Home is where the heart is

 "Are you sure you've got the time?" Axton asked again on their drive to the little town near the Rez.

"Funny, that you keep asking me that?" Chili was still uncertain how long this journey would take as he drove north in his old car, but at least she had Dory to rely on.

Dory wasn't much good at prepping veg. He didn't know how to hold a knife. Although, he kept busy, always organizing what might be needed in supplies in the kitchen at the coffee shop.

Dory would never know how to make a pot of coffee, but he could tell you what roasted blends were selling. Soon enough, he was checking off supplies. And he could count money, ever so quickly and without a mistake. Chili was glad they'd found him. And she learned he was an asset, even if he looked a bit miserable. 

"I've got someone who will make sure we open and close on time," Chili shrugged. Heck, he even had keys to the place, but it wasn't like she would be taking a vacation. Although, it felt like a vacation day today out in the grasslands and billboards of places to gamble.

"You've gone soft," Axton grinned. "I remember a girl who was a fighter. Maybe even an expert at Martial Arts."

"I wouldn't go that far," she sighed, not wanting to think of those days when she was small and the only way she could exist in this world was to be put in a cage to fight like it was the end. Yes, she'd had a rough past in another country, and she'd been saved by an orphanage and somehow got to the States with luck. She knew she'd come far, but she never looked back.

At first, it felt wrong to be here with Axton at this appreciation party, but she thought he'd come far too. He was definitely an artist now and she was happy to see all who supported him. That's when she met Lindy and she understood then that Chili knew why Axton needed her.

"Oh, we go way back," Chili laughed when she ate brisket tacos with Lindy and her husband Jay. 

It was then she knew Axton needed friends from the past just as much as he needed them in the present. So she was glad to get acquainted with them. And they seemed happy to know her too.

"You keep making me think of an old friend of mine," Jay grinned back.

Chili nodded, thinking wasn't that always the way it went. Finding friends that make you think of home. Of course, she wouldn't think of where she grew up, but her home now. Oh, she'd tried being a wife once, but it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Maybe she needed to learn more about herself before she took that risk again.