M7*M7*M7
Vin watched Chris and Buck through heavy eyes. They stood just a few feet away at the window, talking quietly about horses and snow. Beyond them the mountains were dotted with tiny lights, and Vin felt a sudden ache to be out there.
"Home..." he said quietly. His mouth was dry. Two heads turned to him.
"Hey Vin, thought maybe you were gone for the night." Buck smiled at him.
"Wanna go home."
"Not for a few days yet kid. Becky and Nathan aren't gonna let you outta here for a few days." and Vin turned his eyes to Chris.
"Said you'd get me home."
"And I will Vin." Chris stepped to the bedrail. "But I'm not gonna go through what we did to save you, only to lose you on some dark mountain road 'cause we left the hospital too soon." Vin closed his eyes and turned his head away. "Home is still there Vin, and it's waiting for you to come back."
"Don't like hospitals." Vin said. He'd sure had enough of this one. Had enough of these strangers who were friends.
"Don't blame you Vin." Chris said. Vin felt him lay a light hand on his shoulder. Vin didn't respond. "Keep an eye on him." he heard Chris say to Buck. "I'll be back."
M7*M7*M7
"Y'can tell me to shut any time Chris." Vin said. "Just 'cause your a captive audience, doesn't mean you got no say." But Chris shook his head.
"Seems like maybe you need to be talkin' about it." Chris wasn't prodding now, wasn't trying to keep this Vin talking. Chris could judge a man by how he held himself, the way he laid his words out. Whoever this Vin was, why ever he was here - and never mind the strange words he was using - he carried an honest burden and he was trusting Larabee with hearing it.
"That's one of the things I always really liked about you Larabee. Y'always let me say what I wanted, never pushed me for anything more. One word to Judge Travis and you coulda had every bit of information on me there is, but you didn't. You coulda asked Nettie or Casey anything about me, but you never did. You always took me at my word, and never asked more from me than a good day's work." Vin rubbed his hand over his face as though he was tired. "Y'don't know what that means to me."
There was a sudden pounding on the door. In one clean motion, Chris was on his feet, had his gun in his hand, blew out the candle and took a long stride to stand in front of Vin, automatically reaching back to sweep Vin into relative safety behind himself.
A few long seconds of pounding hearts and aimed weapon, and the noise sounded again, in time with the wind, making a scraping sound as it died down. "Branch." Chris said. He lifted the latch silently with his free hand and pulled the door open a crack. "Branch." he said again and opened the door enough to shove the long limb away from the door.
When he turned back, in the flickering fingers of light from the stove, Chris could see Vin's eyes as wide as saucers, and his breath coming hard and fast in his chest. "He's out there - he's still out there..."
M7*M7*M7
It had been a long day and a half. Nathan found an empty waiting room and an empty couch. Too tired to lay down, knowing he'd never get back up if he was paged, he put his feet up on the Formica coffee table and laid his head back. He had more important things to worry about than why Vin's x-rays didn't add up - still, they nagged at him. Of course, his previous x-rays were from the Psych ward or before, maybe they'd just been misfiled with someone else's, that was all.
Happy that at least one piece of the puzzle fit, Nathan closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
It must've been fifteen minutes, and only fifteen minutes, before he heard footsteps in the doorway. They came, stopped, waited only a second, started to turn away.
"Mise well tell me what you want..." Nathan lifted his head to find Chris trying to leave without disturbing his friend. "Oh - Chris...is Vin OK?"
"Yeah Nathan, sorry. I wouldn't have bothered you - didn't know you were sleeping in here."
"Naah, come on..." Nathan sat up and indicated the empty chair next to him. "What's on your mind."
"God, Nathan. You look exhausted." Chris said as he took a seat. "Have you gotten any sleep?"
"Yeah, off and on." He rubbed the back of his neck. "This is nothing compared to my residency. Those shifts were a nightmare...what's goin' on?"
"JD told me the roads are getting all cleared out." Chris knew Nathan would understand the implications. "Police'll be here tomorrow morning, if not sooner."
"Vin still living in the Old West?"
"Yep."
"Damn." Nathan shook his head. "He's been lucky so far, if you can call it that, lucky that the trial hasn't started. I know only you and me know about him being on the Psych Unit, but that defense attorney will make it the biggest news since Gary Hart..."
"I know - and it'll land him right back on the Psych Unit, won't it?" Chris asked. Nathan ducked his head and tiredly rubbed his eyes.
"I won't lie to you Chris - yeah, I expect it will land him smack dab back there." Pain and frustration settled on Larabee's face. "Chris - let's give him another night before we jump to conclusions. Could be a good night's sleep will bring him back to us."
"And if not?" Chris demanded. "Can't damn well stall the authorities."
"Chris -" Nathan spread his hands in a gesture of resignation. "If tomorrow morning Vin is still in 1871, maybe he should go back...hear me out..." Nathan stood as Chris did, Larabee about to storm off.
"Think about it Chris - he's had a year of waiting for his whole mental and emotional history to be front page news. He's had a year of reliving Watson's murder - and his Mom's death - over and over. He's had two months of death threats and two long days of serious physical injury and hospitalization. If any one man deserved an emotional vacation, it has to be Vin." Chris didn't answer and Nathan put an understanding hand on his shoulder.
"Let's give it at least till tomorrow morning, okay Chris? Let's not go borrowing trouble."
M7*M7*M7
Chris hung his poncho over the window to block the light going outside. No sense advertising their whereabouts with even the little light coming through the cracks in the stove. Vin sat on the bench with his head in his hands. As Larabee took his own seat again in the chair, Vin took a deep breath and straightened up. Reaching for the plate of apples behind him, he pulled his pocket knife out of his back pocket.
Chris' eyes went from the knife to his face.
"You worried 'cause you don't know me?" Vin asked. "Or 'cause you do?" and Larabee had no answer. "I've got no intentions a'using this on anyone or anything in this cabin but these apples." He opened his knife and cut a few hunks off. He offered one to Larabee. "Never serious about doin' it you know. Sure talked about it a lot though..."
"Your Ma." Not a question. Larabee's eyes and ears told him this wasn't the Vin Tanner he knew - but something else just now had told him different and made him step between this man and possible danger.
"My Mom..." Vin nodded. "Lotta things..." A piece of apple went down wrong. He coughed and rubbed his throat. "Never told you - pretty soon after they planted Mom's ashes, I started not being able to read anything. First it was really big words, then whole paragraphs and pages. Finally I'd be out walking at night and not be able to read the street signs. Everything just shut down.
"Can't tell you how fast academia dropped me once I wasn't their "golden child" anymore. All of a sudden, I had nobody. Nobody to talk to, nobody to ask questions. Nobody to tell me what to do or not to do. Nettie kept asking me to her house, but I didn't want to. Afraid of it, you know? Afraid of letting her know anything was wrong with me.
"Just kept getting worse. Just kept wandering around, looking for I don't know what. Finally one night I got lost and tried a short cut through an alley, backed up against people's yards. One yard this big huge dog came running up to the gate, barking and snarling like he woulda...woulda..." Vin coughed again and pressed his hand to his neck. When he spoke again, it was a hoarse whisper. "Scared me so bad I pissed myself...they found me twisted up like a pretzel, screaming my fool head off. Wouldn't shut up till they dosed me with the biggest sedative I think is legal. That's when they put me in the hospital, and it was seven months later I met you."