Hope this is sufficient for how long you've waited! This one has a SERIOUS shocker in it...BE PREPARED.
Also, I'd like to thank all who review and read my story here...Amber thanks a whole lot!
And to Emilio's loofah, aka Bethy-roo, here's the shocker I told you about!
Next stop was Blazer's Mill, just a little further up the trail. Dick figured it would give the rest of them a chance to recuperate, and maybe a chance for he and Kate to talk more. To get there, they passed through part of an Indian reservation, nervously and quietly. Well, Kate was nervous, Chavez and Dick were quiet, the rest didn't seem to notice what was happening. Chavez thought he saw some of the tribe give Kate small waves and smiles of recognition, but with the peyote, he just wasn't sure. By the time they actually reached the mill, the effects of the peyote had worn off, and all of them were back to their original selves. In most this was an improvement. In others...it made her wish there were more peyote.
"Heya Kate."
She sighed as she turned to Billy and his gloating tone of voice. She saw his expression matched, a smug little smile.
"So you and Dick have fun last night? I did."
"Are you sure? You didn't kill anyone. I imagined you were bored out of your mind, you trigger-happy wanker."
Billy looked as though Kate had won. He stalked off into the house, followed closely by Charley and Dick. Doc came up to Kate to ask if Billy had been bothering her.
"Not anything I can't handle, Doc."
He shrugged and followed the others inside. Chavez was the last up the hill, and he paused in front of Kate.
"Careful, Katy."
Her eyebrows drew down in confusion.
"As I just told Doc, Billy doesn't bother me." she wondered why he would be worried...
"I meant with Dick."
Kate narrowed her eyes again. So now everyone knows? And what did Chavez feel he had to warn her about?
"He is not the one for you."
"And you know this because...you saw it in your vision, I'm guessing."
"No. I'm saying it because I know you. And I know him."
As Chavez walked away, Kate thought about his odd advice. Was he right? But she thought she really did love Dick. But the more she thought about Chavez's words, she thought maybe she was just drawn to Dick because he was there for her when she was most alone. But again, what did Chavez mean by 'he is not the one for you?' Did he mean that someone else was? She shook her head as if to loosen these thoughts from her head as she walked toward the house.
The scene she met with inside was an all too familiar one. Dick and Billy, guns pointed at each other. Kate sighed and sat next to Doc, near the door. She put her head in her hand and drummed her fingers on the table, sighing in exasperation. Honestly... Before the disagreement escalated too much farther, Steve burst in, saying there was a man coming up the trail.
"Just one?"
One was enough, it seemed, as Charley identified him as Buckshot Roberts, the man who was rumored to have killed more men than smallpox. As expected, Billy wanted to go right out and 'meet' him. Against her better judgement, she followed them out into the yard and watched a not-so impressive old man dismount from a donkey. Dick tried once again to be the voice of reason and just arrest him, but the old man wasn't interested. He was just there for the reward set out on all of them.
"And the lady there, too. Sure-Shot Kate. Two fifty, dead or alive."
Billy glanced at her, and she thought she detected a glint of jealousy in his eyes. He had only been worth one fifty. Kate looked at Buckshot Roberts, bewildered. She looked at Doc and mouthed, 'Sure-Shot?' Doc only smiled slightly before turning back to Roberts as he declared,
"Let's dance!"
Kate jumped as fast as she could behind a nearby turned over cart. Bullets flew overhead as she watched Chavez take a shot in the leg. He ducked behind where she was sitting, as did Doc. Doc sat up to fire at Roberts, but was blown back down when he caught a bullet in the hand.
"Shit!"
Kate quickly ripped shreds from her petticoat and wrapped it tightly. Then she turned to Chavez and did the same, wondering jokingly how long her petticoat would last. She sat with her back to the cart, closed her eyes, and prayed for it all to end. She heard the shots fade away, and a momentary silence fell over the yard. Her eyes opened and wandered over to the other pile where Dick, Billy, and Steve knelt. Dick muttered something to Billy, walking out to face the outhouse Roberts had ducked into. Kate saw the shotgun barrel before anyone else, but had no time to cry out before it fired those fatal shots. His body shook with the force of the bullets before he fell facedown on the ground.
