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Kim Colton was born on July 21st, 1979 to Charlotte and Joshua Colton - who had married out of necessity to raise the child they did not plan to have. Charlotte was drifting further away from her family, specifically her older sister Marlene, who had, for some time, warned her against spending her time with Joshua. In their early days together, however, Joshua was far more charming and charismatic than he turned out to be. He cared about Charlotte and it seemed he, a wild, loose cannon, enjoyed being around a much more laid back and conscious girl like her. Though, when they found out about her pregnancy, his attitude began to change. He stressed and worried himself to the point of frustration and insomnia. Charlotte’s family did not like him one bit, which did not contribute anything good. He became more controlling, especially after their quiet, fast wedding. He worried that the baby would be a boy, as he was an easily threatened man and forced Charlotte to go along with a girl’s name regardless.
When Kim was born though, Joshua almost lightened up for a time, and so did Charlotte. They almost fell in love with each other again, equally enamored by the little boy - who had not yet begun to show his skill or intelligence. Joshua thought that he had been proven wrong, and loved the baby like any good father would. It changed though, as Kim grew increasingly smarter and more confident.
By about age 6, Kim never went a day without doing something in the shop, with Joshua, who was growing more and more distant to the boy. Kim wanted so badly to impress his father, to help him and learn from him, but Joshua’s superiority complex and easily threatened ego made it a rare, prized occurrence. Kim learned what went into and came out of every single toolbox drawer and never hesitated a moment when his father would call for a tool - he knew exactly what to get. From a distance he would watch Joshua perform a task, over and over and over again, the same process, and would write and sketch the details from memory until the day Joshua let him start actually helping. This only challenged the aging man more, and he’d throw passive aggressive remarks at his son the better he got. The worse the joke, Kim learned, the better the job he did. By the time he was an adult, there was no car, no engine, no error, no problem that he was a stranger to. Joshua’s cutting, derogatory comments only pushed him harder, and as angry as they had made him each time, he understood that his skill was priceless.
Charlotte’s sister Marlene was a single, childless woman with money and land. She was stern and strong in her values, yet knew exactly how to make a group of rowdy nieces and nephews so tired they couldn’t think. Marlene had a herd of 15 horses on her land that she routinely rotated out as the children grew and learned. She trained them, rode them and competed with them, and of course, bred them. She never had more than two stallions around - one of which she never got rid of, to all of the children’s chagrin. His name was Virgil - a grey, beady eyed quarter horse stud with a bloodthirst like no other. Virgil was a producer of fine foals, and he was a magnificent form of discipline. Children who disobeyed the rules were stuck with Virgil. He was calm on the ground, but God forbid one of them tried to fit a saddle onto him. Marlene tried to be fair and understanding with the children, especially Kimmy, who she knew lived some sad joke of a life. For a while she let the boy get away with the things he’d do, like ride in nothing but shorts or fight with his cousins, but it had to be fair, and little Kimmy found himself stuck with the horrible stud more often than he liked. Every summer he slipped up and got grounded, and hated it for a while - until he found Virgil’s pressure points. Once again, he made his unfavorable conditions into a challenge - and learned to break Virgil. It wasn’t a clean break - many sprained wrists and broken arms occurred, but Kim learned to seat a foul buck and ride that devil bareback - in just his shorts, as there was no other punishment - and loved it. His peace was with the horses. After this, he almost never went in the house except for dinner and bed, and spent every waking moment of his summers refining the beast. Virgil was never worthy of a show or anything fantastic, but he would do anything the young boy would do, and of course, his aunt was monumentally surprised and impressed by his work. By about age 13, he was regularly with his aunt, playing and working with every stubborn green horse she’d acquire.
