All of the people in the stagecoach turned to look at Chris when he screamed. Ezra was shaking his arm, "Mr. Larabee, wake up. You are scaring the passengers."
Chris was confused and sweating and opened his eyes to see Ezra and Vin each with a hand on one of his arms.
"You ok there, Cowboy?" Vin asked quietly.
Chris kept his eyes glued on Ezra as he replied, "yeah, just dreamin' I guess."
Vin sat down, and Chris looked embarrassingly around at the other passengers…as his heartbeat tried to return to its normal pace.
Ezra saw Chris run a shaking hand through his dark blond hair, and the southerner pulled out his extra sandwich along with Chris' canteen and offered it to Larabee. Chris took a long drink of water, then a deep breath, and accepted half of the sandwich. "That was one hell of a dream," he thought to himself.
The blond man's scream had shaken Katherine, and Elizabeth felt sorry for him. Liz had read the fear and pain in the green eyes – emotional pain and what looked to be physical pain when he shot up quickly out of his seat. "Maybe all three of them had been injured," she let herself wonder. Elizabeth was an attractive young woman and had been courted a number of times, but she had never found "the one."
Chris finished the sandwich and slowly got his emotions back under control. The dream had rattled him more than he let on. Why hadn't he chosen to be an accountant or run a store for a living? He doubted that old Mr. Barnes, who kept the books for most of the businesses in town, had dreams like that.
It was less than 10 minutes later when the stagecoach came upon a long, muddy hill, and the driver called, "everybody out."
The driver wanted the passengers to walk up the hill to give the coach the best chance of making it up and over. He also said that he would likely need a few of the men to push once they got to the steepest part of the grade. The large, well-dressed fellow refused to push and even grumbled about having to get his shoes muddy when Larabee insisted he get his "behind out of that coach…now!"
With Ezra's broken arm, and the other man's flat-out refusal, that left the pushing to Chris and Vin. Ezra had voiced his concerns that they were not physically up to the task, but what choice did they have?
The stagecoach slid sideways a time or two, but with the experienced driver and Chris and Vin's pushing, the coach finally pulled its way over the top of the sloppy hill. Elizabeth pulled out her handkerchief and did her best to wipe the mud splatters off of Mr. Larabee and Mr. Tanner's clothes. There was even mud on the end of Vin's nose. Standish chuckled as he watched her gently clean that off as well. He enjoyed watching Vin squirm at the hands of a beautiful woman.
Chris re-assumed the center-aisle seat when they boarded the coach at the top of the hill. He figured pushing uphill had been taxing on Tanner's injured leg. Ezra was first to speak up though. "You gentlemen didn't aggravate any of your injuries while assisting the coach up the hill, did you?"
The effort had pulled at the healing bullet wounds of both men, and Chris' ribs didn't appreciate the stretched position. Both men, however, shook their heads, "no," and insisted they were "fine."
Elizabeth finally got up the courage to ask, "how did you gentlemen get injured?"
Her older sister glared at her, but Vin clearly wasn't offended and answered, "huntin' a gang of murderers a couple weeks back."
"Oh my," Elizabeth replied. "Were you shot?"
"Yeah, me and Chris were shot; Ezra broke his arm."
"I saw you limping earlier, so I presume you were shot in the leg?" she continued to probe, and her sister stared at her like she had two heads.
"Liz, I'm not sure they want to explain it all to you," Katherine finally interrupted.
"Nah, it's fine," said Vin. "I don't mind." He was starting to warm up to and even enjoy the company of the young woman. "I was shot right here," Vin pointed to his left thigh. "Chris was hit in the shoulder."
"So, you're lawmen?" Elizabeth continued to question the lanky buckskin-clad man.
"Nothing official; we're paid to protect the town where the stage picked us up."
"How very exciting," she smiled and swung her hands out, smacking Larabee in the right side.
He sucked in a sharp breath, and Vin laughed, "Larabee there also broke a couple of ribs."
"Oh," Liz gasped, "so sorry about that, Mr. Larabee." She was still a little leery of the fair-haired man.
"No problem," Chris quickly said. He couldn't believe how much his normally-shy friend was talking. Larabee was starting to think that Ezra must have secretly spiked Vin's canteen.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
The stagecoach finally pulled into the station at about 5PM that night. The men purchased their tickets to San Francisco and discovered that their train was due in at about midnight.
The station possessed a small saloon/restaurant, so the men had supper, drank, and played cards to pass the time.
The three now-inebriated men boarded at about 12:30AM and headed to the rear car. The train wasn't overly packed anyway, and the back car only had a couple of folks sitting in it. Chris knew Vin would appreciate a bit of space after being in cramped quarters all day. Truth be told, he appreciated it as well.
