’s family for the last fifteen years, but it had been well taken care of and if it didn’t have a radio, Jensen only really minded when Jeff started crooning to half-remembered lyrics. The heat worked and it got them from point A to point B, and that was the main thing.
He let his hand slide down the outside of the trailer as he walked around the side, he could hear Sadie and Harley shuffling and snorting inside, but they’d have to wait for another few minutes. Jensen walked back toward the ranch house, eyeing the mules tied up to the fence with a weathered eye; their packs didn’t look even enough, and he’d have to check the ropes over again. Drifters like Jeff and him never got the long end of the stick unless they fought for it tooth and nail.
“Jensen!” Mr. Padalecki yelled, striding over the worn down gravel drive to meet Jensen halfway. He always had been one of the more decent ranchers that they’d worked with; had values that went back to the old west. The older man grabbed his hand for a rough shake, squeezing hard and pumping up and down. “Sorry to hear about Jeff.”
“Yeah, accidents happen though,” Jensen said with a grimace, finally extracting his hand and shoving his thumb through a belt loop. He craned his head to both sides until his neck cracked, and he glared over at the sun just peaking over the horizon. “Still, I think I’ll be able to get the job done to your satisfaction.”
Mr. Padalecki grinned and rocked back on his heels, “I’m sure you will son! Here, meet my boy, Jared.”
The boy’s face was still overshadowed by his obvious displeasure of something, but when he turned to Jensen, he made at least an attempt to reign in his sulk. His mouth curled up in a lopsided smirk, and he also held out his hand, but waited for Jensen to take it rather than grab like his father did. His hair was long, curling over his ears, and his skin was fair like he spent most of his time inside.
Jensen tipped his hat back and held out his hand, wincing as he dreaded either a limp-wristed wiggle or a clutching test of manhood like Mr. Padalecki favored. He was pleasantly surprised when Jared’s hand swallowed his own in a dry and warm shake. “Good to meet you, Jared,” he said politely, squeezing a bit and then letting the handshake go.
“Likewise,” Jared answered, and then scowled at his father before he added, “Though I wish it could have been under other circumstances.”
Mr. Padalecki laughed and grabbed both of them by their shoulders in one-armed hugs, steering them over to the pen as they walked. “Don’t mind him, Jensen,” he said, his voice rough with age, “Just get him out there and show him what he’s been missing by spending all his time with a bunch of dusty, boring books, and he’ll come around.”
“Well, he’ll sure see my side of the job,” Jensen promised, noticing the looks of malicious enjoyment on the faces of all the hands watching the exchange. He felt like he was riding over the prairie without really knowing what was hiding underneath the grass let alone over the next rise of land.
Laughing again, Mr. Padalecki pounded Jensen on the back hard enough to stagger him and make him grit his teeth. “That’s all I can ask, boy!” he said loudly, whistling through his teeth. He turned his attention to his son and roughly tangled his fingers into Jared’s shaggy hair. “Try to steer clear of the rattlers, skunks, and poison oak son. You’ll come back a man!”
Jensen let out his own low whistle as he watched Jared shoot daggers at his old man’s back. If looks could kill, that would be one dead hombre. He turned away from Mr. Padalecki’s retreating figure and nudged Jared, they’d need to get a move on soon if they were going to make it to the first station before full dark. “You packed?” he asked shortly.
“Yeah, Kenny put together a kit for me,” Jared said, speaking fast and pointing at a pair of saddlebags leaning against the fence post.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Jensen nodded and walked up to the first mule chewing placidly on a hunk of grass. Kenny was the manager of the ranch, and a no nonsense sort of guy. If he was happy with Jared’s rig, then Jensen was happy with it too. That was one less worry, Jared looked like the kind of guy who’d pack the kitchen sink if he could.
“Wait over there,” Jensen jerked his head back to his trailer and continued on to the mules. Up close, he could definitely see that they were off balanced and poorly fitted. He’d have to leave word with Kenny before they left, that kind of lackluster attention could cost people their lives.
“Fucking, cowpuncher,” one of Padalecki’s regulars muttered at him, spitting a wad of chewing tobacco out at Jensen’s boots. He looked like he hadn’t bathed in a week, with crumbs of breakfast still clinging to his beard and mustache.
