"Where do you think you're going?"

Chris called out, but Buck didn't answer. Instead, he rode past the church and to the far end dismounting in front of the hotel.

"Damn it Buck! Hold up." Chris charged ahead and caught him as he reached the door, grabbing his arm and spinning him back. "What happened to playing by the rules?"

"Just gonna talk to her is all."

The look Chris gave him spoke more than the fanciest words Ezra ever uttered could have come close to. The two men stared each other down, not moving. People passing read the mood easily and quickly sidestepped to the far-side of street, hoping to avoid the fallout from whatever was about to happen. It was a long minute until Buck sighed, shoulders slumping.

"Damn it Chris. I have to do something."

"Well this ain't it. Not now anyway. We watch her and figure our plan as we go."

"She's gonna want to know how the job went. You know she'll be suspicious if we don't say something?"

Guiding Buck away from the door, Chris answered quietly. "I had planned on doing our best to lay low and avoid running into her, but that idea's kind of done with now." He paused, considering their options. "For now, let's just get out of the street and go talk this through with the others. They should be back soon. Our best bet it to talk to Travis about what we can do."

Reluctantly admitting Chris was right, Buck started toward his horse but was stopped when the hotel door opened. He turned at the noise, figuring with the way his luck was working, she would be standing there. Instead, Carl Fredricks, the manager, was approaching.

"Mr. Wilmington, I was hoping you were going to come in. I have a note here for you from Miss Foster." He handed it over, looking expectantly at the man and not making a move to leave. Buck imagined that only the fact the envelope was sealed had kept it private up to now, and clearly Fredricks wanted to change that. A solid glare from the two lawmen served to dissuade him of the desire and he scurried back to the comparative safety of the front desk.

He turned the note over in his hands several times, thumbing at the seal but not forcing it. Chris waited patiently for the inevitable surrender to curiosity. Buck finally ripped it open and read the note. "Son of a –". He began to crumple it, but Chris intervened, gently taking it from him.

Sorry darling. In another time and place, we could have had so much fun together, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. There was no signature – it wasn't needed.

Leaving Buck for a moment, Chris stepped inside and went over to the desk. "When did she leave this?"

Fredricks thought back. "Shortly after lunch. She said she felt like going for a ride and was headed to the livery so asked me to please deliver the note should Mr. Wilmington come looking for her. Given the time he's been spending with her, that was only a matter of time." His smile bordered on a smirk and he had a manner that implied there was more to his words than he was letting on.

Ignoring the inference, Chris continued. "She have anything with her when she left? A bag or anything?"

"Not that I noticed."

"Give me the key to her room."

Confronting that man when he was using that tone was not a wise move, but to maintain his managerial form, Fredrick's put forth a token effort. "The hotel is not in the habit of allowing just anyone to enter a guest's room."

"I'm not just anyone – I'm the law here, and I am telling you to give me the key. Now."

It was quickly handed over. The front door opened as Chris reached the stairs, and Buck joined him wordlessly.

Curtains wafted gently into the room as they entered. At first glance everything looked normal, until they noticed there was nothing on the nightstand or dresser except for another envelope, this one addressed to the hotel. Buck tore it open and found a few bills inside. A quick examination showed the closet and drawers were empty as well.

"She's run. We missed her. Can't even go after her for skipping out on her bill."

Chris agreed, looking out the window to the ground one story below. "Sounds like it. There's an impression on the ground. Guessing she tossed her bag out there and picked it up on her way out. Even if we had a reason track her, she's got a few hours head start on us. I doubt she planned on meeting up with her pals at the spot they'd been camping. They'd be moving on."

"Probably paid in advance for renting a horse as well. She's smart."

"With Ezra for a teacher, she would be."

Hearing the name seemed to knock the wind out of Buck again. "Chris, can I see him? See how he's doing?"

