Chapter Ten

"You still in there, Jess?" Jonesy asked, his face bent over Jess' swimming gaze.

"Yeah," Jess answered, putting a hand to his forehead that slid away from the sweaty skin into his hair. "I reckon it can't get worse than that, so if I ain't been knocked out yet, I reckon I ain't gonna."

"This stuff has the power to do it, that's for sure." Jonesy held the jug up and gave the contents a swirl, releasing another burst of its lingering odor into the air. "Want another sip?"

"No. I haven't recovered from the last one yet."

"Neither have I," Jonesy admitted with wide eyes and then shifted his gaze to circle the room. "Sit still, I'm not done with you yet. The bullet might be out, but the bleeding needs to be stopped. I doubt there's a clean rag in here, and since Doc's used his supply on Slim, I guess I'll use the other leg of your long johns to wrap it with. It'll be thick."

"I don't care what you use, just don't put any more of that poison on it."

"I won't," Jonesy promised, his hands starting to rip Jess' underwear into wide strips, and once completed, he began to circle Jess' leg. "Sit still, Jess, you're hopping like a frog in a rainstorm."

"How can I when you're twisting my leg off?"

"Oh my," Doctor Hanson whispered, but his attention hadn't been focused on Jess' comment, but what was happening underneath his hand and he repeated the two simple words, and the tone seemed as loud as a thunderclap when it met with the fear in the room.

"Doc? What's wrong?" Jess asked, the hammering in his chest pounding so hard he felt it everywhere in his body, not just in the throb in the circle of his leg.

"Nothing," Doctor Hanson replied, the faintest hint of a smile making his wrinkled cheeks bend upward. "Slim's fever is down."

"What?" Jess started to raise himself from the ground, but Jonesy quickly placed both hands on his chest.

"His fever's down," Doctor Hanson repeated, laying his hand on Slim's forehead, feeling the difference against his palm. "The heat's no longer in control."

"You mean he's gonna be all right?" Jess asked, pushing aside Jonesy's hands to pull himself upright.

"It's too soon to say that." Doctor Hanson grew quiet as he listened to Slim's breathing and then gave a short nod. "Lungs aren't clear yet, but the fever's the biggest threat. If that's licked, then his chances of beating the rest are a whole lot higher."

"That's great," Jess came close to shouting, but then the energetic sound from his throat switched to a groan as the movement of his leg shot him with renewed pain. "Dad-gum that stings."

"Jess," Doctor Hanson began as he laid his stethoscope aside, "don't you think you should be lying down someplace?"

"Where?"

"That fellow was bigger than you both together." Jonesy spread his arms out wide and then measured the spread with the pile of furs on the floor. "There's room for you too Jess, and then some."

"I don't need to lie down." Jess shook his head, trying to straighten his leg, but even as his face contorted to its tightest wince, he couldn't bring it past its lowered fold.

"No more arguing, Jess," Doctor Hanson said, tapping the air with his finger in a direct point beside Slim. "Get off that leg and rest."

"Dad-gum," Jess muttered under his breath, lowering himself onto the pile of furs, the frown spreading across his face when one of the hairy hides was thrown over his body. "It's itchy."

"Well, go to sleep and you won't think about it anymore," Jonesy said with a point to the corner of the cabin. "I know that's what I'm gonna do. Andy and I are gonna try to find a soft spot by the stove. Holler if you start feeling poorly."

"Sure," Jess answered, laying his head back on the lump of fur that was giving a false impression of a pillow, but it was only there a short while before his eyes began to droop. Wanting to fight it, Jess pulled his lids open, but the drowsiness that held hands with an injury put its firm grip onto Jess and his head tilted at the same moment his lashes fluttered closed. And as Jess walked into slumber, another was taking the first step into wakefulness.

"Jess?"

"Huh?" Jess jumped out of sleep and his skin in the same breath.

"Jess?"

"Slim," Jess whispered his name, inching his frame closer to Slim's, seeing the blue hue at its brightest shade. "You on the right side of normal?"

"I don't know." Slim brought a hand up to rest against his bandage-wrapped head. "I do feel kind of strange."

"It's no wonder, considering what you've been through," Jess said, propping himself higher with one elbow bending underneath him to search Slim's face. It had color, but it wasn't doused in the extreme shade of red anymore.

"What have I been through?"

