Chapter 2

Mary placed the pen down on the desk in front of her and massaged her neck. The last night had been without sleep, she was tossing and turning in her bed the whole the time until she finally decided to give up on falling asleep and got up to write some articles for The Clarion News. It was supposed to be finished tomorrow and she had less than 24 hours to finish the last few articles. With Chris back, safe and sound, she had figured she could go back to her normal life and every day activities. That she would be able to concentrate on her tasks.

And yet, here she was, three hours later, still working on that same article. Her neck started to ache and she huffed in frustration, giving up on finishing the article for now.

Getting up, she looked through the window. It was barely breaking dawn, the first rays of sun shyly started to play behind the hills. The streets were empty.

Mary took a few steps across the office, trying to make herself work on the article. It was about the sheriff in a town not so far away from Four Corners. She did some research, even managed to get an interview with him, but she remembered that Stephen wrote about that man once – precisely, when he became a sheriff. Due to the events during the last few days, Mary couldn't force herself into searching for that old article about the sheriff, but now, as she couldn't put down her thoughts on paper, now it looked like a perfect time to look for it.

She opened an old brown cabinet where she held the archive of the Clarion News. A cloud of dust made her cough as she reached in the cabinet to take out The Clarion news, about 3-4 years old. She couldn't remember exactly when Jack Murdock became a sheriff, but she remembered that it was when she and Stephen came back from their trip to Mexico. Mary smiled sadly as she remembered that trip… She still missed Stephen dearly, but ever since Billy came back, she got new strength, new will to go on.

She flipped through the pages of a newspaper when one headline caught her attention. Mary's eyes widened in disbelief as she read it.

"Woman and a boy burned alive"

She felt a lump creating in her throat. How was it possible that she didn't notice this article when Stephen printed it out?

Than it came to her; being busy with Billy and the house when her son was still a baby made her not being able to read some of the issues of The Clarion News. By the time she would find time, she would take the latest issue of the newspaper and didn't even pay a single thought to the previous ones…

This must have been one of the issues she had missed out on.

As she recovered enough and wanted to go on with reading, a sharp pain stabbed her heart, piercing through it like a sharp knife, so strong that she almost screamed.

There was a photo. A family photo.

Of Sarah and Adam…

...and Chris.

Cold sweat ran down Mary's back as she watched the photo. She gently caressed the face of a little dark – haired boy, her heart breaking at the sight of him. He looked so happy. Who on Earth could even think of hurting a kid? It was beyond Mary's understanding.

On his left stood a woman. Her hair was long and curly, also dark. She wore a blue dress and her smile was so warm. Her right hand was gently placed on the little boy's shoulder. She was so beautiful.

Mary's sight started to get unclear as her eyes looked to the right… Chris.

A sob escaped her mouth and she quickly covered her lips with her palm. She could feel the pain squeezing her heart with such power that she could barely breathe.

He looked so peaceful. So happy. So much different than the bitter, sad gunslinger that she knew. He wore a suit, a dark one, with white shirt.

"Ah, damn!", Mary silently cursed as one tear dropped from her cheek, making a wet spot on the article. She quickly wiped it and took a deep breath, looking away from the newspaper in her hand.

Totally forgetting the article about the sheriff, Mary closed the cabinet and stood up, still holding the issue of The Clarion News where Stephen wrote about Chris' family in her hands.

Going back towards her table, Mary laid the newspaper on the table, staring at it, not knowing what to do.

Taking another deep breath, she laid a palm on the left side of her breast. Feeling her heartbeat, she remembered the words Buck told her some time ago…

'…In one night, everything was gone. All he's got left are memories. I don't know if he can still remember their faces. He doesn't even have their photos. Everything burned with them, like they never existed…'

Having a will of its own, Mary's hand reached for the scissors. Before she was aware of what she was doing, scissors were cutting out the photo from the article.

Giving him the article would be like pulling his heart out of his chest. Mary didn't even have the strength to read it. She placed the newspaper in the drawer and looked at the photo in her hands. It was black and white, but it was still a photo. A photo of Chris' family. The only photo that was left of them.

For a moment, Mary wondered how Stephen got the photo for the article, but she shook away that thought quickly. He was a journalist, it was his job to obtain information and photos for his articles.

Her eyes stopped at the window as she watched the town slowly waking up.

'How am I going to give him this? How will he react? What if he tears it apart, not wanting to be reminded of what he had lost?', these questions were going through Mary's mind. Indeed, impulsive as he was, Chris could tear the photo in small pieces.

She couldn't allow that. Opening a drawer, Mary searched through the papers inside it and finally found what she was looking for.

A photo frame.

Taking out her napkin, Mary cleaned the dust of the photo frame and when it was done, she carefully placed the photo in the frame, carefully as she didn't want to damage the photo. She worked hard, but at the end she made it.

A breath of relief left her mouth as she watched it… before a little voice in her head asked:

'How are you going to give this to Chris?'