Silver Lake

The midday sun had melted through a decent portion of the snow on the ground in recent weeks, though the air was still considerably chilly and snow storms were common. For the Evergreen Sheriff’s Department this meant one thing. Mud. Lots and lots of mud. As if policing portions of the county weren’t hard enough, they now had to limit their hoof patrols considerably as walking through that sheer amount of mud was quite frankly dangerous for equines. As such, the duty of patrolling the various roads outside of town fell to Deputy Turner and his truck.

Turner had been assigned the northernmost route in Evergreen County, the road that ran from the county line along the train tracks down through the mountains and eventually feeding into Silver Lake. Considering how long the journey was, the Deputy had packed a tent, sleeping bag and other necessary supplies. Normally the Sheriff wouldn’t have bothered, but the winter months were pushing along and several holidays were coming up. In that regard the Sheriff needed to make sure that no one traveling for the holidays by road was stranded or in trouble. In the years since Turner had arrived he had served in a merely ‘good samaritan’ role, this would be his first time running the County Line in an official capacity.

The man sighed and adjusted his mirrored aviators as he continued to roll along the road at around forty miles an hour. He’d passed through the mountains a day before and was now simply driving across mostly flat plains. The distance wasn’t that far, at least not by the way that the crow flew. It only totalled around perhaps two or three hundred miles, which Turner was pretty sure he’d never gone past until his recent brush with Canterlot… Of course, his memory got a little fuzzy when it came to exact distances. The reason it took so long was in part due to the winding road and also due to the necessity of going slow enough to get a good look around.

Out here all that Turner could see was the wide open expanse of the plains, his only company came in the form of the truck’s radio. At this range with the mountains in the way he wasn’t likely to get in contact with anyone via his CB so all he could do was listen to music and hope he didn’t need back up… Not that it would get there any time soon if he could call for it. As Turner looked out over the landscape he nodded his head to the song on the radio, Sam had sent the ‘Human Radio’ station in Canterlot some of the songs that Turner liked to help diversify things.

“Man… I gotta find something else to do out here, liable to end up talking to myself…” Turner grunted as he adjusted his position in his seat, the song ‘Eminence Front’ playing at a decent volume on his speakers while his truck went up and over a small hill in the road. There was little in the way of shrubbery, very few trees, most of the plant life was covered in one way or another with snow with patches of dead brown grass scattered about where the sun had cleared away the drifts. “Good thing I’m sane… Otherwise I’d go crazy just looking out at all that flat land all day…”

Very little occurred from midday to the evening, nothing ever seemed to happen when he did this bit of service to the county. He always worried something would, but the staggering truth of it all was that this place was wide open and empty, he had no idea how far it all stretched. Far enough, he supposed. What could be out there with him? Was anything alive? He always wondered what made its home out in these plains, he’d never seen hide nor hair of anything larger than a jackrabbit. In the distance he saw clouds rolling in, thick and heavy as usual. They looked mighty fierce, dark and foreboding.

“Fuck me…” Turner muttered as he pulled off the road and parked beside the road, the sunset had already started. “Nope… Not sleeping outside tonight.” Turner shut off the truck and walked around to the back of the truck, adjusting his bomber jacket over his uniform. From the bed of his truck he grabbed a sack that he’d kept under a tarp, which contained a heavy wool blanket, a pillow, and one of Sam’s ‘Bedtime Blindfold’ things… It was surprisingly comfortable, like pillows for his eyes. Of course, he’d never admit that.

The wind began to pick up, catching snow that was on the ground and carrying it like dust in the gusting breeze. Turner worked quick, grabbing all the kit he would need for the night before closing the tailgate and quickly getting back in the cab of his truck. The clouds began to roll in faster than normal, galloping overhead like the riders of the apocalypse themselves were behind the reigns. Turner made sure the doors and windows were closed, then locked them shut. He’d only looked away for a second before the first snow flakes began to fly past the windshield. The wind buffeted the truck, as more and more heavy snow began to fly practically sideways as it poured down across the landscape.

