The Phantom stormed out of the brush, galloping a few yards past where they stood before he planted his back feet and reared. For the first time ever, Sam wasn't entirely thrilled to see him. She was certain Jake had been about to tell her he felt the same; either that or kiss her, either would have been fine by her. Then Blackie had wrecked the moment.

Jake muttered something that sounded like "Figures" while Sam took a closer look at her old horse. Something was definitely off. The silvery stallion stamped his feet and looked at Sam impatiently, waiting for her to catch on to his problem.

"The rope, Sam," Jake said suddenly, pointing at the stallion's sweaty gray neck. Sure enough a lasso was settled firmly around the horse's muscular neck, and from the looks of the bloodied rub marks it had not been welcomed.

"Trago," Sam growled, certain the man had been the one to try and catch her horse again. She tried to calm her anger so as not to scare off the Phantom, but in this case it was difficult.

"It couldn't have been him, Sam," Jake shook his head, "Seth threatened a suit against him. He took off for Montana yesterday."

Sam wasn't convinced; these bad guys always seemed to come back. If it wasn't Trago, she was sure it still had something to do with Linc Slocum. He was obsessed with catching the Phantom, and she doubted jail would keep him from trying.

The first thing she needed to do was get that rope off of the Phantom's neck. He was still agitated, but Sam knew he would let her close enough to remove it.

The trouble would be getting Jake to let her get close enough.

She glanced quickly at the silent cowboy and found him watching her with a look she hadn't seen in a while. The wary, "this is not a good idea" look she usually rebelled against. How was it they had been so close to kissing not two minutes ago, yet now they were back to being the wild child and the fun police?

"You know I have to." Sam told him simply, edging a step in the Phantom's direction. Jake clenched his jaw and looked over to where the great white horse was still prancing in place.

"You could wait for someone to tranq him…" he suggested, but his tone didn't sound convinced.

"You know he won't come to us again, not like this," Sam argued, taking another step. The Phantom snorted but his hooves seemed to settle down.

"Stop telling me what I know, Brat," Jake ground out, quietly so not to scare the stallion, "I just wish there were another way. I wish you weren't the only one he let near him."

In the past Sam might argue with him, but she had come to know him a little better in the past 24 hours. So instead she reached out and squeezed his hand, saying "I know."

Jake's eyes softened a little and he gave a short nod before letting go of her hand. Sam turned her attention back to Blackie, who had quieted down as he watched the two humans. He seemed to be studying them, trying to figure them out. Sam knew if he suspected Jake was trying to "steal" her he might challenge him, so she attempted to put some distance between them. As she approached slowly, he turned his attention back to her. Even though they shared a special bond, Sam always had to remember that he was not a tame horse.

"Zanzibar," She whispered when she was close enough. Gray ears perked up at her voice. He pawed with his foreleg and Sam could almost hear Jake's teeth grinding behind her.

"Easy boy, I just want to get that rope off your neck," Sam murmured, coming within a few feet of him. He eyed her warily, but did not shy away as a typical mustang would have. From her closer position she could tell that the rope was tight, biting into the Phantom's neck. Loosening, let along removing it, would be a challenge.

Sam held her hand out and inched closer, allowing the stallion to smell her hand before she placed it gently on his shoulder. The great horse flinched but did not move.

"Good boy," She cooed, stroking his shoulder gently. She wished she had thought to ask Jake for his knife, it would make removing the rope a lot easier. First she had to loosen it, and with his skin rubbed raw around the rope it would not be easy.

"Steady Blackie," She whispered, placing one hand on the rope's knot. The Phantom tossed his head and snorted, obviously in pain. Sam took a deep breath. She caught a glimpse of Jake standing several yards away, his hands were fisted at his sides and he stared helplessly at her. She knew this killed him, being unable to protect her.

When the Phantom was breathing easier with her hand still on the rope's knot, she cautiously began to pull it away from his neck, loosening the noose. She had pulled the noose until it was around 5 inches from his neck when it suddenly snagged. Sam gasped as the Phantom squealed and reared back. She heard Jake's strangled cry, "Sam!" and fell back away from the thrashing hooves. The Phantom landed and took off at a gallop, narrowly swerving around Jake, who had run forward towards Sam.

Jake wasn't sure how his heart managed the emotional roller coaster that was the past 30 minutes. From anxiety, to elation, to love, to anger, to fear, he was sure he had covered more feelings in that past half hour than he had in the past year. As soon as Blackie had taken off he had charged him. Jake could care less about the jealous stallion's agenda and side stepped the horse's charge on his way to Sam, letting the Phantom gallop off into the desert again.