Growing up with Joshua and his increasingly loud, erratic behaviors meant Kim desperately sought ways to drown out the noise. He occupied his free time with vivid, comforting daydreams which he quietly explored in writing and art, sharpening his literary and visual art skills. The noise internally and externally was still there, though. It wasn’t until he was about fourteen and visited Marlene for the summer that he found the remedy. His cousin Valerie, or Val, who was one of only two he had gotten along well with his whole life, began learning to play the guitar over the previous year. Whatever Valerie did, Kim did as well, and this particular time truly found a connection with one of her odd, ever-changing hobbies. He finally found some year-round relief, and paired with his other artistic talents, he learned to express his grievances and struggles, and looked forward to playing with Val every summer. The music was constant - country, rock, alternative, even classical - all night in the barn for four consecutive summers, an almost harmonious cacophony by 12 sweaty, dirty cousins. Kim found his passion for music as well as a place in his extended family, and strengthened Val’s passion, who went on to have her own band.
In December of 1992, Charlotte was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer. Joshua was heavily alcoholic and lost to his family, and did not have the ability to provide her with any sort of proper treatment. The already frail, little woman exponentially decayed into sickness and passed away in August of 1993. This left Kim with Joshua completely. He was violent and uncontrolled, and had no hesitation in physically and verbally abusing his stressed son. Kim was no longer able to spend as much time with his aunt, as Joshua had scared off many of his employees, and needed Kim’s help. The worst of it came when Etienne Murphy, once a one-time customer of the Colton’s, witnessed Joshua’s worst crime - which Kim had as well. It occurred just before Charlotte was diagnosed, and it made sense as the worst turning point in Joshua’s behavior. A complacent employee crossed with Joshua’s drunk haze resulted in a bloody, fatal scuffle in the shop one night, which the attorney Murphy witnessed while waiting to receive his car back from repair. Kim saw it too, from the kitchen window, and spent the next year or so believing it never happened. It wasn’t until after Charlotte’s death and Kim’s birthday that Etienne finally spoke up about what he saw. Skillfully and quickly, he had Joshua put away. Kim was completely alone. He couldn’t run away to his aunt - he had the shop to run. He thought life without Joshua would be easier - it wasn’t. As horrific as he behaved, as awful as he spoke and ungrateful he could be, Kim still loved him unconditionally. He was the last person to impress. He was gone now. Now he had that lawyer watching him like a hawk - waiting for him to make the same mistakes that his nasty daddy had. To make matters worse, Etienne had a beautiful, wild daughter hellbent on doing everything opposite her father’s wishes, a character much like Val had been - and she had an eye for the handsome, quiet mechanic that hid away in his shop. Kim was sure he’d never catch a break.
Delilah Murphy had no fear showing her face in the shop, and sauntered in one day like she owned the place. Kim had tried to forget her, forget that she existed, but that florist down the road, Connie Martin, did nothing to help it. She sent Delilah, who had been nonstop gushing about “that mysterious, weird boy at that shop”, to get delivery vans serviced. Kim was well aware this was probably a no-no on Etienne’s part, but from watching that girl from a distance, it didn’t really seem to matter to her a whole lot. The tall, lanky hippie girl wormed her way into his life and into his heart far quicker than he ever expected possible. She took every free moment she could to pester him and talk to him so long as she flew under her father’s radar. Every day after her shift, she immediately went over and met him, spending the evening in constant chatter - and Kim absolutely loved it. From the moment he woke up, she was all he could think about. He was so intensely stressed that Etienne would fin them together, but it simply didn’t outweigh how much he loved her and loved her company. She listened and contributed, she cried with him and even helped him clean the shop every day. His longing for his dad and his aunt began to diminish with each visit. He knew it was going to be awful when it had to end, but he relished in every word, kiss and touch. She had successfully convinced him that he was capable of falling in love - that it really did feel wonderful. He knew he couldn’t live without her.
One night, after an exhausting day of work for the both of them, Kim and Delilah fell asleep together comfortably - and Kim forgot to set the alarm. Delilah was supposed to be home around seven thirty - she was still sound asleep in her lover’s arms by eight fifteen. A pair of bright high beams flashed in the window and stirred them. Delilah desperately tried to convince him to run and hide, but Kim at first would not back down, afraid he’d lose her for good. She told him that she would wait for him, however long it took, for him to come back, so that they could be together when it was safe. He finally agreed and parted from her with a kiss - he didn’t see her again for twenty years.