“It’s a rogue…” Turner grumbled as he zipped up his jacket and took the blanket from his bag, he could tell from the ferocity that this would be a long night. The storm was one that had likely gotten away from its weather team handlers, gathering up speed, ferocity and power as it rampaged on its own. They happened once or twice a year, usually there was a little advance warning. Such storms were aptly called ‘Rogues’, and they were not something that you wanted to get caught in the middle of at night. The sun gradually began to fade as the storm progressed, within minutes the storm was all around Turner. Visibility went from all clear to barely ten feet in the blink of an eye.

Turner quietly removed his sunglasses and set them on the dashboard, then went about looking through the supplies he had grabbed from the bed of the truck. His blanket and sleeping kit were in order, as well as a cooler with his mess kit and the extra warm clothing he had packed for just such an emergency. Turner quietly started the engine, the usual rumble of the truck was easily drowned out by the gale force winds outside. The heat he had neglected to fix all this time still would not be any help here, but at the very least he wouldn’t have to sit there quietly listening to nothing but the wind. The music that came in on the radio was soothing, a bit of fifties music. Not his first choice, but it would have to do.

So there Turner was, sitting alone in his truck, huddling under his blanket and eating a meal of slightly soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while listening to the greatest hits of Billie Holiday and the Ink Spots. It was as if someone had uploaded their entire ‘Fallout’ playlist to this station, if Turner had to guess Thomas was the most likely culprit. The chill in the air was growing more noticable, the deputy could see his breath and not much else in the light given off by the radio’s screen. Things were going fine for the first couple hours, Turner spent the majority of that time trying and failing to get to sleep. By eight o’clock he had opted to wait to try again, the only source of light for miles was the small glowing screen on his radio… He could barely see anything outside the truck.

As a song came to its end Turner shut off the radio, extinguishing the last bit of light from within the cab and plunging it into near total darkness. The wail of the wind made it difficult to try and sleep, so Turner sat there in silence staring out at the darkness that surrounded his vehicle. His eyes seemed to be playing tricks on him, he thought he could see movement out there other than the whirling snow. He sincerely hoped that was the case, because if something or someone was out there then he would have to get out to investigate. With a sigh, Turner reached up near the dashboard and pulled out the knob that controlled the headlights, he also made sure they were switched to the high beams for maximum illumination.

Brilliant white light washed over the area in front of Turner’s truck, to the deputy’s surprise he saw nothing outside… Not at first. Upon closer inspection he did notice odd depressions in the snow, depressions that were oddly big and foot shaped. The deputy shook his head, refusing to believe those were anything more than just oddities in the snow. He turned off the lights and attempted to hunker down for the night again… No matter how hard he tried, however, he couldn’t stop staring out the windshield at the area where he had seen the depressions. In the darkness he couldn’t make out any details, the more he stared at the area the more he thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye.

“Saint Michael, defend us in battle.” Turner said quietly as his hand slowly slipped down to the spellgun resting in its holster. “Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.” He drew his weapon, gripping it tightly as he began to scan the outside windows for movement. The blowing snow was too thick, the wind too loud, anything in the distance was practically drowned out. His heart began to race when he did hear something however, as that meant it was closer than it had any right to be. “May god rebuke him, we humbly pray-” Turner pulled the light switch again, this time the light didn’t go nearly as far… “Holy shit! Holy fucking shit!”

The light hadn’t gone as far because something was in the way, something big, hairy, and tall. Taller and wider than a bear, it stared at Turner through the windshield with an almost curious expression. After several tense seconds of staring at him, it slowly raised a hand. Turner clicked the safety off his weapon, at a moments notice he could bring it to bare on the creature, he could feel his heart pounding in his ears. Then to his surprise, the massive furry biped… waved at him. Turner’s jaw dropped a little as the creature lumbered slowly over to the side of his truck and knocked on the window, Turner kept his grip on the sidearm but hesitantly rolled it down just a tad… He would much rather be curious than panicked, and in the back of his mind he knew that this was Equestria. A land of talking unicorns. Bigfoots weren’t exactly a stretch.