In all the years he'd known Buck, and with everything they'd been through together, he couldn't remember a single time he'd heard the enthusiastic man sounding so reserved and hesitant.

"Don't see why not. Go ahead over to the church. I'm gonna talk to JD, then I best update Mary on what's happened and let her know Travis is coming in."

Buck nodded slightly then with head bowed and shoulders drooping, he left the room. Once outside he stopped, gazing to the far end of the town where the church seemed to be a million miles away. Stalling, he went to his horse, grabbing the reins and walking her to the livery, still keeping his attention on the church. He was so focused he didn't even notice JD at waiting at the stable doors.

"I'll take care of Lady for you. You go ahead to see him." Buck almost lost what little control he had of his emotions when he saw the supportive smile on JD's face. "Saw you two riding in, so I figured you'd be heading here sooner or later."

"Yeah, guess so. Look, Kid…" he stopped, not having a clue how to say what he wanted to. Needed to.

"Go see him. We can talk later on tonight when you buy me a beer – or two." JD took the reins and left Buck standing to stare after him, marvelling the at the young man's eternal optimism. Knowing he had no excuse to put it off, he took the final steps he needed and stopped at the church door. With a silent prayer, he opened in and walked in.

Light was streaming through the few narrow windows sending streaks of brilliance cutting into the unlit room. One beam cut across the front, where he could see a makeshift bed positioned near the alter, angled in such a way he couldn't make out much beyond the silhouette of the perfectly still form stretched out there.

Buck wanted to move forward, but suddenly felt as if his feet had been nailed to the floor. He stood, staring ahead trying to absorb what he was seeing.

"He's doing better."

Nathan's voice came out of the darkened corner several feet from where Ezra lay. "Fever seems to be down a bit, and his breathing is a lot easier than it was this morning. Not awake yet, but definitely doing better."

"They're dead. Bastards that did this to him are dead." Well, the ones directly responsible at least. He'd have to work on finding a way to make the third party pay for her involvement.

"Figured as much when JD said you two road into town alone. The others ok?"

"Vin and Josiah each need a few stitches, but nothing serious. They'll be here in a while."

Of course. Why should they come back from a job without needing a few stitches? That might set some kind of precedent.

"You can come closer Buck. You won't bother him."

"Wouldn't be so sure about that." Nevertheless, he forced himself to approach to the point he could finally make out details. He wished he hadn't. "This is what you call doing better?"

The swelling was actually down from it's worst, but since Buck hadn't seen that all he could go by was how bad it looked now. His eyes were still swollen shut, with dark bruising circling them. The rest of his face was similarly distended. His lip was split open, and small amounts of dried blood could be seen around countless wounds on his face and arms. It looked like he'd been cut up.

Bad as that was, he could see the injuries didn't stop there. There was an ugly, unnatural looking shade of purple extending from the centre of Ezra's chest and down his arm. His left wrist was wrapped in a splint. The thought that there were more injuries hidden under the sheet that was draped over him was enough to make Buck grateful he hadn't eaten in a while.

Nathan had to strain to hear the soft question Buck asked. "He been awake at all?"

"Not yet, but that's not surprising." When Buck didn't respond, Nathan tried to ease his concerns. "Takes a lot of strength to recover from something like this, and all his energy is going into healing right now. Just because he's still out doesn't been he won't wake up."

"Look, Buck, since you're here I'm gonna go over to the clinic and pick up a couple of things. You just sit with him for a few minutes, ok?" He disappeared out the door before the objection he knew was coming could be spoken. Whether he wanted to or not, Buck needed to spend a bit of time alone with Ezra, and this was the best way Nathan knew to accomplish that.

Buck stood perfectly still, not making a move to go closer. He simply couldn't bring himself to take a good look at what he had done. The others would argue the point. Tell him he'd been manipulated and set up. Hell, even Ezra had said as much in that damned letter. Buck knew better. If he'd been using his head, thinking things through for even a minute, Ezra wouldn't be lying here right now. But no, once again he let his baser instincts control him. When was he going to learn to think above the belt buckle once in while?