Jake felt a new feeling, relief, as soon as he saw Sam. She was sitting in the dirt, but otherwise unharmed. Frustration was clearly written all over her pretty face.

"Are you ok?" Jake asked as he pulled her to her feet, quickly checking for any visible signs of injury.

"No I'm not," Sam growled, "He still has that darn rope around his neck! I only loosened it enough to catch on a branch and break his neck!"

"You don't know that, he might be able to slip it off himself now," he said, knowing before he spoke the words that she would not buy it. She was already marching towards Ace, determination settling over all of her features. Jake sighed, there was no way they were revisiting their earlier conversation anytime soon.

He barely had time to swing up on Witch by the time Sam had urged Ace in the direction the Phantom had disappeared in. Logically he knew that the stallion could be a danger to himself with the rope around his neck, but he also knew it would take a dangerous act to remove it. He could only guess who would be willing to commit said dangerous act to save the horse, and was determined not to let Sam get hurt.

Jake and Witch quickly caught up to the little mustang, despite Ace's best effort to gallop as fast as he could. One glance at Sam and Jake knew she had lost the Phantom's trail. Her eyes scanned the flat expanse before them for any flash of white. Jake's mouth pressed into a hard line as he debated his options. On one hand it would take him just a few minutes to read the earth and determine which way the stallion had gone, but he knew if he did Sam would be off towards certain danger.

Witch slowed beneath him and one look at the fiery redhead beside him told him the decision may have already been made. Sam had slowed Ace to a walk and directed her gaze at him. Her hopeful, yet determined, expression told him all he needed to know.

"Sam…"

"I know you can find him, Jake."

"That's not the point!" He stopped Witch abruptly, ignoring when the mare tossed her head in protest.

"Sure it is! You know as well as I do that a loose rope could kill a wild horse, Jake," She stopped Ace in front of him, entreating him with a desperate look, "I need a tracker to find him."

"And what do you plan on doing then?" He didn't bother with keeping the frustration out of his tone, "He's a wild stallion Sam, and he's been cooped up in that valley for a long time. We don't know what he'll do if you try and remove the rope."

"I just need your knife this time…"

"My tracking, my knife," Jake threw his free hand in the air, "Sounds like you're asking a lot of me just to help you get hurt."

"He won't hurt me Jake!"

"He has before!"

Sam stared at him. It had been a long time since her accident had come up and hearing the words from Jake felt like a slap in the face. Her defensive words died in her throat, however, when she saw the fear and the… guilt… in Jake's expression. Maybe it wasn't Blackie she should be defending.

"It wasn't his fault," She said calmly, moving Ace as close as Witch allowed.

"I know it wasn't." He said flatly. Before she could say anything else he was reaching in his pocket and handing her his knife. She paused, confused, before slowly taking it from him. Jake didn't look her in the eye, instead turned his focus to the ground around them. In less than a minute he was squinting into the distance.

"I know I can't stop you, but I'm not going to watch your get hurt either." He said in the same flat tone, then pointed toward some run down brush she hadn't noticed, "He went that way. I'll wait here."

"Jake…"

"Be careful." His eyes finally met hers. Mustang eyes, as she once described them. His jaw was set stubbornly against her, but his eyes held concern.

"I will be." She said confidently. She was determined not to disappoint him, but she could not in good conscience let the Phantom injure himself. She set off in the direction Jake had suggested, careful not to look back to see her friend, her protector, her… whatever he was now.

The trampled brush was easy enough to follow, and it was clear that the Phantom had been through recently. Scanning the area Sam tried to remember what Jake had taught her about tracking over the years. When she exited the brush her gaze was drawn to the fresh hoofprints that dotted the dirt. A small thrill of accomplishment ran through her as she followed the trail towards a watering hole that was known to attract local mustangs. As she reached the small drop off that led down to the water her breath caught in her throat. There was her horse, pacing the water's edge with the rope still hanging from his scarred neck.

Sam quietly dismounted from Ace and left him ground tied at the crest of the hill. As she made her way down, her foot occasionally caught on the loose dirt of the bank which alerted the stallion to her presence. He gave a nervous snort but stood his ground, watching the girl carefully.

"Hey there Zanzibar," She murmured as she inched closer. The stallion tossed his mane and pranced in place for a moment, reminding her once again that he was not tame. She slowed her movements, carefully trying to avoid eye contact like Jake had taught her so many years ago. 'Eye contact is threatening to a wild horse, it makes you look like a predator,' his words ran through her head.

