ATC: Kitty's Love Affair

I think the title says it all here. I did not particualary care for this episode because Kitty was so darn close to walking away…I just know that she was. (Sigh) but all was well in the end right? This starts right before Matt and Kitty walk to the Longbranch together.

Matt hadn't seen Kitty much since she had returned home from the stage with that Will fella. Inside he had been madder than hell, and had wanted to kick Will Stambridge out of town just because he could but after he had thought about it, thought of all the times that he had cancelled plans with Kitty in the past 18 years he just couldn't do it. He wanted Kitty to be happy but he certainly didn't want her to be happy with another man. Deep inside he hoped that she would come back to him, Will Stambridge being nothing more than a passing fancy. Now standing on the boardwalk watching her bid farewell to to the said man, Matt smiled inside. He was glad to see the gunfighter leaving and Kitty staying.

After the stage carrying Stambridge left, Kitty walked towards Matt. Whe she reached him she said, "I know a woman who could use a drink."

Matt looked at her, his beautiful redheaded lady and smiled slightly. Thumbs hooked in his belt loops he leaned back a little and looked at her, "Well I know a man who willing to buy one." He took her arm and lead her across the busy Front street to the Longbranch. No words were spoken between the long time couple and to look at them you wouldn't know that they had just spent an emotional and physical time apart. The longest ever if one really sat down and thought about it. Sure they had been apart physically so many times that the day probably amounted to years now but they had only been apart emotionally once, and that time was now an old wound, slightly scared and healed over with years of time.

Once in the Longbranch Kitty asked her long time bar tender and friend, Sam, to bring something for both her and Matt. They went to their normal table and after Kitty was seated, Matt pushed his hat back and sat across from her. The bar was empty now, except for them and Sam, so Matt waited until the other man set their drinks down in front of them and moved to the far end of the bar before he said, "I've missed you Kit."

Kitty looked up and smiled, sadly. "That's good. I'd say that I missed you as well but Matt, I'm still not sure of how I feel."

Matt reached his hand across the table and gently squeezed Kitty's before he broke the contact. "I understand Kitty. I want you to know that I'm willing to give you all the time and space you need but I think we need to discuss this too."

Again Kitty gave Matt the small, sad, smile. "I know Matt. How about tomorrow night, dinner in my room. That will give me plenty of time to think about, well, things."

Matt nodded in agreement and then they finished their beer in silence. He would give Kitty the time and space she needed if it killed him.

After their drinks were finished Matt rose, settled his hat back down on his head and said "I'll see ya later Kitty."

Kitty who had not rose smiled at the phrase, one that she had heard so many times over the past years. Just hearing that and watching the familiar figure walking away from her made her wonder what she had really seen in Will Stambridge in the first place. Kitty looked at the empty glass before her and then sighing stood. "Sam." she called out.

"Yes Miss Kitty." the craggy faced bar tender answered.

"Sam I'm going on up stairs. If you need me, call me will you." Kitty said, making her way across the bar room. She needed to be alone right now, with her thoughts so that she could get things figured out for both her and Matt's sake.

Festus Haggen was sitting at the table in the jail fixing a pair of socks. He had been so worried about his friends, Miss Kitty and Matthew when he had seen Miss Kitty coming riding back into town with that Will Stambridge fella. Festus had never see Matthew and Miss Kitty apart and seeing them that way had worried the hill man. He had even tried to get ole Doc to help him talk to them. Doc had dismissed the idea but Festus knew that he had been worried too. When Matt walked back into the jail, Festus looked up and smiled at his friend, "Everything alright Matthew?"

"Sure it is, Festus. Why wouldn't it be?" Matt said simply.

"Well I knewed that you and Miss Kitty weren't talkin so much right now, and I was just wonderin if you got things all cleared up?" Festus asked.

Matt didn't give his old friend a direct answer, "Don't worry Festus." he said.

In her private suite of rooms above the Longbranch, Kitty was preparing for a bath and a lot of hard thinking. Thinking about Matt and Will and herself and what she really wanted out of life. She thought of Matt first, remembering him as a young man, when they first met. They, had been a they for a long time now, almost eighteen years. Dodge City, knew them as a couple, a pair that had almost been split over something foolish, a missed trip, one in a long line of missed trips, missed dinners and other occasions. Kitty, understood, oh she had understood for a good long time, that Matt took his job and responsability as being marshal very seriously and she had resigned herself to second place to those things. She had sworn to herself from the very begining that she would not make Matt choose between her and his duties as a U.S. Marshal. She had hoped though, hoped that someday Matt would tire of wearing that god forsaken badge and they could leave Dodge City to go away and settle somewhere. But those were girlish dreams she realized now. As Kitty drew her bath she absently drug her fingers through the water slowly running the realization through her mind that it was those girlish dreams that had attracted her to Will in the first place. He was not attatched to any badge and he had purchased a farm, had been planning on settling down. Kitty smiled, she hadn't fallen in love with Will Standish, but rather she had falled in love with the idea that he could offer her her girlish dreams.

Ok folks so what do you think? I did update "A Match Made in Dodge" today so please if you are reading that check it out! I just watched this episode and I don't know it always bothered me before so I decided to do a fan fic. It most likely won't be long. Thanks for reading!