Kim spent a night running through and hiding in Sheridan before becoming too exhausted to continue, and landed at a gas station in the outskirts. Early in the morning, a woman approached him from her truck and offered him water, as he was drenched with sweat. He made up a lie about where he’d come from and persuaded Diane Morgan, his new boss, to take him in to work for her and her husband David - a pair of ranchers with 600 acres and 300 head of cattle outside of town - a place called Three Ferns. Here he would stay for the next nineteen years.
Diane immediately understood how valuable the boy was. He had a strong work ethic and loyalty that ran deep - Diane adored him. She and David had been trying to have a child for years, and this boy clearly yearned for a family - she later found out that what he’d told her at the gas station was made up, but she understood. She only made him promise not to tell David - he would not be so forgiving. Being that Kim didn’t have much experience with cows, she patiently coached him through various tasks concerned with them, and he learned quickly, performing almost as enthusiastically with them as he did with the horses.
In the winter following his employment, the snow fell miserably high and a fever came over the herd. Four horses were wiped out, which included a young Belgian gelding which Kim had come to calling Tony. Tony was green and barely halter broke by the time the young hand got to him. While he was no beast like Virgil was, Tony still threw Kim challenges, literally and figuratively. Diane and David watched him from a distance and learned his unconventional methods, occasionally stepping in to correct uncivil practices. By the time the storms came, Tony was comfortable under a saddle and was developing a decent trot. There were only a few hands at this point, and none of them were half as thorough with their work as Kim was. Despite his best efforts to keep them healthy and strong, the weather eventually compromised everyone’s ability to keep them alive. Tony was the last to die, and after, Kim went back into the shy, defeated state he arrived at Three Ferns in. Diane noticed him lose a bit of his spark, and in order to preserve the diligence of her prized helper, came up with a plan. There was another ranch not far from Three Ferns that turned out fine ranch horses frequently. A beautiful Australian stock mare, a bay with long white socks, was advertised as trained and in need of physical therapy - she had a torn hamstring and the rancher was just too ashamed to keep her around. Diane knew her boy could train a horse, but getting one back into working order - she wasn’t sure. However, with the promise of a trained therapist’s help, she convinced him to take the offer, and bought the young mare for twelve-hundred dollars. Bear was brought to Three Ferns and quarantined for a couple of weeks while Kim looked over her. When that time was up, she began more intense therapy in the corral each day - where Kim got plenty of fun poked at him by other hands. A prank played on him by one of them sent Bear into a violent spook, which undid several days’ worth of work and nearly sent Kim to the hospital. The hand was fired, leaving Kim with even more work on his hands. On top of that, Diane was pregnant now, and much weaker than before. Kim had to get used to going back to learning things on his own.
When Bear was fully healed, Kim learned what kind of horse she really was. Stubborn and complacent as any mare, sure - but she was as fine tuned and skilled as that ranch was known for. On her he learned to cut cattle and sharpened his roping skills. As Diane grew more tired and absent, Bear took priority as his best friend, and from ranch to rodeo, she was his ride or die. A rival of David’s, a man Michael Mosley, who owned a similar piece of land on the other side of town, emerged from the shadows each rodeo to ogle the performance of the skilled hand and his magnificent horse. Mosley and his entourage would approach the Morgans, and David warned the boy to stay as far away from the Mosleys and the Blackrose ranch crew as he could, as the cunning rancher had a way with words and a thirst for money with no sense of ethics or compassion. Kim learned that Mosley was indeed a smooth talker with big promises - and it was all a lie, according to the trapped hands that detailed violent consequences for defection against the cruel place. They showed up to every rodeo, and remained persistent each time, even outside of competitive events, to get their hands on the fine practice of the passionate young hand.
