Mercy
Chapter 17
Elias had been called to the front door and hadn't been told who it was. So he was a little surprised to find Rick there. "Is something wrong?" He had more workers than most and a few knew how to use weapons well enough to be useful. It was just that Rick had proven he was more than capable of handling just about any force sent his way.
"I came to collect Johanna. Kate is in labor and has asked for her."
"OH!" That sounded important so he left the front door and yelled for his wife.
Johanna finally showed up at the front door after being told why Rick was there. "Let me get my horse and I'll be right with you."
"No need. The birth of the baby is going to be fast." His scan of Kate showed that the second she went into labor her body accelerated the entire process and it was only going to take a few hours. "You're coming with me." He was faster than her horse.
"I'm what?" Johanna watched him walk in close, wrap his arms around her, then she screamed bloody murder for the first of several jumps.
Rick had unlimited range so long as each jump was short. It was still faster than any horse would ever be.
Johanna had screamed twice more but had quieted down for the last few jumps and soon she was at the back door of the restaurant. Rick let go of her. "Kate is upstairs with the midwife." Kate had prearranged for someone in town to be her midwife and help her with the delivery.
She had never really considered that her water would break just as she was starting to heat up the wood stove to begin work on lunch. Shortly thereafter her contractions got stronger and stronger.
Juana had been her savior. She had run to get the midwife then helped Kate to get up the stairs to her bedroom. A space she had never been in before. It was a private place and she had no business being there.
Juana was downstairs when Rick came home with a number of fish for dinner that night. Which was now canceled. She had Rick going upstairs to tend to his wife.
Juana was still downstairs when suddenly Johanna and Rick came in and let in a blast of winter air with them. She was happy to see Johanna but she had left Rick upstairs and couldn't understand how he could be coming in from the backdoor since there was only one set of stairs.
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Rick remained downstairs since Johanna had told him to stay there. Shortly later he and Juana could hear Kate screaming on occasion.
Juana was a little amused as Rick paced around the kitchen and looked up the stairs at each time Kate screamed. Juana was learning just how much these two loved each other. Even her parents never said "I love you" as much as these two did.
After a while it was all silent and now both of them were watching the stairs. Then the midwife came down the stairs.
"Kate's fine. She'll have pain for several days and not be able to work for several days if not weeks. You can go upstairs now." She headed for the backdoor as she secured her heavy coat for the winter weather. "Oh, and it's a boy. She said his name is James." She opened the door and left.
Rick hurried upstairs into their bedroom where Kate was on their bed with a baby on her chest and Johanna sitting on the edge. "You have a son!" Johanna was proud of both of them and her daughter had given birth to a beautiful baby. She could already tell that he was going to grow up to be a very handsome man.
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Two weeks later and Kate was still bedridden on Johanna's order. She had moved back in to help Kate and to help keep the restaurant open. Elias rode out to visit her each and every day.
Rick had finished walking the town and was now walking past Johanna to go see Kate. Coming into their bedroom he found her sitting up and nursing their son. She looked as beautiful as ever as did their son. Her breasts were exposed and James was being fed.
He watched Kate look up at him and smile. "Isn't he beautiful?" Her heart was so full of love. She had no idea that her heart was capable of this. Except for the pain she was ready to be pregnant again.
She was actually happy that as her son nursed and she saw her husband watching she felt her need for her husband to make love to her returning. She was ready for sex again and was looking forward to tonight. She would be disappointed, though. Rick had scanned her and saw that she wasn't completely healed from giving birth. So they would wait.
James was only three weeks old. "How is Mama?" Kate was so happy to have her here. Keeping the restaurant open meant they would still be making money instead of spending what they had.
"Lunch is ready and she had fresh fish for tonight." He had brought home nine this time which translated into eighteen meals. Not enough to satisfy everyone so it was still first come first served.
"Good." Kate looked down at her son and watched him feed from her breast. Her breasts were much bigger than they used to be so she was hoping that translated into a lot of milk for her son. But each time she looked she was still carrying some of her baby weight and she was beginning to worry about that. Part of the problem of losing weight was her lack of sleep. She was barely getting any sleep at all and Rick just wasn't much help.
Kate felt bad as she watched him try and change his diaper once. It was impossible to accomplish with just one usable hand. Still he was hunting to help keep the restaurant open and he was doing his job as sheriff.
Their only real scare had been when those three men from the President of Texas had shown up. They had come to Mercy looking for men to be added to the military of Texas.
Rick had run them out of town. When they had objected and told him that they would be back to enforce the law, Rick had demonstrated just what would happen to any men that showed up to force Mercy's men to join their army.
So far they had not seen anyone come to take the young men away and force them into the army of Texas. The town was peaceful.
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It was one week later and Kate was up with James and downstairs and eating at their tiny little table as Johanna cooked lunch that was almost over and saw Juana coming and going doing her job.
