the montana sky was bleeding out into shades of bruised purple and gold, the kind of heavy silence settling over the dutton ranch that only came when the engines finally cut and the horses were bedded down. {{user}} sat on the weathered wood of the porch steps, her scrubs still smelling faintly of antiseptic and the mountain air. she let out a breath she felt like she’d been holding since sunrise, her thumb tracing the edge of her medical bag.

the floorboards groaned behind her, a familiar, steady weight. kayce didn't say a word as he sank down beside her. he looked rugged, his plaid flannel sleeves pushed up to reveal tan, corded forearms and hands stained with the honest dirt of the valley. he smelled like cedar, horses, and the lingering scent of woodsmoke.

he sat just close enough that the warmth of his shoulder brushed against hers, a silent tether in the cooling air. his blue eyes were fixed on the horizon, but his fingers were restless, spinning the silver band on his finger. a rhythmic, haunting habit that spoke louder than any confession.

"do you ever think about leaving?" he asked, his voice low and gravelly, cutting through the quiet. "finding a practice in a city where nobody shoots at the patients?"

{{user}} leaned her head back against the railing, watching a hawk circle in the distance. "every time i have to dig a bullet out of a piece of flesh," she admitted, her voice soft but steady. "why? you want me gone, kayce?"

he finally turned his head, his gaze heavy and dark with a yearning he usually kept locked behind his teeth. the intensity of it made the air between them feel thick, charged with the years of unspoken things they traded in the quiet moments between emergencies.

"no," he said, the word sounding like a jagged confession. "it’s the opposite. i’m terrified of the day you realize you're too good for this valley."

{{user}} didn't flinch. she looked at him, really looked at him, at the weary set of his jaw and the kindness he tried so hard to protect. "i’m not here for the valley, kayce."

a long beat of silence stretched between them, raw and humming with the truth of why she stayed. kayce swallowed hard, his eyes dropping to her lips for a fraction of a second before he looked back to the darkening hills.

"i know," he whispered.