"I must get to the fort and quickly, here's to hoping I can get there fast enough"
With that the Lone Ranger spurred on the horse he was currently riding, a horse that he was only borrowing temporarily. Unfortunately the horse wasn't as fast as Silver and even Silver would have had trouble keeping the Lone Ranger safe with that many bullets flying, and the Lone Ranger was ultimately hit by one of the bullets, but he continued on riding until the horse was killed underneath from him, once that happened he ran the rest of the way to the fort, which had opened the gates at seeing him coming being trailed by Indians
"Comanches...on the...war path, must...must warn...the...town..."
The Lone Ranger passes out from blood loss soon after managing to get out that it was Comanches that had attacked him. The commander of the fort sent his men out while making sure that the Lone Ranger received medical attention that was badly needed. Once the problem was resolved the commander went back to the fort and went straight to the doctor
"How's your patient?"
(Sighs) "I've done what I could but he lost a lot of blood, plus there's evidence of older injuries that are finishing the healing process some of which have unfortunately reopened, I'm actually worried about the ribs since he was hit in the side where the ribs are, and from the feel of the ribs they're only just getting to the point where he isn't in constant pain and the bullet appears to have re-broken a couple of them"
"What do you want to do then?"
"Keep him here until I am sure he'll be okay"
"From what I've observed that won't be easy"
"Yeah...well I have medicine which will keep him unconscious I hope, I don't want to use it but I will in order to protect my patient"
"By the way I heard reports from another fort about the fact that Tonto is coming here to help with figuring out what is going on with the Comanche's he apparently helped with a different tribe who was being defrauded of their food, he thinks it might be the same situation here, but until he gets here Tonto can't give us any guarantees"
Tonto would arrive within the week surprisingly enough, until they heard that part of his quick arrival was the fact that there were a few members of the fort he had been at were transferring to the new fort anyways and offered to transport him and Scout on the train they were taking to the other fort since they were heading in that direction anyways. During that time the Lone Ranger came down with fever, the wounds got infected pretty badly despite the doctor's best efforts, Tonto offered his help when he heard about the person
"Me help, me know some medicine, help others, helped masked friend"
"If the doctor allows it I will allow it"
And so between figuring out that the Comanche's had indeed gone on the war path with reason he helped the stranger, because between the disguise he had never seen before and the fever weakening the Lone Ranger to the point where he was struggling to even breath Tonto didn't recognize his friend for over a week. For the Comanche problem it turned out that not only were they on the verge of starvation because of the Indian agent but there were also people going onto their land without permission hunting what buffalo they had to hunt, when that was discovered the Army took charge and agreed to make changes which would settle the problem peacefully. The rest of the time was spent helping the person who had warned the fort about the problem in the first place, but even for Tonto it wasn't easy to keep the person from getting worse, they were barely alive for over a week, but finally the doctor and Tonto saw that they were making a difference, that the person who had warned the fort would survive because while the person wasn't strong enough to speak yet the fever finally broke after over two weeks of plying them with medicine and broth to keep them alive and strong enough, at least that had been their hope and their hope finally proved founded
"Finally Tonto, finally the fever is broken and they're in a natural sleep"
"That good, maybe you get rest now that patient is getting better"
"I'm fine Tonto"
"No, you not sleep like Tonto sleep, you drug drink to make Tonto sleep, Tonto drug doctor drink if you not get rest soon"
The doctor knew Tonto would do it too, having seen him drug both the fort commander and a sentry who refused to go off duty for a full day and a half when most of the base had been down with food poisoning which he only avoided due to being off the fort at the time of the incident, for the fort commander it was a bit more serious in that the fort commander had spent the same time up and then only a day later stayed up for another full day checking to see that his men were recovering, and was also checking on his patient frequently as well, and Tonto couldn't be punished as a civilian
"Very well Tonto, I'll try and get some sleep tonight"
That night the Lone Ranger briefly woke up, Tonto didn't know about it because his back was turned at the time getting some broth ready for him ready, the broth was also laced with medicine due to the fact that while the fever had been broken the Lone Ranger still needed medicine to fight the infection. Once the Lone Ranger was finished with the broth Tonto ate. The next day the doctor was back and had noticed Tonto had fallen asleep some time during the night not knowing that Tonto had only decided to sleep come sun up when he knew that the doctor was coming to check on his patient
"Well, should have known he was just as tired as I was"
When he did his checks he saw his patient open his eyes, and this time could tell he was coherent
"Hello there, up to some broth?"
"Yes...how long...?"
"You've had a fever for over a week, it's been nearly two since you came here, I'll help you sit up"
As soon as the Lone Ranger was sitting up he noticed Tonto for the first time and confused the doctor with the one word he spoke before eating the broth and going back to sleep
"Kemosabe"
Three hours later Tonto was up and speaking with the doctor when the doctor said something that shocked Tonto
"Tonto...before our patient drank his broth and promptly fell back asleep he said something, one word, it was almost too soft for me to hear but I did"
"What word?"
"Kemosabe"
"Kemo...sabe...him say Kemosabe?"
"Yes...what is it?"
"That...that special word, word meant for masked friend"
"Then...then how does my patient know that word?"