Then Rick came in through the backdoor. "I need everyone to stay here and do not leave this building."
"Why" Johanna asked him.
"What's going on, babe?" Kate knew that tone of voice and he rarely ever used it.
"Just stay here!" And then he jumped away. Except what he left behind was three frightened women who were now worried and didn't know what was going on.
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Rick's scan had shown them and it also showed that they were armed. There were fourteen of them and none of them were dressed like the Mexican military had been.
They were also headed for Elias's business. He actually employed most of the young men in or around the town. So Rick was guessing who these men were.
Since he wasn't a soldier that simply killed everyone he was willing to give them a warning. They were stupidly in a tight group and the leader of the group was easy to spot. Plus their weapon technology hadn't improved any from the Mexican military so they weren't much of a threat to him.
"By order of the Sheriff of Mercy you are to turn around and go back. This will be your only warning," Rick yelled.
The person Rick was guessing was the leader hollered back, "You have no jurisdiction over us!"
Rick didn't waste a second and began firing. But instead of shooting them he shot all the trees around them. These trees shattered near the base and fell all over the place.
While their horses might be used to the sound of their weapons, they were not used to the sound of his weapon or the sound of trees bursting and sending shrapnel that hit the horses. Instantly the riders panicked because of all the falling trees and they scattered in all directions.
Rick kept track of each of them and fired at several more trees, making them fall to impede their progress. This process was meant to scare them into leaving.
All fourteen were now separated from each other and alone with no immediate support. "I HAVE NO DESIRE TO KILL YOU. TURN BACK NOW OR DIE!"
Rick watched as each of them made up their own mind and rode away. Rick decided to reinforce his point so he chose trees close to each man, blasted them, and they fell over, causing the unwanted men's horses to bolt.
Rick was sure Elias wouldn't like him downing this many trees, but it was that or kill these men.
He was satisfied that they were on the way out so he jumped to Elias's front door and asked for him. He then explained everything he had done and apologized for the trees. He would be back and kill them if they forced him to.
Rick had then not waited for Elias to say much and jumped away and headed home to be with Kate and his son.
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What Rick wasn't privy to was the debate if a portion of the Texan army should go to enforce their law. The debate revolved around the size of the town and the number of young men they might gain and what it might cost them.
In the end they chose to leave Mercy alone and get the men they wanted from elsewhere. Mercy was a small town and likely didn't have many eligible young men. What they didn't know was if Mexico was willing to fight to get their territory back or not.
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James was now two months old and was lying in his basket down in the kitchen where it was nice and warm and where Kate could keep an eye on him while she cooked.
It was lunch and they were a little busy since Kate was making something else out of Rick's memories. To Kate it was a sandwich that was hot so it sounded simple to her. It was buffalo meat that was finely minced along with chopped onions and bell peppers with a little salt and pepper. She would mold it into a patty, fry it and place it on a piece of bread, then plate it and pour liquid cheese that was really hot over it. It was ready for Juana to take out to their customers.
They still didn't have any fruit since it was still winter so it was just a sandwich.
Still Juana came back and told Kate that people liked it so she kept on making more.
Lunch was almost over when Rick came into the kitchen after a patrol of Mercy and hadn't encountered any trouble. He walked right over to James and used his good hand to stroke his cheek and coo at him.
Since James was awake he moved a little, smiled, and made bubbles at him. It was all Rick needed. "How is lunch going?" It was a sandwich that he remembered from Karla save Kate was using a different bread.
"Really well, thank you." It meant they were still making money.
Kate was back to doing all the cooking and Johanna was back with her husband. Kate found her strength was slowly returning and she was slowly losing her baby weight and getting back to her normal body weight. Though her breast size remained.
Rick and Kate were also back to making love to each other each night.
Everything was going well and there was no unwanted excitement that threatened the town.
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Rick watched as over the next few months and the weather got a lot better, a new building was being built. "What is a post office?" Rick hadn't heard the term before and listened to someone explain it to him.
He finished his patrol and went back to the restaurant to inform Kate.
The first Texas rates established were 6.25 cents for twenty miles; 12.5 cents for the second zone up to fifty miles; 18.75 cents for the third zone, up to one hundred miles; 25 cents for up to two hundred miles, and 37.5 cents for farther distances. Ship mail, presumably foreign mail, paid an additional fee of 6.25 cents.
Mercy was growing and it was now possible to contact people in other cities. Even far away cities like Boston. This allowed them to start receiving a newspaper printed in Boston. The news was weeks old by the time it reached them but it was news.
The people of Mercy were learning things they hadn't heard about before. They learned about the size of Texas and just how close to the new border with Mexico they really were. However, Mexico had made no attempt at reclaiming any portion of Texas.
