[Gift] Baby Doll x Red Wolf

“The hell is that?” 

Ken was barely awake, desperately hoping the cup of steaming coffee in his hand would change that, and most certainly had no clue what  Dawson was on about. 

“What’s what?” he said with a tired sigh. He rubbed at his eyes, but it had little effect on their bleariness. Dawn had yet to come, and the inky blue sky offered little revelation to his business partner’s confusion. 

“The foal in with that horse we’re training, Baby Doll.” Dawson climbed up on the lowest board of the fence to get a better look at the thing. Baby Doll and the foal had nestled down in the far corner of the paddock, under a cluster of trees. Dawson couldn’t see much, but what he could tell was that it was small, wet, and caked in so much mud you couldn’t even see the color. Baby Doll lay next to it, licking a few patches of the foal’s stomach dry. Her normally white and few spot coat matched the mud caked one of her foal. On the other side of the aisle between her paddock and the next, Red Wolf stretched his neck out as if to see what the fuss was about. 

“Well I’ll be damned,” Ken said, finally joining Dawson at the fenceline. He took a slow sip from his metal cup, looking the foal and mare over. “Looks like she had it in the middle of that downpour we had overnight. I’m surprised she didn’t go inside. Who do you think’s the culprit?” 

Red Wolf’s soft nicker drew their attention and the pair of cowboys turned to look at each other with raised eyebrows. Unlike his normal surly attitude, the stallion seemed to have softened with the arrival of the foal. His ears were forward, eyes curious, tail swishing contently. Gone was the stiffly raised head and scopey look he normally carried, all replaced by a gentle curiosity for this unexpected newcomer. 

“You think…?” Ken asked.

“I mean we did leave them a camp a few times when we were tracking deer,” Dawson mused. “It’s not impossible.” 

“And here we just thought she was getting fat from too much feed.” Ken chuckled into his cup, finishing off his coffee and refilling it from his thermos. Dawson waved off the offer when Ken held the thermos out to him.

“She barely showed for pregnancy. Must’ve been one of her first,” Dawson sighed, jumping over the fence. “I’ll go and check on her, make sure the foal’s breathing. Can you move Sunny and Teller out into the stud herd? We’ll put her down the end of the barn in the isolation stall for now.” 

Ken nodded and raised his cup in acknowledgement. “Sure thing, don’t get kicked.” Baby Doll was one of the sweetest horses on the property, but any mare could be protective of a foal. 

With Ken getting the stall together, Dawson finally approached the pair, stopping halfway to look at Red Wolf across the way. 

“You know, Wolf, for such a disinterested stud, you sure snuck this one past us.” A huff of laughter escaped his tipped up lips. “Let’s hope to the good Lord in heaven that he’s got his mama’s personality, hm?” 

Red Wolf snorted in response, turning his back on his handler and wandering toward his run in where one of the farm hands had just tossed a fresh pile of hay for him. Seems his soft, curious mood had been short lived or reserved only for Baby Doll and her new foal. 

Shaking his head, Dawson finished his trek across the soggy field to the small copse of trees where Baby Doll and her foal were bedded down. Already, the foal was moving about, trying to find its legs. The sun lightened the sky enough so that Dawson could make out what he thought was a bold blaze and a white sock on one of the front legs, but mud obscured the rest of the coat. Surprisingly, Baby Doll stayed laying down comfortably, even when Dawson was only a few yards away. 

“Whatcha got there, girlie?” he asked, lighting a cigarette and leaning against one of the tree trunks. “Woulda been nice if you’d given us some warning about that. You’re s’posed to be goin’ off to your new owner any day now.” Baby Doll stared at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Yea, yea, I know. Boys can be so convincing, huh?” He let out a huff of laughter. “Hell, who knows, I been there. Maybe I got a stray kid or two running around somewhere, too.” The outlaw turned rancher fell quiet for a time after that, watching as the foal attempted to stand. 

The foal nearly had its feet under it, but toppled over at the last minute. Dawson finished his cigarette and lit another, staying with the pair as the sun slowly rose over the horizon. By the time morning had come both foal and mare were on their feet. Dawson couldn’t help the soft exhale of relief that left him once the foal began to suckle. He hadn’t even realized he’d been anxiously waiting for it to get to that point.

A foal on Goose Creek Ranch… this was going to be interesting. With any luck, it would have Red Wolf’s athleticism, but Baby Doll’s personality. God help them if it got Red Wolf’s. One thing was for sure, though, he was making Ken take night time bottle duty once Baby Doll left.