TAP DAY FOR KITTY/ATC
An elderly gentleman, Nip Cullers comes to Dodge City looking for a wife. He goes into the Long Branch and is talking to two of the girls, Kate and Olive, who are making fun of him. Kitty Russell is at the bar with Marshal Matt Dillon. She is upset that they are being so mean and makes them leave. The man is taken with Kitty and decides to marry her and is not taking no for an answer. He sets up a wedding and Kitty appeals to the marshal for help. Matt is rather amused but the redhead is not. She threatens to shoot the man if he doesn't back off. Well, the man gets shot and Kitty is a suspect. She is hurt and angry that the lawman would think she would do something like that. It turns out that Culler's housekeeper Nettie, who wanted to marry him, did the shooting. Our ATC begins with the ending of this episode. Thanks to my BETA Dodge City Angel for always being so thorough and making each story better than the last.
Matt Dillon came out of the back room of Doc's office to where Kitty was waiting with Chester and Nip Cullers' daughter.
Kitty hurried toward Matt. "How is he?" she inquired.
He replied, "Well, it looks like you just lost yourself a bridegroom."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked, "Is he dead?"
"No, he's very much alive. He's alive enough to marry Nettie. It took her twenty years and a little buckshot, but she finally landed him," the lawman announced.
"Twenty years, huh? That's an awful long time. I don't know if I can wait that long. A little buckshot, huh?"
Taken aback, the marshal said, "Hey, wait a minute!"
"What's the matter?" she wanted to know. "You scared?"
He sighed and grinned as he took her arm. "Come on, I'll buy you a drink."
Kitty laughed as they walked out the door. Matt, Chester, and Kitty trooped down the steps from Doc's office in high spirits. When they arrived at the Long Branch, Matt told the bartender, "Set 'em up, Sam, I'm buyin' tonight!"
The redhead looked at him, speculating about how he had really reacted to her words after he told her she was a free woman.
Sam handed them their drinks and remarked, "You look like you are celebratin', Marshal."
Looking down into her pretty blue eyes, Matt announced, "Kitty has just been saved from an unsavory marriage."
"Is that true, Miss Kitty?" the bartender wanted to know.
She smiled at the two men she had come in with and proclaimed, "I am safely out of the clutches of Nip Cullers and he has been hooked by his housekeeper."
Sam grinned at them. "You must be relieved, Miss Kitty."
Just then Olive walked over and asked sarcastically, "So, is the wedding just postponed or did he see you for what you really are?"
Hands on her hips, Kitty moved belligerently toward the other saloon girl, growling, "You need to keep your nose out of other people's business."
Glancing at Kate, Olive proceeded to taunt the redhead. "This may have been your only chance." Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at the marshal.
Kitty stepped aggressively toward the brunette, her fists clenched. Matt grabbed her arm. "Take it easy, Kitty," he warned.
As he pulled her toward him, he whispered with a grin on his face, "I wouldn't want to have to arrest you twice in one night."
Reluctantly, she moved back by his side. The young woman glared at him as she said through clenched teeth, "You would, too."
Chester was watching the spectacle with wide eyes. "You wouldn'ta really arrested Miss Kitty, would ya, Mr. Dillon?"
"Give him another beer, Sam," the marshal remarked, "and bring our refills to the back table."
An hour later Doc joined them and by that time, they were feeling pretty relaxed. "You could have waited for me," the physician groused, as Sam brought him a beer.
"Calm down, Doc, and get in on the party. I'm a free woman," Kitty informed him.
As he scrubbed his finger across his moustache, the doctor retorted, "You sure are. I sent Cullers and family on their way, planning a wedding."
Chester, who by this time was feeling little pain, said, "Well, ah swan, that there is some bunch. Thinkin' he could marry up with Miss Kitty and endin' up with his housekeeper. An' that daughter, she were a strange one, not sayin' a word. Wahl, I jus' think they deserved what they got. Ya jus' caint come in a town and think ya…"
The lawman interrupted him. "You sure are talky tonight."
"Why, Mr. Dillon, ah was worryin' we might lose Miss Kitty," his assistant tried to explain.
Patting his hand, Kitty assured him, "You had nothing to worry about Chester, the marshal would have saved me."
As he set down his beer glass, Matt looked startled, "I would have? Just what did you have in mind?"
Kitty fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Why, you are so good at rescuing damsels in distress."
Doc laughed. "She's got you there, Matt."
The marshal flushed slightly as he remarked, "I would have done the best I could, Kitty."
Pouting slightly, she inquired, "Do you mean you would have let that Nip Cullers drag me to the church?"
A smile was playing at the edge of his mouth. "I'm not sure whether or not I would have let it go that far."
She got up and flounced toward the staircase. "Go get her, Matt," Doc instructed. "You made her mad now."
As she put her foot on the first step, he grasped her arm. Softly, he said, "Come back to the table. I was just kidding." His eyes looked up the stairs. He suggested, "Maybe, when we get rid of the two freeloaders, we can go somewhere quiet and talk things over."
She looked up into his azure eyes. After months of playing cat and mouse, was he suggesting doing something more than a few kisses and caresses? "Really, Matt?" she asked with hope in her eyes.
He looked down at her and smiled at the crimson-haired beauty. "Well, a knight in shining armor needs to see his lady to her door."
She clasped his arm and turned to head back to the table. He murmured quietly, "Leave the back door open and I'll join you after my rounds."
Back in the corner, Doc complained, "Well, it took the two of you long enough!"
"She can be quite stubborn, you know, Doctor, but I made her an offer she couldn't refuse."
Kitty tilted her head at him in surprise and inquired, "And just what was that, Marshal?"
"You forgot so soon my offer to take you fishing?" he inquired.
"FISHING!" the healer growled. "You two are going fishing without me?"
"And me, too?" Chester protested.
Matt got up. "I've had enough of this. I'm going on my rounds." Rolling his eyes at Kitty, he added, "See ya later, Kitty."She watched him walk away, thinking she couldn't wait to see him walking back toward her. He sure was something pretty. Now all she had to do was get rid of Doc and Chester.