PT.10

"Miss Kitty, We Need You"

Festus tried to talk Beth, Julianne and Madeline into sneaking out of there again and letting him stay with Kitty until Matt showed up. But the girls wouldn't agree. So he had to find a way for them not to be in the line of fire.

First, he distracted one man with noises in the bushes, that when he came looking, Festus overtook him, killing him in the fight. Then Julianne figured she noticed Gerald didn't usually carry a gun so when he was sitting alone, she saw Festus and told him she would distract him for a while.

She realized he liked to read. So she started up a conversation about his books. That gave Festus a chance to get into the camp and see what they had for weapons. Julianne got Gerald to walk down stream with her talking. Then Festus snuck up behind then other man while he was dosing off and he hit him before he knew he was there. Maddie hurried and gave him a rope.

Just on the opposite side of the stream, Beth spotted Matt. Her eyes opened wide and she took a deep breath. "DADDY! We're over here. Hurry!"

Matt quickly rode right through the stream.

Cal quickly turned to see what she was yelling at.

"Daddy, look out."

Matt turned and shot, killing Cal. "Beth, are you OK?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm so happy to see you." She wrapped her arms around his neck, not wanting to let go.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah. I am now."

"You sound like Kitty."

"Oh, Oh. Miss Kitty. You have to help her. Over here. Quick! They shot her!"

"What?"

"They shot her!"

Matt crouched down beside Kitty, picking her up in his arms. "Kitty, Kitty. It's Matt. I'm here. I'm gonna get you help. You're gonna be ok. I promise. Kitty, can you hear me? Beth, when'd this happen?"

"About two days ago. I... we didn't know how to get it out. I cleaned it as best I... we could. Poured whiskey on it. Then the fever… So we put her in the stream to cool her. We didn't know what to do. Daddy, I'm sorry."

"No, Beth, this isn't your fault."

"But she was protecting us."

"Honey, nothing on earth could have stopped Kitty from protecting you. Not even me. She loves you, Beth. We both do."

"What are we going to do? She needs a doctor."

"We're going to get her help. Don't you worry."

Across the stream the posse was following. "Fellas, we need to get a doctor."

Then one of the men said, "You're in luck, Marshal. I'm a doctor. What do you need?"

"Kitty's been shot."

"Well, let me in here. When did this happen?"

"Beth says about two days."

"Looks pretty clean."

"Thank you, Doctor." Beth said. "I did the best I could."

"Well, young lady, you did a fine job. I'm going to need a knife and you ladies might want to move away. Marshal, can you heat this for me?"

"Daddy?"

"Beth, I don't think you want to watch this."

"Is that going to hurt her?"

"Some, yes."

"Oh, Daddy."

"It's ok, Beth."

"I want to stay. Hold her hand at least."

"Ok, if you want."

"I do." She answered.

"Marshal, you may want to give her some of this whiskey."

"Kitty, Honey. Here drink some of this."

"Uumm… Matttt."

"It's me, Kitty."

"Ouch…"

"Try to stay still."

"It's not deep, Marshal. It must have hit on an angle. It caught in her rib but she has lost a lot of blood."

Beth looked at him. "Yes she did."

"Marshal, this scar…?"

"Oh, she's been shot before."

"Seriously? Life threatening?"

"Yes." Matt said.

"Strong woman."

"That she is." Matt said, squeezing Kitty's hand.

After hearing the shot from camp, Gerald looked at Julianne and dropped his book, rushing back. As he approached the camp, the posse grabbed him. "Marshal! We have him!" Now all were captured.

"Matthew, that other yeahoo is over there a ways. I shot him. He's dead fur sure."

Julianne ran over to Beth and Madeline. "Sorry, I tried to keep him away so Mr. Hagen could do what he had to."

"No, Jules, that's fine. Are you Ok?"

"Yeah." Looking down at Kitty, she asked, "Is she…?"

"No! He's a doctor. He took out the bullet. Now we just have to try and get her out of this awful place and pray she gets well again."

All three girls stood and stared at Matt. "We have to find the others."

"Beth, honey, they're fine. I found them on the way here. They're ok. Tired and scared, but ok." Matt turned to the doctor and asked, "Doctor?"

"Yes, Marshal?"

"How soon do you think before we can move Kitty? I'd like to try and get her out of here and back to Dodge."

