Author's note: The characters from Dr. Quinn belong to Beth Sullivan. I only own the ones you don't recognize. In this story, Ingrid and her family don't exist. Also, Dorothy is in this story way earlier than she should be, but I like her and wanted to use her. It also gives Jake a bit different past than the show implied. It starts somewhere between the first and second seasons, before Dr. Mike and Sully were engaged. Some of the things are chronologically correct with the show, but I hope you like it anyway.

Prologue

It was a cool spring day in Colorado Springs. Loren Bray was sweeping the front porch of his store. Dr. Michaela Quinn was readying her clinic for the days work. Her eldest son, Matthew Cooper was repairing some lose boards on the porch. Children were rushing past on their way to school and Grace's café was already full of people wanting their breakfasts. All the regular hustle and bustle of the town was going on, except:

Chapter One

Where's Jake?

"Matthew?" Dr. Mike said, stepping out on the porch. "Have you noticed that Jake hasn't opened his shop yet?"

Matthew looked across the street to see that the barbershop was indeed still closed. Odd for this time of day. Jake usually opened up around eight o'clock on weekdays.

He shrugged, "Maybe he's still over at Grace's havin' breakfast, Ma."

"Yes, I suppose so," she replied, stepping back into the clinic.

A few hours later, when the shop was still not open, not only had she begun to worry, but Hank and Loren had too.

"Suppose he's sick?" Loren asked. He and Hank were sitting at Grace's for lunch, discussing the fact that they hadn't seen their friend all weekend before either.

"Nah," Hank answered. "You sold him a couple of bottles of whiskey last week, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah," Loren nodded.

"Then, he's probably just sleepin' off a drunk.

No one in town remembered the real reason for his absences.

Chapter 2

An Almost Forgotten Memory

Jake was sitting in a stagecoach looking at the young woman sitting across from him. She was sitting quietly, with her hands folded in her lap. Since she seemed content, he let his mind drift back to a time few other's in Colorado Springs rarely thought about.

A time when his life was very different from the way it was now. Back, when Abigail Sully was still alive, and Ethan and Charlotte Cooper were new in town. Back to the day the young lady's mother had walked out on them, leaving him to raise their baby girl alone.

That day he closed up his shop and went into the living quarters behind it. His wife, Rebecca, met him at the door with a suitcase in her hand.

"I'm sorry, Jake, truly I am, but I just can't spend the rest of my life being a housewife in this God-forsaken mining town," was her only explaination. She handed him their daughter and was gone. Eighteen-year-old Jake was too stunned to even go after her.

She never came back.

After that, he turned all his attentions on to his daughter. He loved her more than anything, and with the help of Abigail, he raised her as well as anyone could have. He loved her, doated on her, and generally spoiled her rotten. She was the town's darling, capturing the heart of Jake's customers, Hank, Olive Davis, Maude Bray, Abigail, even shy, almost reclusive Byron Sully. She was a happy, outgoing child.

Then came the day she didn't want to get up for school.

"I hurt, Papa," she whimpered.

He pulled back the bedclothes to see the tale-tell signs of Scarlet fever. The nightmarish days and weeks that followed was nothing compared to the nightmare they faced when the fever broke and she woke up. The fever had damaged her small body in a way that would never heal.

His little girl retreated into a world of her own. So well behaved before, she often screamed and cried and threw fits out of the frustration that she could no longer do for herself.

He vividly remembered the night Abigail made his see he could no longer care for her on his own. They were at the Sully's homestead, the same one Dr. Mike now occupied.

His little gilr was in the yard, playing with Sully and his new puppy, while Jake and Abigail sat on the steps, watching them.

Jake, listen to me," Abigail said. "You can't take care of her alone anymore. Look at her, she needs more care you can give. She has to learn to do everything for herself again."

"I can teach her," he replied, stubbornly. "I taught her once, didn't I? We're fine."

"You are not fine. You're losing her. Your baby is blind, Jake, and the doctors say that is never going to change."

"I know that!" He snapped. "I know what's wrong with her. I don't ya' to tell me she's blind."

"There is a school for blind kids in Denver," she pressed on. She knew he was angry at the situation, not at her. "They can give her the care she needs and a real education. They'll teach her to read and write and all sorts of other things. Aunt Olive and I have checked it out. It's really good."

"I ain't sending her to a school full of strangers. What she needs is her Papa."

"It's what's best for her and you know it," Abby said. "It's just in Denver. You can visit anytime you want. Let her go."

He hung his head because he knew she was right.

In the end, he did let her go, and after just six months she was better. Everytime he went to see her, ahe would be more independent and more her old self.

That had been ten years before. Now, she was through with school and on her way home again. Only this time, he wouldn't have any help with her. Abby was gone and last time he had said two wors to Sully and vice-versa was at the funeral.

"Papa?" Her voice brought him back to the present.

"Yes, dear?"

"Do you think anyone will remember me? It's been an awfully long time since I lived in Colorado Springs."

"Of course," he answered. "Don't you remember the people back home?"

She nodded. "Maybe. Sort of. What's it like now?"

He told her about home as they neared it.

"A lady doctor?"

"Yep. Do you remember Matthew Cooper?" He asked.

She nodded.

"Dr. Mike's been taking care of him and Colleen and Brian since Charlotte died."

"Mrs. Charlotte died?" Her face lost some of it's happy expression.

"A few moths ago, of a rattlesnake bite."

"Who else do you remember?"

She thought for a minute. "I remember Mrs. Abby but she died."

"Yeah, Abby is dead," he replied softly. "Do you remember Sully?"

"Yes, sir, he had a puppy one time. It felt like a big ball of fur and it was all squirmy," she smiled.

"That's right," Jake agreed. "He did have a puppy. See there, you do remember. You're going to be just fine here. I promise.

She just nodded.

"We're almost home," he told her.

"Home." She repeated the word to herself. For the past ten years, her home had been the McLauren Academy for the Blind in Denver. Suddenly, she was nervous.

"Papa?"

"What?"

"If I can't get along out here, can I go back to the school? Mrs. McLauren said she would give me a teaching position next fall, if I want it?" She was twisting her handkerchief in her hands.

Jake reached up and put his hand over hers.

"Sweetheart, if you're not happy here with me, then you can go back to Denver in the fall. You have my word," he promised. "Will ya' promise me something?"

"What?"

"That you will try to get along here," he said. "I mean really try. I love you. You're my child and I want you to feel that you have a place, a home, here with me. So, will ya' try?"

She smiled and threw her arms around his neck. "I will, Papa. I love you, too."

"Here we are," he said as the wagon came to a stop. "Colorado Springs."