"You get away from him or the next one goes through your head," a slim, mustached man riding a pale gray horse instructed, while he and a large, salt-and-pepper-haired man on another horse held pistols squarely aimed at Jake's and his buddy's heads.
His friend promptly dropped Larabee's limp body to the ground, and both men held their hands up in surrender as they slowly backed towards the boarding house.
Buck was down off of his horse and at his old friend's side in an instant. "Chris!" He lifted the injured man to a semi-sitting position. "What the hell did you do, Old Dog? You're a damn mess. Help me get him over to a bench on the boardwalk, Josiah." The big ex-preacher tossed one of Larabee's arms over his shoulder while Buck did the same with the other. Chris appeared to be conscious, but he hadn't said a word.
Once his friend was seated, Buck squatted in front of the blond. "Talk to me, Chris. You ok?"
Long, light eyelashes fluttered a few times, and their owner finally got out one word before succumbing to the darkness that beckoned: "Buck?"
"It's me…..no, no, Chris, stay awake. Where the hell is everybody?" Buck sighed and stood, as Josiah kept Chris from falling over.
Wilmington's blue eyes grew wide as a screaming woman approached and began slapping him in the chest. "What did you do to him?" She kicked Josiah's knee with all her might, "let him go right now, or I'm going to get the sheriff."
"Woah there, little lady…."
"Don't you little lady me, you jerk. I happen to know this man and do not believe for a second that he deserved what you did to him."
"Oh, you do, do you? You know this man?" Buck teased. "What's his name?"
"Chris."
"Chris what?"
"Uh," Florence paused. Hadn't she heard or been told his last name? If she had, she sure as heck couldn't remember it. "I don't know."
"You know him well enough to risk gettin' yourself in a heap of trouble, and you don't even know his last name. Well, let me tell you," Buck smiled and pointed at his unconscious friend. "This here is Chris Larabee. The man has been my friend for damn-near 15 years. I'm one of his fellow peacekeepers from Four Corners, and my friend and I just rode half the damn night to get here and find him and three of our other friends."
Florence raised her eyes to meet the dark blue ones of the tall, dark-haired man. Handsome as well….as was his older friend. Unbelievable, she thought: all six of them were attractive. She knew he was telling the truth, but she sighed and asked anyway, "what are your other friends' names?"
"Vin, Ezra, and JD. We heard that Vin had been shot and arrested, and that JD took sick. You know anything about that?"
"You two carry Chris over to my clinic…"
"Your clinic?" Buck's eyes lit up, as a smile engulfed his entire face.
"Yes, my clinic, right there," she pointed. "I will fill you in on all I know once we get there."
As they walked, with Buck and Josiah carrying Chris between them, she said, "so, you didn't do this to him?"
"No, two men were beatin' on him when we pulled into town."
"Holt and his gang, I bet."
"Who's Holt?" Josiah asked.
"I don't know much; just that Jake Holt and his men are the ones that shot Vin and brought him in for the bounty money."
"Well, that makes sense why he and Chris wouldn't get along too well then, don't it? My name's Buck, by the way, and this is Josiah. Are JD and Vin ok? The sheriff didn't tell us a whole lot about their conditions, but it didn't sound good."
"It is nice to meet you gentlemen. Vin is, of course, still in jail but otherwise doing ok, and I'm going to take you to JD right now."
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
JD was sleeping when the two men entered carrying Chris. Ezra turned from his position, staring out the window onto the street, and he immediately felt like an elephant had been lifted from his shoulders, seeing Buck and Josiah. Standish had thought Chris had likely just worn himself out, wandering around town, trying to find a way to clear Mr. Tanner's name….until he saw the battered body. Chris' face was covered in bruises, his nose and lip were bleeding, and his clothing had been torn in numerous places.
"What in God's name happened?" Ezra looked up at the taller men.
"Hello to you too, Ezra," Buck smiled and pulled the smaller man into a warm embrace.
"I do apologize, Misters Wilmington and Sanchez," Ezra grinned, showing his gold tooth, and finally extracted himself from Buck's grip, "I am very happy to see you gentlemen. I just didn't expect Mr. Larabee to appear in this sort of shape."
"Apparently some asshole named Holt and one of his buddies did this."
Ezra sighed and sat down in the chair. This was the first time he had even heard his old partner's name mentioned in conjunction with this town, but now it all made sense. He turned his green gaze to Florence, who was working on Chris, and confirmed his worst thoughts. "So, it was Holt who shot Mr. Tanner?"
Flo just shook her head, "yes," and continued cleaning up Larabee's face.
"Why would he attack Mr. Larabee and risk losing the bounty by going to jail himself?"
