AN: I was so excited to write this chapter! The good stuff starts here guys. MisfitCarter I'd start paying attention if I were you.

Emily winced when her sore muscles pulled as she sank down onto the nearest cot. Lily May watched Doc Ewing go after one of the nurses for Emily's supper leaving the two women alone. "So you're Sam Houston's daughter?" Lily May didn't overlook the use of her daddy's first name from this strangely familiar woman but nodded with a small grin of pride. "I haven't seen you since you were just a baby."

"Have we met before?"

Pause, silence. Confusion and unease spread through the blonde ranger.

"No."

Emily was either unfazed or unaware of the cork of Lily May's eyebrow and the cautious look in her eye. But as confused as she was by everything about Emily West, especially how they knew each other in some other life, she said nothing and stood leaving wordlessly when Doc Ewing came walking back with a bowl of stew in his hands. She looked around for

but her baby clutching form was nowhere to be found. Stopping a flustered Sara she found out the surviving Dickinson's had been rushed out a few minutes ago to get transported to next safest town; New Orleans.

Which was probably for the best. War was no place for women like Suzanna Dickinson.

As Lily May walked out of the medical tent into the harsh sun, the days events draining her usual energy and crushing her heart to the point of almost physical pain that hunched her shoulders and made her brain pulse against her skull, she spotted Kit across the camp. She strolled over still slouched under the day's weight and maneuvered out of the way when a maned horse went galloping by. She looked after him then back at Kit. His upper lip was snarled up in disgust as he watched the soldier retreat but his hands never stopped their work on tying Huntsville's reigns. He had Beau stationed to the post beside Huntsville.

"What was his problem?" She hitched her thumb back behind her where the dust was settling. Kit shook his head and gave the knot one last good tug. His voice was disgusted and disdained. "Nother damn deserter." Lily May sighed, looking back over her shoulder as if she could still see the coward. "They keep up like this and we won't even have an army to fight with. Damn cowards."

"That they are." He threw his empty shotgun over the saddle. "More and more are talkin bout it though."

"I know what they're talkin bout. Mutiny bein one of them things."

Kit was silent for a second. He looked over Lily May, flicked his eyes to her boots, then back up. "They're not gonna impeach the General."

"You so sure?"

He had no response. Lily May gave him an 'exactly' look. She knew he wouldn't lie to her but a part of her wanted him to.

"They're angry enough, scarred enough that nothings happening. They just might do somethin that'll get them all killed."

She leaned back against the extended hitching post and closed her eyes so tight that she could see streams of white behind her lips that intensified the drumming in her head. She was frightened and she was angry just like the rest of em but she had loyalty. But neither did she have the privilege of showing fear.

A strong, calloused hand engulfed her shoulder with a gentle squeeze. "Hey," he squeezed again and coxed with a softly reassuring tone "hey." Gradually she peaked open her eyes. Kit had ducked his head down in an effort to look her in the eye, not exactly easy with almost a foot height difference, and bore into her with those blue eyes of his that calmed her like a river. "Your daddy is the best tactical planner that ever set foot in this country. The armies restless but they're not dumb."

Lily May just stared at him. He meant well. "That didn't help much did it?"

"Not really but thanks for trying."

Kit sighed and shook his head. "Lily May-"

"No, no I know you're trying to make me feel better and that's dandy and all but...well lets face it Texas men are about as patient as a fox stairin down a deer."

"What about me?" His eyebrows pinched together as he looked at her, arms supported on the post.

"Well you're from Alabama, you don't count."

Her stomach flipped when Kit laughed. It was a rough, deep, lighthearted sound. Very manly, completely Kit and it melted her insides like butter and got her just as warm as the skillet that melted it. She wiped her palms against her trousers subtly waitin for him to stop. He sighed as his laughter faded into deep breaths.

"Would it make you feel any better if I told ya everything was gonna be alright?"

She glanced around the camp and shook her head, leanin back next to him. "Nope."

"Ya I didn't think so." He shook his head,hitched his hat back out of his face with his thumb and gave her a little grin offerin her his glove free hands. "Come on, let's go get somethin to eat."