One Christmas Eve
I don't own these characters. I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.
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(Set in Season 8)
"Oh, come on, Matt." Blue eyes pleaded. "Its not like I'm asking you to do anything major. Just go with me out to the Ronniger's to deliver presents."
They'd been standing in the jail for the biggest part of an hour while Kitty tried unsuccessfully to get Matt to take her out to the Ronniger's the next morning to deliver Christmas presents. Though it was cold, the weather had been fairly clear and the town had been pretty quiet. Kitty thought it the perfect time to get away for a day. Matt had disagreed.
"Kitty," Matt sighed in irritation. "I can't. I told you. I have a gold shipment coming in and I have to be here for it."
"Matt," Kitty was getting frustrated. "That gold shipment isn't due in till midnight. If we leave early in the morning, we can go out there, deliver the presents and be back long before then. We don't have to stay all day, just a couple of hours. Please?"
For just a minute he came close to caving, but his sense of duty to his badge not to mention the inclement weather convinced him otherwise. "No, Kitty." The tone of his voice and the rigidity of his posture gave her to understand that the discussion was over.
Kitty could see she wasn't going to get anywhere with him. He was as immoveable as a mountain when he wanted to be. "Fine," she snapped. "I'll go alone." Snatching her reticule from his desk, where she'd laid it, she started for the door only to be intercepted.
"Oh, no you don't." He said sternly, blocking the door so she couldn't leave. "You are not going out there alone, Kitty Russell."
"Who says?" Blue eyes blazed as small hands settled on her slim hips and her head came up in fury. "Let me set you straight on something, Mister. You Do NOT Run Me. I decide where I go and when. You have no say in it what so ever."
"I don't, huh?" His temper flared right along with hers. "Well, that's what you think. I'm not letting you go out there alone. Not only is it not safe, but the weather's about to turn. You're not going alone and that's final."
"Fine, then." Kitty hid the smirk. "Then you can pick me up at the Long Branch at 7 tomorrow morning." Before he could utter a word of protest, Kitty had slipped under his arm and was out the door, closing it softly behind her.
Matt took a deep breath and scratched the back of his head. "How does she do that?"
Late that evening, Matt was making his final rounds when he heard something in behind the general store. Cautiously, he drew his gun and slowly made his way down the alley beside the building. Pausing only for a moment, he took a deep breath then whipped around the corner, gun up and ready to fire. "Hold it!" He demanded.
A tiger striped alley cat looked up at him in confusion for a second before it disappeared with a small brown mouse in his mouth. Shaking his head with a smile, he'd no sooner holstered his gun when he heard even more noise coming from the front of the building.
Stiffening, he drew his gun for the second time that evening and quickly made his way back up front just in time to see a man running from the store down the street with a sack in one a hand, a gun in the other. Pausing only long enough to fire at Matt, the bandit jumped onto a nearby horse and rode west out of town as though the devil himself was behind him.
Matt fired off several shots at the fleeing bandit but he could tell he hadn't hit him.
"Mr. Dillon!" Chester's sentinel yell could be heard as he hop skipped down the street towards him. "What happened?"
"Someone broke into Jonas' store." Matt answered with a grimace as he pulled back his blood soaked sleeve to examine his arm.
"Oh, my goodness!" Chester gasped. "Ya hurt bad?" He nodded towards Matt's arm.
Matt examined the arm and shook his head. "No, no, it's not bad. Say, look. Go down to the stable and get my horse saddled for me, will ya? I'll go on up to Doc's and have him bandage this for me."
"You ain't goin' after him and you hurt, are ya?" Chester wasn't so sure the Marshal was fine as he proclaimed.
"It's nothing." Matt shook his head. "Now, go on, will ya. Meet me at Doc's office."
Despite Chester's fears, Doc concurred with Matt. It was merely a graze requiring just a few stitches and as soon as he had the wound bandaged, Matt was out of the office, on his horse and headed after the fleeing robber.
He didn't know that the man hadn't gotten too much of value. He hadn't been after money. All he knew right then, was he had a job to do.
Kitty didn't know anything of his hasty departure from town, as she had retired early that night in preparation of not only his joining her that evening, but the ride out to the Ronniger's. The next morning, realizing Matt hadn't come to her the evening before and had failed to show for their trip to the Ronniger's, she went down to the jail to find only Chester. He explained why Matt was gone, and told her he had no idea when Mr. Dillon would return.
When Kitty stated she would go alone then to the Ronniger's, Chester chided her for being stubborn and actually told her she couldn't go because Mr. Dillon wouldn't like it and suggested she needed Matt's permission before she left. That infuriated the independent red head and angrily she marched from the jail and down to the stable to get a buggy. An hour later, she swiftly drove out of town, casting an angry glance at the jail house as she passed.
TBC