Chapter Text
Leaning against the doorframe of Emily's old bedroom, Jessie crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. She had no idea why she kept going in there. What it was that she was looking for. It had been six months now since Emily had upped and left Larkspur in the middle of the night, having said nothing to nobody as to why or where she was going. She hadn't written a note. She hadn't given her or Woody any kind of explanation. She had just...vanished...leaving them both to find her gone when they woke up the next morning, and she was still trying to get her head around why she would do that.
She ought to hate her, she thought, for abandoning them without a second thought after everything the two of them had been through as kids. He did. He didn't even talk about her anymore, and every time she tried to bring her up in conversation, he just told her that the two of them were better off without her and that was always the end of it. She had tried to believe that. She had tried her best to stop thinking about her - tried to distract herself by throwing herself into her work on the ranch, picking up the pieces Emily had left behind - but she always found herself drawn back to her bedroom.
The place where she used to paint her nails for her.
The place they used to stay up all night, talking about everything and nothing.
The place she used to run to whenever she had a nightmare.
It was untouched still, exactly how she had left it the night she walked out, and she refused to touch it even though Woody had told her they could do with the extra space. There was always a chance that she would come back eventually. There was always a chance that she would miss them - miss Larkspur - and return home, and until she was convinced otherwise? She would leave her things untouched.
"Jess? I'm headin' into town. Your turn to feed Bullseye!"
Woody calling up the stairs pulled her from her thoughts, and she rolled her eyes as she pushed away from the doorframe before pulling the door closed and heading downstairs. When she entered the kitchen, he was already standing near the back door, tugging on his jacket as he held his keys in one hand and reached for his hat on the counter with the other. Grabbing her scuffed boots from their spot on the mat, she dropped into her usual chair at the table with a huff and began to pull them on.
“You went in there again, didn’t you?” He asked after watching her for a second.
She shrugged, refusing to meet his gaze as she pulled the laces of the first boot just a little too tightly. “Someone’s gotta make sure everythin’s in place for when Emily comes home. Guess that’s me.”
“Jess, we’ve been over this,” He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “She ain’t coming back. I’m sorry — really, I am — but if she was gonna come back, she would have by now. You gotta let go of this.”
“You mean let go of her,” She corrected him as she rose from the chair once both boots were laced up, taking her own hat from the hook on the wall and forcing it onto her head. “Not gonna happen.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond. They only would have wound up having the same argument they’d been having every morning for the past six months, and so she just shouldered past him and left the house, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides as she stomped across the yard to the stables.
Bullseye greeted her with an impatient snort the second she stepped inside, and she couldn’t help but smile when he stuck his head over the top of his stall door, his tail swishing behind him. Making her way over, she smoothed a hand lightly down his muzzle before murmuring a soft ‘mornin’ to him and sliding the door open so she could step inside. Immediately, he began nosing his empty feed bucket.
“Alright!” She laughed, pushing his head away from the bucket and lifting it from its hook on the wall so she could head over to the feed bin. “Gee-willickers, you’d think I was starvin’ you or somethin’!”
Once the bucket was full, she re-entered the stall and returned it to the little hook on the wall before sliding the door closed again and dropping down onto one of the hay-bales on the other side of the stables. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she wrapped both arms around her legs and sighed as she watched Bullseye begin to eat, the steady sound of his chomping filling the silence that had fallen.
There was something about the stables — about being in there with him — that she had always loved. Ever since Emily had taken her and Woody in when they were ten. Bullseye was someone she never had to argue with the way she did Woody. Bullseye was someone who would listen and not interrupt when she had something she needed to get off her chest. In all honesty, he was her very best friend.