"Knowing Chris like I do," Buck offered, "I'd say he confronted this Holt fellow; he and his gang just took advantage of Chris' weakened state….and his stupidity."
"You ok, Ezra?" Josiah had been concerned by Standish's appearance ever since they entered the room. He was uncharacteristically disheveled, with a day's growth of stubble on his bruised face. Plus, the man looked generally unwell: his clothing seemed to hang off of him, he had a cough that sounded awful, and just in the last few minutes his pallor had turned a ghastly shade of gray-green.
"I do not know, Mr. Sanchez. It has honestly been the worst two weeks of my life."
Florence stood to grab some bandages and said, "Ezra has only started to recover from the influenza himself. He, Chris, and JD came down with it after, from what I understand, Ezra and Chris passed through a town up north that was in the throws of a wide-spread infection."
"Damn," Buck pulled a chair close to JD's bed and grabbed the young man's hand. "We're here, JD. I'm sorry it took us so long, but everything's gonna be ok now."
JD's eyes shot open. "Buck?"
"The one and only," Wilmington had to fight back tears. He had been so worried about JD for days. He hadn't known if the boy would still be alive when he got here, and that thought had been eating away at his insides. "How you feelin'?"
"I'll be ok," JD looked across the room at Florence, "at least that's what the doc says." The youngster tried to sit himself up as a nasty coughing fit overtook his weakened body.
"I got ya, JD," Buck easily pulled him up to a full sitting position. "All of you boys look and sound down-right horrible."
"If you can handle things here for a bit, Buck, I think I'll go see if I can talk to Vin," Josiah ruffled JD's hair and said. "I saw the jail earlier, and I presume that's where he's being held?"
"That's right, Josiah," Florence finished with Chris' face. "Could you help me remove his shirt and wrap his ribs before you go?"
"Certainly, ma'am," Josiah immediately and easily lifted Chris to a sitting position, and Florence unbuttoned and removed his gray shirt. The man's lean torso was bruised terribly. She couldn't really find any ribs that seemed to be broken badly, but she wrapped them anyway. The nurse figured at least one or two rib bones had to be cracked after a beating like that.
"Thank you very much," she said and marveled to herself at Josiah's unbelievably-bright blue eyes and strong physique.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
There was no one except Vin in the jail when Josiah entered. He approached the bars. "Well, hello there, stranger."
Vin had been staring off, out the small window, and had assumed the door opening and closing was just the sheriff coming back. He had said he would return in a few minutes. So, the lean tracker jumped and turned immediately when he heard Josiah's loud, booming voice.
"Josiah!" Vin's legs would have given out had he not grabbed the bars to support himself.
"Vin, you all right, son?"
"I'm better now, Josiah. All I've been is a damn nuisance. Chris has been worryin' on gettin' me out of here, with JD, Ezra….hell, even himself, sick," blue eyes met blue. "We definitely needed some help. Is Nathan with you?"
"Just me and Buck. Nathan had things to attend to back in town, but we're ready to help in any way we can."
"Who the hell are you?" the sheriff asked as he entered, not knowing whether this large man was friend or foe.
"This is Josiah, Sheriff. The ex-preacher I told you about."
"Well, I suppose it would be all right if you heard the good news then?" Both peacekeepers kept their eyes glued on the old sheriff. "In this very hand," he said, holding up his right arm, "I am holding a notice of pardon for a Mr. Vin Tanner."
"Wh….what?" Vin stammered and held white-knuckled to the cell bars.
"It seems that the local judge was meeting with the Governor of Texas last week when he got my information. The two of them discussed the case, reviewed the testimony of Judge Travis, other folks from Four Corners, and the statement from the person here in town, and they decided that you had been wrongly accused, Mr. Tanner." The sheriff simply walked over and unlocked the door. "Vin, you are free to go."
Vin's mouth fell open, and the man who had been running for so many years collapsed bonelessly to the cell floor.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
Chris was just waking up, grumbling about so many folks fussing over him, when he saw something that shut him up instantly. Vin Tanner was standing in the doorway of the room.
Vin didn't trust himself to speak, so he turned and looked at Josiah, who promptly announced, "Vin Tanner is a free man."
"What did you do, Josiah?" JD swung his legs over the bed and asked.
Sanchez laughed, "it didn't have anything to do with me."
Vin finally found his voice, "Sheriff Johnson gathered some information, sent it to the local Judge who talked to the Governor who granted me a pardon…..if you can believe that."
Chris pulled his sore body from the cot and approached, but it was Buck who spoke first. "Hot damn, Tanner, that's the best news I've heard in a long time."
"Yeah, Vin, we're so happy for you," JD added.