"Don't you remember any of it? Wait, don't answer that yet. There's another question I gotta get an answer to first. Slim, am I dead or alive?"

"Jess." Slim's eyes opened wide, beginning his head to shift into a shake. "If you don't know, then I'm afraid you're sicker than I am."

"Just gimme a blamed answer."

"You're alive Jess." Slim lifted one side of his mouth into a dim smile that still had the ability to brighten the entire corner of the room. "Crazier than all get out, but you're alive."

"Welcome back, Pard, I thought I wasn't gonna see the real you again," Jess said, feeling the instant need to swallow. Tears blurred his vision, but if any of them were flowing, the rain was reserved for the inside, but unlike the previous moments of being misty eyed, this time they were formed in gratefulness, not grief.

"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?" Slim asked, looking intently at Jess' moist eyes, uncertain what had brought on the unusual display of emotion in his partner.

"Well," Jess began with a shrug, "that takes us back to that other question. Don't you remember anything that's gone on the last coupla days?"

"I'm not sure." Slim's voice sounded far away, as that was where his thoughts were searching, but the images that were created were too blurry to latch onto. "Everything's sort of fuzzy."

"Fever will do that, I reckon," Jess said, lifting his hand to wave through the air, "but before that. There's gotta be some recollection before you were hurt. What about the man, Slim? Who was he?"

"The man?" Slim shook his head, but then one of the pictures in his mind shifted into a recognizable shape. Rat. The short name was enough to bring back the memories in an onslaught, but it was the one that put him in his current condition that stood out the harshest, as the torment that had fractured his soul had already been mended by Jess being alive beside of him. "I remember. I wrecked the stage."

"You sure did a good job of it, too," Jess said, letting the first half of the description come on a softer note, because he knew the end could fall like a brick if Slim's memory hadn't attached itself to the killer's fate just yet. "Pieces of the stage were scattered from one end of the cliff to the other. Broken doors, busted wheels, lost luggage. That's gonna be a big piece outta your paycheck. Pard, did you know he's dead?"

"Yes." The admission came with a sigh and lowering lashes as Slim's last memory of Rat printed itself over his eyelids before suddenly popping open. "I killed him. I had to, he did…"

There it was. The reason that revenge had been born in the first place washed over Slim's features, but there was also a hefty splash of fear circling his eyes and as they collided with the compassion-filled set next to him, Jess took a deep breath. "He did what, Slim?"

"He killed you," Slim whispered, shuddering as wave after wave of emotional memories were being dumped over his head. "But you're here, you're not…"

"No I ain't," Jess said, reaching a hand out to grip Slim's shoulder, giving his partner more than the visual aspect of his life still pumping through his vitals. "Why were you so convinced that I was dead?"

"Rat said he did it, boasted about it in enough detail that there was no mistaking who he meant. A hot head that came at him with a gun, a boy and an old man. I've never felt so much hatred in my life."

"I kinda had the same feeling for him, Slim, and the only part of him that I knew was his carcass. He did do some killing though. While you were in Cheyenne, Andy wanted to see a trick shooter that was performing in Laramie, and I reckon I did too, and Jonesy went along to chaperone us both so we didn't get into trouble. We weren't even at the ranch when he came through. It was Scott, Dusty and Papa T that were killed, not us."

"That's rough," Slim whispered through the tightness that gripped his throat. Scott was a good friend, but it wasn't his best, and although the sorrow was there, the immense pressure of grief in losing the closest loved ones was absent.

"But he can't hurt anyone anymore, because of you. You called him Rat?"

"Kenny Ratkie, but he was pure rat, all the way through."

"I thought I heard a couple of squirrels chattering over here," Jonesy said, one arm wrapped around Andy's shoulder as they approached the edge of the furs. "You're looking much better."

"I feel better too." Slim took Andy's hand into his and gave it a brotherly squeeze. "It's sure good to see the both of you."

"I'll repeat that," Jonesy said, wagging his finger at Slim, "but I have to give an addition to mine. Don't you ever scare me like that again, Slim Sherman."

"I'll try. Believe me, I'll try."

.:.

"Kinda cold out here to be wandering around like that, don't you think?" Jonesy asked when Jess stepped out of the cabin with nothing covering his legs but an underwear bandage tied around his left hip.

"You said we could go home today." Jess buttoned his jacket and then slapped his hat in place.

"That I did."