"Well, Marshal, I don't know your Kitty. But if she has withstood the last two days in this condition, and I guess if you take it easy, maybe stop and rest when you can, you can try. I'll go along with you."

"I'd appreciate that, Doctor." Matt said shaking his hand.

The doctor looked at the three girls. "You ladies should be very proud of yourselves. You did a very good job of caring for Miss Russell."

And all together they responded, "Thank you, Doctor. We owed her. She saved our lives, we had to save hers." He just smiled.

The girls sat with Matt explaining everything that had happened while the doctor made sure they were alright. The posse rounded the two men up and tied them to horses so that they could ride back with them.

Festus took a few minutes to sit alone with Kitty while no one was around. Sitting quietly beside her, he leaned in close. "Now, Miz Kitty, you jes rest yer ownself up and stay in the buggy. Me and Matthew, oh, and lil' Beth, we gonna make fur sure that you git home to Dodge ok like. And then Ol' Doc, he's gonna see to it that you git back to yer own self lickit te split. You'll see. You'll jes have to git better. Matthew an lil' Beth, they dun need ya." Then he bent over and kissed her on the forehead and wiped a tear from his eye.

Matt walked up behind Festus. "Festus?"

"Matthew, you hadn't not sneak up on a body like that."

"Can you give us a hand moving Kitty?"

"Oh, fiddle de, Matthew. Sure I can. Let's git er done."

Matt the doctor and Festus put Kitty into the wagon, on a bed of blankets to soften the ride. The girls rode with her. When they rode through a town the doctor stopped and got some laudanum they could give Kitty for pain and to help her to sleep through the ride. The complete trip to Dodge took them about three days. It helped that they weren't too far below the Kansas border. Matt had wired a head to Doc.

As they entered Dodge City, they drew a lot of attention and of course, Festus was the first to tell everyone to get out of the way and let Matthew get Miss Kitty to Doc as fast as he could.

Matt saw Sam. "Sam, can you give us a hand? And maybe a few of you fella's?"

As soon as some of the townsmen saw it was Kitty, they jumped right to helping Matt get her up.

Burke started right in. "Marshal, what happened to her. Huh? Is she de…"

Matt quickly snapped his head around. "Burke! Get out of my way! NO! She's not!"

Then Festus looked at Burke. "Burke, if you don't move I'm gonna git on you like ugly on a ape!"

Burke backed up. "Ok. Ok. I just wanted to know."

"Well now you know."

When they got her in Doc's office, Doc looked at Matt. "My God, Matt. Who did this?"

"Doc, I'll tell you the whole story later."

"When did this happen?" Doc asked.

"A week ago."

"Did you get the animal?"

"Yeah, we got him."

"Matt, she looks…" Then he just rubbed his mustache. Then Doc heard a small voice.

"We did the best we could, Doctor."

Doc turned quickly, only to see Beth, Julianne and Madeline. "What in thunder? Beth?"

"Hello Doctor Adams."

"Well come here, young lady and give me a hug."

Beth hugged Doc and began to cry.

"Hey, hey now. What are these tears?"

"We tried, Doc."

"Tried what?"

"To take good care of Miss Kitty. But we didn't have any…"

And then Julianne jumped in. "We didn't know how to remove a bullet."

"What bullet?"

"Oh, Doc, it's out." Matt said.

"Who…?"

"There was a doctor in the posse."

Then Beth added, "But it was there for two days and she had a fever. We put her in the cool stream trying to break it. It worked some and I poured whiskey in the wound. I learned that on the ranch. Doc, is Miss Kitty going to be alright?"

All three girls just stared at him as if to stare holes through him.

While Matt was sitting with Kitty, Doc took the girls aside. "Let me tell you ladies something. And I want you to listen to me. I've known Kitty Russell a long time and she is one tough lady. She has been through a lot in her life and if she is nothing else, she is a fighter. Especially when she has something to fight for."

When he said that, he looked at Matt and then at Beth. "And I'm telling you, young lady, and you hear me and hear me good. See, the way I see it, Kitty Russell has someones to fight for. You noticed that was a plural, didn't you?"

Beth tilted her head at Doc, thinking about what he said.

Doc, like usual, pulled on his ear then swiped his mustache. "Elizabeth, you just think about that." Then he gave her a wink.

TBC