Fairy-born and Human-bred

The blonde girl sat down on her colleagues desk. He managed to get some papers out of the way. Although sighing at her behaviour, he didn't protest. There was no use. He gave her a glance that was far from friendly.

"Now, David", she said. She had a distinct English upper-class accent, and her voice was dark and husky. "I know you're not speaking with me at the moment, but I have some news that might interest you."

"Since when do you share interesting news with me?" the young man asked mildly.

"Not that kind of news." She held a letter in front of him. "Sandy is getting married."

"What?!" Disbelieving, he snatched the letter from her fingers. She watched with uncovered amusement as he read it through, strong emotions evident in his face.

"I understand if you're disappointed", she said. Her voice was serious, but anyone who knew her at all could hear the mocking in it.

David definitely heard it, but he was too busy reading to give her any other reply than a half-hearted "oh, shut up".

"I don't believe it", he said when he had finished. "I simply don't believe it."

"I know. After all this time you've spent trying to get her interested in you, I understand that it has to be…"

"I thought I told you to shut up?" He frowned. "You know that's not the point. But we don't know the first thing about this man!"

She raised an eyebrow, and he looked suspiciously at her.

"You knew? Lena, did you know about this?"

"I didn't know about *this*", she answered. "I knew she had met a man. She is my friend, you know, we do talk to each other. But to tell the truth, I'm worried about this. I don't like the way she rushed into this, leaving her job and friends over some bloke. Not all of them are worth it."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, but then her face lit up.

"I suppose I could take a look at him before the wedding, just to make sure that he's alright. She will need a bridesmaid after all."

He handed her the letter back. "So, what does Pierce say about her resignation?"

"What do you think he says?" she answered with a grin. "He's working on a marathon in indecent language." She winked at David. "Do you want to see him beat the record?"

His dark eyes focused on her mischievous face. "What are you going to do?"

Smiling, she put her feet back on the ground and moved towards the editor's door.

"I'm going to make myself free-lance", she said.

The door opened and closed. David waited and listened. When the explosion came, every word came through the door loud and clear. He leant back in his chair, and he couldn't help a smile coming over his lips. As much as he loathed Lena at the moment, you just had to love the girl.

Sandy went inside the bunkhouse, and while she searched the room for any sight of Ike, her eyes fell on Cody. He was lying on his bunk, reading a newspaper.

"I see", she said.

He folded down the paper and gave her a glance.

"See what?" he asked.

"Well, first of all that my presence here doesn't bother you, which is a good thing, of course. Second that you find it completely natural to take my things as if they were your own. I haven't even read that paper myself yet."

"Mhm." His eyes strayed back into the reading. "Who's A.?"

Sandy gave up any hope of getting that newspaper back before Cody had finished with it.

"A.?" she asked.

"Yeah, someone called A. has been scribbling stuff on your paper. She says she's gonna be your bridesmaid."

"Give me that!"

Sandy pinched the newspaper from Cody's hand before he could react, and she read: "Hold the wedding until I get there and I will be your bridesmaid. A." A smile lit up her face.

"Now isn't that just like Lena", she said.

"Lena?" Cody said with a frown. "That doesn't start with an A."

"Two A's actually. AnnaLena Andersson", Sandy said absentmindedly. "I guess she figured I'd be rushing the wedding since I'm pregnant."

"Some people in town say you ought to", Cody said. The look she gave him made his face red, and she laughed at his embarrassment.

"You just can't keep that foot away from your mouth, can you Cody?" she said softly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"That's alright." She sat down on the bunk nearby. "Do you know what I like about you, Cody? You're so uncomplicated, you can adapt to things. Since I got here, I must have had at least five people taking me aside to A: ask me if I'm sure about this, B: tell me to take it easy to Ike since he's so-o-o sensitive and so-o-o easily hurt - which is rubbish by the way, he's a survivor by nature if anyone is - and C: ask me if I'm alright with the negative attention I'm getting. Which I am. But it was nice that they actually cared how I felt, too, and didn't treat me like the bad girl getting Ike into her clutches."

Cody laughed. "Who's been talking to you like that?"

