Chapter 4

'How'd it go boys?' Ben questioned as they walked in later that afternoon, folding up the newspaper he'd been reading. 'Find anything?'

'Oh we found something alright.' Joe replied, trying hard to keep his temper in check. 'A wagon load of people shot, left to rot under the sun.'

'Pa-' Hoss added, fiddling with his hat. 'There was a little baby girl murdered too.'

'How many people were there?'

'Husband and wife and their children. Three girls, two boys.' Joe tossed his hat onto the table and took a seat. 'They had a strongbox in the back of the wagon, it was emptied and their supplies were taken. The bodies weren't looted though, they left them where they fell. Sheriff Coffee took what they had on them as evidence.'

'Land sakes.' Adam interjected. 'Has he got any idea who might have done it?'

'Not a clue. It looked like it happened over a month ago, whoever did it is long gone by now.'

'The sheriff found a pistol in the wagon with Missie's name engraved on it though.' Hoss added after a moment, instantly getting both Ben and Adam's full attention. 'I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but I think he's gonna wanna talk to young Missie.'

'Well he won't be for awhile at the moment.' Adam replied with a little more force then necessary. 'She ain't doing much talking to no one right now.'

'How is she doing?'

Ben nodded towards the closed door. 'Doc's in with her now, been in there for over an hour. It was a miracle Adam was able to convince her it was okay for him to leave. She's taken quite a liking to him.'

'Ah, the charm of Adam strikes the ladies again.' Joe teased, earning Adam throwing his hat at him.

'I'll have you know I've behaved like a right proper gentleman.'

'Just remember she's only twelve.'

'Alright, that's enough.' Ben broke it up before they could get started. 'I'll speak to the sheriff, see what he has to say and what he wants to do-' The door opened, the doctor closing the door behind himself as he left and he stood up. 'How is she?'

'Sleeping now, I gave her some medication for the fever. One of the wounds on her leg is getting infected, I've opened and drained it but it'll need regular cleaning and poultices.' He grabbed a piece of paper from his bag and handed it to Ben. 'Here's a list of what to give her and when, the main thing is to get her fever down and the infection under control. Has she been able to keep any water down?'

Adam nodded, coming to take a place beside his father. 'She's had three cups of water so far and a bowl of beef broth, I've been letting her drink as much as she wants.'

'Good, that's very good. Try and get her to have some more Adam when she's awake, as you know the fever will dehydrate her and she needs to have her fluids kept up. The broth is good too, it'll help her get her strength back. Just keep doing what you're doing, keep her quiet and let her rest.'

'Doctor-' Ben added. 'Earlier when she woke, she had a kind of episode where she was almost like trying to get away from something. Her eyes looked weird too, like she was looking at something off in the distance. She didn't seem to notice Adam or my presence during it, Adam was finally able to snap her out of it then she broke down crying.'

Paul nodded. 'That's not uncommon when a person's been through something like she has. There's nothing she can do about it, her body just reacts that way. All you can do is try and talk her out of it. It ain't pretty to watch but there's not much else that can be done.'

'I understand.'

'It's important she gets as much rest as she can and that she's kept calm, hopefully she won't have more. In her condition she needs all the strength she's got. You shouldn't ask serious questions to her at the moment, I'm just as anxious as you are to know what's happened but it'll have to wait until later.'

'We'll take it easy with her.'

'Good. Well gentlemen, I must be off. I'll drop by again tomorrow afternoon, if she gets worse however send word and I'll be back earlier.'

'Alright, thank you doctor. I'll walk you out.'

Adam turned back to his brothers as the doctor and Ben walked out. 'Did you find anything else at the wagon?'

'The man had a watch with his name engraved on it. Edward. That's all.' Joe replied. 'You thinking the girl was part of the family?'

'I hope for her sake she's not, it'd be no surprise how she's been reacting if she was.'

'You don't think maybe she might have killed them folks?' Hoss asked after a moment. 'The sheriff seemed pretty keen to talk to her about it.'

He shook his head. 'I don't think for a moment she had any part in it. Until she can tell us what did happen though, I guess we won't know.'

Running, she was running as fast as she could through the forest, crashing through branches and jumping over fallen trees and rocks. He was right behind her, she could hear his maniac laughing in her ears and she willed herself to run faster-

The sound of the girl whimpering in her sleep stirred Adam from his light slumber, turning up the light of the lamp to see her better. The girl's eyes were closed as her head tossed side to side, her lips moving but no words coming out. He touched her cheek gently with the back of his hand, the girl's skin warm and clammy with fever.

She screamed as he caught her, looking up into the eyes of the man in fear and terror. He laughed at her, tossing her to the ground like a rag doll then stepped closer, drawing his gun. She tried to crawl backwards away from him, finding herself trapped by the boulder behind her. This was it, this was the end. She looked back up at the man holding the gun on her, watching in horror and dumb amazement as he turned into a snarling wolf. The wolf stepped forward, it's lips bared to show it's fangs. 'Oh Missie, there's no escape now.' She heard the man laughter as the wolf leapt.