Finally Chris: "congratulations, Cowboy. Now you only have to look over your shoulders for bad guys that we've pissed off over the last few years."
"It don't seem real…just seein' a little piece of paper. I would love to know who else's testimony they used. The sheriff said there was someone here in town who knew I was innocent."
"Really?" Ezra questioned. "That is quite a coincidence."
"What, Ezra?" JD asked, "you think the sheriff made it up to save Vin."
"I do not know…."
"I do," Florence finally spoke, "…..because it was me."
"What?" Vin was happy but confused.
"It was my story that the sheriff sent to the Judge. I, uh, knew Eli Joe. There's no good excuse for what I did, but I just wanted to escape in the first years after my son and husband died. I stopped working for the old doc in town, and I ran around with Eli. I didn't do anything illegal, but I kept my mouth shut about what he did…..and he did some really bad things. Eli was a monster; don't know why it took me so long to figure that out. I told the sheriff that Eli told me about having Jess Kincaid killed to set you up, Vin."
"Did he?" Vin wanted to know exactly what Eli had said.
Florence paced back-and-forth across the room a few times before saying, "no. He never mentioned anything of it to me."
Vin's heart sank. "Why? Why'd you say he did?"
"Honestly, I don't know. It just seemed to make sense at the time. The sheriff and I both thought you were telling the truth, and I figured maybe that would make up for some of the bad things Eli did that I never told anyone about."
"What if they find out?" JD coughed and Buck hit him on the back a few times.
"I don't know how they would. They don't even need to have a trial now," Flo answered, hoping that would be the case. "Either way, I'm willing to take that chance."
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
The six men decided that they would try to head home the next morning. JD's fever was almost gone, and it would take weeks if they had to wait for his, Ezra's and Chris' lungs to fully heal. Larabee swore that he was just sore from the beating from the Holt gang, and that he would be fine to ride, and Vin said the same about the healing gunshot wound in his arm. Chris also thought it would be best if they all got out of town before Jake Holt and company discovered that Vin was no longer in jail….and that their chance of actually getting the $500 reward was pretty much gone. For that reason, they kept Vin out of sight and off the streets.
Florence brought in enough cots for all of them to sleep in the clinic and insisted on preparing a going-away supper for the men tonight. At Vin's request, she also invited Sheriff Johnson. All of the men made rotations through the bathhouse and changed into clean clothes in preparation for the festivities.
The seven men and one woman gathered in the dining room downstairs at the clinic. Florence had prepared a wonderful meal: beef roast with vegetables and a homemade apple pie for dessert, and they all enjoyed it and complimented the chef profusely. The conversation was pleasant, and everyone expressed their gratitude to both the nurse and sheriff for all of their help over the last week.
It had been a long week though, and the six visitors were tired and eager to get packed and prepared to head home the following morning. Two extra cots were placed in the bigger clinic room, and Vin and Buck bunked in there with JD and Chris. One additional cot was placed in the smaller room, occupied by Ezra, and Josiah took it. Both rooms were crowded with the additional beds, but they were so happy to be back together that no one grumbled about the close quarters.
As the night grew darker, JD and Buck retired to their beds in the far right corner, and Chris and Vin sat on theirs in the left end of the room.
"Ya been kinda quiet, Cowboy?" Vin had noticed that Chris hadn't said much since dinner. "You all right?" It was a legitimate question, given greater than 50% of their numbers had been ill and/or injured in the last week, including Larabee.
Chris gave a half-smile at his friend's worried expression. "I'm fine…..just thinkin' about things."
"Thought you'd be happy about goin' home tomorrow?"
"I am," Chris leaned back to stretch his sore body and limbs. Everything hurt, but whether it was from the altercation with Holt's gang or the lingering effects of the flu, he didn't know. "I'm happy for you, Vin. I really am. That pardon removes a load that you've been carryin' for a long time."
"Yeah," Vin yawned. "It don't seem real; feel like I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and be back in that jail."
"It'll take some some time. That's understandable, and I ain't gonna let anybody put you back in that jail. I had no idea what happened to you and JD out on the trail. The blood and you guys just disappearing like that…."
"Ah, Chris, you know I'm tougher than I look."
"Yeah," Chris smiled in thanks for not having to say what he was really thinking….that he thought Vin might be dead. "You are."
"You sayin' I don't look tough?"
"You said it first."
"I was just tryin' to get you to tell me what's eatin' at ya; wasn't expecting you to agree with me," Vin grinned and yawned once again.
"Like I said, I was just thinkin' about things," Chris stood and patted Vin's cot. "Why don't you lie down and get some sleep, Vin. I'll be back in a bit."