A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed – Latin proverb

An alternate universe, time-bending, mind-sifting, "what if," Ghost & Mrs. Muir and Gunsmoke crossover story. The year is sometime in the 1870's. The place New Orleans and up the Eastern seaboard.

Suspend rational thought. Just go with it. Captain Gregg is not a ghost. Carolyn Muir is not a woman of the 20th Century. Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty have shifted time. Characters from the television shows are owned by their respective producers. Grateful thanks to other fanfic writers whose stories have provided some portions of the back story for the characters and/or expanded on canon from the shows. Thanks to Kate for all her help.

It had only been a few years, but the city seemed so different to her. Oh, sure, the buildings were all the same, the streets looked as they did when she had left on that cold March morning, but something about New Orleans was very different. 'No', she thought, it was her. She had changed. Being out on the Kansas prairie had given her a new perspective on life. Life could be joyful and worth while, especially when you had the love of a good man. Kitty Russell looked up at Matt Dillon's face and smiled. He was a good man; the best man she'd ever known and he was good to her. Good in a way that she had felt unworthy of at first, but Matt told her she was worth it and "all the others were nuthin' but spit in the wind." Now, here he was with her in her hometown, though it didn't feel that way anymore. Dodge City was home, and had been since the first time she'd laid eyes on the tall, handsome, young United States Marshal. He was the reason she'd stayed in Dodge longer than a few months, and she knew he'd be the reason she'd stay there forever . . . if he'd have her.

"Sumthin' sure smells good around here," Matt said as they continued down Bourbon Street. The crowds of people shopping, on their way to transact business, and generally enjoying the offerings of the city, bustling passed them.

"Smells like beignets. We should stop in and get you one." Kitty stopped in front of a shop selling the fried delights. "C'mon Cowboy, I'll show you a treat you won't soon forget." Kitty ordered two beignets stuffed with the kind of sweet cheese that melted in your mouth. They were huge and she knew Matt would finish hers for her.

"By gosh, Kit, those are good. How come you never made any back home?"

"You have to have the right kind of kettle to fry them in and I don't want to set the Long Branch on fire!" She chuckled, licking confectioner's sugar from her finger tips.

"Maybe we could get Delmonicos to make 'em." He reached over for the rest of Kitty's beignet, "You gonna eat this?"

"Nope, it's all yours." Matt really was a big kid at heart, she thought, and she loved him so.