The Long Road Home

Standard Disclaimers Apply

Kitty sat back in the seat with a contented smile on her face. For once, things had gone her way. She and Matt had not only managed to get away together for a full week in Denver but not once did anything come up to mar their time together. Now they were on their way home and with no other passengers they had the stage coach to themselves.

Matt sitting beside her, placed his arm around her shoulder. "It was a good trip, wasn't it?" he asked.

She beamed up at him. "It sure was, Cowboy. You know, I think this is the first successful trip we've ever taken together."

Matt looked a little quizzically at her. "Successful?"

"Yeah, well, you know. No outlaws for you to arrest or trials you had to rush back to or holdups for you to stop…..." She stopped when Matt started laughing. "What's so funny? You know what I'm saying is true. Taking a trip together has been hard for us."

"Yeah I know, Kitty." Matt said soberly. "And I know it's mostly my fault but I was just thinking. You're calling this a successful trip and we're not even home yet. There's still a 150 miles to go before we get back to Dodge. A lot could happen between here and there. It's a long way to go still."

"Oh, hush up," she grinned at him. "Don't jinx it for us."

Matt laughed again but his mind went back to the cowboy that had been lingering at the relay station. Matt didn't know the man but he knew his type. Though the man had done nothing out of the way, and had ridden out before they boarded, he concerned the lawman. There was something in the way he had studied the stage & its passengers that didn't sit well.

Before getting on board, Matt went back to the boot and pulled out his carpetbag. Taking out his holster, Matt strapped it on. Going purely on instinct, Matt also pulled out his badge and placed it in his jacket pocket. He wasn't sure why, but something told him this leg of their journey would be a little longer than the last.

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It was early afternoon and they had been on the road for several hours. Though sleep was impossible, with the jolting and jostling of the coach, both of the passengers were quite comfortable. Kitty sat with her head on Matt's chest, his arm wrapped around her. They had engaged in some heavy necking earlier and now they were comfortably enjoying being in each others arms.

Matt had originally wanted to take the train back to town, arguing it would be more comfortable and quicker. Kitty wanted the stage, simply because it was slower. More time to spend together, she had told Matt, and he couldn't disagree with that. Looking down at the beautiful redhead in his arms, he was certainly enjoying the extra time.

Matt thought about Dodge and how things would be once they got home. In Denver, no one had known who they were. He and Kitty had been able to spend their time together as they wished, without interruption and without worrying about anyone seeing them. But once they returned home, that would change.

A part of him had starting getting restless the last couple of days in Denver, and he wanted to get home and back to his job, but another part of him savored this time with Kitty, and he knew it would be a long time before they would be able to do this again.

Kitty had also enjoyed their time together. She knew how things had to be once back home, and she accepted that for the most part. But she almost wished that she and Matt could've stayed in Denver and melted away into another life, where he wasn't a US Marshall and she wasn't a saloon woman. A life where they were just Matt & Kitty, two people very much in love with each other. Kitty looked up at the love of her life and sighed, dreaming of what could be.

Matt looked out the window at the passing view, trying to gauge how far they had come. But when he recognized where they were, he tensed up.

Kitty felt him stiffen. Sitting up she looked at Matt. "What is it? Something wrong?"

"I don't know, Kitty," he said as he continued to look outside. "Probably isn't, but if something was to go wrong it'd be here."

"What do you mean?" she asked as she looked out the windows at the land they were passing through. She saw nothing but hills and rocks, but she knew Matt, he seldom got concerned over nothing.

"This stretch of road is notorious for spoilers." He told her. "I didn't know we'd be coming this way or we would've definitely taken the train."

"How far is it till we get out of this area?" She asked him.

"About 20 miles," he answered, "we just came into it so it'll be a while before we're clear."

"Well maybe nothing will happen. I mean I don't see anything out there. Do you?" The tremor in her voice belied the hopeful words.

"No, I don't." He answered as he continued to scan the landscape. "But trouble doesn't often show it's self till it's too late to stop it."

Kitty shivered a little at that and Matt realized he was scaring her. Wrapping his arms around her again he said, "I'm sorry, Honey. I don't mean to worry you and like you said, maybe nothing will happen. It hasn't so far."

He spoke too soon. Gunfire sounded behind them. Matt pushed Kitty to the floor of the coach and told her to stay there. Drawing his gun, he cautiously looked out the window to see who was pursuing them.

Upon hearing the gunfire, the driver had whipped up the horses and they were now moving at a dangerously fast clip along the narrow winding road. With that speed, Matt wasn't able to get more than a fleeting glimpse of several riders behind them. Matt fired out the window at them, but knew he probably hadn't hit anything.

Sitting upon on the box, the driver was frantically whipping the horses into a faster pace, trying to elude their pursuers. But his efforts were futile. Matt could feel it coming. Holstering his gun he turned and covered Kitty with his body, trying to protect her from the inevitable crash. Careening around a corner, the singletree broke free from the coach and the horses raced madly on down the road. The coach tipped and tumbled down a steep gulley on the south side of the road.

About half way down, Matt was thrown clear of the stage, landing some yards away in some bushes. Though they had cushioned his fall preventing major damage to his body, they did nothing to protect his head from the rocks at the base of the bushes.

Kitty rode the stage all the way down. The long tail of her dress had caught on the seat bracing, keeping her inside & unable to do much to protect her self. As the coach tumbled sideways down the hillside, she reached out to stop herself from hitting the side of the coach, but she wasn't able to prevent her head from making contact with the roof. She was knocked out cold by the time the coach came to a stop at the bottom of the gulley.

Neither she nor Matt knew of the approaching riders.

TBC