"Me not know"
The Lone Ranger would wake up late in the afternoon with both Tonto and the doctor there, Tonto decided to let the person talk first
"Hello Tonto, it's been some time"
"You know name, doctor say you call me Kemosabe earlier"
"Yes Kemosabe, when I saw you for the first time in so long I knew it was you"
"You...you Kemosabe...you alive...Dan think you dead still...me could have informed him that you alive"
"It's okay Tonto, between the disguise you have never seen before and the fact that I was too weak to talk before you couldn't have known it was me, and since it's obvious that my papers were never searched for the fort also has know clue who I am"
"Me tell Dan good news now"
"I'll come with you"
The Lone Ranger tries to stand up and that's when he learns that he wasn't as strong as he had thought he was and almost collapsed if not for the fact that Tonto had been right by his side
"You still weak Kemosabe, need more time to regain strength, had fever for long time, injured too"
"Yes, your ribs have re-cracked and some of your older wounds also reopened which most likely caused the fever in the first place, what were your injuries before you got to us anyways?, because I know your bullet wound was new"
While the Lone Ranger explained his injuries to the doctor Tonto messaged Dan's school letting him know that the Lone Ranger was still alive, Dan when he received the news was naturally shocked and only the school's superintendent would know about it since he was the only one with Dan when he read the telegraph
"It's from Tonto, it says...it...says..."
"Dan...what's wrong?"
"It...it says that a friend both of us thought dead is actually alive, weak and injured but alive...he doesn't know all the details since he messaged me pretty much immediately after he found out it was him"
"You should go to them Dan, I will give you special permission to leave school for this"
"No...it's better to wait considering where they are, according to Tonto they'll be there for a bit longer and feels it's better that I wait until he sends word on where they're heading next"
"You're still excused for the rest of the day, you're in shock right now and school will be over in a couple of hours anyways"
Meanwhile once Tonto had sent the telegraph the Lone Ranger gave the full story to both Tonto and the doctor because while the Lone Ranger had explained his injuries it was the bare minimum just explaining where he'd been hurt before though he did confirm the rib injuries
"As Tonto knows our captors hurt us whenever a rescue attempt was made, but not seriously, he was also getting sick last I knew but he can explain his side later. Anyways when...a friend of ours rescued us a fight happened and the person I was fighting and I went over the ledge. When I fell the injuries in incurred were broken ribs, my left leg was broken, as was my right arm right arm, I had a concussion and wrenched my left shoulder, not to mention all the cuts and bruises I had acquired during the fight, subsequent fall, and ride in the river, I was also lucky I hadn't drowned in the river, and while I was healing quite nicely being shot re-injured me"
"And gave you a raging fever that was only taken care of with the help of Tonto here, so your turn Tonto"
"Me fake illness, allow doctor to come more frequently, allow me to hear plans without them knowing"
"Should have known that Kemosabe, but you tricked me just as good as you tricked our captors"
"Dan told about you"
"Thanks Tonto, I was planning on letting both of you know myself but...things happened which meant my original plans didn't happen"
"Yeah, you gave us warning and passed out immediately afterwords, that would definitely change your plans, and sorry for not checking your papers, if we had the fort commander would have passed word on about your survival to the forts at the very least"
"That was the agreement last I knew, well Tonto once I'm well again we'll move on, but for now I also want to message the padre"
"Me know you want to do that so me not tell him, but me tell Dan for reason"
"I know and I'm thankful you did that"
"Well, I'll let you sit up for a bit and if you can handle it I'll let you go to our telegraph office to send the message, and then let you regain your strength gradually"
"Understood, Tonto what about Silver?"
"Silver with friends, with son"
"Mag?"
"Yes, him go to valley at times but always come back to son"
"And naturally Dan trusts Mag with Victor and considering where we were last time we were together it makes sense"
Soon enough the message to the padre had been sent and once that was done the Lone Ranger was sent back to where he had been since he had arrived, having realized that he was tired and still needed rest. Ultimately it would take the Lone Ranger a month to completely heal, once he was healed up he and Tonto rode double on Scout to head to Mustang Mag's so that the Lone Ranger could be reunited with his horse Silver. Meanwhile the President had finally received word that the Lone Ranger was alive, word that he had never thought to hear, and he needed the Lone Ranger more than ever, when he received word he knew to send a message to the padre and then also made sure that the message was sent out that a message for the Lone Ranger was at the padre's
"Understand that this mission is completely secret"
"But sir...the Lone Ranger is..."
"Is alive, somehow he survived the fall that Tonto and a young friend of theirs witnessed, he wound up at a fort some time after his apparent death, wasn't recognized until Tonto came and the doctor revealed that he called Tonto something only the two of them truly knew once he woke up for the first time in over two weeks"
And so the messengers were sent off to spread the message by word of mouth like the last time the Lone Ranger was so desperately needed by the President when a group called the black arrow tried to destroy the government. Unfortunately the timing wasn't the greatest since the message beat the Lone Ranger to Mustang Mag's by a week, that was because unfortunately the Lone Ranger had a setback while heading to Mustang Mag's and then there was the fact that Tonto was in desperate need of sleep keeping the Lone Ranger as healthy as he had both during the relapse and the month the Lone Ranger spent at the fort regaining his strength
"You're a bunch of lying varmints and I don't believe a word you just said"
"Look just...if you see the Lone Ranger pass on the message okay?"
"Like I just said I don't believe you, but if he were alive I would tell him only after he had some rest"
"Not this time, this is important, way more important than you think that he goes to the padre"
And so the messenger quickly leaves, and a week later Mag is on her porch when she sees a horse approaching with said horse carrying double, as the horse came closer she recognized Scout and that Tonto was riding up front, the person in back wasn't clear at first but as Scout got closer Mag finally recognized the Lone Ranger