A/N1: Last chapter, we checked in on Sarah; now, we check in on Chuck. Still getting Book Two underway.

Heaven and Hell

Book Two:

The Hells Are Everywhere

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

Chew, Chew

Thursday, October 1, 1885
Idaho Falls

[T]hat we would do We should do when we would: for this 'would' changes
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing.

Hamlet, Act IV, Scene vii

Chuck stood in the Idaho Falls crowd, waiting with them for the train.

The work on the bridge finished early. Other trains, an engine and a car or two, had come to town already, testing the new bridge. The first one had been met with a buzzing crowd too, but the tone had been one of relief, not celebration. This evening was to mark the arrival of the first regular train in Idaho Falls, the resumption of unencumbered trade and travel.

Chuck noted Carina in the crowd. She was in the blue dress she wore on the stage coach, her sequins dazzling in the afternoon sun. Zondra was beside her, holding Anthony's hand. The boy was standing on his tiptoes, trying to see the depot, to catch sight of the train as it arrived. Anna Wu, jaded in her usual silk dress, was standing near Carina, Zondra, and Anthony but Anna did not seem to be with them, only near them. It was the first time Chuck saw Carina since the scene with Shaw in The Bar None. She had stayed away and Chuck had been trying to do what Carina demanded he do; he was staying away.

Chuck also picked out Mrs. Justus on the other side of the crowd, scanning it, her face contracted in distaste. Much nearer to him, Chuck saw Ruth Justus - but she noticed his look turned away as soon Chuck saw her. Chuck caught Carina looking at Ruth and at him. Carina nodded to him and a small smile flitted across her face then disappeared.

The train whistle screeched and Carina looked toward the depot. Chuck did too. Smoke from the smokestack of the train was visible above the trees although the train itself was still invisible. It would arrive in moments.

Chuck dropped his head and continued his train of thought...the cars coming in no order, all higgledy-piggledy...

The last week and a half had been difficult for Chuck. Very difficult. A sense of sore distraction, of anxious futility, had hunted him each day, found him each day.

Sarah had come to his room and told him what was happening, the vicious trap she was in. They had held each other the night long. Chuck had been overwhelmed by her visit, and had been somewhat the worse for beer - he had not managed to say much beyond telling her what was absolutely true, that he wanted her. Holding her and kissing her - he had managed that too.

He had to keep her from marrying Daniel Shaw, to help her. He wanted to tell her what he suspected - knew - about Daniel. But he had no evidence, not a single shred of real evidence. And if he told her, he would just make her vicious trap more vicious, sharpen its teeth. He had no proof. Without it, even if Sarah believed him, no one else likely would, and Daniel Shaw could turn the whole affair against Chuck and likely against Sarah too, treating it as if it were nothing more than an attempt to renege on their engagement. No, Chuck needed to save Sarah, and, doing that would require doing what he had vowed to do, killing Shaw.

And he was not going to do that by shooting him from cover somewhere. He was going to do it in a gunfight. A fair fight. He would kill Shaw, but he would not murder him - he would kill Shaw or die trying. His conscience wrestled with his vow from the beginning, but it refused to allow Chuck to gun Shaw down, to kill him with a rifle, say, from a safe distance. No, it had to be face to face - and Shaw had to know what Chuck knew.

He had gone out shooting twice since Sarah's visit to his room. He had finally gotten his first pay, and he had bought a holster. Nehi had not been happy, and although he helped Chuck work on learning to draw, it was clearly done under protest.

"Iffin you was-a drawin' agin a wee bean plant, that bean plant'd grow up an' shoot ya a-fore you got that gun outter ya hol'str. Unless yer plann' to draw agin-a stone, yer just practicin' the pose ya'll be a-dyin' in."

Chuck kept doggedly at it. He got better - but he knew he was still no match for Shaw.

The train's return had made everyone in town start thinking in timetables.

But the timetable that mattered to Chuck was not the train's, but Sarah's: she was scheduled to marry Shaw at the schoolhouse the morning of October's final day.

If it had not been for the train's return, the wedding would have dominated the talk in Idaho Falls. Miss Reynolds' murder, while still on the minds of folks, had been sequestered as yesterday's news. It was a topic of curiosity and cracker-barrel conversations at Patel's, but it was not the first topic of conversation.