“He doesn’t think she’ll come back. Emily,” She said after sitting there for a while. Bullseye lifted his gaze to her for a second, blinking carefully, before turning his attention back to his breakfast. “But that ain’t her. You and I know that. She wouldn’t leave us if she didn’t have a darn good reason for it, and she ain’t the kind to go without ever givin’ us an explanation. She’ll be back, Bullseye. I sw—”
Before she could finish her sentence, an unfamiliar rumbling overhead forced her to cut herself short. A single glance at Bullseye told her that he had sensed it too. His ears were pinned forward, he had stopped eating, and she could see him shifting uneasily from hoof-to-hoof. Frowning, she got up from the bale of hay she was sitting on and made her way over to him, taking his face gently in her hands and hushing him as the muscles beneath his coat tensed up. Well, that worked for about two seconds.
The moment he began to settle, the rumble became a roar that almost instantly progressed into what she could only think to describe as a deafening scream. It was enough to make the walls around the two of them begin to shake, and when Bullseye reared back against the stall she made the decision to run out into the yard to find out what was going on. It was only then that she saw the bright streak cutting through the sky, and something in her chest sank when it quickly disappeared behind the tire swing hill. The impact that followed was enough to shake even the ground she was standing upon.
She froze for a second — only a second — before the sight of smoke starting to billow up from behind the hill snapped her out of her dazed state and she realized the severity of what had just happened.
“Jumpin’ jellybeans,” She breathed as she turned on her heel and ran back inside the stables, opening Bullseye’s stall door and giving him the once over before leading him out into the yard. She didn’t bother to saddle him. Not that she had any time for that anyway. Instead, she dragged herself up onto his back before taking a secure hold of his mane. “Someone needs help. C’mon, Bullseye. Hyah!”
And, with that, he took off running.
It took them minutes to reach the tire swing hill, and her breath caught at the sight that greeted them when they made it to the very top.
She had been expecting to see a small plane or something along those lines, but this…it wasn’t that.
This was something she had never seen before in her life.
Slowly, she swung her leg over Bullseye’s back and dismounted, taking one-or-two steps closer to the edge of the hill as smoke continued billowing from the wreckage. The impact had torn the ground apart, and there was now a large crater in which whatever this…thing…was rested. Taking a breath, she patted Bullseye’s shoulder in reassurance before beginning to make her way carefully down the hill. Before she could get too far, though, Bullseye let out a panicked snort, making her turn back to him.
“I gotta. Someone might be hurt,” She reminded him with a shrug. “I’ll be careful. Just…stay there.”
Turning away from him once more, she continued on down the hill until she came to the edge of the crash-site. From her vantage point, she could see that what she assumed was the cockpit had some damage, though it hadn’t taken the brunt of the impact. She also realized there was, in fact, someone strapped inside, and that made any anxieties she might have had dissipate. Somebody was in need. And that meant that she and her feelings needed to take something of a back seat for the time being.
She made her way down into the crater without a second thought and succeeded in reaching the door to the cockpit without too much trouble. The damage to the body made getting the door open a little more difficult than she had first anticipated, but in the end she managed to prise it open and climb in. It was then that she realized just how little space there was on the inside. Something that she hadn’t accounted for. For a second, she felt her chest begin to tighten and the palms of her hands begin to sweat, but just as it felt as though the cockpit was beginning to close in around her, she snapped herself out of it. She couldn’t afford to let this get the better of her. Not when every minute counted.
Pushing her way further into the cockpit, the smoke made her cough, but she eventually reached the man slumped forward over the controls, still strapped into his chair. She pressed two fingers to the side of his neck and sighed with relief when she felt an unmistakable pulse, quickly reaching around him to unbuckle his belt so that she could drag him out. He was heavy, especially given his current state, and there wasn’t much room to manoeuvre him, but she eventually managed to get him outside.