Jensen ignored him and started checking over the mule’s rigs, finding several straps and buckles that needed to be tightened and quick fixes to make their loads more comfortable. Out on the trail, there’d be times that those mules and their baggage was the only thing saving them from a cold night and empty bellies. Plus, he always kinda liked them, they didn’t get any glory, but they didn’t ask for it either.
After he finished with the mules, it was just a matter of backing his ladies out of the trailer and gearing them up. Jared stood to the side, watching carefully as Jensen placed blankets, saddles, and bridles and checked all the buckles twice. He was quiet and that suited Jensen just fine, sometimes he and Jeff would go all day only saying two words to each other. He could feel Jared’s eyes on him though, watching as he soothed down the mare’s mane and stroked her nose.
“C’mere, Jared,” he said softly, moving around Sadie’s head and holding the bridle steady. “This’ll be your mare for the first couple of days until you get used to her rhythm. Then we’ll switch over and let you have Harley for a while. That way in case there’s an emergency either one will take you.”
“Okay,” Jared agreed easily and walked over to awkwardly run his fingers down Sadie’s cheek and back up to scratch up behind her ear. Sadie snuffled and stepped closer to Jared, leaning into the caress and startling Jared into a grin. “I think she likes me.”
“Just keep it in your pants, kid,” Jensen teased, surprising himself at the joke. He didn’t usually say things like that out loud. To cover up his discomfort, he walked to the other side, catching up Jared’s bags from where he dropped them and fastening them behind the saddle. “You have ridden before right?”
Jared rolled his eyes, and followed Jensen back keeping the horse between them. “I’m not a child,” he answered, his voice snapping back to the annoyed tone he had used earlier on his father. He shoved his boot into the stirrup and swung his leg over the horse’s rump, just missing Jensen’s head by an inch. “I can keep up.”
Smirking, Jensen tilted his head back, squinting up at Jared’s silhouette outlined against the rising sun. Jared was turning out to be more than just a spoiled little rich man’s son, maybe there was hope that the next couple of weeks wouldn’t suck as hard as he’d feared. At least he had some spunk and wasn’t a rude SOB. Jensen could hack that.
He grabbed Harley’s halter and led her around to the mules so he could fasten their lead behind her saddle. In one smooth moment, he hefted himself up and onto the mare’s back, showing off a little because he knew Jared was watching. He settled in, flexing his knees and letting his thighs settle into a loose sprawl. Harley would take his guidance with a flick of the reins or a nudge of knee or heel just like he’d trained her to back when they first started.
A couple of the ranch hands wolf whistled as Jensen pointed Harley’s head toward the mountains and clucked his tongue at her. The mules followed after a small tug on the leads and fell in line behind him. He turned his head and saw Jared looking back at the house for a moment before Sadie’s restless stamping caught his attention. She tossed her head and the moment Jared squeezed her trunk, she broke into a trot until she pulled up even with Harley.
Jensen smiled in satisfaction as the mares matched strides, and he felt lighter being back on the trail. There had been too much time between long gigs. He still had the stench of the big city hospital in his nose, and it’d take more than just a day to lift the weight off his shoulders, but it was a start. The cool air of morning helped clear his head and gave him an extra push of energy. If Jeff had been to his left, the trail would have been perfect.
As it was, he supposed he’d just have to settle for second best. Jeff would lounge around one of their friend’s house, doing some light work and watching TV for the duration. Jensen would get campfires and saddle sores before going to sleep with the sounds of a wilderness night. He’d get fresh air and complicated herding work to keep his mind busy. Honestly, if Jensen could, he’d wouldn’t go to town more than once a year.
The landscape was gorgeous, just the barest hint of frost on the ground, but that would burn away as soon as the sun was a little higher in the sky. The low mountains to the west were far enough away to look dark and rocky, remains of place and time far less civilized than the present day. Gentle hills and hidden crags filled the pseudo prairie they rode over, good green grass and dark brown earth. Jensen wasn’t much for reading classics, but this was pretty damn close to his paradise lost.
“Can I ask you a question?” Jared asked timidly, after they had ridden silently for about an hour. He was sitting with more ease, but he still watched the back Sadie’s head intently as if he were worried that she’d suddenly start tap dancing.
Jensen rocked in easy rhythm with Harley’s gait and answered carefully, “You can ask.” It wasn’t that he had secrets, but he wasn’t much used to talking about himself with other people. They’d ridden down into a sheltered valley, pebbles bounced down the edges and scrub trees fought for room to put down roots.