Sheriff Constance, while never declaring that Devon was no longer suspect, did lift his restrictions on the doctor's travel. Mrs. Justus and her crowd were intent on doing without a doctor rather than support a murderer, and so Devon's practice was suffering. But he walked about town with his head up and kept working. Still, during conversations together in his office, Devon let Chuck know how badly it all bothered him. He was not sleeping; he had lost weight. He felt like even the patients who stayed loyal eyed him when he tended to them.

The news that Miss Reynolds had been pregnant was still not known, except to Chuck, the Sheriff, and Diane Beckman and Langston Graham. Emily Whittier's story had not been confirmed, even after Chuck and others talked carefully with the students. Ruth Justus had talked to Chuck twice about Miss Reynolds, and Chuck thought that she was working her way toward revealing something, but so far she hadn't.

Johnny Constance was harder to manage, morose. Brooding. Twice he had deliberately run into Devon on the street, bumping him violently, but he had never said anything to the doctor, just glared and went on. Johnny refused to participate in class. He sat, his arms folded, staring out the window. Chuck tried various stratagems but nothing worked: Johnny withdrew and kept withdrawing from everyone. Martin and Mirabelle Constance had visited with Chuck. He was as difficult and sullen at home, with them, as he was at school. They had all talked but came up with no real plan.

Plan. Chuck had vowed to avenge Jill's death, to kill Shaw. What he would do, he should do. But he had no plan when he made the vow. Soon afterward, he found out about the empty teaching post in Idaho Falls while trying to learn more about Shaw's home, the place he was supposed to have gone after leaving Boston. Chuck applied for and got the job - but he still did not have a plan. He had no means in mind to take him from will to deed. He arrived and met Sarah and started teaching. And now, here he stood, the train whistle piercing, closer and closer, like Sarah's wedding day, and his whole plan was to have a gunfight with Daniel Shaw. A man who would kill him easily.

Sigh.

So much for my Harvard education...

His train of thought ended as the train came to a whistling, hissing stop at the depot. The crowd gave a collective shout: "Huzzah!" A moment later, passengers began to show. The conductor stood near the engine, his watch out, tapping his foot. A team of men had collected near a boxcar and they swung its doors open, propping a ramp up to the opening.

With the exception of those in the crowd expecting a passenger, the rest of the crowd milled about, unsure, really, what to do now that the train had arrived and the shout had been shouted. Chuck idly watched the men unloading boxes…

"Chuck!"

Chuck turned back toward the front of the train. Standing there in a group were Ellie, Molly, and Morgan. Molly had spotted him and she let go of Ellie's hand and came running toward Chuck, shouting his name again. Chuck stood there open-mouthed. She crashed into his legs and hugged them as hard as her small arms would allow, then she looked up, up, up into Chuck's astonished face.

"Molly?"

At the schoolhouse that morning, while the younger children worked on spelling, Chuck had taken the older students back to the beginning of Hamlet.

Over the past school days, they had worked through key speeches in the text, but now Chuck wanted to help them to understand the speeches as part of an unfolding drama.

They had dwelt a long while on the scene in which Hamlet sees his father's ghost in the frosty moonlight, and particularly on Hamlet's vow-making speech as the scene ends, in Act I, Scene v. Hamlet solemnly resolves to wipe away all else from his mind but his father's ghost and his thirst for vengeance.

Chuck read the speech aloud, dramatically, ending with a whispered, intense "I have sworn 't."

Chuck sat silent after reading the speech, sat silent for so long that the students became uncomfortable. He stared at the page. After gripping himself, Chuck turned to the class: "How much of a gap can there be between a vow and the deed vowed before we regard the vow as idle - an empty boast, or a mere wish - and no longer as a real vow?"

The students looked at Chuck, blank. All except Johnny Constance. He stared out the window. After a moment, Monica Stutts, in class that day, raised her hand. "I don't think there a fixed answer to that question, Mr. Bartowski. Wouldn't we care about the reasons for the gap between the vow and the deed? I mean - what if I vowed to visit a sick friend, but someone tied me to a chair?"