"Oh, pretty much everybody. Buck I had expected it from, and Lou... well, she's my friend, I guess she felt she had to. Then there's Teaspoon, who's in charge of you all, so I don't blame him, and Rachel probably got a few maternal feelings. So it wasn't until Kid came along that I wished people would give me a break. Jimmy hinted a thing or two but didn't really press the issue."

"How about Noah?" Cody said, who had listened with great amusement.

"Noah was alright", she said. "He said 'So, you're marrying Ike?' and I said 'Yes', and he asked 'Why?', and I said 'Because I love him and I'm having his baby', and then he said 'Well those are two very good reasons', and that was about it."

"And I haven't asked you anything", Cody reproached himself. "Would you like me to?"

"Well, why not? You have the right to be as annoying as the others."

"alright..." He thought for a while without coming up with anything. "What kind of negative attention is it you're getting?" he asked.

"You mean you haven't noticed? In town, how some people seem to think I'm this... criminal. No, wait, not criminal, pervert."

"Pervert?!"

"Sure. You know, as if I'm sick for wanting to marry Ike. And then", she worked herself up to a hysterical tone of voice, "they see us kiss and notice how much I want him and they just lose their breath! More than a few of them know I'm pregnant, too, and that's both sick and indecent. I suppose when my stomach starts growing, their eyes will pop out", she rounded up.

"And that doesn't bother you?" Cody asked, unusually serious.

"Well... To some extent it does, of course. It's always frightening when people are that thick. But the gossip can only hurt if you're ashamed, and I'm not. I'm proud and happy." Her face was eager and almost glowing. "I don't think I've been this happy for years. I want to laugh and sing and dance and babble forever about nothing at all - pretty much like I'm doing now", she concluded.

"Well, in that case I think you would be crazy *not* to marry Ike", Cody remarked.

Her dimples deepened from the big smile on her face and she leaned down to give Cody a sisterly kiss on the cheek. "Sometimes you're a real sweetheart, you know that?"

"Hm." He was a little embarrassed, and hurried to change the subject. "So tell me about this friend of yours. Is she pretty?"

"Not really. But for some reasons, men don't seem to mind."

Jimmy's day off had been so boring he actually considered going back o the station and ask for something - anything - to do. Then the stagecoach arrived and he watched with interest as the passengers left. There were only two of them: one elderly gentleman who quickly disappeared into the hotel, and one young girl trying to get a huge trunk off the roof, with some assistance by the coach driver. To judge by the amount of her luggage, this wasn't just a brief visit. Jimmy watched amused as she persuaded the unwilling driver to help her carry her belongings down the street. If Jimmy knew the guy correctly, he would have been happy to carry the entire world if the girl had been a pretty sort or fancy dressed, but this one was neither. She was tall and built as a boy, with the blonde hair carelessly thrown back into a ponytail and skirts that didn't hide the fact that she had been travelling for days. Still the driver found himself doing everything she said. She seems kind of bossy, Jimmy thought, and kept watching since he had nothing better to do.

The girl stopped outside old Mrs. Warren's house and was soon let in. The truth dawned on Jimmy. Mrs Warren had been searching all over town for a new maid, but found none. Rumours had it that she was a harsh mistress, and no one was really surprised that she had difficulty getting staff. Apparently, she had settled for an out-of-towner, and the poor girl probably had no idea what she was getting herself into. But considering how the girl had treated the poor driver, neither had Mrs. Warren.

After the door closed, Jimmy's attention went elsewhere, and he left his observing position for the tavern behind it. About half an hour later he had finally decided that this day carried nothing exiting for him and he returned outside. To his surprise, the young girl was now standing on the street again. "Leaving already?" he thought, until he realised that even though she still carried a few things it wasn't the massive load of belongings she had before, only two suitcases and a basket. She noticed his glance and smiled at him, then she gave him a quick wave of her hand. Come here. Boy, she *was* bossy - but also hard to disobey for some peculiar reason.

"Now, a nice, idle young man as yourself wouldn't possibly know how to get to the Pony Express Station?" she asked. She had an accent he recognized as English.

This was a little too much of a coincidence. Options of what to do crossed his mind, and curiosity decided which should win. "You could come with me, I work there." His eyes fell on her things. "You might need a wagon though, we can rent one for you."

