His keen, blue eyes surveyed the six men before him as his fingers still gingerly felt of his neck where a hangman's noose had been tightening scant seconds before. Slowly, he bent, picked up Nathan's knife, and threw it back to the healer. The dark-skinned man caught it deftly as Vin recalled another time when he and Chris had stopped him from being hanged.
"What're you waiting for, Vin?!" JD cried, keeping his back to Buck's as they kept their guns trained on the lawmen who'd swung Tanner. The Kid was still impetuous, still to eager to swing his guns. He could be taken down easily by himself, but he wasn't alone.
Vin's eyes moved over his companions. He could remember saving, or at least helping to save, every one of them at one time or another. Each of them had done things that had returned from their past to haunt them, often to almost kill them, but Vin, and the others, had been there for them all.
"Vin." Chris' voice was quiet but nonetheless demanding. They weren't leaving here without him. Vin needed a trial, but these lawmen hadn't been about to give him one. He needed a family, too, had for many years, and he finally had one. They had come for him.
This was his fight to clear his own name, but he'd never once let them fight their battles alone when he'd been able to help and they had needed his help. His eyes locked with Chris'. He needed them. He needed every dang one of 'em, just as they needed him. So he was definitely along for the ride. He nodded, finally smiled, jumped from death's door, and rejoined his family.
The End