Sadie hopped slightly over a bit of uneven ground making Jared grab for his saddle horn with whitening knuckles. When she settled back into her steady plod, Jared finally looked back up, “Do you really punch the cows?”
Jensen’s startled laugh echoed off the tiny canyon’s walls and sent several birds winging off into the sky.
Disclaimer the second: No cows were punched in the making of this fic.
SPN RPS Jared & Jensen (and Jeff)
PG-13 for naughty words
~ 3,500 words
Disclaimer: NOT MINE NOT REAL! Also, what I know about horses is not a lot.
A/N: This started out to be my big bang fic for this year, but it was a little more than I could take on. I had planned for more riding and roping (of the Jensen/Jared variety), and maybe an actual cow, but I don't know if I'll ever manage to write it.
“Goddamn it, Jeff,” Jensen cursed, beating his hat against his thigh again. He hated hospitals, the smells, the sounds and the fluorescent lighting all served to put his teeth on edge the moment he stepped into the front door. He’d rather patch himself up with bailing wire than have to spend one second more than he had to flinching at the smell of antiseptic.
Jeff grimaced up from the newly set cast encasing his arm and shook his head. “Sorry, Jen-boy, looks like I’m out for the next several weeks at least,” he said tiredly, shifting in an unyielding metal chair as they waited for the nurse to come back and with another round of release forms. “Piss poor luck’s been following me all year. Stupid little filly.”
The filly Jeff had been gentling had started up at a piece of ribbon curling across the ground and thrown him. Normally it wouldn’t have been that big of deal; Jeff knew how to take falls, but bad luck and an inconveniently placed stack of lumber sent them to the emergency room. Jeff’s arm was busted in three separate places, and the cast went almost from shoulder to wrist. There was no way he’d be able to take the cattle out with Jensen this year.
“Fuck,” Jensen said for probably the hundredth time since the accident had happened. “Fuck.”
“Stop cussing so much, Jensen,” Jeff growled, snatching Jensen’s hat from his fingers with his good arm and swatting Jensen upside the back of head with it. “It makes you sound like a redneck idiot. You’ve got to keep the contract, we can’t afford to renege.”
They’d been doing okay together, drifting between the massive ranches situated through the north and west, picking up jobs wherever they could. The annual gig they’d contracted with the Padalecki Circle Ranch was scheduled to start early the next week. It was two months of riding herd on a moderate head of cattle bringing them in from winter pasture back to the main house for counting and sorting. It was an easy job that financed a goodly portion of their year, and neither their pocketbook nor their reputations could afford to lose it.
“Easy for you to say,” Jensen grumbled, taking his hat back and soothing the brim back into shape before he slapped the cowboy hat on his head and pulled the front down. He hated sounding like a mulish teenager again, but for the last two hours, he’d overwhelming felt like slamming every door he walked through. “You’re not the one that’s going to have to baby-sit.”
“We’re getting paid extra,” Jeff reminded him, picking at a bit of the plaster that hadn’t quite settled right. The lines around his eyes were carved deep from a lifetime in the weather, and showed pain and laughter equally if not usually together. “All you gotta do is make sure he doesn’t break his head and try to talk him out of his foolish college ideas.”
Jensen had been against the idea from the beginning. He and Jeff had been partners for the last six years, they knew how each other worked. Jensen knew what Jeff was thinking just by the way he cocked his hat and turned his eyes. It had saved their lives on more than one occasion, and adding a greenhorn to the mix was just asking for disaster. They hadn’t really been able to say no though, not when Mr. Padalecki offered them twice their usual wage.
They’d be able to set a sizable portion of that over to their savings, and in a couple more years they’d have enough to buy a spread of their own back down south. A bit of a ranch and enough animals to keep them busy, it’d been Jeff’s dream and Jensen had been happy enough to go along with it.
“Right,” Jensen drawled, rolling his eyes and putting his hands on his hips. His boots scuffed on the pristine floor, and he could see a fine level of dust to trace the line of where he’d been pacing. “All while getting the cows off the mountain, keeping the lions at bay, and not losing a finger to frostbite. What could be easier?”
Just then, the nurse walked in with a professional smile plastered on her skin with another handful of papers for Jensen to sign for Jeff. Her little starch-white hat was perched jauntily on her perfectly coiffed blonde hair, and the scent of jasmine invaded the air. She’d kept her eye on Jensen the entire time, making him regress to sixth grade nerves and edge over to keep the bed between them at all times. She had that predatory look of feral cat in heat.