“Hello, Officer!” A somewhat cheerful voice called in through the window as Turner looked over and turned on the cab light. “I apologize if I startled you, I was merely worried you were in distress.”

“You damn near gave me a heart attack.” Turner replied as he clicked the safety back on his weapon. “I’m sorry, I’ve never seen someone like you before.” The man slipped his piece back into his holster, the creature didn’t seem to mean him harm. From what he could tell from its size, stature, and frankly it’s lack of clothes Turner could tell it was a male. “What brings you out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, officer.” The creature replied in that same cheerful tone. “There isn’t a town for nearly a hundred miles in either direction, and obviously you’re from Evergreen County.” He pointed the various markings on the truck.

“I’m doing a patrol of this stretch of road, we’re getting close to holiday season. Don’t want anyone to get stuck out here.” Turner replied, he leaned against the back of his seat and rolled the window down a little more. The creature’s massive body managed to deflect a good portion of the snow that would’ve blown in otherwise. He was bending down to look into the vehicle, allowing Turner to see his face. “Mind if I ask your name?”

“I’m Bob, I’m a squatch.” Bob said in that same oddly intellectual tone of voice. “I was on a ‘patrol’ myself, I suppose. I saw you here and came to investigate.” His face was mostly covered in fur, Turner could see Bob had big blue eyes. “Say, do you want to come with me? Walk with me, I mean.”

“I can’t, sorry.” Turner replied with a shake of his head. “I gotta get some sleep, big day tomorrow.” Bob nodded quietly and looked off down the road a stretch. “You need help getting home?”

“Nope! If you want to walk the road with me, though… Let me know. I’ll be around.” With that, Bob the Squatch stood to his full massive height and began to walk away. Turner watched for a couple seconds before rolling up his window, the massive figure disappeared into the snowy mist and Turner once again shut off his headlights. Turner relaxed a bit under his blanket and tried once more to get some sleep, for the next few hours he managed to do so… It was restless, he didn’t dream, but he slept at least.

Around eleven o’clock Turner was awoken by the sound of something heavy thudding against the ground outside, it was big and frankly a little too close for comfort. The deputy jolted up in his seat and looked around, nothing to be seen in the pitch blackness of the storm. The air was chilly, so very chilly, but his blanket kept him warm for the most part. As he was starting to relax again he heard another thud, this one louder than the first.

“What the…?” Turner looked around as best he could in the darkness, his head was aching and his stomach grumbled. He hadn’t ever been this hungry before in his entire life, he felt like he could eat an entire cow and still have room for dessert. He looked around, it sounded like the thudding noise was coming from all sides of the truck. With a bit of nervousness the man turned on the headlights once more, and once more he was staring at another furry creature. “Bob?”

Bob’s fur had been brown, this one was grey, and this one didn’t wave… It just stood there, staring at the truck. Turner couldn’t see any sign of what had been thudding around, at least until the creature grabbed a rock and chucked it at the truck. It hit the hood, leaving a slight dent in the metal, after which the creature ran off into the darkness. Turner began to start moving towards the door latch, but he was so cold… He just didn’t care about anything else at that moment. As he sat there he found himself unsure of what he was even doing to begin with, all he knew was that it was very cold and that his blanket offered warmth. With that in mind, he curled back under the blanket and shut off the headlights.

Turner reached for his weapon again, just in case… For the life of him he couldn’t figure out how to turn off the safety. The man slowly lifted the weapon up to look at it, his hands were trembling from the cold.

“Fuck…” Turner said as he saw his hands, they weren’t too far gone but they were certainly taking on a more pale hue. This revelation made him question everything that had happened so far, he was beginning to show signs of hypothermia, which included symptoms like deliriousness and an inability to perform complex tasks. The Deputy sat himself up and began to run his hands together, the friction from which provided a little heat to get the blood flowing again. As fast as he could, Turner grabbed whatever warm clothes he had brought with him and surrounded himself with them. All the way up to his eyes he wrapped himself in sweaters, scarves, and a pair of long johns. He couldn’t drive ahead, not in that condition.

