Unshown Moments for Seven Hours to Dawn Season 10

This is for Gunsmokefan

AN: Guest, thank you. I shall strive to do my best. That may not always be good enough but it'll be the best I can do at any rate.

"We'll leave you alone now, Kitty, for a little bit. But I'll be back later to check on you." Doc wasn't sure whether she actually heard him or not. He knew she was in shock and grieving and he wanted so badly to tell her the truth, to relieve the pain she was now feeling.

But he knew he couldn't. This was one ache he had no pills for except that which he couldn't yet give her. Perhaps never, if he didn't hurry. Dragging Festus from the room, Doc closed the door behind him with a soft snick.

Kitty closed her eyes, dropped her head and finally let the tears come. Matt was dead. The man she loved more than life was now permanently gone from her life and she'd never again see his boyish smile, or feel his arms around her or hear his heartbeat as she rested a weary head against his massive chest.

Finally managing to get up, Kitty moved to her bed and laid down, consumed with grief. She wasn't married to Matt but it made little difference to her heart. A ring didn't make a marriage, nor did the piece of paper that came with it. Love was what made a marriage between a man and a woman. Love and consideration and understanding, things that she and Matt had always shared.

The paper and the ring made their union legal, publically committed and more palatable to the more respectable people of Dodge, but it didn't change how Kitty now felt. Married or not, she was his widow. She'd lost the other half of her and she knew for as long as she lived, she'd forever be bereft of it. No one, no matter his character, charm or personality would ever be able to remove Matt from her heart. She doubted any other would even be able to share it with him.

As Kitty sobbed out her heartbreak and misery, she thought of the children she'd always wanted to give Matt, the life she'd wanted to build with him. Gone. The opportunity for that with him had now passed and she had no wish to offer those gifts to anyone else then and perhaps never.

Kitty had no idea how long she'd lain there, crying before her exhaustion overtook her and she fell into a restless sleep, but she knew when she was awakened by a hand across her mouth and a gruff voice in her ear.

"Don't you make a noise." Barrens' hissed. "I'm going to get what I should've already had. I'm going to show you I'm the better man."

Kitty came fully awake, and began to struggle, trying hard to push the drunken ogre off of her. But drunk or not, Barrens was strong and he easily overpowered her, pulling both hands over her head with one of his own, while his other reached for the hem of her dress. His fetid breath was strong in her nostrils as he pressed his mouth onto hers.

Kitty continued to fight, kicking her legs and even trying to bite the tongue he was attempting to force into her mouth. But her strength was no match to his and she was about to accept that she would have to suffer one more cruelty in this night of torments. Closing her eyes, she turned her head, not wanting her eyes open as he took what had always been Matt's.

However, Barrens suddenly let go of her and his weight was lifted off her with force. Gasping for air, Kitty opened her eyes to see the furious face of Mace Gore before her. Doc was directly behind him.

"If you don't get your man out of here right this second," Doc warned, "I'll kill him with my own hands."

"Get out, Barrens." Gore stared at Kitty for a moment longer before finally turning his head towards his wayward employee. "I told you before I'll kill ya, and I ain't changed my mind. You don't leave here right this second, I'll keep my promise."

Barrens glared at Gore first, then Doc and lastly Kitty but he offered no word of protest as he hastily got to his feet and left the room.

Gore watched him go and then looked over at Doc before looking down at Kitty. "He won't bother you again." He told her. "I promise you that. I won't have a man with me that won't work." Saying nothing more, he turned and left the room as Doc quickly went to the bed and pulled a trembling Kitty into his arms, holding her tightly.

"I'm sorry, Honey." Doc whispered over and over again. "I meant to get back up here quicker, but I got held up by a patient. I was on my way here when I saw Barrens coming this way and I got Gore to take care of him."

Kitty said nothing as she wrapped her arms around him and allowed him to comfort her as a father would comfort his child. With Matt gone, Doc constituted the only family and safety she had left, aside from Festus and Sam, and she held onto him life a drowning soul would hold onto a life line.

When her trembling finally stopped, Doc pushed her back a little. "I'm going to take you over to Ma Smalley's now, Kitty. You can rest there and you'll be safer."

"No." Kitty shook her head. "No, Doc, I wan…"

"I know you what you want, Honey." Doc said softly. "And I understand that, but right now what you need is more important. Now come on. Come with me."

Lacking the ability to fight any more for anything, Kitty simply nodded and got up from the bed, following Doc over to Ma's. Once there, Doc gave her a glass and with some powder in it, insisting she drink it. Like a willing child, Kitty swallowed the bitter water and followed Ma as she led her upstairs to a room and obligingly laid down.

When Ma, came back down stairs, she gave Doc a worried look. "Is she going to be alright, Doc?"

"I hope so, Ma." Doc sighed. "I'm going to do everything in my power to see to it that she is."

Early the next morning, Doc gently shook Kitty awake. "Kitty? Honey? Come on now, wake up, Kitty." As he'd promised Matt, he'd sat beside her all night, protecting his child from demons real and imagined.

Frowning, Kitty opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Wha… what's wrong." She looked around, half expecting to see Matt there, and then remembering why he wasn't.

"I'm going to take you home, Kitty." Doc answered kindly.

"I don't have a home." Kitty said bitterly.

"Yes, you do." Doc smiled at her, grasping her arm and urging her up. "Come on, I'm taking you there now. You need your home, Kitty, and your home needs you."

Kitty had no idea what he was talking about but she knew she'd have to return to her business sooner or later so nodded and got up, following Doc from the room and out of the boarding house.

Doc didn't let go of her once, as he led her down the street to the saloon. Absently, she noticed Barrens, still lying dead in the street but his death meant nothing to her. It gave her no pleasure at all.

When they reached the swinging doors, Kitty pulled her arm from Doc's grasp, but he instantly reclaimed it, as he led her inside, earning a frown from the red head, until she noticed, right in front of her, the man she loved, alive and sitting there with a smile on his rugged face.

"Oh, Matt!" She gasped as she raced across the room to him.

Later, Kitty sat beside the sleeping lawman and thought of Doc's words of earlier that day. "I'm going to take you home, Kitty." He'd told her. As Kitty smiled at the sleeping giant in her bed, she realized, Doc had done just that.

End