“Here you go, Mr. Ackles,” she purred, her eyes only for him as if he was the patient. She kept her hands on the file even as he went to pull it away. “Just a few more papers to sign and then you and your dad can get back out on your horses.”
Jeff snorted and scowled at both of them, his slightly peppered grey eyebrows curled low over his eyes, “Honey, if that rascal came from these loins, then he’d be a hell of a lot handsomer.”
Jensen rolled his eyes and started signing over all the highlighted blanks.
Jared was sulking in his bedroom. Not that it was going to do any good, but it wasn’t like there was anything else to do the night before his exile. He looked wistfully at his stack of college textbooks and half-filled notebooks lined up on the shelves of his bookcase. If he thought that he could get away with packing one or two he’d have tried, but at best his father would have thrown them out of his packs, and at worst, they’d be tossed into the stove.
Sighing, he paced the confines of his bedroom again; his bare feet sank into the plush carpeting as he walked from window to closet. His cat Jelly watched him from her safe perch on top of the wardrobe, licking her whiskers and flicking her tail. She was a sweet cat, very affectionate, and probably his best friend on the ranch. Maybe even she was his only friend on the ranch.
Most fathers would have been ecstatic that their son had won a full ride to a prestigious university, but Jared’s dad had never wanted anything but for his son to follow in his barely high school graduate footsteps. What would Jared need with a college degree in order to run the ranch? That of course was the base point of their disagreement. Jared wanted nothing to do with the backwards ranch life, and had spent his adolescence dreaming of being somewhere - anywhere else.
He even graduated from high school a semester early so that he could get on with his life. Stanford had accepted him with scholarship over a year ago, and he could have started in January, except that his dad hadn’t let him. He was still a month shy of eighteen, and his dad had decided to try one last attempt to convince Jared to embrace the ranch lifestyle.
That was why, his bags where packed, and in the morning he was setting out on a two month trip with a couple of redneck cowboys off into the wilderness, away from his cat, his books, and any trace of civilization. It was going to be torture. His dad thought that the trip would convince him of the value of hard work and honest living instead of pushing paper and wearing a tie everyday. Jared thought the whole thing was a terrible waste of time.
What he knew about riding horses or herding cows would fit inside his date book, which was also embarrassingly small. The ranch was over an hour and a half away from the nearest major city, and his high school was just a tiny spot in the road that catered to all the farm kids in the area. Jared had taken Kelsey Brooke to his junior year prom, but only because his dad had made him. He felt like his life was on hold already, and this enforced work trip was only making it worse.
Jared sat down at his desk and let his head fall into his hands. As if she was just waiting for him to settle Jelly leaped down from the wardrobe and in three hops managed to get herself up on his lap. She trilled and butted her head into his chest demanding a petting. Jared picked her up with one hand wrapping around her belly and the other running down Jelly’s head.
“Hey girl,” he said holding the cat up so that he could look her in the eye. “Why can’t anything good ever happen to us?”
The cat rumbled in answer, her purring finally bringing a smile to Jared’s face.
Jensen pulled past the main ranch house, a sprawling affair three stories high and more expensive than all the places Jeff and Jensen had stayed at in the last year combined. Standing out on the front porch watching him drive by was his employer Padalecki and a sullen faced boy who Jensen prayed, without much hope, wasn’t the kid he was getting stuck with.
He pulled his truck and trailer around the side of the barn where they always left their rig. Originally the contract said that the Padalecki kid would furnish his own horse, but Sadie and Harley where a cattle herding team so the kid would have to take Jeff’s place on the horse. Both mares knew their jobs better than some of the vaqueros that Jensen had ridden with. It wouldn’t matter what the kid did or didn’t do, the mare would get the job done. That was the only way that Jensen was going up there by himself and be sure to get the job done.
The gears grinded slightly as he clutched down into park and he patted the steering wheel comfortingly. The Chevy had been in Jeff’s family for the last fifteen years, but it had been well taken care of and if it didn’t have a radio, Jensen only really minded when Jeff started crooning to half-remembered lyrics. The heat worked and it got them from point A to point B, and that was the main thing.
