Sunrise over Desert Plains
Characters: Jimmy Hickok and Emma Shannon, with minor appearances by the ensemble cast.
Genre: Romance, Western
Rating: K+
Time Frame: Begins with the first season and ends after the Civil War.
Summary: He's old now, and she's older, but their love is something slow and easy, ready for just this time. Jimmy/Emma in 50 sentences.
Note 1: This is an AU in which Emma and Sam never left Sweetwater, though they never got married, either. Seasons two and three have been disregarded.
Note 2: I started writing this before I ever saw "End of Innocence," and when I did see it, I was kind of freaked out by how fast my Emma/Jimmy ship had set sail. I prefer the following version of events to what happened in "End of Innocence."
Note 3: This is an unofficial response to the 1sentence LiveJournal community challenge, using the Alpha theme set. The sentence order has been rearranged to be chronological.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with The Young Riders, MGM Television, or Ogiens/Kane Company. The following characters are not mine.
25. Devotion
She's an abandoned woman, unwanted and too old to start again, but when she meets the boys, she finds the children she never had.
18. Speed
He thinks he was born to feel the sting of the wind in his face, the pounding of hooves beneath him, and the land slipping behind him; he can't sit still and wait for anything.
24. Taste
The first thing he comes to appreciate about Emma is her right good cooking—it's the best he's ever had the pleasure of eating.
3. Soft
He's always been her favorite, and even though she knows he doesn't like it, she can't help but look after him.
11. Name
"Just what exactly were you thinking, James Butler Hickok?" she demands, hands on hips, knowing very well the answer is he wasn't.
1. Comfort
He would never admit it, but he sorta appreciates that she's keeping an eye out for him.
15. Touch
When he finally lets someone come near him after he's shot the boy, it's Emma who takes his hands in her own and holds on tightly.
35. Bonds
Sometime in his first few months as a Pony Express rider, he makes it his business to look out for Emma's welfare.
28. Sickness
When he catches the fever, she's there with cool cloths and soothing words, at his side until he feels well enough to tell her to stop mollycoddling him.
7. Chocolate
She doesn't know if he's ever been able to properly celebrate his birthday, but now that he's living with her, she's determined that he will get one with all the fixings—starting with a chocolate cake.
39. Smile
It's so rare that he actually smiles; she loves to see the happiness dawn on his face, like a sunrise breaking over the desert plains.
36. Market
He always tries to fix it so that when the supplies are low, he doesn't have a ride coming up —he knows Emma will be going to town, and he wants to be the one to go with her.
17. Tears
He cries sometimes, after he's shot someone he really shouldn't have (like the boy or the Kid's brother), and she's always there with a handkerchief and a reminder: "I hope you remember this the next time you want to reach for that gun."
34. Lightning/Thunder
She can see the storm brewing inside of him, good and bad struggling to gain a foothold, and she prays to the Lord that this boy's soul will be preserved.
22. Jealousy
It has never sat quite well with him, the way she looks at Sam and others, and the older he grows, the less he likes it.
29. Melody
Ike gets the chance to play a guitar once, surprising them all, and Jimmy recovers first, drawling, "Aw, come on, Emma, just one dance."
6. Rain
It causes her no end of worry that he'll never sit and wait for a let-up in bad weather; he always insists on riding straight through it.
50. Supernova
The riders are talking about their dreams for the future, and he's telling about his ranch house in Texas when he realizes with sudden shock that it will be pretty lonesome without her.
27. Blood
She hates the sight of his blood seeping through his shirt after the gunfight, and not only because he's wounded—it's a reminder that she can't keep him young forever.
16. Weakness
She would say his faults are hot-headedness and a quick trigger finger, but he knows his only weakness is her.
14. Sex
She can't think of him in the way he wants—he will always be her boy, even when he's a frustrated man who thinks he's in love.
26. Forever
When she won't have him, he turns to other girls, but none can erase his first (and only) love.
49. Hair
She's just woken up and hasn't had the chance to pin back her hair yet (he'd meant to be gone before she was awake) and he has to tell her, "There ain't no reason for me to stay here no more."
9. Telephone
Even though she was the one who sent him away, the missing aches within her, and she wishes she could just hear his voice again.
13. Death
She gave up waiting for Sam a long time ago, and when he passes from a gunshot wound, she folds up the last remnants of another dream.
20. Freedom
Without her around, there's no one to hold him back from anything, but it's a heavy price to pay for a victory that seems more meaningless each year.
45. Hell
Every morning he doesn't know if he'll make it to nightfall—war is the worst thing ever invented on this cursed earth.
33. Fear
She always said he didn't know fear; she doesn't know that him and terror are now old friends.
44. Heaven
He prays more than he has ever prayed in his life, and he hopes that, wherever Emma is, she is praying for him, too.
47. Moon
She can't sleep—she knows her boys are out there somewhere, fighting for their lives—so she stands on the porch, hands clenched together in supplication.
30. Star
He lies by the dying embers of his campfire, under the wide open sky, and gazes at the stars while he muses on the hand life has dealt him.
31. Home
He's been far and wide, ranging freely in these thirty-eight states, but the only place he's ever called home is Emma Shannon's place.
5. Potatoes
Cody and him finally meet up again, and, over a dinner of steak and potatoes, Cody says, "I have an idea..."
40. Innocence
He wants to put everything he saw and did in the war behind him, and though he thinks Cody's harebrained idea of a show won't amount to much, he decides to humor his friend.
10. Ears
She hears that he's made quite a name for himself now, as Wild Bill, and she's both proud and disappointed.
42. Clouds
The show is a frantic bustle of hurry and confusion, like storm clouds driven before the wind, and he thinks this is no kind of life for him.
19. Wind
Many years pass, and she lies alone in bed at night, listening to the wind claw at the holes in the chinking.
43. Sky
He uses his earnings to buy a sprawl of ranchland under the Kansas sky, but he doesn't leave the show just yet: he can't quite bring himself to retire and live there alone.
12. Sensual
The memory of the scent of her lilac perfume and the sight of her flowered calico means more to him than all of the showgirls in the world.
32. Confusion
When the new minister asks whether her husband will be joining them next Sunday, she replies, "I don't have a husband," and leaves it at that.
48. Waves
He's seen both the Atlantic and the Pacific and toured eight countries, and he thinks he's just about had enough.
46. Sun
He packs up and says goodbye to Cody before heading out, with only his horse and the hot sun as traveling companions.
23. Hands
She keeps herself busy with cooking, sewing, and gardening—it's not an exciting life, but she's getting by.
4. Pain
He still misses her, even after all these years.
37. Technology
Trains, telegraphs, and Winchester rifles—the advance of all this new-fangled technology is pushing the life he once knew further into the past, and he's left here, a relic of old memories.
38. Gift
He's given up any hope of ever hearing about her again, so when he hears the two women in the store talking about "poor old Emma Shannon who lives all alone down by the river," he knows he's been given another chance.
41. Completion
The door opens to reveal her, gray-haired and worn, but still the Emma he remembers, and he can barely breathe to ask, "Ms. Shannon?"
21. Life
Living is a curious thing that she never figured the meaning of, but with him standing there, hat in hand, Emma knows one answer to a question she never planned on asking.
8. Happiness
He's old now, and she's older, but their love is something slow and easy, ready for just this time.
2. Kiss
It's been a long while coming—years and years—but at this moment and place, with them finally together, it's perfect.