"Well?" Jess held out both hands. "Where'd you put my pants? You said last night you were gonna wash them."

"I washed them all right, but they're folded up with the supplies that Andy took to the wagon."

"The wagon's a good hundred yards away," Jess complained, the dropping of his hands landing against his bare skin. "Dad-gum. I just wanna get my pants back on."

"Good luck with that even if they were in hand," Jonesy said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "That leg's too swollen for those hip huggers that you wear."

"So I'm just supposed to ride home like this?" Jess cast a quick glance at his lower half with a frown, as his coat barely covered his places of privacy.

"You're not riding anywhere."

"Dadgummit, Jonesy," Jess barked, tapping his boot-clad foot on the ground. "I ain't gonna bounce around in the back of a wagon the whole trip home that's gonna take most of the day. I'll take my chances on horseback."

"Then you're gonna cut quite the picture doing it."

"Since Mort and Wiley went home and took Doc with them it's just us. Who's gonna look?"

"Anyone we might meet on the trail," Jonesy replied, unable to stop the smile from flickering on his face.

"No one lives out here."

"That's what you said about Burly Bear buried over there," Jonesy said with a nod in the direction of the large man's grave. "And look how that turned out."

"Dad-gum."

"What're you two arguing about?" The question came with Slim walking through the door of the cabin.

"Slim, you ain't supposed to be on your feet yet," Jess said, taking a step toward Slim, but wobbled when his leg stabbed him with pain.

"I thought that was the instruction given for you." Slim raised a finger to rub the edge of his mouth to keep most of his smirk concealed.

"Well, yeah, but that don't mean I gotta be a good patient. I wanna ride home."

"Then that goes the same for me," Slim agreed with a nod of his head. "What's good for you has got to be good for me."

"Now, wait a dad-blamed minute." Jess limped to stand directly in front of Slim, putting a finger into Slim's chest. "You ain't in any condition to ride."

Slim feigned a short cough to break up the laughter that tickled his throat and raised a single eyebrow as he looked at the stern line that was pasted across Jess' mouth. "Well if you are, I am, too. After all, it isn't my leg that's hurt."

"I ain't gonna win this am I?"

"Nope."

"Dad-gum."

"We'll get home a lot faster if you two just settle on riding in the wagon," Jonesy said with a wave of his hand behind him. "Andy's already over there getting the team hitched."

"All right, all right," Jess conceded, bringing his hands up toward his collar to lift it closer to his neck as the chilly winds were on the rise again. "Let's get going."

"You forgot your bottoms." Slim reached around the doorway and filled his hand with a fur, waving it in front of Jess. "Or maybe I should have said, your skirt."

Jess jerked the fur out of Slim's hand and wrapped it around his waist, hearing the chuckle coming through Slim's mouth, but instead of giving him a scathing look to silence it, Jess grew his own mischievous smile. "Well, at least I ain't the first one of us that had to wear a dress. If you ever wanna pick out some calico, Pard, I already know what print you should get."

"What?" Slim's face contorted into his confusion as he held a finger to his chest. "I wore a…?"

"Never mind." Jess shook his head as he began to limp toward the waiting wagon. "Come on, Slim, time's wasting. Let's get home."

The two men sat upright in the back of the wagon, one fur layered over each body as insistence came from Jonesy's mouth that Slim was too fresh off of a fever to go without it. In command of the reins in the driver's seat was Jonesy with Andy by his side, and trailing in the rear was Traveler, saddled, just in case somewhere along the homeward line Jess got the chance to hop on his back. But one object that should have been on his horse was beside Jess, his saddlebags, for there was an item inside that still needed a touch.

"What's that you've got Jess?" Slim asked, craning his head to get a better look at what Jess had in his hand.

"That woman's Bible," Jess answered as his thumb worked through the pages. "I can't return her other things, but I reckon she'd be wanting this back. Sure's got a lotta words in it. I suppose more'n half of them I don't understand, but it kinda helped me through a dark night."

"You might be the only one with the knowledge of all that went on Jess," Slim said, his voice dropping to a quiet, thoughtful level, "but I think you helped me through a few of those dark nights too. This I do know for sure. I couldn't have made it without you, Jess. It might insufficient to say it in one word, but thanks."

"I reckon that it ain't lacking at all," Jess replied, raising his eyes heavenward, adding his whispered appreciation that he knew was received. "Thanks."