"That is so kind of you," she said, and it wasn't that she didn't sound as if she meant it, but her voice revealed that she saw it as perfectly natural that a complete stranger would go through all that trouble for her. "My name is Lena Andersson, nice to meet you."

She reached out her hand and he took it. "James Hickok."

A twist of the eyebrows showed that she recognized the name. "The one and only," she said, sounding slightly amused.

"You could say that," Jimmy replied shortly, praying that she wouldn't press the issue. She didn't. She actually didn't seem very interested in personal questions, asking or being asked, such as why she wanted to go to the express station. Not that she was unfriendly or anything. She just seemed to find long explanations unnecessary.

"So," he asked, "you're Mrs. Warren's new maid?"

"At the moment, yes. She seems a bit off."

"Oh, she is," he assured her, and she smiled a little.

"So," she said, for the first time showing any sign of curiosity - sadly not towards him. "I guess if you work at the station you know Ike McSwain?"

Jimmy was a little startled. That Ike could deal with two women at once had been a surprise. Three was simply out of the question. Of course, there are many other ways to know a woman than the Biblical one.

"Yeah, sure, I know him," he said. "Why?"

"You like him?" she asked innocently.

"He's like a brother to me."

"Oh. A friendly lad then? Good with people and all?"

"More on the shy side, actually." Jimmy started to wonder where this conversation was going.

"And I suppose women like that?"

"I never thought of him as a ladies' man, that's for sure. Well, not until he got himself tangled up with two of them, anyway." He hurried to add: "But that's all sorted out now, he's marrying one of them."

Her face was a complete blank. "You don't say."

He stared at her and it finally hit him why her name had seemed familiar. "So that's what this is all about. You're Sandy's friend and you want to find out if she's marrying a good guy."

She grinned, secret revealed. "Well, you can't blame me, can you? She runs off like that saying to everyone she just has some business to attend to, and before you know it she's engaged and not coming back. I have to keep an eye on the girl, she doesn't have my experience with men." She thought for a while. "On the other hand she doesn't have my bad taste in them either."

"No, she most certainly doesn't," he said with emphasis. Then he realised how that sounded and blushed. "Oh… I didn't mean… I don't even know you."

Lena laughed heartily. "Don't apologize. If you're right, I'm happy."

They reached the station and Jimmy turned to help Lena down, but she had already slid off the wagon and was quickly approaching a young hispanic girl standing outside Rachel's house. She held her arms out, and simply stated:

"I'm here!"

Sandy cried out loud when she saw Lena jumping down Jimmy's wagon, and the two girls fell in each other's arms, swirling around. Then Lena took a step backwards and looked closely at her friend.

"You are fatter already! Or are you just eating too many biscuits?"

Sandy laughed at her friend's impertinence. "Immediate hit! Who taught you to fire so quickly? A couple of bad lovers?"

"And she strikes right back!" Lena replied. "I have taught you well, sister."

Those of the riders that had noticed the wagon coming were standing a few steps away from the girls, listening in on this rather unusual greeting ceremony. Buck raised a doubtful eyebrow, but Ike, meeting his glance, shook his head. Sure, this girl appeared rather overwhelming, but he was in favour of anyone who could make Sandy lighten up so noticeably.

Sandy finally calmed down enough to realise there were people around her, and she waved for Ike to come closer.

"Ike, this is Lena, my bridesmaid. Lena, this is Ike…"

"The groom?" Lena said, finishing the sentence. She inspected the young man from head to toe, and finally frowned a little as she shook his hand.

"Less than impressed so far, I must say," she declared. "I would have thought it took a knight in shining armour to capture the Iron Maiden, but you are just ordinary."

Ike smiled a little. If the girl attempted to make a bad first impression by insulting him, she hadn't really succeeded. *There are worse things than ordinary,* he signed, and Sandy translated, blushing a little from Lena's not very flattering nickname.

"Well, that's true. Mean, for example." She was as tall as he was, and looked him straight in the eyes, smiling. "If you're mean to her, I'll rip your balls off with a very dull knife."

"Lena!" Sandy said in a warning voice, and the girl grimaced.

"Sandy has this strange idea that you shouldn't threaten people unless you mean it," she told Ike. "So if *she* ever threatens to rip your balls off, you'd better watch your crotch carefully."

Before anyone had the chance to react to this, she turned to Sandy.

