Disclaimer:  Don't own them, drat.  They belong to Chuck and Aaron.

Notes: If you surf The Sentinel sites, you'll have seen a similar story by me.  After I posted the story, I was still getting bit by plot bunnies. Then it hit me that the basic outline would be perfect for Trent and Carlos.
 
 

"Butch, I'm not sure when we'll be back in Dallas. We're lost."  Trent Malloy grimaced as the car went over another bump in the road.  The road was rougher than it should be.

"We're not lost," Carlos Sandoval spoke up from the driver's side of the car.  "I know exactly where we are."

"And where's that?"

Carlos arched a dark brow, then sighed.  "Lost."

Trent noticed her walking down the side of the road just as the phone went dead.

Carlos slammed on his brakes.  Both men got out of the car.

The girl was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, shivering in the night air.

"You okay?" Trent asked.

"I'm fine.  Just had a fight with my boyfriend."  She shivered again.

Carlos pulled off his jacket and slipped it over her shoulders.  "Could we give you a ride somewhere?"

The girl closed her eyes, then opened them.  "My mama told me to never accepted a ride from strangers but it's to far for me to walk."

Trent extended his hand.  "I'm Trent Malloy. This Carlos Sandoval."

Her hand felt icy to the touch.  "Megan Blackwood." She shook hands with Carlos.

She crawled into the back seat of Carlos' car.  After that she didn't say much except to give them directions.

Carlos slowed the car to a stop in front of a house.

Trent could see that the house was nothing but a shell.  He turned in his seat.  "Megan, are-Megan?"

She was gone.

"Carlos, where did she go?"

"I'm not sure."

Both men jumped out of the car.  There was no sign of Megan.

The two men spent several hours retracing their route, trying to find Megan before giving up.  They couldn't figure out how she had got out of the car without them knowing.

Shortly after dawn, they stopped at a truck stop on the outskirts of Dallas for breakfast.  They had barely set down when someone asked, "Mind if we join you."

Cordell Walker slipped into the seat beside Carlos while Jimmy Trivette sat beside Trent.

"I'm surprised to see you two up so early."  Walker picked up a menu.

"We haven't been to bed.  Spent most of the day over in Hickory working on a case and got lost on the way back."  Trent fought back a yawn.

Both Rangers grinned.

"Walker, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure Trent what is it?"

"Carlos and I were giving a young girl a ride home. Somehow she got out of the car without Carlos and I seeing her."

The smiles faded off the Rangers faces.  "Did she tell you her name?" Walker asked.

"Sure Megan Blackwood."

"The house you drove her to was ruins."

"How did you know?"

"Megan Blackwood died twenty years ago."

Carlos held up his hands.  "Wait a minute.  Walker, are you trying to tell me that we gave a ride to a ghost."

Walker smiled slightly.  "I'm not saying anything. But I have heard stories of a girl claiming to Megan Blackwood getting rides, then disappearing from the car."

"You're making this up."

Walker shook his head.  "No, I'm not.  Megan is buried at a cemetery not far from here."

After breakfast, they drove to the cemetery that Walker told them about. They wondered down the rows, looking for Megan's name on one of the tombstones.

"I can't believe we're doing this.  Walker and Trivette are probably laughing their heads off."  Carlos shook his head in disgust.

Trent grabbed Carlos' arm and pointed at one of the tombstones. Hanging from a tombstone that read Megan Blackwood was Carlos' jacket.
 
 

Notes: You probably recognized this as the urban legend of the Phantom Hitchhiker.  I don't know if there is a Hickory in Texas, but there is a Hickory, NC which is less than an hour away from Dallas, NC.  Local legend says that Dallas, TX was named after settlers from NC.