“God… Am I gonna die out here?” Turner asked as he looked around the cab, he couldn’t be sure of anything that had happened that night. He was pretty sure that the ‘Squatchs’ he saw weren’t real, that his truck wasn’t damaged… Then again he couldn’t be sure of anything other than he needed to keep his core body temperature up. Sleep became the enemy, if he fell asleep he couldn’t warm himself up. “No one is out here for miles… Who’s going to help me if I need it?”

Turner looked off in the distance, he wasn’t far from the train tracks that ran parallel to the road. With that in mind the man started the truck’s engine once again and flicked on the light bars, the red and blue lights illuminated the area around the truck while Turner turned on the headlights as well. It was a long shot that anyone on a train would see it, even slimmer odds that they would stop an entire train to investigate, at the very least he had tried. He picked up his radio from the seat beside him and changed the channel to ‘9’, then brought it up to talk into it.

“Emergency broadcast… This is Deputy Turner with Evergreen County Sheriff’s Department…” Turner said slowly, thinking over each word he said carefully. “I’m… I’m not doin’ too good out here on County Road 73, gettin’ pretty cold… Anyone on this wave?”

Turner lowered the radio and did his best to get warm again. It was a losing battle, the storm outside was doing it’s damndest to freeze him to the bone as the night wore on. As expected, no one responded to the radio call, and now that he was warmer he hadn’t seen any more ‘Squatchs’. What was more the dent in the hood had miraculously vanished, more evidence that the encounter had been a hallucination.

“Fuck... Gotta stay awake.” Turner said through gritted teeth as he reached out briefly, his hands covered in two pairs of socks. He attempted to turn on the radio, but the socks warming his fingers left little in the way of dexterity. All he managed to do was mash his hand against the stereo. After a couple seconds he withdrew his arms and tucked them back under his fortress of warmth. “Okay… Okay… New tactic… Talking, just keep on talking… Yeah, that oughtta work.”

The man rubbed his hands together under the blankets, by now a decent amount of heat had returned, most importantly he knew his toes were okay because he had packed the warm fabric around them so tightly that they were actually started to sweat. The lights flashing began to blur and his eyes began to grow heavy, he forced himself to stay up by flicking on the siren for a couple seconds. The blaring noise echoed across the misty snowy landscape while also serving to keep him awake.

“Sam still wants to learn how to use a gun… Okay, so when I get back… Gotta teach her.” Turner muttered as he sat their shivering, wrapped up to his eyeballs in whatever he could get his mitts on. “Should start taking more interest in what’s going on outside Evergreen County too…” He looked briefly out the window towards where he new the train tracks were, but there was no sign of any headlight that might’ve been illuminating the tracks. “Fuck, what’s gonna happen to Sam if I don’t get through this… No… No... can’t start thinking like that…”

“What do you think? She’ll move on.” Turner looked over at the seat beside him, Bob was sitting there hunched over due to his rather large size… Except he wasn’t real, which told Turner he was still far too cold. “You think you’re special to her? She’s only with you because you’re literally the last person on the planet.” The Squatch put a hand on his chest. “That’s not me being mean, just telling you what I see.”

“Go away… You aren’t real. Your just my mind playing tricks on me.” Turner replied with a grunt, rubbing his hands together under the blanket to try and get more warmth.

“No, I’m your mind trying to tell you the cold hard truth, and the truth is you know this isn’t going to last. What’re you going to do? Marry her? You saw how it ended with your own parents, you really think this is any different?” Bob said with a raised eyebrow, Turner closed his eyes and breathed into his shivering hands before rubbing them once more.

“S-She ain’t a drunk like ma...” Turner replied as he started to curl in closer on himself to try and warm up that way. “I-I ain’t gonna walk out like dad neither.” Bob let out a slight chuckle and put one of his large, fuzzy, non-existetant hands on Turner’s shoulder.