A soft moan interrupted his self-vilification. "No Ezra, not now. Don't wake up now. Mine should not be the first face you see." Despite his reservations, he sat next to the bed, wringing out a cloth from the pail of cool water. Carefully, he wiped at Ezra's face, hoping it was helping.

Ezra moved his head slightly to the side, murmuring incoherently. His eyelids appeared to flutter briefly, but it was hard to be certain if that was by effort or simply a spasm. After several seconds of that he seemed to settle again, and Buck let out the breath he'd been holding in relief just as the door opened and Josiah entered.

"How's he doing?"

Buck leapt to his feet, dropping the cloth back into the bucket and stepping away.

"Nathan says this is better. Can't see how he survived it being worse. You stay with him Josiah. I can't. Don't have the right to be here with him." He charged out, skirting around Josiah before the older man could even try to stop him.

He watched Buck leave, not knowing what, if anything, he could have said to help him. Retaking his place beside Ezra, he retrieved the cloth and returned to his routine. "There's a whole lot of recuperating that is going to be needed here, and I'm beginning to think your wounds aren't going to be the slowest to heal."

7-7-7-7-7-7-7

Chris opened the door to the newspaper office, knowing that was the most likely spot to find Mary at this time of day. As expected, she was pulling working at the press, setting a story for the next edition.

"You might want to hold off on that. I think there's a bigger story than whatever you are writing."

She answered without taking her focus from her task. "I am trying to publish an obituary for Mr. Standish. Despite how things turned out, he did do a few decent things for this town."

"Yeah, that's what I figured. You definitely need to stop."

She looked up. "I'm not going to sugar-coat any of this Chris."

"Not asking you to. But you don't have the whole story." He reached into his pocket and once again withdrew Ezra's letter which had retrieved from Buck. "Let's start with this."

He sat quietly as she read it and then waited for her reaction. It was basically what he had expected. "Why would you believe anything he would say?"

"Well, we can start with why would he lie? He was leaving town, knew he wasn't coming back, so why keep up the charade?"

"Because keeping up charades was pretty much second nature to him."

"Maybe. But there is the fact that he described her actions well enough to have been watching every step of the plan."

She had no comeback for that. It was true; the letter laid out what she had seen happen in the short time Clarice – or could it really be Annabella? – had been here.

"Mostly though, it is that Vin followed her out to a meet with the couple of outlaws who damned near beat him to death."

"She met with the people who – wait! Damned NEAR beat him to death?" She was too stunned to watch her language. "He's alive?"

"Yes. At least he was when I left here this morning. Nathan's been treating him over at the church. The two guys who did it met with this Morrison woman and then tried to rob a stage today. With the help of your father-in-law, we stopped them, but with both of them dead we can't tie her in."

"Oren?" This was all getting a bit too confusing.

"He'll be in town soon – can fill you in then. We know she's involved, but she's skipped town. We have no proof to go after her."

"And you're sure it was them?"

"Had Ezra's watch and ring. No doubt."

It was all too much for her to grasp, and she dropped into the closest chair. "Oh dear God. None of what she said…"

"Not a word. She was playing us – all of us."

"I never thought to doubt her. Why would a woman lie about that?" She looked up at Chris and answered her own question. "Of course. For the money. I can't believe it. She seemed so charming. So sweet."

Chris moved a chair over and sat beside her. "She was good – no question. You can't blame yourself for any of this. You certainly weren't the only one she fooled Mary."

"No, but I led everyone else to believe it. And never gave Mr. Standish a moment of the benefit of the doubt. Is he – is he going to be alright?"

"Nathan says he's getting better, but he was hurt real bad. It's going to take time."

Mary knew the damage left by this fraud went far beyond the physical. "And Buck?"

"That one is going to take some time too."

M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7

tbc