In spring of 1995, Diane was due to have her daughter - and because of complications and compromised health, passed away in birth. The little red-headed infant was placed in Kim’s arms, and David went off to deal with the passing of his wife. Having lost yet another guiding figure, Kim was once again heartbroken, but his hardening heart prevailed against the pain. The girl was named Ruth. David’s already callous attitude worsened - but Ruth was new and curious - and tagged along with her big brother everywhere he went, whether he wanted her to or not. He grew accustomed to her constant babble and her rapid ability to get up and walk - wherever he was, she wanted to be, too. A brother of David’s gifted the little girl her first horse - an Appaloosa gelding she named Dale. Of course, alongside his other never+ending chores, events and adventures, it was his job to train and tune the gelding to Ruth’s liking - as well as teach her. As annoying as the little girl could be, she was nothing but grateful and enthusiastic to get to run around with Kim, and her riding skill, began at a very young age, grew as quickly as she did. She was picky and her curiosity never died, jumping, literally, from discipline to discipline as soon as her soul fancied a new one. Kim did his best to keep up, and eventually relinquished the duty to her when she was old enough to consciously teach a horse - and herself - on her own. By the time she was 16, she could trailer, train, and doctor her own horses and animals. She was excessively pushed by her father to maintain her grades, and by 17 finished high school - and was thrown into trade school for two years, earning herself a license as a vet tech. Kim felt for her, doing all that schoolwork, but he was monumentally proud of his little sister for achieving such an accomplishment. She returned home after school to continue running shows and raising cattle with Kim, who was growing increasingly nervous that she might never find it in herself to look for a spouse to take her away from Three Ferns, and start a new life. However, each time he reluctantly posed the question, she turned her head the other way and refused, insisting that her place was with him and the cows. He sort of believed it, as he saw her no happier than when she was locked in with some nasty, grueling veterinary task. Still, it bothered him that one day, she would really want to go out on her own, and it would be difficult to do. Kim was growing weary with his work, missing Delilah more and more as he grew older, knowing for sure that he wanted what Ruth clearly did not. He knew she was out there waiting for him, surely, as she had promised, so he decided to keep waiting until Ruth finally fledged - as independent as she was, he didn’t want to leave her without her best friend. That’s when everything changed one autumn night, quietly.
Kim had sent Ruth in the house to start working on dinner while he put the horses up, when Bear and his little dog Russell alerted to something in the woods. Thinking it was a bear or wolf, or some other predator hunting the cows, he grabbed his rifle and mounted Bear again. However, when he got to the treeline, he found it wasn’t any threat - only a lost, gun-shy stranger with a rifle under his arm - and an exhausted filly in tow. He was sweaty and bloody, his shoes were worn thin and his eyes full of stress - he wasn’t after anything but a place to land and work a while so that he could feed his little horse. Kim was astonished by not only his extreme foot travel, but also that he had managed to not only keep the horse alive, but in relatively decent condition. She was not starving or seriously wounded - though her hooves needed some work and she needed a good grooming. Kim offered the boy, the same courtesy, per David’s authorization, that Diane had offered him some years ago, and he eagerly obliged. Kim had him clean out a stall for the little mare, and thus began his tenure for the growing ranch.
Eron proved to be as diligent, and in some aspects, more so than Kim, who was getting older and more tired as time dragged on. He was massively grateful for the young man’s humble help - as opposed to Ruth, who made it seem she could not stand his company. He was as enthusiastic as she was about working and learning, and she was threatened by it, seeing him as another know-it-all-hand she’d have to prove herself to. The arguments between her and the new boy kept getting worse, annoying Kim each time, so he made them work it out civilly, first with calculated, honest conversation. Ruth admitted to both Eron and Kim that she was sick of being constantly “replaced” by hands, despite her skill and knowledge. Eron admitted to her that he really didn’t know much, that he simply liked being around her and asking her questions, not to challenge her, but because he genuinely wanted to know what and how she was doing something. It took her a moment to believe him, but per Kim’s threat of pulling rank, she steadily let him in to observe and learn. In turn she was rewarded with higher responsibilities and more complex tasks, which the curious hand also learned. Kim watched as their system of rivalry and strained partnership grew into genuine friendship. Eron learned his strengths didn’t exactly lie in veterinary or technical skill, but rather the filthier and often times more violent jobs, both in the barn and the arena. This made them a fast, efficient team. Their communication was immaculate, relaying honest criticism and diagnoses between themselves rapidly - which fixed problems as smoothly as was possible. Much to his bittersweet chagrin, Ruth gradually stopped relying on her brother for assistance and teamwork - and took Eron as her co-captain. The young woman who insisted she didn’t have a place outside of Three Ferns was developing dreams and ideas that required more skill and power than could be drawn from the ranch - power that only she and Eron could muster. He watched them attempt to hide it, but he knew they were in love with one another, as he and Delilah had been years ago. The thought of her still pained him, stressed him, as he began to think there was no chance she would ever take him back, that she had likely moved on. The blossoming romance between his little sister and his best friend sparked the littlest twinge of jealousy, which was well outweighed by how proud he was of the two and their seemingly perfect partnership. David was getting old, and the tasks of maintaining the background work of the ranch was becoming another mundane task Kim had to handle. The old man was more complacent than ever, realizing that his leadership over a dying company was fading into the hands of the little “criminal” boy Diane had taken in. The four blissful years since Eron had shown up were becoming bleak again, and the two decades that had passed since Kimmy arrived came to a close when Ruth opened up about a secret she had been keeping since she’d fallen in love with Eron.