“That doesn’t matter. I know you’re shitty at math, but don’t tell me you think the only reason your parents split was because of your mom’s drinking.” Bob stated firmly, Turner ignored him and tried to focus on warming up. “It was partially your fault too, remember? Galavanting around the county with those friends of yours, abandoning your own mother…”

“D-Didn’t a-abandon her, she’s an adult! She can make her own damn decisions, and so can I! If I want to date Sam that’s my god given right you ugly furry sonofabitch!” Turner yelled at the Squatch, his voice booming in the cab of the truck. “I don’t gotta listen to you no more you sanctimonious jackass, what the fuck was my brain even thinking, making a hallucination out of an ugly motherfucker like you! Fuck you, and the horse you rode in on!” Turner saw Bob looking at him, he noticed the coloring of the large furry creature’s eyes shift… Yellow and red. “Why is that familiar…?” Turner asked himself as he looked back towards the dashboard, ignoring the large creature sitting next to him.

“Quite the temper there, you sure you aren’t going to go off like that on Sam-” Bob began, but was cut off as Turner hit him with a cross jaw. Even in the cold state of hypothermia, Turner would take no shit. “Ow… You struck me, Thomas never struck me.”

“I’m not Thomas...” Turner said with a scowl, looking at the figure sitting beside him. “And you ain’t ‘Bob the Squatch’, are ya?” Bob got a small smirk on his face and snapped his fingers, there was a small flash of light and the furry beast was replaced by a more compact draconequus. “I remember you now, they put your face out on a wanted poster about two years ago… Funniest looking motherfucker I ever saw. Disco.”

“Discord, not Disco.” Discord replied with a slight huff, the serpentine figure appeared for more comfortable now that he didn’t have to scrunch down. “So, you figured out it was me, what do you want? A gold star?”

“I’d settle for a heated blanket.” Turner grimly joked through his chattering teeth. “What do you even want, asshole? Just to watch me freeze to death?” Discord shook his head, snapping one of his fingers and prompting a warm looking mug of hot chocolate to appear in his talon.

“You’re dating a human, the others all dated ponies up until you got here… Except for Sam, of course.” Discord said while sipping the mug, Turner watched the steam pouring off of it with slight envy as he continued to try and warm his freezing body. “I’m here because, to put it mildly, I can save you… All you need to do is one thing, one tiny little thing.”

“What’s that?” Turner asked, watching the draconequus sip the mug of warm coco, his fingers were beginning to get numb no matter how hard he tried to keep them warm, eventually he settled on stuffing his hands under his armpits.

“Break things off with Sam.” Discord said flatly, his expression becoming oddly serious. “She deserves better than you anyway, and you know that.” Turner didn’t say anything and instead looked at the steering wheel, shivering as he felt the heat in his boots starting to wane. “What can you offer her? A life of mediocre existence in such a boring locale as Evergreen County? Please, she deserves far more.” The sarcastically glib tone that Discord took after that was almost as annoying as the cold.

“No.” Turner said flatly, looking back over at Discord, the serpentine figure finished slurping the mug and poofed it away before he snapped his finger again. This time, Turner found himself falling and landing in a drift of snow around three feet deep. He stood up and looked around, the draconequus had teleported him just outside his truck and locked the doors on him. The man stood up and walked to the driver’s side window, freezing even faster as the cold wind buffeted him directly.

“Break it off and I’ll let you back inside!” Discord taunted from inside, Turner began to bang on the window but nothing happened.

“Fuck you!” The deputy shouted back as he began to shiver uncontrollably, his legs felt absolutely frozen at this point. “You can go to hell, I ain’t backin’ down!” Turner collapsed into the snow, shivering as he started to crawl under the truck. The engine was running and giving off some warmth, if he could get to it he could maybe stave off the cold a little longer. Even so, the snow was high, and he could tell it would only be a matter of time until he passed out.

