ATC to Hostage S 18

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.

AN: I was going to give this a specific title but to honest I couldn't think of one that fit. I wrote this in response to a request from themarshalswoman09. I was going to make this part of the Unshown Moments but I felt it needed to be by it's self. I pray she likes it and it fits what she wanted. I have a couple of other requests from her and I shall work on those as well.

M&K

Matt stood quietly, yet pensively in Doc's front office trying to patiently wait until Doc came back in from checking on Kitty. After the Dodge men rounded up Bonner and his men, Matt hadn't trusted himself to ride back to town with them. The temptation to pull Bonner off his horse and finished what he'd started was too strong. Instead, Matt had ridden on ahead back to Dodge alone.

Once he arrived, he'd been tempted to go over to his office and bury himself away from what he still wanted to do and from the horrendous damage done to Kitty. But Matt had never been a man to avoid unpleasant tasks when he truly needed to handle them. Kitty was his responsibility. She was, as Bonner called her, 'his woman'. She belonged to him and the abuse she suffered, he felt, was his fault. She had after all, gone in his place. It should've been him, not Kitty, that had been hurt. But Matt knew, Kitty would've never stood by and let someone be killed if she could stop them.

Though he knew it would be hard to see her lying there, hurt and wounded, he had to. Besides, no matter how hard it would be, he really did want to see her. Matt seldom mouthed the words, even to himself, but he loved Kitty. She was a part of him and he couldn't even think of not going to see her, be with her.

When he finally made it back to town, it was late. The crowd of people who'd been standing in the street when he'd left, had long since gone home and to their beds content in their knowledge that Bonner would be found and made to pay for his crimes. Matt had been a lawman for too many years. Bonner should hang. But whether he did or not would remain to be seen. If he didn't, then Matt wouldn't lay odds that Bonner would make it safely to prison.

Right then, however, Matt wasn't concerned about whatever fate waited for the renegade. He needed to see Kitty. Taking only enough time to clean himself up a bit, he headed for the stairs leading to Doc's office. He wasn't surprised when, upon arriving on Doc's doorstep, he found the light on in the front office and Doc sitting at his desk, cup of coffee in his hand and book opened in front of him. "How is she, Doc?" Matt had barely cleared the doorway.

"She's alive." Doc answered in a measured tone. "She came to a few hours after you left and of course she was more worried about you then anything. I assured her that you could take care of yourself. I see I was right."

"Yeah." Matt nodded.

"Did you get him?" Doc was secretly hoping Matt had done more than just 'get' him.

"Yeah." Matt nodded again. "Festus and Newly and the rest are bringing him and his men back to town."

"You didn't kill him?" Doc had expected he would and hoped he did at the same as he hoped he didn't.

"I didn't." Matt answered. I came close but... Well, Festus and them are bringing him in. I figured it better they did. I rode on ahead." Matt's eyes shifted over to the closed door hiding Kitty from his sight. "Uh, can I see Kitty?"

Doc started to say no as it was late and she needed all the rest she could get, but under the circumstances, he believed it might be best for the both of them. "Give me a minute." Doc got up from his desk. "Let me check on her first. If she's not up to it, then you'll have to wait til the morning."

Matt had said nothing as Doc disappeared behind the closed door. But it had now been a while since Doc had gone in there and Matt was getting worried. But just as he reached for the door knob, it turned and the Doc opened the door. "She's awake." Doc told him. "But I don't want you staying too long and don't you upset her. You hear me?"

"I hear." Matt answered as he pushed past Doc and entered the room. Matt half expected Doc to stay in the room with them, but he didn't and Matt was grateful for that. "Kitty?" His voice was dry and soft.

"Matt." Kitty tried to turn more than her head but the pain was too great yet. She settled for waiting for him to come into her view to satisfy herself that he was indeed there and whole. "Are you okay?" She scanned his form looking for any damage.

Matt noticed she didn't ask if he'd gotten Bonner or anything else. Her only concern was for him. "I'm fine, Kitty." He quickly assured her. "I'm okay."

He started to ask if she was okay but realized how silly that question would be. She was lying on Doc's bed with a hole in her side and more physical damage than most people could ever sustain and still live, not to mention the emotional damage done. She was most definitely not okay. But she was alive and that in it's self was not inconsequential.

"My only concern is for you." He said instead. "I… as I was riding back I…" He wasn't sure how to tell her how worried he'd been. How the mere thought of her dying would've destroyed him.

Kitty looked up at him, trying hard to hide her pain. "I'm going to be alright, Matt."

Matt nodded. "Physically, yes. But…"

"I don't know about anything else right now." Kitty read his thoughts as always. "What… what they did to me was… it was horrible. I don't know if…" She stopped and took a deep breath. " Matt, if… if you don't…"

"Kitty, I love you." Matt quickly sought to reassure her doubts. "That will never change. And I will never abandon you because of anything Bonner and his men did. "

Kitty dropped her eyes and nodded. She had been worried about that. "Thank you."

Matt gently took her hand gently in his. "Kitty, you need to rest. Doc told me not to stay too long." Letting go of her hand he turned for the door.

"Please don't go, Matt." Kitty seldom pleaded with anyone for anything but she was pleading now. She needed him to be there. "Please? I…"

Matt looked around and saw Doc's chair in the corner, picking it up, he sat it beside the bed and settled in. "Go to sleep, Kitty." He spoke softly and lovingly. "I'll be here as long as you need me."

Kitty took as deep a breath as her battered body would allow, nodded slightly and then closed her eyes to sleep.

Leaning back, Matt closed his own weary eyes though he knew he'd not sleep. That would come later but not right then. Right then, he needed to make sure Kitty knew she was safe and he was there and he loved her.

There was going to be some rough times ahead of them in dealing with all of this. Bonner wasn't dead so there'd be a trial coming up for him and his men. Kitty was going to need a lot of physical and emotional help in healing in the coming months. And Matt was determined to be there for her in any way he could. Because he knew, her healing would be the only thing that would heal him.

The End