Years ago, while searching for one of the horse’s records in her father’s office, Ruth stumbled upon a drawer full of partially unopened letters addressed to Kim - from Delilah. She didn’t touch them, read them or anything, but it bothered her that he had never mentioned this name. At the height of Kim’s discontent with David, Ruth brought into his attention. Delilah Murphy had somehow found out he landed at Three Ferns, and for three years sent letters to him - asking him where he was, when he was coming back, how he was - and regaling him on the things that had happened since he disappeared. The worst thing he read was of her miscarriage - a daughter. Aside from the depressing contents of the letters, he was almost more heartbroken over the reason the letters were held from him - David bet that if Kim knew Delilah was trying to get him to go back home, that he would not hesitate. Kim at first struggled to understand why David would be so against parting with him - he never behaved half as grateful or proud as Diane had. But that was the reason. The poor boy was easily manipulated - even the slightest hint of pride or gratitude expressed to him by an authoritative man furthered his loyalty and kept him at David’s beck and call. David knew he wished to have a father, or at least some father figure and exploited Kim’s servitude for his benefit. Years of cheap, thorough servitude had been drawn out of him, just as it had been with Joshua. It was evident, with David’s spoken admittance to it. Left in shock by the rapid sequence of events, Kim hid away from David, doing the bare minimum of his chores. Ruth and Eron understood his anger and covered for him. Winter was coming, David was ashamed and reclusive, Ruth and Eron were confused about what to do with each other, and the company was rapidly losing momentum.
A few weeks after the scuffle between Kim and David, David experienced a heart attack and died. Already burdened by embarrassment, stresses of abuse, the dying ranch and the growing distance between him and the other two, Kim began to lose his temper faster and faster. He held a short, quiet funeral for David, which only disappointed Ruth more. Three Ferns was running out of money, so he silently panicked a plan to let it die with the least collateral damage. Horses, which included Bear, and vehicles were sold off, followed by cattle, which left only the land, house, and everything in it. 17 years had passed since Delilah sent her last letter - and not another word. Kim was pretty sure he had nothing left. Once again, he found himself wrong when the snow started piling up. On the first night of that storm, Eron and Scout disappeared without a word.
Having no horse, ATV or truck that could get them through the thick snow, Kim and Ruth searched, on foot, as long as they could stay conscious, for Eron and Scout. It didn’t make sense. Ruth recalled him being just as affectionate and, albeit stressfully, optimistic the day before. He would occasionally go out and ride through the woods before bed, but he always came back home and got warm in either one of their arms. Two days of intense searching left them hopeless, and Kim spiraled into blaming himself for supposedly “scaring” him away, immovable in his self accusation. Law enforcement was involved, and they got nothing. They were gone, and there was nothing either of them could do. The house was violently quiet, both of them without the love of their lives. Already run ragged by the rapid turn of events, thy stopped speaking to on another regularly, which turned into bickering and fighting. The snow melted, still, Eron never turned up. The lonely siblings feared they had nothing else to live for, abandoned Three Ferns completely and let Morgan Cattle go defunct. Some time ago, they found that David had placed Eron in a land trust, that it might only be sold if Kim, Ruth, and Eron agreed together. With him gone, the property sat in limbo, unoccupied, rapidly returning to earth. Its state was too depressing and lonely for either of the emotionally compromised owners to handle. With too many memories and reminders tied up in its acreage, they left it be. The siblings stayed together in the Sheridan auto shop, procrastinating the next steps in dealing with the ranch.