He let his hand slide down the outside of the trailer as he walked around the side, he could hear Sadie and Harley shuffling and snorting inside, but they’d have to wait for another few minutes. Jensen walked back toward the ranch house, eyeing the mules tied up to the fence with a weathered eye; their packs didn’t look even enough, and he’d have to check the ropes over again. Drifters like Jeff and him never got the long end of the stick unless they fought for it tooth and nail.
“Jensen!” Mr. Padalecki yelled, striding over the worn down gravel drive to meet Jensen halfway. He always had been one of the more decent ranchers that they’d worked with; had values that went back to the old west. The older man grabbed his hand for a rough shake, squeezing hard and pumping up and down. “Sorry to hear about Jeff.”
“Yeah, accidents happen though,” Jensen said with a grimace, finally extracting his hand and shoving his thumb through a belt loop. He craned his head to both sides until his neck cracked, and he glared over at the sun just peaking over the horizon. “Still, I think I’ll be able to get the job done to your satisfaction.”
Mr. Padalecki grinned and rocked back on his heels, “I’m sure you will son! Here, meet my boy, Jared.”
The boy’s face was still overshadowed by his obvious displeasure of something, but when he turned to Jensen, he made at least an attempt to reign in his sulk. His mouth curled up in a lopsided smirk, and he also held out his hand, but waited for Jensen to take it rather than grab like his father did. His hair was long, curling over his ears, and his skin was fair like he spent most of his time inside.
Jensen tipped his hat back and held out his hand, wincing as he dreaded either a limp-wristed wiggle or a clutching test of manhood like Mr. Padalecki favored. He was pleasantly surprised when Jared’s hand swallowed his own in a dry and warm shake. “Good to meet you, Jared,” he said politely, squeezing a bit and then letting the handshake go.
“Likewise,” Jared answered, and then scowled at his father before he added, “Though I wish it could have been under other circumstances.”
Mr. Padalecki laughed and grabbed both of them by their shoulders in one-armed hugs, steering them over to the pen as they walked. “Don’t mind him, Jensen,” he said, his voice rough with age, “Just get him out there and show him what he’s been missing by spending all his time with a bunch of dusty, boring books, and he’ll come around.”
“Well, he’ll sure see my side of the job,” Jensen promised, noticing the looks of malicious enjoyment on the faces of all the hands watching the exchange. He felt like he was riding over the prairie without really knowing what was hiding underneath the grass let alone over the next rise of land.
Laughing again, Mr. Padalecki pounded Jensen on the back hard enough to stagger him and make him grit his teeth. “That’s all I can ask, boy!” he said loudly, whistling through his teeth. He turned his attention to his son and roughly tangled his fingers into Jared’s shaggy hair. “Try to steer clear of the rattlers, skunks, and poison oak son. You’ll come back a man!”
Jensen let out his own low whistle as he watched Jared shoot daggers at his old man’s back. If looks could kill, that would be one dead hombre. He turned away from Mr. Padalecki’s retreating figure and nudged Jared, they’d need to get a move on soon if they were going to make it to the first station before full dark. “You packed?” he asked shortly.
“Yeah, Kenny put together a kit for me,” Jared said, speaking fast and pointing at a pair of saddlebags leaning against the fence post.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Jensen nodded and walked up to the first mule chewing placidly on a hunk of grass. Kenny was the manager of the ranch, and a no nonsense sort of guy. If he was happy with Jared’s rig, then Jensen was happy with it too. That was one less worry, Jared looked like the kind of guy who’d pack the kitchen sink if he could.
“Wait over there,” Jensen jerked his head back to his trailer and continued on to the mules. Up close, he could definitely see that they were off balanced and poorly fitted. He’d have to leave word with Kenny before they left, that kind of lackluster attention could cost people their lives.
“Fucking, cowpuncher,” one of Padalecki’s regulars muttered at him, spitting a wad of chewing tobacco out at Jensen’s boots. He looked like he hadn’t bathed in a week, with crumbs of breakfast still clinging to his beard and mustache.
Jensen ignored him and started checking over the mule’s rigs, finding several straps and buckles that needed to be tightened and quick fixes to make their loads more comfortable. Out on the trail, there’d be times that those mules and their baggage was the only thing saving them from a cold night and empty bellies. Plus, he always kinda liked them, they didn’t get any glory, but they didn’t ask for it either.
