According to Plan

I don't own these characters. I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.

Set before Season One

(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(M&K)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)

"Matt?" Serious big blue eyes regarded him warily. "Is something wrong?" Although, Kitty had only known Matt for a few months, she was already pretty good at telling when something was bothering him. And right now, it looked like something was bothering him big time.

The tall man looked down at the beguiling red head beside him and came close to pulling her close and kissing away the worry he saw in her eyes. But he didn't do it. He couldn't do it. She was too good. She'd know. "Ah, everything's alright, Kitty." He shrugged. "Just a got a few things on my mind, is all."

"You mean like that gold shipment coming in?" She asked watching his face closely.

Carefully, he nodded. "That's one of em, alright."

"Well, don't worry about that." She finally turned away and picked up her beer mug. "You've not had any problems before with things like that, have you?"

"Nope," he shook his head. "Sure haven't. But this is the largest shipment to come in, since they started. I don't want anything to happen to it or for it to fall into the wrong hands."

Kitty briefly placed a hand on his arm. "It won't. You're in charge so I have every confidence that it will be just fine."

Light blue eyes regarded her favorably and a smile turned up the corners of his mouth for a moment, before he finally turned away, took a swig of his beer and stood back from the bar. "Well, I appreciate your confidence in me, Kitty. Means a lot. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and do my rounds."

Kitty nodded and said no more as he tipped his hat to her before turning and leaving the bar. Although she'd meant what she said, and she was sure Matt could handle the gold shipment or anything else that came up, she was also sure that something was wrong. She couldn't place a finger on it, but something was just not right with Matt Dillon.

M&KM&KM&KM&KM&K

Once the tall man reached the boardwalk outside the saloon, he paused at the doors and took one more glance inside at the pretty red head as she went back to work. A man could build a life with a woman like that, a good life and not be sorry a day. But he knew it was already too late for him to think like that.

Although he was only 25, he was already too far gone for her to save him. His course had been set a long time back.

"Dillon, you're a fool." He thought as, shaking his head, he tugged his hat a little lower and set off down the street.

M&KM&KM&KM&KM&K

Matt awoke with a severe headache and no knowledge of where he was or why. Painfully opening his eyes, his first thought was that he'd been blinded but then as his eyes began to focus, he could tell he was in a small dark room of some sort. He could see just faint light filtering down from a tiny window high up on the wall.

With a mighty struggle, Matt managed to sit up and lean his aching head against the wall. Trying to think back, he remembered heading down to the Long Branch to see Kitty and hearing a noise in the alley next to the saloon. Cautiously, he'd drawn his gun and gone in. But that was the last of it. He knew nothing more until right then when he'd awoken.

Suddenly, he heard a noise and the door opened, revealing the dim light of a lantern and a man. As the man was behind the light and there was no light behind him, Matt couldn't tell much about what he looked like other than he was medium height and build.

The only thing that stood out about him was his voice. "See yer awake." The man said. His voice was deep and gruff as though his vocal cords had been damaged at one time. "How ya feelin'? Head hurt?"

"Who are you?" Matt demanded. "What do you want with me?" Though only 25 and officially a marshal for about a year, Matt had already learned how to make himself as commanding as possible and knew not to show fear in any form.

"You ain't got no need to know that." The man answered. "That is, if'n ya want to stay alive. We got our orders not to kill ya, but that depends on you and what you do. Ya mess with us and it'll go hard fer ya."

"We?" Matt asked. "Who is we?" The stranger didn't reply.

"Why did you bring me here?" Matt asked, again getting no reply. "Can you at least let me have some water?" He finally asked, when he saw the man about to close the door. He was hoping if he could get the man close enough, he might be able to overpower him.

However, instead of a reply, the man closed the door to the shed without saying a thing. Matt heard whispered voices so he assumed there was more than one man outside. He already knew from what little the man had said that there was more than one involved in his kidnapping and that this man was not in charge. He just hoped he could figure out who was and why.

A couple minutes after the door abruptly closed; it opened again and his captor tossed him a canteen. "It ain't cold." He warned. "But it's wet."

Before Matt could reply, the door closed again and Matt could hear footsteps walking away. Once the door was closed, he took a drink of tepid water from the canteen, corked it and set it down before laboriously getting up and crossing to the door. There was no handle on the inside and he was positive it was locked from the outside. Rubbing his sore head, he moved back to the floor and took up his spot on the floor again.

He had no idea what these men wanted or intended to do with him. But he knew that somehow, he needed to get out of this little building and back to Dodge. He had an idea things could be very bad, if he didn't.

TBC