“Why are you so stubborn? Are you willing to throw your life away just for some girl?” Discord asked, appearing as a much smaller version of himself beside Turner as the man felt himself starting to lose consciousness. “You’re more stupid than I thought, a perfectly reasonable solution to your litteral death and you tell me to go to hell! You humans are so… Dramatic.”

“I don’t r-rightly care… W-What you think…” Turner stammered as he reached to his pants for his wallet. “Y-You might be right… I m-may be the wor-worst p-person for S-Sam… B-But I love her… I-I won’t hurt her j-just to save my own skin…” The man gripped the wallet with his trembling hand and began bringing it out of his pocket. “I-If I’m g-gonna die… It’s g-gonna be on my own goddamn terms!” With what little strength Turner had left, the man brought the wallet up near his face, the flashing lights of his truck giving him enough illumination to see. He opened it up and withdrew a small polaroid picture of Sam, smiling faintly he looked at it for a couple seconds before he closed his eyes. “G-God… G-Give me the s-serenity to accept the t-things I c-cannot change, t-the courage to ch-change those that I c-can… And the w-wisdom to know the d-difference…”

“You’re just going to let yourself die? You could save yourself! Why don’t you!?” Discord shouted one last time, Turner ignored him and merely gripped the photograph tighter. “I could make you forget it ever happened, none of you would be hurt!”

“S-Suppose t-these might be the last w-words I ever s-say…” Turner said with a trembling voice as the snow began to gradually fill in around him. “G-Go fuck y-yourself…” Discord’s expression went from one of malice to serious concern. “S-Sam… I’m s-sorry…”

The draconequus entire demeanor changed in that instant, with a snap of his fingers Turner was no longer laying in the snow under the truck. The man was once again in his truck, and to his surprise, not dead. He was also, surprisingly, warm. What was more, hot air was blowing from the vents in the truck.

“I’m sorry…” Discord said as he sat beside the Deputy, the man had much more energy than before as he wasn’t freezing to death. “I had to be sure I was right about you-” He was cut off once more as Turner lunged at him and punched him square in the face. “I had that coming.”

“Yeah, no shit.” Turner said flatly as he sat back in the driver’s seat, putting both hands on the wheel and stretching slightly. “What was that really about, asshole?”

“Well, it’s all very complicated and there’s a lot I’m not supposed to tell you, but suffice to say… That was a test of sorts.” Discord said with a slight shrug, Turner looked at him with an extremely angry expression. “If it’s worth anything, you passed.” Discord snapped his fingers, prompting little party streamers to appear and a pair of party hats to appear on both his and Turner’s heads.

“Get the fuck out of my truck.” Turner said as he pulled the hat off his head and threw it at Discord.

“Alright… But if I may say one thing, for whatever it’s worth?” Discord stated, snapping his fingers again and making the streamers and hats disappear. “You and Sam, what you have is special, and very very real.”

With that, the draconequus snapped himself away and out of the truck. Turner was left sitting there tired and angry… But warm and alive. The heat was still on, it seemed Discord had been kind enough to fix it. Turner shut off the lights and did his best to relax. It took some doing, but Turner eventually was able to get to sleep… Six hours worth, though he woke with considerably less back pain than he would’ve thought possible.

The morning had come and the storm had passed, Turner could see the snow was deep enough that it came halfway up his door, which considering how high off the ground the truck was was quite a feat. The Deputy quietly sighed and rubbed his temples, the night before had been extremely stressful. He still had a fair bit of road to travel down, even if he couldn’t see it under the snow. With that in mind he put the still running truck into four wheel drive and gave it a little gas, the truck lurched forward slightly in the deep snow and rolled for a couple feet before it got bogged down in the snow.