After he finished with the mules, it was just a matter of backing his ladies out of the trailer and gearing them up. Jared stood to the side, watching carefully as Jensen placed blankets, saddles, and bridles and checked all the buckles twice. He was quiet and that suited Jensen just fine, sometimes he and Jeff would go all day only saying two words to each other. He could feel Jared’s eyes on him though, watching as he soothed down the mare’s mane and stroked her nose.
“C’mere, Jared,” he said softly, moving around Sadie’s head and holding the bridle steady. “This’ll be your mare for the first couple of days until you get used to her rhythm. Then we’ll switch over and let you have Harley for a while. That way in case there’s an emergency either one will take you.”
“Okay,” Jared agreed easily and walked over to awkwardly run his fingers down Sadie’s cheek and back up to scratch up behind her ear. Sadie snuffled and stepped closer to Jared, leaning into the caress and startling Jared into a grin. “I think she likes me.”
“Just keep it in your pants, kid,” Jensen teased, surprising himself at the joke. He didn’t usually say things like that out loud. To cover up his discomfort, he walked to the other side, catching up Jared’s bags from where he dropped them and fastening them behind the saddle. “You have ridden before right?”
Jared rolled his eyes, and followed Jensen back keeping the horse between them. “I’m not a child,” he answered, his voice snapping back to the annoyed tone he had used earlier on his father. He shoved his boot into the stirrup and swung his leg over the horse’s rump, just missing Jensen’s head by an inch. “I can keep up.”
Smirking, Jensen tilted his head back, squinting up at Jared’s silhouette outlined against the rising sun. Jared was turning out to be more than just a spoiled little rich man’s son, maybe there was hope that the next couple of weeks wouldn’t suck as hard as he’d feared. At least he had some spunk and wasn’t a rude SOB. Jensen could hack that.
He grabbed Harley’s halter and led her around to the mules so he could fasten their lead behind her saddle. In one smooth moment, he hefted himself up and onto the mare’s back, showing off a little because he knew Jared was watching. He settled in, flexing his knees and letting his thighs settle into a loose sprawl. Harley would take his guidance with a flick of the reins or a nudge of knee or heel just like he’d trained her to back when they first started.
A couple of the ranch hands wolf whistled as Jensen pointed Harley’s head toward the mountains and clucked his tongue at her. The mules followed after a small tug on the leads and fell in line behind him. He turned his head and saw Jared looking back at the house for a moment before Sadie’s restless stamping caught his attention. She tossed her head and the moment Jared squeezed her trunk, she broke into a trot until she pulled up even with Harley.
Jensen smiled in satisfaction as the mares matched strides, and he felt lighter being back on the trail. There had been too much time between long gigs. He still had the stench of the big city hospital in his nose, and it’d take more than just a day to lift the weight off his shoulders, but it was a start. The cool air of morning helped clear his head and gave him an extra push of energy. If Jeff had been to his left, the trail would have been perfect.
As it was, he supposed he’d just have to settle for second best. Jeff would lounge around one of their friend’s house, doing some light work and watching TV for the duration. Jensen would get campfires and saddle sores before going to sleep with the sounds of a wilderness night. He’d get fresh air and complicated herding work to keep his mind busy. Honestly, if Jensen could, he’d wouldn’t go to town more than once a year.
The landscape was gorgeous, just the barest hint of frost on the ground, but that would burn away as soon as the sun was a little higher in the sky. The low mountains to the west were far enough away to look dark and rocky, remains of place and time far less civilized than the present day. Gentle hills and hidden crags filled the pseudo prairie they rode over, good green grass and dark brown earth. Jensen wasn’t much for reading classics, but this was pretty damn close to his paradise lost.
“Can I ask you a question?” Jared asked timidly, after they had ridden silently for about an hour. He was sitting with more ease, but he still watched the back Sadie’s head intently as if he were worried that she’d suddenly start tap dancing.
Jensen rocked in easy rhythm with Harley’s gait and answered carefully, “You can ask.” It wasn’t that he had secrets, but he wasn’t much used to talking about himself with other people. They’d ridden down into a sheltered valley, pebbles bounced down the edges and scrub trees fought for room to put down roots.
Sadie hopped slightly over a bit of uneven ground making Jared grab for his saddle horn with whitening knuckles. When she settled back into her steady plod, Jared finally looked back up, “Do you really punch the cows?”
Jensen’s startled laugh echoed off the tiny canyon’s walls and sent several birds winging off into the sky.
Disclaimer the second: No cows were punched in the making of this fic.