Chuck smiled. "That's good, Monica, very good. Hamlet vows here, but he will delay and delay. Should we take his vow seriously, given the delay, his vacillating? No one ties him to a chair. It takes him until the end of the play to kill his usurping uncle."

"What 'vacillate' mean, Mr. Bartowski?" Monica was never one to pretend to understand when she didn't.

"Webster says that to vacillate is - to waver; to move one way and the other; to reel or stagger."

"Oh, well, given what we have discussed, I see that Hamlet does vacillate, he wavers. He wants to be sure - or at least that's what he says - but he takes his father's ghost to have told him the truth, so he should already be sure. What is...natural evidence...against...supernatural revelation?"

Chuck smiled at Monica. The other students gazed at her with admiration. "What, indeed, Monica? So, is Hamlet shrinking from his vow then, trying to worm his way out of it?"

Monica fell into thought.

Ruth Justus raised her hand. "Mr. Bartowski," she smiled shyly, "can't his vow be real even if he...vacillates? Doesn't his wavering itself show the vow is real, because it is partly responsible for his wavering. A mere wish wouldn't make the man waver, would it?"

Chuck was surprised. Ruth's answers had lately grown more eager, more insightful. "That's good, Ruth, very good. So, what do you think we should say about Hamlet?"

She shrugged, shy again. "I don't know, but I don't think he's idly boasting or merely wishing. He's made a serious vow, and he takes it seriously. He just isn't sure he can bring himself to do what he promised to do. Not because he's...changed his mind...but because he...maybe...overestimated himself when he made the vow. Overshot the mark. If I promise to...jump ten feet into the air and I believe I can when I make the promise, but I later begin to doubt whether I can actually do it...does that make my promise an idle boast.? I believed I could do it…"

"Right," Monica broke in, excited, "but then you began to doubt that you can do it. But...you can try…"

"Sure, Monica, Ruth, you can try. But vowing to try to do something differs from vowing to do it, right?"

Both girls nodded. But Ruth spoke. "Yes, but all you can ever do is try."

"Maybe," Chuck said, "maybe; but if I try and fail, did I keep my vow to do the thing?"

"No," Monica answered slowly, "but, maybe, you now have an excuse. You can truly say you tried but failed."

"So, does Hamlet have an excuse for his vacillating? Is he even trying?"

The class chewed on that for a while without answering.

So did Chuck.

Nehi was sitting at the table with Mrs. Fitzsimmons when Chuck finished with school.

Chuck was hoping to talk Mrs. Fitzsimmons into making him coffee and a sandwich before he went to watch the train arrive.

Nehi was eating a donut. He had it in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. A pile of donuts, still warm, was on the table. Nehi gestured to them with his half-eaten one and made a sound that seemed to indicate that Chuck should help himself. Mrs. Fitzsimmons walked in, coffee in one hand, an empty cup in the other. Sheriff Constance was behind her, a donut dwarfed in each of his huge hands.

Chuck sat down and grabbed a donut. Mrs. Fitzsimmons poured him a cup of coffee. "Good afternoon, everyone," Chuck said.

Nehi and Constance both nodded, mouths still full. Chuck broke his donut in half and dipped it in his coffee. Constance, finishing his bite, shook his head. "S'that a Boston thin'?"

Chuck shrugged. "I learned to do it in Boston. I'm not sure it's a Boston thing. You don't dunk out West?"

Nehi gave him a hard look. "Out 'ere, we beleeve 'n the holiness o' the doughn't, Dee-vine. 'Sprized ya doan beleeve 'n it too, seein' as yer a beleevin' sorta man."

Chuck laughed. "Sort of. Holiness, Nehi? Do you mean that in the fleshly or the spiritual sense?"

Nehi looked lost. "Huhn? What's yer meanin'?"

Chuck picked up a whole donut and looked through it at Nehi. It took Nehi a few seconds, and then he laughed. "Ha! Well, Dee-vine,them missin' center's annother o' them You-klid puzzles. Them holes is part o' the doughn't, but them holes ain't there, so they cain't be part o' the donut. That seem right-ta ya?"

"It does, Nehi. The world's chock-full of thing that aren't there."