A heated argument between Kim and Ruth one evening left them in another session of prolonged silence, spurred by cruel accusations, comments and petty, empty threats against one another. The last hope that their best friend had nearly fizzled out - until, while sitting on the front porch of the house, Kim got a call - from the hospital. The operator explained in vague detail - “your son is in critical condition”. Confused at first, and unaware he “had a son”, Kim believed it was a scam call, only for the operator to tell him that Eron Eckert had been in a near fatal car accident somewhere outside town - and left Kim as his emergency contact, under the name, simply, “dad.” He wasted no time getting in the truck, confused, shocked and afraid. Sure enough, when he got there, Eron was barely conscious, marred and weak. He stayed next to his boy, deeply ashamed, believing he ran him off and now had to face the pain he had caused. Eron did not wake up completely until two days after. Sure the young man would meet him with anger, Kim found himself even more lost when Eron’s reaction was exactly the opposite - a grateful smile, relief. He weakly explained that the night he went missing was just another ride he took to ease his mind when a bullet went through his shoulder and he blacked out, waking up in a completely unfamiliar place: another ranch he described in painful detail - the industrial, cruel Blackrose that had finally gotten its way with the content harmony of Three Ferns, capturing the next best prize of David Morgan’s, and forcing him to swear loyalty to the Mosely family, lest he be given up to the law for the felonies he committed leaving his home in Virginia seven years before. He explained that during his captivity, he overheard conversations between leaders about David, about David’s obscurely timed death, and came to find that during a meeting between the ranchers’ discussing the Mosleys’ progressive invasion of Three Ferns space and privacy, David had been poisoned and Eron kidnapped to make the once thriving ranch fall apart. They killed two birds with one stone. Eron told Kim he needed help getting out of there. Heavily burdened by the weight of the crime committed, Kim worried how Ruth would react to this - her own father taken out by the damned rivals they’d fought since the beginning. There wasn’t anything he could do about it, though, as they had leverage against his boy, and they would hurt him no more. Nobody was innocent, and it was up to all of them to stop the progressive committing of atrocities before they all paid the price for the oppression laid on them by another giant, powerful rancher. Ruth eagerly returned to Eron, not fully aware of what all had happened, and wouldn’t be until Eron was finally broken free of Blackrose’s tight rein.
A couple days after his accident, a new doctor was left in charge of Eron’s steady healing. Kim was gone when she began her work, and she seemed vaguely familiar to him - he didn’t recognize her face, but something about her reminded him of someone. He asked her last name - Delilah Murphy, who had sent the letters long ago and inadvertently started all of this - the love of Kimmy Colton’s life, standing right in front of him. The young man wanted so badly to jump up and tell her who he was, who he knew, that he was just a moment away - but decided to leave fate to itself - to let them find each other when the poor, exhausted man returned to the hospital in the evening. Though, as cordially and platonically as he could, he found out that she was not married at all. When Kim did visit, unaware of who, equally unaware, awaited him, an expression crossed his face that Eron and Ruth had never seen - bewilderment, relief, disbelief - matched by Delilah. They were silent for a moment, looking around awkwardly, trying to process what each other had become, and eventually fell into a quiet, teary hug. Though chaos was erupting in the lives of the hands, something finally felt right, felt complete. Delilah completed her shift - not fast enough for either of them, and met her lover for coffee - where both of them did as they always had. They barely scratched the surface with the stories they told, how Eron ended up in the hospital, where Ruth came from, how Delilah had somehow made it through medical school. Kim could have stayed there forever, listening to her again, finally, after twenty one years. And even after so much time, no love had really fallen away for either of them. They were changed by the world, but they agreed that it would make for more long nights full of stories.