When she was within a few yards of the horse she carefully removed Jake's knife from her pocket. Even though it was silly, having something of Jake's made her more confident. The truth was that, whether or not he supported her, he hadn't stood in her way. She couldn't remember the last time that had happened. There was a significance there that she decided to think on after she had freed her horse.

The Phantom had stopped prancing and now watched her warily as she calmly approached. She held the knife out of sight so as not to alarm him. When she held her hand out she waited for him to gently blow out through his nostrils before advancing.

"That's a boy," she soothed, reaching out to stroke his shoulder. She could see now the mark the rope had left on his neck when it had been tightened. The deep lesions clearly showed that someone had managed to lasso the horse and struggled to hold him before the Phantom escaped. She thought briefly that the cuts would need to be monitored for infection, but knew her time to cut through the rope was limited. Gently taking the coarse loop in her hands, she began to saw with the pocket knife.

"I think I'll get Jake a new knife after this, boy," She murmured to the horse as she painstakingly cut through thread after thread, "his knife is getting a little dull."

The Phantom's ears swiveled back to listen to her but he graciously stayed still. The lasso was tough, but Sam patiently stuck with her task and prayed for the stallion to stay patient too. She knew Jake would be sweating if he could see her now.

Jake had to focus on his breathing as he silently crested the small hill past where Ace stood grazing. He was thankful his heritage had bestowed upon him the trait of 'silent sneaking', as Sam had once put it, for this very moment. Though he had told Sam he couldn't watch, he also couldn't not watch. If something happened to her he wouldn't be able to live with himself, not again.

Jake thought he was over the guilt he had felt as a child when Sam had fallen from her horse and been kicked in the head. He had even gone through four years of being her protective shadow once she had returned just to feel like he had made it up to her. That had only led to him falling head over heels for he and feeling even more like he needed to keep her safe at all times. But Sam would never make that job easy.

He dropped to his knees as he reached the peak of the small slope so the Phantom wouldn't be spooked by his presence. It didn't take long for him to find Sam, and no matter how docile the stallion looked at that moment, it didn't keep his heart from plummeting when he saw just how close she stood to saw at the rope. He cursed himself silently for not sharpening his pocket knife more regularly.

He could see Sam's lips moving as she quietly reassured the mustang. One of his great white ears stayed locked on her while the other searched for any disturbances to their quiet sanctuary. Jake forced himself to breathe so slowly that he prayed he wouldn't pass out due to lack of oxygen.

Just when he thought he couldn't stand it any longer, the rope came apart in Sam's hands. She slowly removed the corded trap and, after peering a little too closely at the wound on his neck, backed away from the Phantom. Sensing his freedom, Blackie jigged in place for a moment before scrambling up the opposite bank and galloping to freedom.

Jake let loose a breath he didn't know he was capable of holding. He watched Sam pocket his knife and wind the rope up in her hands, no doubt to take back for evidence. A prickly feeling told him this adventure with the Phantom was nowhere near finished.

As she turned his way, he stood up from his hiding place. When she discovered him watching, her hesitant smile reminded him of the turbulent hour they had just been through. First they all but declared their love to each other, only to be disrupted by the horse that had separated them so many years ago. Then he had basically given her the tools to a dangerous mission against every instinct he had, and now that she had succeeded he didn't know whether to be glad or wary of what was to come.

"You watched?" she asked as she reached him. She handed over the blasted pocket knife that had probably cost him a few years off his life for how long it took to cut through a rope.

"I tried not to." He shrugged, his hand flying to the back of his neck on an old instinct. Sam raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"You didn't stop me."

"I wanted to."

"But you didn't." She said, squaring herself up across from him, "Why?"

Jake sighed. He wasn't even sure why he had let her go after the horse when everything in him told him not to. He wanted her safe, that was his mantra, but part of him also knew her happiness was just as important and that - because of who she was - would occasionally compromise her safety. He had to learn to trust her even if it meant trusting her with the most important thing in the world to him. Her.

"I knew you wouldn't rest until you saw he was ok," He said finally, "So I figured I'd rather you go after him with me here than wait for you to sneak off on your own later."

Sam digested his words for a moment and he could almost see the wheels turning in her head. He knew he sounded like the old Jake, but he almost hoped she would see through him and understand.

"I'm done sneaking off, Jake," She said quietly, "If you're ready to trust me I'm ready to do things together, as a team."

He knew she was smart.

"So you're going to include me in your crazy schemes now?" he couldn't resist a little teasing, his tomcat grin spreading across his face. She smiled at him and took a step closer.

"You wouldn't like me any other way, cowboy."

Jake took her hand and pulled her the rest of the way, "You're right about that, ma'am."

This time, no raging stallion, avalanche, or bandit could stop him from kissing her.