Once she had gotten him down and a safe distance away from the wreckage, she laid him down on his back on the grass and leaned back on her hands for a moment so that she could catch her breath. Despite her having told him to stay put atop the hill, the sound of hoofbeats made her look up in time to see Bullseye come galloping down towards them. She couldn’t be too annoyed with him though, especially not when he lowered his head once he’d reached them and began to sniff, checking her over.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” She chuckled, reaching up to push his head away before her attention returned to the man on the ground. Shifting onto her knees, she crawled towards him before leaning down and pressing her ear against his chest through his uniform. He was breathing. That was a pretty good sign. Lifting her head again, she looked down into his face, studying him. He had some deep lacerations, she noted, and some superficial cuts and scrapes that he probably sustained when he lost his helmet. Broken bones, she couldn’t be sure about yet, but it was probable given the intensity of the impact.
Reaching out a hand tentatively, she began to move a strand of jet black hair away from his face, and it was at that precise moment that his eyes sprang open and they both let out sharp shouts of surprise.
“Gosh darn-it!” She snapped as she flinched back, bringing a hand to her chest. “You scared me!”
“Uh…” He blinked at her. “...I’m sorry?”
She looked at him for a time in silence before leaning in again. “Do you know who you are?”
He scoffed. “Of course, I do. I am Buzz Lightyear. A member of the elite Universe Protection Unit of the Space Ranger Corps. You see, my job is to protect the galaxy from the threat of invasion from Commander Zurg. My ship, uh…it must have crash-landed here by mistake. Where am I, exactly?”
For once, she was lost for words. “So, you’re some sorta superhero. That’s what you’re goin’ with?”
“I don’t follow.” He admitted.
She snorted with amusement. “Yeah, I think you hit your head or somethin’ on impact, Space Ranger. But the name’s Jessie. Jessie Pride. And this here town is called Larkspur. My ranch is over there.”
“A town…” He echoed softly. “Well, that’ll be helpful when it comes to repairs.”
“Yeah. Uh-huh,” She nodded. “We need to get you outta here. You got a lot of injuries. C’mon.”
Carefully, she aided him in sitting up and gave him a minute-or-so to get his bearings before helping him get to his feet and mount Bullseye. Once he was seated, she ran her hand tenderly down her horse’s neck before taking him by the mane and beginning to lead him back in the direction of home.
“For cryin’ out loud, would you stay still?”
“Well, I would if you knew what you were doing. Have you ever even been to medical school?”
“I’ll have you know, Space Ranger, that I don’t need medical school,” She said, narrowing her eyes at him and his complaints as she leaned back in the chair opposite his, the threaded needle still in hand. “I’ll bet I’ve been stitchin’ up wounds longer than you’ve been doin’ this darn…spaceman…thing for.”
He chuckled. “I highly doubt that.”
“I’m beggin’ you. Just let me get this over and done with.”
“Fine. But if there’s any permanent damage, just know I’ll be holding you personally responsible.”
She rolled her eyes at that before shifting closer once again and getting back to work stitching up the more serious lacerations, and this time he actually kept still. Once the one on his forehead was fully stitched, she paused for a moment to just look at him again before tackling the one on his left cheek.
“You keep staring at me. It makes me quite uncomfortable.” He told her.
“Say this whole Space Ranger Corps thing is true…” She ignored him, twirling the needle between her fingers. “How come nobody ‘round here has ever heard of it? Big thing, protectin’ the whole entire galaxy, wouldn’t you say? You’d think somethin’ like that would have been in the papers a few times.”
He shrugged. “A lot of Star Command’s information is highly classified. Known to only a select few.”
“A select few…” She hummed. “Meanin’ you?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.” He replied.
“So that’s a ‘darn right’ then,” She figured. “Tell me somethin’. I won’t say nothin’. I’m good at secrets.”
He raked a scraped hand through his hair with an exasperated sigh. “And why would I trust you? For all I know, you could be an agent of Zurg’s. Trying to extract information from me with your…” He looked her up and down for a moment, crossing both arms over his chest. “...bewitching good looks.”
She laughed aloud at that, reaching up to flip her braid over her shoulder out of the way before resting her chin in her hand. “Dang it, you got me. You’re just too darn good at this Space Ranger business.”