"Is it alright if I stock some things at your place? That crazy woman I'm supposed to work for thinks everything is sinful. She tried to burn my Shakespeare."

"I'm… sure that can be arranged," Sandy replied. She seemed a little perplexed, but not much compared to the others.

Bossy, loudmouthed, tactless and overwhelming, Lena Andersson had entered their lives. It took them a while to realize she had no plans of making an exit any time soon.

"God, I hate America," Lena stated, throwing herself on the ground and leaning her back towards the stable wall.

Jimmy looked down on her. If this was flirting, it was rather original.

"Then why are you here?" he asked.

"Pure necessity. Try building a career in Europe. But I do hate this place. I miss the ocean, for one thing. At least there's a lake near Chicago, over here there's no water at all."

"There's a creek half a mile away."

"Creek!" she said with the pure contempt of a born sailor. Jimmy had to laugh.

"If you want an ocean, why don't you move to New York or something?"

"I don't know anyone in New York." She gazed up on him and smiled a little. "Can't fool you, can I?"

Her frankness was contagious, and before he could stop himself, Jimmy had answered in the same manner:

"Well, it's just that you keep telling Sandy you hate kids, and yet here you are, waiting for hers. It seems like your opinions doesn't have much to do with reality."

When he had said that, he frowned. If he had been inclined to that sort of things, he would probably have blushed. This sort of honesty could easily be considered insults.

But Lena just kept smiling. She was *definitely* flirting with him.

"Most blokes don't look through me this quickly," she said, and laughed a little. "And when they do, they bolt."

Like him, she didn't seem to have precise control of what came out of her mouth, because she looked startled and embarrassed of her own words. She stood up quickly, brushing the earth away from her skirt.

"Really?" Jimmy said, trying to make her feel more comfortable. He had liked this flirting session. "You must have met some really stupid men."

She gave him a strained smile, but didn't seem willing to continue the conversation. "Far too many. Listen, I should find Sandy."

As she walked off, her fingers accidentally brushed by his, and he took hold of her hand on impulse. She turned back and looked him straight and kindly into his eyes as she slowly removed her hand. Then she left.

Jimmy would probably never fully understand the mind of a woman, but her look told him for certain that this touch had not, as he first thought, been accidental. She was testing him somehow. That ought to tick him off, but he really didn't mind. Just as long as he passed.

Sandy sat down opposite Lena and asked her: "Well, what do you think of him?"

"Well, what can I say..." The young woman let her fingers run over her neck. Then she noticed her friend's glare. "Oh. You mean Ike."

Sandy smiled. "Yes."

"He's very nice. I would never go out with him."

Buck was entering the bunkhouse and threw the girls a glance before laying down on his bunk. He wasn't too keen on entering a private conversation, but he was too tired to care. Demonstratively, he turned his back on the girls. He liked Sandy a lot, but Lena was rather annoying.

"I'm entirely grateful," Sandy said sarcastically.

Lena looked at Buck's aloof back and changed language for the next part of conversation. Not that he needed to understand the words to understand the meaning.

"Y... pues, han foyado, ¿sí?"

"¿Quién?" Sandy asked innocently.

"Tú y tu novio, tonta."

"Sí, claro." Sandy said, teasingly. "¿Qué crees? ¿Que estoy la Virgen María?"

Lena rolled her eyes. "Lo que quiero decir es... ¿Cómo era?"

Sandy laughed out loud. She hadn't quite expected that question.

"Muy bueno," she replied. "No tengo tu experiencia, claro, pero me gusta mucho." She got a smile on her face that wasn't entirely chaste.

"¿Qué te gusta?" Lena demanded. She wasn't letting Sandy off the hook without details.

Sandy thought for a moment. "Todo... Cuando me toca... el modo que besa mis tetas. Es muy cariñoso, muy gentíl."

Lena looked at the somewhat excited expression on her friend's face and gave a pleased smile.

"Creo que algún es un poquito cachonda..."

"Well, maybe I am!" Sandy cried, going back to English. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing! I'm glad! Although, did you have to get pregnant right away?"

Sandy raised an eyebrow. "It's not as if I planned it. It just happened."

"You must be one of those extremely fertile people. Mom had to try hard for both Kajsa and me. I think I'm like her in that aspect, fortunately. But did you take any precautions at all?"

