"Have you started workin' on your gift for the baby?" Colleen asked as she cast her fishing line into the creek. She looked at her younger brother, and he nodded.
"Yep."
"What are ya makin'?"
"I'm makin' the baby a dream catcher to put over its cradle."
"A dream catcher?" Matthew asked. "How do ya know how to make that?"
"Cloud Dancin's been teachin' me. He's makin' one for his and Snow Bird's baby."
"That's really nice of you, Brian," Colleen said with a smile of approval in her little brother's direction. She sighed heavily. "Snow Bird's s'pose to be havin' her baby real soon."
"Cloud Dancin' says it's a girl. The spirits told him." The Cooper children had been standing at the creek for the past fifteen minutes. They hadn't caught anything yet, but they had had a few close calls.
"I can't wait to have babies," Colleen said with a dreamy look on her face. Matthew's face grew pale at his twelve-year-old sister's words.
"Oh yes you can!" he said in his best protective older brother voice. Colleen rolled her eyes.
"I ain't plannin' on getting married or havin' babies anytime soon. I wanna go to college and be a doctor like Dr. Mike."
"That's a long time from now."
"Only six years. Dr. Mike went to college when she was eighteen," Colleen protested. The children continued to fish.
Behind a large oak, the older man whispered to the younger.
"You grab the oldest boy first. He'll put up a struggle. Hold a gun on him in case he tries anything stupid. I'll grab the younger ones, and we'll take 'em off to the wagon." The younger man nodded and they slowly began to sneak up on the Cooper children.
Before Matthew knew it, a strong hand was grabbing him from behind. Colleen saw it happen first, and she screamed. Before she could scream very long, the older man clamped a strong hand over her mouth and pulled her back. Brian stood there not knowing what to do, but his first instinct was to run. The older man tripped him when he started off, and he pinned him to the ground with his foot. Brian started screaming, so the man reached down and pulled him up, clamping a hand over his mouth too.
"If you try to put up a fight," the older man warned, you ain't gonna like the consequences. The children knew it was for their own benefit not to fight, but they were more terrified than they had ever been.
Michaela was napping in Sully's arms out by the waterfall when a dreaded feeling came over her. She sat up quickly, and Sully felt her jolt awake. He sat up along with her.
"What is it? Is it the babies?" he asked.
"No! Something's wrong."
"What?"
"I don't know what it is, but I can sense it. Something's wrong. We have to go back into town." Sully wasn't sure what to make of his wife's worries, but he knew that if she had a feeling something was wrong, something probably was. He decided it was best to get her back into town as quickly as possible, and he knew they'd be there by dusk.
Sully stood and helped her stand, and they gathered their things to head back to the cottage. Sully saw that Michaela's face had grown pale with worry, so he put an arm around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. Her hands were placed nervously on her belly, and she had the horrible feeling that she wasn't going to like what she found when she got back into town.
She didn't know where this feeling had come from, but perhaps it was God telling her that she had to get back, much like the spirits spoke to Cloud Dancing.
"You sure everything is alright with the babies?" Michaela nodded.
"They're fine, Sully. I just have this feeling that we need to get home soon." Sully kissed Michaela's hand and gave it a squeeze. They packed up at the cottage quickly before they grabbed the horses and started off to get the wagon.
The two men, whom the children only knew as John, the older man, and Adam, the younger man, were driving their wagon away from Colorado Springs. John was sitting in the back with the children, holding a gun on Brian so that the other two wouldn't feel so brave as to try to jump out.
"Where are we goin'?" Colleen asked as she gripped Matthew's hand with fright.
"Ya'll see in a few minutes."
"Why are you takin' us?" Matthew asked after a moment's pause.
"Because we're finishin' up a job for y. . ." John reached back and slapped Adam on the back of the head to shut him up. "It ain't none of your business." Matthew and Colleen shared a look. Brian was being surprisingly calm, and Colleen was holding his hand to assure him that they were somehow going to get out of the situation they were in.
"Why'd ya have to take us?" Colleen asked. "We didn't do nothin' wrong."
"You're right, little miss," John spoke up from the front. "And you'll continue to be a good little girl unless you want us to hurt ya." Colleen swallowed hard. Matthew glanced at Adam. He had a glint in his eyes when he looked at young Colleen. Matthew didn't like it one bit, and he wanted to punch the daylights out of him for holding a gun on his little brother. Matthew leaned over and whispered into Colleen's ear.
"Scream."
"What?" she asked incredulously. She was thinking of Brian, and she knew that Adam wouldn't hesitate to shoot the young boy.