Nehi stopped chewing and his eyes got big. "I'm a-gonna hav-ta keep studyin' up on this here You-klid."

Sheriff Constance finished his second donut and licked his fingers. Mrs. Fitzsimmons watched with thinly veiled avidity. Constance spoke. "Have you heard anything more about Miss Reynolds from the schoolkids, Chuck?"

"No, sir, nothing. I talked with Monica Stutts about Miss Reynolds' putative visit to the railroad camp, and although I believe Monica that Miss Reynolds was there, it remains a puzzle why she was there."

"Yes, it does," Constance growled - but at the situation, not at Chuck. "This things got me plumb flustered. I doan think Doc did it. Never did but I had-ta make a show of it to keep the peace. Hate that. I fear I done demoralized Doc. Sumtimes…this job. Anyway, the camp'll only be around another few weeks…"

Chuck swallowed his bite of donut and interrupted. "You mean they haven't decamped yet?"

Constance raised one eyebrow, a woolly mammoth of an eyebrow. "'Decamped'? I reckon not. They've got unused supplies to ship back, scaffoldin' around the bridge to undo, the camp itself to break down. I take it you still ain't been out there?"

"No, I keep intending to go but just haven't gotten away yet. I was able to talk to Monica at school."

"Well, on Saturday, I want you and Nehi to go out. Maybe some fresh eyes and a new face'll shake something loose. Miss Reynolds wasn't out there as no tourist, that I'm shure of."

"I will ride out on Saturday, Sheriff. With Nehi."

Chuck glanced at Nehi and Nehi nodded, his cheeks stuffed full of donuts and holes, powdered sugar on his shirt and his eyes slightly squirrely.

Chuck swept Molly up into his arms and kissed her cheek. She kissed his and then hugged his neck. Ellie and Morgan made their way to him. Carina, Zondra, and Anthony followed. Chuck saw Ruth Justus circle around them, her cheeks flushed, staring at Molly.

From behind him, Chuck heard a derisive chuckle. "Looks like our teacher's got some explaining to do."

Chuck turned, Molly in his arms. Daniel Shaw was standing there, holding Sarah's hand. Shaw was smiling. Sarah was staring at Molly, Molly in Chuck's arms.

"How about someone doing some introductions?" Ellie was looking at everyone.

Before anyone could quite recover, Shaw's smile smirked: "I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the teacher-tree, eh? I guess Mr. Bartowski's been shirking, running from his obligations."

As far as Chuck knew, Daniel had never seen Molly. Molly did not seem to recognize him. Ellie stepped to Chuck and took Molly from him. Chuck tried not to look again at Sarah. He could feel her looking at him when Daniel was not looking at her.

Anthony Rizzo stepped to Ellie and reached out, pulling gently on her arm, looking up at her and Molly.

"Hi! I'm Anthony," the boy said to Molly. "Wanna see my marbles?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, soft leather pouch. Molly smiled and shook her head. Ellie put her down and Chuck admired the little girl. Her dark hair was pulled back into ponytails, each tied with a red ribbon. She had on a pink dress and pink socks, black shoes. Anthony led her a few steps over to the boardwalk and they sat down together. He opened the pouch and started taking out marbles. Molly examined each carefully as he handed it to her.

"Um, hey, everyone. That's," - he pointed to the little girl - "Molly. My sister, " he indicated Ellie, standing in her short green cloak and hat, "Ellie and I take care of her. Ellie Bartowski, everyone." Ellie curtsied. Chuck saw Sarah look at her with a different kind of interest. "And this is my good friend, Morgan Grimes." Morgan saluted, taking off the straw hat he had on above his dark blue suit.

"You sure his name isn't Jenks?" Zondra asked.

Morgan looked at Chuck for help.

"No, he's not a Jenks, not by blood."

Chuck introduced Zondra, Carina, Sarah, and Daniel. Daniel stared Ellie up and down, still smiling.

"Mr. Bartowski did not mention it," Daniel commented, "but Sarah here is my fianceé. We're getting married at the end of the month." He pulled Sarah against him, squeezing her, and glancing toward Chuck. Chuck did not look at Sarah.

Ellie eyed Daniel cooly and spoke pointedly to him. "How nice for you."

