"Wh-wh-why? Why'd you let me think he was dead?"
Doc shuffled away. A vice squeezed his heart as Kitty's voice echoed through his head.
He had done what was necessary. He'd done what he needed to give Matt his best chance at life against impossible odds, to keep Kitty safe.
Doc still felt like he'd failed Kitty.
Kitty's unbearable silence, her listlessness as he led her through town, the expression of complete innocence and confusion and, even still, love on her face, and that echo—
Doc knew he'd spend the rest of his life making it up to his girl.
A/N: Hey, all! I often get these tiny snippets of inspiration when watching episodes of Gunsmoke, and I can't always turn them into decent sized one-shots or multi-chapter stories. So, I've decided to just post them as a series of 100 word drabbles, challenging myself to keep each drabble at exactly 100 words!
I'm posting 4 drabbles right off the bat, and then I'll post more as they come to me. I hope you enjoy them!
The quoted dialogue in this drabble is taken from "Seven Hours to Dawn."