'No! No no no!' Missie screamed as she sat up, her mind tormented by the nightmare. 'Go away! Don't hurt me!'

Adam was on the bed beside her in an instant, grabbing the girls arms to hold her before she hurt herself again. 'Missie, listen to me-'

'Don't hurt me, don't hurt me! Please!'

He knew she was still in the clutches of the nightmare, her eyes glazed as she tried to fight him. 'Missie, it's me, Adam.' He exclaimed loudly, trying to shake her out of the nightmare and back to reality. The girl stopped fighting for a moment, looking up at him with a confused look on her face.

'Adam?'

'I'm here. You're alright, nothing is going to hurt you. You're okay.'

She looked up at him, reality dawning on her. 'Adam, I thought he was real.' Her voice was weak and raspy from her screaming. Her lip quivered as her eyes started to water. 'I thought he was going to kill me.'

'Who?' He asked with a softer, gentler tone. 'Who was in your dream?'

The girl didn't reply as memories came back to her. She'd tried her best, she'd tried to protect them- 'H-hold me.'

Adam placed his arms around the girl, letting her cry in his shoulder again. He looked down at her thoughtfully as he rubbed her back gently, careful not to touch her wounds. Whatever the girls dream had been must have been dreadful for her to be shaking and crying like she was.

'What happened?'

He glanced around, his father coming into the room after closing the door behind himself. 'Nightmare. It's scared her pretty good.' The girl's crying had turned into strangled gasping, her hands clutching tight to his vest. He kept rubbing her back, her tears abating as she rested against him in exhaustion. 'It's okay Missie, your alright.' She nodded after a moment, still holding onto him. 'Pa, we might aswell make sure she hasn't pulled and stitches out while she's sitting up, she did do quite a bit of thrashing about. You alright with that Missie?' She nodded again, closing her eyes. 'You just rest there Missie, I've got you.'

The girl could hear his heartbeat as her head rested against his chest, the sound helping to calm her down while the grey haired man checked her wounds. She couldn't help but flinch as he unwrapped the bandage from around her stomach, feeling the slight trickle of something warm dripping down her side.

Ben sighed, seeing she'd torn the gash right open again. 'You've torn your stitches, we'll need to fix that up.'

'No.'

Adam could hear her low whimper as clear as day. 'Missie, it needs to be stitched back up. I know you didn't mean to open in when you were moving but if its not stitched up it won't heal.'

'No.'

He sighed. 'Why?'

'Don't want to be hurt again.' She replied, the pain she was in starting to overwhelm her. She could feel herself falling, falling into darkness then everything went black.

He felt her go limp, thankful actually for her sake she was unconscious again. 'She's fainted.'

'I'll go get what we need.'

He nodded, laying the girl down again as his father left then looked at the wound. It was bleeding again, the ten stitches it'd taken to close it torn right through the inflamed skin. The doc had said it wouldn't be an easy journey getting her well again but he knew her nightmares and her reactions weren't making it any easier. There wasn't much he could do about that though except try and keep her calm when they happened.

She looked peaceful, her eyes closed without any look of pain on her face but he wasn't fooled. The girl must have been in terrible pain yet she didn't complain. He'd seen grown men scream and cry from less than a quarter of the injuries that she had yet all she'd make was a low whimper. She had guts, he'd give her that.

'Do you know what her nightmare was about?' Ben asked as he walked in with what was needed to stitch the wound again, placing it down next to Adam as he brought the light over closer.

'No, but I've got a couple guesses.' He looked over what there was then started cleaning the wound. 'She was asking someone not to hurt her, then said something about her thinking someone was going to kill her.'

A look best described as determination passed over his face. He'd seen many horrible things in his life but if the way he'd seen the girl with Adam was anything to go by that young girl had been through her own hell. 'She didn't say who it was?'

'No, just started crying more.' Carefully he pulled the broken stitches out one by one then wiped the blood away again. 'Someone's put her through something worse then we can imagine.'

'Well it won't happen again if I've any say about it.'

'That goes for me too.' He started the slow job of stitching the wound again. 'Need a little more light here.' His father held the lamp a little higher, casting the light on the wound as he worked. 'Better.'

Slowly and in silence so he could concentrate he fixed the girls wound up, taking his time to make sure the job was done properly. Finally he was finished, the girl still lying still, having not so much as flinched the whole time. Gently he lifted her up again, his father bandaging the wound and laid her back down. He placed the tray aside, taking a cloth he was handed and wiped his hands. 'At least she didn't open more.'

'You did a good job Adam.'

'Got plenty of practice on Little Joe.' He chuckled, placing the cloth aside then checked the girls temperature again. 'I think her fever's gone up.'

Ben checked for himself, nodding. 'I'll go grab some more rags to cool her down.'

'Thanks Pa.' He stood up, moving the quilt covering the girl aside to check her leg. Taking off the poultices covering it he could see the wound looked worse then it had before. He sighed. He'd seen this before and knew what treatment was required. Cauterizing.