The man sighed and parked the vehicle before he opened the door, pushing outward against the snow was difficult but not impossible. He closed the door behind him and walked around to the side of his truck, the snow had filled in the bed considerably and he was forced to sift around a bit in the cold before he found what he was looking for. He eventually removed the entrenching tool from the bed of the truck and began to clear the snow away from the tires as best he could. It was going to be a long ride no matter which way he ended up going, whether he went home from there or continued to drive the long snowy road, he would still be going up against drifts of snow that were possibly deeper than what he found himself currently resting in.

It was peaceful out there, the soft wind blowing by as Turner worked to dig himself out of the snow. Snow stretching for miles in both directions, the sky now mostly clear of clouds while the sun reflected off the glistening white surface. The Deputy quietly looked up as he heard a noise approaching, he looked around for a bit before spotting the source. On the train tracks was a massive looking locomotive slowly plodding along with a spinning opening on its front, it was spraying large amounts of snow off to either side of the tracks as it cleared the path for other trains to follow.

Turner didn’t think he would be able to safely continue considering the amount of snow, so he picked up his radio and switched through the channels until he heard the one being used by the train crew to communicate.

“Snow clearing train eleven-twenty-seven, this is Deputy Turner of the Evergreen County Sheriff’s Department, you read me?” Turner asked as he trudged around his truck to get a better look at the locomotive’s identification number.

”Affirmative, Deputy. You’re coming in lima charlie. What can we do for you?” The operator of the train replied as the train continued moving closer.

“You guys got a long range on board I could borrow?” Turner asked, the locomotive began to slow down as the crew of the train spotted the sheriff’s truck buried in the snow.

”Affirmative, Deputy. We got eyes on you, don’t come to us we’ll come to you.” The operator replied, Turner lowered his radio and tucked it onto his belt as he watched the train come to a stop on the tracks closest to him. With that he trudged his way over to make the call that he would need some help getting him and his truck back to Silver Lake.

Sam was trudging her way through the snow behind the house with a shovel, clearing a path through the vast snowy wasteland for the sake of being able to make it to the driveway. It had become common place for them to use the back door more than the front, simply because Turner had taken to parking his truck in the barn. She wasn’t expecting Turner back for a couple more days, perhaps longer with the massive snow storm they’d had. That’s why she was surprised when she heard the tell tale sound of the truck’s engine rumbling up the driveway, the midday sun reflecting off the bright snow made it difficult to see the truck as it made its way up the driveway.

Turner’s truck came into view, and with it came the man, sitting behind the steering wheel as he usually did. Rather than pull all the way up to the barn, the man put the truck in park almost as soon as he saw Sam behind the house. She stood there, holding the shovel while adjusting her warm clothes and red wool coat, watching as the man killed the engine and hopped out of his truck. He began moving towards her with speed she didn’t think possible in such deep snow.

“What’re you doing home so ear-” Sam was cut off as the man wrapped his arms around her tightly, she was taken a bit by surprise as she was lifted off the ground and bear hugged by the taller man. “Paige! Tight! Too tight!” She called out, prompting Turner to put her back down. “You came barreling over here crazy fast… Is everything okay?”

“It’s a long story…” Turner said, the birds in the distant mountains chirping in the background while he put his hands on Sam’s shoulders and kissing her forehead. “Just know I’m not goin’ on anymore extended patrols until the snow melts a bit.” Sam smiled and hugged him back, though she still didn’t understand how fast he had gotten back. “I love you, Sam.”

“I love you too, Paige.” Sam said as she looked up at him, Turner could see it in her eyes, what he had been through had changed his perspective on a lot of things. He wasn’t going to let his doubt interfere anymore, he was going to love her and trust that she loved him just as much. “What happened? You seem… Off.”

“I’ll tell you all about it inside…” Turner said quietly, leaving one hand on her shoulder as they began to walk towards the house. The deputy could feel a slight welling up of emotion in his heart that made it easier for him to stay awake, considering how many hours he had slept compared to how many hours of work it had taken to get his truck onto a train and down to Silver Lake he was exhausted. He wasn’t one for big dramatics, he just hoped that Sam wasn’t too cross with him for taking a less than very emotional approach to what had happened the night before.