“You’re mocking me, aren’t you?” He grumbled, though a hint of a smile was playing at his lips.
“I’d never do nothin’ of the sort,” She feigned innocence before chuckling under her breath when his brow furrowed. “Y’know, you got this funny little vein that pops outta your forehead when you’re gettin’ mad. My brother has it too. I drive him mad all the time, sometimes on purpose, just to see it.”
Moments later, as though the mere mention of him had summoned him home, the back door opened and Woody made his way inside the ranch-house with a fresh bag of feed from Hammond’s store. Glancing over her shoulder at him without rising from her seat, she offered her brother a small smile. He didn’t return it. Instead, he stood there, looking slowly back and forth between her and Buzz.
She set the needle in her hand down, eventually, and rose from her chair before making her way over to him as he set the bag of feed down on the counter and turning back to Buzz for a second time.
“Woody, this is Buzz Light-Somethin’,” She told him as she began to gesture between them, speaking through gritted teeth as she leaned in. “He thinks he’s a superhero or somethin’, just go with it.”
Woody looked at her in silence for a long second before finally taking a step forward and holding out a hand in offering, shaking Buzz’ hand firmly when he finally got up from his chair and accepted it.
“Uh…howdy,” He greeted him. “I’m Woody. And you’ve clearly already gotten to know Jessie, so…”
“You’ll have to forgive the intrusion,” Buzz replied, dropping his hand. “My ship crash-landed here by mistake. I’ll need to assess the extent of the damage done over the next few days, but I shouldn’t be here for more than a few weeks. I really need to get back and I wouldn’t want to outstay my welcome.”
“No…” He chuckled awkwardly, reaching back to rub at the back of his neck. “You wouldn’t wanna do that. Would you mind excusin’ us for a moment? I just need to, uh, have a word with my sister.”
Buzz nodded, waving his hand in dismissal. “Of course.”
Turning back to Jessie again, he took her by the elbow and led her back through the back door into the yard before pulling the door closed behind them and giving her an almost incredulous look.
“Are you crazy?” He whisper-shouted.
“What?” She retorted.
“What have I told you about takin’ in strays?”
“Woody, he’s not a stray. He’s someone who needed help. What should I have done, left him there?”
“Yes!” He snapped. “He would have been someone else’s problem!”
“Woody—”
“You…” He stopped himself short, running a hand over his face with a groan before taking her by the arms and pulling her in closer. “You get too attached, Jess. You get attached, then you get hurt.”
She scoffed, shaking her head. “I recall you tellin’ me to let things go about Emily this mornin’ before you went into town. Well, it seems to me like I’m not the only one havin’ a hard time letting it go.”
He fell quiet then.
Almost like he had no response to that.
But then he spoke again.
“Well, he’s not stayin’ at the house,” He muttered, relinquishing his grip on her arms and enabling her to take a step back from him, creating some space between them. “He’s gonna have to stay in town.”
“I know Dolly’s got room at the saloon,” She told him. “Them travellers moved on yesterday mornin’.”
He nodded. “Right. I’ll take him. Tell Dolly I’m coverin’ his fee since I’m sure Mr. Space Ranger won’t have anythin’ on him. Maybe in a couple days, he’ll be able to tell us who he actually is. We’ll see.”
“Yeah…” She muttered.
“Jess? What is it?” He frowned.
She shook her head, clearing her throat. “Nothin’. You should go. Won’t be long now ‘til it gets dark.”
He chose not to respond to that with words, instead just turning on his heel and making his way back inside the house to go and speak with Buzz. She stood there for a long moment once the door closed behind him, but then she turned herself and began walking through the yard to the stables much like she had done earlier. Bullseye snorted happily when she made her way inside, and she felt her spirits lift slightly as she approached his stall and took his face in her hands, her fingers stroking him gently.
“You wanna know somethin’?” She asked him, her voice no higher than a whisper.
Bullseye gave her another little snort in response.
“I don’t think that Space Ranger’s lyin’...”