Summary: Just a conversation between Candy and Joe, because they’ve both been there. A brief WHN for The Stalker.

Rating: G | Word Count: 908

“I’ve been there, you know.”

Candy kept his gaze fixed on the lake, and didn’t even turn his head at Joe’s voice as the man settled down sitting next to him on the rocky shore.  He had been thinking about Lisa’s face as she told him why they couldn’t be together, and he didn’t appreciate the interruption.  Maybe if he stayed silent, Joe would go away.

Right.  Like that was going to happen.

Finally, he ground out, “Been where?”

“You know.  There.”  Joe gestured, vaguely and expansively.  “Here.”

Candy glowered at the innocent sunlight on the water.  “What are you talking about?”

“When a man asks for three days off all of a sudden, and the woman he’s been seeing is leaving town, it’s not real hard to figure out what’s happening.”

Candy let his head drop into his hands.  “You talked to Lisa.”

“Nah, Hoss did.  Then he talked to me.”

“Great.  Good.”  Fine if everyone talked, if they just wouldn’t talk to him.

“So I could guess where you were.  Emotionally, I mean.  Took some searching to find out you were here.  Nice spot, though, good view.”

Was he supposed to thank him for the effort?  Candy lifted his head again, but didn’t look at the man next to him.  “Joe, what do you want?”

“Just saying that I’ve been there.”

“Fine, you said it.”

Joe’s jacket rustled as he leaned back, clearly a man intent on staying where he was for a long time if necessary.  “Reckon I’ve been turned down by…let’s see, I think it’s seven women that I proposed to.  I wouldn’t tell that to just anyone, you know.  I’ve got the reputation of being a love ‘em and leave ‘em type, and it would pretty well ruin it if people put it together to realize it’s been more love ‘em and get left, actually.”

“So what is this, a competition?”

“No,” Joe said, voice far too patient for Candy’s current frame of mind. “I’m just saying, I’ve—”

“Been there, yes, I know.”

“Right.  Did I ever tell you about Tessa?”

Candy shook his head.  “I don’t know.  Maybe?”

“I was engaged to her, hmm, about five years ago.  Maybe six.”

“Joe, I don’t keep track of your current romances.  I don’t care who you romanced five years ago.”

“I think it was six.  Anyway, she was riding through the Ponderosa with her father and brother while I was out hunting a cougar.”

The story sounded familiar.  “Wait, I remember this one – the blind girl you shot?”  There had been a campfire some while ago, with Hoss and Joe and a lot of stories about the crazy romances they’d both, but mostly Joe, gotten caught up in.

“Sure,” Joe said, apparently unoffended, “we can joke about it now because she got her sight back and it all worked out.  But we didn’t know then that she’d ever see again, and I felt real bad about that.  Felt like I had to fix it somehow, make it up to her.  Take care of her.  You know?”

“No,” Candy said flatly, even though he could see what Joe was driving at.  Of course he’d wanted to fix things for Lisa.  He’d killed her husband, even if it had been self-defense.  But that wasn’t the point.

“I got all the way to the altar with Tessa, said the vows, everything.  Then before she said the vows back, she ran off up the stairs, vision perfect.  And you know how I felt?”

“Like an idiot?”

“Well, yeah.  But also relieved.  Because I didn’t really love her, I just wanted to help her, and—”

“It’s not the same.”

“All right, if you say so, but…are you sure it’s actually that bad?”

Candy straightened up, moved his glare off the view towards the target it should have had to begin with.  “Joe, I’ve punched you before, I can do it again, I don’t care if I work for your father, I can still—”

“No, no, I’m just asking,” Joe said, unperturbed, waving a hand.  “Just something to think about.  ‘cause I remember how you used to smile, when you were courting Laura.  You weren’t smiling that way about Lisa.”

Candy was struck momentarily silent, and he didn’t even know if it was the reminder of that past loss, or because Joe was right.  “That doesn’t mean,” he said finally, “that it isn’t bad this time too.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t bad.  Just, you know.  Might be some perspective.  And maybe, in the long run, with the long run sort of perspective…”

“I’m not in the long run.”  Not yet, anyway.

“No.  But I’ve been there too.  Things can look different after a while. You remember hearing about that witch woman I romanced once?”

“Vividly.”  That one was very easy to place, and considering how hard Joe had tried to stop Hoss from telling that particular story, it was probably a strange sort of honor that Joe was voluntarily bringing the subject up.  “It’s not the same as that either.”

“No, but, you know.  Still.”

Candy sighed.  “Are you done talking?”

“Maybe.  Any of this help?”

Candy let the silence hang for a long moment, then finally, gaze back on the lake, said only, “Maybe.”

Joe nodded.  “Want me to go away?”

The silence hung even longer this time.  Candy sighed again.  “Nah.”

Joe nodded again, and they sat together on the lakeshore.  Just being there.

Author’s Note: After watching The Stalker, I got to thinking about how it compared in some ways to Bullet for a Bride…and then Joe and Candy basically sat down and dictated this entire conversation for me.  To clarify references, Joe accidentally blinds Tessa in Bullet for a Bride, Candy romances and loses Laura in Star-Crossed, and Joe’s witch woman is, of course, the infamous Tirza from Dark Star.