Regarding the decaying state of Three Ferns, Kim brought up the will he and Ruth dug up, how David named Eron the third trustee in the will Diane had written in expectation that she’d have three children. Eron agreed to sell his share with them, bringing in a total of about fifteen million dollars for the house and total land. It was divided amongst the three hands, leaving one final step towards their collective freedom. A confrontation was in order when Eron was strong enough to begin working again. There was a horse trailer kept behind the auto shop that was large enough to haul Scout in, who was still hostage at Blackrose. Kim worked quickly to get it road worthy while Ruth organized a fast route to South Texas, where she, Eron and Kim planned to meet Eden, Eron’s mother. When the soreness and pain was at a manageable state, Eron returned to Blackrose and prepared Scout to make a quick escape in his limited spare time. Ruth took a flight to Surfside while Kim and Delilah prepared to be separated again - but not for long, they promised - Just long enough to help the younger ones with Scout - and explain to Eden just exactly what happened since her son disappeared, as he felt personally responsible and felt it necessary to help him with damage control. The night Eron was to get out was set, and Kim did not waste a moment getting to the front door of that house to make sure the nasty nest of industrialists knew their place. Eron agreed to give a signal that he was out while Kim was negotiating, to get out of there as soon as possible.
When he got to the Mosley place, they were as hostile as he expected them to be - guns to the head, threats flying, insults and remarks about what kind of people the Morgans showed themselves to be - cowards, according to Michael, who was guarded liberally by a horde of shaky goons. Kim explained that he was no Morgan, and followed up with a trade offer: they leave the remaining Morgan family alone, which included Eron, and he’d tell no one about what they’d done to David. It pained him to see that this wouldn’t cripple the ranch and free the other hands, but knew such a feat could only be left in the hands of God. He had nothing left in him to fight with - just enough to get his boy to safety. Confused by his proposition and believing Eron would still be employed by them, they assumed he meant to keep him out of harm’s way while he worked, and to them, knowing they’d be in serious trouble if what they’d done reached the public, it seemed reasonable. After some muttering amongst themselves, they agreed, and Kim cordially struck up conversation long enough that Eron could get out. He gave the signal, and Kim left the house peacefully. Behind him, a gunshot was fired, grazing his shoulder through his jacket. Tempted to go back and throttle the offender, he knew that Eron was still in danger and moved on, despite every nerve in his body wanting vengeance for yet another offense. Eron was waiting for him on the other side of the fence, a breath away from freedom. He and Scout successfully made it to the bordering access road, and Kim met him with the trailer. Only one life lost, and an innocent freed. Ruth was waiting for them in Texas and Delilah was keeping an eye on the shop. Three Ferns was no longer a burden and Eron was healing well. It was time to go home.
Eden was beyond shocked to find that the strange, red-headed girl who came and knocked on her door a few mornings prior was telling the whole truth. With his best friend by his side, he stood on that porch once again, as he always had as a child after returning home from the summers with his father, and faced his very disgruntled and confused mother. He explained what happened the night he left, why that old mine shaft had exploded, why the neighbors went insane over a missing horse. She looked over his shoulder at the trailer hooked up to the black Chevy in her small driveway - and there she was, the missing filly. It was true. Unbelievable, but true, and this time Kim didn’t step in when Eden scolded him for his recklessness. Though, she did relent and hugged her boy, grateful to know that he was alive and that he had been on the adventure of a lifetime. She admitted that she did in fact love Ruth, who had been nothing but helpful and supportive, patient with her as Eden anticipated the uncertain events since Ruth arrived.
Kim spent a few days in Texas getting Scout comfortable in boarding while Ruth and Eron searched for a place to live - they had a nice chunk of wealth now - and as Kim predicted, they wanted a ranch of their own. Certainly no Three Ferns, of course, but they weren’t gonn waste their collective skill on anything else. They found a piece of land north of Amarillo and began planning to settle there. Kim returned to Wyoming to be with Delilah, as much as it hurt to be so far away from two of his favorite people in the world, it evened out for the better, being with the love of his life - and very soon after, a tiny little girl they named Diane. He opened the shop back up to the public and continued on with what he did best - fixing and creating, alongside the one he loved the most. He really did live happily ever after.