Carina giggled, as did Zondra. Daniel glanced at them, scowling. Chuck looked at Sarah, her blue eyes touching his brown ones for a split second.

Chuck faced his sister. "What are you doing here?"

"A bit of a story, Chuck. I'll explain later. Everything's okay. We just missed you so much and when we got a chance…"

Chuck grabbed her and hugged her, laughing. "I am so glad to see you, Ellie! So glad!" She hugged him back, crying a little. Carina and Zondra walked over to the kids, and Zondra had Anthony put his marbles away. But he left a big, green and white one as a gift for Molly. She held it proudly in her hand. The women and the boy left, heading to The Bar None.

Most of the crowd had dispersed. Daniel was still squeezing Sarah against him, and he watched as Molly walked back over and took Morgan's hand. "Ah, reunions. More loved ones, always a joy. But also more people to worry about." He took Sarah's hand and pulled her along with him. She did not resist; she followed him away. Chuck watched their backs as they left.

"What did that mean?" Ellie said, stepping out of her long hug with Chuck and wiping her eyes.

Chuck shrugged. "Don't pay any attention to him."

"Is that blonde woman, Sarah, really his fiancee?"

Chuck half-choked but managed to say yes.

"Poor woman. I think she's entering chattel slavery, not matrimony."

"Chuck!" A new voice. It was from Devon.

"Hey, Devon, look, a big surprise for me on the train! This is my sister, Ellie, this is my friend, Morgan, and this is Molly."

Devon stood frozen for a second, gazing at Ellie. She blushed. But then he moved to shake Morgan's hand. He gave Ellie a formal bow. "Doctor Devon Woodcomb. Very nice to meet you. Your brother has become a good friend. I trust we will become friends too."

Ellie was flustered for a second. "Um, yes, I trust that too, I mean, that we will become...friends."

"Can I help with your luggage? Do you have a place to stay?"

Ellie turned back toward the depot. A small pile of luggage was standing there. "Yes, that's ours. But we don't have a place to stay."

"You and Molly can stay with me," Chuck volunteered. "My landlady, Mrs. Fitzsimmons, has an empty room. I suspect Morgan can get a room at The Bar None. The women who were here," Chuck glanced at Morgan, who nodded, "work there. Just ask for Carina, you met her, and I'm sure that they can find something."

Morgan followed Devon toward the luggage. Chuck took Molly's hand and walked alongside Ellie behind the two men. Daniel and Sarah were no longer in sight.

"That...Daniel...a friend of yours?"

"Hardly," Chuck huffed, then added. "No, not at all."

"But the blonde, Sarah, she's a friend of yours?"

Chuck shrugged. "It's complicated."

Ellie shrugged back at him. "Maybe. But what I saw in her eyes when neither you nor Daniel was looking at her suggests she's with the wrong man. That woman has eyes for you, Chuck Bartowski. And you for her. - Why do I worry you've landed yourself in another fix, brother of mine?" Her tone was joking but there was the undertone of the woman who, in effect, raised him.

Chuck did not answer. "Ellie, did you send a letter supporting my application to be the teacher here?"

Ellie blushed and looked away.

Why?" Chuck asked. "You didn't want me to come out here."

"I didn't. There seemed to be something...dark...driving you. And I did too; I couldn't be selfish. You needed something, Chuck; you have for years. You've been looking for it since Mom's funeral. I guess I was hoping you would find it here, instead of...darkness. And I wonder if you have already found it, her, even if she seems to belong to someone else?"

Chuck remained silent.

Together, the group gathered up the luggage and went to find places to stay.

Chuck was overjoyed to have Ellie, Molly, and Morgan there, he could hardly believe it; but he felt Shaw's threat, a cold hand squeezing his nape-nerve. The new arrivals increased his vulnerability.

He had to stay away from Sarah; so many people could be hurt.

The ante just went up - and Chuck was no card player. If anything, he was worse at that than he expected to be at a gunfight.

More to chew on.

Chew, chew.

A/N2: Some backstories from Boston next time. Ellie and Sarah have their first conversation. Chuck and Nehi head to the railroad camp. Morgan meets Anna Wu.