"Trust me," he whispered. "Scream."
"What are you two chatterin' about?" Adam asked suspiciously. Colleen took a deep breath and let out an ear-shattering scream. The horses spooked and Adam started to grab her to shut her up. Matthew took the opportunity to grab the gun from Adam. The two men began to struggle, and Matthew felt himself about to fall out of the wagon.
"Matthew!" Brian screamed. Colleen began to cry and she and Brian huddled together as Adam and Matthew struggled with the gun. Matthew stumbled out of the wagon and fell with a thud to the ground as the spooked horses ran off in the other direction. Matthew knew he couldn't keep up with the wagon.
"I'll get help! I swear they ain't gonna hurt ya!" Matthew called after his brother and sister. He saw them both crying and holding one another. He turned to run toward town.
"Shoot the boy! He's gotta stay quiet!"
"What? The boss will kill us!"
"If we don't kill him, he's gonna have a whole town out searchin' for us!" John screamed. "Shoot 'im!" Adam swallowed hard and pointed his shotgun at Matthew's running form.
"No!" Colleen screamed. She jumped up and tried to push the gun out of Adam's hands. Adam knocked her down and she hit her head on the side of the wagon. Brian crawled over to help his big sister sit up. A gunshot rang out and Matthew felt a stinging pain in the back of his shoulder. He screamed out and fell face down onto the ground. He realized that Adam had been aiming to kill him, so the deader he looked, the sooner Adam would turn around.
"He's dead, boss," Adam said, not sure of himself.
"NO!" Brian yelled out.
"You two shut up before you get the same as your brother!" John warned. Adam held the gun on both of the kids as they cowered together in the corner of the wagon, not sure what to do next. They were afraid to move. All they knew was that their brother had just been killed, and they weren't sure if there was any hope left for them."
As planned, Michaela and Sully arrived in town right before sunset. Michaela's worries were proved right when she found a whole crowd gathered in front of the clinic.
"Michaela!" Elizabeth exclaimed. She was so glad that her daughter and son-in-law had come back instead of stayed away longer as they had planned. Jake reached out to help Michaela out of the wagon as Sully got out of the other side. Michaela quickly scanned the crowed and knew something was wrong.
"Where are the children?" she asked worriedly.
"They went fishing earlier today. They haven't come back yet," Josef pointed out.
"We were just about to go lookin' for 'em," Hank explained.
"I know where they go fishin'," Sully said quickly, his heart pounding out of worry. "I'll go look for 'em."
"I'm going with you," Josef spoke up.
"Me too," Robert E. said. "I'll go get some horses."
"I'm goin'."
"Same here." Soon, Sully, Josef, Horace, Hank, Robert E. Jake, Loren, and the Reverend Johnson were saddling up to go search for the children. They all had lanterns from the mercantile to light their way.
"I should go," Michaela whispered. "What if they're hurt?"
"I'll take care of 'em," Jake offered. "I know how to bandage wounds."
"What if it's something more serious?" Michaela asked.
"You can't travel anymore today, Michaela," Sully warned. "You're exhausted. You need to rest."
"The children will be alright, my dear," Elizabeth whispered, putting her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "Come rest. The men will find them." Michaela handed Sully her medical bag.
"Just in case," she whispered. Sully leaned down from his horse and kissed Michaela.
"I love you," he whispered.
"I love you too. Please bring our children back safely." Sully nodded and all of the men rode off, leaving the rest of the town in the dust. Michaela began to cry and the women all went to fuss over her.
"Come on into the clinic, Dr. Mike," Grace said softly. "You need to rest. I'll go fix ya somethin' for dinner, and we'll all have a nice little chat. It's gonna be alright. The men are gonna find 'em." Grace, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Myra, and Holly all walked with Michaela into the clinic. Elizabeth opened the door to the room she was staying in, and ordered her daughter to get into bed.
"You and my grandchild need your rest."
"I'll go fix some tea," Holly offered.
"Thank you," Michaela replied, sniffling, wishing she could be out there hunting for her children alongside her husband. She wished that his situation hadn't even occurred. What if they were hurt or sick? What if the men had taken advantage of Colleen?
Elizabeth, Dorothy, and Myra sat with Michaela while Holly went with Grace to the café.
"They'll find 'em, Michaela. Don't you worry," Dorothy assured her friend.
"Yeah. They'll be alright," Myra offered. Michaela wasn't so sure. The only thing she was sure of was that her children needed her, and she wasn't in any condition to get to them.
