Chapter Nine

Ebony couldn't help but shake her head in slight embarrassment as she thought of what she had almost done all of those months ago. Now the mere idea of life without Slade was her idea of hell but she had come very close to never even having Slade.

Yet she supposed that there was no point in wasting time thinking about what could have been as the worst had not happened and she had got together with Slade … boy had she got together with Slade.

Now almost a year later they were no longer living at the Saloon as Ebony couldn't stand being so close to Ruby and they had moved out and into a house near by. They would never be the traditional couple, Slade did all of the cooking and they hired someone to clean for them but other than that it was as near to life before the virus as one could get.

There was nothing really wrong with her life anymore except the fact that some nights Slade fell asleep before she did after their passionate love making, and then, in the dead of night the thoughts of Lex returned to her.

Ebony liked to think that she was over Lex and for the most part she guessed that she was as she never thought about him in the day time and would never have traded Slade for him but sometimes in the night she had her doubts about if she was ever meant to be happy.

"No", Ebony chilled herself, she was being silly, of course she was meant to be happy, hell she was happy. She was in a town where her man was one of the most respected people there; she had a man and no one wanted to kill her.

Yet something told her that it would take more than that to make her truly happy.

A few nights ago while awake she had not only thought about Lex but doubted Slade's affection for her and now felt dirty, she couldn't believe that she had ever done such a thing, after all Slade had never given her a moments doubt that he only wanted her, it was she who had been holding back on him by not telling him about Lex, not the other way around.

"I have to make it up to him", she thought, finally she decided that the best way to do that would be to meet him for lunch. Normally he just dropped in to the Saloon for a bite to eat and then went about his duties as Sheriff but today he would get a surprise as Ebony would be waiting for him.

Having decided that that was a nice thing to do for him Ebony walked through town to the Saloon wondering about what time Slade would get there, she guessed that she would be about five minutes earlier than he was and could grab a drink while waiting as she wasn't about to just twiddle her thumbs.

Yet once she reached the Saloon all of her plans changed.

No sooner had she walked into the Saloon than she saw Slade and Ruby … together … flirting.

Ebony's fists clenched and she fumed silently, she would not put up with this.

Slade smiled as he strolled into the Saloon, he was a few minutes earlier than normal as there had been no disruptions in Liberty that morning, if the afternoon went as well he could grab some wine on his way home and have a nice romantic meal with Ebony.

As he reached the bar he smiled as always at Ruby and asked for his usual, while sipping the drink that she had already got ready for him.

After a moment he realised what she had done and asked her, "Am I really that predictable?"

"No", Ruby smiled in return, trying to stop her heart from thudding so hard that she feared that it might break out of her chest.

"Only when it comes to your drinks, you have the same drink every day", she pointed out, she memorised everything about him, she had tried to get over her crush on him but nothing had worked.

Now every time that she saw him he was with Ebony, lunch time was the only chance that she ever got to just chat with him easily.

"Well then I will have to change that, don't want Ebony getting board with me", he joked. Slade knew that he wasn't boring as a rule and Ebony had never complained and so didn't think that he was in any real danger but it was better to just be on the safe side.

There life together was damned near perfect and he was anxious not to mess it up.

"I don't even know how you keep a woman like Ebony from being board, she isn't the kind of woman that settles for one man Slade, be careful", Ruby warned him.

"You've been telling me that since the day that we got together", Slade pointed out, "and it hasn't happened yet".

He liked Ruby, she was fun and cool to talk to be he wished that she would stop pestering him about Ebony, he knew that she wasn't going to just leave him for no reason but decided to keep things on a friendly level and so just wriggled his eyebrows roguishly before adding, "Oh believe me, I have my ways of keeping her amused".

"I'm sure that you do", Ruby smiled seductively as he rested her elbows on the counter so that she was on his eye line.

Without warning Ebony stormed over to the bar and pounced over it ready punch Ruby's lights out for getting that close to her man.

Her arm punched out and with a resounding crack she saw Ruby fall to the fall before feeling herself being pulled back.

Slade barley had time to react as he saw Ebony flying at Ruby, without thinking he grabbed Ebony had pulled her back the second that her feet where on the ground getting between her, the bar and Ruby.

"What the hell are you doing?" Slade demanded, as he held tightly to the top of her arm.

"Get your hands off me", Ebony roared as she tried to pull away from him, furious that he had tried to stop her from beating Ruby up, but then what had she expected.

"No", Slade said grabbing her other arm too and pulled her close enough so that he could look her straight in the eyes without her being able to get away, "What the hell has got into you today?"

Slade just couldn't understand why she was all of a sudden acting so strangely, he had noticed that she was getting fractious lately and had tried to make sure that he did nothing to displease her but this was ridiculous.

"Like you don't know", she hissed.

"Ebony if I knew that I wouldn't ask you", he pointed out before looking around to see quite a crowd around them and ordering them to "scram" and watching them as they high tailed it out of there.

Pulling Ebony to one side into another room he asked, "What's wrong and why are you attacking Ruby?"

"Oh I should have known", Ebony said sarcastically, "You don't want to let your precious Ruby get hurt now do you".

Ebony continued to struggle and was surprised when she felt that he had let her go.

As Ebony venomous words rang through his mind Slade let go of Ebony as if she was poisonous, "I should have known", he sighed.

"Silly me, I thought that if I loved you enough, if I gave you enough that you would one day trust me. You think that I don't know how many nights you lie awake; you think that I can't feel how cold you get sometimes? Ebony I have been trying got help you through whatever your problem is for almost a year now and damn it Ebony I'm crazy about you but I can't live like this anymore. I try to be happy yet every time that I think of you I wonder if you will be there when I get home and now you don't even trust me no to be with Ruby behind your back", he said as tears filled his eyes as despair gripped him.

He grabbed her again, this time far tighter than before, in his angry hurting her arms, "Look at me Ebony, I love you. I have tried but I can't live with a woman that doesn't trust me. I'll be out of the house by tonight".

With that he turned and left.

Slade didn't want to leave Ebony but he had no choice, he had tried to live with her but it was finally too much, he had always known that she had never fully trusted him but now he found out that she didn't even trust him at all.

As he walked out of the room his heart felt as if it were braking as his eyes leaked for the first time in his life yet he couldn't go back. He couldn't go back and hold her and tell her that it would be alright because he didn't know if it ever would be again.