Sandy looked thoughtful. "I didn't know there were precautions to take."

The other girl laughed at her. "You're still an ice virgin in some ways, darling. There are heaps of ways not to get pregnant."

"Like what?"

Lena got a mischievous grin on her face. "Well, my favourite way is..." She didn't trust the Spanish, so she whispered into Sandy's ear. The chicano girl's eyes got very wide.

"Really?" She wrinkled her nose. "But does that feel as good?"

"Well, that depends on who's doing it," Lena said. "If I am, I'm mostly doing the lad a favour. If he is, and he knows how to, it's better."

Sandy licked her lips pensively, and Lena laughed.

"Trust your slutty friend to give you marital advice," she joked.

"Yeah..." Sandy said, her head not quite where her body was. Then she got back to earth. "If *you* got pregnant, what would you do?"

"Oh, God!" Lena made a wry face, shocked at the thought. "I'd probably push up a knitting needle or something stupid like that. Why put another bastard into this world, right?"

Buck winced where he lay. He had pretended to be asleep, but couldn't help listening to the conversation. His jaw set at Lena's thoughtless words.

Sandy stared at her friend. "Don't make such a joke. That could kill you."

"Right," Lena said, and smiled ironically at her friend. "Great loss to the world."

It was supposed to have been so simple. The bride and groom loved each other. Their friends loved them too. Unfortunately, love was not the best way to describe how the friends felt about *each other*. Ike's choice of Buck as best man had been just as obvious as Lena's self-promotion as a bridesmaid. It shouldn't have caused any problems. But it did, because the two of them could not be kept in the same room. It only got worse as time passed.

"So, are you still thinking about going back to the Kiowa?" Kid asked Buck after dinner one day.

Lena, who had just gotten a peculiar looking needlework from her bag, stopped a second to see what the young Indian would answer.

"Yeah." Buck didn't care much to talk about it, since he still hadn't made his decision. And having Lena listen in with that smart aleck look on her face didn't help either. A few days earlier she had declared that she didn't give much for a guy's intelligence who didn't eat fish, and although her tone had been mocking, he still hadn't forgiven her for that. "You guys are my family, but... I don't really know where I belong."

"Then I suggest you ask yourself where you can live," Lena stated casually.

"What?" He turned to her, irritated.

"Well, think about it." She moved on with her work. "Who'd ever *choose* to be part of a dying nation? What are your choices there? Fight and die or give up and die. That's all. Right?" She shrugged, and met his furious gaze.

"Are you saying we should just give up our way of life?" he asked, and the riders were beginning to turn in their seats, uncomfortable. Lena, however, was unaware of the warning.

"If it's the alternative to suicide, yes. I'm not saying you have to *like* it. It's like cutting off an infected arm. It's a damn waste, but better than dying."

Before Buck could give a fiery reply to that, Sandy put a hand on Lena's arm.
"I think to Buck, it's a little bit more complicated than that. Sort of like the old Christians choosing between martyrdom and Caesar's statue."

Lena pondered this. "Well, I'd choose Caesar's statue, that's for sure."

Her friend smiled. "Some of us have principles, my dear."

"And what good did that ever do to anyone?" Lena's voice got more upper-class than ordinary. They knew by now that she wasn't really English but from a Swedish fisherman family, having moved to England as a child. "You think this is the life I want? Course not. But better a living dog than a dead lion. Still, if I could be Cleopatra..."

"She died," Rachel said, the first outside person to enter the conversation.

Lena turned to her, a little surprised, then smiled.

"Yes. But everyone dies. A snake in the chest is as good a way as any."

"Alright, this is getting a little morbid," Sandy said. "Not to mention illogical. You think suicide is nifty but you won't let him commit it?"

Buck rose from his seat. "I am not committing suicide!"

He burst out of the room, and Sandy slowly sank to her seat.

"I didn't help much, did I?"

"He had no reason to get so touchy," Lena assured her.

Ike looked at his fiancée, and although he didn't make any signs, his eyes told her clearly exactly how clueless Lena was. He rose and left the room to find his friend.

"He had every reason, darling." Sandy frowned, seriously worried. "But the way you talk, it's easy to forget that there is a reality behind the words."

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