It was a cloudy and cold night, the air heavy with the threat of a new snow. As Matt rode into the south end of town, the extreme quiet of Front Street made him shiver. He rode straight to Doc's, and as he expected, the lantern light was still aglow in the window; he hoped the old man had a pot of coffee warming on the stove. Matt tied Buck to a hitching post, and took the stairs two at a time. He tried the door only to find that it was locked.

"Who is it?" Doc's gruff voice asked from within.

"It's Matt, Doc."

The lock clicked, and the door opened.

"Well, hurry up and get in here, and don't let all the dag-blamed cold air rush in."

Dillon stepped in, and glanced down at Doc's desk: the old .36 Colt sitting there didn't give him a good feeling, but for the time being, he left it alone.

"It's a cold one tonight, Doc."

"Come on, sit over here with me by the stove, and have a cup of coffee. It'll warm ya up."

"Thanks."

Matt sat down, and stretched his hands near the belly of the old stove. It was several minutes before Adams asked about the Stevenson's.

"Everything was okay out there?"

"Yeah. At least for now."

Adams sighed. "A man like that just shouldn't have a family, Matt."

Dillon nodded. "I told them both that we would expect to see Mary back in town in a couple of days to visit with Cassie."

Adams couldn't keep the alarm from his voice, "I don't want Dell Stevenson here, Matt--"

"--Take it easy, Doc. I told him he could drive her in, but that he wasn't welcome in your office."

"Bet he didn't like that, no sir."

"No, he didn't, but for now, I don't think he's gonna argue about it."

"That's fine then."

Matt looked softly at his old friend. "Doc, what are you gonna do when the time comes for Cassie to go home?"

Adams head snapped sharply to face Dillon. "She ain't goin' back there."

"Doc, she's a seventeen year old girl who has a family with legal rights to her. If they want her, there's nothing you can do about it."

Adams timbre turned caustic, "What about what she wants? Doesn't Cassie count in all this?"

Dillon tried to keep his voice gentle, "Doc, you're letting your emotions get the best of you--"

Adams abruptly stood and started pacing. "--Oh hell. Why shouldn't this be an emotional issue? We're talking about a girl's life, Matt; about her safety. We can't send her back to that man, knowing what he'll do to her."

"Doc, the law is on their side."

"Then the law is wrong."

"And what about Cassie's mother? Do you think she should have to give up her daughter?"

"I like Mary Stevenson, she's a nice woman, but she's doing nothing to protect her child, and in my book, that's not parenting."

Dillon's tone was filled in disapproval, "That's a pretty harsh judgment, don't you think, Doc?" And the doctor was suddenly quiet, so Matt continued, his voice a little kinder, "Look, I know you want to protect Cassie, but it's not your job--"

The angry pale eyes flared into Dillon. "--Well just whose job is it, Mr. Marshal?"

Matt let out a long sigh of air. "How do you know that Cassie doesn't want to go back home?"

"She needs a father, Matt, someone who'll love her, and take care of her, she deserves that."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't know, but we'll ask her."

Dillon played along. "And if she says she doesn't want to go home, what then?"

Adams looked hard at the marshal. "We'll take it to court."

"What? You can't do that..."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do. Did you know that there was a case not too long ago that went through the courts in New York City? I read about it in the newspaper. Poor little girl was bein' abused by her stepmother, and Henry Bergh - that fella who founded that society to protect animals - well he used animal abuse laws to convince the court that the child deserved the same kind of protection."

"Doc, Dodge isn't New York City. The State of Kansas doesn't even have laws protecting animals..."

"Well gosh darn it, Matt, I know that. I ain't senile yet, ya know..."

Dillon's eyebrows raised, a comment on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it. For several minutes, Matt observed Doc pacing across his floor, brow furrowed in thought, hands tightly balled in his pockets. The big marshal stood then, and walked over to his friend, placing a caring hand on his shoulder.

"Doc... let's just say for a minute that by some miracle, you win such a case. She's a seventeen year old girl, how's she going to support herself? Where is she going to go then?"

"Go? Well Matt, she doesn't have to go anywhere..."

And it hit Dillon as surely as a well-aimed bullet. "Now wait a minute...Doc, you can't be serious."

"Oh but I am." He stared intently into Dillon's eyes. "Matt, there comes a time when a man has to do more than say what he believes; he has to act on it." The old doctor looked away, his voice growing regretful, "I don't have any kids of my own, Matt, and I couldn't love this little girl more."

Dillon's voice was gentle yet with a tinge of reproach, "She's not a little girl."

"She is to me," Doc replied tenderly, his pale blue eyes misting slightly over.

And Matt Dillon had to make a choice between brutal honesty as he saw it, or avoidance for the sake of a dream. He sighed deeply, and tried to make his voice soothing, "Doc, I don't think she feels the same way about you as you do about her."

Doc couldn't keep an amused smile from his face. "Ya don't think she likes me much, huh?"

"Oh she likes you all right, she likes you a lot; I just don't think it's in the same way that you like her."

As Dillon's meaning sunk in, Doc's smile turned to a frown. "Oh that's...well that's foolishness! I'm old enough to be her father; hell, I'm older than that..."

"Yeah, you're probably old enough to be her grandfather--"

"--Well now, I ain't that old--"

"--Uh-huh--"

"--Well I ain't."

"Doc, you'd better think carefully about all this; if you say you want her to live with you, she might take it the wrong way, ya know."

"Oh for corn's sake. I'm not listenin' to any more of this tonight. You just...you just get outta here, Matt!"

Dillon rubbed Doc's shoulder. "Get some sleep, ya ol' country croaker, and I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah, all rightcha smart aleck..."

Matt stepped out onto the cold landing of Doc's office, and looked back through the window as the old man quietly stuck his head into the back room to check on Cassie. It was already too late to spare his old friend; Doc loved her like his own flesh and blood, and the destruction of that bond would cut Doc down as surely as a bullet ripping through his heart. Matt's stomach pulled into a knot as he gently gathered Buck's reins in his hands, leading the horse to the livery; he couldn't picture a scenario in which Adams didn't get hurt. And then it hit him: Kitty. She would know what to do; in matters of the heart, women always did...