An hour later, the wagon pulled up beside an old miner's cave. Colleen had a horrible headache due to hitting her head earlier, but she was fighting the urge to sleep for her little brother's sake. She remembered Dr. Mike speaking of things called concussions that sometimes happened after a hit to the head. Colleen wondered if she had gotten one. She knew that if she had, she couldn't go to sleep.
Light was bouncing off of the rocks in the cave, and Brian figured that this was where the men were going to keep them for the night.
"Boss is gonna be mad when he finds out about the oldest boy," Adam whispered to John.
"You let me do the talkin'! He's got the money on him, so we'll take care of business. If he tries anything funny, we'll kill 'im." Adam and John dragged Colleen and Brian into the cave. The children were shocked when they saw who was sitting around the campfire.
"Pa?" Brian asked.
"Hello Brian," Ethan said with a fire in his eyes.
"What's goin' on?" Colleen asked as tears formed in her eyes. Ethan looked around.
"Where's Matthew?"
"They shot him!" Brian yelled angrily. Ethan stood quickly and marched over to John and Adam.
"I told you not to hurt any of them!"
"He got away! He woulda talked if he had gotten back to town!"
"You shot my son!" Ethan grabbed Adam by the throat.
"It was his idea!" Colleen said, pointing at John.
"I'll deal with the two of you later."
"Why did you have them take us?" Brian asked, grabbing onto Colleen's skirt and holding on tight.
"We're gonna be a family," Ethan replied. "But we ain't complete without Matthew."
"Matthew's dead," Adam replied. "I killed 'im." He swallowed hard. "I . . ." Ethan shook his head. The look in his eyes told John and Adam that the man was too money hungry than to be worried about his son.
"You two leave."
"Not without our money." Ethan pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and threw it at their feet. The men greedily gathered up the money and started out of the cave. Ethan drew his gun and shot both men in the back. The children screamed and ran to hide behind a boulder. He gathered the money back from the men.
"With Matthew gone, I can still get the money," he whispered to himself. "It ain't my fault he's dead." Ethan turned to his children. He heard them whimpering behind the large boulder.
"Come on out. Pa's not gonna hurt ya."
"You ain't our pa!" Brian screamed. "I hate you!" Colleen held her little brother tight.
"He ain't gonna take us," she whispered. "He can't take us."
"We're goin' back to San Francisco tomorrow mornin'. Don't try runnin' off, 'cause I'm gonna be awake all night." Ethan sat down by the fire and threw a couple of twigs into it. The children held onto each other, clinging to hope that someone find them.
The search party found the fishing equipment, and Sully recognized one of Colleen's bonnets.
"This is their stuff," he said with a heavy heart. He swallowed hard and Josef put a hand on his son-in-law's shoulder.
"We'll find them, son," he whispered. They had picked Wolf and Pup up to help with the search, and they knew that the dogs were their best bet. Hank dismounted his horse and walked over to pick up Colleen's bonnet. He handed it to Sully.
"This is hers," Sully whispered, his voice cracking. Sully dismounted his horse and knelt beside Pup and Wolf. Hank handed him Matthew's hat, which he must have left behind. Sully held the two items in front of the dogs.
"Find 'em boys," he urged. The dogs picked up the scent and ran off in the direction their noses were taking them.
"Come on, boys! Let's follow 'em!" Loren urged. Everyone got back on their horses and rushed off in pursuit of the wolves.
It was late, and Dorothy, Myra, and Elizabeth had gone into another room to get some rest. They were all going to stay at the clinic with Dr. Mike until word came back from the men. They had all talked with her, and seemed to have calmed her down a bit, but she was still incredibly upset, and on the verge of breaking down into tears again.
Grace had gone back to the café to close up for the night, but Holly had stayed at the doctor's side.
"We haven't really gotten to know one another," Holly said softly. "But I want you to know that I hope the men find your children. They're the sweetest kids I've ever met." Michaela sniffed and wiped tears from her eyes. She knew she needed to take her mind off of her own troubles. She noticed a few tears falling from the teacher's eyes.
"Holly?" Michaela asked, sitting up a little in bed, resting her back against the headboard. "What is it?"
"It's nothing," the young woman replied.
"Holly, I know we don't know one another very well, but I could use another friend. If there's something you'd like to get off of your chest, you can trust me not to say anything." Holly swallowed hard.
"Michaela, I know I can trust you," she said gently. "You've been so kind to me since I first got here." She wiped another falling tear. Michaela put her hand on Holly's.
"What is it? You can tell me," Michaela whispered. Holly let out a sob.
"The truth is, I know what you're going through."