It seemed to Kate as though this happened several times before her eyes, a horrible nightmare she couldn't stop from replaying. Without really looking, she drew her pistol, walked out to the outhouse, kicked the door open, and fired two shots-one in each of Buckshot's eyes, then fell to the ground. She sat there, looking without seeing, eyes drifting in and out of focus, hearing a name but not realizing it was her own they were calling. The tears seemed to clear her vision, and she saw Dick, lying still on the ground. A sob choked her throat, causing her to lose her breath. She crawled to where he lay, kneeling as close as she could get. He stirred slightly, and Kate gingerly turned him over. Blood from his wounds soaked her hands and they shook in her state of shock as she ran them over the bloodstains, carefully avoiding the actual wounds.
"God, God, Oh, Jesus. Oh bloody Jesus..." she whispered over and over, to herself, to no one, to anyone who would listen.
His mouth opened, and she expected to hear his last words -to hear that he would be just fine, that he loved her, that he didn't love her, anything, she just wanted to hear his voice...But his eyes closed with his mouth, and he lay still and cold in her arms.
Her vision wavered again, and this time it wasn't out of shock or because of tears. Someone had picked her up and was carrying her over their shoulder away from the yard. She heard yelling, "Dick" and "No" again and again, and it took a gentle shaking from the one carrying her for her to realize that it had been her doing the screaming. When she snapped out of her stupor, she found herself in front of Billy on his horse, while her horse was being led beside. Under any other circumstances, on finding herself so close to Billy, she would have fought to be on her own horse, but as it was, she sat still and waited until they stopped to make camp.
Doc had to leave, write Dick's mother if he could, tell her what happened. Kate's eyes were bleary as she watched him ride away. She flopped down by Charley and watched him build a small fire. She hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face in them as the rest continued talking. Chavez wanted to go west. Kate fully agreed. She was more than ready to be rid of all this, to go home. Back to England where she could forget about all of this. It wouldn't be running away, she told herself. It is the wisest thing to do. After all, what was she going to do? Join the gang, become an outlaw, keep on the run the rest of her life? She'd already done that, she realized, the day she shot that man in Agua Negra Canyon. It was certainly to late to go back. Her head jerked up when she heard,
"The Red Sand Creek Reservation." It came from Chavez, who was obviously upset at Billy for some reason or another.
"What the hell's he talkin' about?" Billy asked the rest.
No one knew, no one but Kate, so Chavez continued to tell the story of his entire reservation being murdered in the middle of the night. He had been the only survivor. Kate burst into tears, feeling the pain of that night as if she herself had lived it. She understood Chavez's pain and his need to return to his people. Billy turned around to look at her and mocked,
"You got no loyalty, Navajo." He shook his head and continued to try and convince Chavez to come with them.
He never got the chance, as Kate stood, quickly and angrily.
"You arrogant, trigger happy son of a fucking bitch!"
Everyone was deathly still. Kate had never yelled at any of them, and she certainly never used language like that. She pointed at Billy, and he stood to face her.
"Pardon?"
"You heard me. Who's got no loyalty? You, you smug little bastard. You're not doing ANY of this for my father. You're just using his name to make one for yourself! How can you not care that you got a man killed today? Or is it that you're just sore you didn't do it yourself? I bet-"
Her words were caught as Billy raised his left hand and backhanded her. She fell to the ground, catching herself on her hands and knees, looking up at him through disheveled hair. Chavez, in one swift movement, grabbed Billy by the throat and pressed a knife to it. She stood slowly, mouth set in a grim line, hate obvious in her eyes. She touched her lip and saw it was bleeding. Billy looked shocked, he couldn't believe he'd just done that. He'd never hit a woman in his life, especially not one he cared about. As he stood there, eyes widened in disbelief, she spat out blood at him. Chavez released him, but right after he landed a swift punch to his jaw. Billy reeled, and Chavez went to Kate and took a look at her face. Her lip was split and bleeding heavily, and an ugly bruise was beginning to show from her cheekbone to her brow.
"Jesus, Billy."
Billy wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, but to everyone's surprise, he didn't fight back. He just stalked off into the brush and didn't return for hours.
The next morning, Doc returned, and Kate was the first to greet him as he dismounted.
"Jesus! Kate, what happened to you?" he asked, gently turning her face in the morning light to see the bruise more clearly.
Chavez glared at Billy, and Doc looked past Kate to see it.
"You left-handed son of a bitch-"
"Let it go, Doc. We have a trip to Lincoln to make." Kate whispered, mounting her horse.
Doc and Chavez both shot a murderous glare in Billy's direction before mounting their own and all of them rode toward Lincoln.
