Kitty's Christmas chapter two
I own no part of Gunsmoke
Snow was softly falling on Dodge as Doc tried to make it down his stairs. After slipping half the way down, Doc found himself sitting on the sidewalk. Festus came a running. "Are you all right?" He asked as he started gathering up the contents of Doc's bag that were all over the street. Doc gruffed something. "That bag sure holds a lot of things,"Festus said as he dug the precision instruments out of the brown snow of the cow town street. Doc was slow to get up. He thanked Festus for helping him.
Festus tried to help Doc down the ice covered street resulting in both landing on their backsides. Doc turned to Festus and said, "Stop helping me!" An argument ensued followed by a snowball battle.
The battle was ended by the nudge of the Marshal's horse. Matt had tied himself to his saddle and road non stop in an effort to return to Dodge by Christmas Eve. He was suffering from over-exposure. It was all Festus could do to unleash the huge man from his mount. "I haven't got a fire going at the jail yet. Let's get him to the Long Branch," Festus said. The heat from the Long Branch's pot-belly stove felt awfully good as the three men sat drinking coffee. Matt was so cold he could not stop shaking. After making sure Matt was going to beall right, Doc said, "Let's get Kitty."
Kitty was watching Louie sleep when Doc and Festus entered the storage room. "It's a good thing you have people looking after you or no one would get any sleep in this town." Kitty smiled. "I gave him a bottle for Christmas. He started cerebrating early." Louie woke up and said, "I saved you some Miss Kitty, for when you are able to get up." He held up the bottle with about one finger left in it. Kitty smiled. "Thank you Louie. I look forward to having that drink with you." Doc looked very disapproving. "I guess you all figured out youcan't drink whiskey while laying on your back." "I can," Louie said. "It just takes some practice." Kitty Laughed. Her laugh was short-lived as Festus brought in an overstuffed chair that had its legs cut off and added wheels. Doc looked, smiled at Kitty, and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You were not suppose to bring that in until I had a chance to examine her."
Kitty: "Again?" Doc, taking her hand and sticking a pin in it said, "The swelling in your spine is going down. I think you can get out of bed today. That doesn't mean you can go out braking wild stallions. No work, you hear me!"
Kitty winced. "Will you stop sticking those pins in me!" Looking at the chair she said, "It's great Festus, but if I am going into the bar I need to freshen up. Can you send one of the girls in? Louie, I have a job for you. There's a another bottle in it for you."
Two hours later Matt thawed off enough to realize it was Christmas Eve. He made his way to the stables to retrieve the bag that was so carefully tied on the steed. Festus' only concern was for the trail worn, half frozen horse when he removed the heavy ice coated saddle.
Matt was grateful when he saw his trusty ride had been combed and rubbed down with wintergreen. Buck had A new blanket within the blanket was a weaved picture of a red haired woman in a fancy saloon dress. Matt laughed. He wondered if Kitty thought this beautiful gift through. After all, he would be sitting on her face every time he used it. Rubbing Buck's neck he whispered, "Maybe we will leave this blanket in the stable." His attention then returned to the bag. He had traded the pin he had for Kitty in favor of a crystal tea set. "Oh no!" Matt yelled when he saw his bag under Buck's huge saddle. His fears were realized when he looked in the bag. The tea set was broken into pieces. The powerful U.S. Marshal was brought to tears as he realized he had no gift for Kitty. Making his way back to the Long Branch, Matt's heart was heavy. How could he convince Kitty that he thinks of her every second of every hour of every day.
Louie had wrapped all of Kitty's gifts. He stared at the pile wondering where was the marshals package