The tired and tipsy peacekeepers were quickly lulled to sleep by the sound and motion of the train.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
Vin Tanner was in the dining car of the train, doing his best to drink a little coffee and eat some breakfast. He had partaken in more alcohol the night before than he had intended, and his head and stomach were struggling to function normally this morning. He had little doubt that the two men who flanked him at the table were suffering the same effects, but Chris and Ezra were more accustomed to dealing with this sort of misery.
Vin just about jumped out of his skin when he heard someone say loudly, "Mr. Tanner. I had no idea that you, Mr. Larabee, and Mr. Standish were taking the same train as me and my family." It was Elizabeth, the young woman from the stagecoach.
"Well, isn't that a fortuitous turn of events, Mr. Tanner," Ezra teased the queasy tracker.
"Mornin' miss Elizabeth," said Vin. "Would you like to join us for breakfast?" He really didn't feel much like talking right now but thought it would be rude if he didn't ask.
"Why, thank you Mr. Tanner. I would enjoy that very much," she smiled and ordered a big plate of food.
"She ain't gonna enjoy it as much when Tanner up-chucks all over her eggs," Chris whispered to Ezra and smirked. He sympathized completely with Vin though. He wasn't about to touch any breakfast this morning. Coffee was enough of a test.
"Are you gentlemen feelin' ok this morning?" she inquired. "You look a little green."
"We're fine, Ms. Elizabeth," Vin answered and tried not to look at her shoveling in the runny eggs. Then her sister showed up as well.
"Katherine, look who I ran into this morning. Why don't you join us?" Liz asked.
Katherine was four years older than Elizabeth and was a little more "worldly." She had actually even been married once, but her husband had passed away just 6 months after the wedding. She agreed to sit down, but she knew precisely what was wrong with the three men this morning.
"So, where are you headin'?" Chris asked, trying to steer the attention away from their hangovers.
"San Diego," Elizabeth chimed in. "We're taking our aunt to live with us there."
"How about you gentlemen?" Katherine then asked.
"We are headed to San Francisco. My mother is currently residing there, and I will be visiting her for a week," Ezra responded.
They continued to make small talk for the next 20 minutes, when Katherine stated, "I should be getting my aunt's breakfast to her. Come along Elizabeth."
Liz knew she was making her sister nervous, showing so much interest in these men. So, for now, she agreed and headed to their sleeper cabin in the middle of the train.
Chris took out his flask and dumped a bit of whiskey in his coffee. He held it up to Vin, and the tracker groaned, "get that shit away from me, Larabee."
The remainder of the day passed without incident. The men returned to their seats and watched the scenery float by. The train made a few more stops throughout the New Mexico territory, and they took on additional passengers.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
By the next evening, Ezra had gotten bored enough to stir up a poker game in the dining cabin. Chris wandered in a couple of hours later and noticed that Ezra was playing cards with three rather rough-looking characters. The men had boarded the train at the last stop, and the more they drank the more agitated they became about losing their money.
Finally, one of the men said as he folded his hand, "ain't nobody that lucky. This feller has to be cheatin'."
Followed up by another card-player saying, "yeah, Butch, let's show him what we do to cheaters," and the man over-turned the card table. The money fell to the floor with the drinks and cards. Ezra had stepped back to avoid being struck by the table or the flying beverages. Butch then charged and lifted the much smaller gambler off the ground. Ezra's back slammed against the wall, and the pain in his broken arm came rushing to the forefront of Standish's attention.
Chris approached with Colt in hand and said calmly, "think that's enough card-playing for one night. Everybody go sober up, and maybe you can win your money back tomorrow."
The three card-playing thugs were soon joined by five other "friends," and Larabee knew this was precisely the trouble that Nathan had sent him along with Ezra to avoid.
"I said that's enough," Chris repeated and trained his gun on the man holding Ezra, "put him down….now!"
Butch tossed Standish hard to the ground, and Ezra winced as his arm bumped into the table on the way down. Since he was already on the floor, the gambler scooped up his newly-acquired wealth, and Chris ordered, "Ezra, get outta here." He didn't want the gambler doing any additional damage to his still-healing arm.
Ezra then stood and realized there were eight men looking to face off with them. "And what, leave you here to fight all of them yourself?"
"I'll handle it Ezra. Go back to our seats," Chris said as he moved out of the way of the dining car door so that Standish could walk through. He figured Ezra was going to go get Vin and return, but at least he would have a few minutes to try and diffuse the situation.
Chris still had his Colt pointed at the group of men and instructed, "you gentlemen need to go back to your supper or your cabins. It's all done here."
Just as Larabee finished that statement, a ninth man entered from behind him. Chris thought he was in trouble, but fortunately the man simply said, "that's enough boys. Get on back to your seats." Clearly the leader of the group.
Chris dipped his head in acknowledgment of the man's help, re-holstered his gun, and left to find Vin and Ezra. He was already out of earshot when the foreman said to his men, "don't worry boys, we'll get your money back and then some."
As the night passed, the train left the greener, more civilized landscapes for those of the barren, dry desert.