Doc and Kitty sat at their regular table and both their heads turned as Matt and Festus entered the Long Branch. The two lawmen walked nonchalantly toward the table and sat in the unoccupied chairs.
"Everything alright?" Kitty looked over to Matt who was settling into his chair.
"Should be tonight. I'm not sure how long it will be before they go head to head. Just hope it's not in Dodge!" Matt's eyebrows lifted as he looked around the table.
"Them pair of knuckleheads should orta know better by now. Why, Matthew, it seems it just gets worser and worser every year with them two!" Festus chimed in.
Doc chortled at Festus' and his statement. "If there were ever awards given out for such obvious statements, you'd win hands down!" He mused to Festus. Kitty playfully swatted the doctor across the shoulder.
"Oh. Hush up over there! What would you know anyway with all that goopy gunk you made me swallow this afternoon...why you orta be locked up yerself!" Festus glared at Doc and continued. "You're jist plain-ol'-jealous that I said it and you didn't!" To which the doctor let an exasperated "Pshaw," escape his lips before he looked at Kitty, swiped his moustache and took a drink from the beer sitting in front of him.
Matt rolled his eyes which made both Kitty and Doc laugh. "Okay, you all have yer little dab of fun at my expense..." Festus sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.
"Oh, Festus. We're just playing with you. You are right and it's about time that someone did something about it before it gets anymore out of hand..." Kitty's eyes drifted over to Matt's who sat stunned.
Kitty looked at Matt and flashed her eyelids in innocence and before he had a chance to say anything she called over to Sam for a round of drinks. It was almost time to close and the few patrons left in the saloon were slowly leaving.
Doc, however, continued to play devils advocate and looked from Kitty to Matt and leaned forward. "So Matt. What are you going to do?"
Matt tried to figure out how all of a sudden the attention had shifted from Festus to him. "Well, I guess I'll have to have a meeting with them tomorrow."
"Well it's a start..." Doc leaned back in his chair and drew his hand across his moustache again. "But I don't think that any meeting with those two is ever going to solve their differences. I think you are going to have to let them duke it out..."
"Maybe." Matt muttered. "But not in Dodge."
Sam brought the drinks over and set them down in front of each of them at the table. "The likes of those two...they'll never learn. Not til one of 'em is dead." Sam's quietly spoken observation put a chill in the air. Matt's blue eyes lifted to the bar keep's and he knew Sam was right.