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James had learned to crawl and at first he drove Kate to maddening distraction. He had any number of small toys to keep him entertained. Rick had made a corral to keep him inside of since Kate didn't need him crawling to the wood stove and finding out just how hot it could get and burn his hand.
But when he was awake he demanded attention and when he didn't get it he would cry and cry loudly until he was almost screaming. It was when he was screaming that Rick could hear him and jump right to him. James found that watching his papa suddenly show up out of nowhere was the greatest thing he had ever seen.
It took weeks for Kate to work out just what he was doing and they needed a plan to keep him from continuing to do it or their lives were going to be hell. Conversely having Rick not show up was just as bad. He would scream until his dad jumped in.
That was when Rick decided to jump to just outside of the door. He would knock, wait for Kate to open the door, then he would go see his son. After a few times of this James gave up screaming since it wasn't gaining him anything.
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James was now old enough to take over Johanna's old room. It allowed Rick and Kate some privacy to make love to each other.
Kate was resting after an orgasm on his chest with him still inside her. "He's a smart boy. He's going to think of something else."
"He takes after his mother," Rick said and Kate huffed out a laugh. If anything her son took after his father.
"What are we going to do when he learns to walk? Eventually he's going to get interested in the stairs, tumble down them, and hurt himself. He doesn't have your arm, eye, ear, or spine." Kate feared for him.
"If he's as smart as you say, he'll work it out. I don't know about here but when I was a little kid I got into trouble and got hurt. It was how I learned. And if you don't stop that…" Kate had begun to grind herself with him still inside her.
"Stop what?" Kate didn't know what he was talking about. She wasn't doing anything. ...Much.
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"James?" Kate leaned down and showed him a spoon for him to taste test. She was making a new soup and she needed a second opinion. Her son was two years old now and he no longer needed her breast milk. He was eating real food now.
Kate gave him a taste and saw him smile. "My good little taste tester." If her son liked it everyone else would since her son didn't like anything or so it seemed.
"Mama, where Papa?" He hadn't seen him since this morning and that was a really long time ago.
"Your father is out protecting the town, and me, and you at the same time. He's special. He'll be home when he's done." Kate brushed her fingers over his cheek then quickly went over to her bucket and threw up.
Juana walked in from the dining room to get the first bowls of soup. "Hi, short stuff!"
"Not short!" James took exception to being told he was short.
"You be nice to Mama. She's very busy." Juana also knew she had a lot to think about and worry about. Kate was pregnant again. Her belly was expanding and soon it would be dangerous to keep using the wood stove. The restaurant would have to close yet again for her second child.
"NO!" James shrieked then went over to his table to find a toy to play with.
Juana shook her head. She was never going to have a child. This one was impossible and wouldn't listen so why should she have a child and put herself through this?
Rick was done and hadn't seen anything that required his help so he had jumped to the backdoor of the restaurant and stepped inside.
Kate was at the wood stove with a huge container on it and his son was at this little table playing with a toy. It looked peaceful enough to him.
"Papa!" He knew his papa could do things. And he had an arm and an eye that no one else had. His papa was special.
Rick used his one good arm to lift up his son. "So what have you been up to?" His son was being a pain to everyone of late.
"Noffing." His mama laid down the law and his papa was usually an easy mark unless you crossed him. James was still searching for his boundaries and testing them every chance he got.
"Nothing, huh? You know what happens if you lie to me?" It was the one thing Rick would not put up with from his son. His son was smart and should have learned that by now.
"Yes, Papa." James wrapped his arms around his neck and made it easier on his papa to hold him.
"He's an excellent taste tester for my new soup," Kate said with a smile. "Find anything?" The town had been silent for a while. It had her worried that something was coming.
"No, the stage arrived with mail and no passengers. There's a new farm far outside the town. It's just a man and a woman. They are both working hard to make the land work for them. The house they had built was very simple." Too simple in his eyes.
"So you stopped to cut down the trees, turn them into logs, and stacked them all on your own, didn't you?" Kate knew her husband.
"It still doesn't have a roof but it is bigger." Rick hadn't finished but he had started it.
"My husband, the big softy." Kate smiled; she was so very proud of him. He didn't just patrol the town he helped everyone in it or around it.
"So, son of mine, what have you learned today?" He was supposed to be learning what he had left behind for him to learn.
Kate ratted him out. "He's been playing instead of working."
Rick felt him stiffen. His mama had informed on him and he was now in trouble.
Rick put him down and walked him to his table. "Show me." His son was smart but he needed to be smart, not a smart ass. James got to work and did his best and let his papa correct him when he was wrong. He wouldn't be wrong again. He wanted to be smart.
Kate offered up her big spoon to her husband. "Here, taste."
"Very good. Your mother would be proud," Rick murmured. Kate wasn't good at taking compliments so she just smiled and went back to her pot to make sure it didn't start burning on the bottom and ruin it.